Graduation Ball - Australian Command and Staff College 2007

Hi everyone! Here are photos from last night’s (December 1, 2007) Australian Command and Staff College Graduation Ball. I will write more when I get a chance. Right now we are swamped with our upcoming relocation to Canada (via a 12 day vacation in New Zealand followed by Christmas in Victoria B.C!). The evening was wonderful, amazing, fabulous! Good food, free (mostly!) drinks, great music, lots of dancing (Ian, you're so smooth...!), even better company, all resulting in an electric atmosphere at The Great Hall in New Parliament House. See for yourself……!






















Ian and I outside of Parliament House. The white building in the distance is Old Parliament House. Behind that (out of view) is Anzac Parade and The Australian War Memorial.

The Great Hall

Alan Wylie and Julie Hawker

Nick and Lesley Sealy-Thompson

Dave and Michele Reay

Dickie and Joanne Patounas

Jodi and Pat Cooper

Lara and Neil Owens

JP and Barb MacIntrye

Christian Lalande and Isabelle Boisvert

Gavin and Myra Keating

Ian and I

Mike and Sandy Hamlet

Anthony and Catherine Campbell

Lynette O'Grady and I

Lesley and Julie

The girls...

Rebecca McCormack

Raelene Surtees

Catherine Campbell

Dawn Bridgeman

Julie Hawker

Kerry Weston and friend

Me, Rebecca, Raelene and Catherine

The boys....!

Kevin, Ian and Kesem

Azahari and Christian

Ian and Paul O'Grady

Tim, Nick, Paul and Dickie

Nick and Azahari

The Two Scotsmen

(Campbell and Anderson)

Azahari, Alan, Christian and Ian

Promotions...

The Americans:

Marty and Jodie Schmidt

Neil and Lara Owens

Brian and Heidy McCarthy

Caroline Chalker and

Andrew Schlofel

Ian and Deb

Jock, Donna, Ian and Paul

Melbourne and the Ryan Family

As mentioned in the "A Day at the Races" blog, Tracey's brother Peter and his wife Caroline graciously hosted Tracey and I for the weekend. On Sunday, the last day of our visit, we thankfully didn't have to set our alarm clocks and be anywhere at any particular time. When we eventually got out the door, we headed to the St. Kilda area of Melbourne, which is by the water. It was a beautiful day - very sunny, very light breeze...ahhh! First we headed to the St. Kilda markets and saw some very nice things. Then we went for fish and chips and a long walk along the boardwalk. Here are some pictures from that day.

Here is Tracey with her beautiful niece Penny...




















Peter and Ben...




















The beach at St. Kilda















The beach at St. Kilda (the "Spirit of Tasmania" ferry)















Penny waiting for her fish and chips















Peter, Caroline, Penny and Ben Ryan

A Day at the Races

The weekend of November 9 - 11, I was excited to meet up with my good friend Tracey Barker in Melbourne. Her brother, Peter Ryan, and his family live there and were kind enough to host us for the weekend. It all started on Friday, November 9 with some wine tasting at four wineries in the Mornington Peninsula region. Let's just say the wine (for the most part) was spectacular, but the stories are not appropriate to repeat here!

The highlight of the weekend was on Saturday, November 10, when we spent the day at the horse races. Peter works for the engineering firm BMD, and Tracey and I were kindly invited to join their corporate group for the day at the famous Flemington Racecourse, which was placed on the Australian National Heritage List in 2006. The Melbourne Cup is actually a four-day spring racing carnival that started in 1869. It takes place over 6 (or so) days. The four races are The Derby, The Cup, The Oaks, and what is now called The Emirates Stakes. We were there for Emirates Stakes day, which is also known as "Family Day".

It felt like being treated like royalty....we had a table for ten in a beautiful indoor facility (see pictures below)....air conditioning.....multiple waiters and waitresses serving us constantly...computer screens showing us races and odds...delicious food and yummy drinks... etc. This is what the view looked like from where I sat for the day:
















And this is the view of the finish line from where I sat:
















Here they come!.....not bad for looking through a window...
















Here are Caroline (Peter's wife) and Tracey...two beautiful women!
















Caroline, Tracey and I at our table......
















Tracey and her brother Peter


















Peter took us for a walk around the racecourse. This is what the finish line looks like from ground level.















Caroline, Tracey and I outside. The building that our seats were in is on the left behind Caroline. We sat in inside the window that is furthest to the right, and near left of the "Emirates Stakes Day" sign.

















Tracey and I with "the band"...















There were 9 races that day, starting at 11:30 and going until around 5:30 pm. After the day at the track, a group of us headed to a wonderful restaurant called "The Flower Drum", where Peter treated us to the most amazing Chinese food I'm sure I'll ever have. Here we are with Peter's friend and colleague Tim, and his wife Kelly. I don't think this photo really shows what a great time we had......

Thank you Peter for a wonderful day!