Birthday celebrations!

We woke up on birthday eve, Fez had stayed over and Al and Clemmie were coming over for lunch time, it is also Clemmie's birthday. Jim and Fez took Ellie to the park and I stayed back and decorated the table, hung up balloons and bunting and just generally sorted. We had lovely bruschetta made by Jim for lunch and the girls had their birthday cup cakes, after, we headed to the beach for a swim! All of us are winter babies, Jim, Joey and myself are November, so she is so lucky getting a warm birthday! It was such a lovely relaxed day. When we were at the beach Fez was playing with Ellie and Joey (from the moment he arrives, he has an Ellie shaped shadow that does not leave his side) so Jim and I had a whole ten minutes or so to play in the waves, it was great! I haven't done that in a long long time and forgot how much fun the sea could be! After that we headed back and Jim put together a fantastic bar b q for us all. It was a wonderful day and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves although we were exhausted by the end of it (and we still had wrapping to do!) 

The next morning, 24/02/14, bright and early at 6:30 Ellie came into our room, I got her into bed for a cuddle and a few minutes later she said "am I four?" "Yes!" I said, she looked chuffed, she looked at her arms and said she wanted to see how big she was, after singing a wake up daddy song, Jim very coincidentally woke up and Ellie got out of bed and looked in the mirror at her new older self and was very chuffed with the obvious difference in age from the night before. We went and opened her presents and skyped the world and his wife so they could admire the new grown up Ellie and headed out for our bus, which again, was late! 30 bloomin minutes, worst bit, we waited 45 as were there promptly! Eventually, we got into Manly and caught the fast ferry which only took 15 minutes, meaning that when we did get on our bus, it was only 45 minutes from bus stop to Central Sydney which was impressive. We walked (Jim and I did, he pushed Joey, I carried Ellie) to Darling Harbour to go to the park there which had been recommended, it was great, it had about 8 swings, four slides, one of which had a climbing wall you had to get up, a whole water play area, some of which was shaded and sand pits. We were probably there for two hours, they loved it. After, we headed to china town for some food, we had some delicious Korean beef and some average other bits, Ellie ate with what she calls "snipdeedoodles" chopsticks to us! And then on to do some trainer shopping for Ellie. Jim didn't like our choice and thinks I only bought them because I had a lager with lunch but I bought them because Ellie loves them, the colours clash horrendously and they are so so cute on her! We got home for about 17:30,  truly exhausted and made Ellie's favourite for tea... Mashed potato, beans and sausages. Whilst eating, there was a knock at the window and it was Nicky from upstairs, she had something for Ellie. Jim called me around to the laundry room door and there was a big huge sweety bouquet! I initially thought it was from her as Ellie had mentioned it a few times but Jim opened the card and it was from England! My sister Charlotte had organised it on behalf of my family! How amazing, we were really blown away by the thought. To top it off, I then got the text that my best friend Sara had had her baby boy, on Ellie's birthday! Baby Fred is the newest member of the Atkins family, how bloomin amazing! I can't wait to meet him.

25th... Birthday Boxing Day and it is to be a quiet day. Another bright and early start, this time coutesy of young Joseph at 6:20, I do enjoy watching the surfers though first thing and all of the action on the beach. He was back in bed by 8:20 for a nap! Ellie and I headed to the park for a bit and then we all went for a walk around the headland, it had some truly stunning views, and properties (wowzers!) after a bit of lunch we went to enjoy our last bit of time at this wonderful beach. I have loved this apartment and it's location. Time has absolutely flown but we have to move on... To a motorhome tomorrow (bugger! We are totally regretting booking it!!) 

Pictures

Opening pressies

Cake with Aunty Clemmie

Water play at the park

Lunch

The sweety bouquet

New trainers 

Australia 19/02 -22/02/25

Wednesday 19th was not looking too bad but I had seen that come 2pm the heavens would open and even thunder and lightening was expected. Of course no one believed me, I packed Joey's pram rain cover to a one man chorus of "that bloody rain cover is in the way" anyway, we did a panic shop around warringah mall looking for small Ellie birthday presents without her noticing, a quick pit stop at the food hall (I went sumo salad for third time running, my will power against the evil burger is truly amazing! I'm a bit scared I haven't weighed myself since leaving, it's a daily activity at home and I've drank an awful lot of lager and wine rather than my usual gin and slim) and then some more panic shopping, including a fabulous lady at k mart who reminded me of someone that my old company would hate but customers would love, having to tow the corporate line I would publicly disapprove but it's people like this lady that take you back to a company, I was telling her that I was trying to hide from Ellie and but her things so she triple bagged the gifts (companies hate the cost of that), one wasn't priced so she chucked it through knowing I was in a rush , for free (it was just a small wind up toy) and then advised me that the birthday card I was purchasing was $9 did I still want it?!! Fantastic customer service if you ask me. We went out to a torrential downpour (bit smug re rain cover) and waited for a taxi for about thirty minutes, we had a mad Iranian guy who didn't know how to fix the childseat (law over here to carry them for kids up to 3 or 4) so I go soaked trying to fix it in but couldn't figure it, he came to my side shouting "you're soaking, oh my god!" "Of bloody course I am!!!" Was the response, it was all in banter though, he was a good natured guy who told me in the end to sit next to him and hold him in! Jim had a sneaky run down the beach while Ellie watched some tv, came back, showered then took her down to play inthe boogie board in the rain!

Next day, Thursday 20th we were off to the zoo! Joey's starting to walk around loads now, it really freaks me out, I was warming his milk in the microwave first thing, he always go mental once he knows it's imminent, but he stomped / wobbled across the kitchen, shouting at me to basically make it faster, it's so funny! We got ourselves together, Jim (being northern) made us a packed lunch and we headed to the bus stop, bus to manly (ran late), ferry (missed it due to late bus) to circular quay, then ferry to the zoo. It was a lovely zoo, funny; Jim and I both though specifically it was better than Barcelona, in the appearance of animal care that it, much bigger spaces. It is on a hill (as is bloody everything here) and the only issue was the signage wasn't very clear. We went and watched the bird show which to be honest, I was thinking "yaaaaawwwwwn" but it was great, with a lovely view over Sydney harbour, this was until Ellie decided she needed the loo, so I left Jim there with Joey who loves to watch birds inthe sky, he points them out and as soon as he hears an airplane he's searching for it, we got back just in time for the birds to do a last flyover. Craig Taylor, save your pennies, you'll love it! Everyone's favourites are as follows... Jim's, Tasmanian Devil as he hasn't seen one before, Ellie's was elephant "because they're really good" Joey's the bird show and mine was the lions, the male bared his teeth and growled at the lioness as he wanted to lie where she was, she just kind of moved an inch (ha, bloody men!) they also had a baby chimp which was very cute.

Friday 21st I started off super healthy. Jim was up early as were the kids so I went for a 7 o'clock run, followed by boiled eggs, I felt great! It was meant to be our beach day but we ended up walking to Dee Why to look at the beach, have lunch and play at the park. Unfortunately we had fish and chips for lunch, but the walk there and back was crazy hilly so we walked it off. Joey loved the park and climbed in and around everything. We haven't got him any shoes for his massive size 6 feet yet so he would wander out into the sunshine and scream as his little feet would burn! Over here they recommend to leave it a month after he starts regularly walking before hard sole shoes, the soft soles are up to $50 so might try and leave it and keep him in the shade. When we got back we thought we would have a nice afternoon on the beach but didn't really get there until 3 ish, within 15 minutes Joey was inconsolable and Ellie insisted she was cold and wanted to go home! So we were home and showered by 4 twiddling our thumbs. Not fancying a walk back down the hill to the bottle shop we decided to try the vodka Clemmy brought over. Three sips in, it was fair to say I felt tipsy, we carried on the afternoon / evening, Jim poured us a second drink, walked into see me with half a bottle of vodka left and said "I think I know what the problem is!!" Jim and his bloomin massive drink portions! Anyway, for the first time in a few nights, I slept pretty soundly!

Ellie woke up at 6:30 ... Again... It is great to look out at the beach at that time of day, there are loads of surfers out already. Today we needed to get a big shop done for the birthday festivities, again, do it under Ellie's nose without her noticing. I was gutted as since we've got here we've seen a particularly nasty pink cake she'd fallen in love with at Woolworths supermarket so we specifically went there to pick it up and do the shop there and it wasn't there, I'm really gutted! I picked her up a boring cake and some candles, banners, balloons, straws and a few other party bits, I just hope she has a lovely couple of days.

Australia 13/02 - 18/02/14

We've been in Australia for a week now, it's gone so quickly and fairly embarrassingly, we've done very little! We're out near Bondi and it's very different to the "inner west" and Sydney. It's very relaxed, to the point where I see several people daily not wearing shoes. Women wear leisure wear / exercise class clothes a lot and from what I can see there is an element of daily fashion, but also, they very glamourously walk briskly up and down the coast rather than running. Seems a nice way to pass time.

We took a trip into Sydney on the 13th by bus, pretty easy here. We took a walk around the opera house with myself and Ellie singing in our best operatic voices, I am, quite frankly, shocked and outstanded that we weren't plucked off the street but hey ho, their loss! We went for lunch at a food hall (our new favourite thing), Ellie and Joey had pasta and Jim and I went Thai but the lovely lady there fell in love with Joey and snuck a free portion of Battered honey chicken for Joey. We then took a walk through Hyde park and much to everyone's disappointment, I made them all go to the Australia Museum as I wanted to learn a bit about it's history and indigenous people. However, with two kids I didn't learn as much as I wanted! There was a Tyranasaurus exhibition from China there which was great, the best bit being at the end where they had kitted out a staging area with loads of cameras and had a huge screen in front. The result being a huge tv screen with us on looking like dinosaurs were going to attack! Some areas of the museum were old fashioned old school museum, they had some more modern areas also and a kids area at the top which we locked Ellie and Joey in and they could roam around all the toys, bugs, pictures. Overall, I think Ellie really enjoyed it and Joey had his moments. We caught a bus back, ditched our stuff and headed down to Tamarama for a swim. Well, they did, my control freak OCD couldn't get in the sea that late in the afternoon so much to sort when we get back with cleaning people and objects, let alone doing all of that wet and sandy! Joey was all big and smiley when we got home, he does flicker between huge smiles and laughs and screaming through tiredness and strops at the moment, it's interesting...

We popped to Bondi junction to the Westfield shopping centre the next day (valentines day) and took Ellie out for lunch, she chose noodles at the food hall but when she sat down with it, it was a noodle soup with huge mushrooms, noodles... Traditional soup... Not what she was expecting. We took a bus back (with crazy guy shouting bye to everyone, all eyes on bus looked to the floor, with the exception of Ellie Rose Powell who looked up with a huge smile and a wave, shouting "bye bye" lovely really) we headed to North Bondi in the afternoon via bus, again, Ellie has to sit on the single seat on the fronts which Uncle Lurko has told her are special seats for special people, it's quite funny, she sits there shouting back to us saying, "I'm really special, is Joey special? Are you special?" We walked back up the beach towards our apartment. The little kids were having their surf lessons. They're so cute and so confident. Really great to watch, obviously, Ellie wants to learn now! At the other end they had a skate park, we watched the "kidney pool" and there was a girl in there, maybe 15 and she was amazing, I've never watched skaters before very impressive. Fez came for tea that night, at 12 ish we ran out of booze so they went to get some. Mum got a fairly boozy FaceTime from me while they were turned away from every bar in the area!

The next day the kids didn't wake up until 9 and I was pretty glad they were chucked out of the bars and couldn't bring home booze! After a very slow start we walked to Bronte beach in the rain / drizzle. Joey fell asleep in the pram so the others all went for a swim in the sea water pool there, very cold, but the pool was flat and still with the waves crashing nearby. Even though it was a grey day, it looked fantastic. We went and had some amazing food at one of the beach side cafés, I had a wagyu burger - absolutely amazing! We had a big old play at the park there and had a walk home. Joey went into melt down once we got home. This week has broken his routine a bit. He's really struggling to nap in the day so by 4/5 pm he is losing the plot and screaming at everything. It really is hard work, I feel a bit cabin feverish here as it's quite dark in the rooms in the back of the apartment where we spend our time so you just feel a bit locked in with no escape. Their room is very small, Joey's cot is at the end of Ellie's bed and the door opens onto it so you have to open the door about 30cms and squeeze around, I don't think this is helping him. It's fine at night, just in the day that it's a problem. 

Sunday it poured down all day, it sucked, Australia in the rain - what do you do?! Shopping! But we don't have a waterproof for Ellie so luckily we had the emergency ponchos mum bought us for her. We still don't have one as they are either not about or super expensive ($120), another slap up lunch at the food hall and then a look around Bondi junction some more. It's Ellie's birthday in a week and we're needing to start thinking of presents and party stuff. We need to get it last minute as we can't risk her finding it! Coming back as we were getting off the bus Jim helped me down with Joey and the driver started to close the doors having thought Ellie was off (middle doors behind him), it was horrible, they knocked into her, then tried to close again, it really freaked her out. She's made me promise to tell all bus drivers not to close the doors until she's off the bus I the future. No harm done though, just a little shaken up. Clemmie popped over later in the afternoon, it was lovely to see her; her neighbour who knows the coastline above Sydney really well had given her a huge map book and loads of tips for us for when we head up to Brisbane, also she brought a trash mag and a bottle of vodka! What a great girl she is! It was 5 ish so Joey went into meltdown, Ellie spent the whole time convincing Jim to go to the park; it was chaos really, poor Clemmie! She headed off at 6ish in time for Ellie to get her way and go to the park. We've been trying to dry clothes all day, we're really struggling here. It's so humid and with the sea air contributing, everything just gets a little drier and warmer but as the evening goes on the winds are picking up so hopefully, having every window in the apartment may help to dry it before we pack to go to the new place tomorrow.

We wake up to a small amount of rain, pack, minimal drama ( weird, but I like it!) and agreed with the estate agents we could leave our luggage for a while so we head to Tamarama for one last down hill / up hill mission. The waves were phenomenal! Amazing to watch, the sun was coming out as we walked down and it was a lovely last hour or so in the Bondi area. We ate at the cafe at Tamarama and yet again the food was brilliant, that is my big surprise in Australia, the quality of food, fantastic! We ordered a breakfast roll, it came on a lovely seeded roll, the bacon was cooked perfectly, the egg poached, with some rocket (my favourite) and a spiced mango salsa. And that's just a breakfast bap! So far it seems that the most basic of expectations are exceeded each and every time. What's even more gutting by the day is our love of eating out and won't have that opportunity here this time due to the kids. Clem and Al have offered to come and sit with the kids but they're so up and down at bed time, I wouldn't do it to them (Clem and Al, the kids can cope!!!) so we take a cab to the new place, two things. One, it cost $90!!!! However, we looked into car rental and with everything here, obviously it was expensive, $100 per day then we'd be adding fuel and car seats so with the exception of taking our three huge suitcases, high chair (purchased by Clem and Al before we came) travel cot (borrowed from Clem's brother) and fridge and food bag on a bus with two kids, this was our best bet. Two, the cabby could have rivaled James Bond in a car chase, he was awesome! We dove in and out of lanes in his ancient Ford estate automatic (it had window winders in the back and Ellie asked what they were for!!) I loved the journey. When we pulled up to the new place even he was all giggles and taken away by the view, in a word, immense!

We sat, looked, kids played with the toys box full of toys, this was amazing, the two of them were contented with themselves for half an hour or so, just digging through to see what was there, also, they played together, just brilliant, Joey finally putting himself to use as a playmate! After unpacking and a quick lager we headed down to the beach. We didn't really have to cross any roads, it's essentially down some steps at the bottom of the garden (ish...)The waves are strong so we need to be careful but we all went in (even OCD Emma) and it was so refreshing, with the exception of the hell of being covered in sand after! We pretty much just came back, looked, ate, drank, looked, sat, looked, slept.......

Tues 18th... My little sister Rachel Mary Rose Powell / Boo / Aunty Boozles turns 30 today! OMG that's nuts! I miss her, we all miss her and I'm gutted we've not managed to spend it with her. Hopefully Boo, Charlotte (the middle one, not so middle acting these days either, she's almost half decent to spend a lot of time with) and myself will spend a night at the Hyatt in Birmingham later in the year and just float in a pool and eat and drink together, I am very much looking forward to that. 

We headed to our local supermarket I the morning in Dee Why (weirdest town name ever) and it was like a ghost town with two supermarkets, ever so weird. We did a shop, ate some Vietnamese (whatevs, sweet and sour pork isn't typical Vietnamese.... Is it..? It was delicious) and headed home. Today is the day I break Joey, the gorgeous big fat lump of a pretty much walking baby so I guess toddler and make him start sleeping in a bed in the day again and nor now and again in a pram. It used to be twice a day but I think we've screwed with him too much but the kid needs at least one mega sleep a day. I put him down at 13:17 and by 13:23 he is silent, yaaaay! mummy wins, Joey sleeps, all is well with the universe again. He actually slept for three hours! Jim and Ellie went down to the beach body boarding on an old board left here and Joey and myself headed to BWS (Beer, Wines and Spirits) a drive through liquor shop! We went and got our "bargain" three large bottles of beer for $10, this involved walking down and then obviously, back up, the steepest hill ever. I took a photo but messed it up trying to control the pram at the same time. I would honestly say it would be similar to the last stint walking up the beacon (if you walk the side of the hill with the pram path.) The hills here, and I seem to mean Sydney as a flippin whole, are ridiculous. I had a total tomato head on by the time I got home. I took Joey to the beach in sheer panic to meet Jim and Ellie thinking I may just drink all of the beer I just bought, there and then! Once we got there I witnessed a bit of Ellie's body boarding, how exciting, I'd been pretty scared but she loves it! She doesn't go out to far and is in arm bands and it brings her right into the shallows. 

We headed back and had a great bar b q with "smashed potatoes" and chicken kebabs and salads, lovely. We had the radio on in the background and "come on Eileen" came on which Ellie did at her school Christmas play (!!) so we all had a good jump around. After this we were planning on facetiming the old lady Boo, but Ellie has broken her earphones off in the iPad and the end of the jack plug has stuck in so it thinks the ear phones are permanently in so no sound! We had to Skype (how old school!) it was rubbish, on the phone it was so pixelated we could barely see Boo, BUT, the main thing was that we got to see her. She also got to see some of Joey and his new found confidence with walking. It's ever so funny, you're just stood there and suddenly he toddles up! He's so lovely and he follows Ellie around like a puppy, she loves it, she was always meant to be a big sister I think... 

PICTURES

1 ellie and Jim at Sydney bridge

2 Ellie at Sydney bridge

3 Ellie at the Australia museum tyranasaur exhibit

4 Australia museum

5 Ellie's Valentine's day lunch

6 Joey's carpet patterned bruise

7 Jim and Ellie at the Bondi skate pool

8 Bronte baths with Jim and Fez

9 Joey's favourite past time is now parks...

10 wet day clothes

11 Joey at Tamarama

12 view out of the new place in North Curl Curl

13 Ellie off boogie boarding 

Australia 7/02 - 12/02

Our first day was quiet, we were all up by 10, managed to leave the house by 4:30 for a quick trip on bus to the shops!! That evening the neighbours from their compound (what the neighbours refer to as the three houses) came round for a bar b q. Suzie and Nick with Lilly and twins Tommy and Katy and Herman and Louise with Rico. They were all lovely, a real tight knit group that do this a lot, the adults tend to eat and drink on the balcony of one house and the kids at the other, all three gardens have gates into each other's and the end garden at Louise and Herman's has a pool everyone is always in.

The kids all fell in love with Ellie and Joey, it was lovely, they all played until about 10:30 at night, all of it centred around Ellie! She had the best night! Considering the next youngest were Tommy and Katy at 9 they were amazing,  she lapped it up!

The Saturday Alex and Clem took us via ferry from circular quay right amongst the opera house, Sydney bridge and the museum of contemporary art (where they get married next February!) to Watson's Bay for a bit of beach time and lunch. Randomly, our friend Fez is here working at the same time so he met us there and had a very tasty fish and chips and a few beers, followed by a bit of park time, Ice creams then the journey home.  The kids from next door all came and called for ellie to come out and play (!) so off she went (followed by her clingy mother) and played frisby on the pavement of this very quiet neighborhood. She went next door to play while Jim made her tea and we were invited to the house on the end for Mexican. This sounded lovely but we were conscious of all of ellie's late nights and it was already nearly 8 so we declined only to discover five minutes later when we went to get ellie from next door to come in for tea, she had gone with all the kids for Mexican!!! Another late night then... But what a great day.

After going out for a fantastic "smashed avocado and feta on toast breakfast" on picnic blankets at the park for breakfast, Ellie and Joey had a mega sleep, the kids from next door were over again the next day and lovely Lilly painted all of ellie's nails different colors. We finally met Clemmie's brother and sister in law and their kids, saskia and jasper who are the same age as ellie and Joey. We had a fantastic bar b q, great beef filet, great salads and some vino... 

Monday / moving day was here. It brought back memories of a couple of summers ago, packing, only to unpack three hours later, I hate it! We had to wait until after two until we could move in so by the time we were up, packed, Joey had taken relevant naps, lunch was eaten and a bit of hanging around, it was two. (highlight, discovering the super cool rechargeable Dyson vacuum - dork!) We struggled to call the taxi company for about half an hour so Jim headed off to flag one leaving me to try to make the call which I did and booked one. We managed to get Jim back to the house for a taxi to appear in the next minute or so and then a minute or so later, another one... In all the fuss, I hadn't realised Jim had spoken to one who was going to maybe head over depending on his job, so that one pulled up first, we started to load, the actual one booked appeared and we all have a big old argument in the middle of Al and Clemmie's Road (SORRY!) the booked guy was so angry (understandabley) but so rude and refused to listen, grrrrrr, it just made for a great start to the move. The new place is in Tamarama, niceviews, good size, shit weather, shit mood. (had a bottle of wine with Jim and fixed the mood! Looking forward to looking about the local beaches tomorrow!) 

Day two into going solo in Sydney without family and we took a bus down to Bondi junction and looked around the very fancy Westfield shopping centre (mums in Sydney really do it properly, the day seems to be spent looking awesome with perfect Hair, great clothes, slim and whilst not shopping in expensive shops, they're eating bran muffins and drinking green juices) we walked around feeling scruffy, snacking on MacDonalds before we did a good shop (biscuits and meat...) in the afternoon we headed along the costal walk (Bondi to coogee, 6km) from Tamarama to Bondi. This was no mean feat, in the morning it had been cloudy and pretty cool but walking to Bondi the clouds cleared and it got hot, quickly! So along the very stunning path we went, up and down various steps, in the heat. But when we finally got there, passed the Bondi Icebergs club (named due to year round swimming) and their ocean water pools, the view its of the wonderful beach, it's so organised and well managed which gives you a lovely long clean beach with no p**s heads and no smokers. We stopped at the south end had a bit of a paddle, rest and kickabout (didn't get there till 16:30 ish) then walked home, carrying ellie (they're sleeping better as going to bed a bit earlier but all the walking and playing is wearing her out). We had steak bar b q for tea (obvs)

Wednesday we woke up and no one could pull themselves together, including Joey who I ended up taking for a walk in his pram to settle him. I took him up to Bondi Rd to get some provisions, 2 cans of coke, 1 small choc milk, 2 litre orange juice, 3 bread rolls and 2 x 2 litre bottles of milk $25!!!!!!! (just an Fyi) anyway, once everyone had pulled themselves together after lunch we headed past Tamarama along the coastal path to Bronte beach. At the far end it has a swimming pool which is tidal and cleans itself as the Pacific goes in and out, and a "rock pool" for kids which it's essentially beach with a load of rocks around preventing the waves getting at it. About 20-30 meters in diameter and goes just advice waist height. We headed there and sitting in the beautifully clean sand, in and out of the pool, it was lovely. We had a great afternoon there. I walked joey back (the hills back to the apartment are redunculous) and Ellie and Jim took the 150 steps. Of course, we had a bar b q - yum!! Can't believe we've been here a week tomorrow!

Pictures...

1 Jim, Ellie, uncle Alex by Sydney bridge

2 Ellie and I on the ferry to Watson's Bay

3Opera house and Bridge

4 the brothers at lunch at the Beach Club

5 Joey at the park

6 Ellie playing in the sea with Jim and Fez

7 fez,ellie and Alex on the way back from Watsons bay

8 Joey, Jim and the opera House 

9 Ellie and her "holiday friends" Lilly to ellie's right and Katy to her left.

10 icebergs club at Bondi

11Jim and kids at Bondi

12 Ellie and I looking over Tamarama

13 in the "rockpool" at Bronte

14 Joey and I watching a paraglider he'd pointed out that the rest of us had missed! 

15 map of local area

Last few days in Thailand and trip to Australia!

After our exhausting day with the car, I was feeling pretty lazy the last few days, also, we wanted to make the most of hanging by the pool. We did a couple of walks up the beach. Joey continues to mimic us, now when we clap our hands to kill a mosquito he joins in! 

We moved rooms in the last few days as we were unable to keep the same room for the full time. A very similar room over the top end of the pool this time, just a little more tired. We couldn't figure out the wifi so when we couldn't steal it, we'd head down to the kids pool and sit outside our old room and use that! The room had a lot of mossies outside and in my haste to get out of the the door one night and not let them in, I trapped Ellie's fingers in the door, it was awful, the poor girl was in a state, I am still a little concerned she may lose a nail but it is looking better daily. She's not been to bothered about the two fingers since but over a small scratch in her knee we haven't heard the end of it! We put liquid plaster on and she wouldn't let us near it!

I braved up and used the running machine at the gym which was in no way as bad as I thought it would be! Jim used it on his last day and got a personal best running 5km in less than 20 minutes! Also, we've been having a lot of conversations with a lot of sets of grandparents and parents of kids at the pool, I'm starting to dread seeing them now for the fear of having to try and chat all day. There was a little girl who I think was maybe Chinese and her whole family fell in love with Ellie. The grandparents kept pushing her over to play with her. When they did finally play together the cameras where out and they took a load of pictures of Ellie. The lady in the pharmacy did the other day too but her camera ran out of battery apparently! We also have been speaking to a nice British couple there who stay there three months a year and say it's actually cheaper than staying in the UK! Unbelievable.

Our last few peaceful days in Thailand behind us it was time for the next adventure, Australia! Frustratingly, the kids have remained bite free until the mosquito frenzy at terminal 2 where Joey was bitten twice! Never mind, he hasn't reacted to them. When we checked in the lady asked if we wanted a bassinet, I wasn't sure on the weight with Joey being a big boy but she double checked and confirmed 23kg so we're were chuffed! Big bassinets on this plane, also, it meant we got front seats again hopefully. As we got on the plane we turned left!! Oh my days I was on cloud 9! It was still an economy seat though, it's just there were three or four rows there behind business class. We took off having been advised by the cabin manager he'd moved some people around for us and freed up the seats behind for us to use too (brilliant service on a great airline, jet star) so we were impressed from the start. After take off we opened our bassinet to see 25lbs not 23 kgs! So once he was asleep we wedged him in (it was about 3/4 his length) and bless him, he slept for 8 hours! It was a great flight, I slept on and off for 4 or 5 hours, Ellie and Jim got good sleep, it was fab. Also, the plane was a new "Dreamliner" so was all shiny and new, it has large cabin windows which made for spectacular viewing of a lightning storm and watching the stars. My only two complaints about it would be that you can't take drinks on board and you have to pay for water once on board - cheeky... And they had ultimate control of the cabin windows which were in a dimmer system rather than shutters, so periodically through the morning they'd set them back to dark when you were trying to convince your body it's daytime and need to look at daylight. Also, we missed some lovely scenery. We had a great landing with zero ear popping dramas and eventually got through the very strict checks at Sydney airport, hopped in a taxi and arrived at cardigan street to be greeted by alfie and Wilbur, the pugaleers. They are lovely, friendly dogs who Ellie and Joey fell in love with straight away, the love was promptly returned when they clicked that ellie and Joey leave crumbs and bits of food everywhere!! Later Alex (uncle lurko) and Clemmie returned from very long days at work to be greeted by Ellie throwing herself at them and talking at a million miles an hour! Clemmie is a fab hostess (they both are to be fair) and had made a delicious lasagne ready for our dinner. With the exception of Joey who fell asleep mid meal we thoroughly enjoyed it... And the veuve clicquot... And the red wine... We slept pretty well, until 9:30 next day!!! 

Pictures...

1 Ellie always underwater!

2 The pool

3 Joey in his ring

4 A rare one of all five of us on our way to airport

5 Joey in a borrowed airport buggy with Ellie pushing, she put her bag on the back like I do!

6 Parrots in the tree next door!

7 Ellie enjoying her lasagne! 

8 our new room in Thailand night view (apologies for the order!)