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Back in Sydney, dad had taken a picture of a rather large rubber duck (badeendje), which features in the Sydney (summer) Festival in Darling Harbour, near dad's work. The rubber duck was designed by Florentijn Hofman, a Dutch artist.
Mid January, oma Bep arrived from the freezing Netherlands. After an eventful flight with China Southern Airlines, she got a warm welcome in Sydney. In fact, the third day was hot, even by Australian standards: 46 degrees was the hottest on record for Sydney. Fortunately, the heat only lasted a day and inside the house it did not get much beyond 30 degrees. The kids quickly warmed up to their grandmother. Oma read the grandchildren a book while colouring and another one while playing in a paddling pool (on a cooler day).
Mum and the kids took oma to the Manly Sealife Sanctuary (formerly Ocean World), where we admired a stingray from the shark tunnel. We used our christmas present blackboard as an easel for painting with oma. We went to see a performance of 'The cat in the hat' in the Sydney opera house, played with rather large lego, and showed oma the harbour bridge.
Emma had outgrown her flipflops and was allowed, after many counter suggestions, to choose her own. She showed them off proudly. On Thursday we, minus pappa, went to Canberra to meet John and Leonie and pickup the camper trailer. After lunch, we looked around in the museum with mum and opa.
Blue Mountains
On Saturday, we went to the Blue Mountains, which are about 90 minutes from our home in Manly. First we went to Echo Point, where we could barely see the
Three Sisters, the three rocks in the distance, which are known from the
aboriginal legend. Shortly after we arrived, the mist
started to clear and we could admire the
Jamison valley. We walked to the three sisters,
had a rest,
cheered up and
returned to the car. On the way back, we stopped at a river bend where people were swimming - next time we bring our swimmers.
Sunday was rainy. One of Piet's friends from pre-school who is joining the same school, Fionn, had his birthday party. He had invited so many friends that his mother had hired a little hall and a Superman. All the noise disappointed Piet. On Monday we made a quick visit to the zoo. The drizzle gradually turned into heavier rain and after the seal show, we returned home to spend the rest of the day inside. We had 95mm of rain that day.
The kids did a lot more drawing with oma Bep, who had brought special chalk. Mum and dad went out for dinner, so Piet and Emma had pasta-al-pesto with oma. The next day was hot (nicely warm) again and we all went to the local skiff club, which is the kids' favourite. It has moderate quality food, but the fries are fine and they have a nice deck above the harbour.
To big school
Wednesday 30th January was the end of the summer holidays and hence Piet's big day. He woke up at 6h15 - his normal time - and remembered to get straight into his
school uniform. At school, he met his pre-school
mate Fionn and
fooled around in the school yard. At 9h45 it was time to start school, sitting next to his
buddy Ryder, who joins him at the start of the day for the first week or so. After the first day of school, which lasted just two hours, Piet complained that he hadn't learned anything.
