Aussie Travel Log Entry #2

Soon enough we’re off the plane, making our way with twitchy boys through immigration, baggage claim and customs.  We strap the little one, without cooperation, into the stroller and make our way out to collect the hire car.  Do you know that strange feeling you can sometimes get as you balance precariously between waking and dreaming?  Well, that sort of how this felt as we wandered around Brisbane airport. 

I’d been back to Australia two years ago, just me with the little one when he was only 3 months old.  That trip was less a holiday and more business as I was there to organize the sale of our flat in Sydney.  Plus, travel with a breastfeeding baby is, ironically, about a million times easier than traveling with one that can walk, talk (back) and run like a maniac through security areas.  This time, we were back as a family and that punchy feeling from sleep deprivation gave me an added unreal fog. 

Once we got the keys and grabbed coffee (when in Oz, I highly recommend getting a flat white – like a latte, but less milk and no foam), its all beginning to sink in.  Of course, this corresponds with the boys melting down.  But we’re on the road, GPS directing us to an apartment 30 minutes north of Brisbane - offered to us for free by a very generous previous employer.  It’s drizzling…and I couldn’t care one little bit!

Simply driving along the motorway brings a flood of memories as my hubby and I had enjoyed many road trips along the Bruce Highway in the five years we'd lived in Oz.  Roundabouts, wide roads and a surprising mix of eucalyptus and evergreen trees seem to greet us as we feel ourselves slowly relax.  We arrive at the apartment – beach front and modern - unloading the boys and luggage as swiftly as possible. 

Our hosts are running a dive resort in Papua New Guinea and have let us stay in their apartment…their entirely adult apartment.  An amazing number of glass windows, glass doors, glass side tables and attractive décor gathered from Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands fill the sleek, but warm home.  I’m freaking out…how can I possibly protect everything?!?!  I resign myself to the thought that our budget will just have to include replacements of home wares and try to settle in as best as possible.

The view from the Redcliffe apartment: straight out over the Pacific, fringed with evergreen trees, bordered by a walking path and a short beach filled with tumbled stones and a variety of sun-bleached shells.  Even when the sun isn’t shining, this is such a calming sight.  Having grown up on the coast of Southern California, I have a connection with the ocean and the smell of the sea is tantamount to smelling mum’s famous homemade chili…it makes me feel like I’m home.

We made sure to hit the local shops to fill the cupboards – equal parts familiar items for the boys and reuniting with Australian staples that you don’t realize you’ve missed until you see them again.  Thinking back now, the rest of the day went by with the four of us in a daze, but we tried to stay up for as long as possible to adjust to the new time zone.  Sadly, the boys still woke at 3.30am, but with a bribe of warm chocolate milk, things remained calm until the sun began to rise.  The plus is that, being on the east coast of Australia, we got to experience more lovely sunrises than we’re likely to see again for a long, long while!

For me, the next few days were all about trying my best to find balance.  On the one hand, I want us all to enjoy a proper holiday, but on the other, I am constantly on alert trying to protect our host’s belongings and preserve (or reinstate) our boy’s routine.  Any mum with active kids will know routine can be the key to sanity – for parent as well as child.  Trying to keep to the normal rules from home is challenging, but it felt necessary for me.  This meant trying to stick to normal nap times, hold firm to reasons for time outs and even offering some of the same food.  Our biggest problem? At home the boys have their own rooms and on holiday they share.  Let the games begin…

I’ll finish this episode with our first mis-Adventure.

As with many adult-only homes, the carpet in this lovely apartment was on the lighter side…light as in spotless cream colored.  So we’re on our third day in Oz and still feeling frazzled, but resolute in our decision to follow through with normal discipline rules.  My oldest had been put into time out (god only knows why…running around banging on glass tables with sharp knives? Yeah, probably something like that).  He was crying all the way and still wailing 3-4 minutes later without stopping.  I decide that I’ll release him from the “horrible prison” that was the boys’ shared bedroom and, as I open the door, I am sprayed with blood.  And so was the carpet. The light and perfect cream colored carpet. 

Honestly, that boy took a walking tour of the room, maybe just to get full coverage. Or perhaps he’s a Pollack-in-training and he thought, “Hmm, red drips here – Yes, yes! And red drips HERE!”  Nah, the poor little guy was just freaked about the spontaneous burst blood vessel in his nose.  He, unfortunately, takes after me in this way and it’s happened before, but not in quite this spectacular fashion.

The bad news…well, the mess, obviously.  The good news (ding: silver lining)…I discovered a wonderful new concoction that can take yucky stains, wet or dry, out of carpet.  Of course, I ran around like crazy first, ringing carpet cleaning companies, wondering if I needed to ring the hosts in PNG, doing mad searches on the internet.  But, by the time we left, you couldn’t even tell.  Well, I could, but by then my eyes were as trained as a CSI black light.

Stay tuned for next time…when we introduce the boys to the local wild life!