Across the country

Our latest visit to Western Australia was timed to coincide with Louka's twin cousins' tenth birthday. However, they had a men only party, so Louka and I saw nothing of it.

Louka was very good (ie quiet) on the plane to Perth, so long as we let her climb up and down the stairs to the upstairs lounge. On the way home, after a three-hour wait at the airport, she fell asleep for the first half of the flight, but was very irritable for the rest of the way.

In Perth, we had a barbecue breakfast in Kings Park with Graham's mum, brother and sister and their families, to which my friend Merv and his partner turned up later. It was a bit chilly at first, but later the sun came out. Louka fell asleep on the grass.



We caught up with Graham's friends Leonie and Tom, and their baby daughter Alice. She is very cute, very well-behaved (while we were there) and looks very like her dad. Louka had fun playing with their big box of toys and "posting" anything that would fit between the boards of the back deck.


While the "men" had their party, the women and children had dinner at Josie's place. Louka ate quite a lot of olives and not much else, as she is wont to do if they are available. Then we joined the men at the café for birthday cake and coffee. There wasn't any sign of anything weird and manly, like dancing round naked with tomahawks. They must have cleaned everything up.


As usual, we took Louka's cousin Kofi to Hillary's Boat Harbour. We took swimming togs, but it was cold and windy so we went to the aquarium, not the beach.


We went out for dinner with Graham's dad and sister to a grill restaurant. Louka really hoed into the garlic bread and ribs.



For me, the high point of the visit was a trip to see the tree-top walk near Walpole on the south coast. Originally Graham's mum suggested driving there and back on consecutive days, but later decided we should stay two nights and have a whole day there (which I'd definitely recommend). This made it worthwhile to find somewhere nice and interesting to stay, and since I was given the job of finding accommodation I did a quick online search and came up with Tree Elle Retreat. It's the sort of place that's worth going to for itself, not just somewhere to stay. You stay in a separate house, set in lovely gardens and with views of bush and water. There's a fresh loaf waiting in the bread cooker and extra bread mix, fresh eggs, butter, milk and other food in the kitchen. You can pick veggies and fruit from their gardens, and play with the horses, ponies, cows, sheep, turkeys, geese, hens, ducks, rabbits and guinea-pigs. I'm not sure if you'd call it a farmstay as it doesn't quite feel like a serious farm, but it couldn't be better for a little child like Louka. And the sofas and beds are very comfortable.


Oh, the tree-top walk was quite spectacular, but Louka preferred the on-the-ground walk where she could look at flowers, climb stairs and walk right inside the hollow bases of the big tingle trees.


Louka is generally ok in the car these days, but she didn't like the amount of driving on our holiday. One interesting thing I noticed was that when she was crying and screaming, I was sometimes able to sing her to sleep! If only that would work at other times.

Visit from Uncle John

Yesterday John was passing through Sydney en route to Chile for work. So we took him to see our house at Harbord, then grabbed a quick lunch and walked down to the beach. At first Louka seemed keen to run up the sand, but when we walked round to the rocks, she was determined to get in the water. That's in spite of the cold wind and the fact that we hadn't brought a change of clothes. We took most of her clothes off (her pants were already wet) and let her go for it.


Then we took John back to West Ryde, and had dinner at the pub. As usual, Louka spent most of the evening going up and down the stairs to the toilets, but for once she was not keen to share my grilled fish, going instead for the chips which she usually rejects.

Visit from Micky and cousins

My sister visited today to borrow my sewing machine, and Elin, Lindsay and Max came too. They brought a delicious custard pastry with almonds on top. Louka had the time of her life playing with her cousins, giggling and squealing like a teenager at a fun park. Micky commented she looks like a little koala in her pigtails. Max also played with the puppy Katy, who probably got more attention this morning than she's had in her life before.

While Louka played inside with Elin and Lindsay, Micky and I wandered round the garden looking for cuttings for her to take home. She took some frangipane, nasturtiums, rubber-tree and tibouchina.

Louka in pigtails

At mothers group last week, Nicky said she'd put Jasmine in pigtails, so I thought it was a good idea to try this on Louka too. She looked so cute!
(Pity about the dark background in this photo.)

Chinaberries

This morning we went into town and had morning tea at the Lindt Café with daddy. On our way home from the station, we stopped at a nice shady playground beside a beautiful chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach). We played on the swings, and the other play equipment, for about half an hour, then headed home. There were pretty yellow berries from the chinaberry tree on the ground, and Louka, as is her wont, gathered them up and occasionally put them in her mouth. She may even have swallowed one.


When we got home, she was ready for her nap. While she was asleep I idly browsed the web to find out about the chinaberry tree. And found that the berries are highly poisonous, sometimes causing death from respiratory failure within 24 hours. I rang the Poisons Information Centre (13 11 26) but they'd never heard of it. Their database said to look out for unsteadiness, diarrhoea and vomiting over the next three hours, but a book on the web said to go immediately to the nearest emergency room.

Well she looked fine as she slept, but how could I not worry? I watched her carefully for symptoms till her bedtime and she seemed fine. She still seems fine this morning, so I think she'll be OK. But why, oh why, would the council put a children's playground under a poisonous tree?

Mothers group at Bales Park

Mothers group tried a new venue today: Bales Park. It has a lovely big playground, shaded by plenty of trees, though the sand underfoot got into Louka's and my shoes. After Louka finished swinging on the baby swing, she tried to do up the chain on the swing. Lucas joined in on the other swing. Neither of them was able to do up the chain.


We spent 1½ hours at the park, then drove to Chatswood for lunch. But when I'd got the car parked at Chatswood, Louka was fast asleep! So I scrounged lunch from my parents instead. When Louka woke up, my father let her play with his pen. She didn't manage to push the button on the pen for a long time, but then after we'd watched Play School on the television, I noticed that she'd drawn all over her leg!