Another Action-packed Albany Weekend

The Albanys only know how to do weekends one way...

Saturday started off with a 745am soccer match. It was Elliot's first game of the season and he was super excited. After being in a team that was unbeaten for 2 consecutive years, we had to prepare Elliot for more frequent losses this year. With a radically different line up from last year, his team had lost 13-1 in the season's opening match the previous week. Malcolm genuinely believed that it was due to Elliot's absence (the Opera House concert took precedence).

Elliot played extremely well and his team fortunately won 4-0 much to the relief of the coach. The coach further fuelled Malcolm's great paternal pride by awarding the best player of the match to Elliot. However, there was no time to revel in the glory. The Albanys had a full schedule of activities lined up.

The team getting ready for their match

Jonah ready for action as well

A very happy Elliot after the win in his new team uniform

It was a brief stop at home for a quick shower and an opportunity to rid our shoes of grass and mud. The washing went on the line to utilise the sunshine and we piled back into the car headed for Eastwood. We had just enough time for Elliot to have a hair cut at a great Korean hairdresser. They love cutting the children's hair and the children get spoilt every time they go. A hair wash, a trendy cut, another wash, and a blow-dry and style with products made for a very handsome boy. I am not biased in the slightest. At $15, it was also great value. The hair cut was necessary as we had a party to go to. We couldn't have a scruffy looking Albany. As Malcolm would say, we are after all, beautiful people...

A new look

We bought Derek a tray of persimmons and it was then time to pick Lara up from ballet. Fortunately, to keep with the beautiful people theme, my parents had the foresight to pack her a change of clothes. And a trendy outfit at that. Not that I would have forgotten...

Off to Newington then for Uncle Derek's Birthday party. We were the first to arrive and thus we were able to enjoy the fantastic spread on the table without having to fight anyone for it! Derek and Laura had made falafel from scratch and chorizo balls amongst many other yummy things. They had slaved away for 2 days to provide a magnificent spanish themed feast.

It had been a while since we had met up with friends from University and we had a lovely time catching up. There were so many babies around which were so delightful! Derek then produced the ultimate Birthday cake, a hazelnut praline cheesecake. It was awesome!!!! The whole afternoon flew by and the time came to go home.

One of the best cheesecakes ever!

And look who's there ready to take the first slice

The children had a date with Oma and Opa for a sleepover. Yippee for us! Over Big Macs and chocolate sundaes, Malcolm and I took the opportunity to do some holiday planning. We had to work out the most efficient way to use our time for our upcoming September trip to the US and to reduce the risk of being caught in snow up at Glacier National Park. Somewhere in our schedule, we wanted to include a cowboy stay. We must have looked at nearly every dude ranch in Montana plus others in Wyoming and Colorado. Our shortlist was thankfully reduced to 2! It was also a relief to book our accommodation for Jackson and Yellowstone. Incredibly, much of the lodging within Yellowstone National Park itself had already been booked out for September. All this planning took us up to nearly midnight!

Today, therefore, has been somewhat of a blur. We didn't wake up early enough for our planned shopping expedition. We were rostered to provide morning tea for church. We then also realised that we had nearly forgotten to pick the children up from my parents' house! Amazingly, we somehow managed to stuff breakfast in, buy the food, pick up the children and arrive at church on time. Call it skill.

Church was a great place to rest and re-energise. As members of the Sydney Cricket Ground, we were given free tickets for the League match of Canterbury versus St George. In preparation for the match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, we had an Indonesian lunch at nearby Mascot with the Kohs. We had mistakenly assumed that 75 minutes would be plenty to get to the SCG. BIG mistake. The traffic was horrendous. To make things worse, it started to rain. Both families managed to find parking and we soon met up outside the member's entrance in time for kick off. Again, call it skill...

It was disappointing to watch Canterbury play a poor game, especially against St George. In the wet, it was near impossible to catch up. Having hot chips and a free Sunday paper did not make it that much better. I found it quite amusing though, to witness such well-behaved Canterbury fans. There was a group of young, beefy males decked out in bulldog colours close to us. They watched the game quietly and played "words with friends" during breaks. Certainly not what I expected!

The Kohs quit just after half time and headed home. We followed suit soon after. It was a blessing as Canterbury went on to lose and the rain started to pelt down harder. Traffic going home was just as bad. After we got home, we scrambled together something quickly for dinner, put the children to bed and tidied up the great big mess that is our house to prepare for the first weekday of...the school holidays! Oh joy!