Back from the bush again!

Home to cold and dreary Melbourne again along with all of that washing which never seems to dry! James scored the captain's dessert on the plane home because the flight attendant was worried that the captain wouldn't fit behind the controls if he ate it! James also climbed a high gate to get Tom's hat at the soccer field in Alice Springs. Tom and James went to three schools this time, Warburton, Blackstone and Wingellina. They saw some old friends and made some new ones. Tom especially liked the dogs at Wingellina (it's a 'dog dreaming' place so there are lots of them). His favourite was called 'Grievous' who is a bit cheeky with the lady dogs!

Goodbye Scotland by James

I lost my tooth a few days ago and have a new smile. I also had a haircut. Tom and I have made lots of new friends in our street. We've walked around a lot (sometimes my legs have been very tired). We had a look around George Heriot's School which was the inspiration for Hogwart's. We are starting off for home tomorrow via London and Dubai and we're going to try for the First Class lounge this time!

Edinburgh by Tom

We're back in Edinburgh and we have been doing lots of WALKING (most people do here). There is a big playground quite close by (in a place called The Meadows) where we go sometimes but it's not quite as good as Coram's Fields. In Edinburgh you can buy disposable barbecues at the supermarket (basically a tin foil tray with a few coals) so there can be lots of smoke in The Meadows on warm days! We've climbed part of a hill called Arthur's Seat and walked around a nature reserve called The Braids. We caught a bus to Portobello beach which was fun, though the water was a bit cold. You can see lots from the top of a double decker bus.
Yesterday we caught the bus to The Royal Mile (don't worry, we WALKED home!) hoping to visit the
Palace of Holyroodhouse. Just as we were sitting outside a cafe waiting for our 'coronation chicken' (and wondering why there seemed to be several police people around at a loose end) who should drive by in a Rolls Royce - none other than the Queen herself! She looked me right in the eye and waved! (I expect she was taken with my hat just like all the other Edinburgh ladies...) Even though it meant the Palace was closed, it was all pretty exciting.

And, just so Pa doesn't feel left out, we took a photo of this guy...

Argyll by James

When the conference finished, we decided to head west to Argyll for a few days. We are staying in a small village called Lochgoilhead where at high tide the loch's water laps at our back fence. Today we visited Inverary Castle, the home of the Duke of Argyll. We saw a fake pig on a spit in the kitchen. Tom and I completed the quiz sheet and we both got a pencil for a prize. A man also gave Tom a pound for holding the door open for him (I found another one on our front doorstep). Maybe we should start opening the gate for people at Sacred Heart!  Yesterday we climbed a massive hill (mountains are called 'bens' here and lakes are called 'lochs') and saw some goats. I reached the top first! We had lunch at the pub afterwards. I had fish fingers with chips and baked beans. The lollies here are nicer than the ones we have in Australia.

And, Nanna, this photo is for you!!

London by Tom

Well, we arrived in London safely and on time!! The good news about our flight was that Mum talked our way into the business class lounge in Dubai but the bad news was that James was sick FOUR times on the second flight to London. Luckily the tube from Heathrow smells anyway! We dragged our luggage up lots of stairs to our hotel room (http://www.georgehotel.com/english/index.html), cleaned ourselves up and went to a great playground around the corner called Coram's Fields which is on the site of a Foundling Hospital built in the 1700s to educate children whose mothers were too poor to look after them (http://www.coramsfields.org/). I found some kids to play soccer with (they call it football here and I've also learned to say crisps!) and James especially liked the flying fox.

The next day we went to Hamley's Toyshop (no description necessary), the Charles Dickens Museum (there was a stuffed raven there and lots of old-fashioned clothes as well as books), Coram's Fields (again), the British Museum (the Roman artefacts were my favourite and a lady there let me touch some objects and taught me a Latin word) and... you guessed it... back to Coram's Fields for a quick game of soccer!

That's goodbye from me for now or, as they would have said in Ancient Rome, VALE!

Tom

Rained in at Warburton... James does some weaving... and Tom goes to high school! (by James)

We never got to Blackstone school because it rained and rained. There was lots of thunder and lightning and the roads were closed because of flooding. If you drive on the road when it's closed you can get fined $1000 per wheel of your car! Anyway, we went back to Warburton School for a few days and Miss Katie was very pleased to see me. I did some weaving to make a bag and brought it home to Melbourne to finish. Here is a photo of my work so far:

Tom did finish his work in Grade 3/4 so he was allowed to make scones with the high school girls. So instead of having a party at Blackstone we had afternoon tea at Warburton. (They were going to have sausages but the store was running out of food because the trucks couldn't get through.) Here is a photo of Tom wearing his apron:

The road was opened at last so we got back in time to catch our plane from Alice Springs. We stopped at two other communities (Blackstone and Wingellina) so Mum could do some work but there wasn't time to go to school there. Tom and I are looking forward to seeing our friends at Sacred Heart again soon!

A Bush Day (by Tom)

On Tuesday I went for a bush trip with the Grade 3/4 class at Warburton (all 11 of us)! We went to a place called Ngulpirr Ngulpirr (a rock hole) or Kampurarrpa (bush tomato or yellow berries). Three old ladies showed us around and one of them was born right there back in the 1940s. There are piles of rocks that you can roll together to make more kampurarrpa grow after rain. It is a Seven Sisters dreaming (tjukurrpa) place. The ladies also found witchetty grubs but I didn't feel like tasting one. So I had a sausage instead. I was in the car with the ladies and I asked how you catch goannas. So they stopped to show me how to dig them out with a crowbar. I don't think they realised I just wanted one for a pet (they are really a bush food) so maybe it's just as well they didn't get one after all. My teacher Mr Gary teased me for holding everyone up. Poor James had to stay at school with the 1/2 class and was pretty glad when we finally turned up an hour after school had finished. Miss Jo, the principal, took good care of him in the office until we got there. Here are some photos from our trip:

And just in case you're feeling sorry for James, his class at Blackstone School (where we'll be next week) is having a party on Tuesday. But here is a photo of him in the meantime:

P.S. We went to Warakurna School yesterday and the kids there call me 'Tom Tom'! They also put James in the 3/4 class with me but I have to say he managed pretty well.