You call this summer?!

I cannot ever remember wearing jeans in December in Australia, and I certainly can't remember wishing I still had the electric blanket on my bed in December in Australia.  The weather has been truly dreadful and there are no signs that it's going to get any better.  


Jules has had a busy sailing week sailing on 3 different J24s in the past 4 days and coming first, second and third in the 3 races winning a bottle of wine for each!  At the Yacht Club on Friday night he bought a raffle ticket and ended up winning the meat raffle.  This all comes after I won $5,000 (yes, I know, I still can't believe it either!) at the school raffle fundraiser - it has been suggested that we ought to buy lotto tickets!  


With all that meat we needed some people to help us eat it so the Mennies came round for a bbq on Saturday evening and we had one of those perfect evenings where we all drank enough to be merry but not to make us feel rotten the next day which was just as well because we had nippers and the sun was actually shining!  

Tess was at an all-day party on Sunday and Jules was sailing so Tom and I got to hang out together which was a lot of fun.  We went into Manly and found these huge water bubbles that Tom had great fun on - he tried to stand up but only lasted about 1 second.  It was quite bizarre because those bubbles are actually floppy - you put a child inside, pump it with air (?) and do up the zipper - it stays firm until you undo the zip and let the child out!  We ate sushi on the beach and Tom had a swim until the southerly made itself felt and we ran for cover.  Jules was sailing in the southerly without a rain jacket - he came home very wet and cold!  

I'm also including a photo of the gingerbread village from my recent gingerbread housing evening - I think I've already mentioned that it's one of the highlights of my year although I'm not a particularly gifted gingerbread houser as I lack imagination (and skill!).