BeelzeBub and Family

Back to Blogging

2012-01-14T00:40:00.003+11:00

You may have noticed that I haven't blogged for a while..... for over a year now.

A lot has happened in those months, a lot of bad and some good. I will try not to focus on the bad, try to put it behind me (as difficult as it is) and only refer to the good things that happened over that time.

It may take a while, but I will get things going again on this site...........

Olivia's Christening - August 2010

2011-03-31T21:02:00.007+11:00

Last August, we flew to Sydney to attend my niece's christening. Michelle and Catherine, who were best friends as children and Michelle is now Catherine's aunt, had arranged for Olivia and Erica (go figure that relationship out, lol) to have a joint christening.

We drove to Melbourne to catch a late flight, but were moved onto an earlier flight because of an approaching storm. Michelle picked us up at the airport and did a Maccas run on the way to the hotel. Mim was so excited, getting to go on the plane and eat Maccas late at night and stay in a hotel.

Saturday morning (federal election voting day) was lovely and sunny. It was only a short walk to the cathedral for a lunchtime ceremony. Olivia behaved herself (fairly well), as did Erica. It was a lovely service followed by lunch at the Mosman RSL. Olivia wore a beautiful christening gown, cleverly made for her by Aunty Jenny. It looked like the heirloom it is sure to become.

That night we retired to Mary's to eat Livio's pizza (the best in Australia!) and chat. Unfortunately various members of the 'party' decided that having the election results playing on the TV was absolutely necessary, so it killed most of the conversation.

We caught a flight home on Sunday morning, and drove home, exhausted.

Coleraine's Got Talent

2010-08-22T20:55:00.003+10:00

Mim entered the school Talent Show.... and won a prize for her year level. It was a tough competition, between her and a boy on a pogo stick. She did a rendition of Justin Beiber's Baby Baby and gained a block of chocolate for her efforts.

Frankly I think they should have awarded me a block of chocolate for having to listen to Beiber on repeat for the previous week!

What the???

2010-08-22T20:36:00.004+10:00

Jemima did this drawing the other week.

I had grave concerns over what it was meant to be!!!! Until she advised me, it was a mermaid! Doh!

Randoms

2010-08-10T20:43:00.001+10:00

Because I've been slack at blogging over the last few months, here are just some random shots taken:

Sarah, ready to run after Jess

Jess, on the lookout

Sarah, vegeing on the couch with Caitlin

Mim has a new bed

Mim being a doogan

Lulu, hiding from the rain that was blowing horizontally

A Summer(y) Holiday

2010-08-01T19:47:00.002+10:00

Michael, and the girls flew up to Queensland for a few days to visit family and friends. They left early on the Saturday morning, having to be at the Hamilton airport by 8.30am to be bused down to the Portland airport as the fog was too thick to land in Hamilton. Jemima was very excited to be going on TWO airplanes in the one day. She especially liked the bigger plane as Daddy swiped his card and she got to watch Scooby Doo on the little TV in the headrest in front!

They really enjoyed the warm weather, it was a fair contrast to the cold weather we've had here. Jemima spent Saturday afternoon soaking up the sunshine. Michael caught up with his friends at the Breakfast Creek and the girls stayed overnight at Nana's. Caitlin and Jemima went shopping with Nana at Chermside (OMG, a shopping centre, people, traffic lights.. Caitlin must have been orgasmic!) Caitlin went to the movies with her godmother and saw Karate Kid. And an immense amount of junk food was consumed!

I'd received a phone call from Janelle a few days before, asking a favour. Her husband had just rescued an almost orphaned lamb but they were going away for a week, could I possibly feed it until Barrie got home on the Tuesday. Of course I said yes. So on the Friday morning Jimmy arrived. He was wearing a dog collar! At first, he could barely manage the 300mls of milk and it would take many attempts to get him to drink it, he'd become easily distracted. Two days later, he was scoffing almost 500mls of warm milk (heated for one minute) without a break. The dogs loved him (and cleaned up his backside very quickly).
introducing Jimmy

who had the time of his life!

On the Saturday, I finally installed two light shades on Mim's and our bedrooms. I'd been sick of the bare globe for ages. I was also going to try and clean the ceiling of the green goo, but had a slight problem. I thought I'd locked the clips down on the ladder, but when I got to the top, the ladder opened out underneath me and we slid down together. It was almost like surfing, and I'm sure I could hear Hawaii 5-0 playing somewhere as I slid to ground level. (No, Mum, I'm fine, I didn't hurt myself, although there are two small gouges out of the wooden floor, grrr)

It was so quiet without them in the house. I had originally planned to paint Mim's bedroom or the loungeroom, but that budget was scrapped when the water pump shat itself!

I picked them up from Mt Gambier airport on the Thursday. The dogs were so excited to have them back, as was I. Jemima is now a seasoned little traveller!

It's just not fair

2010-07-13T20:06:00.003+10:00

Caitlin invited a few girlfriends over last week for a Horror Movieathon. Michael took Jemima to the movies while the girls arrived and brought her back at 9pm.

Of course, it's so hard for a little girl when she sees her big sister and the big girls getting to watch movies and have popcorn when she's being sent to bed.

It's even harder for her mother to keep a straight face when Mim is wailing, "but Caitlin is having more junk food than I had!!!!"

What else can go wrong???

2010-07-09T19:46:00.000+10:00

We've had a long run of things going wrong lately. We had the vomiting bug go through the family, the dogs escapade into the neighbour's paddock, the dryer stopped working (during a wet winter), the water pump kerfut itself (not noticed for 36 hrs and almost half a tank of water lost)..... did I break a mirror????

It was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times....

2010-06-30T18:35:00.000+10:00

At long last, MokMok, Oklok and Moklok managed a trip down south to visit their country cousins. They arrived on a wet Wednesday afternoon, after a wet and windy trip along the Great Ocean Road. They'd spent a few days on the road, touring the countryside of NSW and Victoria. Olivia has started throwing up one day into the trip, followed by Michelle 24 hrs later, and Mark shortly after that. By the time they arrived in Coleraine, they appeared to be over the bug. Or so we thought.

"does my bum look big in this?"

On the Thursday, the weather had cleared enough to be somewhat pleasant. Whilst Michael had to work and the girls had to go to school, I had the day off to take them over to the Coonawarra winery region. We had lunch at a cafe in Penola. Lunch was very yummy.... until Olivia did a Poonami! Mark was holding her at the time, and commented on the smell. When the after effects started seeping through her onesie, he quickly passed her over to Michelle for changing. It had leaked down her legs and out the top. Michelle had to use the boot of the Renault as a change table. It was hilarious watching the expressions of horror, distaste and frustration on her face as she dealt with the nuclear holocaust from Olivia's bowels.

After the lunchtime movie, we visited Wynn's Estate and Mark bought himself a bottle of wine. We drove up and down the main highway, but I couldn't find Rymill's so we went back to Penola and checked out the lolly shop and antique store. Then it was back on the highway home. We were held up slightly by a farmer droving his sheep across the road but still made it back to Coleraine in time to pick Jemima up from school.

Got home in time to dump the passengers, say a quick hello to Mick, a boarder from Monivae who was spending the weekend with us as well, and drive Caitlin into Hamilton for her music lesson.

Michelle making friends with the sheep

Friday was pupil free day for the girls so they got to spend time with their cousin. We all (bar Caitlin and Mick) went into Hamilton to have lunch with Michael. We had a quick look at the Botanical Gardens and got caught by a shower. We also caught up with Jenny and Wazzie, Michael and Mark chose to spend the afternoon with them whilst Michelle, Mim, Olivia and I went home via a friend's so Michelle could see a proper sheep farm. We hadn't been at the Tooley's long before Jemima puked in the yard. I put it down to her eating too much at lunch, as she had no temperature and was fine up until 5 mins before puking. Janelle's husband Barrie offered to look after her while Janelle took us for a drive around the paddock and to show Michelle the Highland cattle. When we returned, poor Mim had puked again and was feeling very ordinary so we went straight home and put her to bed. It wasn't too much longer after that that Caitlin puked as well. The disease was amongst us!

Dinner that night was Arni Lemonato, rather delicious if I do say so myself. We were two down on dinner so there was plenty to go around. Mark decided that it would be prudent after dinner to see just how potent the electric dog collar was. He strapped it around his bare leg and Michael fired it at level 4. Mark groaned “oh, f^&%!” as his leg jerked around. He then requested it be ramped up so Michael upped it to 10 and fired. “Oh, F&^*!” was the response and he almost hit the floor. We couldn't stop laughing! And then he asked it to be maxed, so up it went to 15 and fire! Mark was rolling on the floor in agony and I had to race into the toilet before I literally pissed myself laughing. Michelle was putting Olivia to bed, shaking her head in disbelief.

Saturday morning dawned fine (thank goodness) as we headed over to Casterton for the Kelpie Festival. Michael stayed at home with the girls who were still recovering from their evening of upchucking. Mick Wheaton declined the invitation to join us as well.

Michelle was amazed. We had never seen so many inbreds coming out of the hills! And where else can you go and see a “Grand Parade” featuring the oldies in their electric scooters! There was a large crowd there, which made it difficult to see the novelty events, like the sheep racing and the 'dog most like its owner'.

"Giddyup!"
"Round em up"

Mark and I managed to get up front to see the Dog High Jump, but Michelle had to feed Olivia so she couldn't squeeze through the crowd later. I watched it for a while then joined Michelle in the wonderful game of people watching, and a game of “husband, brother or both?” We watched a bit of the Horse and Dog Trials and a few of the Hill Climb before Olivia decided it was time to call it quits for the day.
determination! He finally got himself over!

We decided to dine at the pub, to let the Sydney siders see the local wildlife. Michael convinced Mark that he had to try the crumbed scotch fillet which of course filled the plate. Poor Mark couldn't eat it, only a person possessed of a superhuman digestive tract could consume that amount of beef, bread and eggs in one sitting! After Olivia had been admired by a few of the locals, we went home to a roaring fire.

"not quite sure about Casterton"

Trees near the Glenelg River

It was about 2am Sunday morning when I woke up feeling uncomfortable. Not nauseous, just uncomfortable. After lying in bed for half an hour, I thought I might feel better if I made myself throw up. And then it started. I felt like I'd lost half my body weight in puke, and my ribs/back were so sore from throwing up.

That morning the dogs also managed to escape the confines of the houseyard. I'd only just noticed them gone (missing less than 10mins) when the neighbour rang. They were 'harassing' his sheep. Michael and I went to collect them, me still in my pjs with no glasses. The neighbour's wife abused me as I was wading barefoot through ankle deep icy muddy water to shut their gate.... I just turned around and puked in their paddock. They hadn't killed any sheep (they weren't interested in that, only chasing the moving ones), luckily but if he catches them in his paddock again, he'll have no option but to shoot them. Needless to say, the dogs spent the rest of the day in the bitches box, and I spent the rest of the day in bed.

Michael took Mark and Michelle and the girls to the Millard's property, to show them a mixed cattle/sheep farm. By all accounts, it was a bit cold on the back of the ute!

Mark and Michelle left on Monday morning, just as Michael started puking. They had come, they had saw, they had spread disease (moohaahhhaaaaa evil laugh). I spent the day gradually recovering, Michael spent it in bed, and Jemima challenged Mick to various Wii games. I drove Mick back to the boarding house late afternoon, and discovered that his wallet was lost. We searched all through the house...... only to discover that it had fallen down beside the B pillar in the car, five weeks later!

So, all up it was a great visit, but marred by sickness and dog escapades. Please come back again!

Dinner Date

2010-05-30T14:27:00.003+10:00

Last Friday night, we went over to Caitlin's friends house for a dinner. Caitlin and Emma had been working on their Media assignment, a movie written, directed, filmed by and starring them.

Last time the Millards had come over to us for dinner, Emma had made a fantastic carrot cake for dessert. This time, I attempted some petit fours to have with coffee after dinner.

I thought they worked quite well, although Michael said he was disturbed by the blue ones. I thought they might be too sickly sweet to actually eat, but all bar one was eaten by the end of the evening. I think Jemima had about five, and Michael managed to shove one whole one in his mouth while the girls madly scrambled to get the video camera to record it. They were too slow.

We were a bit late getting there, five minutes before we attempted to leave home, the heavens opened up. I got slightly wet just putting the dogs in the dog box. We made it over the Merino hills, despite the tailgater and took the Grassdale Rd. We only had Emma's directions to go on - five houses on the left, opposite X lane and with a white mail box. We traveled about two kilometres up the road, not able to count houses in the dark and rain. Then we turned around and went back to the start, not sure if the first house we'd come across was the right one or not. Then back along the road, for another five kilometres, unsure if we'd missed it or not. We were just looking for a place to pull over and ring when, hey presto, we saw the white letterbox opposite X Lane.

Debbie had made a lovely lamb casserole, a absolutely divine honey mustard chicken dish and a scrumptious potato bake. It was a fun night, Jemima enjoyed stalking Emma, when she wasn't playing Super Mario on the 54inch plasma TV screen or playing with Emma's iPad. For dessert, we had a chocolicious rocky road cheesecake.

It was after 11.30pm when we finally left their Merino property. At least the rain had stopped... for a while anyway.

A Beautiful Present

2010-05-30T14:03:00.006+10:00

Mim received a wooden jewellery making kit from her Aunty Meegan and Aunty Carla. She loves it, and made a beautiful necklace for both Caitlin and me.

She presented me with my necklace this morning with the words, "I wanted to give you this for Mother's Day, but my present hadn't arrived yet." LOL

I guess she must be gifted with a bit of ESP, Meegs and Carls?

Her gaydar is working!

2010-05-30T13:19:00.003+10:00

Last night, Caitlin was watching St Trinians, whilst Jemima was doing crafty things and not really paying any attention to the movie. During one of the last scenes, where Colin Firth ends up in the bed of 'Camilla' (aka Rupert Everett in drag), Jemima looked up and said "They're gay".

"Pardon?!"

"They're gay"

I still couldn't believe my ears! "What did you say?" I asked yet again.

She looked at me. "Those men are gay"

I'm hoping she means 'gay' in the teenage vernicular, meaning silly not homosexual! I dared not question any further! And she's pretty observant, recognizing a man in women's clothing.

Run Rabbit Run

2010-05-30T12:22:00.005+10:00

The weather today has been 'indoor weather', horizontal rain hitting all the windows and doors. It stopped raining for half an hour and I took that opportunity to go outside, letting the dogs out for a pee and the chooks out of their muddy enclosure.

Gomez took off down the driveway and was ignoring my calls, so Sarah and I went for a walk to get him. By the time I'd gotten to the bottom of the drive, he was all the way up the service road and sniffing around the tree that marks the entrance to the highway. He understood that he was in trouble when I screamed at him "GET! IN! SIDE!" Sarah cowered at my feet, probably thinking 'Christ, I hope she's not talking to me'. He came trotting back, tail between legs and Sarah started up the drive. Hadn't gotten five metres up the driveway when a rabbit streaked past us in the front paddock and tried to squeeze out through the fence. Gomez started whimpering with excitement but Sarah didn't initially notice. As the rabbit (which was twice the size of Gomez) managed to get through the fence and across the bottom of the driveway and under the birch pines, Sarah noticed and was about to take off in pursuit. Luckily, she was well trained enough now that I could call her back, otherwise she'd be over the hills and far away! Still, if she had caught it, we could have had rabbit pie for dinner (for the next five nights)!

Clever Pussy

2010-05-27T20:57:00.001+10:00

Morticia brought us a present the other day.

Normally she just plays with mice. Today she decided that a decapitated rat was what we needed! This was left in the driveway.

Margaret's Meringue

2010-05-18T18:33:00.003+10:00

Margaret admitted that she was partial to meringue as a dessert. This was music to my ears.

Why?

Because we have five chooks. Which lay eggs. Daily. So I like to use recipes that use eggs, as we can't consume 35 eggs per week!

So the day before her birthday, I made a meringue for dessert. It used up some eggs and some leftover strawberries and cream.

It was divine (even if I do say so myself). And it also looked, when sliced and served, like it had a a pair of breasts!

Totally boobalicious!

Cadet Camp

2010-05-12T21:20:00.003+10:00

Catitlin suffered through a week away at cadet camp, for her sins.

It was cold. It was wet. They got to sleep in swags (those that were prepared) or sleeping bags (those that weren't) under a small piece of canvas. No bathrooms, only portaloos. Lots of boring drills like marching.

She hated it!

Michael, Margaret, Jemima and I went up to the paddock that the cadets called home for a week, on the Wednesday night for the Mass. It was dark by 6pm and very very cold. They didn't fire up the generator for the spotlights, because they'd make too much noise. So instead of watching the cadets march in, we got to listen to them march in, just dark shapes rustling. The priest said the Mass by torchlight. He got to the Eucharist when somebody's mobile phone went off. In his not-so-quiet voice Michael intoned, "Christ has died, Christ is ringing, Christ will ring again". Caused some giggles over our side of the paddock.

We'd brought up a foot long sub from Subway for Caitlin, which she inhaled. I'd also brought her a block of chocolate, a bribe to keep her at the camp for the rest of the week.

Caitlin told us how one girl (a Coleraine local) had been a b#@ch the whole time. During drills, she was behind Caitlin and kept kicking her in the heel and thought she was funny. After Caitlin had turned around and told her to stop it, the young bint swung her foot back and delivered a healthy kick to the back of Caitlin's calf. When Caitlin told me this, I cornered the girl with her parents and asked her about it. She claimed it was just an accident and stormed off in a huff. (Caitlin was told later in the week that she was going to be bashed up for dobbing on the girl, luckily for the girls concerned, this never happened!) The girl continued to be a trouble maker for the rest of the camp - believing it was her mission in life to make the camp "fun" (for her cliche, at the expense of the rest)!

She survived, without washing, for a whole week and arrived home very tired and determined never to go to cadet camp again. I'm very proud of her for persisting with it, despite having to deal with a bully the whole time!

Bye Bye Baby (teeth)

2010-05-11T20:08:00.004+10:00

Mim lost her first two baby teeth last week.

She met me at the door of the daycare unit on the Wednesday afternoon absolutely besides herself with excitement. "Mac punched my tooth out" she screamed at me. Charleen, the daycare mum, looked horrified. "They were just playing and then she turned around and said her tooth had come out" she explained, "she wasn't crying or upset". I reassured her that the tooth had been very very wobbly and ready to come out for awhile.

(Mac's mum Kylie asked him later what had happened, he said it was all Jemima's fault, he was trying to punch her on the top of her head and she'd moved her head so he got her on the mouth instead!) LOL!!

We put the tooth in the glass of water over the sink and headed off for the cadet camp Mass.

The next morning, the tooth fairy had taken the tooth and placed $2 in the glass. Mim was very excited about the money. She went and told Mumma how rich she was and then, as she was coming back down the corridor, the second tooth just came out!

So two teeth in 24hrs, the tooth fairy will go broke at this rate!

Happy Birthday Mim!

2010-05-10T23:47:00.010+10:00

Mim turned six today!

Certainly doesn't feel like only six years ago that there was life without her. She is such a vibrant personality, it feels like she's always been there, getting into mischief and talking her way out of anything.

After school, Margaret and Jemima had a 'coffee' at the Milkbar whilst I finished work. I gave Mim $20 to buy Margaret a coffee and some afternoon tea, so she was happy as Larry! Michael picked them up and took them home and I got home shortly after. I'd made Arni Lemonato in my new slow cooker, that was enjoyed for dinner, followed by a birthday cake whipped up at the last minute.

On Saturday afternoon, she had a small party down at the playground. The weather held out for us, only starting to rain once the last child had left. The kids had a great time playing, including creating a large dam in the sand pit. I think they were playing Mining, Jordy and Mim were the CEOs and oversaw the operations.

Instead of baking a large birthday cake and having to transport it down there, and take a knife to cut it, and transport it back, I got smart this year and did individual cupcakes with a chocolate ganache icing. Most of the kids liked them (except the one child that flicked the icing onto the ground and ate only the cake part).

Mim loves being six, she's such a big girl now!

Jayant Patel of the Automotive Industry?

2010-05-03T22:01:00.002+10:00

My car wouldn't start this morning. I tried a few times to kick it over, wondering if it was just the cold weather, but all I could get out of it was a wheezy wrrrrr... wrrr... wrr.

So I rang work to let them know I'd be late, and Sue put me onto the workshop manager who offered to come out and jumpstart the car. Yah! He'd also been out this morning to jumpstart a truck, so mine wasn't the only one having issues with the sudden cold snap. He was out here 10 minutes later and I had Jemima at school just on 9am. Paul told me to leave the car in the work yard and he'd test the battery for me.

He came in at lunchtime and told me that the battery was almost empty, so he'd filled it up for me and to see if how that worked tomorrow morning. He also mentioned that he'd knocked part of the battery cap into the engine so had reached down to get it...... and found this!

W!T!F!

Seems at the last service, someone had left an oil filter wrench in my engine! How the hell can you lose something that size in an engine as small as mine! And as if you wouldn't have heard it! I've just been very lucky that it was obviously wedged tightly somewhere and hasn't put a hole in my radiator or worse!

Car is going in for a service on Thursday, and a "please explain!" As the mechanic we use is usually meticulous and has always done great work, I am wondering if this was the work of the apprentice that they had to 'let go' over six months ago.

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay.....

2010-05-02T22:50:00.007+10:00

Today, Michael and I participated in the Coleraine Hotel Social Club wood cutting.

A local farmer has donated a paddock to us to cut up some dead redgum. We cut up the wood for firewood and then raffle it off. He gets his paddock cleaned up (and some firewood left for him) and the Social Club raises some money)

We met at the pub at 8.30am and then travelled in convoy up to the farm.

The sheep saw the vehicles coming into the paddock and started following us. First time a Peugeot has EVER been followed by livestock!

The boys pulled out their big guns (chainsaws) and set to work. Roger brought along his wood splitter which made short work of the logs being cut.

Paul piled the crap sticks into piles and poured diesel on them and set them alight, whilst Mousie set up the bbq and started cooking snags and rissoles. We stopped briefly at 10.30 for a can of softdrink and then stopped for lunch at 12.

a watched snag never burns

We managed to fill three trailers (about 10 cubic metres) and there's still plenty left there.

Apparently this was the club's third attack at this paddock, and there's still plenty of wood to be cut. There was one massive fallen tree that was six foot high lying on its side. No-one had a chainsaw large enough to attack it so it was left. It made a great screen though as there were no toilets in the paddock!

Michael's chainsaw was playing up, so I only got to cut a few sticks. I spent most of the time hauling around cut logs and loading them onto the splitter.

Minnow (aka Heath) making short work of a gorgeous piece of wood

It was nice to sit around afterwards and enjoy a cold drink and a laugh with the blokes, and admire the sheer amount of wood that had been cut. I also collected some of the sawdust to put on the garden. Must remember to bring along more bags next time to collect more.

Honey, Honey, how you thrill me!

2010-05-02T22:39:00.006+10:00

Michael and I attended an Abba-solutely fantastic party last Saturday night.

Janelle is a mad Abba fan, so for her 40th birthday, the dancing queen organised an Abba themed party at the Wannon River caravan park.

The beautiful Jess (as opposed to Braincell Jess, the dog) came up to stay the night with the girls and Michael and I booked one of the cabins at the park. They were very basic but clean and the toilet/shower block wasn't far away.

It was great to see the number of people that had dressed up. It was a sea of artificial hair and white flares. Janelle had family from as far as Port Pirie staying for the weekend. She'd hired a jukebox, catered a fantastic meal (the lamb and turkey were home grown and slaughtered ably by her husband Barrie)
the birthday girl.....

and her husband in matching outfits
group shot

locals, including president of the P&C and a cop

I'd dressed up in an outfit that was vintage 70s polyester pantsuit. It was actually Mum's Going Away outfit from 1971. I only lasted two hours in it, then had to change into jeans as it kept sticking to all the wrong places.

I stayed awake and dancing until about 1.30am before going off to bed. Michael staggered through the cabin door at 5am and crashed onto the bed, covered with his sleeping bag. Thank goodness for twin beds!

fire still burning in the morning

I was up the next morning at 7am, and helped another early riser do some clean up of the hall (lots of cans and bottles involved). Michael and I got home by 9.30am, to find Jemima playing on her computer and Caitlin still in bed (Jess had to be at work by 7.30am).

Re Planting the Avenue of Honour

2010-05-02T21:49:00.009+10:00

The Black Saturday fire in February last year decimated the old Avenue of Honour, trees planted to commemorate veterans.

Using a government grant, a community day was held to replant this Avenue, using native Australian trees, rather than the birch pines that had preceded.

We started with a free breakfast at the Showgrounds, a choice of bacon and egg sandwiches, cereal, juice, tea, coffee, all catered by the local Rotary group. It started raining lightly but that didn't last long. By the time we walked up to the Avenue a weak sun was trying to break through. The kids had a good play on a pile of dirt in the showgrounds, although I did have to tell more than one child not to throw hardened lumps of dirt at each other (Baydn, that means you too!)

eating a bacon sammy
playing king of the hill - Gypsy, Jemima and some other kid
Our esteemed Mayor, in his bestest hat

Mac, Baydn and Jordy waiting for the planting to start

The local children were given a special spade each and a tree to plant.

Michael and Mim got hijacked. They had to share planting with Dan Tehan, the local Liberal candidate and his family. Seems like a nice enough guy, but one of his daughters could use a good kick up the backside, she was a fair little minx.

Got some nice photos of Michael talking to Dan, which, when flicked through quickly, looks like Michael's doing some funky chicken dance!

Thought about setting this to Beyonce's Single Ladies

After our trees had been successfully taken out of their pots and placed in the predug hole in the ground, we all went back into town to the RSL rooms for morning tea. Lovely (cold) party pies, sausage rolls, cream cakes, jelly slices... yum, yum, yum. Jelly slice and cream cakes are also great for decorating the carpet, thanks to the interior decorating skills of several small children.

Net Set Go!

2010-04-26T14:19:00.004+10:00

Jemima has joined kiddies netball, called Net Set Go (or Netta for short). So for the next ten weeks (at least) she will be spending Wednesday afternoons on the netball courts learning how to shot goals and pass the ball. The little ones don't play actual games yet, they just learn the skills.

Jemima managed to get the ball through the hoop after only a few tries.

Caitlin has nicknamed her the "co-curricular kid"

Weekend in Melbourne

2010-03-23T21:12:00.009+11:00

We spent a wonderful weekend in Melbourne with Michelle and her family.

Michael flew to the Big Smoke on the Flying Test Tube (Sharp airlines) early on Friday morning to attend an Educators Conference. After the girls had finished school, we packed up the car and left the animals and house to the mercy of Jess, our house-sitter. I knew she'd be fine, she lived in the house for almost 8 years before we bought it!

Jacob, the "IT Manager" from work, lent me his Tom Tom rather than having to rely on photocopied maps. I was fine getting to Melbourne, but wasn't sure about how to get from the motorway into the city. Boy, was I glad for its help!

We left Coleraine just after 5.30 and hit Ararat for dinner at 7.30. Rotten Ronnies was the meal of choice by the passengers, so we got some takeaway. I didn't expect any Einsteins to be working at Maccas on a Friday night, but even I was impressed by the level of stupidity of the staff and the general crappiness of the restaurant. All of the straw/serviette dispensers were empty, the tables were sticky and the bathroom looked like it hadn't been cleaned for a week. So we grabbed our meals and ate them in the car.

The highway from Ararat to Melbourne is quite good. We crossed over the Westgate Bridge just on 10pm. And discovered the motorway was closed for roadworks and everyone was detoured. Thank god for Tom Tom! After half an hour we managed to find the hotel, Quest on Lonsdale, and Michelle was there to let us in - as Michael and Mark were 'celebrating' in some pub around the corner.

The girls finally met their cousin Olivia, and for Mim it was love at first sight! She became an official Olivy-stalker for the rest of the weekend.

Mark arrived back shortly after, he'd tasted a lovely steak and red wine... twice!! So he chose to admire the tiling on the bathroom floor. Michelle, being the good wife that she is, covered him with a blanket.... and left him. Michael arrived back half an hour later, after wondering where Mark had disappeared to.

It was Mark's birthday on Saturday... he was feeling a bit ordinary first thing in the morning. We all walked up to the Queen Victoria Markets and grabbed boreks and bratwurst/sauerkraut hotdogs for breakie. Then we wandered around the markets checking out the stalls. Michael had some trouble with one of the stall holders. We'd stopped next to a material stall with Olivia in the pram, keeping out of the middle of the walkway. The stall holder, instead of going around the pram, proceeded to push past it on the inside, knocking it violently. She didn't even bother to apologise, just berated Michael for standing there. He told her she was a rude woman, and she then called him a bully for using his size to intimidate! She wouldn't even look me in the eye! Rude bitch! There was a very strong urge to bitch slap her into next week... but I resisted.

Back at the hotel, the children had a sleep... the boys and Jemima anyway, and Caitlin straightened my hair. Then Michelle, Caitlin, Olivia and I caught the tram to Harbour Town to find me some bras. Within 10minutes I'd purchased four for $42. Not a bad buy. Then we headed back to town to get ready for dinner.

Dinner was at Dion's Greek Restaurant, probably our favourite restaurant in Melbourne to date. We shared the meat platters, a scrumptious range of chicken and lamb souvlakis, lamb cutlets, a type of sausage, lamb rissoles, and the famous arni lemonato. Delicious! Mim was dressed like someone from the exclusive brethren with her pink checked Dorothy dress and kerchief.

After dinner, we had coffee sitting outside the dessert mecca - the International Cake Shop. We did some people watching, especially the "things" going into the nightclub a few doors down. Michael must have been gazing too long at one girl as she stomped past because she growled "do I have three heads! Take a picture next time!" We all burst out laughing, I had the camera with me so I could have! As we were crossing the road heading to the rooms, I heard Michelle call out, "Hello!" It was Cerebus, our three headed stompy woman, stomping her way back down the road. She ignored us, or didn't see us. But seriously, would you take on two men the size of Michael and Mark? With a baby involved?

On Sunday morning, we wandered around the city, visiting the art gallery (I finally got to see Shearing the Rams) and looking in some shops. Michael took Caitlin off to DJs to buy her some bras. In the afternoon, I drove Michael and Caitlin to Essendon airport to catch the plane home. There was a slight stuff up - Sharp was asking people to lighten their luggage as they were 60kg over weight! They managed to get enough people to leave luggage behind and finally took off, about 15 mins late.

Mark, Michelle, Mim, Mini-MOK and me had dinner at the Elephant & Wheelbarrow pub. It was a very nice meal, the best of 'British' cuisine. We went back to the rooms and had a reasonably early night.

The next morning, after a lovely breakfast at M's Cafe, we piled in my car and hit the road. We arrived in Ballarat in time to have a quick look around and then have some lunch. I dropped Mark, Michelle and Olivia off at Creswick in the afternoon and Mim and I drove home. We arrived home shortly after 5, exhausted and ready for an early night.

Albino Cow Pat!

2010-03-15T21:15:00.005+11:00

I discovered a recipe for a chocolate meringue pie, and decided to give it a go.

It worked really well! And tasted rather nice as well. But Michael calls it my Albino cow pat!

Cadet Caitlin

2010-03-12T18:37:00.004+11:00

Caitlin is off on her cadet recruitment bivouac.... much to her disgust.

It is only an overnight camp, we pick her up from the school tomorrow morning. But in May, she will have a one week camp in the Grampians learning all sorts of skills... like how to keep warm, how to keep warm and how to keep warm.

Some more photos

2010-03-11T23:20:00.005+11:00

playdate with Mason

a little poser!

ouch!

dogs at work (on Emma)

attractive look, Cecily!

Karate Kid

2010-03-11T22:37:00.007+11:00

Caitlin had her karate championships on Sunday. The whole family went, as we had offered to help out. But we needn't have bothered, they didn't need us (but had failed to let us know). Jemima behaved herself quite well, considering we were there by 9.15am and Caitlin didn't do her round until just before 2pm.

It was interesting watching some of the matches. The katas (routines) were boring ... apart from the brown belt who was doing little pelvic thrusts in his - I was expecting some Michael Jackson music to start any minute. "Billy Jean's not my lover........"

The little kiddies doing kumites (fights) were very cute. I could just see Jemima doing karate (god forbid!)

Caitlin's friends had some good matches. Caitlin was only on the floor for 2 minutes before losing her match so some little bint who kept attacking (apparently you are not supposed to be constantly on the attack).

But Caitlin's loss was avenged by her teammate Casey. Casey had won another round before having to go straight into kumite with Bopping Bint. You could tell Casey was exhausted and in pain. Bopping Bint kept attacking and managed to hit Casey in the head at least three times, without being penalised. The look on Casey's face seemed to say "will you just F#$@ off!" and she did a perfect sidekick into Bopping Bint's stomach, and felled her. Bopping Bint was crying and clutching her stomach and putting on a grand performance. After the doctor checked her out, she got up and started bopping straight away so obviously wasn't hurt seriously. Casey was in pain from a cracked rib but she still managed to win, using less energy than Bopping Bint.

Sporty Mim

2010-03-11T19:04:00.002+11:00

Jemima has had a plethora of sports carnivals over the last two weeks.

First was the swimming carnival, in which she got a few ribbons and had a great time, doing races like the 'seal' race (pushing a ball with her nose), crawling race, barrow race, match the card race......

Then came the Marathon (Preppies got to run up the street and half a lap of the oval). Mim came first, she was ecstatic!! (There are only three girls in Prep, so she had a one in three chance of coming first).

The following day she had the Athletics carnival, in which she won 8 ribbons!! 8!!! She was over the moon. "I'm the fastest runner in Prep!" she keeps telling me.

And this afternoon was her first day at "Active Afterschool Activities", in which they do various sporting activities. Today she learnt to do cross over skipping, so has been practising that outside for over an hour.

Mamma Mia! What a weekend

2010-02-21T21:32:00.008+11:00

I'm home at last from a weekend in Melbourne.

After dropping Mim at school, I joined Anne and Janelle in Jane's car. We made it to Melbourne just after one thirty, having stopped in Ararat for a coffee and stretch.

Anne was in Cougar mood, which afforded much hilarity on the trip. She even made contact with a Botanical Gardens worker (ute with no ladder) and a Hire a Hubby (ute with ladder) - I guess you had to be there though!

The rooms at the Paramount Aparment were..... adequate. We had three two bedroom apartments for the eleven of us. In the first apartment, the phones didn't work and one of the bedroom doors was locked, so I had to go ALL the way downstairs to reception (two sets of lifts and one security door) to advise them (twice). The second room was rather dingy, my water bottle froze in the door of the fridge, we couldn't get the foxtel to work, there was no alarm clock/radio/dvd player in the rooms, the hairdryer didn't work and the soap dish fell off the wall. Oh, the window didn't seal properly in my bedroom, allowing in the stinking heat and noise of the traffic. Only one small air conditioner in the apartment, it was fine for cooling the lounge room but no cool air made it to either bedroom so it was uncomfortable to sleep (the other girls pulled the double mattress out to the lounge room the second night). Won't stay there again.

Anyway, Janelle and I went shopping in one direction and the other girls headed in the other direction. We found Big City Chic, for plus sizes and browsed. I heard the other customer in the store, so I was had an idea of her condition... but Janelle went up to the counter to speak with the salesgirl and the other customer whipped around and snarled "Fuckin' queue jumper!" Janelle was horrified and apologised, she had thought this woman had already been served. The customer then said, "oh, don't worry, I've just got Tourette's". I'd already heard her walking around the store going "Fuck!", "Fuck you all!" "Aaaarghhhhh!" so I'd figured she had Tourette's. The saleslady apologised afterwards as well, the lady was a regular customer there.

We then caught the tram out to HarbourTown at Docklands and met Tracey and Janelle had an amazing shopping spree. I think I'll have to hire Tracey as a personal shopper!!

Friday night we dined at Dion's Greek Restaurant, naturally I had my favourite - Arni Lemonato. The food was divine, as always. Afterwards, we wandered the streets wondering if we'd go to a club, but instead decided to go back to the hotel for drinkies. It was almost 2am before I got to bed.

I was up and at the pool at 7.30am to do some laps. It was only a small pool, it was heated and the tiles felt slimy so I only spent 20mins there. Then I got dressed and walked up to the Queen Victoria markets to have my borek! Spicy Lamb Borek, only $2.50..... yummmmmmmmmm!

The Mamma Mia Matinee performance started at 2pm. As I was a tag on, I was not seated with the other girls. They were all upstairs on the balcony, and I was up the back and on the side. But it didn't matter - the view was still good and the performance was brilliant! The set was very simple and the choreography was tight. I can understand why people go and see the performance again and again.

After the performance was over, a few of us went and dined at Docklands whilst the others went to a Japanese restaurant. It was lovely watching the sunset over the harbour. Then the two girls and I jumped in a cab and headed for the Casino to watch Burn The Floor.

We had a booth near the front, so we had dancers right next to us a few times. It was a great show, very fast paced in the first half and a bit more balanced in the second. Not only were the dancers amazing, but the vocalist was spectacular. She could have given Shirley Bassey a run for her money!

I had planned on staying at the Casino for some dancing after the show, but decided that I needed to lose the high heels so we went back to the hotel. The other girls arrived back (after stopping off at the Continental Cake Shop for dessert) and we had more drinkies before finally going to bed (at 2am, again).

I was up early again on Sunday morning (when will I learn to sleep in!!!!) and Janelle and I walked the length of Bourke St and then back again, stopping for a white chocolate mocha at Gloria Jeans. After check out, a few of us had breakfast at a lovely little cafe (really good Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon) and then I caught a lift home with Tracey (in her Peugeot, Michael's approved method of transport).

It was a great weekend, and I'll definitely be in for it again next year.

Random Photos

2010-02-14T19:05:00.007+11:00

Somebody loves her dog!

I can never sleep alone!!

Mason and Noah, collecting plums (and eating them) on the night that they slept over.

Margaret and the girls

Mim at the local pool, looking really cute in her new bikinis

Caitlin learning to sew under Margaret's instructions

Mim cleaning her room

My cooking endeavours over the last two months

2010-02-14T18:24:00.008+11:00

I've tried a few recipes over the last two months, but the nicest (and the richest) would have to be the Brownie Mosiac Cheesecake from Smitten Kitchen . I used the proportions of her recipe, and it made two! It was so rich that you could only physically manage a small sliver at a time.

I also made some plum jam from the multitude of plums that dropped off only one of the plum trees. I collected a full bucketload but only used less than a quarter of them in the jam.

from this

to this
the end product

There's a world out there, besides Vickery Bros!

2010-02-14T11:54:00.006+11:00

Kylie (Mac's mum and the HR person at VickeryBros) related a conversation that Charleen, the carer, had told her about:

Mac: So what truck does your dad drive? (Mac's father drives a truck for Vickerys)
Mim: He doesn't drive any truck!!
Mac: Well, what does he do at Vickery Bros?
Mim: He doesn't work at Vickery Bros! He's a teacher at Monivae College!

Charleen told Kylie that a blank expression came over Mac's face, he didn't realise that there could be a world outside of Vickery Bros!

It's a small world!

2010-02-14T11:48:00.003+11:00

Jemima had a student teacher on Friday, Miss Rachael. She helped out in the classroom, but more especially, she was able to take a group when they went swimming.

I arrived at the pool at 2.20 ready to collect Mim and Mac. They were still swimming, playing with Mrs Taylor whilst Miss Rachael took a group of the less capable swimmers. They were in the pool for an extra ten minutes, during which time Michael arrived, home from the Yr 12 retreat that he'd been on. Mim was very excited to see him.

Whilst she and Mac were getting changed, the Prep teacher, Mrs Waldron, introduced us to Miss Rachael. Rachael just stared up at Michael and said, "You taught me!" Appears that she was a Casterton Secondary College student six years ago!! As I always maintain, you can't take him anywhere without him meeting/knowing someone.

Mrs Waldron told us Mim was a wonderful student, though they sometimes 'lost' her in the other Preppies as she was always the quiet one and the others were always talking, lol! She makes up for it at home though, certainly makes her presence felt.

First fortnight of schooling over

2010-02-14T11:33:00.005+11:00

Jemima has survived her first fortnight of school. More importantly, so have we, LOL!

She still gets Wednesdays off until the March long weekend, and finishes school an hour early until the end of February.

Her first Wednesday off, she was invited to play with Mason. I'd put her ballet dress in her bag, in case she wanted some "girly" time. Janelle told me that it was very cute, Mim had decided to clean out the cubby house and wash the dishes that were in there, and had roped Mason into drying them. She was wearing her ballet dress at the time. When Barry came out of the woolshed, Janelle called him over see what his son was doing. Barry's comment? "He's only doing it because of what she's wearing!" LOL!!!! I had to laugh, and told Janelle that she should put on a French maid's outfit and see if that'll get Barry doing all the housework for her!!

We've still had some 'moments' after school. Not quite the crying spree of the first day, but there's definitely some attitude happening that needs to be knocked on the head fast! She was better the second week, maybe it was because they did swimming for the last hour of school and that was a good outlet for her. She is getting really good at swimming, using her 'big arms' and breathing to the side. The swimming carnival is in two weeks time, so I'll have to try to get some time off to watch her compete.

The New Ballet Dress

2010-02-14T09:48:00.001+11:00

Mim loves her new ballet dress. She thinks she is a prima ballerina or a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance!

And look at the length of her legs!

We couldn't get Mim back in the dance school she attended last year. It's just not physically possible (even if I wasn't working) to pick her up from school at 3.20 and have her at dance class in Hamilton by 3.45. Luckily, the other dance school has a Saturday class so we've booked her into that. I called the original school and let them know that she wouldn't be continuing because of the logistics. Two weeks later I got a call from the same woman, asking if Mim was going to be doing classes this year. I had to explain that I'd already let them know she couldn't because we lived/schooled/worked in Coleraine and it was just not physically possible. "Oh, that's a pity, Jemima showed a lot of potential, " was her remark. "oh, don't worry, the other dance school runs a Saturday class, so I've booked her in there. I think it's important that she keeps doing ballet" was my reply. She sounded very put out at that. But her company does not cater for anybody that lives outside of Hamilton so hopefully she'll take that on board when organising classes in future.

Mim also wants to do gymnastics, but classes are in Hamilton at 4pm, again not a possibility at this stage.

First day at school

2010-02-05T11:06:00.001+11:00

The day had finally arrived...... Mim was finally allowed to go to school. I'd spent the previous week covering her books and reading folder, taking up her trousers, ironing uniforms and packing her bag. Everything was ready the night before..... except I couldn't find the new lunchbox I'd bought her, grrrrrr! (It was found a week later, on the floor of the lounge room, hmmmmmmmmmm)

We thought we'd let her sleep in til at least 7.30, but she was up (barely awake) and putting on her uniform at 6.30. I encouraged her to leave her PJs on until after she'd had breakfast and cleaned her teeth, just in case she spilled something.

I had to take Caitlin to the bus stop at 8 so called into work to get some hours up. Michael was able to go into school a bit later this morning, so he could help take her to school. At 8.40, I raced home and Mim was waiting, all kitted up. She looked very cute, more so when she put on her school bag and it was almost as big as she was!

We drove in convoy to the school gates, where Michael was able to have a photo with her, give her a kiss good bye and head into town. She turned and wandered on up the path, with not a care in the world, as if she owned the school! (I got to follow, carrying the school bag). We found her desk in the classroom and unpacked her bag and took some photos. We had to take some photos of Mason as well, as his mum had left the camera on the bench in her hurry to get three boys plus Noah out the door! Then it was time for assembly.

The principal, Mrs Gregory, told an inspirational story of the building of the Washington Bridge, how it took 13 yrs to do, and that's how long the new Preps would be in school for (don't turn them off school on their first day!!!!!!) All the little Preppies were shuffling, moving around, talking to each other..... except for Mim, who spent that five minutes standing very still and staring at Mrs Gregory. She's going to be that kid in class who's always well behaved, sits up straight and uses her manners!!! (Hope she'll do it at home too).

I attended the Tears and Tissues morning tea afterwards, although there were no tears from any of us. I knew most of the mothers from Kindy, and we introduced ourselves to the one new mother. Then back to work.

At 2.20, I arrived back at school to collect her. She chatted happily about what a good day they'd had, they'd been read a story and did some playing. I dropped her off at the daycare unit, where she knew Noah, Mason's little brother.

I picked her up at 5, she said she'd had fun playing. Charleen, the carer, told me how Jemima had helped clean up the toys... I told her she should have given her the vacuum cleaner and let her go!

I had to go back to work to finalise some things, so gave Mim the option of heading down to the milkbar with Caitlin for a drink. She said yes, but changed her mind and stayed with me. We went to pick up Caitlin ten minutes later. Walked into the store, she saw the blocks of chocolate and asked for one. I said no...... and the trouble started. She started sulking, and then arguing and didn't want to walk back to the car, so Caitlin and I walked without her. She caught up to us before we crossed the street, crying that it wasn't fair!

When we got home she continued the ranting. She wouldn't get changed out of her uniform, or take off her shoes, or unpack her bag. She just lay on her bed crying, "it's not fair, I want to be as big as Caitlin. I wanted to be born first! Why didn't you let me be born first!" I tried explaining that I had no say in who was born first but she wouldn't believe me. "If you wish for a baby, then you get one! Why couldn't you wish for me to be first!!!"

Luckily the tears stopped after half an hour and she'd calmed down enough to get changed. She wouldn't speak to either Nana or Mumma when they called to see how the first day had went, though. But she did do her homework. She had to read her book to me, which she did very well. She then spoiled the impression that she could actually read, by closing her eyes and "reading" the book with no mistakes!!!! Smart arse!

It was early to bed for her that night (8pm is really early for her). And she was looking forward to school again.

A Weekend in Sydney

2010-02-03T19:38:00.003+11:00

As Margaret was a bit too 'under the weather' to be traveling back to Brisbane on her own, I organised to fly up to Sydney that weekend to visit Michelle and Olivia.. and Mark too. The local doctor wanted Margaret to delay flying for another couple of days, but she wanted to get home as soon as possible and see her own doctor.

So I organised us onto a Sharp flight from Hamilton to Melbourne and then Virgin flights to Brisbane and Sydney. I arranged to leave work early, at 4pm, to get to the Hamilton airport for the 5.30pm flight on the Friday afternoon. I thought I had everything covered....... but of course not!

About 1.30 on the Friday afternoon, I got a phone call from Sharp airlines to say there was a problem... the plane was no longer leaving from Hamilton, only from Portland which is an hour's drive to the south! They could arrange for someone to drive us there, but Margaret and I would need to be in Hamilton by 4.30. So I madly arranged to leave work at 3.30, race home and grab my suitcase, get changed and Michael drove us into town. The mini bus was waiting, we jumped on with another woman and drove off to Portland.

aerial view of Portland

As soon as we got to the Portland airport, our bags were checked in and the plane was boarded. Usually (well at Hamilton anyway), the Sharp people ask if we need a taxi at the other end, they didn't at Portland and we didn't think of it in the rush. We got to Essendon airport only ten minutes after originally scheduled and disembarked. They brought out the suitcases.... and ours weren't on the trolley! I had to track down the attendant and ask them to go and check the plane. By the time the bags were brought out, all the cabs were gone so I had to ask them call for one! We waited for another ten minutes before it arrived so checking in at Tullamarine was a bit hurried. Margaret's departure gate was almost down the end, and she had to use the toilet first and have a sit down to catch her breath so her flight was already boarding by the time we got down there. But at least we got there in time!

(She arrived safely in Brisbane, but still out of breath, so a wheelchair to the front gate was the best option)

My flight left about 20 minutes later and I got into Sydney about 9.45pm. My bag was one of the first off the carousel so I was outside reasonably quickly waiting for Michelle to pick me up. Unfortunately she was stuck in the traffic heading for the pick up zone. Sydney Airport, you may need to rethink how you've organised that!!! It doesn't allow for traffic flow at all! Still she made it there, collected me and we were off to Mary's (collecting Mark and then via Maccas of course).

Sunset, somewhere over southern NSW

Olivia is gorgeous. She was asleep on Mary's lap when we arrived, but I still got to have a cuddle.

The next day, Michelle and I went to Chatsworth Shopping Centre. I'd forgotten just how rude people can be in shopping centres but it was good to be able to look in a variety of shops. I found a beautiful little white ballet dress in Bloch, a dancewear shop. Michelle has threatened to get Mim a pair of tap shoes for her birthday (I've found a large drum set for Olivia in Dick Smith, if you do!!) The sales lady was cooing over Olivia, and trying to sell Michelle a little pair of ballet shoes for newborns!!

Michelle's parking ticket would not read in the machine, despite several attempts by herself and the security guard, so she got let out of the gates for free, yippeee!!

That afternoon we went to Catherine and Dom's for afternoon tea, and to meet Erica. The poor little dear had a bad case of nappy rash.

Me with Erica
Michelle and Olivia

That evening was a wonderful takeaway pizza from Livio's. I still think that he makes the best (and garlickiest) Margherita pizza in Australia! Olivia still preferred her milk on tap, as long as it was still wrapped in plastic... none of that natural nipple in the mouth, thank you very much! She's a young lady who knows what she wants!

Asleep at last!

MOKMOK, OKLOK and MOKLOK (mother of OKLOK)

Michelle dropped me off at the airport, leaving Mark holding the baby. The flight to Melbourne was uneventful, even though I had to sit next to two smelly teenage boys! I had an hour to kill between flights, so I headed to the Essendon DFO and had a look. Didn't even make it into the main part where the clothing was, will have to do that another time. Found Howards Storage World and enjoyed browsing there for a while and then heading back to Essendon airport.

The flight home was uneventful as well, and we touched down at Hamilton ten minutes early. Michael and the girls picked me up. Mim got her ballet dress, Caitlin got some folders she had requested and I got Michael a thing that hangs over the door that he can put his wallet and phone in, so he won't keep running around the house looking for the damn things.

almost home, the Grampians

coming into Hamilton airport

Yes , I've been slack!

2010-01-30T14:52:00.010+11:00

I've had two people at me to update this blog... which I've been trying to do for a month now! But things keep getting in the way (like Facebook, although I've stopped playing Farmtown, Farmville, Fishville and CafeWorld).

A lot has been happening over the Christmas holidays.

First we had Uncle Bah (aka Mark David) come to stay with us for a week. Caitlin enjoyed playing grownups and going for coffee with him at Darriwill Farm Cafe (just ask her about the bit of lemon slice she had with her cream!) Whilst he was here, Tim and Alice came over to shear our sheep, giving him an appreciation of just how much muscle is involved with stripping some cantankerous ladies! In payback, Tim left one of the ladies with a fringe (tee hee).

Mark took the girls to Toyworld to choose their Christmas gifts. They were given a budget of $50 each. Mim took one look around and went "I want that, and that, and that, and that......". It was like letting a kid loose in a candy store! She ended up choosing a Hair Salon Barbie ($60) so Caitlin got cash to that amount as well. (Good to see you are sticking to the limit you set them, Mark, LOL)

And Mim had her final Kindy day, complete with lunch, concert and showing of the Kindy video. Merryn, the loveliest Kindy teacher ever, made each child a display folder of activities and paintings that they had done during the year, and also a DVD of a slideshow of photos set to music for each child. She showed the DVD of all the Kindy kids after the lunch, and there were a few damp eyes in the audience.

A few days after Mark had left, Margaret arrived, on the same day as my work Xmas party. I took the girls to it and let Michael do the taxi service. Sue had organised a lovely catered lunch, music & drinks up at the racecourse with a jumping castle for the kids. Santa arrived after lunch and gave each child a large (and I mean LARGE) bag of lollies. Followed by a piñata for the kids. It was a great event, even though I was still unsure who most of the people there were! I also had to fish the lolly bag out from underneath Jemima's pillow when she went to bed that night,.. and the next night,... and the next night!!!

making apricot balls

Then came Christmas. We tried to keep present numbers down this year, following the example of Meegan (who later admitted that she had failed in that attempt!! I don't blame you when you have young kids, it's too difficult not to splurge.) Caitlin got mostly clothing (that she had chosen) plus money (which she is saving to buy herself a Nintendo DSI). Mim got her Barbie and various other paraphernalia.

I got what I have hankered for for a long time.... a Kitchen Aid!! And because it is fire engine red, it'll go faster!

Lunch was lovely, roast chook, roast pork (and crackling) and salads... and the best part was ALL of the food was gone after Boxing Day. No ham left in the fridge on New Years Day!

New Year's Eve was spent in the traditional way - dinner at the pub. Caitlin and Margaret went home early, but Mim, Michael and I enjoyed the 'live' music (played by three pensioners) until just after midnight. Mim had fun dancing with all the regulars and was even given her own pair of devil horns by the postmaster's table. The only downside she has was when one of the other kids yelled at her, because Mim had been encouraging her to come and dance. The other child was told in no uncertain terms to Go Away and stop being a little beeaatch.

January brought in more cool weather and some trips away for Michael, Margaret and the girls, but I'll blog that separately. Work became really busy, with January being the month in which farmers want fertiliser spread over their paddocks, and fertiliser prices increasing in lat January, so hence the delay in posting. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

Meeting the extended family

2010-01-27T10:13:00.000+11:00

Whilst Margaret was visiting over Christmas, Michael took the family (minus me, I had to work) to visit Margaret's family and "the old farm".

They drove up to Murrayville, in the Mallee, stopping for a picnic lunch at Wyperfield National Park. Mim had difficulty in eating her sandwich.... every time she waved away one fly, two more would take its place. Finally she had help, Caitlin fanning her while she ate her sandwich.

They visited 'Gracedale', the farm that Margaret grew up on. The farmhouse was burnt down a while ago, but at least the toilet is still standing! And a couple of sheds. It was hot and dry, forty plus degrees.

They stayed at the Murrayville Pub and Margaret caught up with some of the family... the Colonel, Blue, Megsy and various others with names that were not on their birth certificates. Margaret hadn't seen some of these people for fifty years. It only took one ring around to create an instant dinner for twenty at the pub.

The name fest continued the next day with a trip to see Splinter and Doreen at Ouyen.

Michael developed a bad headache on the way home, so Margaret had to drive, which of course made Michael feel worse! But they arrived safely home, glad to get into the air conditioning.

A few weeks later, they did another trip away, this time going over to see Margaret's brother George at Waaia, near Shepparton.

The girls had a great time learning to ride a quad bike. Mim became a little hoon. Uncle George controlled the throttle and Mim steered.... luckily George cut the throttle before she hit the verandah!!

Michael and the girls stayed at a hotel in Shepparton and Margaret overnighted with her brother. They arrived home late the next day, very tired.

Olivia Kate

2009-12-22T19:24:00.005+11:00

and then there were three.....

the little red-headed princess

Born Sunday 6 December 2009, on what would have been her great grandfather's 89th birthday. She was 6lb 15oz and 52cm long.

Michelle finished work on the Friday before, and had planned to do lots of resting, catching up with friends and various other tasks (like installing the carseat) before baby was due on the 15th. That never happened!

chilling out

"bring me my food now!!!!!"

Back, at last!

2009-12-22T17:42:00.005+11:00

My father has told me to get back blogging as the old posts were 'getting boring'. So I'm back.

There have been two significant events occur in my life in the last 6 weeks.

1. I got a new job!!!!!

2. I became an aunty (again)!!!!

I was not happy with working at the hospital. Whilst the hours were suitable for looking after Jemima, I didn't like the bullying behaviours of one of my colleagues. And she was not going to change. Staff had put up with her behaviours for the past decade, so the likelihood of anything changing was minimal. So I started applying for other jobs.

Late in November, I had an interview with a local company for a 'Assistant Records Clerk'. And I got it! It is a full time position at Vickery Bros, a company that supplies and spreads fertiliser. Despite being a 'local' company, they service a large portion of southwest Victoria and into South Australia. It is a great place to work, really friendly and laid back. I'm really enjoying myself.

On 6 December, Michelle gave birth to a beautiful little red head, whom they have named Olivia Kate. Little Livvy already knows the importance of being dramatic (the genes inherited from her grandmother, Dame Mary) and stubborn (Michelle swears that she did not pass on this gene). She insists that meal times are whenever she wants, and naps whenever she chooses. Just like a baby:)

One of the drawbacks of getting this full time job is that I can't visit Livvy over Christmas, like I had planned. I'm still trying to work out when I can get up to Sydney to spoil her rotten.

Winery Tour

2009-11-15T15:22:00.001+11:00

Yesterday was the Winery Tour, a fundraising event for the Kindy. Numbers were small, only about 26, a victim of the Dunkeld Races, Casterton Show and the hot weather but it was a great bunch of people.

Caitlin and Mim stayed home alone, with strict instructions for Mim not to annoy her sister.

We left the Kindy all stocked up with a couple of eskies containing water, UDLs and some beer. Morning tea was at Penola - coffee and cake, and some of the girls went wandering around hte main street and found the lolly shop.

At 11, we boarded the bus again, ably driven by our hero, Bazza (husband of the Kindy mum organising the whole thing). Next stop was Rymill's winery, where we were greeted by Andrew Rymill and invited inside to taste the wines. There were some lovely drops there, so I bought the Traminer (a sweet dessert wine that wasn't sickly sweet) and the MC2, a red blend. Andrew and the lady helping were very friendly and it was a positive experience. We got a big discount on the wines purchased, even though the prices were reasonable anyway!

After Rymill's, we went to the Poplars for another testing and lunch. They also had cheese testing, so Michael and I partook of that ...mmmm, goat's cheese! The wine tasting wasn't as nice as Rymill's, with the man (owner?) insisting that the wines be tasted in a certain order, and how dare you skip a wine (even if you didn't like a particular variety). They were pushy and wine-snobby, which didn't help for their sales. Lunch was delicious though, a choice of an open steak sandwich, battered fish or caesar salad. Michael and I sat with Annie (the lady we'd bought this house off) and her friend Jane. We had lots of laughs over lunch, then it was back on the bus.

Next stop was Katnook. It was a smaller tasting area, so it was a bit crowded and we were pushed through the tasting quite quickly. It felt like you had to scull the wines to keep up! Still, the lady was pleasant enough. We didn't stay long, and I didn't like the wines enough to buy any of them.

We had a bit of time left before we were due at the last winery, so we headed back to Penola (after an hilarious three point turn on the highway after going in the wrong direction - I don't think we hit any of the grapevines!) so some more of the ladies could hit the lolly shop - purely to buy lollies for their mothers/classes /kids etc. The boys (all five of them) hit the pub for a beer and I wandered down the street, had a look in the lolly shop (lovely) without purchasing, and then wandered through the secondhand store. Lots of lovely things in there as well.

Then back on the bus and out to Patrick T for afternoon tea and yet another tasting. Everyone was merry by this stage and having lots of laughs. Patrick T had set up an afternoon tea for us, cheeses, dry biscuits, dips, chocolate cake, strawberries and honey biscuits - as well as tea and coffee. It was a lovely area, very friendly staff (Jane was trying to pick up the bloke) and somewhere I'd be happy to go back to. The wines were okay and Michael bought one, but I ended up buying some dukkah and lime-infused olive oil. They had basil-infused, blood orange-infused (very nice) and chilli-infused oils as well.

We finally got everyone back on the bus and Bazza headed for home. One last stop at Casterton, for a much needed toilet stop and to sample the wines from the Kindy range. We drew the raffle, first prize of a magnum (the large wine bottle, not the ice-cream) was won by.... the drunkest lady on the trip! Then back on the bus we went...... and this time Janelle got her wish and got to listen to ABBA on the way home. It was very naughty (and slightly illegal) but it amusing to watch some of the ladies dancing in the aisle, against the backdrop of the rolling hills between Casterton and Coleraine.

Bazza pulled the bus over at our driveway and Mim and Caitlin jumped aboard so we could all eat at the pub. The other pub, not our usual pub. Food was good, smaller serves than Julie gives but was still very nice. The kids played outside on the skates, trampoline and other toys until well after dark, then came inside and had a game of pool. It was very funny seeing four five year olds standing around the pool table, barely able to see over it, all holding their pool cues! Michael and I had a discussion with Tracey and Grant about the lack of service from Hamilton City Motors - they had a Pug disaster story to tell as well.

I drove us home at 10.30, having consumed plenty of water throughout the day I figured I was just fine. It really was a great day - and we raised about $600 for the Kindy!

Swimming at the Creek

2009-11-15T15:12:00.005+11:00

We discovered the local waterhole a week ago. It's a section of the creek that is deep enough to dive in, with overhanging trees that kids have attached rope swings to.

I took the girls down there one day, and they had a ball. The dogs enjoyed it as well. Sarah is happy to swim, but Jess just wants to get in the water and be held by someone, or sit over their shoulder.

Local kids have set up a couple of couches for sitting in, and an ex freezer is buried in the ground for keeping drinks in.

Michael and I took the girls and dogs down again a day later, and spent a few hours there.

I thought it would be a wonderful place over summer to go to when the pool isn't open.... until I read a recent article in the local paper warning people about snakes near lakes and creeks, as a dog had recently died in the space of a few minutes after being bitten.

Hmmmm, might have to rethink it.

My Little Ballerina

2009-11-12T15:57:00.001+11:00

Mim had her first ballet concert last weekend. She had three performances, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon.

It was the Nutcracker Suite and she played a child with a teddy (all the beginners did). I think she showed more natural grace than most of her class..... but that may just be mother's bias!

I dropped her in town on Friday and Saturday nights, all made up and waited around til first interval to collect her.

We all went and watched the whole performance on Sunday. I dropped her round the back, got her in the costume and then joined Michael and Caitlin. We went inside and sat down, third row back. In front of us were some ex students of Michael. The lights dimmed, the narrator told the story of the Nutcracker, the music started..... and the girl in front of us threw up! Luckily it was a water barf as it wasn't cleaned up until the first interval.

The concert went off well, Mim was perfect (of course). I didn't like the 'pirate crumping' but most of the dancing was good.

She wants to do another concert very soon.

A Busy Weekend

2009-11-12T14:09:00.003+11:00

Last Friday, Caitlin had her annual heart check up in Ballarat. We left by 7am and arrived in Ballarat two and a half hours later. There was a light frost on the side of the road as we left Coleraine, but it had warmed up quite considerably by the time we got to Ballarat.

The check up was good. She's due for another one in two years, at which time Dr Weintraub will organise a MRI for her.

After the checkup, we headed into the city to do some shopping. Long live Big W! The girls ended up with new bathers and some summer clothing.

Then it was out of town and back to Beaufort for some lunch at a lovely little bakery. And then high tail it to home.

We arrived home in time for Jemima to jump through a shower, put her leotard on, have her hair tied up in a bun and makeup put on, then I drove her into town for her ballet performance. Afterwards, she had dinner at Maccas and came home to shower and wash hair and go straight to bed!

On Saturday morning, I had to be down at the showgrounds by 8.30am to help out at the Kindy stall for the Coleraine Show. We made lots of sandwiches, but because it was a hot day it was a very slow start. The cordial and jelly sold well early on but by the end of the day, all of the sandwiches had been sold and most of the slices/cakes.

Michael brought the girls down around 2 and we wandered around the exhibits and the animals. Michael came across one of his ex Casterton students who was exhibiting cow/bullies (as Mim calls them) so we chatted to them for half an hour. Then had a ride in one of the horse and carts that you can hire for weddings. Mim sat beside the driver and chatted to him, while Michael, Caitlin and I sat in the carriage. We were halfway around a lap when we were stopped and asked if we wanted to go in the Grand Parade.

And what an experience that was! The Grand Parade consisted of five old tractors (one of which had broken down, so had to be pulled by another), the firetruck, two horse-and-carriages and about six cattle. We did two laps of the main oval. Woo hoo!!! As Michael said "grand" and "coleraine" should not be used in the same sentence.

The girls went on the dodgem cars, jumping castle and the Char-Char-Char. We left at 4.30pm to go home and get Mim ready for her concert. I took her into town and then brought her straight back after her concert. We then went back to the Show to catch the fireworks and then a few more rides on the Dodgems before heading home.

We were able to have a sleep in on Sunday before Mim's concert in the afternoon.

It was an exhausting weekend, quite hot, and Mim has been sleeping in a fair bit since.

The Saga of the Pug

2009-11-10T21:02:00.002+11:00

As previously blogged, we'd had Michael's car being repaired by Hamilton City Motors, the Peugeot dealers in town. After week 4, we were given a courtesy car (at our instigation). This was it!

A Jeep Cherokee that was a monster to drive. Still, it made the following five weeks bearable. Yes FIVE WEEKS!

Each time we contacted Craig Fort, owner of the dealership, we were told that the diagnostic team in Kuala Lumpar had said to try another BSI, or try this or try that.

At week 8, I'd had enough. I rang Peugeot Australia's head office in Sydney and blew a gasket. The girl said she'd get someone on it straight away. This was at lunch time on the Wednesday, I hadn't heard back by the time I'd left for work, but there was a message on the phone from Peter McIntosh at 5pm that day, saying that he was on the case and had contacted the Hamilton dealership. I managed to speak with Peter the following day and he was all apologies about our experiences with Hamilton.

You see, it appears that Peugeot have this policy that if the problem is not diagnosed within three days or five hours of diagnostic time, it needs to be escalated. And this had not happened. So for the next few days, Peter rang me each day to let me know what was happening with our car in Hamilton. He arranged for it to be escalated to France IMMEDIATELY to find out what the problem was. France requested photos of various things. Mark the mechanic had allegedly gone home with pneumonia on Friday, so Peter was waiting for Craig to call him back so Peter could take Craig through step by step the process to use to take these photos and email them to France. By Tuesday morning, France had replied that one of the wires in the BSI was faulty. It was repaired by late Wednesday and Michael could pick up his car on Friday afternoon. Not so hard now, was it Craig!!!!!!

Michael had totake the car back in on Monday because the airconditioner and vents weren't working. They'd start at a reasonable temperature, then whistle and fall to freezing, then whistle again and up to sauna level. That didn't take long to fix and he had the car back on Monday afternoon.

Peter McIntosh kept following up with us on a daily basis, keeping us informed on what was happening - something that Craig could never do. He also got Robert Toonen involved, the aftersales service manager for most of the country. They were most interested in how many Pug drivers we'd spoken to wouldn't go to Craig because of bad experiences.

Then came the bill. Peter said he'd spoken to Craig, who assured him that he would be very generous with the billing, but didn't give him a figure. Michael hadn't received anything in the mail after a week, so he went in to see Craig. Craig handed over the account for over $5000. Michael saw red. Craig then proceeded to say 'Oh, we're not going to charge you that full amount, only $2,900', claiming 46 hrs of labour and diagnosis. Michael almost had a stroke. Craig also said he'd never heard of or spoken to Peter.

He rang Peter McIntosh, who was disgusted. Michael came up with some figures, based on 5 hrs diagnosis, 2 hrs labour and the cost of a BSI and offered Craig $1500. Peter advised that he had advised Craig to accept that offer. We got a letter in the mail from Craig, apologising for our bad experience, blaming his staff for their lack of communication and maintaining that it was sheer coincidence that the matter was escalated on the day that I contacted head office. He would accept the $1500 if it was paid within 30 days. But still no written account for our records, despite weeks of asking!

And then, just under two weeks later, we get another letter in the mail from Hamilton City Motors. It was a reminder notice - and the actual account!!!! And the bank details on the account were wrong! They just can't get it right.

Kudos go to Peter McIntosh, for his empathy, his communication and for being a great support in fixing our dilemma!

Caitlin's new Do

2009-11-10T20:34:00.000+11:00

Caitlin had her hair cut a few weeks ago. She got to choose the style. It looks really good, and is practical.

Only problem is when she tries to straighten her hair, she can never get the short bits around the back!

More Mim Moments

2009-11-09T22:34:00.007+11:00

When I was putting Mim to bed, she asked about Tyler's cat Purr, who had just kittens. She then wanted to know if Morticia would have kittens. "No, she's been desexed".
"Can Jess and Sarah have puppies?"
"Yes, they haven't been desexed"
"Is desexed were the vet opens their heart and puts the puppies in?"
"No, desexed is were the vet opens their tummies and ties some things up so they can't have puppies"
"So babies grow in your tummy?"
"Yes they do"
"They start in your heart, and move down to your tummy."
I can't refute that statement.

Mim and I were discussing babies again, as she is excited about the imminent (well, 6 weeks away) arrival of her new cousin. She pointed to her tummy and said, "are my babies in here?"
"Um, not yet, but they will be.... when you are my age"
"Does it hurt to have a baby"
"Yes, but you won't remember the pain"
Mim started looking worried, "but what if I don't want to have a baby"
"Then you don't have to have one"
"But if I have a baby, and I don't want it, can I sell it?"
"ummmmmmmmm....NO!" Where do you go to after that!

I was putting away some a silky dressing gown when Mim asked if that was what I wore in the photo near Michael's side of the bed. It was a professional photo taken at a studio when Caitlin was a baby. I told Mim about having special photos taken when Caitlin was only six months old. "Were you the Next Top Model?" she asked. I don't bloody think so!!!!

On the way home after the ballet concert, Mim asked
"does it hurt when your tongue gets pissed?"
"???.....oh, pierced! Yes, it does hurt."
"Does it hurt when your nose gets pissed?"
"Everything hurts when it gets piss...pierced!"

Conversation from the back seat of the car between Mim and her kindy mate, Mason:
Mason: "I know who you're going to marry.... Oscar"
Mim: "Yep, 'cos he's my boyfriend"
Mason: "Gypsy's going to marry me"
Mim: "No! Portia's going to marry you. Gypsy's not the right girl for you!"
Mason: "Gypsy and I are friends now, but if I don't want to be friends with her anymore, I just have to say 'You're dumped' and then we're no longer friends"

Jenny and John's visit

2009-10-26T20:55:00.004+11:00

Jenny and John came to visit for one night in October. They brought with them a gorgeous range of their chilli sauce and jams 'Cop It Sweet'. Michael hasn't yet tried the 9/10 chilli sauce, but I'm sure it won't be long before he does!

It was great to catch up with them again, even though they were suffering the effects of a cold. They weren't alone, Caitlin was coughing up her lungs as well.

Caitlin's cooking

2009-10-26T20:48:00.005+11:00

Our friend Jenny Tully ran a cooking class for a few young kids she knew. Caitlin attended and had a ball. She arrived home with four large creme caramels, some large meringues, some yummy biscuits and a number of egg and bacon pies. And they were delicious!

Meanwhile, I attempted the cheesecake brownie recipe that Meegan discovered. It didn't turn out as picturesque as hers did, but none of the nurses/doctors/family members complained about the taste of it!

What happens when Mim takes over the camera

2009-10-26T20:42:00.004+11:00

Caitlin in mid sneeze

Me on the 'puter (probably playing Farmtown)

Michael and Caitlin looking at old photos

Bloody Sarah!

2009-09-27T10:17:00.004+10:00

Michael was on the phone the other day, after Caitlin and I had left for Hamilton, when he looked out the kitchen window to see Mim, in her gumbots, clutching Sarah's collar in one hand and scolding her with the other, stomping down from the top paddock.

She gets to the wire fence and has to let go of Sarah to climb over it, meanwhile Sarah jumps straight over and waits for Mim. Mim then grabs Sarah again and marches her down to the houseyard and in through the side gate.

She releases Sarah, turns to Michael, and with a frustrated sigh, says "Bloody Sarah, she jumped the fuckin' fence!"

Michael's blaming me for that one!

Happy Father's Day

2009-09-27T10:14:00.005+10:00

Mim made this for Michael at Kindy. It amused the Kindy teacher, Michael and myself.

French, English.... they're only 20 miles apart, an honest mistake really! And it's good to know he can 'cook' Jelly!

Special Persons Day at Kindy

2009-09-27T10:06:00.005+10:00

Mim had a Special Persons Day at Kindy for their term break up party.

The idea was to invite all the special persons in your life (mum, dad, grandparents, neighbours, etc) by mail and have them RSVP by mail as well. Poor Mim, I was the only one who could attend. Others brought up to six special persons.We did activites (playdough, making necklaces from beads and macaroni) before watching the kids do some singing.

Then lunch was served. It was plentiful and delicious - everyone had brought something along, from platters of sandwiches, to scones that the kids had made, to cakes/slices, to sausage rolls.... it was enough to feed an army of parents. And one of the parents (who is a freelance photographer) took photos of each child with their special persons, for the kids' scrapbook.

It was a fun day, and Mim enjoyed herself immensely. She does love it when I can stay at Kindy with her.

We had to leave at 2 and go home to get ready for work. As it was Parent/Teacher interviews, Caitlin took Mim to Karate with her until I was able to pick her up. Apparently Mim had fun copying the older kids, and would like to take up Karate when she is old enough. (hmmm, do we think this is a good idea?!)

Bendigo.. or bust!

2009-09-27T09:18:00.006+10:00

A few weekends ago, we took a trip to Bendigo to visit friends. I roped in the help of a friend's son to house/dogsit. He had pizza, chocolate biscuits, footy/cricket on Austar, dogs to play with and no siblings around ..... he was in heaven!

We left around 10.30, and stopped off at Ararat for lunch... at Rotten Ronnies. The locals were as feral as can be expected, and the food - well, it was ballast. It was on the road again, arriving in Bendigo just after 3.

It was a warm, windy and wonderful night. Used to the freezing cold and recent constant wet that we had been having, it was lovely to sit on their back patio, sipping on Brandy Alexanders and catching up with friends we hadn't seen for over nine months.

Charu and Dexter

Jemima enjoyed catching up with 'her' brother, Dhruv, as did Caitlin. They played Guitar Hero on the Wii and kept themselves amused.

Dinner was amazing. If Charu ever wanted to give up medicine, she could have a successful career opening an Indian restaurant! After dinner (and a few wines/scotchs/beers), Michael amused us all with his ability to take any subject, any style of music and any accent and make a little ditty, usually with a swear word or two in it.

Sunday morning, we had an amazing version of scrambled eggs, served with chapatis (what's the name for it, Jayant?) and then a trip downtown to play bowling. Do bowling. Whatever the correct terminology for hurling a heavy ball down a wooden runaway to hit some poor unsuspecting pins is.

Charu and I opted to be the cheer squad, whilst the others played. Jemima used a special ramp they had for young kids. You place the ball on the top and then push it down. Of course, it works better with a run up before the push.

Dr J and Michael checking out the balls

the final score!

Then it was home for lunch (a fantastic biryani), and a walk around the hill behind Jayant's house, checking out the old mine sites before heading home after 5.

It was an uneventful trip home, though Michael managed to find an amazing radio station in Bendigo... that supposedly played people's unusual requests. We had Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder; They are Coming to Take Me Away and some other bizarre songs playing! We stopped to 'dine' at Ararat again, though neither Michael nor I could stomach any bog burgers after the wonderful cuisine of Chez Charu, so we stopped off at a fish and chip place.

We arrived home, exhausted, just after 10pm. The dogs were ecstatic to see us - it'd been a whole 36hrs since they'd seen us! Oh boy, oh boy! Lick, lick, lick! So, after the fond greeting, they got shoved into Jemima's room to sleep with her and the rest of us tumbled into bed.

Only I was woken at 2am by the dogs whining and scratching Mim's door. I let them out and they indicated that they were desperate to go outside. My first mistake was letting them. They bolted off. After a few minutes, I called them, but nobody came. So I went outside to look for them. (Bear in mind that I was too tired to unpack my PJs so I was only wearing a Tshirt. And it was about 5 degrees). Sarah came to me but I couldn't see Jess. After five minutes of calling, I knew I'd have to go on a search mission. Came inside, got dressed, grabbed the torch and shut Sarah in the dogbox. Closer inspection showed that the side gate had enough of a gap that Jess would have squeezed out, and gone to play with sheep. But not our sheep, they were still grazing in the western paddock, their eyes reflecting in the torchlight. The silly bitch had decided to go through the neighbours fence and check out their paddock. Apparently there was a dead sheep somewhere there. I called her, and she came back.... but she had taken the opportunity to roll in shit! Sheep shit or cow shit - it didn't really matter which, she stank! And then she decided that it was important to round up our sheep, at 2.30 in the friggin' morning, under the starlight. By the time I was able to catch her, I was not a happy camper. Trying to catch a barking, rounding up dog, with the added noise of Sarah howling from the dogbox, wanting to be in the fun, is not conducive to being able to easily go back to sleep!

Needless to say, soap and water do NOT get the smell of shit off one's hands!!!!

Slow news week

2009-09-09T10:29:00.000+10:00

Mim made the local paper with her large eggs.

Never leave children and animals alone

2009-09-09T10:26:00.004+10:00

....again. This is what happens when Jemima gets bored.

See that look of long suffering! It got worse, the headband plays a Christmas tune!

Anybody know a good pet psychologist?

Happy Birthday Jenny!

2009-09-09T08:58:00.003+10:00

Michael and I had a night away a few weekends ago. It was Jenny's 70th birthday and she'd planned a 'little do' in town. We arranged for our professional house sitter, Liz, (17) to look after the girls, dogs, cat and chooks and we booked a room at a motel in town.

Even though I know Jenny is not your normal 70 year old, I still half expected the night to be .... tame. I knew that the 'cream of Hamilton society' had been invited, as well as friends from all over the state. I wasn't expecting the raging night we had.

We started off with nibbles and drinks in the bar area - all 90 of us. Jenny had made most of the nibblies herself and asked me to assist in taking the trays around. There were the usual sausage rolls, toast and pate, seafood bites, mini salmon quiches, arancini balls.... and plenty of them. I think most people were almost full before they'd even gotten to the dinner part of the evening.

We then had dinner - alternate fish pies and beef braised in guiness pies, served with mashed potato and peas. Jenny made all of it (she was the chef at the Stirring Pot restaurant for a few years!). I'm not a big fish fan, but the fish pie was delicious! Dessert was fruit stewed in brandy, with icecream, followed by platters of cheese and biscuits, fresh from the Queen Vic Markets, and platters of hand made chocolates to accompany the coffee/tea.

Wine flowed freely that night. Michael counted that our table (of 8) went through at least 10 bottles. Before dinner was even served, I had a bottle of red knocked over almost on top of me. And it wasn't even me that did it, it was Jenny's son-in-law! Before anybody was even pissed! I only got a bit on my sleeves and pants, so it wasn't too bad - though I did reek of eau de Cab Sauv all night.

Jenny is an Elvis fan, so she had an Elvis impersonator singing songs and entertaining us. It was hilarious watching him kissing up to all the older ladies, the supposed prim and proper matrons. Like hell they are!

Jenny's grandchildren got up on the stage to give a speech about there Nan. I loved the story from one of the grandsons, now about 21. He said that when most people talk about grandmothers, they have the image of the knitting, tea sipping little old ladies. When he tells people about his Nan, he tells this story which epitomises the character of Jenny. "She went to a kitchen store in Melbourne and bought a $60 pepper grinder. When I asked her why she spent so much money on a pepper grinder, she said "Because it's fuckin' classy, asshole"." Yep, that's Jenny!

After copious amounts of wine had been consumed, dinner had been eaten and Elvis had exhausted his repertoire, a few of us (included Jenny's slightly uninhibited daughter) got up on the dance floor and shook our groove thing. The others just retired into the bar and kept drinking. We finally got kicked out at 1.30am, so they could lock up the club.

It was a fantastic night!

The next morning, we were invited to Jenny's for breakfast. I had thought it was just going to be a small select group of family and close friends... and it was, about 60 of us! I'd been supplying Jenny with eggs for weeks previously and I'd wondered if I'd been oversupplying her. Nope, she was also getting eggs from another source and had over 14 dozen. John, her son that owns and chefs at his Melbourne restaurant, stood in front of the stove poaching eggs for most of the morning. There was a large bowl of fruit salad, poached eggs, bacon, toasted homemade bread, tomatoes. A barista friend brought along his coffee machine and was doing coffees with the loveheart or ferns in the milk trick. The first bottle of champagne was opened about 9.30am.

Jenny mentioned that she had gone to bed about 4am. She'd invited her family in for a nightcap, so they finished off another three bottles of wine..... and then she saw the scotch and thought that looked like a good idea. Yet she was up bright and chirpy (and still probably pissed) with no sign of a hangover, whilst her fellow nightcappers looked like death warmed up.

It was a wonderful weekend, only marred by the fact that Jess greeted us on arrival home with her tail between her legs. It seems that whilst the girls were occupied inside the house with painting their nails and playing the Wii, the flying chook (the one that laid the enormous eggs) flew out of the protection of the pen and was 'plucked' by the dogs. So we are down to five chooks and none of them have shown an interest in flying...... yet.

Cooking

2009-09-09T08:54:00.003+10:00

Caitlin had to make a variation of a pancake recipe, including fruit, for her home ec assignment. She came up with layered chocolate pancakes with bananas and strawberries. Looked quite.... edible :)

So I tried a variation on the cake I'd made for her birthday - a chocolate cake injected with caramel, and covered with crushed crunchie pieces. It didn't last long!

Caitlin's Photos

2009-09-09T08:51:00.003+10:00

Caitlin borrowed my camera two weeks ago to practice taking photos. She came up with some good ones.

Another notch in the belt (or colour)

2009-09-07T13:12:00.002+10:00

Caitlin had her karate grading on the weekend. She passed, and is now a green belt.

So watch out chooks, Caitlin can beat you up. Don't worry sheep, you're still safe until she becomes a black belt.

Camping - in your own bedroom

2009-09-07T13:07:00.004+10:00

Mim decided last night that she wanted to camp. So she set up her fold up bus, put the sleeping bag inside it and crawled in.

I heard some noises from her room after I'd switched off the light but wisely chose to ignore her. Sure enough, she went to sleep soon after. When I checked on her, she'd put her toothbrush, paste, hairbrush and lipgloss in a container next to her pillow. Just in case she needed a photoshoot as soon as she woke up?

Total Hairectomy

2009-08-20T22:48:00.006+10:00

I decided to have a mid life crisis on Tuesday and had a radical hairectomy.

It had grown to well below my shoulders. I was sick and tired of how long it took to wash and dry, I couldn't do anything with it except put it into a ponytail, and its weight would often give me a headache.

So I got it chopped. And threw in a fringe (which I haven't had since high school) and some streaks. Maybe a few more than some.

Last time I really had my hair 'done', with a half head of foils and a cut and blowdry, was about 7 years ago, and cost me $120. Guess how much this one cost! (It included a wash, a lovely scalp massage and blowdry as well as the cut and colours). Only $70! God, I love living in the country!

The dogs went a bit beserk when I got home, they kept trying to jump up and sniff my hair. Mim just stared at me and then told everyone she encountered (strangers included) that my hair was shorter; Caitlin got shitty that I got a fringe and she wanted one but I won't let her get one.

It's been great not having to pull my hair back and put it up. And it's so easy to wash and dry now.

Tact is not her middle name

2009-08-20T22:42:00.004+10:00

I was talking with Mim on the way into town today, about riding and horses. She was grieving over the loss of "her horse", Pixie. The pony that she hired for a half hour walking around session at Caitlin's riding school, when she was only 3. But despite only having a half hour contact with Pixie, she has always referred to Pixie as 'her horse'.

Anyway, she asked me if I rode. I said that I used to when I was Caitlin's age, but I don't anymore. She asked why. I replied that I was too old know.

Her response: 'So you would make the horse go onto its knees?'

Thanks Mim, I said I was too old... not too fat!

_____________________________________

Around the dinner table, we were discussing nicknames - Caitlin had Squiggy when she was little(r) and Mim had various pet terms. Caitlin asked me if I had a nickname when I was at school. I said no. Mim piped up with "yes you did. It was 'Lazy'".

Thanks Mim! I wonder where she picked that up from, Michael?????

A New Business Venture

2009-08-11T07:58:00.004+10:00

Michael and I have thought about setting up an egg farm business (downwind from the house of course). Suggested names have been 'Mim's Bumnuts' or 'Caitlin's Cackleberries'. Sizes would include the usual... large, exlarge, ouch and OMFG.

I think the one on the end would be in the OMFG range. They would have to be sold separately of course, they don't come around all that often.

Each dozen could include one egg that has had a 'Michael's word of the dozen' penned on it. This word would, of course, be an educationally descriptive word.... like crunthooks, or dingleberry, or worse.

Think this business would take off?

Karaoke Queens

2009-08-05T23:21:00.008+10:00

Jemima had been soooooo looking forward to Karaoke night at the pub. She had been studiously practising 'her song' so she could sing with Caitlin.

Caitlin put her requests in early this time. She and Jemima (or Jemma as the MC kept calling her) got to sing early on in the piece. They did a great job. Jemima had to stand on a chair to be seen over the autocue.

The girls sang Lady Gaga's "Eh, Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)" and Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me". Caitlin did a solo on Miley's "The Climb".

Michael elected not to sing this time around, not with some of his students in the crowd.

I am very proud of the girls, especially of Caitlin. It's not easy for a 12yo to have the guts to sing in front of a crowd, with some of her peers listening in.

(sorry about the quality of video, it was dark in the pub and I've had to cut the original around to fit it on the blog)

At last! A courtesy car!

2009-08-05T22:59:00.005+10:00

Michael's Peugeot has been at the dealers for the last four weeks, as they 'attempt' to fix it.

Communication is not a strong point for this dealership. At first we were told that the mechanic was running tests to find out what was wrong with it. This took almost a week, despite having told our regular mechanic that it would be ready for us within 24 hrs. The mechanic then advised that it was the BSI (computer system) that was at fault and needed replacing. (It took him a supposed week of running tests to discover this when I did a Google search and came to that conclusion in two minutes!) The BSI would take 3 days to get to them.

So I called up in 3 days time, to be told that the part hadn't arrived yet. It arrived the beginning of the third week, they fitted it - and the car still wasn't working. So they ran another diagnostic, and the technical team (in Kuala Lumpar), told them the steering unit stalk/Comm 2000 (the indicator stalk that has a computer in it!) needed replacing. So they ordered that. Again, it would be here in three days.

At the end of week three, on my way to Geelong, I called in to see if the car was fixed. To be told 'oh, the part is on back order and we'll be sent an email when it can be sent out'.

Got Michael to contact the owner of the dealership on Monday. He was told that the part arrived late on Friday and was fitted.... but the computer is still not reading it!! They were going to experiment with some aerials as advised by Kuala Lumpar.

Michael rang on Tuesday, and was told by the owner's wife cum admin person "ring back on Friday after two and speak to the mechanic". Yep, not a good move. He had to get to a staff meeting so couldn't spend the time to react as he wished.

I rang this morning and advised the spare parts chick that Michael and I would be in this afternoon to speak with the owner and find out what the hell was happening with the vehicle! It has been off the road for 6 weeks now. As Michael works days and I work afternoons, it means that I've been running him in to work (40km), home again (40km), back in to collect him and go to work (40km), he'll take the girls home if he has no meetings after work (40km), come back and get me at 7pm (40km) and then we'll go home (another 40km). It makes for an exhausting day, multiplied by five times a week! Caitlin has not been able to go to karate because of its late finishing time. I'd lost patience with the dealer.

Michael and I rocked up at 3.30pm this afternoon and had a long chat with the owner. The owner was a bit shocked that the car had been at his dealership for four weeks - he had thought it was only two weeks. He wasn't able to give us any idea when the Pug would be fixed - it was all the problem of the electronics of cars and outsourcing of technical people to overseas and delay in delivery of parts from the Sydney warehouse. However, after a request from us, he was able to offer us a courtesy car - an old Jeep.

Tomorrow morning, I don't have to be up at sparrowfart to drive Michael to town, Caitlin can go to karate tomorrow night and on the weekend (if the Pug isn't fixed by then), Jemima can go to her friend's birthday party whilst Caitlin and I go to the dog training days. It's not the end of the Pug saga, but at least it's something.

An exhausting week

2009-08-01T10:30:00.005+10:00

Michael had a week at 'retreat' last week, which meant I was solely responsible for the well-being of two children, three dogs, one cat, six chooks, eight sheep and one lamb! And they all lived through the week!

We drove Michael to Geelong on the Saturday to catch a midday flight. It's only a three and a half hour drive to Avalon airport. Caitlin elected to stay home and catch up on sleep. She was still exhausted after three days at school camp.

Mim at Avalon airport

Jemima and I waved Michael off then headed into Geelong to grab some lunch before heading home. I played Jemima's favourite CD over and over again so she could practise her songs for karaoke. She also got to take some photos with my camera, to alleviate her boredom, and didn't do too badly with some of the shots. Arrived home at 5.30pm to find that Caitlin had coped well on her own all day.

two of the photos taken by my backseat driver

A lovely friend had offered to look after the girls whilst I worked - I arrived most nights to find dinner had been prepared for me and the girls had already been fed. Thank you Jenny, you are a life saver!

I even managed to whip up two delicious quiches in our new oven, using donations from my six girls.

Caitlin had a podiatrist appointment on Thursday to see what could be done about her ankles (being sore and giving out on her). Turns out she pronates, her left foot more than her right. She has some foam inserts for her school shoes to trial for two weeks and then she'll be reviewed. We also need to get her new school shoes as her current ones were too loose/stretched (and the elastic on the strap broke on Friday).

Jemima had a playdate at our place with her friend, Edward. They happily played Barbies for a number of hours, and helped crack the eggs for a lunch of scrambled eggs.

Jemima and I drove back to Geelong on Friday afternoon to pick Michael up. Caitlin, again, elected to stay home and look after the animals. She did call me to ask how to turn the oven on. I'd shown her how to do it before I left, but she thought that it wasn't working properly because it wasn't screaming at her the way the old oven did! Driving back was exhausting. It was dark, cold and wet. We stopped at Mortlake for 15 mins so I could have a powernap. But we made it home safely.

Happy Birthday Caitlin!

2009-07-25T19:16:00.003+10:00

My little girl has turned 13. Where has that time gone?????

Caitlin had the unfortunate timing of spending her birthday at school camp. In the Grampians. Where it was a teensy bit cold! And where mobile phones were not allowed.

Luckily, one of the teachers offered to babysit the phones of Caitlin and another girl celebrating her birthday as well, so we parents could call our little girls on their big day.

Caitlin said she did abseiling, rock climbing, canoeing, flying foxing and giant swinging on her birthday. She said she had a good time at camp.

We celebrated her birthday when she got home on Friday night - with dinner at the pub and a yummy chocolate cake at home. The cake was just a packet chocolate cake, but I'd injected it with a raspberry dessert sauce and chocolate fudge sauce.

Most of Caitlin's presents had been received by her prior to her birthday (boots, coat, week's trip to Brisbane with oodles of spending money....) - so we only gave her some earrings and a hair straightener on Friday. Wrapped in paper painted by Mim at Kindy for that purpose.

Can't believe she is now officially a teenager (and officially taller than me)!

New kitchen appliances

2009-07-22T22:53:00.004+10:00

At long last, our kitchen appliances have been replaced.

We now have a wonderful oven, cooktop, fridge and dishwasher.

Only things left to get are a rangehood, and a flatscreen tv. Eventually.

Cooking and baking have become so much more easier and enjoyable. I'll be able to bake cakes again - I've told Michael that I want a proper Mixmaster for Christmas.

Introducing Emma

2009-07-22T22:38:00.006+10:00

We have a new addition to the family - Emma.

The last weekend of the holiday was wet and cold. The neighbour was away and his sheep were lambing in the paddocks next to us. By Saturday afternoon, I'd counted at least 4 dead lambs!

Late Saturday afternoon, I noticed a young lamb on its own, sitting near our fence. It was near another lamb lying in the grass, presumably dead. Despite the bleating, no ewe was forthcoming. I decided that if the lamb hadn't been claimed by a ewe at sundown, I'd rescue it. It wasn't claimed, so I jumped the fence and gathered it up. The other lamb wasn't quite dead, but it was past the point of saving. Not sure what happened to the mother.

So now I'm a sheep thief, but I have no regrets. It was either let the lamb die overnight or take it. And the neighbour is known for not caring about his sheep, he prefers his cattle.

Caitlin decided to call the lamb Emma.

I feed her a colostrum mix overnight and took her back to the paddock the next day to see if any ewe would foster her. I even got one of the dead lambs and rubbed it on Emma to see if that would help. It didn't, that particular mother only wanted her dead lamb (she stuck around for two days sniffing it and waiting for it to get up - another farmer told me later that I should have sprayed some hairspray up her nose, that might have helped with fostering).

So Emma has stayed with us. She has become one of the family, the dogs love playing with her (not sure how she feels about that), she thinks Gomez is another lamb. It was a bit surreal to get up in the morning and hear the gallumping of hooves on the kitchen floor, as she jumped around waiting for her bottle. She sleeps outside now, but keeps an ear out for anybody opening the door. After her bottle, she tries to climb on my lap for a cuddle - she'll lie there and snooze, grinding her teeth and snoring.

The other sheep want nothing to do with her yet. And she's not interested in them either. She thinks she's one of the dogs.

The Doghouse is finished

2009-07-22T22:26:00.005+10:00

On the last weekend of the holidays, Michael and I started and finished the doghouse. Only the frame was bought, the rest of the materials came from around the property - just like the chookhouse.

And when I say Michael and I, I mean that I provided the design, and Michael made it reality. I helped by holding screws and handing over nails and generally not getting in the way.

(from this....)

The dogs seem to like it, or at least tolerate it. It's somewhere for them to sleep at night so they don't pee all over the laundry floor (I think Jess has a small bladder). When it's too wet or cold, they can still sleep in the laundry, but come summer, it'll be lovely for them. And if Michael or Jemima piss me off, they can fit in there as well!

(... to this)

PS. Notice the stump in the background - that's what happens when Michael decides to 'prune' a pear tree

Salt of the Earth

2009-07-22T21:56:00.004+10:00

Over the holiday, Mim had one of her kindy friends over for a playdate. JB and Mim had loads of fun; playing Barbies, collecting firewood, making chocolate cupcakes (and eating them), making scrambled eggs for lunch, running through the house shrieking...... JB is a very loud child and very forthright - she had no problems coming up to me and saying "Your dog pissed on the floor!"

Caught up with JB at Kindy last week and told her she'd have to come over for another playdate. She then told me about her night "I had to help my daddy pull lambs out of their mummies! There was a lamb sticking out of its mum's bum!"

Yep, she and Mim are going to be great friends - can't wait to hear what Mim learns from her.

Eggscellent!

2009-07-02T22:57:00.003+10:00

So far, we've only had one of our six chooks laying. When we arrived home from Melbourne, I noticed that only two eggs had been collected - and assumed that the chooks were still on strike.

I was wrong.

I almost fell over backwards (into the mud) when I opened up the chook house the next morning to see this:

Eleven eggs inside the chook house, plus the two already collected.... I think the majority of chooks have started.

Only collected four this morning though - the rain must have put two of them off!

Holiday in Melbourne

2009-07-02T11:30:00.007+10:00

We left early on Sunday morning for Melbourne. We'd planned to leave at 6.30, but didn't get away until 7.40 - no matter, the sun still hadn't risen.

It was a pleasant trip into Melbourne, avoiding Ballarat. We probably passed only a handful of cars until we got to Beaufort and then hit the Western Freeway. We pulled into the Queen Victoria Markets just after 11.30. And hit the borek stand shortly after. After consuming 8 spicy lamb boreks between us in a matter of minutes, we then hit the aisles. Lots of lovely stalls, useful and useless stuff. I have decided though, that I will come down to the markets one day on my own, without children, to wander and view at leisure. I couldn't help myself though. We passed two Asian couples wearing face masks, I just had to have a coughing fit each time. Michael told me I was being naughty! He's just annoyed he didn't think of it first.

After a few hours wandering and a few purchases made, we made our way to the hotel, Alto on Bourke. It's a lovely hotel near Spencer St Station and I would stay there again. We had a 2 bedroom 'executive' apartment, which consisted of bathroom, kitchenette, lounge downstairs, with a narrow staircase leading to the two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. Mim loved it. She decided that she would like to spend all her time inside the hotel room.

But we quickly dropped our bags and headed off to the National Gallery. I wanted to see the Australian art exhibition, last time we'd attempted to visit a few years ago, the exhibit was closed for maintenance. This time around it was closed AGAIN, for a few days. Michael was understandably pissed off - there had been nothing posted on the website to say this. So we left the NGV and Mim got to catch her first tram back to the hotel.

We dined at Dion's on the Sunday night. I had told Mim that she would love their arni lemonato, and she did. She had a serve that was 3/4 of the regular adult size - and finished it all. Michael and I shared a meat platter and Caitlin had the chicken souvlaki. It was a very pleasant dining experience and Mim decided that she would like to return there for arni lemonato every meal.

Monday morning(Michael's birthday) dawned sunny again. We had breakfast in the hotel's restaurant - good service, good food. Next time, I think we'll try dinner there as well. After breakfast we went up to the museum. Caitlin wanted to see the Day In Pompeii exhibit - however the line up for tickets for the museum was over an hour long. So we had a look at the Carlton Gardens and then caught the tram back to the NGV area to see the 50 years of Barbie exhibit. It was .....pink. Caitlin enjoyed it, Mim was very bored and tired by the end of it, and I had an overwhelming urge to barbie bitchslap some teenage girls. Not the 12/13 yos, no, these girls were late teens and barging in front of little kids to crowd around the exhibit so nobody else could see. Everyone else was moving around the exhibit in lines so that every 'child' got to see all the exhibits, but these three girls were just rude. And I've become old and grumpy.

Caitlin and Mim at the Carlton Gardens

After a delicious lunch in the Golden Tower cafe on Swanston St, we went to the DFO next to Spencer St station. We finally found Caitlin a pair of boots that met all her criteria. And found two coats for Mim, a black one (to blend in with the Melbourne crowd) and a red one (to suit her personality and her horns).

Dinner on Monday night was at Via Veneto on Lygon St. Walking down Lygon St, we got to experience what Michael referred to as "Lebo duff duff music" coming from a Mercedes waiting at traffic lights. It was loud enough to be heard three blocks away.

Via Veneto's was a disappointing experience. Despite advising that we had reservations, we were shown to an unset table, just vacated by some diners. Being a Monday night, the restaurant was quiet, there were only five other tables occupied. We were all squished into the front section of the restaurant. I can understand that in part, keeping the customers in one section for efficiency - but what really peeved me was that we were sat at an unset table when just beside it was a set one! Cutlery wasn't brought to the table until well after we'd placed our orders! And then the main meals arrived before the breads!

The food was good, despite being (what I consider) expensive. I mean, fish and chips from the kiddie menu (a palm size portion of fish) was $15.50 and a bowl of pasta about $23. But the whole affair seemed rushed, like we were being pushed to order, eat and then piss off as quickly as possible. That might be understandable on a weekend night when they need to turn over customers - but a Monday night!!! And then when Michael went to pay, he was told that the eftpos machine was down, that it went down at 5pm. He insisted that they try it, and it worked. But you would think that they would be advising patrons of this B EFORE they ordered a meal!! Maybe they were just trying to force people to pay in cash to hide takings? So, I don't think I'll ever go back there again. There are just too many restaurants on Lygon St, you can't afford to give customers a bad experience. But I can say that the dessert was fabulous! Caitlin and I had the chocolate mousse. It came heaped into a chocolate basket that was almost impossible to break (and impossible to finish)!

It was a disappointing birthday dinner for Michael, but to give him his due, he didn't complain. We rode home in a taxi (Mim loves taxis and trams) and rolled into bed.

We were up at 5 the next morning, packed and checked out by 6. And it started raining. We got every red light through the city and had to dodge idiots to Tullamarine Airport. Michael dropped us off at the front and went to find a park. Caitlin was checked through and we were at the departure gate before Michael even parked. You could see that Caitlin was soooo excited to be flying on her own. As soon as she disappeared down the walkway, we headed out of the terminal and out of Melbourne.

We drove home via the Great Ocean Road, stopping in Lorne for breakfast (eggs benedict) at the Arab cafe. It is a beautiful drive, gorgeous scenery ranging from the cliffs dropping into the southern ocean to forests to pastures full of cows and sheep. We stopped at a number of points to take photos of (what used to be) the 12 Apostles.

The Loch Ard Gorge was beautiful. It was where the Loch Ard was wrecked in 1878 and only two of the 54 on board survived. Mim had a wonderful time running around on the sand and climbing on the rocks.

Loch Ard Gorge

the Grotto

The weather held out for us, overcast until we got to the Bay of Islands. And then it pissed down. And continued to rain hard until we got into Warrnambool.

From Warrnambool, it was straight up to Hamilton, pick up my car and then home. Michael called into the shops to get something for dinner, so I made it home 15 mins before him. The dogs were ecstatic to see me again. I'd had time to feed them, turn on the lights and lock them in the laundry before Michael arrived and called me out to the garage.

It was in the garage that he introduced me to Jared, Rhianna and their 8wk old baby Lachlan. They had had car troubles along the highway, so Michael invited them to come home and use our lit garage to dodgy up a repair job on a broken exhaust. Rhianna took Lachie inside to feed and change him, as he hadn't feed in over three hours. After an hour of tinkering, good use of fencing wire and a cup of coffee, they were able to resume their journey home to Millicent (South Aust).

Mim slept through all of this, she'd fallen asleep in the car about 6.30, had barely woken when I'd carried her out (though her eyes had opened and she'd looked puzzled about a little baby in her house), I'd put her to bed fully clothed and she slept through til morning.

It's so nice to be home, away from constant traffic, street lights, rude impersonal people, customer nonservice..... back home where people you don't know smile and say hi as you walk past, where the only noise is the wind screaming down the hill and the rain drumming on the tin roof.

Yep, love the shopping in Melbourne, but am happiest out here in the country.

I have a new fence!

2009-06-27T10:50:00.004+10:00

At last, we have a new house yard fence.

Dean came around on Wednesday and started. It only took him three days to complete it. It is larger than the old house yard and includes a few gates to get vehicles through.

Mim lurves Dean's tractor and wants to get her own, a fast pink tractor that she can use to chase the sheep.

Mim spent as much time as possible stalking Dean, chatting to him and Swoop (Donnie, Stewie's brother) and carrying their tools for them. Luckily Dean has a two year old daughter (and newborn son) at home, so he's used to idol worship.

It was completed (minus the front gates, they'll be ready in about a week) by Friday afternoon. We let the dogs loose and they went beserk, racing around the yard having a great time.

I let them loose this morning and watched them race off into the fog. They completed two laps of the house and then disappeared. A few minutes later I heard the barking of Jess rounding up sheep - they'd found a weak spot. I managed to retreive them and stop up the gap, but they got out again in another section. I'll have to go around and do some serious stop gapping in the near future. But it's an excellent start!

Dog Collar Works

2009-06-27T10:39:00.003+10:00

I tried the electric dog collar on Jess. Thinking that it only went up to 10, I set it to 8 and gave her a zap (when she looked like she was trying to get through the fence. She just shook her head and kept on doing what she wanted. And I thought, "oh shit, this thing is going to be useless on her, I'll need a friggin' taser gun!"

So the next time, I got Michael to come with me. He agreed, only if he could have control of the remote. So we took Jess up to the sheep and let her go. The grin on Michael's face got bigger and bigger ... and then he said "it goes up to level 15!"

Jess decided she was bored with the sheep (they were huddled into a corner and weren't going to move) so she started off across the paddock. I called her to come, she ignored, and then suddenly she yelped, jumped sideways, turned around and came straight back to me, looking very puzzled. Michael was giggling to himself. That's what level 13 does.

We worked her for about 10 mins, she got zapped about 5 times in total, but towards the end, she was starting to come back to me when she was called.

The next time I took her out, she was reluctant to work the sheep at all, it took a bit of encouragement on my part. Gave her another 10 minute workout and then we walked back to the house yard, without having to have her on the leash!

So, whilst I'm on two weeks holiday, Michael has agreed to help me train her every day. It gets a bit difficult with two dogs and only one of me.

Read the Instructions First!

2009-06-27T10:16:00.006+10:00

Mim brought home a package from kindy. It was one of the those cellophane wrapped parcels that included books and bits and pieces aimed at parents and kids. I didn't pay much attention to it, having seen the title of the magazine was Your Family (or something like that). I was busy doing laundry when Mim started begging to be allowed to open the package.

"Sure" said I, thinking 'this will keep her out of my hair for a little while'.

Bad move!

Whilst doing dishes in the kitchen, I could hear her exclaiming "oh good, a book about dogs...... oh, look mummy, I've got a baking book now...."

It was when I was unloading the clothes dryer for the sixth time that she came running up to me holding out an object, "what is this, mummy?"

It was a tampon. An unwrapped tampon. The special carefree one with wings!

How do you explain that to a five year old? Especially when you are laughing so hard you are almost crying. Yet still she insisted, "what is it mummy? I need to know what it is?"

"It's a tampon, Mim, and something you won't need to worry about for the next 7 years at least"

That seemed to assauge her curiosity and off she went to look at other things. I grabbed the cellophane wrapping from the package - it clearly stated in big red letters Open Under Adult Supervison Only.

Oooppppsssss.

Why children should not be left alone with dogs

2009-06-27T10:16:00.003+10:00

Not for the safety of the children.... but for the integrity of the dogs!

Love the hair, Jess!

Karaoke rules!!

2009-06-21T09:31:00.004+10:00

Last night was a brilliant night. It was the second Karaoke night at the pub. Michael chose not to go, suffering from an eye wound. But Caitlin had invited Ebony, so it was a real girls' night out.

The karaoke started slowly, like before, with the 'regular karaoke crowd' doing their warm ups, ie Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette. Luigi brought along his 15 yo daughter Tamara, and she was really good. She did Miley Cyrus' The Climb.

Then the pub regulars got into the swing. Some were good, and some were awful!!! But it was all good fun. Caitlin and Ebony hummed and haaed over song choice, but finally decided on two - The Climb and Single Ladies. They put in their request about 9. They weren't called for their first song until 11.15! Luckily Mim had had a sleep that afternoon so she was still all fired up on adrenaline and Sam worship and the giant Freddo that Mouse had given her! The girls also put in a request for Jemima and Sam to sing a duet, Womaniser (Mim knows the chorus).

Mim had a great time running around with the kids, including a kindy mate, Gypsy. I saw Gypsy go running up to her mother, plonk her hairband on the table and say 'I have to have my hair out, because it makes me look sexy' and go running off. I thought her mother's friend was going to wet herself!! Gypsy also came up to me later on and asked me to read through the song choice book for her. She said she wanted to sing Sex is On Fire (and she sang the chorus) because it was her mum's phone ringtone.

Caitlin and Ebony did a really good job of The Climb. They started out hesitant, but had good audience participation and encouragement (it's great what a couple hours of liquid refreshments can do for the audience). They hit the right notes and held them. And I thought they did better than Tamara, they held the proper notes without dropping out of key.

After that, they were hooked!

Mim finally got to do her song at midnight. Sam was a bit too sloshed (and in the middle of playing pool) so Caity and Eby did the song with her. It was a hit. Mim got to sing the chorus, and improvised with her 'Oooo'. The audience loved it, and her. I think she'll want to do more songs next karaoke night.

Sam apologised to Mim for not doing the duet, and made it up to her by dancing with her.... a lot. Luckily, his girlfriend isn't the jealous kind :)

Eby and Caity got to do Single Ladies at 12.30. Again, they did very well - although it was difficult to hear them above the singing of the lubricated crowd. Annie, the woman we bought this house from, was an excellent singer at the beginning of the night, but by midnight her vocal chords (and co-ordination) were a little too lubricated!

In between bouts of singing, the emcee would put on some dance tracks - I finally learnt the steps to '5 6 7 8', as well as doing nutbush and chicken dance.

After the girls had finished their last song, we decided to go home. Mim was definitely flagging by this stage (and at almost 10am this morning, she is still asleep).

Can't wait for next karaoke night!

Casterton Kelpie Muster

2009-06-17T10:24:00.009+10:00

Caitlin and I went to the Casterton Kelpie Muster on the long weekend. It was a typical day for the long weekend, showery and cold.

We watched the dog high jump, last year's record was 2.91m, this year it was only 2.3m.

Despite a field of approx 20 starters, the main contenders were Rosie, winner of the last three years, and Mack, a beautiful quiet dog.

(Rosie)
(Mack)

Rosie tried valiantly to hold onto her title, but Mack just beat her.

Rosie's last attempt

And Mack's the winner

After the high jump concluded (and we'd had a hot chocolate to defrost somewhat), we headed over to the hill climb, via a quick look at the stockman's challenge.

The challenge was for a stockman and his dog to complete the course on horseback, including opening and closing gates, and then drive a mob of sheep through the course and into the drafting area on the other side of the course.

Photos cannot accurately show how steep the hill climb is.

It is steep!! And the dogs work it hard to run up the hill. A few got half way up and decided that it'd be more fun to turn around and come back. But most of them continued up the top to their owner.

Will certainly be going back next year (maybe I should enter Sarah in the high jump), but hopefully the weather will be better:)

It's been a while

2009-06-17T09:57:00.006+10:00

It's been a while since I've posted. Not because nothing has happened, but because I've spent most of my spare time on FarmTown, cropping and harvesting and building one hell of a farm.

But to recount what has happened in the last few weeks of our lives:

Waitressing:
A few weeks ago, a colleague mentioned that she had had 48 RSVPs to her husband's birthday party (a sit down dinner), and was wondering how she was going to serve the dinner as well as play hostess. I volunteered Caitlin and Ebony (her friend) and myself to act as waiters.

We arrive at the house the appointed night.... and the girls' jaws hit the ground! The house was gorgeous, the sort of house you expect to see in an Australian period drama. It was stone and huge, you walk in the front door and there is a large foyer area, a large dining room (which comfortably seats 50 people) on one side, a 'cloakroom' on the other side, three rooms which make up the kitchen area, a large lounge room... all with their own fireplaces. The ceilings were about 15 foot high. As Sara said "when you buy a property, you just have to take the house that's on it... and we got lucky". I imagine that it was the original property in the area, dating back to the 1880s.

The girls did a good job with waitressing, serving pre dinner snacks, followed by preparing and serving the dinner and then dessert. We also had a fair amount of help from Sara's 15yo son, Harry. Absolutely lovely genuine young man, who seemed to like being in the company of two young ladies, rather than outside with his father's friends. (And at the end of the night, he asked Ebony if he could have her phone number, how sweet!)

Chooks:
I finally finished doing the new fencing on the chook pen, and we got ourselves six more chooks. Hopefully these ones will last! The fence is higher, the wings are clipped but still at least one of them as flown out. Still, they seem to want to stay together more than they want freedom, and I try to put them out on the grass in a makeshift wire cage for a few hours a day... so maybe they won't go near the dogs!!! And one of them has started to lay. Jemima insists it is her chook that is laying (goodness knows which one it is!)

Winter:
The weather has turned cold now, with the onset of winter. The first day of winter was rainy, as was the second and third and fourth. At last the water tanks are enjoying the rain. The dogs are enjoying the mud, and tramping it inside the house. I've given up trying to keep the laundry tiles clean, as long as they get done at least once a week I'm happy. Between the dogs, mud, grass that never dries during the day and dust from the fires, it is very difficult to keep the house clean. Add to that the various illnesses the household has undergone (we've had at least one person ill at any given time since Mim's birthday), it has not been a relaxing few weeks.

Mum's Visit:
The highlight has been Mum's visit last weekend. The girls were soooo excited to see Nana again, and Mim slept in the spare bed with her every night. The weather was not at its best, it was cold and grey two days, cold and windy one day, and on her last day the sun started shining at long last. We did a trip to Casterton one day, and some yard work another... but apart from that, we spent most of the time inside, just chilling (in both senses of the word).

Mum started helping me prune the plum trees. I looked on the ABC gardening website and got specific instructions for pruning plum trees. I carefully selected the branches to get rid of to maximise light and minimise the height of the tree. Two of the branches were a bit too thick to manually cut with my pruning saw, so I made the mistake of asking Michael to fire up the chainsaw. BIG MISTAKE. My plum tree is now 3 foot high!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Michael is grinning. He then attacked the pear tree. It is now one foot high. Luckily he hasn't touched any other trees..... yet.

Kindy:
I had a parent/teacher interview with Mim's Kindy teacher yesterday. Mim is well adjusted, enjoys 'reading' books, interacts well with other children, and is a delight to have at Kindy. I didn't expect any different!

Dogs:
My electric dog collar arrived yesterday as well. As soon as I've finished posting, I'm going to go and try it out on Jess (I've had requests from people to try it out on Mim and Michael as well). Our fencing guy should arrive in the next week or so to redo our house yard fence, that will help with the dogs as well, allowing them to run around the yard without having to be chained up. Of course, Sarah will be able to jump the fence, being a Kelpie/Bluie cross, but Jess can't - and she's the problem dog!

Watching Porn

2009-05-27T10:47:00.004+10:00

I have the porn channel happening in my lounge room/kitchen on a regular basis.

No, it's not Michael getting randy in his old age - it's Gomez with Sarah on heat.

He keeps trying and trying to 'get it on' with her, but has had absolutely no luck. So far he's tried to hump her knees, her tail.. even her head! You've heard the expression 'wet willie', I know where it comes from now - I've seen it in action!

Poor Sarah, in the last few days she's obviously become VERY fertile, and wants it, wants it bad baby! But her porn co-star belongs in the land of the oompahloompahs! I've even watched Gomez humping Sarah whilst she's humping Jess!

Maybe I should videotape it and set up my own Pay for View channel! Or just Funniest Home Videos.

Mother's Day Present

2009-05-18T12:29:00.002+10:00

I love it!!

A Weekend Well Spent

2009-05-18T09:02:00.004+10:00

This weekend has been a worthwhile weekend, although busy one.

I had committed to attending working dog training days in Macarthur, about an hour's drive away on both Saturday and Sunday. The plan was to take both Sarah and Jess so both could start training.

This plan was disrupted by two things - I was still feeling ill with gastro and Sarah had decided to come on heat on Friday.

Despite feeling like crap, I decided to go to the training with just Jess, the braincell. And I'm glad I did.

It was a GREAT two days. Cost $200, but well worth it. The trainer, Barry, breeds and trains working dogs so has a wealth of experience. And any future training days I want to attend are free. There was a good proportion of practical experience with some theoretical. The dogs (some of them bred and sold by Barry) went through exercises to go back, get over, to bark on command, to run on the back of sheep, to work both yard and paddock.

Jess surprised me at how well she went. Whilst she didn't have the command skills of most of the dogs (the ability to sit or stay on command), she certainly had the ability to round up the sheep and was not nervous of them. This was all instinct, as she hasn't been trained to go around them. But with the aid of a simple garden rake, I was able to get her to go back (run around anti-clockwise) and get around (clockwise). I was also able to get her to walk (it's a relative term) behind me instead of pulling me along behind her.

Barry had three orphaned lambs (only a few days old) in the shearing shed, where we had the training, so I helped out at lunchtime by feeding them. Whilst I was doing this, Jess slipped herself out of her harness and came around to see what I was doing. She suffers from separation anxiety, if she's not with me she frets!

I was a bit dubious about the paddock work. The idea of letting Jess off her leash in a paddock, albeit with a flock of about 10 sheep, filled me with dread. It's not like she will sit or stay on command, but Barry was encouraging and said to let her go. So off she went, around the sheep, working them across the paddock. When it was time for her to stop, she decided that it wasn't ... and took off towards the second paddock, the one full of ewes and lambs! She was almost there when Barry's yelling at her distracted her and made her turn around. I ran off in the opposite direction, and she gave chase. A few minutes later and I managed to catch her. Barry had said that to get your dog to come to you, you should not look it in the eye and should kneel down. Yeah right! Not with Jess! I had to put both arms in the air, deepen my voice and stare her out. That's when the penny seems to click into her brain, you can see the "oh, shit, I'd better stop now or else" look come into her eyes.

But we had a second go at working her in the paddock. I let Stevie, a teenage girl, work her whilst I stood off in the distance. She worked really really well, moving from 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock behind the flock and pushing them across the paddock. One of the flock took off and took refuge between the fence and the donkey. Jess took chase and I was worried that she was going to end up with another broken leg care of Macka the donkey, but Stevie managed to catch her without too much hassle. It was the end of the day and she was tired.

On the drive home, Jess fell asleep straight away. She missed the rabbit I clocked doing 59km/hr beside the car, the large roo that jumped over the road behind us or the smaller wallaby that crossed in front.

(you'll have to look closely to pick the roo out)

I'll be attending the next training weekend in August with both Sarah and Jess, providing they are not in heat! I'll also take Caitlin, if she's interested - she'd find it fascinating.

Nathanielisms

2009-05-18T01:08:00.005+10:00

On Tuesdays, I look after one of Mim's Kindy mates, Nathaniel. His mother works up at Monivae with Michael, so she drops him off here in the mornings, I take him to Kindy with Mim and pick them up in the afternoon before dropping him off at Monivae when I collect Caitlin, then drop Mim off at ballet. So, you can see, Tuesday afternoons are hectic.

Anyway, Mim and Nathaniel fight like cats and dogs when they are here. Nathaniel has a habit of saying everything of his and his family's is bigger and better than Mim's. She gets a bit put out by this, and now doesn't want Nathaniel to touch any of her toys or watch her tv or be in her room, or pat her dog, etc, etc, etc.

Last Tuesday morning, Mim was in a bit of a tizz because she'd thought Nathaniel had said she was only four, not five. Nathaniel told her she was wrong. She said she wasn't, that he'd said she wasn't five. Nathaniel came back with "I didn't! And I don't lie! I only lie at home!"

It was almost as good as his comment at Mim's party. When his elder sister E said she like a lolly bag, I told her that I didn't have any spares "but I'm sure Nathaniel will share his with you". Nathaniel just looked at me and said, "I don't want to share yet!"

When not to share!

2009-05-18T00:44:00.005+10:00

As mentioned previously, Mim had thrown up on Sunday morning. She also threw up on Monday afternoon at the hospital playground whilst Caitlin was looking after her. We assumed that it was a combination of a BIG weekend, tiredness, a packet of chips for afternoon tea and possible excessive playing on the playground.

Or maybe it wasn't.

On Tuesday, I took Mim to Kindy, but mentioned to Merryn (the teacher) about the vomiting episodes. Merryn advised that gastro had been going around, with three kids at her Balmoral Kindy struck down with it. She agreed that it sounded more like Mim's exciting weekend was the cause but we agreed that I should take her home just in case. Mim was disappointed, especially as I cancelled her ballet lesson as well, just in case. She showed no symptoms of feeling unwell, although she did say that her tummy hurt a little. I assumed that it was because she hadn't defacated for 48hrs and hadn't drunk a lot of water either, so I made her drink more.

On Wednesday night, Michael made tuna mornay for dinner. Then at 9.30, we heard Mim cough...only it wasn't a cough - it was a barf. She managed to get sheets, pillow, beside table and carpet! There's nothing like trying to hold your breath, comfort an upset little girl, whilst not standing in barf, get her changed into fresh pjs, change the linen on the bed and keep two interested dogs out of the room at the same time. Despite mopping, vacuuming, spraying, incense, keeping windows open - the room still smells like vomit!

Then, at 11.30pm, Caitlin coughed, sorry, barfed! At least she had the skill to get it all into the barf bag. She ended up throwing up eight times that night. I stayed up with her until 3.30am, watching TV. She looked at me sadly, saying "the fish are swimming upstream tonight!"

Michael won't be making tuna mornay again in a hurry.

I took Thu/Fri nights off work, didn't want to carry any gastro bug onto a surgical ward - wouldn't be popular. I came down with the gastro on Friday and felt like crap all that day. Michael waited until Sunday to get his bout. Caitlin threw up again on Saturday night, after eating chicken ("the chicken has flown the coop!"). Luckily this was at the pub, and allowed me to escape under a Willie Nelson night (with willie willie bad music) by bringing her home.

So we've not had a healthy week by any means!

Over 48 hrs of BIRTHDAY excitement

2009-05-11T21:20:00.008+10:00

The birthday weekend started on Friday. Not Friday afternoon when Tom's party (another Kindy kid) was scheduled, but on Friday morning when I had to endure hours of 'how long until Tom's party?'

Luckily, Friday afternoon rolled around quickly enough and Mim was able to get dressed for the party. I dropped her off at the allotted time and hardly saw the back of her for dust. She was off and playing with the other kids, eating chocolate cake, chocolate biscuits and chips. When I picked her up, she was high on sugar, luckily it was to the pub for dinner where she could work off the sugar running around the bar (scabbing jellybeans off Mr Kaine). And Ebony was staying the night, so Mim was functioning on adrenaline and sugar. By 9pm, she'd crashed and burned and was asleep.

But she was in Ebony's bed bright and early the next morning, waiting for her party. I picked up the cake in Casterton at 8am and came back to collect the big girls to prepare the playground. The weather was not smiling nicely at us, little squalls of fairy rain kept coming over, but that didn't affect the kids playing on the playground.

Mim had seven kids join her, she played hostess for each arrival, getting off the playground, welcoming them and thanking them for the gift. The kids were very well behaved, apart from one incident with one particular child pushing another over. Michael went into full teacher mode, it was funny watching the other kids' eyes go wide and watch them take two steps away from the naughty child as if to say "we don't know him". Naughty child burst into tears and was sent into time out, but by the end of the party, was Michael's new best friend.

I'd only organised one activity, Pass the Parcel, for the kids as I figured they'd be happiest on the swings and playground facility - and they were. We had a short intermission for eating the food and cake (it's very difficult to light candles in a strong breeze) and then the kids were back playing.

I think it was a successful party, I know Mim really enjoyed herself which was the main thing. In the afternoon, we drove Ebony back into Hamilton and then went shopping. Mim was exhausted by the time we got home, but still very excited that tomorrow she would be 5.

(who do we know that folds his arms like that!) (oh, it must be genetic!)

I was woken at 4am Sunday morning by Michael telling me that Mim was calling me. I staggered into her room to hear "I threw up!" And she had. Neatly onto her sheets, luckily missing the floor. That was cleaned up (by me) whilst Michael changed Mim and took her into our bed. She was awake again by 7, she rolled over and said to me "I'm five now, I can go to school". She was rather disappointed to realise that she'd still have to wait another six months before she could start prep. She wants to grow up so fast, so she can be as old as Caitlin NOW!

We did presents about 9.30, which was about the time we could drag our tired backsides out of bed. Mim loved her undies, her bras, her polly pockets, her Wii games, her wheelbarrow and gardening kit.. and especially the stool that Caitlin had made for her at school.

For dinner, Mim had requested arni lemonata lamb shanks, so that's what she got. And boy, they were yummy! She went to bed about 9pm, a very happy little girl.

So Happy Birthday our beautiful little five year old.

The Lollipop panacea

2009-05-08T14:07:00.003+10:00

Driving to work yesterday, a voice pipes up from the back seat:
"When I'm a big girl, and have a baby, I'm going to be brave and then I'll get a lollipop".

So there you go, ladies, take the advice of a little girl. When you are suffering the agonies of having your vagina split assunder by a boof headed baby, stop screaming and moaning ... and you'll get a lollipop for your efforts!

Should anyone complain about aches and pains from now on, the only response they'll get from me is "Suck it up, baby, and get a lollipop".

It's Green, at last

2009-05-06T09:36:00.005+10:00

Two weekends ago we had 20mm of rain over 4 days. Well, it was probably more than 20mm, but that's the last reading of the rainfall indicator before Lulu jumped the fence and knocked it over. It was shower after shower after shower. And it was cold. And it was the weekend that Caitlin had her karate camp in Port Fairy, where they had a swim.... in the great southern ocean. You know, the ocean that has icebergs on the other side. Any surprises that she got a cold from it????

Anyway, those four days were good and bad. The large water tank in the western paddock is now 3/4 full. There was no point even trying to do any housework, the dogs kept tracking in muddy feet despite best efforts of wiping them down.

Within a week, the parched brown paddocks started turning green. Now, two weeks later, there's lots and lots of green. The dead dirt area under Mim's swing is now green, the top paddock is now green, the hills around us are green. The paddocks that were burnt black 3 months ago are green. And they've started burning off the dead trees from the fires. Each day I drive through an avenue of funeral pyres, which have been burning for about a week now, each day they just add more wood/branches/rubbish to the pile. Once they are all cleaned up, the council can start planting some more trees.

We've had heavy fog roll in most mornings, which has helped add more green to the ground. I'd despaired of the yard ever getting grass again.

Yay, Green!

Car troubles

2009-05-06T09:13:00.002+10:00

It's rather difficult having a defective vehicle (or no vehicle) when you live in a place like this. Public transport is.... well, almost non-existent. The upside is that you'd feel pretty safe hitching a ride into Hamilton. Luckily it didn't come to that.

First thing Monday morning, I rang the mechanic about the car. Despite being fully booked up, he suggested I bring it in by about 1.30pm, if it was just a spark plug it would only take about 5 minutes to do. So I did - aaannnnddd ttthhhaattt wwaass tthhee lloonnggeesstt hhaallff hhoouurr ddrriivvee II''vvee eevveerr ddoonnee.

Dropped the car off and arranged to come back at 3 to collect it. That would give me time to drive Mim up to Jenny's (she was looking after her while I worked), get changed, pick up Caitlin and drop her at Jenny's as well. Went back at 3... to see the mechanic still scratching his head. Turns out it wasn't as simple as a spark plug or lead! He was conducting tests to see if something or other, and mentioned blown head gasket. I don't know what a head gasket is, but I do know it's hideously expensive!! Upshot was, I wasn't driving anywhere that night!

Called St Jenny, she came into town and grabbed Mim. (Mim thought she was hotshot, sitting in the front seat of Jenny's little Mazda, without a carseat. It was only for a short trip.) I walked up to work, fearing the worst. The mechanic rang a bit later and left a message - one of the coils was faulty, they'd ordered another from Melbourne so it should be delivered the next day.

Jenny had fed the girls a roast dinner and prepared one for us as well. She then offered to lend me Mazzie (her car) as she would not be needing it for a few days. It was most generous of her, and very helpful! There was only one small problem with it - I'm sure the speedo isn't working accurately. I was clicking along at 100km/hr (according to the speedo), and Michael was dropping back behind me - he says I was doing about 115km/hr! Must let Jenny know.

Anyway, my car was ready yesterday, and will send the bill out eventually.

An exhausting week

2009-05-06T08:41:00.003+10:00

Last week was exhausting, and expensive.

I don't think there was a day that one or other of the dogs escaped and had to be captured. Not so bad for me if it's Sarah as I can usually capture her, she usually heads straight for the sheep to work them. But Jess won't be caught for love or money, you have to use trickery with her.

Michael spent a large amount of money on Tuesday afternoon, buying his Miele cooktop and ordering our Bosch oven and fridge. Hardly Normal agreed to match The Good Guys price on the oven and fridge, so he was saved a trip to Warrnambool.

On Thursday, Sarah escaped but didn't go for our sheep. Instead she decided to head over the hills on the neighbour's property. Despite calling, she ignored me and continued on. It was 2 hours before she returned, rather contrite. In the meantime, Jason from Austar arrived to install our satellite dish and connect us up to 400 channels of crap. He was lovely, working well even with Gomez insisting on barking at him every time he moved a muscle (he was shut up in Caitlin's bedroom eventually, Gomez that is, not Jason). Jason even had to kick Morticia out of his car!

On Friday, Damian and his sidekick arrived to install our solar hot water system. They coped quite well with the dogs .... and even if Mim, who decided she wanted to be one of the boys. She spent a lot of time on her swing chatting to Damian, and when they had a coffee break, she came in to get her cup of water and joined them. Damian admitted that he had a little girl as well, and she follows him around so he was used to it. I eavesdropped into some of their conversation, it was all about their favourite characters on The Simpsons.

Then, just as the guys were cleaning up, I was dressed for work and taking the dogs to the shed to lock them in, when Jess slipped out of her harness. She was off and running. Up the paddock, next door, back into our paddock and around. The girls tried chasing her, coaxing her but no success. So, I jumped in the car with Sarah and drove to the bottom of the paddock. Whilst she'd circle the car, she wasn't game to come near enough to jump in. She was starting to get wise. So, I drove slowly up the paddock, stopped half way and opened the door. She jumped in! I carried her to the shed after that, I wasn't taking any chances!

Jenny looked after the girls on Friday night whilst I was working, she even fed them and me a beautiful roast pork dinner (I'm not a big fan of pork but this was beautiful, hardly surprising coming from someone who ran a restaurant for 20 years). When we got home, I got the dogs out of the shed. Was leading them in when Jess pulled back suddenly, and out of her harness! I tried following her with a torch, but gave up after 15 mins. Went inside, got the girls to bed and had a shower. Took Sarah outside for a pee, Jess was waiting in the yard and came inside quite happily with Sarah. That's when I decided that I would invest in an electric collar. But I can't find one that has a 1000V setting!

On Saturday, the girls and I went down to the post office to check the mail. We were almost in town when the car started juddering. Not good! We finished our task and went straight home. I tried calling the mechanics but they'd closed less than half an hour before. As Michael had left his car at the airport (he was in Brisbane for the weekend), we were trapped at home all weekend. At 4pm I suddenly realised, Phil (Caitlin's teacher) was a mechanic. Gave him a call and explained the symptoms. He thought it sounded like a missing spark plug or spark plug lead and offered to come out and have a look. He and Annie arrived half an hour later and had a fiddle under the bonnet. He didn't have tools but did what he could. He said that was most likely what it was and it would be fine to drive into Hamilton to the mechanics on Monday. That was a relief.

We went inside to have a coffee. Mim was being her 'helping' self. Earlier in the afternoon, I'd caught her sitting at the bench, cutting up an apple and celery using a sharp knife directly onto the wooden bench. I'd taken the knife away from her and told her that you can't make a fruit salad with celery. Five minutes later I caught her still trying to cut the apple and some lettuce, this time with a butter knife! So as I made the coffees for Phil and Annie, Mim tried to serve 'snacks' (her fruit and veg salad), unfortunately she dropped it on the floor. There was lettuce EVERYWHERE! And not large leaves that were easy to pick up, no it was minutely shredded pieces! Annie was trying so hard not to laugh - after 7 kids, she's used to this sort of thing!

Then, after I'd farewelled Phil and Annie, I came inside to find Mim had poured herself a small coffee cup of milk...... with two teaspoons of sugar in it, and was trying to drink it!!!!!!

On Sunday, Mim decided to help me paint the front of the house with undercoat. She was doing quite well, despite dropping her brush in the dirt twice and getting flecks of white paint through her hair and all over her hands (which she then wiped on her pants). I couldn't go to the firefighting training (wasn't game to drive the car anymore than necessary), but did manage to get some ironing, painting, cleaning done.

I'm ready for a holiday!

Dancing Dick?

2009-05-06T08:39:00.002+10:00

Friends of ours are going to Billy Elliot the Musical. When they told us over a lovely dinner, Jenny referred to it as Silly Elliot.

A little voice piped up beside her "Billy the Willy!"

A version of Puppetry of the Penis?

Dogs 5, Chooks nil

2009-05-06T08:29:00.002+10:00

We have no more chooks, Sarah disposed of the last two last week.

The first incident was when Sarah chewed through her harness during the 15 mins it took me to drive Mim to Kindy and return. I went straight up to the sheep and found her maintaining vigil, rounding them up when necessary. So I gave her another 15 minutes of working them before capturing her and chaining her up again.

It wasn't until I went to hang out some washing when I saw the body. So Sarah was tied up to the trampoline and flogged. Severely.

Last Chook was very lonely in those last few days. She kept trying to come inside or to be with the dogs. Bad move on her part. One night Michael arrived home to find Sarah off her chain (again). He went looking for her, but couldn't see her (not surprising, trying to find a black dog on a dark night, especially one that doesn't want to be found). When I came home at 8.45pm, I grabbed the torch and went looking. Didn't have to look far. The sheep were near the garage and Sarah was keeping watch. She lets me catch her but won't come near Michael. We discovered the body in the yard, surrounded by feathers.

So the burial ground now contains 2 lambs and 4 chooks (Michael threw one chook in the rubbish bin).

I have plans to get more chooks..... but will need to do some serious 6ft fencing, maybe with corrugated iron panels to deter friggin' sheep from jumping in and chooks from flying out.

All Tied Up

2009-05-03T12:43:00.001+10:00

Mark and Michelle arrived home from their month long sojourn to the States. They immediately sent down a gift parcel for us - Tshirts, bags, book.

But the best present (and naturally the most tasteful) was Michael's gift.

A tie.

A tie that will go with any shirt, and with any occasion. A tie befitting a redneck.

First frost of the year

2009-04-30T21:31:00.005+10:00

This morning was the first frost of the year. It was cold!

But it's the start of excellent landscape photography weather.

It's the key

2009-04-30T19:45:00.004+10:00

A few weeks ago, Mim was wandering through the top paddock and found this key. It looks very old and is just a little too large for the front door (we don't have a key for it). It might belong to an original front door of the 1880 house. Who knows! Makes you wonder who the original owner of the key was, and how they happened to lose it.

Just when you think you've seen everything...

2009-04-22T22:19:00.003+10:00

... something new comes along!

What a rip off!

2009-04-22T22:12:00.003+10:00

We've been pricing ovens and cooktops with a view to replacing the crap that's in our current kitchen. We've decided that we want the same ones we had in Kedron. Bosch no longer make the cooktop but Michael found a similar one made by Miele, at a good price.

Whilst at Hardly Normal looking at this cooktop, Michael also looked at the Bosch side opening oven. Now bear in mind that we bought it for $1560 two years ago. That model has been 'superceded' by another one (which has exactly the same functions). Hardly Normal told us that RRP was $2300, but they could discount it to $2100 just for us (how kind of them!). I wanted to get more quotes, so I rang The Good Guys down in Warrnambool. I didn't even ask the best or cash price, just gave Richard the model number and he said "$1598". Now that's a saving of $500 from Hardly Normal's 'discounted' price!!!

Guess who we won't be buying the oven from!