Crushing buildings and back to blogging!

This is Alex crushing a building with his fingers while the sun sets on Melbourne. I don't know. It was his idea.

So, what is the one telltale sign that you are beginning to become accustomed to new surroundings?

A) You don't feel the need to triple check for oncoming traffic before you walk into an intersection?

B) You start to use the local jargon? As in shopkeeper asks, "How you going?" and you respond, "Ta, no worries mate. How YOU going?"

C) You order anything from any menu and when it comes it's actually what you thought it was?

D) You can go a whole two days without blogging?

If you answered D then you would be where we've been at for the past two days.

Actually we had a minor telephone line issue for the past 24-36 hours which prevented phone calls and even worse an internet connection! AHHHHH! What were we to do? Anyhoo, it has been resolved and we are happily, as you can read, bloggers once again. Interestingly, as you may have gathered from earlier entries we seem to have had our fair share of minor domestic crises. To date we have had a backed up kitchen sink, a backed up toilet (it wasn't me -honest!), a broken water main, a fouled up phone line, two light bulbs burn out, a blown fuse on our transformer, and the ever present possums living somewhere above us. It's all part of the adventure but we are eagerly anticipating a week with no "issues".

I had a great class tonight talking about how people and organizations learn. It goes into brain theory but spends a lot of time talking about how best to teach people within organizations new things - not so much students but teachers. This will be fantastic in terms of my new position. The downside is an 8000 word essay...It has however confirmed for me that I am in exactly the right course - Educational Management - and studying exactly what I want to be studying. Phew! Good thing, eh? That would have been one hell of a big mistake.

Alex had a "tough" day at the ol' learning hole yesterday. To be expected but we felt for him. We know when his teachers say that he seemed "tired" that is really code for there was frustration and no doubt a few tears along the way. We think it had something to do with a new chess class he is in. We are pretty sure that following the rules exactly and losing a few games very quickly in a row might not have sat very well with him. D'ya think? Oh well, live, lose and learn. Today was a much better day.

Colin continues to make and mention many friends. Today was all about a "bloke" named John and the really cool cover they made together using Powerpoint for their small machine project. Sounds impressive to me! He is also getting very good at properly bouncing an Aussie Rules Football so that it comes back to him as he walks. This is much easier said than done though he will do it all the way to school. Dad can do a grand total of one if I'm lucky and if it doesn't hit me where the sun don't shine!

This weekend we are planning a ferry ride along the Yarra River and perhaps a trip up to the highest residential building in the southern hemisphere complete with a glass floor a la the CN Tower. Gulp! Will take lots of pics.

Finally, my Australian culture report comes in on two fronts - television and food (again!)

1) Television

Australian tv is really quite bad. But then, if you think about it - maybe all tv should be. 2 and a half men is huge, as are re-runs of Oprah, Friends, etc. Reality tv is also huge with homegrown versions of Australian Idol and Big Brother. Some new reality shows we admit to watching are 'The Farmer Wants a Wife" and "Ladette to Lady" (which was perhaps the worst promo for British women ever), and "Wipeout" which is an American rip off of the Japanese show "Extreme Elimination"? It is also quite poor but for some reason makes us giggle. Apart from that it's all footy all the time.

2) Sweets - I continue to harp about the food prices but it is really quite incredible. This is a coffee/sweet nation but only of a certain kind and at a certain price. They just announced the closing of 61 of the 83 Starbucks in the country. Incredible! There are a million cafes in Melbourne alone rejoicing. I walked into a cafe today near the uni and they wanted $3.20 for a chocolate chip cookie! The same for a very small muffin. The kicker is that so many of these places are so cool and hip they virtually call out to you saying 'Hey, uni boy, hang out here". And I do, but only until the student budget and the highway robbery snap me back into reality and I have to slink home for a bland pot of home brew.

Oh well, at least blogging is free!

The Victoria Market and the Zoo Part Trois!

Spent a wet and chilly Sunday visiting some places we have already been - but the beauty of these two places is that no matter how many times you show up you will always be sure to see and do something different.

First we rode the tram down Lygon to Victoria and then walked over to the Market. Despite the weather it was packed and we had fun trolling the stalls. Colin walked away with a new pair of purple Converse running shoes - no bargain there! - and Linton got the best deal with a cozy $20 robe. Of course the Pokemon card stall got a little workout and among other things that we priced were Ugg slippers, Hawthorne Hawk footy jerseys, didgeridus, aboriginal prints, sweat pants, and mom and dad definitely needed a small latte to fight of the chill of the Melbourne winter.

We weren't so chilly that a visit to the zoo was out of the question so we figured out a new tram route up Royal Parade getting off at the Gatehouse stop for the quick ten minute walk over to the zoo. That annual membership has almost paid for itself! This visit was a chance to show mommy what we had discovered last time and the highlights were many. In particular, we saw many more gorillas, very big pelicans very close, monkeys jumping all over the place and the butterflies would not stop landing on dad's head. Very cool.

A few other reflections of note would be the Australian nation mourning Cadell Evans' second place finish in the Tour de France. We are quickly becoming big footy fans with the Hawthorne Hawks and their star player Buddy Franklin becoming as big as Mats Sundin and the Maple Leafs. Which reminds me - is Mats still a Maple Leaf? Noticed that Australia, a nation of 22 million people is sending an Olympic team to Beijing of 44o strong while Canada, a nation of 32 million people is sending a team of 33o athletes. Hmmm. I am noticing a lot of signs of a lot drinking in this country. You tip toe around the beer bottles on the way to school in the morning. The media seems to also be wondering about all of the drinking. However, the food continues to amaze me - it's amazing both in variety, quality, and price! I just saw a BLT sandwich advertised for $7.50.

And finally, very sad to read of the passing of Randy Pausch, author of The Last Lecture. What an incredibly inspirational human - for parents, cancer patients, children, all of us. What I loved about his book was his honesty. If only we all knew ourselves as well as he did and were willing to be so open and free with that information. So many of us walk through life behind shields and veils.

On that happy note, I'm off to play some solitaire and do some homework with the boys.

Haircuts, Royal Botanical Gardens and a great visit with Melbourne friends

The past few days have been busy with a wide variety of activities. On Thursday the boys, Colin and Alex, got their first Australian haircuts at, I kid you not, The Bald and the Beautiful. Then a little gelati on the way home followed up by movie night.

Friday, James went to the uni to complete his enrollment, the kids were off to school and Linton took the tram down to South Yarra to visit our friend Alex Davies (Macinnis) and her three beautiful kids. They had a wonderful time exploring the Royal Botanical Gardens, visiting and having coffee. James and Lint met up at the school, picked up the kids and then after a quick game of hide-n-seek in the park James went off to his first class!

Saturday was another busy day with James at school all day. Colin was off to tennis lessons and then Alex had his turn at gymastics. He even did a back flip on the rings! After a long but interesting class on Human Resource Management, James met Linton and the kids on the tram at the uni and we were off down to South Yarra to have dinner with Alex and Simon Davies and their family.

A wonderful time, with great wine and good convo, where we also had the pleasure of meeting Alex Moorehead, a good friend of Alex's from her Toronto days who is currently living in the UK but was in Aus on business and had come for a visit. Alex's sister, Kelly, is part of Linton's Tuesday night running group back in TO. The highlight of the night was trying to play Simon's Didjeridu, hearing Simon crack his whips, and getting a first class explanation of the The Man from Snowy River.

We piled oursleves onto the tram at 10:45 pm (!) and joined the drunks and the concert goers for an interesting slide home. Fell into bed around midnight, tired and content but ready to go to the market and maybe the zoo (again) tomorrow!

I even bought the sweatshirt!

I am officially enrolled! After a long week of orientation sessions and a lot of information about everything from library services to plagiarism to how not to get hit by a tram I am now officially a post-graduate student at the University of Melbourne. I now have at least four new passwords and user names, a student card, I am a member of UMPA (the Uni of Melbourne Post-graduate association) I am enrolled in 3 classes (so far) and yesterday I purchased my first piece of university swag – the pictured and necessary grey hoodie. I’m all set to go.

It’s quite incredible, the process you need to go through. I don’t know how they manage to keep things so relatively smooth. Last night I attended an opening address by the dean of the faculty (who happened to inform me there is actually a James Darling Award for excellence in teaching in Australia! No joke.) Anyway, he also had a few other interesting tid bits of information such as the fact that there are 240 full-time employees in the Faculty of Education alone supporting 4000 education students. And of the 42 000 students at the university, 10 800 are international students making it the biggest population of international students at any university in the world.

My classes are as follows: Human Resources in Education, Leading a Learning Community, and Creating the Learning Organisation. It was actually quite hard to choose in terms of what was being offered, the dates they were being offered, when we were hoping to travel, how they would apply to my new job next year, etc. I am happy with these – I think – and actually start my HR course tonight! One thing I had not taken into consideration is the fact that many of the courses are offered at night, on weekends, and over school holidays to accommodate the many Australians who will be studying part time. This affects our holiday plans a bit and may force us to take the kids out of school for a few weeks AND it will also mean that I am at home during the day more than Linton had planned! Uh-oh. I see a fight over the telly! Oprah versus Aussie Rules. Actually, I am hoping to be at the university every day reading and researching in the morning and then I am planning to join the sports complex and work out every other day. I need to find a set of washboard abs for the beach in Cairns!

On a more family note, Thursday nights have been dubbed “Movie Night” and we have been picking up a movie for the kids and one for mom and dad on the way home from school. Last night the kids watched Nacho Libre – primarily for a line about stretchy pants and then when they were in bed, Linton and I watched Charlie Wilson’s War. Not bad. I loved the writing and the relationship between Tom Hanks and Phillip Seymour Hoffman was excellent.

Finally, my deep thought for this entry comes from a great book I am reading called Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. It was a going away gift from an old friend from Lakefield, Iain Hill. Thanks Iain. It is an amazing exploration of the Aboriginal people and their songlines that carpet the entire Australian continent. Basically, the concept is that when they go “walkabout” the sing their away across the landscape as a way of marking the territory and transferring the various stories the land holds from one tribe to the next. It is fascinating and like nothing I had ever known about. Ahh – the beauty of travel and reading. Anyway, Chatwin has all kinds of things to say about about the human need to walk, move, and in essence travel. One quote in particular I liked was taken from J. G. Hamman and says, “When I rest my feet my mind also ceases to function.”

I think all four us would agree that our minds are functioning furiously as we embrace and explore and walk throughout this new world.

May I interrupt here?

I fear I am being left out of the blog experience and no, I don't have any deep thoughts at the moment to record, but perhaps I should communicate how I am spending my days here in Melbourne. Now that I am over my blackberry withdrawal, quite quickly I think, and I have been off work for officially one month now, I am focusing on the kids, their happiness, our family's daily life, and planning for our upcoming travels.

In the past two weeks while we have been here, I have been actively researching children's after-school programs that are within walking distance to our house for the boys. So far, Colin is doing futsal (indoor soccer) on Tues and Wed from 4:30 - 6 at the local high school (2 blocks from our house) and tennis on Sat morning from 930 - 1030 at the tennis courts in Princes Park (the big park at the end of our street). Alex is starting art classes today at a community centre right around the corner and will do them every Wednesday. He is also doing a gymnastics class on Sat mornings 1030 - 1130 at the local Y (near the kids' school) . The trick to all of this is to:

* book activities the kids enjoy and further their physical/emotional/mental development

* ensure the activities are on different days so there are no conflicts

* determine the program locations are all within walking distance

* make sure they have the right equipment/clothing/supplies for the program

AND figure all this out in a new city in a foreign country.

I am quite proud of myself that the program bookings are completed for this school term and the kids seem quite happy with it all. Now if you can believe it, I am already researching programs for the term that starts October 6th. If you are really paying attention to all of this, you will note a conflict on Wed but Alex's art class starts at 4 and Colin's futsal starts at 430, so I think I can pull the juggle off this term.

Today is the first day I have really had no plans while the kids are at school. By the way, both kids take their lunches to school and are there between 9 - 330. I was supposed to volunteer in Alex's classroom this morning but the school has a special assembly with African drummers so I got bumped. Instead, I decided that I was going to tidy the house, sweep up the possum poo in the garden, and confirm our campsites for our trip in September. I am very excited about our first trip that we have booked during our first school holiday break. From September 21 - October 5, we will be travelling down the coast of Queensland in a 4 berth Euro Campervan from Cairns to Byron Bay. I am now busy plotting out our driving route ensuring we hit all the amazing coastal places (Mission Beach, Whitsunday Islands, Fraser Island, Brisbane...) and pre-booking our campsites. Our last 2 days of our trip will be spent at Australia's only themed resort at Sea World on the Gold Coast (near Surfer's Paradise). By then, we figure we will all need a break from camping and the kids are dying to go to Sea World.

For the next week or so, I plan to determine if I am going to be working a little or not. I am attending a Children's Miracle Network meeting with a past Canadian colleague at the Royal Children's Hospital here in Melbourne (again within walking distance from the house) on Tuesday. We will see if there is follow up work as a result of that meeting. And I am speaking to another Canadian colleague about some consulting work with unicef Canada.

My other job or my challenge to myself, is to get in shape. I went to my first fitness class on Monday at the local Y called Body Pump!! I liked the class but was the youngest one there - me and all the retirees. I have to admit I am still sore today, I wonder how all the seniors feel...I am continuing my running and hope to get in 3 runs per week. There is a great park right at the end of our street with a 3 km track around it.

So that is it for me for now. Thanks for continuing to read our blog and follow our experience.

Linton

Masters Day 2 - James as student

Here is a second day of "deep thoughts" from James reflecting about the experience of being a student again. As was the rule with yesterday's entry, if you're not up for my open and honest ( and perhaps self-indulgent) diatribe, please feel free to exit, ignore, or remove this blog from your favourites list.

The picture is of what's called the 1888 building, built in 1888 of course, and which serves as the post-graduate centre. There are a grand total of 13 000 students currently doing some form of post-graduate work at the university. If you look closely, you can see Linton talking to her dad on her mobile (not cell phone) . She came for a campus tour today.

Here we go! Today I am attending a couple of sessions about how to properly reference research, avoid plagiarism and write academically. This is something I have been teaching to Holy Trinity high school students for the past nine years. Now it's time for me to put my money where my mouth is and, to use yet another bad cliche - to see if I can truly practice what I preach. Remarkably, whether you are a grade ten English student in Richmond Hill, Ontario or a graduate student in Melbourne, Australia the rules and standards for writing and referencing are fundamentally the same. I guess that's somewhat reassuring and the way it should be. Although, there was secretly a part of me that wanted the process to be inexplicably difficult because after all, I've come all this way and spent all this money and therefore the way one references research in an academic essay should be incredibly and wonderfully foreign, right? Well no, and the fact that what I have been teaching is very similar to what a masters student should be practicing makes me feel very good about the English program at HTS.

The presenter is another university classic. He is fifty-something and certainly knows his stuff and yet, with the Australian accent and my pre-disposition to the very North American posit that anyone who sounds "British" has somehow more authority to push Porsches or plagiarism, I once again get a feeling of being talked down to. Oh well. It is certainly not his problem and if I would get my head out of the defensive clouds I would probably realize he has some very good reminders for sale. I do wonder where all of the younger voices are. Down at the bank saving the world, perhaps.

Anyway, Roger, as his name happens to be, is actually freaking me out a bit because although I know this stuff functionally and philosophically, I don't know if I can know this stuff at the level of which I think I want to know this stuff and need to know it, ya know? MLA is a breeze and maybe Chicago, but APA? Harvard? Vancouver?! I didn't even know there was a Vancouver style!

In point of fact, I don't need actually need to know every citation style known to man. However, on Day 2 I am plagued by this quiet, creeping need to be "perfect" - to learn everything effectively and efficiently - all the time. So that, while I want all of the other parts of this year - the travel and family time to be memorable - I also want the learning and the whole masters process to be, memorable. I don't want to waste time doing things the wrong way and wasting time. "Perfect" then, in terms of my masters, means spending time on the reading, the thinking, the writing, and not so much on learning the proper presentation of a bibliography - or at least I don't want to waste time getting it wrong! So while Roger is already increasing my stress levels about getting everything right, I must also recognize that that is the precise reason why I am sitting in this session, doing something I have done and taught for years. I am going to put my money where my mouth is; one day, one class, and one proper bibliographic reference at a time.

Two things I learned today that I liked:

1) The origin of the word plagiarism comes from the Latin word for kidnapping.

2) Roger was actually quite poetic in his presentation of a rather dry topic and at one point he said: "The use of language makes things happen and is not merely a window on the world." I liked that but perhaps he might have added, "The effective use of language makes things happen.."

Masters Day 1 - James goes to school.

Periodically, I am going to take a moment to reflect on my thoughts and experiences of going back to school. These entries will probably be slightly, okay a lot, more esoteric than some of the other entries but I just want to take a moment to capture exactly what is going on inside my head throughout this year of renewed academe.

If you don't want to read James's "deep thoughts" then please feel free to exit now.

The picture I have included here is of the Old Arts Building on campus. I liked the old arches with the rays of bright sun breaking through...the poet in me saw that as being symbolic of my first day of study.

Here then is a stream of consciousness reflection, written while I was attempting to stay awake during an orientation session wherein the presenter was essentially telling a room full of jet-lagged post-grad students that "friends are important". I'm not sure any of us felt that we were getting our money's worth at that particular juncture.

Wow! Talk about a 20 year time warp! I'm baaaaack. This is all very new and exciting and big and scary but...familiar, too. More education at a young 42 feels in fact like a very comfortable place to be. Wrapped in the quasi-legitimate state of "furthering my career" (post-grad nonetheless) I am seemingly away from the stresses of everyone else's everyday life - work, family, the real world, whatever - and furthermore, I am entering a place where I am once again challenged to consider what the real world and the everyday really are.

Ahhh, but I also smell that arrogant bravado of knowing best and knowing all that only universities can muster. We will bring you the world, they say. Yes, perhaps, just as as long as your undergrads stay sober enough to stumble there! The contrast between the prof and the pub crawl seems, as always, to be a very weird, thin line. Why, just this morning I was listening to an associate professor of such and such wax poetic about the vice-chancellor as if he were some sort of god and not 30 minutes later I am reading about a play being performed in the Student Union Theatre that portrays that same god-like VC as a glam rocking nympho! This is university as it always is and was and I hope that I am able to enbrace it at every angle.

But I digress. More importantly, I was just reading in the most recent copy of the post-grad magazine an interview with a coursework masters student who is married with two young children as well as being a full-time student. She is also a published novelist but that just seems to be over-achieving. Anyway, she described her joy of being a student this way:

"...study connects me-as-I-am-now to me-who-I-was-then, before I was a mother. Every time I go to Uni I feel a curious sense of freedom: there's a slowing down of time, everything looks golden and dreamy...I love who I am now, I love my life, I adore my daughters, but I am still bereft and mystified at the loss of her."

This is a perfect description for the way study also makes me feel. Not the mother part - but the part about returning to me-who-I-was-then. It is indeed a privileged state of being that allows one to consider life at its most simple, most open, most possible. To walk out of a career (momentarily) and to walk back into school is one of the most freeing and uplifting things a person can do to their soul. Yes, there are still many important real world responsibilities off campus, but while in the lecture hall all time stands still. It is, once again, just you and your brain soaking up all that you can squeeze from that talking head at the front of the room - only this time you are much, much smarter! (If I only I had been old enough to appreciate what my third year Victorian Lit prof was telling me at the time! If Colin or Alex talk of a GAP year - I'm all for it! How about a GAP decade!?)

Alas, to go all the way back in time twenty years or more would mean I would need more hair, a smaller waist size, cowboy boots, and a CD collection that includes Bon Jovi's Living on a Prayer so, like the guy in the Diet Pepsi ad, time travel is probably not for me. But, what I do know, even after one day, is that I am once again back in a place, granted half way around the world, that opens up a part of my brain and my life that is familiar, freeing, and necessary for me to fully be the person I always have been.

Friday at the Market

We got a very nice call on Friday from our landlord Sandra, who offered to drive us down to the Victoria Market in central Melbourne. This is your classic farmer's market a la the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto only this one is about 10 times the size and includes stalls where you can buy anything from Uggs to goat heads and pate to pumpkins. When and if we feel the need for any chinzy Australia nic nacs, this will also be the place to come. I had my eye on a set of Australia-shaped coasters.

After getting a quick tour from Sandra, Linton and I headed out on our own to explore. We saw some great sweaters, nice shoes, neat toys all displayed wall-to-wall in some fairly chilly outdoor stalls. Finally, we got down to buying some fresh produce and the prices versus the local Safeway were comparable. Then in a moment of complete self-indulgence we wandered into the higher end end and bought beautiful chicken breasts, wonderful pastrami, a creamy blue cheese, chevre wrapped in prosciutto, olives stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes, a nice cabernet sauvignon (more on this later) and a white fish called Gummy Flake that we hoped the kids would like. Suddenly we were enjoying the Victoria Market very much!

The St Lawrence market is known for its peameal bacon sandwiches and the Victoria Market is known for its bratwurst on a bun so we lined up for one of these, sitting with many locals, the pigeons, and a lot of sauerkraut watching the world go by.

A really neat place and another must-do in Melbourne though we think we will only be back when we want to treat oursleves because it doesn't really work on a student budget - or maybe we should leave the prosciutto for someone else!

PS - The wine was interesting in that it was distributed by a company that buys the leftovers from the local wineries and bottles it under its own label.

From the kids...Colin here

Hello it's Colin. I wanted to write a blog post on behalf of the kids.

It's Friday night. Me and Allie have finished our first week of school and I am getting new shoes called Converse this weekend and Allie is getting a swatch.

I have stated futsal and I started tennis lessons tomorrow morning.

This is mommy and I in downtown Melbourne.

From Colin

Our House, is a very, very, very old house...

Now that things are settling down a bit, I thought I might blog a bit more about our new home/house in Melbourne. It is a single-fronted Victorian row house originally built in the 1880s when Melbourne was booming as a result of a gold rush among other things. It is very typical of the area we live in, Carlton North, and while we took a few days to get used to what it does and does not have - it is actually quite comfortable.

The best thing about it is its location. It is about a 15 minute walk from the university and the kids' school. It is about 15 minutes to the world famous Melbourne Zoo and 30 to their great museum. To walk all the way downtown is more like 45 minutes. We are close to a trendy area on a street called Rathdowne and another on Lygon Street. We are 25 minutes from the nearest large grocery store and only 5 from a great park with climbers, tennis courts, soccer fields, and the home pitch for the Carleton Blues - the local Aussie Rules Football club.

The house itself is cozy and liveable, but being a rental property we are using furniture and crockery that was made in the 70s at the earliest. Oh well. There is a nice little deck out the back with its very own fig tree - actually looks like a large palm tree - which will be more useable in the summer and apparently there are two blue-tongued lizards that make the deck home in the summer that Colin and Alex are looking forward to meeting. There are all the amenities we need - we bought a coffee maker for $20 - and the stove and in house grill are gas which is new for us. Light fixtures are different in terms of switches, bulbs, voltage (why is that?) - but light is light. It is heated by gas and rads much the way we are at home but there is no central thermostat - you control each rad individually. Amazingly, there is no concern for lost heat. There is a space of about 2 inches under the front door where all of our heat goes right outside. Similarily, the bathroom has a fixed window that is permamently open. Will undoubtedly help in Jan when it hits 45 Celsius. There is no A/C but several major fans.

We also have possums. Australia's answer to the raccoon - these apparently harmless but very noisy and dirty rodents reside in our roof and make all manner of noise - sounds like a cross between a bat and an angry cat. We haven't actually seen one yet but Linton and I saw a dead one on the side of the road - looks like a cross between a large squirrel and a fox. They are nocturnal and we awake every morning to a lot of possum poo on our back deck.

Every house has a fairly intricate security system. We have, like all of our neighbours, a steel screen door on our front door which we lock all the time. It's like a screen door but much more significant and made of heavy steel. It's not that the neighbourhood is a bad area - but this is what is the norm in this city and we are okay with being normal in this regard.

We are all set up technologically and just watched The Kite Runner on DVD last night. The internet has us fully connected to the world and I just checked out news about the Jays thinking of trading Halladay - what! The only difference really is that there are only 5-6 channels total! Not a big deal really - we're not here to watch tv - and they have some of the same stuff we do. The kids are watching Pokemon before we head off to school.

So that's our house - our home away from home. Old but comfy and in a perfect location - which reminds me - it's also great for visitors. There's room on our floors - but book early!

A 3 hour walk and a few more terms.

After dropping the kids at school, Linton and I walked and shopped around the very trendy and artsy Fitzroy area this morning - east of the Museum. Think Queen west - but perhaps 20 years ago - before the Gap et al. Really cool restos and cafes but alas - never cheap. We had a chocolate crossaint and cappucino at one of a hundred cool places and spent almost $13.00. We'll be back to a few stores like Shop Sui on Gertrude St and the very cool Crumpler bag store. Linton bought this fetching hat (see picture) for $10 at a millinery (hat maker) - maybe for Allie? Walked all the way back along Elgin to the uni for so-so sushi and then home. We were going to run but too tired. Maybe tomorrow. Weather is cool today - feels more like late October back home.

A few more Aussie terms to add to our growing lexicon:

How is it going = How you going?

tires = tyres

clinic = surgery

surgeon = professor?

take out = take away

stroller = pusher

savouries = sandwiches, meat pies (anything not sweet)

NO BLACKBERRY?!?!

Hello, crackberry anonymous? Yes, this is Linton Carter and I need a program to get me through my withdrawal symptoms. You see blackberries are too expensive to get here in Australia - first of all they don't offer 1 year plans and they don't give them to people who aren't employed? What housewives can't get blackberries? Toronto would be in chaos.

So yes I have made the decision (on my own, ask James..) to just get a simple cell phone and buy minutes as you go and I have bought, remember these, a Filofax to write down my calendar and address book. Yes I reverted at least five years technologically. I am not sure this is what I thought would be part of my unemployed, more simple life. So here is a picture of my new organizational tools. My pink calendar and address book and my cell phone.

OK now that I have admitted my problem and the temporary solution, I feel better. All you crackberries who are reading this thinking what is her problem, try it for two weeks and see how you are doing...

Next challenge, learn to text - cheaper than cell phone calls so all of you that want to try out my new technology, phone or text me.

(04) 5069 7605 I think you have to dial or enter 01 before this number for international calls.

PLEASE...

First Day of school Term 3!

Colin and Alex, ever the intrepid adventurers, shrugged off their teary-eyed parents and boldly started grades 1 and 4 all by themsleves today in very sunny Melbourne. Colin is in Ann's class a 3/4 split and Alex is in Erin's class a 1/2 split. It would seem we don't use the teacher's last name which is kind of...nice.

After stumbling around Melbourne for the day worried sick, and enjoying the odd glorious cappucino, mom and dad rushed back to school at 3:30 to discover Colin had about 5 new friends and was in a fierce game of wickets in the playground and Alex had learned about fractions, writing, and Erin said he was an excellent reader - in fact, he was reading at the orange level.

Well, mom and dad were relieved, impressed, and perhaps a little bit proud that the first day for the Darling boys at Carlton North Primary School had been such a smashing success. May this be the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

Way cool shark pool!

Today we walked and trammed our way down to the Aquarium on the Yarra River. We checked out the cemetery and the university on our way down, long way down, to the free city circle tram. The tram drove us by the enormous Telstra stadium where they play Aussie Rules in front of 80 000 fans. Another annual membership later, the Aquarium is quite expensive, we were on our way along with half of Melbourne to explore Australia's largest aquarium. Very cool place, but hard to see the fish with all of the kids in the way! The highlight was the Oceanarium where huge sting rays swam overhead within inches of our hands.

After the Aquarium we walked along the Yarra and continued to be impressed with the public art and sculpture. Across the street from the famous Flinders Street Station we discovered a pedestrian walkway with some of the coolest little shops and restaurants - very European. Reminded me of the places you would find off the The Grand Platz in Brussels. Picked up another step down transformer at Dick Smith Electronics, a coffee at Starbucks, 4 Sunday Saver tram passes (that didn't actually work) at 7-11, and we were on our way home.

A great and very cheap ($8.80 for a litre of the house red!)Sunday dinner at La Porchetta topped off our little week long vacation in Melbourne - for tomorrow school starts! (At least for the kids)

Library Cards, and Tigers, and Kangaroos! Oh My!

Today was a day of memberships. After mailing a few postcards to our good friends Jack and Andrew and buying a loaf of fresh bread and a brownie at Brumby's Bakery, we had an excellent play with cappuccinos and long blacks in a park on Rathdowne. We then walked across the street to the Carlton Public Library to get our library cards. We signed out a few excellent graphic novels and then walked home for a quick pit stop before heading off to the Zoo! We are quickly realizing what an amazing location we are in as it only takes us 15 minutes to walk to the zoo! And this zoo is incredible! It is all very close - there are no zoomobiles that you need to take for miles - and many of the animals are not caged but simply wandering behind walls and moats. We loved it so much we bought an annual membership and hope to be back many times in the next year. Alex even got to pet a kangaroo!!

The Melbourne Museum is amazing!

Another busy day in Melbourne! Actually, we might get used to this walking thing. The kids have been amazing and daddy has only had to do a few shoulder rides. Today we headed out to the Melbourne Museum which is about 30 minutes away by foot. wanted to do a kid thing after a few days of parental chores. We walked by the kids' school which looks great - they start Monday. Then over to the Carlton Baths to sign up Alex for gymnastics and Linton for Pilates and then on down Rathdowne Street to the museum.

It's quite a place, just built in 2000, and because there is still a school holiday here, it was packed! Saw a cool "puppet show" about dinosaurs, a display about baby dinosaurs, another display about fossils -Alex was in heaven! We'll be back there soon to watch an IMAX movie and explore some more. Then off to the downtown area to look for a new laptop. More walking, caught the free - city circle tram - very cool and made the right (correct) turn onto Russell street where we stumbled upon Harvey Norman Computers and Electronics - a notch up from Best Buy. Very helpful staff and several hundred dollars later we were fully equipped to start my school year.

Still had to walk home though which was like having to walk from Yonge and Bloor to Harwood, with bags of computer equipment. We figured out the tram system with the help of some very kind strangers and we were home! The trams are great once you figure them out and the best part is that you buy tickets based on the zone you are travelling to and time IE you can buy a two hour ticket that you can use as many times as you want over two hours as opposed to a single trip. TTC - are you listening?

Finally, today Colin and I wanted to start tracking some Aussie terms that we have learned. They are as follows:

rent = hire
corner store = milk bar
line = que (sp?)
number sign = hash
Rice Krispies = Rice Bubbles
Raisin Bran = Sultana Bran
regular black coffee = long black 9very important!)
Floam = Floy
flip flops = thongs
friends = mates
popsicle = icy pole
picture = photo
cell = mobile
take a turn = have a go
pregnant = up the duff (very slang!)
And the best one of all so far...
a man's speedo = a pair of budgie smugglers!!!

More to follow. Weather permitting we're off to the zoo on Friday!

Some more early Melbourne musings...

James here. Wednesday was spent getting to know our neighbourhood a little bit better. We found a great community centre called the Carlton Baths - should be good for swimming and gymnastics. We opened a bank account at the NAB and jet-lagged little Alex slept through the appointment - see picture. We discovered glorious Lygon Street with its Italian cafes and wonderful restaurants - see picture. Thresherman's Bakehouse served us up an amazing lunch with huge sandwiches, leek soup, and of course for me, hummus. Lot's of great ethnic food - Asian and Middle Eastern. Bought a cell phone at Vodaphone for James. Picked up a little candy at a Sugar Mountain equivalent - check Allie's smile. We walked the huge cemetery due south of our place- with a great view south to downtown. Played in the Princes Park - with its way cool climbers and swings and watched the mates practice their Aussie Rules Football. James, Alex, and Colin are standing in front of Melbourne home. Bye for now!

First Hawaii, now we are here!

Gday, Linton here. Finally on-line, phew! I have to admit, I was suffering from withdrawal a bit. A quick post to let everyone know we are here safe and sound. After a fun stopover in Hawaii and a long journey (4 flights, 2 delays), we have arrived.

Hawaii was a great break in our journey. We stayed in a decent one bedroom apartment 2 blocks from Waikiki beach so we spent a day and half at the ocean and the other half day at the Polynesian Cultural Centre luau. We all loved it. Great hot weather there.

Then onto Melbourne. We arrived later than originally planned but our landlord still met us at our house (approx midnight), showed us how everything worked and gave us the keys. The house is a Victorian single fronted row house (built 1887). It has not been renovated since the 70s so it does feel dated but it is quite room and comfortable. The location is excellent as it is about a 15 min walk to the kids school and shops nearby. Yesterday, we visited the local mall and stocked up on groceries and a few new kids toys (our kind landlord drove us and picked us up). And today, we visited the park a block away from our house and it has a great kids playground, tennis courts, a cricket oval, huge soccer fields and a running track around it. Of course, we are having the usual logistics snags - bank transfer troubles, only 2 year packages for blackberrys - so this part drives me crazy but I am sure it will all work out in a few days...

The jet lag is still with us. It is now 750pm and I am the only one still awake...More later