Retail therapy for the financially-challenged.

New jeans! Ten dollars. Yep, you heard right. Ten dollars. I have this friend Elda who is a shopping queen and her motto is that no-one should ever pay retail. "Elda," you can say on any given day, "I need new jeans/lipstick/cashmere sweaters" and as if by magic she will find you a 2 day only warehouse sale where the items you need are being thrown out the door. When she has finished up with her real job of making sure the under-privileged are not swept under the carpet, she is going to be the presenter of her own smash TV show where she will swoop down on unsuspecting mothers of young children, whose clothes no longer fit (and never will again, doesn't matter how long we keep 'em in the wardrobe!!) and whose budgets are tiny, and she will have 24 hours to kit them out with clothes, fragrance, make-up and accessories for an outrageously small amount of money. She'll be bigger than Super-Nanny.

In the meantime.

Ten. Dollar. Jeans.

(x 2)

Down on the Farm.

This morning I took the boys to Bundoora Park. Note their slightly farm-boy appearance, I like to dress for the occasion when possible.

The park has a children's farm, pony rides & a hay-ride behind a tractor, and lots of great playing equipment. We had a really good morning there.

We went there to meet some friends who were rewarding their daughters' reformed "going to bed like good children and NOT mucking around or getting up again" behaviour with a Pony Ride!! My boys just got a free treat really.

Climber, being the innately cautious lad he is, said afterwards that the ride made him feel a bit nervous and that he was worried he might fall off. He was led around looking very solemn indeed.

Cherub was far more gung-ho and enjoyed himself immensely. He spent the entire circuit saying "aaaahhh" because he wanted to hear his voice go wobbly from the pony-ride (which is straight from a Charlie & Lola adventure).


We even managed to get some special treatment for Cherub when we were at the Children's Farm at bottle-feeding time. If you would like to get similar VIP privileges for your child, make sure you follow these instructions precisely. (Step 2 is the pivotal part.)

1. Arrive in pen just slightly too late for your child to be one of the lucky ones with a bottle. Take this philosophically and exhort child to pat the goats/sheep instead.

2. Whilst still in the pen, move back suddenly at the exact same time that your child moves forward and elbow child sharply in the forehead.

3. Child will then start crying, and, as he is feeling pathetic by now, will notice all other things wrong in his small world, including the fact that the other kids in there have feeding bottles and he doesn't. Child will then start bemoaning this fact and kind-hearted farm employee will take pity on his tear-filled eyes and offer him a special treat.

4. Follow kind farm employee to get the special and enormous bottle for feeding the new calf. Sad child will cheer up slightly at the honour of carrying the extra-big bottle all the way to the cattle pen. Other parents and kids, hopeful of some more action, will follow behind.

5. Between you and your now non-crying child, enjoy the special fun of giving a bottle to the super-gorgeous calf (called "Chocolate" because of her glossy brown coat) and only just manage to hold onto bottle as Chocolate gives it several energetic pushes. Do all this with child on your hip and camera dangling uselessly round your neck.

6. Try not to meet the eyes of other slightly jealous parents and children as you thank the kind woman who gave you the treat. Also try not to look smug.

It started with some jam...

This morning I had another Meeting In Real Life with fellow blogger Shula. (Aren't I just the social bloggerfly?) Which came about after I admired her jam-making and she promptly and generously offered me a jar. So we came together for coffee and breakfast at a cafe and we talked and talked - as if we'd known each other for ages. Gee it was nice. Cherub eventually informed us that he'd like to go home (he behaved admirably well and let us gab to our hearts' content) and we walked back to my car and only then did I remember that I'd brought my camera along with the intention of letting the Cherub try out his photographic skills. So no pictures I'm afraid. Maybe next time.

I think after years of waitressing and teaching I can do chat with new people. I used to be shy, which had a lot to do with an annoying and agonising propensity to blush. I remember my father telling me that I would grow out of it, which is mostly true (although it can still happen and when it does I swear you could see my face from outer space), but that is NOT MUCH HELP when you are 13 and paralysed in social situations involving members of the opposite sex or indeed anyone with a modicum of sophistication. However, these days, apart from a tendency to talk too much to overcompensate for any potentially awkward pauses in the conversation, I am mostly able to cope in any social situation. Today it didn't even feel like I had to draw on those hard-won skills. We just had a lovely connection and that was and is a good thing. She is as you'd expect her to be if you've read her blog. Funny, truthful, straight-talking and good company. So thanks Shula. And thanks for the jam too!!

PS. Blogger just tried to corner me into the dreaded upgrade but I dodged. Ha! (I hope these aren't famous last words...)

All Aboard!

Diamond Valley Miniature Railway
Feb 18th 2007

For the second time this year the Cherub has been running around our front garden without a stitch of clothing on. The reason this time was the welcome cool change. We went outside (at bath time hence the nakedness) to look at the rain and suddenly Climber said Let's run.

So we did. Running and laughing in the rain. Fixit stood. Three of his family prancing around like lunatics in full view of the street was a good enough representation as far as he was concerned. But I recommend it. I felt like I was 6 again, happy and silly and free.

*********

Our morning was spent braving the 39 degree heat at an outdoor birthday party for a 3-year-old. The location was a Miniature Railway, which we will be going back to visit for sure! Such fun for the little train enthusiasts. And tickets only $3 per ride which apart from being nice & cheap was extraordinarily good value if you think about how much money those little rides in shopping malls sting you for and what you get in return.

We had tunnels, bridges, level crossings, bush scenery, waving at other trains, points and signals. And FUN.

When we came home I found this near Fixit's stuff:

Does this mean I should take him shopping for an anorak now, dyathink? Or maybe just a dinky little Casey Jones hat?

Little Tappers

The little tap darlings from Saturday morning.
C for Cute.

I finally bit the bullet and separated the classes so now I have my Kindy Tappers (ages 3-5) :

and my Junior Shufflers (school-age to Grade2) :

It is fantastic. The concentration levels are so much better and I can do proper young stuff with the littlies and much harder stuff with the big kids. The progress is great. Today we worked on a couple of new routines...

... because the kids have been asked to do a couple of performances in late March. They are also great at just following my calls.

Cherub does both classes. Well, you know if Climber does it, then Cherub wants to.

That's fine by me. Both of them are making me proud.


It's a stinkin' hot weekend in Melbourne and I was blessing the air-conditioning in my hall today.

I have a choreographic chore to be getting on with, a potentially very exciting one! Fingers crossed that it comes about. I've been inspired by Ms Poppalina (aka Shula) and her Creative Act task whereby she commits to do something creative every day for a month and post about it. While I'm too late to be part of this, I am hoping to make the effort and try and set aside 30 minutes every day to work on choreography. So far so good, but Sunday's soaring heat might mean a day off ...

Happy Valentine's Day

This is what my romantic son took it upon himself to make last night. She's not allowed to know who it's from!! I have to hand it to her teacher in secret tomorrow morning and ask her to slip it to Halle. He's also wondering hopefully if anyone will send him one. I hope he doesn't find out the hard way that love can be cruel...

All of the kids in Grade One at his school were filmed yesterday for the Channel 10 show 9am with David and Kim. I think the item is a kids-eye-view on Valentine's Day and Love In General. Little kids doing Vox Pops. Awww. There are about 70 kids in his grade so I will be surprised (but thrilled) if Climber makes the cut. Here is what he told me went on (warning; spoiler ahead!) :

Interviewer: How old do you think you have to be to have a girlfriend?
Climber: 6
Interviewer: How old are you?
Climber: 6
Interviewer: So do you have a girlfriend?
Climber: Noo .. well actually I have two.

My Valentine and I are going out for a romantic breakfast on Valentine's Day using a freebie voucher we picked up at the Creche Trivia Night last year. Because that's what all the trend-setters are doing this year, didn't you know? Candlelit dinners are so last-century. No need to worry about babysitting or finding an eatery with any free tables-for-2 on one of the busiest nights of the year. Just drop the kids at school and creche and chill out with my fella in groovy Westgarth. Not that we're heavily into Valentine's Day or anything. But we needed to use the voucher and frankly, we just almost never go out, just the two of us, for Quality Couple Time. So, bacon and eggs and romance, that will be us tomorrow. And coffee too. Natch.

Yes, really, A (non-disastrous) Cooking Post!

Fixit and Climber grew the rocket.
The lovely and gracious Joke blogged the recipe.
I followed instructions.
It was a success!!

Actually. I went one better than that. Joke had a typo* in the recipe and was obviously relaxing with the 2.5 hours of sleep he allows himself per night when I frantically emailed to query said typo. Which left me no option but to make an educated guess ...

... and I was ezzackly right**. So haha Burnt Bog Girl! Take that Burnt Water Girl.

Obviously I have to post the results of such culinary excellence. The recipe is simple and easy to follow.

Make the gremolata.


Prepare the rocket salad. (That's the dressing on the side to keep any salad leftovers fresh for Fixit's lunch the next day.)

Grill the chicken. Top with gremolata.

(Actually I pan-fried the chicken The [very clear and easy-to-follow] instructions sounded like what I think of as pan-frying. Because in my mind grilling involves this contraption:

This may be a cross-cultural linguistic thing? Or I just might not know what the hell I'm talking about.)

Put on plate for delectation of self and loving partner. Enjoy!



Receive the verdict.

Yum-o-rama.

High praise indeed.

Thankyou Joke.

____________________________________________________

* About which he was mortified and apologetic, and I only mention it here because (a) if anyone wants to try the recipe out they would need the new proportions and (b) to highlight what a nice man he is because he emailed me back prontissimo and couldn't have been more worried for me.

**The typo specifies only 4oz chicken. The requisite weight of the chicken should be 1lb, cut into 4 x 4oz pieces. Because I was unsure I made double the gremolata just in case so I may have piled it on a bit thick! But the 4 x 4oz thing? I did that! Which is only exciting if you know my track record.