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....