Developing a Nasty, Nasty Habit

No, not smoking.  My last cigarette was Feb. 19, 1998.  Still think of myself as a smoker, but I'm just out.  So no, I'm not going back to that.  This habit is equally as dangerous to my health though.  I'm talking about my habit of composing emails or blog posts in my head, then mentally ticking them off as "done" and then never going back and composing them.  Thus I end not responding to many pissed off friends and not posting on my precious blog.  It's really annoying that I keep doing that because I've come up with enough material for at least 3 books but not one bloody word is written down.  Plus I've had a couple friends grab me and shout, "Why haven't you blogged??!!!  What's wrong??!!"  It's a little embarrassing to say, "Oh no, I've come up with TONS of funny stuff"  then I remember that it was in my head...much like my daydreams of winning a tax-free lottery, liposuction, Harley Davidson Night Rod Special and full time maid and cook service.  Damn, I really do have a lot crammed up in there.

So, the events of the past few weeks.  Wow.  I took the kids to Melbourne the 2dn week of school holidays.  Just me.  I drove my 3, plus one of Teddy's friends 10 1/2 hours by myself and didn't kill any of them.  I can can hear the hushed awe of my peers right now.  It was an incredible pain in the ass, full of fighting, tears, whining, vomiting, swearing, burned hands, more swearing and strep throat (tonsillitis here in OZ) but I did it.  Still, with all of that horror, it was an awesome trip.

No, I'm serious.  I loved it.  Now before you refile this  blog under "Nutjob Masochists Who Scare Me" let me say that no, the crap stuff wasn't fun.  But the fun stuff was wonderful. Melbourne is wonderful.  Seriously, a wonderful beautiful city.  I love seeing money spent on superfluous things by city governments.  Art, street and building design..just general quirkiness, I love it.  Thank you Melbourne, you were a rare treat.  We also went to Philip Island and saw the tiny fairy penguins.  I live on the same continent as penguins!!!  That is so cool!!!!  We sat on bleachers on the beach and watched the little buggers come up after a day at sea and head off to their homes.  As we sat there waiting, wallabies bounced by.  It was like seeing the world through a portal to another dimension only this was real.  I loved it.  The kids obviously didn't appreciate it once the hot chocolate ran out.  Fortunately though we all had iPods provided to us so we could listen to a 30 minute history lesson on the penguins.  Not that the kids listened though.  Tessi kept changing her language to Japanese and French, both boys just looked at me oddly when I asked if they were listening and Connor listened, only because she thought when it was done it would change to a K$sha song.  But I listened.  I listened to the whole thing, twice.  The first to educate myself and the second to drown out the whining. 

So the trip was a success.  I can heartily recommend driving too.  As long as you have a roof rack to put most of your crap up into, A third row seat so you can separate kids into 3 different areas, bags of food FILLED with crap you wouldn't normally let them eat and let them eat as much as they want, 1 lap top, 1 portable movie player filled with at least 5-6 movies or tv shows they haven't seen, 2 iPod touches, 1 iPod nano, 1 iPhone with earbuds, coloring books and crayons and several stopping points with places of interest.  Thank you City of Holbrook for putting a decommissioned submarine in your town - 5 hours from the closest source of water)  Also for your traveling plans I HIGHLY recommend using the caravan or holiday parks.  Not for camping, bugger that.  I get the cabins there.  That way when you pull up after 10 hours and you're unloading and unpacking you can just gently say, or in my case screetch through grit teeth, "Get out!!!"  They are happy to be gone scootering, flinging themselves on the jumping pillow, trolling the campsites, whatever.  Then you can unpack in peace and get the champers or Skinny Girl chilled - which by the way, it is NOT illegal to transport alcohol across state lines in Australia.  Good to know!    So now I can think about the next trip with the kids, only I will make sure I will bring more alcohol to deal with them.