A roundup of the first week in February (already!!!) in pictures. Love Instagram!

This week we have had the most beautiful summer days - February on the beaches has certainly lived up to its reputation.  I've also been very snap happy with my iphone, so I hope you're ready for a long list of pictures.  Here is our week - love Instagram!

Girls lunch in Manly

Last Sunday I spend the afternoon with the girls, sipping cocktails and watching the ocean at The Manly Wine Bar to celebrate a good friends birthday.  If you're ever in Sydney you really should drop in there.  It is one of my most favourite bars - right opposite the iconic Manly Beach, it's mixture of ocean views, old fashioned retro decor and awesome food is not to be missed.  It has such a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere that you could loose a whole day in there - and it's policy to accept board-shorts and bikinis too if you so wish!!

How good does this dessert look???? 

Seems I wasn't the only one watching the view!  Even after  almost two years in Aus they still give me some serious heebie jeebies

Do you like my new hat?

Pretty little toes.  A pedicure date with Mummy

Can you spot the rainbow?

I love Wednesday's with my girls

Spagetti pizza

Another quick and awesome Thermomix dinner.  Left over Spagetti Bolognese on fresh pizza dough with cheese and fresh basil.  

How lucky are these two little munchins - look at that view!!!!!

A scooter and an apron.

We decided to have and impromptu BBQ dinner at the beach one evening as the weather was so lovely. Something that we really have to do more often.

I just LOVE these photos

The girls just had an absolute ball together playing in the lagoon mouth whilst Master J was doing his nippers class on Saturday afternoon.  Now that Miss L is crawling she thinks she is a real little clever cloggs

She really is a beach baby!

Sunday morning sunrise!  One advantage of being woken up by the kids at 6:30am

Sundays are such perfect family days

Watching the waves with Daddy

Christmas & New Year 2012. Love Instagram!

It seems my favourite App has caused a bit of controversy over the past few weeks with the threat of selling our photos without permission.  I was horrified when I first discovered it and I'm guessing the rest of its billion users were too!  After a huge public uproar they very quickly retracted their statement, promising that our photos will be safe!  I certainly hope so!!

I did think very seriously about closing my Instagram account and kept a close watch on what everyone else was doing (and to be honest I'm still a little undecided).  I love the App, not so much for the 'camera filers', as you can pretty much find hundreds of Apps to do that now, but more for it's social aspect.  It's pretty damn addictive.  So my solution for now is to create a watermark for Mrs D (currently in progress) to brand all my online photos.  Instagram - you have one more chance.  Don't let me down!!!

With that aside, here is our Christmas week (or two):

Master J and Curly the dog

We moved into a friends beach-side home for the two weeks over Christmas and New Year to 'house sit' and look after Curly the dog whilst they are away.  Even though it was literally 15 minutes down the road from where we live, it has felt like a real break and was just like being on holiday (except that I could pop home every time we needed something - perfect).

Taking Curly Houdini for an early evening walk

We've re-named Curly the dog, "Curly Houdini" the greatest escaping dog!  Mr D repaired at least 3 holes in the garden fence and he still managed to find his way out!  Luckily he had his name and number on his tag because every time the kids yelled " MUM! Curly's escaped again!!!!" we knew we'll get a phone call within half an hour to come and fetch him from somewhere!  We did have some major panic attacks the first few time he did a runner as we were supposed to be taking care of him and were wondering what on earth we would tell his mummy if we lost him???  However, we soon realised that most people in the neighbourhood were very used to a visit from Curly.  At about 9:30 on New Years Eve he did another disappearing act and we were all pacing up and down the street calling "Curly, Curly, Curly", when the call came saying that he'd been found at Curly (ironically) Beach, which was a couple of beaches down from us.  I think he just wanted to join in the party.  The couple who found him had had a few too many drinks to drive (as had we) so they sent him back to us in a taxi!!!

Swimming with my boy in the parent/child relay 

Master J finally managed to convince me to get into the water and race with him at swim club.  I think if I didn't some of the other mums (not naming any names) might have picked me up and chucked me in!!  I must admit I was a bit nervous before my race (it's been a loooooong while since I last swam any kind of distance).  I had last minute panics before I swam that I might not remember how to dive or that my boobs might fall out of my swim suit, or that I might belly flop!!!  (Not really the kind of things you want to happen with an audience).  Anyway I took a deep breath and dived in for my 50m swim and surprisingly, as I hit the water I found it quite exhilarating.  I sprinted the first 30 meters and then suddenly my fitness (or unfitness) levels kicked in and I felt myself huffing and puffing to the finish line.  I even managed to win!  The kids were SO thrilled that mummy won her race and it was an awesome feeling hearing them cheering from the sideline.

Miss L loving the water.  She's definitely going to be a water baby like her sister

Master J and his best mate having fun after doing their fantastic swim club races

A pre-Christmas sausage sizzle for the opening of the new Swim/Surf Club building.  Santa even arrived on a fire engine doing Gangnam Style

Some obligatory christmas baking.  The best Rocky Road ever!!

Miss L's first Christmas

The view from our 'holiday' house.  It really was spectacular

Boxing day movies (and a view)

Going for a long walk around the bottom of Long Reef Headland

Uh Oh - the quickest way to clear the beach

We were just chilling on the balcony having some lunch when Mr D spotted a helicopter, and then another, and then on the third sighting he jumped up and rushed off to get his binoculars (and he calls me a drama queen!!).  Whilst he and Master J were trying to work out what was going on, I got the lastet from Twitter that a there has been an attempted shark attack!  Master J was loving watching all the commotion (as was Mr D) and he kept shouting "Mum, I can see a fin!".  Great!!!! - I'm pretty glad I was on the balcony and not in the water.

No one seems to be worried about the shark today!

Beach babies 

I think this is my most favourite photo of 2012.  Caught purely by accident with my iphone.  

Me and my gorgeous girls

Look what I've started......

Watching the Dee Why fireworks from our balcony.  We had the best view in town

New Year's Day!  Nursing teeny tiny hangovers but loving the sunshine and some family time.  I couldn't have asked for a better start to 2013

Love those happy little faces

The sun must have his hat on

A stunning spot for reading our books on the way home from
the library

Even though I spend my childhood in a hot, sunny climate on the coast, the majority of my life has been in England, especially my first tastes of motherhood.  Therefore it is true to say that over the last six months we have had to do A LOT of acclimatising. Sydney’s Northern Beaches are so incredibly similar to the Natal Coast of South Africa where I grew up as a kid, that I get hit by a huge sense of nostalgia almost on a daily basis.  It’s funny the things that come back to me – the weather and landscape is an obvious one and I think there really is something to be said about the ocean having a calming effect on ones soul.  Every time I see the beautiful blue, I get this amazing feeling of calm that rushes right through me and just makes me want to smile all day. It’s a feeling that’s quite hard to put into words but it’s almost like my soul has come home.    

The vast and endless blue skies have a similar effect on me, as do the sound of lawn mowers buzzing or humming far away in the distance.   The lawn movers actually take me right back to when I was around the same age as Master J or Miss H and my mum used to make me have a lunch time nap.  I remember hating it and thinking how mean she was to make us go and ‘lie down’ after lunch when we would much rather have been out playing in the garden.  We used to lay on our beds, wide awake for what seemed like HOURS listening to lawn mowers buzzing away in the distance waiting for mum to come and open the bedroom door so we could be free again!!  All I can say now is “Mum, I FINALLY get it”.  Those lunch time naps keep my sanity in check these days and I do chuckle to myself every time I tell Master J “I know you’re not tired, and I really do understand that you don’t want to, but……….we’re still having ‘quiet time’ after lunch!  Poor love, I guess it’ll be another twenty odd years before he gets it too! 

taking in the view

Living in the sunshine has given me a new found respect for it.  Skincare has always been one of my passions and I’m very aware of how dangerous the sun can be.  Working with some amazing skincare ranges in the past,  I thought my skin care knowledge was pretty good and my own skin was well protected and looked after, so you can imagine my horror when only a week after we arrived in Sydney an unexplained rash appeared on my face.  In the worst place too, on my forehead right in between my eyes!!!  At first it was just a small, slightly raised rash (about the size of my fingernail) and I just assumed that it was my skin reacting to the glycolic in my moisturiser now that I was more exposed to the sun (glycolic and UV don’t like each other much).  So I stopped using the glycolic for a few days and it didn’t disappear – in fact it became more inflamed and incredibly itchy.  Thank god for make-up as by this point me and the rash were not friends!  It was really baffling me too as I didn’t know what it was and I’m pretty sure I can recognise most skin ailments by just looking at them.  So one afternoon while the kids were playing in the rock pools I started to Google the rash on my iphone………….this probably wasn’t the most sensible thing to do as by the time I got home that evening I had managed to convince myself that I was dying of cancer!!  Ok, so maybe I was being a little over dramatic but the frightening thing was that it did actually match the symptoms of a form of skin cancer (thankfully not the dangerous one) but still it was CANCER!  Well so I thought anyway.  The next day I booked an appointment with the doctor and off I went with the kids.  I showed the doctor my rash (trying really hard not to rattle off my self diagnosis) and she took a closer look under a big magnifying glass.  She didn’t say anything for what seemed like ages and I just couldn’t help but blurt out “Have I got cancer??”  “Yes” she said, totally matter of factly  “It is a form of skin cancer”.  Oh my god I’m going to die, was the first thing that flashed through my head (I’ve always been a bit on the dramatic side), but “Oh right” was all I could muster.  “OMG– I have cancer!  CANCER!” was what I was actually thinking!!  “It’s nothing to worry about” she said.  “It’s very superficial and it’ll just need to be burnt off”.  I had so many questions – When will it happen? Will I have to go into hospital? Will I be referred to a skin specialist? Will it leave a scar?  Will it come back? 

hat and sunnies on

She then offered to burn it off for me right there and then – which threw off guard a little.  I’m used to the British NHS system where you have to wait at least a month or so for anything and if you’re lucky enough to have private cover you still have to wait a few days for the paperwork to process.  Of course I accepted - no time like the present!!  She took out what looked like a little blow-torch and explained she was going to burn the area with liquid nitrogen (gulp).  I had almost forgotten the kids were with me, until I had to explain to Master J why the doctor was about to burn my face with a torch.  “It’s because mummy didn’t put her sun cream on” I told him.  “Will it be really ouchy?” he asked, “I hope not,” I said.  “It may sting a little,” the doctor then told me!  "Oh great" I thought, as I gritted my teeth, not knowing what to expect.  Luckily I had no time to think about it and it was over in a few seconds, but “sting a little” was a serious understatement!!!!  We then went home to explain to Mr D that yes I did have cancer but now it’s all gone!  

I have since seen a skin cancer specialist (I needed a second opinion) and luckily for me it really has all gone.  I also discovered that having whole body skin cancer checks every 6-12 months for the whole family is as normal as going to the dentist in Australia.  So Mr Sun, I will be having my hat on from now on –thanks for the wake up call!!