Daylight Saving Time

The clocks are adjusted twice a year in Australia to allow for 'Daylight Saving Time' over the summer months and this usually ends at the end of March when the clocks go back an hour, and then forward an hour again in October. However, there has been a change to the weeks when the clocks change this year in NSW so that the change in time can be aligned with the rest of the country, which had caused confusion in the past.

So this year the clocks haven't gone back this weekend as expected and it's been delayed by a week until next weekend. This has created a 'mini-Y2K' effect with computers and mobile phones that are programmed to change for this weekend in this time zone, so people and businesses are having to manually adjust times for a week and then again in October when the clocks will go forward 3 weeks earlier than usual.

This weekend also saw the second annual Earth Hour event take place in Sydney, where businesses and residents were encouraged to turn off all unnecessary power for an hour at 8pm. After the successful introduction of this symbolic event last year - when 10% of power in the city was apparently saved - the Hour has taken on a global following this year with many cities around the world also participating. All the girls were out with friends on Saturday night so we did 'our bit' and played cards by candlelight for an hour!

Easter weekend

It's been a long weekend break for us all due to the early Easter this year - the girls have just had the few days off over the weekend and then break up for school holidays in the middle of April. The weather has changed again since last week and there were showers on Friday, so when Sue and I returned to the Opera House on Friday night to see Jools Holland, the ferry trip and pre-show drinks overlooking the harbour weren't quite the same as earlier in the week with Simon. However, the show was excellent and a great performance by Jools and his 'big band'.

Saturday and Sunday were mostly spent around the house and then on Easter Monday we took Rebecca and 2 friends to the Easter Show at the Olympic Park. We had also been to this annual event last year and it follows much the same format each year although it was much busier this year, being the Easter weekend and with much of the show taking place this year during the school term.

The girls went off to do their own thing so Sue and I wandered around some of the exhibition halls and then watched a show jumping event, some of the wood chopping competitions and various farm animal judging activities before meeting up with the girls to catch the bus back home for the evening.

Simon departs

Sue and I were up at 5am today to drive Simon back to the airport as he was continuing his holiday in Thailand. It's been great to have him here for a visit and he saw Sydney in the best light, with sunny warm days and the full 'lifestyle' experience!

On Tuesday we'd taken him to Terry Hills for a round at the Par 3 golf course - where we hadn't been before - and not surprisingly he showed us how it should be done! We then went on to Palm Beach for lunch on the beach and a quick swim, before back home to see the girls back from school. In the evening we had an early barbie, as the 3 of us then made the trip to the Opera House, via the Cremorne ferry, to see 'The Vertical Hour' play in the Drama Theatre. It was a lovely warm evening, combined with an impressive sunset, and the play was enjoyable and thought-provoking.

Yesterday was more of a quieter day spent around the house, culminating in Simon cooking a meal for all of us prior to his departure.

St Patricks Day

Sue's brother Simon arrived here on Saturday night and so we've taken to the tourist trail again for the past few days. We started with a gentle day on Sunday, with a trip up onto North Head and then back into Manly for some time on the beach and lunch, before a leisurely afternoon at home watching the Grand Prix from Melbourne (the first and only one of the year that's shown at a decent time here!) and a roast dinner in the evening.

Today was St Patrick's Day, although the parade in the city took place yesterday. However, since the girls were back at school, the 3 of us caught the bus to Manly and the ferry into the city to visit the Rocks ands have a pint of Guinness at the main Irish pub there, which was packed and enjoying some live music inside. After lunch we took a walk across the bridge to Milson's Point and back again, before returning home. In the evening Laura was working at the newsagents but the rest of us went to Balmoral for a fish & chip supper on the beach as the sun went down.

Superboat Grand Prix

The past weekend has been one of lovely weather and sociable evenings, with friends around for meals on Friday and Saturday nights. We had a brief trip to Freshwater beach on Saturday morning, as Sue wanted to view an apartment for one of her customers, so I went onto the beach with Rebecca and a friend of hers who had stayed the night. There was the usual activity of surfing and 'nippers' going on (children's life-saving and water skills clubs).

Sue and I then walked part of the Spit-Manly walk in the afternoon, in the reverse direction to previously, and planned it to finish at Castle Rock beach where we had a quick dip to cool off. On Sunday we had also planned to go snorkelling and wanted to try Taylors Beach (as we were also going to watch the 'Superboat Grand Prix' on the harbour). However, the snorkelling was disappointing as the water was too cloudy and the beach quite littered - one of the side bays in the harbour that collects the flotsam!

However, from there we walked 20 minutes through the bush to Bradley's Head where there was a good view of the hour long powerboat race on the harbour - the first time this has taken place here. There were 3 different classes of powerboat and the 4 big ones made a lot of noise, so there's sure to be complaints from the harbourside residents, but it was quite spectacular and certainly a novelty compared to the usual boating activity on a Sunday afternoon!

Yachting on Pittwater

As we're now living close to so much water, we've always intended to get more involved in water activities and have dabbled with kayaking and snorkelling, but are also intending to try sailing and surfing - of course - at some stage. So when we saw an advert in the local paper last weekend for a free 'Try Yachting Day', Sue and I signed up!

Saturday fortunately turned out to be the best day of weather over the past week and mid-morning we headed up to Pittwater and the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club that was hosting the day's event. There were about 30 people who turned up for the day and after a coffee and short introduction we were allocated our yachts and met by the 'skipper' - in our case, Roger - and it was just the 2 of us joining his yacht.

We followed him out to the jetty and met the rest of the crew - 7 in total - who were preparing the beautiful looking 37-foot yacht and we had a brief explanation of the procedure onboard. I was also allocated a job since they were a crew-member short for the race, which was taking place in the afternoon between about 20 yachts in different classes.

After motoring out from the club and getting the sails and position ready for the start of the race, it all kicked off at 1.30pm and we spent the next 2 hours following a course up and down Pittwater, so plenty of changes in direction and adjustments to the sails. My job was 'dumping' the rope off one side of the boat when we changed tack, so it usually meant that I was one of the first to move from sitting on the side of the yacht, down the angled deck to the rope that was to be released, and then climb up onto the other side of the yacht as it changed direction. Sue was also changing sides at the back of the yacht as she was sitting behind the wheel.

It was quite a windy afternoon and an exhilarating few hours with some time to also enjoy the views and all the yachts behind us, as ours won the race! The crew all work together on a regular basis and were very efficient, plus they were all very welcoming to us both and were happy to answer our questions and explain what was going on! After the race Sue steered the boat back around Scotland Island to the club and, after sorting out the yacht, we all had a beer in the bar where there was a small prize-giving ceremony for the winning yachts.

The day was great fun and we both plan to do more when we can - whether large or small boats!