Caloola Farm Weekend (May 2012)

We were invited to spend a weekend with friends and their friends on a farm very close to Canberra in an area called Tharwa. We could only leave late on the Saturday afternoon because we had a soccer game in the morning, and a soccer game in the afternoon, and we still had to do the shopping and packing before we left.  We arrived there in the dark, but at least there was a fireplace in the house / "barn" we stayed in and it was much warmer than we expected.

The awareness about the danger of bush-fires in Australia is pretty big, which means that the last time I saw a "real" fire was a couple of weeks after we got here and attended a bonfire with fire works evening in the area Sutton in NSW, near Canberra.

The girls ran around outside playing soccer by torch, adding logs to the bonfire and enjoying marshmallows on sticks.

I think we were about 30 people, kids included, and there must have been about 10 - 15 bedrooms, all with bunk beds, pillows and sheets, so we only had to take warm "doonas".  I would love to have all the family and friends there for a weekend.  We would have an absolute blast!

We did a lot of walking, cycling and resting on Sunday.  We stayed until just before dark, which means we helped clean up - because - there are no cleaners! :-)  At least all the tools were available and we could finish the job fairly quickly.

It was one of the best weekends we've had since we came here.  The absolute peace and tranquility of the area was really, really good for the soul.

The one very special thing that I did not get a picture of was a doggy kennel in the middle of the bush with an inscription reading - "RIP mate!!".  It looks out on a grassy area with the dog's blanket and ball still in the kennel.  It was a bit of an emotional moment!

I'll add a couple of photos to this post to see how it works - herewith the first one - A FIRE!!!!  Wow!!

Marshmallows on sticks and we smelled like wood smoke and LOVED it.

Mike and Kaylee at the fire.  Not sure for how much longer Kaylee would be able to get on Mike's back!

 Part of  fire place left from demolished house.

Very wild Kangaroos - in that they kept running away from me when I wanted to take a picture.  This was taken from quite a distance.

 Walk up the hill.

On the way back to the house.

 Ladder on fallen, cut tree.

Beautiful, beautiful tree.

And another old bathtub made into a water trough!

 Open gates between feeding camps.

 Fire wood.

 Pulley system.

Outside the place we stayed in and where the bonfire was made.

 Old, but in working order, windpomp.

View from the house.

 The house / "barn" we stayed in.  The place is huge.  It sleeps about 40 people.  It has a double volume section in the middle with rooms right around with 3 bunk beds in each room.  Industrial sized kitchen with industrial sized fridges, freezer and dishwasher (thank goodness!!)

 Jade was a natural with the bow and arrow and became quite accurate in hitting the target.

 Kaylee also joined in for a little bit - but she spent more time playing soccer and basketball with the bigger kids.

 Mike on the bow and arrow!

And.... No cleaners - so all cleaning done by whoever is last out!  This is one of the best vacuum cleaners ever, and I definitely want one for the house!

The website address of Caloola Farm is www.caloola.org.au

New to another country and far from your own

Being new to a country comes with its own set of personal fears and insecurities.

I got to know another Saffrican on this side that worked with me on a project. Decent sort of fellow (really good, in fact) and both Mike and I really enjoy his company. I heard today that his work contract was not renewed. He was told on Monday, and given until Friday to finish off. They will pay out his contract period, which ends at the end of June.

No warning, no nothing. No feedback or reasons. Just a 'good bye' - 'see ya later'.

Scary stuff! You have no network / contacts to fall back on. You forge ahead with faith and hard work and hope and pray this never happens to you.

I am incredibly greatful for the job I have and will hang in there and do the best I can with what I have.

I also found out about Saffrican friends and family friends that have cancer and are undergoing chemo therapy and all sorts of procedures. These are the difficult moments we have to deal with. Not being there to have a chat and a glass of wine, and if need be, a good old cry!

I'm going to miss the homecoming of a long awaited little baby, and I miss sharing the experience of being pregnant and being a new mom with my really close friend and 'sister'.

I miss my family. I miss my friends.

The things I really love doing here are having bike rides and runs on well laid out and safe tracks, swimming in an amazing indoor heated pool, letting the girls walk to school and back home on their own, letting Jade run off to the park for a play on her own, having no fences or burglar bars or alarm systems linked to armed guards.

The things I miss that cannot be replaced are actual contact with family and friends. Skype, facebook, telephone calls and emails are good plasters, but not a patch to the real thing.

However, we still enjoy the adventure and love seeing the girls grow in confidence and expand their experiences. We love spending time together as a family and have grown even closer than we were.

I cannot believe our one year anniversary is around the corner! We will have to celebrate the first year with a couple of glasses of bubbly!

Ode to Can

Ode to Can.
There’s a four lettered word As offensive as any
It holds back the few
Puts a stop to the many.
You can’t climb that mountain
You can’t cross the sea
You can’t become anything you want to be.
He can’t hit a century
They can’t find a cure.
She can’t think about leaving or searching for more.
Because Can’t is a word with a habit of stopping
The ebb and the flow of ideas
It keeps dropping
itself where we know in our hearts it’s not needed And saying “don’t go” when we could have succeeded.
But those four little letters That end with a T
They can change in an instant When shortened to three.
We can take off the T
We can do it today
We can move forward not back We can find our own way.
We can build we can run We can follow the sun We can push we can pull We can say I’m someone Who refuses to believe That life can’t be better With the removal of one Insignificant letter.

The soccer saga

One of the most difficult things for a parent must be to face the intense and absolute disappointment of his / her child. It cuts to the bone and makes you feel utterly useless as a parent. I wish there were ways to protect their little hearts, or at least know the fool proof way of giving them a shield to protect them somewhat more.

We had a really unfortunate experience with a soccer club here in Canberra. The initial coach told them she did not actually want to coach them, then actually stopped coaching them, then to top it all, halfway through the season, they decide to disband the team that she plays for. 

She has four options available to her, ranging from playing in boy teams (not an option - she will be annihilated) to playing with girls 2 years older than her either in the same division or in a higher division than what she played for. Only 4 girls in the disbanded team got the opportunity to play in the same age group but a division higher.

How does this promote mass participation in sports? 

Of the 4 options available to the girls in the disbanded team not one was to have all the girls play in one team, with enough of them to have a full team with reserves, and give them all a turn to have a weekend "off" - which becomes option 5 (compliments of my clever husband)!

She was incredibly upset and sobbed her heart out when we told her. She is the kind of person that gives her absolute all in what she does, and she loves playing soccer!

She is going to give the "two years older than her" girls team a go, rather bravely we think. I really hope that ths will be good for her, and that she will get game time and not pitch up every Saturday without the opportunity to play.

Oh, and to add insult to the injury we can be refunded the club fees, but nothing is mentioned about the national registration fees or the money spent on club uniform and soccer boots!! This after we were told that the girls cannot come to one training session to see if they want to continue (seeing as they played hockey in SA but considered changing to soccer), we needed to pay the club fees in full before any participation. 

Lets hope this ends better than what it started.

The land down under and our experiences

This is my attempt at keeping everyone updated on how we are doing and what we are doing in "the land down under".  I hope to make this an interactive blog and get updates and feedback from friends.  I'll try to make it as honest as possible to give everyone that wants to keep updated an idea of our feelings, emotions and experiences.  I'm saying "as honest as possible" because sometimes it is easier to not speak about what I go through, than try to put it in words.
Well, let's see how this goes.