Missing Gary

Hi folks

Gary's gone to the World Masters in Sydney to play basketball for 10 days so I'm single Mum home alone but that hasn't cramped my style.

I went for a walk along the beach Saturday morning to stretch my legs (and get rid of those wine inches). I was feeling a bit sad cos Gary had gone! All of a sudden this vision of loveliness happened buy. Two gorgeous hunks, bronzed & sweaty, jogging along the beach. I thought I'd imagined it!! I was enjoying the memory of the vision as I walked home when they passed me again - bliss. Being in Oz has certainly become even more interesting :)

As Gary left Sally & Graham reappeared. They knocked on the door early Saturday morning having just got off the plane. They decided that as it was such a lovely day they would take their yacht out on the water. It was also the Opening Day for the Yacht Club so there were loads of boats racing on the water - it was fantastic. I can now see the attraction of being in a sailing club. We spent the afternoon on the boat having tea & cake, oh and then cheese & wine. The day was finished off with a Gourmet Barbecue at the Yacht Club which we gatecrashed.

Gary was grumpy that we were on the boat while he was in cloudy wet Sydney on boys trip playing basketball - I ask you?!

The weekend was lovely & warm but it's now started raining again (funny drought this). The girls are grumpy because they're in out of school club while Gary's in Sydney. Ever get that Monday feeling? Anyway only a few more days then Mum will arrive from the UK so we'll just have to do more wine tasting.

We are definitely coming back to the UK. We go walkabout in November so will only be contactable by email/ phone. We'll catch up with you all when we get back. For those of you planning to get pressies for girls - please don't worry about it. If you really want to we'll get then when we get home (our luggage is already over the limit!)

Missing you lots - big hugs to all

Geraldine xxx

The Gold Coast

Annabelle: Last week was the start of the holidays between term three and term four and we went to THE GOLD COAST, however mum couldn't go with us because she had to go to work.
We left home on Saturday the 26th of September at about 4:30am to catch our flight at 6am to go to the gold coast, when we got to the gold coast it was 28 degrees.
A few hours later after sitting in a traffic jam we got to the place we were staying, THE GRAND APARTMENTS, we had the rest of the day being lazy and going swimming in the sea and the pool.
The next day we went to SEA WORLD. It was fun, we saw the dolphin show, the sea lion, the polar bears and all the other aminals there however there wasn't any killer whales.
On Monday we went to the WARNER BROTHERS MOVIE WORLD, and went on many rides inculding the scooby doo ride and the wild wild west ride also we saw the Hollywood Stunt Driver show.
Lucy:
I'm talking about the last two days that we were in gold coast!
At about 11:00 o'clock we went to wet 'n' wild water world, there was like splash landings but bigger!! Frist me and annabelle went on the lazy river. Then all of us went in the wave pool they were giant waves! Then we went on mammoth fall it was a 8 person ride we went on it twice and when we went round a bend I mostley felt as if i was going to fall down to dad!!!
The next day we were out of the room by 10 am and we went to NSW and backthen we went in a zorb (a ball that you sit in and it has water in it and you go down a hill) then we went to the airport and flew home!!!

lucyx PS Miss you lots.

City-Bay Fun Run (or Walk)

Every year 30 000 people run or walk 12km from the centre of Adelaide to Glenelg at the beach. As we missed the Race for Life this year Annabelle, Lucy & I decided that we would join Linda & her crowd for the City-Bay. We walked with Linda & Liz. Emily was at a sleepover so she missed the fun. Michael & Jonathon ran the 12 km in a little over an hour.

We set off at 8:20am and arrived in Glenelg 2hours 8 minutes later. The girls were absolute stars and enjoyed the fun of it all. We saw Lego Men, Star Wars characters, Batman, Wonderwoman and Superman to name a few.

There were lots of supporters along the way. Our favourite was the 2 old couples who had a tray of nibbles and glasses of champagne to hand out. Once we had the champagne the rest of the walk certainly went with zing.

The carrot for the children was a trip into Baskin & Robbins for scrummy ice cream. Gary then came to collect us but there wasn't enough room in the car to take everybody home. Liz, Linda & I walked the 6km back home to Seacliff along the beach.

Once we got back to Seacliff Gary served a great barbeque with lots of new recipes from his Aussie barbeque book. We washed it all down with lots of champagne - well why wouldn't you celebrate this fantastic achievement?!!!

The Show

Lucy: On Tuesday me and Annabelle had a day off school to go the show. The show was like going to the fair and more because it has show jumping, wood chopping, races, fireworks and motor bikes doing stunts. We went on the 40 year old Ferris wheel called the sky master.
Then we went on the sky flyer it's like these seats going about 10 metres high and then we spun around really fast!!! Then for lunch I had a Dagwood dog its this sausage on a stick dung in batter the a little bit dung in tomato sauce and it was really yum!!! Then we went to see the animals border collie puppies the were really cute but the were $15000 each!!! Then we went on lots of rides then we went home. But the show only on in september.

Missing you lots Lucy xxxx
P.S. Can't wait till jan

The Fraenkels Boat

On Thursday, as I was in theatre with my hand somewhere unmentionable my phone rang. Gary & the girls were out on Sally & Graham's boat enjoying cold beers. The temperature had suddenly shot up into the high 20s. I said I would get there as soon as I could.

When I left work I drove down to the beach. Graham came to the shore in the dinghy to collect me. I hitched up my dress (not very well) and waded into the sea. Then I had my first Mr Bean moment as I tried very inelegantly to hop into the dinghy. Needless to say I ended up like a dead fly, flat on my back & legs akimbo in the bottom of the dinghy! I tried to maintain what little dignity I had left as we sped across the water to the yacht anchored offshore. Once we reached the 37 foot yacht Graham asked me to throw Gary the rope which I was sitting on (Mr Bean moment 2). Once I had retrieved the rope I threw it to Gary who tied the dinghy to the yacht. It then dawned on me that I had to get from the dinghy to the yacht (Mr Bean moment 3)! Thankfully I didn't fall in the sea but my dress was so wet it wouldn't have mattered.
A few drinks later it was time to go home. I decided that I would help Graham take the yacht back to its mooring at the Marina rather than risk the dinghy again. If we forget the dinghy I'm sure I could get very used to sitting on the yacht with my beer/wine enjoying the gorgeous sunshine & watching dolphins all day......

Love Bean x

Annabelle:
On Thursday when we got home from school our neighbour Graham wanted to know if me, Lucy and Dad wanted to come on their boat with them. A little while later their daughter Lucy came on.
We jumped off the boat and swam in the sea.
Then we went to Brighton, on the boat, and saw dolphins and had fish and chips.

Lucy: On Thursday we went on Graham's boat and we swam in the sea.It was fun.

Gary had fun too xx

Whale watching

Hi Guys

Last weekend we headed down to Port Eliot with Linda & Eric to go whale watching. On Saturday & Sunday we watched Southern Right Whale mums playing with their calves. They were really close in to the shore. We saw 5 mother whales and each one had their own baby. An awesome sight!!! Unfortunately the photos aren't too great.

We've past the halfway stage of our trip down under. Time seems to be flying but we have to have a few more adventures before we come home.

Missing you all.

Lots of love
Geraldine x

Spring

We've had a very quiet week this week. After Mel left the weather became wild. We had a massive storm that caused damage to buildings & blew trees down. The waves were so huge that they crashed onto the pier. Surfers were actually jumping off the pier with their surfboards trying to catch the waves.
Sally had told us that spring would start on 1st September but with the wild storm & only a week to go we didn't believe her. Guess what? On the first day of September we woke to find a glorious sunny day with a temperature of 22 degrees. Amazing! Hopefully the weather will just get better from now on.
Not much else to report - we're just starting to plan our walkabout at the end of the year.
Hope all is well back home.

Take care, missing you all
Love Geraldine x