September Spring

   Some of it's familiar - allergies, warmer weather, longer days.  Some of it's not - rugby mania, unfamiliar plants, ending school year.  Overall, we found the "winta" here to be really nice.  Aside from some nasty wet spells and cold interiors, there's wasn't much to complain about.  Sydney is such a great outdoor city though and we're happy that spring has arrived!

Bottlebrush tree

No idea what this huge (8-10 feet tall) thing is

Sam sailing with one of our fellow Chapel Hill expats in his new boat.

Mia gets her turn.

 

Chris spent a weekend on the boat at the right "in class."

Love these clear nights when the moon is full (or close).

     Term 3 (3rd quarter) ended today so the kids now have two weeks off before starting their last term of the year.  At the end of each term, there is usually a celebration of some sort at school.  Mia's grade went to a nearby Italian restaurant, got gelato and played outside for several hours.  Sam's grade was treated to a water/magic show.  With these kinds of celebrations at the end of each Term, I can't imagine what the end of the year will be like?  And it will almost be Christmas!  Maybe that means the combination of celebrations will be nuts, or maybe the end of the school year just won't be such a big deal.  We'll see..

    We're heading north this holiday to explore some of the coastal areas via car.  More posts to come...

Strike

   There is no school today.  It's not a holiday, a teacher workday, or a sick day.  The teachers are on strike. So, although there are a few teachers at school, there is very little supervision offered and no instruction.  The New South Wales Teachers Federation is supporting other government workers (bus drivers, nurses, firefighters, etc.) in protest against reforms capping wages and working conditions.

The kids are loving having an unexpected day off! 

Just another way Australia is different enough to keep things interesting.

Father's Day

      Although Australians do celebrate Mother's Day in May, they celebrate Father's Day in September.  Sunday was Father's Day here and we spent it this way:

Early morning gridiron (American football) on TV.  Please note the iPad, iPhone and
 (unseen) TV remote.
  Some things don't change; Chris still loves to multitask with gadgets.

Jackson loves, loves, loves the car.  This will matter as the day progresses.  With no yard, we take him with us when we can so that he doesn't have stay inside all day.

We tried to go see this, West Head Lookout in Ku Ring Gai National Park, about 30 minutes north of us.

(Not my Photo)

At the gate to the Park, we were turned away due to having a dog with us.  :-(  Not allowed, not even if they stay entirely in the car.  Oh well.  Maybe we'll go back another time.

Instead, we drove around exploring a bit of the areas/beaches to the north of us. 



Like so many other days, we ended up back at Balmoral enjoying our favorite beach. 



Trying New Things

   We're all for trying new things; otherwise we wouldn't be here.  There is definitely one exception - Aussie germs.  Enough!  Both kids were sick a little over a week ago.  Sam has caught lots of stuff and spent the entire week at home with another nasty virus.  Poor kid even had fever over 106!  Again we narrowly avoided the ER thanks to our pediatric consult from 10,000+ miles away.  Thanks LW!  (Never thought when we were 13 that I'd be calling you from around the world at 3 AM :-)  We're told it's common for kids to catch lots of stuff at first since the germs here are just different enough that there is little immunity to them.  Ugh.

   Good news is today is the first day of Spring.  Bring it on!!



A care package perked Sam up a bit.  Thanks Aunt Andrea and Uncle Rich!!