Remember Me?

Posted at 9:30 PM, Wednesday, April 23, 2008

It seems that on those rare occasions when relatives come calling from overseas, my blog vanishes from sight. Bobby's parents arrived on April 10, and I've managed how many blog entries since then?

We have had a crazy but terrific time, with Bobby and his parents currently wandering somewhere in the northern Flinders Ranges while the kids and I hold down the fort here. We had our whirlwind six days on the Great Ocean Road, which was all around a great trip. Our favorite was the two days we spent in Lorne, north of opulent Apollo Bay. We rented a three-bedroom house with sea view and frequent visits by crowds of sulphur crested cockatoos, who seemed to expect this to be a good place for snacks. They especially enjoyed the Pepperidge Farm goldfish crackers that Grandma and Grandpa had brought by special request from America.

We all started calling the house "Doug's House," and in the end we felt more like housesitters than renters. The house had the feel of a relative's home open for our personal use in the person's absence: "The key's under the mat, help yourself to whatever's in the cupboard, and clean up when you're done." There was a magnet on the fridge that said, "If it walks out of the refrigerator, let it go." Lots of condiments, including a jumbo jar of Vegemite, assorted cutlery and utensils, and a little sign that requested that the nice blue dishes not be used outside. We felt right at home.

From Lorne, we drove the rest of the Ocean Road, with the high point of the last day being a visit to the Airey's Inlet Lighthouse. Bell's Beach, one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world, was a bust, with indifferent waves and a shortage of surfers. We drove through the busy city of Geelong, then an additional hour northwest to the city of Ballarat to spend the night and gear up for the 330 mile drive home.

Ballarat had something Adelaide lacks: true Autumn. The boys and I headed for the caravan park's mediocre minigolf course, only to discover that it was mostly covered over with oak leaves. After fighting against the leaves for fifteen minutes, I had a brain storm. I went to the office and asked to use the rake. Then I raked up a huge pile of leaves, and the kids got to jump in autumn leaves for the first time in two years. (Upon returning to Adelaide, I heard a former Ballarat resident remark with ill-disguised disapproval that "Ballarat planted lots of European trees.") The air was cool and crisp, and we had our first truly clear day since we had set out on our trip. Plus, Rizzo's Pizza on Eureka Street was the best we'd eaten since coming to Australia.

We arrived home from our trip on Thursday evening, and Pesach showed up only two nights later, so I hit the ground running. We had a modest Pesach dinner, especially since the matzah balls dissolved when I dropped them in the chicken soup and we ended up with "matzah mush soup." But the pineapple with berry sorbet was a hit at least.

The high point of our first seder was the puppet show Yonatan and Nadav put together to portray the Pesach story. I had asked them to work on this as a way to keep them out of my way, and the production they come up with far exceeded my wildest expectations. They made at least fifty individual stick puppets, including puppets for doing special effects, like when Moses and the Pharoah's magicians turn their staffs into snakes. Required equipment: a pharoah puppet, a Moses puppet, two magician puppets, three staff puppets and three snake puppets. Moses' snake then eats the other snakes, at which point Moses' snake puppet is replaced with a larger, fatter snake puppet. The show took about half an hour to go through, mostly because the kids hadn't sorted their puppets into scenes and were constantly stopping to find the puppets for the next bit. We saw all ten plagues, and a terrific climactic Red-Sea split. I'm seeking a larger audience now.