late update #1

Two weeks today since we got here and we have hardly stopped.

Highlights (so far)

15/12 DestructoBoy sleeping for 17 hours after arrival 1 pm to the following 6 am! Princess C-W got 14!


16-20/12 I'm not sure. I think we slept. And maybe ate ;-)


21/12 Granma's 'ahemtieth' birthday going well.


Completing my speech before the threatened tears actually fell.


DestructoBoy and Princess Curly-Wurly both being gainfully employed and stayed out of mischief for the duration of the party.


22/12 Foreign visitors and her son-in-law offering to take Sylv out for lunch for her actual birthday b/c her lousy children had all buggered off to do shopping!


The professional we booked for the family photo should (I think) look for another trade.


We made my mum cry - a lot! (This was good crying - not because we all buggered off.)


23/12 A night spent in Melbourne saw us travel from one end to the other (Lygon Street to ST. Kilda Beach for any with local knowledge) and my boy having to wear home my jumper over his undies as he had had a discussion with the ocean!


24/12 Christmas Eve was spent wrapping and wrapping and wrapping - but if my kids are reading this it happened by magic!


25/12 Christmas morning after opening presents we went to the beach for a few hours. With towels and hats and sunscreen and everything!


Christmas evening/night I watched my boy play cricket with two of his uncles and all of his boy cousins. And then I might have just a little bit 'set the cat among the pigeons' with my mother's in laws. Is it bad if someone hangs up on you?


26/12 Boxing Day my lovely sister, Giovanna and her husband, Paolo took the terences to the surf beach to try out the new wetsuits they had given the kids for Christmas. Depending on who is telling the story the waves D/boy jumped were at least a metre high!


27/12 The next day CK and I took them back to the surf beach (these kids really were meant to live in a hot climate!) and watched as Princess C-W ran through the shallows, boogie board under her arm and paddled into the waves. Occasionally she even caught one in a little way! D/boy mooched in the shalllows but he had fun.


All four of us piled into a very grungey rental tank and head inland to rendevous with my sister before heading to her inlaws' farm. All good and well and there was still sufficient memory for me to find my way around my old hometown. I even waved at Ric-Rac's door (I think it was hers) as we drove past.


28/12 I say 'all well and good with the rental tank' except for the bit where 20 kms outside Ballarat it began to make a very weird knocking/clanky sound! So CK and I sat by the side of a v. busy road for over two hours in the midday sun waiting for rescue by the dodgey hire car people.


Having provided us with a replacement tank we legged it off towards the Grampians to try and catch Giovanna before the sun went down. Not very far up the road the throaty roar of the engine in the replacement vehicle sounded suspicioulsy like the knocking of a very ropey exhaust! Every dip and rough patch we hit for the next three days made us cringe and check the mirrors to see what might be left in the road behind us. Nothing has obviously fallen off yet but wait until I get in to see them tomorrow.


29/12 We played in Warnambool (or Warnambod as it says on my UK driver's licence) and I bought some posh new frocks (two skirts and a couple of shirts but you know - I take glamour where I can find it;-) then back to the farm for a walk to the creek, a ride on the quad bike, feeding the race horses, jumping across mahoosive haybales, tasting the lucerne, the kids riding in the tractor with my b-i-l's dad while he shifted the bales and then DestructoBoy got some further skill sessions in the art of Australian Rules football - poor thing, there is only so much his mother can teach him!


30/12 Despite gale force winds we braved the Great Ocean Road although I politely declined CK's offer of an helicopter flight to view the cliffs from the air on this particular day.


After having to hold on the the terences to stop them flying away at one veiwing spot (12 Apostles I think) we decided to head inland and found ourselves at the Otway Fly. Not a nasty airborne creature but a fabulous tree top walk which at its highest is some 45 metres up!


Princess C-W was running bravely along the gantries while poor old Babyman had really regressed and was clinging to the rail for dear life. I feel certain his evil mother making said paths sway was irrelevant to him


My girl abseiled down a 35 metre height this afternoon - I remain in awe of her bravery. Do you know I swear her general pinkness is washed with the red badge of courage in many situations? She really rocks.


Then we drove the collapso-mobile all the way back up here to the beach.


When Picasa and Google are friends again I shall upload pics until then let me say to you all - I hope your Christmas was fabulous and may your New Year be joy-filled and as fabulous as the last 12 months have been