Week of wins.

Fixit started work on Wednesday. He leaves the house at 6.30am but is home at a reasonable hour. He seems to be enjoying himself, but is tired at the end of the day.  When he was first retrenched I found it annoying having him around in the morning. He kept getting in my way while I was trying to get the boys off to school! But then I got used to it. So it was weird this last few days not having him around.  I would say it actually ran more smoothly, but we all missed him too.

Both boys had music concerts this week.  Climber, in typical fashion, neglected to tell us that his flute ensemble were providing pre-show foyer music so we pretty much missed that. But the two bands he performed in during the show proper (Junior Band and Junior Stage Band) were excellent, and he looked very handsome in his concert shirt and trousers too.



Cherub was highly excited to be doing a music concert as well.  His band has only had 6 weeks preparation, and most of them only started learning their instruments at the start of last term so they only played three very short pieces, but they clearly enjoyed themselves and played with gusto.



I'm feeling proud of all the boys this week!

Oh and PS I bought new tap shoes, because my purple ones have never quite recovered from having the cracked tap-plate. There were no purple ones left in my size so I've gone with some all-black lace-ups.  Busting to try them out tomorrow morning!

International Tap Dance Day 2014

On May 25th we celebrate the birthday of Bill Bojangles Robinson and International Tap Dance Day. This year I decided to put together a little video to mark the occasion.  It was so much fun to make. 

I only have moderate iMovie editing skills, and an awful lot of my students were absent this week *curse you late Autumn Flu/Cold mini-epidemic* but I am pretty happy with the result.

 Hooray for tap dancing. It is the best!

Singing in the Rain

It is Walk to School Day today. Here are some school-kids (Cherub and his best friend) Walking To School. Well, part of the way, it's a bit far for us to do the whole slog on foot. We were going to ride our bikes but then the rain came down. So we compromised: some car, some walking. It's all good.
 

It is exactly 39 weeks today since Fixit was made redundant. For quite a long while we lived off his redundancy payment and my earnings. Then the big payment ran out and he (finally, reluctantly) went to Centrelink. He was immediately eligible at that point for unemployment benefits and our family also qualified for a health care card, hooray for health care cards and the concessions they bring! So that was a load off my mind, but still there was the nagging problem of what he should do. We still haven't worked that out exactly, but ... today Fixit got a job! As a driver/mechanic for a medical aids delivery company. He starts next week.
 

He's feeling so happy right now. So am I.

Bike Ride

Today was a gorgeous Melbourne autumn day, and Fixit, Cherub and I decided to ride our bikes to school.  After we'd crossed the river there's a hill you need to stand up in your pedals for, with a little bit of flat in the middle for a respite. When we approached the hill, I overtook Cherub (little legs, small bike, no gears) and called out Come on Cherub!! as I powered past. He hates me overtaking him, it's very funny.  He called back Don't do that, you make me laugh and then I haven't got enough power to get up the hill!  Then as we came to the second part of the steep hill I heard a stifled chuckle, and there was Cherub being assisted past me by Fixit riding beside him and pushing him along.  After they'd passed, Fixit looked back and smiled at me, very pleased.

I love riding with my family.

(Cherub's school photos, can't decide which one I prefer)

Catching Up: Picnic at Hanging Rock II.

On Anzac Day we had our annual (as of last year) extended-family Picnic at Hanging Rock.  Hanging Rock is about an hour's drive north-west of Melbourne and was the scene of a well-loved Australian novel and movie, set in the early 1900s which told the story of some schoolgirls going missing while climbing the rock.  It is in fact a perfect setting for a story of disappearing people; both years now when we've climbed it I've ended up having a mini panic attack because I couldn't find one or other of my children.  It is SO EASY to get lost up there. And of course I felt like such a fool zigzagging around the many, many nooks and crannies, my chest tight with anxiety while desperately trying to glimpse a child, but it is a big rock, it is full of deep crevices and my kids were exploring and climbing like a pair of mountain goats. Having said that, they were absolutely fine and no-one but me thought anyone was lost. Actually I think maybe *I* was lost. I wandered round the peak for 20 minutes without once catching sight of my family and they were all there, having a great time.  It is a magnificent climb though, and thoroughly atmospheric even with all the other people clambering around.  The boys were the perfect age this year to get the full benefit and couldn't stop talking all the way home about what awesome fun it had been.  Cherub and my sister's boy were about the same level of competence in terms of climbing skills, and had a fine old time getting into caves and tunnels and imagining Lord of the Rings scenarios.  Climber, true to his name, was up every challenging peak he could find.  It was difficult for me to look at him half the time. Be careful sweetie!





The other fun part was hanging out with my family.  My cousins have now got babies of their own, and it was great seeing my boys engage with and entertain the smaller fry.





My sister, who has now relocated to Victoria after years in Canberra, was also very excited to be a part of a gathering like this, and took some gorgeous photos.



The food was also excellent.  There's a lot of good cooks in the family.  I made a freekeh salad, some Anzac biscuits, some hummus and a baby beetroot, walnut, caramelized onion and goat's cheese pie. I know. Getting fancy in my old age.

Cherub just ate a jam sandwich. Typical.