Saturday

olly and ruby paddling and looking for shells yesterday

these are the beautiful flowers the mums from playgroup gave me along with a generous gift certificate – and I thought they’d been doing me the favour all these months by bringing along their kids for me to play with!

This morning found me and J and Olly all sitting quietly in the library reading. I’m not quite sure what we’ve done to Olly but he’s going to bed before 11pm, getting up at 7am (or earlier!), eating beetroot, sweet potato, broccoli and various other veg he claimed not to like, drinking coffee in the mornings and is hardly ever on the computer (granted the game Peggle on J’s ipod may have become a new addiction!)

J bought a new phone today because his last one got waterlogged! (It seemed like a sensible idea to put it into a plastic bag and in the wee compartment in the kayak before going out on the river. Unfortunately it wasn’t!) His phone number is still the same though.

A funny thing happened today. We were on the bus coming back from Freo and a teenage boy was standing near the doors. When the doors opened his trousers just fell down!! I’m not sure if they caught on the door or if it was the breeze but he was wearing them low and loose as is the fashion. I almost managed to contain my laughter until I was off the bus. I reckon you had to have been there though!

A MASSIVE happy birthday Betsy from one side of the world to the other. Wish we could be there to celebrate with you!!

(I know this photo is a year out of date – which is a third of her life! – but I haven’t been to NYC for over a YEAR! And this picture makes us smile)

lots of children

Kids, kids and more kids.

Playgroup this morning had about 60-70 kids (plus mums and other relatives) for the Christmas party. Jonathan came along too and was a big hit!

As soon as that finished we popped over to the Geddes’ to babysit for the afternoon. Granted the girls were asleep for almost the whole time we were there and so we introduced Olly to ‘The Princess Bride’ which he wasn’t that impressed by but we love it!

Then off to Chidley Beach for the boys to have a wee paddle in the kayak while the Geddes girls and I paddled and then all had a BBQ. Fun fun!

Settlers x 2 tonight – we’re almost getting a daily fix and it’s rarely just one game we play at a time!!

I did take some pictures today and will post them tomorrow.

back ‘home’

Well, our wee trip to Margaret River has ended. It was good and rained every day which made us feel liks we were back in Scotland! In between the showers though we managed to get a sense of the area and liked it. Yesterday we chilled out a bit more. We went to Gracetown beach and the boys fossicked for crabs.

and threw rocks (!?)

and did some play fighting

then we found an organic veggie shop and went to town buying delicious strawberries, oranges, eggs and honey

the afternoon was whiled away playing settlers and wandering by the river before a BBQ for tea

and then a trip to the pub in the evening before one final game of Settlers!

Today we went to an ice-cream shop which had lots of grounds and fun outdoor games so we played Kubb (which we’d played with Andrew and Anne-Wilma before). It was good fun!

and then went to Busselton Jetty (the longest wooden jetty in the southern hemisphere – 1841m) and walked to the end and back.

Back ‘home’ now and looking forward to the playgroup Christmas party tomorrow!

Margaret River

We’ve just discovered our hotel has wireless internet access so I can catch up with the blog. We’ve been down since Monday and been having a great time although the weather hasn’t been great (which to be honest I’m loving, there’s even been rain which I think it awesome!) We’re staying in a wee cabin which has a kitchenette and a dining nook which is perfect for settlers (which we’ve played quite a bit!)

Monday – we didn’t arrive here until mid-afternoon and just wandered round, went for a walk by the river and played settlers.

Tuesday – a busy day – Lake cave (which was amazing!), a wee maze and picnic lunch, Random Valley organic vineyard (did you spot the key word there?!), Cape Leuwin lighthouse (which was great too!), Prevally Park beach for the boys to swim and do synchronised diving (which wasn’t that synchronised but was very funny!), then fish and chips for tea on our cabin’s ‘outdoor seating area’ and settlers x2 before the boys watched a couple of episodes of ‘Spaced’ and I read.

this is Port Bouvard which we came past on the way down – they call it ‘Little Venice’ because of the canals.

these next pictures are from Lake Cave. It really was awesome – they had lit it very well to great effect and the atmosphere was quite unlike anything above ground.

stopping for a photo on the way up the 300 stairs (more than Stanley Mills!!)

guess who we bumped into on our way out of the cave?!? How random is THAT!! (for those who don’t know – these are my friend, Ayley’s parents (I went to school with Ayley and shared a flat with her in Edinburgh) and her mum worked at my dad’s school until recently. They live in Perth, Scotland)

at the maze – for some reason Olly is hugging the centre tree!

at Cape Leuwin lighthoue – the most south westerly point in Australia. Right behond us is where the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean join (the little bit of white water above J’s shoulder marks the spot!)

kite surfing

I could watch it all day! It truly is a beautiful thing to see – the wind and the waves being used to move so gracefully. And when they jump… my heart jumps too (the boys are slagging me off for saying that but it’s true – I just expect them to take off and keep going!) Anyway, I managed to get a few photos on my phone but they don’t do it justice.

After watching the kite surfers we walked along to Cottesloe and the boys body surfed and looked like they had a lot of fun doing so!

So an afternoon at the beach, church this morning and THREE games of settlers throughout the course of the day (two with just us three and one with the Geddes’ this evening) A good day.

My dad emailed a wee reminder of what’s happening at home…

Oh how I miss the snow!!

Bonus nights – guest blog

What do you do when a doctor goes AWOL? Phone the Wraights – that’s what. I got a phonecall yesterday asking if I’d do a couple of extra nights because this guy had, without telling anyone, got in the car and drove East for a new job. Probably not good for his CV – there’s a tip.

Anyway  – another night tonight and then a day to recover before off to Margaret River. Morv bought a rashie today. Picture will be in the next edition. Olly hung out with Sarah and went mall-shopping for 2 hours – his absolute fave thing to do. I’ve been asleep most of the day but got up in time to make Olly’s favourite food  – beetroot. He ate it tho and then washed up – the photos are NOT fakes. That’s really him. Impressive dish stackage at the end.

Olly’s been a great guest so far – good parenting I suspect.

J

a morning walk

last Thursday playgroup

A sad day today. For the past ten months I’ve been helping out at a playgroup and have to say that (somewhat unexpectedly!) I’ve loved it. Well today was the last regular playgroup (next week is the Christmas party) and it’s rather sad to think that I’ll not see these kids grow up or see the mums every week. I didn’t think I’d be part of a playgroup when I moved to WA but it’s been ace.

The rest of the day (apart from a couple of hours in the middle when J and I took our books and went and sat by the river to read) was spent with people – we met a doctor friend for coffee this afternoon and then another doctor friend came round for dinner and chat. It must appear to Olly that the only people we know here are doctors… and when I think about it it’s pretty true!

Olly spent the day with his friend and seems to have had fun although he’s discovered that Perth city is rubbish (which it is!) “Fairly average” he says

J’s back to work tomorrow evening. It’s been a GREAT few days off though and we’re so looking forward to next week when he’s taken the WHOLE WEEK off!!

Rottnest (again!)

A GREAT trip today to Rottnest. What a difference the weather makes (sorry Rach – it might be best if you don’t read this post! It was so much more pleasurable to cycle without the wind and rain in your face.) We must give a massive shout out to the Geddes’ who furnished us with everything we needed today: bikes, wet shirts, sun tent, snorkel gear and a tennis ball (for the boys to throw to each other!)

And so the day was spent cycling and swimming and snorkeling and eating hummus and bread and crisps and watermelon. The weather was perfect (not too hot for me to be able to cycle!) and we all managed not to get burnt! (Some of us have some pink spots though!)

And no sea sickness – or even remote dodgy tummy feelings.

Such a lovely day and we’ve come home exhausted and happy and will all sleep ever so well tonight.

first sun cream application of the day!

on the boat

The boys playing with the tennis ball in the water. I think J is enjoying having a boy to throw to – not that I’m too bad for a girl but I did fall over yesterday when trying to catch the ball and managed to skin my hand and side. I’m not sure that I’ve ever skinned my hand and it hurts!! I have a lot more sympathy for six year old boys who skin their hands!

olly domestication day #1

J is teaching him to make hummus as I type…

and Olly and I made brownies this morning which worked perfectly!

In the midst of all these home economics lessons we managed to squeeze in a few hours at the beach. I had my first proper swim of the season and it was FANTASTIC!! No seaweed, clear warm water. Perfect!

Tomorrow we’ve decided to head to Rottnest (it’s forecast to be sunny and 28oC) and so we’ve borrowed Geddes bikes and snorkelling equipment (how thankful are we that they live so close and are so generous?!) Bring it on!