Saturday, January 31, 2015

Firefly


Oops, I haven't posted for ages! My excuse is that we have been settling back into term time. Who could have predicted I would have such sporty children, requiring so much driving about?  

Andrew was away last week so I did all of the tennis, cycling and piano picking up and dropping off. Bethany is also heavily involved. She does violin, drama, jazz and now tap. Thankfully, they are all done at school, in school hours!

While Joss was competing at the State championships in Sydney, I took Toby to the tennis comp. It was at Forest Hill where it was like stepping back in time. I do love an old fashioned, country tennis club, though it was a little dull for Bethany, bring there for three hours, and there was no coffee.


The paddock across the road has two horses in it at the moment. Bethany and her bus friend have been patting them and feeding them grass. 

Bethany began spending a lot of time over there, taking carrots from home. On Tuesday evening one of them bit her on the arm, leaving a very nasty bruise, so the relationship might cool a bit now.


She and her bus friend, however, are pretty much spending every afternoon at one another's houses. I love our street.

Joss had another cycling event last weekend, Wagga's Golden Wheel. There were far fewer riders in her section. Only five, and Joss came second in four races over the two days! She even won prize money.

I took Toby to tennis again, this time in town. Not nearly as much retro charm, but I could walk over to the Pot 'n Kettle for a fabulous coffee.

Today I visited a brand new baby girl, just born this morning. I bought her a board book version of Jane Eyre, months ago, hoping she would be a girl. Her name is Inara, and I came out of my office to tell everyone of the Firefly name and got nothing but blank looks. Borrow the DVDs from your library, people!

Monday, January 26, 2015

Happy Australia Day


We had a lovely visit with Flip and the kids. The cousins got on so well together and we all had a great time. 

This afternoon we went to the Listers', along with lots of other church friends for an Australia Day BBQ. There was lamb, pavlova and relaxed chatting and playing.


How I love a long weekend! Tomorrow we are back to work, and the following day the kids go back to school. I am trying to be excited about our lives getting busy again. We have a couple of items to buy tomorrow and we have commenced the attempt to make Joss' hair not blue!

Sunday, January 18, 2015

The blues


We're going home today. I am sitting in the quiet of a sleeping house, but soon we'll all be up and packing. We have had a wonderful time, relaxing and fun, but I am looking forward to seeing Milo, having wi-fi and not being sandy.


I had almost forgotten that I used to dye my hair. Now that I wear it very short, I don't like to pay to dye it, I get completely new hair every few months, but I used to have fun with colour. In year 9 I had streaks - the fabulous rubber cap with holes for the hairdresser to yank your hair through with a hook. I had hennas, dyed it a greenish brown and deeply unflattering black. All while at school. While at uni, I almost lived at the hairdresser and sometimes got three colours at once. I never did try blue.

At Tilba we visited the cheese factory. They have a glass wall from the shop, to view the factory floor. As we watched them bottle milk, one worker saw Joss and alerted all the others, so we were no longer viewing, but viewed. Joss is getting quite used to the attention and we are putting off thinking about how we are going to get rid of it before school goes back.....

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Teenagers


It was Toby's birthday yesterday, he is thirteen. Yes, we have two teenagers in the house. So far, so good.


We are enjoying all of our usual activities at Bermagui. Toby and Bethany are loving the beach. We have been to Tilba, eaten pizza and played games.


Our beach tent is a lovely place to mind our things, keep out of the sun, read and watch. People watching at the beach is fascinating.


After dinner last night we walked down to the blue pool. We climbed rocks as it began to rain. 

Here's Toby pondering life now that he is a teenager.


Today we are at Magic Mountain. For the third year running, Andrew has left before us and ridden the hilly coast road until we catch up, and this year, Joss went with him. We could never have imagined last year, that Joss would ride 47k with some long, steep hills, but she did it. We are calling her Blue Lightning, because of her brilliant blue hair, which we dyed again yesterday. I'll try and get a photo for the blog!

Monday, January 12, 2015

Bermagui


Ahhh, the much longed for week at the beach. We drove over in the rain on Sunday, lots and lots of rain, but the sun shone brightly when we woke on our first full day.
 
Bethany and Toby wasted no time in getting out on their boogie boards and digging massive holes in the sand. We have had fish and chips on the headland, the bikes have been out more than once, we have had an afternoon nap and I have walked down to the shops for coffee.

Today is overcast, which bothers none of us, and we have more of the above to look forward to.

Saturday, January 10, 2015

Old friends


When Bethany was in kindy, she had a good friend called Isabella. Isabella moved to Darwin and they have written a few letters to each other and her mother and I have kept in touch via Facebook.

I got a message the other day saying that they were going to be in Wagga, so we organised for Isabella to come over. Despite the fact that they haven't seen each other for many years, they had a lovely time together. 

We made biscuits (we had leftover smarties from our decorating adventure with the cousins) and they made their names. I didn't take a photo of the resulting biscuits, iced with purple and aqua, every coloured edible glitter and smarties. There was a bit of cleaning up to do afterwards......

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Summer


Oops, sorry Dad, I didn't mean to neglect the blog. Our post Christmas week with grandparents was nice and quiet. Lots of reading, cooking, eating and playing games.


I started back at work with a day on the mobile library. It was a very long day, starting at 7.30 and getting back at 5.30, but driving a semi trailer filled with books, DVDs and computers is a great way to see some little towns. Of course, I wasn't actually driving; I won't reverse park a hatchback, so am hardly likely to get a truck licence!