Diary of a Wombat

When I first came across this picture book I was wandering around a bookshop in 2002 with David aged 5 1/2, Caitlin aged 4 and Tom 1 year old, I picked it up, leafed through, and fell in love instantly. The simple text and gorgeous illustrations were so evocative, I could see Mothball (the wombat), full of personality, coming to life on the pages. It very quickly became a family favourite and we've since accumulated a few more books by the same fabulous team of writer Jackie French and illustrator Bruce Whatley.

A few years ago I bought a board book copy of Diary of a Wombat on sale to pop in the present stash, it's getting lonely in there so I'm pulling it out to add to my Christmas give-away. 

If you haven't yet met Mothball and her carrot obsession then you really, really must! Fortunately you don't even have to wait till you can get your hands on the book because there's an absolutely lovely piece for you to read over on Jackie French's website about the first time she met Mothball and how she came to write the book: The Story Behind Diary of a Wombat.

Oh, and your kids will probably like it too :-)

Dried leaves in boiling water...

...an exercise in associative blogging.

Tea.

My Nanna (Dad's mum), who I remember as teaching me to drink tea - no sugar, a bit of milk, strong and hot.

Breathing in the steam from the mug, cupped in cold hands, sitting around a campfire at night. So many glorious camping holidays with my family and my mum's twin sister's family when I was a kid.

Yum cha, the brew getting stronger as the meal progresses until the pot is refilled and it goes back to hot water lightly tinged with colour and flavour.

The ritual of Grandma's teapot, readied before every meal and filled with boiling water as dessert was finished, the cosy tucked around it, and cups of tea poured when perfectly brewed.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the cup of something that was almost but not quite entirely unlike tea which was all poor Arthur could get out of the Nutrimatic drinks dispenser.

Cold tea being used as a burns treatment in one of the Sue Barton books.

The Swallows and Amazons were always drinking tea; Lucy had tea with Tumnus the faun; Bilbo drank tea with Gandalf; the Mad Hatter had a tea party; Bunyip Bluegum, Sam Sawnoff and Bill Barnacle brewed tea in a billy to have with the puddin'; and there's nothing better than sitting down with a nice hot cup of tea and a good book.

Standing at the bus stop waiting to go to school in the morning with my cup of tea, the bus stop was right by our letterbox, when I finished my tea I'd put the empty mug in the letterbox and retrieve it when I got home in the afternoon. I once dropped and broke a favourite mug (given to me by my best friend Rowena) juggling too many belongings while trying to open the front door.

Tom reaching for my mug of hot tea from his perch on my left hip at maybe 9 or 10 months old and demanding his share of it before it got cold. Asbestos mouth that child.

Sitting on our front deck with my gardener, drinking tea and listening to tales of him growing up on a farm in South Africa and becoming a cheesemaker and eventually emigrating to Australia. He's moved up to the Central Coast now and has passed the Sydney part of his business on to his son. They're both lovely people but the son sends minions rather than coming himself (he's also living on the Central Coast) and I'm not at home as much so the tea break with the gardeners isn't happening any more.

Comfort, the cure for all ills. Peppermint tea for morning sickness (or rather morningnoonandnight sickness as it was), chamomile for sleep, English Breakfast tea for fueling up for the day, Earl Grey tea at night.

Watching Star Trek with Adam and wrangling cups of tea from each other with humerous orders "Tea, Earl Grey, hot. Make it so?"

Smoko at the shearing sheds when I went on a Scripture Union Agriculture camp during school holidays in year 7. It's called a smoko but it's really all about the mugs of tea. And the enormous trays of slab cake. I rode a pony bareback (and fell off) and drove a car across a paddock on that camp too. Then sprained my ankle so badly I couldn't walk for several days because I tried to chase sheep over rough ground wearing gum boots. My friend Rowena carried me piggy-back from the paddock back to where the camp staff were.

My kids bringing me cups of tea when they see I'm stressed or upset. On Wednesday night after Caitlin's dance concert this week I was so exhausted and strung out that when we got home I collapsed on the lounge and cried a little. Next thing I knew I had two cups of tea, both Caitlin and David had independently made one for me. I drank them both.

Drinking tea with my Mum and my brother on Saturday night. We sat at the kitchen table at my Mum's place after having left Grandma's room at the nursing home. We talked and cried a little and remembered and smiled and even laughed a little.

Tea.

Dried leaves in boiling water.

50 Things post No.18

This isn't quite a usual Friday Fragments style of post, not least because it doesn't just cover the last week - more like the last 40 years - but it's certainly fragmentary and it does include a couple of bits from the week just gone, so I'm linking up anyway. Don't forget to visit all the other fabulous fragmenters too!

Hosted by Mrs4444.

Friday Fragments

Hosted by Mrs4444.

Time for the end of week mental declutter that is Friday Fragments. Let's see what's floating about in here shall we?

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I did my 6th Kiva loan this week, which apparently makes me an average Kiva lender. Must do better. I'm going to stop buying Macca's coffee on work mornings and instead do a Kiva loan each month. There's a perfectly good coffee machine at work anyway.

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The church notice board that I was venting about on Thursday last week has gone from offensive to merely bemusing. It now reads "Without God the world is like a door off its hinges." I invite speculation as to meaning in the comments, my first thought was "can now be used as an improvised table-top?"

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There's a new Terry Pratchett book on the way, I've pre-ordered my copy of I Shall Wear Midnight and can't wait for more of Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle.

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This week there have been only two days on which I posted Creating order from chaos pics. What a slacker! Here are today's feeble efforts.

The notice board, which wasn't really that bad (oh yes, it's been worse in the past) but things kept falling off it because there were too many sheets of paper stuck on with the one pin.

Before and After

The cupboard behind the notice board. I do not like the way the shelves in this cupboard sag. It's freaky. I keep having visions of one of the shelves giving way and all the glassware and stoneware coming crashing down through the floor into the stairwell below. Probably on top of my head.

Too many breakable things piled on top of other breakable things.

I worked my way up from the bottom shelf to the top. When I got to the top shelf I looked at it, pulled out one bag of stuff, stood there holding it for a while. Then put it back and left it for another day.

Looking much less precarious.

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My Dad

Dad took me out to lunch today. We went to a Japanese restaurant at Hornsby called Kibou which I had heard good things about and which Dad has been to often enough that he didn't have to specify which beer he wanted. It was goooooood. I'm a terrible food blogger though, I kept starting to eat before taking a photo!

Seaweed salad

Gyoza

Teriyaki chicken with salad, rice and miso

Sashimi

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I arrived home just as the kids were coming in from the bus stop and was greeted with much laughter and by this sight.

Guess we'll be needing new track pants then.

It seems they got a little over-stressed during sport. I'm so glad they have fully lined track pants and that he was able to find this highly amusing instead of totally traumatising!

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That's it from me today, I'm off to post a package containing Vegemite and Tim Tams to an unsuspecting blogger somewhere (hint, it's our lovely Friday Fragments host). Well, she knows the package is coming, but Vegemite is guaranteed to be surprising, forewarned or not! Don't forget to go visit other Fragmented Folks, head on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time to see what everyone's been up to this week.

Friday Fragments

Hosted by Mrs4444.

My mind isn't so much fragmented as mush at the moment, it's been kind of a long week, but I've fished out a few bits and bobs to share. For more end of week shrapnel head on over to Half-Past Kissin' Time!

*****

On Tuesday I had my 3rd singing lesson and my teacher said nice things to me. So I guess I'm not completely delusional and there might be some point to this exercise. Who knows, one day I might even be fit to be heard in public. I'm really enjoying the lessons and the practicing, if I practice when the kids are at home Tom often plonks himself down beside me and joins in.

*****

The first five e-ARC (electronic Advance Reader Copy) chapters of Lois McMaster Bujold's new Miles Vorkosigan book (due out Nov) are online at Baen. I've given in to temptation and started reading but I know I'm going to regret it when I get to the end and then have to wait.

*****

I'm also reading Mrs Darcy vs The Aliens and so should you. 

Mrs Darcy vs The Aliens is a slightly demented sequel to Pride and Prejudice, although it has been described more accurately as "not so much Pride and Prejudice's sequel as its bastard offspring following a drunken one-night stand with the X-Files."

*****

My 11 year old daughter has a friend staying over tonight. After dinner they watched a movie, then they took themselves off to bed and when I went at 10pm to tell them it was time for lights out I found the room dark and silent. Caitlin was still awake enough to whisper "good night" but only just. I'm not sure this is normal behaviour for 11 year olds, I'm pretty sure I'd have been going strong till at least 11pm under similar circumstances at that age.

*****

I have embarked on a campaign to get my house under control and I'm keeping myself on track with the project by posting my progress daily. Here's my decluttering for today:

The kitchen dumping ground, this is where all the stuff that no-one knows where it goes ends up. Plus there's the tupperware cupboard which, of course, explodes into chaos as soon as someone uses the third item since the last it was beaten into submission.

I decided that the first thing I should do was to alphabetise the spice rack. No, I don't know why that seemed important, but it did forcibly bring to my attention the fact that I have a habit of buying cloves and chili flakes as though they're going out of fashion.

Sadly the rest of the kitchen still looks rather more like the first photo than the second, but hey! there's always tomorrow.

Linkfest No. 17

Stuff I thought was worth sharing...

Karen Healey, at Attention Rebellious Jezebels, reviews books "in dialogue style in a spoilerific manner that often renders in-depth, wonderful works nonsensical" and is also highly amusing.

Charlotte of Charlotte's Library asks Where are the Good Mothers in Middle Grade Science Fiction and Fantasy?

Ladysquires at Shitty First Drafts explains Why I'm Not Proud of You for Correcting Other People's Grammar.

On the subject of the Ethics Classes trial:

• Teaching Ethics as an option to non-scripture at Motherhugger.
• Practical things you can do to help - a post in the discussions section of the St James Ethics Centre Facebook page Towards an Ethics-based Complement to Scripture in NSW Primary Schools
• Deborah at In a Strange Land is tempted to say, "Diddums"

Friday fragments and Linkfest No. 15

Hosted by Mrs4444.

When you get to the bottom of this post don't forget to come back up here and click on this link to Half-Past Kissin' Time so you can go check out all the other fabulous Friday Fragments posts!

I missed fragmenting last week and I've barely blogged at all recently, I ought to have a whole bunch of stuff to offload. Let's see what's lurking in the corners of my brain...

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I spent Saturday night in a small, inadequately air-conditioned room, with a fabulous group of women from the Hoyden About Town blog community, singing loudly and hilariously for 3 hours. Karaoke is so much fun even if it does result in a sore throat the next day. We did everything from Meatloaf and Cold Chisel to Abba and Simon & Garfunkle - there was even a rickrolling courtesy of FP. I'm already looking forward to next time!

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David's first 2 days of high school at the end of last week were a great success, he came home happy and excited, telling us all about his classes. Then on Monday and Tuesday he went to the Year 7 Orientation camp at Vision Valley and came home exhausted and miserable having been separated from his friends both for the activities and for sleeping arrangements, fed pretty crappy food, and generally having a rotten time. What a massive waste of time, effort and money. I had to bully him out of bed and off to school on Wednesday morning, he was in tears and I was so close to giving in and letting him stay home. I had a good cry myself after he'd gone and spent the day in a state of anxiety over whether he was going to have an ok day. Fortunately he came home much happier again, it seems actual classes at high school are a Good Thing. Except for PE - he's not at all pleased that they're doing bush dancing.

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We've been harvesting quite a good crop of tomatoes from Tom's vegetable garden, perfect for slicing nice and thick and having with cheese on Sao biscuits.

Tom's tomatoes

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Things with my Dad have been slowly improving and we're on our way to having the money side of his life sorted out. I'm now managing his finances so if things start to go off the rail again I should know straight away. I feel somewhat weird and conflicted to be in this role especially as when Dad is well he really should be perfectly competent to look after all this stuff himself. I'm going along with him to his next psychiatrist appointment so I can have a chat to his doctor about it too. Dad's still pretty vulnerable but he's a lot better than he was 2 weeks ago and I'm fairly confident that he's not going to end up in a major depression. So that's good.

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I finally got myself a Diva cup after more than a year of intending to do so. It is awesome. That is all. (Actually, I can say plenty more so if anyone has questions - ask away!)

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I finished reading the first Sookie Stackhouse book, I enjoyed it enough that I instantly picked up the second one and started on that. Good thing I bought the box set of 7. The fact that it took me a week to get through the first book says something about my state of mind though, I'm finding I can't concentrate on a book for more than 30 minutes at a time. Stress sucks.

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And now for some links:

At Hoyden About Town Lauredhel posts on the ILCA press release "For Haiti Orphans Wet Nursing Can Save Lives"

At Upside-Down Adoption Atlasien posts about "The Dangerous Desire to Adopt Haitian Babies"

Chally of Zero at the Bone hosts the Thirteenth Carnival of Feminists

I need one of these.

Jill at Feminitse posts about "Tim Tebow and the anti-choice Superbowl ad" and also links to a YouTube ad responding to the Tim Tebow ad featuring Sean James and Al Joyner (none of whom I know anything about but apparently some people are interested in the stuff these people do and say).

Deborah's new car and new hair made me laugh :-)

A room with a view

I was sitting in the office this afternoon, by myself, listening to the sound of the creek at the bottom of the gully coming in through the open balcony door and thinking how lucky I am to be working in such a lovely environment. I've been meaning to take photos for a while now but I always think of it too late and don't have time to muck about with the camera before rushing off to be on time for the kids, but today I wasn't in a huge hurry, so photos there are.

This is the view from our office balcony.

If you click through to the larger image you can see a smattering of white gum-blossom in the tops of some of the trees.

That photo is a little over-exposed because I wanted to capture the greenery up close to our building, here's how the sky really looked today.

Even the car park at work makes me happy as I walk past the gardens full of new growth,

flowers blooming,

and snoozing Banksia men.

There's nothing like a bit of nostalgic reminiscence to brighten the afternoon. My copy of The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie was given to me on my 7th birthday by my Nana, my Dad's mum. She always gave me beautiful books as presents, usually purchased at The Children's Bookshop at Beecroft. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie is held together with yellowing sticky tape, testament to many re-reads.

Link-fest No. 12 + DUFC

One of the reasons there's been so little blogging going on around here lately is that I'm re-reading The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett at the moment. In fact I'm fighting the urge to go back to my book right now! Here's why: Guest post by Linda Gillard at Rhapsody in Books reviewing the series
ETA: Another lovely review of the Lymond series - Been There, Dunnett by Marjorie Leithead at Textualities

Anyhoo, have some links:

The 16th Down Under Feminists Carnival this month is hosted by Hexy at Hexpletive.

Ariane's Unsolicited careers advice for high school kids.

Lauredhel's recent posts on birth looking at a Canadian study on homebirth and WA birthing statistics.

Jo Tamar at Wallaby on Perceptions of medical risk.

Blogger on the Cast Iron Balcony on Men, Women and Risk.

Do You Want to Date My Avatar


Yum Yum Yum kitty

Pride and Twitterverse

I've twittered a link to this already (as is only right) but just in case any of you manage to miss that either on Twitter or Facebook I feel it is imperative that I share this thing of beauty here on my blog as well.

Thanks to a link in Tigtog's regular feature Femmostroppo Reader I found my way to Under the Mad Hat where I have been privileged to read her creation entitled Pride and Twitterverse.

Some favourite snippets:

MrsB:
A Mr Bingley--worth 50,000 followers a year--has joined Twitter! He's brought a friend, Mr Darcy--worth 100,000 followers a year! Pls RT

....

LizzyB:
@CharlotteL Of course. I’ll even visit you on Facebook but promise me I won’t have to read Mr Collins’ blog.

....

LizzyB:
Am taking a social networking webinar paid for by my Aunt & Uncle. Hope to learn lots.

LizzyB:
@JaneB Get this! We have to review Darcy’s blog. He has the most beautiful template I’ve ever seen.

Go, read the whole thing!

Why it's more than a week!

As I brought up my poor neglected blog to contemplate perhaps, possibly, perchance actually posting something, into my head popped "it's more than a week!" instantly followed by an inner recitation of the following*:

Emmeline
Has not been seen
For more than a week. She slipped between
The two tall trees at the end of the green...
We all went after her. "Emmeline!"

All the way through to:

Where have you been?
Why it's more than a week!" And Emmeline
Said, "Sillies, I went to see the Queen.
She says my hands are purfickly clean!"

Now, my hands are indeed purfickly clean but I can't claim to have seen the Queen recently - or indeed ever, not that I harbour any such ambitions being inclined to the view that Australia really ought to detach itself from the British monarchy if only we can work out a way to do so without completely stuffing up our system of government...but I digress - rather I have been expending all my blogging mojo on building a blog for the school P&C (here).

Anyway, if you're another person who finds their life being narrated by involuntary poetry, or are prone to occasional public recitations, you might like to peruse this post over on In a Strange Land, I'm enjoying the discussion happening there.

Meanwhile I shall try to cease being Bisy and promise to be Backson.

*It's Before Tea by A. A. Milne, instead of music earworms I get poetry earworms.

Anne of Green Gables

Justine Larbalestier tweeted a link to "Best recap EVA of the Anne of Green Gable books" so followed and found myself reading The Ballad of Anne and Gilbert by Diana Peterfreund.

I only ever read the first couple of books in the series and it was so long ago I can barely remember anything about it but I still found it highly amusing.

From the Anne of Avonlea section:

"Marilla and Mrs. Lynde: Gee, that Anne and Gilbert are hanging out a lot together — well, as much as they can considering how far away he works and all. Bet they’ll be getting married soon.

Anne: Oh, you silly old biddies!

Gilbert: Anne, don’t you think they’ve got a point?

Anne: Huh?"

Laundry and laughter

We often get the kids to help us deal with the mountain of clean laundry that accumulates over a week (it gets washed and dried pretty much daily but the folding and ironing is rather more erratic). Everybody comes downstairs and we chuck all the clothes on Adam's and my bed and then spend 20 minutes yelling at the kids to stop throwing themselves on top of the pile and actually fold the bloody clothes. It's a lot quicker than if one person has to stand there and slog their way through the whole pile themselves.

Tonight, just as Adam was beginning to prod everyone in the direction of Mt Washmore, Tom picked up Midnite and asked for the next chapter. Adam insisted on laundry folding, the kids begged for story time and in the end a compromise was reached. Adam suggested I could lie on the bed and read while they folded the clothes around me (what an excellent idea!).

And so it was. I propped myself up in one corner of the bed, baskets of washing were dumped on my legs and I read aloud chapter 4, which was about Midnite's first trial, incarceration, and escape from gaol, while the huge pile of washing magically disappeared into each child's basket. (Mine's all in a big pile in the corner of the room to be dealt with before I go to bed.) The only problem was the kids ended up so entranced they were forgetting to fold and laughing so much I was driven to ask if they could actually hear what I was reading.

I think we should do the laundry this way all the time.

Especially if I'm the one that gets to do the reading!

From my bookshelf & book club review

It's been a bit quiet on the reading front since my last bookshelf post. Once I finished the Egan and MZB I picked up Alastair Reynolds' Pushing Ice which I had started ages ago but had put aside for no particular reason.



It ended up coming away on our camping holiday with me and still lasted me through to early February. It kind of freaks me out when it takes me that long to finish a book, especially when I'm enjoying it (which I did, very satisfying grand scale sc-fi) - you know how some people stop eating when they're stressed or feeling down, not me, I stop reading. When that happens I know I'm not traveling so well. I end up spending a lot of time reading blogs and aimlessly wandering the web and then feeling frustrated because I've wasted so much time (with the aimless wandering, not the blog reading, that part's ok). So, um, yeah, things haven't been great inside my head lately. No particular reason, just lots of little things adding up I think.



Next up was The Sharing Knife: Horizon by Lois McMaster Bujold. I'd been looking forward to this one for a while, Bujold is one of my very favourite writers, and it didn't disappoint. Horizon is the 4th and final book of the Sharing Knife series and it brought the story to a satisfying conclusion leaving the characters poised to carry on without an audience. I like endings that manage to wrap up all the loose ends but still leave me with a feel for future possibilities.



Most recently, tonight in point of fact, I've just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. This is the February book for the Blogosphere Book Circle.

From the book's website:

About the Book

January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb.

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. Born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society's members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Did you like/dislike the book, did it affect you in any way?:

Yes, I did like it. Quite a lot actually so I'm glad I signed up for the book circle, might never have read it otherwise! I enjoyed the epistolary style, each character's voice came through clearly in their letters and I love the way the story unfolded as each persons' accounts of events fitted together like pieces of a puzzle. I had a look at the list of other epistolary books on the website and found a couple of other favourites in there - The Screwtape Letters and 84 Charing Cross Road. I knew nothing of the history of the Channel Islands, didn't even really realise how close they were to France (never having had occasion to think about it) so I've learned some new stuff reading the book and more again reading the history and trivia on the website. The book has left me wanting to visit Guernsey and also with an urge to reread Gaudy Night (Juliet reminded me a little of Harriet Vane), unfortunately I can't find my copy so I'll have to make do with Busman's Honeymoon instead.

Other Book Circle member's reviews can be found here (I'll add links as I see people's review posts): Penny, CW, Emma, Heather, Janine, Jenny, Julie Maree, Kate, Kelly, Kristen, Lynda B, Mel, Sandra, Sharon, Suzannah, Yvette

Interview time

I've been a little slow with this one! Back at the end of January Liz at Eternal Lizdom invited her readers to request an interview from her, which I duly did. Shortly afterwards, her questions arrived in my inbox and I opened a draft post, began to write, got stuck and it's been sitting there ever since. Today I determined to finish - and here it is.

This is one of those pass-it-on meme type things so if you want me to interview you, leave a comment and say “Interview me!” and I'll send you 5 questions to answer. Liz also invited her readers to ask their own questions of her, that seems fun too so if there's anything you want to know about me, ask away!

Now, on to the interview:

1. What's in your fridge? What do you have to always have in your kitchen? Brave enough to share a picture of your fridge or pantry?

I like having a well stocked fridge and pantry so the answer to both of the first two parts of this is usually much the same. These are things that are in my fridge pretty much all the time: milk, cheeses (low fat slices, fetta, brie, smoked cheddar, edam), ham, salami, devon, butter, margarine, eggs, bacon, pickles (dill, sweet mustard, onions), mustards (dijon, wholegrain, american), kalamata olives, capers, anchovies, juices (breakfast, lemon, lime), salad dressings (balsamic, coleslaw), sauces (soy, fish, oyster, sweet & sour, worcestershire, tartare, cocktail, tomato, BBQ) mayonnaise, spreads (jams, lemon curd, lime marmalade), minced garlic, chili paste, wasabi, carrots, tomatoes, baby spinach, cos lettuce, shallots, cucumber, broccoli, mushrooms, lemons, grapes, apples, low fat sour cream, yoghurt.

Here's a photo of my fridge post-party after yesterday's BBQ, the bottle of Coke makes me cringe, I hate the stuff, but the containers full of left-overs will make meals today nice and easy.

My pantry I hate, it's a horrible design with half the shelving tucked into the corner on the left and accessible only by people with extra long arms and x-ray vision.



The oven used to be above the bench beside the pantry, when I got a new one it wouldn't fit in the same spot so Adam built these shelves for me to sit in the now empty space. My pantry shelves go right back to the wall behind the spice rack.

2. What's your parenting philosophy? Do you wish there was something you'd done differently? What concerns do you have as you move forward in your parenting journey?

I don't know that I've ever tried to articulate what I do as a parent in terms of a philosophy. I've just done what felt right, what worked. I listen to them to find out what they need. I've always explained why when I'm asking something of them. I'm honest and open with them, if I'm grumpy and impatient I'll tell them I know I'm over-reacting to things and that I'm sorry (but that they'd better bloody well cut it out or my head will explode!) I tell them I love them all the time. I make a conscious effort to notice and say thank you when they do good things. I tell them how proud I am when they make an honest effort at something.

The one thing I wish we'd done differently was not to have bought so many gorram toys. We indulged them because we could and we paid for it. Kids who think they are entitled to stuff are not pleasant creatures. I had to do some pretty heavy-handed deprogramming on that front when David was about 6. Even now they have a habit of assuming that pretty much anything is theirs for the asking and then being terribly put out when we don't deliver. I'm often heard exclaiming "Which part of "NO" are you having trouble understanding?!" (Actually I exaggerate, they're not too bad now.)

I'm looking forward to watching them grow up (a lot!) and as we approach the teen years I'm conscious of the need to keep communication lines open and of the potential difficulties that come with negotiating the transition from authority figure to friend. I hope that I've established a strong enough foundation of trust and respect between us that when the hormones kick in it doesn't get too horrific! But mostly I just plan on taking things as they come.

3. I know you love to read. What 5 books have had the greatest impact on your life?

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - I read The Hobbit when I was 8 years old and we were living in the US for a few months. It led me to read The Lord of the Rings as soon as we got back to Australia and my Dad could dig out his old copy - a single volume paperback edition. I took 3 months to read TLOTR and it was the beginning of my love for SF&F. (As I sit in the lounge room with my laptop the kids have the Return of the King DVD on, I keep getting distracted and watching the movie instead of writing.)

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut - my first encounter with serious hard sci-fi, this was lent to me by my year 7 English teacher.

The Bible - does that seem an odd pick for an atheist? I grew up as a member of the Uniting Church (an organisation for which I stil have a great deal of respect), my understanding of human nature, my ethics and my morality have as a foundation things I learned from reading and discussing the Bible as a child and teenager. It would be dishonest of me to leave this complicated, beautiful, terrible, very human book off this list.

One day, possibly when I was still in primary school, maybe early high school, I picked up a book from my parents' shelves, the title of which I don't even remember. It was a history of and comparison of religions. Learning about the history of religions and the huge variety (and also the sameness) of religious thought across time and cultures was both fascinating and enlightening.

I'm going to have to stop at 4 because I can't pick out any other single book as having had a notably significant impact for me. Everything I read teaches me something, that's one of the things I love about it.

4. What is your Aussie impression of the US? If you could have a 5 minute, private conversation with President Obama, what would you tell him? What do you want Americans to know about Australia?

Oh my. This one's a bit tricky. See, my last in person experience of the US, back in 1985 was as a miserable 14 year old who had been dragged away from her first boyfriend to come and live in Boulder, Colorado for 5 months while her father was on sabbatical and working at NCAR and the HAO. I hated it. My favourite shows were not on TV, and we had no money to spare so we didn't have cable. I felt out of place at school because the subjects everyone else was doing didn't match up well with the Australian curriculum and I ended up with a very peculiar timetable which had me spending time with and befriending people who were up to 3 years older than me. On the up side one one of those older friends saved my sanity by turning out to be a D&D playing, sci-fi reading geek and thus a veritable soul-mate. Plus, she lent me all her Alan Dean Foster books to read - thanks Kris, I wish I'd managed to keep in touch with you back in the days of snail-mail.

Erm, I'm rambling.

I don't see the US as a monolithic entity that it would be reasonable to make any blanket statements about. I feel resentment at the ubiquitous American cultural influence on Australia but I have a passionate love of certain American TV shows. I hated the way the Howard government sucked up to the Bush government but I know that Australia does benefit in certain ways from a close diplomatic relationship with the US (there are some big disadvantages too unfortunately). I'm disturbed by the level of hatred shown by some sections of the US population to other human beings but I know there are people just as bad here in Australia (and everywhere else) and that there are many Americans who fight every day for an end to such prejudices.

If I was to be in a position to speak privately to Obama I think I'd be hard pressed to think of anything to say beyond "Good luck, watch your back and please, please, please bite the bullet and get universal health care happening for the US!"

What do I want Americans to know about Australia? Hmm, let's see...I know! You know all those stories about Australia's dangerous, deadly wildlife? They're ALL TRUE! Especially the one about drop bears. Also, Vegemite is the most delicious thing ever and you must try it one day.

5. Why do you blog? What got you started? What do you get out of it?

For me blogging is a creative outlet, a way of participating in a community and a way to record things that I don't want to forget.

Way back in my teens I was a pretty regular diarist (note to self: you really should dig those old diaries out and get rid of at least some of them - yes, I've still got them) but I hadn't done any journaling for years. I didn't keep a pregnancy diary, I never filled in those Baby Books I was given when the kids were born and I was an absolutely chronic at forgetting to bring the camera when we went out somewhere.

When I started Weight Watchers (again) back in Feb '06 I got involved with the forums. WW, in their wisdom, has very limited forums - no pics, peculiar defaults for the display and sorting of topics and threads etc - so many people were keeping a blog to document their "weight loss journey" and I hopped right on board. When I look back over the first, say, 18 months or so of my blog I'm sometimes tempted to do some pruning. There's a lot of stuff in there that irritates or saddens me now but there's also a bunch of kinda cool stuff too and my past is part of who I am today so I baulk at getting rid of it.

By now I'm thoroughly hooked on the journaling aspect of blogging, I'm now prone to responding to events by reaching for my camera and thinking "I have to blog this!" (I'm not always quick enough with the camera though.) I have visions of the kids, or indeed myself, reading this stuff years from now (to which end I may use this one day). I love being part of the blogging community. I love the laughter, learning, challenges to think, companionship, the chance to commune with like minded people, the discovery of common ground in diversity.

And I get a huge kick out of the fact that there are people out there who have never met me and actually want to read what I write.

Yeah, time to 'fess up, it's all about the ego boost folks. So leave comments dammit!

Other Mother is here

Freaky!

I've been exploring the Coraline movie website, so much awesome! I particularly like the clip showing the miniature knitting (it's in the top drawer under the mirror in Coraline's bedroom). I'm extremely peeved that here in Australia we have to wait till MAY for the cinema release *grumbles*

I have to confess I haven't read the book yet, but I did read an excerpt from it in the Nebula Awards Showcase anthology for 2003, the year in which Coraline won the novella category.

Oh well, at least I've got plenty of time to grab myself a copy of the novella and the graphic novel before I go see the movie.

Blogosphere Book Circle reading list

I've gone and joined a book club, we'll be reading one book a month and sharing our thoughts and reviews on our blogs. It's been organised by the lovely Penny at Walking Upside Down and it's going to drag me kicking and screaming out of my usual genre comfort zone of SF&F and make me try something new and different for a change. I'm looking forward to it!

Here's our reading list for the next 12 months.

Feb: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

Mar: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Apr: In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan

May: The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff

Jun: The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

Jul: Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou

Aug: PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

Sept: Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Oct: Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

Nov: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and Reg Keeland

Dec: Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Jan '10: The book thief by Markus Zusak

From my bookshelf

Things I've been reading this past week.

Incandescence by Greg Egan
I haven't finished this one yet so who knows how I'll feel about it when I'm done but here's my thoughts so far: Egan usually makes my head hurt trying to follow the science part of his SF (and I do love him for it!) but this time, even though I'm sure I'm not completely grasping the details of the orbital mechanics on which the story hinges, I'm getting enough of it to follow what's going on without too much effort. I am wondering if the central idea really needed a whole novel, and the character driven stuff is not particularly engaging, but I do like the playing around with science stuff so all up I'm enjoying it. When I've finished reading he book I'll have to go have a play on Greg's website too.

The Bloody Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Heritage of Hastur by Marion Zimmer Bradley
I started on the MZB's because I'd left the Egan upstairs when I went to bed one night and couldn't be bothered going up to get it. It's ages since I'd read any Darkover books but I think I'm hooked again. One of the kids asked me what they were about, I was half-asleep so I muttered something about "long-lost colony on Darkover rediscovered by Terran Empire...culture clash...adventure...alien stuff...they're good...there's LOTS of them!" (Now all I have to do is find them on my sadly disorganised and overcrowded bookshelves.)

The Iron Wolf and other stories by Richard Adams (also published as The Unbroken Web)

This is a collection of folk-tales from all over the world which I've had since I was a kid, it has beautiful illustrations and I've been looking forward to sharing them with the kids. When Tom was sick last week I asked if he wanted me to read to him in bed and he said "yes please" and that I could pick the book. I pulled this off my shelf and read him the list of stories, he asked for "The Iron Wolf". About half-way down the first page I thought to myself "this is too old for him" and asked if he wanted me to keep going. He did, in fact he loved it! The next day he had to tell Grandma all about it...and Dad and Dave and Cait. Just a moment ago he saw me holding the book and said excitedly to Dave and Cait "We could read some Iron Wolf stories, guys I think you'd really like them!" So I guess that's what we'll be doing later this arvo.

This weekend

We have:

Demolished most of the kitchenette downstairs in the rumpus room (L-shaped bench and the cupboards underneath) to make room for the old entertainment unit.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with all the crap that came out of the demolished cupboards.

Moved the old entertainment unit (yeah, that bloody great thing ^) from the lounge room, out along the front path, down the precipitous driveway, through the garage into the backyard and then back in to the rumpus room.

Moved two huge bookshelves to make space for a clothes rack in our bedroom.

Shifted another bookshelf from one end of the lounge room to the other.

It used to be down in that other corner where the lamp is now.

Taken a car full of rubbish to the tip.

Put up the Christmas tree and laid out all the other decorations.

The tree was entirely assembled and decorated by the kids, I haven't touched it at all.

I suspect the Dalek may be jealous of R2's hat, must find another one, can't be having robot wars in the lounge room.

I'm in the habit of putting the noise making stuffed toys up high, unfortunately the kids went and grew so that no longer stops them being set off ad nauseum.

Found the missing Advent Calendar that I made when Dave and Cait were tiny.

The kids were gratifyingly excited when I produced it, apparently it competes quite well with the Lego one.

And then went out for dinner at Lowenbrau.

Surprisingly, this did not end in tears.

Adam and I both ache all over from the books and furniture moving, but ye gods it feels good to have that wretched entertainment unit out of the way. It had been sitting where the tree is now, across in front of the window, for most of this year. Suddenly my lounge room feels twice as big as it did.

I'm going to read to you whether you like it or not!

Today I spent the whole day feeling like nothing was working out quite the way it was supposed to.

I had planned to give myself the morning off, once I'd dropped the kids at school I was going to come home and spend an hour and a half doing whatever I bloody well wanted to and then pop up to the school 30 minutes before my Canteen shift began to partake of the Helper's Morning Tea - a thank you from the staff to all the parent who have helped out at the school throughout the year (I've never been available to attend before this year).

But the dog looked at me with big brown eyes, full of hope and pathos. So I let her come with us to drop the kids off and then on to the dog park for a play. On my way to the school I remembered that I really needed to sort out some jewellery stuff for Craft Group's Christmas stall next week and came to the realisation that my morning was pretty much a gonner.

Clara got a short but satisfactory play with a lovely labrador who's favourite game was tug-o'-war, Clara was no match for his mass but made up for it with tenacity, and then it was home to tally up bracelet and earring sales and sort out stock for the stall.

I made it to the school with 2 minutes to spare before Canteen duty, just enough time to hand over my stuff to one of the other Craft Group members and observe that I was, once again, missing the Helper's Morning Tea.

Canteen duty was pretty much par for the course, the highlight being when I was cutting the top off a not quite frozen jelly stick (small plastic tube filled with jelly) and it spurted pineapple jelly straight into my left eye. Ow. Actually, doing canteen is kind of fun but we all agreed today that by this time of the year we are a bit over the whole thing and found ourselves a bit short on the endless patience needed to cope with every second child spreading their coin collection on the counter and asking "What can I buy with this?"

As usual, by the time I was done in the canteen there was no point in going home, so I sat in the playground and looked at trees for 10 minutes before other mums began to arrive to pick up kids.

One thing that did go right was that the kids did not fight, burst into tears or demand to know what was for afternoon tea before we'd even made it out the school gate. Most days I get at least one of those, if not the full trifecta.

At home with the kids and it was on to fielding queries about "if/when/why not?" they could play games on the PS2. I stood firm on my "no/not today/because you overdosed yesterday and I need you to help around the house" stance and made them do homework and help clean up the lounge room. Then we pulled out some of the Christmas ornaments (couldn't find most of them, I presume they're downstairs somewhere, hopefully they'll turn up on the weekend) and candles and made the top of the fish-tank and the sideboard look all pretty. Caitlin and David scoured the bookshelf for Christmas books and all the kids sat around reading while I got the dinner ready.

My dad and Adam's mum came for dinner. We had fridge frittata, mostly because I hadn't managed to go shopping so I was making do with what was on hand. I made 2, both with potatoes, onion, red capsicum, broccoli, eggs, cream and a smidgen of grated cheese and smoked chicken in one and left-over lamb and rosemary sausage in the other. I cooked them in stoneware dishes in the oven rather than in pans on the stove and they were yum. Happily, there are left-overs, sadly I have no access to a microwave at either of my workplaces.

After dinner I was determined to get the kids to bed early, they've been having fairly late nights and boy can I tell. I told Caitlin and Tom to shower. Caitlin did, Tom just went and put his pjs on. Eventually they were all ready for bed and we gathered in the lounge room.

"Can we put the Aussie Twelve Days of Christmas CD on?"

"NO!"

"Why not?"

"Because I'm going to read to you."

"Can I read it?" (asks Tom)

"No, it is MY book!" (I hug it to my chest and stroke the cover)

"Muuuum!"

"What's it called?"

"A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens."

"Can we watch the Muppets one?"

"NO!!!"

"But I like the Muppets one!" (Adam, you're not helping.)

"You can watch the movie later, tonight we're reading."

"Marley was dead: to begin with..."


I'm reading from the most gorgeous edition of the book, it's illustrated by Quentin Blake and the text is large and clear enough that Tom was following along with my reading and turning the pages for me as we went. Caitlin continued to read other books as I read but the boys, Adam and the grandparents were all listening and I even got a couple of laughs for my Scrooge impersonations.

I was a page and a half short of the end of Stave 1 when we put it aside because there was a new Wallace and Gromit about to air on the ABC. It was supposed to start at 8:30pm but it was more like 8:40pm and, of course, the kids weren't settled into bed until after 9:30pm. Again. They really need to be in bed with lights out by 9:00 at the latest, especially now as David is getting up at the crack of dawn and hauling the others out of bed so he can see what's in the next section of the Lego advent calendar I rather indulgently bought them.
Hmmm, reading back over all that it doesn't sound like too bad a day at all does it?

Adam just pointed out that I have a Christmas beetle on my arm. And so I do.

Must be December.

Kids and animals are a bugger to photograph

I started out this morning with the intent of having a decent photo of each of the kids and pets with which to illustrate the ever so fascinating story of my Sunday. I should know better than to make plans that depend on kids and animals behaving for a camera.

The short version of my day goes like this:

• Get out of bed several hours later than intended (must have needed that sleep-in).
• Flail ineffectually at the chaos in the house (Adam has done wonders with it today as I came and went).
• Take Clara to dog park, forget to take camera (this time she decided to wrestle with a doberman twice her size).
• Bring exhausted but happy dog home and make some lunch.
• Take Caitlin shopping so she can spend her birthday money.

She started out looking at Barbie and Bratz dolls but ended up with a purse and some clothes - my indoctrination program is working.

• Go check on Bren and Di's cats (they're not convinced I'm a safe person, they watch suspiciously from behind furniture).
• Take photos of Clara on front deck (we resort to trickery to get her to look at the camera).

"Dad, why are you putting my squeaky toy on Mum's head?"

• Go to Lowenbrau for dinner (take lots more photos nearly all of which are terrible).

Except these two, which I rather like.

• Come home, get kids ready for bed and read aloud a chapter of The Sword and The Circle by Rosemary Sutcliff (this is hard work, the sentence structure is NOT conducive to reading aloud).
• Decide to blog in preference to writing the speech I have to give about the P&C at the school kindy orientation sessions on Monday and Wednesday.

The cats avoided the camera all day, but here's one of Jack that I took a couple of weeks ago.

"Bugger off, I was sleeping."

Now, to speech writing and ironing! Bleh.