Farrens in Oz

holiday update

2007-10-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hi all folks

Lots of things have been happening in the life of the Farrens over the holidays. We all definitely needed it and are all very rested after a good time just as a family. On the first week of the holidays we did'nt do very much on the monday we had a relaxing morning and then at lunchtime we went to see are dad and have lunch with him. Then for dinner we had some friends over and to have a play. Then for the rest of the week we did nothing apart from Joe and I did a two day golf clinic. On the weekend we went to see some of mums cousins in broadford. Broadford is on the road towards sydney. So we stayed there for the weekend and had a great time down there playing in their pool and playing games. We came back on the monday and then went to somers (were one of our friends for church live) and stayed there for the day and night. We had a great time playing on the beach and surfing some waves.

So that was the first week of our holidays. Now on the second week we didnt do very much we lazed about at home and on the thursday I went to cricket training (if you dont know I'm doing cricket for my summer sport). On the thursday evening we started our journey down to a place called wilsons promontory (which is a beautiful national park with lots of amazing wild life and senic views and last but not least the spectacular walks it has). We didnt actually stay in the park but a village called sandy point and a house called sleepy hollow and boy was it sleepy. On the friday we travelled into the national park and got a two day pass to go into the park. We first slowly went to the main town in the park called tidal river. We went so slowly because we were looking out for wildlife and we saw some too, we saw 2 wombats (which are a bit like big hampsters).

Dad finishing off now.....we spent a lot of time walking on both days ( 10k plus each day) in the promontory with both some spectacular coastal walks and rainforest walks. We saw a few kangaroos and wallabies and just had great time together as a family with lots of fun, laughter, learning about geography and enjoying the beautiful spring weather.

We were of course very disappointed that Australia lost in the rugby but will do our best to follow England now.

long overdue post

2007-07-27T23:02:00.000-07:00

Hi folks just a update on the farrens life.

These past few months have been very busy and affective to us. So to start of with the story of Ella these last few months she has learnt various thing like crawl..... backwards! not fowards she is now chewing for her life and her cheeks are red red red.... oh and the nappies just got worse much worse (I wont go into further detail).

Rugby for joe and I (sam) is going very well both our teams are doing well on the ladder just today in rugby I had a very fearful Injury some one twisted my knee cap and then fell on it and joe got a elbow in the neck so we were in the wars today but the good thing was we still had fun

and enjoyed the game.

But the main thing was our holiday in new caledonia ( which is in the south pacific islands) a nice tropical island and a lovely bungalow to stay in a kuendu beach resort the bungalow had a down stairs and half a upstairs we had a TV downstairs and a kitchen a bathroom and mum and dads room. Joe and I slept up stairs on a kind of balcony over the downstairs flood it had 2 beds, a shelf for our clothes and that was it.

Over the course of the holiday we did lots of things there was a swimming pool about a minutes walk from our bungalow it had 2 really cool waterslides and little toddlers pool and we had loads of fun on that. We also went into noumea a number of times (the capital) and did some shopping there and hung out but most of all we spent lots of time at the beach. One particular day dad and I decided to go snorkelling at a little island about 20 minutes of shore of new caledonia there we saw some awesome coral, fish and ... you wont belive this I saw a SHARK and a SEA SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!which was totally awesome. then we stopped for morning tea and then headed back to the resort.

that was a really awesome holiday.

Next we bring you news on matt and amanda coming over with cute old noah. They had an awesome week over here looking at churches and options for there church and they did spend some time with us obviosly I and Joe were at school so we didnt get to see them as much as mum and ella did.

we also have to tell you about harry potter and the rush the see the movie and get the book I myself have seen the movie and I am about 130 pages through the book.

Last but not least was our trip to sovereign hill (which is a site that was changed into a gold feild town with all your old shops we took a tour guide which was me sowe went gold panning we went down a mine saw someone purify gold and got some old fashioned lollies.

and that is all from the farrens

stay tunned for our next edition

Great Ocean Road - Easter Weekend

2007-04-21T18:51:00.000-07:00

We spent the Easter weekend travelling down the Great Ocean Road with Grandma Smith who was staying with us for a couple of weeks. The weather was absolutely gorgeous which made the stunning scenery along the coast even more spectacular.

On our first day full day we travelled West from Melbourne to Apollo Bay where we stayed the night. On the way down we had a lovely lunch at Lorne on the beach and we saw a number of koalas in Shrapnel and Sausage Gulleys.

The next day we travelled even further West to give grandma a tour of the rest of the Ocean Road including Cape Otway lighthouse. We went on to see the Twelve Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, and even managed to get us all paddling in the sea at Port Campbell where we had a picnic lunch.

On the Easter Monday we came back to Melbourne via the forest canopy walk at Otway Fly board walk it was 40 meters above the ground with some great views there was a tower at the end of the walk dad, Joe and I mum couldn't go up because of ella.

Boys Weekend away

2007-03-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend Daddy and Joe went away on our own for 1:1 time to Phillip Island.

We had an awesome time there doinglots of exciting events...more in one day than Joe has ever done before apparently. The first thing we did was stay overnight in a lovely bed and Breakfast overlooking the bridge to Phillip Island and after a Daddy cooked breakfast we went to A Maze N'Things (www.amazenthings.com.au) . While we were there we played mini-golf and on the last hole Daddy got a hole in one. I got a birdie on the 12 and also an eagle on the 11th. We also went through the very strange images gallery and also the open air maze.

We had lunch in Cowes ( big pizzas) and had an enormous ice-cream that was so big we fed some to the seagulls and watched them get "Brain Freeze".

During the day we saw three wallabies, and lots of koalas, and also a rare sighting of a Kukkaburra. One koala was three feet away from us and eating his tea.....we will be posting the vidoe on YouTube.

We also went for a little ride on the bikes and scooters and finished the day off with a game of ten pin bowling and air hockey which Joe won!!!!!!!

Today we have had a lovely day at home playing cricket and footy with Daddy and watching a little bit of our home town grand prix!!!!

The weather has been slightly autumnal in the mornings but still is in the mid to high twenties during the day....shame of course.

Anyone for Tennis ?

2007-01-20T17:36:00.000-08:00

One thing we have learnt in our eleven months in Melbourne is that above all states in Australia this oe is sports mad....with the Commonwealth Games, AFL, Grand Prix, World Swimming Championships coming soon, and of course the first tennis Grand Slam of the year. Given our desire to fully embrace life in Australia we took the boys and Ella to the tennis on Friday last week and were wise enough to go indoors to start with at the Vodafone arena as the heavens opened for part of the day.

We saw a couple of very enjoyable matches with Novak Djokovic (No 9 seed) and also Amelie Mauresmo (No2 seed) as well as having a good wander around all the outdoor areas. Having done wimbeldon a few time it was refreshing to see the space and lack of long queues even though there were 40,000 people there. The other thing we have learnt about sport in Victoria is that it is highly valued in society and priced to reflect that.....ground passes for the whole family in total amounted to £30 and you could simply walk up to the ticket office on the day if you wanted to buy...queue stretched for at least six yards....SO refreshing!!!!!!....maybe I was never a good queue inhabitant!!!

The boys walked away with two giant tennis balls to frame their first visit to a grand slam tennis tournament....Nikki walked away with a beach towel (make of that what you will) and Dad walked away with the bill for it all!!!!!

Anyway can thoroughly recommend for all you tennis fans tired of queueing / praying for Wimbledon tickets that you plan a trip down under to Melbourne.

Somers loving...had me a blast ( Travolta tribute)

2007-01-20T17:07:00.000-08:00

We have just come back from a few days down on the Mornington Peninsula coast staying in the holiday home of Nikki's cousin. The weather was beautiful for most of the time (mid to high 30's) and we swam in the sea at Somers or Sorrento each day, with the boys also enjoying their boogie boards, rock pool investigating, sandcastle and trench building and a little beach cricket.

The Farren boys also managed an early morning round of golf at Cape Schanck ( see attached picture) and the boys also spent some time on a friends quad bike wizzing round their garden.

Only slight blot on the horizon was loss of set of keys on the beach so Tim had to make emergency trip back to Melbourne ( 1 Hour) to get spare set.

We were also swimming in the Western Port Channel until we were told that a 6m Great White had been sighted across the other side of the channel at Cowes so we stayed in slightly shallower water thereafter.

Ella survived the beach remarkably well in her Sun shaded tent although it was a feta of engineering to get it down again.

We returned late on Thursday evening to go to the Australian Open tennis on Friday ( see next post) and have had a quiet weekend here with much blessing in the form of a weekend of almost constant rain.........the whole of Victoria is cheering and praying for more.

We wish you a Ruby Christmas

2006-12-31T22:01:00.000-08:00

This Christmas time we have been focused on the planning for the Australian version of a ruby wedding anniversary for Nikki's parents, David & Dorothy, that took place last Saturday. We were blessed with a fantastic day, sunshine and a balmy 30 degrees so were able to host the event in the house and the back garden.

It was lovely to meet so many of their Australian friends from down the years over afternoon English tea, and event that was marred only by Gareth and I ( the two sons-in-law) blotting our copybooks with a humorous speech of reflections about significant calendar dates in their marriage and with some advice for the next 40 years of their marriage.

We have also had the pleasure of being some of the first people on the planet to see in 2007, and watched a great firework display over the Yarra River with the boys last night...somewhat different at 24 degrees to the howling winds and rain of the UK I suspect.

We do not know yet what 2007 holds in store for us but after a wedding and honeymoon, selling a house in the UK, emigrating to the other side of the world, buying a new house in Australia, starting a new job, starting new schools, finding a new church, making new friendships there, having a whirlwind trip back to the UK for a wedding, going through a nine month pregnancy and having Ella as an addition to our family we feel that after such a quiet 2006 we will be looking for a more lively 2007..........NOT!!!!!!!!!!

We trust that you have a wonderful 2007.....we certainly are believing that for the Farren family and will share the quieter side of our lives in 2007 with you as we journey along together.

Wishing you all much joy and exciting new opportuities in 2007.

Tim, Nikki, Sam, Joe and Ella.

Christmas Cracker

2006-12-31T21:40:00.000-08:00

We have been overjoyed this Christmas to have Ella with us to share the festive season. She has brought great delight to all of our family that have been down here in Australia ( Auntie Debbie, Uncle Gareth, Auntie Andi and of course Granny and Grandad). They have all been stockpiling on cuddles from Ella before they have to head back to other parts of the world. Ella is progressing well and Nikki is coping remarkably well with the new demands of having a baby.....I am trying of course to do my bit too but there are some things that a man simply cannot provide.

Ella is starting to hold her head quite well although not entirely on her own yet, and is certainly spending more hours awake during the day now which provides enjoyment to us all. The boys have become very fond of their morning kiss and cuddle with Ella and love holding her with varying degress of confidence.

Ella Margaret Farren

2006-12-16T11:43:00.000-08:00

Mother's Look

We are utterly ecstatic to announce that the Farren family has grown to five now with the birth of Ella Margaret Farren on Friday night at 10:39pm weighing in at a healthy 3.61kilos (7lbs 15 ounces). Ella was clearly enjoying life on the inside too much as it took her 21 hours to get out but when she eventually made it she was fine, as was Mum although very tired as you would expect.

Ella has a lovely mop of black hair, a splodgy Farren nose and has spent the first 24 hours of her life mostly asleep.

Sam's turn now "Ella is a great sister altho she does cry and I am forced to change the nappies. We are very excited to see Ella and she brings great joy to the family around the world. Mum is still very tired. The first time I held Ella it felt like holding some special, another great part of life, a special sister."

Joe says "When I first held Ella it felt pretty nice because she is beautiful, and when we got there she was only twelve hours old"

We will be bringing Ella and Nikki home tomorrow and no doubt will be spending hours on Skype showing her off to family and friends around the world. We look forward to at least 20 years worth of blog posting about Ella until she leaves home, that is assuming there is any young man out there who is even remotely good enough for my BEAUTIFUL daughter.

My camp

2006-11-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

On the 8th of November I went on grade 4 camp at Arrabri Lodge which is around the Dandenong Ranges.
We arrived at 10:30am and got straight into activities we got split into groups for this.

Our first activity was damper cooking it tastes a bit like scones. Our second activity was orienteering you have to go round the whole camp about 3 acres looking for 26 signs we came second. Then we went for bush dancing later in the evening when we where taught some dancing and then we went on an late night walk to a camp fire where we toasted marshmallows and told stories.

Next day we had breakfast and then went into activities we did archery for the 2 sessions and I got a BULLSEYE. After morning tea we went to team Initiatives.

Some of the activities where hard some where Easy my favorite one was the tight rope walk with the rope then we had the flying fox.

We also have a new addition to our family........a large trampoline in our front garden. The boys have had great fun with it along with friends from down the road.

The Ashes - Part One

2006-11-12T22:44:00.000-08:00

We spent our long weekend preceding the Melbourne Cup with our growth group from church down on Phillip Island.....nine adutls and thirteen children all the same house...it was very relaxing as you can imagine.

WE actually had a great time...the dads were allowed to play some golf and the mums indulged in some lunch and retail therapy.

The Sunday was a glorious day and we played some beach cricket...highlight was Sam bowling Dad first ball.

Book Worm

2006-10-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

Sam recently achieved public notoriety by being awarded a Victorian premier certificate for having completed his reading challenge.

The challenge set by the state leader was for children of Sam's year group to read 30 books from a prescribed reading list between January and August this year....and in spite of starting late by only arriving in Oz late February Sam focused well on his task and enjoyed his books immensely...completing the task by just after Easter.

Well done Sam....he is now well through the Famour Five series too and enjoying all their adventures...they are even known about on the other side of the world.

Shadows and Sunsets

2006-09-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

Final blog of the holiday has to be given over to some of the extraordinary sunsets we saw most nights....along with a crazy "six o'clock" shadow...namely Dad's beard that he grew for ten days while we were there but has now removed in the interest of client decorum and it just getting too itchy in the heat.

Polynesian night

2006-09-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of the holiday for us all was the polynesian night at the resort where we were entertained by the local Fihjian equivalent of the redcoats from Butlins....this time kitted out in the traditional Fijian shirst with attached guitars......actually they played each night and also at breakfast....heady mix of Fijian love songs, John Denver, Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Simon and Garfunkel etc...afraid to say I knew quite a few of the songs.

The dancing part of the vening was a mix of tradiotnal dances from a large number of the South Sea islands....Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Cook Islands, etc.......Dad liked the ladies and mum liked the men dancers.......although Mum was a little disappointed that the women used cocunut shells for bras but the men did not seem to use them for any of their "protection".

We did think about getting one of the grass skirts for the boys who both showed remarkable aptitude for doing the hula dancing but knew we would struggle to get them through quarantine in Australia so we contented ourselves with some serious Fat Boy Slim type "shaking of our ass".

Aye Aye Sailors....

2006-09-28T17:36:00.000-07:00

We had a couple of days out on boats on trips to islands and snorkelling...the first one not too successful as the engine broke down and we had to idle into the resort and got back very late at night..tired and wet...the second was much more successful with Sam, Nikki and I all doing some fantastic snorkelling...and Joe seeing it all from a glass bottomed boat too.

The first trip we were due to snorkel we only had fifteen mins due to the delays and we did not see any of othe hoped for dolphins...but we did get a lovely meal at Musket Cove and we did not pay for the trip at all.....but we were blessed with a beautiful sunset....as we cruised home at a snail like pace of 6 knots!!!!!!

On our second day snorkelling we had a fantastically different day....fast clipper boat with Fijian seamen singing shanty songs the whole way. The island we went too was stunning....you were able to literally walk into the water and swim among the coral and the water was lovely and warm, shallow up to about 500m off shore....and was beautifully complemented by a beach bbq and game of beach football for the boys...Sam scored a hatrick and Joe was a terrier in defence even scoring a sensational penalty too.

The coral was as ever stunning, and the array of different fish took the breath away....Sam and I came within a couple of feet of stingrays twice....which so soon after the tragic accident to Steve Irwin certainly made us stop and think.

The trip home was wahed down with large mugs of tea and biscuits and was topped off by a stunning sunset that night back at the resort....see later posts on the blog for our stunning sunsets.

Fish feeding frenzy

2006-09-28T17:20:00.000-07:00

Yes there were some amazing animals in fiji like stingrays and some wonderfully coloured sea snakes (or maybe not so wonderful) lets start with the ones inland to us. The fish are mad with the bread and we feed them every day and you have to put the whole piece of bread in the water for a feeding frenzy. The folk of first landing (this guys name was Jone...pronounced Jonny) did a fish feeding thing at noon you would get really big ones around 30cm. We would sometimes also feed them after our breakfast.

We have included a few pictures of the bridge where we fed them from and of the fish themselves.

Fijian adventures part 1

2006-09-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

First Landing resort was beautiful and our beachside bure ( pronounced buray) was perfect accommodation for us. We look straight out of our beds on sunny mornings at the clear blue sea, and there was lovely vegetation all around us. We had a couple of overcast or wet days there.......see photos elsewhere of us kayaking....but most of the time was beautiful. We spent alot of time just by the pool or on the beach with boys, books etc and have come back very relaxed....we have attached above a couple of photos of the resort as a taster for the other parts of our adventure which will follow on successive posts.

The Fijian people were wonderful.....so friendly with us all but especially the kids and we were well looked after in culinary terms too.....see photo of Nikki with her lobster dinner!!!!!!!

Boys relived some of my childhood by eating sugar cane too......oh yes and there were poisonous cane toads around our bure each night too.

Fiji here we come....

2006-09-16T02:24:00.000-07:00

After what has been a very intense first seven months down in Australia we are all now very ready for a break and ten days sat on a beach in Fiji.

For those of you who are interested www.firstlandingfiji.com will give you some idea of where we are.

Nikki has done another sterling job this week as I have had to be in Auckland for a couple of days....we are now looking forward to some relaxing family time, swimming, snorkelling, books, sleeping, sunning, picking umbrellas out of fruit cocktail glasses by the pool etc, etc....... Holiday mood has well and truly started for the boys....they went wild on their bikes in the park this afternoon...and that was after having their hair dyed purple yesterday for Wild Hair Day to end the term.

We have a shocking start at 4am tomorrow so bed time is nigh upon us at 7pm on a Melbourne evening...just have to finish cleaning down the BBQ from our traditional Aussie cook-out tonight and then we are away with the fairies.

Will up date blog with some pictures on our return but in meantime content yourselves with imagine of beach that we shall barely be moving from for the next ten days.

Golfing bonanza.......or is it a Masquerade

2006-09-10T02:24:00.000-07:00

This has been another eventful week for the Farrens with Sam starring in a Masquerade Ball at school........and then this morning at the Rugby club annual awards he was presented with the "Best and Fairest" award for his age group....he is shown receiving his trophy from his team coach.......both boys are already signed up for the new season and I have put my hand up to join the Club Committee with all the spare time I have not got.

We had a team BBQ for the Melbourne portion of Tim's National Practice Group on Saturday evening...broke in the new gas BBQ.......and now feel genuine Aussies with our BBQ on the deck ready for long warm days when e leave and eat out there all the time.

Having tolied valiantly in preparation for the BBQ yesterday evening I left the afternoon free for Nikki by taking the boys for a round of golf........mixed play...but setting at the local public course is sensational it is hard to concentrate on the golf.

Off to NZ for Tim this week for three days...and then we all head for Fiji next Sunday for well earned break....www.firstlandingfiji.com/......to sit on the beach, read, sleep, swim, snorkel, golf, and generally relax...after a full on first seven months here we are ready for the break...and with new Farren arriving around 23 December it might be the last real break for a little while.

The day we met Kylie

2006-09-02T23:01:00.000-07:00

sams Athletics Sports Day

2006-09-02T21:33:00.000-07:00

It was a great day I did lots of stuff I did high jump,long jump,triple jump,hurdles and a load of other sports.Lets start at the beginning of the day in order we got on a coach to the reserve at box hill. We where told to get into our houses ireland,cato,jones and gardiner then our subjects where read out we started of with long jump I jumped 3 metres 50 cm. Then we went onto triple jump and I jumped 3 metres 25 cm
then we had a break eat drink bla bla bla and we went onto high jump. It was a little bit hard cause the mat was high and it was not easy to jump my record was 90 cm (good for that size mat). Then we did
hurdles I should of got a ribbon for that but she gave it to someone else I dont know why then we went to shuttle relay I did well with that we had discus I through 11 meters 3. Then we went to shot put I threw
4 meters 80 cm and finally we had sprints it was the first 3 who got in but there where six heats the guy who set us off had a cap gun I came 2nd in my first race. In the next race I came 5th not to bad then it was the end of the day we then had the circular relay we will find out on monday who won.

Tune in next week for a instalment from Sam farren!

Our House in Oz

2006-08-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

Farrens in Oz

This is our house in Oz at 2 Wingan Avenue, Camberwell. Joe says our house is very smart and he especially likes his bedroom.

The favourite thing for both of the boys at the moment is the park for them to play in which is literally just outside our back gate

...it is the biggest back garden in Melbourne.

These are photos that Sam and Joe took all by themselves to get into the world of Blog.

The weather as you can see is beautifully sunny here today for Winter....clear blue skies and about 18 degrees.

The house is located in a quiet street about 10km from central Melbourne.....with lots of leafy areas immediately to hand.

Daddy sometimes cycles to work...sometimes he takes the tram.....always much better than the train and underground that he was used to in High Wycombe.