Sunday, June 29, 2014

Putter Up!





Like everyone who is a parent I guess, one of the joys that comes with the role is the chance to be constantly surprised with your offspring.  Surprised at their abilities, their foci, their energy - for me the latest thing I've been surprised at has been Harriet's latest interest.

It is, my friends, nothing other than...golf.





































Ah yes, I too shared your dropped jaw and enlarged pupils of surprise.  In fact so impassioned is she that she even convinced James to purchase a set of golf clubs for her.  She also now attends a golf clinic on the weekend.

I know, right?










































So of course this meant that we had to take advantage of the latest round of warm winter weekends and hoof it out to Ryde, where a delightfully hokey little Putt-Putt exists.  The children were enamoured. The oversized polystyrene animals. The miniaturised gaols.  The themed courses.



























The entire day was quite delightful.  Apart from one moment where we had to stop - I was grabbing a golf club from Ted before he whacked me with it, Harriet was hysterically screaming and waving her own golf club around and we had to stop playing and wave through the family group playing behind us - yes, apart from that incident it was, all-in-all, a wonderful excursion.

Nope, I'm not being sarcastic.  They both totally lost their cool when they realised that they weren't going to be playing one of the courses that day.  And when we talked them through it and calmly gave them their options (cease and desist on the entitled attitudes and move on, or we leave then and there), we all managed to move through it and spend the remainder of the afternoon laughing and enjoying each others' company.

Wonders.  Not ceasing.



























There were a few holes-in-one.  At about the third hole we played I hit about...oooh...fifteen? All holes are par two.  But then I totally redeemed myself by hitting so well in the later holes that I managed to come second. Woot!  It should be noted that my hand-eye coordination has always been less than exemplary.  Anything vaguely resembling the ability to complete a task (let alone actual ability) is to be marveled at.

Harriet practised her skills.  In what looked like a whole lot of standing and swinging a club, she worked it.  Did I mention she took her own putter to the course?



























Oh and scores.  Oh people.  Such mundanities matter not!




























And to top off a wonderful day, we drove to Lakemba.  Because we hadn't really had any lunch we needed somewhere that would provide.  Such a place would be an incredible Lebanese restaurant in Lakemba.  A place where, for $37, we all walked away groaning.  A place where $10 of that total was spent on drinks.  A place where the owner came out and wrote down Harriet's name in Arabic for her when we mentioned how much she loves Arabic script. 


























The children pronounced it "the best dinner" and immediately starting planning for our next meal there.  After having to cajole and harangue them into actually trying it to begin with, this was a welcome pronouncement.


 
























And James totally rocked the Batman sunglasses.  

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

AAhhh Your back!!!
So missed reading up!
Love the update and especially LOVE Jimbo's glasses ;-)
xx Lis