The clouds were only just holding their rain as we set off from Mittagong for Canberra early yesterday morning. It was grey and cold and even more so when we arrived in the capital two hours later, reflecting and exacerbating the austere 1970s concrete buildings which the city is mostly comprised of.
It ain't a pretty place, that's for sure and I'm sad to say that although I have learnt to make my own mind up about places it felt as barren and soulless, if clean, as others had told me it would.
I can see why people might chose to bring their children up there though as it feels like a safe place.
We packed a lot in to our two day visit. First we went to the War Memorial Museum which is extensive and fascinating and overrun with school parties! We didn't need a guide as my father gave us the ultimate tour, knowing as he does so much about military history.
We then drove (you can't walk round Canberra with ease since it's all so spread out- but there are a lot of cycle paths!) to the new Parliament House where we sat in on a session of Question Time. It was extremely entertaining watching all the MPs and Prime Minister Rudd bicker, refrain from answering each others' questions directly and take the mickey out of each other. It didn't appear that they were there to achieve or resolve anything, just have a go at each other for the sake of the audience. What a pantomime!
I'm not sure I like the Parliament building's architecture and minimalist style decor but it isn't fusty and creates a somewhat calm ambiance. The colours are very neutral, reflecting the grey-blue-green of gum trees. The views around and across Lake Burley Griffin of the High Court, the Government buildings and the National Museum, Library and Gallery are impressive.
After Question Time, it was on to the National Gallery which is home to a modest collection of Victorian, Impressionist and more modern works by mostly Australian artists. I'm afraid I've rather maxed out on museums and galleries already this year so my mind wandered...hmmm...yes, OCD was getting the better of me and I'm missing Ric's level head and humour.
After that, with our legs beginning to feel slightly weary with all the walking, we headed to the hotel to dump our stuff.
We stayed in an unusual business-y hotel (and I thought I'd seen everything in the world of hotels!) called The Pavilion which housed a jungle in the middle! Well, alright, it wasn't that big but a huge area in the centre of the building was full of tropical plants. We enjoyed good food in the restaurant and I had a King size bed just for me. Sarah rinsed the supplies of tea, jams and Vegemite at the breakfast table this morning.
Today we went to the National Museum which displayed a lot of indigenous artifacts, art and some natural history. It's a very good place for Australians to visit and for school children doing projects but it left me a bit cold. Then we hit the shops in the Civic area where my gait was observed, my weight distribution assessed, my feet measured and finally fitted with a 'perfect pair' of running shoes in the rather unfortunately named 'Athlete's Foot' store. I also got another blouse for work, it's my new addiction - shopping for corporate work attire. Yikes - I don't want to think about that tonight.
Finally on our way back to Mittagong today visited our old house in Lyneham. I couldn't believe how familiar it looked even though I haven't seen it for exactly 20 years. The shrubs in the garden have grown up a bit but I'll never forget the garden's long shape and the big living room windows. It made me sad to see it again, trespassing as we were on someone else's property to catch a glimpse of our former lives. Happier days in my mind. 'Don't look back' said my Dad. I do all the time, I thought, such is the nature of my ever confronting and questioning OCD addled brain.
Seeing Canberra again has stirred me deeply. I hadn't remembered the greyness or town planning (well I wasn't even 8 years old when we left in '88) but I do recall the cold from my time there in the mid 1980s, as well as other fragments of my childhood: days spent playing in the grass and bark chips of our bungalow's long garden, the spiky black slugs writhing about in a hissing cluster on the garden fence, the neighbour who showed my brother and I a tiny bird he had caught flying around his living room, the pale blue of the local swimming pool, protecting my brother from the big boys at Sunday School, being told to 'stop looking so serious Alexandra' at school, drawing, painting, cutting and pasting for hours at our little table and chairs, the rose gardens outside the Government buildings, my mother's long floral print skirts and tissues in her handbags, always fighting to claim her free hand, hiding in my father's wardrobe to surprise him when he got home from work, dreams about saving my brother from certain death by ginormous rubber trumpets or ant hills (don't ask), my baby sister being brought home for the first time, going to see princess Diana and my first 'boyfriend' Liam Baker whose lap I sat on once while he patted my back. All these memories and so many others have flooded back to me since I started thinking about this trip and particularly now that I am here.
It doesn't feel like home yet though and perhaps never will but I feel I have at least claimed something of my Australian self back in recent weeks which makes me feel so much older suddenly but also like a child as I pine after my mother, worry about my father, learn about my family's past, recall my memories as if things happened yesterday, and now settle down and forge a new-ish life and in some ways identity for myself in Sydney. I learn something new about myself, my relatives and this intriguing multi-faceted country almost every day and the more I get to know it the more I'd like to stay.
Ric is still on his way north. He visited to Australian Zoo today having escaped Surfers Paradise. I'm trying to leave him in peace but am missing him dreadfully and cry every time he sends me one of his silly texts.
Tomorrow I am meeting my step-sister and her husband for the first time and then going back to the flat where I will find out if I left the straighteners on over the weekend. Yikes!
My school friend Evie Wyld (also half Aussie) has just told me that she has literally just found out that her first novel is to be published by none other than Jonathan Cape!! I am so thrilled for her. What an inspiration! Well done girl! Read this for a taster.
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