Wiggle Time!

Parking:                              $10
Tickets for family of 4:        $135
Dinosaur tail, feather sword, popcorn and drinks:      $59
Look on Alex and Ellie’s face when they saw the
actual Wiggles drive out on stage in the Big Red Car: $  Priceless

For more than five years we have lived in the cultural hinterlands. Not many bands, shows or other events came through Muscat or the Caymans. (The only shows we have seen are school shows where I teach.) Ever since Alex first started wiggling before he could walk, we dreamed about how cool it would be to take him to the Wiggles. They were never anywhere near us when we visited England or the States. I think one of the first things Emma did when she got here back in June was to buy tickets for all of us to see the Wiggles. Saturday morning at about 0930 we were sitting in a long line of traffic waiting to get into the Brisbane Entertainment Centre. The kids loved the show, but I think Emma and I did more singing and dancing than they did. It is hard to not know all the words after years of watching the Wiggles on TV!

It was a busy weekend of entertainment which was cut short by all the rain and storms we have been having. On Friday afternoon the kids had their Christmas concert at their school. They performed two songs they have been practicing for weeks now. They remembered all the words to “Catch a falling star” and their favorite; “Rudolph”. When Santa came in Alex was the very first kid to run up to Santa and give him a hug. Ellie, as usual, was so terrified she was in tears and couldn’t even look. Santa had presents for all the kids but as we were heading home Alex was checking out the roof wondering where the sleigh and reindeer were hiding. That night Emma had her work party at the showgrounds. They had lots of the fair games and food open for an unusual office party. She came home with bags of candy floss (cotton candy) and other toys and snacks.

Saturday morning we were off to the Wiggles. Saturday night we had the Swarts in to babysit. The kids had been excited for days that Cian and Niamh were coming over for a sleepover. It is easy to forget how quirky and bizarre your own kids are. While we were out they had some misunderstanding with the bath. Alex believes he has discovered that salt water doesn’t make any cuts he may have hurt.  To prevent bath-time wars, we get the salt shaker out and pretend to shake the salt into the tub. With the top on, no salt goes in the bath. The kids don’t notice and are happy. You forget that this might seem strange to outsiders. As they were getting the kids in the bath, Alex and Ellie started explaining how they always have salt in their bath. After a long search they found the salt in the kitchen and actually added salt to the bath. No harm, but we forget how weird that may seem to the outside world. Ellie knows what she wants and is not afraid to dictate her demands. Her bedtime diktat is “milk, in Tigger Pooh cup, warmed up”. Once again there are a raft of unspoken details that go with fulfilling this order. They did finally piece together enough to satisfy Ellie and get her off to bed.

With the kids in safe and fun hands, Emma and I were off to our first real show since we lived in London. It has been so long I can’t remember whether our last show was either Erasure or the Finn Brothers, back in a place where we could go see all types of shows anytime. Five years wait was worth it as we went into town to see the Hoodoo Gurus at the Hi Fi Bar. I last saw them in 1992 in Perth. They were great back then and we had a blast this time. The Gurus have just finished up a world tour over the last year and were still full of energy. “The Break” opened up for them. They are made up of three members of Midnight Oil and the bassist from “Violent Femmes” They play instrumental surf music. They were a good warm up and very interesting. The whole building was shaking to the Gurus and even the next morning my ears were still ringing. We really enjoyed the chance to get out and do something. We are feeling so spoiled with all the choices for culture we have a drawer full of tickets already for the next few months. The next day we had tickets to see the Pretenders and Blondie at Sirromet Winery, but because of all the rain we have had, and more predicted for Sunday afternoon, the show was cancelled. It might have been for the best as we were quite worn out by Sunday afternoon. Lots more concerts to see and plenty of time.

On Tuesday, Dec 21, I will be driving down to Sydney again with the kids. We will do the 1000km trip again in one day. Emma will be flying down on the 23d to join us. We will be at the Creech’s for a week over Christmas. On our way back home we will stop for a few days holiday in the Coff’s Harbour area for some family relaxing at the beach. Hopefully we will be home on Jan 3.  We hope everyone has a great Christmas, Boxing Day and New Years. We have enjoyed all the Christmas cards we have received and look forward to catching up again in 2011.

xmas train

Alex and Ellie with their new Christmas train. Of Course, Uncle Brad was the inspiration last year at Christmas with his Christmas tree train.

Straddie

We have been keeping busy the last couple months enjoying Brisbane. Although Halloween is not a big event down under yet, it is growing. We went to a Halloween party at Aunty Kat’s house for a great BBQ with lots of decorations. The kids both went dressed as Pirates, they still love their pirate heritage from the Caymans. Instead of trick-or-treating, Kat’s partner Ben hid candy in the yard and the kids went on a treasure candy hunt and found most of the candy before the dogs could find it! The next night, Halloween night, we went to a Halloween party at a Kindergarden that was organized by an American friend. There was lots of Halloween music, face painting, bouncy castle and lots of other fun games and crafts and everyone. Emma and some friends went on a cemetery ghost tour on the Friday night and learned lots about the local area although they didn’t see any ghosts.

The kids are enjoying school and their weekly swimming lessons. Alex is a fish and making great progress. Ellie enjoys being in the pool but is not as keen on doing what other people want her to do. We have tried to explain that is how she will get better but she prefer to do what she wants! She takes part in some of the class activities and is slowly making progress. The better news is the kids are slowly getting used to colder water and are spending more and more time playing in the other pools around even though it is not bathwater warm like their lesson pool. Yesterday Alex’s kindy class had its end of year ceremony. Most of the kids in his class will be going to big kid school in January when the school year here starts. Alex still has one more year before he goes to big kid school. Based on the date cut off here, Alex and Ellie will both be in the same school year when they start big kid school in Jan, 2012. Most of the boys in Alex’s class said they wanted to be superheros when they grow up, there were a couple pilots and Alex did his lttle presentation with his train and said he wanted to be a train driver when he grows up. He rotates between train driver, bus driver and rock star when you ask him what he wants to be. Almost all the girls in Alex’s class wanted to be ballerinas, while the remaining two wanted to be mermaids. In Jan Ellie will move up and join Alex in his class.  

In Nov, Emma’s mum Julie came for a two week visit. The kids loved spending time with nana and had her suitcases open looking for their loot before we could even get them in the door. We had lots of dinners with Tonks’ family friends. There are a lot of family friends in the area and it was nice to have lots of time to catch up, reminisce, and meet all these people I have heard about. The Swarts live not too far away here in Brisbane. Alex and Ellie adore spending time with their kids Niamh (13) and Cian (11?). They just love playing with the big kids and are always asking to have them over. They will be coming to babysit for us this weekend and the kids are really looking forward to it.  We all went with Julie to Niamh’s primary school to see her as Willy Wonka in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”  Alex and Ellie kept waving at Niamh and were very well behaved at their first live show.

While Julie was here we all went on a little three day holiday to Straddie (North Stradbroke Island). The kids thought it was great that we could drive our car onto the ferry to get to the island. They were excited to get out of the car and climb up to the cafe and lookout as we made the 40 min crossing. We had an amazing apartment on the north-east coast in Point Lookout. We stayed at the Whale Watch Resort. The apartment was up on the cliffs and we had a spectacular view down to the beach and south along 18 mile beach. (We thought seven mile beach in Cayman was a big beach) We will have to go back again with a 4-wheel-drive vehicle so we can go drive down and explore 18 mile beach. We could walk into the little town of Point Lookout to have a bite to eat and enjoy the views from there. The surf was quite big on that side of the island so the kids didn’t get a chance to try out their new boogie boards in the ocean. They still had a blast playing on the beach and swimming in the pool. On the last day before leaving we went to Brown Lake. It is a beautiful lake and the kids had a blast swimming in the lake. It reminded us of our Little Sand Lake with the reeds all around the edge and the peace and quiet.  We had another exciting ferry ride back to the mainland.

On the weekends we have lots to explore. We have found a lovely beach down on the Gold Coast on Currumbin Creek. This past Sunday we went to the Ginger Factory up on the Sunshine Coast. We went primarily to see Santa’s Workshop and the puppet display. The kids loved the puppet display, not quite as amazing as the Santa’s Workshop display we saw in Minneapolis last Christmas, but very nice. Alex did his best good-boy smile and had his picture taken with Santa. Ellie is still terrified of Santa and even refuses to look at Santa. We then had a nice lunch in the cafe and went on the cane train through the factory grounds. The kids love any train and really enjoyed it. The wet season is in full swing here and it rained all weekend. Fortunately we didn’t let the rain interfere with our Christmas outing and we even managed to stay relatively dry on the train ride in the open-sided carriages.

The house is all decorated and surprisingly, we may have the best outside light display on the street! The kids are so excited. They have written their letters to Santa and we delivered them to him at the Ginger Factory. Alex delivered Ellie’s as she refused to go near Santa. Some of the items on Alex’s list were a train that carries cars, a truck that carries cars, and an airplane that carries cars, people and aliens! It warms my heart that the kids enjoy the old classic Christmas shows. Gumby and Pokey Christmas DVD, Rudolph, Frosty, and O Christmas Tree play almost non-stop now. Perhaps the best holiday news is I have the last piece of paper needed to get my visa so hopefully I will have the visa before the end of Jan as the Australian embassy in DC is closed until the end of Dec.

Sydney road trip

A couple weeks ago we decided to head down to Sydney to see friends and family, some we haven’t seen since we were last in Sydney six years ago and some who visited us while we were in Oman.  Emma couldn’t take many days off from work so I drove down on my own with the kids. Early Wednesday morning, we packed up the van, made sure we had lots of DVD’s and headed out. Our trusty GPS assured us it was 1000 km (620m) to the Creech’s house in Sydney. We had a wonderful drive down the Coastal Highway and the kids were very good. Despite the name of the road, you only get about two small glimpses of the ocean. It is a really pretty drive and the kids were kept very entertained by their DVD’s. With wireless headphones for them, I can listen to what I like and we are all happy. We made a few stops for fuel, food, toilet, and to change the DVD. As we went through Coff’s Harbour, Alex was asleep and Ellie was engrosed in her DVD so she paid no notice when I tried to point out the large banana and decided there was no point in stopping this time.  Am sure this won’t be the last time we do the drive.  Our total trip was 14 hours and we pulled into the Creech’s just in time for a snack and bedtime.

On Thursday, the kids and I took the Rivercat ferry into Sydney and then the slow ferry out to Manly.  The kids love riding on big boats and enjoyed the gorgeous views all along the way. We had a lovely picnic lunch by the beach then walked around to Shelly beach where the kids had fun playing and running in the sand. It was another fun couple of ferry trips back home. Emma flew in on Thursday evening after she had finished work.

Friday we met up with Emma’s good friend Renee, who had visited us in Oman, and her kids Will and baby Emma and went to Taronga Zoo. I had never been before and we had a fabulous time. The zoo is on a steep hill across the harbour from Sydney. As you walk around and look at the animals you have spectacular views of Sydney Harbour in the background. The kids loved the elephants, giraffes, gorillas and many of the other animals. Once again they loved seeing the snakes and even got to touch a snake for the first time. The seal show was a lot of fun and watching the seals and penguins swimming around was a huge hit. When we got to the bottom of the hill we rode the cable car back to the top. This was the kids first ride in a cable car and they loved being able to see all the animals from above as well as the views of the harbour!

Saturday was more relaxing as we had a big BBQ at the Creech’s. We got to see the rest of the clan, Mrs J, Uncle Daryl and Aunty Lynn for the first time in six years. We had lovely warm weather and enjoyed a lovely BBQ, lots of catching up and chasing the soccer ball in the backyard with Alex and Ellie.

Sunday morning we stopped by to visit a friend and former colleague of Emma’s from Oman for a quick tea then off to Renee’s for a huge brunch. The kids had fun playing with Will and baby Emma and all their toys and trampoline, while us grown ups had a few minutes of peace to chat. Renee’s aunty Sue was there and we hadn’t seen her since she was in Oman with Renee visiting us.  Ironicaly Renee had to head up to Brisbane for work so we headed off the Bronte Beach with Aunty Sue, Will, and baby Emma.  Alex and Will spent the afternoon chasing the waves and Ellie found a friend and enjoyed digging in the sand. The surf was really pounding and it was rad watching the surfers riding the huge overhead waves.  Alex tells us he wants to be a surfer boy.

Monday morning we headed back into the city on the RiverCat.  Since our trip to Disney World in March Alex has been obsessed with monorail trains. Fortunately Sydney has a monorail so we couldn’t pass up a chance to ride another one. Then we went to the Sydney Aquarium.  Ellie was too scared to have her picture taken in the fake shark mouth at the entrance, but as we walked through the first few exhibits all she wanted to know was where the sharks were. She was running as we got to the shark tanks and they both thought the sharks were awesome! There were some huge ones.  The kids enjoyed the ferry ride home once again. Emma had to fly out Monday night, no time to drive back up with us!

Early Tuesday morning I headed out with the van packed and the kids as we headed home. The plan was to take our time and do the return trip north in two days. We headed inland and drove up Bucketts Way, Thunderbolts Way and the New England Highway. The scenery was even more spectacular than the drive down. Much of the way we were in the mountains at over 1000m elevation. The kids were really good again. We found a nice motel in Glen Innes. Staying in a little motel may have been the highlight of the trip for the kids. It still amazes me what things they get excited about. We were just a block from downtown so wandered through town and stopped awhile in the wonderful park by the river. We grabbed some pizza for dinner then had an early bedtime.

We headed out early Wednesday morning and went off road into the bush in search of Emmaville. Most people know of the famous Emmaville, Minnesota, not far from where my parents live, so of course we had to check out how the Australian version compares. It is actually much larger then Emmaville, Minnesota. The scenery as we drove on the very bumpy dirt road through several small towns and lots of farms was fabulous. I did get a bit nervous wondering if we were on the correct road as the trusty GPS was no help and I had no phone coverage. We were on the correct road, drove through several more small towns and then came back out on the New England Highway just where I hoped we would. We had an uneventful drive the rest of the way home with lots more pretty scenery as we drove through wine country and some more mountains.

It was a classic road trip and we got to see lots of the country between here and Sydney . It was really good to see so many friends again that we haven’t seen in a long time. The kids proved they are game for big road trips as long as we have enough DVD’s and don’t run out of batteries for the headphones. Australia is a big place so we have lots of road trips planned.