Saturday, January 24, 2009

Sweltering

What an incredible day, weatherwise! The mercury hit 40°C today. By midday!

We spent the morning wallowing in the kiddie pool which was absolutely delightful. It was such a shame to put on our hot clothes afterwards and come inside for lunch. Poor Elora had a terrible time trying to sleep in her 34°C room but managed a little, she was so tired.

But now, the weather has turned. It is blowing a gale out there! Really gusty and cool. And the temperature has dropped 10 degrees in an hour! Probably less. It absolutely astonished me how quickly it can change. I'm currently wearing my fleece jacket over my summer dress. Quite a look!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Popular, much?

That word cloud application I mentioned recently sure is popular.

Even the newspaper is using it now! Here's the one they created for Obama's Inauguration Speech!

Up early for an historic moment

How exciting it is to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to turn on the television and watch the inauguration of the forty fourth President of the United States.

I am amazed at the huge crowd that has turned up for the occasion. You see them all rugged up, beanies, gloves, scarves. Here I am in a singlet and boxer shorts! I looked up the temperature there - -3°C (27°F). I simply could not imagine standing still outside, waiting and watching. Those people are so dedicated!

Now the decision has to be made - stay up watching or go back to bed. I had such a difficult time falling asleep last night. Perhaps I'll just nap on the couch in front of the tv!

Happy inauguration!

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Home!

What a great week away we had. I will post some pictures and (probably) write more tomorrow.

I fulfilled all my holiday goals, that being to go to the beach and to do some knitting. I even did some knitting on the beach :) I think we managed a visit to the beach every day.

The weather was perfect, absolutely bloody perfect. Warm and sunny and clear. We ate a lot of food. Perhaps didn't have as much ice-cream as I'd like, but that's okay. The whiteness of the sand and the gorgeousness of the scenery more than made up for it.

I highly recommend Hawks Nest as a holiday destination. We will be going back there again!

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Out of town for a week

We're going to "The Little Bird's House" as Atti calls it, leaving within half an hour if we can manage... I've been procrastinating all morning instead of packing and getting ready. Argh!

So, we're heading North to Hawk's Nest, an hour north of Newcastle, three hours away from Sydney. We've rented a holiday house to share with Dan's mother and sister. There will be no internet access. But there will be a lot of beach going and hanging around. I will do some knitting, methinks. And Guitar Hero-ing. :)

See you in a week!

Friday, January 02, 2009

I had holidays?

In December, the two week obligatory Christmas break seemed like a HUGE amount of time. I was going to do so much! Whilst dreading the idea of being home with the kids for ALL that time.

And now it is pretty much over. I go back to work on Monday. I feel cheated! Where did all my spare time go? I was going to make raised garden bed in the back yard (well, get Dan to make it since he's the one that's good at the heavy lifting). I was going to sew a billion dresses and tops and pants for Elora. I was going to read some books.

Well, I measured up the space and looked at timber for the garden. I sewed a pair of bloomers (they're a little tight) for Elora and have almost finished a dress from this book which will be at least one size too big for her (but I just copied the pattern to the letter as I don't usually and I wanted to try it). I haven't read any books. In fact, I haven't read anything that's not online for ages. It's very bad of me. If you remember, I decided to read all the Booker Prize winning books. I haven't even finished one yet. Best get to it. Curse all these blogs and RSS feeds that have become my literary fodder instead!

Thursday, January 01, 2009

First post for the New Year

I know, I'm 100% nerd, blogging at Midnight on New Year's Eve!! But what can I say... I'm trying to stick to that last resolution :)

Tonight we had an early dinner and drove in to watch the early 9pm fireworks. Managed to get an excellent park near by (sort of - still had to walk for 15 minutes). We went to the Glebe Island Bridge and had a fantastic view of the city, the Bridge and the various points around the harbour where the fireworks were let off.

The kids loved it - happy and excited. I was worried that Elora would be upset because she's been terrified of all the local ones all week! But I think the excitement of the boys (and me) kept her from feeling scared and she had a ball. Calling out the colours and shapes "flower!" "star!".

Someday we'll be able to stay out for the midnight ones, but until that time I must be happy with this.