Blowing Bubbles

Blowing Bubbles - Poem by Ericka Northrop

Come with me; forget your troubles.
We'll take some soap and make some bubbles!
We can make them big or small;
It isn't very hard at all.
I can't be angry, sad or blue
When blowing bubbles-now, can you?
Just blow your blues into each one.
We'll watch them sparkle in the sun.
We'll send them out into the sky.
There go your troubles!
Poof!
Bye-bye.

I must be careful of those random thoughts!

I was in the shower this morning (where I do most of my thinking!) and was idly thinking about our loungeroom and "I'd make it bigger if we ever built again since that's where we spend most of our time".. That segued into a thought on how big our office / playroom area is and how we never use it.. Aha! Lightbulb moment - why don't we swap the loungeroom and office around? I mentioned it to Pete expecting him to scoff, but he actually thought it was a good idea!

When we built, we designed a great office area at the front of our house, with a separate entrance so we could have clients come to the house - I think that's happened about 4 times in the 7 years we've lived here and to be honest most of the time the office is such a dumping ground that I couldn't invite clients in anyway!! I don't actually work in there - I usually work in the kitchen or loungeroom - it pretty much just holds computers and printers! Half of the area is office, the other half used to be just a book room, then we turned it into Billy's playroom so he had an area to play. Unfortunately he only likes to play where other people are - which usually means the kitchen or the loungeroom - so the playroom just becomes another dumping ground. Added to that, the loungeroom is quite unbearable in summer as it doesn't get the breeze, and the office is right at the front with big windows & doors...

So our plan is to move the office into the loungeroom, and make a big combined loungeroom and playroom in the other room. It will mean doing some rewiring - tv, power, surround sound etc - I guess we'll have to see who can do the wiring for a case of beer (umm, of course I mean who we can find to do the work and we'd pay GST and everything :) ) It will hopefully mean a new lease of life for a big room that gets ignored now. It will also mean a lot of work shifting stuff around, but hey, a change is as good as a holiday, right?!

Speaking of the playroom - it was in such a state that we made Billy clean it up today. By 6pm it was still disgusting - he'd spent most of his time whining that he was too hot, too hungry, too tired etc or moving in slow motion. So when the timer went off at 6, I got to be the "mean mummy" - I grabbed a couple of the big green garbage bags and set to work throwing out everything that was on the floor! It was mainly paper & junk (the boy likes to keep every piece of paper he has ever touched!), but there were some toy parts, pens, craft stuff etc. I was so over it I didn't care - it all went. 2 and 1/2 garbage bags later and you can see the floor again! Didn't do my stress levels much good though!

I spent most of the day working on a website that's just about ready to go live. My list is down to 2 things and I'm just waiting on their host to do some stuff before it goes live. Will be pleased to cross another one off the list..

I did something radical today!

... I turned off my computer for the day! lol - don't laugh, that is a huge step for me!!

I was so stressed this morning - I had a dreadful night's sleep, a few emails had come in from clients overnight that were stressing me and I was feeling pulled in a million directions. I just felt like curling up in a ball, pulling the covers over my head and crying. I was physically hurting - I even sat down in the shower because I felt so weak. So I made the decision to not think about work for the day and address some of the other things that were stressing me.

After my shower, I switched the computer off - I knew if I didn't I'd keep coming back to it. I'm addicted :( My name is Kerrie and I'm an Internet-holic... I must be one of the few people in the world not to have an MP3 player :) but I do have a Crowded House album stored on my mobile phone, so I stuck that in my pocket, cranked it up and started cleaning the house. It's quite amazing how many more hours there are in the day when the computer is not sucking them up!!! I got the house tidied, toilets cleaned, floors swept & vacuumed - stuff that had been niggling away saying "I must do that" every time I turned around. I even had time for breaks, and read my book! Billy decided he would clean the bathroom for me - it did involve emptying everything out of the vanity but it kept him amused :)

Anyway it made me feel a lot better to just ignore it for the day (I have to admit to checking the mail a couple of times via webmail on a different computer - it's the main way Pete & I stay in touch while he's at work - but I made sure to only read non-work stuff). We finished the day off at the park before picking Pete up from the train.

I'm in a much better frame of mind to tackle the work tonight...

Living Doll..

Isn't it funny how songs can bring back so many emotions.. I'm sitting here with a huge smile on my face after just hearing "Living Doll" by Cliff Richard "accompanied" by the Young Ones for the first time in absolute years! (I'm listening to an 80s online radio station)

It's a very silly song but it really brings back memories of my teenage years.

Does anyone else remember the song or was a Young Ones fan?

Another one bites the dust..

No of days left to teach at uni - 2
No of face-to-face days left at my course - 1
No of assignment tasks to do to finish off my course - 1
No of days I have left to get Billy to preschool by 8am so I can drive an hour to Newcastle for uni or my course - 3

I have a 2 week break from uni now which I'm really looking forward to..

Family Days..

I need a day at home! I think we've been out every day for over a week.. Roll on Wednesday!

Sunday we spent the day up at my sister-in-law's - Pete's aunty was down for a visit so we got together at Cher's place for a BBQ. It was on the most part a pleasant day (apart from the reaction to the homeschooling news - I need to grow a thicker skin to do this lol) - we didn't get home til about 8pm so while not an overly late night home, it certainly felt like it after a day of sitting around. I was very stressed before we left thinking about all of the stuff I have to do, and had a quiet little meltdown.. The house is so messy atm that it's really adding to my stress levels - every time I turn around I see something else that needs to be done.. You need to kick your way into Billy's room atm - I made up a chart on Sunday morning where he has to go and put away 5 pieces of clothing, 5 toys or books and throw away 5 pieces of rubbish. I can see a bit of floor there now after 2 days, so it must be helping :)

Today was my eldest niece's 15th b'day so we spent the day with them. Lunch, ice-cream cake, presents and good company :) I finally got their network working so feel very relieved to tick that one off my mental list!

Happy b'day Christie - hope you had a great day!

For the rest of the week I have - uni tomorrow, working at home Wed & Thu (must make a start on my tax this week). Friday I think we'll stay at home and do some cooking. (I made the mistake of telling Billy there may be gingerbread at the Oktoberfest because there used to be when I went many moons ago - there wasn't so he's been hassling to make it instead). Not sure about the weekend yet - Saturday is free at this point & Sunday is supposed to be a get-together with the locals from the Simple Savings group. I think I also saw an ad tonight to say that the Mattara festival is on in Newcastle on Sunday - it's an annual festival that looks like it might be worth checking out while we're down that way.

For now though, it's off to bed..

Medieval Oktoberfest??

I took this photo yesterday while we were having a picnic outside for lunch - I'm a bit worried as to what he's been watching to slip into a pose like that :)

We went off to visit the Newcastle Germania Club today for their Oktoberfest weekend. I used to go many, many years ago in high school - our German class used to have an excursion there so I had great memories of it. Apparently it hasn't run for many years and this was the first year back - I guess every festival has to start somewhere but to be honest it wasn't that exciting. We got to have Bratwurst & Kransky for lunch, listened (and Billy danced) to the German music and Pete got to enjoy some German beer, but that was about the extent of the "German-ness".. They had a couple of big jumping castles set up so the boy was extremely happy and spent several hours playing happily on those!

The main reason we went though was we knew they were having the local medieval group doing fight demonstrations (yeah I don't get the connection either :) ) It was pretty cool - they were all dressed up, did some one-on-one fighting, and then Andrew (who works with Pete) let Billy use the axe and bash him up! Needless to say the first thing he did when he came home was made a sword :)

It would have been a far more pleasant day if it hadn't been cold & raining though!

Ups and downs..

Not a great start to the day - I totally lost it with Billy for answering back. He was pushing my buttons, but it didn't deserve the tantrum I threw :( I'm tired and have too much crap in my system from the stuff I've been eating - pick which excuse you like.. :)

Once I got home from dropping him at preschool I had to make a couple of phone calls I'd been putting off, but once I got those out of the way things improved. I got a fair bit done on the website I'm working on, then went and bought the rest of my sister's b'day present & a couple of "new" t-shirts for me at the op-shop.

Picked the child up from preschool, then drove down to Newcastle to pick up Pete from work and head out to dinner for my sister's b'day. So the day ended much better than it had started! I'm very tired but have had too much caffeine today - hopefully I'll still sleep!!

Happy birthday Janelle!

Counting down..

No of days left to teach at uni - 3
No of face-to-face days left at my course - 1
No of assignment tasks to do to finish off my course - 4?
No of days I have left to get Billy to preschool by 8am so I can drive an hour to Newcastle for uni or my course - 4
No of weeks I have uni & my course on consecutive days - 0 - priceless!!!

Water Bill

Woohoo - just got our water bill! Our average daily usage was 0.33 kL - down from 0.40 kL last bill. But down from a whopping 0.64 kL this time last year - that's almost half!! I'm not sure what the difference is - all of the little things are obviously becoming habit.

For this time period, the average daily water usage for the Hunter Water area was 0.59 kL. According to a recent post by Rhonda - http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2007/09/checking-water-meter.html - the daily recommendation per person in their surrounding area is 130 L / person - we're averaging 110 L / person, so pleased with that!!!

Photos from Pete's party

A couple of photos from the party. Use your imagination on the cake - it's supposed to be a glass of dark beer, and the candles are in the shape of 40 :) Go on - really stretch your imagination lol. (I had to persuade Billy that Daddy wouldn't be able to blow 40 candles out even if we had that many!). It did taste a lot better than it looked anyway!

A few people commented previously on the nice view we have from our back deck. Here are a couple of better photos.

You may be able to distantly see a house & barn in the centre of the photo towards the back. Apparently (I'm not a local, but I've been told) that's called "Dunmore House" and was built in the 1820s.

I just found this on the net - fascinating! I must see if it's open to the public, or a residence or what! I have a mission :)

This land was a grant of 1000 acres that was selected by George Lang in 1822. George Lang had arrived in Van Dieman's Land in August of 1821 and proceeded to Sydney soon after. He applied for the position of Principal Clerk at Newcastle in 1822, however was appointed Storekeeper at the Commissariat Department at Liverpool instead. 13
A slab hut was erected on the grant. When George died in 1825 aged 23 the 1000 acre grant, named 'Dunmore' after George's mother, passed to George's brother Andrew. Andrew had followed George and their eldest brother John Dunmore Lang to Australia. Andrew and his father William worked hard to establish Dunmore however William drowned in 1830 when the vessel he was sailing to Sydney was wrecked in a squall. Andrew continued on at the Estate and a mill, Presbyterian Church and school were completed. Dunmore House, built before the death of William was a two story stone building facing towards the river.
Andrew Lang was involved in the community and on many committees such as the Maitland District Pastoral Association, Committee to collect subscription for the distressed in Ireland; Hunter River Vineyard Association; Committee for Maitland Hospital; Judge at Hunter River Agricultural Society show.14
In August 1844 Andrew's mother Mary Dunmore died at his residence 'Dunmore' aged 75. It was written of her -
' Mrs. Lang has been long and extensively known, both in this district and in Sydney, as a person of a remarkably vigorous mind, of great decision of character, of unbending religious principle, and of warm active and untiring benevolence. She will be long and deeply regretted.'26
On the 8th November 1849 Andrew Lang married Emily, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant William Caswell at Balickerra, Williams River (http://www.jenwilletts.com/early_settler2.htm)

Here's a closer look at it.

Clowing around..

Some photos I forgot to show of our trip to the art gallery last week. They had a "circus" exhibition on by Joe Furlonger and Robert Callander. There were paintings, sculptures and drawings - and that's about as technical as I can get!

Did you know that clowns used to "trademark" their clown face by painting it onto an egg which was then stored in a big vault? No-one was allowed to copy another clown's face - that would steal their spirit. And when that clown went to the "bigtop in the sky", the egg was crushed? Neither did I until I went to the exhibition!!! They had a table set up so kids could create their own clown face on a egg-shaped piece of paper using bits of scrap - they may not have any left after Billy was through though :)

When we got home we read a piece about clowns in other countries, and the next day did a clown craft - creating a clown from an empty toilet roll that I got from here - http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/circus/mtpclown.html.

All partied out..

I'm sitting here in an exhausted puddle because the party is over.. This one was Pete's 40th - I swear we're not usually so social! I went easy on myself for the catering - got takeaway chicken & salads from a chicken shop, and cooked up some frozen wedges. All nice & simple, but I'm exhausted from being on my feet, and talking to people.

There are still 3 people out there playing pool - I know 2 of them are staying the night, not sure about the 3rd. We'll just get some pizzas or something for tea - although there is heaps of chicken & stuff left over.

Which leads me to my vent - why do people seem to think an RSVP is unnecessary anymore??! It was like pulling hen's teeth to find out who was coming - even this morning we still weren't sure about some people. And then some of the ones who said they were coming failed to turn up anyway.. So that's why we have so much leftovers!!

Photos to come - maybe. I haven't even looked at the camera to see what I took. And my feet are too sore to get up and look now :)

Quote of the day..

Being a computer geek, I am a huge fan of Scott Adams - creator of the Dilbert cartoons - if you've never heard of Dilbert, check him out here (http://www.dilbert.com/). This quote of the day popped up on my iGoogle homepage yesterday and tickled my funny bone - hope it brings a smile to your face too :)

(It particularly appeals to the teacher in me who constantly tells students "there are no stupid questions"!)

"If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? - Scott Adams"

He's back..

Our blue tongue is back! Actually more than likely a descendant of last year's but good to see him/her back anyway.. We usually start to see him around the garden at this time of year.

I was coming back in from hanging the clothes out, and heard a scrabbling in the ag pipe - I guessed it was the bluey so kept an eye out for him and the camera handy. He came out of the pipe and just sat there posing for ages. I'd put the rest of Muffin's (our cat) tea out for the birds to pick at (minced chicken) - after he sat in the sun for half an hour or so he wandered across to the bowl and started eating it. It was really cool watching his blue tongue flicking out to eat! I didn't get a photo though as I'd shut the door by then and didn't want to disturb him by opening it.

You can click on the photo to get a bigger image. You can find out more about the blue tongue lizard here - http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/blue-tongue-lizard.html - I just found out heaps of stuff I didn't know!

What am I thinking?!

It's day like today that I wonder if I'll be able to cope with homeschooling.. We only got up at 7 - and by 8am he was annoying me so much I had to seek refuge in the shower! (And you wonder why I have loooong showers lol). He wasn't being naughty or anything, just annoying. I've found Fridays really hard to take this year - I'm not sure if we're both tired by the end of the week, or it's the fact he's been at preschool for 3 days or the fact that I've been able to complete a thought in peace for 3 days, or a combination - but Fridays are really tough.. That was one reason I cancelled his swimming lessons this term - getting to swimming by 9am Friday morning was such a struggle and often ended in yelling & tears (and that was just me lol).

Today I need to find the house - I'm sure it's here somewhere under this mess! - and cook a b'day cake. We have Pete's 40th party on tomorrow (it's his b'day today). I learnt my lesson after Billy's party - we've ordered BBQ chickens (already cut up), fried chicken pieces & salads from a local chicken shop - I just need to pick them up on Saturday morning, and throw some frozen wedges in the oven. It's certainly not the cheap option, but it's costing less than I budgeted for so all is good.

Right, well, I'd best stop procrastinating and actually get to work!

Preschool, work and food ramblings

I had a blogging slump last week, so bear with me while I ramble to catch up :)

I'm becoming increasingly dissatisfied with Billy's preschool atm. I know part of it is that now I've made up my mind to homeschool, I'm eager to get started, but it's more than that. The director is a lovely lady but, well ... disorganised would be a good word! That was fine last year because Billy's main room teacher picked up a lot of the slack. The director went off on maternity leave early this year, and Billy's teacher filled in as the dierctor. She did a wonderful job, introduced some good improvements and the place ran well. Now the original director is back from maternity leave and unfortunately Billy's teacher has been nabbed by another preschool to be the director there. Since then there's also been other personnel changes so he has different teachers as well. It's all very up & down atm.

Add to that a new little 'darling' at preschool - thank goodness he's only just started there. Every time I go to drop off or pick up I'll hear the teachers telling M not to do things - the very first day he was there he was throwing all of the balls over the fence. Billy has come home with a few new words courtesy of M as well.. :( Not swear words as such, but words I'd prefer my 5 year old wasn't using..

Luckily we only have 5 or 6 weeks left of 3 days/week, then we'll drop down to 1 day / week. Billy says he would be happy to finish up completely but he can finish up the year with their Xmas party, "graduation" etc.

The website that was stressing me out so much is finally live (www.circusstuff.com.au if anyone wants to buy any juggling equipment etc!) There's still a couple of minor things to finish off, but they're lower down on my list. I'm not 100% happy with the design, but what's that saying? "The customer is always right"?! :) So now I'm redesigning another 2 existing websites for a couple of clients.

Grocery shopping is all over the place atm - I didn't get a chance to do a full monthly shop earlier in the month, so I've been doing a pantry challenge. I had to buy a couple of things today - 10 kg potatoes, apples, bananas, cucumber, 2 loaves bread & eggs. I only spent $20 so was happy with that - I had to be, I only took $20 with me :) I made a loaf of bread last night but my breadmaker tin has decided to come apart, so I'll have to try the kitchen aid tomorrow. I was just about out of butter too, but found some cream in the freezer so whipped it up into butter. That'll do til next week. Pete's party (40th) is on Saturday so I expect we'll be back to eating leftovers the following week :) I'll be glad to get September out of the way!

Yesterday was a tough day tutoring at Uni - my normally difficult subject was even more difficult with most students not understanding the concepts at all (and we won't mention the errors that were in the tutorials - just to make life even harder!). The other subject - that is usually pretty easy - was full of students asking me about the assignment due on Friday! I didn't get a break & to eat my lunch until after 3pm - no wonder I ended up with a headache last night!

We went down to see our new niece Cassie on Sunday - she's beautiful and Mum & bub are both doing well.

I think that's all - if anyone is still reading by now :)

I love nanna naps :)

Pete took Billy with him while he played squash this afternoon so I had some time to myself. I *was* going to either do my assignment or some work, but was so tired and had a bit of a headache so I had a nap instead :) 2 hrs later and I felt much more alive!!

While I was sleeping the faithful washing machine did a load of washing - unfortunately it had to go through the dryer as the weather is very unsettled atm, and some of the stuff was needed tomorrow. I did the ironing while they were gone as well, and cooked a lovely roast dinner.

We have a roast dinner once a week all going well - I usually rotate between chicken, beef & pork but depending what's on special. As well as a lovely roast dinner, and a nice tradition, it also gives us lunch meat for the week, and I usually do some baking while the oven is on. (Anzac biscuits tonight). We usually have it on Sunday nights but I wasn't sure what time we'd be home from Sydney tomorrow, so we had it tonight instead. I only had a few potatoes left so stretched it out with Yorkshire pudding - yummmm! My grandma is English so I was raised on the stuff!!

Speaking of what's on special - we were in Bilo on Friday getting some stuff for Brad & Riss's new bub - just a care package of things like wipes, nappy cream etc. I was looking at some little stuffed toys and Billy said "do you think Cassie would like that?" I replied "probably but it's a bit expensive". He just looked at me and said "Does anyone buy expensive things??". lol I had to laugh and tell him "yes, some people do buy expensive things" :)

Check out my moodget :)

.. over on the side.. Isn't it cute! I got it from http://www.labpixies.com/moodget/ - you can enter in your own words and choose your mood icon to display. It can go on your iGoogle page, blogs, myspace etc etc...

Can you tell I was procrastinating this morning??! The good news is (apart from finding the cute moodget lol) that I am *this* close to finishing off the website that has been taking up so much of my time. I finished the last major part of it today (being able to buy & sell gift certificates) and just have some tidying up to do - that is unless the client finds some more changes!

Welcome to the world Cassie!

My bil & sil had a little girl this afternoon - Cassanda Hope (Cassie for short). She is 8lb 12oz, 51 cm long, with black curly hair. Both mum & bub are doing well which is such a relief!

Welcome Cassie - Billy can't wait to see his new cousin!!

Our Debt Journey

Congratulations to Emma who has recently become debt-free! WTG girl! You've worked hard and should be proud of yourself :)

I decided to add our debt ticker to my blog - I don't normally blog about it because to be honest I'm quite ashamed of having so much debt. The ticker has been in my signature over at No More Debt but I'm not posting as much over there atm, so I'm adding it here to give myself a visual kick-up-the-pants!

I grew up in a family where debt was bad - if you wanted something, you saved for it. My parents still don't have a credit card (they do have a debit card though). I didn't have a credit card until after we were married - we used it 'responsibly' though (as much as you can!) - paying it off each month. We had two fairly high incomes and for about 7 years lived well - overseas holidays, far too much take-away food, buying any 'toy' we wanted - books, computers, books, cds/dvds, did I mention books? :) etc etc.

Our initial debt (apart from mortgage) came when we were in the process of building this house. We were with a so-called 'financial advisor' (never again!) who had told us we needed x% deposit and then just before we signed, we found out we needed substantially more. So we borrowed $30,000 from a family member. This debt became our 'family pet' - it was always there but we never really made much of an attempt to pay it off. It makes me sick when I think of it now - we could have paid it many times over when we were both working. In fact we started to save the money a few times to pay it off, and always 'needed' that money for something else before we finished..

When I finished work to have Billy we cut down our spending - but not enough. We were still spending more than we earnt. Completely obliviously too. We went through any savings we had, the CC gradually crept up until we couldn't pay it off each month. It was *finally* sinking in that we needed to do something but I still wasn't ready to do too much about it. In Feb/March 2005, we had a bit of car trouble, and "needed" to buy a new ride-on mower (the old one blew an engine), so we had nearly $7000 in credit card debt :(

That was my rock-bottom, and my turning point. I think it was then that I found Dave Ramsey's site - he's an American, christian financial "guru" with a step-by-step plan for getting out of debt. We (I say we, but really me because I'm in charge of the finances) saved a $1000 emergency fund, and started getting "gazelle intense" on the CC debt. I stopped using the CC, used only cash or the debit card and gave Pete an "allowance" - nicely called "sanity money" so it doesn't sound as demeaning lol.

The CC debt was finally killed in August 2005! Which leaves only the 'family pet'! We've paid off $12,259 of it to date, $17,741 to go. We now have $1000 in an emergency fund, money in a separate 'sinking fund' account so we can always pay bills as they come in, and are living within our means.

Currently we're not quite as "gazelle intense" about paying off the debt - there is a small amount going in every month, but most of our "excess" money is going towards setting up Pete's microbrewery. Once that's done, we'll be able to start paying into the debt again. However, going right down to 1 income with me giving up work to homeschool will make it very slow. I'll start selling on Oztion again for a bit extra (not sure what I'll sell this time, books weren't really that successful), but it will be mainly reducing expenses even more to find the money. Hopefully the brewery will start paying for itself after a while too!

So that's our journey - we've paid off nearly $20,000 in 2.5 years and still have almost that to pay off before we are debt-free apart from the mortgage. I won't think about the fact that our car is 8 years old, as are all our major appliances lol. Mostly though I have learnt a lot about myself over the last couple of years and I've found I really enjoy being frugal!

First homeschool project..

Today Billy did his first 'recorded' homeschool project - he watched an episode of Backyard Science a few days ago where they soaked a chicken bone in vinegar to make it rubbery (by leaching the calcium out). We had a discussion the next day or so about what foods had calcium in them and the fact our bones need calcium or they'll go 'rubbery'.

We had chicken for lunch today and he wanted to try the experiment - so I now have a jar of vinegar with a chicken bone in it on my bench :) He followed it up by creating a poster of foods with calcium in them - I printed out a traceable sheet from http://www.kidzone.ws/tracers/index.htm with the word calcium on so he had some hand-writing practice, and then he went to town with the scissors, glue & a bunch of grocery catalogues!

After he'd finished, I got out the 'Disney' kid's encyclopedias and we read what calcium was, and looked at pictures of skeletons.

So there's science for the day!

The chicken bone in vinegar :)

Making the chart

The finished product

Our weekend

We escaped for the weekend (not sure if anyone noticed lol). Pete had a beer dinner on in Newcastle on Saturday night, and I wasn't keen on him travelling home alone on the train after midnight. He has a whole heap of "frequent traveller points" from the travel he does for work, so he used some of them to book a room in Newcastle for the night. We went along for the ride :)

After we checked in, Pete & Billy took off to play squash (well, Pete played squash, Billy played with the other kids). Which left me a glorious couple of hours BY MYSELF! I went for a leisurely walk along the foreshore to find somewhere we could get tea later on, bought Pete's Father's Day present and then came back to the quiet hotel room, lay in the sun, and read a book! Nice :) I think I even dozed a bit..

Pete went off to his beer dinner and Billy & I got fish, chips & calamari for tea. He was quite taken with sleeping on the fold-out bed in the sofa!

It was an early morning on Sunday - Pete had to go down to Sydney to watch the last Swan's home game for the season. We did the Father's Day gifts - Angus & Robertson gift voucher from me, and a paddle-pop stick coaster from Billy, then Pete went off to Sydney and we drove up to my parents house to spend the day. My Dad enjoyed his combined birthday-Father's Day Bunnings vouchers (he calls it 'man-church' lol) - it should give him hours of entertainment wandering around :)

Some photos of the weekend:

Nobby's breakwall - a distinctive view of Newcastle (a bit glary though!)

Newcastle foreshore - they've done a great job with this area. Notice our interesting "phallic" tower in the centre of the photo - no idea what the architect was thinking with that one!!!!

Fishing trawler coming back in

Newcastle is a working port - tugs waiting for their next job

Father's Day cup of coffee on the special coaster

My Dad getting help from all of the grandkids to open his present!