Monday December 20th

After our excursion around Sydney all day yesterday, we needed a day of recuperation. Because it was cool, overcast and horribly windy, we stayed around all morning, read and played games. I decided to do my manly attempt at fixing up the homestead as there were a few things in need of repair.

I began with a thorough cleaning of one of the three cars. It got a complete wipedown and vacuum as well as tires cleaned. I then tackled the garage and reorganized much of the junk piled on the sides as well as swept and vacuumed the whole thing. I got one of the garage doors working and one of the fluorescent light fixtures working again as well. 

After a quick shower, we packed up the kids and headed over to the Cronulla market. There were many shops side by side and we did a bit of shopping. There are certainly no deals at Christmas and the economy continues to be bustling, despite the 20-50% increase in costs relative to Canada. We found a little playground for the children to run around on while Toni and Krista had a coffee. We ordered a bit of breakfast to share amongst ourselves and then I did a little walkabout through a few shops. The bank was going to give me a horrible exchange on my US travellers cheques – so we remain with the theory of just pulling $500 AUS out of a bank machine when needed as it only costs $515CDN with all the fees and exchange rate. The post office was lined up 20 people long in the queue mailing packages all around the country. I popped in to a grocery store to check out some prices and nothing really caught my eye.

I stopped at a specialty bread store and bought some scones and some cheese buns as they looked and tasted fantastic! As the wind refused to die down, we headed home for Lucas’ afternoon nap and a bit of quiet time. I took Jacob, Nicholas and Sienna as well as Penny ( the dog ) for a 5 block walk to a park and played soccer for a while. We had a good bit of exercise and came home again.  We bummed around for a bit before readying ourselves to go out for supper. We hired a babysitter from 630-1030 so we could go Oceanside for some fish and adult company. Prices as imagined were $30-$60 and after appetizers and babysitting fees were accounted for, there was $200AUD less in the wallet! Ouch!

Alas – not something one does often, but in hindsight, should have bought $2000AUD two months ago at 85cents compared to the 1.03 it is now.  We stopped at the local casino in the Legion building, not a soul except 5 people on the slots and 30 playing bingo which wrapped up as we entered. We all lost a few dollars and proceeded home and called it a night as Devin and Melissa had to work early in the morning and we had a handful of kids and the dog to entertain for yet another day.