A valentines spin session! What losers!

First off.. Look what I just found!! 

Here is my tri club from home showing some valentines love. When you do triathlon the only person you can possibly have any kind of time-spending relationship with is your bike. Luckily theres a good range of bikes to choose from so you can still afford to be fussy and picky. You can even change them to fit around you better, you know get a new seat or pedals etc, without them even complaining! So really rather convenient. 

Anyway these guys did a group valentines spin session because they obviously have nothing better to do. (Nothing wrong with that, I'd be with them if I wasn't on the other side of the world. Yes, I brought my bike over with me.) All wearing pink. I miss you! 

Lovely stuff. 

I'm surprised our coach isn't in the pic. Lou loves this kind of dress up thing! She wouldn't just go for the bright pink top. She's have luminous green shorts to match. And maybe some purple high tops. And it wouldn't just be for valentines day either - this is her usual weekday (or weekend day) attire! 

Anyway - Back to SYDNEY! 

The weather is horrible! It's cloudy and it even drizzled yesterday. Granted it's still 24 as oppose to 4 (current Morley temperature), but still.. I want the sun back! 

The boys (that I nanny, incase you've missed a few posts) and I are having to stick to parks and indoor swimming pools instead of being able to hit the beach. The parks and pools are great though - everything is so modern and well maintained. I wondered how the councils over here funded this kind of thing, until I got a driving ticket this week for a sum of money I can't even bring myself to type. All I will say is that the FaceWipe UK to AU inflation price of around 900% is mirrored in driving fines. 

Apparently I went through a red light. Everyone knows I drive like a grandma so I really don't know how I managed this. 

These are the boys!!

This is Mr. 4 Years Old. Yesterday he ate all of his dinner and was so proud he wanted to take a picture to show Mummy and Daddy when they got home. 

As you can see he likes tomato sauce a lot..

This is Mr. 2-Year-Old old under a giant monkey tree in Watsons bay. 

Mr 2-Year-Old

This tree must be about 500 years old! You know how I know? Mum once ordered a '50 year old established monkey tree' for our garden at home, thinking it would be a huge tree for the middle of the grass. When it turned up it was shorter than me. And I was about 10. So this one must be old. 

The boys are so gorgeous! Especially Mr. 2-Year-Old whose hair is so long and whose eyelashes are so thick and brown you can't tell which is head hair and which is eyelash! 

This is him on his birthday this week (yes - he's only just 2!).

 He got really upset when everyone sang to him - I think he was a bit overwhelmed and just wanted to eat the cake, which he'd been talking about all day. 

He needs a bit of practice with the blowing out of candles ritual, his attempt was more like a fire eating show!

A cute photo from this morning! 

The boys parents (I'll call them Mr & Mrs Vaucluse as that's where they live.. And what I still have them saved in my contacts as - Sorry guys I will change it) are an engineer and a fashion buyer! Wahooo Uni help and free clothes samples! 

Just joking but it does have it's perks. I went on a fashion shoot this week that Mrs. Vaucluse had organised for a new range. 

This model was lovely! And so attractive. She even ate with us at lunch time - Apparently some models do eat. 

I also did Race 3 of the NSW Sprint Series last weekend. Look how gorgeous and light it is on this photo - it's 6am - I love Australia. 

The race was great, I did the roughly the same splits as Race 2 in December, after having most of Christmas off. I think it pisses off a few oldies from the club when things like this happen -  I love being 20 and not 40! 

Make shift boot esky 

Lastly, I road tripped to Palm Beach with some friends last weekend - a place I've been meaning to go for ages. Its about an hour out of Sydney but it's so remote and you feel like you've gone on holiday! Or at least to Queensland or somewhere. I thought this boot esky the boys made to stop our beer boiling (or cider in my awfully English case) was super cool. (Haha?!) It wasn't so cool when the ice melted and we had a boot full of water. 

PORT DOUGLAS ft. the matching tracksuits of water-sports

The tribe and I spent Christmas week in Port Douglas at a resort called Sea Temple. 

A really unnecessary naming rock

I took this rock photo from the bus on our way back out of the resort before we'd even checked in - apparently our 12m long ride was not allowed in the resort as it blocked the entire turning circle. 

Jason thought this little indoor pool thing was for paddling and swimming in (a reasonable assumption) but no, it was just another unnecessary feature.

He was quite happy when he found the real pool though.. 

This was also the spot where he found the 'free' bar. What he thought was free later materialised on the room tab. 

Pink lemonades x 112

Coke x 74

M + D in the real pool's lazy river

We spent pretty much our entire time in Port Douglas lazing by this pool and lazy river. Well deserved I think though after the hectic camper ride. 

We did venture out onto a couple of day trips.. The first being scuba diving! 

You can't drive for 9 days to the barrier reef and not actually go to the barrier reef! 

Jess equalising

When I say 'we' scuba dived, what I mean is Jess, Ja, Dad and I scuba dived. Not only did Mum and Jennie back out of the diving and into the snorkelling option (pansies), but they also somehow acquired these woggle things..

Mum sporting a 'woggle'

..if these are not the matching tracksuits of swimming attire then I don't know what is! SO embarrassing.

Our boat!

We also ventured into Mossman Gorge and up to Cape Tribulation.

Cape Tribulation Beach.

A lagoon thing we found when we ventured into the forest

This is the lagoon Jason and Jess found a 'sheep's scull' in. Since the largest animal found in the Australian forest is a tree kangaroo, the 'sheep's scull' is slightly worrying. It also worried our tour guide, who had an answer for absolutely anything you could ask him. (Besides where the 'sheep's scull' came from). We know this because Mum and I tested it intensely. 'What is this flower? How many trees are in this forest? How old is this tree? Where does this water come from?'. To be fair, I think our tour guide loved having people so amazed by what he was showing us! 

A view from the forest!

Included in our day was croc hunting!! 

Jess looking for crocs

'Yeaaah maybe we won't see any crocs today 'cause it's so hot. They'll all be hanging out under the bushes, playing on their iPhones, 'snap-chatting', you know..'

- Quote of our laid back boat operator/prime croc spotter. What a joker. 

If you look closely in the middle you can see the head of a croc! 

It was the most 'unchristmasy', yet probably one of the best, christmas times I've ever experienced. 

Christmas Day! 

There was no snow (fortunately Port Douglas hasn't jumped on board the rest of Austrlalia's ridiculous habit of putting fake snow and snowmen everywhere).  There was no cheesy christmas music. And there was no Christmas jumpers. Mum did have a Christmas T-Shirt, but she forgot to wear it so wore it boxing day. 

There was however a giant pool and cocktail bar, so I'm still not sure whether I was really happy or really sad. 

Jennie/Dad winning no crackers. Jess and I winning both hands. Normally Dad is the one winning everything and anything (games, quizes, races etc not sure how but it's a fact - he does. Well.. he DID.. I guess the tables have eventually turned!)

Barrier Reef

On our flight back to SYD, we saw the reef from a very different perspective! How incredible is this!

The last week of our holidays will be in another post because it's bedtime and I have a triathlon in the morning.. Wahoooo! 

I'll leave this photo of the pool that the boys and I spent the day at today. Look at the view. I love my job! 

LOCKWOODS' ROAD TRIP (Finally) !!

Hello everybody from here in the poshest suberb of the poshest city on the planet! I'm in Vaucluse. For those of you that don't know what Vaucluse looks like.. 

(This is not actually my house everybody, I didn't think that would be appropriate, people get kidnapped and stuff)

So, how have I (a lowly student always complaining about the price of things), managed this GOOD MOVE? I moved in with a lovely family to help look after their two gorgeous kids (2 and 4) in exchange for accommodation and cash, as I had unfortunately hit the negative dollars in my account.

More on my new job/posh lifestyle in another post.
This post is about the LOCKWOOD's road trip. Wahoo.

My family came out to visit me for a month because they love and miss me so much. Well, they did at the beginning of the month, it was a very different matter after they'd spent 4 weeks with me.

So, they arrived into Brisbane on the 14th Dec and I flew up to meet them. 

I'll take this chance to introduce them all.. 

This is Jason, youngest Lockwood.

He's grown about 3ft since I last saw him and now looks suspiciously like Justin Beiber. Strange things happen when you leave home! 

This is Mum, oldest Lockwood. Making friends with a lizard. 

Mum loves wildlife and babies. 

This is Jennie. Probably most normal/coolest Lockwood. 

This is Jess, weirdest Lockwood. Making friends with some Emus. 

This is Dad. Largest Lockwood. 

These pics are all from Brisbane Koala Sanctuary. Everyone is looking super fresh even the day after their 24 hour long flight. And.. I haven't included a photo of me. The reason? I was not so fresh. Why? Because these guys had upgraded themselves to posh class and slept the whole way on 'beds that even lie flat and have an Ipad at the end and you get free food all the time look I filled my hand luggage with it!' (quote of Jason), whilst I had slept on Christchurch Airport floor all night after booking a cheap 5am flight back from New Zealand and refusing to book into a hostel for a mere 6 hours. My own fault really, I shouldn't be so tight. 

After Brisbane we hired a GIANT bus-camper type thing and road tripped up to port Douglas.

One of Jason's underwater selfies

Ja's eyes were red quite a lot of the time. I thought it was caused by shear amount of fizzy pink lemonades he ordered every 12 minutes of so from the pool bar, which M + D were oblivious to until they paid the room tab at the end of the holiday. After looking through my camera though, it turns out that actually I think the blood-shotness was caused by all of these under water open eyes selfies.

SOME INTERESTING THINGS from the road trip:

Jess Ja and Dad sporting stinger suits

When the tribe were packing to go home I caught mum putting the featured 'stinger suits' into her already way overweight suitcase. I've no idea why she thinks she could possibly ever need the suits in England, where even if anyone did venture across the -4 degree, dog poo ridden beaches to the sea, the only thing of any danger to be found in there would be the occasional broken glass or floating needle. 

Jet-Ski tours!! 

A super clear and warm lagoon we found in the forest! 

A cute baby wallaby.

Paradise! 

Another cool underwater shot.

Jess and Ja diving into another lagoon.

A colony of Ants moving a grasshopper 300 times their size!

This photo is from Bundaberg turtle sanctuary. Since Bundaberg is a place on the east coast, and mum is a turtle fanatic, we HAD to go and see the turtles. Mum is also a bird fanatic, a plant fanatic, a beetle fanatic etc. Pretty much anything that grows or has babies amazes her. 

It was turtle 'egg laying' season. This meant that the turtles should emerge from the water anywhere between 7pm and 2am. Mum was obviously quite happy to stay and wait up until 2am, but luckily for the rest of us this lady turtle emerged at about 9pm. She laid 110 eggs which even amazed me, never mind about mum, who was almost in tears by the the whole occurrence. 

My lovely siblings in the Whitsundays

From the boat tour of the Whitsunday Islands

A little secluded Island we took a boat to

BBQ girls! 

We had 9 BBQs in 9 days.. No joke. 

A shot from Frazer Island.

After 9 days (which were incredibly stress free, given that all 6 of us lived in 1 camper!), we arrived in Port Douglas. 

I'm going to write about Port Douglas and Sydney tomorrow, because I'm lazy. 

I'll leave you with another of Jason's selfies..