Aldinga SA

Hi there, long time since I’ve updated my blog. We have had most of December and January in Adelaide with two flights back to the Gold Coast to catch up with family.

After our 2 week stay in Robe, we headed to Aldinga Beach to have a couple of nights with Sarah and Peter, Mark’s sister and brother in law. Arvi would not fit down their drive so we were able to park it in a vacant block next door to Val their neighbour a couple of houses away. Then we flew straight home to await the arrival of our second grandchild and help with looking after Amelia!

Charles (Charlie) Donald arrived on Dec 9^th a healthy 3.6 kg boy WITH DARK HAIR!! It was lovely to see all our family and to sleep in our king size bed! All well at 54 Dolphin Ave which now boasts a vegetable garden thanks to Ollie and Keish. They are picking rocket, eggplants and chillies amongst other things. And looking after the house very well. Ollie is busy setting up the Gold Coast office of Rose and Jones and already has a couple of clients. Website up and running and paper work, business cards etc ready to go.

After Xmas and New Year at Aldinga, we had another trip home in mid January. Lucy and Daniel are busy with 2 young children. Amelia was very put out by the new arrival at first but has settled down 8 weeks later and no longer tries to hit or bite him!! Charlie is not fond of sleeping at night time unlike Amelia was at this age- she was the perfect baby! Daniel had 4 weeks off and then he was back to work which was when we timed our arrival.  Lucy is pretty tired and hoping that as Charlie grows the sleep will improve!! But he is very cute, smiling, gooing and trying hard to make up for his night time restlessness.

Aldinga Beach put on all sorts of weather for us from very hot days of 40 degrees to very cool weather of about 12 degrees!! Made the best of the warmer weather with days on the beach, driving Arvi onto the firm sand and setting up with the awning out for shade. Pater would bring down his trailer also with a shade so we had a big area for lounging about. My brothers and some family came down for a day, babies and all and we had lunch followed by dinner and packed up as the sun was going down over the ocean. The babies had their afternoon nap in Arvi and the adults dozed on camp chairs or towels!! This was repeated with adults only another day!!  Drank Pims, gin and tonics, bubbles and wine, while eating an array of delicious food! Highlights were eating fresh squid caught by Mark’s nephew James – dragged a line behind his paddle board, caught the squid, cleaned it, cut it up, panko crumbed it and then cooked it on a small portable gas stove. Served with lemon – nothing fresher or tastier.

Mark had a couple of surfs and one day with the kite up on his foil board. Peter rescued him a long way down the beach! My friend Sally Ball and her family stayed nearby for a few days and we managed one day on the beach with her 3 boys all enjoying a surf school with Mark!! The boys also had a golf lesson with Peter and Mark at the local Golf Club. After the weather became a bit cool windy and rainy we enjoyed watching the tennis at Sally’s house and the odd game of billiards.

After about 7 weeks we got ready to set off again. Cannot thank Peter and Sarah for their hospitality in having us to say in their house for a lot of this time. And lending us a car. We had lots of fun and laughter – Mark played golf with Peter several times who helped him improve some of his shots. I enjoyed being able to cook in a real kitchen for us all and got to know the cashiers at the local Coles and Foodland!

So we are on the road again and that is for the next blog!