to the great southern land and back, madre rana's perspective

Hey there me lovelies! Happy New Year twice over to all you beautiful people. I trust that the beginning of the Year of the Fire Pig has treated you all well enough. And if it hasn't, blast it all to hell! I hope it turns around for you. Things with us are pretty good - I can't complain. Wait a minute, I can always complain. But I will spare you the winjin'. And the peasants rejoice.

We just got back from our month long adventure Down Under. It was fantastic, exciting, informative, exhausting, and, for a few moments, relaxing (as I am sure all of you with small children can understand). I have to say that when I imagined traveling to Australia I never imagined doing it with an infant. Ai-O!

We arrived in Sydney on January 22nd and went straight to bed. The flight was not terrible at all; after all the trips back to Canada which include an hour to Hong Kong or Taipei, 11-12 hours to Vancouver, an hour and a half to Edmonton or Calgary and then several hours in a car back to the farm, Kaohsiung to Hong Kong and then 8 hours to Sydney was a dream. Jude fared pretty well for his first major flight I would say. The biggest problem was keeping him entertained, as the poor chap bores easily (where does he get that from you may ask? ;) ). In this regard, getting on the plane first is the WORST thing to do. That way he is already bored before we are anywhere near take off. And we left later in the day and that is usually when babes get cranky so it was a bit trying. But, it could have been waaayyyyy worse.

We spent a week and a bit in Sydney hanging with Tom's mom Billie and her guy Barry, and various other family and friends of Tom's from childhood, high school, uni, Kung Fu and other bits of his past.

I got to meet his Kung Fu sifu and I was admittedly a wee bit nervous. We went into the city for Australia Day, which was cool to see the Aussies in celebration.
Note the guy sitting in the fountain with the beer.I have to say I didn't personally get into it though, as trying to push a stroller through a more than packed Hyde Park was more than a bit like walking through a night market in Kaohsiung on any given day and we all know how much Dawnelle likes this. (If not - I hate it with the fire of a thousand suns.) And a wee bit disappointed that I couldn't partake in the celebrations. I rest assured that one day I will get my chance.

Here are some hot cars on display downtown that day. In Australia, they don't put jaguars on their cars, they use kangaroos.










We also saw "Turandot" in the park and thus I experienced my first Opera complete with a picnic in the grass. A lovely time except for the fact that it was BLOODY COLD! (Funny thing - with the exception of the last few days in Sydney, it was rather chilly for most of the month we were there, UNLESS we were in the car on one of the 12 hour trips cross country and then it was 8 million degrees out). Tom and I also got to go to a performance (sans babe) at the Opera House called "Kaidan" - dance choreographed by Meryl Tankard combined with drumming by Taikoz - a group of Aussies who do Japanese Taiko drumming. It was wicked. I love drums. And we also saw a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne. A lovely little bit but again, it was BLOODY COLD. Apparently if you are going to so theater in the park in Australia, bring a jacket. And blankets. And a stove.

We walked around downtown a fair bit, went on a hike along the Heads,

got up to the North Shore to see Granny,












and strolled through the Botanic Garden.





Here's one of us with our friend Pan:

We went for a dive at Shelly beach and saw Wobbegongs, lots of kelp, LOADS of sting rays (don't worry, we didn't pull a Steve and get too close) and some very cool fish. Unfortunately, I did NOT see any weedy sea dragons - ALAS! Next time I guess.










From Sydney we went up to the Blue Mountains to stay with family friends in a beautiful house built by Nikos himself in the bush. It was cool and misty and absolutely wonderful to be surrounded by gum trees and the cackling of Kookaburras, the pterodactyl-like squawking of cockatoos, the clicking of geckos. Didn't actually see any redbacks or funnelwebs (much to my relief), although Nikos assured me there were millions all around us. I think Australia is the land of the spider if nothing else. We went up to Echo Point to see the Three Sisters, but of course it was so foggy that we didn't see a bloody thing.





The Three Sisters are right above the sign.
Completely masked in the fog.






Chalk another up for next time.

From there we went down past Sydney to Otford to visit some more friends who also live in the bush, but this time right along the coast. We went for a little walk with the kiddies along the cliff and then got back in the car and headed further south to Ulladulla to visit Tom's dad Ron and his wife Romy.

Note: We stopped at the massive temple in Nowra and it was very cool but sort of weird going to a temple in Australia when they are all over the place here. But the coolest thing was that they had all these little buddha baby statues and they looked just like Jude! Headwise that is.

It was in Ulladulla that the wee bub had his first dip in the ocean. He took to it like a fish, as they say, to our great excitement.

After a mere day we got back in the car and went to Canberra, Australia's capital city to visit Tom's aunt Julie, her husband Peter and their children Matty and Niko. The next day we took a scenic drive up the mountain to take a look at the city. Canberra is very interesting because the location was chosen as a spot basically between Sydney and Melbourne and the city itself was designed in entirety before they built it. They even built a lake in the middle and on a map the streets have ramps that look like hearts and clover.From there we embarked on the second longest car ride of our travel (the only longer one was the way back) to Melbourne. Although most of my time I spent in the backseat entertaining the bub, it was very interesting to check out landscape. Unfortunately Australia (like much of the rest of the world) is experiencing a drought that has been running seven years, and is in our opinion not a drought, but the result of global warming. Lots of flat land turned to agriculture where the trees are often dead or dying, and what livestock there was to be seen was huddled under the surviving trees in the shade. This perspective was of course intensified by the fact that it was cloudless and sunny and 8 million degrees in the car with the a/c on. We saw the Dog on the Tuckerbox and stopped in Glenrowan, were the famous Ned Kelly, may he rest in peace, made his last stand.

Finally, after several stops to change and amuse the boy, we made it to Melbourne. We stayed with good friends Toby and Deanne, who had previously visited us in Taiwan. We also spent a good deal of time with Peter, a bendy, jazz playing dude, and stopped in on Nick and Amy and the kids, previously featured in the this blog. We walked around the city a bit and for the most part just relaxed "at home". And man, after packing, re-packing and moving three people in and out of a car, I was thankful for it.

After a few days we got back in the car and returned to Ulladulla for a night, and then Ron and Romy's holiday house was free so we moved in for the better part of the week the next day. We had planned to go diving the following morning, but alas - we got more rain that night than the country side had in the last seven years. Glad we could help, but it meant absolute shite for diving. (Always fancied myself as something of a rain goddess, though only on vacation!). We did go diving, although there was about 2-3 metres visibility (not so nice) but we did see some cool stuff and a 2 metre long bull ray, who kinda followed us for a bit. Tom's sister Chris showed up from London on Monday (his other sister Jo got back from Spain and his other sister Caro got back from Africa while we were there too - what a reunion!), and we lounged out mostly. Had a wicked time feeding the birds - rosellas,
lorikeets, king parrots and crested pigeons! Ah, to live in the land of rainbow coloured birds! Also got to see my first roo up close - a big daddy was lounging out on the lawn when we got back from the beach! Bloody cool! (Note: we had seen a couple in the ditch alive, and as roadkill on the highway as we drove back from Melbourne. Although it was not the same as it was watching them bound across the lawn, it was rather startling seeing their great, upright shapes loom out of darkness as we zinged past. We also saw a few wombats - I've finally seen them Dic - and they are nothing like Kumquats! ;) - but more dead ones than 'live ones).

After a few days we were back in Ulladulla, and then back in Sydney for more hanging out with the fam and friends. It was sunny for the most part and we took a dip or two at the beach. Tried to go boat diving, but for various reasons, it didn't happen. C'est la vie. AND my supersnazzy sis Amanda had arrived in Sydney where she is taking a massage therapy course and will be living for a year. So we had a wonderful little reunion. She got to hang out with our main little dude too (whom she things is wicked cute but a barrel of trouble already) and give her big sis a massage. Her idea of course, as she says she needs the practice. The first one was wicked, so I can't wait to visit her again to get a little more.

Jude was very lucky to have all his aunties together at the same time. As afore meantioned, my sister Amanda was there studying. Chris, who has been living in England for the past few years made it back from London. Jo, who was touring around Asia, Europe and Central America, made it back from Spain, and Caro who was on a brief trip to Kenya and Thailand, also made it back in time to say hello to the wee guy. Here's a pic of the guy with his beautiful aunties:

And then, finally on February 23rd we embarked on the voyage home. Jude was an angel on the long flight and there was a queue of people wanting to hold the little punk on the way back. He was a perfect terror on the flight from Hong Kong back to Kaohsiung though! Thank goodness it was only an hour long!



Here are the great adventurers in the Hong Kong airport, recalling their exploits with great amusement and candor:


Grace, Yuly and Daniel (our Taiwanese family) attacked the stroller when we arrived and Mama Frog and the wee guy went straight to bed. Well deserved I might add!

All in all, Mamafrog things the land down under is A-OK and is thinking that this may be a permanent base one day. Everyone received us with open arms and it was fabulous to finally meet all these people I had been hearing about for the past three years. Australia is a truly gorgeous country in all respects and I can't wait to go back. It is how I imagine Canada to be if it were a whole lot warmer.












Here are some random photos that I took, sort of fancing that Iknow what I am doing with a camera. As usual, more trees and flowers. Few rocks though...

I have to say though, that after over 30 hours in a car with an infant, looking out from the backseat, changing houses 10 times, all the packing and the washing and the missing out on the festivities that I may have over-enjoyed as a childless person, I was actually glad to be back in my own bed. Thank goodness Grace cleaned the house while we were gone! She's a ninja!

And thus, my dearest friends and fam, with that Mamafrog bids you adieu until she can get another few hours to herself. Next year perhaps. Until then, all my love from asian island.