The Weekend

I did the weekly grocery shop on Friday night - it's a quiet time to shop and it certainly frees up the weekend for more pleasurable pursuits.

I spent most of Saturday treating and splitting up my silkies into new breeding groups, scrubbing water dishes and preparing the next station in the round garden. Gibbo reinforced the circular pen for me so I've put the last surviving Barnie hen and the very expensive new rooster back into the permaculature garden so that they can prepare the next bed. It will take a little while with only two chooks but that's ok.

It looks like I might have finally been able to grow some good carrots - the last station, which has plenty of sand in it, appears to be friable enough to let the carrots actually grow downwards instead of being stunted.

I was feeling rather stressed at the state of the house garden and the prevalence of winter weeds in the lawn. Gibbo brought the four wheeler home with the spray rig attached and ran over the entire area in a fraction of the time it would have taken me using the 7 litre hand sprayer. It was a huge help. Now I just have to wait for the weeds to die; then I can go over what's left.

Kylie B came out in the late afternoon and brought Reb M with her for a look at the chooks (and goats and pig) and permaculture set-up.

Meg cooked butter chicken for Sunday night dinner from scratch (ie not from a bottle; she used individual spices and greek style yoghurt etc); plus she made the flat bread from scratch too. It was a delicious meal.

The Rock Wallaby Birthday Cake

Megan's boyfriend, Chris, turned 23 last Saturday. She was stumped as to what sort of cake to make him. She's made Gibbo, Drew and Peter a special cake each and she wanted to do the same for Chris but, short of constructing an architectural masterpiece, she didn't know where to start.

I suggested the fantastic cake that Fiona at Rock Wallaby made for her daughter - whether it's for a six year old or a 23 year old, I thought it looked so rich and colorful and would go down a treat. So she whipped it up Friday afternoon (on her day off) and took it to Brisbane. It was a HUGE HIT- the boys in the house wanted to eat it straight away = and when a couple of them came home after a night out they ate as many of the m&m's off the top as they could without revealing too much of the surface of the cake itself.

The cake container came home empty.

So I think the Rock Wallaby Birthday Cake will make regular appearances, whether there's a birthday in the air or not!

QCS 2010 Style

Today is a big day for Queensland Seniors. They sit day 1 of their QCS test. Today was the writing task and multiple choice, tomorrow is short response and multiple choice.

Drew drove in early and picked Luke up on the way. The teachers cooked breakfast for the kids and they had a meditation session before it started. Mrs. C in the tuckshop prepared lunch for them. Same thing tomorrow.

Drew chose the 'wind' stimulus for his story and felt it went pretty well; the multiple choice was hard and I think he used the "if in doubt, always choose C" option a few times.

After he had relayed his story to me I reminded him that, both in the practice writing task held last month and today's task, the mother dies! I found todays' story really moving and the way he incorporated "the wind" was quite clever.

Tomorrow he goes back and does it all again; then two weeks to end of term. Next week is a big one, with 2 assignments due and 4 tests to sit.

Permy Update

We're still eating January tomatoes; the herbs have gone berserk; I don't know what to do with the dill!; the lettuce and spinach look crisp and fresh and the dwarf broccoli is/are ready to eat.

 

BIG NEWS IN THE MAIL

Dear Drew


Congratulations! We are delighted to inform you of your acceptance as a WEP exchange student.


Our partner organization will now commence the process of finding your future host family.......We can guarantee that the host family will be thoroughly interviewed, have their references checked and be a suitable family who are interested in welcoming you into their home and life.

So it's official - Drew is an exchange student! The letter must have arrived Friday and sat at the office all weekend. I opened it when I arrived at work this morning and gave a little gasp!

Sleep Deprived; A Quick Trip and a Nice Visit

I'm still not sleeping normally - going to bed at 3.50am; getting up at 1.30am and going back down at 4.30am. It's weird.

Meg and I made a quick trip to Twba on Saturday; she needed wanted to get her nails done and buy a suit jacket for court days. She feels underdressed when everyone else is wearing one. She picked up a nice one on sale in Myer and had the nails prettied.

Drew worked the bar at Mary's and said it was really, really, really busy; he can now make four firetrucks in one hand in one go; no doubt a valuable skill to have and one which will hold him in good stead during QCS in the first week of September.

We had a really nice visit from the Ryan's and Ken on Sunday afternoon. They came to see Millie, Spotty, Pepper and Peach and Ken was quite taken with the vegetable garden. We compared soils and discussed plants. The kids really enjoyed the animals and they stayed for tea so they got to see Drew when he returned from Drama practice (assessment one-act plays are on this week).

This is Millie

This is Spotty - he just came from next door for a sleepover

Watch dem horns....

Hats are not just for wearing...

I went back to work today; it wasn't so bad, it wasn't so good; it just is. Oh, and it rained; thought I was back in England.

Oh Dear!

I've just downloaded 1800 photos from our travels! How on earth can I expect to cull them into a decent number so as not to totally clog up a) my portable hard drive and b) blogger.com! I've broken the trip up into rough categories and thought perhaps I'd just choose the best 5 or so from each but with 25 categories so far (and climbing) I'm not sure that's the right way to do it. I'll see how that plan goes anyway. Plus, I really did go overboard on some occasions, happily snapping away, knowing I could get rid of whatever isn't any good (and there's plenty of those!). Stay tuned. I'm going to slot them in amongst the emails as I go so as to break up the words and to make them more relevant. Then I'll maybe pick my 10 (?) favorites and publish them in one post on their own.

I'm having a terrible time re-adjusting to Aronui time. I had a sleep yesterday afternoon but then didn't go to bed until 3.30 this morning and got up at 8; and I'm not at all tired now so I might be up half the night again. I hope it all rights itself soon.

Drew has gone to town to work behind the bar at Mary's tonight for the super draw. They asked him to work tomorrow night as well, in the beer garden bar, for a fundraiser. The pub has been sold and the new owner asked him and Bree to work. He has his regular shift tomorrow afternoon as well so he's juggling a bit at the moment.

Meg is moving from the blue/yellow room into the pink room. I dare not venture up the hallway; just standing at this end of it is enough to give me a fright. She's discovered that both bathrooms are leaking again; an ongoing problem since the house was built in the 80's and a near impossible one to fix despite numerous attempts over the last 30 years. We had the ensuite bathroom retiled a little while ago and thought the problem might have been fixed - but obviously not.

It rained and rained last night and most of today; glorious on the vege garden (which looks fantastic still) and the real garden (which is looking sadly neglected still). The six Barnevelder chicks are growing strong; Peach the kid has doubled in size and Pepper is looking poor. Coco is devoted to Megan and Poofy - well he's just happy to be here. And did I mention Millie - she deserves a post of her own.

Not For Very Much Longer

The opportunities to see my baby up on stage are fast diminishing. Soon there'll be no more musicals, theatre restaurants, debates, public speaking forums, eisteddfods or openings of flash new school buildings. Mum and I (his two biggest fans) went to watch him MC the official proceedings during the commissioning and blessing of the new multi-purpose centre (MPC). He was fabulous. Of course. He was beautiful. Of course. He was handsome up there. Of course. He shone. Of course he did. He's my son. The first part of the program saw the school band play, the school choir sing, many prayers and thanks offered up and the building/s blessed. Then Drew came on and officiated through the welcome, anthem, introductions of "distinguished guests", speeches, unveiling of the plaque and finally, to the conclusion, OLSC: Be Our Guide.
I know I'm totally biased and I ramble on about him - but there's something about Drew when he has an audience - something comes over him; he stands tall; his shoulders squared; his head held high; his voice lowered - and off he goes. He seems to take on another persona almost and really steps up to the occasion - and relishes it. Eisteddfod adjudicators always commented on his facial expressions and his ability to engage an audience and keep them with him.
It was a huge honor for him to be chosen to be MC and he/we received many compliments. Someone that he doesn't know told him he should be a "professional" MC; many people congratulated him on a job well done. He and Lydia showed the Senator around the new facilities.
As you can see, I took some incredibly crappy photos to record the day. I was a bit far back and I just couldn't get the settings right for a good photo.

So I guess a lot of the blogs I write between now and the middle of November will be about Drew - and the end of so many things. At the risk of sounding morbid and negative, the next few months will present me with some challenges that I'm going to struggle with and my blogging will go a long way to helping me through the sadness of it all. So bear with me during these times. In amongst my sadness there will be patches of light; his excitement and relief at finishing his official schooling; the formal; the graduation; that damn Schoolies week and then the start of a totally new adventure for him. I will be excited for him too but it will be bittersweet; I want these things for him but I don't want them for myself.

A constant theme too will be the new doors that may open for me, now that my responsibilities will change. I guess I should embrace the possibilities and the freedoms that the changes will bring; except it's too soon to look forward to any of that just yet. Maybe in time.

Instalment 12 - End of Story

It was a pleasant flight from Singapore to Brisbane. I watched a storm in the sky for a while but couldn't really sleep. Anticipation I expect, plus an out of whack body clock. I felt a real sense of pride/emotion/nostalgia when the sun started to come up and I knew I was over Australian soil; I had a lump in my throat and nearly a tear in my eye. I am so glad I'm Australian.

We landed at 1/4 to 7 and took an hour to pick up our duty free purchases and clear passport control and customs. Lillie met us and we dropped her home and continued on to Toowoomba where we caught up with Gibbo's mum and Viv and Desley and Ken. Then we came to D and went to Mums; Megan was waiting there for us and had the afternoon off. It was so exciting to see her; she's so beautiful. We came home; I saw Andrew on the way and had a quick chat to him. Peter rang to welcome us home.

Started unpacking and washing; we met Millie, the new mouth to feed. Andrew found her running on the side of the road after he'd been to check some traps and he knew Meg had been wanting one for ages. Bit like the goat story really. She is only a few weeks old and is Megan's delight. Chris wants to call her "ham". She'll never end up on the table though; she'll be with us for the duration now. You can't eat something you've given a name to.

Drew had driven himself to school as he had to go to Toowoomba to a Biology day at USQ so he didn't get home until after 4.30pm. He came over the grid, beeping the horn madly. I raced out to meet him; he was grinning widely and we had a huge hug and kiss.

I made a delicious beef steak pie for dinner; Meg made potato and pumpkin roasted chips. We gave out the gifts we'd bought then went through some of the photos. Gibbo, Megan and Mum fell asleep! How dare they. Actually, I came very close to nodding off too; the camera nearly fell out of my hand once of twice so we all packed off to bed.

It's wonderful to be home again with the kids. Megan is still loving her job and the goats and little Millie. Her Uni work is going well; she made a fantastic guitar cake for Peter's 50th birthday while we were away. She also made him honey soy chicken wings. He was so blown away by them coming to his little "party" and for showing their love. He likes spending time with us because we're all so funny. Drew is going well at school; he got straight A's for his Japanese for terms 1 and 2 so that's a great achievement for him. He's MC tomorrow at the commissioning/opening of the new multi purpose centre at school. He's chosen his subjects for QTAC; his WEP profile has been sent off to Canada - now we just have to wait for a family over there to "choose" him. I'm sure he'll get snapped up right away - how could he not!!! He's really excited.

Today we slept the afternoon away. Tomorrow Gibbo will go to the office and I will go to the school for the opening ceremony. Drew has a total of 10 weeks of school left. Egad. That means that graduation, formal and Schoolies are not that far away. I need to start taking my strong pills.

Now all that's left to do really is go through the hundreds of photos I took and pick out the best ones to keep and post here. I have a good record of our trip due to the detailed emails I sent home.

I don't go back to work until Monday...and that's another thing. I have to decide what I'm going to do there...do I give up the "arrivals" part of the job and just keep doing all the other...do I give it away altogether (virtually impossible considering what I do for G)...do I cut back to say 20 hours of office work a week and pursue "other interests"...or do I just keep plodding along, being tired and cranky at the world.

A girl's gotta do something.

Instalment 11

Final Farewell Sunday August 15

We all just had dinner together in the dining room at the Novotel, Paddington; a three course buffet. I can't believe how much I've eaten over here. The Novotel (and the street it's on) are so new that they don't exist on any maps or GPS finders. I don't know what existed on this site before but it's a great spot and a very, very nice hotel. I don't quite know he we afforded it but it was all in the package.

Four of us went for a walk to Paddington Station; I wanted to find where the Heathrow Express left from (I work so much better and am much less anxious when I can visualise something uncommon) and the others wanted to check out the Underground. The station is not far from our hotel so it will be an easy walk for us tomorrow with our bags. Then we strolled along a canal and checked out all the houseboats moored along the banks. It was so beautiful and peaceful. We walked for an hour and a half then came back for dinner. Gibbo stood up and said a farewell and thankyou to everyone for being so good to travel with and for sharing good times with us. We got lots of hugs and kisses; we feel kind of sad to be leaving everybody.

Monday August 16

Gibbo went to Lords with three others and did the tour, saw the Ashes and (illegally) touched the hallowed turf. Some folk are easily pleased. Meanwhile I wandered through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and visited the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which was very unimpressive and quite disappointing. I couldn't believe the number and variety of dogs in the park  - all sorts, all sizes. I visited the Round Lake and admired the swans and other waterbirds then shopped my way back to the hotel to wait for Gibbo to get back. 

We had a quick lunch then caught the Heathrow Express to Terminal 1 to begin the long journey home. We were a tad early but may as well have sat out there rather than back at the hotel ( plus there's nothing like being super organized hey?). From the time we got to Heathrow to the time we land, it will be 32 hours.

Tuesday August 17

So we're currently in Singapore, awaiting our Qantas flight to Brisbane. Gibbo just spoke to Lillie and she will pick us up in the morning. Heathrow was very easy to negotiate; our luggage is booked all the way through to Bris so we hope it's there waiting for us. The horror stretch from Frankfurt to Singapore was no better than the first time; worse actually because we didn't get seats together. We were four rows apart and in different aisles. Not long now; another 2 hours until we take off and then 7 hours flying time and we'll be home; and I'll see my kids again!