Monday 3rd January 2011

The Silly Season is over at last and we can return to a bit of normality. It has been a very busy week both work wise & socially.

We have been able to announce that Anne & Rod are having another baby due late June/early July 2011 so we have been very excited about that. I am not sure how Joel Leo will cope as he has been the star for the last 2 years.

Sunday 26th December 2010 (Boxing Day) was an R & R day. The temperature was high and it was a good day to stay indoors and recuperate after Christmas Day celebrations.

Monday 27th December 2010 we had a mini F-Troop Day with Peter & I spending the day at the Golf Club. Peter undertook to repaint the Sunset Room over the holidays while the clubhouse was closed. It was quite a big job with five different colour paints to be used. I busied myself cleaning up around the car park & clubhouse cleaning up the mess after the wild windstorm of last week. It was a full day's work and the exercise took three days in total.

Tuesday 28th December 2010 was more of the same we spent the whole day at the club - Peter painting and me out in the gardens. It was a cooler day to work which was good. At 6.00pm we did another hour's work helping out Mark Stimpson & Ray Presdee with some poisoning of the grasses on the 1st and second fairways. It was a long day but we got some good work done.

Wednesday 29th December 2010 we finished off all the jobs we had set out to do at the Club and left the club looking fairly tidy around the clubhouse & the Sunset Room looked very refreshed after the painting.

Thursday 30th December 2010 we spent the day at home. I did the front gardens & Peter did the fence repair at the side of the fence. Eventually it got too hot to work outside so I had some R & R for the afternoon.

Friday 31st December 2010 - New Year's Eve Rod & Joel came for breakfast stayed the day as Anne was working. It was a very hot day so we set Joel up in the wading pool with his sand pit & he was very happy under the covered veranda which protected him from the sun.

Joel was very well behaved all day & had a good afternoon sleep with his Nan.

We celebrated in the New Year at the Sicillian Restaurant in Gosford with Des & Yvonne Wilson, Rosalie & Duncan Dyer, Col Kelly and Alice Diamond. The Restaurant was not too crowded and we had a very enjoyable evening seeing in the New Year and then some.

Saturday 1st January 2011 - New Year's Day Rod & Joel came for breakfast & stayed the day until Anne finished work. After only a few hours sleep I was looking for R & R for most of the day. It was another very hot day so Joel cooled off in the wading pool which was a handy distraction for him. In the late afternoon we met with Des & Yvonne, Col & Alice and Duncan & Rosalie at Duncan's house for a swim in his solar heated pool. Their home is up high overlooking Gosford & there was a lovely cool breeze. It was a very pleasant couple of hours and the swim was rejuvenating. An early night was required to catch up with all my lost sleep.

Sunday 2nd January 2011 Rod & Joel arrived at 7.00 am for breakfast & stayed for the morning while Anne worked. We had some fun entertaining Joel and left him asleep when we went to golf at 11 o'clock. Our playing partners today were Des & Yvonne Wilson & we had a nice day out on the course. It was overcast to start with but then got hotter during the day so we appreciated our golf cart. The boys soundly beat us for the keno ticket with Des & Peter both playing well.

My highlight was winning one hole for the girls when both the boys had a weak moment. We had a keno bet girls Vs the boys among the group that were at the Sicillian for NYE & they boys won that as well. The course was playing well & the boys had to score 39 points to win a ball & the girls 36 points so Des & Yvonne were the only ones to win a ball. We stayed for dinner with Des & Yvonne & were joined by Col & Lauren Matterson and Mark & Anne Stimpson & her mother Marie. The weather had got very blustery through the day and the rain started after we had all finished golf thankfully and we had 15 mls of rain overnight which was great for the course and the gardens.

Monday 3rd January 2011 (today) we had at 7.00am F-Troop start. I could not believe all the mess that was around the place from the wind yesterday and overnight. We had to re clean all of the areas that I had done earlier in the week. The gum trees are all dropping their bark which is adding to the branches and leaves that have blown down. Thankfully we had 14 volunteers turn up today which was fantastic for a Public Holiday. Between all of us we managed to give the place a good clean up and took away tonnes if rubbish to the dump area. We can only hope now that we do not have too many more wild storms. A bit more gentle rain would be handy.