I finished the desk in November and while Nate hasn't actually done any work at it yet, it looks quite nice in our office that was previously just the stomping ground for stacks of papers one accumulates when they have to file taxes in two different countries and keep track of renting out property shenanigans for a house abroad. In short, we cleaned up, added the desk and the space looks great now (if I do say so myself)!
We spent the first week of December in Busselton, Western Australia for my ironman and the location did not disappoint. Crystal clear water, sea turtles popping up to say hello (thankfully, I saw those and not the tiger sharks lurking around), kangaroos hopping alongside our car in a field next to the highway, and great weather to boot. Having done this type of racing before, Nate and I are both used to the multi-day preparation of getting your stuff ready, dropping off your bike, touring transition, practice swims, etc. Isla was a rock star as we dragged her to all these things and mostly just wanted to know when and where she could "fwim" again. It must have been a confusing 3 days when we kept explaining, "we have to do x for mommy's race, then we have to go to the race site, then back to the bike shop..." I think she was totally relieved when we woke her up at 4am on race day and told her it was finally time for the actual race (unlike me who mostly just wanted to puke that morning). All went well that day and my cheerleaders stuck it out until I finished just before 8pm that night. The next day, as soon as my stomach was almost back to normal, I hobbled into some amazing Margaret River wineries and we enjoyed some relaxing family time before flying back. Below is a picture of my "excited face" just before finishing.
I'm fully aware that unless you are me, the desk stuff a even the ironman race is probably a total bore, so I'll move on to wine country and koalas...
Nate's parents arrived in the middle of December and while Nate continued to work another week before the holidays, Isla and I jetted off with his parents to Adelaide to go to Mclarene Vale and Barossa Valley, world famous wine regions mostly known for Shiraz. The wine was great, but there were two specific noteworthy moments from this trip.
The first was our three-attempt landing in Adelaide. Adelaide is not massive, but has a sizable airport with a normal sized run way. We were in a 3x3 pretty standard plane and it was very bumpy and windy. The pilot goes to land, wheels out, wing flaps up, just about to touch down....and then...NEVERMIND...back up! The pilot missed the runway and had to quickly go back up, making everyone squeal a bit. The pilot got on the speaker stating it was very windy and he'd try again. So after a 20 minute circle, down, down, down, wheels out, wing flaps up, about to touch down, then....OH NO, UP, UP, UP! By this point, everyone on the plane looked pretty nauseous. The pilot got on the speaker again and said, "Sorry folks, today is just not my day. Let's try again." Um, what? Who's flying this thing?! Another 20 minute circle made the 1 hour flight to Adelaide take almost double that. He made it on the third attempt. Everyone clapped and we decided to run quickly off that place before the pilot decided to take off again!
The second moment came after a relaxing lunch of cheeses and meats on the veranda of a winery. As we wrapped up the meal, we all did the "Isla run around, everyone take turns going to the bathroom" routine and then we left and started driving to our next winery. About 20 minutes later, I asked Nate's Dad how much the bill was so we could add it to our running tab. "I didn't pay," he exclaimed. "Well, I didn't pay either....Carol, did you pay?" I asked. "No..." she relied. OMG, we ran out on the bill! Oops! Phone service is not exactly fluid there, so eventually when we had service, we called to explain and give them our credit card number, but it made for a good amount of laughing until then.
When I think about the best way to sum up the rest of December, it would be koalas, koalas, koalas. Many of the zoos and sanctuaries here offer close up encounters with animals for a very small amount of money, so when guests come, we generally take advantage of this. We hung out with koalas in Melbourne as well as in Hamilton Island, where we spend Christmas week. I must say, while cute, my overall opinion is not high of koalas as they are super lazy, low energy, and sleep 17 hours a day. Not my kind of animal. However, at least they are somewhat productive in Hamilton Island, where tourists pay to have a 1 minute koala cuddle, which includes a souvenir photo. Mostly, I just like to see these lazy animals finally do something productive! They give some cuddles, take some photos and make $10 a pop! Sounds like a pretty good gig to me. In fact, once Isla starts going to pre-school in Australia, I think this type of low stress job could be right for me - give some cuddles, take some photos, go back to sleep for the afternoon. On second thought, this might actually be called prostitution. And while legal here, this may not be the resume booster I'm looking for.
