Visiting Canberra

Monday:

We lived in Canberra for 15 years before we moved back to Sydney - I hadn't been back for a visit in the year and a half since we moved. Tim had taken Jasmine back to visit friends a couple of times, and he's been back there for work too. This past weekend Jasmine wanted to go to a friend's birthday party there - they've kept in touch this whole time - and Tim wasn't keen but I decided I was ready to return. I'd had no interest before this - when I move on I move on!

It's a three hour drive, we got there just before lunch time Saturday for the very end of the party - the time had been changed a couple of days before, too late for me to change all my plans and bookings even if I'd been willing to drive up Friday night which I wasn't - and left Jasmine with her friend for the weekend. My first item on the agenda was Kingsley's for lunch. It has fried chicken, much like KFC but not as greasy and I loved it the whole time we lived in Canberra. (Also nicest roast chickens, but I was craving the southern fried.) It was still tasty, but turns out 'not as greasy' is still very greasy! I ate most of two pieces and felt a bit nauseated. Oh well, maybe I'll stop craving it now!

There was a stationary store that sells my favourite pens a block away so I popped in there. I can get them in Sydney but not anywhere near where I usually shop. They are a bit more expensive than normal ball-point pens but I love them because they are 0.7mm instead of the usual 1.0mm, usually it's hard to find fine point like that other than felt tip. I've bought quite a few over the past few years but of course they keep mysteriously going missing from my desk. It's like teaspoons and socks. Some little gremlin somewhere likes to eat them. How often do you use up a pen before it disappears? Never?!

I drove past our old house. Apart from some pot plants by the front door I couldn't see any changes. It was the back of the house that really needed work, but I didn't dare creep around and look. It didn't feel like home at all, I got a cold grey vibe from it.

I drove down to the lake and went for a walk, it was always my favourite place for walking. As I had rather expected, there was a very cold wind off the water, chilling my hands, ears and nose. Winter in the mountains. I lasted for 20 minutes before I went and had a cup of tea at the library café.

Here we see the National Library from the vantage of my lake walk...

After my cup of tea I joined the library tour. It was only of the public spaces, unfortunately, but it included some interesting information. I knew that the book storage goes several stories underground, but I didn't know that that part of the building is much wider than the above ground part. It stretches out under the lawns and car parks. The tour guide lady also took us into the national treasures gallery, stuff like Captain Cook's writing desk from his ship and personal log (he "discovered" Australia for England, not counting the Aborigines who'd lived here for tens of thousands of years or the Dutch who visited the other side of Australia before Cook got here).

I did enjoy the tour but I was glad to go at my own pace around the other exhibition there, of Japanese woodcuts (illustrations) from traditional novels. The art was interesting but the best part was the little summaries of the books they were from. Like: a man falls in love with a peasant girl but his family forbids him to marry her because she's a nobody so he becomes a monk. Then he finds out that she is actually a noblewoman, but it's too late. So he commits suicide. So she commits suicide. Sounds a bit like Romeo and Juliet. Lots of moral tales, like the woman who leaves her husband for a rich lover then eventually comes back but her husband and son don't want her back and she learns the error of her ways. The pictures are apparently all full of symbolism; the pattern of her dress means this, surrounded by autumn leaves means that, two children in the background means something else. Fascinating.

Time to move on to my next appointment at the National Museum. I had time for a slice of chocolate raspberry cake - turned out to be the only really delicious food I had all weekend, and it was the only unplanned one! - before going to my Virtual Reality session. It was an underwater dive on the Great Barrier Reef narrated by David Attenborough, taken with a 360 degree camera. We were in swivel chairs so we could easily look around in every direction. Then there was a bit about earliest life in the sea, showing us trilobites and eight-foot long sea scorpions and stuff. Very enjoyable. When I took my feet off the floor it felt like I was floating around.

It was starting to get very cold. I booked into my modest hotel room then walked a few blocks to my favourite Chinese restaurant which we used to go to often and ordered my favourite dish (Shan Tung chicken). In the past it had varied from moderately spicy to very spicy. This time I think they forgot to put in any chilli at all. Bland bland bland. Walked back to my hotel in the freezing evening air and snuggled down for the night. Luckily The Fifth Element was on TV.

In the morning it was still hovering around freezing so I stayed in for a while and had leftover Chinese for breakfast. Bland is ok in the morning. I finished the book I had with me then checked out and went to Questacon, the interactive science and technology museum. Lots of interactive stuff to do. I used to take the kids there a lot, we had an annual pass. It was more a time-killer this time, somewhere inside in the warm.

Finally it was time to go and meet Caroline, my best friend from Canberra. We had lunch at the arboretum, I used to go there a lot to write as it has lovely views. Our lunch table was right by the window.

The view was great, the company was excellent, unfortunately the food (yet again) was a big disappointment. Oh well. I had two lovely hours chatting, I don't really care that I left most of the meat on my plate. Beef cheek that was gelatinous yet tough. Urg. I ate the vegetables and ignored the meat.

I picked up Jasmine from her sleepover then we had the three hour drive home. I was pretty tired by the end. Family was over at our house to play Dungeons and Dragons, just the boys, but also my four year old niece Emma who was bored out of her skull and latched on to me as soon as I walked in the door wanting attention I was too worn out to give. I just wanted everyone to go home so I could have a quick dinner and collapse. But they were there for another hour. I ended the weekend exhausted and grumpy. But otherwise it was a nice couple of days.

After weeks and weeks of 'finished by the end of the week' promises, our tiler turned up and finished putting the paving down in the narrow corner bit. He still has to finish the grouting and then seal it all. 'By the end of the week'. Sigh. It looks nice though.

Haven't heard any more about the heat pump issue or when the interior of the pool will be finished.

Jasmine is home sick today. Down with a cold or flu, she was starting to get sick yesterday. I always let her stay home when she asks because she so rarely asks - she loves school. Aiden would stay home every day if I let him.

My Christmas

Saturday:

We drove to Sydney on Christmas Eve to stay at a hotel on the beach. We hadn't been to this particular hotel for a while but it used to be a favourite with my husband and I before we had kids. It always seemed the height of luxury, with lovely rooms overlooking the ocean. Well, maybe it was ritzy ten or more years ago. But I don't think they've done any refurbishment since then! Our room was disappointingly shabby with threadbare carpets and smelled funny. The kids' beds were blocking the door to one of the tiny balconies so I'm sure it wasn't originally a "family" room. The available balcony overlooked the dingy backyards of local restaurants, full of rubbish bins and cardboard boxes. Yet it was still as expensive as we remembered!

However, we tried to ignore all that and concentrate on Christmas cheer. We put up our little travelling tree and then the kids went for a swim in the rooftop pool while we grownups read in the deck chairs, enjoying the ocean-scented breeze and (finally) an amazing view. Then a walk along the beach-front to a nice restaurant and back to try to settle the excited children for sleep.

Of course all being in the one room meant that we had to turn off the lights so the kids could sleep, yet my husband and I had to stay awake to put out the presents once the kids were asleep. And put them under the tree in almost pitch-darkness. But finally we were allowed to go to bed. I slept very poorly, excited about Christmas (honestly, I'm as bad as the kids) but also kept awake/repeatedly woken by the revellers shouting and breaking bottles under our window, the garbage truck doing its rounds at 3:15 am (on Christmas morning!) and AGAIN at about 6:00 am.

But finally it was time to get up and open our presents! Yay! We all got lots of things; books and music and jewellery and computer stuff mostly. We bought Aiden a proper drum kit but the car was packed even without it so we just wrapped the drumsticks and left the rest at home. Buffet breakfast at the hotel (a bit lacklustre) then off to Tim's brother's place for big family lunch.

It was lovely to see everyone and share lunch to which everyone contributed, and play with my baby niece who is 9 months old now and very cuddly. Then my kids got to play Santa's helpers and hand out all the presents under the tree. I did have a bit of a disappointment at this point. I got a book from my father-in-law and a massage gift voucher from my brother & sister-in-law, but the rest do a Secret Santa, spending quite a lot of money on the one person, and I didn't receive anything. The person who was supposed to buy for me had a premature baby a few weeks ago (or rather his wife did) and he apologised and said he hadn't had time. Of course I said I understood, and I did. But still. There was no offer of getting me something later, or money to chose myself something or anything. A bit of a downer to get nothing when the kids are piling up stacks to the roof (they still get presents from everyone). His wife also didn't get anything for her recipient. I don't want to seem petty, of course I do understand, but it was a bit of a sad moment during the present orgy.

So, anyway, then off to see my mum and take her to her father's (Poppa is still going strong at 95) for Christmas dinner. Lucky I like turkey! More food, chatting with family, more presents for the kids, three toddlers running around, my cousins who are all younger than me suddenly seeming like adults now they're mostly married with kids, my aunts in the kitchen all evening as usual, rubbishy Christmas crackers with junky "prizes" and stupid jokes inside, Poppa spending forever trying to set up his DVD show us a video of my cousin's engagement party. Good times.

Another, different hotel near my Poppa's - a fairly new building and so much nicer! Really lovely. And an amazing breakfast buffet. I had a special treat of two glasses of freshly squeezed juice, nothing like stuff from a bottle!

We went back to my mum's and helped her with the housework. She is not feeling as tired as she had been, now she's been on the medication for a week, but is finding walking and standing painful and difficult. She still doing her own shopping, and is worried about losing her independence. She spends most of the time lying down. Hopefully if the pills shrink the tumours in her hips it will help with walking.

Then back to my brother-in-law's for Boxing Day BBQ lunch - it is my father-in-law's birthday on Boxing Day so we always all get back together again. Then we all went to see "The Hobbit part two: The Desolation of Smaug" - in two shifts so there was always someone to look after the children. Great movie! Leftovers for dinner and we stayed at my brother-in-law's overnight.

Have I mentioned the spare-room bed there yet? My sister-in-law's parents chose it when they were staying for about 9 months, visiting from China. It looks comfortable enough, a huge thing that takes up the entire room and is much higher than a normal bed. Looks soft, right? The first time I climbed onto it I thought I had bruised my knees. When we travelled in China we found all the beds, even in the Western-style hotels, horribly hard, and this one follows that pattern. Good for your back, they say. But I honestly think decently-thick carpet would be more comfortable.

Friday a smaller family group assembled and we played some games, a relaxing morning after all the bustle of Christmas, then we did the "car tetris - advanced level" challenge, packing everything in somehow and set out for the long drive home. Overall it was a lovely few days. But so nice to be home in my own bed!

This morning I weighed 82 kg, up half a kg (1 pound) and went for a 1 hour walk before it got too hot. I didn't overeat at mealtimes but I did have quite a few unhealthy snacks in between. Back to normal eating and regular exercise!