Couldn’t resist taking this phot of the twins!
As you can see Sam is absolutely delighted to be back in Porty.
Meanwhile Freya is being her normal camera shy self.
My gorgeous wife and some old wino bloke looking like he just woke up. Unfortunately this was taken in the middle of the day so that excuse is out.
Every picture you see about Sydney is either the bridge or the Opera House. This is a different view. From the Heads looking back to Sydney.
We spent the day at Manly beach today, walking all wrapped up in our winter clothes having well and truly acclimatised from living in Brisbane!
There were were hundreds of surfers and people playing volleyball on the sand. I think it’ll take us while to get used to the temperture drop! We’re just a bunch of wimps!
We had lunch at a small cafe and asked for a table of six. Sat down and realised that we were only five. Josh was in Brisbane at boarding school. Hard to get used to not having him around actually.
Although cheaper lunches…
My great mate John Galloway came to visit me today on his brand new motorcycle.
A gleaming Triumph Bonneville with all the bells and whistles.
He was out for a ride on a Sunday and was just having a lazy day in the winter sun on his motorbike.
John and Joanna are married with no kids.
I’m not.
Tracie took Joshua back to boarding school in Brisbane on Saturday morning. The flight was at some god awful time on Staurday morning so I drove them to the airport leaving Mollie in charge of the sleeping twins.
Got back and everyone was still asleep so i just pottered around the house until a more reasonable hour.
Spent the day keeping everyone occupied and played the usual parenting game of - Keep the kids away from electornice games and TV. This is the equivelent of herding cats. Its absolutely freezing at the moment with frost on the ground so even I didn’t feel up to playing outside - so we took the dog for a walk up to the village for hot chocolate and a play in the park.
Basically I was just trying to kill time before the big night out - Nemo on Ice!
Fish on Drugs or Dead Fish being kept fresh? I couldn’t work out which I was hoping it would be.
So after a quick bite to eat - fish and chips - and no they didn’t get the irony - we headed off to the ice rink.
Unfortunately it was the Disney version which was incredibly visually stimulating and rather breath taking - especially the 50ft Whale on ice that ate a couple of the skaters.
There must have been about 5000 people in the stadium being sold absolute shite merchandise at hugely inflated prices. One dad in front of me almost passed out after being charged $40 for a funny wee torch!
My kids just looked at me once and decided it was best not to ask.
So in the tradition of many tired parents - I fell asleep for the first act and was woken by Sam telling me I was snoring.
Anyway they enjoyed themselves and was definately the highlight of their weekend.
I was just glad of the sleep.
I suppose I should refer to our road trip as it would appear we were teleported to Sydney from reading my last post.
To be honest it was pretty uneventful - we didn’t lose any kids, didn’t fight and didn’t encounter any crisis that seem to hog our general daily life.
We took 3 days to amble down the coast stopping at Coffs Harbour one night. (When the kids were in bed we went and stood on the beach and watched shooting stars under the most amazing full moon and just reflected on how we ended up on this mad adventure)
The following few days we drove through the vineyards of NSW and bought wine from lovely wee vineyards and stayed in a great resort where we just relaxed and got ready for the final assault on the unpacking of 300 boxes when we arrived in Wahroonga.
Its been raining almost constantly for the last month so everywhere is pretty green and in some cases pretty flooded but definately a lot colder than in Queensland!
We have more or less no winter clothes to survive the winter in NSW as the temperature very rarely dropped below 16 degrees in Brisbane - so we stopped on the way down in country towns buying jackets and jeans the further South we progressed!
I think the drive down was probably one of my better decisions as it somehow mentally and emotionally prepared us that we were moving - instead of just getting on a plane and arriving at a new house.
So all in all a pretty uneventful but worthwhile exercise - but if you’ve ever seen Deliverance you’ll appreciate some of the countryside and towns we drove through…..
Well after a frantic week of moving a family 1200kms we’re now firmly ensconced in a solid brick house for the first time in nearly 3 years.
Imagine living in a city of garden sheds where you can hear the neighbours eat their cereal and listen to their viewing habits nightly. Where everyone thinks it normal to go to bed at 8.00pm and get up at 5.00am to wash their car and cut their grass. Imagine having to dress in a formal suit and go out in 40 degree heat everyday. Welcome to Brisbane folks - My private hell.
Imagine then you wake up one morning and it was all just a dream. A form of purgatory for entrance into a civilised world.
Thats how I feel.
Brisbane was a fantastic place for the first few years in a foreign country, with it’s beautiful beaches, incredible climate, laid back lifestyle and fantastic people. But believe me - the novelty soon wears off.
You know when you look out the window and its absolutely pissing down, it’s grey and cold and you think, bugger this I’m going back to bed. Thats how it gets when everyday you wake up and its 40 degrees again and 90% humidity. Eventually you find yourself going to the cinema at 9.00am just to get into some air conditioning.
Trying to book a restaurant table for a romantic dinner and they tell you that 6.00pm is the only sitting as the kitchen shuts at nine!
Having people round for drinks on your deck but they leave at 8.00pm because they have to get up at 4.30am because they have to go rowing every morning.
I don’t know how the murder rate wasn’t higher - I sure of hell was close to wanting to kill people when you’re just trying to get by in the equivelent of a tumble dryer every day and your social life is thrown into turmoil. Your patience level drops dramatically.
So here we sit, one week into our solid brick Sydney home, it’s raining, it’s cold, we’ve got a fire lit, all the boxes are unpacked and I haven’t heard the neighbours. I feel like one of the little pigs.
I suppose we should really fix the hole in the ceiling though….
