Love, Actually

Kid 1 is on school holidays, so hanging around the house mooching when not skateboarding. This afternoon he said to me 'Do you think Scout [the dog] actually loves us?'

'I'm not sure', I said. 'Maybe not love as we understand it, but certainly a feeling of belonging and loyalty'.

'But that's what love is, isn't it?' said Kid 1.

Clearly the hormones haven't kicked in yet. He will be 14 next week.

I think I have premature nostalgia. This line is from The Private Lives of Pippa Lee (Rebecca Miller): 'It was so lonely, knowing things about her children that they no longer remembered. Layers of experience eroded from their minds but petrified in her own.'

Best I go and do something vigorous and cheerful.

Saturday Night Fever

Last week was a ghastly sort of a week on several fronts, so I was very happy when the weekend arrived. As usual, I spent most of Saturday afternoon in the kitchen. I roasted a free-range duck from the farmers' markets up the road, with a fabulous tomato, olive and mushroom sauce (a recipe from the excellent Bistro Food by Patricia Wells). Emboldened by my success with a nut tart a while back, I also made a chocolate and hazelnut tart. (I also made a cheesecake, but that was for visiting friends on Sunday so it doesn't really count.)

We invited a friend over, and spent the evening sitting in the library/dining room, enjoying our newly discovered functioning coal fire (the old part of the house is Victorian), eating, drinking wine and chatting about books. Books are an unavoidable topic in this room, as you can see from the pic. What was most bizarre about the evening is that this friend of ours, G, loves to talk about books - but only ever sees the movies of ... He Doesn't Read. I can never quite get my head around this; and every time he comes over, Spouse tries to lend him at least one book. We do love our books.

Anyway, G works in social media, and was telling us that he thinks books as they exist now will soon be a thing of the past and only eccentric collectors (he included us) will buy them. They will be expensive and very much a niche thing ... Hmmm.

Armed and Dangerous

Kid 2 is 10. She likes many things, including but not restricted to: reading, listening to music, singing, watching Buffy, Doctor Who and Glee, playing baseball and - right now - knitting. She is thrilled because she has now mastered casting on, knit and purl. The other day, she packed her knitting to take to school - lunchtime is very dull when it's raining outside and everyone is forced to sit in the  hall.

She was told by the Acting Principal that she had to put it away and not bring it in again because 'knitting needles are dangerous'. Terrorist threats are well known in a primary school of 200 kids in the inner west of Sydney. On that basis, children should not be able to bring forks with their packed lunches either, and I think pencils and rulers ought to be banned also ...

Sister Act

I've been teaching a bit this week. It's also been very cold (for Sydney), so getting dressed in the morning has presented some challenges.

A couple of months back I bought this dress. This 's a horrible picture because a) the dress doesn't fit the model as she is too skinny and has no boobs; and b) the shoes and socks are awful. Anyway, I love the dress - it fits me perfectly, has a fab square neck and is a very fine wool fabric.



So I wore it to school on Tuesday, with tights, heels, etc. "I feel like a proper teacher in this dress", I said to Spouse.  "You look like a nun", was his response.

Hmmm.