Storms and Lemons

Today was deemed a lazy day. Well, for Cathleen myself and the babes anyhow. We hid out in the house because it reached a sweltering 41 degrees Celsius outside. And it was quite windy, but not the kind of cool wind we are accustom to. A hot wind that brings no refreshment. The only saving grace was that it was overcast, and the sun wasn't melting us like ants under a microscope. Marc, Richard and Ben went to the Lane Cove Swimming Pool to beat the heat, and apparently had a blast. We were all going to go, but seeing as we don't all fit in the car, we would have had to bus, and well, let's face it, it was just to hot to take the babies out. This was a tad disappointing seeing as Cathleen and I spent several hours yesterday perusing the malls attempting to find swimsuits that fit our newly "enhanced" frames... Oh well, there will be other opportunities.

On Friday Marc and I decided we would go and take a self tour of the city. We hopped on the bus to downtown at 10 am, and much to my dismay I realized half way there that I had forgotten my camera. So we wandered around downtown, explored a few malls and a park, and vowed to come back another day with a camera and do the things we had originally planned to do. And I vowed to not wear flip flops next time. Ouch. waiting for the bus to take us home, there was a magnificent thunder and lightning storm. The heavens opened for a few minutes and we chuckled at all the dolled up girls squealing and running for cover. Hehehe...

They have a lemon tree in their backyard! When the next batch ripens we are going to make fresh lemonade. Had we known of its existence before we spotted Ben handing over arm-fulls to the neighbour's kids, we would have done it sooner. Oh well, the tree is laden, we just have to wait a few days for more to ripen. They say they get more lemons out of that tree than they could ever possibly use. I wish we could grow a lemon tree!

Tomorrow is supposed to be 21 degrees and rainy all day, so I'm not sure what it will hold, and Tuesday we were hoping to hit up the zoo! I haven't been to a zoo in ages, so I'm quite looking forward to it. Hopefully the rain has stopped by then and the heat will stay back until later in the week.

Oh, last note, the prices of most things are comparable to home, and the exchange rate is nearly par. However, food is much more expensive than home. Here is an example. On our escapades downtown in the heat we were getting quite thirsty. I had brought a water bottle, but it was rather warm by the afternoon, so we ducked into a convenience store to grab a bottle of Gatorade. There were no prices in the case, so Marc grabbed one and took it to the till. $4.25. No joke. For a 750ml bottle of coloured, flavoured water!!! We will never do that again!

Anyhow, It may be a few days until I write again, due to the fact that we may just end up chilling at home tomorrow as well. I have come down with a cold, and although I'm beginning to feel leaps and bounds better than even this morning, Cathleen is starting to get the tell tale aches that preceded my cold. It seems as though I can't travel without catching something on the plane. Oh well, I suppose I can't really complain, it's been over 2 years since my last cold.

Check back in a few days and hopefully by then we'll have gone to the zoo, and possibly some other adventures as well! TTFN!