Mark's Stuff

Taking advantage of possibly one of the last real days of summer, we headed down for a day in Sorrento with Rob, Shal and the boys. The kids had an absolute ball all day, starting off with a friendly drag race. Despite the handicap of a trailerload of manky water and dead dragonflies, Bailey got off to a quick start and Pia never managed to make up the lost time.

Enough of this bike business, after lunch it was down to the beach to make Dad (aka Mark) & Dad (aka Rob) push the S.S Inflatable around the shallows while the kids bounced up and down with the waves. Should have taken a video of this, so when the kids are older we can ask for pay back!

And what’s a trip to the beach without building (and more importantly, demolishing) a few sand castles!

Kirsty, Pia and I took a couple of weeks off to chill camping in Gunbower State Forest near Torrumbarry on the Murray, and fulfilling my duty as a loving father took plenty of pics of Pia, and not too much else (Pics in my gallery), except maybe this local inhabitant chillin’ out too!

Pia still loves her broccoli, and eating in the great outdoors makes life easier for mum and dad coz we don’t have to worry about cleaning the floor after Pia decides that its fun to taste and toss.

Yes, yes, that’s a caravan in the background. We borrowed my parents’ van for the trip. Yes, we cheated. We weren’t really camping. But it was nice to have cupboards, hot water, and a freezer!

And when she’s not eating her veggies, she also loves to suck the goodness out of a juicy chop or steak. Or emptying out a bowl of pasta and bolognaise sauce just to see what happens. Usually ends up with a lap full of food and then a bit of a snack for the dogs.

Of course after tipping a bowl of bolognaise sauce over your head, its bath time! Although not entirely effective after splashing water all around the tub and picking up handfuls of mud to play with. But bath time’s not about getting clean, it’s about getting wet and having fun!

Just to prove that I can take pictures of subjects other than Pia, here’s Dion & Amanda’s son Jett after a covering his tummy with a a couple of slices worth of watermelon juice. Being a kid is all about getting dirty and not caring.

Pia’s not quite old enough to be a legal observer, so on the days when it was just the three of us we couldn’t do any real water skiing, but that doesn’t mean that Pia can’t start learning on dry land. Maybe she’ll start skiing before she starts walking.

Every day the temperature was in the mid to high 30′s, with a couple of days hitting 40, but probably the hottest day we had was the very last day we were up there. Just the right weather to be packing up in. Not! At least Pia and grandma were keeping eachother company in the little shade that was left after all the sunshades were taken down.

This year’s Cup Weekend dive trip with Ocean Divers was to Jervis Bay just south of Sydney, for three nights aboard Ocean Trek. I managed to squeeze onto the trip at the last minute due to a cancellation (sorry you couldn’t be there with us, Pam). There were a total of 10 dives scheduled, but due to some pretty bad weather, we couldn’t get any dives in on Monday morning.

We did see plenty of Wobbegongs and Port Jacksons (below), as well as a number of cuttlefish and a couple of morays amongst other fishlife. The weather was also kind enough to let us into Spider Cave as the last dive on Sunday, but surge stopped us from getting too far. Pics of the weekend are in my Jervis Bay gallery.

Even though to winds were squalling and the waves pounding outside the heads, Mick and Lyn managed to find a quite spot inside the bay for us to anchor on Sunday night.

On Monday there wasn’t much to do other than sight seeing at the local museum or national park, so a few of us opted for a walk to the cliffs above where we were diving over the previous couple of days, and I took the opportunity to photograph some plantlife.