Christmas Day

We had a nice Christmas. Princess woke at 6am, and Milord and I sat down with cups of coffee and helped her with her presents. She wasn't really in the mood - she has just cut her fourth molar and it was obviously bothering her - but she cheered up once the painkillers kicked in!


As usual ribbons and wrapping paper stole the show but she does seem to be enjoying her presents too. The main one is a small foam seat that folds out into a sort of bed - she seems to really enjoy sitting in it. She also got books, a hat and bling from us, and dresses, sparkly play-do, a pull-along doggy and a doll from friends and family. A rather good haul!



After Princess' nap we got scrubbed up and went over to our friends for the rest of the day.


We had nibbles and Pimms, then exchanged presents, then had ham and bread, and at 9pm we sat down to turkey with all the trimmings. I had been in charge of veggies and potatoes and decided to precook everything at home so they just needed heating through later - they turned out perfect!


It was all very pleasant. I was designated driver which did make the evening a bit long, but it was very nice to wake up feeling well on Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas

I don't feel remotely Christmassy this year. I keep getting startled that Christmas is only a day and a half away! I'm sure I've forgotten something important...

This is our tree (in the playpen) - I was trying to get the effect of the string of lights in the background too but my camera doesn't seem up to the task.



Princess has received a couple of presents already, and likes eating wrapping paper as well as dirt. Next year should be a lot more fun for her, or should I say for me!

We'll be having a quiet Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day we're going over to friends who are hosting a big gathering. First the Aussie thing of cold prawns and cold ham, then later a turkey and all the trimmings. It looks like it's not going to be too hot, which is nice as a roast dinner when it is sweltering is horrible!

We had thought of staying the night but I have decided that when Princess wakes at dawn I want to be at home, so I'll be off the booze and driving us back. Boxing Day with no hangover yay!

May you and yours have a wonderful, happy and safe festive season.

Weekend Away - Hyams Beach

We needed to get out of our house last weekend as the new hardwood floors were being varnished. The process takes a couple of days and then you can't walk on them (or breathe) for 2 more days. So we decided to take a winter-break/baby-moon on the coast a few hours south of Sydney, in a village called Hyams Beach.


We stayed in the little blue house...

I found a little bungalow right on the beach and Milord is already talking about our next trip there with the baby! It was a lovely lazy 4 days - we read a couple of books and did a jigsaw and watched movies in between naps, gazing at the view, too much food and the occasional walk on the beach. The wind was freezing but the sun was warm, and with a heater running indoors we were very cosy.


I've been a bit jaded recently - fed up with renovations and work and the city in winter, so this trip was just what I needed to recharge a bit.




We watched the sun rise over the sea every morning from the bed, fed flocks of cheeky parrots and had a big grey kangaroo turn up to be hand-fed slices of bread.


Dolphins at dawn

This post is a bit photo-heavy, sorry ;-)





Just beautiful ;-)

Whitsundays Holiday - Part 5

Final post about the holiday - continued from here.


Day 6 – Friday 17th October

We’d been hearing weather reports forecasting very strong winds arriving on Friday, and as the route we needed to follow would be taking us into the teeth of it we decided to get going extra early in case we had to motor the whole way. We skipped breakfast and raised anchor at 8am (which is the earliest you’re allowed to move in a chartered boat). We were due into harbour at 10am.

Shortly after leaving our anchorage at Chalkies Beach (10) we sailed through the Solway Passage (11) between Haslewood and Whitsunday Islands. While doing so we noticed the water acting bizarrely: the tide being squeezed there created awesome whirlpools and standing waves! It was a bit freaky but the boat glided through just fine.


You can sort of see the water acting wierd here...

The wind was picking up a bit, but it wasn’t quite on our bow and we were able to catch enough to sail along without needing the motor. We emptied our toilet tanks well offshore (gross, but you have to) and tacked back and forth a couple of times to clean the side of the boat… the smell is unbelievable until it’s all gone! We followed the southern coast of Whitsunday Island until we reached Hamilton Island, and sailed widdershins (I’m guessing that’s not the right mariner’s term) around it to reach the harbour (1). It was 9am – we’d made excellent time!


We radioed the marina and they told us to go away until 10 as our berth wasn’t ready. Go away? Go where? It was windy and choppy out in the bay so we headed for the lee of the nearest little island, dropped anchor and cooked our last breakfast aboard. Then at 10 we went back to the marina, found our berth and tied up. The rep from the boat company was there and he debriefed us and made sure we hadn’t lost anything while I scurried around cleaning and packing and trying to figure out what to do with all the food we had left!

Finally we ended up ashore on Hamilton Island with a pile of bags and food, and called for the courtesy shuttle to take us to our accommodation for the next two nights.


Our apartment - very nice!

Day 7 and 8 – Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th October

Hamilton Island is a popular holiday resort. It has a special place in my heart because back in 2005 when I flew to Australia to meet Milord after 6 months of an online relationship he took me there for a few days. That was in late winter (although it’s the tropics so not exactly cold) and we stayed in an exclusive child-free hotel with private pool and restaurant. I was thoroughly blown away and couldn’t wait to go back!

This time we were there in summer during a school holiday and we were staying in a serviced apartment block with awesome views across the sea. Oh, the humanity! Families and kids and screaming babies and teenagers having loud parties (don’t hate me – I’m just not used to it). The experience has put me off resort holidays for the rest of my life (or until we have little kids anyway).

We were utterly exhausted after our trip and all we wanted to do was loll around in a non-rocking environment recharging – which was lucky really because the weather was awful! The high winds arrived bearing rain, but our balcony was in the lee of the building so we could have the sliding doors wide open to the warm wet air and watch the rain pounding down on the soggy families below. We stocked up on beer and wine and read books or snoozed as the mood took us.


The view when the sun comes out.

We generally cooked in the apartment, but for our last night on the island we had a couple of drinks in a pub overlooking the marina and dinner in a very nice restaurant nearby. For our last day the sun came a few times and I attempted to even out my sailing tan, and then Milord and I made our way to the airport and flew back to a beautiful scorching hot Sydney Sunday evening, trying to get our heads around having to go back to the work the next day.

It was an amazing holiday. I felt like we’d been away for a month rather than a week! Expensive and exhausting, but a real change of pace and scene. I look forward to doing it again in a couple of years (unless we have kids of course – I can’t imagine having a baby or toddler on a boat).

Whitsundays Holiday - Part 4

Continued from here.

Day 4 – Wednesday 15th October

We got underway shortly after breakfast and our morning “sked” – a pre-determined radio call from our boat provider checking on everyone’s plans for the day. They’d call every morning at 8:30am, and again at 1pm in the afternoon to see what we were up to.


We were on our way to Chalkies Beach (10) on Haslewood Island, where we’d had brilliant snorkelling on our last trip. Chalkies has a challenging anchorage because the bottom plummets away to 100m not far away, but provided you are among the first few boats to drop anchor you’re ok. We sailed there passing Whitehaven Beach (9), a beautiful, long, perfectly white expanse of sand – and a popular day trip from the nearby resorts by boat, helicopter and sea plane. We got to Chalkies by late morning and at high tide, threw on our masks and fins and swam towards the reef.


And swam, and swam and swam… where was the reef? Milord got fed up and headed back to the boat to pick up the dingy and I carried on. After about half an hour I still hadn’t found the reef and I was getting a bit freaked out so I turned and swam towards shore, navigating around a rocky headland. Around this point I realised I was swimming into the current too, which while not very strong was still unpleasant. Milord finally returned with the dingy as I staggered angrily onto the sand, and we went back to the boat for lunch and a rest.

Low tide happened at about 2pm, so we buzzed across in the dingy and found the reef right where we thought it was – it had just been too deep to see! We snorkelled around for a while complaining about the visibility… and suddenly it got so bad that I couldn’t see anything at all – not even my hands! We got very uncomfortable and high-tailed it back to the dingy, dodging corals that loomed out at us at the very last second. Brrr - creepy. That was it for me, I’d lost all desire for snorkelling, although Milord had another go the next day.

We had a glorious sunset over the sea, and cooked steaks with salad.

Day 5 – Thursday 16th October


A lazy start and a gentle sail over to Whitehaven Beach (9), where we had bacon and eggs sandwiches before taking the dingy to the beach. Commercial day tripping boats are restricted to either end of the beach, but as a private charter we could anchor anywhere so we picked a secluded patch. We buzzed ashore, anchored the dingy in the sand and took a long walk on squeaky clean bright white sand. They say the beach is pure silica, and it certainly is stunning. We put our towels down in a patch of shade under a scrubby pine and went for a swim in the crystal water, followed by a bottle of cold champagne. There was enough breeze to keep the flies away and to stop it being too hot.


After about half an hour we walked back to our dingy, just in time to stop it floating away on the rising tide! Luckily the breeze had been on-shore! Then back to our boat and back to Chalkies (10), where we dropped anchor almost exactly where we’d spent the night! We grabbed our books and relaxed in the shade of the awning.



I read several books on our trip. Kat had sent me a novel set in Venice (she and I travelled there together a few years ago and loved it) which I enjoyed – the author managed to really evoke the spirit of the place. As much as I tried to eke the book out I finished it in a couple of days and I would have gone insane but happily the boat had a small library on board. What a bizarre collection! A Shakespearean play with handwritten notes all the way through. The “Backpacker’s Bible”, which I thought would be a travel book but turned out to actually be a Bible… for backpackers. And a few novels. Kat, I left your book aboard in the hope that someone enjoys it!

During the afternoon I got very hot and decided to go for a swim. As I was about to dive into the water I looked down and did a double take. The sea seemed to rushing past like a fast river! I dipped in a toe: yep, the current was wild! I gently lowered myself down the ladder and laughed as my body was pushed horizontal in the water. Milord brought me my fins and I powered up to the front of the boat and hung onto the anchor line letting myself flutter in the current. Then I let go and the water swept me along the side to the rear where I grabbed the dingy line before swimming to the front again – it was great fun! Milord put his fins on too and came to join me and we played in the current for ages. I wouldn’t have liked to have been in that current without my fins though!


For our last night aboard I tried to use up as much food as possible by making a spicy pork stew with lots of vegetables, and we drank the last of the wine. Sadly I’d got the catering a bit wrong and we ended up with lots of food left over and ran out of booze – we had to ration ourselves over the last couple of days! Milord was quite indignant.


I love this pic of me. I look so tanned and relaxed and ungroomed... even the scar running down my cheek doesn't bother me too much.

continued here.

Whitsundays Holiday - Part 3

Day 3 – Tuesday 14th October
...continued from here.


It turned out our anchorage in Stonehaven (3) did not settle down much in the night! We rolled and swung in the current, and bullets of wind hurtled down from the surrounding hills to tear at the boat. Oddly enough I didn’t sleep too badly, as the night was cooler than the one before and with Milord in another cabin I was able to lie across the bed so that the rolling was feet-to-head instead of side-to-side. The sound of our anchor chain scraping across the seabed as we were pushed around was a bit disconcerting, but I got used to it after a while. Milord reckons he had a horrible night though – he hates high winds at anchorage.

We were up early and cooked breakfast in spite of the rolling, as well as coffee, orange juice and champagne (there is something really decadent about champagne for breakfast)! Then we raised anchor and went along to Luncheon Bay (5). The plan was to spend most of the day there and snorkel 3 bays (Luncheon, Manta Ray and Pinnacle Bay).


We anchored in Luncheon Bay and took the dingy over to the reef for a snorkel, after which we buzzed to the next bay, Manta Ray Bay (6), for some more snorkelling. It was pretty good, but we decided we were cold and had had enough, so we skipped Pinnacle Bay and headed back to the boat for a hot shower. The sea was really rolly back at the boat, making the shower a bit interesting! We decided to move on to our next anchorage, Cateran Bay on Border Island, in the hope that it would be more comfortable.

As we came around the northern tip of Whitsunday Island we realised why the water had been so rolly in the bays – the sea was very rough and lumpy as we rounded Pinnacle Point (7)! We had a bit of fun sailing through it, tacking[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacking#Maneuver] a couple of times as we were heading almost straight into the wind. I learned quickly to move across the boat while Milord brought her around on the new heading, otherwise I’d end up practically in the water as the boat lay on her side and I would have to “climb” to the upward side!

You also learn very quickly to have everything on the boat well put away before sailing like that, as all loose items leap from one side of the boat to the other!


We came into Cateran Bay (8) at mid afternoon and picked up a permanent buoy mooring. Finally we were in calm water, and I produced a feast of cheeses, pates and biscuits, which we helped down with gin and tonics while stretched out in the shade with our books, listening to the Café del Mar cds[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_del_Mar] Milord had thought to bring along. A nap may have ensued, and as night fell we cooked salmon steaks on the barbie and had them with avocado and salad and white wine.



Continues here.

Whitsundays Holiday - Part 2

Day 2 – Monday 13th October
Continued from here:


The sun finally rose after an interminable night in Cid Harbour (2). It had been a very hot night, but because it kept raining we were unable to have our hatches open so it was rather stuffy in the cabin. Milord snored and twitched until I was ready to kill him and I had managed to get sunburnt the day before which didn’t help, as every time I moved in my sleep that woke me up too!

(How silly is that? Lily-white after a Sydney winter we walk into the tropical sun without any sunscreen or even a hat. Born in Africa, living in Australia – I have no excuse! Milord also has no excuse, and his burnt baldness was bright red for days until it started to peel. Nice.)

Milord volunteered to move into another cabin for the rest of the trip, which made a great improvement and will go on the to-do list for next time! The beds on a boat are just too small to share with a large man.

Apart from that our anchorage had been perfect – out of the wind and practically no rolling.


I made coffee and orange juice and unearthed provisions from the bottom of the chest fridge, and Milord cooked us bacon and egg sandwiches on the deck barbeque. Although we had the occasional rain shower it was pleasantly warm and we were sheltered by our awning. We tidied up, consulted the charts, packed away the awning, raised the anchor and headed north again.

We were headed to Butterfly Bay on Hook Island for a spot of snorkelling, which involved us sailing past our proposed night anchorage in Stonehaven (3) on the way. We got to Butterfly Bay (4) a couple of hours later, took the dinghy to the reef and dropped its little anchor on a patch of sand, and slipped into the sea.

Diving in the Whitsundays is horrible. The islands are close to the mainland so there is plenty of runoff carrying silt, plus the tides get compressed and churn up a lot of muck too. The visibility is not great – probably about 5m (15ft), so once you get to 5m it’s pretty murky down there! We dived on our last trip and didn’t enjoy it, so this time we had decided just to snorkel.

The reef and fish are superb, although the visibility isn’t very good. The water was 26C which is a little chilly – we didn’t wear wetsuits but a shortie wetsuit would have been nice - I might have to buy one! I did wear a “stinger suit” which is a full-body swimsuit that protects you from sunburn and coral. I’m glad I had that, because whenever I went swimming without it I came up in little incredibly itchy welts on my body that lasted a week, possibly caused by bits of jellyfish or nymph anemones. Luckily I’d thought to pack antihistamine ointment and pills.

We snorkelled for about an hour and we saw huge napoleon wrasse and a school of baby barracuda in addition to the normal oodles of fish among the coral. It was pretty good.


Then back on board for a shower, and we headed back to Stonehaven with a ham and cheese roll and a beer in hand.

Dinner was barramundi (fish) on the barbeque with salad and white wine, watching a spectacular sunset. Our anchorage was a bit rolly and gusty, but we hoped things would settle down in the night.



...continued here.

Back from Paradise

We are home after an idyllic week sailing around the tropical islands called the Whitsundays (because they were discovered by James Cook on Whit Sunday in 1770). We had every kind of weather including rain and wind, but also enough sun to accidentally get quite a tan!

I’m going to try to do a detailed blog series about our trip, because I couldn’t find anything on the blogs about sailing a hired yacht around the Whitsundays and I think it could be useful and informative for anyone out there who is contemplating it.

In the meantime though, I am trying to get my head back into work mode, while my desk bobs in front of me… I get a sort of sea-echo for a week after I get off a boat, and my body tells me everything is moving slightly as if it’s floating!


I love this photo - it says it all! It would make a good ad for Billabong, don't you agree?

107 Days to my Next Holiday

We're going to be doing this again in October:






Nearly 2 years ago Milord took me sailing around the Whitsunday Islands, part of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland. We'd had a turbulent 6 months, getting to know each other and coming to terms with our respective baggage... I had been extremely apprehensive about being cooped up on a boat for a week, especially as some of Milord's friends had horror stories about doing the trip with their partners! Shouting, tears, sickness... oh heavens.

It was paradise. Milord didn't raise his voice once and handled the boat like a pro. No tears, no sickness... just lazy days on the sea under the sun, with the odd stop at a sparkling white beach for a spot of snorkelling.

I think it was the turning point in our relationship, and it rates as one of the best holidays of my life. We've been itching to go again!

107 days...

Mid Winter

We have finally passed the longest night - from now onwards the days should get longer and the nights shorter. Yay! I'm having difficulty getting up in the morning and I'm tired of leaving work in the dark.

This week has been clear and quite cold - the house we are renting doesn't have central heating and if we run the electic heater at the same time as anything else (like the kettle) it trips the house. Most annoying! So we sit around in layers of warm clothing and I've bought myself the first pair of slippers I've needed since leaving South Africa.

But then again it's not a patch on winter in the UK! The sky is light by the time I finish my shower in the morning, and by the time I am halfway through my walk to work I am warm enough to unzip my light jacket and remove my gloves. No scraping ice off my car and arriving at work in the dark.

Milord and I have just booked ourselves a sailing holiday in October as something to look forward to. Woohoo! We are a bit stressed out with our renovations and I'm not looking forward to moving into the new place at all because it will only be half finished. I reckon that by October we are going to need a break! I've been squirreling money away for the last couple of months as a holiday fund and we have about half what we need to cover our hol - by October the rest will be paid off too so that's ok.

The house is coming along... 90% of the ceilings are in and the builder is starting work on the new floor joists. We've bought the internal doors and have decided on our paint colours (pale grey and gloss white outside, pale cream and gloss white inside). The plumber should start as soon as the floors are up, and the electrician should be able to finsh off shortly. Our main issue now is that we somehow ordered our bathroom tiles from Italy (!) and they won't be here until August. We'd hoped to be in the house by then but I am. not. moving. into. a. house. with. no. decent. bathroom. There is a truly foul shower room out the back but I can't bear it! Milord reckons he can get the old shower room liveable... we shall see!

Passion killer: "My boob is not a joystick!"