A Stormy Start to Term Four

Term four? It's sounds strange saying that. Never done a term four before. It's like entering a new dimension. So what have we done during it? Not alot, the following represents the best we could come up with in three weekends. We have been componded by various factors:
1. Money or the lack of it. We have a final spurt of spending ahead of us so are trying to pull in the reins a bit.
2. Work. It's report time over here, which coupled with a new term of programming to do means a few late evenings and weekend mornings have had to be set aside.
3. Weather... It's been a bit crap. Of the last three Saturdays two have been dawn to dusk washouts and last weekend it was blowing a gale. The most dramatic weather event was a genuinely scary halloween encounter with Tennis ball sized hailstones. I was cameraless in the photocopy room at school when they hit. So for anybody who can't envisage a tennis ball sized hailstone. Here is somebody else's dramatic image of a tennis ball sized hailstone.



OK you had to be there really but trust me when these beauties are hitting the roof above you, which is essentially corrugated iron, boy is it scary. Anyway we survived, so did the car by some miracle. Tina was warned to be ready with the video at Warners Bay but it was one of those localised things where I got this and she had the prospect of recording heavy drizzle. Nevertheless it has apparently led to the largest amount of insurance claims since the earthquake of 89
The scene below was just after a thwarted mission to the beach last Saturday. More tranquil but those Parasailers are moving. Even with our knotted hankies and deckchairs at the ready us Poms had to admit defeat.



Had it been just us we might have packed in there but we had Luke up from Hornsby (His Mum and Dad were doing Uluru) so we headed for the swimming centre.

It was just as cold there though.This was a dramatically mistimed action shot of Luke and Jessica coming down the flume, but it was so windy at the top they refused to go up again.

The evening was supposed to be the drive in Cinema but that had to be shelved too. So a good old British alternative was used, the bowling alley. Here Alex celebrates a spare (He's turning into his Dad). The clever thing about this game, don't know if this is an Aussie innovation or common practice now, was that the guide rails were programmed to only came up when the kids bowled. It handicapped the game nicely; though the grown ups still won through. Did I mention my three strikes in a row?

No chance for a lie in as we had an appointment for a Warners Bay Public school "Family Photo"

on Sunday morning. You know the deal we'll give you a free big tasteless photo in a plastic frame and hope you'll spend $200 on all the other shots we took of you. Well here is a glimpse of our efforts, prior to going in.

Oh well. No doubt people will be looking at this and thinking how old those two are looking now. They'll also be surprised at how quickly Jessica and Alex are growing up.

The one event of the past three weeks which has not been cancelled or altered was the open day at Mount Vincent Winery in the Hunter Valley. Tina's fourth, my third and for both of us almost certainly our last trip there. Why take three children there? How selfish are we? Well before you judge us; whilst we enjoyed the view of palms, pines and vines and quoffed a dozen or so samples of the local brew. The children...

Went to the Magic Show.

Bounced on the bouncy castle and went for pony rides. Everyone's a winner baby.