We spent the Easter weekend over on the South Coast. It has sort become our easter thing. Thought I’d share a few happy snaps 
Tag Archives: Holidays
On the coast
Filed under Holidays, Photographic, Travel
Beijing – A little photo album
I’m starting to get my pictures of China off the camera, here are a few of Beijing hope you enjoy. Click on the picture to view it larger.
Filed under Holidays, Photographic, Travel
Oh yeah did I mention I’m on holidays?
It may have slipped my mind to share this, lordy knows how that happened because I am so damn excited about it! As you read this I’ll be in the air flying to China. SANS CHILDREN AND SPOUSE! Alone.
After almost a decade of no time to myself, here I am sitting on a plane not having to care about anyones welfare except my own. I don’t have to wipe anyone else’s shitty bum until the end of the month. Hot damn. I’ll probably spend the first day in a daze wondering what the hell I can do with myself, how will I know what I can do for myself after not being able to for so long? I have only one suitcase and a small carry on, neither of those bags contain anything resembling a baby product – this feels strange – I feel under prepared. But I’m sure I’ll get used to it 
I’ll be in a Facebook and Twitter free zone, thanks to Chinas internet firewall. This can only be a good thing for me.
I’ve tried my best to learn some Mandarin (falling asleep with the language lesson playing) and so far I have thank you and where is the toilet down. That’ll be enough right? Who cares, I don’t have to worry about anyone but me! I can be late, eat whatever is put in front of me and spend an hour longer looking for the hotel than I meant to.
If I return, I shall have lots and lots of pictures to bore you all with. Wish me luck!
Our little autie tourists.
Every year I say the same thing… I’m never (ever ever ever) taking all these kids on holidays ever again… and yet here I am just back from holiday with all the minions, when will I learn?
But hey I can’t sit at home thinking these kids are going to make any trip a nightmare (even if they have a LOT of form for doing so). I have to try to have a holiday break, you never know when they (the minions) may get their shit together and behave.
So this summer break we made an effort to get out there and do holiday stuff, like people with neuro-typical kids get to do. Yes it was probably going to suck, and it was highly likely that our children would reduce us, tour operators, zoo keepers and our holiday neighbours to tears. But we simply had to try. Not to prove anything to anyone, not even ourselves, we just have to find a way to feel like a family on holidays. Too often the Husband and I do activities separately, because one of us will have to stay back with the children that won’t cope with an activity. You can imagine how much fun this is for the parent left behind.
Last week we went over to the South Coast, and what’dya know they kind of kept it together. They even stayed in their seat belts for the three-hour car ride, that has never happened before, I’m usually looking for duct tape half an hour in. We even dared to take them on a Dolphin watching cruise, that went okay – well as okay as confining six kids on a boat with 30 strangers, three of those kids having sensory issues and the wind blowing at around 20 knots, could go – we sailed around Jervis Bay for two hours saw two dolphins. It has been something we’ve meant to do for years, but have let these kids hold us back.
This past year the Husband and I had a bit of a revelation, we worked out that we were not having any fun, because we didn’t want to try to get out there and do things with our kids that everybody else gets to do with their kids. I’ve talked about this before, I can’t just go to the shop for a loaf of bread when I have an autistic child, I HAVE to plan it. I also have to my runners on for when the kid absconded. This is the price of Autism for a lot of families, well we’ve had enough.
Christmas at Aunty Dales
Uralla, it’s a small town in northern New South Wales Australia, and the scene of most of my childhood Christmas’s. There we’d spend the holiday at the home of my Aunty Dale and Uncle Jim, often joined by many more Aunts and Uncles and countless cousins.
It would start on a sweltering hot Christmas eve, piling into Dads car I can remember holding my bottom in the air off the seat, to save scorching it on the roasting vinyl seats. The journey seemed to take all day, but it was really only an hour. Time would move in slow motion for two days, making it feel like we had spent a week at Aunty Dales.
On arrival you had to line up for kisses. Uncle Jim used to give the biggest sloppiest wet kisses ever, on the lips. I used to cringe as kids do, which I’m absolutely sure he noticed, so would make sure I didn’t miss out, funny bugger. Thirty years on he stills gives me that big wet kiss, I no longer cringe, sloppy kisses are on the list of things that make Uncle Jim special to me.
Then came the heaviest lunch you’d had all year, a warm up for the copious amounts of food eaten in the day to come. We probably should’ve fasted for a few days beforehand in preparation. The house was constantly in motion, food was always cooking, sport was being yelled at on the Telly, a game of cricket was being played on the road, while Slim Dusty blared out of a stereo in the kitchen.
I remember whiling away a happy hour seated at the kitchen bench with my Uncle Charlie, shelling peas and attempting to hold an adult conversation. Uncle Charlie was always smiling, even today I can’t picture him without a smile. It was probably all the home brew beer shining through, but ten year old me thought he was the funniest Uncle ever.
The Christmas tree was a dinky little moulded plastic number, I’m pretty sure you can’t buy them anywhere anymore, and probably haven’t been able to for at least twenty years. This was the first plastic tree I had ever seen, I thought it was awesome – like wow it was the shape I’d always thought a tree should be! I used try and sit in the seat closest to the tree on Christmas eve after dinner, mostly because I’d eaten so much I couldn’t move, but really I just wanted to look at that tree.
The sky was so clear at night in northern NSW, you could see every star in the Milky Way, my Dad and Aunty Dale convinced us one night that if we sat out of the front step and watched the night sky we would see Rudolph’s nose light as he flew over, and when we did we had to go to bed.
As luck would have it, a satellite drifted by with a red light and off to bed we went. Brilliant plan, I have to remember to pull that one out with my kids.
The years we had Christmas at Uralla are among my fondest memories, I can’t remember the gifts, just the family. My biggest hope for Christmas, is that my children end up with the same feelings about our family gatherings as I do.
This christmas story of mine, and a few more from some lovely contributors feature in the Monkeyshine Christmas eMagazine. You’ll find a link to it at the top right of this blog
