All that hot air

Since my parents have come to visit us from the heat of a northern hemisphere summer, we decided they may be getting a bit cold here in Sydney and took further south to the home of hot air in Australia - Canberra. In saying this, I am breaking one of my own hard, fast rules. One should only criticize that which is one's own. And since I am not officially Australian, I should not refer to the seat of government with anything less than the most reverent of terms. So what, you might ask, has led me to this massive breech of conduct. Well, mainly the lack of ability to think of any more "catchy" title. For those of my aussie readership, I do hope you will forgive me with your usual generosity and equanimity. (is that thick enough?)

Lest I digress more, I will go on to regale you with boundless tidbits of information about our trip - along with a few relevent pictures. We left Wednesday morning and came back Thursday night so it was a quick trip, but we managed to hit the big things. We had a whirlwind tour of the new and old parliament houses. Mom and Dad got an education in Australian politics which we reviewed back in Sydney by watching episodes of Yes, Prime Minister. Cutie decided that she has a new career ambition.

This government stuff is serious business

Percy found things much more exciting when he could wander freely where-ever and whenever he wanted.

They said there would be a lot of paperwork in this job so I brought something to put it in

By the time we finished wandering around the seat of the most excellent Australian government, it was time to go to dinner. For this occasion, we made prior arrangements with Cutie's most favorite person in the world - babysitter extraordinaire - Ms. E. Well, with Ms. E and family to be more exact. After a brief period of re-aquaintance, nothing would do but that Cutie would sit next to Ms. E, play with Ms. E (probably even live with her if allowed). For this special occassion, Cutie even moved beyond her usual demand of "mommy, daddy go college again" to "mommy no play with toys". This particular statement was made when I crossed into her proximity with Ms. E to have a brief chat. Appropriately chastized, I put my tail between my legs and retreated to the other side of the room with the "adults".

Throughout all of these activities, Percy only saw fit to take a 30 minute nap and Cutie didn't even dream of napping despite walking the more than ample corridors of Parliament House at quite a brisk pace. Weetbix go a long way and Percy was pretty happy with himself. I was having visions of screaming, out of control children so we headed to our overnight accommodation and got everyone settled as quickly as possible.

5am comes awful early to us these days, but the kids seemed ready to go again. After all, you sluggish adults, there are places to see and things to do. By 9am, we were on our way to the war memorial. By the time we got there, breakfast had been a long time ago so we had tea on the lawn. Hubby and I had vague hopes that the airplanes and other heavy equipment in the museum might entertain two tired kidlets. Apparently these things are much better when they are roaring and moving along. Percy enjoyed trotting around through the exhibits, but fatigue caught up during the display on the bombing of Berlin and our cute little guy lost the plot. Cutie never lost the plot. All she was interested in was seeing Ms. E.

Percy responded to the sunshine, a short nap, and a bit of milk. Lest you think we forgot granny and pawpaw in all this, we usually had the decency to be in a different room of the museum than they were in. This allowed them to actually hear the presentations and see the displays. One of these days (in retirement, I imagine), I'm going to spend about a week in that museum. Hubby declared he's studied enough history this year to satisfy his internal history requirements for about the next five years. Me, I loose myself in that stuff. For now, hubby and the kidlets win.

We spent the rest of our time having lunch (which the much-loved Ms. E was able to attend) and wandering around the lake and nearby buildings. After all this, you'd think the kids would collapse into the car, sort of like their mother wanted to do, but no, not Cutie and Percy. They were so pumped when we stopped to eat that they forever changed the atmosphere of the dining establishment (too embarrassed to admit we were at McDonalds). And now they're happily hanging out with granny and pawpaw catching even more sun and fresh air. We fear we will drive them to boredom when their personal entertainment systems leave!

All tourist opportunities improve with granny and pawpaw!

This blog was inspired and improved by hubby!