All Work and No Play...

While the kids are in school, Philip and I--when not hard at work, noses to the grind in our office (green chairs pictured here)--explore the Northern Beaches, its flora, its fauna, its food, and its fabulousness. Best fish and chips? So far the flathead fillets at the roughish outdoor Kiosk at Palm Beach (where, incidentally, we also saw a rat) beats the flathead fillets at swanky Barrenjoey House. And the outdoor Kiosk has F&C for $16 where Barrenjoey has them for $26.

Which leads me to my next point: things are expensive in Australia and really expensive in the Northern Beaches. And there's no more justifying costs by saying, "oh it's Aussie dollars." Pretty soon the Aus dollar will be outstripping the Greenback. An organic roasting chicken costs $21! We'll be forced to wring the necks of our bush turkeys at this rate. They seem unaware that Americans with thoughts of a traditional Thanksgiving are lurking nearby...

Fauna, indeed. It's everywhere. This morning we woke up to a school of dolphins porpoising through the water off our headland (pictured here--it looks like a whale, see? Our house is one of those white specks). Dolphins are hard to catch on film, so here's a photo of a lazy lizard for you instead. Lizards get big here and some can rear up on their hind legs and run around like some mini Jurassic nightmare.

Back to costs--some things are cheaper down under: squash lessons, piano lessons, tennis, tutoring, hair-cutting, doctor visits. Hopefully it'll all even out.

On the theme of all work and no play, after purchasing a sensible used vehicle to drive the children around responsibly (a 2003 station wagon), we got a little toy for ourselves--a 20-year-old Saab convertible, bought off the side of the road (don't worry Dad, Philip checked out the VIN and we had it approved by a mechanic). Clare thinks there's something wrong with our self-esteem that we need such a car. Maybe. But we'll have tons of fun cranking tunes with the car top down on our way to the beach.