Like fish to water

The week of torture by swimming lessons is over. And guess what? George has been promoted. This is excellent news of the highest order. It's no wonder that the Australians seem to churn out so many world record breaking swimmers. Swimming here is hardcore. I've never seen such attention to technique in children's swimming lessons. George and Anna are being taught how to swim front crawl with the most perfect breathing. George fair glides through the water now, and Anna is getting there. I'm starting to think that they might eventually be safe in the water.

At the moment, everyone (except me) is watching Many Sea Eagles play, along with our neighbour John and his 4 daughters. Manly Sea Eagles is the local rugby league club and it's in the top division (or something. I'm a bit vague about it all). Anyway, George really likes it, and John from across the road used to play for them. He also played league in England - for Widnes and for Castleford. The poor man was born in Queensland - how he coped with the cold I really don't know, but when he talks about those years, a certain haunted look comes over him. Anna likes it because there are cheerleaders (imagine that in Castleford!) and lots of opportunities to eat rubbish. I decided not to go because David Beckham doesn't play for them (the only possible reason for watching any sport) and I thought I might go to the gym. Although obviously I haven't gone.

I'm a bit tired you see, as our friends Richard and Sharon and the kids came over for the evening to eat cheese with lots of wine, and then, when we were absolutely stuffed, to get a thai takeaway. We spent most of the evening watching the Princess Diana concert thingy, which was shown in its entirety, and eventually Joel was asleep on the sofa and a fair swap of George for Zoe had been done. Richard and Sharon are off ski-ing tomorrow in New Zealand, but they are bringing over their kayak to keep here before they go.

This means that a day of water sports is on for tomorrow. We've bought the engine for the boat (I tried to buy one yesterday, but the man in the shop started to go on about transams and two stroke versus four stroke and my eyes started to glaze over), and the plan is to go off and explore the lagoon before stopping for a picnic. Luckily, Dad has chosen this weekend to send me an article about the drought causing sharks to be seen much further into the river system than usual. Apparently, sharks have been seen in the lagoon in the past, but a very particular set of tidal conditions would need to be in place for it to happen. A quick search of the internet revealed also that once a pod of dolphins got caught in there. I"m hoping for the dolphins.

Promise to try to remember the camera AND the memory card!