Greetings from down under.

A somewhat belated but happy new year to you all! Our new year was spent enjoying the fireworks off Sydney Harbour Bridge - a sight never to be forgotten. We reached Canberra in early January and were amazed at how green and bright the city looked, courtesy of the wettest summer they've had for some time. We have been blamed for bringing the weather with us but we think the daily sunshine is perfect and aren't sure quite what the locals are moaning about!

Our base for the year is a beautiful house not far from Lake Burley Griffin so we are making the most of the extensive network of bicycle paths and walks on our doorstep. We cannot get used to the wild kangaroos grazing on the verges and the cockatoos in our trees. Amazing!

Tony has settled in to his post well, running a very busy practice in the centre of Canberra. Our remit to ' take the practice to the next level ' would appear to be a more demanding challenge than expected but we will do our best in our time here. I am due to step alongside Tony in early April to try to speed up the process. My five shoulder repairs appear to have been a great success, helped along by daily sunbathing and swimming so I aim to pick up the drill again soon!

We hope to start seeing more of Australia and New Zealand once we get the practice on an even keel, taking weekends away as much as possible. We have managed one trip to the southern coast of New South Wales to a lovely town called Kiama where we were hosted by a great dentist we've met..........another Tony!

We are missing all our team and patients back in Stratford but are delighted with the way Rob has slotted into the practice. He certainly seems to be very popular with everyone and his experience and skills are a welcome addition to the practice. We will certainly want to keep him in our team when we return and we would be incredibly grateful for any help you can give us to establish a list of patients for Rob. Please do refer anyone you think would appreciate all that we offer at Stratford Dental.

We will send regular updates from Oz and will be back for three weeks in July to celebrate Tony's 50th and our Silver Wedding Anniversary so hope to see some of you at the practice then!

Best wishes to you all

Lisa