Thulani in Tasmania - Day 8

Day 8 Monday 25th April:
 
Today is ANZAC day.
 
The clock in this photo is our war memorial in Ulverstone. The 3 columns represent, the army, navy and air force, and Each ANZAC day ex-patriots and/or their families march and lay wreaths of remembrance at the base of the clock. This clock is at the top of our main street in town.

Today Thulani went up to a farm to see some cattle being fed. They were very curious, and Thulani got to sit on the 4 wheeler motorbike. 

 
 

This afternoon we watched a game of Australian rules football.

The Ulverstone team wears red and black. They are called the robins. They played Penguin who wear blue. It was cold there, but we had a great day.

Thulani in Tasmania - Day 6 & 7

Day 6 Saturday 23rd April 
Thulani went shopping with Rosemary and sat quietly while she had coffee with her partner Viv. We bought new pillows!

An aerial view of Ulverstone which is at the mouth of the Leven River.

 

Day 7 Sunday 24th April 
Easter Bunny came to our house. He left a Cadbury egg and some tiny eggs for Thulani.

Cadbury chocolate is made in Hobart, Tasmania and it is the BEST chocolate in the world!

Thulani in Tasmania - Day 4 & 5

Day 4 Thursday 21st April: 
Thulani was back at school for our Cross Country running carnival. The children competed in long distance running. It was a great afternoon and Thulani thoroughly enjoyed himself.
 

Day 5 Friday 22nd April:

 
Today is the beginning of the Easter celebration. We traditionally eat fish on this day. It is a public holiday, and we have the day at home with family and friends. Thulani was lucky enough to eat some of Erin's chocolate coated strawberries from the local strawberry farm.

 

Thulani in Tasmania - Day 2 & 3

Day 2 : Tuesday 19th April: 
Thulani went to Somerset to a nursing home to visit one of Beryl's very dear friends. Her name is Joyce and she is very very ill. She was delighted to hear the story of Thulani, and he brought a smile to her face when Beryl told her of his adventures so far and where he was to go next. He also went to visit some other elderly people at the home and brought great joy to them as well.

Day 3 Wednesday 20th April:

Thulani went to East Ulverstone Primary School where Rosemary is the Acting Principal. Some of the children mapped his journey on an interactive white board and were interested in hearing his story.

Thulani in Tasmania

Day 1: Monday 18th April
 
Thulani arrived safely in Ulverstone, on the North West Coast ofTasmania. Tasmania is an island state, south of the mainland and it is also known as the "Apple Isle". We have beautiful mountains, rivers, beaches and forests.
 

Tasmania is well known for it's fantastic apples, but we also have wonderful seafood, dairy products and wines!
 
Thulani is living with 3 generations of women...Beryl (84), Rosemary (49) and Erin (18). Thulani met Rusky, our pet samoyed, but Rusky is a bit boisterous and playful so she only got to have a quick look at him!

Thulani in Adelaide - Day 6

Day 6 – 10 April 2010

There’s no place like home…

So Sunday rolled around and it was a rainy, grey, drizzly day – the perfect pyjama day!!

Daniel and Gavin made a spy headquarters out of the big box from our new bathroom vanity unit.  Of course Thulani was allowed inside to inspect.  Daniel liked the hidey hole so much that he settled inside with a pillow, blanket and his much loved dog, Snoozy Suzy and Ted Bear.

After the novelty of the box had worn off a bit, the boys showed Thulani some of their Lego. He seemed to particularly like the police station.

So after a pancake dinner (traditional weekend fare in this house), it was off for an early night, ready for school in the morning.  Thulani needed his rest too as he was due to leave us for his next family in Tasmania.  Happy travels Thulani!

Thulani in Adelaide - Day 5

Day 5 – 9 April 2010

Something BIG!!

Australia is known for it’s big things. The big pineapple, the big banana, the big penguin, the big guitar, the big potato, the big prawn, the big croc, the big gumboot, the big koala, etc.  Have a look at http://www.amazingaustralia.com.au/bigthings.htm to see more big things.  So it only seemed fitting to take Thulani to see something big.

Gumeracha (pronounced Gum-u-rac-u) is a township set in the beautiful Torrens Valley region of the northern Adelaide Hills, 36 km north-east of Adelaide in South Australia.  Set in the rolling hills, the town is surrounded by vineyards, olive groves, orchards and farmland and is home to the big rocking horse.

We took Thulani to feed the kangaroos and wallabies (small kangaroo species). 

He even managed to pet a grey kangaroo who was enjoying the Autumn sun!

After all the excitement of the animals, Thulani strolled through the toy shop, having his picture taken with a number of Australian natives – wombat, koala, platypus, kangaroo and devil. 

He even hitched a ride in a kangaroo’s pouch! 

After an obligatory ride on a correctly sized rocking horse, Thulani joined us for a picnic tea before heading back home.  The windy road through the green hills was so similar to the Natal Midlands – it’s uncanny!

Thulani in Adelaide - Day 4

Day 4 – 8 April 2010

School today…

Today Thulani popped into school / kindergarten with Daniel and Gavin.

Gavin (4) attends a kindergarten / child care centre that caters for children up to age 5.  Once they have turned 5 kids start school in the equivalent of Grade 0 (called Reception here).  This happens in the term after their birthday so Gavin will start school in October (Term 4) and will stay in Reception for five terms in total. 

This term the kindergarten children have been watching eggs hatch.  It has been fascinating and the poster accompanying the eggs shows each stage of the egg development.  Great from a scientific viewpoint but has seriously put me off eggs for a while!

The kindergarten is next door to Daniel’s school, Keithcot Farm Primary School. This is a public (government) school with about 600 students.  The school was built in a unique design of smaller buildings more like houses than school classrooms.  The reason for this is so that the facility is multi functional for the future.  For example, the school could easily be converted into an aged care facility if required.

Behind Keithcot Farm Primary School is a private school called Kings Baptist Grammar School that has classes for all 13 years of schooling.  Both Gavin and Daniel will be attending high school there. 

Adelaide schooling uses a unique system where government schools shares facilities with nearby private schools.  Often a government school will be built alongside a private one for this very purpose.  So Keithcot Primary shares a library, canteen, art centre and sports fields with Kings Baptist – a fabulous idea in my opinion.

So that’s the end of Thulani’s tour of schools.  Now home again with me for the more mundane (and undocumented) tasks of washing, coffee breaks, Oprah, etc.

Thulani in Adelaide - Day Three

Day 3 – 7 April 2010

When Life Gives You Lemons…

Today Thulani took part in an experiment.  Daniel and Gavin are very interested in science, particularly as their Dad (Stuart) is an electrical engineer. 

So since our lemon tree has produced madly this year (looks like the laundry grey water agrees with it), it seemed like just the right time to test the theory of making a battery out of a lemon.  The boys assembled all the necessary materials and Thulani had a front row seat.

With copper, nails, wires and a multi meter to test the theory, the experiment began.  Everyone was amazed to see that the lemon did in fact produce electricity – enough to power a calculator!!

More adventures tomorrow – see ya!

Thulani in Adelaide - Day Two

Day 2 – 6 April 2010

Dinner is Served!

Today Thulani enjoyed a traditional Aussie Sausage Sizzle. We had heard that he was DESPERATE for some meat!!  Leanne, Stuart, Daniel (6) and Gavin (4) kept him company outside on a fabulous Autumn evening. 

“We love to eat outside whenever we can and having a gas barbeque makes this a quick option when we don’t have to wait for the coals to be just right.” 

There’s less cleaning up too so Thulani didn’t have any chores to help with and could join the boys in the lounge room to watch one of their favourite shows, Scrapheap Challenge.

Then it was time for bath and bed as it’s a school night.  Sleep tight Thulani.

Thulani in Adelaide - Day 1

Day 1 – 5 April 2010

Thulani Arrives In Adelaide, Australia

 

Adelaide is a coastal city, the capital of South Australia, and the fifth-largest city in Australia. It is known as "The City of Churches". Adelaide has a Mediterranean climate where most of the rain falls in the winter months and summers are hot and dry.

The city was founded in 1836, not as a convict settlement, but as the planned capital for a freely settled British province in Australia. Adelaide was designed in a grid layout, interspaced by wide boulevards and large public squares, and entirely surrounded by parkland, making it one of the most planned cities in Australia.  For these reasons it is a fabulous place to live, easy to get around, with plenty of scrupulously clean parks and open spaces. It is relatively low rise compared to other cities and reminds us a lot of Pietermaritzburg from an architecture point of view.

On the sporting front, Adelaide hosts the Tour Down Under bicycle race, the largest cycling event outside Europe and the first event outside Europe with UCI ProTour status.

Today, Adelaide is noted for its many festivals - Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Adelaide Film Festival, Adelaide Festival of Ideas, Adelaide Writers' Week and WOMADelaide to name a few - its food, wine and culture, its long beachfronts, and its large defence and manufacturing sectors – we build cars J. It ranks highly in terms of liveability, being listed in the Top 10 of The Economist's World's Most Liveable Cities index in 2010.

Thulani in Israel - Part Five

Thursday 3 March 2011

Jewish wedding, 600 people- didn’t want to risk the little man getting lost so he was left at home!

Friday 4 March 2011

Shabbat is earlier now, 17:20. So we went to Shimon’s parents and before Shabbat started took a photo of Hannah and Thulani.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

A quiet week as the museum tired Thulani and Dad, so we stayed in a lot. We did go to the old part of the city to the library. The English section is quite big and mainly consists of books people brought to read on the plane or on holiday and donated. Trashy easy to read novels- perfect! So we take Dad there a lot as he is a prolific reader.

Today is my husband’s birthday so of course Thulani came to! We went to Calma, our favourite seaside café but as you can see it was wet and miserable outside. We  had a wonderful meal and Thulani was very well behaved.

Saturday 12 March 2011

Apollonia! Oh so we were intending to visit caves but it rained all night and then the sun came out! Waste a day in the caves when it has been raining three days??? So we went to Apollonia, a Roman fortress.

Tomorrow Thulani leaves for the next stage of his holiday. I shall really miss the little man and wave him off with sadness. Safe journey little bear!

Thulani in Israel - Part Four

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Today was a looong day. Our original plan was to visit the Arabic park in Jatta but Dad watched a fascinating program on someone who faked the ossuary (bone container) of James the brother of Jesus and they showed the inside of the Biblical Museum of Jerusalem. Well. That was a change of plan!

First stop was the Biblical Museum. Thulani was fascinated! There are photos of him with the Egyptian chair, the boat- all sorts! The seat was the statue of Ramses II and was made in 1290 BC! The boat was Egyptian from the Middle Kingdom about 3000 years ago and is not a reproduction!

He also found the seals fascinating, carved from some precious stones and clay. The pictures they reproduced when rolled across soft medium were astonishingly detailed.

Downstairs there was an exhibition called ‘Angels and Demons’ about magic and spells in Judaism. He found it fascinating if worrying. They had an explanation of the Evil Eye- it’s against bad luck and Thulani asked if he could have one too. Doesn’t he look smart with it on?

We then went to the Shrine of the Books, the museum with the Dead Sea scrolls- no pictures in them and no photography. We then went home and crashed- we walked MILES today!

Thulani in Israel - Part Three

Tuesday 22 February 2011

Mini Israel and Thulani thought this was the best day so far! He pretended to audition for King Kong, went to see the kibbutz, sadly there are very few now, modern technology and lifestyles have closed many of them.

He also went to the safari exhibit. I explained to him that first you drive through the section with rhinos, deer, antelope and ostriches and then park and visit the zoo. After walking about the fairly big zoo for a few hours, you get back in the car and drive through the lions. Sadly most children fall asleep in the car and miss seeing the lions! Thulani saw the areas of Israel he might not get to see for real so he really loved it.

Friday 25 February 2011

Tank museum at Latrun. I find it incredibly poignant that my dad is 81 , nearing the end of his days, walking around all the tanks he remembers from his time in the army, both dreaming of their days of glory. Very sad. However Thulani loved it- he got to pretend to be Cher sitting on the gun and even had a great idea to save postage! Get out of here Thulani!

Shabbat was at home so I was very busy cooking Moroccan fish, roast chicken, Italian meatballs and puree potato.

Thulani in Israel - Part Two

Monday 14 February 2011

Valentines Day! Valentines Day isn’t really celebrated in Israel but this year when we went out to dinner all the restaurants were full of heart shaped helium balloons. Festivals in Israel are in the main religions- Passover which is HUGE is in April which means a month before I start cleaning and that means all floors, wardrobes, window, shutters, cupboards, curtains- the whole apartment. There are usually tears, tantrums and arguments. Passover is a week and during that week we can’t eat, see or own any bread, pasta, beer, whiskey, biscuits or anything with flour in it. We also cannot eat from any plate or use any cutlery or utensil that came into contact with any of them! So it’s like camping using special outdoor stuff for a week.

Tuesday 15 February 2011

How annoying! We went to the cinema to see Harry Potter (I checked if Thulani was allowed and he was) and five minutes into an English speaking film with Hebrew subtitles they allowed in a birthday of 15 5-9 year olds who couldn’t read Hebrew. So they amused themselves by screaming, shouting and throwing popcorn so we had to leave halfway through the evening and it was the last night it was being shown! Thulani was fluffy with temper.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

The Shuk. Usually the shuk is a bustling amazingly colourful market by the sea, full of cloth covered stalls selling clothes, spices and an eye watering selection of pirate DVDs, music and games. It’s brilliant for just about everything. You may have noted the ‘usually’ because we got there to discover, due to the high wind and the sand hurtling horizontally across car-park where it usually held, only about nine stalls. 8 vegetable and one selling dodgy leopard-print leggings so that wasn’t a runner. Thulani didn’t even get out the car and I don’t blame him.

Thursday 17 February 2011

Breakfast at my favourite beach side café! It was my bestests 50^th so Thulani sat at home and sulked- girls only!

Saturday 19 February 2011

We (that being hubby, daddy, daughter, dog and Thulani) walked to the fort at Ashdod. It’s only fifteen minutes away but with my husband who really doesn’t walk, my whinging daughter, dad who is 81 it felt like swimming upstream. And I forgot to take any pictures of Thulani who frankly was the best behaved of the whole lot!

Thulani in Israel, Part One

Wednesday 9 February 2011

Thulani arrives in Israel! Just after he arrived I went to the airport to collect my dad from the airport- he is staying with us for 6 weeks.

We live on the eighth floor of a nine floor apartment building in the city of Ashdod on the coast. Thulani was very impressed with the view from the apartment! I moved to Isreal in 2001 having met my husband to be online. I moved out in the September and we married in the October. Hannah was born in 2003. She is the one holding Thulani at the airport

Thulani is a little worried about being KB (Kosher bear) during his time in Israel but we assured him a kosher diet is very healthy and all that olive oil would make his fur nice and glossy. Late night after all the excitement of Dad arriving.

Thursday 10 February 2011

Today Thulani played with Hani and her new Nintendo DSI which Hani’s granddad brought from the UK- he thought it was great! He met Hani from school and next week he is really looking forward to going to school all day with Hannah.

Friday 11 February 2011

Tonight is Shabbat so mummy is busy tidying and cooking ready for 25 hours of rest- Shabbat starts 1 hour before sunset and lasts until Saturday night 1 hour after sunset. Friday night means all the family gets together for a long leisurely dinner, no telephone, no television and no DSI’s! It’s a lovely chatty time with the table beautifully laid and far too many dishes of food! We don’t mix meat and dairy so no mixing cheese, cream or yoghurt with meat- it makes curries and lasagnes challenging!