We are still here: Updade

Well hello there.  How the hell are you?  It has been so long since we last spoke. How have you been?

Where has this year gone?  It has disappeared before my very eyes and here we are with Christmas nearly upon us.  Things just get so crazy at the end of the year, don’t they?  I really do not know how all of you town folk do it.  So many events to attend.  You must be so worn out, between ballet concerts, end of year award nights, presentations not to mention Christmas Parties etc etc.  Bloody hell, I get tired just thinking about what you all do. This happened for us at the beginning of December, but we just jam everything into one week.  We packed up and headed into Mt Isa for a week – the annual Sports for Bush Kids week is much anticipated for all concerned. After a bit of rain the night before we left, we had to wait for the road to dry out before we left and travelled down the 160km of dirt to get to the highway.

The kids and I listened to Matilda by Roald Dahl on Audiobook on the way in.  It was perfect and went for about 5 hours which meant we finished just as we pulled into the caravan park where we were staying for the week.  I highly recommend these children’s audiobooks, the kids loved it and we will definitely be downloading more for our holiday trip in January.  I have already downloaded The Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton.

I often forget how long my children go between town trips.  As we were driving into town they commented on some new sheds at a mine, I said “no they are not” and then thought about it and realised they had not been to town for 5 MONTHS!!!!!!  Ooops, poor little buggers.  No wonder they were so excited.

Aileen, our long serving cook, travelled out with us, for the last time.  I had a lovely last night in town with her and then we had a tearful goodbye as she drove away on the Sunday.  We will miss this gorgeous lady.  Thanks for everything Aileen!!!

We arrived a day early in town so we could have Sunday just lazing around enjoying ourselves.  We headed to the Isa Hotel with friends for lunch.  It was so civilised and relaxing, the kids were off playing in the new playground and the adults were having lots of laughs.  I was so happy to be there.  Our relaxation came to a grinding halt when Tom came racing towards me screaming “Mummy Mummy I think I have broken my wrist”…..shit, bloody hell, don’t show me, please – someone deal with this.  I am ABSOLUTELY HOPELESS when my children hurt themselves, so my gorgeous friends came to the rescue and put a splint on.  Another drove us to the hospital.  It is all so easy in town, we were around at that hospital in about the same time it would have taken us to drive to our Station Airstrip to greet the RFDS plane.  So, turns out it was indeed broken.  They had to knock him out and manipulate it back into alignment and pop on a cast.  What a great start to the Sports Week.  Poor old Tom, he was completely devastated, he was so looking forward to taking part in all the sports for the week and now here he was with a cast on for most of the School Holidays.  Bummer!  This also meant we had to hang around in town for a  few days longer to get a new cast put on.

The week was still fun, it is just so busy though.  And even for this raving extrovert it took its toll.  So many people to chat to, so many children and so much to do. We just jam everything into one week.  Watching these bush kids play sports, they may never have even tried before, is pretty funny.  They are so enthusiastic but really have no idea what they are doing.  Here they are playing basketball (picture below) .  Many of the coaches flew up from The Southport School & St Hilda’s on the Gold Coast and John Paul College in Brisbane. The children are so lucky to have such wonderful coaches teach them how to play each sport.

Clancy was a little reluctant to join in with his swimming lessons, he just wanted to have fun playing in the water, so Harry had to get in and help him.

A quick little birthday party for Tom and Daniel who have Birthday’s before Christmas.  A Donut King Cake, a few lollies, a quick play in the Fun Park and that was that – come on: lets get the hell out of this disgustingly hot park and get back into the air conditioning or jump in a pool, and pour ourselves a wine.  The humidity in town was foul, add to it the grit and filth from the, mine smack in the middle of town, and you don’t have a great combo, I just felt dirty all day long.  Only felt better once I had jumped in the pool at the end of the day to wash the scum from my body.

Check out the photo below.  Yes – that is the mine you can see in the background right behind the town pool.  Seeing is believing.

I can tell you one thing, I was so pleased to get home and eat some real food – steak and veg.  I have never consumed so much junk in all my life.  How many times can one car go through the Macca’s drive thru?  Sometimes it was more than once a day.  And then there was the Chinese home delivery.  The 3rd time I called and told them the delivery address the lady said “yes yes, we know, we deliver there just the other day” – how embarrassing.  I am such a sucker for Chinese though, yum!  I am not sure what I would look like if I lived in town, I am pretty sure I would be 10 tonne Tessie, it would not be a good look is all I can say.  So now I am home and back on the treadmill and trying to eat healthy before we go away again in January.

When we finally managed to leave The Isa the car was packed to the brim and I really don’t know how I fit everything in.  There was gear shoved in nooks and unexplored crannies.

Now that we are back I am the Station Cook.  Mr Chardy had been cooking for everyone while I was away and lets just say after a week with no cook the kitchen didn’t look or smell all that flash.  So I spent my first day home scrubbing and de-boying it.  I finally managed to get it back on track and looking like Aileen was still in there.  I just wish I could say the same for my house.  I have been trying to unpack and get things back on track over here a little bit at a time, trying not to get cranky or worry too much about it.  The office work desperately needs attending too and I really need to get onto it.  On a positive note, we only have 4 staff left so it is pretty easy going on the cooking front.  I am actually even enjoying it – oh no, did I just say that out loud?  It is actually quite peaceful over there by myself – until all the children figure out where I am and start whinging.  At least I can keep things under control over there.

We have set up the Christmas Tree but have realised we don’t know where our decorations are.  Luckily I bought some tinsel in town, so basically our tree has tinsel, lights and not much else.  Can’t pop down to the local K-Mart to get new decorations either.  We also have an Elf on the Shelf, who has been getting up to all sorts of mischief each night.  The first night he photocopied his bum, the next morning the boys found him sitting on the photocopier, it was so funny.  He has also been making Soda Streams and last night he wrote a Naughty & Nice list.  Clancy was on the Naughty list (and not one bit happy about it), Tom was in limbo and Harry was on the Nice list.  Hopefully this will liven them up a little.

Ok, so if you are still reading – Well Done!!!!  Thanks for listening to me babble on.

Are you busy running around doing all the end of year stuff?
Are you completely worn out?
Have you finished your Christmas Shopping?