Off to the UK

We're all heading back to the UK later today for the Christmas holiday, so the alarm will be set, the guard dogs let loose and this blog will have a rest for a few weeks!

Early Christmas in Oz

Since we won't be here for Christmas this year we had our family Christmas Day on Saturday. It was a hot sunny day - for a change - and we all headed to the small Castle Rock beach on the inner harbour in the morning. There were few people around to begin with so we had the beach and water to ourselves for a while and then headed home for lunch after several hours.

Laura was working at the newsagents in the afternoon but when she came home we 'threw' some snags and prawns on the barbie and ate on the veranda. We also exchanged our 'secret Santa' presents and then the girls opened some additional presents early that we're not going to ship to the UK and back!

We've also had another social weekend, with Sue and I meeting 2 other couples for a meal in Mona Vale on Friday night and then going with Rebecca for a meal with some other friends yesterday lunchtime. We also had a disrupted night on Saturday with numerous fire engines and police cars converging on an industrial unit 2 blocks away from us at 2.30am - we could see the red sky and hear the fire from the house and there was still plenty of activity at the site the next morning, including a forensics team as it was apparently a suspected arson attack.

So this week is now one of winding down for the girls at school, and for the business, prior to the Christmas holiday.

More storms!

It's been a stormy week, culminating in 2 big storms over the weekend. Friday afternoon brought an intense downpour with high winds and lighting - apparently 20mm of rain fell in 10 minutes. Sue was out in the car with Laura and Rebecca and could hardly see where she was going and I was at home with Caroline, 'battening down the hatches' and watching the wild weather from inside! Several hours later we were at some friends for a barbie and sitting outside in the warm evening air.

Rebecca, Sue and I were also out on Saturday night for a meal with the parents of one of Rebecca's friends from school and Sue and I walked home in the balmy night air. Sunday then started very hot and humid as we walked back to collect the car and so after lunch we headed down to Freshwater beach to cool off. The beach was closed when we got there, however, due to strong currents, so we had a quick dip in the sea pool before more storm clouds rolled in.

We arrived home just before the rain and hailstones arrived although we also got off lightly, as some of the inland suburbs were battered by much larger hailstones with a lot of damage reported to houses and cars. So we've yet to see the summer arrive in earnest, although the dam water levels must be benefiting from all the recent rain!

Storm

So much for the start of summer, although where there's heat, the storm's tend to follow. This is what rolled in yesterday afternoon, just as the girl's were about to come home from school. We missed the worst of it which hit other parts of Sydney, but there's forecast to be more on the way this week!

Start of summer

Saturday marked the start of summer here, but there was heavy rain for most of the day, which continued the theme of November which has apparently been the wettest in Sydney since 1995. Only last year we were in the grip of a drought with water shortages but now the dams are near 60% capacity (although the inland farmlands are still struggling for water).

Sue and I went to the regular quarterly bookfair on Saturday to top up our bookshelves with some second-hand books - or 'pre-loved' as they are more attractively called here! We had also attended another 'Poms night' at a local pub on Friday to meet some of the regulars and a few new expats, plus Sue attracted a large number of mosquitoes to her legs during the evening which has resulted in an uncomfortable weekend for her!

We had also invited a new English couple around for a barbie on Saturday night although the husband couldn't make it as he was ill, but the wife and children came - the daughter is in the same class as Caroline. The family are having quite a lot of problems and hurdles in their first few months which makes us feel that we were very lucky getting settled!

On Sunday the sun returned and we all went to Sydney for several hours to visit the market in The Rocks. We caught the ferry from Cremorne and it was good to visit the city again as we haven't been there much over recent months, other than when I've been in for business meetings. And it was good to do something as a family for a change (although since the activity revolved around shopping it wasn't hard to get the girls to come along)!