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The Family Bandwagon

Our family is spread out across the country and across the world, and what better way to keep in touch than a collaborative digital journal?

Tuesday 28 July 2015

Summer in the UK?

We've had some lovely weather especially in Copenhagen. Here in Cardiff it alternates between wet and sunny. Haven't needed my extra jumpers but I did take Dayna's raincoat to Denmark then used it in London.





We've posted regularly to FB so you all know how we are doing. Dayna's birthday celebrations went well with afternoon tea then drinks with work mates and friends. Family celebrations on the weekend. Unfortunately the three hour cruise booked for Sunday was cancelled because of the weather. A bit better today (Monday) and tomorrow we're going out no matter what the weather does.

Been good to chat to Mum,and video chat to Clive, Damien and Lisa.

Now planning for the trip to Spain and then to Nottingham and York. Look for Dayna posts until I'm back at John and Gwen's on August 8th.




Friday 10 July 2015

Off, off and away

Ready to head to the airport to fly to Birmingham. Clive is going to drive me there. Looking forward to seeing all there and enjoying a taste of summer. Rain and cold here ATM with 13 as a top. In Birmingham it starts there and gets warmer.
I'll try to post regularly and Clive said he'll let Mum know when I contact him. Will still Skype to Mum as I did last time hopefully. Denise is taking carer's leave each Wednesday so she'll have a mini holiday to take Mum to the Day Club. Well timed with Christmas in July at Axedale and a birthday do within the five weeks.

Love to all. See you on FB and here.
Mum

Tuesday 7 July 2015

Situation report: Dome 301

It's been so long since we posted that I can't even remember what we've been up to. All the usual stuff - work, wanting a holiday, swimming, housework, and exploring Sydney when we can.

For a while we were all sick with (at least one each of) pneumonia, 'flu, "slap face", sinusitis... It was not a happy couple of weeks. Things have improved since then, thankfully, and we've been training for the swiftly approaching City2Surf. So far we've each done at least 5km in a single run - Dee even ran from her work to Bondi!

Oh, except I seem to be allergic to something - I've come out in a rash on my arms and chest. Responding to antihistamines and some cream I found in the medicine cabinet...

Dee's brother Chris visited this weekend, which was a great excuse to visit a couple of the microbreweries in the Inner West (I hope it's not craft beer that I'm allergic to!) and check out the beaches. A beautiful spot, although the fish and chips were pretty ordinary. Jules and I had a ride on a little train ("I was a bit scared," he told me afterwards.)





Back at work and looking forward to a break, if we can afford it, in September.

Friday 3 July 2015

Madness as usual

Sorry I didn't check this sooner or call you mum, since I spent all day yesterday home in the girls' room. Oh well.
Yes, school holidays. I'm assuming I passed my last placement and will be right to continue with Diploma next semester. I ended up working the last Friday of school then did an 8 hour day on Monday as well. The first Saturday of the holidays we ended up over at the Parker's for the night and I showed Belinda how to make snowflakes for Ella's Frozen party. Sunday I was feeling exhausted, we went to bed around 1am and I've been feeling full up with a head cold since finishing placement. As a result I missed going to Craft Alive but I wanted to rest up for work. It was freezing Monday morning, the car was iced over when I went to leave at 7.45am. I finished at 5pm after a day with 3-4 year olds which ended with an accident - yeah, cleaned up a poopy pre-kinder, ekk. Anyway, told them I couldn't do Tuesday (7.30am-4pm) and instead took the girls to see Inside Out at the cinema with Julie-Anne and Mitchell. Came home to cook, I made Ella's birthday cake, blue toffee to decorate it and blue fudge. Called Belinda, she was at Spotlight getting 40 balloons filled with helium so I packed up our stuff and met her there to help get the balloons back to her house. We stayed the night again and I decorated the cake, her sister had already helped decorate the house. Wednesday morning we were mostly ready for the party to start at 10.30 and I think it went really well. We would have stayed that night too but Trinity wanted to come home after tea. At least the house was put back together and tidied up.
I had 2 calls for work but really don't want to at this point, I stayed home Thursday and completely emptied the girls' room. I said anything without a home at the end of the day would be gone, but also emptied their wardrobe so now they have their clothes in there - previously it was full of toys and their clothes were in my room.
Today, Friday, Trinity had a dentist appointment at 9am, her last filling, now she's right for 12 months but next week we start with Daria's check up. We went from there to visit Julie-Anne and ended up having lunch with her. She was minding 2 extra boys so it was a full house. The girls have wanted to visit Adam and Connor all week so we planned to drop in and see how they were, but Belinda J asked me to watch her boys while she took her dog to the vet, so we left there around 3.30pm. The girls still wanted to visit the boys, we left there at 5pm. So a busy day today. Tomorrow we need groceries, will check out Damien's Iaido seminar before lunch, then the girls want to visit Adam and Connor again and sleep over. Sunday is the Lego Expo. No plans Monday but Tuesday Trinity has been invited to a birthday at Jumpz, we're having lunch with Nanna and co, and then Daria has a dentist appointment at 2pm.
School holidays... Busiest time of the year as far as I'm concerned lol

Wednesday 1 July 2015

School holidays

School holidays! We enjoyed a good weekend together: shopping on Saturday, and a trip out to Atisha Centre and the Stupa on Sunday. Damien also took the kids over to Nanny's house for a play, and brought home the metal detector and totem tennis (they have been enjoying both! :)

Unfortunately the kids are both unwell now :( Lil had a high temp for about 24 hours, and both have a chesty cough. We'll have to skip a birthday party today, and if the kids are better I'll take them out for activities tomorrow. At least Os gets to do what he has been asking to: stay at home and play with his toys! :) Lil is happy enough watching her favourite shows, and I have been using this time at home to catch up on housework and... reading! An actual book! Haven't had time to do that in a while! I've also started work on a scrapbook for Oscar's school years. 

Damien has a big weekend ahead with the Iaido seminar he has organised. He'll be picking up Sensei Tao and his wife from Melbourne on Friday, train all day Saturday (followed by an Iaido dinner) and then drive them to the airport on Sunday. Busy times! Fingers crossed the kids will be well enough and we can join everyone for lunch and dinner on Sat.

So that's our holidays so far. Apart from that, Os received his mid-year school report (and had his parent teacher interview) and no surprises he is excelling in Maths! He is doing Maths with a group of grade 2 students :D He is also excelling at reading and is doing really well with spelling too. He still needs to work on his fine and gross motor skills, but after a chat with his class and PE teachers it seems that he is improving :)

10am. Better shower and then get onto that housework I said I was doing! ;) :D