Anzac Day

Ok, Anzac Day was really Sunday but Cyp and Ellis got Monday off (darn Monday holidays - there are a lot of Monday/Friday holidays, which are Ellis's day to go to "school" - he gets a holiday, we still have to pay).

Anyway - dad had taken back their rental car that morning - did I mention he was planning to wash it the day before until I told him he was crazy. I told him that if he really wanted to wash a car, he could wash ours. He didn't take me up on my offer.

So we had to go somewhere close by - mom mentioned that we could have a picnic at the Botanical Gardens - good idea. G & G spent a lot of times at the Bot gardens in Australia - I think they went to the Sydney Bot gardens three times including the morning of their departure so it seemed right that they should go to the Bot gardens on their last day in Brizzy.

We all ended up walking over so Rowan would nap on the way and he did - only problem was that his mom parked the stroller the wrong way on the hill so he tipped over and woke up as we were having our picnic lunch. Oops.

Cyp spent the rest of our lunch guarding the boys as they ran back and forth on the outdoor stage. Every time Rowan got near the edge, grandma (who was sitting next to me on the picnic blanket) would tense up - she was ready to jump up and run the 5o metres to catch him if he went barreling over the edge. Fortunately she didn't have to - Rowan may have more of a daredevil in him, but he's still not stupid. Phew - we had been watching Aussie 60 min the night before about some guy that jumps out of planes without wearing a parachute - his friends with parachutes catch him. He has broken every bone in his body at least once. I don't think Ellis or Rowan got that extreme thing in them.

After lunch we ran around the kids area of the gardens - they have things for the kids to find - it's really quite good. There were tons of other people there that day - seems like people like to go fo picnics here. It was nice - they just plunk a blanket down in the middle of the garden. You don't really see that so much in Vancouver.

We headed home and had another swim. Ellis was a little reluctant - it has gotten a lot more chilly. Rowan still loves it but that may be because of the warm bath afterwards. While in the bath, Ellis was his usual how come self and I got tired of thinking up answers and said "can we have a moratorium on the how comes." Ellis paused. "ok, I won't say how come anymore." I felt bad for a couple of minutes, but I don't think I squashed his spirit as the how comes resurfaced shortly.

We finally made it to the Regatta Hotel for dinner - dad was confused about the hotel part - he thought it actually was, but they use hotel to refer to pubs here. It's was made more confusing by the fact that it is a 4 level building- yup, 4 levels of bars. We had dinner in the Boatshed - it technically should be nice and it mostly was, but it is right on Coronation Drive (which is right on the river - kinda like those other backward cities that built highways along the water - Toronto, Chicago etc) so you had to shout over the traffic noise and mom could smell fumes. They had great loot bags to keep the kids entertained, but Ellis decided to use their toothpicks instead - he made food art.

After dinner, Ellis wanted to walk home with grandma and grandpa and we kept saying "get in the car Ellis" he just looked at us and ran to the sidewalk and started walking home without anyone. Sigh. I told G & G that they'd better catch up. I drove Cyp home and then came back and found them along the route - they had made it pretty far. Ellis is a determined one.

Final Day of Sightseeing

On Sunday we decided to go check out Hawthorne and Bulimba. I was thinking about all the places in Brizzy that we hadn't taken G & G to. Paddington, Chinatown, the Valley - amazing really. where does the time go?

Our plan was to do a quick walk through Bulimba and then head to Kangaroo Point for Fish and Chips for lunch. Ha - I keep forgetting I have kids that slow things down.

We headed out - got to Hawthorne and hopped out - there is a really good playground there. We then walked along the river (in the Blazing sun) to Bulimba - the next stop on the city cat line. Hawthorne and Bulimba are nice as they are right near the river and it is flat, but there is a lack of shade giving trees in this area - weird as if you look around, there are trees, but they are ineffective.

By the time we got to Bulimba it was 11:30 so the Kangaroo Point fish and chips idea went flying out the window. Bulimba is also nice as it has a cafe lined street (kinda unusual here). So we strolled up one side of the street (Grandpa kept going - "should we stop here? here? here?" every restaurant we passed) and Grandma and I kept saying "we want to look at them all." Of course this meant that we went into the last one we went by as we couldn't be bothered to go back to any of the ones we passed. It seems most places we stop to eat with G & G have very slow service. You think they would want us out of there. I was noticing another family near us - 4 boys - probably about 6 and under. The mom looked gorgeous and put together. The kids were well behaved and they seemed to be enjoying their lunch. How do they do it? Cyp gave Ellis his iphone to entertain him (he has a new etch a sketch application on it and when that got boring, he played a Dora video on it). Rowan is still pretty good at restaurants - he hasn't hit that "I'm two and can't sit still for more than 2 seconds phase yet." Phew. We all got our meals after about an hour (except Ellis - they forgot to put in his order). They put a rush on it which brought it out in about the time a normal meal would be served in Vancouver. They have the slow food concept down here.

After lunch we stopped at another playground on our walk back. Met a Nova Scotian mom who moved here 10 years ago - she heard us talking and said - "are you guys from BC?" she could detect our accent. She thought it was funny that her kids had an Aussie accents (they were born here) and we pointed out she did too, but she chose to ignore that comment. Grandma cannot understand Aussies when they speak - we have to translate.

We went home - had a chilly dip in our pool - perhaps the last one?

Last Weekend with G & G

On Friday I took Ellis to school and then I came home and tired Rowan out - first laundry (he runs around and throws the pegs under the fence), then swimming (it was nice and chilly - so he has to expend energy to keep warm), then lunch. I knew I had won when he fell asleep in his chair! I transfered him to bed and then did taxes all afternoon long. He slept for almost 4 hours!

G & G got back from their trip and we got Nandos for dinner. G & G had fun on their mini break - they got to go out and have leisurely dinners without having to say "get back in your chair Ellis." every minute. They walked through miles of rainforest as well - only drawback was the leeches and bloody socks...

On Saturday we decided to go to New Farm Market - so we took the city cat. Market was good, but we didn't buy much - ate some bad food (tasty but bad for you that is), wandered around New Farm and then headed home. Ellis slept the entire way and later on he asked me in a puzzled voice "Did we take the city cat home?"

Note picture above of Rowan and stick taken at New Farm Park. Rowan's favourite activity is throwing - sticks, rocks you name it. I have now started taking a ball to the park so that he throws that instead. He can also reach the top drawer in our bathroom and can open all the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen. I remember when Ellis started doing this and I freaked out and got Cyp to put safety locks on everything. Can't do that here and I don't think it really matters. Rowan is pretty good at shuffling the wine bottles around - I get a little anxious when he's moving the rum around, but so far so good.

We had planned on a picnic with Tanya and family. G. Doreen had expressed an interest in testing out the public barbecues - this interest seemed to dwindle a bit after we experienced the ineffective barbecues on our trip and also when she saw the barbecues at New Farm Park - essentially giant frying pans. We watched one group barbecue their snags (Aussie for sausages). They poured on one bottle of cooking oil, turned on the frying surface and then added their snags. Didn't look too appetizing.

There were also storm clouds a brewing. So at 2:30 I phoned Tanya to make contingency plans. Her husband Keith answered the phone and before she could probably stop him, he had offered up their house. Yay! We carted the snags over there and had a great dinner. I think mom and dad had a good time. The kids were saints - got along and didn't fight once. Tanya and Keith have a great yard - there always seems to be an abundance of birds and as dusk descends - bats. At one point, we could almost touch a bat that was hanging in a tree about a metre from their porch. These bats (or flying foxes as they are called) are large bats and if it weren't for the creepy wings, would be quite cute.

Rowan also liked their house as it appears to be on a bit of a flight path and planes are another of his favourites - Ehh?! He says as he points to the sky. If he's sad - just take him out on the porch.

Dad and Keith got along great - both being geologists - the kids seemed to entertain each other a bit so we could enjoy dinner. It was nice.

Mini Break

So Grandma and Grandpa took a mini vacation from us.

"how come?"

"because they wanted to see a bit more of Australia and we've already seen it."

"how come?"

it goes on and on.

Anyway G & G left on Wednesday morning for Mt. Tamborine and environs. Ellis, Rowan and I had to get to swimming on our own! I've made our lesson a bit earlier this term in the hope that Rowan won't fall asleep on the way there. Of course he did. Darn!

He wasn't down long though so he didn't seem to put out with being pulled out of his car seat into the pouring rain.

It turns out both kids had private swim lessons - not sure if Ellis will always have the teacher to himself, but Rowan and I were the only ones enrolled in the baby class on that day. I got quite the workout motoring him around the pool, dragging him to the various toys so he could gather him, diving him for rings, etc. His teacher was super impressed with him and said "most babies can't do that." He knows the pool now too and feels comfortable so was a bit of a charmer. When I looked over at Ellis, he was busy kicking himself back and forth across the pool. I cannot believe how much he loves the pool now.

Thursday we didn't do much - by the afternoon I felt rather guilty so dragged the kids to a playground - oh first we wrote a letter to G. Anita and then Ellis directed me in the car to the mailbox. "Turn right at the end of the street." "Turn left" "Turn right" "Turn right"

Amazing - he can find his way around the neighbourhood better than his dad now. He also knows his left from right.

We found a good playground with a globe where I showed Ellis Australia and Canada. I still don't think he quite gets it. I found a golf ball that he then chased around a basketball court. It drove Rowan crazy!

Blog Free Week

So I finally finished our taxes. They are going home on the plane with mom and dad - hooray! That means that I can spend my free time blogging again and doing stuff that is slightly interesting to blog about. Taxes were not. The sad thing is, I think I did my taxes wrong. Oh well - I have bit of a reprieve before I have to start in our our Aussie taxes. The annoying thing is, Australia - in all ways Australian - has a tax year that runs from July 1 to June 30th. How dumb is that!

I posted a couple of pics to make the post interesting. That's Ellis getting the mail - it's one of the highlights of our slow days. It was more exciting on this day as he pants kept falling down. Getting the mail with an added challenge thrown in.

Anyway - Monday taxes, Tuesday taxes - mom and dad took Ellis to the Goma on Tuesday (exhibit was gone!) and it poured rain. They had to hide out in a bus shelter on the way home. I worried a bit about them, but decided that they were smart enough to find shelter and they were.

The other highlight of the day was vegetable box day. I like getting our veggie box. It seems to stress out grandma (what to do with more greens!) but with the days cooling down, we are actually getting better produce. It's the start of avo season and lettuce can be grown again. Hooray. We also got dragon fruit (boring and tasteless) and cute little japanese eggplants which I hid in tonight's yummy spaghetti sauce. Cyp said he liked it!

UQ Centenary

No blogs lately as I've had to devote all my free time to taxes. I don't have all that much free time as if Rowan is awake - he chases me around and around. He's getting fast too. If I try to sit down with the computer, he comes along and bangs on it. Most annoying.

We came back home on Saturday - a six hour drive from the town of 1770 - we had to come home as Cyp had to help out at the University of Queensland Centenary celebration.

He headed off early on Sunday morning and we slowly got ready and headed out ourselves. True to form - we got there right at lunch time.

We hit the German Haus for some bratwurst and also tried the latest in Japanese fast food - yet to arrive in Canada - rice wrapped in think slices of salty pork. Cyp has decided he wants to open the first Cdn franchise. I'm not so sure - it was better than the hotdog but...

After eating we kinda wondered what we could do next. There were lots of tours happening, but none of them seemed that exciting for a three year old.

So we decided to try the treasure hunt that was created by Cyp's group. We got a list of clues, a map and Cyp helped me download Enigma - a QR reader (whatever the heck that is) to my iphone. We then set off to find QR codes - they look kinda like those magic eye pictures that you stare at for a while and then see something 3D. I've never been able to see the 3D. Anyway - we found one (the librarian in the law library told us where it was - dad figured out we had to go to the law library from our list of clues). I scanned the QR code with my phone (i.e. took a picture) and up popped some questions that we couldn't answer. Ok - next. We found the next QR code but after that did not have much luck. Instead of using the list of clues to find the codes, we wandered from building to building trying to spot the black and white pictures. We wandered through a party in the geology building, through the bowels of the mathematics building, through the physics building. No luck. We were getting a good feel of being lost university students though. It took me back.

As the kids were nearing meltdown, we found a couple of more codes in the Anthropology and Antiquities museum. The codes led to more questions that we had to find the answers to in the museum. Yah - that's not going to work. Ellis was clearly done for the day.

We left, came across some black stilt bugs (which struck both Ellis and Rowan dumb) and then went to tell Cyp we were leaving.

Later on he told us that only 5 people had managed to hand in the answers to the treasure hunt and only one person got the right answers. I guess that person is the winner of the Ipod Touch?

We were ineligible anyway being related to one of the creators and all.

On the Road Again

On Saturday we packed up and were out the door by... 9:30. It was a fairly leisurely packup as it seems we all wake up at 6 am regardless of what time we go to sleep.

After I backed out of the driveway, Cyp got to drive straight out of the Town of 1770. Bye Town (named that because it is the first spot that James Cook landed in Australia in 1770). It wasn't much of a town - I liked it though. Better than the boat that is for sure.

We got to see what the area we had driven through in the dark looked like - farmy. We also got to listen to "They Might be Giants - here come the ABCs" over and over and over. Ellis has inherited his dad's ability to kill music for me. Radiohead, Coldplay and now They Might Be Giants. Unfortunately, Ellis beats Cyp at this game because if I try to turn it off, he makes me more miserable than if I just sit there and listen.

"I want the ABCs!" "I want the ABCs" "I don't want to listen to adult music!" "It's my turn!"

No matter how much I try to convince him it's my turn to listen to music, he just says "how come?" over and over and over. So I give in. E eats everything, do do da do do do.

Rowan copes by passing out.

We drove for about 3 hours and decided it was time to stop for lunch. We pulled into a gas station - it had a playground. "I want to play there" says Ellis.

"Ah come on - we'll go find a nice park."

So we pile back into the car and drive 5 km down to Maryborough where we have to stay in the car due to flash flood conditions - we park next to G. & G. and roll down our windows to get our sandwiches from them.

"Sorry Ellis - I should have let you play in the gas station playground."

"What?"(Ellis unable to hear me due to deafening rain - I thought rainy season was over)

We continue on and fortunately it is not raining in Gympie. We pull over and find a great park (it has bikes on tracks like Perrin park near our house). Grandpa and Grandpa must try them out. They almost get lapped by Cyp and Ellis.

Upon departing Gympie I note that John says we will get home at 4:54. As we hit the outskirts of Brisbane it is about 3:54. I do everything in my power to get home by 4:54.

"Trying to lose us?" ask G & G as we get home.

"no - just didn't want to make a liar out of John."

The Great Barfier Reef

We had to get up earlier to get to the Great Barrier Reef. The boat left at 8 am. Being me, I packed way too much but I wanted to be prepared as we were going to be stuck on a boat and or pontoon for an entire day. I couldn't quite grasp what it would be like.

As we were unloading the car I was doing the debate - take Bob or green stroller? Hmm. I decided to take Bob as I thought we might be able to use it to walk on the island. I think all the other tourists thought that I was nuts. We also had Rowan's float ring and bags and bags of emergency supplies - food, diapers, drugs. One of the crew asked Cyp as he got on the boat - "Where's the push bike?"

We were near the front of the line getting on and dad debated where to sit - upstairs and outside on the boat (it was a large catamaran that seated about 135) or downstairs and upfront. He picked the front three rows - he and mom sat in the very front, Rowan and I were next and then Cyp and Ellis were in the third row. It kinda resembled being on a plane.

The skipper then came to the front to give a little spiel. They were expecting 15 to 20 knot winds that day which could mean 2 metre waves. Some of us would get sick. Some of us would think we were on an 1.5 hour rollercoaster at a theme park. I should have started to worry at that point. He then passed the mike over to the crew who led us through a safety demonstration - the main focus of which were the barf bags located in the seat pocket in the front of our seats. Uh oh. Good thing I gave Ellis that motion sickness tablet.

By this point we were motoring out of the bay and we hit the first waves. OMG. I don't think Tracey reads my blog, but if she does - a good way to describe it is to remember when we went out in the little boat on the Fraser and thought we were going to die. Repeat for 2 hours. Ellis moved up to sit with me and I handed Rowan back to Cyp - after we had done that initial shuffle we could not move again as it was too rough. We had been warned that the front seats would be second worst (the worst being upstairs and outside) to be in. One of the crew members came up to keep an eye on us. He was watching Ellis - he started to move, but was too late - Ellis barfed all over himself and me. I couldn't do anything - I was trying to keep myself from barfing.

At this point all I kept thinking - it's only been 15 minutes - they don't turn the boat around with 135 people that have paid $165 each for the day. Ellis was sprawled in his seat - a horrible shade of blue/green. Cyp was barely coping behind me with Rowan. We passed through a gale - the crew member ran up to shut the door and after that it was all over - the smell of vomit hit the tough german guy sitting in the front across the aisle from mom and dad. He started vomiting. I started vomiting - Cyp was throwing up behind me and so was Rowan.

All I could do was keep one hand on Ellis so he didn't go flying out of his seat and raise one hand to signal a crew person to bring their little bottle of pink spray to wash us down repeatedly. We were a very high maintenance family. One crew member had to hold Rowan for about half the trip and Cyp was busy upchucking. All I kept thinking was "how much longer?" It was kinda like being in labour. I'm not sure I will ever get on a boat again.

We finally made it to the island and the boat mercifully stopped. Unfortunately, I didn't stop barfing. We got out onto the pontoon and the skipper told us we would feel better as soon as we got onto land (the pontoon swayed a little). I took one look at the little boats that would ferry us to the island and thought - uh uh, no way. The skipper assured us we would be ok on the little boat trip.

Dad started grilling him about the trip over - how bad was it really. Pretty bad - they had turned back two days previously, but today he decided that he had already made the majority of people sick as dogs, so he might as well keep going. I still could not believe that I felt so sick even though we had stopped moving.

We complained about how I had specifically asked about bringing small kids on the trip - It was awful seeing Ellis and Rowan continuously barf, but the crew said - "don't worry about the kids - they are springy" and she was right - almost as soon as we were tied onto the pontoon, the kids were fine and happy. Cyp and I could barely hold onto a mug of tea.

After about 20 minutes and a few crackers, we managed to get onto a small boat and get ferried to the island. I did start to feel better.

We walked around the island learning about the naughty terns and the tree that they feed on - the Pisonia (easy to remember as Piss on ya). The birds have a weird relationship with the trees - the birds nest in the trees and the trees produce a sticky fruit that contains barbs. The barbs get into the birds feathers and the bird dies - the dead birds nourish the trees. The trees act as sort of a population control of the birds - I think the guide mentioned that there may be 40,000 nests in a year and that 20,000 birds will die. The other weird thing about the island was that it was not sand we were standing on - it was dead coral.

We headed back to the pontoon and had lunch and then mom and dad went snorkling. They came in and Cyp and I had a turn. It was the best snorkeling I have ever seen, but I was cold and still did not feel great so did not stay in very long. Ellis managed to come in briefly which was exciting. They feed the fish off the boat, so jumping in, you have to swim through all these rather large fish.

After that I got out and everyone else stayed in. Ellis, Rowan and I hopped onto another glass bottom boat and saw lots of turtles.

Too soon, it was time to head back - they kept telling us we wouldn't get sick on the way home as it was a following sea and they were right (although it could have been the motion sickness tablets we all gulped down). I was still tense though - the waves were big. The woman behind me was sick the entire way back. Rowan thankfully slept.

When we pulled into the dock, the sense of relief and comraderie was strong. It was one of those shared hellish experiences that brings everyone together. It was also like labour in another way - I have forgotten what it was like already. All I know is that I will remember - 15 to 20 knots is not for me. 2 metre waves are huge!

The other thing I will remember is to not pack so much stuff - we could not use stroller or floaty ring.