Birthday, Australia Day, Camping and Topless Barmaids

It's been another hectic week and finally the last week of school holidays.

Yes, after far too long, the kids head back to School tomorrow - James into Year 4 and Olivia into Year 3.  Jack will get quite a shock when he realises it's back to just him and mum for a while.

We've had a great week.

It was my birthday on Wednesday - thank you for all the cards and messages.  I got some great presents - including a fishing rod from James which I think will get christened next weekend.  In the evening Emma and I went to our local favourite restaurant - Manly Pavillion to discover that there is a new Chef who has changed all the menu.  It was still good, but only good - it used to be great......

Thursday was Australia Day - all Aussies take the day off work and get drunk around a BBQ and remember the first fleets arrival in Sydney many, many years ago.  As has become our tradition we headed off camping.  With a different group of friends and location this year it was a bit of an adventure.

We headed North in the driving rain..........it has to be said I was not excited about the prospect of camping in the rain.....at all....and convinced Emma that if it was raining at the campground we'd just turn around and come home.

Well, we got lucky.  Despite the forecast of torrential rain for 4 days - we mainly got sunshine.  There was a few downpours - but everything dried within a few minutes.  So we have just spent four great days at Freeman's Beach along with eight other families and their kids - rather a large group.

When we got to the beach on Thursday afternoon Emma got chatting to the lifeguard and discovered that the day before a 2 metre (almost 7 foot) shark had been cruising up and down the beach the day before....never mind, we sent in the kids for a swim to make sure the shark had gone before we headed in ourselves.

Our four days involved swimming, surfing, more surfing, drinking and eating.  We've just arrived home very sandy, sunburnt and tired.

On Friday night instead of the usual BBQ/camp ground cooking we decided to head to a local pub.  The Catherine Bay Hotel (The Catho) had been recommended as a great country pub with good food, live music and close to our campground.  Off we went, arriving at 5:30pm.  We were first out of the car and were greeted by the barman running out saying "You may not want to come in yet!".  We then discovered that Friday afternoon (and Wednesdays in case you are in the area) are "Lingerie Waitress" afternoons.  Basically a topless girl serves drinks from 4pm to 6pm.

The Barman found space for us in a corner of the pub and the kids were ordered not to move.  The Waitress was ordered (by the barman) not to go near that corner.  The teenage boys that were with us looked a little akward and curious.

It was a great pub.  Good food and a welcome break from the campground for a few hours - and it gave us all a story to tell.  Our only worry is that when James gets asked by his teacher what he did for Australia Day he may say "We went to a bar that had topless barmaids."

So, another exhausting week.  The kids are busy trying to find their school uniforms and pencil cases for tomorrow.  Emma is looking forward to two less kids during the day.  I am pondering a quick 9 holes of golf.....

Ken

earlier this week James went to a Skateboard Clinic - he loved it and managed not to break any bones.

 While James was on his Skateboard, Olivia went to Cheerleading Class - and also had a great time.

 Jack got a bit sandy on the campground....Emma found a large sink to give him a quick clean.

 It was a good campground but not much shade when the sun came out.

 There were a lot of us there.....

James is stil trying to rub off the zince and tatoos before going to school.