the big four-oh

where were you on july 5th, 1983? no idea? i remember where i was, because there's a picture of my mom and 40 of her female friends for her 40th birthday on the lawn by my parents house and my dad, sister, brother and me quite prominently in front of them. i was 14 and for her event, my mom had taken me to the shop "hij" (now called "we") to dress me nicely for that day: blue polo, red spencer and yellow pants!

i never wondered where i'd be when i turned forty on 03-03-09. when i realized we would be in the melbourne area, i asked laurian if, as a 40th birthday present, we could go to the street called acdc lane in melbourne (yes, our tomtom can show you the way from anywhere in australia) but it turned out we would not be quite in melbourne yet.

instead, this is what happened leading to that day:
back in 2002 i got a speeding ticket in queensland and the officer who wrote me a ticket told me i could pay by creditcard over the internet. i was sure australians were the most technologically advanced back then, and so they are right now. the latest hype in google-land is google lattitude where you can keep track of peoples position simply because they have their mobile phone switched on.
i received this sms on monday, the day before my birthday:
"Msg from Vic Police:Extreme weather in Vic expected Mon night & Tues.High wind & fire risk.Listen to local ABC Radio for emergency updates.Do not reply to this"

i was completely disoriented. how do they know me? how do they now the number of my prepaid simcard of one week old? how do they know i'm here in victoria? why do they send it to me?
i asked the barber who was giving me a 40-year old haircut and he said that this was a normal procedure. they would send the messages to everyone within the reach of specified antenna's. isn't that cool?

now, what to do with that message? "Tues.High wind & fire risk" we were going to drive the great ocean road and by the sea there's extra wind. we heard before our neighbor on the campground was going to go aswell and he had a tow-caravan and he had also received that message (ofcourse, but we still checked) so if he went... and he did.
and about fire, there were still four bushfires that weren't extinguished but fortunately they were far away in victoria compared to where we were and all of victoria's fire departments were going to be ready because the winds could go up to 150km/h!

on my birthday at four o'clock in the morning, i woke up because suddenly there was an enormous noise. the wind had arrived. they were firm blows of wind and i realized we had all our windows left open and our camping furniture out. while i was out getting things in place, i thought of how these same winds could make fires move with huge speed. scary...

in the morning at eight mette was the first one to wake up. it must have been her half hour "jetlag" between south australia and victoria. laurian woke everyone else up and after half an hour everyone came singing with balloons and a home made cake by laurian with candles. we had a bed-in breakfast with presents in the master bedcorner and half an hour later the whole family was ready to go.

first to tower hill, an old vulcano, where you could drive in the crater. no way today, that was due to the fire hazard. instead you could drive around the crater on the edge, which we did. the very first roadsign on that road was a yellow diamond with a kangaroo: watch out for kangaroos. normally this means to us that there used to be kangaroos in ancient times or even more recent but not now when we're there. up on the vulcano edge, the view was magnificent!
it looked like a doughnut circle or a horserace track with grass that turns into a swamp or craterlake depending on the rainfall and in the doughnut hole there are small hills with vegetation. (see picture)
while driving, i saw brownish blobs moving in what used to be the craterlake. wow! that must be kanagaroos! for once the signs were right, i thought. i asked laurian to shoot a picture. she came back saying that they weren't kangaroos but ostriches. oh well, also cool. 300 meters further, there was another road sign: watch out for ostriches! they just had put the signs wrong...

so what do you do after an ostrich sighting in a crater lake when you turn 40? eat at hungry jack's (the australian burger kig but the name burger king was already reserved by domain snatchers). hungry jack's are relatively rare in australia but i spotted one and arranged with laurian that i could go there. while mommy and daughter were having muesli in the camper van. daddy got himself an aussie burger. you can get that only at hungry jack's. it's a big sized burger with lettuce, tomato, bacon, egg AND beetroot. check that out!

ready for the big trip! laurian thought that driving the great ocean road would be a great way of celebrating the next decennium. and i thought so too.
the great ocean road is what you see in the pictures of the tourist brochures but then five times more beautiful because it's big and because it's nature working hard. did you know that the twelve apostles are now only six pillars sticking out of the sea. number seven fell down two years ago and a tourist incidentally shot that footage.
basically, in every cove of the great ocean road, there's a sculpture project by the sculptor called ocean. at some stage, you even get bored because there are around 11 sculpture projects but laurian and i solved that by 1 going there and shooting pictures and the other staying with the children in the van.
the major attraction is the twelve apostles, so we got the children out for that one. mette sat on my shoulders and after noticing them she said: "ze zijn een beetje onder de water. moeten bandjes aan/they're just in the water. they have to wear floaters" (mette wears floaters when she swims).
please check out the pictures, they give a good overview of these great wonders of nature.

and what do you do in the evening of the day you turn 40? have a great home cooked dinner by laurian with the whole family and type up a report on what to do when you turn 40.

ps. when you turn two and a bit, you just say:
* hondje gaat rijden. (laurian: waar gaat het naartoe in die auto, mette?) naar belgie. dag, hondje de beer/doggy is going to drive. (laurian: where is the doggy going in that car, mette?) to belgium. bye doggy the bear
* nee, doe jij maar/no, you can do it (after laurian tells her to join in packing up her toys)
* kijk allard, een helicopter/look allard, a helicopter
* mette moet ook nog even bellen/mette also has to call for a bit (tries to take the phone while tom is on a birthday call)