Summer

Sunday 2nd December

We've had a great day today because we've spent it with friends, something I've seldom had the opportunity to say over the last ten months.

This afternoon we headed under the harbour tunnel to collect Steve and Scott from their flat at MacMahon's point. Steve's back from staying at our house in Warrington and laughs nervously that he hasn't broken anything. The nervous laugh is due at least in part to the extensive list of instructions I left for him (things like how to work the dishwasher).

"It wasn't the written instructions that made me laugh" he says, "it was the verbal instructions you sent, especially the one about not wearing shoes upstairs!"

"Well it's bloody muddy outside our house" I protest. "And the carpets upstairs are cream; not a good combination"

"I can't believe you left your house just as though you'd popped out to the shops" he laughs. What he doesn't know is that my mother-in-law went around lifting dust sheets and hoovering before he arrived. It looked for all the world as though we'd just nipped out.

For lunch we drove up to the Newport Arms, a good hour away from the city but the nearest thing we've found to an English pub garden. In fact the Newport Arms has the largest beer garden in the whole of Australia, or so they claim, a beer garden that includes several bars, a cocktail bar, an open-air cinema (yes, you heard that right, and what's more they show the cricket) and two or three children's playgrounds, which means the kids can go and entertain themselves while you enjoy a peaceful Sunday lunch.

It's also set on the cliff overlooking the Pittwater, so the views are beautiful, as you can see.