It is the end of a most glorious winter day. It almost reached 70 today with a nice light breeze.
A lot has happened since the last post. There were many activities at the end of term including Phineas' return from his 17 day community service trip to the Northern Territories.
The first week of break was quite low key and uneventful - a very nice way to start out a school vacation.
The second week, the visitors arrived! Margaret's sister and her family (Jane, Tom, Katie, Bo, and Maggie) came as did Kirsti and Danny Morse (good friends - Mom and Lincoln's classmate - from Freeport). It was wonderful to see everyone and they were all amazing sports to jump right into Australian culture and ignore jet lag.
They arrived on a Friday and Saturday afternoon we were already at an Australian Rules Football Game at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. It was a good game that was hard fought between two teams desperately fighting to stay out of the cellar in the standings. Saturday night we had "take away" fish and chips. As Jane pointed out ... "fish and chips" could really be titled, "Everything Fried". Yummy.
Monday we all went to the Healesville Sanctuary to see the many different and unique Australian animal species. Yet, our visitors found that many of the unique animal species are right here in our front yard including an enormous number of kangaroos. It seems that the kangaroos wanted to visit the new Americans as well.
Wednesday we went to Phillip Island to see the water and the penguins. It was an amazing day and a glorious trip. The evening arrived with a gorgeous moonrise and the penguins scampering across the beach. The winter time brings fewer crowds and allows the visitors to see so much more. It was very fun.
Unfortunately Tom and Bo had to leave early but Jane, Katie and Maggie were able to stay and enjoy a trip into Melbourne and the National Gallery. And then on Monday Katie and Maggie were able to join Skyler and Kipling at school! Even though it was their summer vacation, I think they still enjoyed the day at school
On Tuesday morning at 3am, Jane, Katie, and Maggie left on their long trek back to the States. They were all such troopers for making the trip.
Later that day, Danny and Lincoln went with me to the most exciting garage a 6th grade boy could ever imagine. It is a museum of cars owned by a very rich Australian named Linsay Fox (www.foxcollection.org.au). It is a two story building in downtown Melbourne that is stuffed full of Ferraris, Mercedes, Porsches, Roll Royces ... and Volkswagen Beetles. It was a wonderful day. Lincoln decided it was the best place he has been in Australia.
Then on Saturday Kirsti, Danny, Margaret, Skyler, Lincoln, Kipling, and I (Phineas was at a running race) went to one of Margaret's favorite places in Australia - The Bendigo Wool Festival. For those of you keeping score at home ... The Bendigo Wool festival is the largest wool festival in the world.
In fact, it is so large that this conversation actually happened:
[Nord walks into the Information Centre in the middle of Bendigo]
Nord: Good morning
Man: G'day, how you going?
Nord: Well thank you and yourself
Man: Very well
Nord: I was wondering how to get to the Wool Festival
Man: The War Festival? I am sorry sir, but I don't believe Bendigo has a War Festival
Nord: No, the Woooool Festival
Man: The Wall Festival?
[At this point I am very worried that either there is not such a thing or we have the wrong weekend]
Nord: I am meaning to say "wool", "w" "o" "o" "l"
Man: [has a good long laugh] I you mean the "wuuul" festival.
It actually was a quite an event. Lots and lots of wool, sheep, crafters, sheepdog trial, and sheep shearing contests. The sheep shearing was quite exciting. It is pretty amazing to watch a person shear a sheep in under two minutes.
Lincoln then informed us that this was rather slow - despite the fact that we saw the Australian National Champion in one of the heats. He said that an Australian legend named Jacky Howe was able to shear 321 sheep in approximately 7 .5 hours. He then proceeded to sing a song he learned at school called the Lachlan Tigers - that memorializes this feat.
For those of you who are wondering how the song goes (and looking to remember what people used to wear in 1984) here is a YouTube version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isTC_6rL2R8
Be well,
Nord
