Marguerite
Active Member
G'day, folks! Happy Australia Day!
It's been a scorcher today, the weather bureau says it got to 32 C (that's just on 90 F) but we're certain it was hotter than that. Tomorrow is forecast to be cooler again with possible storms (the good old southerly buster) but it should still be plenty hot enough to get to the beach.
With mother in law just home form hospital and still very frail, we had difficult child 3's birthday gathering at her place. It was a smaller gathering with easy child & SIL1 gone back home to Canberra (where it has been even hotter, and those kids have no air conditioning!).
The kids arrived in time for lunch. easy child 2/difficult child 2 arrived first, swearing at the tourists slowing down the drive. It took an hour or more for a drive that should only be 20 minutes. I tried to ring difficult child 1 but they were already caught in the same traffic. I grilled some lamb sausages and lamb chops at our place then took the cooked meat down to mother in law's place. husband had made a salad. The aim was to only heat up our house with cooking, not mother in law's too. Her oven pumps hot air back into the kitchen - not good on a heatwave day. Australia Day is often celebrated with backyard barbecues, we often cook lamb. It's the day when Governor Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet landed to found Sydney and to claim Australia for Great Britain (as terra nullius, which was a bit naughty as the place WAS inhabited at the time).
We played Wii Sports Resort and then Wii Winter Olympics most of the day - you HAVE to try the 100-pin bowling! The older kids have invented a fun game - you play 100-pin bowling to lose. The fun of this, especially for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) kids, is to watch the domino effect of pins falling. We had a ball!
We had to turn the oven on to do a lamb roast for dinner, but by then the air conditioning was working well.
I grabbed the chance to get a bit of sun in the late afternoon. I had planned to just go back home and sunbake for about an hour or so on our deck, but I decided instead to scoot to the beach. It was 4 pm, I figured most of the tourists would have gone home. Not so - the place was packed like Bondi Beach! My usually almost deserted little beach was overloaded so there was little room to move. I got in, had a bit of a swim (really, my first real swim of the season, my hips have been too sore in the cool water). The water temperature is up to 24 C (75 F) so it was very pleasant. Aussie flags everywhere - on umbrellas, bikinis, towels, worn as capes, one flag even flapping at the back of a surf ski. I saw that one capsize, a couple of people ran to help him right his surf ski. I think he lost his stubby of beer, though. Idiot - you can't paddle AND drink beer!
I didn't stay long. There was nowhere to sunbathe, so I headed back home. The sky had briefly clouded over anyway. As I was leaving, more people were arriving. I suspect there's a lot of partying going on there tonight. The rest of the larger beach is like a small fairly open bay, it was full of boats moored everywhere. One good thing about swimming at a crowded beach - you are fairly safe from shark attack, the sharks are spoiled for choice. I'm always a little more nervous if I'm the only person in the water.
So now the kids have gone home, difficult child 3 & I are back home while husband is staying with mother in law until she's in bed. We'll do this for a while until we have some alternatives in place. We need to keep her safe especially until she recovers from this fall.
School is back tomorrow. A new school year. I also want to plan in some beach time tomorrow, plus I have to see my physiotherapist. Trouble is, I usually feel ghastly after a physio session, it kills my plans to get to the beach. But fingers crossed - tomorrow is not a public holiday, so there shouldn't be any tourists there. Tourist season should definitely be over by tomorrow.
Enjoy your Tuesday, have a good Australia Day wherever you are.
Marg
It's been a scorcher today, the weather bureau says it got to 32 C (that's just on 90 F) but we're certain it was hotter than that. Tomorrow is forecast to be cooler again with possible storms (the good old southerly buster) but it should still be plenty hot enough to get to the beach.
With mother in law just home form hospital and still very frail, we had difficult child 3's birthday gathering at her place. It was a smaller gathering with easy child & SIL1 gone back home to Canberra (where it has been even hotter, and those kids have no air conditioning!).
The kids arrived in time for lunch. easy child 2/difficult child 2 arrived first, swearing at the tourists slowing down the drive. It took an hour or more for a drive that should only be 20 minutes. I tried to ring difficult child 1 but they were already caught in the same traffic. I grilled some lamb sausages and lamb chops at our place then took the cooked meat down to mother in law's place. husband had made a salad. The aim was to only heat up our house with cooking, not mother in law's too. Her oven pumps hot air back into the kitchen - not good on a heatwave day. Australia Day is often celebrated with backyard barbecues, we often cook lamb. It's the day when Governor Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet landed to found Sydney and to claim Australia for Great Britain (as terra nullius, which was a bit naughty as the place WAS inhabited at the time).
We played Wii Sports Resort and then Wii Winter Olympics most of the day - you HAVE to try the 100-pin bowling! The older kids have invented a fun game - you play 100-pin bowling to lose. The fun of this, especially for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) kids, is to watch the domino effect of pins falling. We had a ball!
We had to turn the oven on to do a lamb roast for dinner, but by then the air conditioning was working well.
I grabbed the chance to get a bit of sun in the late afternoon. I had planned to just go back home and sunbake for about an hour or so on our deck, but I decided instead to scoot to the beach. It was 4 pm, I figured most of the tourists would have gone home. Not so - the place was packed like Bondi Beach! My usually almost deserted little beach was overloaded so there was little room to move. I got in, had a bit of a swim (really, my first real swim of the season, my hips have been too sore in the cool water). The water temperature is up to 24 C (75 F) so it was very pleasant. Aussie flags everywhere - on umbrellas, bikinis, towels, worn as capes, one flag even flapping at the back of a surf ski. I saw that one capsize, a couple of people ran to help him right his surf ski. I think he lost his stubby of beer, though. Idiot - you can't paddle AND drink beer!
I didn't stay long. There was nowhere to sunbathe, so I headed back home. The sky had briefly clouded over anyway. As I was leaving, more people were arriving. I suspect there's a lot of partying going on there tonight. The rest of the larger beach is like a small fairly open bay, it was full of boats moored everywhere. One good thing about swimming at a crowded beach - you are fairly safe from shark attack, the sharks are spoiled for choice. I'm always a little more nervous if I'm the only person in the water.
So now the kids have gone home, difficult child 3 & I are back home while husband is staying with mother in law until she's in bed. We'll do this for a while until we have some alternatives in place. We need to keep her safe especially until she recovers from this fall.
School is back tomorrow. A new school year. I also want to plan in some beach time tomorrow, plus I have to see my physiotherapist. Trouble is, I usually feel ghastly after a physio session, it kills my plans to get to the beach. But fingers crossed - tomorrow is not a public holiday, so there shouldn't be any tourists there. Tourist season should definitely be over by tomorrow.
Enjoy your Tuesday, have a good Australia Day wherever you are.
Marg
