January 1st

 

Well, here we are again my friends.  January!  And as you should know by now, that means daily posting until February kicks over and I collapse, exhausted, on a seat somewhere.  But, on to today's adventure.

Today we drove back from a last minute invitation to share NYE with the family of Harriet's best friend from school in their holiday house.  It is in an incredibly quiet location on the coast - no shops or places of enterprise for many kilometres.  Of course that means it's not the place to crack your head open on the rocks (as Ted tried to do once or twice), or half drown (as Ted practically did once), or break your leg (as our host actually did - but six weeks previously).  

It is, however, a perfect place to do little more than hang out on a flotation device with your friends and languidly explore the waterfront that stretches before you.  One of my favourite aspects to being a parent is seeing those same types of memories that I have from my own childhood being recreated for the next generation.  I used to have a friend, Natalie Macdonald, and her family were fabulous.  They had a holiday house in Denmark, WA, and I would be invited along to all of their holiday experiences, including trips to caravan parks and other miscellaneous places of family versus nature adventure.  It was so far removed from my own family (we didn't camp or go away) that it was an insanely wild experience for me to be doing something (such as picking apricots off a tree...in a garden...whose fence we had to climb over...past a big sign saying NO ENTRY...you know, that kind of thing) that was as removed from my urban everyday life could offer.

So when I was sitting there on the rocks watching Harriet and her friend giggling, laughing and literally falling into the water with mirth, I had many of those previous experiences come rushing back to me.  I hope she relishes these times as much as I did.

Unfortunately Harriet doesn't sleep well overnight in an unknown environment, so NYE was slightly fraught, as was our host contracting a short sharp bout of food poisoning (yep, he is probably glad to see the back of 2013!).  But it was such a fabulous way to spend time with some new friends, relish the peace and quiet (as much as can be considered peaceful with Hurricane Ted around) and mark the break in the year from our Sydney lives.  Welcome to 2014!