ON THE ROAD AGAIN

It is great to be back on the bus again. After over two weeks of sitting in Ros’s garden she started first try and we realised yet again that age is little to do with performance. Our old Bessie did far better than the Subaru, which we had to jump-start when we got back to Brisbane. Fiji was lovely. The wedding went smoothly and was great fun. We all had lots of new experiences. Tal and Rennie got right into snorkelling and were amazed at the world under the ocean, that lay just outside our bure. I often think about the great experiences they are having right now and wonder at how different their lives are compared to A and I in our youth. I grew up blissfully happy on my little island in Scotland and didn’t have the chance to do much of what they are doing until I was an adult. I remember the first time I went snorkelling in the Red Sea when I was in my early twenties. I was blown away! That was the same trip as I flew for the first time, travelled on my own, went to a country outside Europe – all things that our children take in their stride and hardly question. How things have changed. It was wonderful watching and listening to their experience of the trip. They hardly batted an eyelid in Lautoka. A city full of people, words and things far removed from their norm. Even when I asked them, they had little to say except that the people were so friendly. Everyone loved Jarra and it wasn’t unusual to walk into a shop and have him whisked away, to be fawned over for the time we spent there. I think I shocked a few people by offering to sell him to the highest bidder! He was great and handled the extra attention very well despite being kissed and pinched by complete strangers on a regular basis. Being back in Brisbane was loud, busy and fun. I like Brissie as a city. Amazingly it rarely felt rushed, except if you looked out the back of the house onto the road at rush hour. The river and the ferries help to slow things down I suppose, but it is also the people who seem to be fairly relaxed. They have a wicked museum and science museum, small compared to the Melbourne equivalents, but plenty to keep us going all day. On the weekend we took the chance to catch up with some friends from Melbourne who moved to the Sunshine Coast over two years ago – Nicky, Pete, Steph and Dean – and had a lovely day with them. As we won’t be up that way for a while it was great to see them. Asked if they miss Melbourne the answer was evident when we looked at the kids jumping in the pool and running round the garden (in May!). Climate can really make a difference and they are busier socially than they ever were in Melbourne. It is interesting to see how other families go with the whole relocation thing, especially interstate. I look forward to the day we finally settle down somewhere and have a place to call our own, but I also wonder about how it will be to start over again. I seem to have spent most of my life doing just that until I arrived in Australia and settled into life in Melbourne. It was very hard for the first few years and now, just as I have really started to feel connected, we take off on this great adventure. Go figure! Returning to Mullumbimby it was reassuring to see our Bessie sitting there in the sun. “Home again, home again. Jiggity, jig.” We were all relieved to be back in our bus again and pleased to see Ros, Elle, Georgia and Gemma. We met Ros and her lovely family in Nepal ten years ago. She and Paul were travelling through India and Nepal with three young children. We stayed at the same guesthouse and had lots of fun together. Andre and I were so impressed we decided that having children would hardly change anything (little did we really know!), so we tried, became pregnant with Tal and the rest is history. So, it is all down to them and their lovely girls! I haven’t seen Ros since Tal was 9 months old, but she made us feel so welcome. Thank you! The past couple of days we have spent at a most delightful spot on the Northern NSW coast called Woody Heads on the edge of Bundjalung National Park. It was bliss! A place where we all felt happy, content and at peace with the world The campsite is bang on the beach and the beach has a bit of everything for everybody. Great rocks for climbing on, fishing off or just plain looking at, lovely sand for playing in, busy rockpools waiting to be discovered and plenty of bird life including a whole group of pelicans (don’t know the collective noun for pelicans?!) The children played endlessly on the beach and I got to read my book, “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. It was a great read, an amazing concept. The key character suffers from a rare genetic disorder that means he time travels, without any prior notice, into his past and occasionally his future. It is, I suppose, a love story but I was fascinated with the whole idea of going back and seeing what one was like as a child or what ones parents were like and also how it changes him having to deal with turning up naked somewhere (he can’t take anything with him when he time travels), not knowing when or where you are or how long you will be there. Interesting. H