Capturing Australia on Camera

I'm reporting live from my home office at 3:30am, 27 hours after returning from Australia. Clearly, I am suffering from jetlag and "I-don't-have-any-idea-what-time-zone-I'm-in" syndrome.  Although I'm sure I'll have future (perhaps even coherent!) reflections of my time in Australia, here's few images capturing some moments.

I can't show pictures of Australia without showing some native wildlife.  This particular koala bear was fairly energetic and showed us how it could run up trees in seconds.

I had my first experience on a city train.  As it turns out, it makes me carsick, just like nearly every other form of transportation, but it was another thing to add to my list of experiences.  Bec, Earlene and I took the train to Melbourne for a fun day of shopping and girl time.

I couldn't help but feel I was visiting a food market in Paris with merchandise like this.  My beautiful sister-inlaw, Bec, bought one of these for us to share at the Victoria market in Melbourne.  Fresh bread filled with chocolate chips?  I'm in!

So this is what I'd look like with long, straight hair.

The Australian answer to America's burger and fries .  Every town and city street corner seems to have a bakery selling a huge variety of fresh meat pies and croissants.   Farewell, good intentions and hello to buttery pastry and gooey cheese! 

This was the first time meeting my GORGEOUS nephew.  He is simply so stunningly beautiful, and has such a sweet personality to match.

  

My first official seashell picked up out of the sand along an ocean beach.

I was greeted at the airport with signage and huge hugs by my niece, Piper.  She is six, very soon to be seven, and simply cannot wait for her birthday.  Once she turns seven, she claims she'll be able to go shopping whenever she wants and watch TV without asking her mom and dad.  She has a unique capacity for loving openly and completely and feeling deeply.  At the beginning of our visit, I told her I would probably need lots of kid hugs to alleviate my loneliness for my family.  She took her job seriously and gave me tonnes of hugs and cuddles.  What a sweet girl.

A great memory of Gord in our younger years (some would argue we're still living them, but just hear me out) was hearing him play guitar and sing.  And the guitar seems to continue making an appearance when we see eachother.

Aussie surfers out for a casual, relaxing day of risking their lives battling relentless, dangerous waves and unpredictable riptides.  Maybe that's just my fear talking.  It was my first time watching surfers, and it actually looked like a lot of fun, though I can't see myself ever having the courage to try it.

Piper and Jasper hanging out at Gunnamatta Beach.  Note the two heads in the top right-hand side of the picture.  That's me and Gord wave jumping.  I must admit, though it freaked me out going into the waves, it felt totally exhilirating, and even better when I was back on dry ground.  It's not quite surfing, but it gave this ocean-rookie a rush, nevertheless.

Earlene (left), Bec and I on our last evening together.  I feel so blessed to have these two beautiful, insightful and gracious women in my life.

See these waves?  My goodness, I could watch them all day.  Each one is alive and different from the previous one.  When we were at the beachhouse for three nights, I fell asleep with images of ocean waves in my head.  Pictures simply do not do this amazing force justice.

Sigh.  Other than the fact that I look like I just woke up, this picture, and others like it, remind me how lucky I am to have this guy in my life.  Though he frustrates the pants off me some days, he is fun, tender, compassionate, and generous and I feel so fortunate to have such a good relationship with him.  Saying goodbye to him is never easy.

On that note, I'm going to go to bed now.  My Aussie family is just considering going to bed now, my Canadian friends and family will consider waking up soon, and my body seems to have no idea what just happened.  Good night and good morning!

Cuppas, beach houses and waves - it all sounds good to me!

Before embarking on this journey, I was unsure of my expectations of this adventure.   I wasn't sure if we'd be engaging in the itinerary of a tourist, or if we'd be hanging out with Gord and Bec at their house much of the time.  And, quite honestly, thoughts of leaving my family quickly overshadowed those of my holiday agenda, so I didn't give it too much consideration.  Now that I'm here, however, I've really been enjoying the mix of things we've been doing.  My initial purpose for coming here was to hang out with my brother and his family and experience their lives in a way that's not possible from across the world.  So the time we've spent sharing meals, making apple pie (ok, so Bec made 99% of the pie - all  I did was hold the wax paper in place while she rolled out the dough), and having  "cuppas" (Aussies love their cuppas!!) have been really meaningful for me.  I've enjoyed the conversations that have occurred spontaneously as we hang out in normal, everyday spaces.

That said, we've also done considerable amount of touristy things, as well.  At the time of this posting, I'm sitting in a holiday beach house near Rye, a town right on the ocean.  We went down to an unsupervised, natural beach where the ocean waves were crashing in with amazing force.  Of course, the locals would perhaps describe the waves as normal - same as any other day - but as someone who doesn't see that power everyday, it's spectacular, breathtaking, and dangerous, all at once.  I simply do not tire of watching the waves come in.  As I stood there, with the salty water swirling around my legs,  I was reminded that I had stood in those same waters 10 years ago, and had made a mental resolution that the next time I would see these waters, it would be with Jeff at my side.  Hmmmm....  perhaps that's why I missed him as I stood in that space.

Tomorrow, we intend to spend some time at the swimming beach, and then head over to the other side of the peninsula on a ferry to check out the touristy town on the other side.  We'll look at some shops, and perhaps spend all the money my husband is making, and no doubt have a cuppa or two!!! I'm keenly aware that my time here is half over, so I'm doing my best to stay in the moment and absorb everything this beautiful country has to offer.

G'day, mate!

Our first glimpse of Australia...

Well, we made it.  Our flight to the great Down Under was uneventful, in the sense that we didn't need to use our life jackets or the oxygen masks provided on each of our aircrafts.  It was eventful in the sense that I watched more movies than I have in the last year, traveled further than I have since the last time I was here, and ate meals at strange times (like when we were served chicken and rice dinner at 3:00 in the morning, Canadian time).  A highlight during the flight was being paged twice at the Sydney airport - apparently there were some security issues with a chainsaw we were trying to bring into the country - go figure.

My time here is precious, so I will be spending little of it in front of the computer.  I'm currently missing a great conversation.

It's Time...

My Life Right Now in Numbers

5:00am - The time we received an automated phone call yesterday, telling us our flight to Chicago was cancelled.

70 times 7 - the number of times I tried to give it to God before finally getting up.

1 time - I was assured by the Expedia agent that our flights were not cancelled.

3 websites - I checked (that confirmed that all flights to and from Chicago were cancelled due to bad winter weather) before concluding that the Expedia dude must have missed a memo.

3 itineraries - that we've had for this flight, thus far. 2 days ago, we were flying to Melbourne through Chicago and Los Angeles, yesterday morning, were were flying through Toronto, and as of 7:00 last night, we are flying through Vancouver.  We hope the third one's a keeper.

4 hours - spent on the phone in total, figuring out how we would get from point A to B.

3 kids - who have firmly lodged themselves in my heart, and show no signs of leaving.

2 great sets of grandparents - who will, lovingly, be taking care of our sweet ones, while dad's at work.

1 husband and best friend - who will be orchestrating kid's schedules, and loving the kids double time.

3 hours - till we leave for the airport.

0 things - that NEED to be done on my To-Do List.  Approximately a million that could be done (including helping my hubby paint - yes, as I write this, he is in the process of purchasing our 4th can of paint in 3 days.  Our basement lies in shambles.)

6.5 hours - till lift off!!

5 people - I can't wait to see on the other end!!

1 more day- till I get to see them!!  They are so worth all this effort.

Weather Outlook for Melbourne, Australia

I think I can handle this!

14°C | °F Current: Partly Cloudy Wind: SE at 13 km/h Humidity: 72% Fri 21°C | 13°C Sat 29°C | 19°C Sun 35°C | 19°C Mon 34°C | 21°C

9 more sleeps.....

I signed this out at the local library on the weekend.  The vacation is coming up so fast!!