Our new holiday house and the start of nippers

Our good friends John and Leanne moved into their new house on Scotland Island a few weeks ago. Scotland Island is in the middle of Pittwater, 45 mins from the City and only accessible by boat. It has an eclectic population of about 1,000 many of whom are artists, sculptors etc. The kids and I went to check it out last weekend whilst Jules was still away. We arrived on a rainy morning and it continued to rain for most of the time we were there which did nothing to curtail our enjoyment of this beautiful island and the amazing house that we have now dubbed our "holiday house". It is absolutely perfect for John and Leanne and what struck me most was that it feels like it has always belonged to them. Leanne and I spent a very happy day unpacking boxes, moving furniture, reorganising the kitchen, making pizzas and crocheting! Once the kids decided that we really needed to pay them some attention Leanne found the box full of gum boots and rain coats and we went out for a walk to explore the island which has no roads, just dirt tracks, and every other house has an impressive veggie patch and chook run - Leanne is researching hers.

Jules arrived back from Croatia on Tuesday and headed straight into the office - I don't think he's suffered from jetlag because he hasn't had an opportunity to! He had a fantastic time sailing in Croatia and is already planning a return visit once the kids are a bit older. I'll let him write about his adventures separately.

We had a relatively quiet weekend with Jules sailing on Saturday so the kids and I hung out at home, built some new IKEA furniture (!) and caught up with some friends. Sunday was the start of nippers - it was overcast and very windy but the kids enjoyed running races up and down the beach. There was a fairly large and messy surf so we were impressed that the organisers insisted all the kids went in (with adult assistance) and then they swam a couple of widths of the ocean pool. We were a bit nervous about how Tess would go but she was in the same group as Olivia and the 2 of them were fantastic - game for everything. Poor Tom felt very cheated that we hadn't even brought his swimmers although Tess assured him that the water was freezing so he was lucky he didn't have to go in!