Another year over, a new one just begun …

One of Jack’s Xmas presents this year was a tent. I pitched it in the garden for him and he quickly roped Liz into camping out with him. We put his inflatable mattress in it and a camp bed for the missus and – wouldn’t you know it – it rained. Not hard enough to ruin things completely, but it still made the experience a little bit damp. Jack enjoyed it so much that he invited his friends Charlie and Chloe over to camp out. We gave them a house phone and showed them how to make an internal call. We checked on them at 10pm and they were spark out. Unfortunately for the neighbours, they were up again at 6am though and charging round the garden with toy guns shooting each other.

We decided to go out for breakfast in Gerringong. The town was absolutely heaving with holidaymakers, so we decided to give the cafes on the main street a miss and try one further up. The food at the Poets Corner was far superior, more competitively priced and the views were sensational …

If you're even in Gerrringong - the food and the views at the Poets Corner are well worth checking out.

NYE..
For new years eve this year, we decided to go and see the fireworks in Kiama. Admittedly these aren’t much compared to the display happening 80km up the road in Sydney, but that wouldn’t bother the kids. The display was due to start at 9pm and we arrived in town at five, which meant we got great parking spaces right next to the beach where the display happened.

The Kiama fireworks display kept the kids entertained.

We walked into town to get a bite to eat and ate at a great little Thai restaurant overlooking the harbour. Then I wandered up to the bottle shop to get some fizzy for everyone else  and then we wandered down to the harbour beach to establish our pitch. We were very well prepeared with picnic rugs, chairs and supplies and had a enjoyable couple of hours waiting for the display to happen.

The atmosphere was really nice. The place was crowded with families enjoying the evening, enjoying a glass of wine while the kids played with glo-sticks. There was no security apart from a couple of coppers who walked up and down the promenade a couple of times. I was left thinking to myself isn’t it great that this is a) free and b) so good-natured. There were teenage lads there, with cans of beer in their hands, but they weren’t being aggressive or ignorant and in fact as they walked past our pitch, one of a large group of lads, bent down to pick up a can someone had dropped earlier – and put it in the bin. I’m sure they have their moments, like all teenagers, but the fact remains that the atmosphere at the event was totally non-threatening and we saw no trouble for the duration.

After the display we went back to the cars and merged into the heavy traffic inching its way out of the harbour area. We went back to Tanya and Mike’s house for a nightcap and temporarily tucked Jack up in one of the spare beds. We watched the Sydney fireworks on TV and then headed for home to respond to the texts and emails from England.

Today we all woke up fairly late and took the dog to Gerroa for a walk, before heading over to my parents for a light lunch and a splash about in their pool. With just under four weeks of the summer holidays left, we’ve decided to take Jack camping on Cockatoo Island in Sydney – should be interesting.