I have finally made the time to
write “My Month after Travelling Thoughts” and as I anticipated, there is both
lots and not much to adjust to as we settle back into “normal” life. Life
got too busy and too tiring for writing but I do miss writing each day as I did
whilst we were travelling. Slowly, I am
feeling more organised but I think it will take a long time emotionally to
“unpack” and process our most amazing year! I started this reflection a few
weeks back and have only just got around to posting it. I guess that in itself speaks of our slightly
chaotic life since our return. Things
are getting on track now!
We stayed a couple of nights in Mornington at my parents' house which was very nice but we had to face the "great unpack" at some stage and when we returned to our house, we found it clean and ready to move back into and so we got stuck into settling back straight away!
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| First day back in Australia - early morning cliff walk in Mornigton |
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| Beach huts on Mills Beach |
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| "Cardiac Hill" and view of Mornington Pier in distance |
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| Yes, we are home - very Australian colours |
On 20 December I wrote: We have
been back in our house since last Sunday and we have copped hot summer
temperatures which, with the sheer volume of unpacking to do, have left me
without a whisper of energy! The kids
and I are really feeling the heat which has been in high 30’s (Centigrade) and
yesterday was 41. The nights are warm
and still and having lived in either cool climates or very air conditioned
accommodation for a whole year, we are finding it hard to adapt at the
moment. The bright summer sun and birds
wake me in the morning. The bird chorus
in the mornings, which we haven’t heard for a year, makes a change from the
piercing sirens of cities. I don’t think
I am quite ready to wake with the birds as my body was just settling into
winter not long ago, ready for the dark evenings and cosy nights.
Bushfires are raging in country
areas in Victoria and on the outskirts of the city and the grass is all
brown. Everything is tinder dry. The
earth needs a constant soaking for days to be nurturing again. Our lawn, like most others, is a dry weedy
apology for rabbit fodder. It is funny how the weeds stay greenest for longest
but even they are wilting. The garden will have to wait for maintenance and a
good trim and mulch until we have had good rain and as for planting vegetables,
that dream will have to wait until autumn I fear. Funnily enough raspberry canes which were
mere sticks when we left have gone a bit feral and the mint which I tried to
control has managed to track along in the dry soil and pop up where it isn’t
wanted! The roses and lavender plants
look healthy enough and the wild strawberries look like they will survive with
a bit of TLC.
The house is looking more
organised each day as boxes are unpacked, and items are sorted and either
re-shelved, thrown away or handed on to charity shops or other lucky recipients! I am being quite ruthless in the great unpack
as I realise that many items I have kept for so long are really superfluous or
unnecessary or don’t fit any more! I
feel embarrassed about the amount of junk we have had and stored and so much so
that I have made a point of going to different charity shops to dispose of the
gear! I am hoping it will all find a new home and the Salvos and others will
benefit. I have even thrown my old
nursing text books into the recycling bin as that are way out of date and
nobody would want them in this age of information technology. I even turfed many of my old essays from
university – but did keep the ”Consider publication” essays or those on which I
did really well! The floppy discs on
which the original work was typed have long since been inaccessible as
technology changes so quickly.
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| Currawong Bush Park - for BBQ and bush walk with friends |
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| Slighty crazy bushwalkers! |
We, or at least Karl, Tim and
Annika went to our friends who have been “fostering” our rabbit, Ruby, for the past
year. It looks like she was up to tricks
and she has eaten some of the wood in her cage!
They had “modified” the cage to accommodate her cheeky ways! I stayed
home here with Luke as he is highly allergic to rabbits. However, after no more than 10 minutes in the
car with Ruby, Annika was a sneezing wheezing puffed up mess and could hardly
drag herself from the car and we concluded that she, too, is allergic to
rabbits. Antihistamines and Ventolin and
a shower to wash off any residual rabbit fur and Annika was improving but we
couldn’t risk her going near the rabbit.
As for Ruby, we are not sure if she remembers being here but she calmly hopped
about before settling.
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| Ruby |
To add to our small pet
collection, we are looking after our neighbour’s two guinea pigs who live in
our laundry during the hot days as they would perish in the heat outside. Their names are Latte and Stephanie but
commonly known as the “Squeaky Pigs” or just plain “Piglets”. I find myself reflecting on the purpose of a
guinea pig’s life as it seems to be only eating and excreting! They are quite endearing with their little
black eyes staring out at me, bringer of their tasty morsels, and the
occasional cute squeak or purr. I do
think our rabbit has a much more meaningful life as she can choose her spots to
rest throughout the day and does random high jumps and twists to evade real or
imagined enemies. She can also look
fierce with her one unfloppy ear standing right up and thumping her foot to
scare off unwanted garden companions like the black and white cat who wanders
about. As I am not allergic to these
furry creatures, their care is usually the first chore of the day while the
kettle is boiling to make Karl a cup of coffee.
On the subject of allergies, all
of us except for Tim, who also has the occasional sneeze, have found any
dormant hayfever and asthma have been reawakened. Luke and Annika are on asthma preventers
which were not required for the whole year.
Karl’s morning sneezing is our 5 AM alarm clock which is rather too
early for me and for the first week my eyes were itchy and I had a rash on my
face! Welcome to Melbourne, asthma and
allergy capital of the world! Probably,
had we returned in winter, our immune systems may have had time to slowly
desensitise to the various allergens but as we arrived in full on pollen
season, no wonder we are sneezing! Winter
2016 will be interesting to see if we are a bit more prone to colds, etc having
been away for a year and exposed to other microbes.
We celebrated Christmas with
Karl’s family at Jet and Ralph’s house.
It was a blisteringly hot day with a hot meal! Phew! News of fires
raging in the Otway Ranges were not surprising.
I was so glad not to be packing for a camping trip and thankful to Jet
and Ralph for their hospitality. We
really didn’t feel very Christmassy! The
kids received a few presents from generous relatives and hopefully in the
fullness of time they will come to see our year away as a most fabulous
gift. We are on “austerity measures”
here for a while!
Luke's birthday is squeezed in between the two main celebrations on 27 December and no one is really in a party mood then!! However, we had a special morning tea and then Luke chose an afternoon excursion to the beach which was very lovely!
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| In
the flurry of Christmas and New Year, Luke's birthday is generally
slightly uncelebrated but kind Annika made some sensational cupcakes for
celebratory morning tea! |
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| St Kilda pier |
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| St Kilda Beach for Luke's birthday excursion. |
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| Birthday feet burying! |
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| Happy 8th Birthday, Luke! |
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| Yay for beachy birthdays!!! |
For New Year’s Eve, I took the
children to Mornington where we had lovely time with my family and cousins and
went for an early evening swim at Mills Beach!
Oh so refreshing on a hot evening.
Luke got to speak on talk back radio (ABC774) about his exciting year
and although the interviewer wasn’t particularly brilliant, Luke put it down to:
”a good life experience” (his words!) and so it was.
We were home not too late but
were kept awake by next door neighbour’s playing table tennis with loud yells
and whoops until 2.30 AM…mmmmm….and it was a very hot night which made sleep difficult
in any case. And so, we ushered in 2016 fairly quietly from this side of the
fence! We could hear fireworks popping
off here and there which is always a bit surprising given that they are
illegal!
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| Shadows on the beach - New Years Eve |
We decided it would be a great day for a walk but this suggestion was met with varying degrees of enthusiasm. In the end, we all went and all felt better having had the exercise but were glad to be back home and cool down a bit. The bush flies were a little too friendly for our liking!
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| Mullum Mullum Creek Trail - New Years Day family walk |
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| A bit of bush wrangling! |
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| You can see why these trees are called "Stringy Barks" |
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| Mullum Mullum Creek Trail |
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| Mr Nature Lover found a chrysalis on a stick |
One of my recent purchases since
we arrived back in Australia is two cloudlike lightweight single doonas
(duvets) which we now have on our bed.
We were inspired to make this choice after living in Germany, where we
first thought it was a bit strange having two single doonas on a queen sized
bed, but then saw the sense! Ideal for
summer when if your feet get hot it is easy to stick them out the sides or if
one of you is hot, the doona doesn’t get tossed doubled on the other! So, thank you Germany for your common sense
and practical ways!
As we frequent our local shops
and streets and general neighbourhood, we bump into people we know who mostly
know we have been away and welcome us back.
Some, of course, didn’t know we were travelling and just thought we hadn’t
been around for a while. Our “round the
corner” neighbours, Pat and Jack recounted a horrific experience in mainland
China where Jack became seriously ill with a ruptured oesophagus and I was once
again reminded just how very fortunate we were to survive and thrive on our
journey with minimal issues. Many times
we were without phones and in fairly remote areas and often without common
language. We really did travel on a wing
and a prayer and are so very thankful for those who prayed for us and supported
us with messages and love and most of all to God who paved our way and guided
us.
The unreality of it all as we
cruise along through our day to day school holidays in a fairly structureless
format is good so we don’t feel overwhelmed.
I think my role at the moment is to be available for the kids as “Mum’s
taxi”, to be there to host friends and sleep overs and buy necessary items
without feeling like I am charging about like a headless chicken. Each child has their own priorities: Tim
wanted to buy a road bike which he had saved for – a big outlay considering his
fairly meagre pocket money from us, but he has saved hard and spent wisely and
is loving riding it. Annika wanted to
catch up with her primary school friends and her secondary school friends and
has managed to see them all including a lovely long afternoon which culminated
with them coming back here for a simple taco dinner. Luke desperately wanted to see his best
friend which he has done and even had his first sleep over at his friend’s
house. I was keen to get back to the
swimming pool for laps as well as aquaerobics classes and I have really enjoyed
being back in the water so to speak. (Tim often comes with me to swim as
well.) Karl is back on his bike in the
evenings after dinner – well, at least he was, until last Tuesday when a youth
zooming a remote controlled car zoomed his car randomly around the bike path,
and Karl and said car collided. The
result was a rather shocked and bruised Karl and a smashed remote controlled
car. Why would anyone even think on
driving their presumably new (possibly Christmas present) remote controlled car
on a busy bike track during peak usage time?
Beats me….but then again, the teenage brain DOESN’T generally think of
such consequences….
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| One of Luke's goals: to ride his bike and with his new helmet, he's off..... |
We have been back into Melbourne with cousins to explore the "World's Most Livable City" and do agree it is pretty clean and very welcoming to visitors. There is so much to explore in our lovely city even after all our other exploring.
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| Hosier Lane in Melbourne with cousins |
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| Cousins! |
It has been excellent seeing my
sister and her family again as they are currently in Mornington from
interstate. My sister and I decided to
take our children down our memory lane and walked past our childhood home and
along Blacks Walk. We talked to some
current residents of our street who have lived opposite “our” house for some
years and we spent some time catching up on the comings and goings of our
street. Some original people are still
there and it was great hearing about the kids of the street and their
journeys.
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| End of our childhood street with the familiar and rather wobbly "No road" sign. |
We had to show our kids the
majestic English Oak Tree which was behind our house. It is well known in the area and I am sure we
weren’t the only ones to play “The Faraway Tree” there! It is still grand and must have many stories
of its own. Even a few weddings have
taken place under its leafy boughs!
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| The Oak Tree |
Blacks Walk is much nicer these
days with indigenous plants and even a billabong. When I was young, it was horse paddocks, wild
blackberries, cherry plum trees and flies.
Natalie (my sister) and I well remember when we saw a tiger snake down
by the creek whilst picking plums. The
plum trees and most of the original pear trees from what was an orchard
are no longer there. Now there is a
lovely path either side of the creek which goes for a couple of kilometres.
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| Our old school |
From there we walked to our old
primary school, which was once a tiny school of 100 pupils but is now a huge
and well-resourced school. Oh, the
memories! Between us, we could just about name families who lived in every
other house as we took the children on the tour. Even the old girl Guide Hall is still there
but appears to be a Yoga centre these days.
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| Logged On - Blacks Walk |
I do love the Australian bush and
sounds of the birds but it is so, so dry and brown and so unlike the verdant
European foliage we have become accustomed to. We have visited other spots for picnics and walks as well but I must say flies and heat aren't welcome walk companions!
So, we are settling in! On Saturday I even foraged about for some seeds to
put in the vegetable garden so perhaps they’ll come to life. Our strawberry plants and even silver beet
and a chili plant are flourishing since I have been watering them. The grass (and weeds) of our back garden
remain unmown as I want to leave some greenery there for the guinea pigs to
enjoy.
We had our “traditional” Saturday
night fare: homemade pizza and sat down to watch: “The Incredibles”, the Pixar
movie from a few years back which Luke absolutely loved and Karl slept
through! It is hard to find a movie
which suits us all but this one wasn’t a bad choice.
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| Homemade pizzas - please note Italian pizza cutter from Rome! |
Today, Karl and I were privileged to attend John Olwyn's 90th birthday. He is a spritely and spirited man who radiates joy in every step. What a character! John or as Karl knew him, Jack, was Karl's family's neighbour many years ago. Jack had and still has an inquiring mind and Karl spent hours with him in his workshop watching and learning and enjoying model trains, lathes, and other gadgets of curiosity for a young lad. At 90 he is still learning, dances and plays the organ.
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| John and Karl. John was all dressed up with his Grandfather's fob watch to complete a dapper outfit. He clearly enjoyed his celebrations. |
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| Neighbours for many years: John and Karl's dad. |
....and as Annika said: "This time last year we were visiting the
Elephant Park in Bangkok" and no doubt we'll often recall where we were
when and remember together our most magnificent journey!
The enormity of it all is really
just sinking in.
