The Chill of an Australian Winter as Experienced from the Back Deck

It's a tough life in the depths of winter when you have to get out onto the back deck at 9 in the morning, out into that cold sunshine, dressed in nothing but your sleepsuit and gather around the breakfast table with your family for a bit of cereal and toast and a cup of hot chocolate with the frothy milk that Mum makes.

Actually not that common an experience at this stage in our lives, as Nicole isn't around that often at the weekends, what with her crazily, ridiculously busy life. But this day she has a day off. Eloise however has a dancing rehearsal so after breakfast we bundle her off to that 4-hour extravaganza before going off for a family bike ride up t'Brook, a quick 20-k round trip.

On the way back Nicole suggests we stop off at the Blackwood Street markets where we are mildly surprised to see our Tour de Tea people, and after a cup of coffee, we make an appointment for a guy to come around and look at upholstering the rocking chair on our front deck that we took off a friend's hands when we moved into this house more than a year ago.

It's a lovely little bike ride, the weather is great, not too hot, not too cold, and the riding is easy.