So Busy!!!

I’d started off this year with great intentions of keeping things (like this blog) up-to-date!

But there has been a bit of a bump in that road in the form of work!

Normally I work one day a week (office G), and every other weekend (office R). Occasionally I work for a week or two if someone is on leave in another office (office A), but it's only 3-4 weeks per year.

I was filling-in in ‘Office A’ before and after Christmas after a ‘reshuffle’ in one of their other offices.
During my this time I was approached to fill a spot in the other office – for a 3 month period, working 3 days a week.

So I now drive an hour each way to work – which is a bit different from the usual 5 minute drive! But it also means that some things don’t get done as often as I’d like – such as my poor blog – which seems to get left to weekends.

But I’ll keep blogging on!!

The Drags

Another round of the drags – complete with pictures!

The aim for this round was to crack a 10 second pass….

But that didn’t happen – but we won’t talk about drivers that forget to change back to first before taking off from the line…. Hitting neutral half-way down the track is not part of the idea!

But there is always next month!!!

Holiday Wrap-Up

So the kids holiday's haven't officially ended - they still have a few days left until they are back at school.

But here is a quick wrap up of what we got up to in the last week they were here!

Time at the beach.

It was a beautiful day at the beach! Sunny, no wind, no flies!!!

Splashing in the water

Collecting water for the sandcastle.

Starting building the sandcastle.

The sandcastle.
This photo was taken with my phone as the darn camera went flat, so it's not the best picture.
It does look like a person - they decorated 'him' and made him look pretty.

Olivia got her ears pierced!

I still remember that I was 6 when I went to get my ears pierced and chickened out. The girl had done the dots on my ears, brought out the piercing gun and that's when I went 'No Thanks!'
I was 12 when I finally got my ears pierced.....

Olivia was very brave, didn't flinch and proclaimed rather proudly that it didn't hurt at all. I on the other hand couldn't watch!!!


But on Tuesday it's back to school!!!

Kite Flying!

Today has been almost perfect weather for kite flying - a little bit cloudy, so it's not too hot, and breezy to help the kites fly.

Olivia got her kite for her birthday - but we haven't had a chance to take it to be flown yet - so that was today's mission - try to get her kite to fly.

The Dora kite flew quite well - Olivia got the hang of it very quickly - and soon there was no more string left on the winder!

Olivia flying her kite

No more string on the winder!

Alexander with the kite.

The Elmo kite we took for Alex to play with spent more time on the ground than in the air.... it's obviously not designed for high flying like the Dora kite.... But when the wind blew that bit harder he did go up in the air - but he just came back down again.

Elmo valiantly trying to stay in the air....

Where Elmo spent most of his time though.

The jam from yesterday? I must have let it boil an bit too long - it's kinda hard..... but it's OK, you don't need a chainsaw to cut it. But it tastes YUMMY! We made some scones for afternoon tea to have with our jam!

Holiday Fun - Strawberries!!!!

Today I decided it would be good to go and do something with the kids that we hadn't done before, so we went strawberry picking.

The strawberry farm is about 20 minutes from home (if that) and very reasonably priced for picking your own strawberries!

Olivia in there picking the Strawberries!

Alexander wondering why Mum has to
take the darn camera everywhere!

It didn't take long before we had a kilo of fresh strawberries and two very happy children!

Strawberry Pickers with their Pickings!!

We continued driving along the road and stopped at the Batman Bridge (pronounced Batmen - not Bat Man - no caped crusaders on that bridge). I gave the kids a quick history lesson on why the bridge was built and who it was named after.... having to convince Alex that it really was Batmen not Bat Man......

At the Batman Bridge

All the information you ever needed to know about the Batman Bridge

So we kept going on our way back home.

But what to do with a kilo of strawberries? Eat some is a very good answer! Make some yummy homemade strawberry jam is another! And there are some leftover to have on breakfast tomorrow morning too.

The jars are just finishing sterilising in the oven at the moment - so I'll take one last photo of the jam in the jar before uploading the photo's and pressing post!

The beginnings of the Jam!

Jam Cooking - bubbling away

YUMMY JAM!!!

Weekend Away

The one weekend we plan to go away to the beach and what happens???

It RAINS!!!

We'd planned to go to the coast with our friends to their parents shack, attend the local car show and then spend the day on the beach.....

We left home - the day was overcast, but not too bad... Half way there the drizzle started. The drizzle turned to rain and FOG!!! I figured once we got past the mountains we hit sunshine again.

I was wrong....

It rained all weekend - except for the hour or so when we braved the beach - but then the thunder started so we headed back to the shack....


So the kids have been promised another trip to a different beach - when it's NOT raining and freezing and we all turn purple and end up with goosebumps!!!

Some of the entrants at the Car Show.
Hubby won Best Modified Car!

Notice the beautiful weather?? No?
Not the nicest day for beach-going.

The kids had fun in the water!

Building Sandcastles with Bradley keeping an eye on the kids
and checking out the water.

New Car!!!

So she may not be a "new", new car, but she's new to us.

The problem is now to decide what to do with her? Do we leave her stock standard as she is? Or do we turn her into the drag car that everyone else wants us to do?




One sure thing, she has a big fan! Olivia now 'drives' her - while sitting in the driveway while hubby washes the car. She's figured out how to use the wipers!!



But it's just another project added to the list!!!