We’re having a week in WA before Duncan and Becky’s wedding near Margaret River. It’s the end of a long summer with the girls – long slow days at Anglesea at the beach, canoeing in the river, lunch at my favourite Greek restaurant, social interludes with family and old acquaintances . A week of circus workshop learning how to balance on a board over a cylinder and climb up a trapeze, as well as holding each others’ weight. My uncle Roger and Steve built the girls a treehouse 3m in the air in our back garden so the girls have somewhere outside in nature to play and retreat to. And there was a day of being detectives at the Botanic Gardens trying to find bugs and putting them under a microscope.
The girls were so excited to be having a long flight and a change of scene and the flight was good: although the only suitable movie for them was Peppa Pig, there were video games to play and even on Virgin the food kept coming: a hot lunch, tea, a jam biscuit and juice. Upliftingly supplemented by the small éclairs I had bought the girls at the Brunetti outlet at the airport, with a small slice of sachertorte and the kilogram of cherries I brought from home for me (I couldn’t tempt Steve or the girls with them).
It’s been hard to get the girls to go to bed before 9pm over the summer and that has made me feel weary. It’s hard to get them to get dressed and ready to go out here too, but I’m trying not to pack too many things in to the day so there’s less rushing. Yesterday we explained that we were going to a park (King’s Park) then an adventure playground and that every day of this week’s holidays we would do something they enjoyed and something we enjoyed. ‘Boring old grass and bushes! This is the worst holiday ever!’ Rhea said when we arrived at King’s Park and she realised that there wasn’t a playground there. Later, after discovering a great old pimply climbing tree, the elevated board walk and the water fountain where the girls let themselves get wet to cool down from the unexpected jets, then we paddled in the stream and rock-hopped beside it, Rhea changed her mind. ‘That was literally refreshing!,’ she exclaimed enthusiastically.
I think it’s been 11 years since Steve and I were in Perth. King’s Park didn’t look too different except for the 750 year old boab tree transported 1,300km from the far north of the State to make way for a new road. The café felt the same and we had a restful lunch there. The gift shop is still full of original jewellery, glasswork, scarves and books, much of it local, and I enjoyed poking around in that too.
I saw a segment on Gardening Australia a few months ago about the adventure playground in Kwinana, 30km outside of Perth, and I was keen to see it and for the girls to enjoy it while we were there. It was amazing, with sand, a riverbed, water play, grass, and structures made out of wood and metal with the slides made out of colourful plastic for creating, hiding in, making music, climbing on and sliding down, as well as a flying fox. The girls were keen to engage with us in the play area through playing Hide-and-Seek-Tips, bringing to mind a show about parenting that I saw when the girls were babies which asked a group of new parents what the most important toy was for their babies. The facilitator let the new parents say in turn what they thought it was then said that their babies’ most important toy was in fact their parents’ attention. Eventually Lara and Rhea found some other children to engage with too, but it was a reminder to me about being present and having fun with them, not just taking them somewhere to have fun.
We capped off the day with dinner at the Little Creatures Brewery, which had one of those soccer pinball machines which Rhea and Lara latched on to straight away. There are opportunities to work on strategies to minimise the girls’ whingeing – must read up on what is suggested there. The brewery was quite different to when we were there last time, but the pizzas and pickled octopus are still excellent and the beer is still good. And Freemantle is still as windy as ever.
The rental car’s navigation system is a polite English woman (‘please turn left’) who got us back from Freemantle but got us very lost on what should have been a very simple shopping trip (her fault, not mine). Today we explored the somewhat neglected Art Gallery of Western Australia and the more impressive State Library of Western Australia which had an engaging, well-stocked children’s reading area including a two-metre tower of books and comfy chairs for reading. We cooled off at Cottesloe Beach in some strong waves crashing against the dazzling white sand, with time for building a sandcastle before going back to our small apartment to watch Roger Federer playing Marin Cilic in the final of the Australian Open.
So there’s a week of days like this, in which we’ll try not to be too busy but to have new experiences and promote grateful and positive behaviour. It will culminate in the wedding which should be memorable and fun for everyone. The girls are very excited about being flower girls. I hope they make friends with the other flower girls, Becky’s cousins once removed.
And by then hopefully I’ll be over my jetlag. The girls don’t seem to have any, they go all day like Roger Rabbit. Speaking of Rogers, Lara and Rhea are keen on meeting Federer’s eight-year old identical twins and him. I said I’d arrange it if I can.
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