Rock n Roll Dance

On the 17th of July, Sutherland Ward hosted a Rock and Roll Dance featuring an Auction of a range of things to raise money for their youth to go to TREK later this year.

We definitely couldn't miss out this first dress up dance for Tristan. Jade and Levi were in charge of the decoration and they did an awesome job. You even may see some familiar faces in the hall of fame.

Doesn't Courtney look like a real Rock star!!! Love that hair!

Thanks to Courtney Leon and last minute arrangements I was able to dress up for the dance. My GREASE days!!

Doesn't Tristan look like a mini Rock Star on his jacket and jeans?

Pam got herself a nice skirt to join the party in style!

What's wrong Levi? Tristan seems to be having a great time!

Tough Bloke Competition

by Tate Ryan

Finally after two months of training the day arrived to see if I really was man enough for the Tough Bloke Challenge held at Cataract Scout Park near Wollongong. T Boggs the Melbourne Vegan gathered a few of us unfit Sydneysiders to join with him in the race to help him look good. Inspired by the challenge and the need to get my legs back in running order I accepted the challenge with about two and a half months to prepare. I definitely needed that time as it took me at least two months to get comfortable running the required 6Km at a reasonable speed. The training let me get to know my new neighbourhood as well as a devised some tough but enjoyable running routes from Bexley to Arncliffe.

By the time the race hit town I knew I could do it without having heartache so I felt prepared. The race was tough. Firstly I was amazed at how popular it is. There were hundreds of people doing the race throughout the whole day. It was a real enjoyable carnival atmosphere. Hanna and Tristan were there in support. Hanna was happy because it was finally coming to an end and she’s hoping my training will now not interfere with other things I have been putting off because of it.

Trent, Shack, Chris, Hass and I hit the starting gates at about 10.15am. I managed to finish 49 minutes later with cuts, bruises, sores, rash etc for my effort. It was a cold morning and some of the water challenges were freezing whereas the mud pit outdid its reputation by being more of an icy cold quicksand pit. It was so hard to move in. And no way of escape with barb wire above your head keeping you locked under. The final challenge of a rope crawl did the most damage though as it scrapped and burned the skin right of your legs as you made your way across.

All fun and games though. I was quite happy to do it in a reasonable time a couple minutes behind Trent.

We all went back to Engadine and played Risk to early evening. As you might expect as an internationally renowned Risk Champion, I took the win, which was a nice way to end the day!!

Also my mate let me know he saw a picture of me in the Telegraphs online newspaper. The photo was soon after the mud pit where I had to ditch my shirt because it was too heavy with all the mud on it.

SpeedRacer & Senorita are PARENTS!

As you can see I haven't updated this blog for a long, long time! But I have a good reason for that. Our little Speedster has finally joined us in our adventures. In fact he got adventures of his own and you can check that at:

http://speedstersadventures.wordpress.com

SpeedRacer and I are a bit on hold with our adventures, without the bike and Tristan taking most of our time, we decided to just enjoy him at the moment. When he gets a bit older we'll try to take him with us. That'd be really interesting going camping with a baby.

Anyway, register on the other website so you can receive the updates from my little bundle of joy. I'm more consistent with that blog as I get to update at least once a fortnight.

The Apartment & Christmas Holidays

Our New Home

December was a bit hectic for us. We have finally moved to our apartment, after having it painted and having the floorboards sanded and polished. It looks great now!

Since we got married, we've always lived in furnished places, so this is actually the first time that we needed some furniture, because we had none, we just gathered some that people gave to us and bought the bear minimum. As you'll see in the pictures below, things don’t match or are not the best fit to the place, but slowly we'll get new things here and there.

During the holidays we were able to make the apartment a bit cosier and looking a little bit like a homey home.

That's us reaping off the disgusting carpet they had there before, so we could have the floorboards polished. Look at that yellow wall, I hated it!! PS: you can see my 26weeks & 3 days bump on the mirror

We had to scrap all these dirty sticky stuff that was under the carpet.

Below is how the apartment looks now:
Our kitchen

The living room. Mind you that the lounge is there just for the looks, you can’t actually sit on it for a long time otherwise you sink in it =)

Our dining room. We got the table and chairs from my work. It's useful for the time being! We don't have blinds for any room yet.

Our bedroom. Lucky to find a very good second hand bed. It fits the room well. PS: another sneak peek of my 29 weeks baby belly

The messy room, eventually will become the baby's room. To be sorted during my time off work.

and the bathroom. That's it! The tour of our new home! You are welcome to our home any time! It's small but full of love =)

Christmas Eve

Brazilians have a different tradition than Australians for Christmas. Back home we celebrate Christmas on the night of the 24th, we do the big feast that night and families exchange presents. Here in Australia, they celebrate Christmas on the 25th, they have either big breakfast or lunch and exchange presents then. Because we are a family of both worlds, Tate and I celebrate both days. Lucky us!!!

This year we invited Tate’s family to come over to our new place on Christmas Eve for our Christmas dinner. I had the day off so I was able to prepare all the food!!! It was so yummy!!!! We all had a wonderful night together, after dinner we read the Christmas story and shared some grateful thoughts about the ending year and set goals for the year to come.

We managed to fit everyone on the table! Courtney, Neil, Pam, Grandma Val, Levi, Jade & Hanna. Look at the ham!!! I also prepared 3 types of salad, rice and got some fresh bread.

Us

For dessert: fruit salad and Torta Holandesa. Brazilians would know that very well. It was the first time I made it and it wasn't too bad!

Tate did enjoy that!!

Christmas Day at my in-laws!

Muscly boy! Ready for the feast!

30 weeks & 3 days

Grandma and I

One of the baby's present

New Year’s Eve

Levi, my brother-in-law, got tickets for the family to watch the famous Sydney fireworks at Garden Island where he works. We had a great spot and Pam prepared a lovely picnic for everyone, as we had to be there early to get the good spot and wait till midnight to see the big show. It was all worth it. The fireworks were amazing!!!

31 weeks & 3 days

Garden Island

I look so puffy!!

Our picnic spot

Farewell 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!