Hello, I’m Allie Skye and I live in Griffith, New South Wales, Australia with my Daddy, and Mummy. I am half Scottish on my Daddy’s side and Italian Australian on my Mummy’s side. It means I get to visit lots of exciting places. The last time I visited Scotland and Italy, I was a baby, so I don’t remember it. Daddy is taking me to visit Scotland and all my family that live there. Before we leave, I’ll introduce to everybody that you’ll get to meet as you read about my adventures.
First, more about me and my favourite things. I know, I’ll explain what my best day would look like. I would get woken up by Mummy and Daddy and we would have bacon for breakfast! Yummy. Then we would go outside, and I would play in my cubbie house. After, I would either go to gymnastics club or basketball club. Then we would go to City Park, and I would play on the big slide and climbing frames and we’d also have a picnic. Or maybe just an ice-cream - If it was warm enough. I could also put my swimmers on and run through the water shoots. After all this it would be time to go to Nonna and Nonno’s farm. I would change into my farming clothes, and I’d help with the farm work. We’d have a barbie for dinner and all my cousins would come over.When we’d get home, Mummy, Daddy, and I would watch a movie, then I’d get a story before bed. If I wasn’t already too tired out by my awesome day!
His parents emigrated from Italy to Australia in the olden days. That’s why I call him Nonno. It is Italian for grandfather. He works very hard on the farm. He is out first thing in the morning until the last thing at night. Sometimes when I ask Nonna how long he’ll be, she’ll say he’ll be out there until the cows come home. But he doesn’t have any cows – it’s a rice farm. I love spending time with Nonno, he lets me ride on the machines with him and he teaches me lots about farming. Sometimes, when he is watering the garden, he lets me run through the sprinklers in my swimmers! It’s the best fun ever!
Like Nonno’s family, Nonna’s family also came to Australia from Italy. I call her Nonno as it is Italian for grandmother. Nonna also works hard on the farm, but our favourite thing to do together is work in the veggie garden. She teaches me all the different Italian words for the fruit and veg that she grows. She is also an amazing baker and doesn’t mind that I sometimes make a big mess when I am helping. We have so much fun together. I think she is very pretty, she has lovely twinkly eyes and she smiles a lot.
Daddy is from the Isle of Skye in Scotland. He emigrated to Australia from Scotland before he met my mummy. When he was a little boy, he was very good at football, and he scored lots of goals. We call it soccer though, not football. That’s something else. He came to visit Australia to do some back-packing and then joined a soccer team called Yoogali and met Mummy and they got married. I like going to watch him play football and he helps me to practice. Mummy was also very good at football too. They say they are too old to play now, and I would agree as they are pretty old. Not as old as my grandparents but they must be at least 21.
Wombat is my first ever cuddly toy. He is a kangaroo and we’ve been together ever since I was a baby. In fact, he came on my first ever visit to Scotland and Italy – the one I can’t remember because I was too young. When we got back, I couldn’t find him anywhere. Daddy told me, that Wombat had got so homesick for his home in the bush, that when he got back, and whilst I was asleep, he rushed off to visit his family. He came back a few days later, although he was a quite a bit bigger and a different colour. Daddy said that often happens when people go on holiday, eat too much food, and sit out in the sun too long. He’s not been away since, so hopefully this trip doesn’t make him homesick again.
Nessie is a cuddly toy that my Nanny Scotland gave me when she met me off the train. Just before we drove over the sea to Skye. His full name is Nessie the Loch Ness Monster. He has a long neck and several humps or bumps on his back. The real Nessie lives in Loch Ness and is very shy. Some people believe that he might be a real-life dinosaur – a plesiosaur. Because Loch Ness is so deep, it is possible that he’s brilliant at hide and seek. Daddy told me that you could collect all the water from all the lakes in England and they still wouldn’t even fill up Loch Ness. That’s a lot of hiding places. Wow!
Nanny Scotland is my Daddy’s mummy. She lives in Portree on the Isle of Skye. I visited her once before in Scotland, but I was only a baby. She says I liked jumping into all the puddles! Even though it was summer in Scotland, there was still plenty of puddles. I hope there is lots of puddles this time too. I always speak to Nanny on my tablet, and she comes to visit us as often as she can, but I’m still really excited to go and visit her in Scotland. She lives in a house that overlooks the sea, she has white hair, and she smells like fresh air and clouds.
Effie-Morag is Nanny Scotland’s best friend. I think her name is funny, but Nanny Scotland told me that she is named after two very kind and important people. One is called Effie and the other is called Morag. Effie-Morag knew my Daddy when he was a little boy, and she has some funny stories to tell me about him, Uncle Donald and the other local children getting into mischief. Effie-Morag gave me a lovely gift when I arrived. It is a beautiful tartan bag that is now one of my very special things.
