ROCK-A-BYE-LOCHIE

Sorry that the blog has been a bit neglected in recent weeks whilst Grandma pursuits were going on.  In short, we now have three lovely grandsons – two in Auckland and one born in Melbourne on 25 July.  I flew from Auckland to Melbourne for 10 days or so to see if I could help with Mummy Kate and the new baby just as her husband Grant was due to return to work.

I forgot how much work new babies are ... and Kate was on the go with the mid-night feeds and trying to catch up on sleep and meals as best she could.  Baby Lochie (Lachlan) is absolutely gorgeous.  Current practices for babycare seem to have changed dramatically since my children were babies, so my experience was a bit out of date but we enjoyed the time together and caught up with all our news whilst doing all the household stuff which seems to be doubled and multiplied by having a newborn in the house.  We were only able to take shortish excursions around Melbourne and the weather was a bit cloudy and cold but we certainly made the best of it and took a walk in the Botanical Gardens which gives the best view of the city centre and looked over the banks of the Yarra River which has to be the most pleasant walk to work ever. 

  We also got involved in Blockmania which is a tv programme made in Melbourne about 4 teams of people renovating 4 houses on the same block.   I missed the final auction but enjoyed looking at the architecture of the traditional Melbourne houses which were very appealing and had all the Edwardian features which I like.    Kate and I had an evening meal out while the new Dad minded the baby and other days we had some lovely meals cooked by one or other of us.  Old fashioned trams ran past the window at regular intervals which was rather charming but I never did get my camera out quickly enough to catch a photo.

Back in Auckland, after a bit of a tearful goodbye, the sun came out – and although the temperatures are a bit frosty, the scenery and days were very enjoyable.  We visited the Fish Market where a tramcar (imported from Melbourne) travelled round a loop near the waterfront and had a wonderful fish n chips lunch near the market itself.  Tuna Steaks Italienne followed for our evening meal – a lovely dish which I must replicate once I get back to Crete as all the ingredients grow locally! 

 

On Sunday we squished into the car to visit Motat – a transport exhibition – Cameron’s choice of good boy treat and looked at old steam engines, fire engines, steam and diesel trains along with other  exhibits such as the Victorian village and hands-on stuff reminiscent of the gallery at the Science Museum in London.  The earthquake simulator was very scary and we were too late for the moon rocket simulator but did catch an interesting exhibit about Sir Edmund Hillary’s 1950s polar expedition.  Lots of information was available about the resourceful Massey Ferguson tractor which they adapted to take with them.

Cameron has a new toy dolphin;  In New Zealand, the householders have a weekend every so often where non-biodegradable rubbish/old furniture/large broken or unwanted items are left outside their homes on the grass verge for a day or two.  There follows a time of recycling the items – should anyone want or need them – and lots of vans and trucks come round sifting through the items until finally what remains is taken by the local authority and as little deposited in landfill as possible.  Sounds like a brilliant scheme to me – but you need the space to do it properly.  Anyway, a hot wash in the washing machine and a tumble dry ensured that “Sydney” the new toy dolphin was nice to own and Cam was delighted.

GOODAyy!

New Zealand was lovely, as always, and the time spent with Kiwi grandsons busy and enjoyable. 

The new house in  Greenhithe on the North Shore of Auckland was big enough to house us in comfort and I did get my chance to use the hot tub which provided great back massage with lovely hot bubbly water. 

Cameron the older of the two grandsons is interested in animals and natural history – so one of his “good boy treats” was to pay a visit to Auckland Zoo.  I always love walking around the zoo because the surroundings are so beautiful and we made the most of freezing cold weather by stopping for hot chocolates half way round with marshmallows on the top (Cam’s favourites).  We checked out the monkeys, the aviary, the elephants and the big cats before our ears were about to fall off in the cold. 

Cam made a wonderful picture of a peacock with feathers and big eyes a day or so later and was able to imitate monkeys, elephants and cockerels with alarming accuracy several days later. 

Lachlan Paul Anthony – our third grandchild turned up at the end of July and we set to checking the cheap flight internet sites to book a short period in Melbourne a few days after he was born.   With a few days to spare before setting off from Auckland, we all visited a wonderful Farmers Market and my son-in-law was in his element checking out all the lovely artisan foods on sale and taking ALL the samples!  Meanwhile Cam and Hayden were having a good time at the children’s playground nearby at Hobsonville Point. 

We had a bit of a panic when we heard that the Australian authorities have adopted a cocoon strategy to vaccinate all people coming into contact with new babies to prevent the spread of whooping cough.  Having had all my pre-school injections, I assumed that these gave me life long immunity to these diseases but it seems that opinion now has it that boosters are needed for people reaching their forties or all professionals/family who spend time with very young children.  We made lots of enquiries of the Kiwi GP practice to find out whether I could have a whooping cough booster but – apparently these were not available without the tetanus and diphtheria vaccines also.  With a severe allergy to tetanus in past times, I did not really want to risk being very ill abroad – so we took the alternative strategy of washing, tumbledrying and disinfecting every minute content of my baggage and person to avoid bringing any bugs to Australia and avoiding all contact with all the bugs that were doing the rounds of kindergarten by spending one week at home in purdah.

It was a surprise to me that Cam was a bit upset after I caught the plane from Auckland when he had spent most of my time til then  ’playing it cool’ but my other son in law Grant met me at the airport in Melbourne and gave me a mini tour of the city skyline as we drove from the airport to their flat in South Yarra. It was hard to believe that I was now in Australia and I had heard that the shops in Chapel Street were wonderful.  Grant and Kate’s apartment was right on the corner of Chapel Street with tramcars passing on a regular basis.

The new baby was sleepy when we arrived but his Mum and Dad had had very little sleep since they had been home with baby waking for feeds all day and all night – so it was important for them to get a meal and some rest before they both konked out.  Lochie’s cot has a terrifying monitor fixed to it which registers breathing and heartbeat as well as crying!  There are all sorts of alarming beeps and buzzes which come from it if you forget to turn the switch when you get the baby out of the cot!  However after a day or two, his routine seemed to have settled down a bit and Kate was grabbing a bit more sleep so that we were able to take little outings to the Chinese Tea House and today a little trip out in the car with a sleeping baby to do a bit sightseeing around the city. 

Greetings and thanks to you all from Lachlan!