Advertisement
Published: August 5th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Sunday 20th July...
We landed about 2pm but it took us a good hour to get through luggage and customs, as the Beagles were giving us a good sniffing. They were quite interested in our bags for some reason the customs guy couldn't figure out, as I then unloaded the jars of Peanut Butter and Marmite I was smuggling into the country (they still let us in though - it wasnt that really, they are after fresh produce which we didnt have, so it must have been Gav's natural fruitiness distracting him). Adam was waiting with Flynn & Luca and the kids bonded by throwing Jacks rabbit around the airport floor whilst we sorted our hire car out. I was rather alarmed to find out that the Hire Car turned out to be the most ridiculously huge truck like 4 wheel drive diesel engine thing and we were all about 1m off the ground. Gav was resigned to being the sole driver as the look on my face simply said 'there is no way i am driving that'. Got back to their house in a suburb of Perth, a town called Melville, where Fiona and the youngest Jonti were. It's
so odd when you havent seen people for years, yet you pick up again like it was yesterday. Settled in and had a gorgeous Sunday roast on the barbie - in true Aussie form.
Although we knew it would be winter in Australia when we booked it, you dont really think its going to be that cold because its Australia isnt it, its always hot in Australia all year round wherever you are, thats just the way it is! However, I can now confirm that it can be VERY COLD in Australia. We were so confident / stupid / in denial that we hardly packed any warm clothes - no jumper or jacket for Gav (!) and 1 pair long sleeve pjs, top & jeans each for the boys - what was I / we thinking!!! When the Sun is up it is OK and you can get away with a T shirt if you are in the mood, but AS SOON as it goes down, the temp drops dramatically!
We all went to bed about 9pm and so let the fun commence......Joe awakes at 11.15pm, cries with mild disorientation and we bring him into our bed. I
am then awake for 2 hours as having 2 males in the bed makes it difficult for me to get back to sleep (if only that were more exciting than it actually was), so eventually go to the loo and check on Jack only to discover that Flynn who he is top-tailing with has left their bed and gone to Adam&fi's. Ah-ha! The sympathy i have for Adam&Fi having their sleep interrupted is quickly replaced by delight that i have somewhere else to go. Jack is actually awake so i go in. He is disturbed by the periodic creaking sound made by the aircon/heater unit - I end up being dragged into a chat about why metal makes this noise as it heats and expands and cools and contracts, which as you can imagine I was delighted about at 1am. Anyway, I realise that he is also burning up so have to get Nurofen sorted and we fall asleep about 2am. Luca is up at 5am wanting his mum and simultaneously playing with a toy wristband that makes karate noises - I manage somehow to sleep on till 7.15.
Monday 21st July...
In the morning, Gav goes to
have his stitches out, and it all goes well. Us women folk take the youngsters to the recreation & play ground across from the house, where we manage to expend 5 boys energy levels somewhat. Home for lunch. Then in the afternoon we drive to Kings Park, with gorgeous views over Perth City and surrounding areas. Go for a walk around and the kids frolic and burn yet more rechargeable energy. Home for Tea. Kids to bed by 7pm. Jacks in our bed and Joe ok in his travel cot. The night involved Gavin waking Jack and I at 3am to give Jack some medicine as his temp is still sporadically flaring up over 100, which Jack was not too happy about and neither was I!
Tuesday 22nd July...
Still, I managed a lie-in till 8.30 and Joe having gone to bed earlier at 5.45pm slept till 9am!! As you can tell, Sleep is definitely high on our radar at the moment. The Jet Lag has not been that bad really, much better than I hoped and certainly would not put me off doing it again, well...not for a while anyway. Today we had to pack up again
and load our belongings into our GIANT car for the drive down South to Busselton - our holiday home for 3 nights. Plan was to leave home 10am, stop for lunch in Bunbury and arrive about 2-3pm. Hmmmmm......
We were on the road 10.45am, arriving Bunbury at 1pm. Wandered for 1/2 hour trying to find a cafe for lunch. Settled on the Walkabout Cafe, looked great, child friendly, nice menu - but as we found out too late VERY SLOW.....Didnt eat till after 2pm. The Catteralls left before us to find playground to pacify active kids. We sat there painfully watching Jack slowly eat Jelly & Ice-cream, didnt want to rush him as he'd not been up to eating much - and were still administering more Calpol in between spoonfuls. The rendevous went astray as we took a wrong turning and eventually found eachother about 3.30pm finally arriving at our destination after 4pm, phew!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 12; qc: 49; dbt: 0.051s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb