Bon Voyage mon bebe!

We had a lovely family weekend in St Kilda just gone to celebrate Charlotte's departure to France with Maya and Pater, where she'll be in school on exchange for the next term.

Em, Charlie and the boys arrived from Adelaide, and mum and dad, Pen and Simo and the other cousins all turned up to watch the granny and have a swim on a scorching Saturday afternoon. Then a lovely dinner that I'd prepared earlier in the day.

We also celebrated Charlotte's birthday, and mummy and daddy gave her an iPad so that she can start learning how to send emails and use a computer. She also received some lovely books from Pen, and some nail polish from Em which came in handy for painting daddy's nails during a lazy afternoon spent by the swimming pool on Sunday before the drive out to Tullamarine later that evening.

There were only a few tears, and I think Charlotte was more excited than anything else - and if daddy was at all choked up, it was only because he was so proud of his beautiful bold daughter.

We love you very much precious and can't wait until Christmas!

Cotters

I had a  couple days hiatus midweek and so zipped down to the Prom where the kids were staying with Anne and Dom. On Wednesday arvo we drove into the National Park and navigated our way to Cotters along a track that has overgrown quite impressively since the bush fires; so much so that I'd be surprised if anyone has been there in a long time.

There were lots of animals about, and we had a good old adventure amongst the sand dunes and cliffs. The kids are lucky in that they'll always have this wilderness at their back doorstep.

The next morning we visited Port Franklin and discovered a new fresh fish co-op before I helped Dom unload the trailer at the tip. Then I had to whiz back to Melbourne to hand the car over to ML.