October 2024 – Berrara, Keele , Hong Kong

Berrara DAY 01

• We head to Berrara beach for a morning dip and I try surfing (fail).
• Adz takes position of a Porsche 911
• Leo and I do Ocean and Earth factory outlet
• Carol loves he cross words on the porch overlooking the water.
• I take Leo for Chines lunch at the RSL.
• Norther Glass finish putting the 3 new roof panels at Keele while I am away which the scissor lift we left in position.
• I order a mini trampoline for Chamouni.
• Back to the beach after lunch
• Kangaroos everywhere
• Off to Carol and Dons. I cook us all dinner. Jonathan’s chicken ribs, Cevapcici and oysters Kilpatrick. Carol loves the oysters!    

Berrara DAY 02

• We wake up to Roo’s on the front lawn and backyard. Hugo gives chase and Leos talks kangaroo.
•  We head into Nowra to visit my suppler Fenski. We stop for lunch at Nowra hanging rock.
• Fenski shows me his new machine for UQ. It creates a spiral of acrylic that sits inside a large glass cylinder. Edge lighting creates algae on the spiral that absorbs carbo dioxide. Its waste is then converted into a green fuel of some sort. A bit like diesel from memory.  Back to the beach then back to the kangaroos.
• Carols place to pick them up and talke them out for dinner at the RSL. They haven’t been for 3 years since covid.  

Back to Nungurner

• We stop at our Favorite lunch destination wheelers just outside of Eden.
• Dinner on the charcoal churrascaria. Justin drops by for dinner.  Next morning he swims to Flannagan’s island.

Back to Chamouni

• Theres been another storm while were away.
• I check out an F150 with Leo. Straight 6 petrol only so I give it a miss.

Back to renovating Keele ST

• Morgs has finished painting the back fence.
• I scrap then polish the inside of the glass atrium three times. Ouch!
• Then I get Adam to help me re set the Position locks for the new Gladius Chandelier.
• The original French provincial Chandelier ‘Nellie’ gets restored to go back in the front room.
• Atrium wall painted so we put the shelves back up followed by the fake plants from IKEA. Looks amazing.
• Now we can start hanging the new chandelier. Radford and I get to work.
• I buy a diamond blade for the Festool plunge saw to cut the rear stone ready for the new doors. Fat Face kicks in!
• We fire up the chandelier. WOW it looks so good with the new kitchen.
• Now we move onto demolition. Time to pull out the old steel and timber bifold doors I hand made 15 years ago! SAD to see them go.
• We need the scissors so I task Radford with the micro drive past the kitchen stone waterfall bench.
• We try to keep the deep etched Collingwood city scape bedroom ART window, but I crack it getting a bit rough with it. SAD. Design by Rachel Drew and myself / etched by glass imagery.
• We start to cut the stone back ready for the doors to be installed tomorrow. NO LUCK. The blade can’t handle it and goes blunt straight away. We revert back to the trenching saw and proper diamond blade.

Keep on Keeleing on

• We under pressure to get the stone cut before Northern Glass show up. Trenching saw does the trip. We chip off the blues tone but find out we need another 10mm to tip the frame into place so off I go to hire a jack hammer for 1 hour!.
• We find out my boys have cut the top sill to the internal dimension 30mm to short!. Not time to wait so we keep on keeleing on. Turns out the angles are on the piss to but she fits.
• Plumber shows up to remove the hydronic heaters I got from mum when she salvaged Prince Henrys hospital before it go demolished. Love this heating, will be sourly missed.
• Master bedroom Glass doesn’t fit either. Luck is just laminated so we can cut and polish a small strip off. Now we move onto the lower floor triple sliders. These are all double glazed so I hope they fit as I did all the measure up’s! Boom were in.
• Now its time to clear out ready for a full cut back, fill, stain and water based floor job by Adam.
• Hugo has a ride in the scissor lift.

DPAL

• Tarascio pendant goes in.

Back to Keele

• Time top replace my shitty balustrade wiring with something that complies.
• 1 Martin Place trouble shooting
• More factory tours.
• We go to an Arts n crafts event at the Royal exhibition building. I fall in love with Bill Wylie’s sketches for children’s books and buy 5 pieces for Chamouni.
• I got to Alan Mance to check out the RAM 2500.
• Leo and I make an epic red wine Jus, but I fall asleep around 10pm and wake at 2am and its burnt to buggery.
• Leo Hugo and I turn the old hard wood door frames into firewood.
• Its Jett’s 15^th birthday so we have all the relatives over.
• Sasha from Neko does a sales visit and we do the rounds with all our main specifiers.
• Floor sanding commences at Keele St
• We take Jett to ding Tai Fung for his birthday
• I see a knock off DPAL at 530 Bourke St
• Adz has done an amazing job on the floors at Keele st
• We start the outside roof over the new back doors.

Jett’s 15th Birthday

Keele Cont…..

• The scissor lift work is finally complete.
• New skirts go one and lofts are complete
• The eco finish on the curved wall doesn’t take well to children!
• Hugo and I go for cruze.
• Jazz at the bowel. Herbbie Hancock
• New autofill water troff for the chickens installed.
• Adz sands the original IRON BARK deck.

Leo’s 11^th Birthday

• Leo does an escape room for his birthday. Happy 11^th my son! I hope you like your FART GUN.
• Next day we take Leo for sushi train and endless shopping.

Keele Cont…..

• Getting closer to the finish line. Painting and caulking commence.
• New trampoline arrives at Chamouni. I struggle to put it together as the build quality for ZULY has dropped significantly. Swarf galvanized into the square tube. Good thing I’m a handy man. Tanya claims a water mister from them free of charge for the headache. Hugo straight in – he loves it.
• June is dripping Paint everywhere on the stone.
• I get prepped ready for an impromptu Hong Kong trip.
• I reject the $9k stone floor Job. Its shit. I told them they needed to hone the stone.  They agree and increase the bill to $12k!.

HONG KONG

• New ear buds for the economy flight I’ve been dreading.  
• Adam takes care of the stone floors for me while I’m away. He busts them not even honing the floor just scradding with a poly-vac.
• I find some fine dinning in the hotel and go nuts.
• Breakfast Buffet then onto the ferry.
• So much to see, I just give out my NAME CARD and move along.
• A quick meeting with Deen and Beth from Clear then onto meet Sven from NEKO. He gives me a 6 month trial. Game On Sven!.
• On the way back I pick up some souvenirs for the kids. I still love Hong Kong.
• Next day I do the outskirts of the fair (cheap stands) and find some realy cool stuff.
• Quick feed and im outa here.
• Qantas flight gets cancelled. I want home so I take a transfer to Brisbane then onto Melbourne. Stuck in the middle row and they loose my bags. Never AGAIN Qantas.

HOME SWEET HOME

• I see Hugo crossing the road with Timmie
• Clifton Hill primary gig
• More caulking
• Halloween in Alphington isn’t the same as Collingwood / Clifton Hill.
• We hear a roomer there is an abandon house tuned movie set for Halloween so get going to check it out.
• I get inducted into the DILF patrol.
• Final stages of Keele. Getting ready to Bug out before styling
• Jetts stars Rep B-Ball.
• I cleaning the outside of the glass atrium at Keele.  What a difference. Feels like your sitting outside when your inside.

Halloween