A fun day with visitors.

Some of you well know Yosh & Mayumi. For those who don't, I met Yosh & Mayumi in Japan last November at the ballooning World Championships. Yosh was part of the team I belonged to, crewing for Sean Kavanagh. Mayumi was part of Andrew Robertson's team. We soon became mates as I grabbed the opportunity to try and test out how much of the lingo I'd remembered from my time in Japan over 15 years ago. I think for Yosh & Mayumi, it was a great laugh listening to me butcher their native tongue! All that aside, they have made it to Melbourne on their great Aussie adventure after stops in Sydney, Canberra, and Perth.

Ballooning is a major driving force for these two, as Mayumi has her private pilot's licence and Yosh is in the process of training for his, so getting as much exposure to how we do it here in Oz has been fabulous for their experience and has also provided them with a great network of people to call on whilst here.

Anyway, I decided to show them some of the beautiful Victorian countryside north of Melbourne yesterday by heading up to Daylesford via Hanging Rock and Woodend. I have to admit, it wasn't the greatest day weather wise to be exploring the mysterious columns and caves of Hanging Rock, when we arrived there, the cloud was about 150 feet above the ground and the rain was going sideways! So after a quick peek at the "Education Centre" there and grappling with the boom gate at the exit in the rain, we decided to head to the relative warmth and safety of a yummy lunch at a Woodend deli.

A quick trip up the road to Mt Franklin for the most out of this world hot chocolate at "The Chocolate Mill" (it was the right weather for that at least!) and then a catch up with a mate Simon who lives in Daylesford. A most pleasant afternoon.

On the drive back to Melbourne, Cat & I cranked up the music and scared the bejeezuz out of Yosh & Mayumi with our raucous singing, so I think they were relieved when we arrived at our evening destination to meet Rob & Jan for a most enjoyable meal at our favourite Japanese restaurant. The prospect of dining at Kappo Okita intrigued everyone, because it's owner and head sushi chef is an Iranian guy named Fred! I can promise you though - his cuisine is excellent and I'm happy to say got the thumbs up from Y & M.

And of course, throughout the entire day's adventure, Isobel behaved like an absolute angel and loved every minute!!

Bye bye Butchy Boy.

It was a week ago today that we lost our beautiful Butch. His love of adventure and fascination with water his undoing.
From when he and Monty first arrived in October, my main concern was the traffic out on the road in front of the house. They always seemed very wary of that hazard however. Never would we have expected a half full swimming pool in a neighbours backyard to be the culprit. But alas, that's where Cat found him last Tuesday afternoon. It's been a very sad week in our house since.
The two boys have given us an enormous amount of joy over the past 8 months. After nursing them both through the ringworm saga (see earlier post - "Meet Butch & Monty") and deciding that they were definitely part of the family, we have thoroughly enjoyed watching them grow from the cutest and funniest of kittens into lovely, friendly, loving cats. They've been inseparable from each other, constantly playing and exploring together. They adopted Max our dog as one of their own and both took to Isobel with affection as soon as she arrived home.
Butch has been the more laid back of the two. While Monty can be compared with Dennis the Menace - constantly getting himself into mischief - Butch always found that a decent amount of sleep was paramount to a successful day. Often, he'd end up slipping down between the cushions on the couch, fast asleep on his back, four feet sticking up in the air, snoring like an old man!
As a kitten, he had this stumpy little tail which kind of curled under him when he ran. It turned into this most splendid and luxurious feather duster like ornament which we admired intensely and swore, upon his demise, that we would keep as a tribute to him. You'll be pleased to know that we backed down on that. He is now resting quietly, magnificent tail and all, in his favourite corner of the garden, a bottle brush planted along side him.

We miss him very much.

A little photo tribute to Butch is at: http://picasaweb.google.com.au/pwrightie/Butch