The ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonald

This is an historical novel set in the early years of white settlement in NSW. Matthew Stanton, who seems to have elements of the Rev. Samuel Marsden in his character, is an Anglican minister, magistrate and sheep farmer. His aim is to grow the finest wool in NSW. In this his rival is the convict Desmond Kale, formerly assigned to Stanton but now on the run. Kale was daringly sprung from captivity and is rumoured to be doing his own sheep farming in the bush, beyond the area known and mapped by the white men. Kale becomes an hero and the subject of a ballad amongst the Irish convicts.

This book won the Miles Franklin Award (http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/milesfranklin/) and was chosen by someone else in my book group. I approached it with some trepidation as I usually find award winning goes hand in hand with being impenetrable where literature is concerned. Added to that, it is a big book, 636 pages long. So it was with delight that I found myself being sucked in to the story and wanting to get back to it. Roger McDonald started out writing poetry and it shows, the writing is not always easy, sometimes obscure but is beautiful and uses some of the expressions the first settlers may have used - duck mole for platypus for example.

All back to normal - or at least what passes for it round here

The boys went back to school at last today. They are starting Year 10. At the end of the year they will (hopefully) get the School Certificate.
Jamie says he has the coolest History teacher in the history of History teaching - because she knows when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (!?).
Robbie has two new boys in his group and has been buddied up with a boy called Mark who has come from Germany. His mother is Australian and decided after 25 years away she wanted to come back apparently.
Ishbel went back to school yesterday. Over the weekend and the few days in the run up to going back she had begun to speculate about who her teacher might be. She was hoping for a Mrs Dalkeith who is Scottish and hoping not to get Miss T. Initially the children go back to the classes they were in at the end of the previous year. Sometimes it can take a day or two for the school to arrange the classes, depending on last minute enrolments, leavers, etc. This time they sorted them out very quickly and Ishbel came back saying she was in Miss T's class and she was very nice.
Emails have been going round my group of Faulco mums, checking who is in which class. None of us are terribly au fait with who is who on staff and the question was posed, "what does Miss T look like?". One answer was that she was "the spinsterish looking one with the bad hair".
"Nah, that didn't help, need more info, that only eliminated (the glamourous) Anthea Lundqvist-Hayes."
Anyway, it's nice to be back in to some sort of routine and the children, while they are grumbling about having to go to school, have a good time with their mates and with something to keep them busy.
I'm looking forward to the silence in the house when I come home for lunch.

Australia Day Public Holiday

I got fuller today than I did on Christmas Day! All went as anticipated, we were 17 at lunch eating haggis, tatties in several guises, sauerkraut, haloumi, chocolate mouse, several tonnes of icecream and ricotta tart.
Just one more day till school resumes. Hip hip hooray!

Australia Day

As you'll maybe know the 26th is Australia Day here. We didn't do any Australia Day stuff this year, saving ourselves till tomorrow, and we are also busy painting our hallway.

Because Australia Day fell on the weekend this year we are having the public holiday on Monday. Like last year we are having haggis and kangaroo with friends, Kim and Graham Walker. We are being joined by the Birkners - Klaus is German and Mary is an Ukrainian Aussie. She has threatened us with stuffed cows udders!!! Karen and the gang are coming too (I may have omitted the cow udders bit when talking to Karen so shhhhhhhhhh).

The Birkners had haggis with us a couple of years ago when Klaus' brother Michael was out on holiday. Michael is back again this summer and Mary requested we do it all again. As she ate the haggis last time she sat saying, "this is so Ukrainian, this is so Ukrainian". She said when she was young they always had a pig fattening in the garden. She said her father would love that pig and make sure it had the best of everything until slaughter time. She said they used every part of the pig - even the snout!

We did go and have dinner with my friend Joanne and her four children. I made a yummy chocolate mousse which I will have another go at for tomorrow although yesterday I thought it was going to be a disaster. The recipe said to melt the chocolate which I did beautifully but then the recipe called for water to be added to the chocolate - as soon as I did so the chocolate went all stiff. I managed to beat it a bit softer but expected it to be a bit lumpen. I never noticed the lumps and it tasted great.

Camping Trip to WRS - Day 3 - Tuesday 22 January

Another night of no sleep - if I don't get sleep tonight when we are back home I will be murdering someone!
Again the horse came rumaging - this time we were ready and had put all things edible away in the eskies. Ha!
At one point we were invaded by two cattle dogs who came tearing along the field. We tried to scramble to pick Bella up but the dogs were all too quick for us. Mindy went off to hide but Bella faced up to the two big dogs and they were soon having a great game of chasies round the camp site. The cattle dogs were called Bob and Cindy so when we called Bella, Bob would come running up and when we called Mindy, Cindy would come too!
This morning the mist and rain was cleared and, although cool, sunny. After breakfast the children got into their swimming gear, lathered themselves in sunscreen and got in the water. But none of them lasted very long, even the youngest three - despite the sunshine the water was colder, or felt it.
The Laurences and Colquhouns were all leaving for home today - Holly has work tomorrow and we are expecting Jamie back from Japan - so we spent the late morning pottering about taking the tents down and packing the cars up again. Mindy tried to stow away, spending most of the morning in our car.
Our tent is the one Ian and I bought for going on holiday in Queensland my first Christmas here (20 years ago) and has definitely seen better days. The ease with which the new tents go up and down, and the much lighter weights has me convinced we need to get a new one. Ian is convinced he'll be able to sell it on EBay. I am to be convinced we could even GIVE it away!
Just before going I dosed Ben, Bella and myself up with travel sickness pills. Bella spent most of the time on the dirt track out leaning out of the window and was quite happy with her nose in the wind. Ben fell asleep. In short we all got home without chucking so I was quite happy.

Camping Trip to WRS - Day 2 - Monday 21 January

I had an awful night. The airbed Ian and I were sharing started out OK, but deflated as the night went on. I woke at whatever time it was, dark, with my hips touching the ground and needing a wee but not wanting to go outside by myself. There were lots of noises in the dark, including the sound of things entering the water - crocs maybe? I certainly didn't want to go to the camp ground toilets which were nothing short of revolting. I woke Ian up and did a "picnic wee" while he stood guard with Bella and the torch.
The day really started though with the horse rumaging through our kitchen. By the time Sharon shooed it off it had eaten all the fruit in the fruitbowl and had a go at the couscous box! There was horsey-appley slobber all over the kitchen table and the chairs.
We got up to a cloudy day that didn't get any better. It rained on and off all day. Despite that the kids all had a swim. Ben, Georgia and Ishbel, especially had a good day. Apart from a walk we all went on (except Ian who had hurt his back) they spent almost all day on the water. When we weren't pottering about taking walks, we collected wood for the fire or sat around eating and nursing the fire.
There wasn't much wood to be had. We collected all we could everytime we went for a walk and Steven took the trailer back up the track towards Mittagong and got a little bit. On one of our walks we launched a commando raid on one of the camp fires on the other side of the river - complete with commando face paint (will post picture later).

Camping Trip to Wollondilly River Station - Day 1 - Sunday 20 January

Today we went to Wollondilly River Station (WRS) between Mittagong and the Wombeyan Caves on a camping trip with the Addisons (Steven, Janet, Kate and Georgia), the Laurences (Sharon and Holly), Ian, Robbie, Ishbel, Heidi and Ben.
We were up early (relatively anyway; this holidays the children have turned into vampires, going to bed late and rising late also) and starting to pack. We borrowed a trailer from our neighbour, Bev, and loaded up tent, tables, chairs, clothing, food, etc.
At around 10am Karen came over with Ben and had a cuppa with me while Ian did fiddly things to the car and trailer like check tyre pressure. At 11ish we headed over to rendez-vous at Steven and Janet's but it was about 11:30-11:45 before we got on the road.
WRS allows pets to camp too so, while Karen was organised to come and feed the cat, we were able to take Bella with us. I wasn't very confident about how well she would travel, she winges the whole 1 1/2 km from Springwood home and I wasn't disappointed - she must've vomited about 10 times between home and WRS.
Ben also has a history of travel sickness, especially on bumpy, winding dirt tracks such as could be expected between Mittagong and WRS. When we stopped at Mittagong for lunch I got some travel sickness tablets and made him take one, by then Bella had chucked six times and I really wouldn't have coped with anyone else chucking up in the car. I gave Bella 1/4 tablet too but it didn't seem to make much difference.
Camping with the Addisons is quite an experience! We had a HUGE tarpaulin kitchen/dining area complete with kitchen sink and massive chest esky. We had 6 tents between us - Robbie is in his new cocoon tent (gives me claustrophobia just to look at), Kate and Holly are sharing, Sharon has her own tent as does Ben, Ian, Ish and I are in our big tent and Janet, Steven and Georgia are in their tent.
Now it is dark. We have a flashing collar on the Addison's dog, Mindy, a lovely fire going, citronella torches going and we are just waiting for Sharon to have her shower before we tuck in to marshmallows. Steven is distributing sparklers to the children.
But before that, during the HOURS it took us to set all this gear and tents up - someone likened it to playing cubby houses, quite aptly I think - the kids got themselves organised for a swim in the river. It is flowing well after the rains and is a smooth, 20m approx. band of brown.
There is a horse that wanders about the paddock we are camped in, much to Ishbel's delight, although she is worried it is too skinny. Bella and Mindy are able to roam freely - an absolute delight for our Bella who is usually either confined within the house or in a small pound in the garden. Mindy on the other hand isn't the back-to-nature type and has spent the afternoon firstly in the Addison's boot, then in Sharon's driver's seat and finally in the back of our station wagon!
A couple of ducks have also visited us this evening - almost had roast duck for dinner.

Jane Boleyn: the infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox

Jane Parker arrived at the court of Henry VIII as a teenager to serve Katherine of Aragon. She married well, to George Boleyn, brother of Mary and Anne Boleyn who both caught the king's eye. While Mary became the king's mistress for a brief time before dropping off into relative obscurity, Anne held out for marriage and became one factor leading to the Reformation in England.
Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford, serves her new queen and sister-in-law until Anne fails to give the King a son, falls from favour and is accused of adultery with several men and of incest with her brother. Anne and George go to the block but, miraculously it might seem, Jane manages to evade serious punishment.
After a period of exile from court Jane returns to serve (briefly) Anne of Cleves and then Catherine Howard. You would think Jane would have learnt to be wary but no, she wholeheartedly connives with Queen Catherine to smuggle her lover(s) into the palaces. This time when the Queen's head rolls so does Janes.
Jane Boleyn has had a bad press; she has been portrayed as the woman whose testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths through malice and jealousy. Julia Fox attempts to rehabiliate her name. Not much is documented about Jane Boleyn's life, especially the early years, so much of this book is speculative: "Jane must have . . . " and ends up being another Lives and Times of Henry VIII and his court type book. I'm not convinced the author achieves her aim, but this is an accessible book and I did enjoy it.
A good fiction book to read would be The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

I'd seen this one quite frequently while cataloguing and knew how popular it was from the number of requests our borrowers were placing but I probably wouldn't have read it had Gillian not suggested it. And it was quite enjoyable.

On a winter night in 1964, Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down syndrome. Knowing the pain of a child with severe medical needs and a reduced life expectancy from his own childhood and wanting Norah , his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter all of their lives forever. He asks his nurse to take the baby away to an institution and never to reveal the secret. But Caroline, the nurse, cannot leave the infant. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child herself.

So begins this story that unfolds over a quarter of a century in which these two families are bound by David Henrys fateful decision that long-ago winter night.

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

This is a delightful little book that celebrates the pleasures of reading.
Chasing the errant corgis one day, the Queen stumbles upon a mobile library. She goes into the van to apologise for the fuss caused by the dogs and having done so, she feels duty bound to borrow a book. Though the book she borrows isn't very good, her upbringing binds her to finish it and when she returns it to the library next week takes another book so as not to appear rude. This second book is a much better choice and awakens a passion for reading in the Queen.
Aided by Norman, a young man from the palace kitchen who frequents the library, the Queen’s undergoes quite a transformation as she discovers the liberating pleasures of the written word. She becomes so consumed by her reading that her usual meticulous attention to her public duties suffer and her staff do their best to put her off and distract her.
"I htink of literature", she wrote, "as a vast country to the far borders of which I am journeying but cannot possibly reach. And I have started too late. I will never catch up."

The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer, translated by John Nieuwenhuizen

This is a book group read and one that I enjoyed. It's only little and took probably about an hour to read.
Thomas's strictly religious father rules the house with his fists and insists the family live according to the Bible. But nine year old Thomas has escapes his daily fears through his imagination - he sees incredible things that no one else notices like tropical fish swimming in the canal, plagues of frogs, angels (who weep when his father beats his mother) and Jesus. He records his observations in a notebook (the Book of Everything) where he also writes down his biggest ambition: to be happy.
Then Thomas meets Mrs Van Amersfoort, a neighbour who is reputed to be a witch, widow of a restistance fighter executed by the Nazis during the war and a woman full of rebellious spirit who recognises something similar in her new young friend. With the help of Mrs Van Amersfoort, Thomas, his mother and big sister Margot throw off the tyranny of the father and step closer to realising Thomas' dream.

Camping Trip to Wollondilly River Station

Tomorrow we are going camping with Janet, Steven, Kate and Georgia Addison and Sharon and Holly Laurence. We are going to a spot that Janet and Steven have been to frequently, Wollondilly River Station http://www.wollondillyriverstation.com/ .
It has been chucking rain down for several days here so there was much debate this morning about whether to go or not, but the website, and Janet and Steven, assure us that the weather will be much drier at WRS than here so we are biting the bullet and all going. We are also taking Ben with us. We can also take Bella so we just needed to worry about Abi Cat but Karen will check in on her for the couple of days we will be away.

News from Jamie in Japan

We finally had an email from Jamie :

Hello it is me from Japan.
This is my last night with my host family so there is no point replying as I will be gone to morrow morning. I have been having a great time over here. I have been to Japanese school and discovered tha t taking my joggers would have been much easier as I have had to continuously change the boo ts into slippers and visa versa. Joggers are a lot easier to take off and put on as I have t o unlace my boots half way to get them off. At night my host family and I are always doing some thing. The very fist night I got taken t o a Shinto shine to renew the good luck flowers. This consisted in throwing last years flowe rs away and buying a new set. While we were at the shine I had my fortune told by shaking a barrel until a stick with a number fell out of a little hole. I was then given a sheet of pa per with my fortune on it. It was in Japanese so I am not sure what it said but I hope it is good. We were also purified by a person in white with a funny hat and a stick with white st reamers stuck to the end. We have also been to two onsen or natural spring bath house type places. Yesterday I went to Himeji castle with the school and to day I went to Kobe city an Osaka. Having lost of fun James

Old Parliament House - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Wednesday 16th January 2008 - From the zoo we went to Old Parliament House http://www.oph.gov.au/ . It was too long to wait for a tour so we did our own thing.
Ishbel had a go at being the Speaker of the House and was particularly taken by the Press Gallery. There she could make a recording of an interview with, among others, Bob Hawke and hear it played back (there was a script to follow). She won't last long if she chooses journalism - she constantly spoke over the PM.
In the Senate we saw the Black Rod. The volunteer in there said that her father had been the Usher of the Black Rod and that she'd been born in Canberra in 1928.
After a lovely lunch in the Cafe in the House which did great chips, we headed home.
We'd journeyed down in the rain and by now, just after 3pm, the clouds had come over and we headed back north in the rain. We got back home safely around 7:30pm in time for Daddy's pasta dinner. Yum.

Australian National Zoo and Aquarium - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Wednesday 16th January 2008 - I had to coax and bully Ishbel to get up this morning after a latish night and a busy day yesterday.
This morning we were headed for an early start at the zoo before it got too hot. We arrived at the zoo http://www.zooquarium.com.au/ at approximately 9:25am only to find it didn't open until 10. We headed for some local shops and sat in the car writing postcards before going round the lake and back again to the zoo.
After parting with a small fortune, we were in and what a fizzer it was. It's got a bit of a cheek calling itself the NATIONAL zoo. For that I'd expect something larger and with more animals. However, we did agree we'd enjoyed seeing the otters.
We were all done by the time the tiger feeding was due at 11am. We gathered over the tiger enclosure, getting hotter by the second. When the keepers came they said for $10 you could hand feed the tiger and for $15 you could get your photo taken doing so (I'm not sure if that was an extra $15, or inclusive of the tiger feeding).
Ishbel went into a deep sulk when I told her we were not paying $10 for her to feed a tiger. And I was right to say no . . . It was either way too hot or the tigers had been too recently fed, but neither tiger could be enticed to eat. A fair number of people queued up to hand feed. They seemed to have to sign away their lives but, again, nothing would encourage the tiger to come out from under its tree. We don't know if the people got their money back - we didn't wait, it was too HOT to hang about.
In the aquarium (blessedly cool) Ishbel spent most of the time in front of a tank that was getting cleaned out. A young woman in scuba gear was sucking up the stones with a pipe, sucking off all the dirt and putting the stones back. She was being closely supervised by a pig-nosed turtle.

Evening of the second day - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Tuesday 15th January 2008 - At present we are back in our hotel room chilling out, watching Mythbusters and waiting for my feet to stop throbbing before we go out again in pursuit of Ishbel's chinese meal (the one in Lyneham was shut yesterday so we just had pizza and chips), although since she has just polished off the remains of last night's pizza and chocolate, I'm not sure she'll be hungry.
On our way back from town this evening we were stopped at traffic lights and there was a man cleaning windscreens. I shook my head at him to indicate that I didn't want him to do ours but he started to do it anyway. I'd put some stuff on the windscreen only yesterday which repels water so I wound down the window and told him to stop. Ishbel was quite unsettled about it all though and keeps referring to it.

Later - We have been out to dinner and had a surprisingly nice chinese meal after which we went up the Telstra Tower just in time for sunset and a hot chocolate.
We had a bit of excitement as we drove back to the hotel. A lamp post had come down over the road, presumably just minutes before, luckily not hurting anyone. We had to drive up onto the medium strip to get past.

National Museum of Australia - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Tuesday 14th January 2008 - From the War Memorial we went to the National Museum of Australia http://www.nma.gov.au/index.html which is housed in an amazing building http://www.nma.gov.au/about_us/the_building/#row_3 .
After making over $100 in purchases in the museum shop (we'd only gone in for camera film) and getting instructions on what to see, we headed off. Unfortunately we'd been told about KSpace http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/childrens_spaces/kspace/ and Ishbel wanted to race through everything so she could get there. I think museums and galleries and memorials should have moving creches that take the children round the stuff children want to see, leaving their adults to see adult stuff without being rushed and nagged.
Ishbel did finally make it to KSpace where she used a computer to design a house of the future. Then we were herded into a little theatrette where we donned goggles and were taken on a 3D tour of all the vehicles and houses designed by the 12 or so children in our group. It was great fun, although Ish and I both felt a bit travel sick at the end.
Our last exhibit before the closing announcements came was Behind the Lines - the Best Cartoons of 2007 http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/behind_the_lines_2007_the_years_best_cartoons/ . We voted for our favourites in a People Choice poll.

Australian War Memorial - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Tuesday 15th January 2008 - So our next stop was the Australian War Memorial http://www.awm.gov.au/ .
I don't know what Ishbel expected from a WAR memorial, but she had us scooting round there in no time flat, most of it 'freaking her out'. As we were just thinking about leaving a guided tour started and we joined it for a little while as the guide took us along the Roll of Honour and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We even managed to find a Colquhoun. The tens of thousands of names on the Roll of Honour, as always, overwhelmed me and I had a little weep. The guide told us that people put up poppies next to the names of family members but that this is something that started quite spontaneously in about 1994 after the interment of the Unknown Soldier.

Parliament House - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Tuesday 15th January 2008 - From the Mint we took a short trip to Parliament House http://www.aph.gov.au/ .
There we joined a tour that took us to the Great Hall, the House of Representatives and the Senate.
After that we took ourselves for a bite toe at then headed up to the roof. I love this building - what other Houses of Parliament allow their citizens to stomp all over it and let children roll down its side?
Ishbel wanted to go to the zoo next but by now it was very hot and I persuaded her that it might be better if we go to the zoo first thing tomorrow before it heats up and spend the rest of the day doing inside stuff.

The Royal Australian Mint - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Tuesday 15th January 2008 - Didn't have a great night last night. I was awake at 1:10am, 2:20am, 3:30am . . .
Despite that we were up and on our travels by 8:45am, first stop the Royal Australian Mint http://www.ramint.gov.au/about_ram/default.cfm .
Unfortunately for us, the Mint is undergoing a renovation that won't be completed until late 2008 so we weren't able to see the coin production at all. We'll just have to come back this time next year.
We did, however, get to mint our own $1 coin - and it only cost $2.60!!
We had to go down to the shop to get change; you'd think we were asking the lady to swap a doggy poo for 10c rather than 2 x 5c.
Ishbel was very pleased with her newly minted coin.

Evening of the first day - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Monday 14th January 2008 - Now it's just before 5pm and we've managed to find our motel; basic but clean. We'll head off about 5:30pm and try and find dinner. Ishbel wants Chinese tonight. But she also wants to be back in time to watch Top Gear - tonight they are showing the episode where we see Richard Hammond's crash.

National Dinosaur Museum - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Monday 14th January 2008 - The National Dinosaur Museum is just across the road from Cockington Green so we popped in there next http://www.nationaldinosaurmuseum.com.au/ .
At first I thought the $17 it'd cost us to get in was a rip off - there's not a huge amount to see and we were most of the way round the place within 10 minutes - but then a woman came to give us a guided tour and she was really good and I felt that I'd got my money's worth after all.
Down on the ground floor there were two enormous T-Rex's made from Knex - cool.

Cockington Green - Ishbel and Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Monday 14th January 2008 - Our first 'attraction' visited was Cockington Green, a miniature village http://www.cockingtongreen.com.au/pages/index.asp .
It was there that we discovered the camera had no batteries in it. The first lot of batteries were the wrong ones and didn't fit and then I discovered (after an SOS call to Ian) that the film wasn't properly loaded and the camera wouldn't work until it was. Ishbel then ran off all 36 photos in under 10 minutes! I took the camera off her at that point.
Cockington Green has grown since we visited here with the boys in about 1998. The older part consists of miniatures representing quaint English village life. A new 'international' area has been created with buildings from various parts of the world, (castles, palaces, temples etc.) most of them sponsored by the embassies of the countries concerned, although a few have been sponsored by individuals. They really are very clever.

Drive down - Ishbel & Heidi's Girly Trip to Canberra

Monday 14th January 2008 - We left home at 8:05am. We had our first break in Bowral, having a nice Lamington and a custard doughnut with drinks. We also stopped at the Scottish shop outside Bowral where we bought a couple of mugs, one a with a Charles Rennie Macintosh design that I'd coveted when Gillian and I had passed through in October, and a Colquhoun tartan one for Ishbel.
Ishbel also wanted a little Westie dog but didn't like that I expected her to pay for it with her own money. After paying for the mugs I found her outside the shop in tears. I explained to her that the money in her account was money that had been sent to her at Christmas so she could buy herself presents with. She cheered up and we went back to the shop to purchase James Hawthorn Colquhoun.
And on to Canberra. We arrived at the Visitor Centre about 12:30pm and grabbed a pile of pamphlets and sat perusing a few as we ate our rolls.

Girly road trip and bits of news

Ishbel and I head down to Canberra this morning for a few days look around. We've booked in to an hotel for two nights and will head home again Wednesday afternoon.
We've had no news from Jamie. Since we haven't heard otherwise we are assuming he is still alive and kicking. His host family is probably giving a sigh of relief because today the school group reforms and they start travelling about.
Great news from Karen as you will see from her email this weekend. Our kids were very excited to hear that Ben will be staying down in our part of the world for a while. We learned this last weekend when Karen and Ben asked if Rob would give Ben a quick cook's tour of Springwood High School.

Jamie's itinerary

I've put his itinerary in the left hand column for those who are interested. We are unlikely to learn much until he comes back. He has been sent off with stickers to assist with postcard writing and has strict instructions to use each sticker but who knows . . .

Eve of Jamie's trip to Japan

Jamie leaves for a fortnight in Japan tomorrow morning.

I have spent all day running around getting him organised while he reads a book or XBoxes. Was getting a bit tetchy about that earlier.

We took a trip up to Echo Point (the Three Sisters), Katoomba this morning to get some touristy gifts for Jamie's host family. I thought it was the only touristy place in the mountains and had also been told that Blue Mountains City Council staff get a discount. I was wrong on the first - there is the Information Centre at Glenbrook - but right about the second - I got 20% off the cost of our purchases.

Asked the helpful man at the Echo Point Info Centre what the Japanese buy when they are there and came away with some native flora soaps, an aboriginal print scarf for the mother, a mug for the father, a baseball cap and wallet for the brother and a stuffed wombat and wallet for the girl, Nanako to add to the book and calendar we'd bought a little while ago.

When we left Springwood this morning the skies were dark and it was very cool. Katoomba is usually much colder than Springwood but by the time we got up there it was all blue skies and warm. The Three Sisters were looking lovely and we'd not thought to bring the camera (thinking it was going to be a lousy day) so bought a disposable one for some last minute snaps.

When we got back to Springwood I then had to go and find somewhere that could develop the film quickly. Also got some Tim Tams - biscuits which are very much like the British Penguin biscuits - apparently the Japanese think they are wonderful so I got 4 packs in different flavours.

I'm going to leave it at that, we have a rendez-vous at 7:30 tomorrow morning in Springwood. There is a bus taking the students, teachers and some parents down to the airport.

Sydney Festival First Night 2008

Yesterday afternoon I went up to Katoomba to meet with the ladies of one of my book groups (Read Astray we call ourselves) for our Christmas lunch. We went to the Avalon, the restaurant we went to when Karen and Dan got married. It's our third year there and the only disappointment is that the menu has not changed a jot in that time - I guess they are working on the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' principle and that's fine, especially where their exquisite dessert menu is concerned. We had a lovely afternoon eating yummy stuff and talking books and travel and stuff.
It was very wet and misty in Katoomba. The Avalon has a huge picture window, usually with nice views, but we could barely see 30m at times. It was still wet when I got back down to Springwood and thought it might put off our plans for the evening but when I arrived home it was to be told we were still going out. I had time for a quick change of clothing then headed down to Sydney with Sharon, Janet and Steven. (Ian and the boys didn't want to join us and Ishbel had her mate Zanny over to play).
It was the first night of the Sydney Festival http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/events/firstNight.htm and Sharon had enticed me with the promise of a ceilidgh on Macquarie Street.
We walked through Hyde Park where a swing band was going to be playing. A dance floor had been laid all around the fountain at the northern end but it was too early for them to have begun and we continued down to Macquarie Street. There a latin American band was playing - all the tunes sounded the same to me - and three couples were due to get married before the Scottish band, Shooglenifty, were due to play.
We then headed down to Martin Place where the young folks were enjoying a rave. We noticed how it was all young people going in to the crowd down there and only old people coming out!! Just as "Romeo" came on, singing Talking Heads style, and I started to enjoy myself, the others, not wanting to take any chances, decided we should check out the Domain so we headed back east again.
Paul Kelly was playing at the Domain and that was good. He was followed by Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys. Steven, Sharon and Janet all enjoyed that but I've never got the Beach Boys thing so it wasn't the highlight of my evening. We left there and got back to Macquarie Street just in time for the last (very good) two songs from Shooglenifty. They were great and had an Aboriginal digeridoo player playing with them too. An interesting mix of music.
After something to eat at a Japanese restaurant (my first time in one) we headed back to the car park and home. We got back after 1am and then I was up and out with Robbie to be at RFS training by 8am.

Ishbel cooking

Karen, Dan and Ben gave Ishbel an Ikea baking set as part of her Christmas (also undies set and beautiful fairy book). We weren't sure if it would survive OK in the oven. Yesterday we tested it and baked a banana loaf. It worked great!

Took the banana loaf on a use-all-the-stuff-left-over-from-Hogmanay picnic with Sharon & Holly, Janet, Steven, Kate and Georgia at Buttenshaw Park.

Ishbel ate the banana loaf ALL to herself!

Hogmanay 2007

Hogmanay was at our place this year. Karen, Dan and Ben came, as well as the usual suspects, our other family: Sharon and Holly and Janet, Steven and Georgia Addison. Kate was at a party at a friend's house. We were also joined by a mate of Jamie and Robbie's, Nick.
Robbie had wanted to spend Hogmanay at his friend, Lee's house. He had been invited to also stay the night before but when I dropped Rob off and spoke to Marie, Lee's mum, to ensure she did want him for two nights, Marie asked was I aware that she wasn't going to be home on Hogmanay. Rob had failed to bring that to my attention so later, after talking it over with Ian, we decided not to let him stay over on Hogmanay; we would pick him up at 9pm.
At 6:10pm the phone went and someone was asking for Robbie. I told them he was at a friend's place until later, could I get him to ring back then? It was someone from Eagle Boys where Robbie works - he was supposed to have started work at 6pm!!! I rang Robbie and quickly grabbed his uniform. Ian arrived home from an errand just as I got to the driveway so I sent him to get Rob from Lee's and take him to work. We'd been nagging him to check his roster - he'd been getting two or so shifts a week before school broke up but suddenly appeared to have a few weeks with no work which seemed strange. (Funny thing was that on New Year's morning Sharon answered the phone and had an almost identical phone call from McDonalds. Holly was supposed to be working that morning and hadn't turned up. Quick fly down to Blaxland for them!)
During the day Ishbel and I went to see the film Enchanted. It's about a cartoon character who gets sent to real life by a wicked stepmother and the adventures she and her prince charming have in New York and the power of true love. We absolutely loved it; laughed ourselves silly. Can't wait to get it on DVD.
Our evening with our family and friends was very pleasant. As is traditional at these events we all brought enough to feed the forty thousand and there was WAY too much to eat. We played games, saw in the New Year, watched the Sydney fireworks on TV, saw the visitors off the premises and went to bed.