Jay had his second opportunity to participate in Australian democracy in November with our state election. This time there was the promised sausage sizzle at the polling place as well as our local member in attendance. In November we also hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for which we were able to find two genuine Americans.



I organized yet another tradesman to look at our small rainwater leak and he seemed to think he had it diagnosed and fixed. We were cautiously optimistic, and so far two months has passed without a problem so we may finally have that solved after several years. Now we need to get the plaster fixed and painting done. We had some unexpected outside painting done with an (uncommissioned) graffiti mural on our side wall.



Our friend Jim came to visit from Sydney for the weekend in December and we took him to the Trough party that was on. It was the first of a series of parties with friends over the Summer. Because we were leaving for the US we had an early Christmas dinner with my family the day before we left followed by Christmas drinks with friends.



We spent two weeks in California. We rented a house in La Jolla overlooking Pacific Beach which was large enough for Jay's parents and his sister to join us. It was a very relaxing vacation, with a few excursions to see tourist sights and to go shopping in San Diego.



We visited the Natural History Museum and San Capistrano and we sent Jay's parents whale-watching. We also had time to see our friend Yoav who lives nearby. Sarah and David, friends from Melbourne happened to be in San Diego on holiday with their family, so we were pleased that they were able to visit us at the house as well.



For New Years Eve we stayed in Los Angeles and went out with Yoav and other friends from Los Angeles to an event at The Mayan. It's a party we had been to several times before and it lived up to our expectations. Since Yoav and his friends were also staying in LA for the weekend we had the chance to have a group lunch in Santa Monica as well as seeing our friend Will for dinner and squeezing in a short visit to the Getty Museum for the spectacular Rubens tapestries exhibition before heading to the airport. I made an online album with a few more photos.



Back in Melbourne, everyone was making the most of the warm weather. We went to Andrew's 30th, a costume party for Joe's birthday: Jay as Bowser and me as Donkey Kong, a fantastic rooftop birthday party for Kam, a celebration of Richard's Australian citizenship and then Midsumma Carnival.



There was a new feature on gay sporting clubs at Carnival. The rowing club had a booth which we helped with. I got a few people interested in the rowing ergo, including a drag queen, and we generated interest for our "Splash and Giggle" day two weeks later at which beginners got to try out rowing on the Maribyrnong river. The club has been very active in the past year with an increasing membership and a lot of regattas.



As in previous years we went to see an evening of play on centre court at the Australian Open, watching Nadal and Sharapova win. We celebrated our anniversary with an excellent degustation dinner at the Press Club.



On returning from the US, I was somewhat dismayed that we had no vacation plans at all for the future, so we have been working hard to remedy that. I will be back in San Diego later in 2015 for a conference and meanwhile we are making plans for some short breaks.

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