Canberra and back to school

Oh Hai! I've got all these blogposts circling my brain but school started back yesterday, as did tap and I'm flat out like a lizard drinking.

So yes.

It's bullets again.

• We went to Canberra so I could see my sister and her kids and the Paris Masters Exhibition. We stayed with my sister and she took excellent care of us. Thanks sis.

• I really liked the exhibition. I went at a quiet time (last Friday of the school hols, 11am in the morning) and there was NO QUEUING.

• I fell in love with Cezanne a bit more. His use of colours is truly great, and you'll never know this unless you stand in front of the actual painting. I wanted to lick the canvases or wrap myself in them or something. They made all my senses buzz.

• My favourite picture was Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles, but all his paintings in this exhibition were wonderful. His genius just pops out of the frames.

• I was also really fond of the Toulouse-Lautrec portrait which he'd done on cardboard. Great art on a crappy surface, it had a special poignancy because of this.

• I need to tell the saga of the lost sandal next time I blog. Don't let me forget.

• I found $38 airfares so Cherub got to have his first plane rides. (Climber still remembers flying with me to Canberra when my niece was born. Plus he flew to Sydney to see his Grandma when he was 18 months, he claims to remember this but I think he couldn't possibly.) The trip to Canberra was fun, we came in with the sunset.
  

• This shot is taken before take-off on the return trip, when all was well.

• The return trip to Melbourne was incredibly turbulent due to the evil North Wind.

• (There is nothing good about a North Wind if you live in Melbourne.)

• Climber has inherited Mister Fixit's ironguts, for which he should be profoundly grateful. He was slightly nervous, but essentially fine.

• Cherub and I were this close to losing our lunch and we both hated it.

• I had to calm and soothe poor Cherub through my own sweaty palmed discomfort and rising nausea and it was a tough gig. We're nearly down, it's just the wind, my goodness it's bumpy. Bleah.

• The poor little mite pretty much kept it together for the interminable descent and then burst into tears on landing and said he was never going in an aeroplane again. A kind lady saw his distress and held everyone behind her back so we could get him off the plane quickly.

• We missed Fixit while we were away. A friend told me he was wandering around like a lost lamb in our absence.

• The whole family spent the morning at the pool on Sunday for the heatwave. It was ace.

• The kids went back to school yesterday and all is well.

• Except driving to school that first morning suddenly all the stuff I had to do came crowding into my brain and I could feel my shoulders rising and *bam* if you're not careful you can lose all your holiday relaxedness in one little car drive. I forced the shoulders down and took deep breaths.

• My first tap classes were last night and now I have money in my wallet and joy in my step again. As I did the grocery shop this morning I could feel my happiness glowing out of me and it made me realise how much I've been missing tapping, and how lucky I am to be able to do it as a profession.
  

Okay. So I think we've caught up now.