Dreamworld Conquered

A bit of a reprieve from my NaNo writing today and the real official start to the silly season. This weekend is just the beginning of schedule clashes and running from one thing to another. From 8 on Sat morning we were at dance concert rehearsals, a quick lunch at home, change of uniforms and then off to Little Athletics. Sunday - we had a number of schedule clashes and just had to work around them to choose the best outcome.

Generally, I will be one of the supervisors for Morgans Age group at Little Athletics. This normally involves me organizing the kids into lines and ensuring they get their turns on each activity and recording times or distances. I bribe the kids often with lollies and cut up fruit as the waiting times between activities can be a little wearisome. They were training for the big competitions this week, so for the second time this season, I was handed the tiny tots to ‘play’ with as thier normal teachers were teaching relay races. We had a lot of fun teaching running ( how to start, when to run) - the kids like to just runn of in mobs - so its quite a challange to get them to line up and go at appointed times. discus - basically - “hit that dad over there with this rubber ring” ( not such a good idea - as Morgan - who was not training with the bigger kids as he was not competing, actually DID), then over to long jump were the kids ran like mad and hopped over a rubber rope to give them some focus to jump some distance. So

me just didn’t get it and just ran straight into the sandpit and fell on their faces. Its a laugh a minute!

Today - Sunday - we had to choose between Dreamworld and competing in the regional Little Athletics comp. As much as the kids are enjoying their time at LA, its really not a focus for me for them to compete - nor do I think they are really that inclined or gifted in that way…..we shot off to Dreamworld - it is the first of the Christmas Parties we have this year - Celebrated through the Social club at Adrians work - and the only one which anyone from Energex will be allowed to go to. How rough is this? Bah Humbug Energex, under the guise of concerns for public finances and accountability in the current financial crisis has all but canceled Christmas. The staff has in the past had an afternoon or an evening staff appreciate party - sometimes a big BBQ and entertainment, other times a theme park has been hired for a few out of hours session times - but this Christmas - not even an office party will be allowed. to make matters worse - a letter was sent home saying that they still appreciated the hard work staff members undertook - and understood the impact that long hours and on call hours have on people with families…. and STILL they canceled Christmas. ANYWAY.. best not dwell too much on that…

Today was about getting out of the house ( and all the jobs piling up) away from my writing, and away from Brisbane. Morgan is tall enough now to go on most of the rides - and Lilly is not too far away either. One of the sadder things about being overweight has been missing out on going on rides etc as I simply couldn’t fit. I was so delighted to be able to do so today. I’d been hanging out to get on the Mick Dohan motorbike one and it didn’t disappoint! Lilly and I went on it twice ( she was very disappointed to find she was too small to be on the bike so was consoled with the fact she could be in the sidecare beside me.

We are so proud of Morgan for making his own mind up about things! at first he was unsure of wanting to go on any of the bigger rides - so we honoured that decision - until he was really bored with the kid ones… THEN he got a taste for thrill - and there was no stopping him. His favourite is the Claw.. I was able to ride on the cyclone for the first itme as well - and gald I don’t have a neck problem as it really tips you about. Miss Lilly is desperate to be big enough to go on some of those stomach churning rides - but its still a good 15 cm away for her yet! After 3 consecutive goes on the Enterprise (one that rushes you round and round then then upside down) - I was really queezy - thankful I had nothing in my stomach - and glad to have the excuse of sitting down for a bit.

We had a birthday party to go to in the afternoon - which I am glad of - as by the time it was time to leave in order to get to it in time - I’d really had enough.

So - what were the clear favourite memories of the day at Dreamworld? For Lilly it was the tiny pink lollies she was allowed to have… For Morgan - he wanted to claim the big six te-shirt - however, he is not tall enough to go on two of them - plus the t-shirts were not his size - so he chose a trophy to go on his desk - a tower of terror one..

Melbourne Cup Day

For the first time in many years (10 probably as the day glided past when we lived in the UK) I spent Melbourne Cup Day with no plans. Before we went OS and even as a poor student, I had a group of us who dressed in silly hats, ate chicken and drank far too much cheap bubbly.

I didn’t think too much about it until mid morning and now I feel a bit sad and empty. Previously there had always been a work function to go to as the rest of Australia took half a days unofficial holiday. Even after officially leaving work to have kids, I’d either had a part time job or group to celebrate the day with.

A few weeks ago I looked about our local cafes and restaurants to see what cup day functions were on. I wasn’t particularly keen to pay up to $70 ( for Lilly and then for me) to be with a bunch of strangers. Of my friends who were not working, they had other plans - so I thought to just do nothing.

Racing a close first with Halloween, Melbourne Cup Day always signaled the wind down to Christmas - of indulgent lunches with friends and the end of exams or projects. It was a day I enjoyed dressing up, having made or bought a fancy hat and giggle with colleagues and friends. I would call one of my sisters, Julie for tips on the race as for a time there she got quite serious about the condition of the grass, past wins and history of trainers etc. Sweeps and fundraisers assisted many of us at work in choosing the right horse for the race. Of course I would bumble my way into a TAB and choose the ‘winner‘ purely on the colour of the jersey coupled with the nags name. Highly technical and based on logic and genius. It was never really about the horses; but we all got over excited on the home straight shrieking the nags name out as they passed the finish line.

But today, I had nothing planned and it feels as empty and stale as a plastic champagne glass. On Adrian's insistence, Lilly and I dressed up and opened a bottle of lemonade ( oh the sheer luxury of all that sugar!) and shared a packet of cheezels. Sadly we missed the start of the race as I struggled with the television control box ( point out the person who doesn’t watch telly) - but got to cheer on the end. I had no idea who or what was running - so we just chose colours.

Miss Lilly looked gorgeous in pink fairy colours. Note my new mac set up behind her - as I am writing NaNo currently.

Halloween 2009

Along with an annual Xmas party, our street also celebrate Halloween.

I love our street. The feeling of community runs strong in a number of the people who live here and even though we don’t really see one another that often, it’s the nods in the afternoon or on a weekend and the catch up chats at our xmas party that really make a difference and make you feel like you belong. But its Halloween, when the most ‘stayed’ neighbour will dress up to scare the kids or leave a full basket of chocolates at the door because they have had to go out for the evening, that really brings a smile to my face.


Celebrations for Halloween range from children dressing in fancy costumes and begging for sweets door to door, to watching horror films and attending bonfires. Most Australians only see it as an ‘American thing’ having see it only on the TV or in films associated with that country. However, most people ( including Canadians and Americans) have little idea of the origins or meanings behind these customs. Halloween draws from an ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain , which means roughly “summer's end”. Immigrants brought their festivals to the US and it has evolved largely from there. For us in the southern hemisphere it is a heralding of the summer to come – if it hasn’t already hit us!

In many other cultures is has been seen as a festival of the dead, where the belief that the border between this world and the otherworld became thin on this particular evening; thus, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home whilst harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Their purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. Interestingly, Halloween (All Hallows Eve) is the evening before All Saints Day, which was created by Christians to convert pagans, which is celebrated on November 1st. The Catholic Church still honors its Saints on this designated day with a variety of festivities.

In saying all of this, our family observes Halloween as an honouring of the knowledge, wisdom and energy passed down to us from those who have gone before, of those who have passed on. It’s a time to reflect on the lives of recently passed over friends or family members; to give thanks for their presence in our lives and to open ourselves to the blessing and wishes which can be passed to us in this existence.

Before the trekking up and down the street tonight, we sat in a circle and gave thanks for simple things around us and offered up our gratitude to the spirits around us, asking for protection , guidance and blessings.

We had a great little groups of kids to do the trek with this year – followed close behind by another group from a little further up the street.

Adrian delighted and terrified callers with his Frankenstein outfit. I quickly did up a coffin and headstone for the front where Morgan and Lilly placed little buckets of sweet offerings to the callers. We string glow sticks around the fences and I was luck y enough to find some pumpkin heads in a string of lights to be p-lugged in and looped around the fence as a welcoming light.

Just in case we didn’t have enough sugar – we laid the table with all sorts of sweets and treats – and how could you not have dead mans fingers dipped in blood at a kids party? ( cheerios)

The kids are still running around in circles (9 pm) and giggling ( drunk on sugar literally) I haven’t stopped them eating the treats they got , so I am expecting a huge sugar crash for the morning – hangovers all round.