On the road to Lightning Ridge

We are out and about again, traveling, this time the goal of our trip was Lightning Ridge. It is a place I had read about and wanted to see. They mine for opals here and apparently it is the only place where you can find black opals. Generally opals are the national gemstone of Australia and black opals are  unique to NSW.

The trip here took almost 12 hours but we had a few stops on the way. One was a pit stop in Gulgong and it just so happened that it was "Welcome back to Gulgong" Day. So there was a market and a parade, which was lots of fun. Everyone paraded, the Golf Club members, the farmers, some herding sheep and some driving tractors, the motorbike drivers, the veteran car drivers, the camel-farm people, and kids from school etc. It was charming and made you feel like you wanted to live and belong to  such a community rather than being part of a big faceless mass in a big city.

The trip after that  went quite quickly though, maybe because hubby took the opportunity to teach me binary numbers.  So once I got the knack of it he told me a number that I had to give him in binary.

After a while we had to give up on that and play another favorite game - thinking of animals starting with an A and so on. This time we tried to do it in French. We have lived in France for 28 years but after being away for 3 years it seems that our brain have atrophied. We couldn't think of anything beyond 'chat et chien', it was pathetic.

The Outback is great! People can be a bit special, in fact it is almost a must. They have all come here for a reason, usually to find the big opal and get rich but it is also a life style. So many have given up their previous jobs to come out here and stake a claim. I was surprised though, to learn that of the miners, the female miners, then the families were in majority before the male miners. I really thought it was a male "thing" but clearly I was wrong.

We are staying in a B & B called Sonja's guesthouse and it it very nice and comfortable and it will be almost sad to leave tomorrow.

It is bedtime, after a full day out and about, of which  I'll tell you more later. So goodnight from Lightning Ridge, apparently called thusly after lightning struck and killed a farmer and his dog and his 600 sheep.

Getting connected

So we finally got our TV connected downstairs.  Now,  instead of sitting cosily in two office chairs, very close together,  to watch TV in hubby's office, we can now sit like normal people on the couch in the living room. The support and connections leave a little to be desired, but hey, it works!  It also works just as well for nodding off, but I think I will miss the closeness of that little office.

It was just a shame it didn't happened before the BIL left. He was a little confused and rattled since there was no TV to watch while eating in our house.  When he is at home, he is always multitasking amongst watching TV, chatting on Fb or Skype, and maybe also having dinner.

Today we went back to a place that I took the in laws to while they were here. It was the visiting centre of Captain Cook's landing place and also to Cape Solander. The latter is named after the Swedish botanist who came out with Captain Cook on Endeavour. I think I might have mentioned him before. That was all very interesting but the lady in the visitor centre and me both agreed that the one that should have most of the praise should be Mrs Cook. She gave birth to six children and none of them survived to adult age. She coped with everything while hubby was gallivanting around the world performing serious and worthy male tasks.

This young girl obviously needed a good spot for practicing her instrument, even though we could hardly hear it since the surf was drowning out the sound

This is a different view of Sydney seen from Kurnell

Your intrepid scribe at Cape Solander in her oh-so-unsuitable shoes

On Friday, after taking the in laws to the airport, we had a great African dinner at African Feeling in Newtown. This reminded me of the time I went to get some lunch for elder daughter and myself at a local Nigerian restaurant in London when she was busy preparing for a show the next day.  The Nigerian lady had no customers so she said she was going to make us something special.  I sat and watched reality TV with some African men and an hour later the food was ready (no fast food here). I took it home and we opened the containers and started eating.  We were starving! After a few mouthfuls we looked at each other. We just couldn't continue. It turned out it was tripe!!!  It must be an acquired taste. We just couldn't eat it, and I am still sorry for throwing it out, sorry for the Nigerian lady and her effort, and for the starving children in Africa who would probably have loved it.

Feels like summer

Just a little hello and also a comment on remarks I have received about school uniforms. Most people said they liked them and and some thought them a real great idea (mainly men). So there you go, I guess  it is like casual Friday at the office when all the guys wear chinos and polo shirts and loafers, trying to be casual but all looking the same. They seem to feel comfortable like that.  However, nobody seemed to approve of corporal punishment in schools, so that's a relief!

We have the in-laws visiting and so far we have hardly gotten up from the breakfast table but I will now, since it is 12.30,  but only to do lunch. I feel this is going to be a pretty relaxed visit.

Continuation from yesterday. After a leisurely lunch that finished at three we decided to go for a drive down to Bundeena, a place that we previously were very tempted to settle in.  Thank goodness we don't live there because I couldn't find it, or at least not intentionally. We did accidentally find signs for it,  after having driving around for ages, but by then we only had time to whizz down there and leave again. We didn't even get out of the car since we had to pick up hubby again from work. We had managed to fit in a visit to the Woronora dam but that was only because I thought we had to see something at least. No one was very impressed though, but hubby now wants to go because he likes dams?!

So today we are going into Sydney, maybe for a harbour cruise but only if there is no wind; if there is, we'll do something else.   The weather is fantastic at the moment, it almost feels like summer, certainly a Swedish summer.

This hurts me more than it hurts you!

Every where you go here in Australia, you see these cute kids in school uniforms. The uniforms are all different depending on the school they go to and also depending on the season. There is a winter uniform and a summer uniform. The hats are also different depending on the school and season.

These boys are clearly in 

I had a very interesting conversation with hubby in the car today about school uniforms. Of course he went to a school where you had to have one and he seems to be all for it. In fact he sees it as something very practical, in that you don't have to chose every morning what to wear, you just hop into the same old trousers and shirt and blazer if you are a boy. Of course if you are a girl it is a skirt instead of trousers.

But... even though it is a uniform you can jazz it up a bit. You can wear the jacket inside out. Or like hubby and friends did, they soaked their caps in hot water to make them shrink so that they had only a silly little cap perched on top of the head without any real purpose - a pimple on a pumpkin. There were very strict rules about when and where you can take of your blazer, and when you must wear your caps.

If you are a girl you can hoist your skirt up and make it into a real mini skirt. You can also do things with your ties, in fact having a uniform gives endless possibilities to invent fashion. I am almost envious, since I went to a Swedish school and no one has uniforms in Sweden, at least not to my knowledge. It would go against the national grain, seeming to inflict a rule about something as personal as your clothes on somebody, that would just not be acceptable.

Sometimes when we compare notes, hubby and me, on our childhoods and growing up, you wonder if we lived in the same universe. For example he told me that he sometimes "got the cane" for some mischief that he had been up to. The last time was when he was 17, and we are talking about "six of the best", on the bottom, with a wooden cane; needless to say I was horrified. Sweden is one of the first countries,  if not the first, where hitting children became illegal, over 50 years ago. There is also an ombudsman who looks after children's interest.  In Victorian public schools, however, corporal punishment only became illegal in 2006!

One problem with uniforms though is that they do tend to cost a bit and if you have a growing spurt in the middle of term you might be told by your headmaster, as was the case with hubby, "Why don't your shoes have a party and invite your trousers down?"  So for the rest of the term he had to wear knee socks and shorts in the middle of winter.  Still he has such fond memories of school that it seems churlish to act shocked and het up about it.

I have been present once though, when my grandmother, bless her, who looked after me and my sister, was at her wit's end and was going to discipline my sister by smacking her bottom with a hairbrush. The brush part flew off its handle and almost broke some ornament and we all three got such a surprise that we couldn't stop giggling, in fact it was one of those "laughing until your belly aches" moment. So much for discipline....with the back of a hair brush!  It became one of our favorite stories when we were thinking back on incidents involving our grandmother after she passed away.

Here is my grand mother with my sister and me, but the above incident was much later.

A fun-packed first week

Amazing! I have already been back in Sydney for more than a week; time does fly when you are having fun!

And I have had fun even though it was with very mixed feelings that I left Sweden and my elderly mother. To think that it was only two years ago that she was with us here in Sydney.

The fun started last weekend which was Father's Day, and only son came out to our neck of the woods for the weekend and took us out on Sunday for a pub lunch which we all enjoyed.

Then it was starting up painting class again with a workshop on Thursday. Great to see the girls again!

Friday we went to a cocktail party at the CruisingYacht Club of Sydney in Rushcutters Bay for hubby's school reunion. It was mainly white-haired men in dark suits reminiscing about old teachers and school in general.

There were a few speeches of course and lovely nibbles and drinks. However, what really became abundantly clear was that schools here in Australia judge their success on their sports results and less, much less, on academic results. In fact, not once were academic results mentioned but everyone seemed to remember who made that winning goal in 198....something!

On Saturday we went to the Sydney Country Music Festival held in Bella Vista.  Since we have not been to music festivals for ages we didn't think to bring something to sit on so we had to wander around and sometimes sit down on tree roots, when our legs started to tremble.

We also came back regularly to the bar where there were seats and cold beer!!! and a Brazilian barbecue. The temperature got up to over +30°C so much beer was needed. Don't worry, it was low-alcohol beer since this was a family affair. In fact during the concert the security guards circulated in the audience and asked to see what was in their picnic baskets (checking for alcohol) What cheek, I thought at first, but I guess they don't want people to be drunk and disorderly or drive home under the influence.

My clear favorites were Justin Frew and the Wolverines and Chelsea Basham from WA but we also liked a few of the other female singers but I can't remember their names.

Oh, let's not forget, Saturday was also the day that Australia went to the ballots and hubby was able to vote for the first time in over 35 years.

The results started coming in when we were driving back from the festival and Australia now has a right-wing government. Hmmm, let's see how that works out.

Home is where the heart is

.....at least that's what they say, but that special "heart" is in bed with another bout of Lyme disease. He has just had his blood-test results back and they indicated borrelia.  We seem to have a lot of deer ticks in the fields near the cottage in Sweden, and if it it is not me it will be hubby catching this wretched disease, usually while mowing the lawn, without having his whole body covered up to protect against ticks. Friends, don't let this stop you from coming to visit though, we don't expect you to mow the lawn.

Here in Australia they haven't got a clue what borrelia is since it does not seem to exist here. It is not fun and you feel very achy and miserable generally, similar to a man cold but much, much worse.

Anyway, I am back in God's Own Country   (that is one of the nicknames for Australia, together with "down under", "the lucky country" and the "sunburnt country") !! However when I Googled this, I found that many other countries, New Zealand in particular, called their country God's own. So I'll say I am back in Oz then and everybody will understand what I am talking about.

These flights from overseas generally arrive very early, and mine did too.  We were back at the house before 7 am and had time to catch up on a few things before hubby went to work.

I think you realize you are getting old when you find the escalators too fast in Singapore airport (or are they particularly fast there?) I had to stand and will myself to get on, frequently creating a little queue behind me. At the end I realized that the best way was to just get on in your stride, without even stopping, and that worked better. I wish I had known about the emergency button. Singapore was fun, with +36 °C and 90% humidity. I didn't have a proper stop-over with a night in a hotel but I still had 12 hours to spend somehow. So I went shopping, and boy, can you shop in Singapore.

More is to come since I think hubby is planning something for Father's Day on Sunday, so I'll leave you for now with a big yawn.

Did I mention that we seem to be cat sitting again?

Summer is almost over

They say that when the heather blossoms, at least here in this region, it is the end of summer. However, the last week has been one of the best all summer and today is absolutely gorgeous, so it doesn't quite feel like it is the end yet. We might even go for a little swim later.

We have had lots of fun visitors but now the cottage is getting empty with only me and eldest daughter still here, and she is "in the zone" packing up for her departure tomorrow, so we are not speaking much. I have a few more days until I leave on Tuesday, well really my flight is on Wednesday but it is so darn early I will have to go and sleep in the airport since there is no way I can get to the airport from here for a 6 o'clock morning flight.

I found a website where they classified different airports from the point of view of having to spend a long time or even sleep there and I am hoping that Landvetter has a good rating.

Life here is pretty quiet so the only thing I can tell you is that I had a call from a friend who told me that another friend's husband had successfully saved his brother-in-law's life when he had a heart attack and there were only the two of them at home. The interesting thing is that my friend who called had recently "coached" me concerning this.  She says that the best rhythm is to do the heart massage to the rhythm of "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees. 

To finish off, here is a photo to say farewell to my hometown Gothenburg. It has become so big and different from when I was young,  but it has still in many ways remained the same.

Next time, if all goes well, I will write from Sydney. Until then, "Hej då"!