My good mate Markus is moving back home to Germany. He’s been in Australia about as long as we have, moving to Australia with his girlfriend Nina mid last year to study. We met them by accident through a friend who found them lost on a mountain trail, and haven’t looked back. Needless to say we’re very sad that they are returning home. We’ve shared so many exploring Australia moments and have grown very close. A plus is that we now have connections when we decide to tour Europe.

Courtesy of my wonderful Mother-In-Law I have an amazing new camera to take all my shots with. I already own a Minolta Maxxum 5 35mm SLR but find I don’t use it very often; there’s something about developing photo’s that turns me off. Plus I don’t have a great lens so I can’t really get into the nitty gritty. I end up taking all our shots with a 3 or 4 mega-pixel generic, but this is going to be fun. My new Nikon D70 Digital SLR is a 6.1 mega-pixel takin, 3008 x 2000 makin machine. The thing is feature rich and comes with a mind boggling instruction manual that’s going to take some time to weed through.

Aussie Rules is a sport (short for Australian Rules Football): not a statement. Though it does have a pretty good argument if used as a statement. Aussie Rules. Onwards.

I’ve noticed that amateur sport is extremely organized in Australia. I guess I remember this from my teenage years but it’s different looking on as a parent. Everything is so detailed and professional. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Jenifer and Michael would like to announce the arrival of their newborn son, Hayden Matthew born in Australia at 2:25pm on Tuesday 29th April, 2008. For those in the USA, the time was 9:25pm on Monday 28th April Pacific Standard Time.

The vital stats are:

3.64 kg or 8 lbs 0.3 ounces
52cm or 20½ inches long.

Well the house is a bit quieter now since our youngest, Liam, has joined his brother at school. We’re so used to having Liam around the house; he’s always colouring or drawing something so I guess I won’t have to invest in paper afterall. He’s proud to be following his brother through the same gates at school while wearing the same colours. Liam has truly been looking forward to this for some time. I have no doubt that he is going to excel in his schooling.