R.T. no 483

Things that no-one else is all that interested in but I still feel the need to share.

• So the AFL Grand final came and went and left me wanting to throw a shoe at the tele. WHAT THE !?!?
  
  
  
  Nick and his boys looked so ready to take on Collingwood. Collingwood looked like this might actually be the year they didn't choke....
  
  
  
  It was a FANTASTICLY close game with so much skill and athleticism. David got home from work just in time for the first quarter. Much screaming and clapping occurred as the Alpha Male and the Wannabe Alpha Male went for opposing teams.
  
  
  
  
  How Brendan Goddard didn't end up with the Norm Smith Medal is still a bit of a mystery to me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  But in the end it was all for nought
  
  
  "A DRAW!!!!! Mate I'll flip ya for it, save us all coming back next week"
  
  
  
  
  I feel ya little Buddy ... A draw is no way to end a game like that.
  
  
  
  
  Poor buggers, I think this pic says it all. The hype and build up to an AFL Grand final is huge and consumes Victoria for the week before it. Here's hoping for an actual winner this Saturday.
  
  
  
  


• Dear Julia, the job of the Opposition is to make your job as difficult as possible. Tony was never going to give you a free ride in parliament with the numbers. If he told you any different in the 17 days of handholding and secret squirrel meetings post that thing we had called an ELECTION ... he fibbed. I know its hard to imagine anyone in your profession not sticking to the truth but there it is. The Opposition is the Opposition is the Opposition. Your job now is to govern ... you know 'cos you are the Government.
  


• Dear Tony, don't be belligerent its not a good look. Brinkmanship will only get you so far and then you will have 12 million pissed off taxpayers forking out again for another election... that may not end well for you.
  
  
  
  


• I am loving loving loving Offspring. Last Sunday's episode made me laugh like a drain. Nina takes 2 sleeping pills thinking they are hay fever tabs just before her big date with the yummy Dr Havel. I know its probably not funny to laugh at someone
  clearly out of it ... but I did. A lot.

Kudos to Ms Tori Spelling. Not only has she managed to turn some very mediocre acting skills into a reality TV living, she also has not 1 but 3 books published. I read one last week... Hmmm the girl needs a filter from her brain to her mouth (hello Pot I'm Kettle). Also is it just me who thinks that people who talk a lot about their sex life probably aren't getting any?

• To cleanse my eyes and brain after Tori's book I read this. I could bore you (more) stupid with all the reasons I loved it but I will just say read it 'cos you will love it too. This is the first fiction book I have read in a long time and it kept me interested from the first page to the last page. I cant remember the last fiction book to do that (In fact I could give you a long list of books I have stopped reading after 5 pages in because they bore me). Also how can you not like a book with a character called Skeeter Phelan?
  

• I cried whilst watching this movie. I ordered it from the Library after it got rave reviews but I wasn't expecting to be that interested in it. Mickey Rourke plays the part of his life (and it is like watching a doco at times as its all so painfully real) in this story of a broken down wrestler coming to terms with the broken parts (his body, finances, relationships) of his life. I did fast forward the wrestling scenes but the emotional trauma in his daily life was just as brutal. I kept thinking about this movie for days after I had seen it and I can see why it got the reviews it did.
  

• This autobiography of comedian & actor Anh Do should be on the reading list of every high school in Aus. Its a great story both funny and inspiring but more importantly it gives a very real face to "Boat People". Anh and his family love Australia for giving them a second chance, long may Australia keep giving out those chances.

It's a small space between 3 and 13

"Mum: Canwegotothebeach? Canwegotothebeachtoday? It'snotrainingtodaysoweshouldgotothebeach.Haveyouseenmywetsuit? Haveyouseenmyrashy?IreckonthesurfwillbegreatttodayMum. Luluareyougoingforaswimoraboogieboard?

Mum: Canwegotothebeachtoday?

This is pretty much the soundtrack of my holidays.

A Play some Poetry and a Disco

I think (and hope) I am pretty much the Average Joe when it comes to parenting. I have days when I am both amazed and delighted with my kids behaviour and their abilities and I am genuinely impressed with their coping skills and reactions to some fairly hairy school situations. In particular Lulu and the social aspect of school where 10 and 11 year old girls view friendship as a contact sport. Recently we attended a Pizza and Poetry Night at Bear's school and his English Teacher praised him and had positive things to say about him... and relief flooded through me. Because in all honesty there are days when I am so appalled at my kids behaviour or attitudes that I cry/yell/lock myself away in my room. It's at these times that I can not believe Dave and I are responsible for turning these kids into decent adults capable of holding down jobs and contributing to society in a positive way. To make myself feel better on the "challenging" days I think of parenting not as a sprint nor as an exact science ... its just one foot in front of the other and getting up each day to give it another go. I am also acutely aware that many parents have far worse trials with their kids. On the whole I scored a big fat gift when it comes to my kids ... no issues we have had has been too much for us to bare and we do consider ourselves to be so lucky (still annoyed when the 13 year old tells us off but lucky all the same).



Anyhoo this is what we have been up before I forget the details in the fabric. Bear had a Poetry and Pizza night at school. We (the parents) got to listen to the kids read the poetry pieces they have been working on for English and have Pizza afterwards. It was a great night and although we were given fairly strict instructions from Bear about Not clapping, Not laughing, Not telling jokes and Not calling him Bear in front of other people. He didn't specifically say I couldn't take a photo - he looks pleased no?. His poem was very clever and all the kids were very talented (and they all just hoped up in front of the parents and kids and belted out their prose... confidence is a blast to watch).




Lulu had a Disco at school. She went with the pink theme (complete with the gangsta /peace sign).

Lulu was also in the school play.

I chopped he other kid out the pic but you get the idea.

Special thanks has to go to the gorgeous Miss Vyc. She sewed all Lulu's costumes for the play. Lulu after seeing some of my sewing efforts couldn't thank Vyc enough. Lulu's beggars sack AND pink sparkly skirt were the best on stage for sure.

Poor Vyc not only sews my kids costumes she also gets to listen to me rabbit on in real life about usually quite boring "stuff". (Wow she is so lucky no?)

Thanks again Vyc ... you rock.

Another hair post

I saw this pic and thought I would give it a go. I was a bit over the reverse bob and was thinking that if I went shorter and didn't like it ... hair always grows ;-)



Extreme close up

We do have a son ... somewhere.

So now that you have invested this much time reading about my hair guess what? The hairdresser that was the biggest deal ever... left town! So I went back to the teacher at Lulu's school who was my original inspiration and found out where she is going now and hopped myself onto that gravy train. And guess what else? My new hairdresser is 5 mins from home, Gorgeous, about 10th the price of my old hairdresser, Gorgeous, gives good head washing massages (the only kind of massages I like 'cos there is no fat on my scalp) and is ...Gorgeous. I also think he loves having nearly 40 year old mothers tell him his Mohawk is "gorgeous". Well he laughed ... sort of.

Oh let's cook ... and build a retaining wall.

On Friday afternoon Lulu informed me that this weekend was a weekend to COOK. Oh how wonderful to have my child share my kitchen with me and experience the wonders of meal preparation... is what I wasn't thinking. I would rather stick hot needles in my eyes than have to help a smaller person cook this weekend is more what was going through my head. Many years ago before I actually had kids (you know when I was a brilliant parent) I have a vivid memory of sitting at Wanguri Oval watching David play cricket ... sitting back in my banana lounge and reading a book by this bloke . I'm pretty sure I told the Coaches Wife (who actually had children) that my children would be cooking a main meal for tea by the age of 9. Yeah I'm still embarrassed about that 14 years later (can you imagine what she was thinking?). Fast forward to now and Bear can make 2 min noodles and rice... neither of which I ever want for tea.

Lulu does actually show a bit more interest in cooking (not cleaning up the cooking mess - just the cooking) so I sucked it up and we did have a weekend of cooking.

We made Zucchini Slice and Banana Bread (no pics so use your imagination).




She decided that she wanted to make and play with playdough. She is growing up way to fast so I was stoked she wanted to do this... and she played with it all weekend.


My in laws brought back a small countries worth of Toblerone from Europe and we are not big eaters of chocolate so I found a cheesecake that used some of it up.

by some I mean about 5%.

It was nice cheesecake though.



As well as cooking Lulu and Bear helped David construct a retaining wall. Dave is so lucky to have their help ;-)

And that was the weekend that was.

160GB Baby

The good thing about being shallow is that sometimes money does buy you a little bit of happiness. After many months without a working ipod I am now the proud owner of a music machine I probably will never fill up (but will looove every minute of trying to). This little sliver of black and silver metal has giving me a very happy heart (and ears).

Wow I could never be a hand model...

So the first album that went onto my new baby was

Mark Sholtez - The distance between two truths. It's a winner.

So help a sister out (to fill up 160GB) Whats on your ipod?

Ex

Sprung

Oh its finally Spring. Thank goodness as it was starting to turn into the Winter of my discontent. I'm so please to see some more sun (even if it rained for most of the weekend), have more time to exercise outdoors and wear other things besides jeans, jeans and ballet flats.

I'm also getting excited like an old person at the sight of colour in my garden.

To make it the best start of Spring evah my brothers band new Mrs came for a quick visit over the weekend. We took part in such cerebral activities like shopping and eating and a bit more shopping. Of course we found time to get some Hollywood toes done (well I did Cath and Krys got their plastic finger nails replasticfied).

Saturday night we lived large at the local Thai and ate our way through some very yummy food.

Sunday was Fathers Day.

The kids and I got Dave a new hedger, with which he proceeded to hack/hedge the poor lillypillies up the driveway. I have never seen someone so excited about a gift... boys are lame when it comes to wants. Who knew a hedger was that great.

Seems like this is saying hacked rather than manicured.

We hosted a Fathers Day breaky and Lulu cooked up some pancakes (focus on the cute kid with the pancakes not the craptastic kitchen). David doesn't really eat pancakes so its lucky that they are sone of Lulu's favourite food group.

As it was Dadda's Day, after the Breakfast guests left (at 2pm!!!) the kids and I let Dave partake in his most favourite pastime of all. Ripping up more of the house.

The demolishing part of the reno is coming along a treat... we cough ME cough cant wait to see some of the actual renovating completed.

Things I can learn ya

Don't ever say I am not a font of knowledge and this advice comes free so if you are cheap like me, pay attention.

• If you leave a small roast in the slow cooker for about 10 hours it will shrink to about half its original size and look most unappetising. If you chop it up and mix it with a packet of roast meat gravy ... you can have roast rolls for tea. If you don't mention the slightly burnt taste of the roast rolls chances are other peeps wont either.
This is not my roast ... mine was worse.




• If your teenager is annoying you with his teenage attitude take him to gym class with you. You will feel secretly thrilled when the instructor makes his muscles cane and he will be too exhausted/filled with endorphins to argue with you, fight with his sister or call his father unflattering names...for at least 6 hours anyway.





• If you sign your child up for theatre classes don't be surprised when they turn into a drama queen and nick your foundation "because the theatre lights are making me look very pale" and make a list of demands each and every day like a true Diva.
  
  
• If you are somewhat of a control freak and you plan a night out with your husband and it all goes to hell in a hand basket don't drop your bundle, leave your favorite restaurant before even ordering drinks and be home to relieve the baby sitter before 7.30pm... you will feel slightly ill the next day for acting like a 3 year old and you may have to apologise to innocent bystanders aka the husband.


• If you have about 6 cold sores on your face and you are trying every patch cream tablet and miracle cure known to man don't be surprised when everyone wants to tell you you have "something on your lip". The girl at the newsagents thought it was "icing" ICING!!!

I feel ya pain Katie.

That is it for now... I'm off to put some more icing on my lip and see what time boxercise starts.