Being Forty...

So.

Lets recap on how being forty is going thus far.

In my mind, being forty was going to be wonderful. I was going to be thin and extremely fabulous. It was going to be my best decade yet.

There were signs, however, in the days beforehand that this might not turn out quite as well as I had fantasised. For example, having a customer in the shop putting my tummy and saying 'are you hiding a baby bump?'. No. Actually not. I am hiding being fat. And not very well, it would seem.

Also, on my last day as a 39 year old, I enjoyed my walk home from work in the sunshine very much. And then when I got home realised that the car was not on the drive. Because I had left it at work. Not the actions of a young, vibrant person with no signs of early Alzheimers, I'd say.

And then there was the actual day itself....spent running between bed and toilet while my poor, wretched forty year old body tried desperately to expel whatever bit of contaminated sushi it was that gave me food poisoning. Not very glamourous. Although I was unexpectedly thin. My lovely birthday dinner cancelled, I spent the weekend reflecting on how I will NEVER EAT SUSHI again.

By Monday I was starting to feel better. Possibly even a little bit glamourous as a result of my newfound thin-ness. Until school phoned me and asked me to pick up Anna as she had stomach pains. I was a bit pissed off really - on Mondays Anna often has an ailment, and I send her off all jolly and she soon forgets about it. I thought the school were being hoodwinked, but when I turned up she was deathly pale and not looking too well at all. By the afternoon, I could see we were in for another kidney episode and took her off to the doctor who said she could be admitted to hospital. We actually managed to get through the night at home but she went in this morning, stayed for the day and had some IV antibiotics and fluids. She perked up late afternoon, and they said we could go home with some different medication. Now, of course, she is running a temperature of 40 degrees and I'm getting everything prepared for readmission. George has spent the last two nights at two different friends houses, as Andrew has been away on business, and frankly....

......being forty has been a bit shit.

No more winter!

Fundraising quiz night in Avalon. We went as the 'Get Smart' table.




Andrew didn't entirely understand the theme!

The funny thing about Australia is that it really doesn't have any sort of spring or autumn - or at least, nothing which the English could associate with those seasons. After what seems like months of wearing boots and jackets, the sun has suddenly come out and we are in shorts and slapping on the sunscreen again. On Saturday the temperature reached 27 degrees and this morning for the walk to the school bus at 7.25am, I only needed a t-shirt. The poor children, however, are obliged to wear their winter uniforms until the end of next week, when they break up for the spring holidays. After that, they will be back into their summer togs for the next two terms.



Naturally - eventually the men had to put the wigs on....




In the space of a couple of weeks, I have gone from switching on the electric blanket every night, to being too hot with the duvet on. And before you snort with derision at how pathetic we are with our leccy blanket, bear in mind that at night, the temperature can go down to 7 or 8 degrees, which is very manageable in an English house. However, we have all stud walls, no insulation anywhere, single pane windows, gaps at the bottom of outside doors letting a gale in, and NO heating of any sort. Now you see how quickly you would nip out for an electric blanket!

Summer sports have also started in earnest, so now we are into a round of cricket matches and practice, and the netball 'summer comp'. Andrew is even planning to play summer soccer (which I won't be watching as it takes place at 8am on a Sunday morning....). Anna wants to join Nippers (junior surf life savers) which is at 9am on Sunday mornings - nearly civilised and at least I get to lay on the beach while she does it.

The other way in which we definitely know that summer is on its way, is that we have had our first ant invasions (the first one, oddly, in the upstairs bathroom, the second - today - in the kitchen) and we have started to both hear cicadas and see their discarded shells. At dusk, as well, the rainbow lorikeets have restarted their deafening choir and the laughing kookaburras are beginning their hysterics earlier and earlier in the morning.

Some of you may know that Andrew and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary last week, and to celebrate we took ourselves off for a very swish lunch at a very swish hotel in the city. It must have been swish, as Will Ferrell and John C Reilly were hanging about in the lobby, before taking off in a fabulous yacht for the day. We realised later that they were in town to promote their new movie - Stepbrothers - and last night they were on 'Rove', the most important TV chat show here. They were very funny, and I think the kids would really enjoy the film.

Andrew and I are, of course, very pleased to have reached the 15 year milestone, and it made us think of all the people who were at our wedding and are still in our lives now. My dad also sent us a copy of the speech he made on the day, which still stood the test of time. I remember during the ceremony, the celebrant made the comment that he had not presided over a marriage before where the couple had promised to compromise. I think we've both compromised a fair bit over the years, and there have been dark times, but all in all, I'd say we are very lucky to have found each other and managed to make it to this stage. As Andrew once said - 'we deserve each other'...

(you now have permission to reach for the sick bucket...)

Speaking of marriages, we are dealing with another divorce in my family, and it has been difficult being away when you know that your support is needed. It's also disappointing on a personal level when there is a break up within the family. You invest in that relationship and love them because they are loved by your loved one, and because they are part of your family. When it ends, and especially when your loved one is left, it feels rather like you have all been rejected. Which in this case we very much have. But there is always Skype, texting and the phone, and Andrew was also able to give this gem of advice on finding a new partner when the time is right. My advice was to look for someone who was just nice - not fabulously sexy or great looking - but ordinary looking and a nice person. And without a terrible track record when it comes to marriage! Andrew called out from the background - 'that's what I did - and it worked for me!'. Hmmm...not sure if that is a compliment or not really....

Another important milestone to be reached this week is my 40th birthday on Saturday. I'm quite excited about it and not at all worried about being the big four ''o". Virtually everyone I know is either 40 or over, and they are happy, in good shape and enjoying life. There is no point looking back, and no point in having regrets, and
I'm going to be looking to the future. I'm going to work on spending less money on things, and spending more time with people and doing things. It should be fun!

Catch you after my hangover has worn off!



A nice walk at Manly Dam for Father's Day

New talents and new houses

Although I'm aware that I haven't yet completed all the uploading of photos etc from Beth's visit, I thought it would be nice to do a general update of what is going on Down Under these days. It seems like a while since we did that!

One big piece of news is that Anna's netball team won the Grand Finals having remained undefeated throughout the entire season. Winning the Final was no mean feat though for a number of reasons - the team they played against had only been beaten by them, and by a small margin, the weather was TERRIBLE and some of the team (including Anna, and their star player Charlie) were really very sick, and only on the court because we had turned up thinking it would be cancelled due to the wind and rain. Anna (and, as it turned out, Charlie) had been absent from school all week, with a really horrid virus which had been touring the school, and really seemed to have knocked them off their feet. A high temperature, sore throat, cough and headache thing. Anna hadn't really eaten for over 5 days and had lost a lot of weight, but she was determined to go, so on seeing the weather I agreed to drive her down to the courts on Saturday morning - convinced that it wouldn't go ahead. And it did! I've never suffered such horrid weather since we arrived here, and it was cold even by English standards. Add to that the rule that they must wear their netball dresses (mini skirts and no sleeves) and you had a recipe for a very guilty pair of mothers. Anna made it through 2 quarters and then retired back to bed till Tuesday. She was, however, very pleased with her trophy! We've got a few weeks off and then the summer competition starts....

George is still doing really well with his basketball, and now plays in a Saturday league for another team, as well as for school. He has also started having piano lessons again (he had a brief flirtation with this when we were in the UK) and he seems to be really enjoying it. He practises without being asked, and I think this is very much the result of him having a great young teacher who recognises that a 12 year boy needs a certain extra something to keep him interested. This has come in the form of learning to play both the theme from Star Wars and from James Bond. George needs to be more engaged in everything he does (he has a tendency not to be bothered about anything much - which he certainly didn't inherit from me!) and it is great to see him really interested in his basketball and piano. He has also said he would like to go to drama, so I am looking into that.

And the most exciting news for the moment is that we are moving house....again!! We haven't really warmed to the house we are currently living in, which although very large and on paper seems like a great place, just doesn't seem to work as a home. It's very dark, which I'm sure is great when it is very hot, but I just feel like I am stuck in a very big cave all the time. It also takes an awful lot of cleaning and tidying. The other problem has been the distance to school - although there is a school bus and quite a lot of children from St Lukes live up this end of the peninsula, we were just finding that we were spending far too much time making the journey up and down for school, sports and friends. We have found a gorgeous house in Beacon Hill, which will be only 7 mins from school by bus or car, and only half an hour into the city for Andrew (it is at least an hour from Mona Vale - 90 mins on a day like today when the Harbour Bridge was closed due to a big smash...). We are all very excited about the house, which is really beautiful, has a fabulous pool and spa and backs onto some lovely bushland. George will be within walking distance of a couple of school friends, and Anna has friends a very short distance away. We will not really be within walking distance of the beach, but even that will only be 10 mins away, and we usually find that we need to take so much clobber we need the car anyway!

The very bestest thing about the new house though is that we will be looking after Phil and Jenny's Bernese Mountain Dog there! He is called Bronson, is absolutely gorgeous and a great big softy! We should be in by the middle to end of October, and we'll let you have a change of address when we have dates etc.

Andrew has been sick lately with a really bad case of bronchitis, which has made him a bit miserable, but he's back to work now, and trying to shake it off. Touch wood, I haven't come down with any of these lurgies, and long may it remain so!

Today, as you will know, is 1st September, which in Australia is officially the first day of spring and predictably the temperature rose by about 3 degrees. The seasons are pretty simple here - spring is September, October, November, summer = December, January, February, autumn = March, April, May and winter = June, July, August. I was thinking about how it works in the UK and I decided on this

Winter - Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb
Spring - March and April
Summer - May, June
Winter - July, August
Autumn - September

plus any combination of the above.

I'm allowed to joke about it - I'm still English you know....