BBQ Mania

We got invited to THREE different Barbies this weekend.  The first one was at a big and old fashioned house but upstairs isn't completely finished and it won't ever be completely finished because the architect ran out of money so they didn't make another room on floor three.  There is no floor three anymore, so on floor two, the ceilings are 15 feet above your head.  We stayed till 11 o'clock at night and it took us 15-20 minutes to get home.  

On Saturday morning I went to an awesome house with chickens in their backyard and a ping pong table.  And a PS2.   I played Halo2.  

On Sunday, we went to the really boring mall and then we went to Jane O'Donnell's house.  She is an old family friend of my dad's.  We biked to Jane's.  The problem was, we stayed too long and it got dark so we couldn't ride back in the dark, so Jane had to drive us back to our home.  Then the next day, which is today, we got our bikes back.  

TODAY IS AUSTRALIA DAY

The Ignauriation

I stayed up all night to watch the ignoriation (I called inauguration ignoriation).   Here, it was on at 3 o'clock in the morning, so I stayed up aaaalll night to watch it in my mom's bed.  I was not the only one who stayed up: my mom did of course.  Daddy stayed up for about 30 minutes (at 3am) and then fell asleep again.   I stayed up till 5.30am our time.  I liked the concert before the ignauration because the kid behind Obama was sleeping, then she was licking her lips.  We watched it one week after the inauguration when it was on the TV at midnight, our time.

P.S. All of the times in this blog are my time. 

Weekend Activities

I took all these pictures except for the ones that I'm in, on the way to the skate park.  I also rode across the Yarra River, which means I rode past the non-city line.  There was a giant gay and lesbian fair and the skatepark was in the middle of it (I was going to the skatepark, not the fair.  I didn't know there was the fair that day.)

This is a BLACK swan.  In Australia, they only have black swans.  They don't have a SINGLE white swan in ALL of Australia.  This swan is in the far side of Albert Park Lake (Albert Park is the oval behind my house).  

This picture is of a huge amount of seagulls.  The little white dots are seagulls.  This is also at Albert Park Lake.  Albert Park Lake is in Albert Park.

This picture is a closeup of the picture below it.  The actual picture is a picture of the memorial shrine for wars.  In a different shrine, some skateboarders were skating on a plaque with the dead people's names on it.  (I saw this on the news.)

 

These are advertisements signs on wheels, being towed by people on three-wheeled motorcycles.  I have no clue what "WHACK" is.  I think it is a sports drink with no sugar.  And it's full of something unknown.

This skatepark is the first skatepark I've been to in Australia.  In this top picture, I am dropping in off a one-meter high quarter pipe.  A meter is 3 feet.  In this picture below, I am doing a headless pop shoveit (a pop shoveit is a jump and your board does a 180 degree spin).  The headless part of the explanation of this picture isn't a trick -- it just means there isn't a head in this picture. 

This is me getting ready to go on a 12 kilometre bike ride to the skateboard park where I had all those pictures above.  (It looks like I'm going on a four day campout.)

The picture below, I am jumping off a pier railing in St. Kilda.  (I'm not jumping into the water).  What letter did I make with my hand?  The picture above, I am leaping over the railing.

Phillip Island

Phillip Island is an Island that you can drive over a bridge to. From Melbourne, it is two hours away. When the tide is in, you can barely walk on the beach without getting wet. When the tide is out, you can walk 300 feet before you hit the water (not including between sand bars). There is someone named Beth who lives on Phillip Island who we went to visit. Her parents had a kayak and I had a boogie board, so I used the strap of my boogie board to tie it to the back of the kayak. We did 2 laps -- each lap was 300 feet. She was towing me and I was pushing at the same time, but I wasn't fast enough to keep up with her, so mostly she towed me.

We played beach soccer (on the beach -- that's why it is called beach soccer) at least 100 feet out from shore because there was still at least 50 feet away from water. Everyone played, including my mom, my dad, my friend Luke, my friend Beth (the kayaker), Luke's dad, someone named Zoe, and someone named Shaun. Here's a picture of beach cricket (not on Phillip Island -- on the beach near our house) since we didn't take a picture of beach soccer on Phillip Island.

I got a Ripstick for Christmas and I rode it around Phillip Island.

On the way to Phillip Island, there were some very big fiberglass animals. There was a koala, a great white shark, and a grafittied worm. On the way to Phillip Island and back, there is a town called Casey. Here's a picture of the Casey medical center and the giant graiffitied worm and the giant shark. Look veeerrry very very close to see the name Casey Medical Center.

AUSTRALIAN DATES

THE DATES ON ALL OF THE POSTS ARE THE WRONG DAY FOR US BECAUSE WE ARE A DAY AHEAD.

Australian Things

Here is a list of a lot of weird Australian names: Musk Sticks (which are candy -- or lollies, as they say here), Rocket (which is lettuce), Docket (which is a receipt), Scorched peanuts (which are scorched peanuts), Milo (which is hot chocolate substance), Mars Slice (which is a chocolate rice crispy treat), Maltesers (which are malted balls), and Escargot (which is pastry, not snails).

From the terrace (not the terrorist) I can watch the new year fireworks. There were kiteboarders and the wind was soo windy that the kiteboarders flew 20 feet in the air! There were twenty kiteboarders (that's a coincidink -- there were 20 of them 20 feet in the air -- 400 feet altogether!) When I saw them, I was going on a really really really big bike ride in a circle because I got my stuff from America two days before Friday.

What I like the best about Australia is that there is Cold Rock Ice Creamery and you choose the ice cream you want and the size, then you choose the toppings you want, and then you get to watch it get all smashed up into little teeny bits in your ice cream. Then you eat it!