A Distant Memory

Three months (!) have passed since we left Oxford and time to reminisce about our stay there.  On the whole it was a fantastic experience. Leaving behind day-to-day life and work (literally for me!) was relaxing and refreshing. But our three-month sabbatical wasn’t all the easy holiday life one imagines!

Andy found his workdays quiet and more productive which was reflected in his empty email box at the end of each day. He kept in contact with his students with an early morning video call once a week. The opportunity to network meant visiting other universities, which often involved a long day negotiating the trains.

Both girls seemed to enjoy attending Cuttleslowe Primary School. Ella’s inclusion into a Yr1/2 class resulted in an improvement in her reading and a platform into writing. Also, in the absence of playground climbing equipment, Ella was introduced to skipping and hand clapping games. In retrospect we think Ella struggled socially. Although she never complained or refused to go to school, we suspect from some of her ‘new’ behaviours, that she was having trouble with playground politics and the rougher behaviours of many of her classmates.

Katy embraced the opportunity to grow up and attend the same school as her big sister! The daily three-hour nursery sessions were a lovely introduction for Katy into school life. She formed strong friendships with two girls – Rebecca and Freya. At one point towards the end of the trip when we were talking about returning to life in Canberra, Katy exclaimed, “Oh Kanookas is so boring!”

We spent most weekends away being tourists, orienteering or catching up with old friends. Thus we became expert packers and the girls even better travellers. We played numerous games of I spy, car cricket and even tried the alphabet game. The girls entertained themselves with colouring and drawing and when bored of that Ella would read to Katy before resorting to ipad time!

In our travels, we tended to eat out more, exposing the girls to a variety of restaurants which inevitably for them would involved ordering pasta and cheese, spaghetti bolognese, pizza, sushi or chicken nuggets followed by ice cream! With many of the B & B’s a full english breakfast was included. Despite this menu, Katy requested porridge while Ella switched between fried and scrambled eggs but added baked beans to her order.

We will treasure the memories of our weekends away. Remembering our time here previously, and the ease of travelling, reminded us how so much has changed in 10 years! Travelling with children is much more demanding! At times we packed too many activities into our schedule, with some interesting behaviours exhibited by the girls putting our parenting skills to the test.

The weekdays were our recovery time. Quite easy to do as we didn’t do any organised activities, our social network was very limited, there were few outdoor play areas (plus the weather was miserable for most of the part). All this meant that we spent many afternoons playing Uno, Hello Kitty memory, Lego, reading books, drawing, baking (very limited) or watching tv with the girls in their pj’s!

The apartment met our needs – but reinforced that we love our own house. Apartment living is very different. It was impossible for the girls to duck outside to play as this involved 2 locked doors and several flights of stairs plus they were then out of sight. Katy did improve her stair ascending/descending ability as a result of repeated practice especially when the elevator broke down for over two weeks. It wasn’t fun lugging up shopping or luggage up the 6 flights of stairs during this time.

There was no adjustment needed for the cleaning lady, who was included in the rental agreement. Elvira turned up most weeks to clean and refresh the linen which was just heaven! We longed for a decent shower with consistent hot water with some pressure. UK shower mixers (a shower head connected to the bath taps) are just awful. The combined washer/dryer in the kitchen was heavily utilised especially the dryer. The kitchen was never going to be as good as home though. The setup reflects the type of clientele who rent such apartments – probably mostly short term. On reflection, three months is a difficult length of time – too long for a holiday but not long enough to be settled.

Shopping was always an interesting experience. There were several local supermarkets on the high street at Summertown where we could buy most things. Our main shopping was done at one of the superstores, located on the outskirts of town. With each visit to the superstore, I’d become more familiar with the layout and brands. It was interesting to see several isles of ‘ready made meals’. Obviously Brits are either not keen on cooking or more likely don’t have the time as they spend most of that commuting.

Also I’d say 95% of fresh fruit and vegetables come pre packaged so there was no choosing the good or ripe stuff. All the packaged food had used by dates, which I found a little strange until I had a few carrots that actually went off after a week! It was nice to have the summer fruits come into season while we were there. We feasted on the raspberries, peaches, apricots and nectarines.

There were no signs of rice crackers, fruit bars or blackcurrant tea and unfortunately the green pesto (according to the girls) didn’t taste the same so that was off the menu too. Pain au chocolat became a big hit as did smoked salmon and for me quinoa!

A highlight of shopping was receiving your brand match voucher at the checkout. It’s a voucher that is calculated on your purchases and the savings you would have made if you’d gone to the opposition! This amount ranged from £10 to 50p and would be taken off your next shopping bill. Meanwhile the highlight for Katy was the café afterwards where we’d share a muffin, play on the ipad (Katy) and enjoy a mocha (me).

Now we are back in Canberra, I love the space we have - from our house to the garden, to riding bikes on the street, to being able to park at the local shop and to the amounts of green space. Sometimes it takes a trip away to better appreciate your life at home. The UK is so congested on so many levels – from hour long traffic jams to negotiating the footpaths. Quiet suburban streets double as carparks; so when driving along one has to negotiate parked cars (on both sides of the street) as well as oncoming traffic!

I do miss the sightseeing (along with the planning involved), Indian takeaway and also the time we spent doing things together as a family. The girls grew up immensely in our time away, and it was great to see them taking an interest in museums, history and other environments. We’ve now slotted back into our old life – loving spending time with family and friends; but trying to negotiate everyone’s work/school/childcare schedules is already getting a little tiresome. Which all makes me wonder where and when our next sabbatical will be!!

Camping at Jervis Bay

A few weeks ago we embarked on a weekend of camping at Green Patch, Jervis Bay. Turned out to be a popular weekend with so many friends taking up the opportunity to get away. The stats - 6 families, 12 adults with 12 children (youngest 11 weeks and oldest 6 years!).

Our family took an early mark from school and work, heading off around lunchtime. The 220km road trip took just over 3 hours allowing us to set up our tent before taking advantage of the warmish conditions to explore the beach prior to dinner.

Green Patch is such a beautiful place. The brilliance of the turquoise water set again the white sand and blue skies. We were treated to views across Jervis Bay to the cliffs of Point Perpendicular however the smoke from the bush fires soon drifted in obscuring the view for the rest of the weekend.

Meanwhile back at the campground as the adults prepared dinner, the children were busy climbing in and out of trees followed by organising their seating arrangements. We were also fortunate that it was not a total fire ban, so as the sun set, a campfire was lit just in time for the children to toast marshmallows before bed!

Saturday dawned with the children waking up early. Once breakfast was devoured, they were all hunting for items to sell at their shop. Bargains were to be had - bottle tops, brass fittings, maps, leaves, birds nest, log books.....The adults all had to visit the shop and haggle over prices of prized items! One could pay in leaves or by card (swiped and pin number entered!!) It was great that their shop kept them entertained while we gathered all the necessary stuff needed to spend the morning at the beach.


Arriving at the beach, we noticed the tide was in which created a mostly shallow river / lagoon area. We nestled in behind the headland sheltering from the wind and began playing.


Ella and Katy were very keen to ride their boogie boards in the river. Ella donned her new wetsuit and flippers and was off! It wasn't long before all the older children were taking turns and sharing the 4 boogie boards amongst themselves. Parents were soon commandeered into towing children across the lagoon. Meanwhile the younger ones were content with building sandcastles!

Our lovely clear lagoon soon became brackish as the tide ran out and so to did the energy of our children! We returned to the campsite exhausted and hungry from our morning activities. A bite to eat and a sleep for some of the little ones solved these issues. By mid afternoon a small group of adults went off for a jog while the remaining took the gang on a bush walk.

The short loop involved sign spotting, lizard spotting, echinda spotting, lizard egg spotting and stick spotting; several food stops and generally everyone having a fun time.

Again returning to the campsite there was more shops although the shop owners began to bicker resulting in some moving their shops and others creating a hospital equipped with nurse and doctor who could give needles, take xrays and issue crutches, wheelchairs and even moon boots! A bbq dinner followed with more marshmallow toasting and for those still awake even some glow stick action thanks to Allison! As most children entered the land of dreams, it seemed there was a disco in our tent as Ella battled to succumb to the land of zzzzz.

On Sunday morning we all packed up, then headed for our last beach session. The tide once again had created a perfect swimming lagoon. The children became more adventurous boogie boarding over to the other side and even trying to surf! A few even tried to catch a real wave (despite the lack of a swell!)

We concluded the weekend with fish n chips for lunch at Huskinsson overlooking Curambene Creek watching the boats. Our drive home was mostly quiet as both girls nodded off!! Must be the sea air!!

Another Week

and another tooth!

Grandad's Holiday Part 2

The second half of Grandad's visit involving running a school holiday program for Ella! They had a great time together on Thursday and Friday. From picking up supplies at Bunnings, to walking the dog, riding bikes, picking up Katy and even baking cupcakes!

The weekend turned out to be lots of fun too. We had a full house on Saturday with Sofia and Emily (new neighbour from over the back fence) come to play. Together they planted sunflower seeds with Grandad, ate lunch, enjoyed the swings in the front garden and played dress ups - Grandad was the king, Sofia the knight fighting the dragons, Ella the maid while Emily and Katy were the princesses! When they tired of this we headed down to the cook playground for an ice cream and (of course) a play.

Sunday's highlight was the visit to the Pod playground known in our family as the Nut playground at the National Arboretum. Impressively both girls rode there - Katy on the tag along and Ella on her own bike. The girls loved climbing the rope ladders from pod to pod ending with a long curly tunnel slide. After a little while we retreated out of the gusty wind inside to enjoy a coffee. Both girls wanted to ride home but we'd thought it perhaps was a bit much so a compromise was reached. They both rode down the zig zag path to the cork oak carpark where Katy climbed in the car along with Ella's bike and Ella swapped on to the tag along for the ride home.

Grandad's visit was concluded with a relaxing dinner at Debacle. Monday was quiet for Grandad and Pippa as the rest of us were back at school, childcare and work. Grandad rode over to Hawker, walked the dog, took another(!) load of washing off the line before packing his bag ready for the flight back to Perth that night. We eagerly await our next visit from Grandad and Nana scheduled for Christmas :)

Cat in the Hat

The highlight of Grandad's visit would have to be going to see Cat in The Hat at the Canberra Playhouse. We caught the bus in, a little too early but luckily it was a beautifully sunny day so we enjoyed a coffee on the steps of the theatre before the doors opened.

Al, Max and Mira were also at the show, seated in the row in front of us in what turned our to be a rather empty theatre as you can see in the photo. The production itself was about 45 mins long. Another cleverly written script with minimal props and loads of sound effects which kept the children entertained for the whole time. We all thoroughly enjoyed the show.

We returned home on the bus stopping briefly before heading out for some groceries. Our journey ended up at the new Sushi shop at the Belconnen Markets for lunch followed by a quick play at the mushroom prior to returning home to finish the mulching job in the front garden.