Hottest place on the planet!

Christmas morning, phew ... Anna got the Barbie caravan!

Christmas Day at Wendy's house!
Clare, Anna, Wendy and Bea.

Cooling off in our pool on Boxing Day!
Believe it or not, this was 5.59pm!

It's official, Christmas Day was the hottest place on the planet, rocking up to 45 degrees!

We spent the morning opening presents and in the afternoon went to a family member's house for a dip in the pool and food. Although turkey and brussel sprouts were on the menu, it's just not the same eating them in the heat!

Boxing Day was spent at the cinema watching the Bee Movie (with hundreds of people). When it gets hot here, the only place to go is to stay indoors with air conditioning. The rest of the day was spent in our pool, cooling off!

Cold in December ...

It's been drizzly and cold (as in "Perth cold") in December. Everyone has been saying that if we get a cold December then January and February will be HOT! We've been checking out the weather reports and Christmas Day is rumoured to be 38 degrees, so the weather is heating up. They generally get the weather right here, so it looks as though it's going to be a scorcher! Which is good, as we are going around to a family member's house on Christmas Day for a pool party.

Yesterday, Anna and I (with some kids and mums from school) went to see The Nutcracker performed by the Youth WA Ballet at the Perth Playhouse. It was excellent, all the kids were in complete rapture, especially when the dancers came on as fairies with glittery tutus and tiaras. It was a great show.

Nige and some cycling friends went for a ride in the Perth hills. Afterwards, everyone came back to ours for a dip in the pool and a BBQ. It was a great afternoon ...

Graduation Night

Anna's primary school holds an annual event where all of the children perform for their parents and teachers as a thank you for the year. As it's the end of the year and the last time the year 7s will be at school before they move on to high school, they also "graduate".

The dances have been choreographered by an external teaching group called, "EduDance". They have been in school all term teaching the kids of all years dance. It's part of the physical education program.

Anna and her class performed, "Best Years of our Lives".

Anna is in a red shirt, black skirt and leggings at the front of the group on the floor.

School end of year party at the local park

The face painter was fantastic and she managed to do all the kids!

Anna with some of her class mates.

Santa was a bit unconventional, arriving on the back of the ute!

Bye Santa!

Of course, there was copius amounts of alcohol.
Well you have to embrace the Aussie way of life!

Weekend away in Denmark (WA)

Our destination, a five hour drive South.

Great Southern Highway
(Not many traffic lights on here!)

A typical road house.
You don't see much else for about 5 hours driving.

A Road Train
(Pretty much all you see when you travel outside of Perth)

Our accommodation at Elle-Tree Resort
(Fantasic!)

Before we could chill out we had to get rid of our "guest"!
A Huntsman Spider

Yes, we did put the log burner on!

A Tingle Tree in the Valley of the Giants.
These trees are over 400 years old and are some of the biggest trees in the whole world.
They are only found in South West Australia.

The Tree Top Walk in Walpole.
The bridge is 40 metres above ground and gives you a spectacular view of the
forest and surrounding area.

Peaceful Bay at dusk
Denmark

Peaceful Bay at dusk.
(Not many crowds here!) Denmark

"Elephant Rocks" on William Bay
Denmark

The drive down to the beach.
Not much traffic here!

You forget how hot it gets in the summer

It's become a bit of a custom to go to the park on Fridays after school. The kids get to have a run around and the mums get to sit and have a beer/wine (or two) and some nibbles. Sometimes we even throw some snaggers (sausages) on the barbie, and have a sausage sizzle (hot dog!).

This Friday it was just too hot though. It was peeking at 39 degrees. Therefore, I suggested that instead of the park we should all go to our place and have a dip in the pool. It was great! The kids had a good splash around and the mums got to have a chat and catch up. I'm so pleased that I went a bit mad the other weekend and bought lots of inflatable toys for the pool.

New July and October Posts - Nige

July's Blog has been updated with my trip to Newfoundland, finally got round to it for those who were waiting patiently. Octobers has been updated with my minor bike accident details etc, all healed now and a new bike as well..

We have been in the pool ...

It was hot enough yesterday (32 degrees) to venture in the pool, well, Nige went in with Anna. Here are the snaps of this historic venture ...

Trepidation ....In he goes ...
Max had the right idea, taking it easy in the sun.

Surf's Up!

SURF'S UP!

Anna's 6th Birthday

It took a full day of cooking and preparation to get Anna's birthday party organized, but it was worth it as it went off without a hitch. We had invited the whole class to "Jungle Gyms" for an hour of organized play and then a birthday tea. Everyone had a great time and the kids left suitably "high" on the sugar rush. A success all round.

Today is Anna's actual birthday and we are going to a "grown-up" restaurant, just the three of us. I'm looking forward to it!

Anna would like to say a big "thank-you" to everyone who sent cards and presents. xxx

Auntie (Grandma) Sheila, Anna loved the photo of Charlie. She has put it in a frame and it's on her bedroom wall, with the one of Molly!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Anyone up to anything spooky?

We have Anna's 6th birthday party after school at the local gymnasium, "Jungle Gyms". They get one hour of supervised play and then the party room for food. I have been busy making "Jelly Boats" this morning from Annabel Karmel's book (if you have a baby or kids you will know who I mean). It took about 35 oranges to make 10 boats. They are so fiddly. Now I need to make the cup cakes ...

Ugg Boots

I have finally succumbed and bought a pair of Ugg boots. For the uninitiated, Ugg boots are quintessentially Australian, sheepskin boots. My vegetarian conscience has not been sleeping over this purchase.

I think of Ugg boots and Pamela Anderson, girls wearing hotpants and Uggs. I of course will just be wearing them around the house!

They are the most comfortable and warm slipper I have ever had.

Anna also has a pair and loves them!

I'm taking orders if anyone wants a pair...

Weekend in Busselton

We were away at the weekend with some of Nige's work colleagues and their families. We stayed at a wonderful farmhouse (owned by the parents of James, a work colleague) in Busselton. It took about three hours to get there but the drive was well worth it. The seat-back DVD player is an absolute blessing. When we arrived there was a glass of chilled wine waiting, and a wonderful pasta dinner. James and his girlfriend had even prepared me a vegetarian dish. Everyone promptly got the kids off to bed, so we could all relax with a glass of wine!

With the weather being overcast and rainy we decided to stay around the farm on the Saturday. This was no hardship though, all the kids got on really well playing together, there was even a trampoline and a QUAD BIKE! Everyone spent most of the day whizzing around the farm on it. Anna loved it!

Then Nige decided to take our car off-roading, as the rain we have been having this season had made a lot of the tracks really muddy. Of course, most of the guys went! Everyone else just hung around the house. An hour or so had passed when we saw James running back up the track looking really concerned. Nige had managed to get the car bogged (I could think of a lot to say here ... but I won't ...) and one of the guys (Afton) had managed to step on a bee. Now, that isn't that worrying except that Afton is allergic to bee stings. Alan quickly jumped on the quad bike with his medication and went to find them. Nige had taken on the job as first-aider. Afton's wife followed in the car. To cut a long story short (I HAVE to get some paid work done), Alan got the medication to Afton and everyone was brought back in the car to the house. What about our car??? I can hear you asking. Well, this is the cool part. James pulled up outside the house in a HUMONGOUS TRACTOR. The kids were beside themselves with excitement. Anna got to ride in the cab with some of the guys and help pull the car out of the ditch. The car was OK, it just had some very impressive mud and dirt on it.

Afton recovered to have a celebratory glass of red wine, that sent him directly to sleep for the reminder of the day. Missing the planned BBQ we had all been looking forward to.

All's well that ends well...

Not So Magic Roundabout

In typical perth style the corporate sports challenge (which is organised by the local government to get more people into sport) has a bike to work challenge. Basically it encourages companies to enter with their employees to get them cycling to work, everyone logs their mileage (or kilometerage) over a six week period and there are prizes at the end.
My preparation didn’t get off to the best of starts though. The week before the challenge found me hitting the ground on a roundabout after having been hit by a car. The bike was totaled with me sporting cuts and bruises only thankfully.
Whilst waiting for the cuts to heal and for the drivers insurance to replace my bike, I put together a slightly unusual single speed full suspension mountain bike with slick tyres based on what I had in the garage (since like many I never throw bike bits away, much to my Nadine’s frustration). The first week of the challenge found me still limping around so I tentatively tried a ride at the end of the week and found the legs still worked okay. After a few rides around the infamous roundabout to purge the demons (wearing more high visibility clothing than a railway worker) I was back in the saddle for cycle commuting. I’m used to pretty poor cycling conditions so the cycle paths and weather here in Perth are a revelation to me. Each ride to and from work has allowed to explore paths I would normally miss out in the attempt to ‘get the mileage up’ for our team the X men. On week 4 of the challenge the call I had been waiting for came though and a replacement bike was waiting for me down at the local bike shop. I bid a fond farewell to the singlespeed as I converted it back to a bike for Nadine, I was back on the new bike by week 5, just in time for a government great prize giveaway (see pic above)

I obviously didn't drink and ride!

Our team (the X men) managed to clock up 5527 km in the 6 weeks between 6 of us, equivalent to about Newcastle to Dubai, or in energy terms 615 Mars Bars. For the eco-conscious amongst you that saved around 1625 kgs of Carbon Dioxide. Check out http://www.homecorporatechallenge.com.au/b2w07/b2wblog.html
for more details.