From Oz to You: October 2010

Saturday, October 30, 2010

A fascinating fascinator tale

So many of me........our choir, Cool Harmonies, is making a calendar this year. No one else in my section was available the day we did the photo shoot, "stepping out with the sopranos" so I volunteered to do all the costume changes. I have a harder time singing all the parts however. One of these lovelies actually IS me, can you tell which one? Hint: I am not the one in the lower right corner letting a bit much of her middle aged upper body hang out.

Friends and Fam

A few nights ago was Tom's birthday dinner. We gathered at an Indian restaurant to toast the big 55.Tom noted the significance of this year, as he was born in 55. All his previous birthdays have been celebrated at a time of year when the nights are getting longer and colder, but here it's warming up daily. I can see the advantages for Halloween; those little ones dressed as princesses can skip the thick tights and coats over the costume. Our Aussie friends tell us Halloween is gaining momentum every year.......a sign in front of the chemist attested to this, "Save $ on Halloween fragrances." The other day I saw a nipper dressed in a jaws costume. Mel and her friends are planning to dress up Sunday night and hit the streets, but she has been cautioned that it is entirely possible when they knock on doors they will receive quizzical looks and not candy.

the dome above the shot factory

Mel embracing modern art

Recently we spent a weekend in Melbourne visiting a couple of Tom's friends from his sailing days. The second largest city in Oz is fantastically unique, with heaps of ultra sleek modern architecture often nestled next to quaint and well preserved historic buildings. Like Brisbane, there's a free city loop bus/tram for tourists,which is a great way to see the lay of the land, and also nifty when your feet are worn out from walking. Melbourne is truly a city that loves to shop. This 165 foot tall lead shot factory was one of five in the city and built in 1899. Inconveniently located in what became prime real estate, it has been preserved by being enclosed in a large glass dome, and is now surrounded by numerous retail therapy opportunities.

Nov 2 looms.....election day at home, and Melbourne cup day here. In California they'll be deciding which multimillionaire has had the most effective negative campaign for Governor, and whether some Humboldt county folks will be moving forward with plans to open bud n' breakfast establishments, if Prop. 19 passes decriminalizing marijuana. It seems this particular midterm election is fairly, uh, spicy. I admit I'm not sorry to be missing out on all the P.R. (promises and rants.) Australia gets points all around for gentler, much shorter, and less ridiculous campaign seasons. If only the millions spent on campaigns could somehow instead used for improving education and paying down the debt....... for starters.

frocked up teddy

Melbourne Cup Day isn't actually a holiday, but apparently no work gets done as anyone and everyone is at the races and/or gathering with friends and family to watch it on TV. Friends here are having a party, but I'll be in the outback. Yup, I'm Charleville bound on Monday. Claiming 3500 residents, Charleville is the hugest thing around for many a mile. I hear they have a dirt race track, so I'll be eating dust and hanging out with folks I just met watching my first horse race. I'll be frocked up in my new fascinator and heels. A what? A fascinator is not one who fascinates, but the name of the hair doodly-bob that is part of going to the races. Watch this space for forthcoming photos......... I'm excited about my adventure but will be missing my family! I've never been away from my kidlets for two whole weeks before. Tom will be in charge of continuing to seek solutions for Mel's ongoing foot/heel pain, which has her sidelined from dance for a couple of weeks. Also he'll be continuing to encourage/demand that Eli spend at least a little time at home when he isn't eating or sleeping, as those are seemingly his primary reasons for being around lately.

Here are some shots of my new favorite tree, the jacaranda. The fluffy purple blooms are SO gorgeous, and they are gracefully punctuating the countryside everywhere! It's possible my previous swoon inducing botanical purple, the wisteria, has been usurped.

Spoiler Alert: This is where I'm going to brag about our kids. Yesterday Eli brought home his grade for his Shakespeare test, and his teacher told him it was the best essay in all three English classes! We're chuffed, as this has not been standard behavior for our oldest this year, or any year actually. The Australian public school system, from our perspective, requires quite a bit less homework than they're used to, but, when a project/assignment/test is graded, A's are not so easy to come by......
And for the daughter, she and her dance teacher were over the moon as she received a 'merit' score for her Royal Academy of Dance exam in August. This score is above a 'pass', which is what she was hoping for. Yeah Melissa!

Countdown! We are both eagerly and sadly preparing to depart. Now that we are coming to the end of our year, we finally know our way around, have friends and find plenty to occupy ourselves. In addition we know where to get the best yogurt, and have found new cool bike trails. All good things must end. Tom reminds me daily that even if we wanted to stay, our visas won't allow it and we wouldn't exactly look forward to a run in with immigration officials. So we ARE coming home, and we'll get that day back we lost when we came over: We'll be back January 13 at 3:45pm, which is an hour before we leave Sydney!!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

shocks in oz

Not electrical, not traumatic, not even happy ones like a child of ours volunteering to clean up a mess they only partially contributed to....no I mean the tiger, great white, and the bull shock or shark as they say elsewhere. These three are the only shark species known to attack humans. Nonetheless, in Queensland as well as New South Wales, many popular beaches including the one close to our house, a shark net or a drum line offers a modicum of protection for swimmers/surfers/surfboards. We have a drum line here, which is a large single baited hook suspended from anchored yellow buoys. These are detractors of this practice of course, as the hooks and nets sometimes also catch dolphins, rays, turtles, and whales. A few months ago it was decided they will be equipped with "pingers" to alert the whales to stay clear. Good to know whales understand Ping.

The Commonwealth games are going on in New Delhi at the moment, as they have been every four years since 1930. Originally called the British Empire games, the Aussies are dominating in the medal department. Around 70 countries participate, and the competitions include many Olympic sports and also games more typically played in commonwealth countries, like lawn bowls, which is a close cousin to Bocce ball. We have a lawn bowls club here in Coolum, but I don't see many Olympic types hanging out there. Other records recently noted: In Brisbane, at the local version of Starbucks, a team of employees trained for months, and last week set a new world record: 5,164 espressos poured in one hour. That's a lotta cuppa!

Random ramblings: we spotted two pairs of yellow tailed black cockatoos on our bike ride home from the gym today....Kmart etc has no need to wait until after Halloween to start stocking the shelves with Christmas bling (as there is no orange and black closet clutter for sale here)......massive amounts of foam on the beach, due to the recent storms........I'll be sewing my way through October as I just hauled reams of fabric destined to become skirts for Melissa's studio's concert Nov 27.......enjoying frequent but not daily early morning walks......overheard at the post office today: a young mum and her small child, who had began to whine for a bag of plastic dinosaurs: "Now, let's not have a tanti" and, at this late age in life I can finally do a headstand, but my kids made me promise I wouldn't post a photo.

In other breaking news, a 100% Australian owned business has launched a free software/app called itakeaway. Now it is possible to order and pay for food from a handheld. Have you noticed this word has ceased being an adjective and is now a noun? Then, courtesy of Google maps you're directed to the participating restaurant. hmm...how long until the food will be ready for pickup carside via an ATM type machine? I don't like this trend.

Just when we thought summer was here and we started looking longingly at our pool that we haven't been in since the early days of April, we're having ourselves a fierce little deluge. The rains in the last 24 hours have already exceeded the average for the month, and there is more to come. Oh joy. I'm just glad I wasn't one of the 8 thousand or so who paid a significant sum to attend the Caloundra music festival on for this last weekend. The performers were under cover but the fans had themselves a big mudfest.

So onward though the next 7 weeks or so of the final term of school. Melissa will finish her year of high school so she can go back home to middle school....... For reasons unknown to me, Eli finishes the year two weeks earlier than Mel. He'll be surfing with his mates, waiting for sis to finish up, and we'll start packing our bulging suitcases in preparation for departure.....SIGH. As of tonight, Tom has worked his airline magic and procured tickets to fly to Bangkok Dec 12. From there we are still a bit open but for New Years we'll be in Bali, and I suspect we will not be alone. Jan 12 we're flying to to Sydney to reconnoiter with heaps o' stuff we needed for our year here (or thought we needed) but don't need for travel, and assuming all goes well, we'll be stepping off that plane in Arcata January 13 at 3:47 pm!!!

Coolum Beach

Meantime, we're headed off to 'Melbun', also know as Melbourne, for a long weekend. Tom is going to stay a couple of extra days and re-connect with old friends from his sailing days. Shortly thereafter I have signed up for a two week volunteer project in the outback through an organization called frontierservices.org. I'll be dusting off my cobwebby speech pathology synapses and lending what I can to an early education team who travel to visit both Caucasian and Aboriginal families with young children. I'm looking forward to the adventure. I'm flying to east to Charleville from Brisbane November first (a two hour flight) then traveling upwards of 1900 kilometers by car...even in miles that's a loooong way!