William on the boogy board

Click here to view the photos.

----- Original Message -----

From: "Franco Vendramini" <francovendramini @ gmail.com>

To: <peter @ stevens.org>

Sent: Friday, November 10, 2006 10:26 PM

Subject: 36 pictures for you

Hi Pete

Here are photos of your son when we went today to Mary and John
Lingham's place at Isle of Palms Resort, Elanora, Gold Coast. Mary is
your Auntie Norma's younger sister.

Ashley (13), Nicole, Michelle (18) are 3 of their 5 children. Ashley
played with Will in the pool for more than an hour and taught him some
strokes. He was becoming more confident with the boogy board that I
want to buy him one tomorrow to bring to your apartment so he could
use it when you take him swimming. He didn't like to get out of the
water but we had to go.

The girls gave him games to play in the computer. Your Auntie Norma
helped him feed the birds outside of their unit and Mary gave William
pieces of bread which is for Ashley's breakfast tomorrow! but Mary
said they'll just buy one for breakfast.

After leaving Gold Coast, he fell asleep after 10 minutes! and until now.

He had a big lunch of sausages and potatoes and chips for lunch at the
Currumbin RSL and on the way home in the car, drank juice and ate some
Jatz biscuits then fell asleep. He ate mud cake and doughnuts for
afternoon tea.

We had a fun day especially William at the pool and with the girls!

See you tomorrow!

Regards to you both.

Lots of love
MUM

Click here to view the photos.

3D Glass Scuplture

Rendered this last night, took my computer 9 1/2 hours to render this 12 second video clip. Its designed to show off photorealistic lighting and internal light refractions.

3d modelling and texturing..

As some of you know I love 3D graphics and art. Designed and rendered this last night, it took my computer 15+ minutes just to render this 1 frame.

Click on the image for a bigger picture.

Good Food

So what's happended since last Friday ? Last Friday at lunch Bella turned up to my work in the city and we went down to Flame Pizza at the Wintergarden and ordered a giant 18" pizza which was made fresh on the spot in a wood-fired oven, it was great. Later that night I had a surprise for Bella... I told her to dress up nicely, I wore a nice formal outfit and a suit... we walked past Vinos, Cha Cha Char grill and few others then told her we were dining at Michaels. It was an awesome view, I haven't been there too many times before but its my favourite restaurant in Brisbane.
 
The next day we got up relatively early and went out to 'Bubbles' in the city for breakfast, it was really good.. had breakfast with Joe and Alisha too.. they ordered like 15 minutes before us and we got ours first! I think they forgot about the other order. After that we decided to go for a drive but where to? We thought the Gold Coast would be nice but got carried away and actually ended up going to the Sunshine Coast. Turned up at Maloolaba and had a look at Siroccon and Zanzibar hotels, really nice elevators / lobby. Went to get a Starbucks Caramel Java Chip but their coffee machine was broken ... went for a nice walk along the beach. Sat and just held each other in the wind for a good while then decided to drive out all the way to Noosa. Took the backroads.. was fun, arrived at noosa and saw all the beautiful shops and once again the beach. Drove all the way back to Brisbane at about 7pm, dropped Bella back then I went to drive out to Will's place at Kenmore.
 
Amy and William moved out to a really really nice place at Redcliffe right by the beach... no buildings, shops or homes in front of them just beach its really nice. Went out for a drive there then took the two back to my place. Cooked dinner for Amy and dropped her back and Will stayed the night at my place. Next day took William to the Gold Coast and built triangle sand castles on the beach and played on a few of the playgrounds in the area.
 
Tuesday Jan 31 came and did some mad last minute grocery shopping with Joe. Bella came over with 2 awesome icecreams just in time for THE OC!! Man I love that show... it was great.
 
Last night (Thursday 2 Feb) it was 1 month since the day Bella and I were together. I knew she had a surprise planned.... firstly we dressed up nice then she took me for a beautiful walk through the Botanical gardens. Having no idea what was coming we walked past this stunning restaurant called Two (II). The restaurant was the same calibre as Michaels and it blew me away, it was a great night with Bella, I loved every moment of it...

Good Food

So what's happended since last Friday ? Last Friday at lunch Bella turned up to my work in the city and we went down to Flame Pizza at the Wintergarden and ordered a giant 18" pizza which was made fresh on the spot in a wood-fired oven, it was great. Later that night I had a surprise for Bella... I told her to dress up nicely, I wore a nice formal outfit and a suit... we walked past Vinos, Cha Cha Char grill and few others then told her we were dining at Michaels. It was an awesome view, I haven't been there too many times before but its my favourite restaurant in Brisbane.
 
The next day we got up relatively early and went out to 'Bubbles' in the city for breakfast, it was really good.. had breakfast with Joe and Alisha too.. they ordered like 15 minutes before us and we got ours first! I think they forgot about the other order. After that we decided to go for a drive but where to? We thought the Gold Coast would be nice but got carried away and actually ended up going to the Sunshine Coast. Turned up at Maloolaba and had a look at Siroccon and Zanzibar hotels, really nice elevators / lobby. Went to get a Starbucks Caramel Java Chip but their coffee machine was broken ... went for a nice walk along the beach. Sat and just held each other in the wind for a good while then decided to drive out all the way to Noosa. Took the backroads.. was fun, arrived at noosa and saw all the beautiful shops and once again the beach. Drove all the way back to Brisbane at about 7pm, dropped Bella back then I went to drive out to Will's place at Kenmore.
 
Amy and William moved out to a really really nice place at Redcliffe right by the beach... no buildings, shops or homes in front of them just beach its really nice. Went out for a drive there then took the two back to my place. Cooked dinner for Amy and dropped her back and Will stayed the night at my place. Next day took William to the Gold Coast and built triangle sand castles on the beach and played on a few of the playgrounds in the area.
 
Tuesday Jan 31 came and did some mad last minute grocery shopping with Joe. Bella came over with 2 awesome icecreams just in time for THE OC!! Man I love that show... it was great.
 
Last night (Thursday 2 Feb) it was 1 month since the day Bella and I were together. I knew she had a surprise planned.... firstly we dressed up nice then she took me for a beautiful walk through the Botanical gardens. Having no idea what was coming we walked past this stunning restaurant called Two (II). The restaurant is the calibre as Michaels and it blew me away, it was a great night with Bella, I loved every moment of it...

"If your aim is to be comfortable you'll never be wealthy,
if your aim is to be wealthy, you'll always be comfortable." - Anonymous

 

E-mail from mum & Franco

Franco and mum sent me an email on Australia day which was nice.

 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Franco Vendramini" <francovendramini@yahoo.com.au>

To: <peter@stevens.org>

Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 8:22 PM

Subject: Hello from Switzerland

Hi Peter

As I am writing this e-mail, the snow is falling
softly and a forecast of 40 cms and I can see the two
square skylight windows above me collecting the snow.
This house is at the top of the hill (lower than Mom's
house) and is overlooking the Lugano Lake and city and
all you could see is thick fog and the snow slowly
collecting on roofs of houses.  Some homes still have
the thick snow on their rooftops since the top we
arrived.

On Monday morning at about 8am,we will be taking the
train to Zurich and departing for Bangkok at 2:30pm.
Will be in Bankok for 5 days and back home on the 6th,
Monday.  Arnold said before he was going to pick us up
at the airport. Can't even remember when the plane
arrives.

We'll give you a call then.

Read this morning all those messages you e-mailed.
Thanks heaps.

Pete, Mum here now.  How are you keeping? Everything
alright?  How did you and Will go that day we spoke to
both of you?  And how is Amy going?  Pls give her our
regards too.  I bought her a bag from Venice with the
word Venezia on it.  But don't tell her anything.
We'll see what's available to buy in Bangkok.

Take care of yourself always.  How's your new
girlfriend?  Is everything all right between the two
of you?  I hope so.  And how's work?  The people
there?  Hope all is fine.

Always be positive and stay happy at all times.  God
bless you, my dear son, your son, your girlfriend and
your friends.

We'll be seeing you soon and Will. Look forward to
being home again, although I love the snow and the
cold here -just much colder than Baguio City,
Philippines without the snow.

See you soon!

Love you lots

Franco and Mum

---

 

So yeah yesterday was Australia day. Woke up around mid-day, went over to Matty's place watched some cricket, had a beer and ate some chips... Bella finished work at 3 then came to Matty's to join us. Checked out Matt's neat PDA, very nice. Left to goto my place... Bella had a quick nap while I kicked Joe's butt in Tekken 5 on the Playstation. Bella got up at 6 left the house at 7 and went to the coffee club for some Tropicana Sunrises and Chicken Caesar salad. Made our way to Southbank to watch the fireworks but missed them by a couple of minutes. Headed into the Casino for a bit.. made a 50% profit woohoo ($1 from $2)... then walked to Southbank. Went on the Ferris Wheel with Bella then went to get this awesome Banana split... went home then had an early night. All in all not bad...

 

Weekend

Well... the last few days or weeks have been a blur so I'll cover from Friday. It was rainy, a cozy day at work. Wish I could of slept in. After my lunch break came back and my boss told me my workmate Vera decided to leave... shock resignation. So that sucked, quickly wrote her a quick note, with a nice quote and a giant smiley face - best of luck Vera! Your advice on women and relationships are priceless!

 

In the rain Bella turned up at my work to quickly say hi. I finished a bit later and she came over. Bella made THE BEST homemade pizza I've EVER had. Damn... I can still taste the cheese... mmm Have to get her to teach me one day. Had a great night with her, really like it how we can talk about  things.

 

Had to be up the next morning at 7am for a work related seminar (still raining)... Turned up at Clifton's which is on the first level of the National Australia Bank (cnr Creek & Adelaide St) and Ryan Dowd was there.. Paul's brother, small world. Stayed till the morning tea break and left to see Bella. The weather cleared up from the morning and was now perfectly clear. Went for a drive to Yatala Pies to grab lunch, drove back in time for the lunch session. Bella headed off to Kylie's party and I went to pickup Will from Amy's around 5pm. Amy is moving house to Redcliffe next week so we went for a drive to see the new place. Its beautiful - uninterupted views of the beach, the sound, the smell and the view of the ocean is just amazing. Amy had a previous engagement but they cancelled so I cooked her dinner at my place, dropped her off around 9 and Will slept over.

 

My Uncle Rob was supposed to turn up but I never heard from him. Followed up and found out they had a puppy to which it took priority.. Took Will out to the Cootha Botanical gardens and spent the day with nature. On the way out to the Gardens I was at Milton IGA and I bumped into my good old workmate - Sinclair. Apparantley Tassos got fired on Friday and Bails (Emily) is leaving this coming Friday (Party at Breakie Creek hotel)...ahh the CourierMail.

 

Dropped Will back around 6pm drove to Bella's , picked her up back to mine then went to the 24/7 Pancake Manor in the CBD for a nice Caesar Salad (with chicken) and an 'Ultimate Crepe`' which is basically like cheesecake... Bella stayed over.. up at 7am and off to work.