Slept in until after 8 this morning, which was needed as Jonny was up through the night. We had a lovely slow breakfast and then did some laundry before sitting in the sun with our second cup of coffee. Eventually we got down to some schoolwork and for the boys it was like pulling teeth. A week off the books has not done them any good! We had some lunch and then set off in the car to explore Swansea. We stopped at Caves Beach and had a walk along the sand ...

Jonny was up at the crack of dawn and that meant everyone else was too! Not long after that the road sweeper went past and that was only mildly quieter then Jonny so we would have been woken anyway!! We had breakfast and began a slow pack up and were on the road by 915am. Traffic wasn't too bad but there were some crazy truck drivers on the M1 and it was a relief to get off the motorway and reach Blacksmiths Beach. We arrived around 11am and the kids had al...

Woke up with the birds again and read in bed for a while before everyone started wanting breakfast. The kids ran off to play with the girls next door and Nick and I did some cleaning up and then we set off for the train station. We got the train to Circular Quay and then caught a ferry to Watsons Bay. It wasn't very busy and the wind was blowing a bit today so we had the whole of the outside sitting area on the ferry to ourselves. At Watsons Bay we walked u...

Everyone was awake by 7am again, this time because it was bin day! We stayed in bed and read for a while and eventually got up to have coffee. We had new neighbours with two young girls and our kids spent the morning playing with them while Nick and I had a peaceful breakfast. When we were all ready we walked to the train station and got the train to Circular Quay. From there we got on a ferry to Parramatta and spent the morning sailing along the Parramatta...

Seven am seems to be our natural wake up time in Sydney. The sun was shining again but it was still a little bit chilly so we stayed in bed and read for as long as possible and then Nick made everyone breakfast. The kids introduced themselves to a couple of other kids in the park and went off to play for a while until they had to pack up and go home. We then caught the train to Circular Quay and got straight on a ferry to Manly. The ferry was packed so Nick ...