THE BOYS ARE BACK
Dear Alice,
Well they’re back! Yes both boys have returned safely from their respective Summer Camps, grumpy and exhausted as always, and wiping out our peace and quiet with the ferocity of a small cyclone. It’s a bit quieter now, as Elliott is fast asleep on the lounge floor (it’s 2pm) but Tris is still running around complaining about everything. As predicted, he lost his Element hat on camp but otherwise seems fairly unscathed from his adventures. They both had a great time though which is all that matters.
The weekend here has been super hot, so quite the opposite of England. I’m currently sitting outside writing this – it’s just too hot to do anything else really. This hasn’t stopped Teacher Mum from trying to organise an outing of some description. Faced however with predictable male apathy from me and both her sons, she’s now retreated to the back garden with a chilled mango smoothie to read her book. It has to be said she is fairly gripped by Stieg Larson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo… as indeed am I. For the first time ever, we’re both concurrently reading the same book. Hers is the normal paperback, while mine is the unabridged dog walking audiobook version. I know you don’t see this as proper reading, but maybe I’m just ahead of my time? eBooks and audiobooks are, in my opinion, the way of the future. As we become increasingly time poor, our paper resources continue to dwindle, and we become evermore technologically savvy, then this is how everybody I think will be reading in ten years time.
The boys are now wrestling each other in the pool, so Teacher Mum has decided to invite two sets of neighbours round for a barbeque dinner, swim and spa. This event clashes for the third time in a row with the latest Sydney FC fixture and if I didn’t know her better, I’d swear she’d organised it on purpose. [The match ended nil nil by the way, so no big loss for me or them as it turned out!]
Tristan’s latest craze is fishing and at first light this morning, and nursing a small hangover (me not him), I had to once again clamber down to Flat Rock Beach where we spent three hours catching seven baby Snapper and two even smaller Leather Jackets. All got thrown back of course, except for one of the Snapper who had inadvertently swallowed the hook down whole. I therefore had little choice but to cut his head off to retrieve it. Tristan then chopped him up and used him as bait which actually worked better than the prawns we were using. It’s a boy thing!
: Dad
