Early in the evenin’,
Right ‘round supper time,
Mummy’s in her PJs
suppin’ on some wine. Who are we kiddin’? It’s early afternoon
And mummy always asks us if we reckon it’s too soon. Down at the beach house, that’s where we are,
Julesy and his daddy are playin’, playin’ with a bunch of cars.
Baa-ba-buh Baa-ba-buh ba-buh-ba-buh
(No singing!)
We’ve arrived home again after a week at Callala Beach, Jervis Bay. It’s good to be home, and I think we’re all happier here — but maybe just because we’ve been away?
It wasn’t exactly the holiday that Dee or I expected, what with a troublesome three year-old and dog who was happy to run away as soon as she was let off-leash and out of reach. There were no sleep-ins (but those we tried to grant each other), no long walks on the beach (except when looking for Lucy). But all in all I think it was a successful first-holiday-in-forever. Marginally, at least.
It was, after all, a week of doing nothing. We arrived last Wednesday and were immediately impressed by the beach-house, a cute little white cottage hidden from the road, with large windows and accordion doors that open almost directly onto the (dog-friendly!) beach. The sun was shining, the streets were empty. We took Jules and Lucy for a run along the beach. Everything was going so well.
We had a couple of trips to the local towns — Huskisson, Callala Bay, Vincentia — but also had to turn back from the national park, as we had Lucy in the back and it’s “no pets”. (“Oh, this isn’t a pet! It’s a native black giraffe that we’re returning to the wild!”) We put off the whale watching cruise, Dee cooked some delicious meals, and Jules made himself at home, driving cars up and down the bench near the window.
At the same time, he was very sooky: throwing tantrums over nothing and not wanting to sleep in his room alone. I don’t think we had a night together: either Jules was in the “big bed”, or one of us was in the other single bed in his room. Le sigh.
When the weather turned nasty, we spent a lot of time inside with the fireplace, which probably didn’t help Jules’ mood (we also think he is teething again/still). But we did play a lot together, with puzzles, books and board games, so it was nice — or would’ve been if we’d both been getting enough sleep.
Lucy hated being inside all day too, and ran away down the beach a few times. We even had to go for a drive and find her once, after which she was soundly scolded and leashed up (with a looooooong leash) while we took a drive. It’s not that she ran away — we both understand that — but it’s very, very frustrating when you call her back, she looks at you and decides to ignore you because you’re too far away to do anything.
(Dee threw something at a nearby metal fence once, thus startling her enough to slink back to us. Oh yes, puppy, we have powers most mysterious indeed.)
In the last couple of nights, the weather was so extreme that it took out half the electricals in the beach-house, leaving us with bedside lamps (and the fireplace) for light; on the last night, the gas ran out and we thought we would be without heat (or hot water!), but the agent managing the place rallied marvellously and got us a temporary gas bottle, until it was replaced properly this morning.
And now we’re home! It feels good to be back, especially since we still have the rest of the week off work, but we’ve agreed we need to think differently about any holidays we take now — indeed, we may need to start considering “family holiday destinations”!! Frightening, but worth it if it means we can have a baby sitter/creche and actually get some grown-up time to unwind.