Britain is brilliant

It was to sweltering, swimsuit weather that we arrived in London on June 25, for one of England's heat waves. With paddling pools at the ready, we managed to get over our jetlag in a few days and be alert enough to have a wonderful reunion with Maria and Jack and entertain old friends Liz and Mike, Richard and Tracey and Ruth and Eddie with a lunch in the garden at Dad's house in Barming with its amazing views down across the fields to the church Rob and I were married in. As with all visits to Dad's we are fed very well, with multiple meals and courses throughout the day.
Undeterred by the hot weather we took the kids off to Hever Castle, Kent, childhood home of Anne Boleyn and the location of the one of my favourite mazes enjoyed as a child. Since my last visit, a new water maze has been installed - step on the wrong paver and a massive jet of water soaks you through - providing instant relief from the heat and sun.
Next stop, London where we spent a week with Helen and George. The kids loved hanging out with their cousins William and Libby and despite an incident involving someone drawing on someone else's picture, Libby and Scarlett enjoyed sharing a room and loved scootering together to Wandsworth common. It was also great for the cousins to all be together for Libby's 6th birthday.

With William and Libby still at school during our stay, we dragged Scarlett and Flo around the West End, Covent Garden and Islington, to the National Gallery, British museum and National Portrait Gallery. This was achieved without complaint as long as we threw in plenty of tube and bus rides. We made the multiple pitstops for clothes shopping work by letting the girls try on whatever they wanted.
On the hottest day we took refuge in St James Park enjoying ice crean and deckchairs before showing the girls where the Queen lives.

On Sunday night Rob and I jettisoned the girls in favour of a boat ride with champagne up the Thames from Waterloo bridge to the O2 in Greenwich (the former Millenium Dome) to see Madonna in concert. That's her in the background. It was a top night out with lots of dancing and singing along, although we both could have done without the 15 minute Gypsy kings tribute. Helen and George were kind enough to let us host a great long lazy 'lunch' at their house to catch up with Moira and Fraser (fresh off the plane from Majorca and on their way back to Scotland), Neil and Lorna, David and Andrew, Ruth, Paul and Saska. We also fitted in a breakfast catch up with Lorraine and Sprout on Wandsworth Common.

Helen, who I can thoroughly recommend as an alternative to an expensive car service, brilliantly drove us back to Kent after our London week. Next stop France for the day to visit a few of the little towns Rob and I used to visit a lot when we lived in London. The girls loved the ferry and looked quite perplexed when children in a playground in St Omer spoke to them in French. Next stop Hastings, East Sussex where William the conquerer beat Harold by poking him in the eye, and more recently where Maria, Jack and Lawrence (Lol) have made their new home. It's a massive Victorian pile, half way through being renovated, but which we could see will be amazing when it's done. Until then we used a temporary kitchen in the basement and mobile phones to find each other in the multi roomed house. Maria and Lol's wedding was the reason for our UK trip in the first place and we stayed for 9 days to help out with the pre and post wedding jobs, fitting in a trip to Battle, a hen 'night', an afternoon at the beach front fun fair before dinner out, Jack's 7th birthday party at the great aquarium and Sunday lunch with Maggie and Popi. Maria looked amazing in her wedding gown and the lads and the girls washed up well as groomsmen and flower girls.
Maria and Lol were married in Lewes but held their reception at the truly beautiful Griffin Inn in the picture perfect village of Fletching, West Sussex. It was brilliant to see Maria so so happy and in love with Lol and to see Jack so chuffed with his new family, one that will be expanding again at the end of the year when they welcome a new baby.
The highlight of the reception (apart from the food - a whole pig on a spit) was Lol's heartful and funny speech about Maria and Jack and how they got together again 10 years after their initial romance, which ended with him taking to the floor with a microphone and serenading Maria with Jack on guitar. They performed again the next day at the garden party back at the house.
After tearful farewells to Maria, Jack and Lol as they headed off on their Italian honeymoon, to Don and Ray who headed back to New York and to Lara and the rest of the Sparey gang, we were off to our next destination, Whistable on the north Kent coast to catch up with Liz, Mike and Charlie. The last time we visited the Baileys it was winter and Liz and I were pregnant, so it was great to see the results of our bumps playing so well together. Apart from, that is, when Flo hit Charlie round the head with a dustpan and brush. We spent a lovely hot afternoon on the garden cathcing up over wine and barbecued mackerel and a day at their cute beach hut.

After Whitstable it was back to Barming for Alexandra's birthday. Her youthful good looks (she doesn't look a day over 58) are attributed to the life of hard labour she enjoys with my dad, taking care of him, the gardening, decorating, cleaning, ironing, washing and stain removal all on a steady diet of gin and tonic and sauvignon blanc.
After the Barming pitstop, we hit the road north east to Suffolk, to the gorgeous rural home of Rick and Justin. They live in a perfect pink cottage in a tiny village near Bury St Edmunds and spend their days swinging in the hammock, gathering a multitude of home-grown veggies from their incredible garden and picnicking in Justin's very own 50-acre wood, complete with folly, deer and amazing bird life.

We spent 5 glorious lazy days mainly eating and drinking and swinging in the hammock, but also going to church, going on country walks, barbecuing, playing games, holding baby chicks, patting horses and having dinner in the wood at sunset. All completely heavenly. We returned to Dad's several pounds heavier and full of woe for our imminent departure back to Sydney. We had time for one last morning of kite flying with Dad and Alexandra before we went back to London for our final night and then to the airport. Looking forward to the next trip back already.

Old friends

Despite a lot of rain over the weekend we managed to have a good one. After a morning at the Carriageworks market with the girls, Rob woke up from a night shift and we went into our next door neighbours for farewell drinks before our departure on Wednesday. While Kirsty, Simon, Rob and I drank wine, the kids ran around like nutters. Afternoon drinks are all very well, but not so when you then have to cook for a dinner party for 6 later that day.  Also as Rob and I have been on the wagon for a while, we were rather unused to afternoon drinking.  While Rob took over the child wrangling, I attempted to prep for our dinner party before guests Jo and Mark , Julia and Richard came over. In my wine-adled state I forgot to serve the smoked trout dip with the pre-dinner nibbles and made a right mess of the starter. With my beer goggles firmly in place I completely midread the recipe for pan-fried prawns with coconut salsa. Rob and our guests made all the right noises, indicative of a meal enjoyed, but I remain unconvinced. I made up for it with a main of mushroom risotto but totally forgot how long it takes to make and the whole standing at the stove away from the table part, is a bit dull. Nonetheless rapturous applause greeted its arrival at the table, enhanced I'm sure by the addition right at the end of tarragon, mascarpone and a squeeze of lemon juice.  The night was great fun and pretty late for us but well worth the sore heads and sleep deprivation we experienced yesterday. Sunday had disaster written all over it as we woke to more bucketing rain. After a morning stuck indoors I forced everyone into wellies and we went for a bracing stroll in the rain around the harbour foreshore at Balmain. We were both shattered by the evening but had to find the energy to channel our inner hippies as we had tickets to see Simon and Garfunkel. Hilariously, and unsurprisingly,  the audience was made up of people in their 40s, 50s and older. S & G were still going strong at 67 and their voices were surprisingly youthful. Their backing band were absolutely incredible - a bunch of old dudes from the US and Africa - adding some electronica to 60s tunes. When we drove home, passing an ambulance going the opposite way towards the arena, we assumed it was going to the aid of an aged Simon & Garfunkel fan who had slipped and broken a hip in all the excitement.

Winter weekend

Our home has been temporarily transformed into a mini building site this week with our builder Kent getting stuck into replacing the weatherboard cladding along the side of our cottage. The sitting room window has had to be reinstalled and the area around the internal courtyard and pond has been done too. Hopefully this will now stop all the problems we have been having when heavy rainfall turns our house into a leaking sponge reminiscent of a scene from Rising Damp. 

Rob has been on day shift all weekend so it's been girls only again. Yesterday the girls and I met up with Melissa and Larry and their kids at the CarriageWorks, the former Eveleigh railyards that have been converted into huge warehouse gallery and performance spaces and also houses a weekly covered food market. We had a great time eating Eumundi Smokehouse bacon and egg rolls, cupcakes from the Cupcake Princess and drank some very good coffee. Lots of great fruit and veg, flowers, bread, cheese, wine, olive oil and more. Made a nice change from our local organic markets in Lilyfield and  after shopping we all sat in the sun while the kids ran around playing chase. This morning Melissa dropped round with the girls and after breakfast on the corner we came home to the warm house for a round of nail painting.  Florence and Lotus's 9-month age gap is rapidly reducing and they play well together. At 27 months, Flo is such a giant and is wearing size 3 clothes,  and is now taller than Lotus who turns 3 next month . On Sunday afternoon, the girls and I wen to Julia and Richard's for a late lunch with Charlie and Liv. As always it was all about the food and conversation.  Last night I hosted book club. My choice was The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. It's a right doorstop but everyone got through it and we had a very positive discussion over fish pie and a couple of bottles of white.  There's something going on in book club as 3 of the girls are pregnant and one has just given birth. Our next book is The Boat by Nam Le. Will be a good read on the plane  when our two perfect children sit quietly or sleep for 24 hours and I get to put my feet up and relax.

Women only

With Rob on nights and Richard still away on business in LA, Julia, the girls and I enjoyed an oestrogen-fuelled ladies afternoon of play, chat and dinner complete with bath and PJs.  Florence felt quite grown up next to Tess and attempted to 'read' a book to her.  
On Sunday Zoe turned 40, treating herself a few weeks ago with a trip to Thailand, sans children, with Paul whose 40th was in April. On Monday Zoe, who didn't look a day over 39,  invited 6 girlfriends to the Tearoom Gunners' Barracks for a celebration champagne high tea. The venue is in a spectacular spot, high on the sandstone cliffs overlooking the harbour. 

Finally, Flo, neck deep in bubbles, all smiles as usual.

Old friends

We had a full on weekend which took me until Tuesday to recover from. On Saturday after more cute, tutu-related action at Flo's dance class we went over the bridge to see our fantastic friends Jules and Lenka. For reasons that escape us all we haven't made time to catch up with one another since last year. Pre children, Jules and Lenka were among a small group who took part in what became known as "the best weekend ever" several years ago when Rick was over from the UK. The weekend in question involved bbqs, drinking and an amazing day in the surf at Palm Beach.

Post children we have a lots of laughs together too, but the kids don't drink as much as we do. On Saturday afternoon we caught up over a few wines and a pretty damn good fillet steak cooked by Lenka. On Sunday with more wet weather, we pottered about at home making and decorating  a cardboard castle. In the afternoon we had Julia over with the girls (her wicked husband having absconded to LA for work), alongwith Chris and Stef O'Brien and their kids GG and Harrison. It's the same story with the O'Briens, we used to see so much of each other but with the advent of kids starting school and us all back at work there never seems to be enough time.  For reasons that also escape me, I didn't take any photos of either event. As a result you will have to imagine us throwing our heards back with laughter, telling hilarious stories, pausing only to chew and sip wine. Instead here's a photo of the girls sharing a cuddle on the couch during Play School. Surprisingly there are several times a day when they stop hitting each other over the head with saucepans, which sends Flo off looking for a secret hiding place, play well and show genuine affection for one another.

Samson and Delilah

I went to see Samson and Delilah this week. This Australian film's director Warwick Thornton just won the Camera D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for this bleak love story set in an isolated Aboriginal community in central Australia. There's very little dialogue and not much happens but what does reveals more about the lives of most aborigines in Australia than any other film or tv series I've seen. 

In other news, life at Marie Claire is improving. I'm understanding the culture and way of working a bit more. The craziness of it is more tolerable and, most of all, everyone here is fantastically nice and friendly. Another highlight is my journey to work which involves cycling over the Sydney harbour bridge. There's a dedicated cycleway which offers views west to the blue mountains that you can't get from the road. The downside of this is that the distance is twice that of my journey to the Herald. Exercise wise this is great but as we are in the middle of a month of storms I have arrived home so soaked most nights, looking as if I've just walked out of a car wash.  Only 4 weeks until our trip to the UK. Starting to get very excited.

Before and after - extreme makeover lawn edition

As you can see from the above picture, our lawn has been the least successful aspect of our home. The grass refuses to grow in spite of much watering, seeding and gentle persuading.  After heavy rain it is a quagmire reminiscent of the first world war. After extreme heat, it is baked as hard as clay and kicks up a dust storm.  After almost a year of struggling with it, we finally bit the bullet last week and got it returfed and levelled. It is now a lovely green, bouncy lawn. Fingers crossed.

Lots on

I started work last week at Marie Claire so it's been all change again in our house. Have missed not being able to take  Scarlett to school and pick her up every day and a complicated system of drop off and pickups has been organised with our neighbour Kirsty and one of the other mums  at school for the days when Rob and I are at work on the same day. I'm only doing 3 days a week but I miss my extra day with Flo and tried to make it up to her last week with a visit to an excellent new playground  in Pyrmont right on the harbour. As well as the cool digger, Flo is operating above, there is a brilliant Spiderman web-like climbing frame, a wooden xylophone and a modern take on the old tin-can telephones in the form of red horns.


Scarlett is going through a phase of finding everything 'boring'. What will she be like at 14, i wonder. As a result she has declared she is no longer interested in her weekly Saturday morning dance classes. Loosely termed 'ballet', it is actually lots of 5-year-olds in various fairy outfits running about to music. A quick call to the  dance school allowed us to swap the remainder of the term to a class for under 3s that Flo can attend instead. Flo looked so cute it was ridiculous in her tutu and fairy wing vest, and despite reservations about joining in without clutching tightly on to me, she loved it. I think.
Last night was our old neighbour and friend Dave's 40th birthday party. Dave is a lover of all things Mexican after spending a year there during his uni days. H']e speaks Spanish and loves to throw together a Mexican feast. Unsurprising then that his party theme was Mexican. We were expecting a room full of of people wearing pig snouts or flu masks but instead it was a much more inspired crowd of fancy dressers.  Rob went as a gardener and me as his peasant wife with matching moustaches.
Dave was the last king of the aztecs photographed here with Rob and Kate De Brito dressed as a  Bandido biker chick.
One of the 3 amigos seen here making necessary adjustments to his bolero.
The best look of the evening belonged to Elsa and Richard who looked extraordinary as Frida Kahlo and artist husband Diego.
Later, the crowd were 'treated' to a live performance by Dave and his Adelaide uni mates who put the band back together for one night only. I'm informed that at the height of their fame in the late 1980s, Cerveza y Putas (beer and sluts) were known as Adelaide's only Spanish language punk band. Of course they were awful, each loud thrashed guitar version of every song sounding very much like the last. This didn't stop a large crowd of friends, all drunk as lords on the copious amounts of wine, tequila and beer, partying like it was 1989.  
The performance over, more serious drinking began accompanied by huge bowls of chilli and nachos, all cooked by Dave. 

The 1st anniversary of my 40th birthday

It's official I am now 'in my forties'. No, no, it's fine, honestly, I can take it. I still feel 23 which makes me understand now that someone in their 70s probably still feels 23 too. I woke up on my birthday to a pile of cards, presents and flowers (thank you Liz and Mike) sent from near and far. Rob did himself proud with an amazing book of Vanity Fair portraits I had been after for ages, a lovely coat and two tickets to see Cate Blanchett as Stella in the Sydney Theatre Company production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which is on in September. As Rob had to spend most of the day sleeping off a night shift, I took Scarlett to school and then Flo and I went to glorious Redleaf Pool to meet Julia and Tess and Jo and Zebadee. We had coffee and cupcakes and basked in amazing Autumnal sunshine. It was warm enough to swim and I was annoyed I'd forgotten my swimmers. In the evening The Duthie family went up to Annandale for  a lovely early dinner of pasta and pizza at Vicini, a great local Italian where kids eat free.  Tuesday is a top telly night in Sydney so I happily plopped on the couch in front of the box for the rest of May 6. Thanks to all for cards, presents and phone calls. Maria, your parcel arrived today - I love it, a perfect fit.

Mayday Mayday - birthday part 1

My birthday celebrations began early on Friday when Mark and laura flew in from Wellington, NZ for a long weekend with us. After breakfast on the wharf at Pyrmont we pottered around the inner west in glorious Autumnal weather before Mark sent the girls and Rob off to sleep with his relaxed book reading style. We then played choclate Cluedo, a set I had bought for Christmas, which caused much confusion when It turned out some of the pieces had been eaten.On Saturday night 10 of us had a fantastic dinner at the Three Weeds, complete with a chocolate profiterole cake Rob had secretly bought and delivered to the restaurant. It was a late one but lots of fun, great food, wine and company. On Sunday after soccer, Mark and Laura gave us a new box set of Cluedo with new improved characters and rules.

Mark and Laura finished their visit by taking Rob, Flo and I out to brunch at Balmoral before flying back to NZ on Monday evening.