Animal House

I've changed 'seek and ye shall find' to 'buy and ye shall be invited'. On Friday afternoon Andrew told me we had an invitation to a 'toga party' at the home of Lady Mary Fairfax on Sunday. Well, clearly I am too old to wear a toga, but equally clearly my Akira dress was exactly perfect. We had a little more trouble with Andrew, but it was all sorted in the end.

Of course only a few people were wearing togas (including the female but not the male waiting staff). There were some very glamorous people (and lots of expensive plastic surgery on show), the entertainment was good, but the food was dreadful. But it's not every day you get to swan around the lawn of an historic house on the water, so on balance it was worth it.

Travels with my Aunt

I have four aunts, in no particular order.

1. The aunt who I used to argue with about making my bed every morning when I was staying with her (which I did whenever I was sad and lonely, which was quite often). I must tell her next time I speak to her that I would never dream of leaving my house in the morning (even to go to the studio) without making my bed first. Despite my domestic shortcomings, there was always a bed (made) for me.

2. The aunt who encouraged me to knit and showed me that being a parent was actually quite fun and hilarious, if sometimes exasperating. She also had (probably still does) a wonderful pantry shelf full of bottled fruit. I blame her for my obsession with preserving and other old-fashioned domestic pastimes.

3. The aunt who pandered to my teenage desire for vintage shoes by tracking down and posting me the most marvellous pair of suede and patent leather winklepickers. I wish I still had them. A couple of years back she sent me a delicious pink and white chenille bedspread. But best of all, she appeared in the first series of Doctor Who (she was Carol in The Sensorites series of episodes, above).

4. The aunt who can sew better than anyone I know, and who made sure that Phoebe was the most immaculately dressed premmie in the whole intensive care unit. Then she made her a beautiful little quilt with the spare fabric. And she remembers both my children's birthdays and makes them the most amazing cards.

Breaking Glass

Three weeks ago I was complaining about it being hot. Today is has just reached a frigid 14 degrees (and it's wet and windy). This makes it even more unfortunate that during the holidays Holden managed to smash a window in the studio AND I haven't got around to having it replaced. My studio is usually easy to heat and a cosy place to work. Not right now.

Next Friday is Halloween, which I look forward to all year. A few years back (have I mentioned this before?), when I started organising trick or treating on our street, and a party at our house afterwards, you could only get a few Halloween themed things, even in the best party shops. Now they're everywhere, which makes me feel a bit like I don't want to do it anymore. I'll take solace in the fact that I am still the only person in our suburb who carves pumpkins and seriously decorates the house. Of course, it helps that our house is so decrepit that it doesn't take much to make it look haunted.

My usual Halloween partner-in-crime has rather selfishly had a baby recently, so I've now roped another victims, including a neighbour. She has committed to making a pumpkin pinata. Stay tuned.

And in other not-very-exciting-to-anyone-except-me news (which is my life in a nutshell), I am teaching Drama at Phoebe's school this term. I love being at school one day a week, and I'm hoping they'll get something out of it (other than laughing constantly, that is) ...

All Quiet on the Western Front

Harry and Holden on Sunday afternoon.




The sleepover party was chaotic but fun. Thank god some neighbours came over to share the pain. The sleepover/camping theme was translated into sleeping bag lolly bags and a Barbie in a sleeping bag cake. Cake looked more like a bier, quite frankly, but as you can tell from this photo, Phoebe didn't much care (no, I don't know why Phoebe is only wearing a singlet and a sarong around her neck). I also didn't much care, as I only made the damn lolly bags and cake on Saturday morning.

Turned out that I did the right thing cancelling camping - the weather was wet and miserable. We are planning to camp in a few weeks, but I think we might make it a slightly smaller expedition.

Some Like It Hot

Those who do will really be enjoying the weather in Sydney at the moment.

I, for one, am not.

Forecast is for thunderstorms and showers, so we have had to postpone Phoebe's camping extravaganza. She is still having a sleepover party tomorrow night, which means I am now in a total panic about games and prizes and lolly bags and all the rest of it ... Fortunately our lovely neighbours can procure us a projector, so we can have the usual movies on the wall. Now I just have to organise the rest of it!

Dirty Harry

I have no idea why Phoebe called him Harry. Apparently his full name is Harry Button.