Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Gold Coast

Our recent trip to Australia consisted of a lot of car riding, up the hill, down the hill. Me telling my husband to go left, him turning right - and so on...

We revisited one of our favourite spots on the Gold Coast - Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. After all, one cannot visit Australia and not have a photo taken with a koala bear, and some kangaroos, oh and my husband wanted our daughter to touch a snake too. As you can see, she was not quite in agreement with his plan.

She was not so impressed by the feeding of the kangaroos. We teied to explain that we were giving some "nam, nam" to the kangaroos. She put the food in her own mouth...

Little girl, big day

We are back on Saudi soil and the day/night rhythm is slowly creeping back to normal. So it's time to get back in to the swing of things!

Yesterday was a big day for our little girl, it was her first day at day care! A day that I was sort of looking forward to, because the past few weeks were quite intense. Imaan was increasingly seeking my attention and presence during almost everyone minute of the day. I know it's part of her development, but coupled with shocking night sleep and day time naps that sometimes lasted about seven minutes, I was left exhausted

and needed a bit of a breather.

But suddenly at the door of the day care center my eyes were welling up. My little baby, all of a sudden she seemed so big and so independent. I guess the fact that she did not even look back to say bye made the separation harder for me :) 

She had a very good first day, although when I went to pick her up she started bawling the moment she saw me. Apparently that is to be expected. I'm hoping almost goes well for day 3 tomorrow!

That loving feeling

It's day two of our Australian (ad)venture. It means that the jet lag is weighing heavily on my shoulders but I am happy!

 

It feels great to have brought our daughter to her home country, she does have dual citizenship but for some reason I primarily think of her as Australian, don't know why. I obviously (try to) raise her with my Scandinavian values in mind, but I also wan to incorporate with that all that I love about Australia and it's people. Because to me Australians are friendly, open, easygoing and warm. Australia is a country that is accepting and encouraging to people of all sorts of background. I'm sure it's not perfect, I doubt any place is. It may not be my home country, but it very well could be. It's a country that I have been in love with since I was 12 and that feeling is still there :)

The mission for today is to get over this jet lag somehow (I feel like I have gone through a mincer) and most importantly, teach our daughter to say "G'day".

Happy Sunday everyone! If you have that loving feeling, share it with those around you!

 

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Leaving on a jet plane

In transit at the moment, can't wait to reach our destination (as usual), but it's a 14 hour flight to get us there. Oh, and there's the fact that the flight is delayed... And not by a cute 10-15 minutes, rife flight is expected to leave an hour and a half late! So I am spending my time people watching and eating chocolate croissants...

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Here are some photos from our Jeddah visit in December. These are all taken with my iPhone so don't expect anything of awesome quality.

Some of the traditional buildings in the historical district of Jeddah, the oldest dating back to the seventh century. Many buildings have fallen into disrepair and is sad to see how little the Saudi government is doing to restore the area. To the right in this picture is a building that has gotten a facelift, at least on the outside.

Walking through the historical district I felt lucky that I was not hit by an air conditioning unit, sattelite dish or other random object falling down from one of the half rotten wooden balconies.

My brother insisted on me taking a photo showing the price of the fuel. Not sure if I have posted one of these before. A litre of fuel costs 45 halalas, that's less than half a riyal. One riyal equals approximately 20 euro cents! Cheap as chips, cheaper than chips actually.

Words of the day - Dagens ord

I thought I'd post some of these again. Really only for myself to look back on one day. I have no illusions that my daughters language progress interests many of you.

Mimi - Medicin. Lots of that needed as we are both sick.
Bapa - Barbapapa . Her favourite book at the moment.
Bam - Lampa (meaning lamp)
Baby - One of the few words she got right from the start.

Her favourite song at the moment is Itsy Bitsy Spider or as it is called in Swedish, Imse vimse spindel. She cannot say it though, so whenever she wants me to sing it for her she will tap her index fingers together trying to mimick the spider climbing movement. this was really cute at first, but when you have sung it at least 20 times in the last couple of hours it gets a bit old.

This can only end well

The OSN man, aka the cable guy, is here to fix us up with a few more TV-channels. At least that is the idea. This guy speaks mafi English (no English) and he has been on the phone with someone for a while now and I hear the word mushkil (problem) being repeated all too often.

If we end up with absolutely no TV channels at all, it's fine by me. It is my husband that will throw a tantrum :)

Have a lovely Monday everyone!