The Nips Are Getting Bigger*

2005

2012




*With apologies to 'Mental as Anything'

Reflections Of Change In A Room

When she was little I gave a lot of thought to her room. Grandma bought us curtains and we used them as a theme. The colour for walls and carpet came directly from those curtains. I painted frames to match and to bring together a print and three hand drawn copies of Winnie the Pooh illustrations. I painted some drawers and scrubbed back a school desk, distressing its legs in the two colours of the room.



When we came to Australia we stuck everything into the existing room, whether it went together or not. There was a more grown up quilt cover however.



In 2005 we moved into our current house and once more everything was 'made' to fit, with the addition of posters!


She had a full sized desk by now.



But last year she asked for a change of colour scheme to reflect her growing maturity and her growing interest in New York City (I know. Don't ask me.)

So this is what she got.


She chose the subdued green with a little help from Himself. I'm afraid it looks a little bleak like this with the IKEA blinds closed. I think she needs something else on the wall behind the bed (note to self: also get a frill for round the bed).

View from the other side.


I <3 New York. Evidence.



Netball Glory.


The picture that started it all.


The Brooklyn Bridge quilt.


There were other subtle changes along the way but with the advent of the new imac I seem to have lost track of my pictures. I looked in vain for the shots in our first Australian house when we had painted the walls lavender. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

She's Ba-ack!

And she's still smiling.

She slept on the couch from 6pm Friday night til about 11pm before I woke her to send her to bed. She then slept though until after 10am the following morning.

I keep nagging her to write a guest post about it but so far she has been coy. I keep saying she can't possibly STILL be tired but it certainly looks that way!

In a quick answer to some of the questions about the camp posed in the comments on my previous post.

Is it school sponsored?

Yes. It is an integral part of her school's year 9 curriculum and has been for 20 years.

Is it like a survival type experience?

Yes and No. Mostly yes I guess. The kids are in groups and have to co-operate in challenges and cooking daily on hobo stoves. They sleep 'rough' and use only the rudimentary tools they have brought with them. There are long drop toilets and no showers. They are however fed from a kitchen once a day (breakfast) and have plenty of fresh fruit available for snacking. They undertake hikes, orienteering, river crossing challenges, rope courses, a blindfold obstacle course, rope swings, building a fire from scratch, cooking challenges, going down a dark mine etc. On the last night they are challenged to spend a night 'on their own' in one of three different circumstances;

1. under a tree
2. in a field under a tarpaulin
3. in the Esther Stand (standing in a 1 metre square space on a hillside for 6 hours)
   

Do all the schools do something like it, or just hers?

A number of schools run similar programs but hers is the only one I know of where the camp is a central part of the curriculum. Others seem to run in isolation as more of an 'add-on'.

Was this optional?

Yes and no. Pupils are strongly encouraged to take part and there are usually only a few who opt out, often for health reasons . This year however, the weather was so bad that after the first night and day, all pupils were given the option of whether to continue. Many 'phoned home' on the camp phone to discuss it and many went home that second night. Some returned the next day after a change of clothes and some did the whole back and forward thing, sleeping at home but returning to do the day challenges.

My child did not phone home. She made her decision to stay without consultation although she said it made her cry having to make the choice. It would have been so easy to have come home. She did not contact me during the whole week and she undertook every challenge. She wore the same 2 sets of clothes for the week. She did not shower. She got wet. Her shoes got wet. Her bedding got a bit wet but she stayed and she sucked it up! She stood for 6 and a half hours on a hillside in the dark and during a thunderstorm and she did not 'give up'.

Is this sort of camp a good idea? I think it is outstanding. What it does for kids in terms of building belief in themselves and their ability to cope is a gift without peer.

I am so proud of my tough daughter.

Outdoor Ed Camp: or How to Sleep in A Tree During a Storm.

This is my Baby Angel arriving at her Year 9 Outdoor Ed camp last Sunday. She is unpacking her things in preparation for the 'search' by Year 10 Camp Leaders, to ensure the kids have not smuggled in ipods/phone/lollies or extra clothing. A Year 10 search reveals masses of contraband!

They have spent all this year preparing for this camp. They have made their own bowls,

candlestick holders and cups out of clay ; they have made torches in Science; they have planned menus in Home Ec and fashioned eating utensils from wood and plastic in Technology classes.


The newspapers and magazines she has there are for warmth. That strange green thing she is sitting on is her bed.


Last weekend she spent several hours out in the garden with Himself, practising knots and tying up tarpaulins with rope. We trawled the internet for instructions on how best to set up a shelter.
We bought two different sized tarps from the cheap shops.

The treebed, as you can see, is merely a stretcher like arrangement which is wedged in the fork of a tree (as far as I can make out) and anchored with rope. To protect yourself from the elements, you erect a tarpaulin over the treebed and secure it to various branches.

During the day, the groups of campers undergo challenges through which they earn points. They can trade these points for raw ingredients at the camp 'store' and they then cook their own dinner and lunch for the next day.

Now all this would be fine except for one thing.

weather

This week has seen some of the heaviest rain, wildest winds and most fantastic thunderstorms that Adelaide has experienced in some time. And where is my child?????

Up a tree.

I cannot pretend that I have not been worried. Well, perhaps worried is the wrong word. I have felt guilty. I have felt guilty as I snuggled under a quilt on my lovely squashy couch in front of the log fire, listening to the rain pelt down and the wind howl. I have felt guilty as I reflected with relief that I was not being forced to sleep in a tree. I felt guilty that I was not snatching my baby from the jaws of discomfort and possible dampness and protecting her with my very life. It just didn't seem right. But then, she's not my baby anymore.


After the Music Suite, upstairs, flooded on Monday afternoon and we spent an hour mopping up ankle deep water with the Annie mops and buckets, I wondered how my child was faring in the extreme conditions and I did something I swore I would never do, I became the over anxious parent. I texted a friend who is a teacher on the camp and posed the question:

"How much rain does it take to wash this camp out?"

Initially there was no response but later I received this text:

"A lot more than we've had! Your kid is tough. Some have gone home already. She will let you know when she's had enough. Camp is running fine."

Can I give you any sense at all of how proud (and how relieved) I was? My kid is tough. I just welled up. I immediately phoned Himself who had been muttering about 'Health and Safety' and 'irresponsible schools' and the Westminster incident to reassure him. I haven't texted again. That doesn't mean that I haven't jumped a foot in the air every time my phone rings.

But here we are, Thursday night and no phone call. She's still out there. Tonight is calmer. After four straight nights of wind and water she may get a dry sleep tonight although I think tonight is the famous 'Esther Watch'.

On this night, the challenge is to stay 'on watch'. They carve themselves out a square metre of ground and stand or sit in that space all night. I wonder if they will let them do it this year?

Tomorrow afternoon I have to pick her up from school. I am on tenterhooks to see her, to hear her experiences, to help her make the transition from extreme challenge to normality. I wonder at my capacity to do this. Perhaps we will sit up together until it's late. Perhaps I'll curl up on the couch with her. Perhaps she won't need me at all?............

Theme Thursday: Fall

Of course, it's not Fall here. In the annual seasonal anachronism, Australia and the States face weather patterns at opposite ends of the spectrum and themes which prove perennially difficult to work with :-)
So as Amy Jo and her fellow Yanks produce beautiful, whimsical shots of the last apple on the tree and the leaves changing from green to gold, I give you "to fall". The verb.

This is a picture of my child falling. Yes, she is in there somewhere. She who howled so insistently at Tokyo Disney that we had to hand her to an assistant whilst we went on the 3 minute simulator ride without her (remember headbang?); and similarly at Thorpe Park when faced with the Tidal Wave (oh by the way, watch the video right to the end..it is an awesome ride!!! The bit at the end is the ONLY bit the BA would be involved with :-D). She who never forgave me for making her go on the log flume at Paulton's Park in 2001. The very same girl, this year, without further ado, very little thought and a bevy of friends, went on XXXL! (I'm sure there's a way to pronounce that but I can't be thinking about it now).

This shot gives you a better idea of the size of the ride and the action of the 'carts' as they spin.
I stood underneath ( braving the danger of falling vomit) snapping furiously and trying to 'catch' the carts as they 'fell' over me. The top shot was the best I could manage.

By the time the BA emerged, flushed, breathless and swollen with excitement at her own bravery, I had almost forgotten she was up there amongst the lights and smoke! This of course did not go down well. :-) I made amends by taking the obligatory 'group shot'.



The whole Royal Show experience this year is one of those milestone moments in the gradual move toward independence that marks the passage of 'growing up'. Last year she went with a friend in the company of his parents and they wandered the show making intermittent connections with the parent body. At about 5.30pm I arrived and she abandoned her 'mate' in favour of mum and we had a grand old time together.

THIS year we did the whole 'why can't I have a day off school to go? ' thing (don't worry I held my Flaming Sword high!!! >:-) and we compromised over an after school excursion with a group of friends and me meeting them after my musical rehearsal and doing the whole 'drop everybody home' thing. The BA said she would do the rides and all with her friends and then, like last year, join me in the gadget hall and petting farm.

HA

From the moment I arrived and tried to ring them I was confronted with unintelligible, screamed, giggly phone conversations, promises to meet 'in a few minutes' and a group of very excited, very happy teens.

Having taken her photo on XXXL it was evident that I was superfluous to requirements and so I meandered off to see the baby animals and cake decorating on my own. This was not before the following conversation ensued:

BA: flinging herself onto my back and shrieking in my ear over the noise of the fairground
rides.Muuuuuuum!!! HI!!! OMG! What is that on your head??????

Me: referring to the perfectly conservative leather cowboy hat I had purchased on special from the Scouts
Outdoor Sports shop. What? This?

BA (and friends): YES!!! Hahahahahahahaha. You are SOOOOOO funny Mum!!!!!!!!

Me: That's rich coming from people wearing halos, devil horns and flashing bunny ears on their
heads!!!

And so I felt it neccesary to move away from my chick as she spread her wings in a (relatively) safe environment in the bosom of her friends. And of course it was FINE and I/she survived perfectly well, but nonetheless it was a change.

As are these laughing clowns. Now I don't wish to be politically incorrect but was it necessary to paint them brown?

And what about this handball competition game?

Could you get any more sexist?



Or this; possibly the most tasteless super slide in history?



But the petting zoo was as good as ever. Look at these beautiful baby emus....
and those sweet chicks and their interloping bunny friend.


The beautiful flower displays were as good as ever and sideshow alley hasn't changed much. And of course we ended with fireworks.
Which I watched alone.
*sigh*
By the time I had met up with the gang and dropped all the girls off home, the BA was asleep in her seat. Not so grown up after all.

I wonder how we'll 'do' the show next year?

For more interpretations of 'Fall' click over to Cheese Party and join us for Theme Thursday.

Stretching the Umbilical Cord

Today was a calendar day.

The Bestie's mum and dad live in a satellite town about 40 kms north of Adelaide and during the week the Baby Angel decided she would like to go and visit them.

This took me somewhat by surprise and I struggled to think about time frames; hockey matches, 50th birthday parties, sailing and a whole host of other events which are scheduled for this weekend and which would impede my ability to drive her up 'north' for the afternoon (about an hour and a half's drive from start to finish).

"No, Mum," she explained in an exasperated tone, "On the train! On my own!"

Oh.My.Goodness.

She was serious. She rang Bestie's Mum, who was delighted to hear from her and the next thing I knew she had the train timetables up on the internet and was giving me departure and arrival alternatives!!!!! (just quietly, many of my Year 10 Maths pupils would have been hard pressed to get the train timetables up on the web, let alone read them !!!! ) Decisions were made. She would catch the 10.23 from Adelaide station and the Bestie's dad would pick her up at 11.17am.
Now all I had to do was come to terms with it.

And so we set out this morning.

Much to her mortification I had to have a word with the Railway employee and inform him that he had a young person on his train who was travelling on her own for the first time (apart from the three days a week she catches a train to my school but that's only 4 stops so it doesn't count).
"No problem," he quipped,"she should be alright at this time of day."
"Err...what do you mean 'at this time of day'?"
"Well, I wouldn't travel this line at night ma'am. In the business we call the stops between Womma and Everard Park 'indian country'."
"Because of the large ex-Bombay population?" I asked hopefully.
His cynical smirk spoke more of pulling the wagons into a circle.

Mum! Enough already with the photos!!!!!!!!!So she is off into the big wide world. Next thing I know she will be back packing around Europe (do they still do that sort of thing?).
PS: The phone call came at around 11.45am. She has been safely delivered into the bosum of the Bestie's parents and they will bring her back tomorrow when they come down for Sunday lunch....