Squeezy

Such a squished-in little building,
right in the heart of Sydney.
Built in 1886.
Any smaller and I would've smuggled it home in my suitcase.

Aussie kids

I smuggled some Weetbix back to America, but not enough. We ran out very quickly, which is a real shame because the kids loved Weetbix.

I would suspect that they'd been brainwashed by the television ad jingles ("Aussie kids! are Weeeeet-bix! kids!") except I don't think that one's even on TV anymore.

So it must be in the genes.


{Above: Berry and Weetbix, in happier days.}

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Doing and not-doing things in Sydney

If we wait until I have something clever to say to go with these pictures, you'll never see them.

So without further ado (side note: I saw someone write "without further adieu" the other day, and I think it was done with a straight face! The horror! Now I'm wracking my brain trying to recall whether it was one of my friends, and if they'll be offended.)

Ahem. Where was I....


Right – Sydney! When we weren't battling public transport and delighting in the luxury (*cough*) of the Travelodge Wynyard (serviceable, but definitely un-plush), Mum and I did manage to see some sights with the kids.


In fact, I was determined beyond reason to do many many many things with them, and I frequently lamented the fact that Kickbaby no longer fits in the Baby Bjorn (and hasn't for a good six months) because then we could've ditched the stroller and done soooo much more.


But stuck with the stroller, we took a ferry to Watson's Bay (where we saw the charming waterfront "Gondola House", above), to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and to the Opera House.


Berry ran up and touched the Opera House with one fingertip, and then ran away. Kickbaby (I have to get that poor child a new name, he's so far past being a baby) climbed every single step, all the way up to the Opera House. It's a real feat, and I'll have to show you a picture another time.


More Watson's Bay... Mum kept telling me about this great hike we could do there, "but not with a stroller... and not with the kids" – so really, a great hike we couldn't do, which she claimed had totally made their last trip to Sydney. Naturally I was delighted to hear about fabulous things we couldn't do.


People really are creative with their gates and fences in Watson's Bay, aren't they. Well, not this next one – I just liked the view through the little tangle of progress.


Ah Sydney. Very cool.

Spinning

This might be my favourite picture from our time in Sydney. Berry got on the steps to the Opera House and started jumping and dancing and twirling out of sheer happiness.

The undiluted joy of being three...

{click on the picture to see it larger... it's one of those that's worth it – ahem – if I do say so myself}

There for the taking

My brother Jules is standing at the foot of the Stairway To Knowledge. If you squint, you can see it written on the wall there.

But did he climb the Stairway To Knowledge? No he did not. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.



(Okay, neither did I. You know... it was getting late and the babies were cranky... If it wasn't for these pesky kids, I'd be enlightened by now! )

(You really have to say that in a Scooby-Doo villain voice. Never mind.)

Oh boy

After a month in Australia, I'm back in the USA – with two intact children and several medals for bravery.

Blogging from the other side of the world was a logistical nightmare, hence the slacking. I'll make up for it in the coming days (or weeks) with countless random and out-of-order posts. But there will be plenty of pictures to balance out the incoherence, so stay tuned...

Bright sunshine-y

A week of rain makes you really, really grateful for the sun. This is the Queensland I remember.

A pause

I keep trying to find time to write, in the midst of the Australian Lewis Family Extravaganza 2009, but it's impossible. Happily, I've just remembered that a picture's worth a thousand words.

Consider this a little chapter.

Talking to myself

Me: We like Miss Carmen, don't we! She's sweet to you.

Berry: Mm-hmm.

Me: Hey... you know how mummy's from Australia... and you know how Grandma and Granddad live in Australia... and you know how you're a bit Australian – well, Miss Carmen is from Australia too!

Berry: I did climb on a bouncy castle, one time.

Me: Okay.... was that in Australia?

Berry: No. I just telling you.

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How to confuse your holidays (Happy Halloween)

Australians don't do Halloween.

Growing up, we never dressed up and we never went trick-or-treating (and we wouldn't have been able to eat the spoils if we did – Dad's one-lolly-a-week rule was strictly enforced). But that was ok, because everyone else stayed home on October 31 too.

So when I moved to the States, Halloween – like Thanksgiving – was a new one for me. I loved it the first year because we and all our friends (childless and carefree then) dressed up as the characters from The Big Lebowski and stayed out till 3am.

But times change. This year we'll be taking our little forest fairy for a sedate lolly-gathering effort around the neighbourhood in the early evening, then staying in for the night. It will be her first year trick-or-treating... until June we lived in Washington and it was always too cold to take her outside at night. Hence the little Santa outfit from last Halloween, pictured above – nice and warm, and takes care of two holidays at once. (My practical side wins every time.)

Happy Halloween!

My brother kinda looks like Matt Damon...

... I mean doesn't he, a bit? Or is it just me?



No, I know it's not just me because people have said so before. But I was struck by it when this copy of GQ turned up yesterday.

Disclaimer: my brother was mildly cross with me for taking this photo back in Australia (I'm a sneaky candid photo-taker) and would probably be even more cross with me for posting it online. Well, sorry.

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Back of Beyond

I found my parents. Sort of.

Mum called from some semi-unintelligible place in rural Queensland and said they were planning to hit the famous Birdsville Track, once known as "the loneliest road in Australia" (that's saying something). It was opened as a cattle route in the 1860s and passes through both the Strzelecki Desert and Sturt's Stony Desert.

Sooner or later they're going to end up at Uluru (which was called Ayers Rock when I was a kid). Now that's a place I'd like to see.

Where are my parents?

This much I know: my parents are somewhere in the desert, in Australia.

This is not very helpful, since 44% of Australia is desert (and a further 37% is "semi-arid"... I think that included our backyard).

Mum called a few days ago and said, "I just thought I'd say bye, we're leaving in half an hour" – as if they were going to pop out to Grandma's. They've been planning their desert trek for a while, but evidently didn't tell any of their five children much about it.

I emailed my brother a little while ago and said, So, are Mum and Dad going to Ayers Rock, or where? He emailed back:

"They left in the Landrover. Stan and Glenys went too, they took plenty of food and will be gone for a while. Hopefully Dan knows where they went."

Yes. As a family, we have it so together.

Prettiness

After Annie and Fred's ceremony, the stairs were awash with little girls in white dresses playing with their activity bags – putting on silvery rings, playing with stickers, eating crackers, drawing in their notebooks... (For weddings where children will be at the ceremony, activity bags are an excellent idea).

Speaking of excellent things – see that velvety rose clip in Berry's hair, with the little sparkle in the centre? That was one of my very clever Etsy acquisitions. I also got some adorable little white flower clips for her to wear to Aaron and Sue's wedding (see picture below). Everywhere we went, people commented on how cute she was with those clips in her hair. So... nice work PamperingBeki! They were a hit.

Tagged: Seven Random Facts

I've been tagged – twice in one night! Both hojpoj and skinnylaminx tagged me for Seven Random Facts. I'm new to this, but Heather wrote:

"Here are the rules:
- Write down 7 random facts/habits about yourself on your blog
- Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names on your blog
- Leave a comment on each tagged person's blog, letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog."

Here goes.... Seven Random Facts About Me

1) I was always, always the shortest kid in class (and shorter than the classes below me). I was forever picked last for sports and put last in line for school photos, until Grade 11 when I apparently grew six inches overnight.

2) I grew up running gloriously wild in the Australian bush with my three brothers, my sister and the kids nextdoor. No shirt, no shoes, no problem :)

3) I hate the lame Disney-fied Winnie-the-Pooh with a fiery passion. It is very bad for the image of the real Pooh, who is a very earnest character.
I have watched The Princess Bride more times than I can count.

(Two facts in one point? I don't know what you're talking about!)

4) I have a photo of my husband that was taken about an hour after we first saw each other (we held up our cameras and snapped at the same time...bizarre.). We met on the overnight train to Venice when I foolishly asked him directions. We spent the next three days hopelessly lost, and didn't care much.

5) I've been drawing obsessively for as long as I can remember. I made my first card at age five; it had angels pencilled on it and a message exhorting my parents to "love each other like the angels". What a preachy kid...

6) My father-in-law chose my wedding shoes.

7) The Capuchin Catacombs in Sicily are etched in my memory as one of the most fascinating places I've ever been. They are haunting, and strangely beautiful, and beneath the surface they speak of family, love, society, death, hope and eternity.

Well, now I'll tag some other people and hope they haven't already done this!

MagicJelly, JulesAndShell, IvyLeaf, PamperingBeki, PamelaMichelle, TabithaEmma, MissMishMash

{Um... the photo is of Heidelberg Castle, and is here because I'm basically incapable of posting without a picture. At least it's random too...}

Cupcakes cupcakes

My sister still hasn't handed over the recipe, but these are the cupcakes we made for little C's first birthday party in Australia. We had a big cupcake-icing-and-decorating-fest / competition (everything's a competition in this family, but there's rarely an agreed winner) and people got very creative.

A few of the stand-outs: a pig, dracula, a prawn (shrimp, Americans), a turtle, a dragonfly...

Cupcakes and kittens

Zoe made this!

Cutest cupcake/kitten combination I've ever seen. Berry is a huge fan because she loooooves kittens and recently had her first-ever cupcake at little C's first birthday party. (I relented because my sister made extra-special-healthy cupcakes... I need to get that recipe.)

So this cupcake brooch was the most delightful farewell present...

A fortune in phone cards...

Ohhh boy... this stack of phone cards represents $680, and just a fraction of the money I spent on phone calls to the United States in our long-distance-relationship phase. I'm so glad I didn't add it up at the time – I would've had a nervous breakdown.

The first long-distance phase lasted about a year. We started calling (and emailing and IM-ing) in August of 2000, when I got back from backpacking around Europe, and finished in July 2001 when I left Australia for New Orleans. The second long-distance phase lasted about a year, while I worked for UBC in Vancouver, Canada. I don't know why I kept the stack of phone cards from the first 'phase'... I always had one with me. I'd duck out of work mid-afternoon every day and go down seven floors to the phone booth outside the post office, and call from there. I don't miss those days at all.

Anyway, I stumbled upon these while I was cleaning out boxes from the mezzanine in my parents' shed in Brisbane. Every time the kids come home from overseas, Dad pulls out about 30 large boxes, lines them up, and suggests that we "might want to go through those boxes up there and sort out what you want to keep...". It's a valiant attempt to get random mountains of his grown children's stuff out of his shed, and I'd say it's about, oh, 25% effective. But you have to start somewhere.

Two at the foreshore

I was four and my sister was two, and Dad took this photo of us in black-and-white and very fetching hats at one of our favourite places – the Wynnum-Manly foreshore.

Fast-forward a couple of decades... Berry is 18 months old, little C is 12 months, and Dad wants to recreate the scene during our Australia visit. What a fiasco! Organising toddlers for a photo is like herding cats. Truly a fool's errand, and in blazing Brisbane heat it's less funny than you might expect. This (below) is one attempt that doesn't have little C powering into the foreground, or Berry throwing her hat somewhere. Or Mum, mid-flight, trying to rein in a stray child or turn them to face the camera.

But oh look – fabulous – there's a shadow of the photographer's thumb in the corner! We won't name names. We also won't try to pose these little rabbits for a photo, ever again.

(We may have our fingers crossed behind our backs, though.)

Berry at the beach

Finally – Berry has tackled a real Australian beach.

It's really unheard-of for a little Australian girl to reach 19 months without seeing a real beach, but that's what happens when you live in Washington. We did visit Cannon Beach in Oregon and it was charming and picturesque and hauntingly windswept – I'm just saying if you need your jeans and anorak to visit, it's not a real beach.




We took Berry and cousin C to the beach at Currumbin the morning after Aaron and Sue's wedding. Sparkling white sand as far as the eye could see, and real crashing surf, and sunshine so bright it was hard to look at the sky.

This is a beach.