The week

Well, possums ... it´s been a very busy week. We´ve landed with all of our feet in wintry Down Under, with hot sunny blue skies during the day and cold moonlit nights ... A week, well, for me at least, characterized by slow-moving jet lag and the almost annoying inability to get rid of it ... a week of happiness for our family, especially Tess and Yarrow ... a week of excitement for Niki who is feeling very much at home and growing roots rapidly ...

The week started with a happy reunion with Tess and Yarrow and Yarrow´s birthday. On Saturday Yarrow had her birthday party with six friends. They partied till deep in the night and had loads of fun frolicking around, mud-sliding in Pearces Creek, singing, running, watching movies, having pillow fights, drinking creaming sodas and eating crisps...



On Sunday we presented ourselves at Tess´workplace, the Eltham Valley Pantry, where she works once a week as a waitress. This was actually her 2nd day ... She was very competent. and an excellent host. Earlier she had been saying that she wanted more variety in life; well, here it was, and at the end of her shift, she didn´t think she had any legs to stand on anymore... I´ll try and upload a video later.

The rest of the week was almost entirely packed with, erm, shopping ... ranging from grocery shopping to furniture shopping to clothes shopping. We´ve bought some lovely new furniture, such as a a beautiful English Oak dresser for the kitchen, a silky oak desk for Niki, a rather rose-patterned lounge suite, a coffee table, and a sideboard for Anjes´room, and lots and lots of utilitarian stuff ranging from buckets (which Yarrow today used to clean the gutters) to teaspoons, from tea towels to sheets, from a kitchen clock (only one!) to a computer for Yarrow.

We spent many an hour cleaning the house from top to bottom, and it´s still not done ... and furnishing Anjes´room which now looks like a five-star hotel room, ready for guests to arrive.

We also allocated an entire day (and a half!) to the Juvenile Wardrobe Enrichment Programme, with Tess and Yarrow, fitting them out in a new wardrobe, and I mean a completely new wardrobe, with the aim of avoiding them having to Trek between their houses with umpteen bags on their shoulders and in the car. Hopefully this will help to make the weekly transition a more pleasant experience.





On one of the other days, we ended up in the sheds down the hill where, rumour had it, a snake skin could be seen ... The snake who shed it, now affectionately known as Mr P, is a 3-meter long Diamond Python (totally harmless but impressive nevertheless) with an impressive girth - the photo shows his skin, shrunk so no longer representative of its real measurements.... Niki bravely held the skin...





On Friday we went out, dressed to the nines, to a Quatorze Juillet celebration organized by Ton in the local Eltham Hotel.






Today, Saturday, we spent the whole day gardening, weeding, tidying, cleaning, buying and planting six native rain forest trees, including a red and a white cedar, which we intend to plant on the property.

In short, it has been a Very Busy week, with Lots Of Activity and No Time For Blogging ... until now ...