Postcard from the Edge

Western Australia - 4 hour time difference, two cool and showery days but the sun has come out now. GKDs woke up chilled and remain so, touch wood. Mum gone to work. Just taught the 8 yr old how to play scrabble. Strangest WA moment: In the pet shop. They sell "vegetarian ears" ie imitation pigs ears for dogs to chew, presumably made from seaweed or some such...

Hello, Jess. Can't you get your children to move closer to each other!
Playing scrabble with gc sounds lovely. And educational!

Yes it is perfect for a bright 8 year old as it combines language and arithmetic skills. And lots of adult attention!
At least children are in same quadrant of planet and can be seen in one trip.
DGD took me for a walk to her school last night (it is school holidays here)
Playgrounds in Australian and NZ schools tend to have lots of climbing equipment and even swings. She demonstrated her "monkey bars" skills - asked who was best in her class at this she thought she was (she must be very strong - as she is a solid muscly weight) . Her school does some kind of PE every day of the week which I am very pleased about. This is better than UK schools manage.
The local community is free to use the play equipment as a playground in the evenings and holidays. This does not seem to invite any vandalism. On the down side it is also the norm to exercise dogs on the school playing field! The Australians are very fond of health and safety, red tape and regulation - of some things but not others, so it is interesting to see the differences. Another example was - in a park I noticed that one of the public barbecues was on (you could see the heat haze rising). These gas bottle powered barbecues can be booked for parties etc, never seem to be vandalised and can be turned on by anyone. No off button. And not a single sign to warn that they might be hot if touched by a child.

The public bbqs on the beach near my daughter's house are wood fired, and the beach is littered with piles of driftwood. It is great fun collecting it and the whole family enjoy getting it alight and then cooking chips, sausages, and burgers.
Is Australian TV as dire as in NZ? It is a good job there is so much to do outdoors! My family mainly use the TV to watch DVDs.

Got some kind of satellite here. But new notably Australia centred. If something really big happens they will try to find an Australian angle - e.g. "were the boston bombers indoctrinated by an Australian extremist preacher"
My GD tells me that a plane crash was reported with the words "fortunately no Australians were killed" .

That happens with the UK media too. It sometimes seems that one Briton killed is more newsworthy than hundreds of 'foreigners' killed in natural disasters.

That is true. Slightly less blatant maybe.
This morning we went to a huge disney-quality children's playground overlooking the river. Situated next to a row of filmstar quality houses (more like palaces).
Then wandered down to the shore where the children tormented jelly fish.
F (5) was chatting about hermit crabs making homes in shells. I picked up a broken shell of a sea snail and said it was interesting to see what the inside looked like. To which he responded "Yes, they don't have televisions do they."

Lovely to hear about your adventures Jess, had one of my own yesterday, a coach trip to Compton Verney. What an amazing place! Bought by Sir Peter Moores (son of John Moores/ Littlewood pools) who wanted to establish an art gallery away from a large city. The exhibitions were superb! Currently 500 Years of Italian Art (Glasgow collection) and, as a contrast Enid Marx, Naive British paintings and artefacts.
A bonus was the Adam Hall, stunning plasterwork, obviously restored after damage done by 'the Army' billeted there during WW11.
Usually the blurb to accompany the paintings is unreadable, here it was accessible, clear and informative ( I went around twice with a lunch break, Italian menu, in between!!!!)

I am planning a trip down to York in July - to the Railway Museum, would you believe. It is 100 years since the Mallards were built, and they will have all six surviving ones on display - Sir Nigel Gresley, Union of South Africa, Bittern, Dwight D Eisenhower, Dominion of Canada, and Mallard itself, the holder since 1938 of the speed record for steam. Two of the locos have been shipped in from the US and Canada.

I travelled behind some of these beautiful A4 Pacifics daily from Fife to Edinburgh before they were retired and most of them scrapped - the Union of South Africa, Kingfisher and my favourite, Golden Plover, which was scrapped and cut up in 1965.

I discovered yesterday evening that Union of South Africa had passed through Edinburgh twice yesterday on its way north for a demonstration run from York and back. If I had known I would have turned out to see it!

Sorry - mistake. It is a celebration of the 75th anniversary of the record run by Mallard down Stoke Bank at 126mph on 3rd July 1938.

Mallard 75

One for the grandchildren.

Sticky Anzac day holiday here. We went to Kings Park in the centre of Perth - the biggest urban park in the world apparently. Much of it is "bush". There is a very long avenue of trees, each planted in memory of a fallen soldier and each, today, with an Australian flag below it.
Lots of families out enjoying the public holiday and the warm weather (as opposed to the too-hot-to-go-out summer weather)
More mega playgrounds including one with model dinosaurs and one funded by Rio Tinto. More of a park within a park really.

Your grandchildren are certainly having a good time with you, Jess. I love the remarks about the TV in the shell - children's minds work in such wonderful ways.
Which airline are you using for the flight home? I hated the seats on Cathay Pacific, but my last two trips with Singapore Airlines have been O.K. I use various comparison sites to get a good deal but I am wary of some Far Eastern carriers, such as China Air. When my other daughter lived in Malaysia, I used Malaysian Airlines several times and they were very good. (Oh, those stewardesses, with their tiny waists and hips!)

I remember the long avenue of trees in King's Park, Jess, but remember even more the heat! Spent many happy hours walking along the beach and swimming in the Indian Ocean.

Cathay greatnan but not for 2 more weeks . In my experience Virgin have the most uncomfortable seats.
Fortunately the heat of summer is over now butty.
Ventured on the bus to Fremantle today and went to the new and rather lovely Maritime Museum. DIL had done a night shift and we managed 6 hours of being out. Glad to sit down now.

Encountering the local sense of humour as expressed by older gents. Sexist in the extreme! e.g. woman trying to take a good pic of husband in the face of some adversity. OG launches into "humorous" commentary on how bossy she is.
A moment of calm. DS and DIL have gone out for an afternoon "date".
Kids bedrooms tidied.
Have managed to settle the older to do some writing with my fountain pen. Younger doing a couple of Nemo jigsaws. This is going to last approx 30secs longer until both jigsaws DONE

Do you think, like me, that because we see our GS fairly infrequently, when we do they expect to be 'entertained' or is it DS/DIL's assumption.... you were a teacher, you know how to 'entertain' children?
Mind you, I do enjoy it anyway!!!
Glad you are all having a good time.

I think they are pretty intense with their parents too ogm Very verbal, very active and quite keen on being in control. Today there was a bout of cricket in the park with all our cricket skills improving. Those 5 years of suffering rounders in school do seem to have done something for my bowling skills, if not for my throwing, catching or hitting . I helped GS (5) to sort out his clothes drawers - he persisted with this for about an hour. Demon room tidier (takes after his mum) . GD and I went to the school field and played for another hour - monkey bars with her eyes shut, that kind of thing.