City

Hey lovely friends. It's Sunday night & I have just been reunited with my computer cable which I left in Melbourne on Thursday. It was a weird feeling being offline for a few days, weird but good. Having said that it's so nice to be back & having a look around other blogs to see what I've been missing. Here's what I've been up to lately....

After Rosie's dental visit on Thursday (more about that in a minute) I drove to Mum's place & she took Rosie back to Daylesford. Suddenly I had a couple of hours to myself....wow!

I sat outside in her little pretty garden and read the paper & had a cup of tea. Ahhh..

There are alot of great plants and things in her garden, like the huge banana plants and this giraffe which was a present from my stepfather, Len.

And towering over the garden, well not exactly towering but very much there, is the

Fitzroy Town Hall. When we lived at Moor St I spent many hours staring out my bedroom window at this magnificent building. Thinking & dreaming and as I got older having the odd sneaky cigarette.

I went for a walk around the old neighbourhood. Some things have changed and some things are still the same. Lots of graffiti & wall art.

This is the side of the house we grew up in. In the old days it just had one bit of graffiti which read "Free Hess'. I didn't realise the political implications of this at the time, as a kid I thought the last few letters had dropped off and it was supposed to read "Free Hessian". Such a child of the seventies...

Our old front door. It didn't used to be blue but hey, I like it!



And here she is again, what a great house it was, and is. When we moved in in 1973 it was a boarding house where Weary Dunlop once lived. There were five families living there and many tiny rooms and kitchens. My room was on half of the balcony which in those days was boarded up and had louvre windows. I remember reading by the street light at night when I was meant to be asleep. After moving out when I was seventeen I returned when Charlotte was a baby & we lived downstairs. Lots of memories from this house that was once our home.

Ok, so then I popped over the road to the good old Napes. The Napier Hotel was a big part of my life for a long time. The first pub I had a drink at, kahlua & milk while listening to Joy Division on the jukebox. Then later I worked behind the bar, for seven years actually, seeing many crazy, scary, funny things happen and serving/meeting millions of people. I worked there until just before I had Charlotte, wobbling around the bar with my big tummy, pulling beers and chatting with the locals. Fun days.


It was nice to see Guy, who has been the owner for a few years now. We chatted about old times and regulars. It was good to see it's still pretty much the same old pub. I'm very fond of this old girl.


But then it was time to head off for Charlotte's parent/teacher interviews which went well. After a quick dinner with her I walked over the river to the MCG to meet my dad & watch Richmond get done by the Blues. Boo hoo. Yep, you guessed it, more character building.

So there you go, a big day in the city. It was fun to wander around with some time on my hands, this doesn't happen much! I like being in the city for short bursts but I'm always relieved to get back home. As soon as I turn off the freeway and head into the country again I feel happy. I love living in the country.

Before I go here is the lowdown on Rosies tooth problem. We went to see the specialist who had a look and explained it was most likely that the tooth was broken and it would need to come out. This was disappointing but not the end of the world. Then the xray came back and...if you don't like xrays tune out now.....

it turns out she has an extra tooth!! Nothing broken at all. Which explains why we couldn't work out how it happened. Anyway you can see above she has a small, pointy extra baby tooth pushing out her front tooth. This crazy, renegede tooth will then also fall out and be replaced by her adult tooth. Wow. What a freakout. So it was a good outcome after all, unexpected but good! We may go back to have her baby tooth rounded out (Charlotte kindly keeps referring to it as her 'animal tooth') but we'll wait & see. Phew. I'm glad that's all over.

So now we're settling in to the holidays. Char is home, yay!! Unfortunately both of us have bad colds. Sniffing and snuffling we are. Hope you sweeties are snuggled up warm and comfy on this rainy Sunday night. To all who sent good wishes, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, my bloggy mates are super special to me. See you soon xo

I wanna be a Richo man...

Ok so we are kind of Richo crazy around here. The Richmond Tigers superstar has retired & this week he will be doing a lap of honour at the MCG on Thursay night, in front of thousands of loyal supporters. I'm happy to say I will be one of them.

My dad & his family, who all hail from Ballarat, have gone for the Tiges since... well forever.



It's an affliction I have also had since an early age, barracking for the yellow & black. Watching them lose time & time again. Jumping out of my seat when they have a teeny bit of success. Celebrating like a mental case when we have a win. Every year we hope for a better year... you could say it's character building.





And Richo, what a guy.

Not everyone in our family goes for Richmond. Lucy, Mark & Rosie are Lions fans.

But they're all big cats right?

Which could account for this fella's attitude.

(Richo who?)

It hasn't all been about Richo today though. How beautiful are these flowers I picked up at the local roadside stall?

Rosie was home from kinder today as she has a problem with her front tooth. She knocked it badly and it's just hanging on by a thread. We're trying to hang on to it till we get to the specialist dentist on Thursday. Hopefully they can secure it to her other front tooth. Otherwise she will be without a front tooth for at least a couple of years. Fingers crossed!

I also made a yummy banana cake..the kids love this in their lunches...

...while listening to the radio & being watched by this little fox that once belonged to my grandmother, Edna. It is one of the only things I have of hers so it's pretty special.

Hey! Guess what? My mum picked out a winner from my giveaway and I'm excited to say that her amazing book 'Artists Tapestries' goes to.....Linda! Yay for you Linda. Could you please send me an email with your postal address? I hope you love this book, it's so full of colour & creativity, thanks so much to everyone too for their beautiful & thoughtful comments.

How has your day been? Hope it's been a fun one, see you soon sweeties

ps. a special hello to my naughty cousin, Kate, who has been cyber stalking me from afar! Hurry up and get a blog slow coach...xo

The first week of Jan...

On the weekend I went to Melbourne with Sunday & Lucy to have some girl time and to also help my brother and his family pack for their big move to Hobart.

I'm glad for them that they are having a change, moving to a beautiful part of Australia, and that they are off on a new adventure but I'm also sad that they will be so far away. I'm wondering though, if I will actually see them more because I will plan time to visit them, I can't wait to get down there actually. Tasmania is so pretty and I would love to explore Hobart more too.

Do you live in Hobart? Julia needs to find some seriously good coffee in the West Hobart area, any tips?

Along with seeing Ben and the girls we did some touristy things and some shopping. The girls were pretty amazed at the pace of Melbourne (see above) and it was funny/interesting watching them getting their heads around trams, traffic, masses of people etc. Sunday kept bumping into people as she just isn't used to having to negotiate crowds. They were quite nervous on escalators too, but loved them!

A big focus on Saturday was the tooth that just wouldn't fall out. It has been like this literally for weeks. Sunday has had trouble eating, and talking, so we have all been dying for it to hurry up and fall out. Finally on Saturday night, at the University Cafe, it came out in her spaghetti! To celebrate we forced ourselves to go to Brunetti's for icecream...

Mmmmm.....

We took in a few local sites such as this wall near Mum's house with it's Keith Haring paintings. And also the church where Ben & Julia got married, home to the Uniting Church before it moved to Ceres in Brunswick. Ben has been with the church for 27 years!! As a goodbye present he received the fabulous Richmond Tigers banner (at the top of this post) that someone lovingly made by hand. What an ace pressie!

While we were staying at Mum's I came across some old jewellery. My guides badge, and this lovely engagement ring that belonged to my Nan. I don't wear much jewellery but I really like this ring and of course it's even more special because of it's history. I think I'm allowed to have it so I will get it adjusted and then I can wear this lovely treasure all the time! There was another ring in the box with the initials H.R.S. so we are doing some detective work to try and discover who it belonged to.

It was fun being away for the weekend and since we've got home it's all go, go, go with sorting and decluttering. It's incredibly satisfying! Mark is taking a car full of stuff to the opshop for me and we have more stuff for the tip. I came across this old bedspread/quilt that has got a few holes in it. Too hard to patch I think, does anyone have any thoughts as to what I could do with it? I'm wondering about making it into a big floor cushion but I would appreciate any ideas you might have.

Well it's the start of the week and it's a beautiful sunny day here. The kids are all doing a 10 day swimming class which kicked off this morning. Rosie cried and cried to start with but was doing well by the end of the lesson. What are you up to this week?

Hope it's a good one, see you soon sweeties, xo