Holiday

We spent the Labour Day long weekend in South Gippsland. DeepSpice also took the Tuesday off work, so we got to have 4 days away. It was lovely to get out of the city and smell that fresh country/coastal air.

We stayed at Bear Gully Coastal Cottages at Walkerville South -- a beautiful place to be! The accommodation was quite comfy (although the mattress on our bed was rather firm) and we had the most marvellous views across the sea.

BallFiend enjoyed having his parents all to himself for days on end. He also enjoyed playing with the Boules (Petanque) set that the hosts supplied and watching kids from a neighbouring cottage fly kites. BallFiend also got to enjoy classic holiday treats such as Milo (described as "not your-lo, my-lo"), Dixie cup vanilla ice-cream and deep-fried disasters such as potato cakes, dim sims and calamari rings. Another highlight was "playing" a round of minigolf at Sandy Point... BallFiend got his own teeny-tiny putter and a yellow golf ball. Of course he didn't really play by the rules, preferring to roll/throw the ball towards the hole rather than use the putter, but he had fun and didn't even chuck a tantrum when it was time to return the ball and putter at the end.

We spent much of our time checking out the local beaches - first the one that we could walk to from our cottage, and over the next two days, a beach within the Cape Liptrap coastal park, the beach at Sandy Point and the beach rocks at Walkerville. We also visited the lighthouse at Cape Liptrap. BallFiend was unusually camera-shy at first, but settled down once we sat down to our picnic lunch.

DeepSpice made sandcastles for BallFiend, which BallFiend promptly kicked, stomped upon or sat on. After jumping on the first sandcastle, BallFiend declared that these shall hereforth be called "jumping castles".
A variation on a theme: making a sandcastle into a head/face. DeepSpice put most of the creation together, then BallFiend stuck some shells for ears on either side of the eyes. We were very impressed!

The drive home became a very, very long drive home when an over-tired BallFiend threw his (white) dummy away and then demanded it back. The offer of a yellow dummy replacement was not good enough and a tantrum ensued, lasting over an hour before we finally gave in and stopped (at Cranbourne!) to hunt for the white dummy. Alas it was not to be found, but fortunately a different white dummy from the nappy bag was begrudgingly accepted, and BallFiend fell asleep within a few minutes of us driving on our way, murmuring 'want the white dummy' as he drifted off. DeepSpice found the missing white dummy the next day in the car, under BallFiend's car restraint!