VILJA LÄHETTÄÄ TERVEISIÄ INDONESIASTA

Months of speculations are over.. could not avoid hearing discussions about this subject. Symphaties for Gillard from me!

NEWS

International news on the Australian television in June 2013.

- Carefully following the situation with Mr. Mandela

- Australia is taking Japans whaling to international court of justice. According to Australia, Japan doesn't follow the international agreements on whaling. 'You don't need to kill a whale to do scientific research on whales'.

- Indonesian forest fires and the smoke in Singapore & Malaysia (naturally big interest to us)

- Australian soldier has been killed in action in Afganistan. Another one was shot as well but will recover.

- Somalese asylumseekers from Indonesia to Australia. Australia returns Somalians back to Indonesia as they arrive.

- Papua New Guinea - Australia visa discussion. PNG wants similar visa agreement between Papua New Guinea and Australia that Australia has with most of the European countries. Due to their friendship and neighbourhood.

- Following the Snowden case. Only time Finland was mentioned in a sentence as Vladimir Putin commented the Snowden situation in Turku (Only time I saw Niinistö on TV and it was for 2 seconds)

- Situation in Syria and the development in the Middle East

- Barack Obama wants action against the climate change.

- Daily royal news from the United Kingdom (Waiting for baby of course, something about Queen Elisabeth is on the news almost every day)

LOPPUSANAT AUSTRALIASTA

Even this trip comes to its end. We are facing the last days here at the Gold Coast before it is time to return to Sydney and Finland. It is once more a long way ahead, one week on the move before our last flight arrives to Helsinki early in the sunday morning 7th July.
Feelings are calm, relaxed, and awaiting. It is good time to think of some conclusions again.
We both, Virve and I, share quite the same feelings about that we got what we were looking for from this trip. Got perspective and some direction in life, cleared and opened our minds quite a bit.

Vilja has been a brave little traveler and she has grown so much during this 3 months which is a long time in her life! Something like 15%! She has learned to speak quite a lot, she can express herself already. She has learned even some English words even we didn't really put effort to this. Let's see for how long she pure natural way and with pure Australian accent answers 'hello' and 'yeah' when one speaks English to her. Or for how long she waves 'bye byes' when going for a toothbrush or just another room. If we would have moved here for good and she would stayed in a kindergarten for like a year, she'd end up learning both languages. I'm sure about it.
She has started to be more independent as well, playing with herself more, drawing, watching children's programs. At home she is in fact 'dry' already, this also happened during the time here. She has become more open, though still a careful little girl, but giving her cutest smiles to people more. And all that attention she collects! It is amazing.

When we first got to a plane in Helsinki I was afraid how the long flight will go with the little one. Now I'm not afraid to that anymore. For Vilja it seems not a big deal for entering to an aeroplane anymore, and we as parents, I think are grown too, to understand more about that little girl's mind and world!
Overall, I feel this time here has been the most valuable also for the relationship between the father and the daughter. I feel also that as a family, we are even closer and more compact than before . So, also this way, the trip has been a great success!

We are starting a new phase in life again, we are moving to Jokioinen, a little town between Forssa and Ypäjä! Keijo's gonna be a Kanta-Hämäläinen!! Really looking forward to that, to put our OWN stuff on display and use again, to use our OWN stuff, sleep in our OWN bed with our OWN sheets. In the end that matters too! I miss my guitar and records a lot too.

Anyway, some part of our hearts is staying also here in Australia. We felt it actually already when returning from New Zealand, felt like coming home. There's something special here that makes us feel good. But what it is? I tried to think of that and what I'm going to miss here.
For the biggest things that come to my mind are SUNSHINE and SMILING, FRIENDLY, HELPFUL PEOPLE. It is funny how that matters so much! (Maybe not in that order :))) I also will greatly miss the OCEAN, how magnificent that is, amazing and hypnotizing. I will miss the CLEANLINESS of the public parks and barbeque areas, the public PLAYGROUNDS for the kids, they are everywhere and they are in awesome condition, always. I will miss the fresh fruit, (mangos especially), I will always remember the first morning at the Mum's house in Sydney when we first arrived, and the taste of the mango Iita had bought for us.
Australia is the first country, outside Finland, that we both feel like we could actually move to and live in. Preferrably next to the ocean :)



AUSTRALIA IS

POPULATION OF AUSTRALIA: 21,6 million
BIGGEST CITIES: Sydney 4,4 million, Melbourne 3,9 million, Brisbane 2,0 million
CAPITAL: Canberra
STATES AND TERRITORIES: (visited) NEW SOUTH WALES, VICTORIA, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY, QUEENSLAND, (not visited) TASMANIA, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, NORTHERN TERRITORY, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
AREA: 7 692 024 m2
PRIME MINISTER: Julia Gillard (all the time on the news, very strong woman)

edit: Last night 26.6. Julia Gillard resigned after 3 years as her challenger and previous PM Kevin Rudd won the election in the parliament.

PRICES:

1 cup of coffee in a café = 2,45 €
breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast) in a café = 8,40 €
burger meal and a coke in Outback Jacks for example = 15,40 €
1 beer or a glass of wine in a bar = 4,20 €
6-pack of beer in liquorland = 9,00 €
1 litre milk = 0,70 €/l
12 free range eggs - 3,10 €
packet of toast = 1,40 €
1 kilo of apples = 2,00 €/kilo
1 cucumber = 0,70 €
500g minced meat (beef) = 2,50 €
movie ticket = 12 €
1 litre fuel = 1,39 €/l
nappies = 0,35 € / nappy

HAUSKAA JUHANNUSTA!

CURRUMBIN WILDLIFE PARK

SURF, SURF!

Today I did one must thing here at the Gold Coast. I took a surfing lesson!
I booked the course from Currumbin (14km south from Mermaid), because it said in the traveler's bible Lonely Planet that it is the place to go when you begin. And it was a great place, beautiful with perfect, easy waves.
I was a bit worried in the beginning, because I have struggled a bit with my lower back. It got sore like a week ago from some reason, but I have put some hot gel to it and tried some coaxing moves as well. So it got good enough that I didn't need to cancel. And I actually cycled all the way to Currumbin. That makes a real exercise day with total 27km cycling + 1,5 hours of surfing that is really tough sport! (The way back home, and especially the last 5 kilometers were real agony already... )

I first was trying to book for a group lesson ($35) but they didn't have those this weekend. So I was supposed to get a private lesson for $90. In the end I happened to get company from a Spanish Emilio, so we ended up paying for $60 each. So not bad really!

Surfing itself went really well, even the first time I stood up the board, it went really well! I got a bunch of high fives and woo-hoos. Felt really great! In the end of the lesson I even learned a bit to see the becoming waves myself and catch them.
I think surfing is one of the most amazing things I've done in my life. I was bitten by a surf bee. I totally can understand now, why so many go every day carrying the surfing boards to the beach. It is touch sport, fun, and feel so good afterwards. I am really glad that I went. And will go again.

LIVIN' IN AN ILLUSION

We have now settled to our temporary home at Gold Coast, Mermaid Beach, Queensland, Australia. We are experiencing a bit how it would be to actually live here, normal daily routines, and so on. This was our goal also in the beginning of our trip, to just stay in one place for a while (gonna be 5 weeks), to just live like an ordinary family, only in Australia.

Gold Coast has been terrific. After we landed from Auckland and slept the first night here, realized how tired we really are from all the traveling. So it was about a time to stop!

We have our daily routines now.

Wake up at 6.30.
Porridge & Morning coffee (milk) 6.45
Giggle & Hoot at 7.00-9.00.
Beach, sleep in a pram, playground 9.30-16.00.
Giggle & Hoot 17.00-19.00
Brushing teeth 19.15
Sleep 20.00-6.30

Yesterday we heard that in our very nearby canals and rivers there are sharks. So no swim there! They are Bull sharks. We didn't witness any so far and I hope it stays that way.

Our great trip lasts only for 1 month further from today. 2nd July we fly from Sydney to Singapore and take a ferry to Bintan, Indonesia. We stay there for 4 nights before our flight to Helsinki.

But before that, we live in this illusion for another 3,5 weeks!