The best bit about autumn – clouds.

Summer in Perth is all very well, but the heat, the endless blue skies and 15 hours of sunshine a day can get a bit wearing. I know, I know, how ungrateful!! Compared to England, we have good weather here – even when its cold, its warm.  Blah blah! Well, the summer has packed its bags now and autumn is coming and with it…

Back to England – last part!

We had a day with the cousins and saw my sister’s teeny premature twin boys which was cool.  Ella loved holding them – they’re so tiny! We went swimming (again) and Henry managed to swim unaided for 3 or 4 meters, which for a skinny 5 year old boy who last year, was afraid of the water, was really cool.  I even had him…

Back to England – part 8

A few days later, we decided to go to somewhere new.  Not too far away is the Historic Dockyard at Chatham.  On the banks of the River Medway, there has been a naval dockyard there since Tudor times (1540’s) – the yards were part of the assembly of the fleet that took on the Spanish Armada, later (mid 1700’s) built Admiral Nelson’s HMS Victory…

Back to England – part 7

So, we went off to the woods to see about building a den. I spent my childhood building dens and camps and shelters in these woods, so I was quick to lead them off to build something amazing.  As luck would have it, only a short way into the woods there was a den already started, with a good top piece and a lot…

Back to England – part 6

I’m stringing you all out here with my England stories!  Mostly cos I haven’t done anything of any significance since I got back apart from work and buy paint for the bedroom walls.  Aforementioned paint is still safely in its tins – sickness has meant that Chez Charlie has been keeping a low profile for a couple of weeks – a lot of that…

Back to England – part 5

It was scheduled to rain for the next couple of days, but it wasn’t supposed to hit until much later in the day, so my sister and I took the chance to head down to the beach.  It’s an hour’s drive to Camber Sands but the traffic wasn’t too bad and the sun was shining.  We decided to leave early and be packed up…

Back to England – part 4

The weather was unusually kind to us, so we had plenty of time to lark about – we went swimming where Henry actually learned to swim properly (rather than just flailing) – Ella is a fully fledged dolphin already and there’s no stopping her, but it was really nice to see the boy graduate into the swimming camp rather than the sinking camp. Anyways,…

back to England – part 3

We went out for Pizza for lunch – my mum and dad’s idea – lots of kids, vigorous exercise and then a treat – can’t much argue with that. My dad sensibly peeled off from the park early to go back up to the town to book us a a table, but we were sufficiently early that we almost had the place to ourselves.

Back to England – part 2

The weather was beautiful, so we made the most of the local parks and my parents garden (which has a teeny freshwater crayfish in the brook that runs through it), playing with the kids and generally having fun.  We made good use of the village shop and bought all kinds of yummy treats – thats the one good thing about living in a village…

Back to England – part 1

It was time to see the children in England.  I’d booked the flights ages ago – but as the Olympics were on, they were massively expensive and only the less desirable flight times were available.  I worked all day Friday and then caught the flight out at 2am *bleaugh* was a very long day.  I got a bit of sleep, did the 2 hour…