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.