First it was the two-year lease deal we signed for our car. More recently, it was the two-year cell phone contract we entered into for...dare I say it...Mika?? It feels like the web of life is slowly but surely tying us down as actual and bona fide residents of Australia. I am not saying that our time here will be dictated by the length of our technology contracts...but every time we sign on the dotted line, we do so with an intake of breath.
So...why does our darling daughter need a cell phone, you ask? (This would be called "burying the lead" by my editor friend Laura Larson.) Dan has recently joined the ranks of the duly and gainfully employed! I will allow him to expound at his blog-writing leisure upon the details of the job, but suffice it to say that it is full-time, in the IT field, and allows him some outside intellectual stimulation as well as augmenting our travel budget something fierce!! On the other hand, however, this development has exponentially increased the family's logistical challenges as we try to juggle three schedules while remaining--for the moment anyway--a one-car family. Mika was buoyed to no end by the twin lures of her own cell phone AND the chance to be a latch-key kid. So off we went to yonder mall to spend a horrifying four hours attempting to decode the incomprehensible code that is the average cell phone plan and actually sign on the dreaded contractual dotted line. She has been good at texting us upon her arrival home--the texting lingo she has already managed to acquire is staggering, may I add.
For now, Dan and I carpool to our respective work sites and we're all getting a taste of the actually-pretty-good public bus system. Mika's school term break is fast approaching, however, without a plan in sight...I may be putting her to work for the good of the AIS.
...and Floriade
....which looks like Florida misspelled by a second grader, but in Canberra, nuthin says "Spring!!" like Floriade. My apologies in advance to those readers who may know more about this event, but my research into the origins and duration of this Canberra spring institution is sketchy at best. It was going on last year during the time we were in Canberra for my interview, which puts a weird deja vu spin on things, even though we didn't make the time last year to take in the glories of Floriade. So we decided this year to see what all the fuss was about, since all we knew was that involved a LOT of flowers.
We took advantage of a colder blustery Sunday in hopes it would aid in parking and tamp down on fellow Floriad-ians. Little did we know, the event was even free!!
And nothing says "spring" quite like a presentation from Questacon (cool Canberra kid's museum) on the science of taste. Kirsten volunteered to have her tastebuds counted to see if she was a "super taster" which unbeknownst to her beforehand meant having blue dye sprayed onto her tongue!! Mika thought this was the best part of the day.
Be still, oh hearts of my gentle readers...I realize the stress on your systems with not one but two entries in a single month. Will try to keep up the pace, but no promises. But with a term break trip to the aptly named coastal town of Eden in the offing, hopefully there will be more news to report soon!!
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