Zooolander

This is my first week off work and frankly I have been counting the days. We had a busy weekend of swimming and children's birthday parties. Scarlett was invited to her mate Sophie's 4th birthday party which required her to dress as a fairy princess. Here she is looking exquisitely calm and thoughtful. Moments after this photo was taken, she declared her fairy dress 'too itchy' and it was removed in favour of a more subdued gown. That's 100% polyester for you. At the party, a chaotic mix of 'live fairy entertainment', cordial, and sandwiches made from hundreds and thousands, Scarlett got her face painted before we dragged her off to bed for the afternoon, so we could return later to the party venue for adult portion of the evening, a right old knees up for everyone except the pregnant lady in the corner. When you are sober, drunk people are total idiots. Oh to be one of them again. On Monday I got to join Rob and Scarlett for their regular sojourn to Taronga Zoo. We discovered that the new elephant enclosure has an indoor annexe where you can visit and stroke the elephants. It was brilliant. We had a big cuddle with an elephant and were amazed at how hard and firm his trunk was and how spiky his hair was. Later Rob and Scarlett bumped into our old friends the Mckendrys who were hanging out at the gorilla enclosure.

A pair of queens

There was a right hoo ha in Sydney on Tuesday as the superliner Queen Mary 2, the world's biggest queen class vessel, pulled into Sydney harbour for the day. On the same evening the QE2 came in, making it the first time the two ships had crossed paths in Sydney harbour since the 1940s. The Queen Mary is absolutely enormous and was quite a spectacle. Traffic was brought to a standstill around the city, and thousands of office workers abandoned their usual positions smoking fags at the entrance of their offices for vantage points around the harbour to get a look at the floating monolith. We joined the crowds, driving down to Mrs Macquarie's Chair and spending the afternoon at the pool there right across the bay from where she was docked in Woolloomooloo. In the pic you can see the QE2 in the forground, and the massive QM2 in the background. Sydney is blessed with so many gorgeous public spaces right on the water to enjoy days like this. Spaces that in many other cities would be reserved for apartments and houses for the very rich or for office blocks - just look at the Thames. Virtually the whole of the north bank, and much of the south, is lined with office blocks and busy roads. Or New York where almost all of the green public space is away from the shore. We took advantage of Sydney's great harbour aspect again yesterday when Rob, Scarlett and I went to Redleaf Pool in Double Bay. It's an amazing shark-netted harbour swimming pool with pontoons to swim out to and sunbake on, a lovely beach, great cafe and fantastic views of all the zillionaire's homes. The point is we got to enjoy the same view as them - for free. It was a glorious day of swimming - something Scarlett can make a good fist of now without any floats - sunbathing on pontoons, lunching and making secret camps under towels. Today is my work leaving lunch before I head off tomorrow. A visit to the Dr last night revealed the baby's head is partially engaged, ready for blast off.

Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

This is our last full week of Summer before Autumn officially starts on Scarlett's birthday, March 1. This weekend saw the arrival of the Chinese Year of the Pig. In Chinese lore this is considered the luckiest year to be born in which bodes well for Duthie number 2. Inside a fortune cookie I just opened it says 'Confucius say only a fool sees pork on the menu and does not order it'. Mmmm, did Confucius really say that I wonder. Another cookie ode tells me 'People born in the year of the pig are kind, honest and chivalrous, with an enjoyment of good food.' Pork presumably. We have just had a busy weekend - perhaps a little too busy. I went to see Notes on a Scandal on Friday night which I loved - Judi deserves the Oscar more than Helen in my book. Saturday we went to the Orange Grove organic markets for basil and tomatoes, but ended up buying a mushroom quiche, blood orange juice, a loaf of Sourdough, fruit juice ice pops and honey cured bacon and egg rolls as well. After a lunchtime nap we headed to the pool for a late afternoon swim before sunset. On Sunday Rob was up and out early to meet Rob and Ewan for a bike ride around the Bay Run, Scarlett and I joining them later in the park for coffee. Back home I just collapsed, realising I haven't been slowing down nearly as much as I should, despite being 36 weeks pregnant. Every day we are up and out either at the pool swimming laps, at the beach, at the shops, rushing about, I just felt so exhausted I could hardly lift my head off the couch. So while Rob took Scarlett out to the pool and to the Mardi Gras Fair Day I slept for about 3 hours with the air conditioning on in the bedroom. Heaven. Must do that more often. Not much point having an out of work husband if you don't make use of him while he's off. On their return, Scarlett joined me in bed and zonked out for another two hours, me nodding on and and off with my book. Then we packed up the car with food, drink, chairs and rugs and headed into the city for Tropfest, the world's largest short film festival which is held in The Domain every year. There are huge screens set up and the films are broadcast to live sites around Australia. The winner gets their film shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, gets flights to LA to meet with film industry dudes and prize money, so it's a big deal to win. Most of the past winners have gone on to work full time in the film industry. Every year there's theme or an item that has to be included in each film - this year it was a sneeze. There was a huge crowd but we got a great spot on the grass with good views of the screens and Scarlett was an angel only declaring it 'boring' at about 9.30pm, understandably as this was hours passed her normal bedtime. It's great that she's at an age now when we can do stuff like that with her. The winner was a film about where imaginary friends go when kids grow out of them. Where indeed. Only two more days at work as I pack up on Friday.

House & bump

Here are a few shots of our new house and my bump, being compared against that of my friend Lara who is due a week before me. Those of you who have visited us at our old house will note the new garden is about 400 times the size of the old one.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Yesterday, as Rob and I gulped back tears, Scarlett had her very first haircut. It has never even been trimmed before, but as it had got so long and consequently knotty, we decided it was time. Brushing Scarlett's hair had turned into a nightly negotiation and we were sick of her resembling a child from a Barnardo's children's home poster with her food-slathered hair pasted across her face. Oh and she asked if she could have it cut. So we took her off to Clara's the local hair salon, where for $15 she was transformed from scruffy little girl to stylish bob-wearing grown up girl. Bizarrely it seems that it wasn't only hair that was cut away - a particularly frustrating period of terrible twos naughtiness that appeared since our return from the Uk has also vanished. Today she was more angelic than I can ever remember her being and Rob and I kept looking at each other and wondering what happened to the real Scarlett. Long may it last.

Hooray for Charlie

At about the same time we started telling people we were expecting a baby, three of our friends announced they were too. Lara and Adam are expecting their first baby about 10 days before us and Rob and Freya about 10 days after us. The most anticipated for us however was the arrival of the baby of our fantastic friends in England, Liz and Mike. Their first baby, Ruby, our god-daughter, died a day after she was born in January of last year. In September of last year Liz called to tell us they were pregnant again. We were beyond thrilled to get a call from Liz on Saturday morning telling us they had had baby Charlie Alonzo last week. Here is the little prince looking absolutely adorable, and the Bailey family altogether. Am not sure Liz and Mike could look any prouder. Hooray for Charlie.

There's a baby in there thar hills

'This week your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds and measures 17.2 inches from the top of his head to his heels. His skin is becoming less red and wrinkled, and while most of his bones are hardening, his skull is quite pliable and not completely joined. This will help him ease out of your relatively narrow birth canal.' Oh well that's ok then. Thank you helpful baby development website. I love the inappropriately and hopelessly optimistic term 'ease' in that sentence. Clearly written by someone who hasn't passed a watermelon before. Baby website also tells me that 'Your baby can swallow up to a litre of amniotic fluid each day, passing this out as a type of 'urine' through their kidneys and bladder, back into the fluid around them.' How deeply unsavoury. If I wanted the baby to swim around in urine I'd take it to the local pool. We had our 33 week scan yesterday, during which the sonographer told me 'the head's down'. Well I could have told her that without the hospital needing to invest in an expensive piece of ultrasound equipment. My guess is the baby's head has been 'down' for some time since I feel enormous pressure in my 'downstairs' most of the time. Still with more than 6 weeks left to go and the baby not quite yet cooked, we don't want it coming out too early, now do we? Slightly frustrated that our broadband still isn't going to be connected for another fortnight so can't yet post new pix of me and bump. Just imagine a bowling ball sellotaped onto the front of a woman and you're halfway there.