We’re BACK!

Life can continue! The sun can rise again! The internet may continue spinning on it’s axis! Don’t question that. The world will no longer grieve our absence!

Because we know you missed us dreadfully. If you didn’t notice we were gone just…just keep quiet about it, okay? Don’t ruin my groove.

Now you want to hear about our trip, right? Right.

Before I jump into a list (of course it’s a list) about our outback peregrination, I need to yell a ginormous THANK YOU to Lydia and Emily! They babysat the blog while we were away. I owe you guys, okay?! And if you missed it, don’t forget to check out their posts on how to find a bloggy BBF and a discussion on skim reading, two of the most EPIC posts of ever.

1. First things first: We flew to my brother’s wedding in Katherine, N.T.

Katherine (our destination) is a very small town with one shopping centre and no real airport. Bless it. We took a midnight flight which is exciting and interesting and quite adventurous. But exhausting. And when your plane arrives in an airport at 1am…and you have until 5am while sleeping on the floor? The exciting kind of disappears to sleep deprivation. But no matter! I enjoyed the thought of midnight flights if not the actual Gee-The-Airport-Floor-Is-Hard-Can’t-They-Lay-Thicker-Carpets-Or-Something.

2. In the beginning…there were 7 of us.

Ha! I’m teasing. In the end there were 7 of us too. Minus energy.

Obviously, there were my parents and Mime and I. Then my oldest sister (I have a lot of siblings, okay?) and her two children (Xave and E.B.) came.

3. And (just to confuse you further on my large collection of siblings) we had a quick visit with my OTHER sister before we left.

My other other sister owns a small (and newish) nephew that we think is quite adorable. His name is Archie, which Xave (3yrs) thinks is the same word as “archery”. When he wishes to play archery he says, “Wanna play Archie?” I hope this is a correctable statement and my youngest nephew doesn’t end up being a target someday.

Here is Mime and Baby Archie:

4. Then airports. Flying. Not sleeping. Oh, and: SUMMER.

It’s winter where I live in New South Wales, plus it had been raining for the last week. Coldness. Jumpers. Jeans.

We arrived in Darwin, which (if you perused my educational map) is at the top of Australia and VERY close to the Equator and, as such, DOES NOT KNOW THE MEANING OF WINTER. We shed layers when we arrived. Layers, I tell you.

But I like Summer, so this was fabulous.

5. We hired a car and ate breakfast at an unusual hour and drove to Katherine.

We let the smallest member of our party (E.B. who is 1.5 years old) swim when we arrived because she’s part fish. And by “we-let-her-swim”, we basically mean we held onto the tip of her tee shirt to desperately avoid losing her to the deep forever.

Me (avoiding falling in) and EB (swimming in liquid ice):

6. We stayed in small cabins and began the terrifying task of…seeing people we haven’t seen in 4 or more years.

It’s amazing what the word “wedding” does. People pop out of the past faster than you can shout “wedding cake” and you’re surrounded by friends and relatives and ghosts of eras gone by.

I’m a mild introvert. By the term “mild” I mean, I would rather not see anyone, ever. And if I must, maybe 1 or 2 people a month. Therefore, I was a little stressed and spent a lot of time reading and hiding in our cabin. Xave, who is 3.5 years, is my smallish clone. We played cards and Temple Run on the iPad while everyone else socialised.

7. Then: Wedding things.

It was a very country/outback style wedding. The bride arrived in a road-train truck.

Obviously I am a little biased, because my brother is MY BROTHER. His wife is gorgeous and he is…not. I have a hard time fathoming why anyone would want to marry his weirdness. BUT. Why am I complaining?! I have a new very awesome sister-in-law. Who I actually grew up with and we were thick as thieves back in the day of 12 year old glory. Although I’m suspicious now if she was around to be my friend or there for my brother…hehe. JUST KIDDING. She’s such a nice person.

8. I also got to meet up with my Friend Of The Ancient Past Lydia.

We also spent our Childhood Of Gloriousness And Indestructibleness together.

EB, unfortunately, saw Lydia as a threat and therefore scowled at her a lot. My nephew and niece don’t like me having friends, actually. They demand complete adoration and allegiance from me.

9. There were bridesmaids. 

They had very nice cowboy boots too, which I think was a glorious touch with the yellow flowers and blue dresses.

10. And Mime played the flute while the bride walked down the aisle.

11. Then they were married and rather pleased with themselves.

Aren’t they adorable?! They’re so happy and smilish and huzzah! Huzzah!

12. We were all pleased for them too, naturally. 

Mime, Dad, Mum, my brother Cam, my sister-in-law Lauren, Me holding Xave, Rachel (oldest sister) holding EB

Here you can see my whole family that came on the trip with us PLUS the bride and groom.

I am short.

I can hear you thinking it. But at least it runs in the family because my oldest sister is the same height.

13. The bride felt married. I felt small.

14. And of course my parents gave the “4 down, 2 to go” statement to which I scowled.

To interpret: there are 6 of us kids. The first 4 are now married. Mime and I are left. Apparently this means I am next. <– That statement is not true.

One day I’ll understand the need to get married, I suppose. But I can’t fathom sharing my things all the time with somebody. And for the rest of your life?! No, no. I get so peopled out I even ignore myself sometimes.

Mime can be “next”.

15. Then we ate wedding cake. Said goodbye. And left for a 1-day-holiday before our flight home. 

If you’re not familiar with Australia, we have this phenomenon we like to call “THE BUSH”. It’s even referred to as “whoop-whoop”. The phrase means: “A bushy and desert extreme which is beautiful to look at and extremely hot to be in, but makes pleasant photos and please don’t touch ANYTHING.”

This is the Kakadu National Park (read the sign) where we could hike some rocks and take some photos and generally be introverts with the snakes and crocodiles.

16. I wasn’t joking about the crocodiles.

17. We saw Indigenous Australian art. 

It’s a bit hard to see…but it’s like caveman style paintings. Think of the Croods.

18. And we climbed a rock called Ubirr.

If you think the word “Ubirr” is weird, you’ve seen nothing. Other places in Kakadu were called:

– Nourlangie
– Gunlom
– Jabiru
– Mamukala
– Anabangbang
– Nanguluwur

Our conversations basically went like this:
“Are we going to see Nourlaaanggblah?”
“Turn off at Nangooooish.”
“This is Mamal-whatever.”

This is EB and I. It’s freakishly hot, but she wanted me to carry her not her mother. #auntywin

19. And here are the best parents/grandparents in the world.

Not many people are loving (or insane?) enough to take a herd of small humans with ginormous appetites across Australia for a brief holiday. They stayed calm. Relatively. And they didn’t let us starve. I am relieved. And they bought us ice cream. Told you they’re the best. And they didn’t mind at all chasing toddlers through airports instead of sleeping or carrying sweaty bodies up mountains of rock.

They are probably the best humans the world knows.

20. Although…my dad’s babysitting skills are interesting. 

This is what happens when he’s in charge of the smallest human. She’s never been more happy, though.

21. Then we ate a lot and began the peregrination home.

This conversation happened in the car:

EB (1yrs): “Ate! Ate! Ate!” This is her way of saying my name.
Xave (3yrs): “No. You can’t say that.”
EB: “Ate! Aaaaate!”
Xave: “But I wuv Cait the most!”
EB: “No MINE!”

Oh, gosh, you two adorable mites. I’m flattered. I also feel like an object to be owned, but am I complaining? No. It is a very special feeling for your slavery to be fought over.

22. I discovered I can go 24 hours without sleep.

What condition I end up in is not about to be discussed.

But let’s just say I had a small child’s head on my lap on the flight home and I couldn’t move or I’d wake him up. I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t move. SO I DID NOT SLEEP.

The second we arrived home I went straight downstairs, threw my stuff on the floor and got into bed. It was 9am in the morning.

23. I read 2.5 books and listened to nearly all an audio.

I finished The Hit and The Girl From The Well and half of Frozen on my kindle (God bless the creator of kindles). Then I listened to 70% of Brotherband: The Outcasts and I can’t even begin to explain how ANGRY I am at that book/audio. I have to finish it though. But it is probably one of the most blindly sexist and bullying and demeaning towards disabilities books I have EVER read.

24. I survived, but oh gosh is good to be home.

I like my house, I like my books, I like normality, but it was an enjoyable time away. (Particularly the last day climbing rocks at Ubirr. I LOVE climbing things and I’m happy to announce that my nephew isn’t half bad either. He has tolerable balance. Except for the time he fell down 3 steps and out a door and bashed his head…but he was tired.)

It was also nice to have Xave and EB adoring me and hearing EB shriek “ATE!” (to be interpreted: Cait) for hours. Okay, kidding, that was a bit wearying. But she likes my name. It was either “Ate” or “Poppa” over and over and over and over.

Now I get to catch up on a) sleep, b) writing reviews, c) being aloooone and d) and blogging. 

It was actually refreshingly good to have a break of blogging, but I’ll be back into reading your blogs and posting soon! Expect reviews. Lots of reviews. And, of course, lots of me, commenting everywhere as I do and tweeting useless things like confessions of allegiance to Batman.

Cait actual did not miss the internet for the first few days. She enjoyed just listening to audios and watching episodes of Psych and throwing small rocks at Mime (it’s a sign of affection). She was also slightly overwhelmed to come back to 150+ emails and (guiltily) deleted most. But while she was away, her TBR grew mysteriously so if you want her, she’s probably drowning in paper.