Secret Homes of Glebe

Not that kind of mummy - A day at the zoo

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 13:26:00 +0000

The note came home. Aiden's class was going on an excursion to the Zoo. The Singapore Zoo. This is the place that everyone asks if we have been to yet. No we haven't. We have been trying to get our life in order, you know after moving countries? There hasn't been time to play tourist so when the note came home and parents could also come on the excursion, I thought "I'm in!" I filled out that permission form, filled out an annual leave form at work and dug some money out to pay for our entry. Aiden and I were going to the Zoo. The Singapore Zoo.

Last Friday dawned with much excitement. Aiden because we were going on a "coach" and me because we were going to the Zoo. The Singapore Zoo. We donned our hats, our suncreen and our packed lunches and boarded the coach. On the way I got the skinny from one of the other mums on season passes for the zoo and Universal Studios. Sweet.

Ready to see the animals

We arrived at the Zoo and while waiting for the tickets to be sorted we all had snacks and at this point I realised that neither Aiden or I had insect repellant on. Luckily there was a good mummy close by who offered some of hers. Phew! Dengue fever be gone. While still sporting my smug "you mozzies won't be get me" look, another mum inquired who I was looking after. Huh? I'm just here to see the animals with Aiden. What do you mean I have to look after some of the kids? Luckily said mommy (notice the American spelling) had taken a photo with her phone of the chart allocating children to parents and could tell me who I was looking after. Great. I ended up with Myra who could probably be mistaken for a 8 year old because she is so smart and so conscientious. She so lucked out with me.

After the shock of having to be a responsible mummy I am then handed a clipboard and a pencil. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS (I think while trying to keep a serene responsible and willing to contribute look on my face). I have to work?!!! I have just taken an annual leave day!!! What is wrong with these teachers? Really? I am supposed to write down what the kids noticed about the animal enclosures and what the children are curious about. Give. Me. Strength.

So after the shock of having to be responsible for another kid AND having to work we finally get entry to the Zoo. Note that it's 10.30am and we haven't seen an animal yet. One of the Zoo workers join our group to take us on a tour. En route we see a lizard. In the garden. We make our way "behind the scenes" to this utterly stupid static display of dusty photos and stuff of animals to learn how many animals the Zoo has. Over 9000 apparently, not including the lizards in the garden. We then learn about parasites and darts while all the kids are saying "I can't seeeeeee....I can't seeeee....." My kid can't see either (because he can't see) and I am running the risk of coming across as a pushy mum by trying to get Aiden to the front of the crowd. Ugh!

It's now after 11am and we haven't seen any animals except for the lizard in the garden. We head to the animal hospital. This could be good. We tip-toe through an operating room where some sort of monkey is "under" and being operated on. COOL! I stop to take an action shot of the surgery with my fancy pants camera and completely get in trouble with one of the ~~fun police~~ Singapore Zoo workers. After a 2 second glimpse of an actual animal we are whisked into the X-ray room where everything is painted cream.

We then head to the animal kitchen where they prepare the food for the animals. How exciting. WHEN ARE WE GOING TO SEE ACTUAL ANIMALS?! Not in the kitchen apparently unless the animals are dead and about to be fed to other animals. While spending an indeterminable amount of time in the kitchen Aiden get's a nose bleed. I furiously dig into my bag knowing full well that there is nothing in their to mop up blood except his sun hat, which he needs to wear in the sun. Luckily there are organised mummies close by who provide little packages of tissues and antibacterial wipes. Then Aiden, probably overwhelmed with the crapness of the Zoo so far and the fact that his nose is bleeding a lot, starts crying. So I join him. It's hot, it's a rubbish excursion, he can't see (though apparently most of the class also can't see) and I have turned into a pushy mummy. I decide it's ok to wear my sunglasses for the rest of the excursion.

It's now after midday and we still haven't seen any animals except for the lizard and dead chicken pieces but we are heading to the polar bear enclosure for lunch. It's an awesome enclosure - big aquarium style piece of glass where you could watch the polar bears swim under the water or play on dry land. Kids and adults alike are excited. There are no bears. None. I eat my dead chicken sandwich.

The "behind the scenes tour" with no animals took so long that after the no-polar-bear lunch we head back to the bus. We went via the Orangutangs where Myra wanted me to write stuff on the clipboard and Aiden was more interested in the Zoo Tram. We then saw some other sort of Monkey and Myra again wanted me to write stuff down. Seriously, what is wrong with this kid? I told her I lost the pencil so she proceeded to search my bag for it. It may have worked out better if Myra had looked after Aiden and I. I bet she had tissues and antibacterial wipes in her bag!

An elusive animal

On the way out I ask Aiden's teacher what she thought of the day. She tells me it was much better than last year. I may have attended my last excursion.

Secret homes of Glebe, sorry Singapore!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 27 Jul 2014 11:26:00 +0000

So. That was a big week. Mostly. And this is my first blog post from steamy, hot Singapore!

We arrived Monday night absolutely pooped! We left our temporary accommodation in Bondi at 6am on Monday morning to catch our flight at 9.30am. All was going well. A visit to the first class Qantas lounge on arrival (I'm sure the other guests appreciated Mr can'tstoptalkingabouttrains and Mr cuteasabuttonbutIliketogrizzle) was followed by some quick duty free shopping and then onto the plane, where we waited for 2 hours for some part of the right hand engine to be fixed. Ugh!

Boys were angels on the plane, except for Aiden wanting to talk to me every 15 minutes right at the moment I was dropping off for an afternoon nap. Arran and Charlie both had a lovely afternoon nap. Typical. I was thinking that Aiden would be sitting next to Arran on the flight back, but then realised we weren't coming back, well at least in the short term.

Over a hour in a mini van to the apartments we are staying in and we were here!

Highlights of the week!

Getting a car, that Arran and I were both too chicken to drive, until I had to drive to go to work on Thursday. Thank goodness Singaporeans drive on the same side of the road as Australians and thank goodness a GPS was included with the car!
Finding a place to live. We spent many hours getting in and out of an air conditioned car on Wednesday looking at apartments. We were hot and bothered and fed up at the end of that day. We went for a swim and had pizza by the pool. But we found an apartment close to Aiden's school with a pool that is clean and modern and hopefully big enough for all our stuff. It costs a lot.
Charlie having a poo explosion on Wednesday morning. Yep. That was a 2 person clean up job. It was on the toys, the carpet....
Took Arran and the boys to Jumbo for their famous chilli crab. Was awesome. Boys ate fried rice and sweet buns.
Spent 2 days in office and actually feel like I have caught up a little bit
Aiden and Charlie got to go on the MRT (Massive Rail Transit). A TRAIN!!!
Sunday night we cooked a meal. So good.
Charlie got sick. Croup. I got sick with something similar.
Arran bought "old chinese man thong/slide things". Yep.
Love all the tropical plants and trees.
We have already seen some amazing paintings that we probably won't have the room to hang.

Observations of the week!

Asian women seem to like skirts on their swimsuits. A bit like tennis skirts. Modesty wins over fashion.
I have already seen a better range of swimwear here than in Australia. Sweet!
Supermarkets are small.
Driving and parking is pretty easy
Singaporeans like to give lots of advice to new people in Singapore. ~~Some~~ Most not that helpful
A form is always required, often accompanied by a cheque. Who uses cheques anymore?
Traffic back from work (on the very west side of the island) is awful
Food is expensive. Apart for the $3.50 duck and noodles I had at a food court on Friday with my new work colleagues. Even supermarket food is expensive.
Wine is even more expensive.
The shops don't open until 10. With Singapore 2 hours behind Sydney we have been waking up early with not much to do.
I like getting outside into the heat.
I'm tired and need a holiday.
Can't wait to get our of the serviced accommodation we are in, and in to our place with our own things.

Lisa xx

Leaving, on a jet plane......

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 18 Jul 2014 12:19:00 +0000

So.

So.

What do you do when you write a blog about living in Glebe, when you are not going to live there anymore? Or at least for the next few years. What do you do?

I don't really know. I have made so many decisions recently. Many small. Lots small. And some big. Moving to Singapore was big. But not a hard decision. At all. I have always wanted to live and work overseas. Same for Arran. We have talked about this a lot. Why is it that the small decisions are harder? It's like Arran and I have things upside down. Buy a stupid expensive house on a whim? Sure! Order Thai or Indian takeaway on Friday night? Can't decide. Pack up our whole life including 2 small boys and move to Asia? No problem! Should we take a BBQ? No idea!

This is the theme of our life.

Small decisions have been about:

Do I take the outdoor furniture? Will there be room? Will it be too hot to sit outside?
How many beds do I take (when I have no idea about the size of apartments)?
What clothes will we need? I'm guessing track pants and ugh boots are out?
Will there be a hairdresser who can do pink? Just wondering....
What do I do with a blog called "Secret homes of Glebe?" when I no longer live in Glebe?
Should I get my rings cleaned 3 days before leaving Sydney?
Should I have a massage because my head might explode if I don't?
Should I get some new bras because the chances are that getting big boob bras are small in Singapore? Hah!
Where do we stay between selling our house, having our house packed up and leaving on a jumbo jet (it's really an A330 but the boys are excited about it)? Arran was quite stressed about this aspect.

Stuff like that.

Overall though we are excited. Small boys are excited about pools and trains and new schools and going on Jumbo jets. I'm excited about new cultures, being part of a new team and learning about a new culture and doing new things in my job. Arran is excited about riding his bike. No news there. Overall though, on the Friday night before we leave, we are exhausted.

While we contemplate our future in some (very nice and cheap) temporary accommodation (Bondi Eco Garden Retreat), we don't really know where we are heading and where we will end up. But that's cool and that's ok.

I think I will rename the blog "Secret Homes of Singapore". What do you think? The housing and lifestyle will be so different to Sydney. Our lives will be different, and interesting and fun and do you want to hear about it?

Lisa xx

Holiday House Envy

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 21:34:00 +0000

It's been a long year. A big year. I spent the year working long hours, doing lots of travel and neglecting my blogs. Arran spent the year riding his bike a lot and completed the Tour Divide. He wrote about it here in a 3 part series. We are pooped. We needed a break. A little getaway before the onslaught of 2014.

A month or so ago when I was traveling somewhere Arran found this holiday house and sent me the link. No brainer people. We arrived 2 days ago. We had to do two drive bys to find the house and pulled into the driveway to be greeted by one of the owners Kim. We liked her instantly and even more when she informed us there was fresh milk, beer and champagne in the fridge and olive oil, balsamic vinegar and tea and coffee in the pantry. I knew at that point it was going to be a generous holiday house. You can read about generous holiday houses here and here.

The house is a little piece of Bali in Kiama. Not that I've been to Bali. It is thoughtfully and beautifully curated with paintings, books, objects and statues that are unobtrusive. It's a modern house with new and modern kitchen and bathrooms blended with large timber Balinese doors, tables and bedheads. Large bi-fold doors lead to a timber deck with BBQ's, table and a small pool. The garden is lush and tropical with thought given to the vista from each window; a beautiful tree, a seat and a pot plant, a Balinese statue.

It's a short walk to the beach, maybe 400 metres. It's not a short work with Charlie who screamed and cried the whole way yesterday morning. I don't know why. It's also about 1.5km to the main street of Kiama. That's a long way when Aiden is in the back seat of the car continually asking when are we going back to the holiday house so he can go in the pool. Sigh.

Any-hoo...we are here, on holidays close to the beach. Nice.

We're going on a bear hunt......and found vomit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 14 Dec 2013 21:11:00 +0000

The day was going well. Arran left for his bike ride at stupid o'clock; some time around 5am and didn't wake me up. I woke at a completely respectable 7.10am with both boys still in their room happy. Sweet.

We had a calm breakfast together after discovering there is no bread in the house and having to head over the road to the best bakery around to procure some. Life's tough in Glebe people.

I packed a little lunch box with peanut butter sandwiches, muesli bars and tiny teddies, filled up two water bottles, assembled the nappy changing kit, slathered the boys in sunscreen and set off to catch the bus to Circular Quay. We were off to see we're going on a bear hunt at the Opera House. I wish I could say that I'm one of those mummies that regularly takes their kids to such events. The few I've been to have been really good. I just don't get around to it and most of the events are on during the week (or so I thought), which doesn't work that well if you work.

I have friends who had double booked their cultural events so the boys and I scored the tickets. The show was true to the story, humorous and with second row tickets in the middle, the boys could easily see and enjoyed themselves very much. Well until the bear arrived and then Charlie wasn't so pleased, but I guess you get that.

After the show we headed into the Pitt St Mall where I had promised hot chips. Charlie fell asleep in his pram on the way so it was just Aiden and I for lunch. We managed to negotiate the seemingly thousands of people crammed into the Westfield food court (what was I thinking 2 weeks before Christmas) and was able to order food and find somewhere to sit relatively unscathed.

It was during this time that I had the thought about what a good mummy I am. Heading to the city with two small boys for some theatre and shopping. Warm comforting feeling.....

Charlie woke up at the end of lunch and we set off to Sass & Bide to purchase a T-shirt I have been thinking about all week and then on the way out find some summer sandals on special. Again, sweet. The real purpose of heading to the city was to buy Christmas presents but sensing the small boys were at the end of their patience we set off for the bus. I know. I only got presents for me.

At home close to 3pm we were all pooped! Aiden wanted to have a rest in his room watching Chugginton on the iPad, Charlie didn't put up any protests when I put him to bed and I had nearly an hour's nap on the lounge. Gotta love that.

We all surfaced at about 5.30pm and that's when the day fell apart .Aiden started complaining about having a vomit in his tummy and wanting to come to work with me on Monday. On average Aiden has a vomit in his tummy about 15% of the time he complains. Working with these averages I made the boys put on their sandals so we could head over the road to get something from the local IGA supermarket for their dinner. Halfway there (50m from the house) Aiden started crying that he was feeling sick. I made him push on, feeling annoyed that he was putting on a tantrum and thinking to myself that these boys needed to be in bed early.

Halfway down the isle with the frozen meals and milk, Aiden starts crying and screaming and then does a big vomit on the floor, on his feet and my mine ensconced in Lanvin ballet flats (for the uneducated Lanvin ballet flats are very fabulous and very expensive). The first vomit was followed up by two additional vomits and lots of crying and screaming. I nearly had a vomit in sympathy. My Louis Vuitton purse and the frozen pizza I was buying was also covered in vomit. The nearby supermarket worker contined to stock the shelves.

I was provided with paper towels and plastic bags to clean up the mess while Aiden continued to cry and talk. This kid talks non-stop. After a whole roll of paper-towels and quite a number of retching on my part we were able to pay for our items and skulk home to hose off the lower parts of our bodies.

Aiden would only eat yoghurt for dinner and refused a freddo frog which wasn't a great sign. He looked and smelt much better after a warm bubble bath and cleaning his teeth. Was just about to put some fresh pyjamas on him when he vomited again. Mostly in the toilet but he managed to hit his and Charlie's clean PJ's.

Any thoughts of being a good mummy had completely vanished as I cleaned vomit off the bathroom floor with small boy pyjamas and the bath mat. My only thought was getting the boys to bed and retiring to the lounge.

I hope Arran is enjoying his bike ride.

We didn't get the memo!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 12:23:00 +0000

I love living in Glebe. I must, hey? I write a blog about it! So because I love Glebe it doesn’t enter my mind to leave the suburb, say if I had children, for example. Some would say that children need space to run around and do stuff. The great Australian dream would have us living on the quarter acre block in a 3 bedroom low set brick house in “the suburbs”.

Arran and I have decided that we very much like living in Glebe in a Terrace house with a very small yard. We have a larger yard than most in Glebe but it’s still small by Australian standards. It’s a very convenient place to live. Within 200 metres of our house we have:

an Indian Restaurant
3 Thai noodle restaurants
A cocktail bar
A pub which claims to have Sydney’s coldest beer and fantastic pub food
Two small supermarkets
A fish and chip shop
5 cafes
A French inspired restaurant
A bank
A drycleaner
2 Japanese restaurants, which we never go to because I don’t “get” Japanese food
A German bakery
A Vietnamese/French bakery
A nail and waxing shop – best mani-pedi’s going!

This is in addition to heaps more restaurants, shops and facilities within a 1km walk. It’s very convenient for two people who are not particularly organised. Over the years we have been living in Glebe the City of Sydney council have spent many rate payers dollars upgrading the street scapes and parks which means that there are many many beautiful places to be.

So this is all pretty nice isn’t it? Except we didn’t get the memo, that we were supposed to move to the suburbs once we had kids! Apparently that’s what the city planners expect us to do. Young professional couples move into the inner city suburbs to live and to work and to get married. All good. Then when you decide to have kids you are supposed to need more space and you then move further out of the city.

But guess what? Arran and I don’t want to do this. Apparently there are lots of other parents living in the inner city who also don’t want to do this. Hmmm….so?

Well next year Aiden starts school as do many other kids in the area. This topic has been consuming mother’s group conversation for the past 6-9 months and frankly, I’m over it. I’m over talking about the same topic over and over and I’m over not having a range of education options. You see the small inner city schools are not able to cope with the fact that we didn’t choose to move out to the suburbs and send our kids to schools that are probably better equipped to enroll larger numbers of kids.

So here we are in Glebe. When Aiden was about 4 months old I paid $250 to put him on the waiting list for an Independent school in the area. Because we turned down a place for Aiden for pre-school we have to wait until October to see if he is going to get into Kindergarten. Welcome to Sydney people. Apparently I should have put him on the list when I conceived!

We are in the catchment area for a public school that doesn’t have a good reputation and doesn’t compare well academically with the other schools in the area. Every parent wants their child to go to a good school and I also want a school that is going to be able to AND happy to provide extra support for Aiden’s vision impairment. I don’t get the impression that this is the school for Aiden.

The school that is within a 5 minute walk of our house and we are NOT in the catchment area for took 6 “out of area” enrolments last year. The admin person at this school happily informed me that there was no chance of getting Aiden in at this school as there is 44 kids already on the waiting list.

I attended a Kindergarten information evening at another school in a nearby suburb, which comes highly recommended and has a good reputation. I was solely there to find out the chances of getting Aiden in as an “out of area” enrollment, as were half the parents there. This topic was not covered as part of the “information” and I found myself with 10 other desperate parents grilling one of the teachers and Administration Managers. One parent was so desperate she was enquiring as to when she would be considered “in area” if she bought a house in the catchment. But when would she be considered in area? Would it be when she signed the contract to buy the house? Or would it be when the sale settled? What date would matter to get her child into Kindergarten in 2014? That’s commitment.

I have found another little school in a nearby suburb which is lovely and the principal was willing to meet with Arran and I. It would be a great school for Aiden and I have filled out the “out of area” enrollment application. Crossed fingers.

I know it will work out and the best option will come up for Aiden, but gee wouldn’t it have been handy if we had got the memo?

Does Arran need his head read?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 11:03:00 +0000

So when your best friend/partner/husband says to you that he wants to travel to the opposite side of the world to ride his bike from Canada to Mexico for oh, about 5 weeks or so...well you can't but think IDIOT! FOOL! WHY?? Seriously. Why would anyone want to do such a thing? We had the winner of last years event here for dinner a couple of months ago and by the time he got to the end of the event his body had started to eat itself. Yep. Spent 5 days in hospital to try and turn around the effects of his body eating itself. Yep.

So Arran left yesterday to make his way to Bamf in Canada to start the Tour Divide and I'm left wondering how the next 5-6 weeks are going to be? I have spent pretty much all the time leading up to him leaving wondering if I will:

Lock myself out of the house?
Get really sick and have to look after the boys by myself?
Get stuck at work and not make it in time to pick the boys up from daycare?
Forget to drop off the daycare photo envelope in time, though that could happen if Arran is here or not. It's happened before.
Have to travel overseas because the company I work for might acquire a business...I can see two small boys dusting off their passport.
Want to watch Game of Thrones but can't work out the complicated tech set up Arran has going on with ~~our~~ Arran's big TV....

So really, nothing I can't handle. I'll be OK. Probably a little lonely but fine. I have the bed to myself. That's a positive.

Arran on the other hand has set off to do something kinda amazing. It wasn't until his mate Adam MacBeth wrote this post that it really hit me. Arran hasn't really been enjoying work over the past couple of weeks and its probably fair to say that he has been getting some pressure to not go on leave as the project he is working on seems to be at a critical stage, or something. But you know, when he looks back and remembers his life, he will remember the trip to North America to attempt something that not many attempt. I don't think he will look back in the same way on a software implementation project. Truth.

Arran, Aiden and Charlie (in the chariot), 2012 Sydney to Woolongong

So, while I think riding a bike for that length of time and having to carry all your own shit while not being eaten by a bear is not really my glass of chardy, I reckon Arran is really going to miss me and the boys and will really have a great time. This is a once in a lifetime (seriously Arran, you ain't doin it again), what dreams are made of kinda experience and I hope you chill out and lap it up.

Lisa xx

Day 4: Running Late

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 22:44:00 +0000

I remembered last night at oh about 11.30pm that I had forgotten to do the days blog post. I had already had a little nap on the lounge at our holiday house for the Easter weekend, after a glass of red wine. I barely had the energy to move from the lounge to the bed so the chances of writing a blog post were non-existent.

Thursday was another long day with working and then the drive to Culburra Beach, which wasn't too bad considering we left Sydney at 5pm, rather than the planned 4pm. The main traffic snarl was on the approach to Kiama, where the piece of road changes from two lanes to one. Overall a good trip. Small boys were good and the trip was happy. We managed to pack the whole house into the car, including bikes and only realised we had forgotten bath towels on arrival. We have beach towels. We will live.

Unfortunately the Rabbits didn't fare that well during the trip but I prefer broken Chocolate over Charlie screaming the whole way.

So the plans for the day?

Some reading of these:

Some cooking of this:

Chicken and Pistachio Terrine, in this month's Vogue Living

And some admiring of the holiday house style:

What are you doing today?

Day 3: Long Day. Short Post

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:49:00 +0000

So not being a morning person and having not gone to bed until oh about 1am and then getting up a 6am to ice cupcakes well, it's been a long one.

It's been a rush kind of day trying to remember to do everything and get everything done. This included icing cupcakes, decorating cupcakes, getting small boys dressed, getting me dressed, presents opened, phone calls answered, small boys into the car and off to day-care, arriving at work at a decent time, working all day, buying dishwasher tablets and then racing home to pick up small boys, a negotiation with Arran to pick up my dry cleaning, cook dinner for a little party, (thank goodness I had a common sense attack and didn't make pizza bases from scratch) baths for 5 little bodies and then cleaning up and my 2 little bodies off to bed.

Then Arran and I started packing to go away for Easter. Nuts!

The birthday boy with supermarket bought ice-cream cake. Best ever!

Day 2 of 5: It's probably unwise to bake and blog past 10.30pm

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:54:00 +0000

10.35 Arrive home from wine bar. It's important to check out quality of new wine bars. Because.
10.41 Get out packet cakes. It's Aiden's birthday tomorrow and there seems to be a tradition of mums bringing in birthday cakes to daycare.
10.45 Turn on oven and wonder if it's working.
10.48 Wish my second drawer didn't look like this. Again.

10.49 Can't find beater attachments. Swear at cleaning angels
10.51 Beating cake mix and using my fluro pink spatula. Feel strangely satisfied using a spatula

10.56 First batch in oven
11.02 Prepare ingrediants for next batch
11.05 Get final birthday presents from car to wrap.
11.14 Commence mixing for second batch

11.16 Pull out first batch. lookin good!

11.18 Lick beaters of second batch
11.22 Second batch in oven. Lick bowl. Why is raw cake batter so tasty?
11.26 Chop up pizza ingrediants for Aiden's little party tomorrow night
11.34 Wash up dishes
11.35 Pack remainder of items in dishwasher. Discover we have run out of dishwasher powder. Pfffft!!
11.36 Discover eggs still in cup and NOT in cakes. Think about crying.

11.42 Cakes look ok despite lack of eggs. Hmmm... will a 4 year old notice if I slather in icing? Wonder if there are any kids at daycare who are allergic to eggs? I have the cakes for them!

11.51 Time for bed.

Day 1: Self imposed blogging challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:31:00 +0000

There I was, standing waiting at the checkout at Coles wondering why I was so tired all of a sudden. The man in front of me wanted to know my opinion on whether someone was rude or not. I told him I wasn't listening and wanted to be in bed. It was 9pm after all and I was at the shops and I still hadn't completed a blog post.

I had decided on my bike ride home from work (more on that in a minute) that I was going to set myself a challenge to blog for the next 5 days. You see I feel like I have been neglecting this blog, I haven't had much inspiration because I have been a relatively good mummy recently and very busy!

So yes, I rode my bike to work today. On average I have been riding my bike to and from work 1 day a week for about 5 or 6 weeks. It started last year when a group at work asked if I wanted to participate in Ride to Work day. Sure! Why not? Well to start with I was (am) so unfit that I thought I might die on that day. By the time I rode the 9km to work I wasn't feeling so great, and I couldn't eat for hours. I caught the train home.

Trusty steed in my office

Earlier this year I got a bit freaked out about turning 40 and thought I should perhaps get my body moving a bit faster than it had been. I walk a fair bit and go to pilates and yoga but haven't done anything resembling cardio for a while. I don't really like puffing. Maybe if I just rode to work by myself I wouldn't feel like I would have to keep up with the people who actually look ok in lycra?

This was a good idea. I can go at my own pace, enjoy the ride a bit when I'm not concentrating on breathing or getting run over, and arrive at work not wanting to vomit. Winning.

On today's ride I actually sped up on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and when I arrived at work I felt that I may have improved, and actually be a little fitter. Winning.

The ride on the way home is generally quite pleasant. There is a lot more down than up, the ride is much faster and I don't feel the pressure to get there quickly, like I do in the morning. I was feeling quite pleased with myself, powering up a small hill near home when a man, rode past on what can only be described as a "leisure bike". I had my head down peddling like a demon, my quads screaming but feeling "powerful" and fit (even though my stomach kept hitting my knees), when this man glided past, gently peddling his long legs, wearing dark jeans (it was 27 degrees) and a short sleeve button up t-shirt. No effort, no puffing. I may have well been standing still. Bastard. Not winning.

I arrived home without any injury except for my pride and helped with feeding and bathing the small boys, had a shower and then wrote a grocery list. We are having a little dinner for Aiden's birthday on Wednesday night and then going away for the Easter weekend. In an effort to be a bit organised I thought I had better grocery shop tonight.

Arrived home at 9.15pm, unpacked groceries, wrapped some birthday presents for Aiden and now I'm off to bed! Phew!

Things to be grateful for...on my birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 23:06:00 +0000

So it's my birthday today. I'm 40 and feeling a bit, well, like it's any other day at this point. Arran and I had a combined 40th party last November and I fell foul of the household tummy bug and was too sick to enjoy it. I went to bed early having not enjoyed any of the lovely cocktails on offer or the amazing thai food from Longrain, or socialising with all the lovely people who came.

Arran is also away until Monday riding his bike in Victoria somewhere so there were no presents this morning. He did leave me a card from him and a card from the boys before he left on Friday which was nice, but I can't help feeling that my birthday is less important than riding a bike.

I have had around 10 automatically generated emails from various businesses who have my email address and birth-date offering various discounts and incentives to come spend more money with them. I feel so special.

I have also had some cards and gifts in the mail, which is nice. My sister and my nephews rang and wished me Happy Birthday and I have had a birthday message on Facebook, also from my sister. Mum and Dad sent me some money to buy a gift which I'm going to save for a trip to the US in April.

We are going away next weekend for my birthday but it's not really the same. You would think I was a kid but feeling a little low really. It's probably PMT and I need to pull myself together.

So in the spirit of this being a first world problem, there have been lots of things to be grateful for today and it's only 10am:

A work colleague told me I could ignore his emails for the day. He also called me a "Babe". I was chuffed. Until I realised he meant I was young (he is in his 50's) not hot! Not that being young is not a bad thing but being called hot, sexy, good looking etc is much better.
Slept all night without Charlie crying and having to fly out of bed to put his dummy in.
Had the bed to myself because Arran is away riding his bike. That's just a normal weekend though.
Charlie didn't stir until 7.19am which is when I woke up. I read my book for 15 minutes more before getting up. Bliss
Both small boys are happy
Aiden took up the bribe of a "present" in the shape of a train if it didn't wet his pants during the night for the first time ever.
I cleaned up the kitchen before going to bed last night and it was really nice to come down to a clean and tidy house (clutching at straws)
Charlie didn't cry like a banshee when I got him dressed
Bookclub is at my house this afternoon and I have two people coming who contacted me through this blog, looking to join a bookclub. New friends! I also have two friends coming for the first time who I met through work and who I adore.
Laura and Luella are coming over to help with bookclub and to stay for dinner for my birthday.
I'm going to crack some vintage champagne for dinner tonight.

The day is looking good!

We are going camping.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:52:00 +0000

Words to strike fear into any woman who likes running water and a bed.

The main issue with camping is that the first time I went with Arran the bar was set very high. We went to Bribie Island, north of Brisbane. The weather was perfect, it was summer but not too hot. Our camp site was private and just behind the beach. I love the beach. We had amazing food and wine and a whole lotta lovin. If you know what I mean. Sorry Mum.

Every camping experience since this wonderous event has been the complete opposite. I have erased many unpleasant camping experiences from my memory, but some are etched there forever:

Land Cruiser Mountain Park: A place in Brisbane where you can camp and 4WD. How opportune! Arran promised cool billabongs to swim in, nice drives and a shower and toilet block. Reality was 45 degree heat, the whole place was a dust bowl and the shower block actually looked ok until you got naked and turned on the water. This caused the hundreds of breeding mosquitos hiding out in the non slip mat at the bottom of the shower to rise up into the air and surround said naked body. The promised billabong was a algae covered pond. We also had horses wanting to get into our tent. The event that topped off the 2 horrid days we stayed there was when Arran took the lid off the camp oven to check the lamb roast and the meat caught on fire.

Barrington Tops: This was an Easter trip not long after Arran and I moved to Sydney. We went with the Jeep Club. Because Arran was/is Jeep mad. I don't know why. Anyway, off we went. It rained non-stop. It was torrential. I have never seen so much mud. On the Saturday morning we headed off with a number of other Jeep clubbers on a B/C grade (easy) drive for a few hours. We expected to be back by lunch time. We got back after midnight and just before search and rescue was to be called. During this time we experienced mud. Lots of mud. Mud going down hills. Mud going up hills. Mud which required the use of winches. Which is fun if you like that kinda thing. I don't. At one point I insisted on being outside the car in the torrential rain as I figured this would be safer than being inside the Jeep as it slid to the bottom of a muddy hill. That's when I became acquainted with leeches. Now generally I'm ok with insects and creepy crawlies but I am NOT ok with leeches. They are nearly impossible to pull off when you are wet with rain and that's before they bury in too deeply. Eeek! I could go on about this trip but I think you get the picture.....

Wollondilly River Station: This one was doozey. Ever been motorbike camping? We have. In 40 degree plus heat. Getting there and back I though we were going to self combust. It never cooled down during the night. Was like sleeping in a oven. Hideous. The camp ground caretaker could have been in the movie Deliverance and on the way home we got a flat tire.

Pretty Beach: Now I like this spot and we have been there a number of times either camping or staying in their cabins. I did get bitten by a possum once but I may have been a little drunk at the time so perhaps it wasn't the possums fault? The last time we went there was during the Queens Birthday long weekend in 2011 and we camped in tents. Aiden was 2 and a bit and only wanted to cling to me. I was pregnant with Charlie and therefore wanted to wee all the time. I have never been more cold. We went with 2 other couples. One who had two kids and the other with none. The ones with none came for one night and then packed up and went home because it's stupid camping when its so friggin' cold. Those of us with kids stayed for another night of hell. At the end of that trip I didn't speak to Arran for 2 days and the other couple didn't speak for a week!

So this Australia Day weekend we went to Kiama, which is not too far away and stayed at a camp-ground with facilities (shower and toilets, camp kitchen, pool and jumping pillow). We arrived in darkness on Friday night and luckily the camp ground sticky beak and general do-gooder came to help us put up the tent, which was good because Aiden and Charlie were "over-it" and just needed to be in bed.

Once the tent was up and the kids in bed Arran and I had cheese and wine. Nice. Saturday was hot and sunny and there was swimming in the pool, a drive into Kiama to search for a slushie to relieve the worst hay fever I have had in a while, and then back to the camp ground for small boy sleeps. After that there was a dip in the Kiama ocean rock pools and ice cream. Dinner and bed for the boys and then dinner for us (pork ribs, corn and salad) and some very nice wine. All good.

Blue skies in Kiama

Boys in the rock pool

Kiama Ocean Rock Pools

During that night there was a massive storm and we woke to a very soggy camp ground with drizzly rain. Arran is getting better at taking the hints I drop about wanting to go home. I only had to drop one. Took him 15 mins to decide we should head back home. Lucky because the weather has contined to get worse with Sydney looking to cop a massive drenching tonight.

Wouldn't be camping without a bike along....

What to achieve in 2013 #1 The House

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 22:06:00 +0000

So I was asking Arran what New Year's resolutions he had set. He said none. How inspiring! Or sensible. Depending on how you look at it! Anyway I said I had 3 resolutions, well goals really, in my head, which is not a great place to have them, when my head gets as messy as the house. Hmmm....so I decided to do a blog post on each. Then I can update you through the year and it might keep me honest. We'll see.

Resolution #1 The House
We have a beautiful house and we've been here 3 years in February. It doesn't need much in the way of renovation. It's in pretty good nick for a 100 year plus Victorian Terrace. Of course if money was no barrier I would do something with the kitchen and the main bathroom and laundry. Oh and our ensuite bathroom.....but if Arran and I get a good bonus this year we are going to fix up our outdoor area. We are very lucky to have a reasonable size outdoor area in the inner city and we want to make it more beautiful, leafy and add LOTs more storage. Someone has a bad bike habit.

But the main areas I want to focus on this year is lighting. When we bought the house the previous owners had some light fittings that they wanted to take with them and we wanted to bring our beautiful chandeliers, which were a wedding gift. They look amazing with the old ceiling roses, don't they?

As a consequence we have one room with beautiful lights and the rest of the house is a bit wanting.

A few examples:

Front door hallway

Hallway at the bottom of the stairs

2nd Floor landing

Bedside lights

Bedroom light

I have been thinking about these lights for ages and the only ones I have actually made a decision to buy (but haven't bought) are the Kartell Pendant lights. I think these will look great on the 2 bare light bulbs in the hall and to replace the orange light on the 2nd floor landing. Just gotta save up!

Mmmmm....Kartell

Apart from the lighting there are a couple of other small matters that need attention; a leak in the roof, some rotten doors, a double glazed window on the 3rd floor which you can barely see through as moisture has gotten in between the layers. Ah...old houses!

Resolutions #2 and #3 to follow.....

I am not a morning person.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:49:00 +0000

Charlie. Lucky he is cute!

When I was doing my Masters at Sydney University, there was an amazing lecturer, Marion Baird teaching HR and IR subjects and she also did a lot of organisational research. She's really a bit of a guru and there is 2 things I remember about her:

1. She was involved in putting together the proposal and lobbying the government for paid maternity leave. One evening during the lecture the government announced the introduction of said paid leave. It was a historical moment, she was pretty stoked and the class was pretty excited.

2. She talked to me about a research paper that discussed how women manage to handle full time work with one child but two children often tips the balance and women often find it difficult to cope, and only manage to return to part time work at best. At the time we had the chat I was either 39 weeks pregnant or had a 2 week old Aiden. Can't remember. Damm baby brain. I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to cope with one but seeing as I was attending an evening university lecture (in whatever state I was in) perhaps I should have worked out it would be alright?

Anyway, I'm back at full time work with two kids and for the most part it works ok. Apparently, despite what some family members think, I am actually an organised person. Yes. I'm putting it out there. It's true. Sometimes. Arran does his fair share, we have a good routine and we have a cleaner. A person can only do so much.

Of course there is being organised and then there is trying to get out of the house in the morning before 8am without getting up at 5am, with hair done, make-up on, me dressed, small boys dressed (clean is a bonus), everyone fed, sunscreen on, shoes on, hats on........getting the picture? I am not a morning person. It's a lot to ask. Arran and I have a deal where I do the childcare drop offs and he does the pick ups. This means that he gets to train on his bike in the mornings when it suits him best and I get to either work late or exercise in the evening, which suits me best.

I'm thinking that the person who conducted the research on women with two children and full-time work must have been doing qualitative research by observing the getting-out-of-the-house-in-the-morning ~~debacle~~ routine and after seeing a couple of families in action decided it just wasn't possible.

Mondays are the worst. You forget on Mondays that you really have to gear up. You are still in the post weekend haze, wishing it was Sunday morning, not Monday. Take this morning.

5.30am
Charlie screams. Fly out of bed. Shove dummy in. Exit room with haste. Hope like hell he stops screaming. He stops. Back in to bed.

6.10am
Shower, get dressed, straighten hair, put make-up on, find shoes, find phone, start mantra: don't forget to get Charlie's daycare sheets out of the dryer. Don't forget to get Charlie's daycare sheets out of the dryer.

6.40am
Go into Charlie's room. Get him up for a cuddle. Put him on change table. Screams like a banshee. Get kicked in stomach. Tell Charlie not to kick mummy in stomach. Get kicked in stomach again. Twice. Sigh. Bit more screaming. Get Charlie dressed.

6.50am
Charlie and I head to Aiden's room. Aiden is hiding under the sheet (a big wriggly mess) and telling us we don't know where he is. Bit of a tickle and cuddle with the 2 boys, and ask Aiden to go to the toilet and get undressed. Aiden starts talking and DOES NOT STOP until I drop him at daycare. Current discussion is on what we are going to do today and eating Weet-bix including the crumbs. Get Aiden dressed while telling Charlie not to:
a) open and close the drawers in Aiden's room
b) close Aiden's door
c) stop crawling down the hall to go into the bathroom and turn on the taps in the bath, or
d) ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!!

7am
Bring boys downstairs for what I hope will be the last trip up or down the stairs. Remember that I didn't get Charlie's daycare sheets which are in the dryer UP STAIRS. Sigh.

Get out bowls and weet-bix for both boys because Charlie has decided he only wants what Aiden is having which takes twice as long to feed him. Get set up on the table and get the boys eating while I wonder what I'm having (Arran and I are on lite n' easy). In between shovelling Weet-bix into Charlie's mouth I get up to see what's on my breakfast menu. It's "Pikelets with Fig and Berry Compote and Honey Yoghurt". How delicious? How am I supposed to defrost/cook/assemble that while I'm trying to feed Charlie, keep up with Aiden's current conversation (which is now on some rough kid at daycare) and remember to get Charlie's sheets out of the dryer upstairs?

Between every second mouthful I manage to assemble my breakfast and bring it over to the table. Charlie has been watching proceedings very closely. He starts to grunt and moan and gesticulate at my breakfast. Little....bugger. So I share my pikelets with Charlie until he decides to tip his drink on his high chair tray and smack his hands in the water gleefully. Luckily I'm wearing my super-handy, nothing-will-stick-to-it-water-just-runs-off polyester Country Road dress. This is a fluke.

Charlie goes back to eating Weet-bix and Aiden has moved onto his 3rd bowl of Weet-bix including crumbs, more milk and has changed up the conversation to "Misty Island Rescue". I just have to say that my life was fine before Thomas the Tank Engine came into it. Fine.

7.25am
5 minutes to my goal of getting out of the house at 7.30am, which I never make. Remember I need to get Charlie's sheets, a book for work (which is on the 3rd floor) and put some deodorant on. Boys are fed and playing. I'll just whip upstairs.

Arrive back downstairs to find that Aiden hasn't killed Charlie and that Charlie has filled his pants with a very. bad. smell. I don't have time for this.

Lie Charlie down on the change mat (screams like a banshee), change the fullest, sloppiest pants (sorry but you made it this far) and re-dress him. Ask Aiden to come over so I can slather every exposed inch of his skin with sunscreen and ask him to put his shoes on. This is possibly the most excruciating part of the morning routine. He has also changed topics and is now telling me that jumping castles are not scary and they have music in them. I don't care. Really.

7.40am
Open the door to take them out to the car. It's cold outside. What? We-are-having-the-highest-temperatures-in-the-know-universe and it's bushfire season! Sunrise have been doing 24/7 specials on it! Aiden and Charlie are wearing shorts and T-shirts. Bustle them into the car. Aiden is still talking. Race upstairs to different ends of the house to get them a jacket. Race downstairs. Pack their clothes in the bags. Pack my lunch and bits and pieces. Put it all in the car. Race back to lock the house up. Get in the car. Drive out of the driveway. Don't have to go back for anything. Miracle.

7.55am
Drop them at daycare. Aiden stops talking and goes to look for trains. Charlie get's wiggly because there are toys he wants to play with. They don't care that I'm leaving them.

I'm not sure that researcher realised that if you actually survive all that you can go to work and have a coffee in peace. Bliss.

Do you ever feel like you are in a movie?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 10:26:00 +0000

6 December 2012
Do you ever feel like you are in a movie? I don't mean like a movie star, where you are important, beautiful and pampered. More like when you have a moment where you realise that someone else has had this moment too and chosen to immortalise the ~~stupid~~ important life moment, on film. I had one of those moments last night.

After seeming to travel constantly for the past four weeks, I finally had a week in front of me where I would get to sleep in my own bed for all of it. And there were other things I was looking forward to, like:

Not going out for dinner and drinking too much wine. Every night.
Leaving work a bit early and exercising every day and actually using my pilates/yoga membership. Going for evening walks around Glebe.
Reading Aiden stories before bed. Charlie would get stories too, but he is far too wiggly. He may never learn to read. Lets hope he is good at maths. Or sport.
Getting the house in some sort of order after having lots of visitors and mountains of washing
Staying up late writing blogs!

Also this week was the final Vision Australia playgroup for the year. Since being back at work full time I had missed taking Aiden along. Today was the little Christmas party and we were invited to bring some morning tea to share and dress up Christmassy. Easy. Buy a cupcake packet mix, some sort of Christmas decorative cake type things, and put it all together.

I would have to bake the cupcakes on Wednesday night and ice and decorate them Thursday morning. Easy.

So. Wednesday night. Get home. Feed small boys. Bath small boys. Read stories. Tuck in. Get changed. Go for a walk. It's now 9pm. At 10pm I have to get on a global teleconference with a group of Lawyers. Kill me. I start making the cupcakes at about 9.20pm. I get them in the oven. Start teleconference while cleaning up kitchen. Oven alarm goes off in middle of teleconference. Check cupcakes. Take cupcakes out of oven.

Teleconference still going at 11pm. Have a flash of a scene from "I don't know how she does it", the movie staring Sarah Jessica Parker based on the book of the same name. Sarah plays a working mother trying to achieve it all. My flash back was to the scene where she ends up baking late at night. Kitchen a mess. Flour everywhere! And I wasn't paying good enough attention to the teleconference so when there was finally a question for me, oh at about 11.30pm I was pooped and completely not paying attention. Awesome.

I end up in bed after midnight. First thing the next morning I decorate the cakes, vowing not to give up my day job for cake decorating, pack Aiden into the car and head off.

Arrive at Vision Australia and realise that I forgot to dress Aiden in his Christmas outfit. Oh well. Most of the kids can't see that well anyway. Terrible joke. Bad mummy.

Luckily the cakes were a hit and all got eaten! Phew.

Driving myself crazy with Vignettes

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 08:55:00 +0000

So I follow this cool chick on twitter called Jen Bishop. She has a blog called Interiors Addict and she is running a little instagram challenge called The 7 Vignettes in 7 Days, which started today, but I have been planning for a number of days. It's making me a little nuts. If you have no idea what a vignette is, check out Jen's link here or the wikipedia definition here.

I have been up and down the 3 stories of this house pulling together bits and pieces for the various themes, finding suitable "vignette" spots and generally being a little manic. I have also been ~~stealing~~ taking cuttings of plant from all over Glebe. I'm surprised I wasn't apprehended this afternoon. I'm turning into my grandmother. Anyway I like to have a creative challenge and this one really appealed and it's pretty fun.

Each day has a theme:

and today's was "nature". Here is my submission:

There are some really amazing photos of vignettes. If you are on instagram or twitter you can search the photos using the #7vignettes hashtag.

Tomorrow is colour!

2012 The Year that was.....

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 21:23:00 +0000

January

2012 started as it should. With good quality bubbles.

Aunty Em and the Cousins came to visit! Here we are at the light rail stop at Glebe.

February

Off we went to holiday in Coolangatta with Nan and Grandpa. We went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. The best bit was the train!

March
Off I went to a "People Photography" workshop with Sydney Photographic Workshops

We planted some plants which are still alive

Aiden turned.......

and had a party with friends

April
Nan and Grandpa came to visit and give cuddles....

Aiden got a special present

May
Charlie went for a swim with Daddy

Aiden got a new bedroom.....

June
Arran did some bike riding. No surprise there!

I owned up to my magazine addiction.

Got inspired with some funky fabric.....

Went on an outing with some friends.....

Charlie and I appeared on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald!

August

Got some new clothes......

Went on a holiday to Fiji....

September
Put up some art....

Charlie tried out a bike!

Made some cushions....

October

Went to a wedding in Palm Cove

More bike riding.....

Ride to work day. Even I got into the act!

Charlie turned 1!

Halloween dress ups at Daycare!

November

Arran and I had a party....shame I was too sick to enjoy it!

Arran and I did a "Travel and Documentary" workshop with Sydney Photographic Workshops

December
Wrapped some presents

Went to hear some Carols and had a picnic!

Christmas day! Aiden got to see Santa after all....

PHEW!!

10 ways to be a Bad Mummy at Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 05:28:00 +0000

Off we went to Coolangatta for the Christmas period. Because we are idiots for thinking that driving for 2 days there and then back, with 2 small boys would resemble something like relaxing. It's not. But you knew that.

Once ensconced in a holiday apartment, my sister Emma, her husband Brett and her boys Marley and Jordi came to visit. I was telling her that I was a bad mummy. She asked for examples. I gave her some. She suggested I had enough material for a blog post. Nice. I also told my Mum that Emma thought I would have enough material for a bad mummy blog post. She agreed. Next year Christmas will be with friends. Just saying.

Here we go:
1. I decided not to put up the Christmas tree at home because:

We weren’t going to be at home for Christmas
I couldn’t be bothered schlepping the massive box containing the Christmas tree, as well as all the other random boxes of decorations down 3 flights of stairs
I couldn’t face untangling the 3 sets of Christmas lights. I have done enough problem solving for the year
Charlie is at that “into everything” stage and I couldn’t face him destroying the tree at every opportunity
I couldn’t face then packing up the tree sometime in March to do it all over again 9 months later

All this by itself wasn’t too bad until Aiden told me one day, walking up to day-care that they had a tree and pointed out we didn’t have one at home. Bad mummy.

2. On the subject of day-care, they had a Christmas party. They always have a Christmas party. Last year I went, taking along Charlie who was maybe 6 weeks old. Hell on earth people. All the day-care kids plus a good portion of their parents plus sugary food does not a good afternoon make. Luckily this year (here comes the bad mummy bit) I was going to be in Melbourne for work! “Arran, could you go?” Arran forgot and got some grief from the Childcare Director when he went to pick up the boys that afternoon. Apparently Charlie had a good time. He got a tattoo that took 6 days to get off. Aiden was scared of the jumping castle.

3. I didn’t get any specific presents for Charlie from Santa. The second child is tricky, specially cause he is a boy. We have bought heaps of things for Aiden so Charlie doesn’t really need anything. He steals everything from Aiden! I did want to get him something anyway, but what? I forgot about it. Christmas eve rolled around before I remembered I had got him nothing. I re-labeled some of Aiden's train presents for Charlie.

Beautiful Charlie

4. Since going on holidays I have forgotten to brush Aiden's teeth. We were 4 nights into our trip away before I remembered, even though I had bought him a new Diego toothbrush. And after that I didn't remember until we go home yesterday. Seriously. Bad Mummy. Though maybe the Daddy could have remembered?

5. There was no Santa photo because I couldn’t face standing in line with lots of screaming kids and because work was stupid busy and I was pooped. One of my friends asked if I had taken the boys to see Santa, and before I could even draw my guilty breath to answer, she said "Oh that's right, you aren't that kind of mummy".

6. Aiden wanted a fire truck from Santa, and I forgot. It was even written up on a board at daycare presumably for mummy's like me. Luckily Aunty Laura and Aunty Luella got him a little one. It's probably not the kind he would have asked Santa for, if I had taken Aiden to see him.

7. I was going to buy a cheap Christmas tree from a $2 shop when we got to Coolangatta but couldn't be bothered. Emma helped me buy some decorations and we got fancy with the plastic plant in the holiday unit. It doesn't even remotely look like a Christmas tree. Have you seen anything sadder?

See! Charlie about to destroy the tree!

8. Aiden loves being with his cousins Marley and Jordi. It would be great if they could be together more often, but I like living in Sydney. Marley and Jordi are in Brisbane. Selfish mummy.

The Cousins - Aiden, Marley, Charlie and Jordi

9. I hate the piles of coloured plastic ~~shit~~ toys all over my house. There seems to be at least double the amount since Christmas. Even though we have a relatively large house there is nowhere near enough storage. There could never be enough storage. There is going to be a cull. Very. Soon.

10. Forgot to get Arran a wedding anniversary present. Or even a card. This is really in the bad wife category but I have presently run out of bad mummy stories. Hard to believe I know.

Does anyone else have any bad mummy/daddy/aunty/uncle/grandparent stories? Would make me feel better!

Frustrated Gardener

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:43:00 +0000

So what do you do when on a sunny Sunday morning, you have been given the morning off from participating in a Sydney Spring Cycle event (with the 3 boys out of the house) because you are sick?

Arran, Charlie and Aiden off to Spring Cycle! Cuteness

The sensible person would curl up on the lounge, drink cups of tea and watch rubbish TV. Or perhaps a slightly less sensible, but social person would join a couple of girlfriends who invited you to go visit the Matt Blatt showroom at nearby Leichart and drink coffee. Or perhaps, if you had a small sadistic streak, you would put together around 30 pieces of Ikea furniture for an upcoming party at the house. Or if you were feeling domestic you might fold the mound of washing that is taking over your bedroom.

I didn't do any of these things.

Even feeling pretty low with the onset of a sinus infection (that I finally succumbed to after the rest of the household has been sick for the past month or so), the thought of half a day to get some stuff done was too attractive. I went into a small frenzy.

Saturday was Charlie's first birthday party and I bought these amazing potted hydrangeas from Michael at Glebe General Store.

They were so nice I got inspired and wondered how they would look in the ground. Well established hydrangea plants are dotted all around Glebe. I have written about them before, so I figured the climate must be ok for them here. I have a little strip of ground in the backyard which when we bought the house contained the start of a camellia hedge. Unfortunately they were a bit straggly and at different levels of growth. Not being much of a gardener and not liking camellia's that much meant my passion for saving them was on the low side. They got pulled out. I have had a bare patch there for a while now, cultivating weeds. I had planned to plant bamboo there to act as a screen, but we have been talking about having the whole back yard redone so I haven't done anything about that.

Pretty inspiring, huh?

We have a little party coming up so I thought it would be nice to have some bright colour in the yard. I spent Saturday night thinking about planting hydrangeas in this spot and so given the opportunity off I went to Flower Power first thing on Sunday morning.

How great do they look?

Ahhh...

I have decided I must be a frustrated gardener. When given the choice I wouldn't choose to get into the garden. I don't get a buzz out of having my fingers in the earth or get some kind of Zen feeling from connecting with nature while pulling weeds. I don't want a big back yard with lots of grass and would be just as happy living in an apartment with a nice balcony. Who needs a big yard when you live in Sydney's inner city? The Sydney City Council have done an awesome job of upgrading and creating the parks in the "villages" that make up the Sydney council area. We have an amazing park, Dr H J Foley Rest Park right across the road from our house and I walk around the Glebe Foreshore at least a couple of times a week. Love.

Of course I am incredibly grateful to have a nice outdoor space to enjoy and entertain in. Any amount of space at your house in the inner west should be treasured, however most days I'd much rather be doing something to the inside of the house. I think what gets me out into our lovely outdoor space is the need to make it, and keep it looking beautiful. I don't particularly like the process of gardening but I like the finished result. If the plants don't die. And I have learned that the best way to prevent plants dying is not for me to pay more attention to them, but to buy plants that suit being neglected.

Wish my hydrangeas luck!

Travel. Alone.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:37:00 +0000

Ready to fly

If you read my blog a bit you might know that I like to travel. Oh yes. And my new role is going to facilitate my love of travel. The business is quite spread out around Australia, there is a lot of change management work to be done, my role also covers asia-pacific so I'll be seeing a little of Asia, and the company head office is in the US. Apart from missing all the boys in the house, it's all good. And Arran loves having Aiden and Charlie to himself.

All the boys

This week I spent two days in Melbourne and one in Brisbane. I really would like to spend more time in Melbourne. It's a real contradiction. It's gentrified and gritty. It's traditional and edgy. It's polished and friendly. It has a different vibe to Sydney, which I think is big, brash and egotistic. And breathtakingly gob-smackingly beautiful. I think Melbourne lacks Sydney's beauty but I really like the city. And don't know it that well so I'm intrigued and curious.

After spending all day in an office on Monday I was busting to go for a walk on Melbourne's streets. Staying in the centre of the city, I checked into my hotel and headed to see what I could see, and decide where to have dinner. The streets were bustling with tourists, people heading home from work, and friends meeting up for an early dinner.

One of Melbourne's many laneways

I walked around for half an hour before stumbling across my favourite lane-way. I never know it's name or exactly how to find it, but I somehow always end there when I'm on foot. It was full of people catching up, having a bite to eat or a glass of wine. I walked a little longer but returned there to one of my favourite places for dinner.

I settled myself into a bench seat with my back against the wall (a great people watching position), ordered a small plate of pasta and a small greek salad, a glass of red and settled in with a glossy magazine. Perfection when a usual working week meal is provided by "lite and easy", and eaten at toddler o'clock.

I wandered back to my hotel for a little social media indulgence and then off to sleep at 9.30pm with no interruption till morning from Charlie screaming for no apparent reason. Bliss.

Melbourne skyline

Tuesday night I was in Brisbane and stayed with Mum and Dad. Mum wanted to know what I did the previous night. She was horrified that I was walking around the city alone and had dinner alone. In a restaurant.

When I first started travelling for work I found travelling alone a little tougher. I guess I was younger and less sure of myself, a little less confident. My very first business trip was to London, business class. My manager kindly let me fly in on Saturday morning so I had the weekend to see the city and shop. It was tough to leave that hotel room and get about that city by myself. There was a lot of self-talk going on about what a great opportunity I was given and that I needed to stop being stupid and just get out there!

The more I have travelled by myself, the less I have had to encourage myself to explore. Now if I'm travelling for work and a kind work colleague wants to look after me, or organise my personal time, I feel a little resentful that I'm not left to explore alone for at least some of the time!

I knew that I had become very comfortable travelling alone when Charlie and I did a trip to Guangzhou, China when he was 4 months old. I was having dinner with 7 Chinese people, of which only one could speak a little (basically no) English and I knew no Mandarin. My translator was not joining me until the next day. And it was ok. We were all having a lovely night with lovely food. I felt safe and confident.

Compare this to my first business trip to London, when I spent a weekend in Antwerp, Belgium. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to communicate with anyone there, which was a completely ridiculous worry. Belgians speak very good English along with 2 or 3 other languages. I was fine. I even discovered I can mostly read French in restaurants and work out what I would like to eat. It was a good lesson.

So a 45 minute walk on Melbourne's bustling streets and a lovely meal alone was fine. Nice. Perfect.

I think travelling and eating alone in a strange city and/or country is an acquired skill. What do you think? Have you ever travelled alone and found it hard to "get out there"?

Day 7: Time to go home..

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:15:00 +0000

Holidays are great. They are great when you are thinking about going on holidays, planning the holiday, booking the holiday and going on the holiday. They are even good when it's time to go home. Yep. You heard right. We had a great holiday in Fiji. I'm sure you are all sick of hearing about it. But it's always nice to go home.

After a hellish flight where every baby and toddler on board screamed and cried at some point, it was nice to land in Sydney and arrive home to "the yellow house", as Aiden calls it. To sleep in our own bed. To have a proper place for our things. To be able to visit our favourite coffee shop and grab a coffee. Small pleasures of our own home and our own city.

My favourite kind of holiday is by the beach but it's nice to be back in the bustling urban inner west of Glebe where you say hello rather than "Bula" and where the pace is a little faster and energetic. It's nice to eat a 'normal' amount of food and not have to fight the hungry hoards at the breakfast buffet. It's nice to have shops close by, so convenient, so easy.

I like being back in our Terrace house which has a history and a place in time and I like getting dressed each day in my new clothes to go off to my new job. I like driving over the Sydney Harbour Bridge each day, over the most beautiful harbour in the world.

And as the holiday fades I will turn to looking forward to the next break, my good friend Jacqui's wedding in Palm Cove in October, where I will also get to see lovely school friend Ann and her new baby Jasper.

Until then, here are a last few pics to remind me of fun in the sun!

Aiden and Arran ready for a boat ride

Water baby Charlie

Aiden lounging....

Day 6: I have a theory

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 08:02:00 +0000

Yep. I have a theory and I need your help. My theory is that we all have a holiday wardrobe. Do you have one? Some items that hide in the back of the cupboard or in the bottom drawer just waiting for a summer holiday by the sea? They are items of clothing you wouldn't dare wear to many other places or events...well maybe a fancy dress party. I have been observing these clothes on the other guests at the resort we are staying in, as I wear my own version.

There is a little bit of excitement in an upcoming holiday when I get to pull these pieces out of my cupboard and pack them in the suitcase. They are usually the first things to go in, because I certainly don't wear them on a regular basis. Do you know the kind of clothes I mean? Things like brightly coloured floral dresses, shirts, shorts and sarongs - kinda Hawaiian style. They are items like long board shorts and fluro rashies and swimsuits. Big island style hats and sandals and thongs that get worn once a year, because they are so daggy, but oh so practical for the sand and water.

Here is my go-to summer holiday top. I don't know what possessed me to buy it. It has parrots on it, with sequins. Hideous. Except when you are on a summer holiday by the beach. Then it's just right. Well it's OK. Isn't it?

Here is another summer holiday favourite. I bought it on a road trip between Sydney and Brisbane at Byron Bay, when I was pregnant with Aiden. It's Lisa Ho. It wasn't cheap. It's kinda island-y, not particularly flattering (style or colour), but great to wear on a hot day and can be dressed up to wear for dinner.

Here's a couple of the resort guests I took photos of, "paparazzi" style. I'm not much of a "pap" photographer as my camera was back in my room or in my bag when I saw the BEST examples of holiday wardrobe wear.

First up, a very good example of holiday board shorts. Check out these floral babies at the pool, nicely coordinated with a red hat.

A Hawaiian shirt with a twist. Guitars and tiki/islander designs teamed with a 3 day growth. Good choice for lunch.

And a classic Hawaiian holiday shirt as a swimsuit cover up. I know this because this girl arrived with 3 or 4 other bikini clad friends for lunch and was told to cover up before they were let in.

Do you have a holiday wardrobe? What's your favourite piece?

Day 4 and 5: The island life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 03:28:00 +0000

We have settled into a nice routine and got the hang of life on an island. Palm tree lined sand, turquoise blue ocean and "Bulu!" wherever we go.

One of the blogs I like to follow, Little Cottage, Big Life written by the lovely Claudia, who I met at a recent blogger conference, does something called "Wordless Wednesday". Every Wednesday she only posts photos on her blog. I like it. I like it a lot. So in that spirit (I'm stealing her idea with pride) this blog is mainly photos of our holiday so far. Enjoy!

The Jetty

Sunset

End of a perfect day

Arran and "Mini-me" Charlie

Ah...palm trees

Charlie practicing his modelling pose

"I can wear your sunnies Daddy!"

The beach....

Cheeky Charlie

I love tunnels

Cuddles

Cool dude!

Day 3: Take a break

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:48:00 +0000

Holiday toes

I'm writing over at my other blog today. You can check out the post here