just plodding along

Grand

Oscar is excited to have his Grandpa and Grandmama here. Let's hope he is excited enough to sleep to 6:30am. I am over waking up before 6am child!!!

pierce

I got the top of my left ear pierced over 10 years ago. I think it was in year 11 or year 12 with my friend Amelia.

This morning I decided it was time to go. I really like it still, but I find it gets sore when I wear headbands. And as I'm growing my hair out, headbands will probably be around for a bit again - if growing my hair out last time is any indicator.

So it was in.

And then it was out.

I do expect it to close up quite quickly. But who knows.

third

AFL tipping is done for another year.

And all glory must go to Lachie. He ripped it up all season.

Very surprisingly impressive.

I am happy to get on the podium. Pretty close season (besides Lach). It was touch and go for a while there! So third is good.

Honourable mention to Noob as well.

And now that we're in the business end of the season, carn the mighty Swans!!!

due south

Bowen stayed with us last night. We like Bowen. To celebrate his arrival yesterday afternoon we went and got pie. Yum. It was good to catch up. We hadn't seen him for a year!

The reason he was in town was a wedding. Sure the wedding is in Bateman's Bay, so northern Sydney isn't all that handy. I decided that it was silly for him to catch a train for five hours to get a bus from Nowra, so we all went for a drive today to get him to his bus.

Oscar and Bowen had a great time in the backseat.

Oscar crashed pretty early on in the trip coz he woke at 5:30am (thanks for that child). He only slept about 30 minutes, so really he did have some time enjoy Bowen's company.

Trusty GPS took us a seemingly strange route at first, but in the end it did make sense when we popped out at Heathcote. And so down through or past the southern towns we traipsed. Waterfall, Wollongong, Kiama, Gerringong, Berry, Bomaderry.

Berry is an old favourite

We dropped Bowen off to catch his bus. Bye Bowen. And then figured out our plan. After some deliberation, maccas for lunch and Kiama it was. We did contemplate going to Berry, but thought Kiama might be funner for Oscar to walk around with open spaces.

Howie hung out in the back with the child

Please be assured, Howie is eating maccas and Oscar is eating dried apple! No maccas for him.

We got to Kiama, bought a magnet, and walked to the blowhole. I haven't been there for many years, so was a bit excited. Oscar however was not so excited. He clung onto me for dear life.

The combination of the wind, the waves, the noise, and then the blowhole didn't impress him

We did get him to turn around a couple of times to have a look, but it didn't last long

So he and Howie went off to walk on some grass while I went to take some blowhole photos

As I was moving between photo locations there was a massive one that I almost missed

After a few minutes, I was back with the boys

And so we bailed, heading straight back home.

A lovely day for it though!

lemon

Our lemon tree has been a bit neglected. As it isn't raining much these days, and I was forgetting to water it myself, it was getting a bit dry and sad. The lemons I attempted to use were dry inside. Pretty sure that's not good.

So the last couple of weeks (barring when we were away), I've been trying to water it every day. Today I decided to pull off some of the yellow lemons that have been there forever. My theory being that the lemons still growing will then get all the watery goodness, instead of big, old ones.

Quite a collection. I thought just for the heck of it, I'd open them up and see if there was any worth juicing.

And my watering must be paying off. About half of them were worth a squeeze.

So now I have some lemon juice in the freezer for a rainy day. Or lemonless day. Although when I thaw it, I will have to strain it coz my juicer isn't very good and I got lots of pips into the ice cube tray.

28

Howie turned 28 today. Happy birthday husband-type man!! Hope you've had a nice day, even though your wife, child and pets didn't give you the most awesome presents.

Howie was out a bit today with a lunch thing and a meeting thing. But he did get home before the child went to bed. We had some photo booth fun.

Update: I just made it the best birthday ever for Howie. I did the washing up and put the bins out. What a wife! Plus he had spag bol for dinner.

home sweet

Perhaps I should have said we got home safe and sound yesterday. Because we did. Although Howie and I were and are pretty tired. Oscar is lucky - he gets to sleep 12 hours a night, AND have a nap in the daytime. We aren't so privileged.

Oscar was great on the plane trip home. Although as soon as we sat down he was saying "no more" because our plane had no little TVs on the back of the seat in front. Fortunately, books and drink bottles and food and tickles were enough to entertain him for 1.5 hours.

So this flying experience has given me hope that future ones will be ok too. And that the first flying experience a year ago is long behind us.

Although I did get to have my first changing a nappy on a plane experience. And then having to hold on to it in a vomit bag until the air hostess was free to take it. Ewww.

And, as an aside, I'm excited that we have our yearly (as it seems to be) catch up with Bowen this weekend. That is super dooper cool, coz Bowen is tops.

North

Here is our little house

We walked to the Beachouse to see what Oscar might like to go on. In the end, we decided on just the train. He was a bit too little for everything else yet.

Then we decided to go on a tram trip just for the fun of it. We travelled about 35 minutes and then came back again. Here are the boys crossing the tracks

We got some morning tea back on Jetty Road. Howie had been eyeing off a green frog in the window of a fancy bakery. He thought it would be cream filled and remind him of his childhood. In the end we found it was meringue. So instead of being his frog, it became my frog. And the bag it came in confused us further

We walked out the jetty again - much nicer weather for it. Although it was a bit stinky. If you're looking for any of the seaweed in the ocean, it's all on Glenelg beach at the moment

The three of us on the jetty

My two boys

Then this afternoon, my trusty GPS took to me to the other side of town. Firstly I met up with Sandra and her younger son Alex for a light lunch. It was really lovely. And Alex is sooo cute (as is her older son Thomas). Then I went to Paige's welcome home/Kylee's baby shower. It was a nice time - nice to see Paige and how well she is doing, and nice to meet a few other people that I know through the internet world. (I didn't take any photos though.)

Meanwhile, Oscar was hanging out with his Daddy. After catching up with one of Howie's old work colleagues, Suzy, and her family, Howie took Oscar on the ferris wheel.

Apparently he loved it.

And then I rejoined them at 5:30pm-ish.

A good day.

Spiers and Germans

Yesterday morning we got moving a bit earlier than normal. Because the Spier family was coming to play. So after all morning necessities (namely, breakfasts and showers) we popped down the road to Bakers Delight to get some morning tea. That was Howie's job, and of course he came back with finger buns.

Soon enough, Josh, Christy, Matilda and Archie arrived. The kids had a great time with the toy box supplied by the house we're staying in, while the grown ups enjoyed chatting, tea/coffee and finger buns.

We decided to head off to a nearby park.

After that, it was back to the house and bye bye Spier family as they were heading to the Playschool concert.

After Oscar had a nap (over an hour, yay!) we headed into the hills, with the help of my trusty GPS

We stopped off at Mount Lofty Summit. Quite a different view to last time

Oscar was pretty impressed

And then it was on to Hahndorf - the german village in the Adelaide Hills. We wandered the streets for a bit, and got ourselves a late lunch

There was a shop called Oscar's.

There were some interesting stores. Like Fantassel! I've often thought all I needed was a tassel!

Howie and me

Home in plenty of time for Oscar's dinner and bath and bedtime.

In and around Glenelg

While our dinner cooks in the oven, the small one sleeps away, and my husband has a bath (!!), I shall take the opportunity to blog.

Today started off well - Oscar slept through til 6am which is always a bonus in unfamiliar rooms and houses. Things looked a little iffy for a while, as I felt a bit off, but after an hour or two I came good. We decided to use our morning wisely and head to Harbourtown. It's still been showery, so we didn't want to risk outdoorsy type activities.

First stop, a swing in the backyard

Of course, while at Harbourtown, you have to take advantage of the airport viewing area.

Unfortunately we only saw one plane, and it was landing. Adelaide airport certainly isn't bustling like Sydney (which is actually in our favour given our holiday house location!!).

After a bit of shopping (window and actual), Oscar had a little play in an OB van! Howie was very excited - what a cool ride thing.

After nap time, we headed to downtown Glenelg. The showers cleared a bit, so we attempted to walk along the jetty, but it was very windy, noisy and cold, so we only got about halfway. Not that you can tell from the photo

Oscar's pointing at the tram he spotted, and so we went to have a closer look

We decided to ride it one stop, since it's free between the three Glenelg stops (well, we assume it still is, was two years ago).

Waving bye bye to the tram

Then after a bit of a drive around to fill in time, Oscar and I met Annalisa at Bracegirdles House of Fine Chocolate. Howie always teases me about my internet friends, and he was certain that Annalisa would turn out to be some old, fat Russian man. He was right!

Tell you what, that mask freaked Oscar out completely. Not a good introduction! But he gradually warmed to Annalisa, and happily sat, played and ate while we chatted. I had my first ever iced chai latte. Pretty much it tasted like a vanilla milkshake.

It was good fun meeting Annalisa IRL*, as they say

Then it was back home for dinner and beddybyes for the small one.

Hoping for another good night! Tomorrow is a new Adelaide day with new people to see and things to do!

*For those unsure, IRL means in real life. Forum nerds seem to use it a bit. I don't. Therefore, I am not a forum nerd