Back to School!

February means back to school, so it's been a relatively quite month of reduced excess (that may be a tautology) and the re-establishment of more healthy routines, both for body and bank balance.

Gill's facebook account is no longer active - she made the decision to liberate herself from its clutches - and so the blog is, in fact, now our only real link to the social media world. 

Gill is now working a few days each week for Pete, as well as continuing to work mornings at a childcare centre and complete her Masters of Teaching; she is on track to finish around the middle of the year, but with uni re-starting next week (not to mention that she will be doing her final four week prac in a school), it will be pretty 'full-on' for her over the coming months. I am enjoying work at the moment and have a pretty good balance; it's still summer sport season here, which means I don't have Saturday sport for another couple of months.

Friday night was an impromptu night at Castle Burke; or rather, Gill and Meg went out for dinner, and Pete and I stayed home and drank beer and ate pizza (and watched the cricket).  We stayed over and had a catch up with the boys, then on Saturday drove to Sarah and Michael's in the Mountains for Sarah's Cuban-themed going away party; she left today for a six week trip to Cuba and Peru. 

                              Feeding time at the zoo

             Michael with Layla - his pet dog/horse

Piglets at Cafe 2773 in Glenbrook, in the Blue Mountains.

 I chose not to have bacon.

We stayed there on that night, and after a breakfast at their local cafe in Glenbrook, went for a drive to Bilgola Beach.  Bilgola is south of Palm Beach and Avalon, but is sufficiently away from the main centres on the Northern Beaches that it's pretty quiet; especially on a day that started cloudy. However, it was a beautifully sunny afternoon and Dr Pacific was able to help me recover from the Cuban rum the night before. Whilst my phone battery died so I couldn't take photos, here, at least, is a picture of the beach!

Bilgola Beach

After a refreshing stroll along the boardwalk at Curl Curl, we then met Angelique in the 4 Pines Brewery in Manly, which does some of the best beer in Sydney. It's also not a bad spot to watch the Manly ferry do its thing across the harbour! With Lane Cove a fairly short drive away, I think we could be doing this trip a fair few times from our place.

Random photo of me cooking up some sausages in a park in Longueville, near Lane Cove, the day before Australia Day last month.