Toddler Tennis

One of our aims for the year was to continue playing tennis. We both had a course of group lessons last year, which left us wanting more. Unfortunately, I can't serve, remember how to do forehand/backhand or hit the ball. After a quick refresher from you tube, clutching my new racket we pottered off to the tennis courts, wait for it, with the kids. Neither our social networking or pocket is up to babysitters at the moment, so they had to come to.

Our local courts are individually fenced and floodlight. So we get the kids set up in the corner with food and toys and then fail to rally. They generally play for about 20 minutes, before Evan starts to get bored and wanders across the court. He really is quite determined to get his mitts on the racket, and Carys makes a good ball girl. Howard and I are usually still trying to warm up by this point, so little progress is made. Its quite a nice family outing, and we get to see the sunset across the bay.

It somehow feels like we're trying to keep up with the Brouns in Lesotho. First the year away, then the blog, and now tennis. Did we mention we had the neighbours round for cards......

Malua Bay

After our trip to Canberra we had 5 nights by the coast in a little town. Most people from Canberra like to escape to the beach, they are Australian after all. The closest point is a town called Bateman's Bay, which has everything you can think of gathered around the mouth of the Clyde River. Its other claim to fame is its seafood, namely oysters, which the tourist board website claims to be the best in the world. Now, the last 2 occasions I have eaten oysters, I've spent the night puking. If I was ever going to try them again, it would be the worlds best oyster from some of the cleanest water, but I just couldn't face it. Life is too short to induce vomiting.

We stayed just a little further south in a small town called Malua Bay. We spent the mornings pottering on various beaches, and having a picnic, before going home. Everyday we had 2 sleeping kids in the afternoon, they went to bed at 7:30 and were up about 7am. We don't know how we did it, but it certainly contributed to our refreshed feeling after the holiday. If we're honest we didn't want it to end, but the cheeky monkeys must have known as on the last morning they were up at 6am. We enjoyed ourselves so much, and achieved so little, a big lesson was learned.

The beach cottage we stayed in was very comfortable, but the highlight for Howard was discovering the chiminea. After that we spent our evening out under the stars, burning things and toasting marshmallows. It was sticky, but worth it. Evan has definitely inherited his father's love of fire.

I did a bit of jogging and surprised an early morning kangaroo. It was my first face to face encounter, and although we had heard a story about an estate agent who got boxed by a kangaroo, it clearly knew I was a GP. The jog ended less well, when I had to be rescued in the car by Howard, as I'd run a long way in the wrong direction. Every time I venture out in new territory without a map I regret it, but I don't seem to learn.


For a bit of novelty value, and a break from the beach, we went panning for gold at Old Mogo Town. We managed to find some small specks of gold, and had a lot of fun getting wet and muddy in the process. It was quite hard to drag Howard away, but Evan's persistence in trying to get into the water troughs meant we had to move on.










By the end of the week, we were beginning to worry that we might have to go home without Carys and Evan seeing a kangaroo, but then we found hundreds pottering in some fields near the beach. Depressingly, Howard and I were more excited than the kids, who just wanted to know if they could watch TV.

When we got back home we had a quick look at real estate in the area, as you do, and were surprised to find that Nicole Kidman payed 1.5m for these derelict beach huts. Somehow, I don't think we'll be having a holiday home here!

Canberra

Our first trip to the capital was a great success. Some of our Sydney friends raised their eyebrows and asked "Why?", and as we rolled in my first impression was of a concrete jungle. Then the sun came out, and our enthusiastic tour guides helped show us the finer aspects of Canberra.

Ann and Don were fantastic hosts, managing to cope with the 4 of us without breaking a sweat. They were particularly accommodating of our wish to see kangaroos, but despite driving around Canberra in convoy communicating by CB radio, we weren't in luck. The possum on the other hand was practically dancing for the camera every evening.

On paper Canberra is a great place to live and visit, so why are Australians so rude about it? It has all the facilities of a capital city and only 300,000 population. Its a few hours drive from the beach, and from mountains where you can walk and ski. Is this the place the Faulkners have been looking for? Admittedly by Australian standards its quite cold in winter, but when you compare it with Bristol........

We spent an afternoon wandering around the Museum of Australia, which is housed in a controversial modern building. From different angles you can get glimpses of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, a roller coaster, and a skip. They were quite happy to let Carys push her buggy around, and had a nice cafe in the fantastic asymmetrical atrium, so they catered for all of us.





We were in Canberra for Anzac day, which as I learnt by watching the film Gallapoli, was initiated to commemorate the dawn landing in Gallapoli on 25th April 1915, and subsequent slaughter thanks to the Turks machine guns and the willingness of the British Army to sacrifice thousands of men for no good reason. The last veteran died last year at the age of 110, and Anzac day now is much like the British remembrance Sunday. On the way home we bumped into Kevin Rudd and his motorcade heading off to the airport.

The centre of Canberra is arranged around an artificial lake, Lake Burley Griffin, named after the American architect who designed the city. We managed to cycle the 30km of traffic free paths around the lake, towing the kids, and looking at all the landmarks like the National library, National Gallery, National Museum, Australian National University, High Court, and the Parliament House. It really did seem like a civilised city to us, we couldn't think of another capital city anything like it.

















It seemed to have quite a magical autumnal feel compared to Sydney, with beautiful coloured leaves on the trees and golden sunlight.