We had a GREAT New Year’s eve and New Year and new year’s day so far!  It was beautiful, relaxing and fun.  We started off by packing and then went to the ferry with a little time to spare.  After waiting for Mike to arrive (which he did with 2 minutes to the ferry arriving), we lined up with another 15 people and all their luggage and waited excitedly to get on.  Cockatoo Island was in plain sight and a 3 minute ferry ride away.

Alas – the ferry was full!  At this point with one car and a LOT of stuff, all the roads in Balmain closed (it was just after 3pm), we were kinda stuck.  We figured the next ferry would be just as full so it would be tricky to get there..  So close yet so far.    I phoned all the water taxis and alas, all booked out.  After a half hour wait with really no options luckily some others on the wharf with us managed to get a water taxi to arrive and we amazingly managed to cram 14 people with a lot of luggage onto a little yellow boat…  I wish I’d taken a photo but with really no room to fiddle around it didn’t happen.  But we made it!!!

Take a look at the photos: the video of the photos .

We got to the island, found a spot for our tents and set up camp.  Then got a nice grassy spot overlooking the harbour bridge and right out in front of the mid-river barge, got the food, table and chairs out and settled in for the afternoon/evening.

And it was lovely! Lots of food, fireworks, chats but generally a very relaxed way to bring in the new year.  There were a lot of families around, and there was heaps of space for everyone to spread out as much as they liked.  The fireworks were amazing, with lots of lights up close and far away.  We were so close to the barge that we were getting black specks from the fireworks all over us.  Your dad wanted to know what you thought of it all – it was really really loud. We figured you could definitely hear it in there.  Hope it was fun and not too scarey!

Anyway, tired and watching series one of Dr Who with your dad.

love you

mum

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I am feeling particularly well today!  Slept well – we are in our own very comfortable bed in Sydney again.   I woke up and felt you having a ‘flutter’ this morning while I attempted to sleep in (but was thwarted by your Dad’s phone ringing.. aagh); then had a relaxed morning of reading my pregnancy books (I left them at home while we were away) for you week 14 and week 15 (’cause that is tomorrow).  Your dad came and did some reading of them with me.  His comments weren’t particularly helpful – like ‘your gums might start bleeding – you’d better floss better every day’ and ‘oooh – vaginal discharge – yuk…  Have you got that yet???… Phew it stinks in this bed’.  In his normal charming manner.   But apart from that, and feeling like a beached whale, I was happy.

And I’m ready to face the new year and going back to work and what not with you in the picture.  I’m not going to study this semester, so hopefully your dad and I will have some time to do some fun stuff together before you come along, and really enjoy living in Sydney over the latter half of summer.  Your dad set my bike up in the living room for me last night so I can get back into pedalling (safely without any cars around) whenever I like from now on – which is exciting. 

This morning we also started some pregnancy yoga exercises from Janet Balaskas’ “New Active Birth”…  And they were good!  Your dad read them out aloud and did some with me while I gently tried to stretch different parts of my back, abdomen, legs etc.  All in order to make this whole pregnancy thing more comfortable for me, and to try to make sure you slip out easily when the time comes.  They weren’t particularly crazy – just like regular yoga but concentrating on the pelvis quite a bit.  All in all I felt really good afterwards – after being in the car driving for the past few days things had got a little stiff and the release of the stretches helped.  Hopefully we’ll be able to make time over the next few weeks to work our way through all of the exercises in the book then I can do them on my own each day before work or something like that.  Hope you enjoyed them too?

I gave you a little massage afterwards.  Apparently you can perhaps feel my massaging at this point.  You’re almost 8.5 cm long, which seems big when I look at the size of my stomach.  Yes, its got more solid and bigger, but its not huge.  I just look a bit fat really, unless you know I’m pregnant.  I do feel beached whale-like, but since we’re back home I’m going back to healthier eating and exercising etc…

Must run – off to get ready to go camping tonight for New Years Eve.  We’re off to Cockatoo Island in the middle of the Sydney Harbour where some friends have booked a campsite and we will watch the fireworks herald the new year.

Love you

mum

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