Day 82 - Cruisy Camp Day

• Coogee Beach
• 25°c

A quiet day around camp, a trip to the shops to get some Christmas Decorations and found a couple of old school dvds; Beverley Hillbillies & Fat Albert! Steve made of his own choice!! a vegan curry for dinner - yummo but a little spicy! so now after 2 strikes and not wanting to risk a third he has been banned from using Paprika!

Day 81 - Fremantle Prison

• Mandurah - Coogee Beach 
• 53km
• 19°c

We pulled up camp and headed back to Coogee Beach Caravan Park, just out of Fremantle. Jessie met us here and we all headed off to Fremantle Prison hoping the sky would stay clear!

On arrival we purchased a family pass 2 adults & 3 kids!! Man we look good for having a 23 year old daughter! 

In the photo below left, the guard said there was only 1 woman hanged here and showed a photo of her, which people say is the image you can see in the centre window.

Our tour guide has actually worked in the prison as a guard in the 70's for about 10 years, so we were very lucky to have him as our guide - he was very interesting and informative. He told us of the youngest person ever held in the prison; an 8 year old boy for stealing. He had Ella demonstrate prison procedure and explained that this particular part of the days routine was where the saying came from "Toe the line" if this prisoners didn't they could be made to stand on the line for 15 mins and would keep adding 15mins if they didn't behave!

The cell Ella & Jessie and Steve are standing in only ever housed prisoners for 2 hours at a time and only 44 prisoners were ever held in there. This was where prisoners awaiting execution spent their last 2 hours and the time taken to walk from there to the time they were hanged was 1 minute! He also told us of the apparent origin of another saying "hangers on": In the time of public executions prisoners that knew they were going to be hanged payed members of the public to run in and hang onto their legs when the doors dropped.

As we were going past the offices, our guide asked Ella to look into a particular office and tell him what she could see? She picked out the most obvious item; a typewriter. He was most impressed! He'd had a young boy on a tour a couple of weeks earlier ask what it was and said it was actually difficult to try and explain how you press this button and this arm comes up and puts it on the paper, the boy commented so that 's what it was like in the olden days! Ella promptly told him that "we have two at home"!

Coogee Beach Caravan Park, $35 a night, water, power, basic but right on the beach

Day 80 - The Tinker Man!

• Mandurah
• 20°c

Happy Birthday to Mama! 

It was another windy day around the camp so Steve decided to get his hands dirty and built a slide out tray for the new car fridge. Dave the caretaker kindly let Steve use the workshop which was super handy given the rain that was pouring down! It also meant Steve got to hear some stories of life in the trailer park.

The rain also meant we were stuck inside so we made the best of it and spent the morning learning. The sun came out for a bit so Ella raced outside but wasn't long before the sky opened up again! Occy was very sweet and made us all cups of tea!

Day 79 - You have mail..

• Mandurah
• 27°c

A parcel to collect actually! So it was to the big smoke of Perth we headed to collect our new fridge for the car. The Karma Bus fridge is a great size but now we are eating so much more fruit & veg (yes, that is actually possible!) we don't have a lot of room left over for drinks and the like. On the way I got a bit excited and shouted (I'm sure the other cars on the freeway heard me) CAMELS!! I managed to get a photo as we whizzed past them but after discussing their location with Steve, they don't count as the wild camels seeing as they were actually in a paddock. I will see wild camels & we will find a garlic crusher (complete) in a vintage store! Two of our goals at the moment!

Where in the Galaxy am I?....

After discussing an encounter of the edge of the universe with Barry the Alien, we thought it would be a good idea if we knew our Galactic Address, otherwise how would Barry come visit?!

Homeschool Reaffirmations: Learning is much better received when it takes place in the morning!

Day 78 - Bookworms

• Mandurah
• 29°c

Hallelujah! Oscar has found a series of books he actually wants to read, not cause he has been told he has to read. Thank you Captain Underpants! & Paul Jennings for his advice in "The Reading Bug"; it doesn't matter what type of book it is they read, it matters that they want to read & they are enjoying it.

Ella & Oscar are loving the pool, today they went in twice! Lots of dive practice, shenanigans & fun to be had! Ella to is loving the Captain Underpants series - win win!

Day 77 - Take Two

• Mandurah
• 27°c

So today was our second visit to Abingdon Miniature Village and we were delighted to see a much less crowded car park this morning. I was really looking forward to this, it's going to be awesome, just like Madurodam in Holland which is really cool! So we get to the ticket booth and after recovering from the exorbitant price they want to charge to look at their gardens; $40 for a family! The boys decide they'll come back and get us, as Ella really, really wants to go in. (note to self, don't pump up the attractions until you know what they are!)

The gardens were lovely and they had some beautiful birds - not a fan of the cages though, and it quickly became apparent that this was not going to be Australias' answer to Madurodam!

Ella was delighted to solve the hedge maze, as much as i'm sure the flies and mozzies were happy to have us visiting! Why, oh why did I take the RID out of my handbag, by now I should know better.

Not as impressed by the Labyrinth maze, way too easy Mum!

Not sure what the smoke was from, but were happy to find the maze exit, that's for sure!

The miniature villages were really cute, and the gardens were absolutely beautiful but I expected there to be more going on?

So after about half an hour we called the boys to come and get us. After all that excitement and a stop off for more fruit & veg, it was back to camp for a swim. These two are definitely water babies, they just love to be in the water, playing, splashing each other & today was dive practice!

A spot of cooking this afternoon yielded a super yummy dinner and the most delicious treat for dessert

Ella 2 - Mummy 0!

Beginners luck? Perhaps, but boy she plays backgammon just like her Dadda! All strategy and I think I may have seen a bit of a competitive streak peeking out?! I'm sure tomorrow will be Sheep Stations when Ella & Daddy play!

Day 76 - Nostalgic Finds!

• Mandurah
• 27°c

After sleeping in till 10ish! we decided to be touristy and visit The Miniature Village, however on arrival the carpark was packed and then we saw a wedding car, so we decided tomorrow would be a better day. Seeing as we were already up and out we followed the signs to town centre which oddly led us to the beach? It was a nice beach but boy oh boy was that sand hot! We weren't prepared, no hats or sunscreen so it was back to the car and we made our way to the mainish street and found a street market.

This town has been seriously yarn bombed! Can't even leave your bike to grab a coffee! There was a protest march going on whilst we were there, (not about the yarn bombing!) so it was an interesting experience!

One of the first stalls we came across was Dvds $5, how this guy hasn't been shut down I have no idea. Lucky for us though, cause we scored big time, Buddies is an Aussie film that I can remember watching with my brother & sisters when I was about 7, can't really remember the full story but I know we watched it at least weekly on Dads Beta!! Chomps was another Beta video from that era! Now all I need to find is Slipper & The Rose! We also found The Wiz - with Michael Jackson & Diana Ross which none of us have seen, Steve found an all time favourite Bull Durham.

The local shopping centre promoting the spirit of Christmas!@!

Oscar happily watching his new DVD - Kangaroo Jack, twice in a row. Ella watching The Wiz & then The Pirate Movie - twice! Steve watching the cricket! A bit of sewing for me - what a great Saturday afternoon!

Looks like there will be a visit from The Tooth Fairy tonight, sure hope she finds us! 

Gotta love my littlest bestie dying my hair & what a great job she did.

Day 75 - Serpentine Falls

• Mandurah
• 23°c

A quick trip to The Spud Shed to restock our fruit supply which disappears as quick as we put it in the fruit basket! Then it was off to find the waterfall that a couple of residents of the caravan park told us about. I am so delighted to have found a book series that Oscar is actually happy to read, when "reading time" was up in the car he actually said "But i'm almost finished"! Woah major breakthrough, thanks to the advice in Paul Jennings' book "The Reading Bug", I had found a series that I was pretty confident he'd like, one that was all about toilet humour, farts, bums & boogers! Thanks to the Salvos Jumble Sale last week we have the 1st seven books so that should last him the week!

Greeted by the locals at the entrance to the National Park.

 There were a few flies about along the track but thankfully they dispersed once we reached the waterfall.

The four of us all had the same initial reaction "I thought it'd be bigger"! We hadn't brought bathers, but it turned out that none of us wanted to swim anyway, it was really fresh water but i think Ella & Oscar were a bit put off by the algae on the steps.

On return to the car we noticed a couple of Roos being handfed by some picnicers. The group seemed to be from an "Institution" - school, remand centre, juvey? The girls were really friendly and gave us some of their bread to feed the kangaroos which was very kind of them. 

Lovin the vintage playgrounds!

Day 74 - Outta Gas!

• Mandurah
• 26°c

The gas bottle finally ran out a couple of days ago, on Day 71! For the last couple of weeks we kept saying it's gotta be empty now, surely! So a trip to Bunnings was necessary, which had a silver lining as we passed a Vinnies which Ella loudly alerted us to! and it was there that she found "The Pirate Movie" which she had watched with Ni'ni once before. For some reason I always think it's called "Pirates of Penzance"! Ella watched it back to back and just about knows it word for word. Oscar found an original black & white "Three Stooges" with Shemp in it, which he found to be laugh out loud funny. I got some things ready for next weeks learning and just hung out around camp.