Seriously, where does the time go?

All of a sudden I haven't posted since the birth of my son Joshua in 2016. Good grief. Well, it's been a whirlwind being first time parents and a few minor niggles with Josh over the last few years. However, I'm very blessed to report the safe arrival of Joshua's little sister, Imogen Anne, who came to this world nearly 6 weeks early at 10:27pm on 17 April 2018 weighing just 2.47 kgs.

We thought one child was hard work but two is utter chaos but we couldn't be happier, especially for our second to be a girl, which is the first new girl in the family for nearly 30 years.

From a very young age, I was lucky enough to nearly annually take a family trip north to Broome in winter. With Josh now one and a half, we decided that we'd take a family holiday to Broome in June with my parents.

We organised to get two one bed apartments at Blue Seas Resort for a little over a week. We didn't have many plans once we got to Broome, which was sort of the point of the holiday - just to unwind, slip into Broome time and relax by the beach. On the whole, Josh was great for the flight up and the flight passed uneventfully. The weather in Broome was perfect upon arrival and we got our hire car and headed out toward Cable Beach, where Blue Seas is located.

The next few days we visited the markets, the beach, town and generally chilled out around our resort, swimming in the pool and enjoying sunset drinks at Cable Beach. About day 4 Dad and I had organised to join a fishing charter and do some deep sea fishing. It was another sunny day but the swell was quite up. It took a while to find the fish but we soon got on them and pulled in many a pink snapper and red emperor. The old knees took a beating bracing against the side of the boat as we rocked about in the swell but it was a great day out. I even managed to hook a mackerel whilst trawling on the way in, which was a bit of added fun. That night we, of course, had a delicious meal of fish and chips, eating the fish we caught that day.

More relaxing, more beach followed over the next few days. Before we left, Amanda and I took the car and headed out to Willie Creek Pearl Farm for a tour around and some education on how they farm pearls. Was an interesting morning, with Amanda trying on some very expensive jewelry (but not getting any). We also managed to catch a movie at the outdoor cinemas, Sun Pictures, before we left, which is always a cool experience, especially when the planes fly overhead as they land or take off. Mum and Amanda also managed to do the Broome Hovercraft one afternoon too!

All too quickly, our Broome time came to an end. We had the return flight booked for 6:50pm, which was pretty much Josh's bedtime. We planned it perfectly, following our usual routine of eating dinner and getting him into his PJs in anticipation of him sleeping the whole way home. Unfortunately, Josh had other ideas and spent the majority of the flight climbing over us, visiting mum and dad and running up and down the aisle smiling at people. Best laid plans...

Overall, it was a very enjoyable, very relaxing (well, as relaxing as having a 1.5 yo with you can be) family holiday and it was great to be able to share it with Mum and Dad.

Hi everyone

Long time, no post. Seems work keeps getting in the way of a good post.

Today I'd like to introduce you all to my first born, Joshua James Wylde.

He arrived Sunday February 21st, 2016 just after 9pm weighing in at 7 pounds. He looks very much like his father and sleeps about as badly. Amanda and I are overjoyed with his arrival and to us, he's perfect. I look forward to planning travels as a family and hopefully he too gets bitten by the travel bug.

Wow, no posts since 2013 when we went to Africa but such a lot has happened. Guess I'm a bit behind on my posts.


Quick summary:
2013: Went to the USA in Dec for Ian & Angela's Wedding/Ski Holiday/Christmas
2014: Got Married on 26 April, honeymooned in Bora Bora & briefly New Zealand
2015: Went to South America for Carnival
2015: Went to Singapore for 1st anniversary


But probably the biggest news is that Amanda is pregnant with our first child. HE is due March 2016 and we couldn't be more excited.


Watch this space.

Hi all


Just a reminder - I have created a separate page to capture our African Adventure. See the signpost for a quick link to that page.


Cheers

We survived Oktoberfest, though I'm not sure I'm ever drinking again...

Our fourth day in Munich, we hired a car and headed south west toward the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein, built by King Ludwig. I'd already seen the castle before but Ian and Amit hadn't and I was happy to go and see it again. We were given a tiny Fiat Punto to drive around in, which was a bit small for the three of us but we still gave it what for down the Autobahn.

The castle (Schloss) is very impressive but unfortunately unfinished as the King died while it was still being fitted out so there are only 8 or so rooms to see on the tour. It's stunning none the less, the guy was nuts and nearly bankrupted Germany building castles. After the castle tour, we headed to a nearby mountain where Amit and I organised to go paragliding. We had to wait to the end of the day to get the last two spots so we hung around there for a couple of hours. Fortunately the pilots got down in time for us to catch the last cable car to the top of the hill and were able to go. Paragliding is where you run off the mountain with a parachute, as opposed to a hang glider, which is what I did in Rio. As we were the last flight of the day, the guys took their time. My pilot took me up and up and we fly high over Neuschwanstein castle, which was cool.

On Wednesday, we checked out of our hostel and the four of us, (Adam, Ian, Amit and myself), got our hire car and drove to Cologne, about 600kms away. We had a new Merc C220 diesel. I did most of the driving, of which half was B roads as we incorrectly set the Sat Nav to shortest route rather than fastest route. However, I did get some autobahn time, as did Ian and Amit, at the wheel. We all topped out around 220km/h but sat on something between 160-180km/h most of the time. Gotta love the German Autobahns.

Our last day was Thursday. In the morning, I checked out the giant church at Cologne, before boarding a 30 min train to Dusseldorf. We should have skipped Cologne and gone straight to Dusseldorf as it's a really cool city with a massive "cafe strip" style area in the AltStadt (Old City) just chock full of pubs and restaurants. Amit and I hung around this area the whole afternoon while Ian was off exploring some converted steel mill somewhere (Duisberg?).

We concluded our trip with a traditional german meal at a microbrewery in Dusseldorf. The next day we traveled Dusseldorf to London, London to KL and finally KL to home.

And so ends another trip. Can't wait for the next one, which may be a while off yet unfortunately due to changing employment and no annual leave accrual!

Til the next instalment!
Auf Wiedersehen

So we reach the main event, Oktoberfest.

We arrived in Munich the day before the 200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest celebration is due to start. After an early morning warm up beer, I go shopping to find myself some traditional german gear, known as Tracht, to wear at the fest. For blokes, this is known as lederhosen, or leather pants. I get everything from shoes and socks through to pants, shirt and suspenders. That afternoon we go back to the hostel to watch the AFL preliminary final - Geelong vs Collingwood and put away a few more beers at the hostel bar that night.

Day 1 of the fest. We arrive at 8:30 to masses of people already queuing to get into tents, which don't open til 9am and don't serve beer til midday. We lined up at the Lowenbrau tent and when the doors finally open, we rush inside only to find that most tables are reserved and there's no space to accommodate the rest of us. We reluctantly leave and take up a position on an outdoor table. We then begin the boring wait of holding the table with no beer for three hours. An old colleague from Perth, Ali, who now lives in London, showed up and we did some quick shopping for hats while we waited for beers.

At midday, the cannon fired a few times, the first keg was tapped by the Mayor of Munich and then we waited. We had just sorted out our hat with our cash to pay for rounds when a waitress carrying 12 steins of beers came rushing out the door and laid them down on our table. We couldn't believe it. We were the first people outside served at the Oktoberfest! There were many jealous people around us as we came together for a huge cheers and then enjoyed our litres of beer.

The rest of the day quickly became a reasonable blur as one stein turned to five, turn to a desire to get food and water, turned to more beer and then as the night got longer, turned to finding our way into a tent and dancing on tables singing german drinking songs. There was also some show rides thrown in there somewhere but that part is a little hazy. What a party this Oktoberfest is!

Day 2 started a little later at 3pm at the Hofbrau tent where we took it a little more sensibly at first, before more steins, more table dancing and more german singing was undertaken inside the Hofbrau tent. More rides were had including a five looping rollercoaster and a giant chair swing, amongst others.

Day 3 was Monday and the fest had quietened down a little. I can't begin to describe the noise, colour, sights and sounds of Oktoberfest in full action. I took some time this day to go in and out of every tent and take some pictures, enjoy the sights and sounds, the songs of the oompa bands playing and of course, a cheeky stein. That afternoon, we headed to Olympic Park and the BMW museum where we'd organised to take a factory tour. All the tours were sold out in English so we took a german one, which was interesting. Fortunately, you don't need commentary to see what is going on in most parts of the factory, though i'm sure the commentary was interesting. We returned to the fest that night for another stein and more rides.

That's the end of my Oktoberfest adventures. Four more days in Germay I'll write about separately.

Prost!
Dave