The Money Pit

Sometimes on the weekend we look at houses, just to make ourselves feel miserable. It always works. On Saturday we decided to check out a place in Annandale that was only a few hundred thousand dollars out of our price range.

OH.

MY.

GOD.

We expected the house to be falling down. It surpassed all expectations. It wasn't just the broken tiles and leaking toilets. I think it had been lived in by five generations of male students (how could I tell they were male? Well, the sci-fi books on the shelves were a bit of a giveaway.) who had never, in all those generations, cleaned or tidied the house. Piles of junk had been grudgingly pushed aside to allow the 40 couples who turned up to crawl through the house. The grass in the garden was taller than me (yeah yeah, not hard, I know).

And what is amazing is that someone will pay a ridiculous amount of money for it, then spend more ridiculous amounts of money on fixing it. I hate Sydney.

Rehab (I won't go)

Apparently I have not one, not two, but possibly three or even FOUR people who read this blog. The celebrity is going to my head. Before you know it I'll be bashing people with brollies and heading off to rehab. I will not, however, be wandering around London at dawn in jeans and bra. One has to draw the line somewhere.

Married With Children

I was trying to stop posting pictures of the kids, but clearly nothing happens in my own life, so I have to blog about them.

This is the day that Holden went to Orientation (but didn't get out of the car).

This is the day that Phoebe started Year 2 at Orange Grove and Holden DID get out of the car.


And this is my fabulous girl being the ONLY girl in Year 2 to go in the swimming carnival. Phoebe rocks!

Love at First Bite

This is what I made for Phoebe's class for Valentine's Day. First I was inspired by these little boxes here , and then I thought 'well, I'll make some myself'. And then I got bored with the idea of a single colour. Anyway, plenty of therapeutic time with card, ruler, knife, bone folder, glue, etc later, they are done and filled with lollies.

We have people coming for dinner tonight including my favourite baby (since mine no longer are babies).

She won't be eating, but the rest of us will be having an Italian seafood soup, a huge and garlicky salad, some good bread and then coeurs a la creme for dessert (in honour of Valentine's Day tomorrow, of course). I got the molds for Christmas from my mother-in-law, who ran all over Sydney to find them - this is their first outing.

Lord of the Flies

I know, I know, I've been very, very slack. I explained to the one person who reads this blog that nothing had been happening, except work. Her response was 'Nothing ever happens, but that doesn't usually stop you writing'. Well. She's right, of course.

Title of the blog? Much as I think Hol looks gorgeous in his new school uniform, there is something strangely menacing about a swarm of small boys all dressed exactly the same. Especially when they are wearing ties.

Apparently Phoebe managed to swim 50m at her school swimming carnival this morning. Champion. I probably couldn't manage 50m.

Valentine's Day is approaching. Usually I make something for both the kids' classes, but now that Holden is at a boys' school, I think it might be just a bit too embarrassing for him if I turn up with a box of heart shaped fudge. On the one hand, this is a good thing, as it means less work for the sheltered workshop that is my dining table. On the other, it's a bit sad. Hol used to like having the crazy mum who brought things in for Valentine's, Easter, birthday, Halloween and Christmas ... Fortunately Phoebe is still totally supportive of my insanity, so we have been making little boxes to fill with lollies - I will photograph them and post tomorrow.

A Fish Called Wanda

We went to Tassie, we had a lovely time. I thought about stealing Penny & Phil's baby Abby, we ate poached salmon (escaped from a fishery and lovingly nabbed by a neighbour of P&P's) and many kilos of cherries, we went kayaking, I tried to buy a block of land (but failed) and we looked at our house in Hobart. I'm sure we did some other stuff as well.

Coming back to Sydney and work was a bit depressing. So after a week of it we ran away again and went camping at Green Patch with Jen and Austin. In between, Andrew had a birthday.

We also got a Flip camcorder that our newly engaged friends Phil & Mel got us on a recent trip to the US. Within 24 hours, Phoebe had lost it ... at the Berry Donut Van, of course. She did, however, manage to make one movie while she had it. Click here to enjoy.

Camping was fun. THEN we had to go to Bowral for Andrew's Australia Day cricket match. That was fun too. Now we are, very reluctantly, back back back in Sydney. Time to do some work to pay for January's general indolence. Sigh.

Attack of the Crab Monsters

Did you know there are very few movies with 'crab' in their title? Attack of the Crab Monsters has the following plot synopsis - People are trapped on a shrinking island by intelligent, brain-eating giant crabs.

Chilli crab, almost ready ...

I think by this point the crab has pretty much been demolished. That's my spanky new table doing a turn in the garden.