Trip to the Emerald City

Playwright David Williamson penned a play called the Emerald City back in the 1980s, where one of his characters described Sydney as:

"The Emerald city of Oz. Everyone comes here along their yellow brick roads looking for the answers to their problems and all they find are the demons within themselves."

Well we followed the yellow brick road and found some demons - not of our own making - in the form of germs! Carl and the kids managed to pick up some kind of 24-hour tummy bug which was not pretty. I escaped it, but after our arrival back in Canberra came down with a dreadful chest cold, including fever and delirium last night and this morning! Our wonderful winter of woe continues on the health front. Never mind, tomorrow is the last official day of winter and then we are into spring - and READY!
In between bouts of illness, we managed several outings, including to the Taronga Zoo, where I was thrilled to see the seven-week old elephant Luk Chai, and the Sydney Aquarium. We also caught a couple of ferries around the harbour, taking in the spectacular views. Sydney really is a beautiful city when you can get out on the water. The kids had a great time, although we absolutely wore them out. Sadly, I didn't make it to Ikea - Carl was sick as a dog the night before we were due to leave Sydney, so I drove us straight home. Here are some photos from our holiday. You can click on any of them to see a bigger version - I love the one of the mummy Chimpanzee with her baby. Reminded me of me!

Exhausted

We're back tonight from our week in Melbourne, happy to be home and utterly exhausted after a marathon two-day drive home. Without kids, you can do the trip in 7-8 hours (with minimum stopping). With kids and roadworks combined, it's more like 12-13. Since Carl couldn't come on this trip and as Tristan is still not sleeping the night through, I knew I'd be too tired to manage it in one day, so we did it in two in each direction, staying the night in a motel (an adventure in itself for the children) in Albury.

A minor miracle, we all managed to stay healthy this trip! This meant we were able to catch up with friends and family we missed at Easter. Romily just adores her four boy cousins and they like seeing her. It was great seeing them all playing so well together. Tristan was watching with eyes agog, and you could tell he was working out whether he could join in! He had a very exciting time playing with Grandma and Huppa (my parents) and has learnt to speed crawl. He loves nothing more than 'crawly chasy' - especially with his big sister.

(Rom looking like an angel with a halo at my parents' house)

(Tristan after Huppa sneezed loudly and frightened him - excuse the pink sleeping bag - it was Romily's when she was a bubba!)

I attempted to finish Robina's quilt in time for our visit to Bendigo, but our trip was brought forward by two days, which just did me in. It unfortunately still isn't finished, although I only have one side's binding waiting to be stitched down. I encountered some problems with Grandma's sewing machine, which saw many stitches being skipped on the front side of the binding. I ended up having to go around twice. Anyway, it's looking good, and I hope to finish it over the weekend.
Here is a photo of the finished top before it was sandwiched, as well as a photo of the basted sandwich. I hope she will like it.

While watching Romily and Tristan engaging with their grandparents was an absolute highlight of the trip, my initial reason for going was to see Pink! When I bought my ticket she wasn't coming to Canberra. Of course, Canberra concerts have since been announced. Ah well, we were due for a visit down south. I digress. Pink was fabulous! The venue has its challenges - it was the Rod Laver Arena, which is the main court for the Australian Open - including dodgy sound, but after the first few songs the techies managed to fix whatever was going wrong. What a show. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, but for those who have or don't plan to, let's just say it was world-class and the girl could sing underwater (and just about does!). I had a great time.

It was very hard to say goodbye to my parents yesterday. They're so good with the kids and the kids adore them. We don't get to see them often enough and poor Romily was bereft last night, wailing in the back seat of the car "I want to live with Grandma and Huppaaaaaaaaaaa". She gets the drama queen from me, by the way! Hopefully they'll be able to get to Canberra in the not-too-distant future and we might sneak down again in September, depending on how things are going.

It was lovely to arrive home this afternoon. And even lovelier when Carl got home from work. We all missed each other enormously. Back to reality tomorrow. Carl will take Rom to her swimming lesson and I'll get some crafting done. Got to get some things made for Rom's fast-approaching birthday party...I can't believe she'll be four in three weeks!

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And some excellent news awaited me upon my return home - I received a High Distinction (90 per cent) for my course mark. Woohoo! Yeeha! Got to be happy with that. I must have done pretty well on the exam after all. Thank god!! One more unit of coursework to go before I transfer to the coursework/research program, which will mean a 75,000 word paper, to be written over 2-3 semesters (part-time). I need to get cracking on my research proposal, as well as start reading for this semester's course - Strategic Management. The things we put ourselves through!

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And finally, here are a couple of pictures of my handsome boy after his first real hair cut. It was pretty tricky trying to cut his hair - he was a moving target - but I don't think I did too bad a job!Clapping hands! What a clever boy :)

Easter hols

Boo. We disappeared down south before I had the chance to post. I managed to get my essay submitted one day late, but I had an extension, so all was okay. I think I did a pretty good job, but only time (and my lecturer) will tell.
I managed a spot of sewing before we left - a folding padded playmat for Tristan. I pieced the top using Kokka's range of canvas hippos and elephants, used 4 2.5cm cushion foam pieces for the padding and backed it with thermal-lined curtain fabric. I designed it myself after being inspired by something similar at Amitie and was pretty happy that I thought to make two ties and insert them in the seams before I stitched it all up. I used the playmat on floors at my father-in-law's and sister-in-law's houses and also in various playgrounds. It is great, although Tristan is already pretty good at rolling off it and into tan bark, etc.
The playmat got quite a workout while we were on our travels throughout Victoria and on the trip home via Adelong, Tumut and Adaminaby. (Check out Adaminaby's 'Big Trout'!!!)We had a pretty good time in Bendigo and Melbourne seeing our family. I say 'pretty good' because we were all sick - Carl and I especially. Just a nasty chest cold, but still not fun! It meant that we didn't get out and about as much as we would have liked, although we did manage to take in the Strath Quilters biennial show in Bendigo (great quilts, but I was too busy managing two kids to take any pix), as well as the Easter Parade on Easter Monday. Rom had a great time hunting in Granddad's garden for all the very many eggs left for her by the Easter Bunny!
Lots of fun was had by all despite us being sick. I really enjoyed seeing both kids interact with their grandparents. I wish we lived closer. It's such a precious time.

Coasting along

We slipped up the coast again the weekend before last for three days of fun in the sun, this time heading north to Jervis Bay, renowned for its white sandy beaches. While we didn't have three days of sun, we did have fun. Going to the beach with a three and a half year old is fun whether it's perfect weather or not. We stayed at another cabin park in a little place called Currarong.

Romily just loves staying in these cabins, as they're just like little homes, only at the beach - and she does make herself right at home. Tristan doesn't seem to mind either.While there, we dug in the sand, made tyre tracks with tiny trucks, searched for shells and investigated nooks and crannies.
On the not-so-flash days we went for a drive through the Beecroft Range (which fortunately was not being used by the Navy!), down to the lighthouse at Point Perpendicular...
and to the perfect little beach in the delightfully named Honeymoon Bay.
Not having been down to the beach much over the past few years, I'm really enjoying our sojourns. I'm hoping we can squeeze another weekend at the coast in before the weather turns cold.