happy birthday Rob

In spite of his ability to not look a day over 35, Rob turned 46 yesterday. We celebrated with a two-day Festival of Rob which began on Sunday.  Rob was curious about his main gift which he knew I had hidden in the studio, as it was too big to wrap or conceal anywhere in the house. We agreed he could have this one gift in advance of his drinks party on Sunday afternoon. I presented him with his custom-made bus scroll with excellent effect - he burst into tears. I assumed these were happy tears. I'd wanted a bus scroll for ages, I love the sharp graphic contrast of the white type on the matt black fabric, and had looked for original ones of the number 19 and 38 buses in London that we used to get to our flat in Islington without success.  I found a website that custom made them in exchange for a large sack of coins, so instead got my graphic designer friend Luke to create it for me, using most of the places Rob has ever lived as the destinations. Then I had it printed at a sign shop and finally had it stretched. There were all sorts of shenanigans involved in getting it home as it wouldn't fit in my car. The picture framer had to deliver in  with us operating in a pincer movement outside the house just in case Rob came home at the moment it came out of the framer's car.  Anyway, Rob loved it which I'm thrilled about. 
In the afternoon, we had about 30 people over  for drinks and nibbles. I outdid myself on the food, even if I do say so myself, having spent 7 hours preparing a range of canapes. The coconut milk chicken skewers and smoked salmon frittatas were stand outs but the turquoise iced cupcakes were also crowd pleasers.




It was a brilliant afternoon and after some gift opening, a few rounds of beach Twister - the traditional plastic mat replaced by a towel  - we retired to bed full of good food and wine, not before spotting this massive spider on the window. 

Yesterday was the 16th, Rob's actual birthday, and as the forecast was for 39 degrees, Rob opened his presents and cards (thank you everyone) and then we packed the car early and were at the beach by 9am. We had a birthday breakfast at Bathers' Pavilion before a smashing morning on the beach of hole digging and  rock pooling and a bit of a swim - Rob now brave enough to return to the scene of his watery attack. We spent the afternoon cooling off under the hose  and in the paddling pool before dinner out with the girls, Lara and Adam and their son Toby.  The authentic Italian atmosphere couldn't have been more pronounced as seated at the next table were 4 priests and 2 nuns.  Happy Birthday Rob.

Fantastic Mr Fox

I took Scarlett to a preview of Fantastic Mr Fox last night. It was brilliant. I love Pixar movies as much as the next lover of animation, but with Fantastic Mr Fox it was refreshingly fabulous to see a totally different non-CGI, old school form of stop-motion animation. Voiced by George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Bill Murray among others, it's an absolute treat. It's officially a film for older children but for me, as it's directed by Wes Anderson, it was just like all his other grown up films, but with hand made puppets instead of actors. Most of it went right over Scarlett's head. Also a fantastic soundtrack. Go and see it.

Here's a link to a trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2igjYFojUo

and to a great little behind the scenes featurette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN9VS2uwoJ0&feature=related

Birthdays and bites

On the boiling hot day last week, Rob and I took Florence to Balmoral to cool off. At one point, Rob walked into the shallows with Flo in his arms for a bit of a splash. One minute we were standing there chatting and the next Rob was hopping about yelling and screaming like a looney. I thought he was joking around, trying to scare Flo. Then I realised he was serious, and as he half dropped, half threw Flo into my arms, he hopped, yelling, back to the beach with blood pouring from the side of his foot. His foot quickly swelled up and thick dark blood was pumping from two small wounds. When asked to rate the pain between 1 and 10, Rob described it as 26 and my first thought was that we might need some urgent first aid or even a doctor. Since most creatures in Australia are poisonous, a bite or sting from one can often result in multiple organ failure, amputation or death and we both feared he might be in cardiac arrest within 30 minutes, so made our way to the medical centre. The doctor had no idea what had caused the wound and accompanying throbbing pain, but we reckon it might have been a stingray. Thankfully Rob's heart is not in his foot otherwise he may have joined Steve Irwin and the Princess of Wales on "the other side".

At the weekend we were treated to the social event of the year - Brett's 30th birthday party. The event was notable for two reasons. First, we have a friend who is 30 and secondly the party was held at the uber swish Ivy hotel in the city at the Pool Club, the rooftop open air pool and bar. Brett hired all the cabanas that line one side of the pool, complete with cushioned day beds, food was served all night and a fantastic DJ encouraged some serious rug-cutting. It is the most spectacular setting and we all felt as if we were in a movie, it felt so fabulous and exclusive. The downside of having a friend who is 30, is that he has lots of friends who are not yet 30, who are a size 6 and are in PR or stylists or actors and who make a 41 year old mother of two feel like Hattie Jacques. I had a great time, but I have never felt more invisible in my life. Although there was no actual swimming by any of Brett's guests, people do regularly swim in the pool and each toilet cibicle is fitted with a luxurious double shower. On Sunday, we slowed things down a bit by celebrating Tess's 2nd birthday. Julia had managed to find the most secret little reserve hidden deep in Bellevue Hill, complete with playset, a very high fast slide (see pix below) and plenty of space for running around. It was such a great hideaway we had the whole place to ourselves for the whole morning. Cakes, biscuits and games ensued, Tess herself totally oblivious to the fact that it was her birthday. Here she is with her special cake wearing the dress Julia wore on her 2nd birthday, made by her mum.

Glebe camel safari

Scarlett was invited to a birthday party this week to celebrate the 6th birthday of her classmate Mirabelle. Mirabella's mum Karin owns Ruby Star Traders, a beautiful furniture store selling high end pieces from India. She makes frequent buying trips to India and her house is exquisitely furnished and decorated, including a grand piano in the sitting room. The theme for the party therefore was maharajas and maharanis. As well as inviting the whole class - which includes eight various loud, destructive boys - Karin also arranged for two camels to attend to take the kids for rides up and down the laneway at the back of their house.
It was quite an event, with a huge spread of food for the kids, including these beautifully decorated biscuits, a pair of indian slippers each for the girls and a turban each for the boys. This party has now set the benchmark for all other parties - no pressure!. What happened to a quick game of pass the parcel and a slice of cake to take home in a napkin?

It's 37 degrees

It's 37 degrees. As I type. At 5.45pm. Ridiculous. That's all I'm saying.

Sculpture by the Sea

We spent a very happy morning today wandering around Tamarama beach looking at some of the various exhibits of this year's Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. Most controversial was the 'lost boy' statue which was considered too outrageous to be without undies. The artist, quite rightly, removed said censoring undergarments to show his sculpture, exactly as it should have been. We bumped into Godfather Brett at the beach allowing some top godchild action, albeit with Flo - not his goddaughter - rather than man-hating Scarlett - his actual goddaughter. Anyway here are some of the highlights. In the afternoon, Rob attended a 'Dad's only " bowling afternoon in Petersham, with fellow beer-swilling dads from school, while Kirsty and I wrangled 5 kids between us aided by a bottle of champers. Happy days.

Halloween

Every year a mum at the top of our street organises a mass trick or treat event on halloween. We all meet at the top of the street at 7pm and start door knocking, stopping only at the houses who have posted her flyer in their window. We missed out last year as Scarlett had chicken pox, but this year we joined in. We invited Essie and Simon and their kids Juno and Finn alongwith Rob and Freya and their girls Saskia and Faren for a late lunch and then at 7 headed up the road dressed as fairies, devils and Bob the builders. It was a right laugh and the kids came back with a huge amount of lollies and ended up staying up until 10pm with Rob watching Mary Poppins.
In other frightening news, Rob has finally shaved off his beard. I was supportive up to a point,but since it reached a food catching length, I am glad to see it gone.

This week I managed to swap some days around so that I was able to take Thursday off. With the girls at school and daycare and Rob sleeping off a nightshift, I had the day to myself. After dropping off Flo I went for a run, and can now manage the whole of the bay run - 7km - which I'm chuffed to bits about. On my way to the run in the car I overheard a book club discussion on the radio about The Road which I felt compelled to join in. I rang in and got a few moments on air to say what I thought about it. After faffing around a bit at home after my run, I then headed off to the local spa to fulfill a gift voucher given to me by the girls for Mothers' Day back in May. I had a monumentally fantastic facial followed by a prolonged head massage, that went on for so long I wondered if the therapist had nodded off. Like anyone, I can only take a certain amount of plinky plonky spa background music, but what was a wonderful experience turned slightly sour when I was forced to listen to the theme from Titanic played on the pan pipes. No, no, no. On so many levels - NO!

A Christmas Carol

It might be 8 weeks to Christmas (only 8 weeks??!!!!) but it felt festive in our house this week when Scarlett and I made use of two tickets I got sent at work for a preview of the new movie version of A Christmas Carol. It's Disney's first IMAX 3D movie, and directed by Robert Zemeckis in the same live action/animation hybrid style as The Polar Express. Jim Carrey plays 7 parts including Scrooge and the 3 ghosts that visit him. We made a night of it with an exciting bus trip into the city (during which we passed a crime scene by the side of the road complete with dead body) and were given champagne, soft drinks and Christmas puddings alongwith our 3D glasses. It was an amazing experience, 'flying' over a snow-covered London with Scrooge and his ghostly tormentors, and quite frightening. Scarlett demonstrated her fear by twice leaping from her seat and once wrapping her arms around my neck. I'm not sure what she enjoyed more, the movie or the taxi ride home.

Scorchio and splashio

It's been a potty week weatherwise. On Wednesday with the mercury hitting 33 degrees, Flo and I hit Balmoral beach, sensibly remembering the sunshade. It was a cracking hot day and I had my first swim in the ocean of the season. On Thursday with the temperature still high we decided to stay outside come dinner time and after picking up pre-ordered fish and chips in Glebe went down to the park at Glebe Point to eat them with a cool harbour breeze. There's a great old-fashioned kids' playground there with the kind of play things there we used to play on on Barming Heath including a roundabout and a giant seesaw. We had a right laugh messing around with the girls until a cool change hit and we headed home.

On Saturday we crossed the bridge to Balgowlah for dinner and a sleepover at Jules and Lenka's house. After two bottles of Champagne, Zoe and Paul and their kids arrived too. We fed the kids before despatching them downstairs to watch dvds, (from the back of the couch) while we had dinner and played Cranium, a sort of Triv/pictionary/charades hybrid. We went to bed quite late and of course woke too early with sore heads, but the kids happily played together for hours downstairs, making dens and watching films, so Rob, Lenka, Jules and I had a completely relaxing grown up morning reading and chatting. There was an absolutely massive thunderstorm and it chucked it down for hours so it was lovely being indoors looking out at the rotten weather. It was so much like not having children that I picked up The Road by Cormac McCarthy and read it cover to cover in 3 hours on Jules and Lenka's couch. What an amazing book. I cannot stop thinking about it and am dying for Rob to hurry up and read it so we can talk about it. All the time I was reading it I had to keep stopping to take a breath and gather myself. I kept saying to Jules, who had already read it - this would make an amazing film. Jules said "It's been made into a film and comes out in November". I've just watched the trailer online and it looks very true to the book. Terrifying. I CANNOT wait.

The Goop Life

At marie claire this month I was asked to write a funny piece about Gwyneth Paltrow's website Goop. Gwyneth might have it all, with her movie star life, rock star husband, two perfect children (one of each flavour) and homes in London and New York, but is she happy? I mean how happy can a woman who likes vegan cupcakes really be? Gwyneth likes to share her happiness and opportunities with a series of weekly newsletters which offer lifestyle, well-being and health advice to her 150,000 subscribers. I agreed to live for a week taking advice from Goop including a detox, making vegan cupcakes, trying new hairstyles, following her exercise regime, thinking nice thoughts and not getting on the cans too much.  It was a fun assignment with plenty of opportunities for having a laugh. For your amusement, I've attached some shots taken today at the shoot in which I had to channel Gwyneth. Here I am expressing surprise at my Oscar win, making cupcakes and trying a new hair do recommended by  Goop. 

Somewhere on the east coast of Australia

On Friday, the last day of the school holidays, Rob was at work, Flo was in daycare and I had managed to swap some days and get the day off with Scarlett. We had to return Flo's cot to the Galvins in Bundeena so made a day of it with a round trip down the coast via Bundeena, onto Coalcliff and Scarborough and back to Sydney. The weather was glorious and after dropping the cot in Bundeena, we made time for coffee and some climbing frame action. You could almost sense the relief in the parents at the playground that the holidays were almost over and life could return to normal again. The drive down through the Royal National Park is pretty amazing - winding roads, spectacular ocean views poking through the gum trees, rivers, waterfalls and more. Along the way a few tiny coastal villages pop up here and there on what used to be a tricky road. A new whizz-bang skydrive has now been created and the road is held up high on supports over the ocean, wrapping around the cliffs. After a photostop at what must be one of the world's most scenic playsets, we stopped for more pictures on the skydrive before a fish and chip lunch in the incredible clifftop garden of the Scarborough Hotel. This is a pub garden like no other, with views almost all the way to NZ and no fence! We had enough time for a run on the beach at Coalcliff, complete with boulder climbing - and posing - before we had to had back to Sydney. Scarlett was thrilled to be allowed in the front seat and we made a mini Thelma and Louise team. She was great fun choosing cds, listening to the news, which she declared "all bad and not worth listening to", and chattering away at everything passing by. The school hols aren't so bad after all.



In other news, I have just finished our latest book club offering, All The Colours of the Town by Liam McIlvanney. As well as being the professor of Scottish Studies at the University of Otago in NZ, Liam is book club member Clare's brother-in-law. We normally read old classics or award-winning modern books, so this was an unknown for us all, but not an unrewarding one. Liam writes vividly about life in Ireland since the troubles and the way protestants and catholics in Glasgow are united in the cause of their compatriots across the Irish sea. Liam signed a copy of the book for each of us and is an extraordinary start for a first time author.

School holidays

We are now into the second week of school holidays and despite shocking unseasonal wet, cold weather we have managed to entertain the kids.  Thank God for the Children's Festival which has saved the day twice this week. Held in the huge warehouse spaces of the old railway carriageworks, there are live performances, craft areas,  music, singing and drama workshops and a massive room full of acrobatic equipment.  Scarlett was thrilled to discover she is a dab hand ( or should that be hip?) at the hula hoop, see short film clip below,  and Flo loved doing craft.  This week was also our first opportunity to meet the latest addition to the Fleming family. Alice was born last week and came home at the weekend. We spent a lovely afternoon cuddling her and keeping Rob well away from her, as he has a history of letting Fleming babies fall on the floor.

We had a busy Sunday. Rob was on nights on Saturday night, but thanks to a 5 hour sleep on the sofa at work, returned home on Sunday morning well rested and not in need of a daytime sleep allowing us to all go out for breakfast.  In the afternoon we had a late lunch, which became an early dinner, at Bella and Duncan's house alongwith David and Lara, who are expecting twins any day. There were a lot of children running around and Flo felt the need to don  Hulk hands to defend herself against assaults from the Wakes-Miller boys. Bella and Dunc's 3 sons are full on, as boys are, despite Dunc's best efforts to, literally, keep them in line in the style of the captain in The Sound of Music. With her boxing skills now highly tuned, Flo landed a great right hook on David during dinner. In retaliation David showed Flo how he can take out his eyeball and polish it - see second video clip.

 

The girls are great fun at the moment. Flo is developing such a funny sense of humour which on top of her sweet nature makes her quite the package. Scarlett continues to amaze us and fill us with pride as she strides ahead mentally and physically. What am I trying to say - she's smart and she's quite the athlete too.  She has this amazing ( I think in a child) ability to set her mind to something - like mastering the monkey bars or learning how to skip with a rope or reading a whole book -  and she just plugs away and away at it, day after day until she gets it. She's not a quitter. Both girls were so well behaved over the weekend in spite of the rubbish weather and multiple stop offs at different houses and places. When they are not punching each other, slamming fingers in laptops and pulling each other's hair, they are almost perfect. Morning cuddles in bed are the norm and it is the best feeling in the whole world to feel their warm little bodies under the covers with us.

On Sunday we also dropped in for a cuppa with old mates Sam and Christy, who knocked us for six with the news that their great friend Liz Montgomery had died earlier this year from secondary brain tumours, that progressed from melanoma. We had met Liz and her partner Sasha Reid many times over the years and Liz and I were  pregnant with our eldest children at the same time. She was only 38 and leaves behind Sasha, a talented sculptor, and their children Cooper and Audrey who are five and two. I  have not been able to get them out of my mind since we heard the news and have been on autopilot at work today. Sasha's best known work is the sculpture at Coogee Beach for the victims of the Bali bombings.

Spring forward, fall back

The clocks changed here this weekend so we have gone forward an hour and essentially lost one too. This was an hour we would have liked to have kept as we had a long lunch on Saturday with 12 grown ups, 4 kids and lots of wine, which ended late. Ben and Laura provided an incredible box of cheese, Gav and Bev brought a side dish, my new friend from work Naomi was on bread, Lara and Adam on Pavlova duty and I did a new take on my whole salmon dish stuffing it with limes and a coriander aioli. It was a lovely long lunch though it was interrupted half way through by our kitchen sink mixer tap bursting it banks and spraying water everywhere. We had to find the stopcock and switch off the water at the mains, much to our distress and the great amusement of our guests. We have had to keep it off as the plumber won't be here until the morning. Subsequently the dishwasher and washing machine are out of action, the washing basket is over flowing, the dishes are piling up and any time we need water we have to stand by the sink with cloths and containers to catch the deluge while we fill water bottles and the bath.
With wet weather during the whole long weekend we stayed indoors a fair bit, finally getting around to our prject of assembling Flo's big girl bed. Her cot is now packed away ready to go back to friends, her old baby sleeping bags are about to be put up for sale on ebay and her new bedroom looks lovely.
Inspired by Rick and Justin and my sister-in-law Helen, all long distance runners who have completed at least one marathon each, I am now on week 7 of my running training podcast and have been managing to run for 25 minutes. This might seem lame, but I HATE running. I've always loved the pool and my bike, but running challenges me greatly. I was chuffed to bits this morning making it 3/4 of the way around the Bay Run near our house. This week I have to run 28 minutes 3 times. Pray for me.