A month today and Mum will be boarding the flight to Singapore.

To say I can’t wait is a slight understatement :o) I cleared out the wardrobe for her last weekend, so she will have somewhere to hang her (enormous) knickers. I think I’m going to put Mum in Darcie’s room and let Miss P sleep on the sofa bed in the activity room. It will give Mum a bit more room that way (for her knickers). I don’t think I told you (avid reader) that the other weekend, we could see kangaroos from our bedroom window. They were boinging across the golf course. Darcie saw one this afternoon whilst we were on the way to the shops – squashed by the side of the road. She asked if it was sleeping? Yes, darling….. it was bouncing its way home like tigger and all of a sudden came over very sleepy and stopped for a snooze at the side of the road. IT'S DEAD!!!!) I

We also cleared out the garage and (shock, horror, feint!) we actually have two cars parked in it! Anyone who knows us will realize that this is a complete fluke. We have NEVER lasted more than two weeks putting a car away in the garage at night. Mind you….. it’s a real squeeze getting the two in there. Wouldn’t want any bigger cars, that’s for sure! So sorry, Paul, the Hummer will have to wait. We had to move the cars inside as we live near a high school and the little sh*t bags were scraping them everyday on their way to and from school. We went to see the Deputy Principal last week as the little gits saw it hilarious to play ‘knock down ginger’ on our front door every morning at 8.30 and afternoon at 3.00pm! A verbal confrontation with one group and Sam on dawn patrol with the camera and hopefully, we can put this little episode behind us!

Ooohhhh – I am famous this week! You know how I drivel on here about listening to LBC and the podcasts? Well the other week, I emailed Simon Calder, the travel writer with a question about Singapore. Well, he read out my question! I asked about ‘must do’s’ and told him I was meeting Mum there for a few days before traveling on ‘home’ He was chuffed to think he had a listener in Australia and got quite excited reading out my question. Unfortunately, he didn’t really answer me at all! Got nothing specific for an answer other than you ‘must see the museum at Raffles’. Well we’ll be in there for an afternoon’s tiffin and then an early evening of getting plastered on Singapore Slings, with a little browsing round the V expensive designer shops in the Raffles complex. Don’t know if I’ll have time to fit in any historical artifacts (other than Mum, of course!) ha ha.

We have bought another boat. I know, I know. It’s extravagant. It’s a waste. We already have one. But the children SO wanted one of their own…….


Well – what did you expect? Do you know how much the insurance is on one of these babies?

We had a lovely day out on the boat on Sunday. The weather was a little ‘lumpy’ but we headed out for the open ocean and did some fishing. Darcie and I won – the girls catching 3 fish, the boys only managing 1. They were tiny though and wouldn’t have fitted in an individual tin of tuna! It was funny though as the pelicans came circling like the grim reaper as soon as they realized we had something wiggling on the end of our lines. You can see here how close they came in to the boat.

Well, the first fish we caught was small and it had taken the hook down a long way. Paul tried and tried to remove it as best he could and in the end, managed to get the hook out of the fish’s mouth. He threw the fish over the side, but mis-judged the distance, causing the fish to bash into the transom on the back of the boat. It did flip off (with minor brain damage) and slip back into the water. Hoorah, we thought. Only the have Paul say very sternly a few moments later ‘err……. Kids? I think you should just all pop downstairs for a moment’. ‘Why, Dad?’ was the universal cry, before Sam realized that our fishy friend had gone belly up and Mr Pel-i-CAN was moving in for an instant meal for one. One snap of his beak and nemo was gone :o(

Oh well….. circle of life and all that.

We had two pelicans after that and half a dozen sea gulls as our audience. It felt like they were watching and criticizing our every move. How the Olympians cope performing under such scrutiny and pressure, I’ll never know! We did manage to keep the rest of the days catch away from the pelican’s jaws. I don’t know what fish they were that we caught, but they were very pretty.

Darcie was thrilled at catching her first fish. Sam was a consummate bad loser. He whined, he whinged, he complained and then…….he sulked. L-to the-O- to the S-E-R = LOSER!

The kids have got a busy few weeks coming up at school again now. They all have excursions to look forward to. Sam is going to the Zoo (we think), Darcie’s going to the SciTech exhibition in Perth and Adam (wait for it!) is going on a visit to a cucumber farm! Hope they have electric fences to keep all the wayward vegetables under control – I mean the cucumbers – not the grandparents that might be taking them!!! Adam has school photos on Thursday. This will be a huge test for him. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve completed the envelope with my money in, only to have the teacher return it at the end of the day because Adam refused point blank to have his picture taken. Sam was exactly the same in pre-nursery. Cried and cried. His photo looks like that famous painting of the boy with the tears rolling down his cheeks.

Actually, this has been a little bone of contention all week - the similarity between Sam and Adam. Darcie was doing a project for school and was looking for a photo of her as a baby and going through all the albums. Well, Adam was having a good look too and became increasingly annoyed that all the boys in the photos were Sam. The trouble is, if I didn’t know any better, I’d get the two of them confused. They look identical at the same age – both were blonde with big blue eyes.

Sam or Adam?

Adam or Sam?

Unfortunately, the attitude develops soon after!

Work is going well and we’ve now welcomed a new member into the fold! Sue started with us last week and is settling in well (apart from blooming IT gremlins that are making life twice as hard – NEVER, ever move your computer. They don’t like it and show off!). We’ve got lots going on and it’s an exciting (if not busy!) time. Hopefully, we’ll be able to share it all with you in future months :o)

On that note, I shall tootle off to bed and have sweet dreams about Singapore Slings and Mum’s big knickers!

Una Paloma Blanca……

Yes, it may be holiday time for you, but it’s still Winter here for us. Never mind. Less than a month to go now and we’ll be into Spring (and you’ll be headed for Autumn – ha ha, so make the most of your sunny days now!).

Our garden is finished!!! We have a beautiful garden – honestly, it looks like Chelsea! We are SO proud of it; the landscapers have worked really hard. We gave them a drink each at the end of the job and they were really thrilled , (seeing as they usually work for builders and councils, they get nothing), but we were so pleased with it, we got the two young lads a case of beer and the boss a nice bottle of red. See for yourself; what do you think?

The grass arrives at 7.00am!

View from the pool to the 'grown ups' area

This will be the kid's area of the garden.

Last minute.com water feature!

The grown ups area.

The front garden.

We have since got some 12v outdoor lighting to illuminate our (last minute) water feature. The pool is STILL full of sand, but hopefully, this will now be the last time that we have this problem with it. A few days hard work getting rid of the sand and we should be all set for the coming summer months (fingers crossed!).

From the front..........

From the side...........

The view of the garden from our bedroom.

and finally......... at night :o)

We had a BBQ tonight – it’s still very cold, but we had the music on outside (Paul was in charge of Sonos, so we had TV theme tunes playing in a ‘Name that Tune’ quiz show stylee), a bottle (or two) of cheap sparkling white and all felt good. Sometimes it feels like we are in a dream here (other times; it’s a nightmare!) Tonight felt like the good version!

Last weekend we managed two days out! Unheard of lately as the weather’s been so crap. On Saturday, we went up to the Dam to see how high the water levels were and to have a BBQ. We took Pentley for a ride and in time honoured fashion (as per the fated Pinnacles trip) as soon as we pulled up at the picnic area we were met with ‘Dogs Prohibited’ signs everywhere! We stuck on the headscarf again though and went through the ‘my Grandmamma, what a big nose you have!’ routine and managed to get away with it (if you know of any Grandma that drinks out of a stainless steel water bowl!)’. As we arrived, a couple warned us of the Kookaburras. The like to swoop down on the children apparently – especially when you have food. Well. We did OK until right at the end of our picnic and Adam took his burger with him to play football. One eyed him up and took the last bite of burger right out of his hand (along with a slice of thumb for good measure!). Adam wasn’t too chuffed, let me tell you. I don’t know what upset him more; the loss of the burger or the injury to his thumb.

Mr Kook-a-burra

They are quite scary looking birds. Especially when they laugh at you – all the boys check their fly and the girls look to make sure they haven’t tucked their skirt in their knickers! Remind me of being in the Brownies, when we had to sing the ‘Kookaburra’ song. Never imagined I’d be able to see them in close proximity and we’d be fighting them off our youngest like an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Strange how life pans out, isn’t it??

Then last Sunday we managed to get out on the boat. The weather was nice, but the swell on the ocean was still quite big, so we kept to the estuary. Sam Skippered us all the way from our pen, to the petrol pump, to the fish and chip restaurant (where we moored for a scoff) and then took us all the way to the estuary.

He then supervised Darcie and Adam having a drive before he took us back to the marina and EVEN PARKED THE BOAT IN THE PEN! All on his own! GO SAM!!! I’m sure he could pass his skippers ticket now. He’s very sensible and controls the boat better than I can. Shame he has to wait until he’s 14 until he can even take it. Heaven help us then though; he’ll want his own boat (and you KNOW he won’t want a small little tinnie; he aims high – like his Father).

The weather this weekend’s been quite nice too, but we’ve been on ‘home duties’. You know our lovely clothes line that we were so proud of? Well it fell off the wall and snapped, so we had to take that back for a refund. They said in the shop that they’d never had one returned in 10 years (well, they’d never had one installed the way we’d installed it in 10 years!!). We’ll see if we can do a little better with number 2 :o( The new tumble dryer’s working very well though. With that and the new iron, I might take in laundry for the neighbours – it’s not as it I’ve got much on my plate now!

We’ve been scooping all the sand up that’s been left in the garden by the wind and scattered it all over the lawn for ‘top dressing’. Hopefully, one last clean and the pool should be sand free and we should be able to use it in the not too distant future. Can’t imagine the kids hopping in and out of it and really enjoying it; it’s been sat there like a big white elephant for so long, just gathering sand, creepy crawlies and muck! The dog’s got the most use out of It so far, by accidentally plopping in it from time to time.

We took the dog for a walk on the beach today. We tried a new dog beach in Port Kennedy (next to the nudist beach – YES MUM, I said nudist beach – I promise I’ll take you there for a sausage sizzle if the weather’s warm enough whilst you’re here! :o) It’s a lovely sheltered bay in PK – much different to the surf waves on Secret Harbour beach. I don’t suppose the nudists like it rough; perhaps you get too much sand in your nether regions!

This is for Mum’s benefit also: thought you’d like to see a comparison in the sizes of the knickers that you sent over for Darcie. I wet myself laughing when I unpacked the ‘larger size’ initially. How much DO you think she’s grown since you saw her last? As you say; plenty of room for growth :o)

Small ones are more juicy!

And......... Mr Cheese's snazzy Thomas Jamas:

I've noticed recently that the kids are really getting Aussie accents! If Darcie's voice goes any higher at the end of a sentence, only Pentley will be able to hear her - and Sam's not a lot better! It's becoming really noticable! Paul does little 'Australianisms' too - like not being able to say 'Route' as we would normally pronouce it. 'Root' here means to 'shag' so we can't have a root round the shops! We have to 'row-te'. It's 'dar-ta' as well, rather than 'day-ta'. Lots of little things that you lot would take the piss out of!

Also, in community news:

Congratulations to Siobhan, Alex, Freyja and Anya on the arrival of a long awaited baby boy! Little Harry Alexander entered the world last weekend and I just want to wish them all very many congratulations and lots of love :o)

6 weeks to Sing-a-pore. Can’t blooming wait!!!! I have fallen in love with a Prada handbag, so I shall be combing the stalls for a good knock-off version :o) Wonder how much wages I can earn between now and then? Perhaps if I offer the boss sexual favours? Well it worked for me at Grattes! (Please God, that was a joke!). Start taking your multi-vitamins Mum (and bulk buying Nurofen for the stress headaches that the kids will give you – ha ha ). I’m really looking forward to showing you how far we’ve come since you were last here (about half a kilometer as the crow flies – lol :o) I'm thinking of having our 'house warming; whilst Mum if here. The weather will be warmer and she can get pissed and throw up on a Yukka (or something), in keeping with 'tradition'. I shall think about it further and let you all know - you are all invited, by the way...... start packing!

On a scale of 1 – 10, how sick are you of the Olympics already? Darcie is bereft as they have cancelled ‘Home and Away’ for two weeks; her absolute, all time favourite (by the way, we can be ‘bribed’ for insider tips and future story lines, should you feel the need!). I like the more obscure items like the dressage and the diving. If Sam was to find something he was good at, he could be in London for 2012 if the British diver is anything to go by. Unfortunately, Sam has no co-ordination and is crap at sport, so unless they make ‘moaning and groaning’ an Olympic sport, I guess we’re stuck in Oz! On that note; I shall leave you to the sport and bid you a fond farewell.

Take care you ‘orrible lot!