A Floating Winnebago

Dawn at Refuge Bay (isn't that stunning?)



The waterfall at Refuge Bay



Our home for the weekend - the Lady Madonna



A very friendly Kookaburra

The visitation from the In Laws is going exceptionally well. No matter how much you love your family, only the saintly would not approach the idea of them coming to stay with you for a month with a little trepidation. Everyone here has a story about the Bad Guests, who after a couple of weeks they would have happily throttled. Good friends who wouldn't pay their way, family who wouldn't help, and then the just plain annoying.

Our visit from Grace and Bob is an enjoyable one, however. It's lovely to see how the children love them, they are good company, and they are helping out, which is handy when your family has just increased by half as many again. At the moment they are in the Blue Mountains for a couple of days, and we have just returned from a long weekend on the Hawkesbury with them.



Anna and Daddy in charge of driving



George and Grandad in charge of the navigation

In contrast to our previous adventure on the high seas, our vessel was less of a boat and more of a Winnebago, which just happened to be seaworthy. It was enormous and housed 2 double bedrooms with windows and proper mattresses, a proper bathroom with a good shower, a decent kitchen and a huge upper deck with sun loungers and a gas barbeque. I've never been much of a sailor, but if I had to take to the water, then it would have to be in one of these. It was a very relaxing time, with good weather and plenty of swimming (for those who don't have issues). George spent most of the weekend trolling about in the tinnie, which he loved. Anna was under water for the most part. I read my book and wished I was the sort of person who tanned.



George, Andrew, Grandma and Anna



A beautiful silver bream Andrew caught (we put it back)



Testing the waters



George in charge of the shark spotting vehicle



Grandma in charge of silly hats

Speaking of which....I've been and got a spray tan done today. Before having it done, I pointed out my fairness and asked for a nice 'glow'. Clearly 'glowing' in Australia is not quite the same as we English roses imagine it, as I am now about the colour of an Aboriginal. I'm told it will not be this dark after a shower. It better not be. The children looked at me askance when I picked them up from school. They were probably wondering who I am.

Lots of things to look forward to as well. Tomorrow I am going out in the city for drinks with some girlfriends, on Friday Andrew, Grace, Bob and I are going to the Opera House to see the No 2 Rachmaninoff Piano concerto, and then Saturday morning I am getting the ferry with Maria and Sharon to Ettalong beach for the Annual Year Four Mum's Weekend Away! I shall be exhausted by next week, and I really need to start thinking about packing up for the new house......

Enjoy the photos - I'll catch you later....

It's All Happening...

The lagoon this evening.



Anna, Georgie and Olivia at the bbq this weekend

You are probably all waiting for an update on the Robson Greene (or 'Rob' as I now call him) situation. Well - filming has finished and the street is returned to normal. 'Rob' is no longer one of our neighbours, but I'm sure we will stay in touch. We became very close during his time here. Hahahahahahahaha.

I have to say though, that idiotic though my repartee with him may have been, his comment in reply was no less ridiculous, as he screamed in return

'I'm the only English person on this grass!'

I like to think that he spent the rest of that afternoon in his trailer thinking about what a dick he had made of himself. Coz I did (although unfortunately I was not in his trailer whilst I was doing this).

All that excitement apart, there has been plenty going on here lately. The children both had sleepovers at the weekend - Anna with Evie, and George with Andrew. Then on Sunday we had friends Tracey and Andrew with their children Olivia and Max over for a bbq and were joined by Andrew (George's friend) and his dad Ian. There were a lot of Andrews....The weather was glorious and we all enjoyed relaxing with some good wine and good food, and watched the world go by on the water. Attempts were made to catch some fish for the meal, but to no avail. Luckily I wasn't relying on them being successful!



The boys setting off to catch dinner. Luckily I had made lots of lamb burgers..

And the big news is two things - number one, that Grace and Bob (Andrew's parents for those of you not in the know) arrived today and will be staying for a month, and number two - we are moving house.

The people who own our current beautiful property are in the UK, but are unexpectedly expecting a baby and want to come back early. Now, our contract runs out on 29th May next year and we are legally entitled to stay until then, but they would like to return by February, which I can understand. Initially I said that we wouldn't move, but when we thought about it, May and June are really bad times to find rentals - although we were lucky, there was hardly anything available. Whereas at this time of year there is lots of property - so we decided to have a look around.

We've found a great house just up the road in Mona Vale. It doesn't have the beautiful views we have here, but you can walk to the beach and to Pittwater, and you can walk into the 'village' for great shops and restaurants. And best of all it has an extra bedroom to here (so even more rooms for guests) and a pool and a full size tennis court!

Andrew and George are pretty keen on playing tennis, and the pool will be a great bonus in the summer months, so we are all quite excited about it, although sad to leave this place. We will be moving during the week commencing 2nd December, and once we have it all confirmed, I'll email you all with the new address.

This weekend we are away on a boat on the Hawkesbury with Andrew's mum and dad. It is so wonderfully peaceful there, and we are all looking forward to it. Lots of photos too!

Enjoy the photos from this weekend!

Star Struck

You hope that, should you ever be in a position to meet someone famous that you would be cool, calm and collected.

So....

Why is it that when I eventually caught sight of Robson Greene today, I found myself waving and screaming at him across the road saying

'We're the only English people in the street!!!!'

???!!!!

Mortified.

Oh shut up...

I was thinking 13 degrees difference because my computer said that the temp was 30 degrees, but then Maria said it was 33. So there.

Join us another time for a small and devastatingly trivial domestic....

Maths....

....never was Wendy's strong point!

Go Johnny!

A

Robson Greene

Something exciting is happening down the road. My friend Sharon goes to a running group in Avalon and there she met an English chap who turned out to be the writer of Cold Feet. As if this isn't exciting enough (stay with me - I don't get out a lot these days), Sharon told me that he is making a pilot of a tv comedy drama about English people in Australia and asked me if I would like to be an extra. Nothing further seems to have come of that, but last week we had a letter through the door telling us that they would be filming the pilot for this series in a house on our street and some scenes in the road. And it will be starring Robson Greene!

Now I know I'm being very tragic about this, but imagine the possibility that Robson Greene is a mere 50 metres away from your home all day every day for a week. So far I haven't seen him, but I have plans. I've been driving up and down the street to no avail (but I feel sure that somewhere in that pilot episode there will be a silver car going past in the background being driven by a woman in a pink dress). All their support vehicles are parked in the park across the road, including their canteen. Eventually the man has got to get hungry. Maria is coming over tomorrow and we are going to stake the place out.

Clearly we don't have enough to do.

Now for the weather. Today it was 33 degrees but with a pleasant wind (which turned out to be a howling gale in my house, as the wind whips across the open lagoon). Tomorrow, apparently, it will be 17 degrees. A full 13 degrees lower than today. Confused and disappointed. Am I going to have to get all my winter things out again?

We are back at school again today, and in summer uniforms. Obviously this has meant another scarily expensive visit to the school uniform shop to purchase summer dresses, summer hats, summer shirts, school swimming costumes and rash vests (that's what they call those sunblock tops that you can wear on the beach that are factor 50 protection). No blazers thankfully this term. I'll put a picture on another time.

As we are back at school, sport has started again. Anna played a blinder at netball with a turn at goal shooter - with 5 out of 6 shots in. The eventual score was 12 -1. George played really well at basketball. He is getting more and more confident and as his confidence grows, so does his enjoyment of the game. When the opponents came on the court, I have to say that I did not hold out much hope - they were giants! However, the Hotrods were all over them, coming out with a win at 20 - 8. I'm looking forward to the day when George gets his first basket!

With regard to the video on the last post......it should show a beautiful humpback whale breaching off the beach in Angourie, but we are not sure if it is working. Let us know if it is! (Or isn't!)

And oh yes - what about the rugby??!!! We are having such a laugh about it here - the Aussies are gutted! It's being shown live in some of the local clubs on Sunday at 5am. Andrew's plan is to watch the first half here and if we are winning to go out to the club then. And if we are losing he's going back to bed.

Catch you later!

Angourie

Seal Rocks

We're back from our holiday, and very good it's been too. We set off on Saturday evening after the conclusion of Andrew's first cricket match for Collaroy Plateau (he's playing in the adult games as well as coaching the under 12s) and drove up as far as a place called Karuah - which was just North of Newcastle. It took about 2.5 hours and was largely in the dark, so nothing really to tell about that, except that there was very little traffic and that aptly we passed through Hexham on the way! Karuah is just off the Pacific Highway - a road that runs from Sydney up to the top of the country going North. It had clearly once been on the highway and had recently had a bypass built, which seemed to have pretty much killed the place off, as it was a bit of a ghost town. We did, however, get a very good meal in the local RSL which was just up the road. We were all in good spirits - our first proper Aussie holiday!

Given that the Pacific Highway is the most important road route up the coast, we were surprised to find that it is largely a single lane each way, with the odd section of dual carriageway. For this reason, probably, it has a reputation for being the most dangerous road in Australia, and a number of people warned us to be careful on it. In the event, although we were not complacent, there was not much traffic and we made good time on each stretch of the journey, and saw some wonderful scenery.

The second part of the journey went from Karuah to Wauchope (not sure how you pronounce that one!) and we took a couple of scenic detours. The first was to have a look at Seal Rock - which was reached down an unsealed road - which didn't disappoint with a beautiful beach and a very well placed campsite at the back which we plan to visit some time soon. Confusingly, there were no seals. I'm not even sure that they have seals in Australia to be honest. After Seal Rock, we continued on to Forster and Tuncurry which were both lovely as well and worth a proper visit. After a bit of time on the highway again, we decided to follow a signposted 'tourist route' which would take us off the main road and into the interesting countryside to the west of us and to Wauchope itself. This turned out to be far more of an adventure that we had expected....the route took us for miles on unsealed roads in the middle of nowhere round the edges of mountains! We had to stop the car and get the manual out to find out how to switch on the 4 wheel drive, and we certainly saw parts of the country we would not otherwise have seen. Some of the scenery in the valleys looked not unlike England - rolling hills and trees, and very green - with not much sign of the drought. We were relieved to arrive at our motel for the night, and Anna got straight in the pool while George and Andrew went off for a game of tennis.



A lizard we passed on the road on one of our scenic detours



Kangaroo! On a playing field!

Next morning we got up bright and early and made straight for the Angourie Rain Forest Resort where we would be spending the rest of the week. This was the longest part of the drive, and we could see that beyond Coffs Harbour things got noticeably more tropical. We passed the Big Banana (the Australians like to build big stuff by the side of roads. Don't know why) which wasn't as big as we had expected (tragic to be disappointed by a big plastic banana but there you go), and saw the banana plantations by the side of the road. We saw beautiful bright purple jacaranda trees, and loads of kangaroos. The kangaroos were a bit unexpected as poor old Bill Bryson in his book reports travelling all over Australia and only ever seeing one (although when I mentioned this to an Aussie friend here she said 'he must have had his bloody eyes closed'). Because we had all read 'Down Under' we were actually initially impressed at having seen a couple of dead roos by the edge of the road, so you can imagine the excitement when we started seeing fields of them jumping about and very much alive!

Angourie is a tiny village where the Clarence River meets the Pacific Ocean, and is surrounded by rainforest. It was flatter than I had expected but probably only because Sydney is so very hilly that we've got used to it. The actual coastline reminded me a little of western France, in that the beaches were wide and backed by sand dunes with fantastic surf. It was just down the road from the bigger village of Yamba - famous for its prawns - and also a funny little town called Maclean, which is so proud of its Scottish heritage that it has all the different family tartans painted on its telegraph poles. In many ways, the area reminded me of Milford on Sea. There was clearly a very high elderly population and very little for any local young people to do either for leisure (except surf of course) or for work, as although this is a tourist area it is very under developed. The beaches were pretty much deserted.



The Blue Pool swimming hole at Angourie



Nope - definitely can't see the Isle of Wight...

The resort was lovely - we met some nice people, the kids made friends, and enjoyed the pool and the games room and the tennis. I enjoyed going to the spa! But apart from all that we spent time exploring the local beaches and swimming holes (created by natural springs when they tried quarrying in the area). Highlights would have to be seeing a humpback whale breaching just off the beach at Angourie, and a pod of dolphins at Iluka. We also greatly enjoyed a 5km walk through the rainforest, although the size of the ants we saw was truly horrifying!



Rainforest walk at Iluka



Sea Eagle at Iluka



Iluka Beach

I will skim over the fact that it rained rather a lot (it is the tropics after all and you can't expect there not to be rain in the rainforest!).....it was always hot anyway! We drove the full 8 hours home without incident and it was all over too soon. Now we are fully into the swing of washing and ironing and getting the children ready to go back to school. Enjoy the photos and the video!



George on Spooky Beach, Angourie



Anna on Spooky Beach



Andrew and the children playing handball on the beach



Me - enjoying the water! It was absolutely crystal clear

Hot Spot

George and I playing in the surf at Palm Beach (this is not taken in soft focus, but there was a greasy mark on the lens. And I like it...lol)



Maria and the boys!

It's hot. Really really hot. Thirty four degrees today (43 degrees in the car before I put the air con on) with a strong, gusting, hot wind. It is perfect weather for bush fires and they are burning everywhere. There is one at Oxford Falls, which is only a few miles away over the lagoon, where they have been using water bomber aircraft this afternoon. And we went to the beach at Palm Beach and there was a big one at The Basin, which is across Pittwater. On the beach you could smell the smoke. It's part of life here, but I have visited the rural fire service website and read up about what we should do in the event of a bush fire. Some of the information is not what you would expect - for example, if a fire is approaching and you are caught in a car, you should stay in it, and not run like hell. Apparently the likelihood of your petrol tank igniting is really very small, and the car may protect you. The fire will pass over in under a minute. Excellent.

So - we went to Palm Beach with Maria, Sam and Luke. Sam and Luke brought Nick with them, and I took George and Anna plus Andrew and Sophie. It was great, but eventually too hot, so we decided to come home and get in the shade. When we got here, although the house was cool, there was an extraordinary hot wind whipping across the lagoon - like a hairdryer. It was quite oppressive and not something I've ever experienced before. However, things have cooled down a bit now - and everyone tells me this is unusual weather! Now - where have I heard that before??! It seems that every type of weather we've seen here so far has been unusual - hot or cold! It seems that today was the hottest day on this date for 140 years.

We are going away on Saturday for a week - to a place called Angourie, about 9 hours up the coast. We will still be in New South Wales, but not far from the border with Queensland. There are fires everywhere up there at the moment. Next week it is supposed to be cooler and more humid, so the risk should be smaller. We are taking a couple of days to get up there, and taking some scenic detours. I'm rather excited about it, as it will all be new, and the area we are visiting looks really beautiful. Everyone I mention it to tells me it is lovely, so they stakes are high!

The insects have arrived. Although we've been worrying about spiders, we really have seen very few and none in the house. George threw a toilet roll at something he claimed was a spider (which actually turned out to be more of a daddy long legs - and the loo roll ricocheted off the wall and fell into the toilet, which George was weeing in....),and there was a big one inside the newspaper once when I brought it in, but apart from that - nothing. However, now we are getting mosquitos and I have some hideously swollen bites. Plus huge hairy moths, which seem to like to take residence in the underpants on the washing line if I leave them there over night.

Course - the good thing about strong winds and the hot weather is that the washing gets dry in no time!

Bondi Beach Bums

View of Bondi Beach



George throwing Andrew into a wave!



Dad and son



George and I playing in the surf

So....it was a public holiday, and whilst we could have gone to a beach at the end of the road, we decided to drive to the other side of the city to sample the delights of Bondi. This is a bit like deciding to go to Bournemouth Beach on the hottest August Bank Holiday weekend ever. Except with better parking. As it was, the sun was out, and although the roads were busy by Australian standards, we got there without incident and found a space to park right on the beach front, despite my doom and gloom predictions of traffic chaos and not being able to find anywhere to leave the car.

I went to Bondi twenty years ago and I remember not being very impressed. I think I had been expecting something a bit more exotic. However, it is very much a city beach and as such, the sea front is not dissimilar to Bournemouth. There was also the largest number of people in one place I have seen since we arrived here. The big difference, however, is powder soft sand, absolutely crystal clear water, huge surf and temperatures over thirty degrees.

I didn't really go in the water (people who know me well will know that it needs to be unbearably hot and I need to have carried out the water cleanliness testing myself before I get in - and that is just swimming pools...), but I did have a paddle with George. Andrew and the children had a good time playing in the surf, while I read in the shade tent we had hired. I've decided that my skin will see more than enough incidental sunshine to age me, without actually sunbathing. It is noticeable that Australian women do seem to age more quickly than British and European ones, and I have to assume that it is the sun that does it. It can't be the tough life they lead for goodness sake!

After three hours of this exertion, we decided to go to Watson's Bay. Watson's Bay is famous for Doyles Fish Restaurant, which has been there for 122 years (a really really REALLY long time in Australia - if of course you completely ignore the Aboriginal culture that had been here for 40,000 years before the present day population; and I mention this because largely Australians do...). I also went to Watson's Bay twenty years ago with a chap whose name eludes me, but he ran the bar at Glebe Rowing Club. He drove Cathy and I over there in his mini moke, but when I got there today the place didn't really ring any bells. I do believe that I may have been slightly tipsy that evening, and I also think that afterwards he took us to The Bourbon and Beefsteak in Kings Cross (which incidently is still there) and tried to kiss me, despite being almost old enough to be my father. Tut tut. But I digress...We had fish and chips on the beach, and although the children were tired, it was lovely. We all fell asleep on the way home (except obviously Andrew, who was driving...)

This evening we have taken it slow, showered and are all pottering about in our pyjamas. You know how when you are on holiday, and you've been to the beach in the sun, and you get home and shower and you are warmed to the bones and tired from the heat and the relaxation? I feel like that - and we are not on holiday!

Cool eh?



George and his daddy deep in conversation



Doyles Fish Restaurant at Watson's Bay



Anna looking lovely as usual