Another eclipse

I thought that eclipses were very rare phenomena, so during one of my clearing/cleaning session, I threw away our special eclipses glasses used in Bora Bora 2 years ago. It was without knowing that the sun and the moon will play soon enough another game of peek-a-boo for us.  Today, in the north of Queensland there was a total eclipse. In Brisbane, we only had an 80% eclipse at 6:55 this morning. It is usually bright enough at that time and we could see the light getting dimmed. Without our special glasses, we used other methods to see the sun getting smaller and smaller. With a mirror, Felix was reflecting the sun on our neighbours ‘hull.

Clea tried a welding mask, which is, in fact, like eclipse glasses but only bulkier.

We also tried the pricked paper method and reflecting it through our binoculars.

When and where will our next one be?

Clins d'oeil des activites des enfants ce week-end

Notre week-end commence le vendredi avec l'escrime. Cette semaine, notre ami Martin (et a l'origine notre ostheopathe) nous a suivit pour une petite lecon technique. En revenant a bord, il a releve le defi que Felix lui faisait: rester le plus longtemps possible dans la position de la planche abdominale. Il faut dire que Felix est un vrai champion a cet exercice mais que Martin est aussi un accro du sport. Felix a gagne avec 5min 10 sec! Qui fait mieux?

Alors que Felix etait a nouveau en camp scout, Clea et Victor ont eu leur premiere competition d'escrime et sont fierement arrives tous les deux 3eme dans leur categorie d'age.

Et ce matin, Victor est parti avec sa classe pour 5 jours de decouverte de la capitale australienne.

Two years in Oz today

We arrived Down Under 2 years ago, not really knowing what we would do in Australia but knowing we had to stop cruising. The small town of Bundaberg was a good spot to start learning about the Australian way of living, to find out about cell phones again, about administrative obligations and about the cost of living (that what a big eye opening as we were still transferring from South Africa). We were daily surprised and we learnt enormously. After few weeks, we arrived in Brisbane, which at that time, seemed a big place, as our recent references were only small island cities. We started looking for work intensively, applied to lots of positions and had many refusals. Then the big 2011 flood stroked the city and neighbouring areas. We escaped the river, its debris, its current and its potential dangers and found shelter at Manly for few weeks. Was it where we wanted to settle?

Greg started working at a transport company and his visa came through. However, he changed job quite rapidly and started working as a group accountant with the company he is still working with. Now his Crocs, shorts and tee-shirts only get out of his locker on week-ends. He had to fit to the formal style and started a collection of shirts, all coming from the same shop where he is now well known. He rides to work on a much fancier bike than the one he started going around with. After 2 oceans crossing, even the technicians of the bikes shops didn’t want to see this “old” bike in their workshop …it was for sure the good reason to upgrade.

Victor, Felix and Clea started school and in English for the first time. They adapted quickly to the Australian system not without a few hiccups, which are not country specific. Even if they would love to skip their French, we are still doing the Cned (their French corresponding system) Monday to Friday between 7 and 8am. They also found some new activities to complete their day. The boys enrolled at the local scouts group on Tuesday evening. The three of them are playing cricket on Thursday and Sunday morning and doing fencing on Friday evening. Victor plays the guitar on Wednesday and Clea swims on Monday. They have made new friends, have learnt a lot and are growing fast (Victor’s feet are now much bigger than mine). They mention our cruising life often, did presentations at school and are proud of their experiences.

On my side, I try to run smoothly our daily life, driving the kids around, cooking good meals and making sure everybody has the right thing at the right time. I could be busy enough but I don’t want to be a house wife so I am still looking for my perfect job. Nevertheless, for a few months, I have been working at the NAATI centre where people sit for their translator or interpreter tests. It is a customer services job. I have my days where I feel frustrated because I am far away from a scientific role. However, I have a great boss and I meet all kind of people (some are doing this exam for immigration purposes) with interesting stories. My work hours are during school time and my office is only 5 min walk from the marina. I also had a good experience at teaching French and my student made impressive progresses (why Greg is not following??). As I wanted to share some of my emotions and feelings from our cruising experiences, I wrote few articles in different sailing and travel magazines. I am fencing with the kids on Fridays, try to go to yoga and swim when I can and I am waiting for an injury to disappear to be able to run again.

We are still living on Merlin, moored at Dockside Marina We are trying to go out in the bay whenever the tides, the weather and our plans allow it. We are still looking for a new owner who would take over Merlin and continue to add to the miles, shake the sails and discover new horizons as Merlin, after all, is a sailing boat.

These last two years went pretty fast. We had ups and downs but we learnt a lot, met new friends, discover a new way of living, got used to the local accent and we are nearly accustomed to the cost of living in Australia. Brisbane isn’t in fact a big city and looking back we are impressed with all our miles stones achieved in the last two years.

Now, it is time to celebrate and have a drink!

My new story

Felix: " I am part of the writing club at school and here is my latest story. What do you think of it?"

The Mysterious World

(By Felix Hall Year Four)

One night, while two brothers were asleep, a cyclone came and sucked up their old wooden house.  The house spun around high in the air, was spat out and came crashing down on a peculiar, gluey substance.

Dring, dring!  Dring, dring!  “Time to wake up” cried Alexandrew.

“What, already!  I just fell asleep,” mumbled Mick tiredly.

As usual, Alexandrew went out to fetch the daily mail.  All of a sudden, he screamed, “Where in the world, are we?  Why is yesterday’s post on our roof?”

“I don’t know!” shrieked Mick fearfully from inside the house. “But, what I do know is that we slept thirty-six hours,” he said looking at his watch with surprise.

Mick put his dirty clothes on and jumped down to see if Alexandrew was telling the truth.  As he approached the garage, a small green dragon came swooping down and landed softly between the two shocked brothers.  They turned in amazement to see a smiling face appear before them.  “Hi, my name is Jemo,” the dragon grinned cheerfully.  “I’m a saltwater dragon and I can swim as deep as I want, and breathe underwater,” he boasted. 

The brothers stumbled backwards, aware of the possible dangers.  Once they realised the dragon wasn’t going to hurt them, they stood up and Mick said: “Hi, this is Alexandrew.  He’s my tiny brother.  He’s nine years old and is as clever as me.  I’m Mick and I’m thirteen years old.  I can lift forty-eight kilos,” exclaimed Mick proudly showing off his prestigious muscles.

“It seems that you are new to Gapar,” said Jemo happily to the boys.  “It’s bizarre!  Friends just come and go.  If you’re wondering what is Gapar, it is a mysterious world where you can learn how to fly.”                                                                                     

The brothers turned to each other with a look of wonder, “So how do we learn how to fly?  asked Alexandrew curiously.

Jemo announced loudly to the brothers, “Before you can learn to fly, we must go on a long journey to find the flying station where you can learn new flying tricks and discover other places on Gapar.  We’ll need to get to the flying teacher as fast as we can because the faster we go, the better the teacher you will have. I’m also coming with you because I’ll be a good guide and I’d like to learn new tricks too.” explained Jemo.  “First, you’ll need some useful items from your home.”  So Mick and Alexandrew got a torch, a rope, some balls,  a bag full of food, two sleeping bags and a miniature water tank. (Mick liked to carry the water tank on his back for fun like a crazy mouse with cheese).  When the brothers were loaded up, they came down to the garage to start their long 35 km journey.

One hour after leaving their house, Mick cried out in laughter.  “Look over there, there’s a dragon with a BEARD!  

The dragon with the beard turned around and faced the two brothers angrily, so angrily it seemed he was going to explode.  Mick and Alexandrew were looking as if they were facing a starving bear.      

“What do you mean by, ’this is a beard?’  Can’t you see it’s a badge holder?” roared the dragon who was proudly showing off his medals.  “I’m a professional.  And you, why, you’ve got nothing, not even a badge holder.”

“Well, we do have strength and cleverness” announced Alexandrew.  “We are really sorry we called your badge holder a beard,” he continued in a kind voice. 

“So you’re going to the Flying Test. Is that right?” said the dragon with an evil sounding voice which sent shivers up the boys’ spines.  “Well then, guess what! I’m going to race you, and see who wins. If you lose you’ll be the 999^th person I’ve kicked out of this world. If you win, you get, NOTHING and you get to stay.” cried the dragon cruelly, grinning at the two sad, expressionless faces.

“So it was you!” shouted Jemo, “you’ve been kicking all my nice friends out of Gapar! It must end! This time you won’t succeed! If we win you will need to be kicked out of this world, you betrayer!”

So they set off to race the evil dragon to the flying test.  They needed to go ten times faster now but Mick was too heavy for Jemo to carry.  Jemo and Mick climbed a hill and then went even higher by climbing a huge tree nearby.  Jemo grabbed Mick’s thick arms and glided down towards the bushy earth.  Alexandrew was speeding past vines on the ground.  It was certain that they would win.

But thirty exhausting long minutes later, the small group saw a nasty sight. The two brothers and Jemo could see the bearded dragon AHEAD of them!             

“Come on everybody! We can do it! We just caught up with him, so let’s try going a bit faster. Let’s try to reach the speed of a cheetah.  There’s a bit left to go!” screamed Jemo excitedly, encouraging the boys on.

Keeping that in mind, Jemo glided faster and Alexandrew started running, even faster than before.

After a while Jemo cried, “We’re here at last! Now quickly let’s run towards that old looking dragon! He’s the flying instructor.  ”

They did as they were bid to do, Alexandrew ran as fast as he could. He ran at such a fast speed it seemed that he was flying.  

When they arrived, Jemo introduced the brothers to a dragon. “This is the best instructor you can get in this whole world!” screamed Jemo with excitement. 

“By the way, why does that fat dragon seem so disappointed?” asked the instructor curiously.      

The brothers and Jemo looked around and saw the bearded dragon all red with anger and disappointment.  “Never mind that, let’s get flying!” he quickly said in a happy tone showing his three students the way.

Once they finished their extraordinary lesson the three companions could fly like a champion, flip in the air like a dolphin, dive at an unbelievable speed (faster than an eagle), appear in mid-air, breathe fire for ten long minutes, do a massive U in the air, swoop downwards like a seagull hunting for its food, and turn without touching the ground.

“Phew! That was worth it,” exclaimed the two brothers gladly as they were given a nice cosy badge holder.

 “Now would you prefer to have fun like a dragon or go home?” suggested Mick.   

“I think we should go home and practise flying above our house.” replied his brother.

They went up in the air getting ready to swoop down like a bird towards their home. Since then, they have never seen, or heard about the evil bearded dragon, again.

The end

“The race that stops the nation”

La Melbourne Cup (maintenant appelee La Coupe Emirates), est l’un des événements les plus suivi en Australie. Elle a lieu tous les 1ers mardis de Novembre. Cette course hypique de 3200 mètres se deroule au cœur de Melbourne et a alignee cette annee 24 concurrents (dont seulement 2 chevaux etaient australiens – apparement c’est rare). Ca, c’est le cote informatif. Ce qu’il faut savoir, c’est que cette coupe est le sujet de toutes les discussions depuis quelques temps, et pas vraiment par rapport aux concurents. On dit que cette course stoppe le pays. C’est vrai! Les bureaux ferment. La circulation se fait quasi-absente. Les pubs et restaurants sont pris d’assaut. Les femmes sont sur leur 31. De ce cote la, il y a de tout : du beau, du complexe, du colore et du vraiment sans gout. Beaucoup de petits bibis sur des coiffures tout aussi extravagantes. Des milliers de litres de biere et de vin doivent etre servis. Toutefois, l’argent circule encore plus dans les paris. Il n’y a pas de petits paris et ils sont partout. Il est de tradition dans les bureaux de tirer au hasard un (ou plusieurs) cheval (chevaux) et de miser quelques dollars. Les enfants font cela aussi a l’ecole – sans toutefois miser d’argent. Commeil s’agissait de ma 1ere “Melbourne Cup” en tant qu’employee, la chance du debutant m’a sourit et mes chevaux sont arrives 2eme et 3eme … et j’ai gagne 10$!

…que j’ai de suite "re-investi" dans le loto de ce soir ou le 1er prix est de $10 millions! Est-ce que ma chance du debutant va me sourire deux fois dans la meme journee?