Sunday, February 04, 2007
We had a lovely surprise this morning. Rhonda arrived up to the lake for a flying visit while my brother Joe was on a stags weekend in Newcastle. She called in for an hour with Cian and the kids were delighted. He is getting big and is full of smiles. He is straining to sit up and loves grabbing anything that comes his way. Sian was loving it when he kept grabbing her hair and nose. She didn't try very hard to keep out of his reach! Here is a photo of them having a cuddle on the sofa.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
When we lived in Northampton we tried to get our regular babysitter Harriet to let us out once a month to go to the cinema or a meal. We said we would try to do the same once we were settled here in Oz.
Finally 16 months down the line and we have found ourselves a local girl to come and watch the kids so we can have a night out! It is great to know that we can pay someone so that we can go out for no special reason. When you ask a friend or relative you feel that it needs to be a really important occasion.
We asked the babysitter to come at 6.30pm as a local cinema had a double feature starting at 7pm. We raced there and queued up only to see the last tickets sold to the man in front of us. We drove on into Newcastle on a whim and parked near the water and settled in a pub/restaurant called The Brewery. 
We had a great meal and sat and watched the moon rise. It was an amazing shade of reddish orange.
After the meal I had a wicked cocktail called a "Naomi Cambell" It hit me across the face with its handbag and got sentenced to 60 hours community service. I'm getting carried away! It was like a smack in the chops though as it was made with Tia-Maria, Creme de cacoa, Ameretto and cream. Delicious!!! When we left The Brewery we went for a walk along the beach under the moon light, very romantic but a bit chilly in my strappy top.
It was a wonderful evening and we will have to try to do it more often.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
It's week 20 of our house build out of 30 weeks in total so we are heading into the final third of this adventure!
So far the house has flown up incredibly dramatically. The builder said this week that we are still on schedule and may even be finished by week 28!
The inside of the house has changed amazingly over the last two weeks with plumbers, carpenters, electricians and air-con engineers all getting on with their parts of the build. The internal walls went up this week. They call it "gyprock" here but we know it as plaster-board. It gives a real sense of definition to see the rooms take shape. The kids are very excited as they now can see clearly which room is their bedroom etc. I think this will help Gareth in particular with the transition into the new house.
This photo is taken from the kitchen and shows the kids in the open plan eating area where we will put our main dinner table. It has sliding doors on the left of the photo that lead out to the back garden and a large bay window that I hope to build a window seat into. This room will have a good clear view of the back garden and hopefully our swimming pool (whenever we can afford one!)
This photo is taken in the same room but with me turned around 180 degrees. It is the kitchen end of the same room. You can see the plumbing for the kitchen sink under the window and on the very left of the photo you can just see the door frame for the laundry room. The kitchen will be fitted over the next few weeks and is where Byron keeps telling the builders that I will be spending most of my time!!!
One last photo for todays blog.... This is the most important room in the house for you.....
Yes! It's the spare room! It is downstairs at the front of the house and has a great view of gum trees in the reserve and even a small glimpse of the lake!
Best bedroom in the house and currently expecting visitors during 9 of the next 12 months! No more bookings being taken for 2007. Think we will have to raise our prices in 2008 to put you lot off!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Gareth went back to pre-school yesterday and today it is the girls who finally go back to school.
They've had a great Summer Holidays (including Christmas, New Year, Boambee Bay) and have been really looking forward to going back to school. Neither of the girls slept well last night because they were so excited.
I took a quick photograph of them this morning before they jumped in the car.
It hardly seems like 12 months ago when I added this post:
http://thebaynhamfamily.blogspot.com/2006/01/back-to-school.html
With the kids back to school it finally gives Gina a rest as she has been entertaining them non-stop. As always, she has limitless energy and has kept them more than occupied !
Monday, January 29, 2007
Today is Gareth's first day back at Carey Bay Pre-School.
I was hoping that there would be no tears. Luckily he ran from the car to the Pre-School gate and was so excited to see all his friends again. He was distracted as I waved goodbye and hardly noticed me walking down the path.
Suddenly he ran up after me, "Mum wait!" My heart sank. Here we go with the tears and persuading him to stay I thought ....
"I forgot something, I love you!"
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Today was another glorious sunny day. Blue skies but not crazy hot. A perfect boating day!
Karen and Simon met us at the boat ramp early this morning with their two little girls and we spent 5 hours whizzing around the lake. 
It was great having another person on board with a boating licence as it gave Mr B a chance to sit back and be driven around for a change.
We brought the biscuit out for the second time and Byron was a lot more comfortable knowing how fast to go to give the kids a bit of a thrill but without scaring the living daylights out of them!
Legally you need one adult driving and one adult watching the person in the biscuit.
Because we had two more adults on board I was also able to have a go being dragged behind the boat . I made sure I had a little kid on my knee so that Byron couldn't go too fast! It was brilliant fun.
We dropped anchor beside an island in the middle of the lake and let the kids jump overboard and swim around the boat. Byron and Simon jumped in too and after a lot of persuasion I reluctantly joined them . It really was lovely. Not as cold as I had expected.
After a while we headed back to the lake side and got out Simon and Karen's water skis. They are a junior size and the two skis are tied together to make it easy for beginners. We were really surprised when Rhiannon jumped up for a go after Kayla. On her first attempt she went face first into the water but on the second go she stayed upright!
Sian also had a go and managed first time!
Poor Gareth tried 6 attempts. Each time falling flat on his face! He surprised us by not crying once and asking to try over and over again. We eventually admitted defeat and because we were almost out of fuel we called it a day and brought the boat out of the water.
The kids had fun jumping off the jetty while we were busy with the boat
Byron has got to grips really well with handling the boat on the trailer. It is coming more naturally to both of us as to what to do getting the boat in and out of the water. It still takes at least an hour after we get home to clean down the salt water off the boat and wash down all the interior carpets but it is a fun job and well worth the trouble.
It is still a two person job reversing the trailer into the garage. I have no idea how some of our friends can manage to stay out on the lake after nightfall and drive home in the dark. There have been lots of fireworks on the lakeside recently for New Year and Australia day. We are happier to watch from the bank! I think for now we are
definitely day boaters!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Australia day ended with a bang... Literally!
As we sat on the sofa with our empty wine glasses feeling a little the worse for wear, we heard a muffled pop. Byron thought the fridge had died. I was too tipsy to care!
By the next morning we woke up (hung-over) wondering if maybe it had miraculously resurrected itself overnight... It hadn't! I rang Kel for help and he offered us the lend of some freezer space for the day while we organised a new fridge.
5 minutes later Kel wandered in our front door . I don't know who got the biggest fright. Me, finding him in the kitchen, or Kel, seeing me in pj's with hair that looked like I had shoved my finger in a socket! After looking at fuses and power boards we were non the wiser and Kel said we should probably go shopping. We were planning on a new fridge for the new house. We just assumed we would wait until we had moved in.
Off to the shops we went. A couple of hours and a couple of thousand dollars later and we were on the phone to Anne and Kel looking for a lend of their Ute to bring home our new fridge. They very kindly dropped everything, delayed some visitors and set off to help us. Within a couple of hours we had the new fridge in our kitchen and the kids were busy putting the fridge magnets all over it. It is pretty cool by UK standards (pretty normal by Aussie ones) It has side by side freezer and fridge with a water dispenser in the freezer door. It also makes and dispenses ice-cubes or crushed ice at the touch of a button. The fridge door has a small pull down door that allows access to one shelf that holds milk and soft drinks. It is supposed to be an energy saving gadget that reduces fluctuations in temperatures when you open and close the main door.
I never thought I could get so excited about a kitchen appliance!!!
I need to get out more...
Friday, January 26, 2007
Today is Australia day.
A public holiday entirely for the purpose of sitting back, relaxing, having a cold beer and reflecting on what a brilliant country we are living in.
Unlike St. Patrick's day and St David's day that are days to celebrate being Irish or Welsh, Australia day is celebrated equally by anyone living here, regardless of whatever other nationality they may be or how long they have been here.
On that note off we went at 9am, down to the Stiles Point boat ramp with the Red Dragon in tow. We launched without a hitch and then set out onto the peaceful flat lake. It was slightly overcast and there was a lovely fresh breeze. We pulled up at Anne and Kel's jetty and rang them to come down and join us for breakfast. We had warm croissants with ham and cheese, a flask of coffee and a few white choc and macadamia nut cookies that we had baked while the croissants were warming in the oven.. Heaven!!!
We had brought our "Biscuit" for its first try. This is an inflatable donut with a backrest that you sit in and get dragged behind the speedboat at speed until you scream and beg to be allowed to get off! Anne and Kel had given it to us for Christmas so it was great to be able to let them see the kids reactions to using it for the first time. We had great fun. The kids know the hand signals to be used that tell us if they want to go faster, slower or stop. They need to use hand signals because you can't hear anything being shouted by them as the boat is moving! We were impressed by Gareth who only ever used the "Thumbs up" signal. That one means "Go Faster!"
After dropping Anne and Kel home we stayed on the lake for another couple of hours. We dropped anchor in Secret Bay opposite our new house. We sat and drank more coffee while the kids swam off the back of the boat. It was very exciting to see our house through the trees. We tried to take a photo on Byrons phone. It is a bit fuzzy but you can just see the blue tiled roof of the house (with the help of an arrow that I drew on!)
We came home and had a traditional Australia day barbie. Prawns and sausages washed down with a beer!
Kids are now in bed sleeping fast so Byron and myself are going to sit out on the back deck with a bottle of cold white wine to watch the fireworks through the gum trees....
Life's tough here down under!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
It was our friend Jane Shields Birthday celebrations today.
Officially her birthday is not till Saturday but we were looking for an excuse to fill a quiet afternoon!
We went to Rathmines park and let the kids play cricket while we sat around chatting and stuffing our faces with all things you would normally find at a childs birthday party... fairy bread, marshmallow skewers, mini muffins, jelly etc. The reason for the childish theme was because Jane is the funniest, most light-hearted-child-at-heart one of the group of our friends. She delights in anything simple that makes you laugh and is the friend that introduced me to the fun of cardboard tobogganing! (hurtling down a steep grassy hill on a cadboard box, the aussie alternative to snow!)
I am not the only one who has noticed this side of Janes personality. Along with the more normal presents you would expect, she was given two princess tiaras and a hula-hoop!
The afternoon turned into the evening and the men joined us from work. One of our plates of party food was a fancy strawberry jelly that was a beautiful flower shape as we left our house. By the time we had driven around lots of sharp bends on our way to Rathmines it was reduced to a wobbly mess! At the end of the evening there was nothing left to do but find someone whos face could be squished into the plate! Sorry Simon!
We would have stayed for longer but the kids were pulling at our arms in the dusk and begging to go home to bed!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
"Comet McNaught, also known as the Great Comet of 2007 and given the designation C/2006 P1, is a non-periodic comet discovered on August 7th 2006 by British-Australian astronomer Robert H. McNaught. It made perihelion on January 12th 2007 and became easily visible to the naked eye for observers in the Southern Hemisphere"
I don't know much about astronomy except that some evenings the moon looks lovely over the lake and Anne often sends me mad texts late at night to go out and look at it! I have lifted the above info from the internet to give you the background behind the fabulous comet that we saw with the naked eye last week.
We sat on a jetty watching the sun set across the lake and listening to the birds settling for the night waiting until the comet appeared in the twilight sky. It was magical and the girls were awestruck. Gareth was snoring on the lap, he couldn't stay awake long enough to see it!
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I'd love to take credit for the photo but it was taken by our friend Annette Brooker who is a professional photographer!
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
I found this old library card tucked into a book in the local library today.
Maybe Gina is writing a book without telling me...
Thursday, January 18, 2007
It's been a few weeks since we put up an update on the house.
Traditionally builders take a month off over Christmas and New Year so not a lot has changed since December.
This week has been all hands on deck with plumbers, electricians and air-con men all in and out doing their thing. The roof tilers have now completed the roof on the rear single story extention (Cinema room!) and the garage roof to the right of the house is also complete.
Hopefully next week the internal walls will be lined with gyp-rock (Plaster-board where I came from!) and the front door will go on. That will be a mile-stone that they call "Lock-up" which effectively means the end of having a sneaky peak inside after the builders go home!
Officially we have 18 out of 30 weeks gone by now so 12 weeks till we get the keys! The site supervisor is still sounding optimistic about being built on time if not earlier. We had hoped to have been in by the end of March for Cathy and Derek's visit but I think that is looking unlikely. We have been told by friends that even when we get the keys we will need at least 2-3 weeks to get the downstairs tiled and the upstairs carpeted as well as having a driveway laid and the obligatory hot-tub installed!!! Looks like we will still be in the rental house if our lovely landlords will be kind enough to extend our lease by a month. Not a good idea to have a lease run out a month before the new house is built and two days after a family of 5 come to stay for 3 weeks! Never mind, we will have fun whatever happens!
Watch this space....!
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Today we went to see "Angela and Penny".
They are two legendary ladies of Australian kids tv and have a CD full of catchy songs about holidays.
We went to see them in Newcastle doing a show based on the CD and it was really great fun. The kids knew all the words and were encouraged to jump around and join in.
We were there with lots of school friends, Gemma, Sophie, Felix, Jasper, Elouise, Neve, Harriet, Stephanie, Isaac, Harry and Tommy!
At the end they were allowed on stage and had fun hoola-hooping and peeking inside the prop caravan!
After the show the kids queued up to get Angela and Penny to sign their CD.
We blasted the Cd all the way home in the car and I am still humming away as I type! Poor Mr B! I think we are driving him mad!
"Holidays are happy days,
Happy days are holidays,
Holidays are happy days when you...
do what you wanna...
do what you wanna...
DO WHAT YOU WANNA DO!Cha- Cha- Cha!!!"
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
While on holiday we bought the local daily paper. We sat beside the pool watching the kids swim and fought over the crossword page.
Crosswords are fairly universal you would think...?
How would an Australian crossword be that different from one published in the UK?
The answer lies in the answers!
What word do you think goes in 14 Down...........
If you are Irish , English or Welsh I'm guessing you thought "Snail"
The Australian answer is "Snake" !!!
