40 degree heat, and melting

Trip Start Dec 29, 2010

152

Trip End Dec 05, 2011

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Where I stayed

Finger Wharf

Flag of Australia Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Sunday, February 6, 2011

As temperatures continued to rise, we headed to Watson's Bay to meet Lucy, Nick and Tom at Camp Cove for an early stint on the beach before lunchtime and the babies' nap times. Yet another amazing part of Sydney - some of the views from Vaucluse and Watson's Bay back towards the harbour bridge and opera house are truly stunning. The children had a great time playing in the water and digging a huge big hole for Tom and Benjamin to sit in. They both loved the attention and devotion of Jamie and Zach, and Tom is very much one of the gang already, getting stuck in with all 3 of our's.

Brad put up our outrageously expensive sun tent to provide some shade from the 40 degree heat. These are a fairly common sight on Sydney beaches despite costing a whopping $150 from the Cancer Council shop - seems a bit harsh given the campaign to try to get people to be sensible in the sun.

When we finally couldn't take any more sun/heat we left the beach, stopping on the way home to stock up with meat and salad for the bbq we had planned at our's in the evening

Drinks on the terrace

. This ended up being a bit of a trial in the heat - the car struggled to cool down and sat at a stifiling 42 degrees. Thank goodness for the air conditioning in the apartment.

Adrian & Danielle, G and Skye, Sarah and Nick and the kids and Lucy, Nick and Tom all came round in the evening to enjoy some drinks on the terrace and watch the crowd of kids playing and messing around. Knowing that I am not the biggest fan of catering for bbq's Brad did most of the work, cooking up Brazilian style salted steak and some chicken and the girls all brought various salads. Lucy and Nick as always provided amazing champagne and wine. It was a fun evening and great to get all the ex-Exeter crowd together properly.

On Sunday we met up with Sarah, Nick and the kids again at Balmoral for more fun in the (cooler) sun and a picnic. Balmoral has to be one of our favourite beaches so far - much much bigger than I remembered from previous visits to Sydney and just perfect for kids. Nice gently shelving sea, lovely grassy areas right next to the beach with tons of trees/shade, a fantastic sailing club and a playground for the kids. Jamie, Zach, Tia and India had lots of fun, but for Zach the highlight was making a sand Star Wars Star Fighter for him to sit in - thanks Nick for the effort you put in! Benjamin and Tom behaved themselves beautifully by timing their naps to coincide and allow the rest of us a bit of peace and quiet and a civilised lunch.

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