Too much stuff and nothing says Easter like Melbourne

My heartfelt apologies for the long stint between entries.  It turns out that moving to a new country with family while trying to learn the ins and outs of a challenging job IS hard!!  I was out of communication commission while trying to sort out some interesting staff and athlete issues.  But now, the dust-up behind me and hopefully a bit wiser, I have some time to sum up our goings-on here in Canberra and surrounds.

So, after waiting and waiting, we finally got the call that our ship had indeed made it to Sydney and that most of our stuff passed quarantine.  Except for two pesky pinecone Christmas ornaments (you gotta be kidding me, they went through the whole box?? I shudder to look at what survived) which cost us an extra $50 for disposal.  Here was the actual exchange with the person from the moving company:

Moving person (MP):  "We must inform you that you had pine cones in your shipment and that it will cost $50 for their disposal."

Me:  (sharp intake of breath) "What??  $50 for two little ornaments??  Or is that $50 apiece???"

MP:  hearty laughter...  "Oh you are too funny, $50 for each?  That would be silly!"

Me:  (dryly) "Ahh.  There's where the silly line in the sand is drawn, I see."

MP:  "What?"

Meanwhile, I took guilty pleasure in knowing that the spices and herbs I had packed made it through without detection.  Our food will be illegally spiced for the time being.

Unloading day dawned with the movers not far behind.  They'd repacked our stuff into two smaller containers and of course all the big stuff was in the second one to arrive, making for a lot of shifting of little stuff to fit big stuff.  The movers were a cheerful lot, though, and willing to try to cram our 2400 square feet of furniture into whatever nook and cranny our current 1800 feet would receive.  The living room couch missed the cut, and is out in the garage.  Along with what will probably be about 10 boxes of extra schtuff that we have literally no surfaces to handle.

The good news is that things now do look better than they did that first day.  I laugh now at the thought we'd only live here a year and see how it goes--maybe find something better in terms of housing.  We are here for the duration, as god is my witness, at least!!  And it does now feel more like a home than just a house.  And now we have that extra bed (okay, just a futon, but still!) for visitors, so come on down!

Easter, as it turns out, is big business in Australia, complete with the requisite chocolate eggs, bunnies, and well all those other spring images.  The Australians are not ones to quibble over details like the fact that, well, it's fall here, for gosh sakes.  This year's calendar provided everyone with a longer-than-usual holiday weekend, combining Good Friday, Easter Monday and Anzac Day into an almost week-long fest.  Anzac Day comes from (and I am sure you will hear from Dan if I get this wrong) Australia-New-Zealand-[I go blank now for the rest of the letters, but it has to do with several countries heroic efforts during WWI] and is the local equivalent to our Memorial Day back in the US.  ANYWAY, suffice it to say that with that many days off in a row plus Mika's school term break, we were off to the holiday races.  Specifically, a trip to Melbourne to spend some time with Kirsten's work colleague Susie Parker-Simmons who used to work with KP at the USOC but coincidentally also moved to Australia so Susie could head up the Victorian Institute of Sport.

We had decided to make the 8 hour drive to Melbourne rather than flying so as to put miles on the leased car we were supposed to have in hand by now.  The tsunami hitting Japan, however, derailed the arrival of our car, so we're still in the borrowed AIS Holden Captiva.  Oh well...

So on the way down, we stopped at a coastal town called Lakes Entrance for more surf playing and hiking.  Very nice area and yet more opportunities for Mika to outpedal mom from the waves.

From there we drove to Mount Eliza, a coastal community south of Melbourne to meet up with the Parker-Simmons family.  Mika and I agreed that if we had to do it all over again, we could cheerfully live here--a 10 minute walk to the ocean in an area ripe with wineries and farms.  We got to attend our first netball game, the Melbourne Vixens outlasting the Midland Pulse.  Mika was unimpressed with the game even as us adults were amazed at the athleticism if not the action around the net.  There's no dribbling per se, so players rely on quick passing and movement away from the ball to get it close to the goal (think basketball hoop without a backboard).  The action sort of stops once the ball gets in close enough, but without a backboard and no real player-to-player contact allowed, the shot itself seems a little anticlimactic to those of us used to basketball mayhem under the basket.  This sport is the #1 sport for women in Australia (men don't play it).

Easter Sunday, we all went to yonder garden/hedge maze area to while away the better part of the day scrambling through several hedge mazes (kids are much better at this than adults), visiting farms for local produce, and sampling a little of the local wineries.  A wonderful day.  Here's us at the maze place:

Above is Susie with her two kids, Rachel and Blake, as well as Mika, looking appropriately confused pre-maze.  Below are kids, plus Susie, Dan, and Susie's husband, Jeff.

Easter Monday, we all drove into Melbourne proper--the Parker-Simmons family had scored tickets to the big Australian Rules Football game that day (called "footy" by those in the know) while we toured the city for the day.  Our highlight was a visit to the Melbourne Aquarium including the required shot of Mika in the shark's mouth, as well as an entertaining interlude watching the manta rays try to eat the divers who were in the tank trying to feed them...

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent on the Canberra drive, this time taking the straight inland shot back.   Roadside highlights included a stop at the famed "Dog on the Tucker Box" exhibit, right off the highway no less.  It would appear that Australians are quite fond of capturing folklore or local points of interest in statuary--in some cases incredibly oversized statuary.  This particular attraction may have lacked physical stature, but it made up for it in sheer audacity.  

Dog and Tucker Box.

The dog and his tucker box (otherwise called the lunch pail) has been the subject of many different story versions over the years.  My current favorite is the one where the dog's owner--a workman of some kind--has a string of bad luck, he loses his way, his truck breaks down, and when he gets back to collect his tucker box, famished no doubt, he finds the dog (and this is a quote from the engraved story): "sitting--or worse--on the box."  We will leave it to your collective imagination to determine what "worse" might be.  But a story worth capturing and putting to print, wouldn't you agree?

Suffice it to say, we made it back to C-town in one piece.  Stay tuned for our next, hopefully more timely episode!!

A "normal" week goes by

Life is settling down, finally.  This will mark our second "off" weekend in a row, where we have no major plans or work trips for Kirsty.   So is life actually getting boring?  Not quite. 
 
A quick recap, last Saturday was Mika's first Saturday morning soccer practice, which allowed Mom and Dad some time for a hike together on nearby Mt Majura.  On Sunday, we visited the Glassworks factory and saw a demonstration, then hit the art and food market next door.  Mika had a great time sampling everything - chocolates, nuts, fruits, cheese, you name it.  Then wandered through the art and craft area where she bought a book on Useless Japanese Inventions (turns out there are quite a few of these out there), and then another book that had won an award last year for best historical fiction for youth. We also met the author who signed the book for her (Ok, that was a little more of a thrill for me, but one day she'll appreciate it.  Right?).  We capped off the afternoon with a picnic lunch on the lake with a variety of foods we bought at the market. 
 
The rest of the week went relatively smoothly, though I read a slightly disturbing headline on page 3 of the Canberra Times on Wednesday:  "High rodent numbers ready to march into our warm homes".  Apparently the unusually wet summer has led to a surge in the local population of "rodents", and experts are warning that with the first frosts expected in the next few months these buggers will try to get into homes.  Ok, fine.  Except something was gnawing at me (no pun intended), and I couldn't place it until it struck me this morning (again, no pun intended).  A few nights ago we were sitting in the living room with some music on and Kirsty asked me if I heard something.  I didn't, so I turned the music off.  Still nothing.  So I go and open the front door  Thats when I heard it, whatever "it" was.  Extremely bizarre, low guttural call.  Kirsty seemed to think it was a possum, and I was in no position to argue, but it just sounded…. bigger.  Finally, today, I put the two together and realized what I heard - R.O.U.S.  For those of you who have not seen the Princess Bride, well, go watch it.  For everyone else, wish us luck!