tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:25:49 +0000A record of the Hawkins family emigrating to Sydney, Australia, from September 2006.http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/index.htmnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)Blogger205125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-2371762039474594756Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:31:00 +00002008-11-19T19:25:49.431+11:00Clive returned from his week in the UK on Tuesday evening, complete with a cold, but accompanied by half the Australian cricket team at the airport. By Friday he had recovered enough to enjoy a meal out with me in Garfish, a lovely fish restaurant at Manly wharf. We really enjoyed the meal and then walked back to the car accompanied by a fantastic lightening display over the water – luckily thehttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/11/sues-birthday-weekend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-1937011885896907426Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:14:00 +00002008-11-12T21:18:48.307+11:00It was our third and final sailing lesson on Saturday afternoon and the conditions were up another level this time, which made for a good progression over the the three lessons. Several people dropped out this week due to the cloudier weather (and a hint of rain) which meant that we were down to three on our yacht (plus the instructor) although this meant we had more time to do all the necessary http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/11/final-sailing-lesson.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-9144404154032766330Sun, 26 Oct 2008 03:44:00 +00002008-11-12T21:10:22.185+11:00Sue & I had our second sailing lesson on Saturday and the day was sunny and warm again after a cold week. We did more of the same on the yacht and the wind was stronger than last week, which made it more exciting and challenging, plus there were plenty of yachts out on the water due to a competition going on, so we did our best to try to avoid them! On Sunday we had a early start and headed downhttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/10/sculpture-by-sea-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-7287824419066486606Sat, 18 Oct 2008 22:27:00 +00002008-10-21T18:01:05.292+11:00Everybody in Sydney sails. Well, to us it seems the case. Every time we meet a new ‘local’, they’ve just come back from, or are just off to, their boat for a spot of R&R. And what better way could there be to pass the time, when the sun’s shining brightly in a blue sky and the sea’s sparkling. So, it was really only a matter of time before we had a go ourselves... We’d experienced a day on http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/10/learning-to-sail.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-4781893394265658525Sun, 12 Oct 2008 21:41:00 +00002008-10-19T09:34:03.641+11:00Sue and I went on another bike ride on Sunday - just the two of us this time and a shorter ride up to North Head. This included cycling along the seafront track at Manly which was very busy on a sunny morning and with lots of 'nippers' activity going on (young kids clubs where they are trained in sea skills and lifesaving) so there were some areas where bikes and pedestrians merged! Up on Northhttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/10/whales-return.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-638956087388541417Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:40:00 +00002008-10-11T09:59:45.574+11:00A couple of months ago, I met a lady through my Monday morning tennis group who is a keen cyclist. I mentioned this to Clive and before you knew it, the two of us had agreed to join the Northern Beaches Bikers on a 45km ride alongside the MacDonald River, north west of Sydney. Given I had never ridden a bike further than about 20km in my life, this was causing me a little concern. However, thehttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/10/st-albans-bike-ride.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-7195027816909654480Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:45:00 +00002008-10-06T18:59:47.231+11:00The girls finished another school term on Friday so are now on 2 weeks' holiday. For Laura it was the end of 'normal' school as her HSC exams start after the holiday and then she's finished for good. There was an end of Year 12 event for the students and parents on Friday night at one of the nearby RSL clubs which we attended. The last week of school also included the traditional 'muck-up' day http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/09/end-of-term.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-7844394437855345308Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:42:00 +00002008-09-23T09:29:10.349+10:00Sue & I attended a trivia night organised by the girls' school on Saturday night - as with all schools, they have a 'P&C' committee (Parents & Citizens Association) who organise the occasional evening event, although this is the first we had attended. We had arranged a table of 4 couples, only one of whom were Aussies, so we had a distinct disadvantage on some questions and we're sure we were http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/09/trivia-night.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-7446835995842478646Sat, 13 Sep 2008 07:49:00 +00002008-09-16T08:56:31.995+10:00Today marks the second anniversary of our arrival here at the start of our 'big adventure' (and this blog has also just short of the 200 post mark as well). Saturday has been much warmer than recently, with blue skies and temperatures in the 20s again, so that the heating is finally having a rest and the balcony doors got an 'open airing' during the day - a sure sign that spring is now here and http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/09/two-years-on.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-1922386516254570560Sun, 07 Sep 2008 23:18:00 +00002008-09-10T09:05:10.470+10:00I had a double-dose of being spoilt over the past few days, with my birthday followed closely by Father's Day yesterday. I took the obligatory 'day off work' for my birthday as Sue and I had planned to go on a Hawkesbury River cruise, but the good Spring weather at the start of the week had gone and although the day was dry we decided to postpone the trip. We therefore explored a few areas of http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/09/start-of-spring.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-8386023909551409986Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:10:00 +00002008-09-04T17:19:10.658+10:00Last weekend saw Clive and I driving north up the Pacific Highway to Port Macquarie, around 400 kms away. Clive has a new customer there who wanted a meeting with him and, in return, was offering the family a couple of nights in their hotel FOC. If we had known how far away P.M. is, we may have sent Clive on the train on his own.… Laura and Caroline were not interested in making the trip, so http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/09/port-macquarie.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-2860899176991981099Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:25:00 +00002008-08-26T08:49:56.884+10:00So the Olympics finished this weekend and the Aussies haven't enjoyed seeing the Poms doing better than them in the medals table. Of course all the TV coverage here has tended to focus on the Australian team's activities and they were doing well after the end of the first week with the swimming. However, the second week was a shock for them to see Team GB move ahead in the gold medal count and http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/08/olympic-envy.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-8986802296151974814Sun, 17 Aug 2008 04:49:00 +00002008-08-20T08:35:46.848+10:00Last Saturday night was another new experience for us – Clive and I went to watch the Sydney Swans play against the Geelong 'Cats' in the AFL at the Olympic Stadium. Rebecca had been to several games with a friend, so Clive and I thought we ought to see what it was like for ourselves. The Australian Football League ('Aussie Rules') is a cross between football and rugby and probably other ball http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/08/aussie-rules.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-5389975982333652548Sun, 10 Aug 2008 09:16:00 +00002008-08-11T14:56:41.180+10:00Last Friday evening Clive and I were at one of our favourite venues, Sydney Opera House. We had just bought tickets a week ago to see the Sydney Symphony play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, followed by Stravinsky’s The Firebird – 'ballet fantastic'. (Not my opinion – that’s what it’s called!) We followed our usual routine – car to Cremorne Point to catch the ferry to Circular Quay, http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/08/classics-close-up.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-8083427763376214909Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:07:00 +00002008-08-06T14:35:16.642+10:00Google has just launched a new feature of its mapping service in Australia - Street View provides ground-level images of most streets across Sydney and the other main urban areas. It's a fascinating technology that allows you to 'drive' along streets and look around at the buildings, so it can be useful when going somewhere new or planning a route. It's also a great time-waster, but once the http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/08/google-street-view-of-sydney.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-2438890475442369596Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:19:00 +00002008-08-06T14:05:45.549+10:00The past weekend has been 'sporty' in a number of ways. On Friday evening I went to watch the local 'footie' (rugby league) team (Manly) again, with an expat friend. They were playing a team from Penrith and had another easy win, although the evening was much colder than our previous visit to the ground (and it was even colder holding the beers!). There's been a lot of controversy over the past http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/08/sporting-weekend-sort-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-7627667694506150794Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:33:00 +00002008-07-29T20:28:20.537+10:00Not much to report from the past week / weekend - a bit of work, some shopping, soccer, a few nights socialising and other stuff - so I'm having a week off and here's a photo that Sue took from the house on Sunday when a big storm came over: http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/07/rainbow.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-3022555997324321070Sun, 20 Jul 2008 23:36:00 +00002008-07-22T09:30:26.292+10:00Sydney was the host of the annual Catholic 'World Youth Day' last week which attracted over 200,000 pilgrims from around the world, along with Pope Benedict who made his first visit to Australia and apparently the longest journey of his life to get here. There were events in the city from the Wednesday through to Sunday when a final mass was held at the main racecourse in the city. The city and http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/07/world-youth-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-2644847551458841626Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:46:00 +00002008-07-17T12:24:28.820+10:00The end of last week was the coldest spell of the year although it was sunny (and usually warmer outside than in the house!). There's quite a contrast watching people in the street at this time of year as some will still be wearing t-shirts and shorts whereas others will be wearing thick sweatshirts or coats - and of course 'cold' is still quite a relative term here compared to mid-winter in the http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/07/christmas-dinner.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-1698888626636667411Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:28:00 +00002008-07-11T13:05:44.018+10:00Rebecca's soccer team had an early kick-off on Sunday so we had the rest of the day free once they had finished and, since it was a clear sunny day, Clive and I decided to take ourselves off to visit Cockatoo Island. This island is the largest in Sydney Harbour, but is still fairly small, measuring 18 hectares and taking around 40 minutes to walk around the perimeter. To reach the island we hadhttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/07/cockatoo-island.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-1036929559795583067Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:56:00 +00002008-07-04T08:29:11.956+10:00It's now been one week since I moved into the new business office, from the small room at home to a serviced office several miles away. Since I'm intending to employ someone soon, I had been looking at leasing options over the past month and there is plenty of available office space in the area, but felt that for the next year at least, a serviced office was the best option. The serviced office http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/06/new-corporate-life.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-234185547510349612Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:56:00 +00002008-07-10T08:48:44.284+10:00Well, we’ve had a busy week and Clive’s still trying to catch up, so the blog-writing’s down to me again! It was our 20th wedding anniversary on June 18th and to celebrate, Clive and I had decided to spend a night in the Blue Mountains. We thought the girls needed some time apart from us and decided one night would be enough. As luck would have it though, Clive was at a conference a few monthshttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/06/weekend-in-blue-mountains.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-6310260951731003888Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:53:00 +00002008-06-19T08:18:43.637+10:00Caroline went to a concert with some friends on Sunday night, at the University of NSW south of the city centre, so I had agreed to pick them up after the show. In the end, Sue came along as well and we left home at 10.30pm to have a traffic-free drive across the bridge and through the city to the venue. We found the place and a parking area just in time as the crowd was starting to come out andhttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/06/stuck-in-sydney.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-810009613363407646Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:21:00 +00002008-06-14T14:07:03.538+10:00We've just had a long weekend as Monday is an official holiday to mark the Queen's Birthday and it turned out much like a traditional UK 'bank' holiday - wet! The reason for the day off is one reminder of the history of the country and the Commonwealth link, but there are still underlying currents within Australia to become a republic. The new Labour PM, Kevin Rudd, is a Republican but at a majorhttp://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/06/queens-birthday-long-weekend.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26328434.post-5523116961159678228Sun, 01 Jun 2008 04:44:00 +00002008-06-02T08:34:02.302+10:00The annual whale migration season has just started again, with sightings reported in the press and whale cruises heading out to sea for the next few months. On Friday there was a news report of 4 humpback whales entering the harbour and 'playing' near Manly Wharf for about an hour before heading back to sea - an unexpected bonus for ferry passengers. On Saturday afternoon Sue and I decided to http://www.clivehawkins.co.uk/blog/2008/06/migrating-whales.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Hawkins Family)0