MWNews 71

Juanita comes back today. Its been about two weeks, or maybe more. As Maeghan said a couple of days after she left, 'its a good thing we have all these pictures of mommy 'cause I was forgetting what she looked like'. I debated whether to tell Juanita about that or not but finally broke down and told her yesterday. I knew it would make her cry but I told her anyway just to let her know how much the kids missed her. And me, of course. But she gets back sometime today and we are busy cleaning the house so it is not a total mess mess when she gets here. The problem with that theory is that she does not see what it looks like now, so she cannot tell how much work we are putting into cleaning it up. Might take us all day, but she probably will not be here until late tonight anyway. I am going to try to keep the kids awake for it, but I think the real problem will be keeping me awake until she gets here. I am ready to go to sleep now and it is only 10 am.
On another note, did anyone notice how bad my typing was in the last post. Not that it is really good at any time, but it seems the last one was particularly bad. I gave up trying to use the spell checker on this a long time ago, but I think it is time to re investigate how to do it. I have the MSWord tool to write blogs from there, but I have never tried it. Maybe that will be a better option. At least it might make it readable. Of course, this one might be just as bad and I can't tell until I post it. Seems to me there must be a better way to do it. I know if I find a way, I will come to rely on it and then it will stop working. But lets hope I get better sometime soon.
Maeghan is on school holidays this week and next. She thought the weekend was her holiday and told me I forgot to take her to school on Monday. I tried to explain it was two weeks and not two days but I don't really think she understands the concept yet. She only knows that things are sometime later and since we always tell her to wait a minute before we do something, and those minutes can sometimes last hours, her sense of time has been totally screwed up by us. But, she can read a clock, which is more than most of her brothers and sisters could do even when they were still in school. I assume they can read an analogue clock now, but I can never be sure since everything is mostly digital these days. Maeghan will go into her room, where she has an analogue clock, and come out and tell us what time it is. Or mostly, what time it is. She has trouble with anything after thirty past the hour since we normally say that is something like 20 till 2 or something like that. I think that confuses her. She knows 25 after, but not 25 till. As I write that, I cannot really blame her as it is confusing me right now. But we will get over it together, I suppose.
William will still go to day care on Thursday. They do not close for the school holidays like Maeghan's old day care did. At least, I think he will be going. I am not all that pleased with them at the moment and since we are a week behind in payments, they might take this opportunity to not be pleased with me and we will come to the agreement to not send him anymore.
I wasn't all that in favor of sending him anyway. He is only two and will start going to school soon enough. I thought he could stay home with mommy until he starts preschool at 4, but after spending the last two weeks with him, I can understand the need to have someone else take care of him at least one day a week. Not that I got to do anything on the one day I was without kids, but I was looking forward to it when it came. William is OK most of the time while he sits and watches TV, but I start to feel guilty about having a TV as a baby sitter, so I get him going on something else and that is when he starts to get rowdy and naughty and you end up yelling at him for no apparent reason other than he has just thrown a bucket of popcorn all over the room or he jumped off the lounge and knocked the bird cage over. Or he has thrown his cars into the window or just little things like that. Anything he can do to cause you to not let him out of your site for any amount of time, he will find a way to do. Makes it hard to work, but what can you do.
Yesterday, I found that the HD channels on the TV has one that is kids programs all day long. We don't have cable and the kids programs normally end around 10 and start up again at 3, but I found on ABC2 that they show all the programs all day long. Some of them are repeats of what they showed in the morning, but not all. Maeghan and William sat and watched the entire day and I finally got several hours work done. They are in there right now watching it again but as you can tell, I am not working, just writing this entry. Which, by the way, I started several hours ago, but have uploaded photos, photo shopped them (is photo shopped a word for adjusting the pictures?), and finally begun to write this. You can see it was well worth your wait.
By the way, the picture I have used is from the Arakoon camping trip (the last one we took). This sign is about three feet from the front our tent. We had our own exclusive beach access. I am sure if the park had been crowded, we would have had a constant stream of people through our camp site going to the beach, but I am certain we will not stay that close to the beach anytime soon. I told you about the wind we had while we were there. Well, the next week, they had an actual gail on the coast. I am not sure if it hit where we were, but it was in the area. I am not certain we would have survived. The wind we had was bad enough.
I have lots of other pictures from the trip, over a hundred, so I can post some of them in future posts. I makes it kind of hard only posting one at a time as I take more pictures all the time and I want to post them also. So I never really get all the pictures I want into the blog. I have considered putting them up on some web site, but I have over 4000 pictures on my computer and to upload all of them and catalogue them and do all the things you need to do to put them up would take some amount of time I do not want to consider. And if I choose to only post a few of them, how do I decide which ones to post and then how do I remember what I have already posted and where I put it. As you can see, it is a real delima. Guess, some day, I will figure it all out. Not today.
I took the kids for a walk last Sunday, just for something different to do. We have been going to the park about every other day, and if not to the park, then to McDonald's so they can play in the playground and I can have a coffee in peace. Well, since I have run out of money for McDonald's and don't have enough petrol in the car to continue to waste it, I decided we could go for a walk to the servo. Now, there are several australianisms in that last couple of sentences and normally, I would take the time to point them out and explain them. But, as a token of how much I have settled into to everyday life here in Australia, I will let them go and not bother to type out an explanation. Either that, or my back is hurting from sitting up and typing all this and I just cannot be bothered to explain them.
The walk was not a long walk, only about 2k. That's two kilometers for those who don't speak metric. Don't ask me how long 2k is as I don't really know. It just seemed like something I would call 2k. Might have been longer, probably was shorter, but we walked to the new group of shops at the other end of the road. I took the pram, (see, always thinking ahead) and the kids rode most of the way. Maeghan walked a fair bit of the way there, but we were next to a major road and I could not trust William to stay with me, so I put him in the pram. He tried to walk back, but only lasted about a hundred yards before he wanted to get back in the pram.
There is a KFC at the shops, and a Pizza Hut, chicken place and Subway, but no McDonald's. So the kids had chicken nuggets or whatever it is they call them at KFC. While we were there, a family of about 30 people came in and filled the dining room. I am not sure how they got there as there were only three cars in the parking lot and they did not look like they had walked from anywhere. They ordered lots of food and were there to have a good time. I am not sure going to KFC is a real destination for a good time but they all seemed to think it was a real treat. Then again, with the prices of KFC, it might have been the families once a year outing for all I know.
We were just about finished when they came in but we had stayed around a while to listen to the music and rest up for the trip back. From previous posts, you might know that Maeghan is quite a dancer. Not so much lately, but she can still dance when she feels like it. William, it turns out, also likes to dance. And he thinks it is hilarious when I dance with him. I am not sure why. Maybe he just enjoys watching me or maybe I just look ridiculous, I am not sure which. They were playing some VH1 or something on their big screen TV, all the fast food shops over here are putting in big screen TVs and showing either music videos or sports programs all the time, and we were dancing to some of the music. Not all of it as some things they play are really bad, but William seems to like the head banger stuff and Maeghan will dance to anything with a beat. So we danced, and the family that came in laughed and then kept pointing at William, I am still not sure why, until we decided to leave.
It only takes about half an hour to walk back, but on the way, we go by the park where the kids like to play. So, we spent another hour there while they played. I think it was an hour but I do not really know. I fell asleep on the bench and was only awakened when William told me he had hurt his head. Maeghan said he had fallen on something, but I never found out what it was. We decided to go home from that point. All in all, it was a good walk and we might have to do it again someday. I am not too keen on the walking beside the major road, but there is nothing else around to walk to, so it would seem this is our only choice. We could walk the other way to the grocery store, but that is further and only had the grocery store there when you arrive. And it is a small grocery store at that, so not a lot of excitement in walking there. The only other choice is the coffee shop, but they are closed on weekends as it is in the middle of an industrial area and only caters to the workers in there. I am not sure how they will make money in that location, but they have just opened and maybe they know something I don't. We went there once, driving, and it was OK, but nothing to write home about. Then again, maybe it was as I am writing about it here.
I am going to have close this now. My back hurts and I am typing worse and worse as I go. Not sure if you can tell. It might look all the same to you as you read it, but I keep having to go back and over type things all the time. And besides, I can hear William and Maeghan starting to get each other into trouble, so the cartoons must have worn off for now. I will have to find something for them to do while I finish cleaning the house.
So, until next time
Talk to you later

MWNews 70

This is our previous camping trip to Wombeyan Caves. This is the exit to the cave tour. I am not sure how to spell Wombeyan, but since you are never likely to visit there, it is a safe bet that any way I spell it, you will never know the difference.
I was going to put some pictures from the recent camping trip, but apparently, I have not downloaded them off the camera yet. I was trying to find a picture that has a recent image of Maeghan and William. I could not find one that has them close enough together so you can compare the size. Then again, they are never close together for very long. One of them will always do something to the other so that they have to be seperated. I would say they fight like brother and sister but Maeghan does not really fight, or so she will tell you. It is always something that William is doing and she is totally innocent. I haven't actually caught her at it, but I am fairly certain that she baits William into doing things that will get him into trouble. Being, older, smarter and yet still smaller than William, she can usually maneuver him into doing something that will get him yelled at. Then she can be seen as the sweet princess that she is. It works out well for her.
I don't think I mentioned the Wombeyan cave camping trip. Must have been during the dark times when I was incapacitated and not allowed to enter ner entries into the blog. We made that trip around Easter this year. I have lots of photos from the trip. I really need to put up some web albums, but then again, who would be interested except me and I already have all the photos.
The Wombeyan caves are about 4 hours from here. It was a nice place and we think we will go back sometime. Of course, they had caves. None of which you could explore for free, but we sent on one of the tours and it was nice. Juanita and William stayed at the camp as she was not feelikng well and I didn't think I could manage William and Maeghan at the same time. We camped with Natalie and Adam and Angela and three of the grandkids. In the picture is Anna. She stayed the last two days with us after all the others had left. We spent the first two days yelling at all the kids and trying to keep them from running off. When we first arrived, we were the only ones there. We got there on the Wednesday before Easter and everyone did not start showing up until Friday and Saturday. By Sunday, the place was completely packed. We had spread out a little to save room for the others that came on Friday, but even then, we were packed in so we could barely get out of our camp site between everyone else's tents.
We had a good time and learned a lot about out new tent we had just bought. It took almost two hours to put it up as the instructions that came with it were in some engineering code we could not decifer. We ended up looking at the picture of the tent and trying to make it look like that. After we had it up, and had all the poles and connections made, the instructions finally made a lottle sense, but there are a few places where it says to connect two poles and those poles do not exist. Now, after doing it twice, I think we can manage it on the next trip.
But I was going to talk about Maeghan and her doctor this time. Seems I have wandered off the beaten path again and got into another camping story. I suppose that is not so bad. William has just come into the room and grapped my arm, yes I am doing this from home, another long story. I think he wants something to eat. Means I will probably forget everthing that I was going to type, but I have to go and feed him now. Actually, I am hungry but I am sure he is too, so I will take a break and find something interesting in the kitchen. Not that you will notice anything. Be back soon.
Ok, I am back. Now where was I. And for all of you who live for the culinary parts of these messages, I am only having leftovers. Some sausage, some rice and some potatoes. Threw them all into a pan, stir fried them for a bit and added some hot peppers, after I had taken out a token portion for William. And no, I am not going to go into another tirade about the quality and quantity of hot peppers here in Australia. For some reason, Australians seem to think that people who eat hot peppers, and they call them all chilis over here, just do so to get the heat. So none of them have flavour and non of them are really hot so it really becomes a waste of time to even buy them and cook with them, but I keep trying.
Ok, a little tirade. Anyway, I was going to talk about Maeghan and her trip to the doctor. It was not all good news this time but not really bad news either. A lot of doctors saw her, or so I am told, and some of them seemed to have concerns. They were not pleased with the way she is walking. They indicated that if she was bigger, this could cause a lot of problems but she has avoided the problems because of her small size. They are not sure what is causing it, but they are scheduling an MRI sometime in the future. At this writing, we have not received anything yet, but they said it would be a couple of months. They scheduled a new appointment for her in six months, in Februrary. We do not know if it is something to worry about or if it something she will get over. Actually, I don't think the doctors know either. We are still mostly wait and see with Maeghan as no one has been able to predict what will or will not happen with her from the beginning.
She did get a wheel chair this time. They seemed suprised that she had not already received her customized version and gave them one of thiers until it actually arrives. Not that she really needs a wheel chair. They gave it too her because she gets tired easily but I think she just takes advantage of the situation and tries to get someone to pick her up just for the cuddles. She can walk with no problems and does not get that tired that often. Part of it might be that her parents are old and overweight and can't carry even her little weight for very long. But maybe she does need it.
I am told that when she got it, she immediately could maneuver it around the halls and rooms in the hospitol. She does wheelies and spins and donuts and enything else she can think of that might be fun. Since we brought it home, she terrorizes people at the malls, running up and down the isles and running over peoples feet and just generally getting in the way. And everyone appologises to her for getting in her way. She can push past people and run over their feet and they will turn to us and say how sorry they are and they will try to do better and not get in her way. Nothing is ever her fault, but I think we established that back in the beginning of this blog.
So, we wait for the MRI to see if it tells us anything or if they can come up with a new plan for her. I don't recall what the specific things are that they are worried about but she seems to favour her right side and she rols her feet from side to side when she walks, almost to the point of walking on her ankles. She has never had strong ankles, or legs or feet or anything else for that matter, but I think that is what keeps her from running normally as she cannot land and push off from her feet flatfooted, if that makes any sense. I am not that worried but I have had all her life to prepare for anything that might come up, so maybe that is why I don't get worked up about it. Of course, that is just the front I put forward for her and everyone else, but my personnel feelings go beyond what I can express to others.
Juanita is not here right now. And when I say not here, I mean not even in the same state or even on the same land mass. She is in Tasmania. Now, if you think about it, I have mentioned that William has come in and pulled on my arm and I might have given other hints that Maeghan is at school or doing things around the house and at home. You could correctly infer from that, that I am here alone with the kids while Juanita is in Tasmania. Which is precisely the situation I am in at the moment.
Before we go jumping to conclusions and wondering what has gone wrong between Juanita and myself, I have to say that nothing is wrong. Juanita's aunt died this week and she went over to be with her mother. It was going to be way too costly to send the kids over with her, they have to pay full fair these days, so I said they could stay here with me and I would work from home.
Well, the stay here with me part is happening but the work from home seems to be taking a back seat. I do not get a lot of work done having to watch William all the time and both of them at night. It has only been a week but I am so far behind with my work that I am just going to ignore it for a while. Maybe it will all go away. My only backup support goes on vacation at the end of this week, for three weeks, so if Juanita does not come back soon, I will be alone in supporting everything at work and alone with the kids all the time. One would think I should be looking for a new job soon. Hopefully not. I have told them I can do my work at night, but after taking care of William all day, I am too tired by the time I put them to bed. Which, by the way, is suppossed to be 7:30 each night but I am fairly certain they have not gone to bed before 8:30 on any given night. I tell them 7:30 but they somehow manage to put it off for as long as possible. Maybe I should try to actually put them in the beds at night. Who knows, but I do know their mother has a lot to answer for when she gets back.
Just kidding honey, in case you are reading these from over there and I am not nearby to explain. And if you are not reading these, then I am telling everybody else it is all your fault the kids do not go to bed on time. And, that they do not take baths or clean up after themselves or get to school on time.
Again, kidding. She may not come back now just to spite me.
Ok, it is time to go pick up Maeghan from school, or almost time. I am sure William has gone to sleep in the other room, I haven't heard anything break in a while, so I will have to bundle him up and put him in the car. It is raining here now and has gotten a little cold. I forgot Maeghan's rain coat this morning but she has a jumper in her bag if she remembers it is there. Hopefully, she is not too cold and wet. They were having a teddy bear picnic today and I am not sure what they have done since it is raining. There is no lunch room or large assembly hall at this school. Just a small stage and room that only holds about a third of the students at a time. They probably have gone in there.
Maybe next time, I will update everyone on how I have realy coped with being alone with the kids for weeks at a time. That is assuming I have survived.
So, until next time
Talk to you later

MWNews 69

See, I didn't finish the story when I got home. Can't remeber why, but I have an extra half an hour before I leave work today, so I thought I would try to add to the camping story.

As you can see, I have added two pictures this time. Neither of which is current or from a camping trip, but it is what I had. I think I have posted from this set of pictures before. It is one of the beaches near us. Actually, it is near Shelly Beach, where we used to live. We went for a walk one day and I took a lot of pictures.

And so I can keep with the theme of always finding something to complain about, the blog is not working as it should and I am having to use two lines between paragraphs instead of just one. Normally, it fills in the extra line for me, but does not seem to be doing that now. Might be something I have done but if the paragraphs in this post are separated by hugh gaps, it is not my fault.

The third day of camping was perfect. You could not ask for a better day. Clear skies, not too warm or too cold, little wind. As I said, perfect.

We had promised the kids a they could spend all day on the beach that day and we decided to walk from the camp grounds, around the bay area to the town across the bay. We had visited it briefly the day before but it looked like a pleasant walk if we went along the beach.

It was probably only about two miles, but after taking an hour and a half to walk one way, it seemed a lot farther. Juanita had convinced me to walk all that way without shoes. It was sand, no rocks and the sand was compacted enough to be able to puch the pram on.

Now, I have to explain, that I am an american. And while most kids go barefoot most of the time in America, as an adult, I always wear shoes. I think it is a cultural thing. You know the signs, no shirt, no shoes, no service. I grew up with that idea and have lived my life by it.

In Australia, they take their shoes off most of the time. Most houses, the owners have a little, and some not so little, pile of shoes just outside the front door. You are expected to take your shoes off anytime you enter someone's house. Being American, I never do, but it is expected and everyone seems to comply with that option. Even repair workers and salesmen take their shoes off when they come into your house. I have no idea how or where this tradition started, but it seems to be generally acepted here in Australia.

Well, walking a couple of miles with no shoes on was not all that fun. Even if the sand was soft and there were no rocks or anything to walk on. By the time we got to the town, my feet were killing me. It was only the prospect of having to walk all the way back that kept me from falling down and crying because of the pain. Juanita was not effected at all and, of course, the kids had no problems with it either. The did spend most of the time walking in the waves as they rolled in but I tried that a couple of times and besides the fact that the pram would not roll in the wet sand, it was bloody cold in the water and I was not going to stay in there no matter how good it might feel on my aching feet.

I have mentioned the pram a couple of times. I decided it would be a good idea to take it with us. Not only because I knew the kids would get tired and want to be picked up but also, it made a convient place to hold everything we were taking with us.

We brought water, cokes, snacks, jumpers (in case it got cold), buckets for digging and the kites in case we wanted to rest and fly them. The kites got taken out almost immediately, but there was not enough wind to keep them aloft. After letting them rise a few times and then having the wind die and they come crashing down into the water, I decided it was not worth the effort and put them away.

The buckets never got used as the kids were playing in the water too much and the drinks were finished in the first 45 mintes of the trip, so for the next 45 minutes, we had nothing to drink.

William spent the most time in the pram. He was not feeling well and spent about 30 minutes at the start resting. After a while, he got out and played with the others. We changed his nappy and left it off of him after a little while and he thought that was just wonderful. He came running up to me and said, 'Dad, look. He bent over and showed me his bare bottom and ran off laughing. Everyone seemed to think this was hilarious. I am not so sure. I took as a sign of things to come when he gets older. Guess only time will tell.

Maeghan walked the entire way over. She never got tired and ran and splashed the whole way. She found some shells and some sticks and never once complained about being tired or wanting to get into the pram. I am not sure how she managed it. I was exhausted, but she kept going and going. Even when we arrived, she wanted to go play in the playground we knew was there and would not let us rest or sit for any amount of time. We managed to get them both in the public showers to rinse off the sand, but they were straight over to the park after that. I wanted to lie down and sleep but could not find a comfortable enough place to do it. Besides, it was lunch time and I was hungry.

We went for fish and chips. The shop owner tried to warn me that I had ordered too much food, but I would not listen and we ended up with about three times as much chips as we wanted. Normally, having too much food is not a problem, but there were a lot of chips. Maeghan and Juanita spent the time picking out the crispy ones. Too much troube to explain what that means, but they both say they only eat crispy chips and leave all the other to me and William.

After lunch, we went to play again and I tried to sleep on the bench. I had better luck sleeping sitting up but could not find a comfortable spot when I tried to lay down. After about two hours, we decided it was time to go back.

The kids played for about the first half hour, then they wanted in the pram. William went right to sleep. Maeghan stayed awake, probably because it was not comfortable for her but after an hour of that, she got out and started playing in the water again. It took about the same amount of time to get back. I have to tell you that at this point, I was thinking I would never walk again. My feet hurt. Juanita had made arrangements with the kids to take a shower and then take a nap when we got back. We got the kids showered and I went to shower myself. When I got back, Juanita and William and Juanita were going to sleep but Maeghan wanted to continue to play. I took her up to the trash disposal area and we emptied out rubbish. When we got back, the others were aware and we decided to drive to see the light house that was nearby. Fifteen minutes in the car and both kids were asleep. Juanita and I decided to try to find other camping areas nearby, in case we wanted to come back someday, and drove for about another two hours. We ended up in the nearest big town and it was dark. I had already decided I was too tired to cook back at the camp, so we spent some time looking for a place to eat.

No point in saying we ended up at McDonalds. We always end up at McDonalds. I won't go into the fascination Australia has with McDonalds, but there seem to be more of them here than there are in America. At least one if every town, and most of the time, one every few blocks. Maybe it is because we live in the Sydney area, but they are everywhere. And we always seem to end up there.

It must be said that there is not a whole lot of other choices. Fast food is not something Australians are really into, not like in America, but other types are restaurants are just too expensive to eat in. To me, they charge way too much for dining out over here. At least $30 a person, no matter where you go or what you order. So we end up at McDonalds. It is either that or KFC. Not a whole lot of other choices.

We were scheduled to leave the next day and according to our brochure, we had to be out of the campsite by 10 am. We started packing about 8 am and finished around noon. No one from the camp site came by and said anything, so that was not an issue, but what took us three hours to setup took four hours to take down. Mostly because we clean everything so it does not get packed away dirty, although by the time I was ready to take the tent down, I gave up on wiping the bottom of the tent off as I wrapped it up so it will be dirty the next time we use it.

Then I had to pack the trailor, did I mention we bought a new trailor mostly just for camping. I probably did at some point. Anyway, I packed it up and put the tarp over it and then the netting to hold it all in place. I have to say that we used to do this type of thing with rope and try to tie everything down. Boy were we stupid. It is so much easier to throw a tarp across everything and use the netting we bought with the trailor to lay over it and hold everything down. I have no idea how we ever did that with the ropes. And you do not have to worry about packing everything just right. It is not going anywhere with the tarp to keep the wind off it. It works just great.

Well, once again, I have overstayed my time. I was meant to leave 20 minutes ago and I still have not mentioned Maeghan and the doctor. She had her yearly or half-yearly appointment last week. That is where Juanita was when I was writing the last blog and she was coming to pick me up. I suppose I will go into it the next time. That is why I am mentioning it here, so when some back to this, I can read it and remember what it was I was going to write about. Clever eh?

Anyway, I have to go home now. We are going to a camping show on the weekend, it is one of the only ones that is free around here. It is back where we lived when we first came to Sydney, in the Penrith area. We have not been back in a couple of years. It is about two hours from where we live now, so it will be good to get back and see how things have changed. Probably have not changed at all, although there is a new shopping center that they were building the last time we went that way and I want to check it out.

So until next time,

Talk to you later

MWNews 68

We went camping this past weekend. Three days. Kind of a dress rehearsal for our ten day adventure we are planning for Christmas. And before we go into the camping at Christmas questions, this is something that Australians do during the holidays. They go camping, or vacationing. Since almost everyone in Australia gets a minimum of four weeks vacation, or leave time as they call it here, the holidays if pretty much when all the companies shutdown and everyone goes somewhere. I think it is a relic of the past when the government or work ethic mandated that everything shutdown during the holidays. Certain days, everything was required to be closed. Only esential services were allowed to be open, like petrol stations and some public services.
These days, I don't think it is mandated anymore. Only Christmas day is a 'you must not be open' day. And that is apparently changing. It is only recently that shops and stores were allowed to be open on Sunday's, but that is the norm now, at least in most of the country. Some places still remain closed on Sundays.
You have to also remember that up until about 40 years ago, Texas had the same type of thing, where you could not buy certain items on Sunday and there was actually no liquour by the drink available. I have no idea what that means, but I am told it was a big deal. So it is not all that far-fetched for Australia to just now be catching up with the whole retail frenzy.
There are still not a lot of places open 24 hours. Only some McDonalds drive-thrus and a couple of places in the city, but for the most part, everything is closed by midnight and most of the shops actually close at 5 on the weekdays and 4 on weekends. That is 5 and 4 in the afternoon. Most states have a late night shopping day. In New South Wales, it is thursday, but I think it is Wednesday in Tasmania and Quensland. I know it difers from state to state.
The main reason for the late night, and I am talking staying open to 9 pm, is that it is when the government checks come out. All the pensioners and all the govenment payments come out on Thursday, so the shops stay open to take advantage of all the people who now have money. Centerlink, the government welfare department, used to come out at the same time, but now, most of the payments, you can request what day it comes out on, so it is not as big a factor in the late night shopping days.
Not sure how I wandered off into that topic from the camping start to this entry. Might have been a good reason for it, but I can't recall what it was.
The kids loved the camping, but they always do. A lot of people tell me the kids are always getting bored when they go camping, but ours apparently are not old enough for that yet. They are still actively going everywhere the whole time. Most of the time, they are doing something they should not be doing, so we spend out time yelling at the kids to stop what they are currently up to, but at least they are doing something and not sitting around waiting for us.
Being on the beach kind of helps also. It was suppossed to be cold when we went and we were staying right on the beach, or just on the cliff above it, so we did not expect to be near the water very often. But it turned out to be ok and the kids spent hours digging in the sand.
The first day started ok but after the sun went down, the wind picked up and we worried about the tent blowing away the whole night. We have to cover the tent with a tarp to make sure it does not leak when it rains but the tarp came loose fairly early in the night and spent the rest of the time flapping and making a lot of noise so no one could sleep. At about 4 in the morning, I got up and took it down. The wind had sort of died at that point and I could do it by myself but it picked up again later and was really blowing for a while.
After that, I thought we were in for a bad time and we considered moving camp to a differnt spot, away from the edge of the beach. We did not really consider it a lot as we spent neraly four hours setting up camp and did not want to undo it and start again, but if the wind had kept up, we might not have had a choice.
Later, on the second day, after the wind had died down, it started to rain. Not a lot of rain, but enought so the kids could not stay outside for long. That kept up most of the night. We had driven into town earlier, so the kids had some adventures, but at camp, we spent the time playing games and trying to keep the kids from knocking things over.
Hate to cut this short, but it is near time for me to be picked up from work, so I have to go. Maybe I will finish it when I get home, but we know the download speed problem with dialup, so I might have to put it off until Monday.
Anyway, have to go. Juanita and the kids are probably waiting out front.
Until next time,
Talk to you later