spelling `help'; spelling help

the littlest one came to me 3 days ago and said, "papa, i know how to spell `help'."

clearly impressed, i said, "great, how do you spell `help'?"

`SOS', she replied.

i was dumbfounded. it is not wrong but not quite right either.

i wonder who taught her that.

wasp sting

fagan had the unfortunate experience of being stung by a wasp on saturday during her chinese class. it happened outside her class during her lunch break. we brought her to the clinic just to be sure.

we found out later wasps are commonly found during this time of the year. its' stings are pretty harmless. one just have to endure the pain and the swell for a few hours before it subsides.

pic: fagan at the clinic still distressed by the sting. she refuses to have a picture taken of her swollen finger on her left hand.

visit

the kid's grandfather 3 weeks' visit to melbourne is reaching the end this tuesday. time flies. hopefully, it will give him some peace of mind that our rather boring, but predictable lifestyle here is a good thing.

(picture taken at skyhigh mount dandenong)

first try

paisley and shankly took part in their first kids' triathlon today, aptly titled `the weet-bix kids TRYathlon'. we thought it will be a good opportunity to expose them to a more active lifestyle in australia.

the distance is manageable; shankly did a 200m open sea swim, 6km cycling and 1km run. paisley who's in the 10years old age group did left than that. both survived and enjoyed the experience.

we trained a fair bit for the event. we cycled and run around our neighborhood a couple of times a week and also swim once a week for about 4 weeks leading up to today. since it is their first try at triathlon, we didn't take any chances and it is also good to inculcate the habit of preparing for something.

the event is held at st. kilda. the sun was out in force, the crowd is great (more than 2000 registered kids triathletes) and the atmosphere were really good. shankly and paisley were joined by the children of some of our family friends, so it was a good sunday outing for us overall.

shankly at the finishing line with his finisher's medal

paisley getting ready for her race

...kids at the event

soccer player showing his juggling skills in one of the many fringe events there.

caught out....

it was just another saturday today until we are completely caught out by the weather. we had just finished the children's classes at about 3pm when the weather suddenly turned belly up. like a boxer caught completely unaware of an oncoming punch, we were ko'd by a torrent of hailstones. some were as big as golf balls. luckily we just got into the car just in time but the poor car was pelted non-stop for about 5 minutes. we drove to seek shelter under a tree but it was scant consolation. the car bore the brunt of the weather's fury.

it was a terrifying experience as we have never experienced something as bad. i was hoping that the car's windows can withstand the hailstones as some of them were pretty big and nasty. luckily it held out. however, we didn't have much hope for the car body though. when things settled and i got out to look at the damage, i counted no less than a dozen dents all over the car.

when i check the websites on this freak weather, i realized we did escape the worst of it. many others weren't as lucky. some sustained injuries and others have their cars with worse damage.

we hope it is something we do not have to go thru' again.

below are some pictures that the press posted.

(all pictures from the age and herald sun websites)

ballarat

on sunday (28/feb/2010), we drove to ballarat. the kid's grandfather has come over to visit us in melbourne and we thought it will be a good opportunity to drive to ballarat and see the place.

ballarat is situated in the western part of victoria and the drive from our place is just under 2 hours. the heritage of ballarat is clearly in its heydays as a gold mining haven for those who wanted to strike it rich. as it was a prosperous town in the 19th century due to its gold finds, the ballarat of today consists of buildings of great architectural heritage and a rich resource to the history of victoria/australia in those days. sprawling parks and gardens too dominated the city area.

our first stop is the ballarat botanical gardens. it is a large area surrounded with nicely manicured plants and flowers amidst the trees. i had looked forward to visit the acclaimed observatory as well after watching it on television not long ago. the visit to the botanical garden however weren't the best of trip unfortunately because the strong wind condition marred an otherwise good weather for a picnic outdoor. it became dusty and we couldn't stay for long. the observatory was also closed as it is being prepared for the begonia festival which happens on the 6th march.

at noon, we proceeded to sovereign hill, which is listed as an outdoor museum which captures the life and times of the miners in the area. workers were dressed in their period costumes to lend authenticity to the exhibits, which is essentially a recreated township(thank goodness the toilet facilities are modern!) i had my initial reservations about the place. i had envisioned it to be no more than a theme park to cater to the tourists like me. i was wrong. there are a lot of educational elements at sovereign hill that provide great insights on how minings are conducted in those areas. we went to a few shows, including gold pouring, lollies making the traditional way, tried 19th century bowling and even visited two mines underground. we ended up spending more than 4 hours at sovereign hill. the kids enjoyed themselves thoroughly. same for me.

alas, we had to leave since paisley needs to call it an early night as she has her school camp the next day, but not before we stopped over at my cousin's place for dinner in syndenham.

the teacher making sure the kids do their homework properly.

posing outside the school at sovereign hill.

panning for gold. no, they didn't get lucky.

botanical gardens with the observatory as background.

fagan