Routine Beauty..

It's been a pretty routine week, except that the weather has been wonderful. This takes a little getting used to - as I was discussing with Maria the other day, as English people, every time the sun comes out there is a tendency to drop everything and 'make the most of it'. Whilst in the UK this is an acceptable reason for not having done any housework, it has occurred to us that here this may lead to us living in rather squallid conditions. We need to get out of that mindset, and feel secure that if we spend today catching up with the washing and dashing about with the hoover, the sun will still be there tomorrow. Although, we are told with some authority that in the summer any sort of housework is pretty much out of the question due to the heat. Unless you are prepared to get up in the very wee hours of the morning and do it. Which of course I'm not.



But enough of this talk! On Wednesday the weather was beautiful - in fact so hot I had to move my chair on Maria's deck into the shade - and so we decided we needed to make the most of it and go for a walk. We took the round trip walk past Fishermans Beach (where I have seen fisherman with enormous fish fighting off the pelicans, and kite surfers performing near fatal tricks on the waves), around the headland of Long Reef, along the edge of Dee Why beach, and back to Maria's. From the headland you have fabulous views both up and down the coast, all the way along Collaroy and Narrabeen beaches on one side and looking the other way, all the way along Dee Why beach to the North Curl Curl headland. I took the photos above and below, but I particularly like the one of Maria - she was trying to stop me taking a picture by covering her head with that green scarf, but in doing so, didn't see that a wave was coming in and had drenched her feet. Made me giggle anyway.





We are nearly in the middle of August and I have so much exciting stuff coming up - our friends Hugh and Sue will be out here in a couple of weeks and we are hoping to catch up with them, and then my friend Caroline is here for a night (she works for BA) and then, most excitingly of all, my dad is coming for nine days on the 31st August. I can't wait to show him where we live and the life we have here - and also to be there when he fulfills his ambition to see the opera house and the harbour bridge!

And today it is Andrew's dad's birthday, so all together now....Happy Birthday to You......!