Watership Down

It was a hectic weekend. Hol had a friend over Friday night, Andrew went off to run his ultra-marathon on Saturday morning, Hol played basketball (and shot the winning basket for his team), then we watched the 12s win their baseball Grand Final. In the afternoon we visited friends to see their new baby, then eventually Andrew hobbled in the door about 7pm.

Yesterday we had people over for brunch - a cross-cultural, cross-era mish-mash of food because I felt like it - poached white nectarines with yoghurt, beignets and kedgeree. My mother thought the kedgeree was very 19th century of me. But everyone loved it.

Once brunch was dealt with, the second shift started with the arrival of my Quince Fest Cohorts. We peeled, we chopped, we mouli-ed, we stirred.

Midway through Andrew had to take Cottontail to the vet (not that he was involved in the quincing). Although the rabbits are not our favourite pets, being unfriendly, bitey creatures, we do take our pet-owning responsibilities seriously, and Cottontail had an eye that looked very sore. Poor thing has apparently somehow injured it (how, we don't know) and now we have to feed her antibiotics in the hope of saving the eye (although she will probably be blind in that eye anyway).

And suddenly it's Monday again. Two trays of quince paste are drying in my kitchen as a reminder of the weekend ...

Chariots of Fire

Taking the sage - if sadistic - advice of a friend, I made good use of my underemployment by going for a short run this morning.

Notes:

1. You can get seriously unfit by, believe it or not, simply NOT doing any aerobic exercise. Who knew?
2. Doing the above (ie sitting on one's arse) can lead you to forget that you are asthmatic. The fire in the lungs (see post title) dispels this illusion quick smart.
3. Phoebe's iPod Shuffle matches my running top but I'm not sure about the diamante earphones.

Kindergarten Cop

No photos.

I taught two days this week - Kinder and 1/2. I therefore deserve my weekend.

Hol had his baseball semi-final this morning and it was an exciting game, with the Boomers (our team) eventually beating the opposition. The final is in two weeks. I am very bad at sport in all senses - I can't throw or catch or run or anything, and I'm also terrible at dealing with the stress of watching a game. I fret and pace and shout and swear.

Phoebe is apparently on the cover of our local paper, but I haven't seen it yet.

And my mother made Jill Dupleix's list of the best 50 recipes in the world here.

Fame, if not fortune, for some of us, at least.

Sideways

Last weekend, we had Andrew's 40th birthday celebration (the non-family version). We went up to the Hunter Valley, had a dinner for 22 people at a reasonably good restaurant, and then most of us stayed at our friends' 'holiday' house (about three times the size of our 'non-holiday' house). Much fun was had by all ...

Yesterday was Phoebe's swimming carnival. She's on antibiotics for a chest infection, but that wasn't going to stop her for a moment. I still don't have a real camera (and yes, I am going to mention this EVERY time I post), but my new phone has a pretty impressive camera. This is young miss wrapped in her towel between races.


What else? Not much. I have been teaching a bit (fun, exhausting, etc); Andrew has started his new job at a Big Law Firm; Holden is at camp (AGAIN). Phoebe has extreme dental dramas but that's boring (as well as expensive).

Oh, and it was our wedding anniversary on Saturday too ... imagine my surprise when I woke up to find a BLUE BAG on my bedside table, next to my cup of tea. This is what was in it. I guess I'll have to stay married in case I get another blue bag next year.

White Men Can't Jump

That hasn't stopped Holden from choosing basketball as his summer sport for school this term. Hol doesn't do 'vaguely interested' - he's either completely uninterested, or obsessed. So this morning, over breakfast, he read me all the basketball records from the Guiness Book of World Records (or whatever they call it now). Hmmm.

I am horribly underemployed at the moment, another victim of the GFC. I can't relax and enjoy the spare time, because I'm too busy fretting about whether I'll get any more work. It's not very fun.

I did make treats for Phoebe's class for Valentine's Day. I'm not sure that counts as productive use of time. As I STILL don't have a camera (can't exactly afford one right now) I had to take shonky pics with Phoebe's video camera but I haven't downloaded them yet. Maybe tomorrow.

Grease

How is it that a 30-year-old cheesy movie, starring 30-year-olds pretending to be teenagers, could be one of Phoebe's favourites? But it is. Right now, when asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she says 'Olivia Newton-John'. What did we do WRONG?

Baby Mama

We flew down to Tassie last Saturday morning and had a wonderful weekend. We did start with a sophisticated and delicious lunch at this winery, accompanied by some splendid pinot noir, but we couldn't maintain that level of posh for too long.


Back to Phil & Penny's beautiful property we went, and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing with The Baby (Abby, who is 15 months), eating, drinking, gossiping and eventually playing Trivial Pursuit until late.


On the Sunday, I got to spend lots of time Abby-wrangling as Penny had to work, and the boys went cycling. I had forgotten how hilarious and exhausting toddlers are.