A Car or a Lemon?

Arriving at Coffs harbour was a relief and after stress over running out of money and the car, we took a few days to recover while Matt and Fiona carried on their routines of work and taking the kids to and from Nursery.  Actually, the first day, Matt took me to the Deep Sea Fishing Club for a couple of beers and had second half of the afternoon off.  We looked out over the sea, drank cold beers and enjoyed the scenery.  It was pretty good really.

We came back to his place and drank half a carton of beer between us.  This was inevitable, as was the fact that we have probably done more or less the same thing every night since, although we did have onenight off, just to keep the ladies happy.  We did have a dodgy car on our hands though and that would prove to be a weight on our minds which needed lifting.

Meeting Bob McTavish

Last autumn in England, before I went to Australia, I went down to visit my brother in Devon.  Mike had previously helped me acquire a new longboard to replace the 7'6" minimal I had been using.  This longboard is a beauty, it is a 9'6" McTavish longboard and it rides like a dream.  If the waves are good in Devon, when I get on that board I am in heaven.

My brother raved on about Bob McTavish, telling me he was a really cool surfing legend from the 60s who had pioneered new technicques in surfing and shaping.  I just wanted to get out on the board.

The first month in Australia

We've been in Australia for a month now and certainly have found it difficult to find time to make new posts.  When you have no schedule it is really hard to fit blogging into your schedule.  Therefore I'm going to try and summarise the first few weeks in Australia with as few words as possible.  I will probably ramble on as ever though.

A perfect day in Sydney

This is Zoe's first post, actually the whole family are contributing. We have really had a perfect Sunday with the family in Sydney despite the fact that the westerly winds have brought day long 40 degree heat for the past three days.

Zoe: I think it is just a fabulous day in Sydney, I have just got hot the whole day and have got thirstier and thirstier. It's just the best day ever. We saw the ferry going round and round that we went on. It was always the same ferry. We saw a long green ferry and a yellow ferry and a short green ferry.

There were lots of people making sand castles on the beach. When we got to the party, there were people jumping off the side into the deep water of Sydney harbour but it didn't matter because they could swim.

Esme: I enjoyed my food. I enjoyed my fantastic cooking pizza yesterday. I liked swimming in Hans's pool. I liked all the pools, there's one, two, three there is mummy. I liked it when I throwed the balloons in the air, the balloons that i didn't like. I liked everyone on the TV putting the balloons up in the air and they sprinkled. I didn't like the beach. I did like walking in the rock pools....where's my seat, can I get on my seat? Thank you for my Holiday.

Hannah: we started with a perfect beach morning which was surprisingly busy at 9.00 am but made sense with the temperature. Zoe, Nick, Esme and Sue swam while I paddled. Then we went for a beautiful walk along the shoreline and onto the little island at Balmoral where Sue used to play when she was twelve. We saw where the shark nets were tied until last year and saw the manly ferry and round the headland. Then back to Nick for a wonderful swim before home for a late breakfast.

During that time, Sue phoned and said did we want to go to Hans's for a swim? We agreed to go after a quiet half hour in which even the children read silently which ended abruptly when Nick said "We've got 10 minutes to catch the ferry Hannah". We literally hot-footed it down to the ferry in the hottest heat I've ever experienced and made it with two minutes to spare.

At Hans's we had a wonderful afternoon swimming and eating and drinking with the Kirribilli community from three sets of flats and arranged New Years at Kirribilli. That means front row seats for Sydney harbour fireworks.

Nick: I am shocked that no-one mentioned that we travelled to the beach in the 4L Ford Fairlane Passion Waggon.

Nine days in Thailand

Thailand was Hannah's idea.  We were paying for the flights anyway and s stop-over did not add to the cost. I also had stacks of Hilton points to spend, so we booked ourselves into a resort in Hua Hin for nine nights.  The ideas was that we would use the time to recover from our hectic last few weeks and months so we would  be ready to arrive in Australia and hit the ground running.

When we landed in Thailand Zoe and Esme both drew a lot of attention from the locals.  At first I was worried that they were going to be kidnapped and kept a close eye on them.  As time passed however, I realised that they were just being friendly and that their way of being friendly to the children was to touch their face or ruffle their hair.  Later in the holiday I was surprised when Zoe refused to wear a pretty pink sari with elephant prints on it.  When I asked her why she told me in a very stroppy fashion that she was trying not to look pretty because she didn't like people touching her.

Esme's christmas list

Getting ready for Christmas in the sun and with the absence of cold weather, early evenings and snow/sleet/rain is something which we are not really concerned with.  However, we have been encouraging the girls to think about Christmas as we will be spending it with family who are well used to preparing for the festive season in 35 degree heat.

Anyway, this is a very quick post because I asked the two girls what they wanted for Christmas yesterday and Esme's list might take a bit of time to get together.  She assures me that her top presents would be:

UK to Thailand

I've been in Australia seven days now and am only just getting prepared to write about our trip out of England. I made some notes as we went around Thailand and reading through them now, I realise it's a good idea. I had forgotten about half the things that had happened already. I am finding it hard to find time to write now though. When at work, a bit more work seems to fit quite well, but the thought of getting my computer out while on holiday really doesn't appeal.

The taxi took us to Heathrow in what seemed like no time at all. The girls were excited, Hannah sitting in the back with them, with me in front talking to the driver, Richard. It all seemed a bit surreal, what we were doing just seemed like a dream and the feelings were just not what I expected.  It was very relaxing, I didn't feel excited, or sad, just exhausted and ready for a rest.  Not the best place to be when you are about to embark on an eleven hour flight with two small but very energy sapping children.