Where's the Cotton Candy?

     Mia spent Thursday at a swim carnival (meet) - for school - all day.  How's that for right up her alley?  I can only imagine how daunting that would be for a child who came here internationally with no swim experience.  Instead, for Mia, it was a chance to feel confident about what she was doing, which hasn't happened a lot lately.  The kids in Years 3-6 were all bused over to a 50 meter pool about 15 minutes away in Lane Cove (where I hear Nicole Kidman grew up).  They were divided into four houses and the kids wore house colors (should I say colours?) and competed against the other houses.  Mia came home a few days ago and said her house was called Manta (said like monta) Ray.  We figured they were named for sea animals.  But she also said they were named for famous Australians and one of the other houses was Glengarry.  So we were a bit confused.  I had to laugh when I got to the pool and saw her house name was Monterey.  Ahh, pronunciation confusion!  Anyhow, Mia swam five events and did really well.  She's waiting to hear if her times will put her into the finals, to be held at a later date.  Kids who win those events can move on to zone competitions, regional, etc.


Mia's used to swimming in a 25 yard pool so this "felt kinda long" but she seemed fairly unfazed.




The kids all hung out in this covered seating area, arranged loosely by house.



      My biggest challenge here has been driving.  I find it very nerve-wracking to try to pay attention to where I am in the road, how the new car works, signs, speed limit, pedestrians, and the small feat of figuring out where I'm going.  We got a GPS (thanks for the tip MacKinnons!) soon after we arrived and it has helped tremendously...in most situations.  I find myself studying maps before I go most places to try to get a feel for the route beforehand.  So yesterday I started out to the aquatic center and realized that both the car's GPS and the new, portable GPS were talking to me, only giving me different directions!  Ugh.  I managed to turn one off and got to the pool and parked with no trouble.  I was feeling confident when I got ready to return home.  Ken, our trusty Australian GPS voice man, was programmed to take me home.  Not quite.  A few kms into the trip, I was on the freeway and Ken told me to "Stay right, then take the next exit."  OK, I can do that.   I stayed right, mind you there were 6 lanes.  He keeps telling me the same thing and I start looking for the exit sign, only to see it on the far left! I managed to get over two lanes but completely missed the exit.  That meant I had to go all the way over the Harbor Bridge into downtown - the last place I wanted to be!  Ken has exhibited this confusing behavior before and we have yet to completely figure out how to know when he's trying to mess with us.  The funny part was that as I was driving over the Harbor Bridge, he kept telling me to "Exit right, then take sharp right."  Guess he wanted to go boating.  So, we may have accomplished a lot here in a month, but I am not an accomplished Sydney driver yet.  One distressed phone call to Chris and I managed to get back on the bridge and home quite a bit later than expected.  Good thing I leave early to go everywhere! 

     With views like these at home, who needs to drive anyway?!

    

     Mia's 10th birthday is next week and she has been lamenting the fact that she won't get to celebrate with her friends.  However, she got notice yesterday that her class is going on a Tall Ship Sydney Harbor cruise on her birthday.  Sounds awesome to me!  Maybe I'll chaperone.  As long as I don't have to drive there.