Just as things were all heading back towards normality with restrictions easing further and very few new cases of Covid in our State we have a resurgence of cases in Melbourne which is so disappointing for everyone, particularly them, as it seems even worse shutting back down after reopening so recently. The effort taken to get your business back up and runnning and getting all the staff back etc only to have it all whisked away from you must be heart breaking. Not as heart breaking as losing loved ones though so it just has to be done.

It is easy for us to become complacent as Covid hasn’t impacted us as much as other countries, although try saying that to a local hospitality business or retail shop. I guess it’s a bit like cancer, it is something to be respected and feared but not dreaded until it affects you personally. Somehow this spike in Melbourne has made me feel more anxious and disappointed than the original outbreak as we were feeling quite chuffed that our initial isolation tactics seemed to work and life could once again include dining out, going to the gym and the pub and booking weekends away within our State at least. This sharp reminder from Melbourne as well as the current estimation of overseas travel not to begin until July 2021 has made me realise that this is definitely not over and things can go backwards very quickly. I am grateful that all three of my children are currently within a 2 hour drive of me, a very different story from 2019 when 2/3 of them lived overseas. We just have to be patient and careful and hopefully we will be able to resume life as we know it in another 6 months or so. Fingers crossed…

In the meantime life continues here in The Meadow, I still love getting up in the morning as the sun rises over the paddocks and the cows amble into sight eating a line of grass from east to west and then back again, so silent and calm, just the sound of grass tearing as they chew their way through life. The chickens are all happy and laying their hearts out. We get a huge double yolker at least once a week, the creases at the end of the egg showing what an effort it was to lay it – poor little darling! The eggs are so yellow anything I make with them looks as if it’s been dipped in saffron and the 5 eggs a day are a good excuse to whip up a cake or a fluffy omelette.The trees are mostly bare, just the jacarandas are holding onto their lacey leaves as they don’t lose them until their huge purple flowers spike in October. I hope that this year we get some and they are not blown away in the dastardly westerlies, the trees have really grown this year but have a definite 30 degree lean to the East despite my attempts to stake them. The landscape is always a dead giveaway as to the prevalent winds of the area that’s for sure!

So after 6 months of teaching online, 3 of which were from here in The Meadow, the axe has finally fallen for our favourite expats. My son in law got out on one of the last few planes leaving Vietnam and kept his job, teaching online as all students in Vietnam have been home since Xmas, on the proviso he would be back on the ground within a month of students returning to face to face teaching at his International School. Sadly no planes are flying into Vietnam for non Vietnamese citizens thus rendering him unemployed as of June 18th. This means all of their belongings which are still in their apartment have to be sorted and packed up by friends and will take 3 months to get here at least. As Loz packed for a 2 week trip here back in March for the about to be cancelled wedding she doesn’t have many winter clothes for herself or Myla but at least they now have clarity and can start planning the next stage of their lives (and go shopping for some winter woollies too!) Myla seems to have an early love of shopping as seen here in the fabulous surf shop in Gerringong – Natural Necessity, well worth a visit if you are in the area.

They decided to make the most of their current suituation and go on a little road trip down the South Coast. As it is winter and wasn’t school holidys for another week or so they had no problems booking themselves a family cabin at various picturesque beachside parks. Wallabies at their door, firepits and the ocean a few metres further away and miles of sand for Myla Moo to explore. She does love eating the stuff which makes for some very gritty nappies but mostly she just loves to run around and seems to have inherited her parents love of the great outdoors.

What happens next for them is in the hands of the Gods as they have 6 months to fill in before a job offer in Hobart in the New Year sends them back to Tassie. We will make the most of the next few weeks before a job for one or both of them no doubt takes them away from The Meadow. They will leave a big hole when they leave.

It was lovely to have Sam, Liv and Cooper to stay while the others were away. One baby at a time is alot more manageable and it is always so nice to have some one on one time with them. Cooper is such a gorgeous little chap, always trying to see how things work – looking underneath lamps and behind machines to try and understand the how and why! He is a real thinker and Pa loved hanging out with him for a while.

We had a lovely visit to the local Shoalhaven Zoo, a family run affair located on The beautiful Shoalhaven River and perfect for a few hours wandering around with the grandkids. Sometimes the small places are so much more hands on and up close and I absolutely LOVED being within a metre of the most magnificent lion, looking straight into his surprisingly blue (and crossed) eyes! I’m pretty sure you can’t get that close at Taronga Zoo?? The other surprise was the maned wolf who looked like a fox on stilts, as if someone put the wrong head on it’s body! Meerkats and monkeys are always good value and the range of beautifully coloured tropical parrots and the fabulous macaws were a bonus. The café is perfectly situated above the banks of the river and we will go back to enjoy it again soon.

As the days are short and the log fire is raging by 4.30pm we seem to be eating dinner a bit earlier and by 7.30pm the MOTH is glued to the TV sport – rugby league, rugby union, soccer, AFL, golf, even the F1 God help me and I am therefore banished by mere boredom to the other end of the house, the one WITHOUT the wood burner but luckily with a gas log fire which does feel cosy after a while and in the absence of anything interesting to watch on TV I have turned to Foxtel catchups of series I missed earlier. I am sorry/not sorry to say I have become completely obsessed with Escape to the chateau DIY, a series about Brits buying chateaux both large and small and in various states of disrepair in France and turning them into jewels, mostly for B&Bs or wedding venues. It ticks all the boxes for me 1. Its in France 2. Its about renovating amazing old buildings into beautifully current homes 3. It’s about following dreams and perservering even when everything looks dismal and 4. They visit local markets and brocantes and eat outside under sprawling oak or plane trees which is SO appealing and I absolutely LOVE it! Since I know I cannot travel anywhere for ages it is making me feel almost as if I am in the French countryside and I can hear the beautiful birdsong of my youth and the country lanes are filled with meadow flowers and big fat bumblebees. Heaven. I may have googled chateaux for sale in France. I most definitely have googled country houses for sale in France….whoops!! Anyway dreams are free until you act on them and a bit of armchair travelling never did anyone any harm eh?

What a busy few weeks we have had!! I have literally had no free time to sit down and write as life with a toddler is non stop. When she does sleep (which she does VERY well) it is a toss up between 1. getting things on the extensive ‘to do list’ done or 2. making the most of it and sitting down with a cuppa while you can! She is walking everywhere now and has turned into a proper human. I’m still taken by surprise when I’m getting dressed or drying my hair and she is suddenly there getting into mischief in my cupboards or pulling out clothes from my wardrobe! She is so much happier now she can do things, that pre walking frustration has disappeared and she is now 100% into LIFE!! It is exhausting for both her and us and we often wish that we could also have a nice nap around 2pm when she does! This new found love of everything means that sometimes things go missing, sometimes for quite a long time, we eventually found the TV remote in the potato and onion basket in the kitchen after losing it for several hours!!

We have had some nice little trips into Berry as the weather has been mild and sunny and she loves taking hold of Bailey’s lead and “walking” her. They wait patiently outside the shops while we take turns to pop inside and our cute duo always attract lots of positive attention from passers by – who doesn’t love babies and dogs???

The restrictions eased just in time for Tom to celebrate his 30th birthday. We managed to rent a house up the road for 6 of his closest mates and Sam and Liv also joined us for the weekend making us a party of 13. It was a small group but a perfect one and after a game of golf on a rather chilly day we all gathered together at our place to celebrate. The Birthday Boy had requested a dinner of Beef Wellington which for some reason or another has become his favourite dish (I blame his time in London ) and gave this little home cook a decent challenge. Somehow rather miraculously I managed to pull it off but due to being rather frazzled I have no pictures of the end result. Luckily Liv took a few photos of us all just before we tucked in and that my friends is the only evidence we have of the evening! Suffice to say it was lovely with everyone recounting stories about Tom and his various antics over the years. It was quite emotional and he really did have the best weekend despite or perhaps because of the small intimate group. He was also very chuffed with his gifts as you can see here from his reaction!

My lovely daughter decided to plan a little surprise for us girls to escape the house for a couple of hours and last Friday she whisked me off to Silos Estate for a wine and cheese tasting which was delightful. Due to Covid we had a one hour booking and numbers were kept low so no one felt either rushed or overly anxious because of crowding. We continued outside with a glass of sparkling shiraz and enjoyed the gorgeous view at Golden Hour.

John and Lyn, long time friends and Tom’s godparents joined us for a couple of nights for the June long weekend which was lovely as I haven’t seen them for nearly 2 years since we all enjoyed a week together in The Barossa. An afternoon of golf prior to a slow cooked lamb dinner and a log fire with far too many glasses of red wine followed as we caught up on all the important stuff in life before tumbling into bed. Miss Myla decided to sleep for 13 hours giving us a nice lie in to recover and later that afternoon we stoked up the woodfired oven, lit the brazier and popped the music on for our fave night of the week …PIZZA NIGHT!! It is a lovely relaxed evening where everyone creates their own masterpiece and then we share everything. Myla comes too, all snuggled up in her snowsuit and has a baby pizza so as not to feel left out! Warm as toast in our coats and with a full tummy we enjoy the stars and each other’s company. Life is good.

It was nice that Tom saw them as it turned out to be his last weekend in The Meadow. He found a lovely little studio in the heart of Paddington and decided now was the right time to return to the city as the job market is starting to open up again as restrictions ease and people return to work. He has always lived in share houses before so he had to buy quite a few things to set himself up for sole living but he enjoyed collecting things and as a result his flat is looking really cosy and homely already. I was sad when he first told me as it has really been a wonderful 6 months having him here and he leaves a rather large hole but I knew the day had to come sooner or later and I am happy for him. Thank goodness we still have the others and Myla here as it would be too much of a shock and WAY too quiet with no one but us here. Bailey is really quite unsure as to what has happened as she lost her special mate and her favourite lounge in one hit! She is not generally allowed on the furniture but has always been permitted to sleep on the leather lounge which just happened to belong to Tom so for her it was a double whammy when he left…!!

So on top of a world already cracking under the onslaught of a pandemic we have seen mass protests throughout the world as a result of a police killing of a black man which appalled all who saw it. Racial issues have come to the fore and people have had enough. It seems crazy that on one hand we are all in this together Covid wise but the void between white and coloured people is so vast. It sucked timing wise though as hundreds of thousands of people have protested with no social distancing and there is bound to be repercussions because of that. I just wish we all had equal rights and opportunities once and for all and that all life was deemed equally precious.

So as Covid 19 continues to decimate the rest of the world with the biggest number of new cases in one day hitting over the weekend, we in geographically isolated Australia are enjoying some of our old freedoms again with the pubs and restaurants slowly opening and today I returned to Pilates for the 1st time in 4 months as the gyms and studios have also re-opened albeit with new rules and LOTS of sanitizer. One of our local industries has been entrepreneurial and have added sanitiser to their usual manufacture of glucose and ethanol and a local winery is bottling it for them! The only way now is forward, the old ways not to return in quite the same fashion and it is only the flexible and far sighted people in business that will succeed. As the pandemic emerged from China we noticed how all of humanity was equally susceptible and interconnected. The virus shone a spotlight on weaknesses within our society and has highlighted the interdependencies that exist between the multiple elements of our lives. We saw how our constant search for the cheapest prices in commodities has created supply chains that are unreliable in a crisis and pinpointed that we need once again to be happy to pay a fair price for something made in your own country and employing your fellow countrymen.

Despite the discomfort, anxiety and uncertainty that the virus brought, the resulting slowdown showed us the value once again of family and friends, a simpler life bringing us more family time and less dashing about and stressful commutes, the value of a home cooked meal and the time to make it from scratch (hello to the sourdough and home made pasta revolution) and a new found appreciation for the sort of life we have here in The Meadow. Growing our own veggies, raising happy chickens and being surrounded by countryside and the nearby ocean certainly winning out over the city apartments near shops, restaurants and theatres that were forced to close. The other important thing that we all realised is that kindness is key. Neighbours checked on each other and older people were acknowledged as vulnerable and important. The realisation we are all interconnected and that our social system is a fragile web so easily broken if just a few threads come loose. It took a virus for us to notice the interconnections between social justice, the economy and the environment. If we want a different , better future we need to identify and challenge those old assumptions and work out how we can take action to make the post Covid world a better place.

On a lighter note our litle Cooper got his first haircut and was a star client, sitting quietly and quite mesmerised by the whole procedure. The resulting ‘do’ makes him look so grown up and the handsomest little boy I’m sure you’ll agree 🙂

For the past 3 months we have woken each day to a new world where we have been forced to stay home and be aware of the people around us when we do venture out to get groceries or go for a walk. It felt strange at first and we were wary of everything and everyone, frantically washing our hands and sanitising the car as soon as we got back in it from the shops. We have been lucky to have a house of 5 adults and a baby and have thus avoided any feelings of boredom or loneliness that others may have experienced. Instead a feeling of contentment settled on us, devoid of having to plan outings, catch ups, dinners and travel we literally woke up every day and just lived! If the weather was nice we walked, in the country lanes or on the beach or coastal paths in neighbouring towns. If it was bad we snuggled at home, reading, playing board games, watching the odd movie or playing with Myla and Bailey. Our biggest activity was deciding what to cook for dinner and that was a joy in itself. We have all taken it in turns to cook and each person has brought their own taste and style to the table so we have enjoyed experimenting a lot and come up with some great new recipes. As no one has been sick we have been able to enjoy the best of lockdown and now it is all coming to an end is it weird that I’m kind of sad?

As Australia has been able for the most part to keep the dreaded virus at bay we are now enjoying an early easing of restrictions and normal life is resuming. You would think that would make me dance a jig but strangely I am almost sad at the prospect. If we could flick a switch and have things as they were maybe it would be good? Maybe not. We have all come out of this having learnt new things about ourselves and about what is important to us and most people would say that is not eating in high end restaurants and wearing fancy clothes (although some people would definitely have missed this) but seeing our family and friends, the simple pleasure of meeting someone for a coffee, in a china cup, in a café in the sunshine or for me planning a trip overseas to experience the way of life in a different country. The whole family had a lot of international travel planned for this year, a trip to Italy for my birthday to see the wonderful Andrea Bocelli in concert in the piazza of the charming town of Marostica is now off the cards. A longed for visit to Morocco with my intrepid daughter – a dream since she left school and finally planned for this year is now also off. Sam and Liv had booked to go to Vietnam but now even Loz and Berry cannot get back to their house and job there due to the borders being shut. All now cancelled.

The weird thing is that even when I did finally manage to get to the hairdresser and visit a shopping centre it felt vaguely hollow. The anticipation was huge but the reality not so good. That carefree feeling was gone. I’m sure it will come back eventually, gradually. The to do list will once again be long as we begin to plan this and that and I am just praying we hold on to that “live in the moment” feeling a bit longer.

One of the loveliest bits about easing restrictions is that we have been able to see the family again and as it turned out just in time for Mothers Day! As 2 people plus their children were allowed to visit Sam and Liv came down for the weekend and we all had a grand reunion with some yummy meals and wine and lots of cuddles with the two baby cousins. We snuck in a bush walk, the boys played golf and we had a picnic in a park in Berry so it all felt almost normal! The weather was good so pizza night meant music and drinks under the stars while the MOTH fired up the oven – he has it down pat now and the pizzas were restaurant quality!!

After sharing a lovely weekend with all three of my kids and my 2 grandkids I didn’t think I could be any happier but a little note on my pillow saying “meet me in the cabana at 4.45pm” from my daughter was the icing on the cake. She had set up some sunset drinks in the cabana and as we snuggled up under a cosy throw, listening to Edith Piaf on the record player and sipping wine as the sun slipped over the horizon and the candles glowed in the inky blackness it was a perfect end to a lovely weekend.

Autumn has now well and truly arrived with most of our trees nearly bare, gorgeous multi coloured leaves patterning the ground and scrunching underfoot. The birds are having a field day, there must be something delicious in the area as large flocks of Corellas swoop in every afternoon like a rushing river of wings as they manoeuvre like mini spitfires in between our house and the trees, blithely following their leader to the day’s final destination. The fields are a sea of white as they land for lunch and our trees are full of them, like Xmas decorations balanced on the branches. The noise is amazing, you can hear them coming from a few kilometres away and they twist and turn like a shoal of fish in a seamless act of synchronisation.

So life carries on in The Meadow, oblivious to the outside factors in the world, the cows quiet except for the tearing of the grass as they eat their way across the paddocks and the trees shed their leaves as a new season begins in the next cycle of life. With or without us nature continues on….

Just as we were getting used to the new normal of staying home, shopping quickly and effectively once a week and standing 1.5 metres away from other people it’s all about to change… The Government has announced the easing of restrictions with two people from outside your house allowed to visit. This is a welcome change for those of us separated from our families and allows a small glimmer of hope for things to get back on track. Apparently we are losing 4 billion dollars a week here in Australia due to the downturn in business and if things continue along these lines we will have more than a virus to contend with, we will have a recession as well. So to alleviate this we are slowly opening up again. Not opening travel into other states or overseas, nor restaurants, cafes or pubs but shops and schools and offices. They will open to a model with new safety precautions and reduced staff and students to keep numbers small and we will watch the outcome carefully before extending them. The new COVID Safe app has been downloaded by more than 5 million Aussies which will help to trace an outbreak quickly and inform anyone who has been in contact with the infected person faster to stop the spread. Of course there are the usual suspects who are worried about privacy and suspicious of the governments ulterior motives but I think we have to trust that this has been rolled out to help us all and we divulge no more information to sign up to this app (in fact probably less) than we do when placing an online shopping order to Amazon or Woollies!!! So I think we can be proud of how our country has handled the virus crisis so far and with only 97 deaths we are doing a whole lot better than many other western countries. Our relative isolation is finally a bonus and a spread out population has helped us too.

In the meantime everyone’s experience has been different. To say we are all in the same boat is a mis-truth. We are in the same storm but not in the same boat. To paraphrase an unknown author: For some this has been a time of quiet contemplation and the respite from the rat race that they have craved. For others this is a desperate financial crisis or a time of endless loneliness. We are all on different boats during this storm and we will all make our own journey, hopefully we won’t be shipwrecked along the way…

Apparently even the animals in the zoo are depressed. They are already in a life of lock up but the liveliness of visitors and the engagement they get with them keeps them from total loneliness. Maybe we finally have an inkling of what their life is like interred in cages, pens and enclosures…

Meanwhile Nature is the winner with animals all over the world seen exploring cities now empty of people and traffic. The sky is the cleanest we have seen it in decades, wildflowers are invading parks and gardens as mowing and gardening of public spaces has been temporarily abandoned. The stars seem to shine more brightly now and we have more time for star gazing. Our local South Coast beaches put on a performance last week showing off bioluminescent plankton en masse in the sheltered beaches of Jervis Bay. It is an amazing sight if you are ever lucky enough to witness it. These photos from Jordan Roberts Photography show it beautifully.

On April 20th we celebrated not one but two special birthdays here in The Meadow. Miss Myla turned one and her proud Grandpa a few years more!! Loz made a lovely cake, decorated with flowers from the garden and with a few balloons tied to a tree we celebrated another year around the sun and congratulated the parents on getting through their first year with a child! She loved her prezzies and her first taste of sugar and we had a lovely simple day with all of Pa’s favourite food and raised a toast to life, family and cake! The MOTH was surprised with a brand new toy to play with….a smoker!! Ribs anyone??

Five days later we celebrated Anzac Day. It is one of the most beloved days on the Australian calendar and has been slowly growing in popularity every year as more children are educated about our past and learn that we all now understand that what happened all those years ago allows us to live the life we (usually) lead today. This year was obviously very different. No marches. No dawn services. No pubs open to celebrate all that is Australian or buy a Digger a beer. No getting together for the returned service folk to reminisce about old times together or to honour mates no longer here. As always however, ingenuity came along in the form of a wonderful idea to hold an Anzac Driveway Tribute. People would get up at dawn and stand at the end of their driveways holding a candle to honour the Anzacs and if you knew how to play it and you had an instrument you could perform The Last Post. A simple idea that was taken up by thousands of people, the sounds of the last post floating through the air of suburb after suburb in a rather haunting way, maybe not the usual standard of professionalism that we usually hear but all the more endearing for the odd wrong note. People did their best and that is all we can ever ask.

Our local memorial in Berry was also visited over the course of the day with people bringing simple posies and homemade heartfelt messages which seemed all the more poignant somehow.

We spent the morning at Gerroa, our favourite local beach and the cutest little village beautifully situated at the mouth of The Crooked River where it meets the ocean. This means there is some flat water as well as the surf and makes it a perfect place for the littlies. A walk around the headland provides a perfect view of surfers and the amazing sweep of Seven Mile Beach. As close to perfect as you can get in these parts I reckon….

We have been making the most of the local area as we get our daily exercise. We are lucky enough to be able to walk from our house into the countryside but variety is the spice of life and we have loads of local bushwalks that mix things up a bit so we pop Myla into the carrier and explore a different one once a week. I think so many people around Australia have rediscovered the beauty in their local area during this lockdown and we are fortunate to have some wonderful walks along the river within a 10 minute drive to enjoy.

Life on the farm carries on and keeps us busy. The last of the tomatoes, capsicums and zucchini are being enjoyed before we bed down the veggie patch for winter crops. We had a very early windy patch last week when a cold front roared through Eastern Australia, snapping my beautiful 5 foot high camellia plants off clean at the base and tossing them through the air as if to say up yours. During this tempest I noticed a cow had been lying down in the same spot for a day without moving so I called the farmer to let him know. She had what is commonly known as Three Day sickness, usually contracted through mozzies or midges apparently. Goodness knows how such a minute tiny thing can make a huge cow so sick but nature is a bit like that sometimes. They put a big bucket of water there for her as cows drink a huge amount of water every day but it got blown away in the wind. I felt so sorry for her having to just lie there in the awful weather but she basically ate a circle of grass all around her until on the 4th day they managed to move her and she was seen standing later in the day with the rest of the herd. A happy ending thank goodness. Our new chickens are now laying and giving us about 4 eggs a day and Atticus has come into his own, crowing over his girls and running at us if he deems we are too close. He is quite an unusual and magnificent looking animal and will still tolerate a cuddle from the MOTH in between his shows of manliness in the chookyard.

Well it’s time for me to sign off and go and prepare the guest room for Sam, Liv and Coops who are on their way here now we are finally allowed to see them again, woohoo! It is going to be a madhouse with two one year olds, 7 adults (and a labrador who has just been put on a diet God help us all) but a madhouse of the best possible kind and what more can a Mum ask for on Mothers Day but to be surrounded by all three of her kids and two delicious little grandchildren. I’m a very lucky woman!

We are settling into our new normal. Whatever that is. Some days feel no different from the old days, the sun shines, we play cricket in the driveway, take the dog for a walk, clean the house and prepare meals. Other days things are just plain weird. Cannot pop into the newsagent to buy a birthday card or into the shops to peruse the toy section for my granddaughter’s upcoming first birthday. Cannot check out what looks fresh in the greengrocer and decide what to cook from that – everything has to be planned in advance and a detailed shopping list given to our “designated shopper” – no deviations allowed! We cannot see our little grandson except via video link, this is the longest we have gone without seeing him since he was born and we miss the other arm of our family who are seeing out this time of isolation in Sydney. But we thank the universe that we are all safe, that everyone still has a job and we have the technology to stay in touch the best way we can for the moment. These times are not tough. Tough was life in concentration or prisoner of war camps. Tough was life in the depression. Tough was signing up for the war in 1914 little knowing what you were going to have to face. Tough is working 20 hours a day in a hospital overflowing with people who are close to death and not being able to do anything to help. Tough is having your parents die of Covid19 and not being able to be there with them and hold their hands and tell them you love them. That’s tough.

So despite the fact that things are certainly not ‘tough’ here in The Meadow, we have found we need things to plan and look forward to apart from what we are going to eat for dinner every day. We had Easter to kick things off and a certain little baby girl’s 1st Easter egg hunt to organise! Her Mum did a grand job of hiding eggs all around the garden and leaving a bright shiny trail in full sight for Myla. She got the idea very quickly and had her eye on the prize – a big Humpty Dumpty egg – from 50 feet away!

We made the most of the beautiful sunny day, playing Boules, eating outdoors and finishing up the day with a big bonfire. It was a good day.

One of the most common lockdown issues has been what to do with our hair. As the weeks go by the styles become more unruly and the colour becomes much more ‘natural’. A lot less blondes and brunettes are walking around I imagine as the true colour starts to emerge from our previous six weekly meticulously coloured and cut coiffures. Grey is definitely the new black and for lots of us who had been unsure when to embrace our salt and pepper reality this has been a good trial. Will we go with it bravely or be the first to book an appointment at the hairdresser once this is all over? Time will tell…

In the meantime the boys of the household decided to take matters in to their own hands. A hair cutting kit was purchased along with the groceries and a makeshift salon was created in the garage. Our first fearless customer was the MOTH who in a rash moment decided to go the whole hog and shave down Bruce Willis style. The reality of that first strip of smooth head was enough to send both the Stylist and the Client into fits of laughter as he realised what he’d done!!

Then Tom (or Raoul as we prefer to call him when he’s in the salon) had a little play and decided to cut a cheeky rats tail into his unsuspecting Client’s hair…

Needless to say it didn’t last once Bruce Willis caught sight of it however it must have played on Raoul’s mind as a couple of days later after a solid few hours of Friday night drinks and after the rest of the household had gone to sleep he took up his trusty tools and created the kind of hairstyle you can only have during a lockdown in a global pandemic……to be fair it doesn’t look TOO awful from the front but from the side and the back it’s feral. Raoul oscillates between feeling quite smug about his new look and covering it up with a beanie or baseball cap!!

In between these shenanigans Lauren (who had not been well for over a week) had a tele-health appointment with the local GP and ended up at the local Covid Clinic being tested for Rona. She was advised that until her results came in she should completely isolate from the rest of the family despite us all living together so off to the caravan she went. With a baby who she is still breastfeeding, that was quite a wrench but it was also a blessing as she could get some proper rest. Three days later we got a call to say she was negative and she was reunited with Myla although she still isn’t 100% and neither am I to be honest. We must be suffering from a change of season cold/virus typical of this time of year. Goodness knows how I could have got anything as I haven’t been anywhere for 4 weeks but such is the ingenuity of a virus that nowhere is safe!

As Tom had purchased a poker set the idea was formed to hold a Casino Royale night. Lauren created a beautiful cocktail corner and we all dressed up in our finery, threw in our $25 per head for the lucky winner and got stuck into it! I really enjoyed it despite having no prior experience of the game and it was fun to have a themed night with no pressure to do anything other than raid each others wardrobe and make a bit of an effort.

Miss Myla celebrated her last week of babyhood by enjoying the edible finger paints her Mum made for her to play with. As anticipated it was a messy affair but she seemed to love it. I can’t say that we have a Picasso in our midst but she did get the idea that the gooey colourful stuff was meant to go on the paper at least! A bath in the laundry tub in the sun rounded out the afternoon and I’m sure it won’t be long until my fridge proudly bears the baby artworks that all grandparents seem to have displayed!

So life continues on and we can sometimes forget what is going on in the outside world. Until I speak to my family in the UK that is, they have things so much worse than Australia and very sadly my sister has a friend who lost both of her parents to C19 and several more who are unwell. Luckily my Mum and her small over 55s complex are all well and I have everything crossed that things remain that way. In the meantime we stay isolated in the hope that we can avoid the dire situation playing out in Europe and America and it is worth every bit of inconvenience and boredom that people may be feeling to ensure we do. Patience people, patience…..

What was normal just a few weeks ago is but a distant memory now. The freedoms and choices that were our everyday life are no more. We are the most basic essences of ourselves right now. You may be home alone or stuck in a share house with many different people each with different ideas about what exactly social isolation and distancing is. Either scenario has its pros and cons. The structure of our days is largely formed around work and family life, but now the two have merged and people are working out of a communal space with parents needing to home school their children on top of work commitments and lots have a very real fear of how they are going to cope with the next 6-12 months both emotionally and financially. The government have I think been brilliant, helping out in as many areas as possible to keep life flowing and hopeful that there will still be businesses for people to return to when this is all over. Thank goodness Australia has some money in the coffers and has been able to lessen the burden for people affected by job losses and sickness. Thank goodness too for the fact we are a few weeks behind the rest of the world and can learn from what has come before. Thank goodness we have the luxury of hand wash, space to distance ourselves and technology to keep us connected and sane. Thank goodness we have a fabulous medical system, available to all if necessary. Thank goodness for all those wonderful doctors and nurses working at the front line of this deadly virus, at the risk of their own and their families health, to help people at this frightening time.

I’m lucky as we have a baby in our house and babies keep us all grounded with meal preparation, play and bath time and when her little arms wrap around my neck as she gives me a cuddle it makes me forget temporarily all that is happening in the outside world. Babies also make you tired so we are all in bed by 10pm especially as she is teething at the moment and a bit more wakeful than normal. I suspect if we didn’t have a baby in the house we may well be descending into an alcoholic haze whilst watching reruns of some sort of inane television into the wee small hours of the morning….

We are also lucky to have a dog. Our beautiful Bailey gives us an excuse to get out into the fresh air and walk. We have many local laneways to enjoy and as our local beach is 7 miles long we can still get into the car and walk and swim on a nice day, the ozone soaking into our lungs and psyche and reinvigorating us. She is also available 24/7 for love, cuddles and company.

Luckily everyone is out of their 14 day quarantine period with no symptoms and we are now 5 adults, a baby and a dog in The Meadow which means we have lots of hands to make light work of cooking, cleaning, laundry and little Myla has lots of people to play with and Bailey gets loads of walks! We have each other to interact with and some nights are loud and noisy and filled with quiz games and others are quiet as we all retreat to our various corners . So far we are fine. We all get it that this is our new normal and we have to make the best of it so patience and compromise is the new black and we are all grateful to have each other and be safe. We keenly miss the other branch of the family in Sydney but thanks to videos and chats we still feel connected. We are all enjoying our food. The planning, cooking and eating of meals is a highlight in an otherwise predictable day. Add the fact that winter is around the corner we will have to be careful not to come out of this crisis 2 sizes bigger! We try and walk at least twice a day to offset the extra calories and with all this extra time on our hands there really is no excuse to not come out of this whole thing a bit fitter at least!

Loz and Tom have dug out their old guitars from the loft and now spend an hour here and there practising new songs (thanks to an app) and are enjoying reconnecting to their love of music. It gets them away from their laptops which is where all the work is happening nowadays and is a welcome break to the routine. My paints are still languishing in the cupboard but my veggie patch is bristling with late season lettuce, silverbeet, capsicums of every shape and colour and eggplant. A few zucchini are still arriving and loads of little tomatoes are ready to burst onto the scene in the next week or two. Tom has been making up fresh jars of pesto, the smell pervading the house in the way only basil can. We enjoyed a pizza night at the weekend, firing up the wood fired oven at sunset and using up all the odds and sods in the fridge to create some deliciousness. Tinned tomatoes have become a precious commodity so our passata and tomato paste is stepping up to fill the gap but with winter looming and the braises and stews that we normally enjoy all needing the tinned variety it is a constant on our shopping list, literally being transferred from one to another along with toilet paper, cleaning products and baby wipes! Hopefully the ones growing in our patch now will be able to be jarred for use in the next few months…

The other upside to this strange time is that people are saving money (if you are lucky enough to keep your job)! You can no longer get your hair done, no beauty treatments, no massage, physio or chiropractic appointments. Staying at home means minimal car travel therefore no money spent on petrol or tolls. No events means we don’t need any new clothes, there are no holidays to save for , no pubs or restaurants to spend in etc etc… The things people ARE buying are books, magazines, games, jigsaws, apps. Netflix, Foxtel and streaming platforms are doing huge business. Food is a highlight and purchase of alcohol is being rationed as we all come to terms with long days at home.

So as the days stretch into weeks and the weeks into months and the numbers keep climbing it feels more and more like we are living in a sci-fi novel. We are only watching the news twice a day to prevent an overload of information and pessimism. The morning news is a depressing necessity as we find out what has occurred in the rest of the world while we slept. I struggle to come to terms with the magnitude of this virus. No one is really safe from it, fit and healthy, young or old, all have fallen prey to it so all we can do is wait, at home, for as long as it takes for it to stop multiplying and one day even a trip to K Mart will be akin to going to Paris as we are allowed back into the real world again, in the meantime the general consensus of opinion is that…..

Well the world has well and truly turned on its head since I last posted. So many things have changed and every day brings new restrictions and requirements as the world plunges into the pandemic that is Covid-19….

All I can say is I’m VERY glad I’m not on a cruise ship. Life is particularly hard for people living cheek by jowl in the city and in apartment blocks and in any high density living situation but cruise ships are most definitely the total pits. The MOTH has subtly been trying to get me to agree to cruising over the past few years but it has never appealed. A river cruise in Europe yes but not one of those floating cities with all its vulnerabilities and sheep like qualities. The flagrant lack of regulation by people leaving these ships in port is downright disgraceful and has placed thousands of people in danger when it could have been so easily avoided. Our biggest mistake so far as an Australian government I think. The other is not to have placed us in total lock down earlier. I think despite a later than European arrival at the severity of things the Aussies were more than ready to go the whole nine yards straight away. We hate half measures lets face it and love the whole sooner we start the sooner we finish scenario so bring it on Scomo!

A week ago today we were due to celebrate my son’s wedding and we were in full planning mode for it, getting pedicures and madly weeding the garden and planning speeches. 48 hours prior to the wedding we gathered around the television to listen to our prime minister laying out new laws banning the gathering of more than 100 people and we knew immediately that the wedding would be cancelled. So many emotions swirled around in my head but strangely enough the biggest one was relief. The not knowing had been awful and the fact that we couldn’t gather together without anxiety and knowing we couldn’t hug, dance and generally celebrate everything in the style we would want to made it all less than satisfactory and I was almost glad when we had a directive saying it couldn’t happen. My heart went out to Sam and Liv after all their hard work and planning and dreaming and looking forward to their special day, they have unfortunately been swept up in the biggest thing to ever happen to our generation. To be literally within 2 days of the wedding was tough and as loads of people were already committed to their accommodation lots of people still came to Berry and in lieu of the wedding we had a small gathering in our garden with immediate family and the bridal party. The pig had literally already been fattened and ‘processed’ and on a beautiful sunny day we gathered in small groups to have a last hurrah before things became more serious. It was to be our last social function before we locked ourselves down.

My Mum was also a statistic as her planned holiday to Vietnam on the way home together with her return flight was cancelled and she had to make a call as to what she wanted to do. As is often the case in times of crisis humans just want to be home with all that that word entails. Familiarity of surroundings, the ability to speak to family and friends and have the back up of the health services that you understand. She knew she was going back to a tough time in England and a 12 week quarantine period for anyone over 70 but it was worth it to her so we managed to get her on one of the last flights out before Dubai shut down and I am very glad to report that she is now happily ensconced in her cosy little flat with a view of the Spring flowers in her garden. At least Europe has Spring and Summer to look forward to, nature has a way of filling us with hope despite the gloom of our current global situation. Before she left we enjoyed a last weekend as a family and our four generation gathering will be long remembered…

We miss you already Mum/G’ma/Gigi

In the midst of all this my daughter got word that her husband had an opportunity to get out of Vietnam and catch one of the last planes back to Australia. He has been remote teaching for the entire year as Vietnam made an early call not to send kids to school or Uni and therefore he could teach from here as easily as from his apartment in Ho Chi Minh City. Of course this meant he has had to self isolate for 14 days and this has been made possible by our gorgeous neighbours lending him a caravan to live in for 2 weeks. It resides in our garden and he has been able to conduct his online classes and virtual meetings from the pool cabana. We leave dinner outside his door and he has a little kitchen and fridge for brekky and lunch. Obviously it is hard for him to see his wife and baby daughter but not be able to give them a cuddle but he is already half way through and once he is symptom free for another week they can be reunited. At the moment this is how we catch up with him…..from a distance!

As I have dodgy lungs I too am staying home and Tom is now our dedicated shopper and conduit to the outside world. The MOTH has his entire office building to himself and is super busy trying to work out what is happening in the wide world of chocolate for his customers. So as we bunker down in The Meadow we are reflecting on many things. Firstly how lucky we are to be here surrounded by green fields and a dirt road where we can happily walk the dog and the baby with no chance of bumping into anybody. Secondly that we are together and can enjoy conversation, jigsaws, table tennis, Netflix and finally get around to cleaning out those cupboards and reading those books!! In another week once I have planted what few seeds I could find and we are officially locked down (surely that will happen soon??) I am hoping to get those paints out. For years everyone has been saying they don’t have any time to do this or that and now ironically that is what we have loads of. Is the world finally giving humanity the adjustment we needed albeit in an awful way? Cities are shutting down thus improving the air quality and there is no traffic chaos, A lady that lives near the Colosseum in Rome reported that her local dog walking path, previously well trodden by a gazillion tourists has now been overtaken by flowers, birds and bees, climate change in the right direction. Families are spending time together and we are all appreciating the simple things much more – especially a lovely home cooked meal as things become harder to find. The world certainly works in a mysterious way…..

As in everything there are a few silver linings – as some businesses shut down others are flourishing and we are eternally grateful that we are at least living in a technical age where we can all chat, work and video call online which is helping people stay sane. Social media which has long been derided is now a vital link for people isolating and most people will get through this ok. My heart goes out to all our medical workers who are literally at the coal face of this virus and learning as they go. To see people so dreadfully sick and not be able to do anything to help, to have to play God and decided who gets a bed or a respirator whilst they themselves can barely get a mask or gloves to protect themselves is a dire situation. The very least we can all do is to stay at home if you are not an essential worker to enable those that cannot have that luxury to have a better chance of survival. Now is not the time to be selfish or stupid. Lets all be kind and patient and vigilant and we will get through this thing together.

On a lighter note we have a whole new vernacular on the way…….

It has been a rather celebratory few weeks for us one way and another. We have had a plethora of special birthdays starting with little Cooper turning one. We celebrated this milestone at a local bowling club where kids and adults alike could relax with a few drinks and nibbles and sing Happy Birthday to our little man. His Mum made the most amazing birthday cake showcasing the jungle theme and Coops got his first taste of sugar! Needless to say he loved it and his face seemed to say “how come you guys haven’t given me this stuff before??” It was great to get both sides of the families together as well as Sam and Liv’s friends to congratulate them on surviving the 1st year of being parents and to toast our little prince!!

In the next fortnight both his Grandma’s celebrated BIG birthdays and we welcomed back to our Aussie Shores the family matriarch who flew in from her 30 hour journey from England as bright as a button despite her 83 years! Our beloved GG is a great example of how I hope to age, she loves to join in all the fun and refuses to be left out of anything because of her age!

She is here mainly to attend Sam’s wedding but as my big birthday was so close she came earlier to help celebrate with me. I still can’t believe I’m 60!!! It feels so strange to be old enough to apply for a Seniors card and get cheap movie and train tickets as I still feel the same as I did 10 years ago just with a few more crinkles! I haven’t ever gone crazy on the decade birthdays but this one seems different somehow and I am determined to squeeze every bit of fun from it! Several friends haven’t been lucky enough to make it this far so I am grateful that I have and I’m going to tick a few bucket list items in it’s honour this year! My lovely husband started the ball rolling with a surprise new car complete with gold bow when I took my old car along to supposedly get it valued. I love all the new flashy technical capabilities and extra space and grunt that it has. Now to try and keep its brand new looks despite living on a dirt road and owning a Labrador who loves to swim and get muddy!!

We had a birthday lunch at the picturesque Cupitts Winery in Ulladulla with the family and local friends which was special and delicious and afterwards we popped back to Milton to Phil and Karen’s place to see their farm and trial a few rosés for the wedding. They run a wedding venue ‘The Old Church at Milton’ and a wine bar aptly named The Altar Bar so they have a good knowledge of the wines people like. It is such a beautiful spot where they are surrounded by horses and cattle grazing as well as a terrific market garden setup, Claydon Park, where they grow veggies for the local restaurants and also sell at the produce markets. A wonderful all rounder of a place!

We had a nice week of weather when Mum first arrived so we made the most of it by lunching in pretty places and showing her the local area. Tom has been here in between working so he has spent some quality time with his G’ma and keeps us very entertained with his antics! Mum has loved spending time with all the boys both small and tall!!

So with one week to go until Lauren and Myla arrive from Vietnam for the wedding and with a new car under my belt, Mum and I decided to make the most of the timing and take a little road trip together before things amp up a notch or ten. As she hadn’t really ventured to the North Coast before I decided a trip to Forster via the Central coast would be a perfect fit and off we poddled on a beautiful sunny morning to Killcare. We stopped off at the pretty riverside town of Brooklyn for a beautifully presented iced latte which slid down very nicely on the 37 degree day before continuing on to our overnight accommodation at Bells. This is a gorgeous little boutique hotel in sleepy Killcare with a great pool and terrific restaurant with an Italian bent.

We continued on to Forster to stay with our lovely friends Baz and Cath and as the weather had become rather miserable Baz kindly gave us a personally chauffeured tour of the area, stopping at various locations to give us a great view of a pod of dolphins jumping happily out of the ocean followed by a drink at a bar overlooking the lake. A delicious dinner, several wines and lots of chat later we were on the road again and the car was officially christened!! Our mini break was over and we were homeward bound to my “to do list”!!

Wedding prep is well under way. We are not hosting the actual ceremony this time around, instead we will be enjoying it all at the gorgeous venue Jaspers in Berry. I am getting very excited to see my first born son wed his beautiful Livvy in front of his family and friends, what a party it will be!! The next day we are hosting the Wedding Recovery at our place and we have all our fingers and toes crossed that the rain will stay away and the sun will be shining so we can enjoy catching up with everyone in a more casual setting. This still means we are madly trying to get on top of the garden which has gone crazy after all the rain and seems to be on steroids with plants (and weeds) growing a foot overnight! At least it is green again – after being so brown and crunchy at Christmas it is now green and velvety underfoot!

Corona Virus has arrived to spoil the party somewhat. At a time when my family is at peak international travel with people coming and going between the UK, Vietnam, Fiji and Australia it couldn’t have really happened at a worse time. Even though we know rationally that we are very unlikely to contract it there is a little annoying voice in the back of your head warning you not to take unnecessary risks. Of course the MOTH and I had literally just bought tickets to Italy for later in the year when they suffered the biggest outbreak in Europe so far and travel is banned to it! Hopefully things will settle down in the next few weeks and months and all will be well but in the meantime all sorts of conferences and work trips have been cancelled until further notice and we have our fingers well and truly crossed that everyone will be able to get safely home without any nasties on board. Mum is of course in a high risk group with her age and also little Myla coming from Asia on a plane packed full of people flying from goodness knows where. Seemingly in Australia so far the biggest concern is that we are going to run out of toilet paper causing a panic buy leaving supermarkets empty of the precious commodity!

It has of course brought home to most of us that International travel which is so easy nowadays also brings risks that are hard to curtail. We truly live in a global world and it really only takes one sick and unaware person to spread it far and wide. Sometimes tending my roses in The Meadow seems like a wonderful option to the risks of the big wide world!

Since then we have had about three months worth of rain in 3 days and what a deluge it was. As usual in this great wide land of ours it’s a feast or a famine with floods often following fires. It’s all too much, too quickly and the hard dry cracked soil couldn’t really absorb the gallons of water and lots of it has run off and caused massive erosion. Trees already half dead from the fires have fallen and there are landslides galore. Add into the mix massive gusts of winds akin to a category 1 cyclone and we really have copped just about every weather element there is in the past few weeks. Life has a way of carrying on though and we are already seeing the regeneration in the bush and it will no doubt go gangbusters after this huge fall of rain. It is amazing to see the bush grow back almost before your eyes, the new growth so very bright – almost neon – against the charred black tree trunks.

Maree Clout, a local photographer captured these beautiful shots of local wildlife discovering the food that dedicated volunteers have been distributing in the hope of staving off almost certain death as the few “lucky” survivors all search madly for non existent food. It has been so heart warming to read about so many wonderful people giving up their time and money to help establish water and feeding stations, rehouse bees and get injured animals the help they need. I would like to have done more but I don’t have the knowledge or equipment needed to venture into the forest to set them up. I do however applaud those that have and there are quite a few funds set up to help them implement the measures that are needed quickly and without the red tape of some of the bigger organisations. I have read some great stories from BlazeAid, where people who need new fences for instance are put in touch with manufacturers and labourers who can donate and install what they need. Sometimes it’s easier for these folk to ask for something tangible like fencing rather than the general cry for ‘help’ which most of them will never do, always thinking there are others more deserving.

In happy news I spent a lovely day on Saturday celebrating a rather special ‘Hen’ when Liv and her bridal party organised a beautiful long lunch at North Bondi Fish in Sydney. The fact that it was bang in the middle of the huge storms, high seas and torrential rain was unfortunate but it didn’t stop us all enjoying a beautiful afternoon together. The theme of an Italian Fiesta putting some much needed colour into the day….

So with six weeks left until the wedding things are ramping up a bit with plans being finalised and overseas people flying in in the next few weeks to partake in the festivities. Of course it is at this very time that Corona Virus has decided to show up to spoil the party. I am really hoping that with all the travel bans it will not escalate to the point that flying is not safe and that they manage to curtail it as much as possible in the next couple of weeks. It really couldn’t have happened at a worse time with The Lunar New Year meaning literally hundreds of thousands of people were on the move around the globe making it VERY hard to isolate and track. I really don’t want my 83 year old Mum being exposed to ANY yukky germs on her long flight from London or my daughter and granddaughter coming from Vietnam. Fingers crossed it will be safe for them all to come….

Next week we celebrate the 1st birthday of this gorgeous little chap, I really can’t believe how very fast this year has gone and babies are living proof of it! Every week brings new achievements and changes and it is a pure delight to see him growing up into such a happy, inquisitive and loving little boy. Happy Birthday Cooper – we love you!!

Ain’t this the truth!!

After what can only be described as the weirdest few months we are finally experiencing some “normal” summery weather and life feels as if it is returning to normal. No longer do we wake up to a smoky horizon, our beautiful outlook is back in full view. It is as if someone has popped some badly needed prescription glasses on and suddenly everything is clear and defined and colourful as if a black and white movie has been transposed into glorious technicolour.

The grass has come to the party, sending out runners EVERYWHERE (hello weeds and invasion of my flower beds) and greening up the entire neighbourhood. Once again it is a pleasure to sit on the veranda and drink in the serenity, watching the cows rip out the fresh new shoots instead of crunching on the crispy brown offerings of a few weeks ago. Its going to be a long haul with plenty of back up rain needed but hopefully our local farmers will soon be able to stop the hand feeding as nature takes over. It’s not quite the same story inland where the drought has been ongoing for 7 years and what few animals are left have not had any grazing for their entire lifetime. On Australia Day a wonderful group called the Burrumbuttock Hay Runners took 181 trucks of hay from Victoria to Armidale to farmers in need. It was quite a sight as you can imagine and little towns turned out in their full force to clap the truckies as they passed through accompanied by much happy horn blowing by the guys behind the wheel who gave up their long weekend to do something great.This is the 7th year they have made the run, choosing different locations each year. Although it only offers temporary relief it shows farmers how much people care and want to help them. They also carry donated dog food, fruit and veggies, pantry essentials, toiletries and household goods to the more isolated properties providing them with much needed items.

Prior to Australia Day Lauren and Myla flew back from Tassie to spend a fortnight with us before heading back to Vietnam. Unfortunately this was in the smoky weird phase but we did manage a couple of excursions to the beach and nearby towns. Parking in Kiama Downs and walking over the headland to Minnamurra for brekky was lovely and we enjoyed it all the more for the rareness of a blue sky day! Uncle Tom and Bailey came along too and Tom discovered yet another gem of the South Coast!

Every year a few friends come down to stay for a Lozzy catch up and we enjoyed having them here. Estella, 3 just LOVED Bailey and had many a snuggle with her, even covering her with her favourite blanky!She was also a very good helper giving Myla a bath in the kitchen sink!

Needless to say Grammy and Pa thoroughly enjoyed having our girls here and happily took Myla while Loz worked (the life of a freelancer never stops) and she happily accompanied Pa on the mower – not at all fazed by the loud motor – and loved having swims in the pool (once we cleaned all the ash and burnt leaves out…the dust continues to be a challenge…) Of course just as we were really getting to know her little ways she had to return to Ho Chi Minh but the knowledge that they will be back permanently in Australia this time next year makes it a bit easier to handle. That and the fact they will be back for Sam’s wedding in just 2 short months time!

Fun with our little Myla Moo

One of Lozzy’s friends, Matilda, has led a parallel life with both of them spending time in Europe to learn languages at 16, Loz in Paris and Tilds in Turin where they managed to catch up and share a few experiences. Tilds has a gorgeous little girl Mia who is 10 months older than Myla who was also born in Asia as Tilds also lives the expat life but in Indonesia. They both enjoy the same things about being away and miss the same things about home so it was great that they managed to have a night together in The Meadow with their bubs. We enjoyed a few hours on the beach at Gerroa before waving them off!

We had a quick visit to our dear family friends in Callala Bay where Myla got to have a paddle and we managed to squish in some special time in Sydney with Myla’s great grandfather where young and old got on swimmingly in the way that only those each end of the age spectrum can! Finally Loz caught up with her special girls at their annual lunch at North Bondi Fish where Myla made a 5 minute appearance before I whisked her away.

I had hardly any time to change the sheets and spruce up the high chair before the other half of the family arrived for the Australia Day long weekend – we have been so lucky to see so much of everyone lately and while Tom is here too. Little Cooper is growing fast and crawls at the speed of lightening. He is in heaven down here with all the extra space and with all the nooks and crannies to explore so it’s not exactly relaxing but it is such fun to see him so interested and curious about everything. Sometimes we have to employ the use of ‘Alcatraz’ while we do something but it’s wearing a bit thin with our little boy so I did have a chuckle when I walked in to see this….

As the wedding is getting close there was much chat about “the to do list” and how we are physically going to manage it all with 2 babies of 11 months and 13 months!! Luckily GG aka Great Grandma and my amazing 83.5 year old Mum will be here to lend an extra pair of hands or read them a story while we prepare things for The Recovery the day after the wedding. It is always such a nice relaxing fun day after all the pomp and ceremony of the actual wedding and a great opportunity for all involved to catch up informally with guests. Let’s just hope the weather gods are on our side!

So with just a few weeks before GG arrives I am being extremely disciplined with food (no carbs) and drink (one glass of wine on Saturday and Sunday only) to shed the squidgy bits prior to the next couple of months celebrating my imminent 60th birthday, the wedding and being here with Mum. Two weeks in and I’m doing well. Not loving it but loving the results and I can see there are a few dishes and habits that I will stick with going forward or it will all no doubt come back in the blink of an eye!! It’s always tough to change the things we love doing but in this instance it feels GOOD and there is something about a New Year that fills you with the desire and drive to become the best you can be, a newer better you and as usual the thought of change is worse than the reality so as a BIG birthday looms I am going to make the most of every minute and opportunity that comes my way to be the best I can be. It’s never too late folks!!