Victor Harbor 2009

car trip down. beautiful.

Rocco's Top: 'Lock Up Your Daughters'

Fred's Top: 'I was here first.'

the full bum shot was so cute it would make the internet's eyes bleed and so had to be withheld.

rocco smiling again. go figure.

i forget the name of this beach - it's the one past whaler's inn, on the sheltered side of the bluff.

gay hand.

after each day, i sat Dave down to look thrught that day's pictures on the small screen of my camera. when dave fist saw this picture he said 'What! are there Foxes around here?!''

oh how we laughed. stupid man.

he had obviously forgotten my helicopter was in the shop for repairs.

pt elliot. best place on eairth? discuss.

note the big boys swing. respect.

that smile simply doesn't get old.

watching saturday morning little nippers. one day son.......

dave and i constantly argue about sunscreen, but you'll be happy to know that when it comes to the kids, my way is law.

yep. still amazing.

argh. too much amazingness for one post?

our biggest daily battle with fred (well, one of them anyway) is to convince him not to pour water out of the bath. at victor his bath is in a wetroom. cue awesome funtimes.

O. M. G. Not smiling. HOWEVER - still offensively cute.

goolwa. hurrah.

princess satine works her voodoo magic.

rock puts in some hard yards with the prospective in-laws.

i must wear that dress more often.

manilla chilla dilla

(possibly only 3 people who may understand that)

lachy tries to explain the theory of working inside the lines.

bob continues to work out as Mr. Meercat surveys.

*sigh* i love you victor.

Resuming Normality

Ok, ok, ok - Neglected blog. I get it. But sheesh people, how has your blog been going lately? Hmmm? Not too well??* I see. Well… I forgive you – you see, I know how sometimes life gets a bit busy and things like a blog can suffer. Particularly when you keep watch over three small boys.

Since we returned home in mid March, I’ve barely had time to check my emails, let alone waffle on about the mundane things here. Things from the past month:

- flight back from Oz was fine. We’re getting pretty good at the whole flying thing. One vomiting episode, but on the whole as good as we could expect. Well, besides the fact that the fckhles at Adelaide Airport decided to CHECK our pram into a container, therefore withhold it from our use until we got though passport control in London. Normally it would be waiting pleasantly for us at the door of the plane. I’m not going to go into details, but I assure you that spending 3 or 4 hours in KL airport carrying 2 tired and cranky kids, 4 bags and a pram attachment is close to my definition of hell. Dave battled on calmly as he witnessed me almost losing my shit as I threatened not to disembark the plane and cry. BUT the flights themselves were as good as one could expect

- I have also been wading through the murky waters of hiring a nanny. Reading cvs, interviewing, checking references. Her name is Issy and she is going to revolutionize my life. She has move into our basement flat (cue mad cleaning, clearing out cupboards and boxing things away into the shed) last week and we have been settling in since then. All seems to be going really well.

- I have had the most wonderful run of houseguests helping me look after the boys and cooking me the most amazing dinners (you stay = you cook and make cups of tea for me). First came Mez and Stu for a few days on their way to c-c-c-cold Scotland, followed closely by Rachel. So, much attention and conversation with these lovelies meant no blogging. Although to be fair, Rachel did go out for lunch on the Monday and didn’t return till Thursday (via Dublin and Edinburgh…. as you do). Another upside of having these guests was that I was able to get permission to go out for Mez’s birthday. In the Evening. No Kids. Drinking involved. Such an even has not happened on English soil since….. welll…. Kieran took Buff, Patricia and I to the millionaires Club in Mayfair 2 years ago… which I think those involved would agree is a tale best left out of the public forum (if only for the incomplete memories).

- I saw the film Twilight. Which I know has y’all scratching your heads as to why this deserves a mention seeing as I had poked much fun at a couple of friends who saw the film and said they liked it. Surely these ladies were closer to 30 than 13!! – I had suggested. How wrong I was to mock!! It seemed to me to be the perfect film to squeeze in in-between calming crying children on a plane and so I did. Little did I realise it would awaken my 13 year old goth self and have me ordering the books from Amazon. I surely was not going to wait 4 years to find out what happened to *sigh* Edward Cullen!!!!! (yes. The hot vampire. I feel your embarrassment). So every spare minute these past two weeks have been spent reading the books. I have been able to do nothing but read them and am relieved to have finished them so I can resume my normal life (Quick review: Not that well written, but and easy-to-read, suspenseful and imaginative plot with it’s finger right on the beating pulse of the average 12 year old girl. Compulsive reading. Yes, as the books progress it gets increasingly unbelievable… but duh. It’s about vampires. )

- The past week has also seen me turn 28 and celebrate 5 years of bliss with La Liggie. As a treat he surprised me with a dinner at Gordon Ramsey’s michelin-starred restaurant in Claridges which was sensational. Such a lovely and unexpected evening.


ANYWAY the upshot is, that hopefully with things calming down, this little corner of the world wide web should become a bit more active in the near future.

xxH

*Besides Georgia's of course. I think we will all agree that there is no lack of action there!

Womad 2009

Did ya know? There be PANDAS at Womad. For the 2 hours Fred was able to withstand the heat and crowds of Womad, this moment was by far his happiest. He simply could not believe he was meeting his favourite animal ever in the history of animals.

Seasoned Womad Attendees

Ignore the culture! the rides! the music! the puppets! There be prams to push!

Farewell Panda. Till we meet again. I love you.

Spot the baby

It's Cider O'Colck

Excellent fun Jewish-y band called.... I forget. But awesome toe-tapping stuff.

At least Satine takes a good photo.

That's better! Oops the photographer sorta cut out the star attraction....

Jack scores the chocolate muesli bar.

Livvy came through with the wipes.

(And the telfast. And the panadol.)

Hippy Womad Baby.

Georgia and Satine Rock Out.

I attempted all my magical smile-inducing moves. Satine remained unimpressed.

I am wearing a totally cute top (which became a dress in the heat of Womad) which unfortunately is being masked by Satine. Good thing she is cute.

This is Flipper (inspired name there Kels). Flipper of the Annoying Whistle. Which Jack felt compelled to share with us again and again and again. Which was fine seeing as it was not like we were there to listen to anything else. Flipper is lucky to have Jack looking after him seeing as apparently his mum went to Uni one day nad DIED and his dad went to work one day and also DIED.....

Neil Finn!! LOOK! LOOOOK!! NEIL. FINN.

Behold the awesomeness of Neil Finn!

He is soooooo dreamy.

*sigh*

Pete and Liv were somewhat less impressed by the man.

Coopers + Pandas

Womad = The most magical place on Earth.

Put your hands up in the air!!!

The view of Stage 1 from Base Camp.

The View of Neil Finn from Base Camp.

Womad Parade!

All of a sudden the awesome parade turned FERAL and trampled right through our base camp. Bags, bottles, rugs and babies were literally flung aside as the freaky people and the maddening drumbeat stomped right over where we sat moments before. Amazingly Satine slept through it like the little Womad baby she is.

Base Camp demolished, we did the only thing we could: Score a table 10metres from the beer tent. Unsuprisingly as I try not to mix my expensive camera with alcohol, this is the last of my photos.

I had SUCH an awesome day (thank you livvy) even with my slightly hungover start. I ate Samosas and saw Neil Finn. Which was a particularly special moment as I went through about a year of having a huge crush on him (whilst most normal girls loved Brad Pitt), his voice of honey, and his ability to turn the most beautiful phrase. 10 years on from my Mrs. Neil Finn fantasy, I am still unlikely to miss a single word from the Recurring Dream album. So I feel so blessed that not only did he sing his new stuff, but also a few Split Endz and some Crowded House (Distant Sun, Four Seasons, Private Universe and my personal fav When You Come)

I love you Womad.

Lost Generation

I appreciate this is lazy blogging, but if you knew how busy I was, you'd appreciate the effort. Which I'm sure you do anyway.