The way it's supposed to be

After that day I wrote about in my last post, you know, where it was 44C in some parts of Sydney? Well, the next day it started to rain and the temperature dropped to about 20C for the next week and a half. It was a dramatic change. My hair went back to its almost-normal self, and not the mess of craziness induced by a combination of heat, humidity, sweat and salt water. It felt great not to have to shower at least twice a day (since I bike to school, I had been living with a fine layer of sweat for what felt like forever). I also wasn't sweeping up sand in our apartment on an almost daily basis, like I was doing after our regular trips to the beach. Despite the break from the heat, I was really missing the sun and the beach.

Finally, this past Wednesday, the sun poked through the clouds and it slowly started to heat up again. Wednesday afternoon, as I was sitting in the post-grad room with one of the other students, we both started shedding layers (because none of the building are temperature-controlled in any way and when it's really hot outside, it's really hot inside), and we both looked at each other in amazement, "I'm sweating here, are you?". We had forgotten what it felt like!

Today, Sunday, was the first day in almost two weeks where the sun looked like it would come out and stay out, as it's supposed to in Sydney. To celebrate, we went to Nielson Park, a harbour beach that we hadn't been to before. It was so great, everything a beach should be:

• beautiful sandy beach,
  
• waves weren't too high,
  
• not too busy,
  
• a kiosk that had good food and reasonably priced snacks,
  
• pretty shells and cool rocks, perfect for beachcombing,
  
• a nice mix of families, young and old people,
  
• and even shark nets.
  

This last one was an added bonus, since Sydney's had a few shark attacks recently AND Vic and I watched Jaws last night.

Here's some pics from our day. Gus and Vic checking out some "ancient ruins" at Nielson Park.


Vic throwing Gus into the water (see that splash? that's Gus). Not the best picture in the world (I should really dig out the manual for my camera!), but if you look closely, you'll spot the shark nets in the background.

Vic and Gus enjoying a paddle pop.

...another paddle pop picture. They were both so funny, I couldn't pick just one.

And, finally a picture of some sailboats for grandpapa's viewing pleasure. There was a regatta going on, so we had a beautiful view of a constant stream of boats sailing by us. This picture also includes the requisite middle-aged man in speedo, that no Sydney beach picture is complete without.

Extreme heat, bushfires and goodbyes

This past weekend was my parents' last weekend in Australia after a 2-month visit. They've eaten vegemite, tim tams, swam in the ocean, drank Australian beer, but they hadn't yet seen a kangaroo or a koala. To correct this problem, we went to the Walkabout Wildlife Park about an hour north of Sydney to see some Australian wildlife. Unfortunately, we picked one of the hottest days of the year (temperatures topped out at about 44C in some parts of Sydney), and it turns out we also picked a location close to one of the many bushfires raging in New South Wales.

We arrived at around 11am, heard a talk about flying foxes, pet some kangaroos, walked around with the emus, then started a little hike into the bush. On our way back, we were urged to hurry back to the Visitor's Center because there was a bushfire only 20km away and they wanted everyone close by in case they had to evacuate.

After returning to the visitor's centre, we were able to enjoy a nice picnic lunch and check out more of the wildlife (a wombat and a talking cockatoo) before heading back to Sydney. Thankfully, the fires didn't make it as far as the park, and the animals are all fine.

Gus, checking out a flying fox.


My mom, checking out an emu.

Gus and Vic, petting a kangaroo.



The kangaroos, trying to keep cool.


On Wednesday, my parents left for Canada. We had such a good visit, it was sad to see them go. For me, the best parts of their visit were:

1. Watching my parents enjoy Sydney culture as much as we do. The proof that they had truly acculturated was seeing my mom drink beer, swim in the ocean and wear a short skirt (for my mom, this means her knees are showing), and my dad defending the word "mate" (I'm not so keen on it). Both my Dad and Vic spent one evening making a case for what a good word it is and discussing how unfortunate it is that we don't have an equivalent word in Canada.

2. Being able to see my parents every day, especially watching Gus strengthen his relationship with his grandparents. In Canada, we were separated by a 6 hour drive, and saw them only 4-6 times a year.

3. Seeing Sydney through new eyes. Because of them, I have a new appreciation for the birds, trees and food. They loved the exotic-looking birds, like the Ibis and rainbow lorakeets that are common in Sydney. After returning from a week spent in New Zealand, my mom's comment was "I like Sydney better, the birds in New Zealand were brown, I can see brown birds every day in Canada". They also enjoyed the fig, olive and huge gum trees that line the streets in Sydney. And, they particularly enjoyed all the fresh fruit and veggies, and the different types of foods you find in the grocery stores here (like self-rising flour, which you don't see much of in Canada, but turns out is awesome for making fluffy, light scones, mmmmm, with cream and jam, mmmm).

Back to School

Cries of joy were heard across Sydney when kids returned to school after a five-week Christmas/Summer holiday this past Wednesday. Well....cries of joy were definitely heard from our apartment. Back to school means back to a predictable routine, which makes everyone in our little family happy. Although I'd love to think of myself as a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kinda girl, I'm really more of a verging-on-obsessive-compulsive-routine-loving kinda person. And, I think Gus might have inherited a bit of that. Gus was very happy to see his old friends, and the relaxed schedule of the first week helped ease him into school life. No dramas there.

Our other big news is that we finally bought a washing machine. Yay! No more dragging our laundry down to the laundromat on Saturday mornings. When I first started thinking about going back to school after working for 10+ years, I romanticized it, thinking about how simple life was when I was in school long, long time ago. Well, the reality is not quite as romantic as I had imagined. And, doing my laundry at a laundromat is a part of student life that I didn't much enjoy 15-20 years ago, and certainly don't enjoy at this point in my life. I did my first load of laundry using our new washing machine today, and sadly it made me really, really happy.

Here's some pics of Gus wearing his school uniform on his first day of school. In retaliation for all my picture taking, he'll no longer smile happily for the camera, hence the goofy faces.