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It’s been a little bit quieter here at the Robson house this past week, but that all stops once the weekend hits! I relaxed and recovered from the Chillagoe trip during the week and wrote my 3 part blog, finished 2 books (and I am halfway through my third), posted a lot of my pictures to facebook (I have a few more albums to go, I have to do it when nobody is home since it slows the internet connection way down), and I can now try and get caught up with adding pictures to my past blogs. Then maybe I should be all caught up, but the thing is I really do like doing it all ☺
Friday night was my first real night out at a pub with Kieri Darrigan and her friends. I am a little bit older than them but it was good fun hanging out. Since Heather is from the US and Simon did his post grad work in Boston they really don't have too many questions about the states for me. So it was the first time I had people asking me about America. One of the girls had done a semester in Oregon
and we had a great time talking out the differences between the two countries. I got asked about Obama (this was just days before Bin Laden was killed), the common views of America toward the rest of the world, and the tornados in the US. It was great being able to be different but in a good and interesting way. I learned that Mountain Dew doesn't have any caffeine and is more like Sprite in the US, and Sprite in Australia is more like Lemonade.
It is definitely cooling down here, although it is still great weather for a tank top and shorts even late at night but now you aren't sweating while just standing there.
Saturday brought more field hockey games. It was the first time I got to see Max play. He is really good and is fairly aggressive, scoring several goals and leading his team to victory. Heather is his coach and has done a great job coaching him as he is a great player, holds his position well on the field, and seems to be a good team player. Emily played as well right after Max's game.
Sunday was Emily's 10th birthday (she
Kieri and I
In front of the outdoor stagewas soooo excited to be double digits now) and a big music festival called Groovin The Moo. When the Aussie's say it it sounds like Groovin the Move (or from what I can decipher) but no its Moo, and nobody knows why. It was an all day event that started at 10:30 am and went until 10:30 p.m. I was told that in order to get the full experience you had to be at least buzzing before you got there, so we did pre-drinks at 10:30 a.m (eeek!) and had someone drive us to the venue a little after 12:00. There were so many great bands there and I had not heard of any of them, so all of the music was new to me. There were even a few American bands, but still I had not heard of any of them either. There were so many people and the fashion of some of them was amazing! I really felt like I was in a different country with the way that some of these people were dressed, its like the girls took all the fabric from the under part of their shorts and added it to the top so the
waist was almost to their boobs and not much covering their butt! Plus their shirts were like bra’s with a little extra fabric on the bottom, quite interesting. All of the blokes were wearing really baggy wifebeaters (they call them singlets) that just looked horrible on them. Oh! And the Dancing! The drunk guys are hilarious to watch when they dance, I was so entertained by them that when some of them stopped I told them to keep dancing, it was definitely the best people watching ever! It was a long day with us being there for about 10 hours, but I was glad I went.
I made it home a little after 11 pm and Heather was still up getting ready for the kids party the next day, I asked her if she needed any help but she is a one man show and was on a roll with the cakes. It turns out she was up half the night but the cakes looked awesome!
I took my time getting up on Monday since I was pretty tired from the day before, it was technically May 2nd in Australia which is my brothers birthday so Skyped him to
tell him happy birthday even though it was still Sunday night in Pittsburgh. Then it was no more dilly-dally because the party was started at 2. So we got the final decorations out and set up and I was set on Gak duty.
The theme of the party was Science, and there were a bunch of different experiments you could do from testing the starch in foods, mentos + soda experiments, Newtown’s 3rd law (demonstrated by jumping on the trampoline), Guar Gum Gak, and many more. I was the responsible adult to handle the Gak making experience, (it was great fun but I think it was a bit of a punishment since I wasn’t there at all yesterday to help with the setting up of the party) it was all good fun keeping a watch over the kiddies, (there were around 20 of them with most around the ages of 8,9,and 10) and guiding them through making Gak. There were two stations I had to watch over and about 3 to 4 kids were at each station at a time. They were great at using the hand mixers, (and for the most part not spraying the mixture on everyone, although
I did have to jump a few times to put a my hand on the mixer and push it back down as they were about to pull it straight out while it was still going full speed) also level scoops were a new addition to their vocabulary that day, but overall they did a great job of putting all of the ingredients in and mixing them all together. Then we let them take the Gak they just made home with them. It was a rush of the 2 hours but I think everyone had a great time.
The cakes were amazing as usual (Heather showed me the cakes she has made in the past and after seeing her handy work I really think she should have her own show). She had made a volcano cake that would “erupt” as she presented it and a science cake complete with chemist flasks, beakers, and an edible thermometer! Overall the party was a huge success as always and some of the families stayed after for a bbq afterwards. It was then brought to everyone’s attention that I didn’t know how to bbq and that before I leave I need to have an
Australian bbq lesson, so I will keep you updated on how that comes along! Overall we were exhausted by the end of the day, I just don’t know how Heather and Simon do it all. I got to sleep in and recover today but everyone had to go to work and school. They must all have super powers.
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Marcus Diehl
non-member comment
OMG, the Birthday Party looks Awsome
First off, thank you Barrett for calling me to wish me happy birthday. Besides thanking you, I have to log into facebook (which I never do) today to thank everyone else too since I got like 50 wishes online. But man, a science experiment birthday party??!!?!?! So cool. Very awesome Heather. Talk about being jealous of someone else's childhood. It is just so cool.