The party never ends....

The festival of Flo continued this weekend with a party that almost had to be cancelled. On Friday night we all had dinner at Suzie and Damien's but didn't get to bed until 10pm. About an hour later Flo started crying on and off and was generally unsettled. By 2am she was awake and crying and absolutely burning up with a fever complete with hallucinations and wild thrashing. We tried to bring the fever down with Panadol, but in her confusion she spat it out. I stayed with her until 6.30am as she slept on and off fitfully, before finally going back into a quiet deep sleep until 9am. When she woke she seemed absolutely fine and had no recollection of the night's events, so we decided to go ahead with the party. So at 2pm all the Godparents and assorted children came over for cake, a game of Twister and pin the horn on the unicorn. Chaos reigned and I was quite glad when everyone left so I could clean up!

During the course of the party James and Amelia invited us to spend Sunday morning with them on the harbour in their speedboat. We woke to a beautiful perfect Sydney day and met the Neales at 10am at Rose Bay where they picked us up at the ferry wharf.

We had an absolute blast zooming around the harbour, heading up past the heads, under the spit bridge and up into middle harbour towards Roseville. We stopped for a swim off a secluded beach before zooming to Balmoral for a fish and chip lunch and a swim. We continually marvelled at the thousands of incredible waterfront homes that dot every nook and cranny of Sydney harbour, wondering how there can be so much incredible wealth in this city.

Here Amelia and Rob throw their heads back and roar with laughter as they ponder what the poor people are doing.

This is Flo and Oscar catching a few Zs as we bumped through the water.
This house, Altona, used to be owned by my first boss in Sydney and we once went to a brilliant party here.

After lunch, we had a quick zoom around the Opera house and it was time to head back to Rose Bay so we wouldn't be late for Ella's 5th birthday party at Bondi. It was one of those brilliant Sydney days that remind us why this is the most beautiful city in the world. Scarlett declared it "the best day of my life!"

Florence is 3!!!

Florence turned 3 today and after a morning at home opening presents and breakfast at Revolver, we celebrated with a brilliant day at Taronga Zoo, somewhere she hadn't visited since she was a baby. When Scarlett was little she went to the zoo most weeks as we had invested in an annual Zoo Pass, but typically, as the second child, Flo missed out as by the time she came along we were all a bit bored with the zoo.


We have always loved the bird show with its drop-dead, picture postcard view of Sydney harbour, the opera house and bridge and were keen to show Flo. Rob even managed to become part of the show volunteering to be the person in the audience who holds out a coin for a passing parrot to fly off with.

Since we last visited, there have been huge improvements, there's a new seal and penguin enlosure and two new baby elephants have been born. All together now - ahhhhhhhhhhh!. The most recent baby elephant arrived just last week, against the odds. After the mother had been examined by vets, an announcement was made to the media that the baby elephant had died in the womb, but within days the baby was born alive. It created quite a buzz here and we were thrilled to find the little chap already on display at the zoo today. He is super cute and stayed very much close to his mother, hiding underneath her tummy whenever possible. There is now a competition on to name him, but it will be hard to replace his nickname of Mr Shuffles.

After lunch we headed to the gondola for the ride over the zoo before Flo met the result of genetically modified breeding programmes, this huge, yet friendly koala.
Once home, Flo literally collapsed into bed for an impromptu afternoon nap and after picking up Scarlett from school we played with a few of the birthday toys and then walked to Annandale village for dinner on the upstairs verandah at Vicini with views across to the city. It was a day close to perfection, just like the birthday girl herself. Happy birthday Florence. xx

Cool climate camping

We spent last weekend at Coolendel again, after having such a brilliant time there for the Australia Day holiday. This time it was just a two-night trip and it was a much smaller group - just us four with Richard and his two eldest girls Ella and Tess. Zoe and Paul had to pull out late in the planning after Sam broke his fingers, had to have micro-surgery and is stuck in a cast he's not allowed to get wet for some weeks. While the weather was much cooler too it was a very pleasant temp in the mid 20s. Scarlett skipped school on Friday and we took our time getting down there, stopping at Gerroa for a lovely lunch on the deck at the Seahaven Cafe. We had the tent up and fire going well before dinner time and I was delighted that we cooked everything using the fire alone. Our potatoes wrapped in foil cooked perfectly in the coals and our steaks were done on the hotplate over the fire.There were a lot fewer campers than before too, although a large group of middle-aged couples and their kids assembled close to our pitch. Rich arrived in the dark, having got stuck in traffic almost as soon as he left the city. While Tess snuggled in my lap, he and Rich put the tent up with Ella helping. There was time for the kids to be read to and put to bed and for us to have a couple of drinks before hitting the hay ourselves. It was a bitterly cold night and I was woken frequently by the cold as was Flo.
On Saturday we awoke to an overcast day, got the fire going quickly and were soon cooking bacon and eggs in the frying pan over the flames. When the sun came out, it was sunscreen on (Rich's applied here by Tess) and we went straight to the river which was much much higher than last time with a really brilliant set of rapids right by the beach which we took the girls down several times on Rich's excellent lilos.
After lunch back at the camp we decided with the weather being so unpredictable we should pack as much into the day while the sun was out so trekked across the campground to the far side where the river wraps around and there are two further sets of rapids. Again they were much higher and swifter than on our last visit and an absolute hoot. But then I would say that as I had the only lilo that stayed afloat. Rob's attempt to use the girls' two inflatable beds proved disastrous for him and Scarlett and his accompanying undignified strop ruined the rest of his weekend. Rich had Ella and Tess on the other lilo which sank and required re-inflation repeatedly. While the boys struggled helplessly far behind us, Flo and I were floating serenely downstream, screaming our way through the rapids and were irritatingly all smiles when Rich and Rob finally appeared.
We had a much warmer evening around the fire and a few white wines but were eventually forced to head off to bed due to the singing fest that accompanied the big group camping beside us. Listening to Helen Reddy and Oasis sung acapella by a supply teacher from Petersham really was too much to bear. I was kept awake the second night not by the singing or the cold, but by Flo's newly acquired shocking cough. I spent most of the night checking on her and pulling her back onto her mattress that she kept coughing herself off. It started to rain hard in the night and it was a wet, muddy and cold campground that greeted us when we woke (not unlike any camping trip to Wales, ever) as did a huge goanna who came to finish off the remains of last night's dinner.
While the girls had running races, we spent a lazy morning packing up our wet, muddy camping gear and hit the road, stopping off in Kangaroo Valley for lunch at The Friendly Inn before heading back to the city.

On Monday we had a great treat with old friend Darryn Cherry and his girlfriend Rachel dropping in for a late drink on Monday night. Rob has known Darryn since they worked together 20 years ago and he now lives in the UK but has recently set up a business in NZ, and was in Sydney for just a few days on his way through. Darryn and Rob lived together in the share house in North Finchley when Rob and I first started going out and we have had a some great laughs with him over the years. Although Rob has caught up with him a couple of times in the last 2 years, I hadn't seen him since our wedding day. We went to bed far too late and enjoyed much too much champagne, but it was so great to see him and meet the fantastically lovely Rachel.

Rob's day shift weekendEvery

Every 4 weeks or so Rob works 3 day shifts in a row of Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I don't like it at all mainly as I have to wrangle the girls alone from 6.30am to 7.30pm. It's taken me years to think of this but this weekend, I organised lots of things to do with other people to take the pressure of amusing them myself all weekend. As you know we are usually at the pool or beach most of the time but the weather is so foul at the moment, neither appealed. It is incredibly humid, very hot and steamy and when the sun isn't boiling us to death it is windy and hot. I hate it. Yesterday our lovely boys Mart and Drew came to the rescue with a picnic lunch in a harbourside park near their house. Drew had everything already packed in a big cardboard box when we arrived and a short walk down the hill later, we were ensconced under a huge fig tree eating fantastic chicken salad filled rolls, fruit and special sticky buns for the girls. We managed to stretch this out until 3.30pm before leaving Drew to have a rest before heading to Mardi Gras last night. George Michael was expected on stage at 5am so Drew needed a Nanna nap to stay up. This morning, the girls and I met up with Susie, Damien and Caitlin for breakfast at Revolver, a brilliant new cafe in North Annandale, minutes from our house. The 3 girls' behaviour was all over the place so after an hour or so we took them to the local park to run off some steam so the grown ups could talk. In the afternoon, after a craft session doing some assembling of the DIY monster kits Maria sent the girls for Christmas (photos to come), we headed to Bondi for an early dinner with Julia and Richard and their girls. Julia made the fantastic pork skewers from the new David Thompson Thai Street Food cookbook and we made plans for this weekend's planned camping trip to Coolendel, weather permitting. The girls were run ragged by Richard being a monster and chasing them around the house roaring, while Julia and I looked on benignly. Have been a bit rubbish at taking photos this week so instead here is a recent shot of Flo sporting Rob's crash helmet.

Alice in Wonderland

We took the girls to see Alice In Wonderland this week. I got free tickets at work and as it was Scarlett's birthday, and Flo's coming up soon, it seemed like it was worth selling it as an 'extra treat'. A friend in the playground spoke to Rob the morning of the screening, reminding him that this was a Tim Burton film and questioning whether it would be suitable for young children, comments Rob laughed off at the time but later gave some thought to. I left work early to race home, we drove into the city and got a great parking space near the cinema. The girls loved walking along George Street, packed with shoppers and people coming out of work. We picked up mandatory popcorn and ice creams, before donning our 3-D glasses as the film started. Well, Flo lasted about 20 minutes before the screaming began. I'm amazed she lasted that long as giant bear/cat/monster on the screen screamed and roared as it ran towards us. When her crying made it difficult for me to hear anything in the film and I could see little as she had now climbed from my lap, up my face onto my head, I figured it was time to go. Leaning across to Rob I announced my departure, leaving Rob and Scarlett to it. Flo and I hailed a taxi home, this event alone becoming the highlight of the evening for her. Rob and Scarlett arrived home about an hour later with Rob reporting that the film 'just got scarier and scarier'.

Talking of films, Rob and I were both off work yesterday without children. The plan was to spend the day at the beach together but rubbish weather instead saw us move the iMac into the bedroom, where we climbed into bed with cups of tea and watched Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds [sic] . Christophe Waltz, without question, plays the best movie Nazi of all time.

Scarlett is 6!

Exactly 6 years ago on Monday March 1 2004, Scarlett was born at 7.50pm at RPA hospital in Camperdown. I remember the exact time because it was 20 minutes into that year's Oscar presentation and it meant it was the first time we missed it. We celebrated yesterday with a beauty parlour party for Scarlett and 8 of her friends.

This involved making a right mess of the living room dividing it into 3 treatment areas - a hair salon, nail bar and facial spa. I was on hair straightener and crimping duty, Rob was in charge of face pack application and removal and our friend George came over to help out on pedicures, and manicures. It's fair to say it was a roaring success and when we arrived at school this morning most of the girls still had their hairstyles in place even though today is school photo day. Scarlett had a blast, received loads of great pressies from her mates.




This morning she was out of bed before me - this NEVER happens - ready for the next round of gift opening, phone calls and birthday kisses from Flo. She received some fantastic stuff including a glittery hangbag and hair clips, a pop-up book of The Wizard of Oz plus writing books and stationery kits - all her most favourite things in the world. But she was particularly taken with her new dressing gown from Nanny and Grandad which she wore over her school uniform until it was time to go to school. Tonight we're out for pizza with George, Sophie and James and Godfather Brett.

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.