Home for Christmas!!

After the epic plane flight home (only 40 hours door to door you know)and the obligatory spak in Melbourne from May we are back in Tas, and its WARM, and smells of gum leaves and we went to the beach at 5am (jet lag you know) and its all rather a wonderful escape from English winter......
this is the beach we could never be bothered going to as kids because just wasnt as good as Kingston beach just over the hill (not enough fish and chip shops).R's parents have had a deck put on the front of their house, quite a nice place to sit in the sun and watch the Syndey-Hobart boats coming in.
J and R are off walking from Melaleuca to New Harbour in South West Tassie, flew in by small plane yesterday and are hopefully (weather permitting) being picked up Boxing Day. A real adventure- stay posted for all sorts of great pictures. Meantime little M and I are slothing with the relatives. 3 weeks before we head back to winter! Merry Christmas to you all!

End of Term Plays, Xmas Parties and 2 days on a Plane...

Another busy week...we have been frantically trying to tidy up loose ends at work, finish the school PTA directory AND attend social functions. The first major event was the Xmas play at school. Because there is not much room in the school hall, the play runs four times - afternoon and evening on two days. I made a special effort to get a new camera before we went (to much grumbling from M)

J was initially disappointed that he didnt get a speaking part, but this was overcome once the teacher let him carry a shield...I am not certain what the significance of stripe shirted, bereted frenchmen carrying shields is, but it certainly stopped the whining! M got to be Mary, very good choice - sitting and looking dignified and grave suits her very well!
The next big event was the final Thursday Night Snooker at the Social Club for R...a very big turnout and far too many pints. Daddy wasnt feeling too hot on Friday morning.
Friday night was the big night - J's drama class end of term show, M&M&J went to see Dick Whittington pantomime after and R went to the CERF Xmas party at Queens, to be joined later by a bunch of overtired and hyper small people and their knackered mum.

Now we are in cleaning and packing frenzy before we leave tomorrow night. I think we have enough stuff to survive now, and we look like squishing everything into 2 bags (a matter of pride for big M who is able to go the US for a week carrying only a laptop bag). We are all looking forward to being warm again in just 2 days from now (hope it doesnt do the xmas snow thing in Hobart)

Drama, Guiness, shoes and zoos

We have had a very busy week!! Started with little M's drama performance as a mouse in her drama group. Very cute (pity the camera is still defunct, hope to get another soon). Then on Thursday we went to see The HMS Pinafore by the local G&S society. We had a good time, M said that the best bit was when the sailor and the girl got married at the end. The next morning big M had a mega day - caught the 6.30am flight to Dublin (which means a 4.45am start from home) and had a day at Trinity College. Unfortunately there was no time to look around so I invited myself back next year. (fortunately they seemed happy with that). We had some beers after the conference day in a nice pub, then I caught the 9.45pm flight back to Stansted, arrived home around midnight and decided that really was too long a day!!! On Saturday went to Colchester to buy shoes for the kids (sounds absurd but there is a great kids shoe shop there which does a good job fitting little M's difficult feet). So they are kitted out with boots for winter now. Wish I had boots that nice!! To do the Colchester trip we had hired a car for the weekend, so Sunday we went to Homerton Zoo, which was quite fun. They had all sorts of animals we had never seen before - including chipmunks, jaguarindi, pudu, lots of types of tamarind and a real white tiger. The tiger was HUGE, really much bigger than any other we have seen. It is primarily a breeding zoo for rare and endangered animals so had all sorts of interesting animals (of course with obligatory kookaburras and wallabies too). Kids had a great time, and a clear winters day is a good time to go to zoos - no people and the animals are out basking in what passes for the sunshine. So a good time was had by all. Off to Tilburg tomorrow morning, back Tuesday!