Bruce is enjoying this year off idea. Rosie isn’t finding it as bad as she thought having me around all the time. Unfortunately we haven’t sold the Beach House yet so our finances aren’t as flush as we would have liked, but this hasn’t slowed us down.
With David on part time and Chris and Tony retired, we have set up a Tuesday lunch group where once a month we go out to one of the Wineries for lunch. We have been to Vasse Felix, Watershed, Voyager, Lamont’s, Wise Winery, Woody Nook and Cape Lavendar so far (we also fitted in a couple of wedges to Xanadu when Phillip and the boys came down in the first week of July holidays and the Augusta Hotel). We are really enjoying these lunches even though they are totally over the top – wine tasting, taster plates for entre, big main meals followed by taster plate for dessert and coffee. (We will talk about Bruce’s weight later)
Bruce has also taken the opportunity to join the Chamber of Commerce and to go on some Tourist Bureau famils where they take you around in a bus to visit different businesses in the district (lunch is included which is his main reason for going). This means he can get to meet more business people and try to promote his website (Margaret River Accommodation Guide – #3 on Google now).
Liam is doing well at school this year and has got his life quite organised. He has friends over on Monday and Friday, goes to friends places on Tuesday and Sunday. Trains for football on Wednesday, plays on Saturday. He was invited to GOTCHA (Gifted or Talented) drama and writing which was on Thursday afternoon.
He still enjoys the Easter egg hunt (above left) which is great. Unfortunately his memory is too good for Dad so if I forget to do something he keeps looking for it anyway.
As you can see we had some speedway people stay with us in March. We had cars and bikes everywhere. I had to tie Rosie up so that she didn’t offend anyone and get us killed.
One of the advantages of Bruce being off is that we can both get more involved in the school. Rosie particularly is enjoying it. One of their projects this year was building this dragon. It was spectacular, especially since Megan (parent and football coach) is an artist and created this fantastic dragon head. Dawn, Liam’s teacher is also enjoying having some help in the classroom.
Liam is improving in his football this year, though his still not that interested. Megan took on the coaching role, since all the dads are too slack. Bruce is team manager (and father figure to Megan – her parents are about the same age as Bruce – Bitch!!) which means that he gives out the awards, fairly of course, and writes up the newspaper reports, compulsory reading. Training is really varied and interesting , Megan obviously put far too much thought into it.
In July, we went on the annual ski trip which went really well. The snow was fantastic and there were no organisational problems, which kept Bruce relaxed. Liam and Tom look very relaxed at the MCG while waiting for the football. Unfortunately this was the happiest Liam was and Bruce took him back to the hotel after the 1st Quarter.
The only down side the the ski trip this year was that we all had the flu. We blame Phillip for this since we had nearly recovered before his visit, but he brought all these Kalgoorlie germs with him which we had no resistance too. Liam got very cold and didn’t do much skiing but he still enjoyed his snow fights with Tom. Rosie really enjoyed herself and couldn’t get out enough as we took it in turns to look after him. Bruce didn’t mind since he was able to pick and choose when the weather was good and use his energy wisely.
The usual crew came again this year, as well as Bec and Elke. With the great support from all the adults it really is like a family holiday (only we have 44 children as our family). Merv and Robyn came again, and loved it. Again they said they weren’t coming next year, but we will see.
When we got home from the ski trip, Bruce went into hospital for a carpel tunnel operation on his right hand. He had been putting it off for a couple of years since it would affect his teaching and his ski trips. Unfortunately it got very painful this year so he had the operation. I was very surprised about the speed in which it all took place. I went to the specialist just before the ski trip and had to delay the operation since I was going away skiing. One of the advantages of living in Margaret River, no waiting list. I went into the local hospital at 7am, had a general at 8am, woke up at 10:30am with no knowledge of what happened. A cup of tea and a sandwich and I was sent home. All appears to have gone well and my hand is recovering well.
Daen is doing well though unfortunately he broke up with Alana which means that he is now living back at home (rats!!). He is still going to the gym a few times a week and has just finished the rugby season (they lost in the grand final). As you can see above, the parents were there to support him (grainy photos scanned from local paper). He is off to Gnarloo this weekend after going to Queensland for a (emotional recovery) holiday. His work is doing well, though we would both like him to look at going up North for a while to try to build up a bit of money.
Now to talk about weight gain. Rosie decided to change our diet this year and put more fruit and vegetables into it, she also cut out carbohydrates as much as possible. Bruce continued to supplement his loss with more alcohol. The result so far is Rosie – no loss, Bruce lost 6kg. Rosie is really cranky about this. Bruce attributes his weight loss to the lack of stress while he is not teaching.
We haven’t sold the Beach House yet, we put it on hold in February and will try again in November. We organised contract cleaners for the July holidays to help Mum and Dad while we were away. With Bruce’s operation taking him out of the cleaning and with Rosie just tired of the whole cleaning concept we plan to keep the cleaners. It is making our life much more relaxed, though it is very expensive.
Once Bruce goes back to work next year, it does make keeping the Beach House less onerous and takes the pressure off to having to sell. Unfortunately since we didn’t sell, we have had to put further holiday plans on hold, but living in Margaret River and not working is holiday enough for both of at the moment.
