So anyway, we had been looking into buying a Subaru Outback, and not long after we got back, one came up on Carsales.com.au that fitted the specs we had been told to look for by our awesome mechanic (that’s Chris from New Car Service Centre who has worked on cars for us for about 15 or so years) and just as important – fitted our budget.

What was even more exciting was that when we clicked on the dealer enquiry button, it was in Hawthorn East, about 1/2 hour from home – all good! We therefore in the space of about 72 hours obtained ourselves an ‘06 Subaru Outback, nice blue gray colour, with only 68 000 kms on the clock – oh it’s a 2.5l for those who wish to know those things.

We are very excited and showing it off to everyone. I will go take a photo in a bit and add it here.

I had to work Christmas, so we left Boxing Day (“Oh, not good!” as Obi Wan would say) but apart from the trip up (you know traffic is going to be bad when they have set up porta-loos on the side of the road), we had a great time. It rained for the first week, but the thing about rain in Port is that it doesn’t feel the need to get cold to accommodate that, so we were still happily walking around in shorts and t-shirts.

Highlights of the trip were sitting around for hours playing either Monopoly Deal (after the initial problem of no one being sober enough to understand the rules) – great find Nana!, and Texam-Hold Es Poker (again this depended on the amount of alcohol imbibed.

Catching up with all my in laws as per usual meant lots of laughs and the kids were in seventh heaven spending that much time with their aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Hope you all had as much fun over the holiday period as we did.

Ash was a bit nervous but very excited, here are some photo’s from the airport.

It was well worth the trip especially when you catch the train up as we just kicked back the whole time and listened to music, chatted and did puzzles. I haven’t been to Sovereign Hill since I was a kid and Jase & Connor had never been so we all really enjoyed seeing all the different machines, mines, soldiers, and other characters – with Ash enjoying telling us which were the “good bits”.

Gold panning was fun (Mark was quite good at this), the mine tour was quite cool and the musket firing was very funny especially when we got the kids arrested afterwards (didn’t get away quick enough though). Recommendations are to see the battery running, the sweet making and leave plenty of time to pan for gold (as we sucked). We also got Wanted posters for the kids.

Full size version

Thanks to the internet, we no longer have to throw the idea out and look for a different recipe.  A quick search of the web will often find a substitute for the absent ingredient. For instance, the other day we were out of baking powder, and couldn’t make banana bran muffins, but thanks to a page of recipe substitutions we now know you can instead use 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar insteAd of a teaspoon of baking powder.  When Ash had a Thai banquet for her birthday and one of her friends is vegetarian, we discovered from the interent that fermented bean curd tastes nearly as disgusting as fish sauce and can be used as a substitute.

You can use certain herbs in place of others, a mix of milk and butter can substitute for cream in some recipes, and if you are out of All-Bran, you could try shredding cardboard.

Dad then said maybe I should write you a note, and i was like what? And he said “Dear Ms Tobias, Ashleigh couldn’t finish her drama homework as she had a restraining order put on her.” Mum thought this was very funny.