That famous beach

Then I thought of that special "olympic" sport which was first ticket choice for some of my colleagues in summer 2012

seemed similar number  of supporters for both sexes

in the morning we paid 20au$ for each child to have 24 goes in an arcade (it was pouring) plus dodgems plus crazy golf (too small for laser questing)

Gold coast campervanning

Ipswich host family

Gary is from north of Newcastle uk. Angela is from ipswich australia ie where we are living now. Clancy is 5. In exchange for 3 to 4 hrs work a day we are getting 3 meals and our own bedroom and bathroom. This is their house

The slats over the windows are t

o stop  the house getting too hot.

they go to work each day so we are trusted to work the mornings doing mowing, cleaning weeding creocoting fixing gates , garden edges, mending clancys bed that sort of thing.

The kids either watch a selection of the vast vast media library ( gary has opinions about The Wire etc to debate) or entertain themselves with clancys or their own toys.

sarah still doesnt like having her picture taken

Another job below

has to be done early before gets too hot.

passing a derelict

i have broken one driil bit.one bulb (rowan) one glass candle holder. Today creosote started brown but ended up orange as didnt mix It enough. We are borrowing their camper van for the weekend to go to gold coast

xxx

Barmy army singing

Trying a new thing of sharing a video from dropbox. Some crazy singing by the Barmy Army

https://www.dropbox.com/sc/sg403ns6og7t1qh/RiVrRCEUAr

Ipswich Art Gallery

Today we went to an Art Gallery - not as we know then in the UK, but a wholly interactive experience based around the kids. The theme was 'Construction' 

We had a quick go at the 'pipe game' (getting a ball through pipes from the top of an 8 foot board to the bottom).. 

Going upstairs was really was the icing on the cake though, where Esme, Rowan  and Clancy (the 5 year old daughter of our hosts) stayed for absolutely ages.. 

Lots of excellent teamwork going on.. 

.. And Rowan has really got to grips with 'emphasising with his hands'

Overall, a brilliant day with our lovely host family. Oh, and how I'm finally enjoying the hot showers!! 

Ipswich -our new town

Ipswich named after the uk version which means "by the water" . A river runs through it to brisbane 40km away.  About 150 yrs ago early settlers saw limestone on the river banks so 'limestone' was the original name.  It then became a coal mining place later on.  There is a power station operating but in part of it that is no longer used they host opera.

The streets are incredibly wide. Its hilly. Very green, there seem to be parks, sports grounds and open spaces everywhere. Older houses known as Queenslanders are on stilts to allow you to store lots of junk underneath them......  ahem.... I mean    ....allows a breeze to flow underneath them to keep cool

Brisbane to, and in town

Bit modern. Building everywhere. Bus from the airport bloke was driving so quickly at 8am I had to ask him if he had a ticket for the Ashes and was worried about being late.....I had to literally hang on as we went round corners

While Guy was at The Ashes..

We had a great day! 

Had an early breakfast, took a stash of bananas from the room and headed out. 

I am not like normal people. I have an appalling sense of direction. Put a paper bag on my head, spin me round and I'll come back at you like a drunken person. 

Spin a map around a few times and ask me to find where I am.. not a chance. 

London is like the moon to me and I have lived 60 or so miles away from it nearly all my life. So, travelling anywhere, with any mode of transport is a serious challenge that requires a lot of discipline and concentration. 

Getting two children to the swimming pool 2 miles away in 30c heat requires some serious input. 

I walked out of the hostel, full of hope and optimism, and took a wrong turn straight away. After a few minutes Esme said to me 'Do you think this is the right way mum?' I calmly replied that I thought so but I didn't recognise anything. After walking a bit more I decided it was wrong. The children were delighted when we turned around and within a few minutes started recognising things.

'Yay!! ' they were cheering.. 'Thats in the same place it was last night mum!' 'I remember this from walking home in the dark!' Seriously?! I felt quite embarrassed to be guided down the road by my 4 year old children. Oh well. Can't be perfect! 

We had a lovely long walk and saw some great sculptures.. 

We eventually made it to the pool and lost Rowan's sunglasses in the pool. (Don't ask how!) so there I was, diving in, swimming underwater and coming up gasping. Some kindly chap took a shine on us and offered to help and started diving too. We eventually found then and then decided we'd had enough of the pool so got out and went to play. Rowan really enjoyed himself - especially when shooting me with an imaginary bow and arrow.. 

And Esme was the lookout when we were playing hide and seek.. 

And we had lots of fun with a human/dog fountain..

Great for washing shoes too!! 

Xx