Sunday, 18 January 2015

We were camping underneath a wattle tree, and this wattle tree seemed very popular with the rainbow lorikeets, so we were up at 5:30am, literally with the birds. Zoe was still very excited about camping.

We had a shower first, and then I cooked some bacon and eggs for breakfast before heading down to the beach. Eva and Layla were coming to visit us for the day, so I thought we could just meet them on the beach before coming back to the camp site for lunch.

Zoe had a great time playing around in the waves, and then we did some sand play, making sand castles. I showed her how she could dig down to the sea water in the sand above the wave, and we found heaps of small bivalves. Zoe thought they were pretty cool.

Eva and Layla were running a bit late, so we finished up at the beach and met them at the caravan park, where we cooked some hotdogs for lunch, before having a swim in the pool and then heading back to the beach. It was a really nice afternoon.

After they left, we took it easy for a while before going out for fish and chips for dinner and then calling it a night. Zoe was fast asleep by 7pm, despite the light outside the tent.

Today was the big day. Pack up and drive to Bribie Island for two nights camping. This was the first time I've attempted camping since moving back to Australia (and being on my own). I like camping, and Zoe absolutely loves it, but I've found the idea of trying to do it all on my own a bit daunting, and it's taken me this long to get around to tackling it.

We managed to get the car packed up and be on the road by about 9:30am. Zoe was really helpful, and was able to help carry some of the lighter, less bulky stuff down to the car for me, that that was an unexpected bonus. Everything fit reasonably well with half of the back seats folded down.

We made good time getting there, and arrived at the caravan park by about 10:45am, but check in wasn't until 1:30pm, so we pottered around, and ended up back on the calm side of the island and had some lunch in the park there. After lunch, we caught up with Zoe's Great Aunty Pam for an ice cream before returning to the caravan park to check in.

We'd just started pegging down the tent when it became apparent that the very large caravan that was trying to maneuver into the site next to ours wasn't going to fit, so I offered to do a swap with them before I got any further invested in our site, so we had to pull up the tent and start over on the site next door.

This was the first time I'd put up this tent, so there was all the attendant trial and error of putting it up. I've learned all the lessons now, so I'll be better next time. Zoe was again super helpful, and we were able to put the tent up together successfully. It was ridiculously hot, and very sweaty work.

After we got the tent up, we went for a swim in the pool to cool off, before I started on dinner. The first night's dinner was just some spaghetti bolognaise. I'd pre-made the bolognaise at home and frozen it, so I just had to reheat it on the stove. The caravan park had a pretty decent camp kitchen, but I was trying to see how much I could be self-sufficient, so I did all the cooking on the gas stove I'd brought with me.

I got Zoe to bed a little bit later than normal, but she slept pretty well, despite the heat. It took me hours to get to sleep, despite being exhausted, because I found the tent uncomfortably hot. I was really happy with how the set up day had gone though, and Zoe had an absolute ball. It was totally worth all the effort.

We didn't have a lot planned for the day, and given that we were embarking on a camping trip the following day, I decided to keep it that way. As it was, we still managed to have a pretty busy day.

I started the day off with a run, and managed to do 10 kilometres for the first time in ages. It was a dreadful time, but I was going for progress over perfection.

I didn't realise I had a chiropractic adjustment, so I had to go straight to the chiropractor after my run and sweat all over everything. I felt so bad, but I haven't had an adjustment since before Christmas, so it was great.

Then Sarah dropped Zoe off, and I finally got to have a shower and some breakfast. After that, we headed over to the doctor for the obligatory weekly wart freezing appointment. I think it's been the production it has been because the doctor hasn't been able to give it a really decent hit with the liquid nitrogen, but it's definitely shrinking. She was super brave and even let the doctor give it a bit of a scrape with a scalpel to take off some of the top layers of dead skin. I'm grateful that we have the relationship that we do, because she was a bit scared, but she trusted me anyway, and it all worked out fine.

On the way home, we picked up some mail from the post office. I have to resubmit one unit of my real estate licence course, because I made a mistake, but I passed the other one. I think I'm waiting for one more unit to come back.

After that, we just hung out at home until after lunch, and then went to Woolworths to do some grocery shopping. We ran into Lachlan there, and Zoe and Lachlan had a great time hanging out while we did the grocery shopping.

Instead of getting ready for camping, I decided to have a crack at baking one of the things I want to put in Zoe's school lunchbox, some Hidden Veggie Lunchbox Scrolls. They turned out pretty good, like something you'd get from Baker's Delight. The challenge now is to make space for them in the freezer.