I swum, I climbed, I conquered.......

School holidays are coming to an end. This time next week the sprogletts will be back at school and so another year starts. We've actually had a pretty good holidays this year. It's so much better now they are older. One hundred percent better in fact. They do they're own thing, are fairly independent so mum and dad aka MOTH (Man of the House) and I are relied on a little less. Especially the mum's taxi part. Ahhh, the train and bus are such miracles. 


It's been beautiful weather here lately, though still quite hot. We headed down to Palm Beach again with Riley and Jake in tow (the kids wanted to jump off the newly built jetty) and ....... I have an NSV here. For the past 15 years or so.. no way would you catch me in public in a bathing suit. No way, no how. I used to cover up for all and sundry except maybe here around our pool in front of the kids (but even then would wear a sarong in the pool to 'cover' me.)  I left MOTH in charge of the bags and towels, happily ensconced under the shade of the massive pylons and up I went - in just my bathers in front of dozens of sun-bronzed teens and people of all ages - and climbed that jetty, dived off, and swum with the boys to the pontoon that was 60 - 70 meters away. I (we) climbed that sucker of a ladder (with the bottom rung at sea level... .) and dived, and climbed and dived and climbed and well, I climbed and dived off that pontoon about 8 times! 


Jake and I were talking later. He said to me, "Thanks for taking us out today: and mum. It was really cool that you came with us in the water... even diving and swimming with us." And there you have it...in times gone by I was the frumpy mum sitting there covered up, with a hat on reading.. not ever daring to get out in the water. Ever! No way could I have swum that amount, climbed that ladder so many times (if I could have even hauled myself out and up in the first place... very unlikely) and mucked around with the kids like I did today 30 kilos ago. It was a mark of self-achievement and I can't tell you liberating it is to finally get out there with the children and just 'do' stuff. Seriously. 

The Palm Beach Jetty - the little black head on the far left in the water under the jetty is Riley 

View in the opposite direction - look how calm it is!

It looks like - but I'm not jumping for joy just yet - that I might have a winner in this whole 1200 calorie per day thing - thanks to you girls and your advice. I showed a marginal drop below my lowest weight recorded and while it wasn't much.. it's the first time the scale has moved down in a month. Let's see if anything more happens tomorrow. And Vanessa, I took your challenge to walk 20 minutes each day. Done, done and done - three days running. Whoo. Thanks for putting it out there, Nessa. You have a few of us doing it now. 


Tomorrow is Australia Day here in Aussie land. It's meant to be a day when we reflect on what we have achieved so far and rejoice in our gorgeous land - (Australia Day, January 26, is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove by its commander Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788) BUT since it's a day off work lol most people use it as an excuse for a good ol' piss up! We bbq snags, break out the thongs and eat and drink ourselves silly, while enjoying time with our mates. We will probably do this too earlier in the day, but the night is going to be full of fireworks in Perth. One of the local city radio stations play music designed to accompany the fireworks so we all take a radio, turn it on and have our torches handy to shine in the sky....We are taking a picnic,  finding a spot near the casino (we are going with a friends and their kids) and planting ourselves. The fun will be fighting the traffic home again! It gets rather clogged lol. Still, I'm looking forward to it.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY ALL MY AUSSIE BLOGGER BUDS!!

See you all again soon
Cara xxx