Well, that’s it! We’ve succumbed. We didn’t mean to; it was the lure of the bar and the promise of a regular sausage sizzle. It was the thought of a developing social life on a Friday night and a party on New Year’s Eve. All the above was just too much to refuse. We had to do it. It would be un-Australian not to. We’ve joined…………..
………..Secret Harbour Surf Lifesaving Club. Which means, (in true ‘Home and Away’ styleee), we can pop down the surf club for a beer!
It also means that Sam has to sport one of the surf lifesaving hats! OK – not THE best look, but it’s for a purpose; the coaches need to be able to recognise their heads in the water quickly. Surf lifesaving takes place every Sunday morning – a good excuse to get us out of our pits, enjoying the beach (with the dog) and into the sunshine for the summer. The kids learn life saving skills, swim, run and learn to use the body boards and other life saving equipment. Their ultimate goal is to recruit and train the next generation of beach patrols. We’ve joined as a family and you can do as much, or as little as you want to get involved with. Darcie is going to have a go – we haven’t bought her hat yet though. She’s waiting to see how many of her friends do it first I think (and how much Sam gets laughed at)!
………..Secret Harbour Surf Lifesaving Club. Which means, (in true ‘Home and Away’ styleee), we can pop down the surf club for a beer!
It also means that Sam has to sport one of the surf lifesaving hats! OK – not THE best look, but it’s for a purpose; the coaches need to be able to recognise their heads in the water quickly. Surf lifesaving takes place every Sunday morning – a good excuse to get us out of our pits, enjoying the beach (with the dog) and into the sunshine for the summer. The kids learn life saving skills, swim, run and learn to use the body boards and other life saving equipment. Their ultimate goal is to recruit and train the next generation of beach patrols. We’ve joined as a family and you can do as much, or as little as you want to get involved with. Darcie is going to have a go – we haven’t bought her hat yet though. She’s waiting to see how many of her friends do it first I think (and how much Sam gets laughed at)!
He looks impressed, doesn't he? NOT!
Hopefully it’ll be our way to become more involved in the community. It’s a massive thing over here and in the summer, the beaches are full of ‘Nippers’ as the kids are called, training and enjoying themselves. The kids can choose to compete if they want to and challenge other surf lifesaving clubs. Their age group determines what colour hat they wear. Sam’s a yellow and black - as you can see. I’m looking forward to it; it starts in early October and the weather should have well and truly kicked in by then! After the success of the football for the Winter season, we agreed that Sam could have a summer sport too. It’ll get us up and out of the house and it’s all finished by 10.30, so it doesn’t ruin the whole day.
So, it’s been an expensive weekend! We joined the surf club at $200. My rings were finally ready for collection on Friday. My engagement ring now has a sparkly new diamond in it (and they suggested I had a little work done on my other ring to avoid the same thing happening to that one :o( so that was $460! Blooming excess on insurance! What’s that all about? Ends up costing you just as much as paying for the poxy repair in the first place! Then we move onto the house…….
We are at ‘lock up’ now; in as much as the front doors went on last week. We are still able to sneak in through the patio door, but we need to get a key organised or we won’t have access to bore you rigid with our photos!
So, it’s been an expensive weekend! We joined the surf club at $200. My rings were finally ready for collection on Friday. My engagement ring now has a sparkly new diamond in it (and they suggested I had a little work done on my other ring to avoid the same thing happening to that one :o( so that was $460! Blooming excess on insurance! What’s that all about? Ends up costing you just as much as paying for the poxy repair in the first place! Then we move onto the house…….
We are at ‘lock up’ now; in as much as the front doors went on last week. We are still able to sneak in through the patio door, but we need to get a key organised or we won’t have access to bore you rigid with our photos!
We have doors!
Now the fun stuff starts, getting trades organised for quotes (urgh!) and buying stuff to fill it (double urgh and expensive). We’ve done a deal for all the AV equipment for the home theatre and last week, Paul noticed that one store had a fab deal on seating for the theatre……. So we bought it with the view to storing it here. We’ve bought a four seater and a three seater leather recliners. The idea is, we are going to have a raised plinth at the back – this is where the four seater will sit, then the three seater will go in the front – so it looks like a proper cinema! Can’t wait to sit in there and watch Pixar films :o)
View from the kitchen towards the Dining Room
The house is looking pretty cool though. Hopefully we should have tiles and cabinets delivered pretty soon. The white set plaster will be finished today and then they have to render the outside of the house to finish that off. Another family we know are at the same stage and their builder has given them a hand over date of November! Don’t think we’ll be able to match that, although all the trades bugger off for 2 months over the Xmas anyway, so we won’t get anything done then anyhow.
View from the Dining Room towards the lounge - note the 'feature nooks'
ARGH! Just spent an hour on the phone trying to get quotes; I’ve spoken with six ‘companies’ and only got two appointments! One bloke who’s advertising is on holiday for two months! What’s the point of that? Cancel the advert dumbass!! God, it’s going to be a nightmare, I can just tell!
Sam’s got his school excursion this week to a wildlife park near Perth. His class have been learning about native animals, so it’s their opportunity to get up close and bitten by some. Should be interesting. I hope Sam chooses to share his lunch with something venomous!
Other breaking news: we’ve sold our boat! Yeah, I know, we’ve only just got it, but the broker we bought it from made us an offer which we accepted and then we shopped around and bought this:
Sam’s got his school excursion this week to a wildlife park near Perth. His class have been learning about native animals, so it’s their opportunity to get up close and bitten by some. Should be interesting. I hope Sam chooses to share his lunch with something venomous!
Other breaking news: we’ve sold our boat! Yeah, I know, we’ve only just got it, but the broker we bought it from made us an offer which we accepted and then we shopped around and bought this:
A SeaRay 275 :o)
For about $25k less than it should be – brand new. So it means that we’ll be without a boat for about 6 weeks as it has to be detailed, anti-fouled and trimmed. It’s only about 3 feet longer than the old one, but that’s a lot in a boat when you’re trying to moor it, believe you me! The downstairs layout is pretty similar, but there’s more room ‘up top’ with a larger seating area and a little sink for entertaining (no – I don’t know how you can ‘entertain’ with a sink either – but it sounded good at the time!).The deal on our boat was only finalised yesterday, so we picked the kids up from school and then took all our stuff off in readiness for the new owner to collect. We had a LOT of stuff on it; fishing rods, sleeping bags, cutlery and crockery….. It’s been a good stepping stone. I just hope this is a cure for Paul’s ‘foot disease’; it’s a common illness that afflicts boat owners apparently, whereby the foot size of their boat is never quite large enough and their feet itch until they are able to upgrade to a larger vessel.
Sam was slightly disappointed when he realised this one wouldn’t have a helipad!!! (WTF!), but calmed down a little with the promise of more drinks holders. Here’s a photo from the brochure – how hilarious!
We've been walking the Furry Handbag (as Adam calls him) alot on the beach. He is slowly venturing into the water after his ball, but he's very cautious. Could it be that the brick I've tied round his neck is too heavy? :o) Only joking RSPCA people. We LOVE our furry handbag.
Until next time; I'm just going to see if there are any coins down the back of the sofa!
