08 January 2007

Koalas to Bandicoots

Today Anya started back at Kindercraft. She's been moved from the Koalas room (babies) to Bandicoots (toddlers). It's another milestone in her growing up! Luckily for us, her natural schedule actually matches the toddlers' eating and sleeping schedule, so the only real difference will be sleeping on a low cot rather than in a crib. I learned at the end of the day that she'd slept an hour, so it seems that the change of sleeping venue didn't worry her at all.

Meanwhile, I'm not working yet this week, but I took the bus out to the University of Queensland, just to see how long it would really take, and familiarise myself with the bus stop location and how to get to the office (located in the Engineering building). It was so strange to be wandering around a campus again. A friendly student escorted me to the Engineering building, and he took me on a shortcut through a building (which I would have no hope of remembering). There is definitely a distinctive university aroma
-- is it books? Chalk? Chemicals? Dust?

06 January 2007

The Saga Continues

Suffice to say that the fridge still smells (see previous post). David moved it outside, and alternated running it with leaving it open to the elements, all to no avail. After arriving, Don also cleaned it repeatedly and seemed convinced at first that it just needed his efforts to come good. He finally conceded after a week that the smell was not going away. It smells a lot less than when we first came, of couse, but it's still not usable. We lived out of an Esky after Don's family arrived and took over the downstairs unit.

Other than that minor discomfort, the rest of our stay at Peregian was good. The weather became fine by Friday, and Don & Ann Maree arrived on Saturday (30th). Every morning we all went to the beach together, dug a bath-sized hole for Anya to loll in, and swam in the surf. Anya didn't really approach the open water much, but loved digging and running around on the sand. For some reason, running laps around the bath-sized hole while carrying a bucket seemed to be one of her favorite activities. Afterwards she generally had a great big nap, too.

Anya's developed the endearing mannerism of putting her hands on either side of my face and asking intently for something she really wants: "bottle?"

New Year's Eve was pretty quiet. Don & Ann Maree went to their friends' party, leaving Raema in charge downstairs. The kids struggled to stay awake but none of them made it. David and I were both in bed by 9 pm, embarassingly enough.