Saturday, 28 January 2012

Another Home

We set off for our new home town- Mount Gambier! It was a quick journey- only spanning days. We stopped in Meningie over-night. The caravan park was lovely- bursting with vegetation and wildlife. I was a little shocked by the difference between there and Christies. I don’t think I realised how dry and empty it was up there. The area is so built up they have razed to the ground all its natural beauty- except, of course, the beach.

Some friends back in Adelaide had given us some pointers of where to go on our way to Mount Gambier, so we drove past the Coorong. Unfortunately they forgot to mention that to get there, along any stretch of its many miles, you must drive along dirt track! Brucey (as any owner of similar vehicle will understand) does not do well on dirt tracks. It is impossible to realise just how bad the vibrations and noise could be if you own a car! So after attempting a couple of miles along one track, and almost waking Beela up in the process, we turned back and carried along on the main road. (We will visit the Coorong another time I think!)

After passing through Kingston and into Robe, we stayed in another caravan Park that night. It had a swimming pool, containing so much chlorine it was eye watering. Fortunately it also had a surfing beach nearby. We enjoyed a swim and a surf there, until I was attacked by giant horse flies and gave up before they bit Beela too! They hurt!

The day after we drove onto Millicent then into Mount Gambier. And guess where our first stop was..? The Library! My new favourite indoor place.

The next few days went in a blur of organisational chores, catching up with the Big family and freezing our bums off (who knew I had finally acclimatised to the hot Adelaide weather!)

Thursday, 12 January 2012

Surprises

The Big family came back! What a lovely surprise. We walked into the park and I looked over at the park to see D walking along with two of the kids. “Is that D?” I exclaimed to Ryan and sure enough- it was!

It has been less than two months since they left and I had not realised how much Nabeela has grown up since then. Before she wouldn’t really interact with the kids and I often got the feeling she annoyed them rather a lot! But just in the past couple of days I have been struck by how much she is playing and talking with them. There is none of the grabbing for things and getting in the way- instead she asks for things she wants or bosses the other kids around (very funny considering she’s the littlest one there). Also seeing how much she understands now from other people’s points of view is amazing.

Our daughter has ceased to be a baby- she is a little girl! I am still too surprised to mourn the passing of her babyhood yet!