Monday, July 29, 2013

Seven Ages of Man

That was the theme to Dave's 70th Birthday Party held on the weekend! As per Dave's promise on his 65th birthday where he declared that he would reduce his workload by one day per week each year, this party was a truly momentous occasion which coincided with his retirement too!

Guests were invited to wear something from one of the ages - childhood, university, mountaineering club, orienteering, fatherhood, environmental consultant and retirement! There were numerous white lab coats, graduation gowns, a school blazer, orienteering paraphernalia, hiking gear, and even a dog! Most organised costume award goes to Cathy who had shirts printed with original Dave drawings from her childhood.

The speeches matched the occasion too. Dave had asked a person from each of the ages to speak. Kris gave an awesome speech by providing us with an overview of life working with Dave! Just as impressive was the birthday cake assembled by Susie and Cathy. There were various lego people exploring the great outdoors - a couple of ice climbing up the snowcapped mountain as well as a skier on top,  one crossing the river via a flying fox, another swimming in the river, a few walking the dog along the ovaltine track and one running between controls!


A slide show was complied for the evening. Susie came across this beautiful one which was taken around 1976 of Susie, Dave and Andy. What's interesting is how much you can see Katy in Andy. Funnily, Andy showed Ella the photo and asked who was in the picture. She replied without hesitation Daddy, Ella and Katy!!



Sunday, July 28, 2013

Home Sweet Home

It's been a week since we arrived back home in Canberra. The flights were long but fine. We all managed to get some sleep and entertain ourselves with the movies and games on offer. Proving once again how small the world is, we bumped into a friend at the playground in terminal 3 at Singapore Airport who was also returning home to Canberra after a school holiday European adventure. The airbus 380 from Singapore to Sydney was a dream - so quiet and smooth plus we had the bonus of sitting all together in the middle 4 seats.

Sydney airport was also quiet which meant a record time (according to travel expert Andy) through immigration and customs before locating our hire car for the short drive to Canberra. Sydney was much warmer that expected but as we continued driving south we watched the temperature gauge slowly drop from 14ºC to 9ºC when we arrived in Canberra. Winter was truly here - grey drizzly and bitterly cold!

The girls became excited as they began to recognise familiar landmarks. Eventually they went nuts as we passed Aranda Primary School and drove into our suburb Cook! I suppose we didn't realise how much they really missed the place they call home. We were greeted by Diego and a very excited Pippa.

We were very grateful to Isa and Diego for looking after our house - it was spotless when we arrived. It only took a short time for the home to become a bomb site. Christmas had come early for the girls who discovered all their toys again spreading them everywhere along with our luggage!

Our plan was to stay up for as long as we could to avoid jet lag. Slowly we began the process of unpacking before tucking into the fresh bread and homemade italian bean soup Isa and Diego had so kindly organised. It hit the spot for us tired travellers on such a wintery day.

We'd hoped to join Belinda for her 40th birthday afternoon tea celebrations, but by 2.30pm I'd had it, deciding to have an hour cat nap. Andy's parents arrived to play with the girls while we took the hire car back to the airport. According to Andy though I couldn't be woken from my slumber so he went with his Dad.

Ella was next to crash at 4.30pm followed by Katy at 5pm and Andy making it til 5.30pm! Needless to say I was wide awake up at 2am and was beginning to wonder what I was going to do until I was interrupted by Katy who needed the toilet and an hour later by Ella. Eventually at 4.30am we were up eating breakfast.

This early morning pattern continued with the girls taking it in turns to wake up early. Finally by Friday we had our first sleep in - waking up at 5.50am!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Last Days

On Sunday after a lazy morning and on the request of Ella, we headed into Pitt Rivers Museum. A museum of anthropology and archeology, it was founded in 1884 by Lt-Gen Augustus Pitt Rivers who donated his collection of 20,000 objects. Entry is via the Natural History Museum which is unfortunately closed until 2014 due to renovations. 
Another interesting building that houses the now 500, 000 piece collection which is arranged according to how the object was used rather than by age or origin. The children once again each selected a trail to complete - Ella chose 'Charms' and Katy 'The Great Wooden Mouse Hunt'. These trails provided the opportunity to wander around the museum trying to find wooden mice (Katy) and specific charms (Ella) while looking at exhibits and chatting about the sometime weird and wonderful objects inside!
We concluded our tour of the museum by making a Uchiwa, a japanese fan which came in very handy, providing s little bit of relief from the hot weather.




On the way home we stopped off at Ferry Leisure Centre for a swim in the learning pool. Harry, one of Katy's nursery friends was there too and together they enjoyed playing in the water.

On Monday, Andy did a final school drop off for each of the girls before catching the train to a 2 day conference in Buckinghamshire.

Tuesday was the girls last day at Cuttleslowe Primary School. They both enjoyed the experience and will miss their teachers and new friends.



In between packing on Wednesday, the girls and I played hide and seek, painted our nails, went swimming, watched Come Outside (an old BBC kids show which Ella has recently discovered), ate our last chocolate owl at the coffee shop and visited the post office! Andy arrived home just in time to read some bedtime stories :)

It's now Thursday morning - our last day!!  Katy and I've been writing this while Andy and Ella are still sleeping. It will be a fairly easy day we don't fly out until 8pm tonight. FInal pack and clean up of the house, a detour to Robin and Jo's to drop off some goodies then on to Windsor Park for picnic and play before starting the loooong journey home.

Woodcote Steam Rally

The day dawned on our last weekend in England. We had long planned to spend some time with Robin, Jo, Emma & Sophie this weekend, so when Robin invited us to join them at Woodcote Steam Rally, we jumped at it -- without really thinking about what a steam rally might be. So, what is a steam rally? Well, it's just like the Canberra Show, except a bit smaller and instead of showing pigs, sheep and horses they show off steam rollers, tractors and so on.

For example, the steam roller on the left was build over 100 years ago, has been painstakingly restored by a steam fanatic and was most probably driven along the A roads to get here at slightly above walking pace.

Below left is a steam engine built in 1902.  It started life as a mobile generator for a showman (i.e. to run a motion picture show). Later in life it powered a dodgem car ride (original call speed rides). But it could also drive -- at up to 18 miles per hour on a flat road. Below right you can see a miniature -- some of these are tougher than they look and one guy even claimed he could tow a car with one.
 
We started our day by strolling around the steam engines, unwittingly missing the miniature steam parade. Katy got to sit on one of the miniatures while it was puffing away, and they even had a glider which Ella climbed into and pretended to fly.


Then, we found the funfair. Katy selected the jumping castle with Sophie (below left) while Ella & Emma both went up the massive slide (you can just see Emma emerging from the bottom of the slide, and Ella half way down). Then the played hook-a-duck and we decided it was time to sit in the shade for lunch.


 It was un-Englishly hot, so Robin & I decided we needed some refreshment from the beer tent (there was some local beer festival) over lunch. And, finally, probably the highlight of the day for me, was a fly past by a Lancaster bomber, a hurricane and a spitfire.

The afternoon and early evening was spent at Robin and Jo's house. The paddling pool emerged and all 4 girls played happily until it was time to escape. A very relaxing way to spend the last Saturday of our UK visit.

Monday, July 15, 2013

Powderham Castle

The Met Office in Exeter invited Andy to speak, so we decided to join him and have a(nother) long weekend. Leaving Beer, we drove the short distance to Exeter waving goodbye to Andy at the Met Office before making our way to Powderham Castle with a quick detour past Tesco for lunch supplies.

Powderham Castle began as a medieval castle in 1391 with the typical long hall layout with six towers. Over the years it has been added to, damaged, restored and renovated depending on who even owned it at the time! I'd hoped that we'd be able to spend most of the 6 hours we had before we were required to pick up Andy.



The girls chose to visit the Walled Garden Play Area and Pet Corner first. No surprise there! After a short walk we entered via a large wooden door. Formerly the Kitchen Garden, this south facing slope is now home to a myriad of pet animals, a large playground and a greenhouse. Both Katy and Ella were looking forward to patting the animals. There were several ponies, a donkey, a few goats, numerous duck/geese/chickens, pigs, tortoises, guinea pigs, rats, mice, chipmunks and even stick insects! Unfortunately, with the sun blazing most of the animals were seeking refuge inside their houses therefore were both hard to see and impossible to touch. The disappointment was short lived though once the girls saw the playground. Courtenay Fort, a mini castle with rope ladders, suspension bridge and a 4.2m central turret was fun to explore. The flying fox was better - short but fast!


Next on the agenda was to visit the gift shop so Ella could spend some of her pocket money. She purchased 2 little animals - a seahorse for Katy and a cat for herself. By this stage it was lunch. I was hoping to find a large shady spot, but access to the grounds were restricted so we had to resort to sitting in the shade of the castle on a slither of grass. As we ate lunch we discussed our options for the next activity. Both girls decided for the Deer Park Safari.  
We climbed aboard the tractor trailer ride for a 40min tour around the estate hoping we'd catch a glimpse of a few of the 600 Fallow deer. While waiting for the ride to begin, Katy turns to me and asks Will they (the deer) have red noses? I was taken slightly aback Do you mean like Rudolph? Katy nods enthusiastically! I say I don't think so but we can have a look as we go around. Needless to say we didn't see Rudolph or his cousins but we were treated to seeing numerous deer with their fawns happily grazing.


The last thing on the list of activities at Powderham Castle was a guided tour of the inside.  I was pretty hesitant about going on this by myself with 2 children whose attention span wasn't going to last the 60min duration. However with still several hours left to fill before meeting up with Andy, I thought we could give it a go - worst case was we'd have to somehow excuse ourselves if the need arose. The next tour departed in enough time for us to cool down with some delicious ice cream.


On the front steps the guide calls up participants for the 3pm tour. Ella and Katy both sprint across the courtyard. Well, good start I think. I mention to the guide my concerns about suitability and he turns directly to the girls and asks them whether they'd like to find all the secret doors. Hook, line and sinker. As it happened no one else turned up for the tour, so we were treated to our own personalized tour!

The tour lasted about 50 minutes and the guide was fantastic. He instantly engaged with the girls and had them eagerly listening to his stories about the castle's history. The girls' ability to spot secret doors improved as the tour progressed and by the end they knew to look for the tell tale sign - fake books!

By this stage we'd exhausted the attractions of Powderham Castle as well as ourselves. Luckily our time was up and we headed off to pick up Andy before driving back to Oxford once again!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Bournemouth and Beer

The drive to Bournemouth took twice as long as we'd expected - first negotiating the roadworks in Romsey and then the M27 traffic jam. We were to catch up with Lynne, a work colleague from my Southampton Hospital days.

Lynne and Wally gave us a warm welcome. We chatted over a delicious buffet lunch which was over all too soon. Lynne showered the girls with a bag of gifts each. They were both thrilled thinking it was Christmas.


We continued our journey west towards Devon, arriving at the small seaside village of Beer in time for dinner. After checking into our interesting B&B we scouted the main street for somewhere to eat. With the warm weather, the choice was easy - a pub, the Anchor Inn, that had outdoor seating overlooking the pebbly beach and still ocean.




Weekend with the Currie's

Saturday morning we were travelling yet again although this was to be our last mini-expedition for our UK trip. We arrived at Hursley Park, just south of Winchester,  in time for us all to partake in the Southampton Orienteering Summer Series event #7. Andy joined forces with Dave to take the children around the 2km yellow course while I had a run.

The group of 4 children splintered shortly after the start with the 3 girls charging off from Duncan. However as the girls became sidetracked by one thing or another, Duncan's slow determination would have him back in contact. In fact towards the later stages of the course, it looked as if Duncan was going to overtake the girls until I appeared at their 2nd last racing them to the final control and up to the finish.


Next was the boys turn to race as Christine arrived from her morning work commitment. Andy put up a solid effort but was no match for Dave with his home ground advantage (he works for IBM who own and operate from Hursley Park). Meanwhile the children ate, then continued playing various games with the building of camp fires being the most popular. This involved dragging increasingly larger logs from the woods onto the adjacent lovely grassy area before arranging them into a suitably shaped camp fire!

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Christine and Dave's home in Chandlers Ford enjoying the beautiful back garden, playing around the house and enjoying a home cooked dinner! With energy levels waning it was soon time for books and bed for the children. As they all decided to sleep in the same room we suspected it would take awhile. Initially all was silent but we weren't fooled - it didn't last for long - lots of giggling, jumping on the bed and a pillow fight followed. Next was the 'dobbing in updates' ably led by Ella. Finally it came to separation with Emma choosing another room so she could actually get to sleep! It wasn't long after that all was quiet.


Sunday dawned with the promise of more blue skies and temperature in the mid 20's - yes summer has finally arrived and perhaps will hang around for awhile!! Farley Mount was chosen for our morning activity. Dave ran there with Andy, while Christine and I drove with the children. The play areas in West Wood were fantastic. Firstly was a series of logs, rocks and mounds encouraging children to develop their skills in balancing. Next was the climbing pyramid - too many choices -  climb up or down, inside or out. using ladders, rock holds or strips of wood. This piece of play equipment was definitely Katy and Ella's favourite.


The last play area consisted of tunnels and den building section. We were all having fun until an outburst from Ella, which put a dampener on the end of a wonderful time with great friends. Hopefully Ella will have matured somewhat by the time the Currie Family visit it us in Oz...was that in 2015???



Thursday, July 11, 2013

It's an Oxford Thing!

It was all go last Friday as we inadvertently double booked ourselves - Cuttleslowe School Summer Fair and punting with friends. Luckily the fair was straight after school which therefore to minimise the amount of time spent there, we compromised with the girls. They each had a a turn at Ella's class stall 'Pick a Stick' and a face paint. From there we raced back home before jumping in a taxi to take us to Magdalen College (pronounced mordlin) where we were meeting Andy, his colleague Ed and Ed's wife Imogen.


Magdalen College, like many of the colleges in Oxford has restricted access. It welcomes visitors as long as they are willing to pay, however as Ed and Imogen are members of the college, we waltzed through the gates avoiding the £14 fee. More importantly though another perk of being a member was access to the college's collection of punts.

One of the more famous Oxford Colleges, Magdalen is located on the banks of the River Cherwell and adjacent to the Magdalen Bridge. Strolling through the grounds we admired the beautiful buildings and the bell tower which loomed above. Our destination was the college boat shed where we were to collect the pole, waterproof cushions, spare oar and our punt, number 14. A punt is a flat bottomed boat with a square cut bow that is propelled by one standing on the back using a long metal pole.

It was chaos to begin with as Ed successfully negotiated the many first time punter tourists beneath Magdalen Bridge. A few near collisions before we escaped eventually finding our own peaceful space on the river. We enjoyed snacks and drinking Pimms while drifting along past Christ Church meadow, St Hilda's College, an old little mill and were joined by the odd duck or two!



It was here Andy got itchy feet and took the opportunity to have a go at being the punter. He soon realised that there was more to it than meets the eye as we began to zig zag down the river occasionally connected with the bank or an overhanging tree! Andy refined his technique quickly and soon we were travelling along at a nice pace. The girls took turns to hinder help row the punt with the spare oar. At least this kept them busy for awhile but they too need to master their techniques as poor Imogen ended up slightly wet!


Despite their initial protests, I think the girls will have fond memories of their punting experience as I know I will.



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Butterflies Excursion

Katy's nursery group, along with the morning nursery group plus the class of the older foundation children - all in all 3 coaches worth of children, teachers and parents headed off to spend the day at Cotswold Wildlife Park.



John Heyworth opened this park in 1970 just as safari parks were becoming trendy. At the heart of this 160 acre park is the Bradwell Grove Manor House where John was born and lived. Although we didn't have time to look inside the manor, it was a stunning and surreal backdrop to the rhinos, zebras and giant tortoises enclosures!




Our little group consisted of 9 children (aged between 3 and 4.5 years old), Miss Sidon and 3 parents. We wandered around the exhibits peering into cages trying to identify the occupants -  owls, emus, bats, penguins, a romp of very hungry otters and meerkats. We walked through the tropical house but couldn't spot the sloth and by this time our little people were beginning to fade so we stopped for lunch and rest.





Once our batteries were recharged we marvelled at the size of the giant tortoises, came eye to eye with a few of the giraffes thanks to a special observation deck, glanced at the sleeping lions, sadly observed a crazy (bored?) ostrich repeatedly pecking at his wire fence, watched a male peacock trying unsuccessfully to impress the white female peahen by the size of his plumage and tiptoed quietly through the woodland hoping to spot a wolf or two but they were all asleep too!

The highlight of the visit would have to be seeing a newborn white rhino. And when I say newborn, I mean it was only a few hours old, with the evidence still hanging from mum's behind (which if you look hard enough you can see it in the photo). The birth is the first for the park in it's 43 years history. Apparently rhino's only reproduce every 2.5 - 5 years, so the window for success is pretty small!

Another (!) toilet request and with our departure time fast approaching we whizzed past the flock of flamingos, the anteaters and the capybara (enormous rodents described as a cross between a guinea pig and hippopotamus) with it's very cute month old twins Pippin and Merry. A quick detour through the reptile house before arriving back at the meeting up point just in time to have an ice cream before boarding the coaches bound for home. A quiet drive back with happy and exhausted children with only 1 falling asleep!