June jaunts

What happened to June?! (And I don't mean poor old Blighty's complete lack of summer.) We seem to have slipped onto some kind of fast forward mode. We've have suddenly been here six months, Dulcie is eight months old, we've done two terms of all our weekly activities, and Melbourne midwinter is upon us. I'll start with the weather since that's so topical. Well, for the first time since we've been here, the Melbourne cliche 'four seasons in one day' is finally starting to apply. You can't really look at the sky and make a plan for the afternoon, as it can change and change back again in the space of a few hours. As a result I have occasionally been caught out in a heavy shower with a buggy full of greengrocery, two small kids, no coats, umbrellas or raincover.

The womenfolk of the house have all had rotten colds on and off for a month. The last bout has been a bit frustrating, with everyone coughing and spluttering. At night there's a cacophony of soprano and treble hacking, with an accompaniment deep bass snoring. It's the school holidays here now for two weeks and all our groups have stopped, so I hope that we'll be in contact with a few less germs and be able to properly get over things. Dulcie has returned to old tricks of waking up when it's still dark, so all in all what with illness and tiredness we've been feeling a bit sorry for ourselves at times.

A couple of weeks ago it was Will's company's annual knees up, which took place at the famous MCG in the members' rooms (which they project managed when it was built). I didn't have particularly high expectations, particularly when I found out the theme was 'hollywood glamour' (nothing in my wardrobe answering that description, had to get the Audrey Hepburn option from local fancy dress hire) but it turned out to be an absolute blinder of an evening, fantastic views over the city one way and the vast sports ground the other way, excellent food and wine and a band playing our kind of music. Here's a pic of us attempting to look glamorous, self portrait when we got home (2am, latest stop out since having kids)! Can you check out my bling?


We've been enjoying family time together at the weekends lately. There are so many great places to go in Melbourne, and as we're still basically in tourist mode, we tend to go and do more things than some of our friends who live here all the time. These pics are us enjoying a bit of family jumping (off a wall next to the Collingwood Children's farm near us) and the visit we did yesterday to MSAC (Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre) on the other side of town. To my huge surprise, Dulcie coped really well (first time we've got round to taking her swimming) and stayed in the water for quite a long time. Thea did brilliantly in the waves pool and to my utter shock agreed to go down the water chute with Daddy. This was a really high, dark, enclosed slide with lots of twists and turns, the sort of thing that I have to pluck all my courage up to go on. I think Will was desperate for a go but too embarrassed without a small child as an excuse, so he talked her into it. Apparently as they were spat out into the pool at the bottom she said, 'Again!' This is yet more proof that she has more Williamson genes than Ewins ones. It was a good way to get a quiet afternoon tho as both girls were exhausted from the activity; Thea was so weary that she actually fell asleep with a toy in her mouth.