tidbits

Life between trips

As we're gearing up to start traveling again next week, I thought I'd blog a bit to catch up before we have lots of stories from The Great Barrier Reef. So here are some bits and pieces of our life these days...

We had a visitor on our front porch the other day. We have no idea where this chicken came

from or where it went off to after we said good-bye to it.

Here is a picture of our "Snail Mail"--the snails literally eat the mail in our mailbox. Some letters make it through better than others.

Weather, Climate and our anniversary

We muddled through a few weeks when it rained every single day and sometimes for days without stopping. Granted, I did get a lot of writing done. I wasn’t pulled to go to the beach—I wasn’t pulled to leave my spot in front of the fireplace actually—so I spent hours a day writing which nearly made up for the lack of sun. I was about to send out a blog about a month ago when the rain first started and here's what I wrote then:

It's been raining for 3 days. No thunder or lightening, just water coming down out of the sky like someone's left the faucet on. I'm wondering when Mother Nature will run out of water. Doesn't she know it is bad for the environment to just let it run on and on like that? Mark says this weather is coming from the east so the winds are coming in off the ocean and scooping up all that sea water (sans salt) and dumping it over our lives. It's impressive but after three days, I have to say it is getting a bit old. But I've never seen rain like this before, not in Michigan, not in Charlotte, never in California and for sure not in Denver.

The rain has seemed to stop for a while so we are mercifully warmed by the sun every day. The sun is warm and the air is cool. When it is windy, it’s downright cold. Mostly the temperatures are in the 60s during the day and drop down to 40s at night. Mild, mild, mild. The only thing that makes this winter hard for me is the feeling in my body that it is supposed to be summer. Otherwise, if one has to have winter and this is as bad as winter gets, I’ll take it. I don’t miss skiing because who skis in June? I do wonder what we’re going to do about Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas as those feel like they should be right around the corner but there is no evidence that any of those holidays are imminent.

The torrential rain storms of a few weeks ago reminded everyone here of the day last June when the Pasha Bulker, a 40,000 tonne bulk carrier ship (1 tonne=1,000 kilograms=2,200 lbs) ran aground on the lighthouse beach in Newcastle. (If you want to see some amazing pictures, google Pasha Bulker in Newcastle.) Apparently, ships were encouraged to move themselves far out to sea during the storms. And apparently that ship’s captain, in his infinite wisdom, chose not to. At 9:00 in the morning on a Friday, the ship was clearly and inevitably heading toward the beach. There was grave concern that the oil it was carrying would spill but thanks to the forces at play, it did not. It beached itself so securely that they weren’t able to move it so there it sat for about 3 months until Mother Nature decided its stay on Nobby’s Beach had come to an end and she gently rocked it back out to sea. Many people of Newcastle (called Novacastrians for reasons unknown to us or anyone we’ve asked. One person I talked to believes it arose out of a conversation held in a pub) were sad to see it go.

Speaking of anniversaries, Mark and I celebrated our 10^th a few weeks ago. We thought of all of you who were with us on June 14, 1998 and who are still with us in spirit, in email and even in person. For our special day, we went for a hike in the local bush. We found a place with a fantastic waterfall, tumbling down several stories over the edge of a vertical rock wall. We were amazed by the foliage, the lush, rainforest-like vegetation right there in Newcastle’s backyard.

Mark and I put together that Newcastle must be a sort of border town laying between tropical rainforest to the north and cooler temperate climates, complete with changing seasons, down south. This must be why, we decided, we have palm trees next to naked trees, next to trees whose leaves are just now, in the middle of winter, changing color, next to evergreens, next to trees who are still all green and leafy. If Mother Nature (who, I overheard Jordan explain, is different than Mother Earth who is again different from God) were to call all the trees back to their original climatological zones, I imagine Newcastle would be barren.

And speaking of trees, on our hike, we saw an amazing phenomenon. There’s this tree, this certain type of tree, that has a habit of climbing up on automobile-sized boulders and wrapping its exposed roots around the boulder like it intends to smother it. Or maybe it is giving the rock a proper cuddle (Australian for hugging). It’s baffling to think about how this relationship began. Did the tree’s seed fall onto the top of the rock in just the right spot to sprout, subsequently wrapping its loving roots around the rock’s body? And that happened to happen on several boulders in this one particular area? Or did the rock find its way under a growing tree somehow? Or do these trees need rocks on which to grow? Is there some sort of invisible symbiotic relationship going on here? We never did work out how this occurred much less how it occurred several times in this one spot.

Social life:

Here is an area of our life that has picked up momentum. In the last few weeks, we’ve had much more fun with the people we’ve been getting to know these last months. We spent the afternoon with one family who accepted our invitation to come travel with us to Tasmania during the third and last school holiday in October. We went into the hills with a large group of families from the kids’ school to celebrate the winter solstice (!) with a fire and roasting of apples and “damper” (bread dough stuck on the end of sticks that becomes bread when held over hot embers.
Then you pour on honey or Golden Syrup
(real maple syrup is hard to come by here) and enjoy.

There were some marshmallows floating around that did get roasted but they were the undervalued stepchildren of the apples and damper. Though Jordan was quite happy to see them. We’ve had a family over for dinner and have had multiple playdates with Gabe and Jordan’s friends. But probably the thing that is most different is that the quality of the conversations I’ve had with other parents from the kids’ school (my single source for friendships) have gotten much more relaxed, more entertaining, more meaningful, more real.

I was beginning to think we wouldn’t get to experience real friendships here and while that was okay, part of me was sad that that was how it was shaping up. But I suppose these things take time which is why I’m so grateful for every week of the 52 we have here.

Mark and school

No blog is complete without a glance at Cardiff High School. The latest understanding Mark’s gotten about the system here is that there is no structured special education program at Cardiff. There are scant resources for kids who don’t learn or don’t behave like their average peers. Therefore, kids who Mark is accustomed to not having in his classroom or who bring an aide of some sort with them wherever they go are now in his classes and he is expected to not only teach them but to teach all the other students while these one or two are upsetting the maths cart.

This will sound like a digression at first but stay with me. Diane, Tracy and Andrew are here visiting. Gabe and Andrew were together last night for the first time in 6 months. Needless to say they were wound up. The grown-ups and Jordan were sitting at the kitchen table. Mark had his back to the family room where the boys were rolling all over each other and their ball like
puppy dogs. I asked Mark what he was planning to do about the ruckus behind him. He said to me, “I am going to ignore it. It is a new skill I’m honing. I will focus on the people who are listening to me and ignore the rest.”

“You are being the calm amidst the storm?” I asked.

“Yep.”

Apparently, this is how it looks in his classroom everyday. He is trying to learn how to ignore the parts he can’t control so that he can focus on teaching rather than exhausting himself trying to manage behavior that refuses to be managed. Maybe this is some new version of the serenity prayer: Grant me the serenity to ignore the kids I cannot teach, the courage to teach the kids I can, though I don't need much wisdom to know the difference.

Mark is enjoying work more, though it doesn’t hurt that he is just a handful of classes away from a 2-week break.

Whales and dolphins

Tis the season for whales and dolphins. I’m not sure why we’ve seen so many dolphins lately but the whales are journeying up north right past our beaches here. We have seen whales out there more times than not whenever we visit the beach even if we are just running by or driving by. One day, Jordan and I stopped at the beach on a cold and windy day just to use the toilet, as they so succinctly refer to it here. We stepped out of the bathroom and there, a few hundred meters out to sea, was a breeching whale. The lifeguard who announced its appearance called it a “playful” whale which is a funny term for an animal of that size. But it truly looked like it was having a blast, jumping high out of the water so we could see its belly and then slapping its tail on the surface of the ocean sending water splashing up multiple stories high. It was quite a sight. They stop everyone in their tracks as the town of Newcastle watches their whales pass by this time every year.

We spent a day in Port Stephens on Tomaree Headland climbing up it and looking out from it and playing on the beach at the foot of it. Here's beachlife in the winta.

Daily routines

We’ve fallen back into a wonderful rhythm that I miss when we’re traveling. The mornings are easy as we have plenty of time to get to school. Mark rides his bike to school and I take the kids. I spend the days taking care of the needs of the house and the kids and Mark (errands) and myself and writing and having lunch with my one friend who is available during the day and walking on the beach and hiking and riding my bike and making myself hot home-made lunches every day. Then we all reconvene at about 3:45 at home where we spend the rest of the afternoon and evening together. Well, except for the hour or so that Gabe and sometimes Jordan go across the street to the park to play either footy (Australian Rules Football) soccer, rugby or cricket with the kids who live across the street. During that hour, if Mark and I are thinking strategically, we catch up with each other. It gets dark at 5:00 so everyone is usually inside by then. This is when we make dinner, do crafts, play games, take showers and things like that. After dinner we resume showers and games while Mark does dishes. Then the bedtime routine and kids are asleep. Mark and I are compulsively watching old seasons of The West Wing most nights and I’ve knitted two jumpers (hoodies) and a pair of gloves in the last few months. And that is our life. I just love it. It’s so relaxing for everyone. So cozy. So not-rushed or planned or stressful. The phone doesn’t ring off the hook and when it does it only takes 13 seconds to recognize and politely hang up on the telemarketers.

Our experience with this lifestyle has spurred many a conversation about whether and how we might replicate this when we get home. Many major changes would have to happen to recreate this in the world where there is golf coaching and me working and 30-minute commutes and longer hours at Mark’s school and kids’ extra-curricular activities and me teaching classes in the evenings and a healthy, vibrant social life and a bigger house. Time will tell.

Gabe’s camp

The kids finished their 2^nd term at their school, bringing home a folder each of all their drawings--a treasure trove for us to peruse. Gabe went on a camping trip with the primary grades for 2 days and had a blast floating the boats they made in woodshop in the lagoon and actually paddling around in the canoes that the high school kids made in wood shop. They did lots of hiking and game-playing and had an overall wonderful, bonding time with each other and their teachers in the bush. I am continually grateful for all this school has to offer.

This is Jordan at a birthday party at the same spot where Gabe's camp was.

Jordan’s friends—I won’t miss a day of school

For the first time in Jordan’s life, she reported to me that she has more than 2 friends. Until now, she has played with lots of kids but when asked who her friends were, she would only name the two she felt closest to. Recently, however, she told me she has lots of friends at school. Another time she told me she is friends with everyone. Another time she went down the list of all her friends’ names. On a recent morning when she woke up feeling sick, in response to my wondering if she wanted to stay home from school, she said, “I’m never missing a day of school ever.” Needless to say, Jordan is thriving.

Diane, Tracy and Andrew arrived a few days ago after surviving a 40-hour high-conflict journey here. We are so glad to see them. Ahhh...home. All seven of us will spend a week together up north before those three have to go back home and then we''ll stay up there for another week. Stay tuned for the next installment from the tropical north.