Port Macquarie

I should say in passing, Ollie did a sailing course in January. I'm pleased as anything. Even when he is mad, you can get him to start talking about how to sail, and he's excited enough to talk about that instead. He can rig a boat, I believe, but him and Tom, his sailing buddy and school friend, spend their time filling water balloons and faffing around while the adults did that. I thought they were joking when they said they would sail backwards, but hey, there they were with the stern making progress in reverse. Odd to see!

We went up to Port Macquarie 11th Feb for 4 days of the weekend. We went to the pool in the place on the first day for the morning, the afternoon, then same again the following day. We did get down to the beach once. Kind of silly given we'd driven all the way up, when you could just stay nearby if you just stay around the pool. Kinds loved it though. The water was warm. On the last day we went to the local pub on the way home.




The photos above - 16 April we had Jean Claude and Ellen over for lunch. I cooked a Cassoulet de Castelnaudary my stylie- with chicken not duck, local water, and poked the crust in only 3 times, but otherwise it was pretty genuine. It tasted as good as it looks it the pictures. Jean Claude even asked for seconds.

Nicole and Marko had a little baby; Maddison Storm, Storm Maddison, or maybe no Storm in the name at all.

The boys both did a swimming course. Ollie is strong now. Louis can make some distance, not convincingly, enough to have a go on those slides they put in the Olympic pools anyway.

In April, Baka moved into a retirement home. It is semi care. There are prayer meetings, everyone speaks Croatian, and there are regular outings, so she decided to stay immediately, with no thinking about it.

All 7 of them with Baka, Mila's 1st birthday.

Adam and Elkie's Mila turned one.

Insane Ollie

Never stop playing!

We went to Vince and Kathy's for Easter. Many chocolate eggs were eaten. Marie smashed up a heap and put them in the freezer.



We've been making some friends with the other parents at school, mostly through the boys school friends. It's nice to be able to understand the language, unlike when we were in France.




I even had a pub night with Andy and Duls. Things are not too bad as a parent now the kids are a wee bit older, and much more independent. They're pretty easy to look after. As I write, they're at Charlie, Holly and Lola's for two nights running. We were going to go to a movie, but Marie was just too tired, so we're watching the box. What a boring pair of oldies.

Port Macquarie, in town, on the water, at pub.

Port Macquarie, in town, on the water, outside pub.

Christmas!

Gee, it's been a while. I need to blog it up a bit more often.

Christmas - ate too much, kids got too many gifts again. This year was at Tony and Evonne's house. Their kids had chicken pox, so many people stayed away just in case. We were planning on having my family around, but they all cancelled due to contagious risk. Maryanne gave me the must be segregated isolated spiel. Anyway, we've still got a 3kg roast in the freezer 4 months later. Would be a shame to poison many people if we get them all around now.

I took a couple of weeks for Christmas, and just stayed around here. The boys went to skate camp at Olympic Park. They have some awesome ramps. The boys did very well on the scooters. Ollie managed to get down the ramps on the skateboard. Lou had a stack that I didn't see - some of the older kids aren't so careful with the little ones, and the little ones don't keep a line very well either.

Me and Marie had a few date nights. One was at the new development near Central - Central Park. What a great collection of little restaurants in a fake street alley. The pub was real, historic, and had some great whiskeys.

Part of the pre-haul at home - Ollie's Star Wars light sabre

Star Wars lego, always a hit.

Marie and ma Lou. Me and the boys picked up this jar.

Mark cracking them up again.