Just a small update at the moment to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful, healthy New Year.
The kids wearing their t-shirts that I made to meet Nanny at the airport.
The weather is scorching here with the forecast predicting 35 degrees for Christmas day. We’ve put the pool up in the garden for the kids to enjoy (Darcie and Sam enjoy swimming – Adam just throws anything into it that’s not nailed to the floor so we might have to rethink the pool thing with the new house and just get a big pit that Adam can use as a land fill site). We’re now fully sorted for Christmas. It’s 1.30pm on Christmas Eve, roasting hot and Sam’s asleep (hoorah!).
Clean at last!
We’ve got beer and wine in the cupboard, more seafood than could supply Iceland for two months and gas for the Barbie….. it’s all systems go. We’ve got the Santa tracking website on standby so we can tell when the big man in red has his sleigh fully loaded and ready for the off.
There’s a free concert in Mandurah tonight that we might pootle down to it depends how many coffee liqueurs (affogatos), we’ve downed between now and then (we’re addicted). You basically turn up with a picnic rug and something to eat and you’re entertained in a Christmas fashion. Adam hasn’t been going to bed until 11pm, so we might need a distraction to wear him out, otherwise he’ll never sleep!
Our trip down to the Margaret River was somewhat eventful! The house that we’d booked to stay in that looked so lovely on the internet turned into a shack in the middle of the woods with an outside toilet! I kid you not!
We stuck two nights there, but in those 48 hours, we’d seen more scary wildlife than we’d seen in 13 months, so we moved on and luckily got a cancellation at the place where we took Paul for Father’s Day in September. We still had a good time (we drove 7 hours in one day to visit to the tree top walk in Walpole that took all of ten minutes to complete!
Paul wasn’t over impressed, seeing as he doesn’t do heights and didn’t even come on the suspended walkway that took you 40 metres up into the treetops). It literally was all day in the car to spend an hour walking round the forest… (o: Never mind, it’s another thing we can say we’ve achieved!
We did see kangaroos in the wild. Mum was pleased as up until that point, she’d only see the dead variety by the side of the road! It was lovely to see their little joeys poking out of the pouches. At the holiday house of horrors, we also see our first Huntsman spider (we only saw a little one, but they can grow to the size of a dinner plate!!!!!!),
A Huntsman spider (with it's lunch in it's mouth).
and we came down for breakfast in the morning, and the mice had eaten our bread! Enough was enough. I can cope with most things, but an outdoor loo and wrestling with a rodent for my breakfast was more that we could take, so we checked out….
The rest of the break was lovely. We visited a few vineyards and sampled some nice wine. We also had two meals at the Voyager Winery which is my favourite.
It’s gorgeous there – the same place that we took Paul for Father’s Day lunch. The kids played in the sea and Sam got repeatedly stung by jellyfish.
They were only small, but they caused little blisters. I bought some home with me to pop into their pool to give it a more ‘marine’ feel (o:
Looking back, we’ve done loads and we’ve forgotten most of it already! Before our trip away, we went to the Perth Christmas Parade.
We went to last year’s and it’s good fun for the kids. It’s like to old style carnival we used to have in WGC. Very nostalgic!
We’ve also baptised Mum with the boat. We’ve only been out once so far as it’s been a bit manic with Christmas and everything, but she soon relaxed. We dropped it in the river, then scooted across the estuary for some fun, then pulled up for a BBQ. We did see a few dolphins, so that was lovely for Mum to see them in the wild. On the way back to the boat ramp, Mum didn’t even bother with her life jacket, so she must have been quite confident. The river isn’t more than 2 metres deep in most places, anyhow, so she wouldn’t come to much harm.
Oh, what else…… oh, just after Mum arrived, she babysat Cheesey whilst Paul, I and Sam and Darcie went to see Kylie in concert. It was absolutely fantastic!
The show was amazing and her dancers!! Well, what can I say – she certainly puts on a show for her ‘gay’ audience! Woo! It was definitely on the THE best concerts I’ve ever been to, but then again, I love Kylie!
The kids all had brilliant end of year reports, with Sam getting B’s in all his subjects apart from music! I’m so proud of them, they’ve adapted brilliantly and apart from the odd moment when they’ve missed their old school friends, they’ve been very happy.
Sam also pulled a blinder and won 4th prize in the school raffle which was a deluxe four man tent with chairs and inflatable beds (although after our ‘wild’ holiday, Paul said if I expected him to camp outside with (and I quote) ‘all that weird shit out there’ then I had another think coming!). Still, very nice prize – well worth ten dollars spent on the raffle tickets!
The house build has ground to a resounding halt for Christmas. Never mind, better the money’s in our account than theirs! The interest can pay for a box of crackers or two. They have delivered the bricks for the first floor though and this is a picture of Darcie standing near where the balcony will be. Everyone takes it easy over the next two/three weeks, so I shall update when there is some movement (not bowel movement - obviously - Paul goes every day, I'd be exhausted!).
So, that’s about all the news I can think of for the moment. I will try and add more when I can. Please feel free to give us a call over the Xmas if you can. We are now 9 hours ahead though due to WA adopting daylight saving measures. If you don’t have the number, phone me and I’ll give it to you (ha ha ha!).
Love to everyone. HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!!
Miss you all and send foggy WGC our love.
