Melbourne – Nov 2009

We arrived in Melbourne late at night and we went to Aunt J’s home where we played with Cousins K and B before heading off to bed. In the morning, we were picked up by Uncle G and driven into the CBD where we met cousin N and we all went up the Eureka tower. The Eureka Tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We went up the incredibly fast elevator to the top where we could see a panoramic view of the city. Our first impressions were that Melbourne is very pretty and arty with lots of interestingly shaped buildings but also incredibly flat and vast. We came down the tower and walked to Federation square where we went to ACMI which is a moving image museum. The kids had a lot of fun with all the projectors and video games. Then we went to meet Aunt E at her office and from there we caught a tram at Rafi’s insistence through to the casino. We walked along the Yarra river and had very nice ice-cream. Uncle G then took us to Williamstown and Rafi played for a bit on a climbing frame while Mitch dozed in the car. Afterwards we went to a fish and chip place for lunch which was really very nice.

Later on we went back to Aunt J’s where the kids had fun playing with their cousins K and B on the trampoline and on the Wii. We all had pizza for supper.

The next day, Friday, Aunt J took us up to Kinglake where we saw all the devastation reaped by the horrific fires at the beginning of the year. It was quite something to behold. We had lunch at a quaint little place called the Flying Tarts. On our way to Yarra valley we stopped at a fort which was in a picturesque setting with a brilliant view of Melbourne from afar. We all climbed to the top of the fort with its tiny little stairs and Rafi enjoyed pretending to be a soldier. We made our way back to Aunt J and then we just lazed around the house for a bit. That night we went to restaurant called Sofias along with all the family for a huge Italian meal. Craig had a ginormous spaghetti and I had an equally humungous risotto. I don’t know if anyone managed to finish what was on their plate! Delicious!

On Saturday, Uncle R came to fetch us and drove us up to the Puffing Billy in the Dandenongs. The boys were very excited to be going on a real steam train! We chug a chugged through the countryside and got off at the Emerald station where Aunt R and Cousin C met us. There happened to be a Thomas the tank engine expo in Emerald so the kids had a lot of fun seeing the ‘real’ characters from the stories. We went for a light lunch at a little café in the area and then we made our way to Aunt and Uncle R, stopping along the road to feed some wild cockatoos and other colourful birds. DH learnt that it is always best to wear long sleeves when holding birds! We met up with all the family again that evening at Aunt and Uncle R and we had a barbeque together. It was great to see all the cousins together.

On Sunday Aunt E and Aunt J took us on an excursion through the suburbs. We weaved our way through Caulfield and Kew down to St Kilda where we went for a walk along the pier. It was phenomenally hot and we didn’t quite make it all the way down the pier but it is a really pretty beach. We went to a restaurant on the beachfront with bright orange umbrellas which was really cool inside which was great because the weather was just so hot. Afterwards, we went to Albert park where the older boys sat and watched the black swans on the lake, with Raf and Cousin B giving them strange and interesting names while Mitch climbed up and all over the play equipment. Afterwards we went back to Aunt J’s where all the family came over and we had chicken and fish and chips. Rafi had a slight bout of heat stroke so we didn’t have too late a night.

On Monday we went to the local shopping centre to get the much famed Trampoline ice cream which was very yum. Rafi got a toy worm and we picked up some other small amusements for the plane. Then off we went to Aunt E and Uncle J’s house which is very near LaTrobe University. Aunt E took us around the university estate and then to a nearby animal farm where Rafi got to feed a goat and got licked by a cow much to his chagrin. It was a very hot day so a lot of the animals seemed very sedentary but the kids enjoyed it especially the enormous pig which was the size of a small hippopotamus! We went back to Aunt E’s where we had a nice early supper and Uncle G took us off to the airport to catch our flight back to Sydney. It was a wonderful holiday and amazing to see all the family. The boys loved meeting and playing with such an abundance of cousins and we will definitely make plans to head back that way again.

October 2009

Only two weeks into October and it is already so eventful but not all in good ways. Last weekend saw the doobie family traipsing off to Luna Park. This is a big theme park right on the harbours edge on the North shore of Sydney. It was great fun and both boys were tall enough to go on selected rides so they had a blast going on mini Ferris wheels, driving airplanes up and down and going around and around in a mini roller coaster. The whole family went on the bumper cars where Rafi and I tried our hardest to bump into DH and Mitch. It was great fun. Then we braved the heights to go on the Ferris wheel which was a little creaky but had the most awesome views over Sydney. Rafi and his dad went on the wild mouse ride which is a real grown up roller coaster and I don't know which of them looked more green and shaky when they got off. While they were braving the mouse, I bought Mitch an enormous fairy (candy) floss. He had never encountered it before and it would have made an awesome Australian home videos segment as he tried to work out how best to get his head around it. He tried licking it, sticking his hands in it, and trying to bite it. Somehow he managed to eat the whole thing though so he obviously found a way to do it.
On Sunday there was great excitement as we headed out to the ANZ stadium to see Thomas and Friends live in concert. It was a pretty impressive production with the engines driving around the stage with robotic faces and steam coming out of their chimneys. Thousands of two year olds chanting Thomas, Thomas was also something quite spectacular. I have never seen so many toddlers sit so still for over an hour and a half. Whoever said Elvis was popular obviously had never been to see Thomas the Tank Engine.
This week was not a great one though. Rafi fell off the climbing frame at the park near Craig's work and we ended up dashing across the road to the Royal North Shore hospital to get it x-rayed. Somehow he managed to break it in two places so the poor thing has a cast all the way from his armpit to his fingers. Guess we won't be going on any rides at Melbourne's Luna Park when we go that way in three weeks time. There are still six weeks left for him to wear his cast so we will be finding a lot more sedate activities in the meantime. Mitch is terribly jealous of his big brothers misfortune and keeps telling me that different parts of his body are broken. Just this morning he has had a broken toe, a broken hand and a broken hair! :)

September is nearly over!

Today I suddenly realised that it has been almost three weeks since my last blog entry and that if I don't get typing soon, I will forget everything we have done during September. One of the first places we went since I last wrote was to a restaurant called Sizzler.
Sizzler is a very different concept in Australian dining and is probably about as close to a Spur in South Africa as you could imagine, although much better value and the food is better too. It is a good idea to read up on what to expect before you go for the first time otherwise you could be very unprepared. Basically you enter the door and stand in a queue. On the wall next to the queue is the menu. There are about 6 different steak options and some seafood things. There is also a kids menu with the usual burgers, fish and chips etc. But you don't have to take any of these options because the last option is the salad valley which comes standard with all the meals anway and the salad valley is huge! There are tons of salads, crispy potato skins, veggie bakes, nachos, pasta, sauces, desserts with self service icecream, and soft drinks on tap. The kids had a blast and ate more than they would normally eat in a whole week. Rafi made a quadruple soft serve icecream with chocolate and vanilla icecream and he covered it in sprinkles, baby marshmallows, smarties and jelly beans. Kids under 4 eat free which I think they may well have re evaluated by the time Mitch was done. In order to prevent people doing awful things at the salad valley, there are full time staff who patrol the counters with walky talkies keeping an eye out that people aren't double dipping or sticking their fingers in.
This month has also been a very family oriented month so we have spent a lot of time with people and mot going to venues as such although we have had quite a few picnics in the park, especially seeing that summer has come so early this year.
Thinking of weather I am sure you are aware of the freaky dust storm that hit Sydney earlier this week, when winds in excess of 100km/h blew huge amounts of red sand into Sydney from the outback. We woke up to a bright orange sky which gradually turned yellow during the day and then eventually cleared in the late afternoon. In the morning it was hard to see in front of your face and very difficult to breathe. People were walking around with masks on. It was pretty amazing though and felt like waking up on Mars.
This month we also all went for a professional photo shoot but when we went back to check out the photos, they were awful. The photographer just never got all four of us looking happy and at the camera at the same time. Anyway we never took any of the photos at all but on the up side, the school had a photographer come in and take some photos of the boys and they are amazing so we will put some of them up soon.

Putt Putt

Sunday was Father's day and DH was spoilt rotten with a full English brekkie in bed, lots of home made cards and some beautiful gifts. After breakfast we drove out to Ermington which is near Ryde to play a round or two of putt putt. The putt putt centre was just too cute. There are 3 courses each with a different theme. The first we did was the 'fun run' which has various cartoon characters on each course so you have to get the ball around Bart Simpsons legs or under Garfield's tail. The kids loved it and had an absolute blast. The moving windmill and the putt putt jail were particular favourites. After the fun run course we went for lunch up the road and then returned to do the jungle course which had all sorts of animals lurking in the bushes, cheetahs on the roof and monkeys climbing up the trees. We all had a great time. We will definitely go back to tackle the waterways course.

Here are some pics from the day...

Parsley Bay and Meningococcus

Apparently it is winter now. I can't say I believe it because the weather is hotter than a Cape Town summer but nevertheless it is wonderful and it means that we don't have to spend weekends cooped up and shivering by a heater. Not sure if hubby agrees as he has always preferred the cold, but he has been assured by fellow Sydneysiders that this is an aberration and that there will still be a cold spell before the end of the year. Anyway, the delightful weather took us off to Parsley Bay a few weeks ago. Parsley Bay is a hidden little beach. Quite frankly you could live in the area and if no one ever mentioned it to you, you could easily never find it. Luckily Samantha our trustworthy GPS told us where to go and after being in Sydney now for six months I was sure that there weren't many parks left that could impress me but wow, Parsley Bay is magnificent!

As you can see from the pictures, it is a park and then a small beach and then the sea with a little walking bridge over the top. Apparently in summer they put up shark nets so that you can swim in the water but the kids were busy on the playground and running over the bridge so they weren't too interested in swimming. The first two pics are from the middle of the bridge itself, the first towards the beach and park and the second pic is towards the sea.

Anyway this week has been interesting. Mitchie has had a slight bout of flu and a bit of a fever. Well we weren't terribly worried as it is cold and flu season so we just gave him some demazin, lots of fluids and let him sleep it off. Yesterday he was up and running and we were all ready for school today when I got about 4 phone calls from the boys' school and 6 emails to tell me that one of the kids in Mitch's class was hospitalised with meningitis from the meningococcal virus. They emailed a list of symptoms to look out for and suffice to say, Mitchie had had almost every one of them through out the duration of the week. (fever, sore throat, vomiting etc). Naturally I started to worry although both boys have of course been vaccinated against meningococcal C, I was worried that it was the 'B' strain or another one completely. The school also told me that as a precaution there was a doctor coming to the school to issue all the kids with antibiotics so that they don't develop the meningococcal virus. Well, at 7 o'clock at night, thanks to my fantastic sister-in-law, without whom I think I would have just freaked out completely, we rushed off to the medical centre to get Mitch checked out. And he was fine! The doctor said that he had a cold and that the antibiotics that the school were prescribing would sort that out anyway and that he definitely did not have any contagious diseases. Big sighs of relief all round, but I must say that I find it amazing that a whole school gets prescribed antibiotics due to one kid getting sick. It is terribly frightening, yet very impressive. Am kind of in two minds about the whole thing. It will be Mitch's first antibiotics and he isn't even really sick!

- P.S. here is a pic I took of the boys at a park yesterday, so that you can see that they are really in good health ;)

The Museum of Fire

Today was yet another beautiful day and we all headed out to Penrith where we were meeting three other South African families at the Museum of Fire.

Ironically on the way we passed an enormous real life fire because apparently an ammunition factory in the area of the Olympic Stadium had caught alight. There were helicopters and fire engines everywhere.

Anyway, the Museum of Fire is a museum which would make little boys everywhere jump up and down with delight. There is every type of fire engine, from the very early steam type to modern day machines. There is a Sesame street style movie running all about fire hazards and there is an indoor and outdoor play area where the kids can clamber all over fire engines and lots of buttons to push.

There is also a fire engine which drives all around the museum with lights and sirens blaring. The kids loved this in particular especially since the driver (who was more cowboy than firefighter) drove all over the grass and up and down the pavements. Rafi and his friend Aaron sat up front right next to the driver and they both grinned from ear to ear the whole time.

After some time at the museum and amongst lots of protests from the kids, we all headed off to the Spur. Yes, that's right, the good ol' South African Spur. There we all sat back and the kids ordered all their old favourites. The interior is exactly the same as South Africa down to the pseudo- totem poles and the menu is nearly identical except the omission of a 'salad valley'. Otherwise there is the same pink sauce and bbq sauce on the table, the same wood style menu and the 'chico the clown' for the children. The play area is perhaps the best part of the restaurant with a mini cinema, play stations and climbing frames. Needless to say we were left in peace for most of the meal. The food is typical Spur - nothing outstanding - but decent and basic. The prices were average Australian but don't try to convert to Rands. An original Spur burger was $12.99 and that would be equivalent more or less to a whopping R80+. :)

School Holidays = Less Traffic

The last two weeks have been school holidays although our kids don’t get the break as their play school continues through the whole year. At the very start of the holidays was Rafi’s birthday and he had a lovely party at school. Craig and I were up late the night before icing all different pictures on to cupcakes and the children were all very excited. They sang songs and really made Rafi feel special. Of course Mitch joined the class for the party and the big kids made a fuss of him too.

 

Anyway for the duration of the holidays we have been taking advantage of the low traffic and I have been taking Craig to work in the mornings. It only takes 15 minutes when we drive as opposed to the hour it takes him by train so we have all been sleeping a little later too. (although not as much as one would hope with a 2 year old in the house :)) Using the GPS we found the most amazing little park/playground just around the corner from the office. It is in a cul de sac and no one seems to know about it as we never see anybody there but the facilities are amazing. There are swings and roundabouts, a giant slide, a climbing frame, a bike track and even a toddler section. The kids love it and Rafi calls it the ‘secret park’.

Last weekend we went to a brilliant restaurant called, ‘The Counter’ in Crow’s Nest. Basically it is a burger place but the twist is that they give you a form to fill in and you build your own burger from scratch. There is a choice of patty – beef, lamb, chicken, turkey and veg. A choice of burger – bun, scone, sourdough or you can ditch the bun and have the burger on a bed of salad in a bowl. You get to pick four toppings, a type of cheese and a sauce. It was great. I had a veggie burger in a  bowl with a swiss cheese topping, beetroot, spring onion, tomato and mushroom. I chose the garlic aioli sauce. Yum. Rafi ordered the kiddies burger and they bought him 2 mini burgers with chips. They must have been good because he ate both of them! Mitch had toasted cheese – no meat for him! and Craig had a turkey burger on a scone, which he said was great.

Last weekend we also met some people who are friends of South African friends. We went to Centennial Park and their son played a bit of soccer with Rafi. They also rode around the kid’s cycle track together and got along very well. They live near to Craig’s work so I think we will definitely get together again.  

Today I took the kids for long overdue haircuts. We keep avoiding them because Mitch normally throws mega tantrums when people touch his hair so the last few cuts have been abandoned in the middle. In desperation we googled, ‘children hair cut specialists’ and lo and behold we found a place not far away in Randwick called, Kidz Lidz. Well they had an opening for the kids and so off we went. The inside of the shop is set up more like a play centre than a hair salon. There are all different ride on cars and planes for the kids to sit on while their hair is being cut and they have dvd players showing continuous kiddie favourites like ‘Bob the Builder’ and ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’. There is a separate section with a playstation and assorted toys and books for the kids to play in while they wait their turn. Rafi was up first and as always he was as good as gold. He sat very still and was most disappointed to get off the red fire engine as he hadn’t finished watching the Bob the Builder episode. Next up was Mitch and we all waited with apprehension. The first cut didn’t go so well, but credit where credit is due, this place is geared for difficult kids. The hairdresser went away and came back with a sticker book. Mitch was so absorbed in sticking stickers all over the steering wheel of the fire engine, he never even noticed the hair cut. Suffice to say, he finally has a big boy cut and he looks so different. As a reward, we took them off to McDonalds and they had loads of fun playing on the climbing frames.    

Tomorrow we are heading up North to go to meet some other friends and there should be lots of kids which is great. We are all going to stop and get picnic food on the way. Great news is that my family is back from their holiday overseas so the kids are super excited to see them. Hopefully we will get to do just that tomorrow afternoon as well.