After the wildlife park we went to the house of a South African family who know us from Durban. What a treat! They put out a feast for us, including a genuine Aussie barbeque.

Manna from Hong Kong, made fast friends with the South African aunties:

We had lots of time to relax in the garden and in the house - really refreshing!

We have a new "K-group" - a family group on the ship. 14 singles plus the three of us - quite a big family! And 13 of the singles are very new on the ship, they only arrived in September. This is a good way to get to know them though. We meet once a week for coffee, but also to celebrate birthdays etc. Last week we arranged an outing together.
Here's the group, minus 4 of us who couldn't come:


Typically of the ship, all five continents are represented in the group and the specific countries are:
Brazil, US, Australia, Hong Kong, South Korea, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, UK

We went to a wild-life park in the morning.
We touched koalas.. but not this one - he was fast asleep in the tree. Very relaxed :)


And everyone got little buckets of food to feed the kangaroos, llamas and deer.


There were a lot of young kangaroos in their pouches. Comical to see their (rather large) feet hanging out of the pouch:


Some of the group did the snake-handling thing at the end:

These photos are so interesting to me. Apart from the fact that Tessa is pulling herself up and cruising around the furniture.. she also has two completely different 'smiles'... funny hey?

Yesterday was Tessa's 9 month 'birthday' - she's now been out in the world, just as long as she was growing inside the womb. And she keeps amazing us: crawling, pulling herself up on furniture, reaching for everything and chuckling and smiling. She is a dear... despite the occasional late-night traumas :)

This picture is from 2 weeks ago:

I really enjoy exploring new places with Tessa in the stroller and my camera in hand. We've been so fortunate as the last couple of ports have been close to city centres and easy to walk around in. In Sydney I spotted a row of older looking houses from the ship and one afternoon we climbed the hill to find out what they were.
The area is called Miller's Point, and it borders the even older area of Argyle Street which was also fun to discover. Argyle Street has some of the oldest buildings in Sydney... from the first days of European settlement.
But first Miller's Point and the houses which caught my eye. The street is called 'High Street':


A detail from one of the houses:

After coming up from High Street and rounding the corner into Argyle.. we looked back at this great view of our ship:

And spotted this smart pair, who added to the 'retro' atmosphere:


The Lord Nelson - Sydney's oldest hotel, according to the sign:


This bright door caught my eye on the way back to the ship along Kent Street... 

I've been wondering.. maybe this is a crazy thought.. but what could it be like not to have anything on my "to-do" list?
I don't mean the ordinary daily things which have to be done, but the list of projects like: writing our family newsletter; filing photographs from 2006 and 2007; unpacking the boxes stored in Tessa's cabin; fixing the hole in that cheap pair of trousers.. and on it goes.

Most days I don't even touch any of these necessary things, yet they all need to be done sometime.. and while life goes on they seem to hover in the background .. casting a bit of a shadow sometimes. And on the rare and momentous occasion that one item on the list is completed, there always seems to be another to take its place. I would love to simplify my life, to fully live in the moment, and not have thoughts wandering back to the little mountain of the 'un-done'.

I wonder what it would feel like to have it all ticked off, finished, and nothing more than today's tasks to think about?

Would I be bored?!

Seelan has most Mondays off, but if we stay on the ship he can all too easily be drawn into something work-related. It is much more for refreshing for him (and me!) to get away for the day. It doesn't always happen, but one Monday in Sydney it did, and it was a wonderful day. The weather was perfect, the plan was simple: relax, and the company was the best!  Antony and Sabine spoiled us with an Aussie "barbie" and showed us around their little corner of the world. They have a great deal as caretakers at a surf club - they get to live right on the beach and enjoy these views each day.

This is right outside their window:


S and A have both been on the ship with us in the past, and also worked on our sister-ship for some years, before getting married and moving back to Antony's home country, Australia:


A perfect day for each of us - I got my taste of history looking at the old photos inside the surf club:


We enjoyed a walk along the coast, and took lots of pictures. This is one of my favourites:


Catching up on our Vitamin D :)

Lunch...

... and working off lunch in the park.


Tessa was very happy with Antony:

Tessa is getting so active! She is wobbling around on hands and knees now.. and when she has a goal in sight, she can scramble forward to get to it.
These photos are from two weeks ago:

Eleanor Roosevelt said: "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent". I've adapted it a little to remind myself: "Nothing can spoil your day / mood / attitude without your consent". 

This weekend I was tested on that point again. After a frustrating beef-cooking experiment (result: too close to leather); a washing machine which flooded the laundry and nose colds all round.. I felt really unimpressed and sarcastic. And then I remembered that I get to choose how I react to the circumstances around me. It wasn't easy, but a little mental shake and a look at the big picture made my little disapppointments look small indeed. And when I started to count my blessings on top of that... how can I grumble?!

Now please can I remember this next time, and spare myself (and my husband and friends) from a bad mood!
 

The weather in Brisbane has been idyllic especially since it's supposed to be winter. Blue sky and sunshine every day - it's been a pleasure to get off the ship and take walks along the river and in the nearby suburb / townlet of Hamilton.
We are berthed at Portside Wharf, a newish development with posh restaurants, loft apartments.. and now us :)


What do you call a group of pelicans? They seem too big and bulky to be a flock in my thinking...
Anyway, this bunch live just down the river from us. Tessa and I have passed them several times on our walks.
(And yet again - these beautiful photos are not my doing! They are by our ship's doctor, Dr Neoh.)

I came across these two interesting articles on the web today.

The first is about the possible background stories to common English nursery rhymes, which I've heard about a bit before but enjoyed reading about again.

The second is about three eccentric couples who prefer to live in the past ie. in the 1950s, 40s and 30s. It's interesting, and I would enjoy one of those 1950s dresses for an evening, but it looks like a lot of work to keep it up as a lifestyle .. and then also rather contradictory when the one lady says:

"We aren't friendly with anyone who doesn't share our love of the Forties. Some people might think I am hiding my head in the sand, harking back to an age that is long gone.
But to me, the 1940s was a time when people were much more friendly to each other - they really cared about their neighbours."

Yes, apparently.

Also amusing that they try to eradicate all signs of the modern age... but then spend hours on the internet to source genuine items from their chosen era for their collections!

A perfectly innocent question - what will we have for dinner?
Elephant or tiger?



Poor Tigger didn't stand a chance against the ferocious tiger-chewing Tessa!

After the ship sailed from Wellington Tessa and I stayed behind a few more days and flew over to Australia the next week. We stayed with another ship mom and her two little ones at the home of a wonderful Wellington family - who have three children of their own. Thus the week was a bit like a kiddies camp, very child-orientated up until about 8pm, when we moms would finally put our feet up and chat with cups of tea in hand.
It was a good experience for me (apart from the fact that we missed a rather bumpy voyage!).
Tessa had some good social time with other little people and enjoyed the variety of toys in the house.

 
(with the second-youngest ship baby, Sienna, who is two months older than Tessa)



(with Sienna's big sister Esther, and Megan, the youngest daughter of our host family)

The weather was quite miserable and I was really thankful for our new raincover for the stroller (thanks to Sandra who sent it from Germany!). This picture is from the first day when we had to walk through the rain to reach the house. Tessa didn't mind - she had the best seat of all!



I enjoyed the quality time with the other two mums and learnt a lot from them. It was so good for me to see how they "do life" with small kids... in a normal home set-up! I think this week has really helped me relax a lot more about the practicalities of bringing up my baby.

Tessa is progressing steadily with solid foods.. here she is trying some kind of yellow mush.. carrot? sweet potato? pumpkin? I can't remember :)

There were no pictures for yesterday, so more for today.

Today's Happy Things are:
~ Ginny went to the supermarket and picked up baby essentials for me, so that is one less thing on my list.

~ I had another BookCrossing meet-up in my cabin (the first one was in Auckland). Only three of us: Jay - a local from Wellington and Kirsty from the ship. I so enjoy meeting local people with whom I instantly have something in common (ie. BookCrossing) - it gives us a lot to talk about from the start, and it also feels like I know a place better when I've spent some decent time with people who live there.

Tessa was super-cute .. again :)
and here are pictures to prove it (some from yesterday actually).

Visiting Daddy in his office:


Tessa loves watching computer screens, it's hard to draw her away sometimes:

Yesterday was a day where more happened in my thoughts than in life.. by the end of the evening my mind was swirling with everything I was feeling and all that I felt I should remember. I was pretty tired but still wanted to record the day here. And then this website just froze up - which was probably a good thing! I didn't have to try and de-tangle my thoughts and could just get to bed instead.

My friend Ginny suggested I journal my day to get my head clear (in my private, pen and paper journal), or do what she often does: just put three happy things and three sad/bad things from the day and pray over and about those things.
I didn't end up doing that last night, but I think I could try here instead:

3 Happy Things About Friday
* Shopping Trip with Helen  -- we went searching for farewell gifts for four ship wives who are leaving soon - a gift for them from the other onboard wives, and we found good gifts easily and quickly. I was really surprised by that. And we had a great time chatting and pushing our little ones in their strollers as we went.

* Evening with Seelan and our Brazilian friend, Felipe -- it was just fun to walk around again, get Indian food and chat together. Tessa slept in her stroller again.

* Tessa is eating more and more cereal, and I finally seem to be feeding her at the right times ie. when she is hungry, but not starving.

3 Non-Happy Things About Friday
* Well, looking back I am disappointed with myself for feeling so overwhelmed with small things... I don't have huge problems to face, yet I get anxious. So that would be bad thing no. 1, and it covers all the other bad things too - because I felt uneasy and anxious about several little things which I didn't have too much control over.

After a bit of analysis I realised I often feel like time is "running out" at the end of a port visit, and this makes me feel on edge.  It could be that after three weeks the city is finally becoming familiar - I know where things are, how to get around, the general feel of the place.. and then we are about to pack up and sail away again. So if I want to get those colour copies made, I need to do it in the next few days because I know where the copy shop is in this city and I know I can walk there, but who knows where it is and how far etc. in the next place (and how long it will take for me to find it)? The same with the great museum which is 5 minutes away - it's free and apparently really good, but I haven't gone there yet.. and only have a few more days until we are gone forever. (Drama, I know! :)  )
Do you see? That is what was mulling around in my head yesterday.. along with a few fears, disappointments and to-do lists. Nothing big, just hard to pin everything down.

That was Friday - today I feel much more relaxed about most of it.. and trying to put into practice one of the most challenging passages from the New Testament: Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
The promise which follows is so precious: And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
I need that peace as well as that guard over my feelings and thoughts!

We had to say goodbye to our guests today - first the two couples left to catch the ferry back to the South Island at 8am, and after lunch Hasmig and Keziah left too. Tessa was really enjoying all the attention from Keziah!
Before lunch us moms took our girls to a Doulos kids' programme in the Main Lounge. What a life: entertainment on our doorstep!


The afternoon was rainy, but I still went out briefly. We have received a brilliant gift from friends in Germany: a rain-cover for Tessa's stroller, so she was comfortable and dry while I quickly ran some errands. Then we had a short visit with the ship director's wife, who had another gift for Tessa - a super-soft teddy bear!

Right now it's almost 10pm and our ship's community prayer evening is going on upstairs. I am down in the cabin with Tessa - she has been much quieter than she was last night! but I can hear our neighbours' little baby crying next door.. I guess we all have our turns. Actually little Sienna, her older sister Esther and mom Kim are staying behind with us after the ship has sailed. We are the only two families in the Section 3 Accommodation Area - the other cabins are all for single ladies. I am sometimes so grateful for Kim and her girls - she gives me lots of advice and makes me feel normal when life with baby seems too overwhelming. I am looking forward to the seven days we'll have together and hope we'll get to know each other better.

Yesterday was a mostly uneventful day for me. Which is good, because then you can see that we do have some ordinary days on board too :)

We didn't set a foot down the gangway and I was busy with a myriad of small domestic things like laundry and writing emails to the other ship wives about a farewell tea next week. We played with our new friend Keziah in the cabin after supper and then I put Tessa down to sleep for the night at 7:30pm. She was quiet immediately and I felt greatly relieved and proud of her... until 8pm when she suddenly woke up and decided sleeping is for sissies and proceeded to protest for about an hour.
The crying was bad enough, but there was also the issue of the "diving dummies" (or pacifiers for my US friends). Since Tessa is much more mobile now and moves around in all directions in her cot too, her dummies stand little chance of staying safely with her. Last night they were being knocked out and thrown out faster than I could fish them out from under the cot. They inevitably end up in the furtherest corner underneath the cot, which means I have to squirm around on my stomach (with a ruler in hand) to get them back.  After too much of this I tried to set up a temporary dummy catching net, using a handy pashmina scarf which I have lying around the cabin. I'm working on the more permanent solution.

Once Tessa was asleep again I could run upstairs to the Main Lounge where the Captain's Dinner had just finished. Seelan had been there, hosting one of the tables (and he kept aside some of the dessert for me, wonderful man!). I went up to meet a very kind lady who is going to host Tessa and I next week after the ship sails from Wellington (we are staying behind to fly to Brisbane, to miss the potentially rough voyage and seasickness). I wanted to hover in the back and just catch her as she was leaving, especially since I wasn't dressed for the dinner, but I ended up getting introduced to two other couples too and chatting with other people who I met earlier in this port.
After sorting out the details of our extended stay in Wellington, Seelan and I could finally come down to the cabin, (to a still-sleeping baby!) and we got to bed around midnight.

This picture is from Wednesday afternoon - Tessa waking up from a nap in her new diagonal position. She usually 'calls out' a few times when she wakes up, as if to say: "Help, I'm stuck and how did I actually get here?!"