Summer hit Sydney this weekend and we have just arrived back from a fantastic weekend with our friends Kate and Rob and their 2 girls Scarlett and Flo. The weekend had been booked for a long time and we had our fingers crossed that the weather would be good because we were staying in a house overlooking the ocean with private steps down to the beach. The house was incredible - so often you arrive at these rental properties and feel slightly ripped off but this place made us feel like rock stars! We arrived in time for the sunset on Friday evening and Jules quickly put our weekends supply of booze in the freezer to ensure we had enough cool beer and wine to get through the evening. The Duthies arrived and we fed the kids, threw them in front of a DVD and then sat down for a serious catch-up. Kate and Rob have just come back from 3 weeks in the UK and we have only seen them once so far this year so there was a lot of catching up to do.
On Saturday we woke up to a rather curious popping sound which we decided was a vagary of the house. At about 8.30 Kate jumped up from her chair and said "I've just realised what that sound is!". Sure enough we had left all the booze in the freezer and the beers had all popped - thank goodness for screwtops - the wine was salvageable!
The weather was glorious and after bacon and eggs for breakfast we donned shorts and t-shirts and headed down the steps to the beach. The kids loved climbing over the rocks and exploring the rock pools and were very brave swimming in the ocean. After a morning on the beach we came back to the house to chill out on the deck - sun bathing, lazily chatting, and drinking beer/wine. In the evening we once again fed the kids and threw them in front of a DVD so that we could get serious over our game of Cluedo - another fantastic thing about going away with Kate and Rob is their love of board games so between us we had Cluedo, Disney Trivial Pursuit (to play with the kids - it almost drove us nuts!), normal Trivial Pursuit and Cranium. Jules pretended to play the village idiot and then went and won Cluedo to howls of outrage! We followed with a game of Cranium which the Duthies won after some fantastic humming by Rob and collapsed into bed at around 9.30 - we'd all had far too much sun (or was it the wine?)!
The weather was even more summer-like on Sunday (26 degrees) and so we walked into the local village for a play in the playground followed by more relaxing on the beach - this time with ample supplies of beer and wine. We were very sad to leave the house but have all vowed to go back there again.
On Friday morning Tess was looking a bit floppy so I kept her home for a "mental health" day which we both really enjoyed. We took Tom to swim class and then went down to the beach at Clontarf where we met up with Leanne and Charlie. The kids swam in the sea and played in the park very happily for 2 hours whilst Leanne and I relaxed and chatted. It's days like that which make me almost imagine giving up work......unfortunately I know I'd go insane within a week.
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