Kerry's "Letter from Australia" - March 2007Well, Mother arrived on 1st Feb, looking bright eyed and bushy tailed despite traveling for over 24 hours. We arrived at Melbourne airport to pick her up at 10pm as her flight landed at 9.30, however it was way gone 11pm before she emerged. A couple of flights came in together and then she had to wait for assistance as she is 85 and disabled. She was full of praise for Qantas whose staff looked after her, both during the flight and at the airport during the stopover in Hong Kong. She was delighted when we drove up our drive and there were 5 kangaroos hopping about.
Thus began a month of sightseeing, wine tasting and lunches out. Most of which I have mentioned in previous blogs, except for Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, which is the recreation of the mining works during the gold rush sometime in the 1800’s. It was extremely well done and is an exact replica of Ballarat during that time. Conditions must have been awful, with the lack of proper living accommodation and the heat, to say nothing of the hacking down of large areas of bush land with hand tools. Our own Cornish tin miners were at the forefront of the digs as they had relevant experience. People arrived daily on foot mostly having walked days to get there in the hope of striking it rich. It was well worth the 2 hours it took to get there from our house. I took plenty of photos - I feel a page coming on!! Whilst walking around there, Mum had a tap on the shoulder and there was a lady she had met at Heathrow airport and chatted to in the lounge. Talk about coincidence!
Lauren (eldest daughter) has settled in well at uni and absolutely loves it.
She is the only student from outside of the African continent to attend and word had got out about a student arriving from Australia and as soon as she opens her mouth to speak to anyone they say “You must be Ozzy” even though she speaks with an English accent.
For those of you who don’t know much about her she is the type of person who likes to have every spare moment of her time accounted for. Sitting down relaxing is wasted time as far as she is concerned. So in her first week at Uni, this is what she has signed up for. Climbing club, jogging club, netball club, shooting club, touch rugby and is learning first aid. There is also a lovely beach nearby with great waves apparently, so that will also figure in the equation somewhere as she is keen to improve her surfing. She is so obviously her father’s daughter, just typing it all is enough to wear me out!! She was learning Afrikaans before she went and has found it useful and is trying to learn more from her fellow students who seem only too willing to assist her. In her third week she added that she was now playing squash most nights and got a record for her speed climb. Goodness knows when she gets time to do any work.
One of her first assignments was to catch 10 butterflies of different species. So much for conservation!! She has also been to the beach to study eco-systems. She says the lecturers are all good and she has weekly tests on plants and ecology etc. and has been achieving high marks, so the sport is not impeding on the work as we had feared.
We were worried about what she would do during holiday time as we can’t afford the flight home for her at the end of every term. She has reassured us that everyone is so friendly and she has had several invitations to stay with other students when they go home. She has also got a boyfriend named Terry, who seems very nice. He sent Kevin an email introducing himself and telling him about his family background and seeking his approval to go out with Lauren. We have never had that before, most never even came to the house!!! He also tried to quell Kevin’s fears about safety in Africa as they are planning to do work experience on a game reserve in Botswana during the June/July break.
Holly is still enjoying school and is now visiting a farm on a weekly basis as part of the curriculum. She milks the goats, feeds the pigs and learns about their digestive systems and living arrangements and generally has a whale of a time. At her age I would have loved to have had 4 hours off school once a week as well.
Diesel is making his presence known more, now he is gaining confidence in us. This is both a blessing and a pain, literally. He is so excited to see us first thing in the morning or after we return from a trip out, that he grabs hold of our clothes and won’t let go and if he is not careful, which he isn’t, he gets our flesh as well. Cindy, the lady from dog training has been giving us strategies to cope with it; all have failed to improve the situation so far. The work continues!!! Watch this space.
Thanks to Jackie, who saw it on a website, I am off to Melbourne in March for a day with Sara Neumann and Jeanette (can’t remember her surname) from Hot of the Press. It is a whole day of scrap booking and card making. A$95.00 (about £38.00) including tea and coffee all day, lunch and a goodie bag to work with, not bad eh!! All you need to bring is a paper trimmer.
I have also booked in for a gourmet crop at a shop about an hour from home. You have to bring everything you need for the day but get a cordon bleu lunch, just A$25.00 (£10.00). Like Pulling on the Glitz the shop is on hand in case you have forgotten anything or more importantly see something you simply must have!! I will inform you in the next blog how these two events shaped up.
We are having more bookings for the B and B now, thanks to some feature advertising on a website, long may it continue as there is still no sign of a job.
With that, I will sign off until next month,
Love Kerry
