Plan B when it rains? There is no Plan B!

Having driven up from Hornsby for the first time since March, it was time to entertain the Garrett family again. This time their elder son Tom had decided he just couldn't handle another non stop adventure with the Chappells and so stayed back down South whilst we mused over what a second weekend in Newcastle could offer guests. Well Chris (the female Garrett version not the Chappell one) was desperate for a bike ride and so we decided to cycle round the lake for a barbie at Speers point. Unfortunately the clouds were closing in and the first specks of rain were about to fall so we decided to.......still cycle round the lake and have a barbie at Speers Point!
A closer look will help to establish what Jessica thought of this plan!



Tina had stayed dry by driving the equipment round to our destination and as the wind continued to blow decided that her knee would not be able to cope with doing the homeward trek. Here we are cycling off into the distance, looking optimistically at the bluer skies heading our way. This was also about 30 seconds before Alex broke down in tears insisting he couldn't go on any further. I think the Australian for this is... "being a sook".




It had stayed dry for the cycle home so I took Richard and Chris to another local beach. It rained again. We therefore set off on a "boys" mission to see the Rugby(football) with some trepidation. I had even more trepidation about being forced to wear the Knights Jacket(sorry, David....it just doesn't suit me!) But the boys loved wearing theirs and Richard only kept his on long enough for the photo as we decided we didn't need jackets; the brolly stayed down and the Knights won easily.... so smiles all around.(and it is official...Tina must be the 'Boggey', which causes any team that we support to lose!)



Jessica had had her friend Holly over on Saturday night so Sunday morning was rather vexing with three children being taken out after an obvious lack of sleep. They managed to smile nervously for this photo with the Tawny Frogmouth at Blackbutt reserve. Why nervously?



Well he was pretty scary looking and had just swooped over Jessica's head!



Newcastle council is pretty good at funding things which make life just that little bit more pleasant. Blackbutt is a free facility with Bushwalks, picnic facilities, an aviary, Koalas, Wallabies, Emus, Quolls (no I'd not heard of them either) etc. They used to have a Diamond python but he got stolen a few weeks ago*. Anyway here is the boardwalk where most of the local fauna is found. Here am I with Richard and an apparently headless Chris admiring the various exhibits.


*The link takes you to A january news story. The sad fact is he was found and has now been stolen again this time not being returned and obviously not newsworthy a second time around.

More council money has been spent on the kind of urban regeneration programme to be found going on at just about every industrial harbour city around the Globe. You know the sort of thing.
Marinas
Overpriced apartments
Bars and restaurants with names like Silo, Breeze and Terminal One
Water features



Fancy lights and paving along the foreshore.



and a string ensemble for good measure. Sitting out in the sun, listening to Pachebel's Canon, sipping latte (actually I ended up drinking bloody Mocha without realising it whilst the other Chris enjoyed my latte) felt very soothing, chic and cosmopolitan. The Music was part of the "Livesites" programme who had given us the Winter Heat evening a few Fridays before. We could tell it was provided by the same people thanks to the good quality music, the Red Gazebo and the same B & Q chairs.



We realise retrospectively that our style of entertaining does not involve negotiated consultation of what our guests would like to do but a strict timetable of events which must be adhered to. So it was we left the string ensemble behind and forced Chris , Richard and Luke a further Kilometre into the centre to admire the view from the phallic shaped tower which dominates the foreshore. The enjoyment of this dramatic vista out towards the Tasman Sea is somewhat spoilt by the fifteen thousand words of graffitti at the top of the tower with the compulsory olfactorius (Leonard Sachs eat your heart out) complement of stale urine. In simple terms it stank of old P***.



Well we took the pegs off our noses made it back to the cars and said goodbye as the Garretts were keen to see the Pelican Feeding at the Entrance that we had previously enjoyed back in February. We were tempted to go but did not like to risk it with two tired children from the night before. Ironically we got home and the children played happily for two hours and we crashed out on the sofa.