Floods, fractures and first place

It's been a while since I've posted - frankly good news is fairly thin on the ground with the war in Ukraine, covid continuing to disrupt plans and extensive flooding on the Eastern Coast of Australia. 

The flooding has been astonishing. An entire town up on the North coast ended up under water, cars were floating down the streets of Manly and a large number of people I know experienced flood damage. It's been classified as a catastrophe by the Insurance Council of Australia and my work is incredibly busy with us needing to bring in 31 international loss adjusters to cope with the number of claims we need to assess. 

This is one of the roads near the farm - it's been impassable for a number of weeks due to the flooding. 

Jules and Tom escaped to the farm the other weekend taking a couple of Tom's school friends - Remy and Kalen. 

I had a wonderful weekend in Copacabana Beach with the girls. We headed up on the Thursday evening and worked up there on the Friday. Sadly I had to work on Saturday morning too but it was so good to be away. We treated ourselves to a long lunch at Bell's of Killcare - one of the most spectacular meals I have had and I've made a mental note to go back there with Jules for a weekend. 

Lunch at Bells: Kate, Kara, me, Cath, Jen, Trudie and Bec

On our way out - the view from the house behind us

Kara is co-ordinating the production of a number of hand knitted blankets for a friend and her children who lost their father last year. I love knitting so persuaded Kara to bring some up for us to do on our weekend away. We did some on Friday night after dinner and did some more on Saturday evening at about 10pm - it's amazing what seems like a good idea when you've been drinking since 12pm! Spot the Thermomix which was put to good use making cocktails. The knitting forced us to stop drinking for about an hour before we started dancing instead - it saved a few heads the next morning. 

Tom got hit by a car whilst riding his bike. The car came out of a driveway quite quickly and Tom rolled over the bonnet and landed on the grass on the other side. He is very lucky that the only damage he suffered was a fractured foot. The poor boy is in a moon boot and back on crutches for the next 6 weeks. 

Luckily crutches have never stopped Tom from having a good time and he was out helping at a friend's 21st on Saturday night. 

Tom, Harry and Ewan. It was Harry's sisters birthday - not sure how helpful the walking wounded were!

Jules had the last twilight race of the season on Friday and Kia Kaha ended up winning the season - such a wonderful result as they have a crazy handicap. What is wonderful is how much fun the crew all have together. 

Jono, Stevo, Jules, Andrew, Diccon, Derek, Deb and Craig. A big night judging by the number of bottles on that table!