Jindabyne

At last!!! Long awaited winter holiday! I have been waiting for this break for so long. Finally it's time to pack our ski jackets and beanies and head down towards Canberra, Cooma and Jindabyne.
Jacob and I started preparing a week earlier, we baked lots of gingerbread cookies to take with us to the snow. Some of them thought, didn't make it further than baking tray :-D
We left home around 8am on Thursday 26th June. 5 hours later and 450km from Sydney, we finally arrived at Jindabyne. After short discussion it was decided to stay in and order pizzas for dinner because we were all quite tired from long travel and didn't feel like going out. When dinner was finished and plates washed up, Jacob's latest favourite movie - "Kung Fu Panda" was screening in the lounge room TV and as you see everybody got comfortable and settled in to watch it together. It's a funny movie about this fat panda called Po (voice by Jack Black) who against all odds becomes a Kung Fu master, claims a title of Dragon Warrior and defeats an evil leopard Tai Lung to restore happiness to beautiful Valley of Peace. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend. Kids couldn't stop laughing and repeated lines from the movie for days. Jacob's favourite is the scene featured in this picture here... "You want it? Come and get it!" (he-he-hee you'll understand, once you see the movie)
First Day at the snow.
Wake up at 7am, then quick breakfast and off we went to Perisher Blue Ski Resort. That was pretty much the only place open for skiing. We've had warm weather and not much snow fall this year. Our ski trip was almost cancelled because there's just not enough snow but because we had planned this for months and it's very difficult to find dates that suit every one's work and school schedules, we decided to go ahead.

Jacob looked so cute in his one-piece ski outfit, complete with helmet and goggles but after trying for little while he decided that he didn't like skiing after all and wanted to just play with the snow. I tried to exchange his skis for toboggan but toboggans were not allowed in the general area and tobogganing run was closed because there wasn't enough snow :-( That was bit of a disappointment because I'm sure Jacob would have loved sliding down the hill with me. And so would I.

Phil & Frank were skiing this year but all the kids decided to try snowboarding. I personally prefer snowboarding to skis but I had babysitting duties so I didn't get to snowboard which is fine by me, I had fun watching other and playing with Jacob. Besides, I had Lisa, Joe and Maria to keep me company.
Stef already knew how to snowboard but boys had to learn because it was their first time. In the beginning they found it a bit hard but everything new is difficult in the beginning, they didn't give up but tried again the next day.

Day 2.
Before heading up to Perisher, we took this lovely group picture at the front of the flat where we stayed. Behind us is beautiful Lake Jindabyne. In case you don't recognise, from left: Maria, Frank, Luca, Joe, Lisa, Anthony, Stefania, Poliina, Jacob, Phil and Matthew.

Jacob and Lisa building a tiny snowman.

Phil on the ski lift - he's the one in the middle with red boots.

Lunch break. On the menu: corn chips, apples, breakfast bars and soft drinks - all brought from home by Frank and Maria - very thoughtful because food at the resort is expensive and ques are much too long.

Lisa, Joe, Jacob and I went up on the ski lift that was open only for sightseeing. We stopped half way and took this photo at the lodge overlooking the mountains - the view is breathtaking.

On the ski lift. You see how little snow there is?! :-(

What is a snow trip without an injury? Someone always gets hurt. This time it was Matthew. He hit a rock with the snowboard and fell badly on his wrist. If you look at this photo closely you see group of people gathered in the middle just below the ski lift pole, it's the medical crew who took Matt to the resorts medical centre for assessment and after X-rays were taken, we found out his wrist was fractured. Lucky it's his left hand.

Lake Jindabyne. Beautiful isn't it?!?

On our way back home.

If you look closely, you see Frank's BMW in the distance ahead - leader of the pack. The blue Commodore in front of us is Joe.
We all had walkie-talkie radio transmitters so we could have a conversation on the road. It was fun and really handy when you need to keep track of eleven people in the ski resort.

Lake George. Dry at the moment. Apparently not always but I have never seen it under water.

Snuggles.





The End.

The hard part of skydiving

Yes Skydinving can be a lot of fun and look at our faces full of joy and excitement after a dive (it was Cécile's tandem jump) :

But the hard part is just about to start.....

Yeah it's done.. ready for the next jump ;-)

The only thing I was very disappointed about during the day, was the attitude of my disrespectful niece towards our efforts. She didn't even try to look interested ....

Welcome to the world little Emma

Emma is born on the 10th June 2008, 3.6 kg, 51 cm.

She is a beautiful baby with brown hair ... yes I am a proud auntie ;-)

Oskar is really happy to have a little sister and kisses her all the time!

Tomorrow Anne-Sophie is taking Emma to the skydiving club in Vannes to see me jump (or at least land!) . Well it's not just for me actually, we offered Cécile a tandem jump for her birthday and she needs some support ;-)

Old McDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O...

Last Saturday we went to Frank's farm. It's about half an hour drive from Goulburn (roughly three hour drive from Sydney), in the middle of nowhere, far from highways and civilization, tucked away amongst the bushland, hills, valleys and creeks. To get there we drove up the dirt road covered with big rocks and boulders, full of huge holes and cracks - I'm not even certain whether I should call it "a road", it was more like a track. Thankfully our big 4X4 Discovery made it with little effort.

Farm itself is not fully functional of course because nobody lives there. But when it comes to farm animals, there are 24 goats on the farm. Frank says they are low maintenance animals and take care of themselves pretty much. Frank only goes there on the weekends to give hay and pellet food to the animals and to make sure there is enough water for them but other than that... they are quite happy being home alone. Well, except when the fox comes around... they don't like foxes. Couple of goats have already been taken by the fox but that's just the way it goes. Apparently the neighbours put out some fox poison around the place to protect their animals, we were a bit scared that Sophie might find it but we kept her in close range at all times and besides, she's not interested in finding food when there are plenty of sticks around to play fetch with :-D

There are also lot of other wildlife around - rabbits, kangaroos, wombats and possums. Oh, and don't forget spiders and snakes! There are lot of
snakes in the bush. That is quite scary actually. We saw a baby Brown Snake in amongst the fire wood that Stefania and I just had gathered and it could have ended real bad but luckily nobody was bitten and the snake was "taken care of" if you know what I mean. Brown Snake is one of Australia's more deadly creatures. They have venom which can cause death to humans relatively quickly if left untreated. And it's a long way to the hospital... I also saw a web of a Funnel-web spider while gathering fire wood. They like to burrow in moist, cool, sheltered habitats - under rocks, in and under rotting logs, crevices, rot and borer holes in rough-barked trees. But in saying that, I have come across one in my office at work not long ago so you don't have to go to deep bush to find a spider in Australia, they are EVERYWHERE!

One of the main things to do at the farm is riding motorbikes. Frank has quite a few of them there and kids - Luca, Stefania and sometimes Anthony and Matthew as well - just love riding them across the countryside, up the hills and down the valleys, dodging rocks and trees. They have had few minor accidents, small falls and bumps but no real damage has been done and they get better at it every week. I was very impressed how skilled and confident they are! Jacob is still too little but one day, I'm sure he will join his older cousins in the Wild Farmer's Motorbike Gang ;-)

On one of the pics you see Sophie sitting on my lap which is very very unusual - she doesn't normally like to be picked up at all but on that day she climbed up because she got scared of loud noise of fire crackers that Luca and Frank let off. It was quite funny actually, I have never seen her so keen to get on my lap - poor thing.

It is an old Australian tradition to let off firecrackers and fireworks on Queen's birthday long weekend. It's illegal now because of too many accidents and injuries that resulted in wrong and careless handling of fireworks. Shame.

Now I'd like to describe the farmhouse or should I say farm shed?! It is no mansion let me tell you! There is no water in the house so little tanks of water with a pump and a heater have been set up in the kitchen for washing and cooking. There is no shower. To flush the toilet, you need to turn on a tap to fill the water tank beforehand and it's filled with rainwater I believe. A generator is used for electricity but at night the generator is turned off so only battery operated torches are used for light. And it gets dark at night!!! It gets really really dark!!! I thought that my eyes would adjust and at least you would see the shapes in the room but no - you see absolutely nothing, it's as if you are blind. At home we get streetlights glowing through the windows... electrical alarm clock's display... little red or green power button lights on other electrical equipment casting a small glow in the room and it makes such a difference. Out there it's only stars and the moon on a clear night :-)

It's also very quiet. When the generator was turned off, there was not a sound - no ambulance/police sirens in the distance, no traffic, no planes, not TV, no radio... just big thick quiet. It would be a bit different in summer though with crickets and cicadas at night.

We had a lovely lunch prepared on the wood fire by Carmela and Maria. I don't know why but food always tastes better when you eat outdoors. It was sooo tasty! There were stake, sausages, bacon, chicken and also fresh corn cooked on the fire - mmmm yummm :-P One of the best meals I've had for a while I must admit. Beats the restaurant any day if you ask me.

I also tried riding a quad bike. It was so much fun!!! :-) Stefania thought I was too slow but I always say - one little baby step at the time! I need few more lessons and bit more practice.

At night we went to nearby little town to watch the local fireworks. The whole town had gathered at the Town Hall, they had huge bonfire and raffle and food stalls... It was lovely. It actually reminded me of Estonian mid-summer-night celebrations in my home village, except it was a bit too cold. I also saw gum-boot throwing competition for the first time in my life. It's not as exiting as you would think, but it's definitely something you don't see every day heh-heh :-)

Kids loved roasting marshmallows on the fire - that's another great Aussie tradition. You put the marshmallow on the long stick and hold it above the fire so it would start melting a bit but not too close to the fire, otherwise it will burn and turn black. It has to be soft and warm inside when you eat it. Nice!

Overall we had a great time! I loved it. Jacob loved it. Phil loved it. And Sophie loved it too. But it was also quite tiring. On the way back to Sydney, Sophie had a good long deep sleep in the car while Jacob was watching a movie and I also snoozed on the backseat.

We would definitely like to visit the farm again some day.

Thank you Frank and Maria for a lovely weekend in the country!