Brooklyn, Orlando April May 2011

April & May were busy with finding, moving into and furnishing our new rental apartment in New York. After long weeks of searching and many barriers, we finally succeeded, and now live in a lovely two-bedroom duplex overlooking a park in Grammercy above the East Village (view at left). An old maternity hospital, it is a grand building, or 'fancy' as the kids friends like to say and big by New York standards.

We also found, rented and furnished an apartment in the East Village to use as an office which has a wonderful garden at the back which is fast becoming a jungle.

My birthday, mothers day and Trinity's birthday all came and went. Mothers day was spent at the cherry blossom festival in Brooklyn botanical gardens, which was packed with people and performances and was exquisite.

Trinity had a party in Central Park in the sheep's meadow on a beautiful spring day. My only sadness was that I didn't bring enough champagne for all the adults that showed up. I will know next time. We did however have a raccoon show up later in the afternoon, one of the 50 plus population that live in Central Park.

Over these few months India has found her voice, as some of the photos above might hint at. Trinity enjoyed working in her class toward an end of term show. She and her friend Sona got to rehearse in the Blue Man rehearsal space, a cavernous stage in Alphabet City, as well as see and try on the latest merchandise (India tries one a light show mohawk).

There was the usual round of birthday parties for both India and Trinity's school friends. India and friend Lyla enjoy the chance to become someone else or at least themselves in disguise (to the right).

For the Memorial day long weekend (the first weekend of summer), David was presenting at a conference in Orlando, Florida, and we decided to fly down and join him. We booked tickets to Universal Studios to go see Harry Potter as Trinity had recently finished the series. Two days before we were due to go, we found out that some of the Blue men founders where heading down with their families, so we joined their group.

We stayed at the Disney Animal Kingdom hotel, which is built around a zoo. Most days we saw giraffes, zebra's, wildebeests and other wildlife from our window.

The first day we went to Universal studios on our own, and found a minimum of two hour lines at all the rides in Harry Potter. It was around 32 degree Celsius and humid, so we didn't have a lot of energy to wait around. We spent time at other rides with shorter waits, like Atlantis (so scary for the girls), and Dr Seuss world, which was lovely.

The next morning we kicked off early, and went to the Magic Kingdom on a guided tour. When joining a tour you move to the front of all queues, so we did an incredible 13 rides in our short day. Trinity and India's favourites were Thunder Mountain (their first roller coaster) and 'Its a small world'.

We got to go to Epcot too, watched the fireworks and ran to avoid the crowds at the end of a long day. At one point during the weekend we got caught in torrential rain and ran through the heavy shower and large puddles for a mile to exit the park. This was one of the highlights of trip, proving something meaningful about purchasing power.

The people at Disney are experts in crowd management and I take my hat of to the amazing amount of thought and effort that goes into the Disney experience. It seems like ultimately it is about minimising effort. Get on a ride and learn about history in three short minutes. A perfect example of the American culture in action. All up an amazing experience, that I hope never to repeat.

Our last port of call before collapsing from exhaustion was Typhoon Lagoon, a water Disney water park with the largest wave pool in the country and many water slides. We spent the day enojying it with thousands of others, though it never felt crowded. It was a ball and we left it all on the court that weekend.

New York, Sugarbush - February March 2011

We moved full time to New York in the middle of February, in time to see the last snow of a harsh winter. The excitement of being in a lovely warm apartment and seeing big fluffy flakes coming down made us all squeal and jump around with excitement.

It was a tough entry to New York this time as we did not go to our usual home away from home at the Clouds on Wooster St in Soho. Instead we sublet a fellow Aussie's apartment for two months - a space of our own were we could make noise and wash dishes when we felt like it.

We got the dishes done, however the neighbours downstairs made the girls aware of their heavy footsteps early on so the noise idea was curtailed.

Going from beautiful, sunny summer in Sydney to winter in New York was too much for Trinity and I. So we both spent some time in bed getting well in the first little while. Luckily we came back to our lovely nanny Sophie (left, with hat), who kindly looked after us all.

We got the chance to go ice skating a couple of times, and Trinity and David went snow boarding for a day in Mountain Creek in New Jersey with Griffin from Wooster St, while India and I focused on cleaning off the snow from all the bicycles in the streets around our apartment.

We found the local parks, and some favourite restaurants (particularly the Indian place, top right with the amazing light show), and got the girls settled into Blue School full time, a few blocks from our new place in the East Village on 6th Street.

We bought some scooters, and began our training to become a scooter gang. Trinity learned to blow a bubble gum bubble for the first time and India began her obsession with the ultimate mullet cut.

We went snowboarding as a family to Sugarbush resort, Vermont for four days. Late season snow seems to work for us. Another hot tub and more fresh snow and snow boarding.

Trinity has fallen in love with reading and because of the main character in the Percy Jackson series has become enamoured with cheeseburgers.

Fresh from Vermont we went into a big conference in New York and launched our new branding for our company.

We then spent a day on strategic planning for our businesses in North America and Latin America with our regional and global core team and then spent the next day with our North American training team. Ready for another holiday already!

Woodford and Byron Bay January 2011

Summer holidays don't get much better then this....

We started with a scary flight from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast, due to bad weather. We had checked the weather forecast and had been undeterred by the warnings of flash floods, so we only had ourselves to blame.

Our first stop the next morning was to visit Australia Zoo run by the Irwin family in the hinterland of the Sunshine Coast. It was just like watching a TV show, but live. The whole family performed, with Bindi doing a series of songs, lip sinc'd with a foursome of girl dancers.

There were big crocs and crikeys. The Irwins seemed to have fun despite choreography and a much practised show. Afterwards the girls got to hang out with young Bob Irwin, playing in Steve's old truck on display. Great fun and a well put together zoo all up.

Then we moved on to the main show. Woodford folk festival is called mudford for good reason. This was the 25th year and they seemed to be well practiced with rain. We were ready, each with our own gum boats, rain jackets and umbrellas.

The festival is set in a valley, spread over several kilometres. It takes more then half hour to walk from the bottom of the festival to the top. The event starts after boxing day and finishes the day after New Years Eve, and the only real way to enjoy it is to stay in a tent.

There are around 15 large tents, covered venues, with amazing music playing pretty much constantly through out the seven day festival. In between each venue that are food stalls and shops selling musical instruments, hammocks, hats, and hippy clothes. Almost anything really.

There are comedians, bush poets and speakers on many weird and wonderful topics performing. Rock sculptures being made and remade through out the seven days around the festival. The girls obsessed about these rocks and made a few piles of their own through out the festival.

There is a special area just for the kids, which has free face painting all day long, amongst other things. Even on site babysitting which allowed David and I to enjoy new year eve on our own. Our favourite tent was the Chai tent, which is the only place that is carpeted and has pillows and low tables though out.

And everyone seems happy. There is a wonderful, friendly vibe, with people being nice to each other. There are few venues where alcohol is served. And happy people drifting from gig to gig.

One venue was called the dance hall and had lessons all day, from belly dancing to Bollywood, to African dancing, and much more. Trinity and India went to one on Burlesque makeup and hair (of course). To the left Trinity is on stage getting a 'kitten ears' hairstyle makeover.

Trinity and India's favourite site was the creeks, where the kids gathered. Trinity continues to build her leadership skills by bossing all the kids around (right). Sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't.

Trinity met some unsavoury characters, like Kevin Rudd, the previous prime minster of Australia. Speaking of unsavoury, we got to play 'Bogan Bingo' - performed by the only Rock bingo band in the world. David got to rock the stage with his air guitar show too.

The final day, January 1st was beautiful. The fire event was magical and we lucked out to sit right next to the bonfires, and got nice and toasty. It began to rain and we finished with an absolute crescendo of mud, making all rain coats, umbrella's un-use able until washed and dried (a hard thing to do in the circumstances). We had our final showers and went back to our tent ready to move out the next morning from our recently unbogged car...that is another story.

While we can not crown it the best holiday ever, the girls have voted to repeat the festival next year come rain or shine. We had an absolute ball.

There is something wonderful about random social connections, a spiritual experience without it being shoved down your throat. Just beautiful.

What a blessed life we lead...


After Woodford, we drove down the coast to meet our good friends Stuart and Theresa with their two kids in Byron Bay. We has rented a beach house right on Belongil, which is slowly being eaten away by the sea. The backyard sits high above the crashing waves at high tide.

It rained a lot so India and Sienna got the hang of playing twister. Three year olds playing twister is something worth watching. Very cute.

We swam and jogged along the beach regardless of weather.

We had Stu's (to right with Sienna) birthday night at Rae's, a quite divine restuarant on the famous Wategoes Beach.

And Trinity learnt to surf, standing all the way in to the beach. Here she is in all her glory.

Sydney Christmas 2010

December in Sydney can be lovely, or it can rain alot. We had our work christmas party on a boat on Sydney harbour.

A few hours on a boat on a grey and cloudly Friday afternoon, turned into hours of laughter, swimming off the boat and much entertainment in Darling Point park with a view of the harbour bridge in the background. I love the people we work with. The ability to have fun is a most important attribute in a team member.

The next day was David's sisters 40th birthday party and the cousins got to spend some time in hanging out together. They love it so! Photo credit on left goes to Sam Rock. Natasha the youngest cousin is missing form the shot.

The other important task of the weekend was to build the christmas tree. We do this each year using different things. This year we built the structure using books (see right).

The next weekend was the real thing and the girls got a rare chance to see their other cousins, daughters of my brother Michael and his wife Jill. My parents held their first christmas at the new house in Gymea in Sydney's south. My father David played Santa Claus, as he already has the beard in place.

Present giving came before lunch, with Alannah and Trinity both recieving a magic kits, so expect some performances using cards and top hats soon.

Other gifts included a Harry Potter lego set, Trinity's current obsession, and India particularly liked her pink mask gift, which has been worn quite frequently since.

Auckland, Singapore Nov 2010

This was a trip I did on my own, with no girls to chase me out of meetings. The girls stayed home with Nanna and Granddad, much to everyones delight, with visits to swimming pools and church fetes in Sydney.

Auckland was lovely, with two days spent in a function center in a place called Eden Gardens. I met the key people in our New Zealand business, who at one point carried me. The next day was a conference for some of our trained coaches where I gave my first keynote for a long time (not sure I have ever done one, as normally David's forte).

We had the annual awards, with some 'cracker' prizes. Two of our coaches and trainers, Tia and Jhanna with their 'trophies'.

The weather was beautiful, the people lovely, and the gardens peaceful and serene. There were chickens running around the gardens, following around potential new friends. Just what I needed after only a week in Sydney, back from New York.

I then flew to Singapore to meet up with David and our team in Asia to do some strategic planning for the growth of the business next year. We also met our Indian partners, who we are starting a joint vengture with next year. Then David and I returned home to see our girls, for some good clean family fun.

New York, Boston October 2010

The girls and I caught up with David after arriving in New York. We settled in for the month of October with the girls excited to be attending Blue School.

David and my time was incredibly busy, with less of the normal sight seeing and entertainment I try to pack in to our trips.

The US business has stepped up to another level and we were busy keeping up with the growth and changes. We hired two new high level staff for the North American business, as well as closed some deals with great clients.

We did take one sunny Sunday to go uptown to the Cloisters, an art gallery and part of the metropolitan museum, specialising in medieval art. The guide books give much talk about the unicorn tapestries, and suggest these are an excellent draw card for kids. What they didn't mention is that in all of the tapestries the unicorns are being captured, tortured or worse. Not ideal for little girls. There was also a wonderful tasting garden full of edible plants and herbs.

Another high point was right next store, in the art gallery called Dietch. There was a temporary photographic studio set up, with lights, makeup table, and other amazing photographic resources, so we booked the studio for a few hours and took some photos, which will be shared at a later date. The girls enjoyed being on both sides of the camera. I also got a new camera though this one is bigger and harder to take around.

We went off to Brooklyn for a BBQ and backyard bonfire, with some old friends, Jess and Adrian, then David and I whizzed off for quick trip to New Orleans for an Organisational Development conference for two nights while 'aunty' Marni looked after the children.

The week after it was the NeuroLeadership Summit in Boston which was an amazing success and . Three days of neuroscience and wonderful people. We even had a dual off with gospel choirs for the gala dinner.

The kids got to spend quality time with Sophie the babysitter and tireless reader of Harry Potter. They walked the freedom trail, visited the grainary graveyard as well the Boston Children's museum. The weather was freakishly warm for Boston in late October and the trees and leaves were beautiful and varied.

The weekend of our return to New York was Halloween. Some of the crew from the summit came down and we went out to Wicked the musical on Saturday night and walked some of the parade through Greenwich village dressed up in our finest on Sunday eve.

India was dressed up as a princess and Trinity dressed as Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. I have no good photos of this night sadly. David dressed as a southern rocker with a mullet and I was a pirate. Trinity walked all the way up to 9th Street with Gracen, her 'older sister' who lives in the apartment we share in Soho.

The girls were sad to leave Blue School, however the sunshine and warmth of Sydney coming into summer heals many things. David will follow us home via Germany and Singapore.