Music to your ears

Bits and pieces

This blogging takes time... which is often in short supply around here. Sorry for the delay in broadcast.

So, what's been happening?

Teeth, or lack thereof. Claire lost a molar.

Visits to Grandpafather, we took him out in the fresh air.

Visits from friends - Gillian came down from Brisbane for Donna's farewell. Claire and Rosemary here dressed up for Harmony day at school.

Donna's farewell was a lovely evening at Cafe at the House, outside in the courtyard. She was thrilled. All a bit sad really.

What else...?

Pat Longworth and her brother Phil dropped in for dinner.

Netball on Saturday morning - excellent work from the Shooting Stars. Claire was a Wildcat for the first half, then a Thunderbolt. Netball now takes a break until May.

A pic from last week, when Grandpa came to stay and took us out for yum cha.

Saturday afternoon this weekend was spent in the company of Ravelry women, who I lured to my house with the promise of cake if they would help me wind some yarn and finish off a scarf. Claire got a lesson in using a swift and a ballwinder, and we blocked the lace scarf which is destined to be Donna's farewell gift from me. I'm impressed with my ability and now need to make another one.

We just had dinner out at My's Vietnamese with Chelsey and her family to say thanks for all the help this term. Claire and Nicola ate the most enormous banana fritters I have ever seen. Now there is a lemon meringue cake in the oven for Donna's staff farewell tomorrow, and I'd better do some ironing. It is lovely to come home on Mondays to find a clean house, I like the idea of having dinner out on a Monday to keep it clean for longer!

A run of short weeks now, with Easter, then holidays, then ANZAC day. I'd better start getting a few things organised, like holiday care and next term's swimming lessons, and passports.... maybe I'll just go to bed instead!

The rest of the weekend

Grandpa came down for Candyman, so formed part of the cheer squad at netball on Saturday morning. The Thunderbolts had a bye, so it was just the Shooting Stars we had to watch. We had a few new players who had never played before, and the usual issues of passing the wrong way, and went down against a strong team from Sacred Heart. But there are some good skills being developed, and it is only the second week.

We washed the dog in the sunshine, which she didn't seem to mind too much. Hopefully this has improved the smell a little! Candyman in the afternoon, and then home for some very nice organic roast lamb from the Farmers' Market.

Sunday, Grandpa took us all to Yum Cha, as now seems to be tradition. The girls and I then went off to a very windy birthday party at Weston Park while Bronwen took Dad to the bus. We'll probably see him again in the school holidays.

Having ticked washing the dog off the list of 'Edward jobs' that now need to be done by me, I tackled cleaning shoes, as school photos are on Wednesday. It had crossed my mind that maybe no one would have clean shoes until July, but it is now done. Now all I have to do is work out how to change the bulbs in the down lights...

The Candyman Can!

On Friday night, Claire's hard work at learning to sing and dance at the same time paid off, and she performed in the show Candyman with Wayne Kermond at the Canberra Theatre. A few family representatives went along on Friday night, and what a great show it was. A fabulous band, five terrific dancers, and of course, my personal favourite, a fantastic tap dance routine.

The kids were on in the second half, so Claire watched the first half from the audience and loved it. Wayne is a very talented performer and did some good work with some well known songs. At half time, she joined her friends backstage and then for the second last number, out they came to do Gonna Build a Mountain. Claire and Zoe were both fully miked, so our work on their singing paid off. They looked young and fresh and full of enthusiasm, which was exactly the plan.

Saturday afternoon, she turned around and did it all again. Rosemary went and watched the second half and said it was 'fantastic!!!', and was very complimentary to her big sister. We had a chat with Wayne after the show, and what a nice man he is. He sent best wishes to everyone in Timor L'Este and applauded the work being done there by Australians.

So we now have our Sunday afternoons back, which is nice. I'm glad Claire did it, though - hopefully this is something she will remember for a long time.

A little girl who misses her dad

And here's some more...

My favorite day of the year

Sculpture Garden Sunday - lots of lovely stuff in the Sculpture Garden of the National Gallery.

As we walked down from parking the car behind the Finance building, I was very glad to already have seen the Masterpieces from Paris exhibition, as the queue to get into the gallery was past the Portrait Gallery.

The girls had a lovely time - painting, washing the babies, making flowers out of plastic cups and pots, creating amazing clay works, headbands and drawing with tape on a wall. I love the explosion of creativity this brings.

Looking around at all those families and kids outside, in the fresh air, not a screen in sight, getting dirty and having fun, in one of Australia's great cultural institutions, I thought it was a great use of public money.

Everyone is now very tired and cranky, so there is a free range roast chicken in the oven, Rosemary has made one of her special desserts and then it will be early to bed.

We've had a lovely weekend. It was great to see Lisa, and we managed to go out to dinner last night, which was great. She made some recommendations about new paint colours for when we decide to repaint.

A busy week ahead, but we'll tell you about that after it happens. Now it's making beds, folding laundry and tidying up. But that's Sunday night for you.

A load of hot air

Balloons, balloons, balloons. It has been a shocking week of ballooning weather - of the nine possible days, the balloons only took off on three of them. We trotted out there this morning at dawn for what has become one of our favourite Canberra things.

A walk through the OPH rose garden and then Claire ended the morning back in her natural habitat.

'Tis the season...

... for netball! The Shooting Stars and the Thunderbolts took to the courts on Saturday for the first games of the season.

The Shooting Stars did well with their new coach and umpire, and played very well considering they had only 6 players for the whole match and 5 for about half a quarter when Rosemary copped an elbow to the chin and had to have a bit of a break. All agreed that a 3 - 5 loss was pretty good. Observers agreed that once they have a few weeks of training behind them, the Shooting Stars will be a force to be reckoned with. Rosemary is looking like an excellent defender.

The Thunderbolts are reunited again, with a few evolutions.

Ashley has become a demon goal shooter and was responsible for about half of the 16 - 0 scoreline. Claire had a great game, and was glad to be off for the fourth quarter. Again, we are looking at improving her fitness (she's off on a bike ride at the moment).

A bit of piano coaching occurred at home, here is Rosemary's new piece for you - presenting Magic Man.

Wet, wet, wet - the story of a long weekend

How was it? It was wet. Our long awaited Canberra Day weekend road trip was a bit wet. However....

5.35am, Friday morning we set off, pausing for breakfast in Yass.

A long, long time later, we ended up at Point Lonsdale. It's a long way from Canberra. A great spot for a holiday, if you live in Melbourne - it has a bit of a Pearl Beach feel to it. Lovely old houses, nice big beach with no waves and lots of rock pools. Perfect for sandcastles and splashing and exploring. Claire and Eliza saw a stingray while pottering around. Great fronds of kelp and other weeds. A good way of taking up Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon on the other hand looked a bit like this:

Thunderstorms and rain outside, and a huge hailstorm in Melbourne, which caused lots of damage and flooding.

Sunday was Cats day - the purpose of the visit. We got dressed up in our finery and headed into Melbourne.

A trip to the toilet with the best view in Melbourne (the 35th floor of the Sofitel Hotel) and then lunch at a cafe,

before seeing the show at the Regent, a gorgeous old theatre with lots of gold and curly bits. Cats was great and the kids enjoyed it thoroughly.

Afterwards a tram ride to Malvern to have dinner at Eliza's grandparents house, with various artworks created using Ben's artists materials (look out for a letter).

Monday was home day, and of course the sun shone. So another frolic on the beach in the morning,

then packing the car for the long drive home.

Here is one of our rest stops at Holbrook, home to a huge submarine, of course.

Thank goodness for Paddington bear on audio book, it got us through some sticky situations. The trusty Nimbus held us all and never missed a beat. And it was lovely coming home through Gundagai and the edge of the Riverina seeing all the water in the paddocks.

Home now to get everyone ready for camp this week. A big wet weekend, but it was a lot of fun. And yes, we are all still friends.

Update

Today I did my first SCUBA dive. It was in a swimming pool, not in the ocean, but that's where you go when you are a beginner. It's nice to be able to breathe under water, pity there has to be so much gear.

The instructor is a forthright British lady in her early fifties. She really raced through it, possibly wanting to make the most of having a student who could swim. And, special bonus, had used a mask flippers before.

Apparently Africans, Philipinos, and Timorese all sink. High bone density is to blame.

Took the film camera out today and went for a drive up to the hills. Unfortunately the road I chose was blocked by a huge land slip, so had to turn around.

Anyway, here are some snaps from earlier in the week on my iPhone.

TAFE students on an excursion?

More students on an excursion.

I was on the side of the road waiting for a good shot of a motorbike - one with the whole family on it, and this guy rolled up and wanted me to take his photo. Well, I aim to please...

Comoro Road.

More Comoro Road. What you can't see is the heat, steam, and dust.

Family of four on motorbike. Shall we try this when I get home?

Early morning walk. Again, you can't see the steam.

One of our office buildings.