We love you George

We had an absolutely brilliant time at the Sydney Football Stadium last night seeing George Michael in concert, in spite of the evening starting badly. The online info revealed George would be on stage at 7.40pm. Our babysitter arrived at 7.10pm but the taxi booked for 7.20pm was a no-show. By 7.30pm we decided to drive and raced into the car and into the city. Once in the cross city tunnel, famous for cutting journey times in half, we ground to a halt, caught in a massive tailback traffic jam caused by the numbers of cars heading to the stadium. Uncharacteristically for us, instead of having a massive yell at each other about which alternative route would have been better, we took the whole thing in our stride. By now it was 8pm, so we put George on the cd player and exchanged texts with two groups of mates inside the venue (including Sarah-Kate who had flown from NZ with her sister Anna just for the concert) to find out if he was on stage yet. By 8.10pm we were creeping out of the tunnel onto the freeway now realising the traffic was jammed due to a breakdown. Naturally at this point we assumed the traffic jam might have been caused by George Michael himself, slumped over the wheel of his car having passed out after recently enjoying a disco cigarette. But no, a broken down coach was blocking a lane and once off that freeway we then encountered a further conked out van and car. At this point several cars started emptying themselves of anxious George Michael fans who were climbing over freeway barriers and running across parkland towards the stadium. At 8.20pm we received simultaneously texts from Sarah-Kate and our other friends informing us that GM was now on stage. Another 20 minutes, and after jamming the car into a multi-storey car park and running the last 200 metres, we too were dancing and singing into pretend 'hand' microphones along with everyone else. We only missed about 4 songs so we weren't disappointed. It was a perfect Sydney night for an open-air concert and we had an absolute blast. After the concert we hooked up with Sarah-Kate at her sister Rachel's apartment which was conveniently right across the street from the venue. Champagne and cocktails later, we eventually got to bed at 2am.

Hot - the weather and the house prices

After an unspeakably lousy Saturday, yelling at the children and each other as we dragged them from one open for inspection to another, we finally got to the auction of the house we were interested in in Leichhardt with 10 minutes to spare before the auction. The house was supposed to go for high $800,000s but eventually sold for $992,000, with us ducking out of the bidding way before that. The house market here at the mo is insane. This was a TINY 3 bed cottage with a sitting room and very small kitchen/diner. $992,000 is absurd. We calmed ourselves during a lovely relaxing dinner with Julia on Saturday night, ruminating on the fact that we live in a society where a 25-year-old has almost $1million to spend on a place that essentially needs to be demolished. On Sunday we all slept in until 8.30ish and then pottered happily as a family all morning, the yelling of the day before a distant memory. At lunchtime Zoe and Paul and Kirsty and Simon and all the kids came over for pork fillet, cucumber and anchovy salad and potatoes cooked in goose fat. As it was another scorcher, the paddling pool earned its keep and the ice cubes from the freezer were put to good use as cooling agents down the backs of our shirts. It was a 3 cold shower night last night and it's 30 degrees today but a southerly is promised for today bringing a cool change.

SOLD!

Today we sold our home of 22 months in Lilyfield. In the course of gently trying to find out how much our house was worth, by chatting to the agent who sold our old place, we sort of 'accidentally' sold our house when we received an offer we couldn't refuse. Feeling much like anyone who faced off again Don Corleone, we decided we couldn't pass it up and tonight at 5.30pm signed a contract of sale. We now have 3 months to move out and decide what to do next. We are fortunate to have a number of options on the table, the trick now is to pick the right one. Onwards.

Simon's 40th

These are our brilliant next door neighbours Kirsty and Simon and their kids Gabe, Charlie and Maggie. This photo was taken on Sunday, the day after the wettest Sydney day since the world was created. A day which unfortunately coincided with Simon's 40th birthday and his party, many weeks in the planning, held in their house and garden. As I say, this photo was taken the day after, because if it had been taken on the day my camera would now be a sodden broken pile of electronics so torrential and unrelenting was the rain. Almost 100 people were invited to the music festival-themed party and in spite of the rain it was a fantastic day, the rain only adding to the Glastonbury feel. There was a door list, wristbands and access all areas passes for those allowed in and enough food, wine and beer to sink a battleship. The kids rolled about in the mud outside while the grown ups ran between the house and a small marquee set up in the garden. As we live next door we were able to go home at one point to change into dry clothes, returning with raincoats and wellies. The chairs you can see behind Simon are there to stop anyone now walking on their lawn which has turned into a thick brown soup. I hope this makes Dad and Alexandra feel better about the visit they made here exactly a year ago, when they experienced 11 straight days of rain. February is just a rubbish time to visit Australia. Today was 81% humidity - 81%! I showered and then blow dried my hair this morning and had to get back in the shower again afterwards it was so muggy. My smooth hair-do remained smooth and flat for about 10 minutes before bouncing back into a large frizzy hat shape.

Chop chop - Flo's first haircut

Rob took Florence for her first haircut yesterday. Apart from me hacking away at her fringe  with the kitchen scissors, it was the first time she had sat in the chair under the gown and had a professional trim her locks.

As you can see she was delighted with the whole affair as our favourite family hairdresser, Rosetta, fashioned a stylish bob and presented her with the customary lolly on departure.

School's in

Scarlett's first set of long summer holidays ended on Thursday as she joined her classmates back in the playground at Annandale Public. Our friends Essie and Simon joined in the larks with Juno starting her first day at school. And Charlie next door started pre-school. We could sense the same excitement from Scarlett's first day this time last year. Over in Bondi, Ella Fleming was also having her first day as was Edward Neale in Haberfield.