Let's see, what's the damage. Three days, effectively?

Yesterday (Tuesday) I got in there early for work with the Littles (had let it slip slightly as a celebration of start of holidays) and we were all ready for action by 9 a.m. Just as we were all about the hare it off to the beach before it got too hot, whaddaya know but the phone rings and the Mr gets called off to work – the alarm on one of the freezers has gone off and no-one knows what to do with it. So off he goes to shut the thing up. In the meantime the girls go down to the Baths: it's a lovely morning and the sea's all sparkling and ripply. Jolly cold though. Littles freezes herself a little in the big pool and after about an hour or so daddy comes down to the beach as well. We finally manage to persuade the Littles to go round the corner to Glenrock to look a the rockpools and have a walk. Just a small one, as by this time it's coming up to 11 and we head back home before proper burning time sets in.

After famished hordes have demolished lunch, the Mr gently falls asleep on the sofa (I think he didn't sleep very well the night before) so after a short roll the Non and I go out and hit the shops. Bits and pieces. Come back just in time to change and head out again to her swimming lesson at 4 o'clock. She's getting better... mild problem in the that while it's good that her breath control is getting better, she's now dashing off half the length of the little pool without lifting her head for a breath... which as I know to my cost is not the way to learn crawl. Marvellous the way having her head down brings the feet up though, pity they don't stay there when she surfaces but never mind, slowly slowly. I keep looking rather nervously at the next-door class going on in that pool, called the 'shrimps'. They do a whole hour instead of the half hour that the Non does, and they all bomb up and down there doing crawl, breast, back and butterfly. Buttefly?? Lord. Nearly choked myself giggling as I watched a teacher absent-mindedly guiding a girl of about 5 through the motions of this stroke, talking to someone else and not really looking at what she was doing. Once again good breath control is a mixed blessing as while she was guiding the girl's arms and pulling her half out of the water on the up stroke, it wasn't quite out of the water. She was just windmilling her in great splashes, head pretty much continuously submerged. Seemed quite unperturbed at the end of the lap. Extraordinary.

We came back to find that the Mr had cooked up a chilli for our dinner and was prepping up some lamb and veg for the Non, and as she claimed to be 'so SO hungry' by about 5 o'clock she was sitting down to dinner. Oh, and he'd shaved off his beard! He'd actually shaved it off by the time we came in before swimming, but it hadn't quite registered... I'd only realised half-way down Yule Road that he didn't just look freshened up from his shower, but was definitely less hairy! So when we got back we launched into a 'beard party' – got somewhat tipsy on banana milkshake with oodge in it. Put music on and ran around yelling 'beard party, beard party'.

Afterwards we hung around for ages watching telly in an indolent, holiday sort of way. I'd borrowed 'the sword in the stone' (animated version) from the library and she liked that a lot, and after a while we switched to 'wipeout'... alas fast becoming a family favourite. 'wipeout' is a sort of more violent version of 'it's a knockout', where one laughs oneself to tears as someone gamely bashes out their front teeth on some large rubber bouncing balls.

On Monday, the Mr went in to work for the morning. Littles and I had an exhausting and not very productive time shopping, traipsing about the place and not managing to find various shops that purported to be in places they weren't. However, we did manage to get a couple of new school uniforms for her, so she won't be going into 1^st grade with hemlines round her knickers, at least. Also had a quick look at a camping store... yes, camping. We're finding that the prices for accommodation in the summer holidays is absolutely insane – like, three times the price it normally is, and they're not cheap at the best of times anyway. I think it may be the only way we'll get out to blow cobwebs during the next six weeks, so we're certainly going to give it a go. I know, shock. Needs must. I've currently got a bid on a tent on ebay, if I don't get that I'll just off to K Mart and fill up a shopping trolley with the essentials. I reckon we'll take a quick day by the lake just near here first off, to test it out. If it all goes tits up we just pack up and car back. How bad can it be? (don't answer that).

In any case, the two of us returned absolutely exhausted at 2pm, and found the Mr at home. Hurrah! Official start of holidays. After a very late lunch and a rest, I took the Non down to the beach to take piccies for our e-Christmas cards. Sorry, folks, that's all we're sending out, it's all a bit much otherwise. Got quite a few nice ones, not sure which one to use.

That's about it, I think. No idea what happened on Sunday. I think it must have been restful. With six weeks of holiday and no particular going-away on the cards, I've been combing the local entertainment guides for kiddie stuff to do. There's plenty around, of course, but it's getting a good balance. I notice there's 'kids cooking – Christmas Treats' on at Glendale today in the afternoon, might see if that's suitable for her.

No idea why I'm up at this time in the morning. It'll all come crashing down later no doubt. Must have been about 3 a.m. when I woke up first, no apparent reason, just washed up on the shores of consciousness. Alas. After a while reckoned there wasn't much point in hanging around and I've been pootling about since about 4. Bit of a bummer but never mind.

Well, hope you're all doing beautifully. I think the Pies are up in the snows at the moment, no doubt they'll come back with so wonderful pics, hope everything is going swimmingly. Good luck with the Thursday travelling, fingers crossed that it gets a bit better over there before the time strikes.

Ah, first birdsong of the morning. Looks like another lovely day.