End of the Australian Adventure

This post was also written in July 2015: - 

As we approach the end of our adventure we have become increasingly reflective and nostalgic. We have loved our time here, however we are also ready to come home. Some aspects of Australia are brilliant, but it does have its problems. Aussie’s seem to think it’s perfect and if you don’t agree you are told in no uncertain terms to leave. Disgruntled NHS doctors might view Australia as an escape to better working conditions and work-life balance. Obviously, it is not that simple. This post is a list of the little things we will miss and the things we are glad to leave.

Brilliant bits	Not so brilliant
Brisbane (generally)	Gympie, Logan and other non-descript, yet slightly threatening towns.
Incredible city views, particularly Kingsford Smith Drive, Kangaroo Point and Riverside	Ugly A roads into cities and towns that look exactly the same irrespective of where you are
Wombats
The Story Bridge – it changes colour on most nights. Alex has loved predicting its colour just before it comes into view.
The City Cat ferry system – slow and expensive but very beautiful
The boardwalk – probably Irmeet’s favourite thing. We have loved walking up and down the river boardwalk. Incredible views of the amazing river and beautiful houses. It is always full of people exercising and illustrates the idyllic, healthy, outdoor Australian lifestyle. Alex has loved running on it (trying to overtake other runners) despite repeatedly falling over when his shoes get stuck between the wooden boards.
The Southbank - Unfortunately we have not used the pool at Streets Beach as much as I would have liked. However, it is a lovely place to have a wander.
Farmer’s market at the Powerhouse (and the Powerhouse)	Overpriced vegetables that I feel compelled to buy
Great children’s playgrounds	Alex trying to make friends in parks but struggling
Availability of communal BBQ’s – just rock up with your meat and utensils and turn it on.
Wombats – exceptionally cute
Campos coffee - amazing	Milk calories from far to many flat whites
Superior coffee generally – chain coffee shops are in the minority, instead independent shops use coffee from local roasters (Fonzie Abbott, Merlo)
Availability of great cheap lunch food (sushi, Vietnamese street food, Gyoza)	Calories from all the yummy food
Standard Market Company – Like M&S/Waitrose crossed with a posh deli but better.	Expensive posh deli food
The Gasworks – Our local shopping centre, made spectacular by turning the old gas ring into an area for children to run around in.
Cute Australian Animals, Koala’s (exceptionally cute even if they are not bears). Kangaroo’s (but you wouldn’t mess with them) and Wombats (obviously).	Scary Australian Animals – crocodiles, spiders and cockroaches that fly.
The noise from birds at sunset. It sounds like 100’s of birds in the same tree.	Fear of getting pooped on whilst walking under the tree
Random animals near our apartment – the bush turkey that walks along the fence and balcony, lizards and butterflies in warmer weather.	The bush turkey defecating on our balcony.
Weather (Spring – Winter). It is cold at night in Winter but still lovely in the day. It is also amusing to see Australians wrapped up in winter coats, scarves and gloves in what would be a lovely English spring day	Weather (in Summer). It is very strange that summer is the worst season, too hot, too sticky and too rainy.
Simple driving and minimal traffic	Undertaking on motorways
Mooloolaba (Kate’s favourite beach) and Peregian Beach (Irmeet’s favourite). I have really enjoyed being able to get to a beach within 30 mins.	Not being able to go on beaches when Irmeet is at work.
Ridiculous number of chocolate cafes (Max Brenner and San Churro).	Calories, again
Wombats
James Squire beer and the Newstead brewing company
Parent Rooms – there seems to be far more well equipped Parent rooms here	Dragging Alex away from the television in Parent Rooms
Campos breakfast burgers – going out for breakfast is a big thing and not just at weekends.
	Applying sun cream and fearing skin cancer and sun burn
Plastic money
Wombats
	Our apartment – we cannot wait to return to our sofa and beds!
	Australian television
	Australian politics
	The need to give Australian sporting teams a funny nickname (Matilda’s, Socceroo’s, Wallabies etc).
	Biased sport coverage
	Making fun of the recent British heatwave but making a massive deal out of the winter weather (snow that really just looked like a hard frost).

Music of Australia

- Ben Howard: I forget where we were (our ultimate Australia song)

- Taylor Swift: Style and Blank Space (particularly Alex's singing of Style)

- Hozier: Take me to church (all over the radio)

- James Bay: Hold back the river (also all over the radio)

- Florence and the Machine: How big, how blue, how beautiful album

- Brandon Flowers: The desired effect album

- Rascal Flatts: Life is a Highway (Let's bust this joint, kerchow)

- Men at Work: Down Under (they actually play this on the radio, a lot!)

Adventures around Australia

I wrote this post in Australia, shortly before we left (June - July). Sorry it has taken so long to post: - 

Alex loves airplanes. Every time we get into the car he pretends it’s a plane. Our hire car is referred to as Qantas. The driver is the pilot; Alex is cabin crew and Elliott the solitary passenger. For every journey he demands a flight summary. This must include flight number, flight time, destination, weather and chance of turbulence (traffic). Obviously this must be given in a funny voice with radio static noises. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, however it is rather repetitive. Over the last few months we have visited Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns via domestic flights. This has only fuelled his fascination with planes. Therefore I don’t think that this particular game is going away any time soon.

Before coming to Australia, I was aware of the competition between Melbourne and Sydney for best city. Melbournites strongly believe that they live in the coolest city in Australia. Folk from Sydney disagree and argue that Melbourne is too cold and lacks world famous iconic sites, such as a certain bridge and opera house. Unfairly Brisbane is never included in this debate, but more on Brisbane later. 

Melbourne

We visited Melbourne back in March with Irmeet’s parents, Dada-ji and Dadi-ji. We stayed in a boutique hotel themed around Australian artist David Larwill. We booked it on the basis of Trip Advisor reviews. However we didn’t know that it was in the main building of Melbourne Children’s Hospital. The hotel was amazing despite the surreal “am I at work?” feeling. Turns out that staying in a Children’s Hospital is great when travelling with small children. They had an amazing park next door; plenty of cafes and the hospital pharmacy stocked all imaginable baby paraphernalia.  Anyway, back to Melbourne.

In Australia, the main shopping and business district of a city is referred to as a CBD (central business district). In my opinion, CBD’s are usually uninspiring with generic ugly buildings. All the interesting stuff tends to be out of the city and in the suburbs. Most of Melbourne is the same. However, there are patches of individuality. It is easy to understand why Melbourne believes itself to be cool. The old fashioned trams that rattle through the streets are very charming despite being cramped and dirty. Graffiti is endemic across the city, some of it brilliant, most of it terrible. Melbourne wants you to know that it is urban, cool and trendy, but it feels so overtly fashionable that becomes a cliché. Despite this, I loved Melbourne. Compared to the rest of Oz, its architecture is varied and interesting. I also loved the small passageways lined with cafes and restaurants.

We spent two and a half days in the City. Particular highlights included watching World Cup Cricket (India) in Federation Square, Alex telling space jokes to a captivated audience on the trams and Hozier Lane. We also spent a day in the suburbs visiting Luna Park, St Kilda and the Botanical Gardens. Luna Park is an old fashioned theme park in the city. It opened in 1912 and is famous for its entrance. It has an old wooden rollercoaster alongside more modern fairground rides. It was extremely expensive, so Alex only had one ride. I really enjoyed our time in St Kilda. We wandered the beachfront before finding a community playground. The playground was amazing! When it was first built, local children designed and constructed the playground from old wooden boxes and tyres. Over time, it has gained some more formal playground equipment, but it retains the feel of being made from junk. What it lacked in safety standards (rusty nails stuck out of the dodgy wooden pirate ship) it gained in charm (free fruit and tea). Alex loved the playground and I wish we could have spent more time there. However, it did feel like we had stumbled on a local’s only secret.

We also had two day trips, the first to the Great Ocean Road and the second to Mornington Peninsula and Phillip Island. We booked both trips with the same small start up company. Therefore our tour guide, Jason looked after us on both days. Jason was absolutely amazing, particularly with the children. Having grown accustomed to Queensland heat we were completely unprepared for Victorian weather. However, he brought much needed baby blankets and books. He also bought Alex hot chocolate and babysat whilst we were wine tasting.

The Great Ocean Road, as expected was spectacular. It reminded me of Cornwall. However, in my opinion the twelve apostles, did not live up to their hype. The main twelve apostle viewpoint was overcrowded. However, Jason took us to a lesser-known beach with views of some of the stacks. It was much quieter so I felt able to actually enjoy our surroundings, rather than just standing in another tourists camera shot. We also saw some wild koalas and over-friendly birds. It was a brilliant day despite the British weather.

The trip to Mornington Peninsula was absolutely fantastic. Turns out that Jason lives and grew up on the Peninsula, so it was basically his favourite haunts. We were the only ones on the tour so it was very laid back. We consumed significant amounts of cheese and tasted far too many wines. We also visited a beach with lovely painted beach huts. In the mid-afternoon we took a boat trip to Phillip Island to see the Blue Penguins come ashore at nightfall. The penguins were brilliant, marching up the beach, unfazed by hundreds of gaping tourists. However, the whole day was spoilt by a Phillip Island staff member asking me to move from a public area whilst breastfeeding. I have been breastfeeding Elliott for 9 months and this was the only time I have been asked to move. I was absolutely mortified and made to feel very ashamed. I tearfully ran towards the tiny baby changing room (as instructed, despite it being used to heat a curry) whilst Irmeet complained. Other staff members apologized, however the whole incident spoiled an otherwise perfect day.

Sydney

In April, the four of us made the quick flight to Sydney.

Without doubt it has the iconic sights that fill you with a strange elated feeling. The Opera House and Harbour Bridge are world famous, on par with Times Square and the Eiffel Tower. They give you a peculiar sense of deja-vu because you are so accustomed to seeing them in photos and films. I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t a weird dream. One of the simplest yet oddest experiences of my Australian adventure was breastfeeding Elliott in the rooftop café of the Museum of Contemporary Art overlooking the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I never expected that it would be so beautiful, but more surprisingly I never imagined that I would breastfeed in public.

Sydney is big, well big by Australian standards. It feels like a proper world city, with the museums and culture to match. Consequently, it suffers from the problems of other major cities. For example, there appeared to be significant poverty and homelessness. Unfortunately the majority of the CBD was a homogenous blend of boring buildings, with the occasional park thrown in. We had some lovely walks around the Rocks near Harbour Bridge and Darling Harbour. However, both areas felt like fake tourist traps, similar to going to London and only spending time in Covent Garden. We failed in our search for interesting suburbs. However, we only had four days so it was impossible to get a grasp of the entire city. I have no doubt that some areas of Sydney are fantastic but unfortunately we missed them. To try and summarise, Sydney has islands of gold in a sea of Meh.

I feel like I am being unfair to Sydney as we enjoyed our time there. The amazing children’s play area in Darling Harbour made Alex’s holiday. We visited the Rocks Discovery Centre and Hyde Park Barracks. Both museums focused on the origins and development of Sydney, particularly the convict history which was interesting.

We also had daytrips to Bondi Beach and Manly.   Bondi was lovely and reminded us of Cornwall. The weather was drizzly, however it didn’t spoil Alex’s fun. He loved playing with Spiderman and Iron Man on the beach. A work colleague recommended a walk between Bondi and Coogee, we had been reassured that it was perfectly stroller accessible. Unfortunately after approximately 100m it became apparent that we had zero chance of getting the stroller round (without carrying it the whole way). We travelled to Manly on the public ferry service, which was brilliant and far cheaper than expensive harbour cruises. Manly is a beautiful seaside town with a great beach. We had a lovely morning chilling on the beach and eating breakfast in a beachfront café.

It is the little things that I will remember fondly. For example walking around the botanical gardens watching a couple getting married on a yacht overlooking the Opera House and Alex accidentally knocking my sunglasses into the harbour. We also had some great food, the Malaysian hawker food was brilliant, Alex wasn’t so keen. It was also great to catch up with Irmeet’s old work colleague Olivier. It has been 8 years since we last saw him in London when we were young, unmarried and childfree. Therefore seeing him and meeting his family after so many years was fantastic.

Cairns

Our next trip was Cairns in May with Grandma, Grandad and Uncle Paul. It is approximately the size of Solihull and definitely lacks the city feel. Cairns is a major gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, therefore is focused on tourism. You cannot compare Cairns to Melbourne or Sydney. However, I don’t think that people from Cairns care, the Great Barrier Reef is enough.

Our first full day was spent on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. The railway connects Cairns and the Mountain town of Kuranda. Kuranda was nothing special, another hinterland town comprising of tourist markets advertised as boutique arts and crafts (and kangaroo testicles). However the train journey was great. All trains are cool when you are four, so Alex was always going to be impressed. However, this was a particularly cool train journey. It twisted up the mountain around cliff faces and over gorges, rainforest and waterfalls everywhere you looked.

The next day we headed to the Great Barrier Reef. Rather than heading to a reef island we decided to base ourselves on a pontoon on the edge of the reef.  Although not pretty, the pontoon had more children’s facilities and sun protection than the reef islands. The boat journey out was very choppy. A significant proportion of the passengers were vomiting (including Alex and Grandma). However, Alex’s strawberry milkshake vomit didn’t stop him from having a lovely day. He spent most of his time in what can only be described as an open topped cage hanging from the side of the pontoon. This enabled him to swim with the fishes of the Great Barrier Reef in a pool a foot deep. Even though Irmeet hasn’t dived for years, he was able to have two dives from the pontoon. I also went snorkeling, a big accomplishment for me as I’m not the best swimmer.

The remainder of the trip was spent exploring the area north of Cairns in a rented mini-bus (which Alex named Virgin Australia). We visited an amazing beach at Palm Cove but unfortunately the weather wasn’t great. The signs warning of ocean hazards were cool, yet terrifying.

However, the highlight for me was driving along a spectacular coast road to Port Douglas. On the way up the beaches and cliffs were stunning, easily rivaling the Great Ocean Road. However, I will always remember the trip home in the dark. I have never seen so many stars and you could clearly make out the Milky Way. Port Douglas was brilliant; we spent time on the beach and in the sea. We rented a boogie board and had great fun making fools of ourselves. After the beach we decided on a quick trip to Mossman Gorge. Unfortunately we didn’t give ourselves enough time to appreciate it properly. However, I am so glad that we make the effort to visit.

We all really enjoyed our time in Cairns. We had wonderful day trips but also good nights out around Cairns. We had some lovely meals including a great Greek dinner. However, I must mention the Bavarian Beer Bar on Cairns Esplanade. Obviously great beer, but the highlight was Alex wearing the Bavarian drinking hat.

In summary, we have had some brilliant adventures and we have thoroughly enjoyed our trips to Melbourne, Sydney and Cairns. However, my thoughts on the best city in Australia? Obviously Brisbane, by a mile, but that is for another post.

Playgrounds of Queensland - Photos

 Elliott chilling at home

          Alex at the Science Museum

        At the Modern Art Museum

            Alex at Nicky Noo's Playhouse

                      Elliott at the more traditional soft play

    Playgrounds of Queensland

 Elliott's first time in a swing

 Poorly Elliott                                           

   Sheep Placenta

The Playgrounds of Queensland

If you have been reading our blog so far, you would be forgiven for thinking our Australia experience has been full of exciting day trips and excursions to exotic places. It is easy to fill the blog with these experiences, but they do not represent the whole story. I wanted to write about our boring days, but that’s always a much harder task. The reality is that we have day trips and getaways whenever Irmeet is off work, but that leaves lots of time when Irmeet is at work.

Prior to having Elliott I was working full time and Alex was at nursery 5 days a week. When Alex was born, I had 7 months maternity leave and was ready to return to work. Maternity leave was hard enough in the UK with family support. It pales in comparison to doing it on your own with 2 little ones in a foreign country. However, I have absolutely no regrets about taking 12 months maternity leave. I am thoroughly enjoying spending every day with the kids and I constantly worry about returning to work. But there are also days that I want to get the first flight back home and return to work. In contrast there are also days that I feel like a “supermum” who should start home-schooling. Thankfully the majority of days fall somewhere in-between these two extremes.

  Elliott chilling at home

Preparing to leave the house wastes significant amounts of time. Firstly extracting Alex from ABC for Kids is a laborious process, usually involving some kind of bargaining “you can have Chuggington, Peppa, Ben and Holly, but the telly is coming off after Sesame Street”. Applying sunscreen to wriggly, reluctant children is another challenge. I also cannot stress the importance of leaving the house at the correct time in the Elliott feed-feed interval. Our departure is often delayed because of an impending feed. Resulting in a re-debate of the initial television deal, “OK you can have playschool, but the telly is definitely coming off after Mike the Knight”. Although both children wake around 6, we often don’t leave the house till around 11.

We spend a lot of time on public transport and I’m ashamed to say that I am not usually a public transport kind of girl. Brisbane has a brilliant ferry network. However, Alex doesn’t care for the beautiful scenery and tranquil ride. He complains bitterly whenever I want to get the ferry. He would much rather take the grotty, uncomfortable bus. Alex has also developed an embarrassing habit of trying to talk to bus drivers who obviously try their hardest not to talk to anyone. My personal favourite Alex question is “are you going to my house?”. Another highlight is Alex’s “faces” on the bus. This involves him raising his eyebrows and making a clicking noise. He started doing it with young female shop assistants. They find it funny and encourage him.  Old ladies on the bus usually don’t take it as well. I usually just sit there and wish that the ground would swallow me up.

I am ashamed by the amount of time we spend in Cafés, sometimes to escape the heat but usually just to pass the time. I navigate the city using my mind map of good coffee shops. We wander around the city shops and around the Southbank museum district. The museums are free but nowhere near as good as the museums back home. We also waste a lot of time in parent feeding rooms, thankfully they are generally good and have a telly on. However, this naturally leads to another hoo-haa about ABC for kids “Alex, we are not watching The Wiggles in a baby changing room”.

 Alex at the Science Museum

  Alex and Elliott at the Modern Art Museum (GOMA). 

If I have the car, I try to get out of Brisbane. We have visited local seaside towns and have found some lovely places. However, it is really difficult to enjoy it properly when I am on my own. I cannot really take Alex on a beach or in a splash park whilst I am trying to look after Elliott. It’s frustrating for Alex who is desperate to collect seashells or have a paddle. Therefore we also have trips to soft-play and baby cinemas. Prior to coming to Oz, I would have said going to soft play would be a waste of our time. However, they have been a godsend. We went to a little soft play that holds mini-discos throughout the day. Unfortunately, Alex was too shy to join in and prefers the typical soft play warehouse. Thankfully, I have found a good one that gives grown-ups free coffee (decent) on arrival.

 Alex at Nicky Noo’s Playhouse

Elliott at the more traditional soft play

The title of this blog is the Playgrounds of Queensland, it is fair to say I have spent more time in playgrounds in the last two months than I have in my whole life. Australian playgrounds are generally amazing. They are bigger, better maintained and far more adventurous. When we arrived, Alex was quite scared by the climbing. He is getting much better, but seems far less foolhardy than your average 2-year-old Queenslander hanging from the climbing frame by his ankles. 

 

 

 

 Elliott’s first time in the swing

To save my sanity, Alex has started attending nursery one day a week. In fairness, the main motivation was the lack of company his age. He spends ages trying to make friends in the park or soft play. It has been really hard for me to watch him try. If the children have siblings or friends, they have no interest in playing with him. If they are on their own, sometimes they struggle to understand his accent. On the occasion he does make friends he has a wonderful time. It has been fascinating to watch his social development. The other day he joined in with some bigger kids running around a roundabout whilst pushing it. He managed to trip over his feet and somersault over quite spectacularly. He jumped to his feet and played it cool for the big kids. He then ran towards me and once he was in the cover of the trees burst into tears and wanted a cuddle. Alex falls over, a lot. His knees and elbows are permanently scratched and bruised.

We arrived in Australia with our three suitcases. Alex has therefore left many of his toys in the UK. He asks about returning home on a weekly basis, mainly because he misses his toys (sorry Grandma and Dadi-ji). Coming to Australia has been a great lesson in making play and activities from nothing. I am also trying (but failing) to encourage him with his letters and numbers. He is still obsessed with the planets and talks constantly about them. He is also obsessed with sticks, every time we leave the house he is constantly on the lookout for good sticks and tries his best to bring them into the house.

We have had some rough days. The typical cycle is as follows: Elliott is irritable and grumpy resulting in lack of Alex attention, leading to Alex misbehaving, resulting in Mummy stress and angst, further aggravating Elliott irritability and Alex misbehavior.

However, by far the worst thing is when the children are unwell. Usually, I would call a grandparental for emotional support and an extra pair of hands. Here, we are alone and it’s really hard when Irmeet is at work. A few weeks ago Elliott started vomiting, he couldn’t keep any fluids down and wasn’t passing urine. Irmeet went to do a nightshift whilst I dragged Alex around Brisbane at night trying to find some rehydration fluids. As Irmeet left for work, I knew how the night would end, with us at the Children’s Hospital. Waking Alex from bed at 2am, getting both kids in the car and Irmeet leaving his night shift. Three failed cannula attempts, nasty hives from anaesthetic cream, emotional wreck mummy, traumatised daddy (from helping with failed cannula), overtired Alex and a nasal feeding tube. Thankfully, Elliott picked up with the help of NG fluids and was discharged the following day. The staff and care at the Children’s Hospital was amazing. However, it was a day when I really wanted to come home.

 Poorly Elliott

It is a strange experience being away for so long. It may be stating the obvious but it really doesn’t feel like a holiday. Sometimes I have to remind myself where I am and what we are doing. Irmeet keeps reminding me that we are making memories that we will remember fondly for the rest of our lives. I couldn’t agree more, our trips to Fraser Island, Noosa, Sydney and Melbourne have been amazing. However most days, I am focused on getting through the day, looking after the boys without having a meltdown. Turns out maternity leave in Australia is just the same as maternity leave in the UK, just hotter.

Further Observations on Australia

Australians love vitamins. In every pharmacy and supermarket there are rows and rows of health supplements. Sheep placenta anyone?

Australians also love going out for breakfast. Even on weekday mornings, cafes are packed with people eating breakfast.

The city centre is dead on a weekend. Not surprising really, everyone heads to the beach at weekends rather than going shopping. The city centre shops close earlier on Saturday than they do Monday – Friday.

Babies in Australia are Bubba's or Bubs. Elliott Bubba is one of his many pet names (but the favourite is still Elliott Bear).

Kate