Happy New Year! 2019

Lights at mums

Happy New Year my Internet friends! Man, I think 2018 just, like, tried to kill me. Lol Is anyone with me on this? It was tough. There were many changes and challenges and I hope 2019 will go a bit easier on me. The kids finished up school a week earlier than the public schools so they had to fend for themselves for a few days at home.

Christmas was lovely and finally the hot summer kicked in down here. I mean we had above 30 degrees Celsius most of the time. We had a few storms and a few areas had power outages which lasted a few days! I don't think I could survive a power outage. So much food though. The weight that I lost at the end of the year came back and found me! Ha ha ha.

We took the kids to midnight mass. Hubby is really getting into all things catholic. It actually starts at 11pm but we got there by 10.30pm for seating. The kids did so well considering how late it was and waiting for mass to start. At least they got to sleep in on Christmas morning. They get to open a present each, we don't go overboard as they know Christmas is about Jesus. Plus, they know they are spoilt for choice when it comes to presents and they don't ask for much at all.

I took the kids to Coogee beach. Not really sure why as I was searching up on good family friendly beaches. We got there around 11.15am and miraculously got parking as some guy was coming back from his run and moved his car from the hill. I am sure that everyone else had to suffer a few rounds of driving just to get parking on this hot day.

I will say that my drink trolley was very handy. We could just roll it everywhere with us and keep cold water bottles and soft drink with ice bricks in it. The waves were pretty big at Coogee and I lost my hat in the surf. When I say lost, I mean it came off during a big wave, I looked for it in the water and saw that some guy ahead of us had it pop up in front of him like a present from the ocean. He was with a two other friends. I was going to get it but he was further up and I thought he lost it in another wave but when as he was leaving I saw him tucking it down into his shorts. There was no way I was going to ask him for my new hat back but I was pretty bummed that afternoon. If you see a guy with a white nike (silver logo) it may be it. He already had another dark hat with him that day.

Anyway, to get away from the waves I thought we might try the controversial "women's only" pools there. It's called McIver's Ladies baths and it use to be free but now it's a $2 fee. So I had to pay for my kids as well. Boy, was it not worth my time. We waited 15mins in the line just to get in, once we got in there were ladies laying down everywhere and the water was ice cold. Also, since it's private and for women only there were some bare naked ladies, which made my son was very uncomfortable so we stayed for about 10mins and then left. I totally do not recommend it. Really, unless you like that kind of stuff. There was nowhere to sit and hang out either.

My sister asked if we wanted to go to Cronulla beach but I said the waves were too high. Plus, we went to the local pools the day before. The Friday though I said why not try Bundeena. It's in the Royal National Park, Audley. I read that it was a nice quiet beach and thought it's gotta be better than Coogee. We all met up at mums and decided we would just meet each other there since we all have gps. I had to get my kids some breakfast on the way anyway so about an hour later we made it. We parked in the nearby streets and I had no idea what to expect. We rolled down together with my trolley and our assorted beach stuff and found the beach, Jibbon beach to be exact.

The sand was hot but soft and there was a bit of seaweed in places. We found a spot to put up our tents for shade and got ready to enjoy the beach. Gosh I love these tents. They are roomy, easy to put up and pack away. I got mine first from Big W and then my sister got one for mum too (the right one). That's mum in my tent (left) and my other sister in the other. I had to move mine around in the afternoon for maximum shade. We also had a beach umbrella and my sand free mat. It's pretty cool. I got it from Wish. You can actually sit on it and then when you shake it, all the sand falls through so you don't carry the beach home with you. 

The only downside to Jibbon beach is no toilets are nearby. You have to walk over to Horderns beach (another popular family beach) for them. It's about a 6ish minutes walk and I'm sure my head got sunburnt from walking there and back because Miss 9 doesn't want to go in the bushes.

We used up the last Hello Fresh meal we received from subscribing. You can get a free trial if you know someone who has a voucher to mail it to you. This is the lovely jacket potatoes. So good. My eldest daughter has been taking an interest in cooking since we were getting the meal packages. The food is actually very yummy but doesn't feed my family of 6, hence we stopped getting it. Plus it's expensive too.

So I'm back at work now but we'll be going on a Royal Carribean south pacific cruise on the 24th Jan for 8 nights. I cannot wait!!! I was a bit worried that we'd be 'holidayed' out by then but I doubt it. It's a new adventure for us and the kids will hopefully have a blast. I heard there's so much food so I'm a bit scared about eating and putting on even more kilos but I think if I be smart about it I'll eat within a range which doesn't require my husband rolling me out of the dining hall.

If you have any cruise tips I'd love to hear about it.

Oh, 2019 is going to be my SWEAT year! I signed up to Kayla's SWEAT app and I'm finding it very useful as I can do the workouts at home and at the gym. I find the best place to workout at home is not the lounge, it's in my bedroom. There's my radio, air-con and my K-mart bench seat! It's awesome.Time for me to shine!