Nose Bleeds

Since getting home Tom has been suffering more and more from nose bleeds.  Not huge ones, but significant by the fact blood has been dripping from his nose.  These started in Oz, but have gradually been getting worse.  Unfortunately most of them come in the middle of the night and some nights they have happened more than once.  

Last night we had another bad night, so I called the Dr.  She was able to see him today so we went in.  There's nothing badly wrong with him - just a fragile nose which is normal for a 4 year old.  He's been given some cream for his nostrils to help heal the blood vessels and if that doesn't work he'll be referred to the Ear, Nose and Throat Department and maybe have his nose cauterised.

Anyway, I was impressed with the service here.  I really had to battle each time I wanted to see the Dr in Telford, here they do everything they can to see you asap.  What a nice surprise.

Wensleydale Railway

Steam Engine

Yesterday was Matt's birthday - I told him he had to take the day off, otherwise it is just another day.  Being the train fanatic he is, he decided on a day on a Heritage Railway.  After some research he decided on the Wensleydale Railway - which goes from Redmire to Leeming Bar (basically a quarry to just outside of North Allerton)  They are very close to linking it up to the East Coast Mainline and then hope to run scheduled services into the Dales.  Next on the agenda is to link it up to the Settle to Carlisle Railway at Garsdale, going through Hawes, a massive undertaking, but if they make it, it will be a splendid journey and put Hawes even more on the map.

Tom and Diesel

Anyway, we had a lovely day.  The weather was revolting when we drove over, but the sun soon came out and then stayed with us for the whole day.  Most of the day was spent riding on Diesels but we did manage a short ride on the steam train (before they retired it - as it had a coal problem).  We had lunch in the station cafe at Bedale and couldn't believe the value we had 3 lunches and drinks for £9.00 and it was good!  Not sure how they can do it, but it was great.  Tom started to get really fidgety and naughty so we read him the riot act and told him to go to sleep.  It took a while but he did and he slept for an hour (in fact we had to wake him up!)  Luckily we had a compartment to ourselves, so he had a really comfy bed.  (We were both a little jealous - he looked so peaceful).

Sleeper Train

We got back to the car at 5, and then headed home via a pub for dinner.  We got home, had birthday cake and then the heavens opened - we had lightening, thunder and a cloud burst - we got home exactly at the right time.  

Tom drives a tractor

In the JCB

Our first day home and we were thrown a life-line by one of the mum's from school.  I had made contact with her just before leaving for Australia.  She has a boy in the same class as Tom and was keen to make contact with us (well Tom) as she wants to get to know all the boys in Fred's class.  Not hard as there are only 6.  We knew where they live as they have a huge gun on an embankment by their house (currently trained on Sedburgh I think).  It's a real feature of the local landscape - we've been curious about their place ever since moving here and Matt was very excited to learn that Tom would be in the same class as Fred.

3 boys in the tractor

Anyhow, they invited Tom and Sam (next door) for the day.  We both went too - it was perfect, just what we needed as it meant we stayed awake and we weren't obsessing about wanting to go to bed.  Fred's Dad was around for the day which made our visit really interesting.  He is basically a big boy and thought the boys may want a ride or two on a tractor / JCB etc.  (He deals in ex-military vehicles - mainly diggers / tractors / land rovers and many more)  They have quite a bit of land so keep quite a few of the vehicles at home.

Trying out the lawnmower

It didn't take too long until a JCB was fired up and 3 small boys and one big boy were in the cab playing with leavers.  There were big smiles all round.  What a treat (I think Matt was a little jealous).  Apparently Sam was a complete natural on the levers - Rob said he would offer him a job at a drop of a hat.  Tom didn't get such a good school report, but he certainly enjoyed himself.

Later on Rob got out an old tractor and took it to a field where the boys took it in turns to drive round the field, including Tom.  Once again, huge grins, and CONCENTRATION.  It was 3pm before we left, a fantastic day out.  Didn't really get to know Fred or Caroline as there was so much going on, but we certainly had fun.

Riding down the hill

The Long Journey Home

Pyjama Boy and an A380

We have made it back home and for once the sun is shining, making our return less depressing than usual.
It was a bit of a long slog - 37.5 hours from door to door.  Nothing remarkable happened, Tom was pretty well behaved - it's no fun being cooped up in a aeroplane for 22 hours when you are 4.

Anyway,  we left Chinchilla at 10.30am on Saturday morning - Martin drove us back to Brisbane - this time with Vanessa and Mia.  We felt really bad for Mia not a great Saturday being stuck in a car for 10 plus hours just to drop your guests off at the airport.  However, she didn't seem to mind too much, she's a bookworm, so for her it was a chance to read, read, read without interruption.

A380

Once we got past Toowoomba we stopped for lunch.  Now one very noticeable change with Australia since 2001 is the fact that it is almost overrun by what we called 'The Holy Trinity plus 1' - ie MacDonalds, KFC, Subway and Hungry Jacks (known here as Burger King).  It is quite disappointing especially because if you go to an independent cafe or restaurant in Australia the food is generally of a very high quality.  Another noticeable change is the fact that Australians are definitely getting fatter - I certainly don't remember seeing so many obese Australians last time and I think the two can't be unrelated.  Anyhow, where we stopped there was a Hungry Jacks, KFC and Subway - as we had declared a moratorium on them all early on in the holiday we opted for the only other choice - a cafe which really wasn't too bad.  We had a lasagna each which came with a huge fresh salad which was very welcome as we knew it would be airline food for the next however many dinners.

Pyjama and Headphone boy

Martin then continued the drive into Brisbane and dropped us off at the Transit Centre where we managed to stuff most of our luggage into a locker and then we walked into Brisbane to do some souvenir shopping - there were no souvenirs to be seen in and around Chinchilla.  In fact we didn't see any during our road trip either so we have come home with very little to show for our time there.  We picked up a couple of things for neighbours etc and then got the train to Brisbane airport where we checked in and then had a very average dinner in a pub there (OK - not all food is great, but most of it was).

We got our seats on the 777 and headed off on our 14 hour trip to Dubai.  We really felt the difference not being in the A380, the 777 felt cramped and was much noisier.  It was also completely full.  Tom however, managed to sleep a good 6 hours (lucky thing) and he even managed to sit through most of Monsters Inc which was good.  We landed in Dubai on time, Matt bought his bottle of Whisky and then we got our seats on the A380 for the flight to Manchester.  We immediately settled in to the more spacious seats.  We had our second breakfast of the day and then Tom lay down for a sleep for a couple of hours - he was completely zonked as he closed his eyes about 2 seconds after lying down and was gently snoring after about 10 seconds.  Lucky thing.  We didn't do as well - we tried but failed.

We finally touched down on time at 11.30 and then had to wait an age for our bags (the down side of travelling on a big plane), got the bus back to the car.  We realised we were back in the UK almost immediately - with a bump...a big bump!  

+ The escalators between the gate and immigration weren't working.
+ The taps in 2 of the 3 basins in the gents had no water.
+ You have to pay for a trolley for your luggage with coins.  Who has local coins on immediate arrival to a country?  We did but (probably stupidly) refused out of principal.
+ I went to a shop to get some drinks and chocolate for the way home, had to wait ages whilst the one guy behind the counter worked at 0.1 miles an hour and didn't offer any pleasantries, whilst his colleague watched the queue build up without thinking that maybe he should help behind the counter too.
+ We had to wait ages for the car park bus (apparently an empty one sailed past the bus stop just before we got there and didn't stop).  When it did finally arrive it couldn't get to us as another coach had pulled up to the gates for the road and couldn't open them!

It's not great is it.  We realised immediately just how good the service industry is in Australia, or maybe just how bad it is here.

Anyway, we drove home without incident and without fighting jet lag too much.  Got back to a very warm house.  Tom fell asleep in the car - it took quite a lot to wake him again.  He was then very grumpy but a bath helped cheer him up.  I made us all some macaroni cheese for dinner (how good am I?) and then Tom went thankfully to bed at 6.30 and we gladly followed at 8.30.

Anyway it was a wonderful holiday, I could quite happily have stayed longer and done the road trip all the way up to Cairns and probably beyond.  I think I would be able to twist Matt's arm to go again - maybe in another 13 years time - I'm looking forward to it already.

Industrial Tourism

Great fun

Our last day:0(

Oh well, I guess all good things have to come to an end or you wouldn't know what a good thing is?!  We had another day in Chinchilla - who knew there was so much to do here.

First stop was to Vanessa's parent's house where Ben keeps his motorbike.  He's got a little off road bike, he's a little too short at the moment to ride it - but it was a perfect size for me and Matt.  Matt was mega excited and jumped right on and over to a bit of scrub land for a play.  I wasn't going to have a go, but it looked real fun.  After a little encouragement I found myself on it.  Wow it was good fun.  I don't think I got above 5 miles an hour - but you didn't need to.  Tom got very excited too.  Vanessa's brother Marty has a big. full size off road bike, so Matt put on the gear and gave that a go - it was a bit of a beast, in fact I think he preferred Ben's bike.  It did mean we were able to race - Tom once again was very excited and announced that I was the winner - big smiles all round.

Off road professional

We then headed back to our favourite coffee shop, Jamaica Blue for lunch - the boys had the same as yesterday, but I at least tried something different.  

I won the race

We then went back to the house to get dressed up... in work gear.  Martin had offered to take us for a trip round his power station for the afternoon.  Not really what you expect to do on holiday, but it was really very interesting (and quite tiring, climbing up and down numerous staircases).  It sort of made me wish that I had paid more attention in physics, as there was a lot of technical detail, but I think I got the gist of it, ie you dig up coal, put it on a 4km long conveyor belt grind it up, blow it into a huge kettle, burn it, heat water and make electricity - lots of electricity.  The whole site (to me) was a bundle of confusing pipes, stairways and metal - I had absolutely no idea how they put it all together, but it works and Martin as our guide was very informative and able to explain things in laymens' terms - I even understood some of it.

Dressed for work

In the evening I made a roast chicken dinner for everyone (with Yorkshire puddings as requested by Mia) followed by the Lemon Meringue Pie from yesterday.  Some neighbours then arrived for an evening of Trivial Pursuit (not the regular one - but the globetrotter one) : Australia vs Britain, it was a close one but the Aussies just won - not helped by the fact every time we landed on Australasia we got a question about an obscure Pacific Island.  Anyway, it was a good evening, we then packed quickly and went to bed.

Another Day in Chinchilla

Nice Sunset

So today we had another relaxing day in Chinchilla.  Our plan was to take Tom swimming at the pool.  However, first was posh breakfast at Jamaica Blue - Martin had recommended the Eggs Benedict so that's what I had and it was good (but very very naughty!)  When we got ourselves to the pool afterwards but when we got there it was closed.  Not to worry, we walked into town and met up with Martin and Vanessa at the clinic (Vanessa's Dad runs a Chiropractic Clinic).  Vanessa had offered to give both of us a massage, so whilst Tom played with toys we we pummelled.

I've only had one massage to date, which was a relaxing massage, this definitely wasn't a relaxing massage, it was a proper - get into your bones massage.  It was lovely but certainly that line of pleasure and pain was stretched.

By the time the massage was over, the pool was open so we went back.  It wasn't the best swimming session we have ever done - Tom went back to square one, clinging to me and crying whenever we suggested he should swim.  He did swim at the end, but it was under duress.  It certainly wasn't a fun session.

Nigel, Cheryl, Matt and me

We then went home, had lunch and Tom had a nap whilst I made myself handy in the kitchen and made a lemon meringue pie.  In fact Tom had a monster nap - we think now that he was bad in the pool because he was overtired.  He slept for 2 hours and then I had to wake him, worried that he might be over-doing it.

This evening we had planned to meet up with Nigel and Cheryl - a couple that Matt met at Martin and Vanessa's wedding and had a good time with.  They live in Dalby (only an hour away) and drove down to meet us.  Nigel was born in Ilkley and moved here when he was 7 - he has the strongest Aussie accent of anyone I have met here.  Anyway we all went to the Thai restaurant and had a lovely meal - lots of laughter (mainly from Nigel who has a great belly laugh), we then came home for coffee and photos before bed.  A very nice evening.

Miles and Condamine

Today Vanessa also had the day off work, so we had a day in the car exploring the local area.  First stop was Miles - you can guess how many jokes we had on the way - 'I wonder how many Miles it is to Miles - oh no in Australia it is Kms' etc etc.  Anyone who knows Matt and Martin's sense of humour will understand that it was good to finally arrive and stop them.

Miles used to be called Dogwood Crossing, but when the trains came they renamed it Miles after the MP for trains at the time.  It is a crossing as two major roads intersect here.  This means it is a great place for spotting trucks and there are some great looking trucks in Australia.  It is almost the norm for trucks to have two wagons here, and quite often you see them with 3 wagons.  That's exciting enough, but also you get interesting things on the wagons: water tanks (for those out in the sticks not plumbed in, water wagons deliver much needed water), huge diggers (for the mines out here), huge pipes, logs, fuel tankers (yes these sometimes come in threes too), plenty of minerals, beefs (we call the cows out here beefs as they are so huge and obviously bred for beef) etc etc.

Pipe Truck

3 Tanker Truck

So we did a spot of truck spotting and then headed down to China Man's Lagoon and walked along a 2 km by a creek.  This was a very different walk to the rainforest walks as it was very very dry - the trees were thinner, less lush (some almost looked dead) and the ground sandy.  We came across a Wattle tree (the national flower of Australia) that was in bloom which was good.

The Wattle Tree

When we got to the end we went to a cafe originally for tea and a bun, but after seeing the food there, we decided to have lunch.  Burger with the lot for me and Matt.   I have been searching for a good 'burger with the lot' place since I have got here - brings back fond memories of my backpacking time here.  I have tried a couple but they haven't lived up to expectations, until today.  Today I found the crowning glory - it was massive.  A burger with the lot is: burger, lettuce, tomato (I of course asked for this not to be included as it is evil), caramelised onions, beetroot, cheese, bacon, pineapple and egg as well as the burger, all presented in a big bun.  It is huge and almost impossible to eat (although I gave it a good go).  It was as good as I remember, juice was running all over the place, it was messy, it was glorious.  I was a happy girl, my tummy very very full.

Burger with the lot

Attempting to eat it!

Once we could move again, we headed back in the car to a place called Condamine - a small place, by the River Condamine which has a pub and a great play area.  We sat outside and had pots of beer (a pot is smaller than a schooner) - was very refreshing.  Once again we watched the interesting trucks go by, trying to get waves from the drivers and Tom had a great time playing in the play area which was in the shape of a boat and was therefore the Manly ferry.

After a while we headed back.  Tom fell asleep in the back, I almost fell asleep in the back.  Came back, saw Mia at her Karate class (very confusing - couldn't understand a word of what was going on - something to do with a very strong Australian accent, and lots of Japanese (although Matt said he couldn't understand the Japanese either)).  Then bedtime for Tom and BBQ time for us - gorgeous Australian lamb, and belly pork.  Then catch up here and bed.

The boys drinking their beers!

Day with Uncle Martin

Cheeky!

Splashing around

So today Matt took a day off from our holiday and spent the day working :0( (great thing about working for yourself is that you can take a month's holiday when you want, but also it means that you have to keep servicing your best client - ie work whilst on holiday)

However, Martin is still on holiday so we spent the day with him.  First stop was Chinchilla Weir - a couple of kilometres from the town.  It was a very lovely place, the Condamine River runs through here and they have made a dam, creating a leisure lake: fishing, speedboats, jet skis etc can all be played with here.  Martin had bought Tom a toy speed boat for his time here, so he could play with it at the weir.  We played with the speed boat, but unfortunately it died after about 10 minutes.  Not to worry, Tom was happy enough throwing stones etc.  In fact, he suddenly wanted to splash in the water, and was running up and down.  I took off his shorts and pants as they were getting went.  He continued to splash (quite violently) so I stripped him.  Yep, Tom was skinning dipping in the weir (at his age too!)

Searching for trains

We must have spent the best part of 2 hours there, Tom was just so happy in the water, and it wasn't that cold (warmer than the sea anyway)  I was just hoping he didn't fall over.  Martin found an old towel in the car which helped.  His clothes more or less dried out (the sun wasn't being too forward today) so we re-dressed him and hopped back into town.  We visited the post office (last cards are on their way) and then sat down for lunch - burger, chips and onion rings (really not looking forward to weighing myself on our return back - I  have a horrible feeling the stone I lost has come straight back)

We then went down to Chinchilla Railway Station for a look around.  There isn't much to see as there are only 4 trains a day but they are either silly o'clock in the morning or silly o'clock in the night, meaning we can't do any train spotting.  The station closed a long time ago and is quite rickety.  Never mind, we stood on the platform and pretended.

Helicopter landing

We then did a spot of shopping - just the essentials (ie beer and cake for Daddy), and then strolled into town to pick Mia up from school.  We then headed home to find Matt had only 1 document left to translate, so we headed to the airport as Martin thought we might see some planes (Chinchilla has a large population of FIFOs - Fly In, Fly Outs - people who work here for 2 or 3 weeks, go back home for 1 week / 10 days etc.  They work at the gas works / coal works / mines etc and come in on private planes)  His timing was impeccable, after only about a minute we saw a flight arrive, then another take off, then more.  In all we saw 4 planes arrive, 4 leave and 2 helicopters arrive.  Not a bad bit of spotting - and all from the viewing terrace on the first floor of the airport building.

We then headed home, did a skype call with Matt's parents and then had dinner - Dominos pizza followed by cake (see what I mean about the diet!)  All very yummy though.

Tom went to bed straight after dinner, a very tired boy.

Back to Chinchilla

Kookaburra

Don't really have much to say about today.  We got up in the morning, packed up, tidied up and checked out of our house.  Then we drove back to Chinchilla and had lunch.  After saying goodbye to Ben (he's off to Cairns for a football tournament - a 4 to 5 hour road trip today to Brisbane, then a 2 hour flight up to Cairns tomorrow - all to play in the same state!, Tom and I headed off to the tourist office here to buy some last postcards - be warned folks they are not the most exciting ones I've ever seen. 

Tom then had a play in the park next door to the tourist office - great for him as there was a sandpit with a digger in it and opposite a huge road with lots of huge trucks carrying lots of big and interesting equipment to the mines out here.  He even got a wave and a toot from one of the drivers.  

Then back to the house, dinner and early bed for a very exhausted little boy.   Oh and here's a photo of a Kookaburra which landed in Martin's garden this afternoon.

Sunday in the Bunya Mountains

Wallabies grazing on the lawn

Woke up to thick fog this morning, so put our warm weather gear on.  Headed downstairs to find lots of Australian King Parrots on the veranda  so we got the seed out from yesterday and fed them.  Tom distributed seeds to us, rather than feed them himself, still a little nervous from Friday.  

So we had a great photo session, they really are beautiful: a lime green body with bright red heads.  They are bigger than the rosellas so kept them away.  During this time the mist burnt off and a deep blue sky appeared, fantastic, so we all got ready for a longer walk – this time the Barker’s Circuit – a 10km route which took in 2 more waterfalls and plenty more trees.

Mia feeding the parrots

Me and a parrot

Kookaburra

On the way to the walk we came across a Kookaburra - I got quite excited as I didn't manage to get a good picture of one of these in the wild last time, so I snapped away until it flew off.





I don’t get bored of these forest walks – there is so much to take in and see.  We were walking with Vanessa and Kathryn today, they marched ahead – I guess to them it is same old, same old: a strangling fig tree is normal for them, amazing and wondrous to us.

Martin and Tom in a tree

Ferns (again!)

Black Boy

We had our picnic at the second waterfall and then split into 2 groups.  Vanessa and Kathryn got so far ahead that we never saw them again and when we got back Kathryn had gone home.  We obviously we walking at Tom’s pace, unfortunately today we think we chose a route just a little too far as 2 kms from the end he started slowing down considerably and limping.  Matt put him on his shoulders for the uphill bits and Tom managed the downhill bits.  We finally made it to the end and treated Tom to a sit down and a cake at the café – he chose a Lamington a traditional Australian cake – sponge covered in chocolate and then rolled in coconut.

The boys about to dive into their treat

He was still limping after the sit down, so Matt put him on his shoulders again for the walk to the house.  We got back and Tom went straight to bed for a sleep whilst we collapsed on the sofas.  Martin managed to summon up the energy to play tennis with Ben – I don’t know where he got the energy from.  The Australian King Parrots came to visit again so Mia and Vanessa fed them with the remaining seed.

Australian Parrot (girl)

Australian Parrot (boy)

Australian woman (Vanessa) with Australian Parrots

Floppy Tom

At 4.30 Tom got up, but he was as floppy as could be so Matt took him for a Jacuzzi bath to see if it would perk him up and help loosen his leg muscles.

Wallabies 

Saturday in Bunya National Park

New Australian Outfit

After an OKish sleep (we were awake for a 2 hour period in the middle of the night) we got up and opened the curtains.  Matt wasn’t too happy when he looked out of the window.  I asked him why and he told me to look.  It wasn’t the weather as it was deep blue sky.  I thought for a moment someone had stolen a car, but no, there was a very still wallaby under the front of Vanessa’s car.  Its eyes were open, it didn’t look well.  Martin and Matt went to investigate it – it was dead.  What to do?  We have a animal lover with us (Mia who is 9) who would be very upset, so Martin dragged it away to a bush and left it there.   Not a great start.

Viewpoint

Anyway we got together, didn’t mention it and had breakfast – pancakes – always seem very decadent to me as a breakfast item.  We then left Vanessa at the house and headed down to do the Scenic Circuit walk – a 4km walk around the forest, taking in two waterfalls.  These are called the Bunya Mountains because of the Bunya Pines in it.  However, without Vanessa we didn’t have an Australian with us, so we walked around, amazed by the flora again – huge buttress trunks, creeper vines, strangler figs etc, and these amazing huge thick tree trunks that looked like elephant legs, so much so that we christened them so.  Some of them even had roots peeking out from the bottom that looked like elephant toe nails.  We were getting a little frustrated that this tree wasn’t marked out like all the others with a name plate, and it wasn’t until almost the end of the walk that we saw a sign for them – they were…yes you’ve guessed it – the Bunya Pine!!!  We certainly will be able to spot those again.

Bunya Pine (middle bit)

Bunya Pine  (top of)

Bunya Pine (bottom of) - looks like an Elephant's foot

The gang

I have to mention at this point just how wonderful Ben has been with Tom since we got here.  Ben is 12 later this month so there is a significant age gap between them but he has been an absolute gem, looking after him, keeping him entertained, playing rugby with him and today walking with him around the rainforest keeping him amused.  At one point they were raspberrying their way round.  Ben seems to have a natural empathy with Tom and Tom thinks the world of Ben  – copying everything he does – even down to eating the same sandwich etc.

Me in a tree

We got back to the house at lunchtime.  Kathryn, Vanessa’s sister had arrived from the Sunshine Coast, and Ian and Kerry, Vanessa’s parents had also arrived from Chinchilla, so it was a full house and a chatty house – everyone was very friendly.
  

First job was lunch – my favourite type of lunch – a grazing one with all my favourite things: home made corned beef, cheese, salad, choko chutney (homemade by Vanessa from choko, a weird looking green vegetable – looks unappetizing, but is delicious (as chutney anyway).  We then had a lazy afternoon – Tom had a nap so he could stay up late and we sat on the veranda enjoying the sun, watching the wallabies.  Ian and Kerry headed home as they were up just for the afternoon.  We were expecting to see lots of rosellas again but they didn’t turn up, just lots of magpies which we didn’t want.

Brush Turkey

Relaxing

At 4pm, we got Tom up and headed down to the bird feeding station to search out the good looking birds.  We bought some bird seed so we could feed them, but about 5 minutes after we got there, they all disappeared.  It did say at the feeding area that the feeding time was 3.15 to 4.30, but we didn’t expect them to all suddenly leave, but they did.  It was if someone had told them the time and told them to leave.  Luckily the lady in the shop gave us a bird to put the seed in so we could take it away.  We then did a short 0.5km walk in the forest and headed home.  Kathryn made a great spaghetti bolognaise then another game of hide and seek before Tom went shattered to bed.

Starry night