The realization has set in that we won’t be able to pack up, spend an hour in the car and end up on a warm beach. I also realized that the two worlds would never merge and that in order to go back home, I have to let go of certain things I like here. Although, after a year, Brisbane has started to really feel like home. I wonder what it will be like when we get back? What things have changed? I wonder how we will see things differently given our experience and the shadow time casts upon people and places? And I wonder how the boys will react to the change? Andy has know spent more of his life in Australia, than the US. Time will only tell. . .

In an open handicap the slower runners start first. An open handicap gives slow runners an opportunity to lead and fast runners someone to chase. The handicap is designed to have all runners finishing about the same time. However, 30 minutes after the clock starts a 5 km race commences. Therefore it is possible for a 10 km handicap runner to be passed by a number of 5 km runners during the race and even see 5 km runners ahead towards the end of the race and yet still be first in the 10 km handicap event!

According to my watch, I did break 50 mins for the 10km, which was my goal for this race. The official results have not been posted, yet. I felt pretty good during the race. It took place along the Brisbane River, so it didn’t appear to be too hilly. However, the race was definitely hiller than I thought it would be. One the way back up the incline, there was a fierce wind (last night there was another dust storm).  On the first time back (the race was 2 laps), I could not get a wind or more energy, but on the way back down, I got a burst of energy and it continued through the race. All and all, not too bad of a race.

Again, I held a koala. Well, actual 2 koalas. The first koala did not particularly want to be held. I was the third person that the koala rejected. Later, we were told by the handler that it was a koala in training. Well, the next koala LOVED me! I held her in my hands and she immediately began sniffing my face. She was extremely comfortable and just wanted to check me out. The photographer had some trouble trying to get her to turn head toward the camera, although you would never guess this by looking at the picture. This time I do not remember the name of the koala, but it was similar to Catherine. While the koala was behaving in my hands, Ethan had different plans. He was held in the back by daddy making kissy faces, which made the photographer and handler laugh. We took three pictures and this was the best one!

Here is the link to the koala photo for 60 days: http://photo.koala.net/1909023663en.htm

We also viewed the turtles (a family favorite), wombat, all of the birds, dingoes, snakes and lizards. We were also entertained by a sheep shearing. Now, this is a job I would never want to do. Hold a sheep still and shave the sheep as fast as possible. We are heading the New Zealand, which I think is the sheep capital of the world, so we may see another shearing. At the time we didn’t realize it, but Ethan loved the sheep shearing. From the presentation, we learned that sheep are only sheared once a year. . . I wonder how many sheep it takes to make a sweater or rug?

It was a great day at Lone Pine. We ate lunch, while be entertained by a peacock trying to ward off a brush turkey. He had all of his feather spread wide, which is quite a spectacle. Here are some more pictures of the day:

Ethan is also really into the Mr Men/Little Miss books. The series is much bigger here and there is a fair bit of paraphenlia as well. He has some Mr Noisy jammies and a Mr Happy t-shirt. The Mr Happy t-shirt is already faded, partly because of mommy’s horrible cleaning skills, but also because he wears the shirts almost daily. I usually have to tell him to change it, because it is dirty (he usually dresses himself). We also read at least 3+ Mr Men/ Little Miss books a day and we go to the library at least once a week to get new ones. I think I know an easy X-mas present for my little guy.

Ethan also calls himself a big boy constantly and Andy a little boy. Yes, my little Andy is out of the bub stage. We also used the big boy approach, when praising Ethan for potty training. Guess it stuck!

Ethan is still usually helpful around the house and will help with putting away laundy and dishes, and he will vacuum for a little bit as well.  He has also taken to getting his stool and finding his own food in the pantry. This has resulted in him finding the candy Snakes and cookies up high. As a side note, Gus jokes that the best stuff is up high in the pantry, and apparently Ethan has caught onto this logic as well. Of course, he has also brought down museli bars and crackers to eat as well.

I did not watch the news for a few days and did not realize the dust storm was coming to Brissy. I decided to go to IKEA for the day with the boys and left two of the doors open to the apartment. The day was beginning to heat up and I wanted to keep our apartment, at least a little cooler. On the way to IKEA, the radio was talking with listeners in Toowoomba and Ipswich about the visibility in the areas, whic h I gathered was worsening.  I didn’t pay much attention to the radio. IKEA was very similar to the one back in Seattle. Ethan tried the kid play area, but was overwhelmed after about 20 min. There were a lot of older children due to the school holidays. No one is supposed to be over 8, but I think a few kids were above the limit. I casually snuck that in, when I talked with the attendent and she agreed and shrugged her shoulders. So after about 20 min of shopping without Ethan, the pager buzzed and I ran down to Ethan, who was in tears. We checked out with our ice cube tray (shaped like fish), little kid bowls (because ours have mysteriously disappeared) and a retro 70s pillow for Ethan. He didn’t talk too much until we were in the car, but I did get out of him that “there were too many kids” in a Mr Mumbles sort of way.  In the car park, I didn’t pay much attention to outside. In fact, I dismissed it as fog. However, while drive in the pink haze (as I thought of it), I realized that it was probably dust and was definitely not fog. We made it home just fine, but I felt like a character stuck in the eternal haze of Gotham City. This is when I freaked out due to the fact that the apartment had dust floating around everywhere. My first instinct was to panic and call Gus to come home ASAP to help. But I took a deep breath, closed the doors, turned on the ventilation system and started to clean. Most of the apartment only had a little dust and I vacuumed for the second time that day. I called Gus and left a message. He happened to call me about 20 min later (not realizing I called) and assured me the dust was OK (I was totally calm at this point, well pretty calm).  He said he listened to my message later and that I did sound a little stressed.  The dust settled overnight and the next day was gorgeous, but a little dusty.

This was a full-day tour at the Daintree Rain Forest, Cape Tribulation and some local private, beaches. We saw soldier crabs, ate locally-made ice cream and Ethan had a close encounter with a Cassowary. The day was spent in a VW van with another family from the resort. We started the day with a couple of lookouts of the ocean as well as a brief history of the highway between Cairns and Port Douglas. The scenery was gorgeous along the way. The boys did pretty well in the van for being in it most of the day. Andy took a nap a couple of times, but was wide awake for the 2hour+ drive home.

The race went pretty well. I ended up with a blister, but still getting used to the minimal padding when running. Andy woke up at 4am and I laid down for a few minutes and then just got up. The amount of people was enormous!! I started walking by myself from here and there was a team downstairs (wearing matching shirts). Then, I was walking along Gregory Terrace and by the time I saw the first bus, I was walking in a group of about 50 people at a little before 5am and there was lots of traffic on the road. Then, there were 40+ buses just waiting to shuttle people away and a queue (we usually say line, so I think I misspelled that one) of about a block of 3-4 people across. Then, when we arrived at the bridge, there were cars everywhere and people walking everywhere. At the start line, I ended up standing further back than expected and it took 1/2 hour before I crossed the start line and unfortunately there were tons of walkers. So, most of the race, I spent weaving back and forth among the massive amounts of people. The hill at the beginning was pretty steep, but then the rest wasn’t too bad. My back is a little sore today and I was tired yesterday – I wasn’t sure if it was because of the 5 hours of sleep or the race
I’m pretty sure I broke an hour. I did not have a watch, but the hour pacers were in front of me and I caught up with them.
As we were walking home, we saw a long python going across the path. It slithered past us behind the Boys Grammar School. The snake took its time and a runner in front of us had been waiting awhile for the snake to cross. The runner exclaimed that she didn’t think snakes that big lived in the city. It slid under the fence and looked back at us with its tongue. A little unusual but definitely interesting.