Aussie Trip {Part 1} ~ The Beginning

My grandparents moved to Aussie while most of my mum's siblings were still at home. A couple have moved back to NZ since then, but we still have a few cousins, friends, and other relatives over there. The last time we made a trip over as a family was in 2005! We had only four children then :P In that time, another cousin had joined the party, and a couple had married. One of my friends turned 21 late last year, and a cousin wanted to do make her 20th a big celebration. I decided all those things made for a good excuse to head over for a few weeks! :D

: : Temperatures like these provide me with good encouragement to head over the ditch :P : :

In the weeks beforehand I didn't have a huge amount of time to think about or prepare for my trip; I stayed fairly busy teaching and such, fitting in a few make-up classes (if someone's sick or something and we have to change the date), organising classes for the following term (I arrived home late Friday/early Saturday and started up teaching on the Monday), and I'm not really sure what else right now, but it was busy! Lol. A few days before I realised I didn't have time to make anything new for my wardrobe (didn't have a lot of summer clothing anymore), so I started enlisting help . . .  managed to get both my mum and my bro sewing skirts for me!! :P I packed the night before, then tried to get some sleep before leaving. 

Even though I was exhausted, sleep was slow in coming. Once I was out, I was out pretty solidly though; I didn't hear my alarm go off at 3:45am on September 24th. It must have roused me slowly though, because I was awake by the time Mum came in saying we didn't have much time left and had to hurry. Right then I really just wanted to sleep, but figured missing my flight probably wouldn't be the best start to the trip! I don't think I would have had much more than a couple hours sleep :/ We grabbed my stuff and tried to rush/sneak out without waking the little people! Got my bag checked in okay, and then I went through so Mum and Dad could get back to bed. It's amazing how much the airport has changed . . . actually I think something's different just about every time I go there! Although, it was about 10 1/2 years since I had been in this section. Thankfully this wasn't a flight I had to race to catch, so I worked out where I had to go and then sat down to tap into the free (30-min) wifi for a bit. Snapped the following pic to make everyone staying behind jealous :P

I don't remember much between the above pic and being on the plane, so presumable everything went pretty smoothly and ordinarily :P I do remember feeling VERY tired, and feeling like it was a bit strange sitting parked on the tarmac and watching it get lighter and lighter outside, when I really just wanted to be asleep lol. I think we may have left a little late, but the flight was pretty good once we got going. 

: : Not entirely sure how to feel about the direction we were taking here . . . :P : :

: : I love the invention of this app, with a live map and flight details! : :
Look at that destination time though, wouldn't really want to message them before take-off! :P

When I booked my flights I just picked the cheapest options + bag, but ended up with a meal on the flight over there; I wouldn't have chosen to pay extra for it, but it worked out really well, being that the flight was so early and I hadn't ended up managing to eat anything beforehand -- hunger was setting in pretty strongly when they brought it out! Admittedly it can't beat homecooked, but I wasn't about to argue with bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, fruit, juice and bran muffin right then! ;)

: : Not far now!! : :

So my nearly 4-hour flight that I got up in the middle of the night for, arrived in Brisbane around 8am their time! I think we made pretty good time travelling, not sure whether we ended up getting in early or not. I managed to find my way (and suitcase) -- that airport seems pretty big to me :P -- and get through customs in pretty good time. Took off my jacket and cardigan which were a must in Auckland, and just had the problem of the temperature not quite being warm enough for half-sleeves, but too warm for a thin cardigan over the top. Anyways. Connected to the wifi again and messaged home to say I had arrived. (Dad was at work by this stage, not sure that all the siblings were up though :P) 

Waited a bit (since I got through customs faster than my uncle had calculated), and then got picked up by my cousin and a friend who had traveled north the day before and spent the night at my uncle's caravan in Brissy. Turns out they weren't aware I was eating on-flight, so they planned to take me out for breakfast. After we took a couple of detours and got lost a couple of times, we found the mall and went to look for a cafe. By this time I was about ready to eat again anyway so it worked out all right. ;P

: : Iced coffee and cheesecake might not be the best morning tea, but hey : :

: : That jar of coffee in the previous pic was pretty big :P : :

We looked around the shops for a while, then headed back to my uncle's caravan for the rest of the day. Took it pretty easy, organised our stuff, shopped for snacks, made dinner, and watched a movie or two. Finally got to bed; I must have been up for close on 24 hours after only 2ish hours sleep?! Slept pretty solidly, thankfully; just need the nights a bit longer after a day like that ;P

: : And that is actually in the caravan . . . RV or similiar?! : :
Whatever it is, it was shipped over from America and is flasher than our house, if a fair bit smaller ;P 

And that concluded my first day in Aussie after just over a decade! It actually may have been my first time in Brissy, I'm not sure we had been up that far before. But I'll save my thoughts on the city for another post ;)

No, I don't have a boring life!

Written February 1st, 2012

One Saturday night our family went out for supper, and afterwards Dad decided to take me for a driving lesson. He said we would just head up the motorway a bit (towards the city), and then drive home on the road. Dad wanted to move into the middle lane, which we did, and I think I did ok then, but I hadn’t been on the motorway all that many times, and then only in the left lane. So it was challenging trying to stay where I was supposed to be! Somewhere about now I noticed a cop car when I looked in the rearview mirror; however I didn’t think much of it at the time.

Then we needed to move back to the left lane because our off-ramp was coming up. I’m afraid I didn’t have enough skill for that, then! Coming up to the intersection at the end of the off-ramp, I noticed in my rearview mirror that the cop car was now behind me, lights flashing. I find it hard to believe now, but at the time I still didn’t think anything of it! I mentioned it to Dad, while thinking about where I needed to go next...and I can’t remember what else. Dad then began telling me to pull over. I was horrified; pull over ON YELLOW LINES in front of a cop?!? But I did end up doing so, and somewhere along the way I finally realised that this cop wanted to speak to us!

We were told that someone had rung the police saying there was someone driving slow and weaving on the motorway (I actually don’t remember changing lanes more than twice!), so they’d had to come and check things out. Mine and Dad’s licenses were checked, and the caller spoken to; everything was in order. Last of all we were both breath tested – the ones you actually have to blow into.

It all took FOREVER, but we finally were able to go home (I was getting tired, and had stuff I needed to do at home). I should probably note that the cop ended by saying he hoped I wasn’t too freaked out and ...uh oh I’ve forgotten the rest!

So, you can’t ride a horse until you’ve fallen off, and, just perhaps, you can’t drive a car until you’ve been pulled over?? Haha! =D

Before you ask....I actually didn’t find it scary, believe it or not! I was just like.. “Well, here’s another experience, and something to tell all my friends about!” I have since driven through breath-testing stations twice, and tested once. (Just the name and address one this time lol!)

By Bee (who does, sometimes, have interesting things happen to her!! Haha =D)

Last week...Part 1

Monday last week (24th Jan) was a quiet day at home. (I think we probably played uno, etc!)

On Tuesday we went to the Auckland Museum, uggh (no I don't like museums lol!). It was kinda cool to see the native New Zealand bats though! (for those of you who don't know, I did a lot of study on bats a few years ago, and won 1st = in the Auckland Home Educator's Science and Technology Fair - in the observation category).
And they have four (live) rats in the children's section, which are so cute! One of the volunteers opened their cage while we were there too!!! lol

And that night we had athletics!!! - first night for the second half of the season. My age group (Girls 12+) did 100m, 200m, Discuss and High Jump.
We also found out that one of the coach's - a solo Dad of one son my age - had died earlier that day by electrocuting himself...so that kinda put a damper on things.

After athletics Dad took Bethany, another one of my friends - Rebekah, and I to a Cafe in Devonport for supper/dessert, after which we went for a walk along the waterfront.
Lol the cafe served hot chocolate in either a bowl or a glass, I decided to be adventurous and get the bowl! Which, of course, everyone else thought was a great joke. They kept teasing me about a straw not being big enough, and needing a garden hose ...etc...etc...etc...!

Wednesday was another quiet day at home, and that night Dad, Jarrod, Monique, Danielle, Diana and I went to athletics training while Mum took Bethany, Bryce and Maria to church.

Thursday morning we went to church at 11, and 7, and Anne Roos came over in between, while Mum went grocery shopping, and we watched a movie - Letters to Juliet, when the others got home we played uno before a quick dinner.

On Friday we went to the Sonnevelds' (homeschool friends) for afternoon tea. While there we tried target shooting (in the rain!) and yes, talked a lot.
Then it was dinner, and to church with Bethany and Uncle Pete at 7.
On the way back, we picked up the keys for work from Uncle Paul, but he wasn't sure if he had all the right ones, so we came home and got Dad's work keys, dropped me off, then Uncle Pete and Bethany went to work.
I then had to organise ironing..blah blah blah..and eventually got to bed just after midnight.

Bee