A Lesson in Patience

Days 5-8

Saturday was another sultry day.  The four of us walked into Bellingen and wandered around.  I had been struck down with my first full on hayfever since before I got pregnant with Jack.  To combat this I tried everything herbal and pharmaceutical on the market.  Nothing seemed to be keeping it at bay.  There was some question as to whether it is hayfever at all but I had all the symptoms, red runny eyes, sneezing, and the ever present drippy nose.

Luckily I managed to stay pretty chilled out about it and then every so often (about once every 2-3 hours) I would loose my cool and have a little whinge to myself until I felt better again.

Saturday night is party night, everyone seemed to be partying late.  I woke up a few time and once I heard a sound coming from directly outside our tent I sat up and looked and saw two young guys in the dark trying to get into our esky.  I was right above them and I said " Oi get out!" He was obviously drunk/stoned because he took a moment then jumped back like a cat that caught a fright screamed and ran off into the night.  AB woke with a fright thinking that it was me that had screamed.  They got the beer, but we got a good giggle so it was almost a trade off.

Sunday the rain came.  It rained for 24 hours straight. Keeping two boys occupied in a soggy camp site was a new thing to add to the;
+ List of parenting trials that I don't need to do again, but happily survived.

The boys are doing fabulously, they haven't asked to go home again since the first day. They haven't asked for television or showers. They are mostly playing happily together, with the occasional play with our friends kids to break up the monotony.  They have slept in their own beds all night and stayed asleep until around 6am each morning.  I'm actually quiet surprised and relieved.

One of the best bits about the campsite is the impromptu jam sessions.  We were all hanging out and a group next to us started a drum and percussion jam. One of our friends started playing the saxophone.  Hamish was dancing up a storm, a few people commented on his wicked hip movements and rhythm.  Jack was struck by the saxophone player.  Once he was finished playing Jack walked over to me with a glisten in his eye and said
"Mummy, can we find one of those for a four years boy to play?"
He was so taken by the 10 minute jam that it is the top of his list of thing he liked about the festival.

It stopped raining just in time for the light-up lantern festival.  This year I was determined to take the boys to make a lantern but neither of them were interested.  It became a new thing to add to the;
+ List of things you want for your children and then realise that you are living vicariously through them.

But we joined the parade and walked around with Arieal and her lantern, watching the huge glowing men, fish, pigs, ants and other lanterns bobbing and gliding around us.  The parade stopped at the concert stage and they had the fire lighting.  The word 'Transition' in huge burning writing while the aboriginal tribe of this area did a small ceremony.

Afterwards the kids were awe struck watching the Japanese Drumming. Jack was bobbing his head to the beat and got into the cheering and whooping that everyone was doing on cue as part of the performance.

We could feel the skies were about to open again so we ran back to our tent to get the kids in bed while they were still dry and batten down the hatches.

Monday is pack up day, but we have decided to stay on and as we watched everyone try and pack in the rain we knew we had made the right decision.  There were some storm warnings come through they predicted gail force winds thunder storms and hail.  Luckily it mostly passed us by with just a few extra heavy downpours.

Waking up this morning to blue skies felt like a gift from the gods.  It has been sunny but not hot all day and everything is dry.  We have just spent today around the tents, the kids are playing with our friends kids, Andrew did some work, and I got some of my book read and finally got to finish this blog post.  We have great reception but charging our phones has been an issue.

We don't know what we are going to do for the rest of the week.  If we don't get kicked out we may just stay here or we might pack up and move down the coast a bit.  That's the nice thing about these holidays, no plans just the luxury of feeling like you can do whatever you feel like when you wake up.
xx