Tuesday TulluLa

I had to make a collage of a few photo's for this weeks Tuesday Tullula!

As you can see, Tullula has tried to do all sorts of poses for me!

I took one photo while we were waiting for my dad to go ashore, and then she wanted to see it, and then posed for another and did this a few times! It was too funny and quite cute!!

Best Of Tullula's Fiji Holiday!

Home

Its good to be Home!
Tullula and I left Fiji on an early flight...4hrs in the air, and second time around seemed to have Tullula in a state of super exitation! I on the other hand, just wanted to watch the movie, or even better sleep!!!
I must say, despite her excitation a few moments of frustration and the feeling that the flight was not coming to an end we Tullula did ok!
Then came the last 30min of decent, getting ready to land, and I got Tullula to sit with the seat belt on...She was tired, and acepted it, only to fall into a deep sleep as soon as the wheels on the plane hit the tarmak!
GREAT!!! Now I have to carry the carry on bag, and a sleeping baby! I don't know why; but children feel heavier to carry when asleep!! So I battled to get off and on our way to Customs. Trying to wake her up once in a while!
I think having very patient parents must surly rub off on children...Does it?
In any case, she was very good to stand in line for the 45min we had to wait to get our turn to clear through customs!!!

And Finally we were out, greeted by "my papa" as Tullula kept on saying. He had two balloons, one that said "Welcome Home" and the other had hearts on it! How sweet! Tullula was at first shy, hugging, holding onto me. Once I kissed Stephen hello, she ran to him and hugged him for a long time, with a big smile on her face.
She has not let him go since then! Daddy this, papa come play, draw, read....Hihihihi...She is a happy girl!

As for myself, I have been surprised to all the details stephen has thought of!
Balloons every where at home, a sweet note on my board, cider in the fridge (one of my 2012 resolutions was no more beer but to have cider instead), bread and cheese, strawberry's for a nice breakfast. He even baked a carrot cake!!!
He is happy to have us Home, and we are happy to be Home!
Home really is where the heart is.

You know you are somewhere else when...

• Oil is sold in bags.
• The dairy aisle consist of a not so full fridge!
• There is heaps and heaps of soup packs-meaning broken chicken bones..
• good luck finding what you want in the very messy freezer.
• Chips are sold in glad wrap packets and not frozen??
• There is more flour to sell than yoghurt! Sorry, I am French!!! (ever been to the dairy aisle in a French super market?)

Well this has been Fiji, a nice place to visit and one I hope to sail around a bit more!!!

Tullula's Hoiday Reading

I got some new books for our trip. 

One was given to Tullula in the air-plane, the other two (one at a time) during the first week here!

We have:

• "Brown Bear,Brown Bear, what do you see?" by: Bill Martin Jr
• "Blue Hat, Green hat" by: Sandra Boynton.
• "I love my ABC" by: Anna Walker.

I must say that her favourite one of the tree is "Brown Bear" and that she has memorised all of the animals in the story and the order as well and has read it to herself many times!!!

Its 2am...

I can’t get back to sleep! It seems like this bed has some sort of 2am wake up call for me…Tonight I lay awake thinking of all the things I have to do once I get back to reality, life in Australia!

In the past I would lay awake in this bed with Braxton Hicks contractions. They them became real labour contractions (at 2am still) and later on; on the 15^th of January 2010, its in this bed that I laid, trying to get some rest as a surge came over me to get off quickly as the waters broke! I think I kinda slid off somehow, in my puffed state!!

In this bed I laid for 2 months with my new born baby, before we were scooped up to my Dear Love Stephen’s Home land, Firm land of Australia!!!

This place is full of pregnancy memories…

But today I lay here in my fathers bed (he left us his comfy aft cabin) and I am here with a toddler, my little girl!

Who also wakes up in the middle of the night to caress my shoulder or grab my hand to place it on her belly!

She will not fail to wake me up at 6am…

I must sleep…I have already read my “Frankie” Magazine for an hour.

What next??

When I get home I want to set up an art room for myself. Go on a date for Stephen. Have some tea with the girls. Can’t wait to have some laughs with Ana and Heilailai on our “Thursday Night=Craft Night”, See my cool work colleagues. Watch out baking trays; I’m coming home! Sew, Sew, Sew…Spend hours, on the internet (limited electricity time on a boat!!!)

Hmmmm Maybe I now have some things to Dream about…

TuesDay TulluLa

Life on the beach is full of Fun!

Grass...Hopper's do Hop...Tutorial!

Here Is a Tutorial to make a Grass Hopper...And what else should it be made of under the tropics on sandy beaches, but nothing other than Coconut palm!

So, start of by getting one leave/palm.

Place your nail, at about 20cm away from the end, and dig it in. we are going to separate the leaves from the hard middle bit.

I just slide my nail along. All the way, make sure to keep your nail as close as possible to the hard bit.

You should be left with something like this!

Bend down the middle bit by about 15cm.

Now I may not sound very precise but, its not a precise art, it all depends on the thickness of the leave, how tight you work, ext...But it should all come together, and even if you have to do it a few times, you will get it!

This if what you get, and this is how you should hold it to start the weaving processes!

First you do a Half Hitch, on both side.

And tighten it down. Got it?

Now of course the other side is done the other way as well, but same thing really!

Now for the texture of the body of the grass Hopper, bend back then do the same half Hitch knot!

Just keep on doing that all the way, one side at a time!

The end result should leave you with something looking like this!

How have you gone so far???

We are almost done!

The tail end of the palm needs to be drawn through the end of the bend.

Both of them, and you have got the Grasshoppers antenna's!

Now for the legs! I like to get two new middle bits from the center of the coconut palm leave, hard ones are better to hold the grasshopper up!

Nice and clean, bend them, one end longer than the other of course!

Just slide them through the body where every you think best!

And Voila, you have yourself a very nice little 

 Grasshopper!!

I on top of that had a VERY happy little girl as you can see! She thought that this little grasshopper was Hilarious, and we hopped on the beach for a while!

p.s: I know that my indications are crap so is my wording! Sure is not easy to explain something that seems so simple to me yet that others have never made...I hope someone does try, and does let me know how you went!!

Traveling Dress!

I forgot to "show off"  the little dress I finished a day or so before we left Australia! I had it cut, and waiting to be finished for ages, and I got it done just in time for Tullula to wear as her Travelling dress!

I just LOVE the material!!

I got her to wear a long sleeve shirt for the cold flight under the dress!

Happy Goodbyes!

I really did not think there was such a thing!

I mean when is saying goodbye ever a good thing? Sure, if its someone you did not want to see, but then it’s not a “Happy” one its just a one of relive. Right?

There are indeed many sorts of good buys, and many words to say them as well!

-See you later.-Goodbye-Adieu-hasta la vista-Chao (we use that one a lot in France, despite it not being French)-SeeYa (very Australian)-Cheers (hmmm)-

Well I sure I can made a huge list of all sorts of word that are used in a time of departure!

Yet until yesterday I had not realised that there are as well very Happy Goodbye's!

We have left the Marina, not gone very far just 15 nautical mile South West to an Island called Malololailai (good luck getting that one said right first time round, my first attempt telling Stephen on Skype where I was, was more something like: we are on “Ma lo la lai lo lai lo laisomethingIdontknowwhat” He laughed and agreed that I did not know what!)

The little French group that had become some sort of family at the marina was breaking apart, as 2 boats had left the day before and 3 of us were leaving the same day…

Some going South, some North and some just cruising around in Fiji still!

We had spend 2 weeks all in a tight circle, doctor treating the others cold, nurse doing his bandage, I massage someone sore neck, the Matriarch being our yoga instructor, miss popular cutting hair of the little girls, kids playing together every afternoon (after school work on board) men helping each other out, woman sewing…It had all come to an end, all that needed to be done was finished and the calling on the Ocean was out!

Yet as we sailed out of the Harbour, and we had boats on our Port (right) and starboard (left) waving huge goodbye, we were all HAPPY!

HAPPY to have shared special times together, to have created a bond! HAPPY to be off on our way to discover new horizons, and they happy that we are about to see new worlds!

On boats we all know that the world is small and the earth round, thus our friendship will be there when we cross paths again!

That’s we way it is!

We have all chosen to live a life of Vagabonds and we know that with that comes friendships that we make and loose! But that’s just it, we don’t actually loose them…We just made new friends to see again, somewhere else and we will all have wonderful stories to tell one another around that glass of Rum in our hand as out boats sway at anchor!!

So our Goodbye are as happy as can be!!!

Holiday Email

 Today I wrote an email to my darling Stephen who stayed back home in Australia to work.

Now I don't mean to share my Full personal life, yes I did not copy the whole message for you all to see, but I do think that this little bit does talk a bit of being on Holiday with ones child away from the other half!

How are you doing? I hope well and not too lonely
 when at home in the evening?
I guess the TV is great to combat lonesomeness and boredom at times!
I have really not been sleeping well since I have been here! Of course my cold is not helping! I cant say that its Tullula that's in my way/the bed too small as its not. (I usually don't sleep well in the same bed as Tullula)
And actually is has been sweet to have her little body roll next to mine, wanting to be spooned!!
For sure waking up with her jumping on me, and poking her head 2mm away from mine is not very pleasant, but children are quite smart, and a smile on her face really does blow away any possible grumpiness!!
I think I do miss my feather pillow!
And having you in my bed!!!! For me to roll over to and be spooned!!!

I also have not really been going to be super early, well I lay to sleep at about 10pm on average!
I have found that being on holidays with Tullula is actually not much of a Holiday!!
Woken up at 6am, constantly someone to care for, she is not in her environment, has few toys thus needs me to entertain her!
She has been good, and has had moments of laziness or finding games with Cushions or nothing really!
But I have been here now for more than a week now, and that's a Long time to fill with a 2 1/2 year old!!

I have been asked a few times now, you  all right? Not too board in the Marina still??
Well I actually wish I could be board a bit! I wish I had the time to sit and do NOTHING, to read in daylight and not in bed with the headlight to not wake the sleeping baby in my bed!!
But I guess its been good to spend all this quality time with my adorable little girl!

Life on a Boat!

I am amazed to see the amount of children that live on boats these days! I do wonder if most of the younger ones are not French? In any case at this marina it sure is the case!
When I was growing up on a boat, there were far less children and if there were some, it was unlikely they would be the same age! But we got buy, we played with younger and older, it did not matter!
At least not always!!

In France there has been for ages a really good correspondence schooling, but now with internet its so much easier! One of the reasons my parents did not do it for us, we met so many poeple along the way who had to wait ages for mail! My dad did not have the patience to wait for such things, especially that school was not a main focus for him!

I don't regret in the least bit (not any more that is) the life I had on a boat.
I look at the kids around and they are self sufficient, they have game with nothing and they are without a doubt VERY agile!!!
Not only hoping on and off boat, walking on a moving, swaying home but walking on a deck can be...slightly dangerous...To say the least!

Just yesterday my Little Tullula would of gone right trough the port hole and landed, somehow inside the loo, if I had of not caught her by the last leg and arm that was left on the outside!!!
Poor things...She got a huge fright! so did I...

One of my yachty neighbours said to me how good Tullula was doing to walk about the deck. She continued on to tell me that her Daughter would have her grandchild in a life vest just to be in the cockpit!!!
My neighbour also said, that really children knew their limits, but felt their parents emotions and that the mother being scared probably did not help the little girl feel comfortable on a boat!

I do believe that some children are more clumsy than others! We are all different.
Before I left on this trip I had someone ask me if I was going to put a life jacket on Tullula when on the deck?
I had not really thought of it, but went on to say that I was going to see how Tullula was going to go!
Last year when we came to visit my dad, Tullula was not a great walker, still a little clumsy on her little legs, and really we spend most of our time on land...
But this time I knew it would be different!!!

yet she is doing well...Apart from the hatch accident yesterday...I think i need to say that it might of been my fault! we were on out way to the shower ashore and she was only in Nappies, I did not want to bother getting her dresses! But she really wanted her cloths on, whimpering as she followed me! Ok, lets put some cloths on, so I stopped where I was- right next to the hatch- and got her shirt on, and her pants...Well that's when she stepped back...into the hole!

Anyway...

Stephen and I would also like to take her sailing when she is a bit older...But I wonder, is it not better to have children younger on a boat? When they adapt so much faster, when it all just becomes/is second nature?

As for now I am happy with the way our life on the boat is going!!!

TuesDay TulluLa

 Life on the Boat!

Why do they do it???

I know that most brands produce things according to the country it’s going to be sold in!

But why do they do it?

Ok, I saw a documentary about the fast food chains, and how they created food to suit the country yet still had their brand that was recognised! That’s I can understand, they wont sell many “Big Macs” in a vegetarian country!!!

The product I am talking about is Nappies!

No hiding that I have a child, conversations change, Crazy!!

First of all, I though wow its cool; they sell packets of 4, 10, and 15 and so on!

That’s kinda made sense to me, people here don’t have as much money so they buy smaller packets, and maybe they don’t even use them all the time! I thought that pretty thoughtful and suits the country!

Now, my experience last year in Noumea of getting the cheap brand was a disaster!! (I buy the cheap no name brand in Australia), but this time I thought I better get something better, something I can trust (well that everyone else trusts) so I got a cute (I think things in small packets are cute, and that maybe because I am not very big myself? Who knows!!!) packet of 4 Huggies nappies!!

Well, you guessed it, I was not impressed!!

Now I have seem many Huggies Nappies back home, as it seems to be the brand most used!

They are colourful and thick!

These ones we white, plasticky and to me really looked even worse than my no name brand back home!! I knew right away they had been made to sell in cheaper countries!!!

Why???

Why make something of poor quality for the poorer?

I think it’s rude of them!!!

Plus, after a couple of hours I had to change Tullula! How is that going to last a whole night??

Good thing I still have a few of my No name brand one!!

I think I am going to write to Huggies and ask them what the deal is!!!