Second day in Canberra

We woke up at 4am and by 7am we were locked out of the house.

Harvesting the fruit trees - clementines and lime

Allison, Lucy and I went out into the garden to look at the fruit trees and see if we could pick anything. I didn't notice Hannah and James following and shutting the door (automatic lock) behind them. Sigh. No keys, no phone, no wallet, no nothing.

James went to our neighbours, introduced himself to Heather and borrowed her teenage son's cell phone. He phoned the brother of our house owner who lives across town but he couldn't come by for another two hours. Let's just say there was a lot more than dismay written on my face as I held a squiggly Hannah with no shoes on. But! The owner's mother was up for the week and lived just down the street. So off James went to get some keys, return the phone, return the keys and we get back into the house. It was great to meet the nice people around our neighbourhood, especially in pjs. Crazy Canadians.

This is a lime! Yes, a lime!

Well, with our spare time while waiting for keys, the girls picked clementines and limes from the trees. There is also a plum tree but it seems like it's a fight with the birds to get to them first (which we lost). We found a juice squeezer thing (what's the proper name?) and had fresh clementine juice. Delicious! Very sweet - much sweeter than oranges. And very full of flavour.

Making clementine juice - delicious!

In the afternoon we walked to North Ainslie Primary School and met with the vice-principal (Ms. Rikki) and the girls' teachers. Allison will be in year 3/4 with Ms. Emily. Lucy will be in year 1/2 with Ms. Fiona. They even got to see their classrooms and were each introduced to a pair of girls in their grade who will help them adjust. How nice! Allison and Lucy have been so excited to start ever since!

Part of the playground at North Ainslie Primary School
The equipment is shaded from the sun and rain. I think it'd
work great in Canada too! No icy equipment!

Everyone was exhausted from the walk when we returned (especially Hannah who went to sleep at 3:30pm and didn't want to wake up for dinner. She just ate at midnight like usual). We broke out the BBQ for dinner and went to bed before 8pm - including us adults. We're still really tired and not adjusted yet.