On Friday 18 December we were told we were being put back in quite a strict lockdown - only allowed to leave the house for essential services ie food shopping or medical care, no-one outside of the family allowed in your house, only allowed to exercise in groups of 2 etc. It was a shock as we had been wandering around more or less unaware of coronavirus since July. Suddenly everyone's plans for Christmas were up in the balance and our planned trip to Byron at the beginning of January even more so.
I've been plagued with wrist problems since June and I had an arthroscopy on 15 December to see what was going on and fix a tear in a disc. I did not think through being one-handed in the lead up to Christmas but Tess was a complete legend driving me everywhere I needed to go even if it was to the supermarket twice in one day!
Tom had the final Adventurous Journey for his Silver Duke of Edinburgh which involved 3 days and 2 nights of kayaking on Myall Lakes with Harry, Tia and Nina. The conditions were tough - windy and quite a lot of rain - but those 4 kids are tough and they loved every second. They also learnt quite a lot about camp cooking, camp hygiene, packing and generally being responsible for yourself - such a great experience for them.
Lisa took Ted and Edgar to the park and got this awesome photo of the two of them - such good looking dogs!
Tess and her friends get very creative with how they can catch up whilst in lockdown and not allowed to see each other. One of their activities was to take their dogs in the front seat of their cars, drive to a large car park with views over the ocean and sit with the same music playing loudly with their windows open! Ted only ever goes in the boot of the car and he was very nervous about being asked to sit in the front - he doesn't cope very well with change.
Tom and Harry got back from kayaking on Friday evening, had one night in their own beds and then Jules took them up to the farm with Craig, Darcy and Fletcher. The weather was perfect for farm activities: cool and overcast, and they all had a fabulous time riding around on bikes. They were unable to leave the farm due to covid restrictions so no trips to Rylstone for dumplings or pub food and a fair amount of chess playing instead. Tom and Harry swagged out one evening at Cape Craig but returned to the farmhouse like a pair of baby rhinos at 3.30am because they got scared by twigs cracking in the night. These are the 2 boys who had just camped for 2 nights in the wilderness whilst kayaking!
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