… there were WAVES.

(And friends.)

Fortunately Tilda had in reserve a complete surfer vocabulary, featuring phrases such as “This is awesome!” and “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”

On Monday I went to IKEA to get the towels (linen, of course – only the best for Sanjot!) and her birthday party was on Saturday. These were hurriedly photographed on a dreary afternoon, just before we left for her party. They were still damp from being washed at midnight on Friday.

It’s very similar to the last quilt I made, but this time I just squiggle quilted all over, which made the quilting go much more quickly. Except that after my first bobbin’s worth of quilting I turned it over and found that I’d quilted a substantial fold on the backing. I considered a large and artful label to cover it up, but couldn’t let it go and instead spent about 4 days taking out my quilting stitches. Ah well.

Also, Tilda has achieved the splits!  Me, not so much.

Tilda has been enjoying cooking a lot lately, partly thanks to our viewing of Celebrity Masterchef last year, and I’ve been cooking more too since I got a new cookbook which has resulted in quite a few tasty new dishes.  Brad was visiting in January, so Tilda got a chance to cook with Daddy. The grilled salmon (replacing trout) topped with mustard and oats wasn’t the absolute most successful recipe out of the book, but it looked good.

Tilda and Brad also spent a lot of time at the pool (and a day at the beach), not that I have any good photos of any of that. But Tilda has acquired a bit of a tan, which my 2010 self feels bad about but which my 1970s self thinks looks good. It wasn’t that noticeable until she was lined up for her first day of school beside two particularly translucent friends.

So Tilda is now in  Grade 2. “Did you have a good first day of school?” “Yep.*”  I have also learned that her new teacher, Mr. P., has a loud voice, and that Tilda has made friends with some of the grade 1 girls in her (composite) class. That’s about all I know so far.

(* This, coincidentally, is how Estella answered the same question the next day when I picked her up after her first day at kinder. Yvonne may lament our bad influence on her children’s English, but it is important that they be familiar with colloquialisms, especially those that may be more Canadian than Australian.)

Estella decided to take diving lessons too, so she kept Tilda company and managed some amazing dives herself. I don’t know that she said a single word to the teacher, but she is only 4.

We took the train into the City, heading for the Melbourne Museum. As soon as we were out of the train station we realized that a visit to the museum without having lunch first wouldn’t really work, so we took a City Circle tram around to Flinders Street, then walked across the river to the food court at Southbank. Undoubtedly I could have chosen a much more convenient food court, but I don’t know where they are and at least Southbank is a bit scenic. We were also treated to crowds of little girls dressed in pink, fresh from having seen Angelina Ballerina at the State Theatre.

We wandered into the lobby of the State Theatre ourselves, and posed for this portrait. I discovered that focusing into a mirror in a dark lobby while people pass through heading on and off the escalator was a bit of a challenge, so this is one of those pictures that looks good small.  Unlike the next 3 pictures!

After lunch it was back onto the City Circle tram for a trip around the City, getting off near the museum. After a long time on the crowded tram, it was good for Tilda and James to stretch their legs a bit.

Then a wander through the museum, breaking apart as the challenge of keeping 3 kids together got too much and enjoying the luxury of having one adult per child. I enjoyed the aesthetic placement of the taxidermied animals in the new Wild exhibit.

маси

Tilda and I took a bit of a detour to the museum cafe, where she managed to snag a Frog in a Pond, i.e. a chocolate Freddo frog in strawberry jello. Cheaper than a bottle of juice and another aesthetic delight.

Our visitors set off for Canberra this morning shortly after 6 AM. I’m glad that Tilda was willing to get up to see them off!

In past years there were crazy pedestrian traffic jams around Flinders Street Station, as thousands left the City after the 9:15 family fireworks just as thousands more arrived in the City for the midnight celebrations. This year the two groups were separated, with the family-friendly celebrations taking place at Yarra Park, just outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was great being able to get off and on the train at Richmond Station, avoiding the crush around Flinders Street Station.

But maybe they thought that only a dozen families came to New Year’s Eve. There weren’t nearly as many rides, and all of them were a bit tame for experienced ridegoers like Tilda. There was one ticket booth. There were 4 stands selling food. And there were lots and lots of people.  Temperatures in the upper 30s made everything just that much more pleasant.

Most year’s we’ve taken the train in after 6 PM and had time to go on a few rides, buy some food, sit and watch the family concert, and then watch the fireworks at 9:15. This year we

• found the end of the line for the ticket booth
• bought enough tickets for 3 rides per child
• found the end of the line for the inflatable slide
• sent Yvonne off to find the end of the line for the food stand
• stood waiting for 45 minutes to get on the slide
• sold half our tickets to someone wandering past as it became clear that there would only be time for one ride
• tried to reassure Phoebe that her mother would come eventually, and that she would eat eventually



• watched the dark, threatening clouds come closer
• hoped that the rain wouldn’t start before we were reunited with Yvonne and the stroller, which held raincoats and umbrellas
• watched the kids go down the slide twice each in their allotted 4 minutes
• found Yvonne near the front of one of the food lines
• felt the beginning of the cool change, heralded by a cloud of dust
• figured out which hot dog-based snacks we were going to eat
• discovered that most of the food had already sold out, so corn dogs and chips!



• decided to head straight to the train station with our food, to be out of the rain and close to our route home when the fireworks went off
• walked to the train station in pouring, pouring rain, trailing chips falling from sodden paper bags
• reassured Tilda that we would be fine despite the frequent and very close lightning
• held our spot on the train platform as more and more people joined us there
• watched the beginning of the fireworks display, which started 10 minutes late as the rain tapered off a bit
• dashed into the nearest train door when it arrived, watching fireworks through the windows as we pulled away

No fireworks photos, as I didn’t want to get my camera out in the rain.

In the end, we had a very nice evening at home, eating crackers, brie and pate and playing on the Wii.  Phoebe and Estella slept over and all the kids got a restful 6 hours’ sleep.

I was grateful for the mild to cool weather that started the year, as I had quite a bit of housework to catch up on before we welcomed our friends Jon, Linda, James, and Lewis.  (Had it been hot instead, I suppose we would have welcomed them in squalour.)

They arrived yesterday afternoon after the long drive from Canberra, and suddenly our house was filled with BOYS.  It was crazy and loud for a while, but then everything settled down, or else I got used to it.  George was introduced to the boys once the noise level had gone down a bit – James and Lewis were a bit freaked out by his size initially, and will still squeak if they come around a corner and find him there, but once Lewis had figured out how to get George to sit and down everything seemed to be going quite smoothly.  Although George is still adjusting to having his couch privileges revoked, as we need the extra seating for humans.

The kids have spent a lot of time in the back yard riding on bikes, scooters, and rollerblades, and we went to the pool today.

It’s Linda’s birthday today, and one of her presents was a margarita-making kit. This fit in very well with my one New Year’s resolution, which is to drink more cocktails. I went to the bottle shop and bought tequila, once I’d figured out where I would find it and what it would look like. I think the last time I bought spirits was in England in 1994 or 1995, when I tried to develop a taste for gin and tonics but ended up drinking gin and Ribena instead because I hated tonic and Ribena covered the gin taste.

I don’t have the shaker yet, or proper glasses for margaritas, and sharing each flavour of mix between me and Linda resulted in teensy tiny drinks, but they were lovely.

The reindeer toothmarks in the stubs of carrots that were left on Christmas morning were sufficient proof for Tilda that Santa really came, although we didn’t hear him on our roof like we did a few years ago.  Tilda woke up at 5:30 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep, finally getting up at 7:15.  In other years we’ve struggled to open all the gifts before early afternoon, but this year it was all done by 9 AM.

Once again, we had lots to open for Christmas, thanks mostly to my mother-in-law Andrea and my stepmother Arlene, who both go to heroic lengths to get physical gifts here. It was all much appreciated. I love these slippers from Turkey that Arlene sent for Tilda.

Mummy and Daddy also came through this year, with a Wii!

Tilda finally has a strapless top/dress (from Grandma, who sent perfect clothes for her.) She loves how it looks, but has already begun to appreciate the potential peril.  I got a new lens that makes nice blurry backgrounds (bokeh!) but which can also make nice blurry faces because it doesn’t focus automatically.  I’m learning to take more pictures so that some will be in focus.

Friends came over for Christmas dinner, after going to various Christmas lunches, so they were all tired and full.  A few games on the Wii perked up the kids, and a glass of wine restored the adults.

Since Christmas we’ve continued to get together with friends and eat a lot.  And the sewing has started up again. The tree is still up, because as long as the tree is there I don’t have to find room to put the gifts away.

P.S. We went to see the Christmas lights.   Not only was it raining, but the lights WEREN’T EVEN TURNED ON.  We did however see a lot of snails.

I’m kind of worried that I haven’t experienced my usual frenzied urge to clean before Christmas – worried that this urge will strike at 11:30 tonight, when I just might be a bit busy acting as a proxy.  Before Tilda goes to bed, we have some Grinch to watch and some Christmas lights to walk to, if it’s not raining.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Yesterday it went up to 39 here, but the promise of a late cool change made it all bearable.

The cool change didn’t come until about 11 PM, and then it was a bit too still and humid to really cool down the house. So I had a beer, watched The Wire, and cut snowflakes out of baking paper. Except of course they’re not snowflakes because I have no idea how to fold things into sixths.

This morning I got a “I’m glad I have you as a mum!”

• it’s 6:30 PM on a school night,
• it’s your only Messiah-free* night this week,
• your child is unfed and unwashed,
• there are only 8 more days of school,
• it’s 2 weeks before Christmas, when gifts are appropriate,
• tomorrow is Sports Day, when absolutely no academic work will be done,
• most of the remaining school days will probably be filled with dvds, AND
• pens, pencils, etc. are provided at school?

Spend 2 hours making a pencil case for Tilda, of course.  Letting her pick the fabrics and design, while gently steering her away from combining pink, brown, and mustard yellow.

* Meaning that I’m not singing Handel’s Messiah tonight.  I am not regularly visited by Jesus.

I ended up sleeping in Tilda’s bed with both dogs, which I will maybe not do again. I brought in a chair so there would be another favourite place to sleep, but there was still a lot of doggy politics going on in the middle of the night and I kept waking up to a looming dog standing on the floor trying to figure out how to get the best spot.

Tonight Tilda is sleeping over at Ishika’s. I went out for dinner with them, and Tilda was very tired and pretty sad, but quite resolute that she wanted to sleep over at Ishika’s because they’re going to IKEA in the morning and are going to have breakfast there!

After dinner I came home and took George for an evening walk, which is quite rare these days. We walked to Yvonne’s and George got to meet Yvonne’s cat, who fortunately is not particularly aware of the potential danger of a large dog, and who therefore didn’t do anything silly like running away. A well-leashed George got a good sniff. He was probably a wee bit too excited, but his hackles weren’t up and he hardly licked his lips at all.

Click on the image to have a look.  It’s missing a few bags, and doesn’t do exactly what I want it to do yet, but I could potentially tweak this website for the next few years.  Please, be gentle.

Now to sew some more bags.  And there’s this word I’ve been hearing lately – “Christmas”?

(P.S. If you’d like to order something but don’t want to pay for shipping because you see me frequently and I can just hand your order to you, use the promo code iknowkristine in the checkout, and it should give you free shipping!)