Pleasant day, pleasant company

Yesterday we had our first barby of the summer. And what perfect weather it was! John's cousin's hubby was over from Australia to collect his 7th Dan in martial arts in Thurrock and brought three mates with him. I found the picture (left) on the internet - Tony is on the far right. Goes to show how good he is.
This is a excerpt from an article on the net, which mentions him:

American – Australian Martial Arts Exchange 'Report'

Early Sunday morning Melbourne University Sports Stadium came alive with the bellowing voices of dedicated athletes practising the smooth calculated moves of martial arts. Soke Tony Ball was the first Aussie on the floor a well accomplished competitor and headmaster of Fundoshin Martial Arts. Soke Ball performed a well executed form to the delights of the audience and then called in Daniel one of his students for some self defence drills using the short stick (jo). Josh another of Soke's students perform a free form ki kata to complete Fundoshin's presentation.

There is a video clip of Tony in action, but it won't let me copy and paste.
http://www.martialartalliance.com/Videos/ball1_tech1.mov

As his time in Essex was brief, we had Tony and his Aussie mates over, John's sister Jacqui, her hubby Kevin, nieces Jenny-Lee and Charlotte, John's brother Christopher, his wife Sandy and baby Joey. My Mum and Dad was also invited but couldn't make it till later in the day.

It was all very nice - the food was yummy and the company was lovely. Aussies are great, they always seem to have a good sense of humour and I just love the accent. Before you know it you're talking like they do - 'no worries mate' etc etc! My parents turned up as most people were leaving and so more cooking was required. We all sat in the garden into the evening (no gnat bites to speak of luckily) and it was a nice end to the weekend.