Earth to Perth

It's kinda like that - earth to perth. I mean, Perth is the most isolated city in the world (or is it only one of the most isolated? I forget). So, saying 'rest of earth to Perth' is not that ridiculous in itself.

Plus, the fact that it rhymes is quite an added bonus. :P

So, what's happened since the rest of the world and I last touched bases? i.e., since I flew from Brisbane to Perth.

Well, the flight over here on Friday - a total of 5 1/2 hours - was considerably longer than the flight from Broome to Brisbane, and not only in real time. It seemed to drag like a dead fish hanging off the side of a truck. I sat next to (well, not quite - there was an empty seat between us) a lady called Alice from Malaysia. She was really nice - she told me all about her family, and I told her all about mine. When she heard about my story, she asked so many questions I finally took out the paper copy I (conveniently) had in my bag and let her read it. She got sorta mad at me that I hadn't given it to her sooner (she started reading about 2 1/2 hours into the flight), because she had to skip a chapter or two to the end so she wouldn't be left in suspense! That was really encouraging, that she was so keen. She also added that 'that lady who wrote harry potter' is now a billionaire, and it started by 'just writing', like me. :)  haha - I don't think there's much chance of that, but hey, there's such a thing as wishing! :D

I got to the airport, to find that there was no-one in sight - no recognisable faces, anyway. I was waiting at the baggage claim (I can't believe we even thought there would be a chance of me cramming my 16 1/2 kilos of baggage into one 7 kilo hand luggage bag!) when I heard mum yell my name. :) Turns out they had initially been waiting at the QANTAS place and wondering why all the signs only showed qantas flights... Then they ran (they were late) to the virgin place. They waited at the exit where they thought I would come out - Jo said I might come down the stairs, but mum said 'nah!' Guess what?! I came down the stairs! :) 

Going from Nan's immaculately kept house to the, well, not so immaculately kept caravan was a slight shock. Here, every step precipitates a slight 'crunch' as three layers of junk slowly compress beneath your feet, often with fatal (for the junk) results…

Before I can get in the car, I have to siphon off about thirty centimeters of books, paper, loose tissues, and others tuff before it is possible for my feet to go below the level of the car seat…

But apart from the amount of stuff everywhere, it's soo nice to be back with my family: smart, motivated, game-making Jo (in the process of making a game similar to smurfville - right now he weeding out all the bugs in his game), interesting Dom, always ready to chat about any topic, cute Dini who loves to make, knit, stitch, or do anything crafty, Oskar (my personal fan club) who has the cutest smile and laugh, and who is sooo intersting to talk to, and cooper, the guy who also has a super cute laugh and smile, who is always asking me to help him out (like just then - I was demanded to blow up three balloons in quick succession), and who loves climbing over mum when she's trying to read a book (like now). Dad, who's amazing at fixing things and getting things organised, and mum, who manages to keep us all fed, clothed, and (mostly) happy, and still retain not only some of her sanity, but also most of her sense of humour as well.

I just love my fam. :)

Saturday was busy, exhausting, but also fun. We went to the Perth mint, the oldest working mint in Oz, and one of only 6 branches of the Royal Mint in the world! At the front is a big bronze statue of two guys panning for gold. In the pan, people have thrown heaps of coins!

At the mint, we saw 20,000 diamonds that were less than 1/2cm wide, and proof coins, and special decorative coinsminted out own coin, learnt about a lady's tea parties on the mint lawn, saw a 600mL bar of gold poured, saw the largest solid gold coin in the world - 1 tonne (they've made a competition of it), and generally had fun! The guide we had was really interesting.

Our minted coin (both sides): 

 (The picture is what the mint looks like. The thing in the middle of the driveway is the panning for gold statue. Cooper spent ages during lunch running around the walls that ran around the edge of the driveway and walkways. :) Apparently, the guy who ran the mint originally lived on the second floor, on the right side of the entrance)

After that we headed off to the Perth Museum, where we saw stuffed animals and also a display of items from the British museum. That was actually really interesting - we saw a black dress worn by Queen Victoria (she was actually quite short), and a carving of one of the queens that had hidden feet underneath, and the first ever queen from chess (which looked really depressed), and a 'torque', which is a pure gold, very heavy looking ancient neck ring (sounds painful) that was discovered by a farmer plowing his field! Something you really wouldn't expect to happen! :) (At least, something that only ever happens in fairy tales, anyway)

By that time, I was pretty whacked - I'd gone to bed the night before at 12pm brissie time, had just flown seemingly halfway around the world (not quite, but it felt like it), had just finished a stressful exam block (six exams in four days!), and well, I was just about had it!

(Most people, when I went to talk to them at the semi formal, said, 'whoa! I could never have recognised you!')

Saturday dinner was Maccas. Joseph was really cranky that I got to go on Mum's iPad - she's gotten quite a few more games on it. :) Like the addictive (for her, anyway), smurfville, chicken rescue, bloons tower defence, and heaps of others.

I spent a lot of the weekend checking to see if the photos from my semi formal on Thursday night were up on facebook yet. They are (though, if you want to check, you need a password to get in).

The photos look really good! :) Mum and dad thought I looked great - they both said they would hardly recognise me. :)

(This is a photo I took at the semi formal, for those of you who haven't seen a pic yet. There were actually three jokers at the semi formal. Here I am with one of them - the one called Aidan who spent half the night trying to work out who I was, and who didn't actually know me in the end! But I eventually told him my name)

We went to a baptist curch on Sunday - most of the people there were really old, but I liked the service. The sermon talked about how we get all excited about winning the lotto, or someone's birthday party, when the greatest news - Jesus' coming - is hardly talked about at all. In 1 Thessalonians, Paul talks about how we should use the awesome, living hope we have to encourage one another, yet we hardly do it at all! That really got me thinking…

So, what's been funny lately? Well, Cooper saw my anchor-patterned converse sneakers yesterday and said 'oohh!! Pick-axe shoes!' coming from a three-year-old, that was quite amusing.

Oh, and I'd just been reading in exodus about how God told Moses to make shorts for the priests so they would not 'expose themselves' (Exodus 28). And would you believe? Joseph just started talking about it yesterday! Turns out Mum just read the same thing the night before as well! :) Isn't that incredible!?!

Anyway, I think that's enough unintelligible writing for you to plough through for the moment… :)

Hopefully I'll be able to write something tomorrow as well! You'd think, after all that schoolwork, I'd have heaps of time to write, but not so - I mean, just look at how much writing 3 days took up. And that isn't even all!

The Joys of Study

Really, who invented studying? I mean really, when I go out into the real world am I really interested in knowing what Boyle had to say about the effect of pressure on a gas, or that in a gas there are no attractive forces?
And - here comes the worst bit - why on earth would I want to know about some dumb dude called Macbeth who thought he was smart enough to outwit the witches and the prophecies? And why would I want to know how to argue the fact that Macbeth was a guy? I mean really!

Then there's the entire 3000 word long experiment on the best way to boil water... seriously, do I care? Well, I kinda do, since I get marked on it, but otherwise, probably not!

Sure, sometimes I wonder about the answers to these things, but is it really worth 8 weeks of my time?

Some people seem to think so, and I suppose, in twenty years I'll be telling my kids the same things my parents are telling me - that it's all for the good, that I'm learning 'life skills', and that it's the law that I elarn it, no matter what I think.

But I've got twenty years before I have to agree!

Anonymous

If anyone's been reading my blog and doesn't know how to comment, here's how:

1. Write a comment
2. On the 'select profile' selection bar, click the bottom option - 'anonymous'.
3. Click 'post'.
4. Type in the strange word/s shown - this is to stop spammers.
5. Click 'post comment' again.

Hopefully that works!! If it doesn't, post me a comment. :) haha, just kidding.
I (and mum) really like hearing what you all think about our travels/shenannigans!!

P.S. It's the same if you want to post on mum's blog. :)

How to ruin a good holiday!

I took a photo from aroundozwith6kids.blogspot.com and...worked with it... :)

It's amazing what you can do with a computer

Like Grandad said, you can't believe anything you see these days.

It was Grandad's idea first. And I did all this in Powerpoint - not perfect, but pretty good for that, I  think! :)

Good or bad? #2

1: Oh, man, it's so hot!
2: Oh, that's bad.
1: No, it's good, because it made the plants grow.
2: Oh, that's good.
1: No, it's bad, 'coz it made the weeds grow as well.

Good or bad?

(I have my grandfather to thank for this - partly)

1: Oh, man, I just lost my job!

2: Oh, that's bad.

1: No, it's good, because I got an even better job.

2: Oh, that's good.

1: No, it's bad, because it meant I had a whole lot more responsibility.

2: Oh, that's bad.

1: No, it's good, because it meant I was tested as a person.

2: oh, that's good.

1: No, it's bad - I failed the test.

I like

I love my metaphors like I love my tongue: they really improve my speech.

Even more!

I just LOVE this photo - it's a beautiful one of Kakadu from the Gunlom rock pools. I especially like the ripples. ;) I think I was the one making them... Mum took this photo.
I love this pic so much it's my laptop desktop picture. :) It just seems so perfect. It's even Mum's idea of a good picture - landscpe with real people in it. :)



 This is Moondarra Lake/Dam at Mt Isa. We (Well, I) couldn't believe how blue it was! Pity it was too cold to swim. :(
Another thing we couldn't believe was how small the actual damw as compared to the Lake. Although there isn't half as much water there as at Lake Argyle, the dam itself seems pitifully small. It's amazing how something so tiny can hold back so much water! :)



More Oz photos

I've been looking through my australia photos (yes, I'm missing it!!!), and found these few that I LOVE - I'm just wondering why they're not yet on my blog!! :)

These few are in Toowoomba - The flowers are so pretty, Cooper is so cute, Dini is so beautiful. :)

(We don't need the Toowoomba carnival of flowers - we've got our own!!) 

Poems

We got on the topic of poems today at brekky, and I ended up telling Grandad the poems I wrote when I was in about grade 5 (It's amazing I can still remember them!). He thought they were Pam Ayers poems at first (we were discussing her), then when I got to the word 'kookaburra', he began to wonder... :)
He said I should post them, so here they are. :)

The Kookaburra

We were out for a picnic it's funny;

'Twas the birthday of the sister of my Mummy.

It was a holiday,

And no-one was delayed,

As none of our noses were runny.

We were sitting in a tight little bunch,

All the cousins just having a munch,

When suddenly, a bird!

A kookaburra swerved!

Right down on top of poor Benny's lunch!

Then Grandpa said, 'Oh, what a joke!'

And Benny aimed a poke.

Then Grandpa stepped backwards

Right into the rapids!

And came up again, all soaked!

(Based on a true story. :) )

This next one is one Mum and I made a game of: she'd make up the first line, then I'd have to make up the second line to rhyme with the first. She thought she'd had me with some of the trickier ones (like 'disgusting'), but I always worked it out! :) It doesn't really have a name: I suppose you could call it 'Litter', but that doesn't really lend itself to the poem at all... :)

Litter, litter everywhere!

On the ground and in the air.

What a mess, it's quite disgusting!

Bitd of plastic, metal rusting,

Banana skin and orange peel,

I've even found an envelope seal!

So please, oh please don't chuck your junk,

Or you'll have me to answer to - punk!

(P.S. Can you tell I made up those last two lines just then? :) We didn't end up finishing this one, and of course I couldn't write it here without and end, so I just made one up. :) )

(P.P.S. And you've gotta admit, the last two lines are the best!)

I really like writing these sorts of poems, but I HATE studying (and writing) those stupid ones that are 'profound', and 'deep', and 'horribly uninteresting and boring,' at school. What are we supposed to get out of it!?! An ability to interpret things completely un-english?

My favourite poet is Pam Ayers - she writes poems that are just plain funny, interesting, hilarious, and hysterical. In other words, a lot of fun to read! My favourite are 'Oh, I wish I'd looked after me teeth', 'I don't want to go to school Mum,' and better yet, 'Thoughts of a late night knitter.'

If you want to find a good poem for an assignment at school, pick one of hers! (Though in older high school grades, you're not really allowed to pick poems that aren't as deep as a 12m pool, which is irritating)

Anyway, after all this rambling, I really have to get back to my physics...... ugh!

That's typical!

Boy, did we have a hysterical phone call this afternoon! My mum called me from Western Australia.

Firstly, she told me how Cooper set to his hair with a pair of blunt scissors, and now he looks like he's sat a little close to a lawn mower...

And then he went and peed in the MIDDLE OF THE SHOPPING MALL!!! ANd Oskar yelled out (loudly) 'Mu-uum! Cooper's peed on the floor and I stepped in i-it!!!!

(rolling eyes to high heaven)

And then I had a conversation with Joseph. Well!!


Joseph: Hi Katie! You know how it's my birthday soon? (he didn't beat around the bush! straight to the point!)
Katie: Yes... (wondering where this is leading...)
Joseph: And you know how you can send things by post?
Katie: Yes... (now quite sure where this is leading!)
Joseph: Well, can you put two and two together and work it out?
Katie: Yes, I can put two and two together, but it won't make five unless you add something else to it.
Joseph: what?
Katie: an address!

Hahahah! (you're supposed to laugh with me). It cracked me up. THen my aunty and mum both said at much the same time: but two and two make four! (they jsut don't get it).

Anyway, I really have to go and do my maths and my physics and my english and my german and anything else that needs doing...

:)
Cya

Reader's digest

I love this website - any time I want a good laugh, I know where to look!
Here are jsut a few of the hysterically funny cartoons Lilly and I cacked up at!

I think my Mum can relate to this in more ways than one!

 Not quite sure how this'll work,,,

 Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

 I didn't even get this one for a few seconds... :)

 hahahahaha....

These people are nuts!

I've just been practising for my learners license test by doing all the practice tests online. You wouldn't believe some of the questions they ask!!! YOu'd think they thought we were mental!! :)

This one's the funniest - read multiple choice answer B)!!!!!

Physics

I think mny physics teacher kinda lost it yesterday... He stuck his whiteboard marker on the end of a stick with sticky tape and pretended it was a microphone.
But he did show us something quite funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muVfidujxRg
It's about this guy who actually bothered to scientifically prove why some scenes are physically impossible in My Little Pony, like how the butterflies would have had to undergo 1,000Gs to save a pony from falling, how the rainbow pony was accelerating at 1080 m/s/s... and so on. I really recommend watching it for a laugh. :)

A Few Funny Fings :)

I was at my cousins' house the other day for one reason or another, and had to do my maths c homework. At the moment we're studyng proofs, and 'summarising' each one involves writing two massively long and unneccesary (I think) sentences. I was explaining it to my cousin, and rattled it off for him:
'We have shown that if the statement is true for n=k, then it is also true for n=k+1. Thus, if it is true for n=k=1, then it must be true for n=1+1=2, then n=2+1=3, and so on for all integer values of n.' (for the record, I wrote that whole thing off by heart).
There was a pause after I said that, then my cousin said, 'obviously!'
It was so well timed and well said, I almost fell to pieces with laughter. It was hysterical.

We had youth group last night, and all during dinner, we were telling each other the most ridiculous jokes, like:
What do you get if you sit under a cow? A pat on the head.
How did the elephant get out of the tree? He sat on a leaf and waited 'till autumn.
And so on and so forth. What was really funny was that the leader was trying to get us off the topic of really lame jokes, so out she comes with, 'What's you favourite dessert?' We were all waiting for the punchline, until we realised...

Wednesday

What did I do today, you ask?
Well, we;'re studying Macbeth in English - why is it that every single book you study in this subject is horribly depressing? Anyway, I decided to skim through it, and so I did.
Let me tell you: the book is interesting in the first half, but after that, it just goes downhill until you hit rock-bottom. He dies, she kils herself, he kills his best friend and another guy, tries to kill his best friend's son, and so on and so forth.
What I consider to be a useless waste of my time. I don't advise reading it, or watching the movie for that matter.
I also brought Mum's recipe book from home :) and today I cooked chocolate slice. We worked out the only difference between my recipe and Nan's is that I have an egg and she doesn't.
But the slice tastes gr8. :) I had two.
Anyway, I should probably be doing my maths, english and chemistry homework. I was very proud of myself: I managed to do my german and Maths C homework at school. :) Skilled.

Being an ordinary school student. Fun.

Well, today was another day. School is aprticularly boring after having been on the road every second day! My grandparents are absolutely the BEST! I'm probably the most spoilt person in the suburb. :)
What's happened since I've been in Brisbane? Oh, just a few things, like writing my story, bringing home a packet of matches from the Physics lab by accident, visiting the people who are staying in our house (and who are really nice, by the way. :) ), taking home my ten or fifteen kilos of stuff that I brought home from Broome because Mum and Dad didn't want it any more, practising my violin (I've gotten really bad, but Nan seems to like it, so that's ok!), being driven to school every day (luxury), being rung up three times a day by random welcome-home-rs, and numerous other random things that happen to a typical teen.
It's kind of exciting - kind of - but considerably less exciting than travelling around Oz! Oh, and I had another idea for writing a story today. :) The first sentence is:
'It all started with a letter.'
haha. Now you all have to wait for me to publish it!! Mwahahaha!. :)

hehe. I'm spamming up mum's email - I've got it so she's notified whenever I get a comment on my blog, and yesterday I got 30-something. hehe. :)

EuroEnglish

(Courtesy of Plagio Clase, who got it off Facebook)

The New European Language! (Read Aloud For Best Effect.)
The European Union commissioners have announced that agreement has been reached to adopt English as the preferred language for European communications, rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five-year phased plan for what will be known as EuroEnglish (Euro for short).

In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c." Sertainly, sivil servants will resieve this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will be replaced with "k". Not only will this klear up konfusion, but typewriters kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik emthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced by "f". This will make words like fotograf" 20 persent shorter.

In the third year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of silent "e"s in the languag is disgrasful, and they would go.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z" and "w" by " v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou", and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.

Ze drem vil finali kum tru.

Photos!

I've added photos (and a few more words) to one of my posts - 6th October. :)

 http://musings-of-a-mad-hatter.blogspot.com/2011/10/6th-october-to-derby-and-almost-to.html

Competition!

Mum and I are having an unofficial contest - who has the most pageviews/visits/etc?
I have 5 pageviews from Russia, 1 from Germany and one from Paraguay.  She's got some from Germany and other places too. I have over 650 total pageviews, but she has a lot more (won't say exactly how many... :)) So, Ithink she's kinda 'winning' at the moment.
BUT I WON'T LET HER GET AWAY WITH IT!!!! :)

7th October - to Broome

We left at about 7:00 this morning! A record! WA is 1 1/2 hours behind NT, so we've been getting up at 5:30 every morning!!! I guess it's kind of good I wake up so early, so when I fly home, I won't be waking up at 12:00pm. :)

We arrived in Broome around 9:00, and we had an exceptionally fast un-pack. :) There's a HUGE swimming pool here with a big waterfall with a little room behind to sit in.  :) And it's got shade!

Here's another funny story:

I cleaned out the car the other day, and when Dad came to inspect it, Cooper came too. I don't know where he picked up the words, but as Cooper, 'inspected' the car too, he said, 'wow, that's an incredible car, Katie!'

Just think of him, in his cute little voice, saying that! It came out more like, 'wow, that's an incwedible car!'

He also started singing the minecraft parody of the song 'Dynamite' yesterday. It was the funniest thing. :) He just loves to sing. We'll be singing to a tape in the car, or singing grace, and he'll just join in with his own version. :) It's so cute. I tried videoeing it, butof course the moment I asked him to sing it again, he shook his head determinedly. :(

I think almost every lunch on this trip we've had salad sandwiches. Since our fridge is completely hopeless (15 degrees on a good day...), Mum's taken it upon herself to buy us all tinned meat, which looks, smells and tastesmore like dogfood than anything half edible. I think she's bought tinned corned beef, tinned chicken, tinned every other kind of meat. Every lunch meal is a disaster - we spend half the time holding our noses and (almost) puking... Not a success...

Mum loves her iPad. She plays on it every chance she gets (which isn't often - I think us kids hog it a lot... usually when we're not allowed...). She's now got internet on there, because Dad fixed the charger for the internet box so she can have internet. :) So she writes her blog posts on there, and sticks them up on the blog. :)

Her only annoyance is that she can't get any photos on the blog with it - yet - so she has to use mine for that. :)

The caravan park here in Broome is really nice. There are quite a few permanent caravan-ers, the place is full of trees (there's a mango tree right next to our caravan!!! YAY!), the pool is beautiful (except it's chockers with chlorine or some other chemical that tastes downright foul in your mouth), and we're really liking it. :) Dad picked up a leaflet at reception for car hires (he wants to see if our investment in a 4WD was worth it), and do you know what the company name was??? 'Broome Broome Car Services' (or something close to). I pointed it out to dad, and he said he hadn't even noticed. :) I thought that was particularly ingenious on their part.

6th October - to Derby and almost to Broome

We left quite late today, half because it takes us ages to pack up (which is a surprise, because we can do it in less than 25 minutes some days…), and half because we also did a walk around Windjana Gorge.

The sand/blow flies there were terrible - they'd land on you the moment you stopped, and bite like crazy! It hurt like crazy too!

Dad's been telling the boys all the productive things he did in his childhood, like tying flies to a strand of hair and watching them fly around, so of course the boys decided that that would be a suitable punishment for these hideous flies! They used Dini's hair, and a fly I caught, and tied them together, and then videoed the fly!! It was hilarious. Mum didn't stop them, because she was so hopping mad at these irritating flies she figured that such CAPITAL punishment was most definitely called for. As Jo watched it fly around, he yelled, 'I'm taming it!'

At one stage, Jo thought the fly had died, because it stopped flying, but then up it went again, straining at the hair!

Dad decided to take it the next step up, and said at the next opportunity, he would tie a fly to a hair, and glue it to a little paper plane with a dot of super glue, and watch it fly around. Then they all considered the possibility of getting so many flies tied to hairs that they could lift up a person and fly them away… But considering flies only have a lifespan of 24 hours, I think they discarded the idea…

There was a warning sign about freshwater crocodiles there as well, and we saw one or two! Mum couldn't believe how 'out there' they were - just cruising along in the middle of the river!
 We also saw an ibis, which I reckon was taking a huge risk hanging arund water where there're crocs...
(If you blow up this photo bigger, you can see, to the right in the water, the shiny thing that looks like a log is acrually a croc).

We were watching the crocodile, when suddenly it disappeared! We stood riiiiiight back from the edge after that, but fortunately, it wasn't after us and reappeared a few metres away from where it had been. (phew!)
We also saw some fossils on the walk. There was supposed to be the fossil of some sea animal on one part, and Dad could see it, but I couldn't... But on the way back, I saw what looked like the fossil of a fin in the rock. I wasn't sure if it was a turtle fin...

Whether it was a turtle fin or not, I thought it was really cool! :) And I know for a fact that it's not millions of years old! (We've been taking photos of every sign that mentions millions of years for you, Plagio Clase. :) )

We drove into Derby in time for lunch - I volunteered to make the tomatoes and tuna on bread, and I think Mum enjoyed the break. :)
 Cooper was quite funny - I thought he was screaming something about wanting a 'piece'. I couldn't work out what he meant, so I didn't do anything about it, but it turns out he wanted a 'pizza' - a tuna tomato wrap instead of bread! :) He's hilarious.

After lunch, we walked around the jetty, which was a kind of horseshoe shape, instead of one long jetty jutting out into the sea. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the tide come in, because it came in at 8:00pm, and we wanted to head off before then… Can you believe!?! Derby has 11m tides! Apparently it's the second biggest in the world (after Bristol, I think - Dad said the tides there are 17m!!!).

We went to see the Old Gaol, which, despite being only two cells, at one stage held 106 people! And it was only closed in 1974 or 75!!! We couldn't believe it.

We also saw the Prison Boab Tree on the way out of Derby, which is a 14m around boab tree that was, at one stage, used as a holding cell for prisoners on the way to Derby. We weren't able to go too close to it, though, because it has aboriginal religious significance, and also so you don't compress the roots of the tree too much - yes, it's still alive!!! Wow!

We arrived at our camping spot pretty late - it's just a roadside stop before we get to Broome.

The toilets here are similar to the ones at the place we stayed at before we went to the meteorite crater - pit toilets with a concrete ring for a toilet seat… It looks like a prison toilet!

I have to tell you the funniest story:

Dini was busting last night, and she wasn't game to brave the pit loo on her own, so of course I had to come with her.

Armed with torches and a lethal roll of loo paper, we headed off. Upon arriving, Dini glanced into the loo (as you do), and yelled, 'there's cockroaches in here!' You could hear them chittering really loud - it was disgusting!

After that, she wouldn't sit on the seat (thought I don't blame her). I told her to crouch, and she said, 'How?'

I said crouch, and pee, and she said, 'How?'

As she was sitting down, she said (with venom), 'I'm gonna outwit those cockroaches! I'm gonna pee on them!' I nearly fell over laughing.

5th October - to Windjana Gorge

I actually got cold today. Yes, believe it or not, at two times today, I was freezing and wishing that I had warmer clothes on…

Perhaps I should explain myself. Today was a really hot day, but this morning I woke up covered in a blanket - and needing it! It was a very cold night.

We drove to Windjana Gorge, but before that we went to Tunnel Creek. That was amazing, awesome, fun, dark, very wet, and quite cold. :) Although it was a hot day, down under the rock felt like an air conditioner was on high! It was really really nice.

We went into a huge cave that was full of water - the creek ran through it, and you had to walk through the water!

It was heaps of fun to splash through the creek in our sneakers (yes, our sneakers got very wet - we have a huge line of wet sneakers lined up drying outside our caravan tonight!).

At some places, the water was up to our waists! Oskar had to hold Mum's hand, and Cooper had to be piggybacked. :) At the end was a little waterhole (that was really warm after the (very cold) tunnel) that we all swam in. I didn't take off my sneakers for that, because I knew them I would never be able to get them on again!

By the end of it, my shoes were so full of grit I would have been better off without them! I had a growth in the sie of my sock that was chock full of sand. :)

We're staying tonight at Windjana Gorge. Can you beieve!?! There are FLUSHING TOILETS and SHOWERS at this roadstop!!

4th October - to Fitzroy

A lot of funny things happened today.

For example, Dini was reading something, and she saw the word, 'thunk!'

She asked me what it was, and I said it was the noise you make when you hit something really hard. She said, 'oh! I thought it was like, "I thunk a thought"!' It cracked me (and Mum) up!

Then, at Geike Gorge, where we went this afternoon, Dini was busting for the loo. So she pelted up the hill and into the toilet block.

Oskar and I arrived a few seconds later. Oskar marched halfway through the doorway, stopped, glanced at the sign, then yelled, 'Hey, Dini, you'r in the  boys' toilets!'

'She replied with, 'No I'm not!'

'Yes you are!'

No I'm not!'

'Yes you are!'

'No I'm no - oh yeah!'

That cracked me up too. :)

We had a great time relaxing at Catherine Pool these last two nights. We drove yesterday to Saw Pit Gorge for a swim, which was cold but very refreshing (especially since none of us had had a wash since, like, Saturday…). The boys, and eventually Dini and I found pointy rocks, straight sticks and bendy vines and bound them all together to make spears. They were actually very good, until we woke up this morning, and the vine had all dried, and loosened up… :)

Dad had a bit of fun at Saw Pit Gorge going 4WDing - he 'jumped in all the puddles' I guess you could say! Mum videoed him driving over the creek. :) At some places going up the bank, we went on quite a lean, and it fel like the car was going to tip over! Dad had a GR8 time. :) hilarious.

We kick up quite a lot of dust going over the dirt roads. It's very impressive. :) What's not impressive is when massive trucks drive past, kick up the dust, and it's only then that Joseph decides to wind up his window…

Land cruisers seem to be the thing around here - I don't think I've seen any other car that's as popular. :) You drive into a petrol station and there're usually about four, five or six also filling up at the same time! And the guide at Gunlom, in Kakadu, said that Kakadu's tried numerous different types of cars, and the only ones that stood up to the beatings it got was a land cruiser! :) seems like Toyota's the way to go!

We've got a powered site here - the first time since Lake Argyle! Cooper loved being able to use water to his heart's content - we filled him up a bucket, and he just sat in it for ages, splashing around, and generally making a huge mess! He LOVED it! It's hilarious to watch him.

We drove to Geike (pronounced 'gee-kee') Gorge for a walk this afternoon (I say it's for the nerds) (wow, that must be the lamest of the lame). Cooper, as per usual, set a cracking pace, running off ahead. This time, he'd adopted a style previously unknown to us - his hat was on his head, with the string fastened under his nose - it looked like a huge black snotball… interesting…

Aboriginal Paintings

I finally found some photos of our aboriginal paintings (that we did in Kakadu) on mum's SD card (my camera always runs out of battery, so I can never take a lot of photos of anything... :( )

Dad drew the snake, mum drew the (incredibly amazing) kangaroo (that she thinks looks like an overgrown rat), and I drew the other one. I was amazed at how they all turned out! (do you like my green ant?)
I couldn't work out who the other paintings were done by (I think Jo, Dom and Oskar painted turtles...), so I haven't posted them.

Don't they look great!?!

YAY! I worked out how to fix those uber-large photos!!! "_)

4th October - to Fitzroy

Not a lot really happened today, but a few funny things did happen.

For example, Dini was reading something, and she saw the word, 'thunk!'

She asked me what it was, and I said it was the noise you make when you hit something really hard. She said, 'oh! I thought it was like, "I thunk a thought"!' It cracked me (and Mum) up!

Then, at Geike Gorge, where we went this afternoon, Dini was busting for the loo. So she pelted up the hill and into the toilet block.

Oskar and I arrived a few seconds later. Oskar marched halfway through the doorway, stopped, glanced at the sign, then yelled, 'Hey, Dini, you'r in the  boys' toilets!'

'She replied with, 'No I'm not!'

'Yes you are!'

No I'm not!'

'Yes you are!'

'No I'm no - oh yeah!'

That cracked me up too. :)

We had a great time relaxing at Catherine Pool these last two nights. We drove yesterday to Saw Pit Gorge for a swim, which was cold but very refreshing (especially since none of us had had a wash since, like, Saturday…). The boys, and eventually Dini and I found pointy rocks, straight sticks and bendy vines and bound them all together to make spears. They were actually very good, until we woke up this morning, and the vine had all dried, and loosened up… :)

Dad had a bit of fun at Saw Pit Gorge going 4WDing - he 'jumped in all the puddles' I guess you could say! Mum videoed him driving over the creek. :) At some places going up the bank, we went on quite a lean, and it fel like the car was going to tip over! Dad had a GR8 time. :) hilarious. I'd post a video, but we've only got limited wireless download/upload thingo... Sorry. :(

We kick up quite a lot of dust going over the dirt roads. It's very impressive. :) What's not impressive is when massive trucks drive past, kick up the dust, and it's only then that Joseph decides to wind up his window…

Land cruisers seem to be the thing around here - I don't think I've seen any other car that's as popular. :) You drive into a petrol station and there're usually about four, five or six also filling up at the same time! And the guide at Gunlom, in Kakadu, said that Kakadu's tried numerous different types of cars, and the only ones that stood up to the beatings it got was a land cruiser! :) seems like Toyota's the way to go!

We've got a powered site here - the first time since Lake Argyle! Cooper loved being able to use water to his heart's content - we filled him up a bucket, and he just sat in it for ages, splashing around, and generally making a huge mess! He LOVED it! It's hilarious to watch him.

We drove to Geike (pronounced 'gee-kee') Gorge for a walk this afternoon (I say it's for the nerds) (wow, that must be the lamest of the lame). Cooper, as per usual, set a cracking pace, running off ahead. This time, he'd adopted a style previously unknown to us - his hat was on his head, with the string fastened under his nose - it looked like a huge black snotball… interesting…

The buggies around WA aren't half as bad as those in NT. We got some pretty terrible bites in NT! I took a photo of Dini's bites, though they don't look half as bad here as they do in real life. And Dom's are even worse...

The boab trees are very impressive in WA (and also a bit in NT). Some are just ginormous! We couldn't believe them! (Dom and Dini are in this photo)

Ants can do scary things, as we've discovered...
Today, as we were packin gup camp, we discovered a hole in our green shade-cloth floor mat! The ants had eaten straight through it!!!! aargghh! Then we discovered the ants had made a hole in out foam floor mats and were building a nest in it! Man, the ants around Catherine Pool were really agressive!

3rd October - in Catherine Pool (well, not in it, but next to it!)

Heaps has happened since we last met! (me and my blog, anyway). Mum had her birthday, for a start. Thanks SO MUCH for all of you who bought her something! I'm happy her birthday's past, 'coz I don't have to hide those two pandora beads away any longer… :) She really liked the fish, the elephant, and the flower beads. :) (yes, she got three pandora beads for her birthday!!! :) )

Guess what Dad bought her though? An iPad!!!!!! She was beyond excited. I don't think she's stopped writing on it, and playing on it, except for when she lets us play on it (which is 10 minutes each at a time). She gets really ticked when we try and help her out. :)

The first game she put on it was angry birds. She loves it! She hasn't stopped playing it all morning. :) She gets really ticked when we try and help her out on that, too. Needless to say, it wasn't like she didn't need the help. There's no way around it: she is by far the worst computer gamer on this entire planet. :) And that's a fact.

But there's no reason to tell her that. :)

Talking about ticked, we had to go through Quarantine in Western Australia (Yay! Yet another state I haven't been to! Mum's now been to all but one! - SA). I had to pull out a few things I'd stuck into my journal, because we weren't allowed to take them across the border. :( And we had to give them three of our (very good, I must add) boxes - because they had had fruit in them! Wow. Anyway, Mum was pulling out one of the boxes we had to give the quarantine people, and can you guess what was in there!?! A CANE TOAD!!!! We couldn't believe it! A CANE TOAD!!!

I thought it was hilarious. Luckily, we didn't get into trouble. Did you know that cane toads are already in WA? (phew for us!)

We stayed at Lake Argyle that night. (night of 30th September) It was a suitable place to stay for Mum's birthday, you know why? Because it's as old as Mum is!!! Haha.

Lake Argyle is very pretty. We loved it, but unfortunately, we're on a tight schedule at the moment, and couldn't stay more than one night. :( What a pity!

We planned to go to the Bungle Bungles yesterday, but it was closed because of bushfire!!!! Aarrghhh!

SO we decided to make a 5 hour round trip to go see the second largest meteorite crater in the WORLD!!! (a pretty fair trade, I think). It was HUGE! MASSIVE! Apparently it was originally 120 metres deep, but over time (millions of years, I think, according to the information plaques…) it has filled up, so now it's only 20m deep.

It's still very impressive. It's 800m across, but looks even bigger. 

There's a huge ring of green trees in the middle, and can you believe it!?! The middle's full of salt! We had a great time going up and over the edge, and down to the middle.

Cooper walked almost the whole way. He's an amazing walker! He walks kilometers at a time. He's actually getting visible muscles on his thighs, which is very scary… Have I told you his unique hiking costume? A T-shirt, hat, good hiking boots, and underpants! It's absolutely hilarious. Hang on, here's a photo… This is at the meteorite crater. He's good hiking boots are broken at the sole, so he's wearing shoes too big for him, and his hat's not on yet, but you get the idea:

We were planning to stay at the crater last night - after all, we'd packed prepared to go camping (for the Bungle Bungles) anyway, so why not? But the camping spot was rather hideous, and we decided we'd be better off coming here.

As we were driving back along the dirt road from the crater, Mum commented - after driving 5 hours, we'd seen four cars (a record, I think)! a fleeing emu (the emu fleeing because it was standing in the road when we came), a few HUGE birds, a very obstinate (and extremely dumb) bird that wouldn't leave it's roadkill for anything, not even to jump out of the way of our fast oncoming car (luckily, it survived), several other birds, and some kangaroos! :)

The sunset driving back home over the dirt road was beautiful. Mum took masses (and masses) of photos. I love how the red dirt of Oz makes the sun just look like a huge flaming ball (yeah, I suppose that's what it is anyway, but then it looked even more so!)

 What made me crack up yesterday was when mum said with absolute certainty, 'That's a pigeon on the gate - I think.' She's got a bit of a craze for birds at the moment.

Cooper the awesomely funny guy (our comic relief!)

Here're a few pics of Cooper. I thought you'd like to see them!
The first one is in Mt Isa (yes, I'm only now really uploading my photos onto my computer and the blog!!!)

 The second one is I don't know where, but I had to photograph it, it was soooo funny!!! (actually, it was 13/09, so in Mt Isa. :) )

30th September - to WESTERN AUSTRALIA!!!

Well, last night was fun. :) We stopped at Gregory National Park - Sullivan's Campground last night. There were three other couples in the same general area of the campground too, and would you believe? Two of them were from Brisbane! The other one family was German. (You would not believe how many German's we've met on this trip!!!! It's unbelievable!). (Only two of the three families are in this photo)

We all had a great time talking around the campfire with the other families. They were extremely informative. One guy, Mark, gave us heaps of advice on our fridge (that averages 21°C), Tunnel Creek (apparently a Must-Do), and all sorts of other things. They've been touring Australia since February, and were in Western Australia for 10 months!!! Blog for them is: bakersaway.blogspot.com (can't wait to have a look). Mark's wife, Donna, was also very informative, and she and mum put their heads together with their Camping Australia books and planned routes. :) (That Camping Australia does awesome books! Tells you every single obscure and not-so-obscure camping spot ALL over Australia!!!)

One thing Mark told us about was just how quaranitn-ing the quarantine on the border of WA is!!! You can't take fruit, vegetables, plants, flowers, or even (would you believe!!!) HONEY!!! And we have 3 HUGE JARS OF IT!!!!

Not only that, but we also had a 7 kilogram watermelon to devour! And mum discovered, among many other things, a whole packet of tomatoes! (Wouldn't believe something could hide in our puny little fridge, but there you have it).

So, dinner last night was as many vegetables as Mum could cram in our frypan, mixed with honey, and lentils. Joseph wanted to know where the meat was… :) Afternoon tea and dessert was watermelon.

Breakfast this morning was watermelon and honey on bread. We offered a jar of honey (and the watermelon) round to the other families, but they didn't take much. :( And for lunch, we plan to eat half a cucumber, half a tomato, half a carrot, and half a mango each! :) Hilarious.
Mum asked today, while she was writing her shopping list, what we needed. I said, 'watermelon?' and she replied, 'NO!' :)

We've already gone through two trays of mangoes. We LOVE them! :) Every now and then we come across a little store on the side of the road, and we buy a tray. :)

We just drove past Joe Creek. Mum took a photo of Jo in front of it. :) The big mountains around there are amazing!! They're red and huge and very impressively layered. We took a few photos. :)

Something else we've been informed about this week is that Lake Argylle (no idea how it's spelt...) is a MUST see, so we're going to try and head out that direction as well. :) Nice having all these helpful hints!

Right now we're at a petrol station, which has internet. Every time that happens (there's internet, I mean), it's like, QUICK!!! HURRY!!! POST THE BLOG POSTS!!! CHECK EMAILS!!! QUICK!!!! (It's hilarious! :) )