Meanwhile - at Uluru.

(web image, ©DJB 2013)

After an epic 2885.5km road trip, Ben's sister and her boyfriend, both keen travellers, have arrived at Uluru (Ayer's Rock) where the temperature is 42°C in the shade and, to quote a recently received SMS, European tourists happily 'crisp themselves' by the hotel pool. According to the updates, it's been quite an adventure travelling the sunbaked highway from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy, a town responsible for 70% of 90% of the world's opal production where people sleep underground as well as work there; and then the long stretch to cross the Northern Territory border, a left turn and a few more hours to the big red rock. They'll spend new year's eve under the stars at Uluru while we spend ours under the compact fluorescents of our kitchen refuge.

Benanas.

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Ben's a banana connoisseur. The interest probably started in the depths of the European winter when he enjoyed shopping at Karow market. Over two years ago, on our first trip to Berlin, we sampled Costa Rican bananas and they were delicious. These days we are always on the lookout for tasty YBF's (yellow bent fruit). It's also been quite hot lately and we're almost out of sunscreen. The Hamilton brand has been reasonably good; on the cheaper end of the sunscreen spectrum and with an excellent name. This time, however, we've gone with another brand, again because of the name and because Ben likes bananas.

Christmas in the kitchen.

Last year, Ben had a quiet day by himself in a guest house in Berlin Buch. This year he's at home and it's still very quiet, even with one other person and a dog for company. We had a family Christmas lunch in the kitchen last weekend, attended by six adults and two very busy little ones. "We're not so good at this Christmas thing," said Ben when I mentioned I hadn't bought him a gift, and he hadn't bought me one either. Jazz enjoyed an early morning beef bone; her Christmas is just like any other day.

Birthday cake.

We make a concerted effort to eat healthy and, for this reason, the small family gathering at Bobby's Bistro celebrated Ben's 22nd birthday without a cake. However, in some minds, a birthday just isn't complete without a cake so this morning Uncle Peter arrived with a cake of sorts and a pack of candles. He only used one candle which was duly lit, happy birthday was sung by the brotherly duo and the candle blown out, thus completing the formal celebration in the proper manner.

22nd birthday.

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It's Ben's 22nd birthday today. Last year he was living by himself in Berlin. This year he's living at home in Wheelers Hill, still by himself much of the time, but with family and friends not so far away, geographically speaking. Like that ever-expanding spirit ball in those interminable episodes of Dragon Ball Z, energy is building and one day the health problems will be blasted away.

Kitchen tap.

Amid all the worries and upheavals of the past six months, there has been one constant; every Tuesday night Ben attended tap dancing classes. With lots of help and encouragement, and very determined regular practice at home in the kitchen, the absolute beginner has learnt to tap dance. He's not in the Studio D All Stars concert but we will be in the audience for the Sunday matinee performance, singing along to the chorus of Johnny O'Keefe's Shout. Why tap? Well it was the only class available for adults at the local dance school and it turned out that the tap class was a lot of fun. We have to thank Kelly, the teacher who started term three on crutches, and the other students for all their help. Special thanks go to Kathleen, without exaggeration the most organised person in the whole world and also an experienced tap dancer, who patiently and happily mentored the new student every week.

Yoga in the kitchen.

Ben does yoga exercises every morning for an hour before breakfast. He attended a few classes at the Ringwood School of Yoga back in July and some at Mount View Yoga in August. Mostly, though, he's self taught and learned many of the positions from a book. In the evening we both do stretching and movement exercises for about forty minutes before dinner. In the final few minutes of the session, we do a "winding down" exercise lying on the floor and slowly relaxing from head to toe while paying attention to the breathing. It's very much like meditation but lying down and I have to admit to sometimes nodding off during this part of the routine.

Today we had two very welcome visitors to our kitchen; one's a very good friend who, many years ago when she was single, shared our house with us and the other was someone who we'd never met before. He was, however, happy to try out the yoga mat and demonstrated his skill at the flat-on-back quarter rotation, effortlessly moving himself from along to across the mat. He also displayed the part-way-over axial rotation which will, with a little more practice, develop into a full axial belly flop. It's nice to have visitors and we hope to see Yumi and son Shaun again soon.

The painted door.

It was 215 days ago that we slowly walked the long corridor on the lowest level of Launceston General Hospital and passed through the painted door. From a distance it looks transparent and you can see the office on the other side but it's just been painted that way. Once you enter, someone has to push a button to let you out and sometimes they won't. I did secretly take an overnight bag on that rushed trip to the hospital, thinking that a good night's sleep and a few tablets were all that was needed. Ten days behind the painted door was a relatively short stay by all accounts but it seemed unbearably long at the time.