Patagonian (musical) adventures

More from Day 1 and part of Day 2 in the continuing saga of the Patagonian Chronicles: A brief glimpse into the surprising musical taste of the Mulherins. (See September 11th blog post below for the background.)

Tim wrote:

Woke up to Matt singing “Barbie girl” again this morning (can’t seem to get it out of his head.) And Andy singing “I’m your Venus, I’m your…” Listened to the second CD of The Magician’s Nephew… Ben changed the CD to Queen’s Greatest Hits at the old folks’ request.

“I didn’t realise Queen had so many well known songs,” says Mum, and Ben told her that it was a greatest hits CD. “Oh. So this is all of them then,” she says. Later, Ben and I [Tim] are left alone in the car and Ben puts Savage Garden on (couldn’t resist any longer).

Now Ben:

Woke up to “Another one bites the dust” from Matt this morning. Tim’s in the driver’s seat. Not quite sure what he’s doing yet ... Humming along to Petra. The gearbox is suffering greatly as clunking is frequent. We’ve been behind a truck for a fair while now and Dad must have a crick in the neck from leaning over into Tim’s airspace to see if it’s safe for him to overtake.

Andy’s blending “Fall to Pieces” by Avril into “Rock DJ” by Robbie, at Mum’s request. Tim overtakes the truck to applause and cheers. “Good driving Tim” says Matt as soon as Tim comes back to our lane… [Later...] Tim’s still driving. The elbows are at a sweet angle. Now we’ve cranked up Cat Stevens: “..find a girl, settle down, look at me, I’m happy.”

Chris's dream

The other night I dreamt of Ben, something I rarely do. I was walking in a public place -- I don’t know where -- and I realized Ben was walking beside me. He was the 13 or 14 year old Ben, still a boy but only just, the gentle Ben of home schooling in Tucumán with cats on his desk. And that blue striped long sleeved dress shirt.

I was surprised, not because I knew Ben was much older than that, but because I knew he had died. I was overwhelmed by his return. I wanted to say something to other people, to share him, maybe to let them know he was back. Ben didn’t say anything but I knew he didn’t want me to draw attention to his presence. I put my hand on his back, friendly, but also to make sure he was real. We walked a few more strides then he was gone. No words, no purpose, except maybe to show himself. That’s all.

Patagonia Adventures - Day 5

Another entry from the Patagonia trip diary... Ben writes:

The rain is really bad. Really bad. Its 2:30 and really dark. It has stopped and started but we're now heading into an almost black patch of sky. Has anyone seen 'Twister"? Sting and the Police are screaming out "there's a hole in my life". We've just had a stop cos Matt's window is letting water in. We're trying to work out if it's being sucked in by Mum's window. "So when you open your window, it causes suction," says Dad. Fascinating. 

Let's see if Mum can turn the Police back on. Not sure if it was paused or stopped. It's back on. It was paused. We've averaged 81 km/hr in the last eight hours which is pretty good for us. Mum and Matt have been doing well. Andy's just been released from the back row and is reorganising the dashboard from the second row so that he gets a good view of the road. "I can't stand losing you" - The Police. Rainy. Grey. Went past another 'Australian' (as Dad says) windmill. Matt wants to count all of the ones we see on the trip. I think we've been on eight for a while though.

Tarantulas in Patagonia

Another excerpt from one of Ben's entries in our Patagonia travel diary. The setting? A people mover with seven of us in it. It was 2005. So Ben, Tim and Andy were big. We were pretty squashed in. Matt was little and we were trying to do 10,000 kms in three weeks as we wanted to see as much of the south of Argentina as we could. The audio books of the Chronicles of Narnia were our constant companion. Ben writes:

We're being overtaken by beer trucks and ambulances [Tim's driving]… 'There's another smelly pond' says Matt. "This is the provincia of smelly ponds" says Mum. Pete points out 'mini flamingos'. No one knows what he means by them though, and no one saw anything. Is he going on his own little trips?

We're listening to "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe." Apparently there are tarantulas on the road, so we're going to try and stop and see the next one. Dad's in the front seat and has wet jocks and a wet singlet hanging in his ear. He went for a run this morning and washed them in the shower. Brilliant. Edmund has just met the witch for the first time.

We just drove past a 'huge' tarantula. We didn't stop. And another one. Andy's frustrated that Tim can't stop for a tarantula. Dad thinks that by the time we've stopped they'll be off the road. Possibly. Unless they're squashed. Matt doesn't think we'll see any as 'they move quite fast'. Edmund is on to Turkish Delight.

Started slowing down for a tarantula but the masterminds in the front two seats decided against it, 'cos it was squashed. So we're not stopping for squashed ones as they're squashed and not stopping for live ones as by the time we stop they'll be off the road.

Half squashed would be good, 'cos then they'll only be able to drag themselves off the road, at not too quick a pace and we should be able to make an aquaintance. Mmmm.

And he never knew Tracy Turnblad!

Two larrikins together. He is surely cheering you on Jaz as you do so well. (Jaz Flowers moved from the cast of Fame to taking on the starring role of Hairspray.)