On Sunday we celebrated my Dad’s 70th Birthday with lunch at the Anchorage Restuarant in the Boat Harbour Hotel.
It’s been a long time family favourite and many, many special occasions have been celebrated here.
Not only is the food always fabulous, but so is the view – esp. on a lovely sunny day.
I had soup…
and cheese souffle (lovely but rather rich)…
There were speeches. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling that great, so Athena said some words on behalf of our family. This is Dad’s brother, my uncle Brian.
and Dad’s Uncle John…
We took the opportunity to take some family photos.
Then came dessert – which was DELICIOUS..
and cake…
Granny was especially happy to get a photo with ALL of her current grandchildren (there are another 2 currently in progress :-)).
and Kevin couldn’t resist getting a photo of our two “specials” :-).
On the way home we stopped to admire the full moon rising over the lake…
On Sunday we headed up to Sydney to the Opera House. As you can see we had the most splendid day for it. Luckily the day didn’t require much beyond a bit of walking, and taking it slowly I was able to manage ok.
We had lunch sitting outside with the view of the Harbour Bridge. It was a little chilly in the shade so we were appreciative of the blankets provided. Christy had the best lunch – a kids afternoon tea!! We were all rather jealous.
I had the minestrone soup – last time we were here I had vegetable soup – and it was rather yummy.
Then it was time to head inside the Opera House.
stopping, of course, to take some photos…
The reason for todays visit…
a presentation by National Georgraphic photographer, David Doubilet.
We took the girls along this time (Athena wasn’t keen to be photographed) and while it was good, he wasn’t as a good a storyteller as the last one we’d been to, Paul Nicklen.
Managed a bit of a sleep in this morning till 6.30am. Only Rosie to let out today as Bailey has started staying up with Kevin until he comes down. Of course there was tea drunk. No Tour de France today as it was a rest day.
Even though I’ve been really unwell I still usually manage to put Charlie out. The girls have been good about doing the dishwasher before they head to school.
Any little job seems to leave me exhausted and in pain so it was back to the couch…with my pups…
and some more tea…
Eventually I dragged myself upstairs (and ended up incredibly puffed due to my lung infection), showered, dressed and collected todays washing.
I’m wanting to upload our UK trip videos to YouTube and tried to, unsuccessfully, work out how I could re-edit it.
I was feeling slightly better today, enough that I could be bothered to paint my nails, which had been naked for the last week.
Since so much of the day was spent on the couch I lit a candle.
I’ve been really funny about food and not up to making much. Since I didn’t have anything ready to eat in the fridge I made a lunch of crackers and dip.
Then a few hours later had a snack of cheese & crackers.
Pop has been great about collecting the girls from school, though today Christy had drama, but he picked up Athena and took her to the hairdressers. Around 4pm I headed upstairs to have a bath.
Bailey found a toilet roll (empty) to eat – no idea how they are so tasty but both dogs enjoy one from time to time!!!
Tonight I enjoyed yet another stunning sunset.
Athena was kind enough to make us dinner (as she’s been doing every night since I got really sick) – quorn pie, potato and honey carrots tonight. Then Kevin & I settled in to watch some TV – tonight it was a documentary on the A380.
Bailey found his favourite Winter position in front of the heater…
and around 8.30pm we headed up to bed. I’ve not been sleeping the best lately so we’ve been heading to bed rather punctually.
If you want to see more of my day before to watch the vlog.
July started with 2 weeks of Winter school holidays, which meant we had LOTS of kids over and had 5 sleepovers in a row!!!
Christy and I also had a few outings with the dogs…
Unfortunately I got really sick after the first week of school holidays, with what turned out (we think) to be a lung infection. Which meant lots of time on the couch with my pups.
Good thing I had the Tour de France to watch for a few hours every day or when I was in too much pain to sleep…
This years start in Yorkshire was amazing….
especially as they showed places like that we had visited back in 2010.
July also included numerous ct scans, blood tests and visits to the lung specialist….
and snugly puppies…
One morning Kevin sent me a photo of Bailey lying on bed (as he’s taken to doing after I leave in the morning), so I sent him a photo of Rosie lying on the couch with me :-).
Finally, July, mid-Winter here in Australia, saw some amazing weather. One day we actually got to 25C.
