February 2007

So what's been happening lately? Well Kevan has been busy digging - again. He says he doesn't like it but then spends all his time doing it so who knows! Anyway this time he has taken up the paths at the front of the house and removed several ton of soil in order to lower it all to below the level of the damp proof course of the house. He has also installed a drainage pipe along the front so when it rains we don't have a lake outside the front door. This is always a good move as we don't have a boat. He has also been digging to find the mains water pipe so that we (well obviously not me but I help by staying out of the way or offering useful comments every now and then) can get a big water tank for the rain water, and then we can use the rain water instead of mains for everything. Australia is suffering one of the worse droughts ever at the moment and water is fairly scarce. Farms going out of business all over the place. The government give rebates for any water saving stuff you install so it works out fairly reasonable in cost.

The ground level used to up to the bottom of the door in the right hand corner!

It's tough though, because although we are on very tight water restrictions, it is really green where we are, so unless we see the devastation on the news we really don't realise how bad it is in other areas where they've not had rain for 8 years or so!

Still on the issue of idiots not wanting recycled water, apparently it is ok to drink water that has come out of the reservoirs because that is sparkling pure mineral water - regardless of the fact that birds etc have probably died in there and it's got used fuel in it dumped from boats. It's far healthier than recycling the water. I honestly find it ridiculous that in 2007 Australia is only just waking up to recycling but better late than never I guess. It has been pointed out that if anyone complaining about it, has ever travelled to Singapore or the UK etc they will have certainly drunk recycled water but they refuse to believe it.

The summer finally arrived a week before the girls went back to school although it has still not been as hot or humid as last year. Anyway, the pool is in very regular use and Abs has almost taken to living in it. Her feet and hands haven't become webbed yet but it's only a matter of time.

School - well it seems to be going well. Usual stuff, some things you think - wow that's a great idea and then something else happens and you wonder what the Education Department are on but never mind. They appear to be learning stuff which is all you can hope for. On Wednesday's Heather's school has sports day when they spend most of the day doing some sort of sport. Heather this term has chosen Netball. Nothing amazing in that you'd think but here it means that every Wednesday she gets bussed to the local beach and spends the afternoon on the beach playing netball, stretching and - tough life - having a swim before coming home!

A mate of her's had a party last weekend - beach party. A dozen 14 year olds messing around on one of the best surfing beaches in the country, watching fit lads surfing all afternoon - she came home happy anyway!

I went to Sydney for a long weekend. Early Saturday morning flight down on the 3rd. Met up with a cyber mate and we drove into the city to our apartment overlooking Darling Harbour.

View from the apartment - not bad!

Oh and a view of the apartment from the top of the Sydney Tower

We did a harbour cruise in the afternoon - I wasn't sick, we were on a catamaran and even though it got a little choppy, I stood in the wind and concentrated hard. The following are a few pics from both the Cat and on shore. The fancy house in the third one is Kirribilli house where John Howard (or which ever numpty is head of government at the time) lives. Now that is one nice house and fantastic views. It must be a really sad day when the voters say bog off! Old Maggie cried leaving Downing Street. Lord knows what she would have done if she had had to leave this place!