I'm a big kid now.

Scarlett had quite a week. As well as the annual book week parade, in which each student dresses as their favourite character from a book, Scarlett also had to lead the school assembly in a group of 6 kindergarten students. While I missed the parade, I did help make the 'costume' - Scarlett went as Slinky Malinki, rapscallion cat - and I did manage to sneak out of work to see her on stage at the assembly (no pix - I know, I'm a terrible mother). She delivered her lines with confidence and panache, and also had to stand up when the weekly awards were announced to receive a merit award. As if this wasn't all too much for me, watching her sing the school song soon had me in floods. I'm not ashamed to say I was the only parent in the room crying.
This week Scarlett has also jumped up 3 reading levels. She absolutely loves reading and keeps saying "Aunty Maria used to read all the time, so do I," as if this is a good thing. She absolutely loves reading to Flo as a distraction from pinching, hitting or shouting at her.
The other new craze in our house is for Scarlett to give Flo piggy backs. Here they are with Gabe and Charlie from next door.
Flo continues to create hilarity and dismay with her various toilet arrangements. Some days she's brilliant at using the loo all day, the next, you'd think she'd never seen the inside of an Armitage Shanks showroom before.

This weekend is the Hallmark holiday, Father's Day. The GFC has called a halt to our usual practice on Mother's and Father's day of buying each other a spa treatment. Instead the girls made Rob this beautiful painting which was presented to him today, as he is at work tomorrow (actual Father's Day). the girls and I will be spending an oestrogen-fuelled day with Julia, Ella and Tess, as Richard is out of town.

Finally a word from our sponsor - Rob.

Whilst Kate says that due to the GFC we have suspended spa treatments for the year I did see that Kiri Te Banana (one of the founding members of Bananarama) was perfroming at the Sydney Opera House with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, so I proposed that we reinstate the giving of extravagant gifts from our children for hallmark holidays and took myself off to see the glorious national treasure that is Ms Te Kanawa. Anything at the Opera House is a perfect evening but Kiri was, unsurprisingly, superb. I liked the whole show but as with all the times I've seen her, the highlight is the encore when she sings O mio babbino caro, her signature song used in the film A Room with a View. Heavenly.

Mess

Following on from our assault on our neighbour's wet cement slab, the council have been round to ask them who made a mess of their handy work and are threatening Kirsty and Simon with a bill to re do it. This seems a bit absurd as they'd have to charge homeowners across the land who have made their mark in the quick-drying concrete. In the last few weeks Flo has worked out how to stretch her way out of her sleeping bag and therefore her cot. To this end, we've decided to start getting her ready for a move to her big girl bed. We've ditched the sleeping bags in favour of her own duvet and pillow set and put the side of the cot down so it's more like a bed. We've promised that if she's good and stays in bed, she will get a bed just like Scarlett's. It has been an entertaining few nights. She happily goes to bed and is left in a sleepy state snuggled under the covers. But then the stealth-like Mission Impossible Flo takes over. Without making a sound, she has been climbing out of her cot, removing her pyjamas and nappy and getting completely redressed. We don't discover any of this until she makes a surprising entry into the hallway looking pleased as punch. This is, of course, completely adorable and after some stern words of encouragement and the threat of a return to the sleeping bag, she gets straight back into bed. On Thursday night however, she

upped the stakes. About 40 minutes after she had gone quietly to bed, we heard a noise from her room. I asked Rob to quietly pop his head in. Next thing, he's calling me down the hall with a mixed expression of hilarity and dismay on his face. There was Flo, naked, standing in the middle of the room. In between her and Rob was a large fresh poo, that Rob had just squashed flat by opening the door over the top of it. I'll spare you the details involving the extent of the cleaning up, but let's just say, Flo's door won't need a draught excluder anymore. Other than that, she has been going well with her day time toilet training and has had 2 good days of undie wearing and is very proud of the stickers she gets every time she makes a trip to the loo.

In other news, here's a photo of Scarlett chanelling the girl in the pearl earring.

It's book club tomorrow night. Iam relieved to have finished The Little Stranger, a ghost story that had me awake in the night at the slightest noise or wind gust. Am interested to see if any of the other girls suffered from sleepless nights. Our next book is the classic The Fountainhead.

I am now into my 4th week of running podcasts. A 43-year-old smooth-talking Californian man talks me through when to run and walk, times the warm up and cool down and provided loud techno tunes to run to. I make quite a sweaty sight I'm sure as I launch myself around the bay at Glebe. V pleased with my efforts so far as I have been doing it 3 times a week. Well done me. Cream buns all round.

The Galvins come to town

The Galvins came to Sydney this weekend. For the last 10 years, we have visited them at their home in Bundeena. Our new house is the first one we have lived in big enough to accommodate our growing brood (we are now 8) and so this was our first chance to pay them back for all their generosity over the years. The weather was spectacular and after pizza for the kids, they were variously put to bed and in front of DVDs while the we got on with the job of eating, drinking and playing Triv - the girls won. On Sunday we managed a subdued (sore heads) day with the girls all playing beautifully together, while we sat about reading the paper and lolling on the grass in the park.



Slightly horrified this morning when chatting to our lovely neighbour Kirsty. They were all away for the weekend and missed our pavement handwork. Not long into the conversation Kirsty revealed the cement slab we ruined was paid for by them, to the tune of $300 and is part of the compulsary work they have to complete before their recent renovation will be approved by the local council. Oops.

Hilarious

Rob and I broke our recent trip on the wagon with a small outing last night involving 3 large gins. Thus lubricated, we sat down and laughed and laughed our way through the film Airport 75 on Fox Classics. The airline disaster movie, starring Karen "Which of my cross eyes is looking at you?" Black and Charlton" Make mine a shotgun" Heston, tells the thrilling and often hilarious tale of a light aircraft that crashes into a 747 on approach to Salt Lake City. The film is so close to the spoof film Airplane, it's a wonder anyone thought the spoof necessary at all. This morning we woke still chuckling at the memory of stewardess Karen Black taking the controls, with not a hair out of place, despite the massive hole in the cockpit.
We also received visitors in the form of Mark and John Russell, the Duthie family's oldest and closest friends, who are in Sydney from New Zealand for the weekend for tonight's Bledisloe Cup match. The rivalry between the All Blacks and the Wallabies is legendary and they had an inflatable Wallaby at the ready with which to insult Australian rugby fans. On our way out the door with them to the local growers' market, we discovered a huge slab of wet cement right outside the house, recently laid by the council. It was obviously too good an opportunity to miss, so after engraving the names of the girls and our next door neighbours kids for posterity, we also left a comment regarding the Ashes test going on in England at the moment.

Returning 2 hours later from the market we discovered our artwork completely removed, care of a council employee's trowl. That didn't stop us making a second imprint in the now quick drying cement. Ha!

Bundeena is brilliant

We have just spent the most magical weekend in Bundeena, one of Sydney's most southern suburbs on the southern rim of Port Hacking in Royal National Park. We normally go there once a year to stay with our mates Nick and Meg, but this time we were joined by top English pals the McPhersons for a weekend away at a fantastic rented beach house. Perched on the edge of a rocky sandstone outcrop, The House on the Rock couldn't have been much closer to the ocean.


The huge deck was rimmed by a glass fence and child-proofed gates which was just as well, with two of the gates opening out to a rock area with a sheer drop down to the rocks and ocean below. While we were sure that the kids could never go out there, Rob, Jules and I all managed a few moments of quiet time, with a beer or a wine, gazing out over the water at the swimming pool clear water in the bay below.


Jules and Lenka's kids, Tess and Tom, had a great time with Scarlett and Flo, with Tess and Scarlett inseparable throughout the weekend. We spent our days walking along the beach, watching the kids jump in the freezing water, and our evenings eating, drinking and playing Cluedo, Triv ("it's Jason!! The answer is Jason and the Argonauts!!") and Cranium.




On Sunday we were even sunbathing on the beach as the mercury climbed to 29 degrees. This is still winter, people! We were visited by kookaburras and had to keep the gates to the house locked to stop deer popping in too. The house was fantastically appointed and beautifully furnished and decorated so we all felt pretty special. That's the house on the top of the overhanging cliff in photos 1 and 7. Cream buns all round.

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.