Terrigal Pacific Motel

... and decents. Very scenic overall. Ended up back into Gloucester for lunch at v.nice cafe. Day was turning hot again, so we set out cross country to ingleton, about 150km away. Nice backroads, but tired from heat in the afternoon. At Singleton, the best biker road back to Sydney area starts, the Putty Road. Now late afternoon, but still a very nice ride as it cooled off rapidly into the ranges again. Finally back to Windsor at dark, then up to ...

... so I roamed around there for a bit. Then I walked along all of the harbors and around the corner to the Opera House. Even bigger in real life I think. J Dave then called me because he was at the Botanical Gardens right next door with Libby and Sammie so I met up with them. We played games in the park until Jen and Peter arrived with our lunches! The six of us had a picnic lunch in the park overlooking the water, opera house, and bridge. Quite remarkable really, and beautiful weather ...

... and seewhat RG's is all about. Liz picked me up at 7:15, we went to breakfast (akabrecky), and met Bek and Bec at an all girls high school (grades 7-12). Wespent the day working with about 170 year 7 girls, playing games and showingthem how to make the best of high school. I didn't do much, minus turning thelights on and off for movie clips, but I got to see one of the types ofprograms that RG's put on. I love that everyone in the school, or year ...

... mention my wet socks. When we got home, I helped the kids shower and change their clothes while Jen and Dave tried to buy a house but were outbid by $50,000. They were quite disappointed so they invited over Jen's parents, brother, sister-in-law, and niece to celebrate with champagne. Celebrate the loss? Any excuse to open the bottle before 5 o'clock I think! After chatting with all of them, they left and we had about 30 minutes of Uno ...

... with these perfect children was no dramas at all for us. Sunday 4th January - A Manly breakfast at last Breakfasted with Charlie and his friend Duncan, Anni and Si and both children. The breakfasts in Manly are so good and we went to a particularly good restaurant called Jellyfish. Everyone including the two of us had great big satisfying breakfasts. Then just had a knocking about family day. Went to the beach, which was fab. In the evening ...

... gone again! Finally he turned up, pushed me into a wave, and off I went, and crashed and burned quickly. I was struggling to get out of the water. Couldn't keep my feet on the bottom to get out of the water and reposition myself. At this point I figured my hour lesson was nearing and end and told Anthony that I was done for the day. The waves were just too much for me as a beginner After changing, I met up with Cordula and Stefan and we went to a cafe ...

... The idea was to drive to the DFO (Discount Factory Outlet - Much like that place in Bridgend. Whaddya call it? The one by Sarn services but 10 times the size) to spend some of our Christmas money on some much needed wardrobe updates. The reason I say "The idea was...." is this: (Here we go!) 1. The printer refused to print out the directions provided by google maps. This meant I had no choice but to write them down by hand. Minus the map 2. Harvey didn't make contact until 4pm ...

... with Marianne & Melody watched us from one of the pylons & took some great photos - we look so attractive in our climbing suits!! One of the rules that the bridgeclimb people have to adhere to is that the suits have to blend into the bridge so the climbers don't distract the drivers etc....very flattering grey & blue jumpsuits. Anyway, the views were ...

... it out but it's just a small one. I ended up checking some of her photo collections as well and found out that she's also into scrapbooking which I'm also interested in but I haven't started yet. Looking at her scrapbook inspired me to focus again on my interest in the arts...to let the creativity flow and the artist in me to shine. The photos I've posted here are courtesy of Novi since I forgot to bring my camera.

... to come up. Once he was safely on the boat we continued for a magical trip. We saw so much sea life, although I will admit that I was a little scared and it took me a while to get calm. I think the dawning realisation I was a kilometre out to sea under water. But once I had calmed down it was amazing, we even got to see a sea turtle just at our edge of vision. Goregous. My next mission is to find some dolphins.