Coughs @ Coffs

Ben made his first trip up North to visit his Uncle Matt and Robbie Pop on the weekend. Despite the fact that Ben has been suffering from his first cold he enjoyed the trip very much. We arrived late Friday night and said a quick hello to Uncle Matt, before Mum was whisked away to his place. Matt, Ben and I stayed at Robbie Pop's. Unfortunately SongXin was away in China so we didn't get to catch up with her, but we had a lot of fun with everyone else. On Sat we went down town to check out Uncle Matt's new shop. Matt is a jeweller and had been sharing a shop with a local clock repair business. But he outgrew this and has now moved into a much bigger place. It was very exciting. I was roolly proud of my little brother in his sparkling shop. The place was absolutely buzzing. Michelle (brother's girlfriend) has been roped in to help out and, as you can see from the photos above, Dad was busy behind the counter as well.

Because it was so busy we decided to check out some of the other shops in Coffs. Of course Mum made a bee-line to an 'educational' toy shop and went crazy. Amongst other things, she bought Ben his first cup - it's got his name on it (just in case any of his little mates try and get their hands on it).

That night we kicked back at Dad's place and had some yummy wine from the stash of Viotollo that brother's been keeping for a special occasion. Ben entertained us all by rolling over a few times and enjoyed hanging out with the gang. The shots above were taken in the afternoon and night.


On Sunday morning we cruised on down to Sawtell surf club for a late breakfast. It was the most stunning weather and the food was delicious. It was a great weekend, full of highlights. It was particularly nice to get to know Cody and Charlie (Michelle's children) a little better. Cody is 7 and is such a polite and sweet kid... also he was great with Ben. Charlie is 3 and is a real little mop-topped-pocket-rocket. She's also great with dogs, so much so that she decided to share her much anticipated strawberry milkshake with a friendly dog she met near the cafe.

Other highlights of the weekend included:

Ben taking possession of his first pair of sunglasses ..............

................................and his first reversible hat, Mummy taking possession of a bargain priced pair of knee high boots, and Mummy expressing 340mL at one expression session!