D Day

So finally - the big day arrived and Anna and George started school. Anna could barely contain her excitement the night before and both of them had trouble getting off to sleep, although for different reasons. Anna leapt out of bed in the morning with hitherto unheard of haste, failed to eat any breakfast and was desperate to get out the door. George put his uniform on without too much complaint (I was a little worried that he might stage a last minute protest and refuse to wear it) and we all agreed that actually they looked rather wonderful. Now the photo above is of course Anna, who was very happy for a picture of her to appear on the blog. George would rather I didn't, so sorry about that. He does look lovely though.

On the way to school (a 35 minute drive from here) I was seriously concerned that Anna was going to throw up with a combination of nerves and excitement. She kept saying she needed fresh air and opening the windows, but in the end we got there without her depositing the couple of spoons of cocoa pops she had managed to eat onto her beautiful new regalia. Happily, it was a gloriously sunny day, and the school and all its pupils looked lovely when we got there. George and Anna were introduced to the children who would be looking after them for the day and that was the last we saw of Anna. George lingered for a little longer but pretty much looked as though he had lost his anxiety about the uniform before we left, once he had seen all the other boys in it. It was interesting to see, however, how the boys could make even a very formal uniform like that look a little scruffy!



And so, after we had spoken to the teachers a little, and observed assembly (which takes place outside!) we went, giving Anna a wave and shaking George's hand (I'd given him a special kiss and cuddle before we left the flat, so as not to completely strip him of what little street cred you have left when wearing knee high socks and a Billy Bunter cap by doing it in the playground), and off Andrew and I went. I feel a little anxious about them, but I'm pretty confident they will have enjoyed it when I pick them up.



So today has been my first day as a real lady of leisure, and so far it has consisted of the leisure pursuits of dropping off the dry cleaning, doing the washing, cleaning the flat, and typing this blog before I have to set off for the school again. To be fair, after I had dropped Andrew off at Manly ferry I did have a quick wander up the Corso and had poached eggs on toast, a decaf latte and an orange juice watching the surfers on the beach......



Now - some news from home. Most of you will know that we had a lovely border collie at home called Charlie, who after long and hard thought we decided not to bring with us to Sydney, even though it broke our hearts (particularly Anna and I). He has gone to live with our good friends Sarah and Roy and their children Thomas and Charlotte, and we know he is very happy and very well loved there. Anyone who has actually met Charlie will know that you would be hard pressed to find a more friendly dog, such is his desperation to be loved by everyone he meets. So you can imagine our surprise when we received news from Sarah that Charlie has somehow had bestowed upon him the dubious honour of being on the New Milton post office's dangerous dog list! Sarah tells us that Charlie has 'issues' with postmen. Hysterical! Charlie - if nothing else - is very entertaining, even from this distance!



Our good friend Mark has raised the issue of climate change in Australia and I thought I would say a few words about it here. It certainly is a hot topic here, just as in the UK, making lots of news headlines and articles, although there seems a reluctance to link the present drought to global warming. However, anecdotally, I asked one of the people in the flats what the weather was normally like at this time of year, when we were getting so much rain and he said that they don't really have 'normal' weather anymore. He said the weather these days is pretty weird and you could get any sort of weather on any day, although it is generally warm. That rang bells really with the weather we have experienced in the UK over the last couple of years, which hasn't really been 'normal' either. There's definitely something going on. However, Australia is taking some steps to counter the effects of CO2 - it has decreed that normal light bulbs will not be able to be sold in this country in 5 years - they are phasing them out and we will all have to use low energy bulbs, recycling is a way of life and much more advanced here (even public bins on the street are divided into general waste and recyclable waste) and there has recently been a day of action where people where asked to simultaneously switch off their lights for an hour. Although this was largely symbolic, given that the city is lit up like a Christmas tree every night, it must have made some difference!



Right - it's nearly time to pick the children up again and hear about their days! Thanks to everyone who sent them emails and texts and messages wishing them luck on their first day - we all really appreciated it!



It will be interesting to see what George and Anna write about the day themselves - and if you want to see, you can do this at their blogs -



http://annasownadventure.blogspot.com



http://georgedownunder.blogspot.com



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