It feels like Summer....

The end of a hectic and hot weekend.  Summer may not officially start until next week, but this weekend had all the hallmarks of Summer:

• We swam in the pool at least three times;
• We went to the beach;
• We sat outside at a friends house until 11:30pm;
• There are bush fires threatening parts of Sydney.

Yep. Summer.

Emma's weekend started with twilight sailing on Friday night.  A new recruit to the boat was enjoying his first week in Sydney and asked "Do you often see whales when we sail in the harbour?", to which Emma replied once, or twice in ten years.

"There is a whale just beside our yacht", he said.

Emma then had the pleasure of sailing around with a baby humpback whale for company just off Fairlight beach.  She did not take any photos.

With Summer coming along we have finally got Jack into the pool.  So far he LOVES it.  Playing with Olivia is his favourite part of swimming.  They have spent hours this weekend splashing around and squealing at each other.  Very cute.

Jack is also at an age now where he can actually enjoy the beach.  Unfortunately his favourite thing is to throw sand in other kids faces.  It works once, but then gets boring for most participants - except for Jack.   Below he is enjoying burying James friend Jed as Tommy Peach watches on.

It was glorious on the beach today - hard to believe in two weeks time Emma and the kids will be in Devon.  I don't think the beach will be quite as nice as todays 31 degrees.

Master James Reid has continued to surprise this weekend.  We know he is good at sport (swimming champion, soccer player, all round cricketer etc) and he fairly clever (OC class) but we never gave him much credit for being artistic - art has to date been well and truly Olivia's domain.  Until now.

A few months ago Emma put James into an art class for a day.  I think she had a discount voucher and wanted a break.  Well the Manly Junior Art Awards were this weekend and 250 kids from 5 to 12 year old had paintings in the competition.  We went along to the announcement of winners because Emma told me we had to - it was the last thing I wanted to do.

Well, James painting (below) is off an outback sheep station (we stayed there two years ago) and he came FIRST in the 10 year old category (actually FIRST EQUAL with Stuart Hoffman).  This meant two things:

1. James won $130 worth of vouchers for skateboard lesson, kayak hire and a surf shop
2. We had to go to the overall final today...giving up two hours of our Sunday afternoon

The final was about selecting three works of art to award them $100, $200 and $300 bank accounts.  I am proud to report that while James did not win, he did come in the Top 5 for his category (which was 8-10 year olds).

So, he is an artist.  Who would have thought.

We are ending the weekend with Emma out at the movies (Skyfall) and me and the kids lying around sweating from the heat.

More next week.

Ken

Camping weekend and homing rats

We just got back from spending the weekend in Bents Basin - a camping ground about 75 minutes South of Sydney.

We were a little concerned about Bents Basin - we normally camp 3.5 hours South at Coolendel and were worried that Bents Basis would not be any where near as good as the amazing Coolendel.

Well our worries were quickly over come and Bents Basin could be a new favourite - almost as good as Coolendel, but much, much closer to Sydney.

We went down on Saturday morning, came back Sunday afternoon - so a quick weekend, but about all I could cope with after a flight back from the UK and terrible jet-lag.

 It was Harry Underhill's 7th birthday today so we had lots of cake to celebrate.

 James got the biggest piece of cake EVER.

 But fell for the old "smell the icing James" trick as Emma pushed his face into the gooey chocolate icing.....

 Jack seemed to enjoy running around the camp ground.  He went to sleep OK in the tent but then decided to scream for about 20 minutes at midnight....leading to Emma putting him in the car and going for a drive to calm him down and save the campground from a sleepless night.

 Bents Basin has a huge swimming hole - we all had a great time in the water.  Swimming, playing in rapids and jumping off rocks.

 Jack got to paddle - he is not quite ready for swimming yet.

So a successful camping weekend.  We were with the Underhill and the Forest family.

I may have mentioned that we recently got two rats.  Well two became nil about a week ago as they escaped from their cage.  Despite finding freedom they stayed close to home and Emma could hear them running over the roof and in the air conditioning vents.  When I got home on Friday, I lifted Olivia up into the roof cavity and she spotted Snuggles the rat and managed to grab her and bring her down.  One rat returned to cage, one to go.

Well as we were looking for Bubbles the rat I noticed that once again the rat cage was open and empty.  Jack then announced "rat gone" which we took as a confession that he had opened the cage....

So rats were back to nil.

Sunday afternoon, back from camping and James spots Snuggles peering out of the roof hatch.  Up the step ladder and a quick grab and Snuggles is once again in her cage.

Bubbles has been spotted twice today - so she is still in the building.

I am sure by next week we will either:

A) Have lost both rats again;

B) Have realised that while enjoying freedom they enjoyed male rats - I am expecting to wake up to 14 rats in the cage within a few days

C) By some miracle have both rats, pregnancy free in their cage.

I am sure you will all be sitting on the edge of your seat waiting for an update.

Ken

Summer..Winter...Summer...Winter

I left Sydney on Thursday for a quick trip back to the UK.  A combination of work and family catch ups.

Thursday was a glorious 28 degree day in Sydney.  Friday morning in Edinburgh was 5 degrees grey and rainy.

I head back to Sydney on Wednesday evening but we are all back in the UK in mid-December for Christmas, New Year and a weeks skiing in Courchevel.

I guess I need to get used to switching from Summer to Winter.  Importantly I should make sure next time I bring a jumper or a jacket.....


While I've been away the kids have been getting into party mode -it must be nearly end of term as it's School Disco time!!

Jack said his first proper sentence this week.  Not sure whether we should be proud parents or not. The sentence was "I don't want to go to bed."

Clever boy.  I think.

More from next week when I am back to Summer.

Two posts within a week...back to normal...

Another fun filled weekend in Sydney.

Sport

We kicked off the weekend with James and Olivia playing touch-rugby.  James had a 2-2 draw and Olivia's team had a hard fought 1-0 win.  A good start to a weekend of sport.

Saturday morning saw James' cricket team playing the 2nd day of a 2 day match.  Day 1 was a week ago and the other team only scored 64 runs from their 40 overs.  On Saturday morning James team made it to 64 after about 20 overs with only 1 wicket down.  The trouble with cricket is that if you are batting at #6 you are not guaranteed to bat....and so James sat watching his team for 2.5 hours and never got to bat.  We finished at about 180 for 3.  A victory but not much fun for James.

Saturday afternoon and it was surfing time.  James had a lesson, Olivia had a go under my instruction and Jack played in the sand.  James had a blast catching most waves (this was lesson #6 so he is getting pretty good).  Olivia thought the 6 inches of waves were "huge".  I probably should not have thrown her into the waves shouting "they are the biggest I have ever seen, oh my God Olivia".  She screamed, told me off...but eventually had some fun trying to surf.

Sunday (yes there is more).  I did a 35 km cycle in the morning.  In the afternoon James had a golf lesson followed by 5 holes of golf.

The golf scores were as follows:

Hole 1:  James 4 (chipped in from 20 metres); Ken 5.  James wins.
Hole 2:  James 7;  Ken 6.  Ken just wins.
Hole 3:  James 7;  Ken 4.  Ken wins.
Hole 4:  James 5; Ken 3 (birdie).  Ken wins.
Hole 5:  James 4; Ken 5.  James wins.

So in five holes my 10 year old son had two legitimate PARS.  He is getting good.  He had discovered how to putt.  I need to practise more.


We finished off the weekend with dinner at the golf club  along with the Peach family - a great end to a busy weekend.

Non-sporting activities

Does gardening count?



I'll be in USA next week, so next blog likely to be in two weeks time.