Pandemonium reigned! Joshua unwrapped one of his presents. What a lovely car... actually what a lovely bulldozer, and it has a remote control. Samuel runs off to get the two remote controlled car/vehicle/machine things he got for his birthday. Joshua is making his go around but Samuel's wont go... Switched Samuel's on and they went... They went crazy. All three cars went crazy. Joshua’s control controlled all of them. Noise, of the cars crashing into everything wheels turning, wheels spinning, revving. We then took them onto the hard floor and Jane tried to make them crash into people, she got close to me once but then Daddy pointed his remote at Jane’s digger and it went the opposite way. Then Jane decided I had to have a go too, so I did, and I eventually got her. The noise kept going for ages so I disappeared for a while to somewhere less noisy.

Later we had a piñata, a dinosaur. With one whack from each boy it became headless. After that the boys both got sticks and I had the short but fat, cylindrical and strong piece of wood we had used for the piñata. The war began and the boys beset upon me from both sides. I had to be careful of Joshua his stick reached, only as long as his arm (except for when he used the broom) and he swung it from side to side, he could also move it quickly. Whereas Samuel had a long unwieldy stick and he swung it up and kept bringing it crashing straight down towards me, Dangerous if you are not looking, but I watched him warily. These strokes could be easily blocked, especially if his stick became entangled in the washing line. He threatened to throw a brick at me too but I just ran away from him and he couldn’t get near, especially with the brick. So he dropped that idea, literally. Samuel said he would blunten my sword, but then I told him I had a cudgel not a sword. The problem then was that Samuel didn’t know what a cudgel was. I only got wounded once when Daddy joined in and helped the boys charge at me with a toy car (one you sit in) and my finger got jammed in the confusion. The boys had fun. Except that they never got me and were occasionally tapped (gently) on the side when I could get close enough. 

Careful I am armed and dangerous. Was going to whack Alice for taking photos of me doing silly things. I didn't though. 

Me........ silent........ Strange as it sounds yes, mostly anyway. It started...... well I am not sure how it started but anyway we got everything out of Mum and Dad’s room; curtains and all. Then we found the window had got an extra crack in it. So I taped up the crack, we didn’t really want part of the window to just fall out.

On Friday it was Jane’s 12^th birthday and we went ice-skating, so that we would be nice and sore for the next day.

A photo Mummy took of me ice-skating

Drop sheets had been laid and we were on our way to destroy the horrid pink room. Actually paint over the horrid pink with white and purple/lilac. But first everything had to be washed with sugar soap....... that is not an easy task; it requires a lot of elbow grease and patience. As it was lots of stuff was still just painted over, like mosquito guts that had rested there unburied for years.  Now the poor mosquitoes have been scrubbed off or buried in purple or white.

We painted all Saturday and had a day off on Sunday then on Monday we were back to work again. Monday was where the silent part came in I had and still have a sore throat. It started Sunday morning but by Monday I could only whisper, which was very annoying. I painted silently and if I wanted anything I had to use words sparingly. While painting lots of interesting subjects can come up and it is extremely hard when one can’t reply, at least not without causing one’s self pain.  Since painting does not involve much thinking and I find that if one spends the day thinking one comes up with interesting thinks. Also it can be useful in figuring out stories one is currently reading.

We had other problems though. Paint problems. First we ran out of white. So we went and bought some more.  Next I found this big puddle of paint on the drop sheets which had soaked through to the carpet, the tin was old and leaked.

Then we ran out of lilac so we got some more of it too. The problem was we had got the wrong base colour and it took us a long time to realize that. We did a whole coat and it dried too dark....... So we went and bought the right one, but as soon as the paint touched the wall disaster. Well not exactly. The last paint colour was ok but not right, but this was, well disgusting.  It was a greyish shade of purple. So back we went to get yet another tin of paint. We only stopped just before tea time, but Daddy went back to painting afterwards.

The nasty coloured paint after I had tried scrubbing it off, unsuccessfully.....

This morning, Tuesday, Alice and I finished painting. Well at least hopefully we finished. Daddy is not yet back from work so we will see if what we have done meets his approval.  Then I suppose we will pull off the masking tape and hope that paint does not come off with it. 

Well at least having a sore throat does not affect typing skills. sorry to bore you but I have been needing to say something somehow.....

Wednesday 5^th June

We washed up in the bathroom sink again and dried up with a towel because there were no unused face washers. I drove first. I went out and along the road and out of town then did a u turn and went back to get petrol. Got petrol, them went back out of town and further. We were traveling through emu and goat country, by the end of the day we had counted 43 emus and 1000 goats; I’m serious there was really that many!

goats and sheep

The goats were quite interesting, there were so many different colours, sizes, shapes and horns. We sang silly songs like; “the Bear” and “Found a Peanut.” Then Daddy drove and we listened to an audio book of “Pilgrims Progress.” We crossed the time zone and played I spy. We saw lots of things that started with SH, had four legs, is white, woolly, lives in paddocks (at least they are meant to, we saw quite a few that weren’t), goes mmmmmaaaah, has cute babies and is very Stupid!

an emu

goats

We had lunch on a cold windy hill. Then I drove past more goats and a few very strange trees, the first was dead but covered in shoe flowers. The second was full of bottles; the third was covered in hats.  The last had about five camp chairs hanging upside down in it............. really strange. Daddy typed stuff up on the laptop while I drove so he wouldn’t fall asleep this time and he didn’t.  After two hours we swapped drivers, I wasn’t tired but I was very stiff. I haven’t slept in the car for years, but my fingers, hands, ankles, elbows, shoulders, legs and neck all start getting sore and stiff after a while.

The dirt is red and the road is straight. We saw a sign saying ‘watch out for kangaroos for the next 172 km. We never saw a single live one, only emus and GOATS. I did once think there were some kangaroos but they were only three grey, dead bushes, standing next to the road.  They need signs saying look out for goats, not kangaroos. Maybe they don’t though; goats seem a lot smarter than kangaroos or sheep. Kangaroos and sheep run out in front of cars or right along next to them, whereas goats normally run directly away or just ignore you like the emus do.

We stopped at a park and looked at and climbed on some rusty old mining machinery. We also saw a fenced off and filled in gold miming shaft and a not quite so old digger that the boys had heaps of fun playing on.  We got to where we were staying that night at 6:30.

Later on, we went out to the car to read more of “The Return of the King,” because this place only had a bathroom and one other room. We also took our box of yummy things.  So we ate chips and caramel chocolates and found comfortable spots to sit. 

Warning SPOILER

SPOILER Warning

We read the part of “The Return of the King,” where Aragorn heals Faramir Eowyn and Merry.

When the black breath blows

And deaths shadow grows

And all lights pass,

Come athelas! Come athelas!

Life to the dying

In the kings hands lying

And everyone realizes that Strider, Aragorn, heir of Isildur, Elessar, was the King. The hands of the king are the hands of a healer.

Thursday 6^th June

I drove first again, the road was fairly straight. After driving (straight ahead) for over an hour we realized that we had left the two pillows that we had brought with us behind. We decided they weren’t worth going back to get. We stopped at a park and played tips on the equipment, and then I filled up the car with petrol, Daddy drove. I sat next to my brothers and we looked at a book of road maps of Australia. I got asked; where are we? Where is our place? Where is that? Where are we going next? How far away it that? And especially, where is this? I tried to answer but it got rather annoying. Luckily they got sick of it just about one question before it nearly killed me.

I have found that since I have been driving, I find it annoying not to be able to see what is going on behind us (when I’m not driving). It never bothered me before but now it really does, I noticed it today and a few days ago too.

Family photo I took (with the help of a tripod)

It was 4:30 when we arrived back home. Yay tis sooooo good to be home.

Monday 3^rd June

We went to Adelaide zoo. We saw the Giant pandas, which are the only pandas in Australia, penguins, both of which were Mummies favourites, otters, a bilby which were my sister’s favourites, monkeys and the goats where what my brothers liked. Daddy liked some of the birds. We also say foxes, tigers, lions, flamingos, hippos and heaps of other animals. I liked the birds and the giraffes. I think the giraffes are so amazing and beautiful, intricate patterns, striding around gracefully, with their silky black tails contrasting to their gold-brown patterns. 

 We had eight minutes left of our four hour parking when we got back to the car, it was still overcast but we all had a fun day at the zoo. Then we went back to our cousins (we didn’t want to have to survive at our house for any longer than necessary).  I went out into their chook pen and found a nest of ten eggs behind the dog house, they only have three chooks. I then washed the eggs and they all sank meaning they were ok.

So they must have been flamingo eggs.........

Tuesday 4^th June

Last night we cooked pasta for tonight’s tea; as we are leaving Adelaide today. After it was cooked we laid out strips of cling wrap and poured the pasta onto them and wrapped them up, in two big squishy, squashy packages. I drove second and drove through the valley of Clare and in the town of Clare I drove past Farrell road. Where we stopped at a rest area to swap drivers there was a little garden but it was full of orange fungi (and a few plants). I wonder if the fungus was edible or poisonous. On the way to Broken Hill we stopped at a friend’s place. I had seen her only once before, six years ago, but we had kept in contact by writing letters regularly.  We had lunch together and saw her goats and chickens and talked and played in her shed. Then after taking some photos of each other we had to go, it seemed so short a time.

I drove past lots of dead kangaroos and a few cars and trucks. Mummy was sleeping and daddy was tired......then he was sleeping too, I knew for sure when one of my bothers asked him a question and he said nothing.  I kept driving the road was straight and wide, he didn’t notice when I wandered a little, because I was looking at the pretty green birds. I was being extra careful though. I thought I really should try wake him, then I noticed that those white noisy/bumpy strips had just started on the edge of the road, perfect! So I carefully drove onto it and off again. Daddy sat straight up and looked around. I was laughing and I told him he had been asleep.

We swapped drivers at the next town and mummy drove the rest of the way. She says sitting next to me is more tiring than actually driving or at least it was last time she did. We got to Broken Hill and had tea. There were three rooms where we were staying a main room, a bathroom and one which we three girls were sleeping in. I don’t think I mentioned that we had brought a box it was big and plastic and was full of yummy things like chips and chocolate. So while Daddy read us some more of “The Return of The King” we partied and ate chocolate, and chips in bed.

Jane was the keeper of the malteser packet and pelted them across the room at me. She also pelted them at Alice who was beside her and Alice chucked one back, which Jane popped in her mouth and then taking it out asked Alice if she wanted it. Later Alice stole a bit of Janes white chocolate and then Jane put the rest of the white chocolate in her mouth and took it out and asked Alice if she wanted it now. This sent them both into a giggling fit.  

At 9:40 we went one at a time to brush our teeth and while I was gone Jane and Daddy hid some maltesers in my bed, which I ate in the morning. But Jane gave Alice a face washer and three bars of soap (individually wrapped) in her side of the bed. Then we threw soap around the room until 10:00.