Smokin'

After we'd been to the beach and all that on Sunday, after getting up at the crack of dawn, and Eloise had had her epic 90 minute kip at lunchtime, we went to the shops and did some grocery shopping which, when I unforgivably deviated from the list, ended up costing 100 bucks, that's about forty quid, if we're trading financial colloquialisms.

Afterwards Eloise demanded Chino again so we stopped in at the coffee shop across the way from Wooly's and had a quick cuppa, then Eloise insisted on helping the waitress with mopping up all the tables in the place and merrily sprayed the cleaner and mopped the tables. Most helpful.

Then home again where she played outside and shouted at Val across the road until she got a response, then emotionally blackmailed her into bestowing a cuddling my crying crocodile tears when she tried to escape.

Later in the afternoon we drove down into town to watch the sunset, in the hope that the Samford smoke still lingering around might turn it a bit spectacular, and it was nice, but low cloud on the horizon obscured the sun. Never mind.

Still we had fun boat-spotting and Eloise enjoyed annoying an old geezer saton a bench nearby who was drinking wine neat from a bottle (though he didn't look like a wino, he was a little cantankerous) by running up to him and saying "Hi! Hiya! Hello!" over and over. We twirled and chased around and said hello to dogs and so on and so forth. It was kind of fun.

Yesterday we had music in the morning. Eloise is really making great steps, sharing toys with Harry, the other kid in our class. Her favourite song seems to be "Up. Down, Wiggle Wiggle Wiggle" which she's been singing all week. In the class we sang it and Eloise did all the movement in time, stretching up and down and beating on a little bongo. It was a proud moment for us. And she didn't soil her pants either.

We met up with Ric and Cate on Friday and re-established some personal contact after all the to-ing and fro-ing with emails. They seemed happy with the way that the house was, and Ric is keen to come around and do some DIY, which seems to be his thing.

It looks like they'll be around for the next few weeks while they sort out their paperwork and visas for Saudi. Reminds me of where we were in England about a year ago.