My Month after Travelling Thoughts!

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!

First day back in Australia - early morning cliff walk in Mornigton

Beach huts on Mills Beach

"Cardiac Hill" and view of Mornington Pier in distance

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.

Currawong Bush Park - for BBQ and bush walk with friends

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.

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!

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!

St Kilda pier

St Kilda Beach for Luke's birthday excursion.

Birthday feet burying!

Happy 8th Birthday, Luke!

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!

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!

Mullum Mullum Creek Trail - New Years Day family walk

A bit of bush wrangling!

You can see why these trees are called "Stringy Barks"

Mullum Mullum Creek Trail

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….

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.

Hosier Lane in Melbourne with cousins

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. 

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!

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.

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.

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. 

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.

John and Karl.  John was all dressed up with his Grandfather's fob watch to complete a dapper outfit.  He clearly enjoyed his celebrations.

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.