Day 67 – 78
On the drive from Kalbarri we had a look at the Pink Lake – it is pink because of the high level of Beta Carotene in it. Interesting? Not according to the kids just a lake with pink water. We stopped at Geraldton for lunch and so that Andy could purchase a bigger electric grill plate. Apparently since he has taken over the cooking (did I mention that he announced in Coral Bay that he was going to cook from now on) he has decided that we don’t have enough equipment and that the grill in the van is really not big enough to cook for 6 – duh! I am sure that I said that before we left Melbourne but anyway … I think it also had something to do with a communal meal we ate in Coral Bay where the other two families each turned up with wiz bang grill plates and he felt a little inadequate!
We ended up at Cervantes at about 5pm so we set up camp there for the night. There was an Art Festival starting the next day and to advertise it they had set up these life size models of kids in different outfits and stances all over town. The kids and I went for a drive to check them out (that was our excuse but we were really looking for ice-cream!) Andy bought fresh seafood and cooked us a yummy dinner. The kids disappeared to the park for a while and when it was well and truly dark I decided I had better go and find Chris and Matthew (of all the ones to still be missing but of course the other two had come home as per instructions). I found them scootering home and Matthew was very excited because he had met an “archer and he let me have a go”. I eventually worked out that another kid at the park had a bow and arrow set and Matthew and Chris had been down at the park shooting arrows around. I am hoping that they were the suction cup ones and not the pointy ones but so far we have heard nothing on the news about anyone being impaled by arrows at Cervantes so I think we dodged a bullet there. Parental supervision might need to increase – what were that kid’s parents doing letting him take that there…
Next day we headed to Perth via the Pinnacles. Everyone talks about the Pinnacles and how you have to see them so I made sure we did. My children will never tell people they have to see them they thought they were ridiculous and very boring. The fact you are not allowed to climb all over them didn’t help. The actual centre is very well set up, another admission fee of course, and you can drive or walk around them. We walked to them, had a look and then left. We didn’t get to walk around them because no one was interested as they all just wanted to get to Perth. I dragged it out by making them go into the Discovery Centre and read about how the Pinnacles formed and the history of the area – you would think I was removing a kidney from each of them without anaesthetic! Eventually we were back on the road and heading to Perth.
Signs that we were returning to civilisation started to emerge – we passed a few outer suburbs, lots more road signs, freeway and the fact that Andrew’s Vodafone mobile actually received a signal for the first time in about a month let us know we were close to something big. Madi started to salivate when she sighted a shopping centre and then hyperventilated when we drove straight past. When we actually managed to get an FM station on the radio we knew we were back in civilisation.
We stayed at the Karrinyup Resort Caravan Park. This was pretty good – well located, jumping pillow, playground, nice pool and spa area, lake and lots of ducks and ducklings which the kids loved. That afternoon we went to the Karrinyup shopping centre but there is no late night Thursday shopping in Perth (Madi wants to talk with the local government about meeting the needs of the consumer) so we only managed to get some books (Nick had announced there is only so many times you can re-read the same series and we had struggled to find anything new since Broome) and some bread. Friday Andy and I read our books in a coffee shop while the kids saw Despicable Me at the movies and then we all went shopping again but at a different shopping centre. We got a couple more books (which Andy left in the food court and I collected on the Monday after a few phone calls – some honest people in Perth), stocked up on new DVD’s (and Ghostbusters has been the roaring success that I predicted) and not much else much to Madi’s disgust. We found a Dick Smith and Andy got himself an IPad and then we headed back to the van.
Andy's Ipad purchase has allowed him to reconfirm his absolute love, appreciation and dedication to Bruce Springsteen. At night with his headphones on he sings along and mutters "the mans a genius!". In the car he plays his ipod through the radio and espouses the brilliance of the man's voice and song writing capabilities. Papa please pray that nobody gives him a Bruce Springsteen DVD for Christmas or we could have a repeat of the Elton John DVD experience (where did you hide that DVD?).
Saturday morning I woke up to find Madi standing above me and whispering (which with Madi means only those people within a 10m radius can hear) can we go shopping today, just you and me. She continued to harp (remind you of anyone else at her age Papa – seriously the longer this holiday goes the more her similarities to Andrew become apparent) until I finally gave in. We went shopping and it became clear in the first 5 minutes that I was there as a chaperone only – there would be no shopping or browsing for me – she had her money and she meant to spend it. She had set herself a budget and she wanted two new outfits. It was quite funny to watch and then of course when she really liked something but it didn’t fit within her budget she would look at me and give me the “I need this so you should buy it for me” where her purchases were only wants. In the end I bought her lunch and then wrapped it up. She went home with a couple of tops, shorts and a headband so I think she was happy. That afternoon we went for a drive through the beach suburbs down to Fremantle and back through the city.
Sunday we went to the beach early – Swanbourne, near Cottesloe – and then met Gibbo (a Mazenod alumni and friend of Andy’s) and two of his kids at Kings Park. We met at Synergy Park which is a kid’s area within Kings Park. The kids played on the equipment and then we played some cricket. We also took in the view across the Swan which is very picturesque.
Monday the kids staged an attempted coup and refused to go to the beach. This resulted in Dad going to the beach by himself with the car and the 5 of us being stuck at the van. We went to the pool and mucked around and they played at the park and on the jumping pillow so it wasn’t too bad. Monday night Andy was meeting Gibbo and Greg (over from Melbourne for work) at Cottesloe so the kids and I dropped him off there and then had a movie night at home.
Tuesday the youngest three still refused to go to the beach, they wanted to go shopping so Nick and Andy dropped us off at Karrinyup and they went to Trigg Beach. I got to spend 3 hours with 3 kids in a shopping centre – oh joy. Within the first 5 minutes we established that the PSP stand that the two boys had been looking forward to playing on was gone and it was pretty much downhill from there. We did manage to purchase a couple of presents for Matthew’s birthday using various distraction techniques which Chris is very skilled at. By the time we met Nick and Andy at Woolworths 3 hours later we were all over the shopping (even Madi she “prefers it without the boys”).
Madi moment – Tuesday night Andy suggested to Madi that she give him a cuddle “you don’t cuddle me very often” and she came back with “that’s because you’re a stranger to me”. To which Andy replied “what do you mean by that?” and she said “I don’t know your eye colour or your favourite food. I don’t know what makes you tick”. We couldn’t stop laughing. I think it was her way of saying I haven’t worked out how to wrap you around my finger yet so I’m playing hard to get!
Wednesday Bubba had learnt his lesson and he went to the beach with Andy and Nick but the other two still refused to go. This time I decided that more extreme measures had to be taken so for four hours I made them stay in the van – they could do school work or play on their computers but nothing else.
On Thursday we all went to the beach.
This became the routine for the next few days. Beach in the morning, shopping centre for lunch around 2 (Boost did some major business over those days), pick up any food we needed for dinner, back to the van, school work, pool, dinner, play in the park, very easy and enjoyable, so much so that we ended up extending our stay until Monday. Every morning we would wake up (sometimes after check out time – the kids have finally learnt how to sleep in and I am not sure how we will ever get to school on time again) and decide to stay another day. Today we finally managed to drag ourselves and the van out of Perth. Bruce is playing on the radio and we are heading for Busselton (its only 3 hours so we will make it by lunch). How long we stay depends on how much we like it but we only have about 3 ½ weeks to go so at some stage we are going to have to start heading east.
Groubie – Clive Griswald moment was Andy driving car with Ipod playing in his ears, window down, looking around, singing quite loudly whilst doing 8kmh in the caravan park and for anyone watching appearing to serenade the poor older gentleman sitting at his site minding his own business as we turned the corner. The gentleman got quite a fright and wasn’t so friendly with his morning greeting afterwards.
Updates on 2 things I forgot are included in the comments below.
