Robert's last week

It was Robert's last week in Australia - after 4 years here he's moving back to the UK with E&Y.  He moved in with us a few weeks ago so that he could spend some more time with us and it was fantastic having him around.  We played lots of board games every evening with the kids, we had some great meals and drank some fantastic wine that Robert had collected whilst here.  I am devastated to see him go.  Because there's such a large age gap between us we've never really got to know each other that well but we changed that during the past 4 years and it has been such a pleasure spending time with him and seeing how beautifully he gets on with Jules and the kids.  However,  it is the right time for him to move back to the UK and he is excited about the future.  We had a last dinner on Thursday evening with his all time favourite, lasagne, and a beautiful bottle of Margan red.  It was very emotional saying goodbye on Friday morning but he has promised to come back next year on holiday - I'll hold him to that!  

The kids went back to school on Tuesday.  I always struggling getting back into routine the first week and I'm a bit horrified at how many activities I have unwittingly got the kids involved in.  We now have no free afternoon at all during the week which is very bad planning on my part!  

Tom is number 4 on the right hand side

Tom has started playing futsal which is 5 aside soccer played on a hard court the size of a tennis court.  He absolutely loved it and his energy and enthusiasm made up for any lack of skills due to not being a soccer player.  

The kids started a 4 week sailing course on Saturday morning with 6 of their friends.  They are sailing Bics which are fantastic little dinghies and the kids had so much fun sailing around after a tennis ball that the instructor kept throwing in the water.  

Tom sizing up the ocean swim

Tom finishing the ocean swim - can you see the head in the distance - that's his nearest competitor!

Tom going out on a paddle board for the first time

Ruby and Tess having a lovely time in the sea whilst their siblings were at nippers

Tom started nippers on Sunday and it was a brilliant start to the season for him.  He had to complete a proficiency ocean swim and he absolutely nailed it finishing significantly ahead of all the others.  He then got his first experience on a paddle board which he found much more slippery than a surf board and he kept forgetting to hold on to the handles so he was constantly coming back to shore to pick up his board.  In the afternoon he had to do a 200m proficiency pool swim which he completed in 4mins 20secs which I think is quite good going given he hasn't done swimming squads all winter.  

Custard with a very large rabbit in his mouth

Custard managed to disgrace himself again this week by disappearing into the bushes one morning on his walk and coming out with a very large and very dead rabbit!  He refused to drop it so I phoned Jules to get some advice.  Fortunately Jules hadn't left for work so he raced up to the park with Custard's food in an attempt to distract him and make him drop the rabbit. Custard did drop the rabbit and I dragged him away from it but he wriggled out of his collar and made another lunge for the rabbit.  Luckily Jules managed to grab him by the scruff of his neck and throw him into the back of the car whilst I had the charming job of putting the rabbit in the bin!