Finally a bit of sunshine

I know you won't believe it....but the weather has been terrible in Sydney this summer.

Due to El Nina we are having a very, very, very, very, very wet summer.  The current forecast is that there is a 75% chance of rain (and we are not talking about a bit of Scottish drizzle) every day from now until the end of April.  We have lots of visitors coming soon...expecting the normal summer fest of BBQ's on the balcony, lazy days by the pool and visits to the beach....we are hoping the forecasters have got it wrong.

The rain did stop for a while this weekend.  In between the flash floods I have managed to play golf twice, James played cricket, we got to the beach for a swim/body board and managed to pull apart and re-build our trampoline.

Golf: Friday morning 6:10am.....me, Nigel and Matt teed off for a quick nine holes.  By 9am we had finished, I'd had breakfast and was sitting at my desk - a great way to start the day.  Roll forward 30 hours, Saturday 5pm, me, James, Nigel and Tommy....now playing golf with two 9 year olds is not quite as relaxing - was still fun though.  James had a few memorable moments - a 150m drive on the first, a great second shot to 8 feet on the 5th and missed a 40 foot put on the last by an inch.  He played well.

Today we headed to the beach to see what was happening at the Australian Open surf competition.  This is part of the World Surfing Tour and the greatest surfers in the globe have desended on Manly for the next week to fight it out for the title.  Today was the Junior Ladies.  The sun shone, the waves were a clean 4-5 feet and the winds were light.  Perfect - these girls could surf and we had a great time watching them.

As part of the surf event they have imported a Skate Bowl for the first time into Australia.  This will host the Australian Skateboard Championships and JAMES is VERY excited.  Today they did a quick demo which we enjoyed watchnig in a brief few hours of sunshine.  The highlight was an 8 year old boy (who has one of these bowls in his back garden)....he was kinda good, for eight.

Emma is already planning her week to maximise time at the beach - this is a huge event with live bands playing each night as well as the surfing/skateboarding going on.  James and Olivia took advantage of a free photo opportunity....not sure what it's advertising.

Another weekend is over.  The kids are shattered.  We all look a little sun burnt - which is odd as there has been HUGE amounts of rain all weekend.

Ken