Category Archives: Bending

Australian Open Golf Tourney

Posted on by robandlinds

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When you think of the Australian Open you immediately think of tennis — or at least we do. Turns out they also have an Australian Open golf tournament, who knew? Apparently, this tournament was well-recognized across the world in the 70s and 80s and some considered it to be the fifth golf major of the year.  Big names like Jack Nicklaus won the tournament in 1964, ’68, ’71 ’75, ’76 and ’78. This years tournament was at Royal Sydney, just down the road in Rose Bay (east of the Sydney CBD), which is just a stunning area. There were a few big names in the field so we thought it would be worth checking out. To date, it’s been one of the few things reasonably priced in Sydney at $35 a ticket!

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Rob was smart enough to record the tournament and we made it on Australian National TV! Our heads were tiny specks on the television but (hey) it still counts! It was on the 9th hole (par 3) – where McIlroy hit a bunker shot.

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Some of the notable players were Rory McIlroy, Adam Scott, Jason Day, Stuart Appleby and of course Rod Pampling. We were there for the 4th round and got to see McIlroy and Scott battle it out in the final group. Scott had tons of chances to close it out but ended up losing his one stroke lead on the 18th hole when he bogeyed and McIlroy birdied for the win. Couldn’t have asked for a better finish!

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We were able to get some good footage of the 18th hole here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6njOWPFCRYs&feature=youtu.be

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Mr. Timmy

Posted on by robandlinds

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Our long lost pal Tim Devereux, aka “Party Time”, was in town with his parents visiting us from his new home, Hong Kong. We started things off Saturday with a pub crawl in the rocks that ended far later than it should have. Sunday we went for lunch at The Commons then some afternoon beers in Walsh Bay and then finished it up by watching the Patriots/Broncos game after work Monday.

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It was also great to see our friends James and Anya who came up from Melbourne for Tim’s visit. You can tell we have been here long enough when our friends move away and are already visiting!

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Weekends AWAY!

Posted on by robandlinds

Rob and I went our separate ways this weekend – Rob went to Bluey’s Beach with the guys and I had a weekend away up on the Gold Coast with the girls (Annie, Keth, Sian and ME!).

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The day before leaving, my colleagues informed me that every year around this time the ‘schoolies’ get out for summer holiday – which means the Gold Coast bars and pubs will be filled with 18-year-old boys (think freshman year spring break in college). Now that isn’t all that bad, but after doing some googling I found it’s quite a big deal and is something to be avoided. ‘Schoolies’ even have their own website!! http://www.schoolies.com/. Fortunately, for us 20-and-30-somethings looking to relax on the beach with a good book, it wasn’t as bad as I would’ve thought. Sian and Keth were smart enough to know to stay off the main drag. It was such a lovely weekend … and was perfect … until we found out our flights were cancelled and we had to drive to Brisbane to catch the next flight out.

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Rob spent the weekend at one of his workmate’s family beach house – which was a four hour drive up the coast at Bluey’s Beach. The guys were able to get two rounds of golf in (surprising since it was pouring rain in Sydney that weekend) and even had a very close encounter with a huge kangaroo named Ben (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVU7lG4nx60&feature=youtu.be). Rob also caught an awesome sunset at the Rekky Club.

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