Home is where the heart is

My 90 year old gran, who is very dear to me, collapsed at the weekend. My dad and I raced the 3 1/2 hours up the motorway to be by her side and hold her hand and we're still here, waiting for any sign of improvement, along with other members of our family who we have called to come since, as the prognosis is not good. The next few hours are critical, but so far she hasn't responded to the drugs they've given her, and they've been unable to stabilise her.

I'm eternally grateful that I'm in the UK right now, that I'm not in Australia, debating whether I'll get here in time, like my Aunty is in America, or halfway round the world and out of communication.

The Eden Project, Cornwall, UK

We're spending a few days in Cornwall, visiting The Nephew who's just started uni in Plymouth, which also happens to be Mr Traveller's birth town, so given a few days spare before the littlest hobo's hospital appointment, it seemed a perfect opportunity. We're staying in the little coastal village of Mevagissey, which is close to the Eden Project, an eco visitor attraction and educational charity.

We started off on the right foot by buying our tickets online, which gave us a 15% discount, and hobo went free as an under 5. I was fretting about having to print tickets if we bought online, but you just have to give them your reference number when you arrive to receive your tickets. Our second bonus was on arrival when we realised that the one day tickets we'd bought actually gave us entry for a whole year. I'm not sure that we'll be in this neck of the woods again in the next 12 months, as is possibly the case with the majority of their visitors, but what a great way to give your visitors that warm fuzzy feeling that they're getting something for nothing.

The project is contained within an old clay mine, and you enter at the top of the pit, with a view down to the biomes in the valley. It gives you a strange perspective, looking down from there, the biomes look quite small and the walk down looks like it would only take a couple of minutes. In reality, there is loads to see on the way down through the óutdoor biome' and my guess is that we spent about 45 minutes meandering down the hillside, and probably would've taken longer it it hadn't been for the necessity of a nearby loo for a recently almost nappy-free toddler. For those who don't want to or can't take the walk down (or back up at the end of your visit!) they provide a land train which takes just 2 or 3 minutes.

There are two indoor biomes: Mediterranean and Rainforest; the rainforest biome is by far the largest of the two. As well as the three biomes are the Core, which is considered the hub of the Eden Project and I found it to be the area that contained the most information, the stage, where they host a variety of concerts and events, and while we were there they were also constructing the ice rink for the winter season. There is a large grass covered link between the two indoor biomes, which also houses toilets and some really tasty food outlets.

The Rainforest biome made me homesick for Australia and made me keen to continue on our travels, it was also very hot, and having come in from the conservative October Cornish climate we found ourselves stripping down to t-shirts and wishing we hadn't worn jeans, so come prepared.

Walking around, it felt like there was loads to see, but not always loads of information about it... there were signs and descriptions but often we found that we had a lot of questions that were unanswered... although some of those questions (such as how do they power this place then?) were answered when we arrived at the Core. Other things we may have missed in the way that you often do when a small person with busy hands is in your party.

There are several food outlets at the Eden Project, and I was delighted to see that they didn't offer the usual chicken nuggets/burgers and chips that are so often the only option at these sort of attractions, but tasty, freshly prepared (you could see the chefs making everything from scratch) wholesome offerings that were really well priced and kept us grazing all day!

All in all we had a good time, and I would go back. We all enjoyed ourselves, learn a thing or two and were glad that we'd chosen to spend one of our Cornish days there. We were there for approximately 5 hours, although at approximately 55GBP it wasn't the cheapest day out. If you had the opportunity to go back at different times of year on your free ticket for a year it would be well worth it.

England v Australia

Every few days we have the England v Australia vote... just like they did on 'A new life down under' but without the tacky signs to hold up and mostly without the whining pleas from well meaning family members. Where will we live when we've finished travelling. make a snap decision and give a straight answer, where do you feel like today?

In the beginning it was very clear cut; I felt like I'd had Sydney torn from the very depths of my heart without really wanting to wave it goodbye, but my mum had cancer and I just wanted to get 'home'to her. Mr Traveller was well over corporate life, desperate for a change, and couldn't wait to leave behind the every day reminders of what, at that time was the possibility that our little daughter was facing a life threatening illness. My vote was ultimately, all being well down the line, Sydney all the way (I always was rubbish at those one word answers anyway...). And he was very firmly England. A week or two back in the UK and we were wobbling all over the place, Australia, England, Australia, England Australia England, changing our minds eight times a day, agreeing, disagreeing, bribing and compromising. Then we went to Ireland and that became Mr T's new homeland of choice, whereas I'd finished wobbling and as the health of our nearest and dearest began to gently improve, I  accepted that it  may not have to be Sydney, but my heart did still lie in Aussieland. And that's by and large where our votes currently reside on the average day, for this month at least.

Thankfully while we might not be too aligned on the location as yet, at least we're in harmony on the shape that we'd like our lives to take. And for now that's all that matters, because we've still got a whole host of places to visit, lands to fall in love with, and without a doubt circumstances to encounter and overcome. With that in mind it's with absolute certainty that I can say that we'll be changing our minds another thousand times yet.

Stuff... oh, stuff

Before we left Sydney we carefully considered what to do with our stuff - keep it and store it or sell it and start afresh when the time comes to settle down somewhere. What we eventually agreed was that we would sell most of it - mostly ikea furniture anyway, so we could probably buy new for not much more than the cost of storing it and transporting it to wherever,whenever that may be. we kept hold of a few things, mainly personal stuff like photographs and memories, and our dining table and chairs which we both felt bizarrely attached to, although now I do question whether it was really necessary. We had our things transported up to Brisbane where they are nestled safe and dry in my brother in law's garage until such a time that we might need them, or he might need the space, or move to a house with a smaller garage.

The beginning bit was easy, sofa, beds, desks, washing machines, whatever. Then some more challenging decisions - the Littlest Hobo's baby clothes for example - hanging on to them because we remembered her being tiny in them or just in case we just happened to have another child and then that other child just happened to be a girl all seemed too remote a reality to keep hold of them so we selected a few particularly heart-string-pulling pieces and either sold or gave away the rest. Deciding what to put in those final few suitcases which came with us though, that was painful. We ended up packing  and re-packing right up until the very last minute, leaving a mess of confusion at my mother in law's house after taking things out that seemed so important at the time, but in reflection, three or so months later, I can't even remember what they were! Apart from the sat nav... we ended up buying a new one not long into our travels. We boarded the plane 18kg overweight, and with bated breath, but I'm glad to say we didn't get charged on any one of the three flights. 

Last week we went for our first trip to a motor home sales place, to do a bit of research about exactly what we want to be in once we arrive back in antipodean lands, and I found myself thrilled at the idea of cutting down again and living in that small space with maybe half of what we have with us now. And yesterday, suddenly realising that in 2 weeks time we'll be leaving the comfortable base of my parents house that we've been relying upon for the last few months, and only what we can stuff in our car can come with us down to Spain, I opened my wardrobe and wondered why on earth I had brought with me half the things I did. The local charity shop will be very pleased with me in the not too distant future.

And then there's the small matter of toys. It was The Littlest Hobo's second birthday 2 weeks ago, and an excellent excuse for a huge party to catch up with loads of friends. We considered stipulating no presents, but that just made me feel like Scrooge McMum, and asking for money instead of gifts at a small child's birthday would've just been downright crass, and besides all that she loves all the little plastic fiddly things and crafty stuff etc that make excellent presents for kids birthdays, so we decided to just go with it. And, being surrounded by so many gorgeous friends and family, she received loads of lovely gifts which she is in heaven playing with. I don't want to sound ungrateful, we really are, we have some gorgeous friends who were so kind to our little hobo. But it's drawing near to the time when we'll have to  make the Europe trip cull, and as the new year draws we will be making an even stricter selection ready for our flights down to Singapore. 

On the plus side, given that there's so many things that we want, but don't want to haul around the world with us, I have no qualms with sticking anything that we treasure but doesn't make the A-list into a box or two to store in some currently unsuspecting relative's loft until such a time that we are ready to pick it up and drive it to our English country cottage, or pay some extortionate amount of money to ship it down to Oz, or wherever else we stumble across on our travels and deem suitable to set up our next home.

Writing this post has been enlightening; going through the editing process I started to question whether we're thinking like travellers yet. Right now it's more of an eager anticipation than a burning reality, although there has been a definite shift in the way that we approach each purchase as a family, we still buy some thing that we won't be using/consuming immediately and can't won't take on our travels. It's a change of attitude that's taking a bit of getting used to!

Travellers officially :)

It's a pretty big day for us here. 9 months ago, driving through the New Zealand countryside, we decided that we wanted to travel. At that point it was just a dream, a glimmer in our eyes of a life we would like to have, in the same way as so many must dream, but never dare or manage to turn that dream into reality. We schlepped back to everyday life in Sydney, me at home with the littlest hobo, Mr Traveller working too much at something he was great at but didn't have true love for burning in his heart, and thought nothing more of what could be if things were different.

In February the littlest hobo was hospitalised with a spurious illness and breathing problems in what would become a months long unsolved mystery and myriad tests. She was discharged after a few days, but we spent an awful lot of time in doctors offices, hospitals and trying out this that and the other theory. It was trying and heartbreaking watching this little being that you'd brought into the world struggling to keep up with everything that everyone was expecting her to be, without being able to offer any definite solutions. 

In April, while we were driving back down the coast from visiting Mr Travellers family in Brissie, we had a completely unexpected and at the time devastating phone call from my mum, back in the UK, to say that she had cancer. While we spent a few days umming and ahing about the how and when of it we knew that one way or another I would be going back to the UK for a period of time to support her through her treatment. 

Sometime in the middle of all this the whispers of redundancy went whispering past our ears, and somewhere in the middle of all this a little seed was planted that maybe, just maybe, if our luck started to look up sometime soon, and everything that was currently bad went good, this could be an opportunity to fulfil our dream.

So with a great deal of trepidation and a flurry of manic activity Mr Traveller took a sabbatical, we sold the material possessions of our lives and packed up our treasures to store in the Brissie family's garage and jumped on a plane to England, not really knowing for how long we would be going and where. We took 3 days in Korea to decompress an luxuriate in the sort of hotel that encourages calm.

We arrived in the UK and my mum started and finished her daily treatments, and came through it relatively unscathed and with the best results you could expect with cancer really. The littlest hobo, thanks to the wonderful set of paediatricians that we have worked with in both Australia and the UK, is being treated for asthma and a wide range of allergies, having been cleared from the suspicion of cystic fibrosis, which was our greatest fear from the possibilities that the medical teams initially explored. And today Mr Traveller has confirmed with his employers that he will take redundancy, which will enable us to fulfil our dream and travel the world. This is such an exciting day - a situation that could have been so bad has turned into something so good, and this is just the beginning of a beautiful adventure! I'm sure that there's plenty more bumps in the road still to come, but fingers crossed they're not as big, and they are as overcomable (according to spell check that's not a word, but it should be...) as the last few months have been. Who's coming?

Domesticity resumed

We've returned to my parents house for the next few weeks, so that the littlest hobo can spend her second birthday with friends and family and have her medical appointments, Mr Traveller can do his cookery course  and I can come to terms with the fact that I have in fact lost hobo's Aussie passport and apply for the new one. We'll also be enjoying a bit more time with our families and catching up with a few friends that we didn't manage to see in round 1 as well as planning the next leg of our travels down to southern Europe.

The passport is proving challenging... it took me a good 24 hours after returning to my parents and ransacking our belongings to accept that the passport really was lost. Today, defeat accepted, I began the arduous task of sorting the mess out - reporting it lost to the police, reporting it lost to the Australian high commission and finding out the necessary process for getting a new one. Then there was the drama of finding an Aussie passport holder over here, or else someone else who held one of the accepted jobs, who had known us for long enough to act as guarantor. And in the next few days there'll be a trip up to London to actually put the application in. Mental note to self:  take better care of passports in the future.

But I digress, well kind of. While all this is going on Mr Traveller is busying himself wallowing in domesticity,  baking gluten free scones and cleaning the car from all the debris and general muck that it had accumulated during our last three weeks on the road - hopefully it will smell sweet as a daisy again once he's finished, and be ready for us to mess it up again in a few weeks. And I've been ducking back and forth from the laptop and the phone calls making a roast chicken a la Jamie Oliver in a way that I'm never inclined or much enabled when we're staying in holiday accommodation often with the bare minimum of kitchen equipment to hand.

And the littlest hobo, she's helping her dad washing the car, and delighting in having ten plus times more toys than she does when we're on the road and generally enjoying being a home bird. Even the music's taken a turn, having listened to Mika, the Music of Dingle and The Wiggles non-stop for 3 weeks I'm raiding my mum's surprisingly good CD collection and blasting out a few tunes as we go about our day.

For now, for today and the next few, this'll be great. We'll love having the comforts of 'home' and the stability of one place. But give it a few days, a week maybe, and we will be itching to get going again. I'm glad we've dipped our toes in the water now, but it feels a bit wimpy to be reeling back into 'the other life' already, and I can't wait for my next taste of the travelling life.

Kinsale - my favourite stop on our Irish visit

We're nearing the end of our Irish visit, so my daily proclamations of 'this is my favourite place in Ireland so far' will soon be drawing to an end, which means, in essence, that most likely Kinsale will take the crown.

We've spent 2 weeks now in the Emerald Isle, starting in Dublin, then across to Tralee in County Kerry which was a great base for exploring the rugged beauty that greets you around every turn of the winding West coast roads, and finally, down to County Cork, where we have delighted in the quaint villages and rolling countryside that surrounds us. There's a lot of competition out there, and as we were driving along today, Mr Traveller quite rightly pointed out that you can't really go wrong with a visit to Ireland; everywhere is so pleasing to the eye, the food is delicious and the people are charming to the max.Up until today, Clonakilty took the favourite spot, but it seems we had been inadvertently saving the best until last.

Having to work our sightseeing around the necessity that is toddler nap-time, we arrived in Kinsale post nap-in-the-car, just in time for lunch, which was news enough to make everyone smile. After a quick rece of the centre of town we chose a lively looking modern fusion cafe called the Lemon Leaf Cafe, and we weren't disappointed with our choice. After refuelling we set off to explore the town with the renewed ability to focus on things other than our stomach and were delighted by what we found.

Kinsale is a harbour town, which gives it an immediate high score in my book. The town itself has that old-worldly charm that is par for the course around much of Ireland. Every second building was a b&b, and they were generally kept in pristine condition and painted in vibrant colours which would look ridiculous in so many situations, but seem to work so well against the muted light that is the norm under an overcast sky.

Around every corner was another winding street with narrow pathways which us amused for hours. My only sadness was the 6 coachloads of cruise passengers who were visiting at the same time as us and insisted on clogging the paths and proclaiming loudly about how strange it was that another country could count their small change as cents when their notes weren't dollars.

After a couple of hours exploring (and a chocolate brownie sundae from the ice-cream shop - who knew how great Irish ice-cream was?) we headed back to the car and drove the 5 minutes or so out of town to Charles Fort - one of two ruins of forts which guarded the entrance to Kinsale harbour. Although I'd done a bit of background reading about it, I wasn't prepared for how magnificent the ruins would be, and 4 euros each seemed like a tiny price to pay for the hour plus that we spent exploring the fortification. Wide open grassy spaces and tiny hidey hole doors made it the perfect exploration point for the littlest hobo and the views, both back to the town and out to sea and along the coastline were breathtaking.