Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloooooon...

It takes a lot to get me out of bed at 4.20am and yet last Friday, in spite of my fear of heights,  that's what I had to do, to go hot-air ballooning for a story for the travel section of the paper.  While the rest of the house snoozed, I slipped away in the dark to Homebush to meet a group of people eagerly hoping, as I was, for views along the harbour of the bridge and opera house, while floating above eating bread for slimmers. 

Unfortunately because of an annoying westerly blowing, we ended up driving a long way west of the city and launching from a field next to a motorway in Rooty Hill. It was very cool lifting off silently and smoothly as the sun came up and soon we were at 3,000 feet spying the city in the distance in one direction and the Blue Mountains off to the west. Our pilot, a 20-something from just outside Guildford in Surrey, assured us he had 10 years' flying experience and a commercial pilot's licence, despite looking about 11. The wind carried us to the north west of Sydney so that for the majority of the flight we were looking down at vast housing estates of McMansions going up everywhere. Nice to perve at people's houses from a Google Earth real-

time perspective but not really the views I was hoping for.  Anyhoo here are some pix of a fun morning.

In other news, we can now confirm that Scarlett has unfortunately inherited the Ludkin nose.

Rob's growing a mo

During Movember (the month formerly known as November) Rob is growing a Mo. That's right he's bringing the Mo back because he's being proactive in the fight against men's depression and prostate cancer. That and because he's run out of razors. Rob will be going for a sort of 1970s porn star Mo, so don't be alarmed when you see him and try not to point, stare or laugh because he thinks it looks cool and you might discourage him. Though I am fully supportive of Rob's efforts, I find the whole thing a bit icky as he will soon look like my 4th year science teacher Mr White. Though a smashing bloke and a very competent educator, I did NOT want to kiss Mr White - he wore cowboy boots.
Anyhoo, to donate to Rob's Mo you can either:
1.
Click this link
https://www.movember.com/au/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink
&rego=1494836&country=au and donate online using your credit card or PayPal account, or 2.
Write a cheque payable to 'Movember Foundation', referencing his Registration Number 1494836 and mailing it to:
Movember Foundation
PO Box 292
Prahran VIC 3181 Remember, all donations over $2 are tax deductible.
The money raised by Movember is used to raise awareness of men's health issues and donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and beyondblue - the national depression initiative. The PCFA and beyondblue will use the funds to fund research and increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer and depression.
Did you know:
* Depression affects 1 in 6 men....most don't seek help. Untreated
depression is a leading risk factor for suicide.
* Last year in Australia 18,700 men were diagnosed with prostate
cancer and more than 2,900 died of prostate cancer - equivalent to the number of women who will die from breast cancer annually.

Thanks for supporting Rob. Naturally photos will be along shortly monitoring his progress.

Never on a Friday

Rob picked up the girls early from Wattle Lane last Friday and we all met up in the city with a few other mates for the annual night noodle markets. This year it was bigger than ever, with loads more food stalls, DJs and, Chinese dragon performers. Rob HATES Chinese dragons, to the extent that he has turned the car around before when he's seen one coming down the street in Chinatown. Too loud and annoying. The markets were PACKED, so on top of not being able to get a seat anywhere and having to perch on the concrete edge of a flower bed, having the girls screaming in fear at these huge dragons dancing so close to them with massively loud and irritating drums and cymbals smashing away, meant it was a pretty ordinary night.

Note to self: next time don't go on Friday. On Saturday we went to Newtown to visit our close friends Melissa and Larry who welcomed their second baby girl on Thursday. Clover Grace is sooooo cuuuuttte and we did the usual oohing and ahhing, commenting we couldn't believe babies were ever sooooo small, while toasting her good health. Then the girls and I dropped Rob off in the city to meet his old friends from London Kathleen and Robin, Stacey and Darren. Rob lived with Darren in North Finchley when I first met him, so they go waaaaay back. On Sunday after breakfast at our favourite bookshop cafe, I browsed books and pretended I didn't know my two children who were going crazy in the kids section. I will be spending a lot more time in book shops soon as I have been promoted at work and will soon be taking up the role of Managing Editor, Fairfax Books. As well as newspapers, Fairfax who I work for, also publish a range of books including restaurant guides, cook books, crime stories and more. I am thrilled to have got the job as 75 redundancies were recently made at work, and my job as I know it now, might not exist at all in the next few years. This move into a different side of the publishing business will hopefully widen my experience and mean my job will be safe for years to come.

This week I also managed to have a slight collision in our car with the back of a ute. I have taken to calling it a 'dingle' as it sounds very small that way. To be honest I have no idea whose fault it was. Uteman might have rolled back into me or me forward into him. Either way the dingle was so small I didn't even bother to get out of the car to check it, instead smiled and waved at the driver after he gave me the thumbs up after checking his vehicle. Only when I got home did I see the front left light was hanging out of its housing, and the bonnet was dented and chipped. I was dreading Rob's reaction, but even more annoying and upsetting than him yelling at me, he just smiled and said "Oh well, you'll have to sort that out then." Two garages later I had an estimate of $1500 to fix it. Unfortunately we have a massive excess on on our policy in order to reduce our premiums and this damage though costly comes in at less than the excess. For now the car will have to wait...

eat, drink, hopscotch, eat, drink, bike ride, eat, drink...

All a bit much food and wine this weekend. Saturday was a scorcher, so after ballet we drew a hopscotch on the footpath for hours of free entertainment. In the afternoon, we went to visit our old neighbours Deb and Ewan for a barbecue with other old mates, Rob and Freya. A great laugh but it meant a hasty departure for us as we had a dinner to go to in the evening. It was a charity fundraiser to gather cash to save the ancient trees in Sydney's biggest green space Centennial Park. The zillionaire leader of the opposition was there but no sign of his substantial cheque book that I could see. However, a woman at the next table did bid $13,000 for a tree. Good grief. We had a super night alongwith our friend Amanda as the guests of our mate Brett who was doing the PR for the night. We got quite overexcited about the car that was sent to pick us up and loved the band perched up in the trees around the restaurant while we sipped champagne on the deck before dinner. A little worse for wear on Sunday morning, we went to the local park where a bike fair was on. As well as face painting and a bike decorating contest for the kids, there were mechanics doing bike checks, BMX stunt riders and races. At lunchtime Rob's old work mateWayne and his wife Jen came over for lunch. It was lovely to see them but I was sooooo ready for bed that night. Monday night we were out again, this time at the Young Chef's Dinner, one of the great events of Good Food Month held every October in Sydney. Six chefs from some of the city's best restaurants plan a menu on their own under the guidance of a top chef and a young sommelier matches all the wines. We went alongwith Julia and Richard, but the evening ended with us catching up with a couple of restaurant reviewing mates who were a few parts to the wind and full of hilarious stories. In other news, it's raining today and when that happens all the massive huntsman spiders around our house start moving indoors. Here's one of the smaller ones, found in a mug I was about to drink from, after hopping into the sink.

Crash, bang, wallop part 2!!

Within 48 hours of Scarlett's wipe out on her bike, it was Florence's turn to come a cropper. Scarlett is quite the maternal 4-year-old and regularly yells out reports to me regarding on Flo's whereabouts or needs "Flo's standing on the table!!!" or "Flo wants a drink, Mum!!" are common calls in our house. On Wednesday I was in Flo's room sorting out her wardobe when I hear a thud. Nothing unusual about that, I thought, followed by "Mum !! Flo's fallen down the stairs!!" . I ran to her to pick her up and tell her she was fine, but when she looked up at me blood was spilling out of the sides of her mouth. She was screaming and the blood kept on coming. She put her hands up to her mouth covering them and her face with blood. There was blood on the floor, all down her top and after I grabbed her, all over me. I picked her up and tried to see what she had done but, I'm telling you, there was so much blood I couldn't tell if she had split her lip, bitten her tongue or cut the inside of her mouth. I sent Scarlett racing next door to our neighbours Steve and Barbara who are nurses, but finding them out I had to decide fast what to do - stay home and hope the bleeding stopped or to go to the hospital? In the end I yelled at Scarlett to get in the car and after wrapping a terry towel around Flo's neck to catch the blood, I strapped them in and we zoomed up the street towards our local medical centre. At the top of the street, I realised I'd left a pan of potatoes boiling on the hob and had to turn around. When we finally reached the drs, we had to park (now that doesn't happen in emergencies in the movies) and run inside. When the receptionist saw us she clasped her hand to her mouth and said "oh my God!" which was of course EXACTLY what you want to hear! She rushed us into a treatment room where a nurse was looking after an ancient Latvian woman complete with winter coat (it was 25 degrees), head scarf and ankle boots. While she lay on the bed moaning in Latvian, the nurse examined Flo. By now the blood had stopped and we were able to see she had put her bottom tooth through her top lip. The nurse sang Old Macdonald to Florence while she cleaned her up and then the dr came in for a look too. We all decided it wouldn't be a nice experience for her to have stitches and that it would heal in its own time. Luckily Florence is on antibiotics for an ear infection, so that should help with what is now a massive fat lip. 

Crash, bang, wallop!

 

Scarlett had her first go at riding her bike without training wheels yesterday afternoon. With our new friends Bev and Gav and their kids in tow, we headed to the local park at the end of our street to see if Scarlett (aged 4 and a half) would be able to manage it. Before we'd even got to the park Rob was pushing her along down the middle of our street (!) and she was off, cycling along like a loony. However as we hadn't had the talk about what to do when she wanted to slow down, she chose to come to a stop by steering into a parked car. Luckily it was only an old VW Beetle and there wasn't a mark on it. Scarlett thought the whole thing was hilarious and, despite the loud bang on impact, was soon up on her feet gagging to go again. Once in the park, Rob took her to the top of the hill and let her go, there she was again zooming down the hill, all the way to the bottom around the big tree, past the benches before crash landing again. Up she got, pleased as punch and ran into my arms as we all clapped and cheered (see above video clip). I would like to point out here that I repeatedly said to Rob and Scarlett 'you should really do this on the grass, so if you fall off it will be a soft landing'. As with many things a mother says, my words went unheeded. On the third go, Scarlett made it about halfway down the path before crashing spectacularly, the sound of her bike grinding along the tarmac setting teeth on edge (the video footage is too horrid to post here). Scarlett emerged from beneath the wreckage with a bloody nose, fat lip, cut face and horribly grazed elbow. There were tears, lots and lots of them, alongwith trembling, disbelief and pain. Rob and I both ran to her, me with Flo in my arms and as we took turns comforting her, little Flo stood beside her patting her head. We headed home for a Dettol bath, band aid application and lots of cuddles before Scarlett was popped in front of Play School with a big cup of her much-loved soy milk. Poor love - look at that poor bruised, cut, disappointed face. 

It took her quite a while to perk up, but eventually she was up and at it again, playing hide and seek with Louis and Susie. Meanwhile the rest of us tucked into the amazing pizza Gav 

made from scratch, using his big bag of kitchen utensils, pizza pans and ingredients. Another lovely impromptu get together with great company, food and wine and super kids.

Hot, then cold, then wet, then dry

It's a long weekend here in Oz, and in the typical style of bank holidays around the world, the weather has been rubbish. It's bizarre because on Friday it was 35 degrees and with Rob at work, I decamped to the beach with the girls. Even that offered no respite as though there was a breeze, it was a hot one. The girls discovered the joy of having a front verandah, set up the deckchair and plonked themselves down with a few books. We all slept badly on Friday night and I even had to get up at 2am for a cold shower to help me sleep.

Bizarre then to wake up on Saturday to torrential rain. We managed to fill the day however with ballet, a bit of shopping and an afternoon visit from my friend Cerentha and her children Jack and Lu.

Saturday night Rob's quite inebriated brother Craig arrived for the night. Every year he and a bunch of mates come down to Sydney for the Rugby League Grand Final. They start drinking on Saturday morning before they get on the plane from Brisbane (oh to be a passenger on that flight) and then are transferred by minibus to a bar on the northern beaches where they continue to drink. At some point while he can still stand, he then usually gets in a cab and comes and sees us for the night. This year Rob and Scarlett drove into the city and picked him up from his hotel and while the rest of his mates hit the bars, Craig came for dinner with us. As always there was much to talk and laugh about and more wine and scotch was drunk.

The clocks went forward on Sunday morning so, as well as waking an hour short of sleep, we were all a bit worse for wear. Rob had to get up at 6am and go to work after only 4 hours sleep. The girls and I waved Craig off in a taxi at 8.30, heading back to the city to meet up with his mates for a special rugby breakfast complete with more drink, before the game that night. I don't know how he does it. Funniest of all, they don't even go to the game to watch it live - they watch it on a big screen tv in a bar, something you think they could do from their homes in Brisbane.

Yesterday was a bit of a strain for me, stuck indoors on a rainy day with a hangover and sleep deprived with two children who were raring to go. Making use of piles of previously unplayed with cuddly toys served us well for a couple of hours as did a trip to the park in the afternoon once the rain stopped. Once he got home, Rob popped out again to the dr to be diagnosed with bronchitis. Needless to say it was an early night for us last night.

Today the rain has cleared, the sun is shining and we are off to the park to start teaching Scarlett to ride her bike without her training wheels. I can still remember my Dad running alongside my bike in our street and me cycling without training wheels for the first time and turning to my Dad, only to find he was back at the end of the street and that I had done it all by myself. Knowing Scarlett's temperament I doubt the same fond memories will be formed today.

Time flies...

Another top weekend. Richard Quance, who I met on my first day at Manchester Poly 22 years ago, came for the weekend from Perth where he now lives. The girls adored him, following him about and insisting he read books and play board games.While Rob slept off a night shift Quancey joined the girls and I at the organic market for a coffee and bacon and egg roll followed by ballet. Then while Quancey went for a swim Rob and I entertained our lovely friends from NZ, Glenys and Gerald, alongwith Glenys's sister June and her husband Jack. They were only on a stopover of a few hours on their way to Bali so once they had deposited their full duty-free allowance of 8 bottles of Bombay Sapphire on our kitchen counter, we fed them prawn and tomato stew and cupcakes and they were off again..Then while Rob went back to bed, Quancey and I assembled the bed that was finally delivered for our guest room. It was a hot and bothered affair as it was 30 degrees. That night, with Rob finally upright and the babysitter in place, the 3 of us walked to the next suburb to meet Quancey's old mate Gavin Dodd. I hadn't seen him for about 19 years and had never met his wife Bev or their two lovely kids, who moved to Sydney 4 weeks ago and don't know a soul. It was lovely to catch up over a bottle or two in the local Italian before heading home by 11pm so Rob could go off to work. On Sunday, it was all go again as Gav, Bev and the kids came overfor a late lunch at ours, complete with amusingly-named ice creams, finally heading home at 7pm. Gav was back on our doorstep at 8pm for more drinks and laughs. Gav used to play guitar for Jamiroquai and is still a musician and composer and Bev is a commissioning editor with Random House. We all got on famously, including the kids, and we are looking forward to lots more laughs with them in the future.

In other news, this morning I had my annual check up with my oncologist and it's something of a milestone this year as I have reached 10 years since diagnosis without recurrence of the cancer. While there was no band (promised by my doctor Jane, when I reached 5 years) it was lovely to see Jane again, note how much had happened in the last decade and to have her tell me how well I had done. Today is also the 13th anniversary of my mum's death, so I stopped in at the hospital chapel on my way to work to say a little prayer of thanks for my life and had a chat with Mum while I was in there.

Sisters

The girls have been busy bees this last week. Scarlett has started enjoying some of the toys that she didn't show a jot of interest in when she was younger. She was consumed for a day last week with seeing how any different shapes she could create with a set of Beatrix Potter building blocks given to her when she was born. Could there be a future architect in the family or a demolition expert? Florence meanwhile seems to have suddenly grown into a little girl, helped in part by us putting her into dresses Scarlett cast off years ago. She looks adorable. Scarlett loves having a little sister to show stuff to, and when she isn't pushing Florence out the way, holding her head under the water or jealously sulking when Florence and I are having a cuddle, she loves to show her the books she loves so much. She is working out more and more words every week and is very excited at the prospect of reading by herself. Scarlett has energy in buckets and is always running around in the garden (see her chasing bubbles above), on the beach or at the park, but was mowed down by a dreaded lurgy this week and spent most of the early hours of Monday morning vomiting and then laying low for a day. Poor old Rob got up to her from 4am onwards even though he then had to stay awake all day looking after the girls while I went to work and then had to do a night shift that night. That explains why he keeps nodding off on the couch. The weather has been glorious again since Saturday. Godfather Brett joined us for ballet on Saturday morning followed by brunch and that night Zoe, Paul, Bella and Duncan came over for a dinner of spring leaf salad with fresh peas and feta followed by tomato and prawn stew and ice cream. On Sunday we decided to leave ourselves open and after pottering a bit, and soon getting bored with that, we invited the neighbours in for a last minute bbq.

We are really looking forward to seeing my old mate Quancey when he flies in from Perth this weekend and I have been rushing about buying curtains and trying to get the guest room ready. All efforts to get a double bed delivered by Friday have failed, so it's the old blow up bed again, I'm afraid, mate. He's slept on worse. Once won a trip to see us from the UK, he came camping with us and had to sleep on the cold, hard, damp earth. This made for an uncomfortable night's sleep for us too as we had to listen to all his complaining. We will certainly be packing it all in while he's here as we have a lunch with friends from NZ on Saturday, plus a dinner out that night and a lunch on the Sunday. Lorks!

Hot Stuff

We have just had a very busy and very hot weekend. Instead of ballet we crossed the bridge to the north shore on Saturday morning for brunch at the fantastic new home of our friends the O'Briens. Chris makes a mean omelette and while we tucked into a feast of eggs, bacon, yoghurt and fresh fruit, the kids went crazy on the trampoline in their garden. By lunchtime the mercury had climbed to 30 and we were feeling completely unclimatised seeing as it was 20 degrees the day before. Back at home, there was only one thing for it, open up all the bifold doors and windows that run along the back of the house and invite some mates over to drink cold beer and wine while the kids played in a tub of water. Once the Penberthys had left it was time for me to start cooking for our dinner party that night, the evening remaining so warm we had the doors open all evening and it felt like Summer. The next day it was pouring with rain and while Rob entertained the girls I got stuck into preparing lamb shank pie for a late lunch with our neighbours - 7 adults and 4 kids. This soon swelled to 9 adults when Laura, our newly discovered neighbour, saw Bretts' car outside and knocked on the door to say hello. Soon she and her fiance Ben, a navy diver bomb disposal expert - I know, that's what I said - had joined us around the table, too. It was chaotic with so many people but brilliant fun and great to live in a house that has the space for gatherings such as these. The pie was a triumph. Flo was super cute poking out her tongue at people and then sitting quietly looking at books, while her nutcase older sister amused everyone with zany outfits including running into the room dressed in her swimmers and goggles, just for a laugh. I don't know where she gets this show off attention-seeking behaviour from.....
Naturally, the weekend ended with children all thrown into the bath, and in tears.

My head hurts...

...and I have no one to blame but myself. On Monday night Rob and I slipped into our gladrags, hopped in a taxi and headed to the fabulous and glamourous Good Food Guide awards. As well as the wonderful food and wine, it was lovely to catch up with old mates, have a good laugh with some chefs and to see my name in very large letters on a big screen when my fellow reviewers and I were applauded for all our hard work on the book compiling restaurant reviews. Smashing. I started with champagne then switched to cosmos, then to wine, back to champagne, cosmos again - you get the idea. Scarlett called out at 4am having a nightmare about her new ballet shoes and then the javelin landed in my skull. I'm never drinking again - you read it here first. It does not help that I have a streaming cold and possible temperature - that could always be a hot flush, of course.
The woman in the photo above, with Rob, Kendall and Brett is called Laura. She was one of the organisers of the event and by strange coincidence not only lives in our street, but was the woman who approached Rob at our house auction to ask if he needed help after Florence vomited all over me. Small world.

September 1st

Today is the first day of Spring and the day has dawned with blue skies and a chill in the air. While Rob is sleeping off his night shift, the girls and I will go to Callan Park for a play. Callan Park was once a huge psychiatric hospital, not unlike Oakwood, but now, apart from a few, rehab facilities, has become a beautiful public park with harbour front paths and playgrounds, sports fields and lovely views. What happy memories I have of walking to school through Oakwood, encountering happy, bonkers patients only too happy to discuss their corduroy trousers. This has been my last week of sick leave, so Rob and I managed to squeeze anothermovie in - Tina Fey's pretty funny Baby Mama. I'm back into the office on Wednesday, jonly just missing the strike action that ended this morning. The walk out was in response to  Fairfax Media management announcing 550 redundancies across all the company's papers in Australia and NZ. The previous round of redundancies was only l18 months ago, so it seems unlikely they are going to get 550 volunteers and some people are going to get a tap on the shoulder this time.

I had book club this week which is always great. There are 8 of us in the group and each of us takes a turn, every 6 weeks or so, choosing the book and then hosting a night of dinner and drinks to talk about it. Unlike most book clubs I have heard of, we actually read and talk about the book. (My mate Nick's book club comprises 10 middle aged men who meet in the pub every Thursday and get drunk.) We just finished the very heavy going Seven Types of Ambiguity by Eliot Perlman.

It's my turn next, so I've picked The Mayor Of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, mainly because I did it for my English A level, many moons ago, and hope to appear very knowledgeable as a result by re-reading old notes. Ha!

Tonight Rob and I slip into high heels and evening wear, and something nice for me too, and go out to the Good Food Guide Awards. It's always a brilliant night of great food and wine, where Sydney's best chefs are awarded one, two or three chef's hats according to their culinary excellence. We get to catch up with lots of mates and drinks a lot of champagne.  After years of reviewing bars for the book, this year I have reviewed restaurants for the first time. You can look forward to tomorrow's blog on hangover cures.