Taking a break from the intensity of last week and selling the house, we are up at my parents’ house, enjoying much cooler temperatures and catching up on our sleep! MBD has her friend Joey with her and took time to chop herself a salad as mom looked on–a rare sight, people!
Hell week is done! It’s been all about fighting non-functioning air conditioners in summer heat, piles and piles of stuff that had to be removed from the house, packing, moving to storage, and final cleaning the house before closing this morning.
Holy cow I am tired. This week pushed me to the max. Frankly we couldn’t have done this without our good friends in Knoxville: Macy Moore, Becky Ibrahim, and Leigh Ann and David Young that have been our gracious hosts while we closed up shop in Knoxville. It’s nice to know that our friendships have remained intact despite our absence from the USA these past 7 months.
Here is the countdown of lessons learned: #3–When you hire someone to move you, I don’t actually HAVE to help; stand back and let them do their job! (thanks MBW) #2–Sometimes it’s not all about a tax deduction and you just have to hire someone to make piles of stuff go away (as in Junk Bee Gone, thanks Becky). And the biggest lession learned #1: Jet lag will make EVERYTHING more difficult for you and totally tax your system (thanks, Eastern Time Zone!)
I think the return to Oz is when we’ll feel the true impact of today. Sitting in the Young’s house, it still feels like I live in Tennessee even though I know better. Guess this is all about closing a chapter of our lives and replacing it with the new one that opened on December 1, 2011 with our Oz adventure.
Now if we could just get some of our friends in Texas and Tennessee to come down to visit us…..?
Here’s a good way to fight jet lag. After a 15 hour flight and an evening of recovery, what better thing to do than plunge into the pool of good friends from Texas? Here is MBW and MBD enjoying the pool, which was like bath water in the 99 degree heat of the last day of June in the Dallas area! AAAAAAAhhhh!
Chillin’ in the pool!
So it’s 8:54 PM on Tuesday night, 19-June-2012 and I’m working on my computer when I notice I’m bouncing up and down. Not violently, but steadily up and down. Reminded me of 1998 in Wellington, New Zealand. Hey, I know an earthqualke when I feel it, people! So I go down to the lounge and ask the people there if they felt that. Nope. Looked at me like I was a loonie. So I went back to work. Then MBW texts me that I was right! Yikes!
The USGS reported the earthquake hit 120km out of Melbourne, some 10km southwest of Moe. The USGS registered it as a 5.2-magnitude quake, but Geoscience Australia clocked it at 5.3, revising it down from an initial 5.5 reading.
Readers have swamped the Herald Sun with calls reporting significant tremors from everyone from the suburbs all the way across the state to country Victoria. The tremor, which lasted about 20 seconds, has been felt from Kilmore, Gippsland, Drouin, Rowville and inner-Melbourne.
Wrapping up a nice restful and rejuvenating weekend–three days because we have Monday off to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. MBW has been up in Noosa, in Queensland for a retreat since last Friday. MBD had two sleepovers; one on Friday and another on Saturday. Me? I pracised my negotiation skills with MBD (grrr!) and on the third day of weekend stayed in my pyjamas and slept in. Of course, I steam cleaned our tile floor this evening so I wasn’t totally inactive today. Tomorrow it’s back to school, work, and for MBW back to reality when she returns to our little homestead in Balgowlah!
But the RAIN. Holy cow, it started on Saturday afternoon and has been mostly constant for two days. Just coming down in sheets, pouring everywhere. I can’t recall seeing anything like this. In a storm back home it’s severe but eventually it passes. This just keeps going and going! Well, good sleeping weather if you like the sounds of the rain on the roofs and balconies. Good night, all!
One of the many things we are not able to get here in Oz is Bisquick. We all know in the USA that Bisquick is the “quick” and easy way to pancakes, waffles, biscuits, etc. Well this is a country of very little processed food so I am learning to cook from scratch. Yep, you read that right. I am becoming good friends with baking powder, bi-carb soda, flour, eggs, oil and more! This morning I successfully made pancakes for M from scratch. The first one came out of the pan looking fabulous! I put it on a plate, poured another into the pan and went to butter the first one. No I don’t have a griddle (yet) so I am using the non stick frying pan. Anyway, I began to spread the butter on the pancake and the whole top layer “slid off” with shiny dough underneath. Yeah, well, it looked great on the outside but guess I didn’t leave it long enough for the inside. After the first one, the next 8 came out beautifully! M and I enjoyed some pancakes and maple syrup on this beautiful Sunday morning down under.
Toodles and peace to you and yours!
Inspired by the movie The Hunger Games that had an archery theme in it, MBD went for a 2-hour “come and try” experience with bow and arrows. A nice way to spend part of a Saturday morning! She started out with a right hand bow, but had control problems. Her instructor switched her to a left hand bow, meaning she could stabilise the bow with her right arm. That worked better!
Taking aim with the right hand bow.
The girl to MBD’s right is Victoria, a classmate of MBD’s.
How do you know which arrows are yours?
Ready, aim…
How did you do?
I’ve grown accustomed to her face
She almost makes the day begin
Her joys, her woes, her highs, her lows
Her smiles, her frowns, her ups, her downs
Are second nature to me now, like breathing out and breathing in
I’ve grown accustomed to her looks, accustomed to her voice
Accustomed to her face
OK, so for the past several months all the girls that MBD has brought home from school to visit have been somewhat reserved and quiet. All that changed last Friday when a new set came over and the house shook with the yelling and laughing of four 12-year olds! I walked into MBD’s bedroom and was surprised to see two of them jumping on the bed while MBD and another looked on with amusement. The cats were under assault from this crew from the moment they came into the house. I think it’s good for MBD to be able to “let loose” every now and then (as long as they don’t break anything!) This was one of those times when MBW and I just smiled through gritted teeth while the wild bunch had a blast!
Zara, MBD, Lili, and the horizontal girl is Thea
Good glorious Sunday morning! I had an “Ah-ha” moment this morning. Should I credit Oprah with the “Ah-ha?” I remember at one time Paris Hilton wanted to or did trademark the phrase, “That’s hot.” Ah-ha was around long before Oprah, perhaps Albert Einstein? But I digress. This morning around 10 minutes to 8:00 there was a knock at the front door. It was a little knock and the shape of a small child occupied the tall frosted window on the side of the door. There is only one person who knocks on my door unannounced in the morning and that is Barb. She knows I am awake because either I have trucked out front to get the papers and dropped hers off at her front door or she has done the same for me. We actually met for the first time that way. Since then, it has become a joint effort.
Anyway, back to the knock on the door. Obviously it wasn’t Barb but it was the NEXT person I would expect to knock on the door unannounced early in the morning. It was Barb’s 5 year old granddaughter Ava. I knew Barb had told her it was ok but I also knew that it wouldn’t have mattered to Ava whether she had permission or not. You see, the world revolves around Ava. Or at least it does in Ava’s world and you are definitely IN Ava’s world when you are around her. Every single time she comes to her grandmother’s house she will turn every picture around towards the wall if she is not in said picture. It doesn’t matter if it is a picture of one person or 10 people. If she’s not in it, that picture gets turned around for the duration of her visit. Go figure! Don’t get me wrong, she is one of the most fascinating young children I have ever met. For those of you who really know me, that is saying a lot for Ava’s character. One of my favorite things about Ava is when she cannot understand something I have said to her. She will always respond in the most adorable Aussie accent, “Pardon?” It’s cute to hear but it is also displays the manners of this culture.
But I digress again. I opened the door to Ava holding a small ramekin. She promptly went into her spiel, “I’m wondering if I may have an egg. You see, I woke up at “Bob’s” house because I spent the night and I wanted scrambled eggs for breakfast. Bob said I could ask you for one.” Obviously there had been a discussion about the lack of eggs at Barb’s and Ava wanted a solution for her desire for scrambled eggs. I can only imagine said discussion – it is always fascinating to watch the communication between this grandmother and her 13th (“thirdeeenth” in Aussie speak) grandchild. Anyway, I gave her the egg and was extremely surprised she had no time for morning conversation. That’s never happened. Ava always wants to talk – the scrambled egg conversation with Barb must have taken some time and I suppose she was pretty hungry by then.
The Ah-ha moment came after Ava left when I realized that our social “communities” in the United States rarely come from our own neighborhood. It USED to be this way but not anymore. I remember growing up in a neighborhood with tons of families with tons of kids but there were also elderly couples and single individuals. You had cookouts at each other’s homes on the weekends. You never called before you randomly knocked on their door for a cup of sugar or perhaps an egg…. it seems as though the American society has moved their communities outside the neighborhood. Why is this? Is it because our children are so involved outside the home in extra-curricular activities? I haven’t thought much about this – it’s still in the Ah-ha moment. It DOES seem to confirm my thoughts that the Australian culture is now like the American culture was in the 1950’s and 1960’s. AND I LOVE IT!!!!!!
The Smiths in Oz 