Strong finish to a short week - Dave posting

This week we had the pleasure of a 4-day school week due to the holiday on Monday,

At the kids local school, they celebrate with the school fete at this time of year. The kids, along with many community partners, put on a huge celebration in the playground complete with pony rides, bouncy castles, cake stalls, all manner of candies and sugary treats, as well as games that the kids in years 5 and 6 run.

Oh, and it's an incredibly huge fundraiser. 

Grandparents give their kids money for this annual event. I'm not kidding.

The plan this year was to raise $15 000.

It was an impressive display.  

Monkey not only took his shifts volunteering at the year 6 'Tin Can Alley' game (you had to knock over stacks of cans to win chocolate bars), but he also participated as a member of the senior choir. Here he is with the choir belting out 'Lanterns' along with his peers.

Our boys were pretty money savvy.
They each filled out their stamp card by visiting every stand - and were overjoyed to get a free hot wheels car.
In Big C's terms - it was the BEST. PRIZE. EVER!

Monkey got an orange sportscar and was overjoyed.

We grabbed a cold drink to get a little relief from the 30+ degree heat in the sunshine. All told it was a delightfully fun afternoon.

When we got back to the car, Big C made sure that we took his photo with his 'student of the week' ribbon. He was very proud of himself.

With mommy out of town for the weekend, it was a fun start to our boys' weekend.

A follow up Post to the Melbourne Beast Spartan

As promised I am (finally) looking to see if there are photos of me on the course of the Beast.  I am actually finding some this time around-yay!  They are thumbnails, so not the best quality, but here I am:

Start line:

Run up to the fire jump:

 Fire Jump:

Mud Crawl (under rope, not barbed wire):

Part of me heading up the yucky hill.  I am climbing to the top so that I can grab one of those sandbags you see in the photos and then run to the bottom to grab a trinket to prove I did it, and then climb back up.  As you do.

 Here I am with the sandbag!

 We are working hard!  The next photos show that.

I still have not found any photos of me under the barbed wire crawl-but I remember seeing the photographer.  I will take another look and see if I can find them.

Darwin Pride Festival

Today is our final day in Darwin.  We've had such an amazing holiday here!  I want to stay forever in the tropical wonderland filled with heat.  Dave wants to take the bus to our midnight flight about 4 days early so he can sit in some air conditioning.

We walked the kids down to the beach mid morning and passed a bouncy castle being erected.  Hark, what is this?  We inquire and find out that the Darwin Pride Festival is on today and there are heaps of kids activities!  Whoot!

We spent an hour at the beach and then hightailed it back to Pride.  We grab our free sausages for lunch and watch the drag queens get ready while the boys scurry off to the bouncy castle.

  The thing about Pride is that there are more dogs than kids in attendance, so there is limited competition for the bouncy castle. Mega win!

 for those of you who have no already worked it out, I did not get great photos of today's event.  My poor little phone just could not handle the fabulousness.  I'll do my best to describe it to you.

There were giant bean bag chairs all over the park, so I grabbed one and enjoyed an additional sausage while lounging on it.  With a flight leaving at midnight I need to get all the rest I can get!  This is how I spent the entire "camp dog" event.

What is a "camp dog" event?  Honey *finger snap* it's faaaaabulous!  So first you need a drag queen and a lesbian to emcee the event.  Then you need about a dozen dog owners who have dressed their dogs up either in drag, or just like a princess or a superhero.  Be creative.

Then you require categories like best singer, best dancer, best owner/dog look alike, most camp dog and an agility course.

We had poodles, beagles, weiner dogs and everything in between.  It was fabulous!  Oh how we laughed and cheered!  At one point the emcee started singing Susan Boyle songs to get the hounds to sing since they wouldn't do it otherwise-IT WORKED!  oh, best emcee of all time.

Of course, when attending Pride, one does have to have certain conversations with one's children.  For example, they were handing out lubricant.  BigC wanted to know what it was.  *quick mom, think on your feet*. "Well honey, remember that Myth Busters episode where they tried to determine if banana peels are actually  slippery and they compared them to industrial grade lubricant?  This is the same stuff."

I thought that was a great response...then he went over and asked the volunteers for more.  They totally gave it to him too!

How Our Exchange Partners Taught Me Not To Check My Emails

I have gotten in to the habit of checking my phone/iPad immediately upon waking. You see, when I wake up it is the middle of the afternoon back home.  Most of a day has happened and I want to see if there is anything that I need to know about.

Yesterday when I checked my emails there was one from our exchange family saying that the hand mixer had given up the ghost.  No dramas.  I hopped on to Amazon.ca and ordered one to be shipped directly to them.

This morning I woke up and they had emailed to say that there was a light flashing on the hot water tank, the water was cold and there was some water on the floor.  I'm no expert, but this didn't sound like a problem easily solved.

Thankfully we have a fabulous team of people on the ground. The awesome Matt Oderkirk of Oderkirk Renovations will be heading over to see if it is something "simple".  If it can't easily be sorted we will likely need to buy a new tank.  My awesome dad has already scoped that whole situation out and knows what we need and who has what in stock.

We are so blessed to know that while we are off on vacation, inside our year long adventure, we are big so well supported by our awesome friends and family back home.

That said, I won't be checking my emails tomorrow.  I don't like the direction the emails are going!

***Update: Matt was able to reset the hot water tank and get it working again.  Meanwhile my father had someone lined up to install a brand new tank if we had needed one.  I remain incredibly grateful to the amazing people in our lives!

Water Slide and the Beach

The weather here does not change. Dave keeps checking the forecast out no habit rather than actual need. Every day there is a high of 33 and a low of 24.

 I am loving every minute of the heat, liquid cheese and all!  This morning the boys loved playing on the water slide by the beach.

 Once they were tired of that, construction began.  Monkey is frustrated that the wind won't allow him to play with his Diablo. He is spending time researching new tricks instead.

 They spent the rest of the morning building and practicing their interpersonal skills.

The Day We Should Have Hired a Car

Today we took the bus to the last stop before the Darwin Military Experience and walked the rest of the way.  Dave did not tell me that we were walking almost 5km each way.  Likely because I knew better than to ask the question.

BigC enjoyed that this sign actually advertised wallabies as part of the attractions. We stopped along rhe path so I could continue my quest to keep my palms from getting soft.  

This peacock enjoyed lunching with us at the museum. We didn't feed him, but his behaviour would suggest that many others do.

BigC was especially taken with the 9.2inch gun and wanted to be sure that Grandpa saw it.  Dad, you would love this place!

Monkey was keen to dress us in the regalia.  The experience was very well done.  Prior to the last two weeks here in the top end I really had very little idea about Australia's involvement in the second World War.  I most certainly did not know how heavily Darwin had been bombed by Japan.

After walking 5km back to the bus stop Dave pulled out a package of Brie that he had brought along with him for the day.  He had carefully stored it in the "coolest part of his backpack, right next to the crackers". He was very surprised to find that aftet 6 or so hours on a 34 degree day it was in liquid form. Picture a delicious brie appetizer.  I'm talking some maple syrup, walnuts (or perhaps cranberries if you're Liz)...maybe even wrapped in flaky pastry...right out of the oven served with some fresh crusty roll.  Mmmmm....but not that, because this was just brie, in the wrapper, at a bus stop.  #fail

All cheesy teasing aside we caught the bus for the Mindil Markets.  

The boys quickly found the tent of circus toys.

Monkey got a private lesson on playing with a Diablo.  He did so well that he entered a contest.

Which HE WON!!  SI now he has his very own to play with.  We bought him a book to help him to learn more tricks with it.  I'm sure he'll find lots more great info on YouTube once we are back in Mudgee.

 This kid loved taking the bus today. 

In Melbourne and Sydney we have ridden on great transit systems with new systems where you pay the fare with a card ad no cash changes hands.  In fact, that would seem to be pretty standard for most cities these days.  Not Darwin.  The bus driver has a little cash box and he is taking money and making change as he greets passengers.

Amazing.

Inflatable Pony Rides

Dave and BigC at the start line.

 And they're off!

 BigC easily rounds the inside corner.  Agility and size easily on his side here.

 BigC checking the competition.

 Coming down the final straight...

 And BigC takes it!!

After the race was won we spent another wonderful day at the wave pool.

Scratch Art, a Hot Run and a Boat Cruise

The boys started the day off at an art activity. 

BigC loves scratch art so it was a no brainer to make sure he was there.

He got some well deserved down time afterwards. When we get home I will be looking up how to make a sand a water table in his size for the basement.  There is a cement area with a drain and a laundry tub down there.  I think we can do this without too much mess.

I am staring down the barrel at my final two Spartan races in less than 2 weeks. As much as I am loving Darwin, it is hard to be here without any workout equipment.  Today I opted to make due with what I have out on nature.

I ran 8km and stopped every 1k to do either push ups, triceps dips, run up these stairs or do pull ups on parking barriers.  It was HOT and I was a puddle at the end, but I'm glad I did it.

In the evening we met up with some other Canadian exchange teachers and went on a private boat cruise on Darwin Harbour.

It was absolutely fabulous to see everythingfrom this vantage point.

Take note Grandpa.  This is a customs vessel and BigC wants you to see it.

 Here are some naval ships in port for you to see.

The sun set was gorgeous.

BigC spent the better part of the boat cruise chatting with the captain and considering his options if he were to choose a life at sea