Happy easter 2010

Easter started for us with a wonderful house warming party at Brett's on Good Friday. The best part for the kids? Not the lively company, great food and morning at Balmoral beach, but the chance to ride, not once but twice in a Maxi Taxi to Brett's place in Paddington.
After a suitable amount of house trashing, screaming in fear at Brett's tiny dog Lola and cuddles with Brett's NZ mum Lynne (pronounced Lun), we returned home to prepare for the arrival of the Easter Bunny.

Easter Sunday dawned and the EB had left a generous deposit of chocolate which, against our better judgement, we allowed the kids to start eating at breakfast time. Thus fed, we caught the tram to the fish market for breakfast of coffee and hot pastries and to buy a 4kg salmon to stuff with lemons, fennel seeds and herbs.

By 2pm the house was full with the Flemings, the Langs, the Dodds and Luke Atkinson and we sat down to a long relaxed lunch. Numerous Easter egg hunts kept the kids entertained for the entire day which meant they ate little but chocolate.

The evening ended in tears for Scarlett who woke hours after bedtime with a terrible tummy ache that could only be fixed with pain killers.

Liz et Charlie sont arrive

Liz and Charlie arrived from the UK on Saturday night to perfect balmy Autumn weather. It was brilliant to see them looking so well and refreshed having enjoyed a great flight with Charlie behaving perfectly the whole way. They were, of course, as perky as pixies having slept most of our day and so we felt compelled to join Liz in late-night champagne consumption which led to what I like to term "early peaking". Hungover on Sunday and after only 4 hours sleep, I drove Rob to North Sydney to take part in a sponsored kayak on the harbour organised by one of the dads at school. Rob was lucky enough to get the first leg of this relay event, from McMahon's Point around under the bridge to Mosman. That done, we managed to struggle through and prepare lunch for the McHughs, enjoying pork fillets with crushed fennel seeds wrapped in proscuitto.
Knowing what a beach bunny Liz is, on Monday we dropped Scarlett at school before heading to our beloved Redleaf harbour pool. Alas not only did it cloud over - it rained! Zut alors! Tuesday and Wednesday the rain continued to fall and we dropped Liz and Charlie at the Australian Museum to check out the dinosaur exhibit one day and to the ferry wharf the next so they could explore Taronga Zoo, all beach plans cancelled. I had expected both those days to be glorious and sunny so today, thinking we would be all beached out, had arranged a grown up lunch with Brett at the restaurant at the newly renovated Manly Pavilion, built in the 1930s as a changing facility for swimmers at the harbour beach. We even organized for Charlie to spend the day with Flo at daycare. But upon waking to a bright sunny day Liz explained that she'd really rather go to the beach than have lunch. I realised my idea of her trip was to show her a snippet of our lives here, whereas hers, quite rightly, was to relax on the beach and forget the troubles and stresses of a busy working life at home. So after dropping off the younger kids at daycare we headed first to school for Scarlett's last day of term and the Easter hat parade. We had to cut it short however as poor Charlie was not a happy bunny at Wattle Lane and Liz was anxious to be reunited with him. After picking him up, we drove them to Manly beach and Rob and I had a lovely walk alog the walkway to Fairlight before joining Brett at the restaurant.


It was an amazing lunch with the full trappings of being a journalist and lunching with Brett who also happens to be the restaurant's PR. After champagne, the chef and owners came out to introduce themselves at the table and we took up their offer to wine match the 8 course tasting menu. It was a pretty spectacular food experience and the view straight down the harbour towards the city and the heads is unique and unforgettable. We were sorry Liz missed it. Here is Rob in the spectacularly appointed dining room.

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.