Category: Stuff About Me

Family & Parenting, Stuff About Me6 Comments

Cruickshanks Cottage Farmstay

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After driving to Brisbane in one day and spending 2 days wearing ourselves and the kids out at the Abbey festival we weren’t too keen to drive straight back to Sydney. So it’s a good thing we’d arranged to stop off for a 3 night farm stay holiday near Armidale on the way home. We arrived at the Cottage at Cruickshanks at dusk on Monday (Adam and were very glad to find our hosts Anne and Mike had the wood burning combustion heater going and the cottage nice and warm for us. Anne left us to get settled in with … Continue reading Cruickshanks Cottage Farmstay

Family & Parenting, Stuff About Me9 Comments

Sports carnivals make me think of poetry

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It’s cross country carnival time tomorrow for my kids. Consequently David has a bad cold (every. single. year. he manages this, it’s a talent I tell you), Caitlin is busily making props for cheering while stressing out about the fact that she is slow despite her teacher’s assurances that small people are always the fast ones, and Tom has gone very quiet. I hated cross country running, my kids hate it and every year I struggle to toe the line of supporting the school and telling them they should join in. In point of fact I’ve got so bad at … Continue reading Sports carnivals make me think of poetry

Family & Parenting, Stuff About Me11 Comments

Laundry liberation

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Further developments in the laundry saga: Last week (on the day I did that all that folding) I went up to Bunnings and bought 3 laundry hampers. I placed one in each of the kids’ bedrooms. When they came home I announced that there was a new regime in place. They are now expected to do their own washing. I stood by giving instructions and supervising the process for this first week. Caitlin has to practically climb into the washing machine to retrieve the last few socks and undies from the bottom after the wash has gone through and Tom … Continue reading Laundry liberation

Stuff About Me6 Comments

Sisterhood Award

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Liz over at Eternal Lizdom has bestowed upon me another award. This one is titled the Sisterhood Award. First, share memories or thoughts of childhood or adulthood sister-friends. Funny, sad, whatever. 1. Attending Physics Society parties at Sydney Uni with Ariane. The dry ice in a sealed bottle trick never stops being funny. 2. In 5th grade, rolling around my best friend Rowena’s bedroom laughing ourselves silly while quoting the Goon Show back and forth at each other. 3. A couple of years ago, feeling comfortable enough with my friend Sue to go swimming in her backyard pool wearing a … Continue reading Sisterhood Award

Blog Link-ups and Memes, Family & Parenting, Stuff About Me7 Comments

First Born

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MPJ tagged me for this over on Facebook but because I’m bloody minded and stuck in my ways I’m doing it here rather than there (it shows up there anyway ’cause I have my blog feed updating Facebook). One for the mums – all about your first born. 1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED?Yes, well, in the sense that we stopped trying to avoid one – it happened a bit quicker than I’d anticipated though. 2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME?Yep, for 4 years. 3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS?Happy 🙂 4. HOW OLD WERE YOU?25 5. HOW DID YOU … Continue reading First Born

Stuff About Me5 Comments

I thought we didn’t do Valentine’s Day

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But apparently Adam does. He went out to take his mum to a doctor’s appointment at 7:45am and found himself outside the florist that he used to buy flowers at for me back when we were first going out. When he brought them home I was downstairs, Tom let Adam in the front door, said “I’ll take those to mum”, grabbed the roses and presented them to me as I dragged myself half-awake up the stairs. It was all very romantic 🙂 Then we spent the next 5 hours frantically cleaning the house up because we were having a whole … Continue reading I thought we didn’t do Valentine’s Day

Stuff About Me4 Comments

My heart aches

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Bushfire rages out of control from the Bunyip State Park. Photo: Jason South My heart aches for the people, the communities, the wildlife and livestock, the farmland and bushland that have fallen victim to the horror of the bushfires in Victoria. The death toll stands at 84 people. Hundreds of homes have been lost. At least 200,000 hectares of land has been burnt out in over 400 fires all over the state. Donations can be made via the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal – online or phone 1800 811 700. Continue reading My heart aches

Family & Parenting, Food Glorious Food, Stuff About Me, Things We Should Talk About at the Dinner Table7 Comments

Food and love (Part 1)

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Some time ago Liz posted a piece titled Love You With Food, it ends with these lines: There is a legacy of love and food and cooking in my family. I’m so glad to be part of it and so glad it doesn’t end with me. I wish I could say the same thing about my family. It’s not that there was any lack of love, or indeed of good food, in my childhood – far from it! But somewhere along the way food became a problem instead of an uncomplicated celebration and the legacy I inherited could be better … Continue reading Food and love (Part 1)

Food Glorious Food, Keeping the Masses Entertained, Stuff About Me15 Comments

Seventeen years

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In September of 1988, one month shy of my 18th birthday I went to a party I had not been invited to. My best mate’s girlfriend had been invited so we figured that was close enough. I knew a fair few of the people there, well, their faces and names at any rate, they were people who had been 2 years ahead of me at high school. It was a pretty good party, we danced and were silly and there may have been some booze involved (ok, there was definitely half a bottle of vodka involved but SHHH don’t tell … Continue reading Seventeen years

Family & Parenting, Food Glorious Food, Stuff About Me5 Comments

Splash!

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We went to the pool today, it’s not our closest public pool, there’s one at Hornsby too but this one at West Pymble is in such a lovely setting that it’s well worth a few extra minutes drive to go there instead. You can see what I mean from the Google satellite image This is the pool I used to come to for swimming lessons in the summer holidays when I was a kid, I have vivid memories of doing water safety and having to jump into the olympic pool fully dressed, tread water for a while and then swim … Continue reading Splash!