Australians All Let Ostriches

Happy Australia Day everyone!  I'm celebrating by sitting on my couch in Amsterdam at 2am browsing through holiday photos.  Andrew commented yesterday when looking at our photos from 2 months in Oz that it was a once-in-a-lifetime holiday, except that it's our home and it's always there and always like that.

  I'm proud of my country, and I'm proud to be Australian.  I think that Peter Allen's song will always express it best:

I've been to cities that never close down

From New York to Rio and old London town

But no matter how far

Or how wide I roam

I still call Australia home.

I'm always travelin'

And I love bein' free

So I keep leavin' the sun and the sea

But my heart lies waiting over the foam

I still call Australia home.

All the sons and daughters spinning 'round the world

Away from their families and friends

Ah, but as the world gets older and colder

It's good to know where your journey ends.

And someday we'll all be together once more

When all the ships come back to the shore

Then I realize something I've always known

I still call Australia home.

No matter how far

Or how wide I roam

I still call Australia home.

I realise that Australia Day is celebrating the arrival of the First Fleet into Sydney Cove and the proclamation of British sovereignty over Australia but I feel that Australia Day celebrates so much more, because we are so much more than an old penal colony where the convicts of Britain were sent, so much more than a country that is said to have started a little more than 200 years ago.  And once again, a song captures it best (Bruce Woodley and Dobe Newton):

I came from the dream time, from the dusty red soil plains,

I am the ancient heart - the keeper of the flame,

I stood upon the rocky shore, I watched the tall ships come,

For forty thousand years I'd been the first Australian.

We are one but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we come,

we share a dream,

And sing with one voice,

I am, you are, we are Australian.

I came upon the prison ship bound down by iron chains

I cleared the land, endured the lash and waited for the rains.

I'm a settler, I'm a farmer's wife on a dry and barren run

A convict then a free man, I became Australian.

I'm the daughter of a digger who sought the mother lode

The girl became a woman on the long and dusty road

I'm a child of the depression, I saw the good times come

I'm a bushy, I'm a battler, I am Australian.

We are one but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we come,

we share a dream,

And sing with one voice,

I am, you are, we are Australian.

I'm a teller of stories, I'm a singer of songs

I am Albert Namatjira, and I paint the ghostly gums

I am Clancy on his horse, I'm Ned Kelly on the run

I'm the one who waltzed Matilda, I am Australian.

I'm the hot wind from the desert, I'm the black soil of the plains

I'm the mountains and the valleys, I'm the drought and flooding rains

I am the rock, I am the sky, the rivers when they run

The spirit of this great land, I am Australian.

We are one but we are many

And from all the lands on earth we come,

we share a dream,

And sing with one voice,

I am, you are, we are Australian.

So, I'm proud to be Australian with everything that entails, and I'm proud to call the great country home.

Scott's Head - The Fated Boat Trip

The boat was on the water and we were headed up the river to Nambucca Heads......until there was a bang and a jerk and the boat wouldn't go. Dad managed to nurse it back to the boat ramp and the poor sick boat was in boat hospital for the rest of our stay! The kids did enjoy the little trip they had. There is nothing like sitting on the front of a boat with the wind rushing past you. Probably much the same feeling that dog gets when he sticks his head out of the window of a moving car...except we all kept our tongues in our mouths and didn't wee on any lamp posts!

Back

Just letting everybody know that I'm back safe and...well, maybe not sound, but I'm definitely safely back in our little house in Amsterdam.  And it does feel VERY little now after being in what seem to be the massive houses of Oz!

Cause It's For Free

Why must I taste anything that looks vaguely weird/foreign?  Cause it's for free!  Grass-jelly drink, I thought it would be amazing and delicious and maybe a little tropical seeing as I'm in Kuala Lumpur, but no, it tastes like what it says.  Except that it's more like grass-water.  Eew.  A nice little cheer-me-up after a not so nice week of goodbyes and missing goodbyes seeing as I didn't get to see everyone.  So, sorry to those I missed out on, it doesn't mean I love you any less, it just means that there aren't enough hours in the day and too much to try and cram into my bags.  I love you all and hope to see you a lot sooner than last time.  And when I'm home (about 13 hours I think) there'll be a few more blog posts zooming into cyber space for your delectable delight.

I Hate Goodbyes

Happy Birthday Emi

Have a great day baby girl. Enjoy being 2. We love you very much. From Trin, Brenton, Connor and Kenzi.

Year of Organisation

My year of organisation has started well. I have pulled everything known to man out of my kitchen cupboards, opshopped lots of things that have not seen the light of day for 1 year, started to sort and stack, pack and preen......UNTIL the darn draw that I was sorting landed on the side of my foot and took a big chunk out! I am now lying on the bed with my leg elevated and a throbbing pain running from my head to my toes. Thankfully my knight in shining armour had the day off and was able to carry me, while I was in a state of passedoutedness to the bed. Yes, I am a weak, don't like blood kind of person...and now what do I do? My kitchen is a mess and my foot is a mess and my year of organisation has only just begun!

A deep and lasting Sadness

Last night I sat on the lounge with 2 of my 3 sisters. I was sad that 1 wasn't there. I was sad that very soon 1 would be leaving. I was sad that another would be going again in the blink of an eye, even though it may be 12 months.
Even though I have my own family and I love them deeply..I miss having my sisters right here. I miss the togetherness. I miss the conversations. I miss the understanding. And it is a deep and lasting sadness that I think will not end and were it to end it would mean I have stopped caring..and I will never stop caring, because I love them all deeply and with an everlasting, big proud sister kind of love.

Arrrrgggggghhhhhh

What am I doing here!
I have a party to organise.
An underwater themed party as requested by the birthday girl.....just the other day...only because her Mummy forgot that it was her birthday...well I knew it was coming up...but not quite so soon.
So I am off to make a mermaid cake, find some buckets to serve food in, pray for good weather and sew those presents that I have not done yet!

Yikes!

(Some clever person from here took this piccy!)

The new year has begun. We are back from camping and apart from the odd air bed and tent flooring that needs a good scrub and de-bug we have recovered! Actually it was beautiful. The weather was kind and we had sun on most days. A full report will follow in the next few days when I gather up the photo's and have more a a chance to sit down. This was just a chance to announce my label for this year...........drum roll........it's

The Year of Organisation!

I haven't yet worked out all the details, but it will mean things like *keeping in more regular contact with family and friends, *Finding things without having to riffle through a thousand other things *Perhaps a yard sale to get rid of things that I keep because I am a horder and sooner or later I will need eventually when I am 94! *Not missing the kids library days or sport days and having matching school socks for them to wear. These are to name a few and I am well on my way....well, I pulled everything out of bedrooms and shed and my house looks like a disaster zone....but it has to look worse before it gets better right? Any tips from you super organised people out there would be appreciated and loved. So, Happy New Year and cheers to this my year of organisation!

Summer Holidays and a little bit of Christmas

"We're all goin' on a summer holiday,
Won't be blogging for a week or two..."

Hmmm, that is as far as my creativity goes today.
Looking forward to blogging again when we return from our long awaited beach holiday. Yep, I will be camping! I will be embracing the bugs and sand in the bed, the endless cicada wee raining down on us and the rain..because it will rain! And I will embrace it all...why? because I secretly love it and I will have two of my sisters with me. How fun!
So leaving you with some photo's that Miss Kenzi took with her new Christmas camera....and some that I took with her new Christmas camera.

Second Best

I had planned on posting about the FABULOUS Ronald McDonald House kids Christmas party that I went to yesterday (not purely for my own benefit, Connor and Kenzi were going and Mum asked me to go along) but the camera is MIA. Somewhere between RMH and home the camera has gone missing, we’re hoping that it’s having a little break at Trin’s. In lieu of posting yesterday’s funness I’m posting my newest creation, the tablecloth bag! From an outdoor table on someone’s back verandah (there was a hole cut in the middle for an umbrella), to the shelves at St Vinnies all the way to my arm, I love it!