Footy fever - Sat 9th April...

Barney's and Tenzin's footy teams both had matches this week, Arthur's had a week off. Barney came away with "Player of the Week" and Tenzin scored his first ever try!!!!! I was very uncool on the sidelines screaming like a banshee as Tenzin got closer and closer to his moment of glory - need to tame that excitement!

Not sure why Barney looks so grumpy with his trophy!!

Goodbye to Reggie the Rooster

Recently a couple of neighbours complained about the noise Reggie the rooster made early morning - where are they?? We are in a semi-rural setting and pretty much have no neighbours! This led to a councillor 'assessing' our case, during which time Reggie stood at his feet at lunchtime and crowed non stop as loud as he could - this didn't help much!! So two weeks later we were told that we had six weeks in which to re-home Reggie otherwise we would be facing fines. Our friends, the Camerons, came to the rescue by suggesting that Grandma's farm ( 8 hrs away) might have room for Reggie so just this morning he set off on his long road trip with the boys' best mates, Lachy, Hughie and Livvy and their Dad Matt. Grandma called to say that Reggie was there safely and would be well looked after.

A goodbye cuddle for Reggie...

Last staring match between Pumpkin and Reggie...

A picture that I spotted on the wall of Tenzin's kindy last week and asked if I could take home - obviously Reggie had been on Tenzie's mind recently!!

Arthur goes to Zone swimming...

Arthur and his motley crew of good buddies - Hugh, Tyler, Ollie, Isaac, Rory, Arthur and Lachy (from left) all went through to the Zone Swimming Carnival again this year. Sadly I was having my appendix out that day so Dunc spent the day egging them on and cheering loudly. They missed winning the relay by a smidge - maybe next year.

Tenzin plays U6 rugby league...

Tenzin, who turned five in January, has already spent the last two winters watching Arthur, then Barney join the ranks of Forestville Ferrets rugby league Club. He came along to watch his two older brothers at their first training session a few weeks ago (admittedly wearing a pair of tiny footy boots that had been passed onto us by friends with much smaller boys just in case!)

I asked if he'd like to give training a go with the U6 team and after a few minutes of disinterest he bolted onto the field to join them and hasn't looked back since! It was torrential rain on the afternoon of his first trial game so Iona went to bed and I stayed behind with her but I won't be missing the action this weekend when they have their first real game vs Belrose!

Flooding at Oxford Falls...

Sunday 20th March brought flooding to many areas of Sydney, including our garden! Dunc had left at 6.30am to meet Matt and do the Spit to Manly walk - Matt is training for a 100km walk in April so had been out walking since 4.30am that morning in torrential rain! I woke around 8am and suddenly Arthur and I realised that the three rabbits (in cages) were sitting in inches of water as the whole front expanse of lawn was under water and getting deeper by the minute. Sid and Momo had climbed onto the roofs of their bedrooms but Graham is fatter and his roof is higher so he was literally floating in several inches of water and soggy straw. Arthur and I waded through deep water to retrieve the rabbits and 'rabbit rescue' then turned into 'rabbit cuddling' in front of the log fire. They were all in shock and obviously enjoyed the attention and being wrapped in towels before the fire. They stayed in with us until lunchtime when the rain had subsided and the cages were repositioned on higher ground behind the house! It got quite scary at one stage as both creeks either side of the main lawn were at the top of their banks (touching the underside of the bridge that we cross to get to the house) and the volume and strength of the stormwater rushing through was immense. Arthur and I stayed well away from the sides of the creeks and the power of the water and all the younger ones (+ Django) stayed inside on 'rabbit watch'!

A few hours later the boys enjoyed the remaining puddles with boogie boards - who needs a pool??

Appendicitis strikes!

I tossed and turned with severe stomach pains the night before a proposed weekly ocean swim with Laura and Dunc on the morning of Tuesday 8th March (along with 30 or so Bold & Beautiful swimmers I might add!) Decided to swim despite the pains thinking just a gastro bug was about to come on. After the 1.5km ocean swim I realised quite how bad the pains had become so reluctantly went to the doc having dropped Fenna and Iona at the beach with the new au pair (she left after two weeks - another story!) My doc sent me straight to see a specialist in Manly - I was stunned that he could agree to see me there and then - does that happen in the UK? By the time I got into his rooms I was almost in tears and about to ask the receptionist to let me lie on the waiting room floor in the foetal position!! He gave me the choice of sitting the pain out at home and almost certainly coming in by ambulance in the middle of the night or taking Iona and Fenna home, packing an overnight bag and getting myself to Manly Hospital for a CT scan and observation. I opted for the latter option so that I could find mates to collect boys from various places and get them home later (Dunc wasn't able to leave work early this day). By mid afternoon I was in hospital - not allowed to eat, just sip water in case I went into surgery that day. By the time the CT scan took place it was 7pm. It confirmed that my appendix was indeed enlarged and had to come out but the op would now take place the next day. I had not eaten a morsel for 24 hrs at this stage and could have eaten a scabby dog. Dunc was fantastic doing all the rallying to kindy/school over the next two days as well as running the boys to taekwondo, rugby, swimming etc. Surgery took place mid afternoon on the Wednesday (I'd gone in 24 hrs before) and went well. Felt terrible after the general and could not sit up or get out of bed unassisted for the next few days at home as well. But after 5 days I could not even tell I'd had the triple key hole surgery done - amazing!! My first mouthful was finally allowed 48 hrs after my last meal - it was public hospital tomato soup and I honestly thought it was THE BEST SOUP that I had ever tasted - maybe I was still high from the anasthetic?!?

Very relieved that the whole thing happened in Sydney and not the week before when we were camping in remote Coolendell!!!

Camping at Coolendell - Feb 2011

We managed to squeeze in a camping weekend at Coolendell with Fenna just two weeks before she left to return to Holland. Our gorgeous friends, Matt, Laura and Hamish Howe also came along. Fenna was desperate to see wombats in the wild and sure enough Coolendell delivered!! As we pulled into the driveway of the campsite in the dark our first encounter with an enormous wombat occurred. Check out the size of the one standing in front of Arthur and Iona when we donned head lamps and went for a night walk.

I made my first ever damper loaf in the fire coals and it was delicious!! We had great chunks of it before dinner but it would have been even better baked fresh for brekkie with lumps of butter and dripping with honey!

The obligatory toasted marshmallows!

One of the best pastimes at Coolendell is walking to the top section of the curve of the Shoalhaven River that curls around the campsite and drifting down the river on a lilo. You go through two or three sets of very gentle rapids (at least they were gentle this time with fairly low water levels) and end up beneath 'jump rock' where kids and adults jump from three different heights into 30 feet of water below.

We also took our sea kayak so Dunc took the 'mother ship' out with Tenz and Iona aboard and towed a line of four boys on lilos (our three and Hamish Howe).