Term 2 Happenings

It's the start of the winter school holidays here in Queensland, and I am seriously looking forward to three weeks of not waking up to an alarm clock, minimal extra curricular activities, and just generally living at a slower pace. We also have some good friends coming to visit us, both the van Beek and Das Neves families are coming up from Melbourne to stay with us for a few days. I can't wait to catch up with our old friends and share a bit of our new lives with them.

As you can probably tell from my lack of blogging, it has been a very full term. Work has been very busy for me and the days seem to fly by. Outside of a 20 minute lunch break (on a good day) the hours blur into a mix of emails, student meetings, and occasional teaching. I'm currently only teaching two hours per week, so calling myself a “teacher” these days feels a bit misleading! That said, I’ve learned a lot over the past five months, and I think once I’ve got a full year under my belt, I’ll really start to enjoy this role.

Ella is now at school with me and has absolutely thrived this year. She’s got a packed extracurricular schedule: swimming, gymnastics, club netball, plus school netball and soccer teams. The school sports teams train before school from 6:45 to 8:00am, which took some getting used to, especially waking up while it’s still dark. But she’s always very keen to go, and once she shakes off the early morning grumpiness, it sets her up for a great, active start to the day. 

I try to begin my mornings with a 20-30 minute walk and do my best to resist the temptation to use that time for work. But during the final week of term, things got so hectic that I had to give up my walk in exchange for some uninterrupted desk time.

One of the highlights for Ella this term was the school netball tournament, where she played with the ‘A’ team. They placed fourth overall, which was a fantastic result. The tournament was hosted at a school two hours away, so I had to drop her off for the bus at 5:30am! While it was an absurdly early hour to be out and about, I took the opportunity to drive 10 minutes to the beach and go for a sunrise walk. It was such a beautiful, quiet way to start the day. I even treated myself to a quick breakfast at The Winey Cow in Main Beach (the Gold Coast outpost of a café originally from the Mornington Peninsula). It was so peaceful, and I still made it to work by about 7:30am!

Sunrise at Surfers Paradise 

Quick breakfast at The Winey Cow

Ella’s netball efforts were recognised with the “Netball Spirit Award” for Year 4 at the end-of-semester sports assembly. She also received an award for “Outstanding Progress in Mathematics” at the academic assembly and made it through to the finals of a French competition—a language she only started learning this year. Needless to say, we’re very proud of how well she’s settled in. I think the all-girls environment has been a really positive influence, and she’s made a few close friends too, which has been the best part of all. I was worried when we made this move that it would be hard on Ella, but she has settled so well, especially over this last term, that I can't quite believe it.

Ollie turned 7 this term, and I can't quite believe that my “baby” is 7! He was invited to quite a few birthday parties over the term, which was a bit exhausting but also gave me the chance to meet some of the parents of his school friends. I do feel a bit out of touch with Ollie’s school life, since he goes to school with Andy every day. There's a practicality to Andy and I each taking one child with us to work and school, but sometimes I feel a little sad that the kids aren’t at the same school—and that I don’t get to spend as much time with Ollie anymore.

That said, Ollie is doing really well. His reading has really taken off—he reads independently now, both at night and in the car. He’s still the early bird of the household, up before 6am most mornings. You can always tell when he’s awake because he turns on every single light in the house on the way to the playroom. It’s still dark at that time, and I think it makes him feel a little less scared. The upside is that he no longer wakes us up, which feels like a real parenting milestone. Every now and then, instead of watching TV, I’ll find him quietly reading at the kitchen table or, more recently, sorting through his ever-growing collection of Pokémon cards. (He’s developed a full-blown Pokémon obsession lately, which I truly cannot make sense of!)

Some early morning reading 

For his birthday, we met up with Craig’s family at “Game Over”, an indoor centre with go-karting, climbing and laser tag. The five kids did some karting and climbing while we caught up with Craig and Mel, and then we all joined in for a game of laser tag. I discovered that I’m absolutely terrible at laser tag, but at least that meant that I came in last place instead of Ollie!

Who is having more fun, the kids or the dads?

A couple of weeks later, we hosted a birthday party for Ollie and some of his school friends at a place called “Inflatable World”, which is exactly what it sounds like. It was my (and probably every parent’s) worst nightmare, but the kids had a fabulous time jumping through all the different inflatable activities. The only hitch? Four of the kids, including Ollie, came down with gastro the next day - and Ollie passed it on to me. I haven’t been that sick in years, I honestly can’t even remember the last time. And I don’t usually catch whatever bugs the kids bring home, so I must’ve been very run down. It was not fun, let me tell you. This was around Week 7 of term, and I ended up needing two days off work—which of course meant I spent the next few weeks scrambling to catch up. Friends, I cannot tell you how much I have needed a proper break from work.

Some other highlights from recent weekends include discovering the Gold Coast Botanical Gardens with our new friends Camille and Meno. (He’s Dutch so I’m not entirely sure I’ve spelled his name correctly.) Camille and I work together, and although she’s originally from the Gold Coast, they lived in Melbourne for a long time and recently moved back to be closer to her family. Coincidentally, Camille’s mum also teaches the yoga class that my parents were attending when they were here, so there was a connection throughout the whole family. The Gold Coast definitely has a “big small town” feel. There always seems to be someone you know in common, and we’re learning just how few degrees of separation really exist here.

We met up with Camille and her family one Sunday morning for a walk and bike ride around the botanical gardens. Their two kids are each a couple of years younger than ours, so it worked well. The gardens here are much less formal than the ones in Melbourne, but unlike in Melbourne, you’re allowed to jog, scooter and bike through the grounds, perfect when you’ve got kids in tow. Ollie recently got a new bike for his birthday and he’s finally building confidence on it, so this was a great place for him to practice. There’s also a really good playground there, which gave us a chance to take a break from riding. Camille had brought along a chocolate brioche (from Aldi, it was amazing!) and a thermos of coffee to share, which made the whole morning feel that little bit more special. We’ve already been back just the four of us for another ride and walk, and Andy and I are realising we may need to start jogging while the kids bike - we just can’t keep up anymore if we walk!

On the home improvement side of things, we decided to get a heat pump installed for the spa section of our pool. Our pool is a rectangle with a small circular spa off to one side. It has jets, but until now, it wasn’t heated. We went back and forth for a while trying to decide whether to get a heat pump big enough to heat the entire pool or just one for the spa. In the end, we landed on heating just the spa. The cost of a larger pump, plus the energy it would take to heat the full pool in winter, just didn’t seem worth it. As it is this heat pump will heat our pool in the spring/autumn if we want it to, but just not through the 2-3 months of winter. Over the past few weekends we’ve been heating the spa (which currently gets to about 35 degrees - though we’re planning to get a better cover that will hopefully push it up another degree or two) and spending sunny afternoons alternating between the warm spa and the cooler pool. The pool was about 22 degrees the other day, so while cold, it’s not unbearable. It's been a lot of fun and I’m really glad we made the decision to go ahead with it!

My last little highlight from the term was another beach walk—this time squeezed in just before an all-day work meeting that didn’t start until 10am. Getting to the beach in the morning is such a peaceful way to start the day, and I will absolutely take the opportunity to do so whenever I can.

We’re spending this first week of the school holidays doing a few jobs around the house and getting ready for our visitors. I’m so looking forward to catching up with old friends and enjoying some slower-paced days. After a hectic term, it feels like the break couldn’t have come at a better time.