Day 71 – Derby to Broome – The whockas are going. - Sep 30, 2009

Have you ever seen a white peacock? No. Have you ever seen a white peacock riding a bicycle? I didn’t think Derby had anything g to show the world but here it is. An albino bike riding peacock……break out the fibre glass I see a BIG peacock coming soon to Derby. They will save on paint.

Overall, a rather quiet day. We spent three hours this morning hauling down from Derby. Az slept from 30k’s out of derby until 20k’s from Broome. Ev listened to his CD player. He has adopted Alison’s old Sony Discman, he is so proud of it….and yes it still works. We will introduce him to MP3 and ipods when he gets a bit older.

Once we got to Broome we headed to the information centre in town and booked in for the camels by sunset tour. After finding out the price of the horizontal waterfalls flights we decided to think about that one. Then we wandered around town for a while, before the mandatory sleep for Az and swim for Ev.

Have to say first impressions of Broome are very positive. Apart from FAR too many pearl shops which give some sections a Double Bay/Toorak feel, it’s a really different and modern town centre. Not sure how much we will find to do, but we will give it our best. Tonight Alison and Ev went to Sun Pictures, the “oldest operating open air picture gardens” (count the disclaimers) to see the PIXAR movie – ‘UP’. Ev had a blast.

One guy in the van park has redefined pretentious for me. It’s not the big van which looks very fancy, we see lots of nice vans., It’s not the ceiling fan he has in his annex, probably a bit over the top but I can let that one slide. It’s not even the brand new BMW X5 that he is using as the tow vehicle (that is the BMW’s $WD.

Now we all know what the W in BMW and 4WD can stand for…..Now I don’t begrudge anyone a BMW, we have one in the family. We also have a couple of 4WD’s in the family as well. What probably put me over the edge was this guy has brought with him, and set up an annex to cover his Beemer. Now that is precious.

To think my car has been hosed down twice now in the 6 months we have owned it. I bet it would love its own annex!

Comment of the day was (as always) Evans’. Driving past the airport, which seems to be built in the middle of town. Seriously it is at the back of the Coles carpark, Evan saw a helicopter getting ready to take off, i.e. the rotors turning. “Look Dad, the whocka’s are going”. Think about a helicopte’s noise, whocka-whocka-whocka-whocka-whocka-whocka. Four year old logic strikes again

I have been meaning to spend a bit of time providing an update on our silent passenger, Aaron. When we left home he was just shy of the 12 month mark. Last week he passed the 14 month mark. As anyone who has had kids knows the changes at this age are rapid, I’ll be honest I am trying to keep up and I will miss a few here.

Since we have left he has managed to grow a lot more hair and push through at least five new teeth, mainly in the last month. As if he wasn’t grumpy already. At least he had an excuse now. He is not walking yet (probably because he never hits the ground, but is far more confident on his feet and manages to let go of furniture and stand briefly.

He has discovered his favourite toy – Evan. He watches absolutely anything Ev does with a reverence and worship that is beautiful to watch. The easiest way to get him to do something is to get Evan to do it first. He has however developed a dose of Gemma Syndrome (Gemma is the younger sister to twins) or aka the “me too” syndrome. If Evan has something Aaron must have it too…..or there will be tears!!! Guaranteed.

With his hands he has added a lot of ‘skills’ to his repertoire, he is now clapping, pointing, blowing kisses, hi fives and doing the motions to twinkle twinkle little star (seriously). The ‘how I wonder what you are’ bit is adorable.

His eating comes and goes, but he is basically eating a variation of our meal every night, so basically he is an aficionado of all things BBQ’d (with a lot of salad). On the more negative side he has discovered a love for chips and milkshakes.

For a guy who is constantly bundled from one carrying device to another, barely gets a sleep in his bed during the day (and his bed is a zip up cage anyway) and is dragged from one landmark to another across four states in 3 months….he is handling it brilliantly. He is developing a wicked little smile with his 11 teeth) that is just adorable. But what else would you expect a very biased father to say