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Christmas is almost over for another year, but there is a lot of fun left to go.

Last Saturday (22nd) we had all the Crane children (Tony, Sarah and David) at our house with all the spouses and children.  This was to be our Christmas together, and so after a multitude of presents, a barbeque and drinks we all had a good cool off in the pool.  The party lasted into the evening and then we had the fun of getting all the Children to bed.  Tony, Heather, Declan and Angus stayed the night so we were able to spend a bit of adult time with Tony and Heather.

The next day I went to the Cathedral while the others all got up and then went off to have a picture of all the grand-children with Santa.  I also was able to spend some time getting camping stuff ready.  After lunch, we packed up the car (including roof and bike racks) and set off towards Forster.  On the way we stopped at Nelson Bay to catch up with Grace’s Godmother, Min, and her family Hordie and Otto, as well as Min sister, Amanda and family.  We see Min and Hordie fairly often in Sydney but haven’t seen Amanda and John for a long time.

It was late when we arrived in Forster, but at least the roads were clear.  the next morning it was pouring with rain and we went off to see another of Sarah’s relations with her family, John, Jasmin, Jonnie and Taj.  After a sandwich we went and played beside the lake, until John made Jack’s day by asking him if he wanted to go out in their boat.  They were on holiday in Forster for 2 weeks and had brought their boat with them.  John, Jack and Johnnie walked off down the street and a few minutes later pulled up beside us in their very nice boat.  Jack had a huge smile on his face as he was steering.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, as the sun came out, in the boat and on a sand bank below the Forster-Tuncurry bridge.  it was a wonderful way to enjoy the hot sun.  With all the sun, sea, sand and excitement, it wasn’t too difficult to get Jack and Grace to sleep ready to Santa Claus.

Christmas started at a respectable hour, and I even had to point out the stocking to Grace who then woke Jack up to show him.  then they got very excited and were looking forward to all the presents under the tree.  So after breakfast, there was pandemonium with paper flying everywhere.  Lots of lovely presents all round with Jack and Grace being utterly spoilt (as usual) by their Grandparents.  After this Jack and I went across the road to the beach for a little while, but came back when the rain started.  This lasted, on and off, for the rest of the day.

We had a long delicious lunch of turkey, ham and all the trimmings followed by Christmas Pud, and washed down with lots of champagne.  After lunch Sarah, Jack, Grace and I took some of their new toys to a park and the beach to get some fresh air.  Then the normal revoery during the evening.

This afternoon, we’ve been to the Tanks.  This is a small beach protected by rocks where the children can play safely.  Both Jack and Grace has fun on a surf board and I spent a bit of time snorkelling.  It was glorious weather, and even Carol and Bob came down for a while.

Tomorrow morning we are off to a campsite 4 hours up the coast near Coffs Harbour.  This will be very busy and their should be lots of things for Jack and Grace to do and other children to play with.  This should mean Sarah and I can have a relax which we a really looking forward to.

Yesterday, I competed in the Canberra Half Ironman.  This is the race that I have been training for the last 4 months or so, and was considerably longer than any other race i’ve entered.

Canberra is 5 hours drive away, so we all went down for the weekend, arriving in Canberra on Friday lunchtime.  We stayed with a friend down there and took the opportunity to go to a Dinosaur Museum and a kids science museum which was a lot of fun.

My race started at 7 am on Sunday morning, with a 1.9km swim in Lake Burley Griffen.  The water was quite a pleasant temperature though the distance wasn’t so pleasant.  It seemed to go on forever.  40 minutes later I climbed up the bank and ran to my bike.

I’d been in the last wave of swim starts, and being one of the slower swimmers the transition area was almost empty.  This was good as I good see my bike straight away and run it out, unimpeded by other bikes in the racks.

The bike course was really hard, a lot of ups and downs, some of them very steep.  And to top it off the rain started in earnest during my first lap.  There were 3 laps in total, each of them 31kms long.  I felt good on the bike, it is my strongest part of the race and I was overtaking people all through the ride.

Once I’d finished my 93kms, the race was topped off my a half marathon (21kms) run on the shores of Lake Burley Griffen.  I had a few problems to start with when I got bad stomach cramps, but I changed the drink I was taking at the aid stations and this seemed to improve things.  It was a nice flat course around the lake and I was going at a good pace for the first half, but I slowed down considerably with aching ankles and hips.

It was a great site coming around the last bend and seeing the finish line in the distance, another km and I was on the final straight.  Sarah, Jack and Grace were there cheering me on and I almost collapsed over the line.

I’m struggling to walk this morning, but it was an achievement to finish the race, and I’m very pleased with myself.

We had a much waited for phone call on Friday, telling us that our land has been registered.  This is only 4 months late, but now allows the council to approve our house plans.  These are already with council but we don’t expect any outcome from this till after Christmas.

At last it seems things are beginning to progress.

The computer has been declared dead and buried so we are now owners of a wonderful new laptop.  This means we should be a little more reliable on writing on the website and should be able to put photos on more easily (once I’ve loaded Gallery onto the computer).  it also means that Skype/Messenger are better are running with the webcam.  Can a decent conversation with Edward last week.

 We are down as ‘Will and Sarah Andrews’ on Skype so if anyone else uses it, let us know your user names.

Only 2 and a half weeks to Christmas, and we’re trying hard to get UK cards in the post.  There seems to be a mass of birthday parties this weekend, as well as Nippers for Jack tomorrow.