Boo Hoo! Last Weekend in Australia.

Friday 12^th September.

Still buoyed by the exuberance of last night’s La Fille Malle Gardee, after our babysitting duties; swimming, breakfast, drive to school, we kept Suze’s Cee’d for a whizz across to the Serpentine Dams area for some bush walking. I had hoped to go Dolphin swimming but the season for that starts in October so we will have to make do with an eco tour on Sunday, with the kids as well. I have booked that already and I think they are looking forward to it (even Jeff).

Bush walking is so different to any kind of walking in the ‘wilds’ in the UK as there is nowhere on those small islands that hasn’t been visited, tamed or ‘improved’ by men over the millennia, here there is absolutely no sign of any kind of attempt to tame the landscape at all, so it can still seem really ‘wild and woolly’ out there. Coupled with the fact that the Calm maps available make the Ordnance Survey mays of the UK look like scientific documents, you need your wits about you when in the bush at all times. As Laura joked I need my wits about me when I am in her bush anyway. Naughty girl. If it wasn’t for the fact we were now both on our monthlies again, I would really have liked to have some al fresco sex with her, but hey, you can’t always get what you want, can you?

We followed our Calm map for quite a while doing what we thought would be a circular walk to a rocky outcrop. We found the outcrop, where we had our lunch and a long sit and snog, but successfully managed to get misplaced for a while on the continuation of the circuit back to the car. Eventually we decided that the best thing to do was head back to the outcrop and try again. People often make the mistake of ploughing on regardless and get themselves even more misplaced than they were. To add insult to injury we found a wee marker at the rocky bluff pointing us in the right direction! Whoops a daisy indeed! Setting off down this route had us back at our car in the car park in about 90 minutes, which was what the route indicated to me, using Naismith’s rule.

At the car we had another drink from our flask of tea and pondered on how easily we could have instigated a large scale search for us after failing to return to collect the kids from school. We decided to make light of it when we got home, if anyone asked, as it would be embarrassing otherwise.

We collected the kids on time and found that Jill had spoken to her Principal again about having her Aunt over to stay. She had a brief note for me from the boss woman which asked if I would consider giving the talk about University and its opportunities that I had to the Year 12s last year. When we got back home I had to phone and tell her that we were flying back on Tuesday and had things planned for our last two days. I did express regret and disappointment that I wouldn’t be able to help and she seemed happy with that. I had thought I hadn’t heard from her as she didn’t require my spiel this year, it turns out Jill only mentioned I was over on Thursday of this week after discussing how they were going to see Fille Mal Gardee with me that evening. Kids, eh?

Suze and Pete were having a night for them tonight, so we raided the local video shop and selected a trio of DVDs we thought we could all agree to watch. Jeff was not impressed by the idea of The Princess Bride but he loved it, I expect he’ll be going round saying, “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die,” for quite a while.

S & P didn’t roll in until just after midnight, by which time we had watched our movies, pigged out on home-made pop in the bag popcorn and drunk 4 litres of Dr. Pepper (zero). Because they had said they would be in by 11, we set off on a night-time excursion round Torcross Reserve so that when they arrived home the house was deserted. We planned it as a joke but it backfired slightly, for when we returned at about 11.15pm they still hadn’t returned!

Luckily I had got them to bed before the happy couple did put in an appearance and then thought our surprise would have been brilliant. Worrying but brilliant. Pete said he thought that the kids were going to miss me even more this time than last year, if that was possible. This was a little bit sad in a way and almost had me blubbing, I know I welled up but swallowed hard and fought back waterworks.

Saturday September 13^th.

Today was the final Saturday for going to Freo Market, so we did. After swimming and early breakfasts we drove up, as a family. We split up at the car, in Coles car park, at just after 9am and arranged to be at the food court at 1.30pm. Laura and I went straight away to have a look at the Maritime Museum first. It is excellent. It seemed much better than I remember it being when I came with Mum last year. We strolled through the shopping area and had a look in Myers. I was hoping to spot someone I recognised from 2005 or 2010 but I didn’t. (They can’t all have moved on?) We scoured the Market for a ‘thank you present’ for the family and found a chocolate fondue set of mugs inside which you place a tea light to heat up the mug to melt your chocolate. I just knew they would be a winner. (If it wasn’t for the fact they were so heavy, I would have bought some for us to take home too!)

On the way to the market we found a little shop that had some brilliant shirt dresses in the window, so we sallied forth and tried a few on. I bought a gorgeous peacock feather patterned one and Laura got a pastel green one which suits her so well.

In the food court we were the last to arrive and everyone wanted to know what were in our bags. We told them they could wait until we got home. We wandered off to get our food in shifts, so that someone had control of the table. It is tricky when you have to seat seven all at once in these places on a busy day. After a well filled family had eaten their way through enough food to sink a battleship we conferred about our next actions; being close to 3pm Pete, Jill and Jeff were itching to head towards Subiaco for the second of Freo’s play-off finals (they were already one down to Sydney Swans) and we remaining girls decided that we would head back to Warnbro and have a chilled afternoon back home. Pete, Jill  and Jeff were going to catch the train from Subi into Perth and then catch the Mandurah Line back to Warnbro where one of us grown-ups would collect them from the station.

They needed collecting by a grown-up who wasn’t really interested in the AFL grand finals as The Dockers lost their second match of the play-offs and are now out of the compy altogether. What a difference to last year when they sailed all the way through to the Grand Final. We knew the score already and Laura volunteered to collect the distraught fans from the train. Good on her, I say. The galling thing was Port Adelaide scored the same number of points as we did when we beat them in the last round of the season at Subi at the end of August. The sporting trio were rather subdued when they got in and even a couple of slices of the Cheesecake Company’s huge fruit tart couldn’t lift their gloom. That is the problem with sport, euphoria and despair in equal measure at times.

They were so disappointed, especially as we had beaten Port Adelaide so recently. They were about as miserable as I can ever remember seeing them. Usually they are an up-beat sort of crew who cheerfully attack whatever life throws at them. It was quite strange to see them so down in the dumps. Jeff decamped to his room to play on his video game machine; Jill went to have a shower and Pete asked if anyone wanted to join him in a glass of port. I volunteered as he was brandishing Happs Fortis, which is port but not by that name. It’s lovely! Suze claimed that if we two had started she wasn’t going to be left behind and she checked with Loll and they opened some late picked Verdelho. Annabelle was miffed at being left out so Pete made her chief snack collator in return for a glass of port and lemonade.

The night deteriorated into a Family take on Victoria at scrabble event with Annabelle sitting securely on the Chambers Scrabble Words book and acting as arbiter of my words. I won the best of five games 3 – 1. I had a hail of cushions thrown at me for using my M from metaphor on an E to make em (a printing term) which was in the scrabble book much to Annabelle’s annoyance and gave me a 7 letter bonus. Perhaps tactfully losing might have been a better option.

We had a rude scrabble session when the kids had gone to bed that was hilarious and possibly induced by the amount of alcohol we had imbibed by them. We hit the charp well after midnight and quite the worse for wear. One complete bottle of Fortis emptied, 3 verdelhos and 2 HWBs! Perhaps we were merely putting the impending departure of Aunt Vic and her gorgeous girlfriend behind us. I had so much to drink I had to wander my way to bathroom at about 3.30! Not something I do all that often.

Sunday 14^th September.

SurprisinglyI wasn't the worse for wear this morning, so we forwent the swim at Aqua Jetty so that we could whizz down to Bunbury, I was surprised how quickly we got there in Suze’s car rather than the slow plodding certainty of the camper van. I had booked the five of us for the 11 am Ecotour and we had to be there by 10.30. As it turned out we were there by 10am, I would probably have been doing a tiny amount over the speed limit, TBH. The early arrival was good as it gave us time to have a thorough look around the exhibitions before we departed at 11. I was also able to buy a family ticket and one child which meant I didn’t spend as much as I thought we would! Always a bonus, near the end of a holiday.

We had a safety talk first and the guide was surprised to learn we had been on their diving with Dolphins tour two Christmases ago. We explained that we were showing our Pom visitor round the sights and they diving tours didn’t start until she’d gone home. He didn’t understand why we kept giggling, I suppose he didn’t realise my Aussie accent wasn’t my usual one! The tour wasn’t totally full which meant we had more room to swap sides and move about in the boat.

We were given a tour of the main harbour first and had the history of the town and the local sights of interest pointed out to us. The inner harbour sometimes can be dolphin riddled but today when we went in there was only one which went out into the bigger harbour as we watched, so we followed. Here we were told that if there were none of the blighters out here we would go into the Leschenault Inlet as often that’s where they also went to feed.

We didn’t need to; there was a pod of about a dozen or so bottle-nosed dolphins swimming about in the main harbour. The guy was able to recognise a few of the creatures by their fin damage and these had names. He was also able to describe a little bit about their personalities, which sounded quite a far-fetched idea but I guess if you are studying them you will get to know their quirks and foibles. The dolphins came right up to the boat and they stayed playing about in the water for most of the time we were there. We were entranced, even though we hadn’t been in the water with them they were so close and personal it was a joy. It felt far too soon that we were heading back to Koombana Drive and the Discovery Centre once again.

Back on Terra Firma I suggested we head into Bunbury and look for somewhere to have lunch. However, as I drove away I asked if they would like to have lunch in Busselton instead? They jumped at the chance, so we headed that way (it’s only another 60Km and we are going home on Tuesday night). I got Jill to phone her Mum to let her know of our change of plans, just in case, and off we zoomed.

After a swift snack we caught the little train out to the underwater observatory and spent some more time looking at aquatic life in there too. I do like Busselton and this end of the continent. We strolled back along the jetty rather than riding again, although I was expecting a mini revolt, the kids seemed quite happy to do that too. From her we made our more sedate way back to Warnbro in time for a wash and brush up before our evening meal.

All in all a very enjoyable day and a good one for chatting with Jeff, whom is often quite reserved with me for some reason. He is enjoying his school and his AFL but is beginning to see that a career in the game needs masses of dedication and commitment plus more than just a liking for the game and enthusiasm. He is wondering if he isn’t quite good enough to make it as a professional player. I told him having a back-up plan was always a good idea, should things not turn out the way you expect. He quizzed me about XXX & Y where I work in Sheffield and asked me what the lawyers there did. I tried to give him as full and detailed account of what I knew but had to offer the caveat that I was only an archivist there, not trained in the law at all. He doesn’t know for sure but it seems he quite fancies going into law in some way, if he can’t make the grade at footy. I told him he needed to do some research at school and his librarian would be only too pleased to help. (I have met him and he seems a very switched on guy.)

One thing I found amusing was the fact he asked me not to tell his Mum and Dad about it yet and especially not the witches! (His term for Jill and Annabelle.) I laughed at his name for my gorgeous nieces but I guess when the three women in the house get going they might seem a bit on the intimidating side to a young lad. I asked if I was a witch too and he had the grace to blush, but the nerve to say that I could be a little bit witch like at times too. I asked about Laura and he told me, “Oh no, she’s just lovely.” He then went a shade of red I haven’t seen on a male for a long time. Poor lad. I agreed that she was lovely but that she rode her broom with the rest of us!

The meal had a touch of sadness about it, to be honest, as the unspoken feeling was obviously at the back of our minds that we would soon be over ten thousand miles away and the mad baby sitters would probably not be back for a while. We had already let slip that after Laura’s graduation we were planning on spending most of that summer on Arran, so they knew that a return visit for a third year in a row wasn’t on the cards. For me it isn’t the cost but the time it takes (and, to be honest, I do miss Callie when I am away, even though I know she doesn’t miss me, being with Dad’s three dogs all the time). The cost would definitely be a major factor for Laura, I know she wouldn’t take kindly to me funding her again for another trip and leaving her behind would be even more heart wrenching than leaving my silly weimaraner.

If she finds herself a job on graduating that could be a different story. I won’t count chickens though. The best laid plans oft  gang a’glay, don’t they?