5
James took part in his first sailing race last week. He joined Emma, Jules, Craig and Deb on our yacht - Okavanga Delta - for the Friday nigh
t twilight race. He performed well and managed to avoid falling in, hitting his head on the boom and missing the bucket when he needed the toilet. So all in all a good first sailing experience. They came 5th in the race - which James thought was pretty good.
2
The Balgowlah Heights Primary School swimming carnival was on this week. James was competing in the under 8's and did rathe
r well. He won his heat and then in the final came 2nd - we think. Emma tells me there was about an inch in it - James is happy with second. He gets presented with a Ribbon at assembly on Monday and in a few weeks gets to represent the school in the District Swimming Comp. For those who are into swimming he did 49 seconds for the 50 metres. Courtesy of Google I have learned that that the world record for under 8's is 37 seconds - so I need to get him down to the pool for more training this week.
209
Manly Cricket Oval had a special event on Friday - a celebrity Twenty-Twenty Cricket Match. The occasion was the 'turning on' of the new floodlights. We had former test criketers, former Olympic swimmers and sprint champions, the highest point scorer in rugby league plus the local mayor, MP and vicar. Quite a team.
James and his mates had a ball. Eating too many sweets and drinking too much juice as they watched the first team score an excellent 209 from their 20 overs. The game ended on the last ball of the second innings with the other team falling short by a mere 3 runs.
James and his mates were very excited towards the end as there was a prize if you caught the ball from a six. At the start of the night it was $100 but by the final overs it was $1,000. I have never seen James run so fast as he tried to catch a ball. Sadly (for all of us) he did not make the catch (nobody did) but he did manage to pick the ball up from the stands and throw it back to the players - which made his night.
He was also part of the Parade that lead to the 'switching on off the lights' - he and about 30 mates were representing junior cricket and marched behind a pipe band and some flag waving students at the start of the evening.
Throughout the night many of the kids were getting their cricket tops autograped by players. James got Sean Broadstreet's autograph (local cricket player). He was chuffed. He was even more chuffed when the next morning at Jame's cricket match Sean Broadstreets son was in the other team and James got to sit beside the man who had given him an autograph the night before. Sadly all this cricket watching did not inspire him or his team mates and they suffered their worst defeat of the season.
4.2
Those of you who have visited us will understand the phrase often said by Emma "Will you please by a sensible car."
Well after 6.5 years of hearing this I think I have found the perfect replacement to my two seater convertible sports car. It's a sensible Range Rover, 4WD, plenty of space, lots of seats and plenty of leg room.
When I took Emma for a test drive I expected her to be delighted and impressed by my new found maturity.
I was therefore disapointed when all I heard was "Why do you need a supercharged 4.2 litre V8 in your car?"
Will someone please explain to my wife why this is required........
Ken
p.s. I will try and give you an update on the girls next week.
