Surf's Up

Hello Dears! A prolonged silence from this end means I can justify a ramble and a chunter without any rudeness from the readers. Several of you have been very busy with having babies and/or bringing up existing babies. A big congratulations to Suze & James on the arrival of Joe ("a nine stoner") and to Jamie & Hazel for producing Evie, who I know enjoyed our skype episode last week. How bizarre seeing each other all these million miles away... you looking all pasty and blissfully happy and us all brown and knackered with it being way past our bedtime. Bring on more skype. Baby Nell continues to be gorgeous, as does my lovely neice Lily who was had her first birthday recently. Happy Birthday Lily!

I think our problematic journey into migrant workerdom has been well documented by my husband, so I won't focus on all the problems we've been having since we arrived. I'm over being a whinging Pom, things are on the up. So to combat the homesickness, we've been making the most of sunshine and the outdoors lifestyle which is the Aussie way. Our first consistently good week since we left home 8 weeks ago began with our very first surfing lesson. Our friend Dan and his girlfriend Helen, decided to take us out and introduce us to the waves. Baby waves, he said. I just wanted to look cool, so I went along even though my back was killing me. The day before I'd had a hardcore massage from David Beckham's physio when he played for Real Madrid!

You see tons of people strolling effortlessly down the beach with a board slung under their arm. Let me tell you, there is even a certain degree of talent required here - especially when you are half the size of your board. So I had to have my board carried for me (not cool). We then did a bit of practicing jumping up on the board on the beach. If you're just starting off, Dan said you should just get onto your knees (again, not cool). Next thing, we were in the water. At least some of us were, Andy was doing his embarrassing thing of getting into the water slowly by splashing his chest gingerly with water to get 'accustomed to it.' Luckily, we had leg straps for the boards, otherwise we'd have been a few boards down by the end of the day. Then you lie on your belly (more tricky than you'd imagine) and wait for a wave. When a nice one comes along, you start paddling (see demonstration) and then try to stand up. Andy was actually quite good, but I'm not sure I really got it. It was much more fun just staying on your front without even attempting to stand up. Trouble is, the waves are pretty powerful and I learnt a valuable lesson - don't turn your back to them! One minute I was just stood in the sea chatting when Dan looked worried and said "hold onto your sunnies!" This massive wave came and dumped me. This basically means the wave forces you under and spin you around a few times as if you're in a washing machine. You have to push your board out of the way or it could knock you out and the whole business is less than pleasant! I lost my sunnies and had salt water pouring our of my nose for the rest of the day, which was quite invigorating. After that I felt a bit wobbly so took to sunbathing instead. We then spent the rest of the day chilling out on nearby
Cottesloe beach, which has to be our favourite spot. A perfect, lazy weekend.

Andy being knocked over by a wave...