Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Caspie's Christmas celebrations - December 25-26

Much cooing and gooing. Sadly some spewing (not by Casp)







Thursday, December 23, 2010

The rare lacy cheesopod sighted in Queens Road

One of our Christmas traditions has been two packets of cheese straws from Patterson’s Cakes. Patterson’s closed their doors forever a few months ago so I decided to step into the breach and make some. This could be my thing – some people are good at gingerbread, some at plum pudding, others at panforte. There was a window of opportunity for a cheese straw maker.
I chose a simple-looking recipe but was a little surprised that it said to cube the cheese rather than grate it. The dough had large cheese lumps in it and I could see it wasn’t going to turn out like Patterson’s but became quite eager to see what I would get.
The answer is a family of cheese and paprika creatures, like stick insects only tastier.


There’s even a set of twins locked in a lattice of oozy cheese.
I started to trim them but Right Foot loyally declared the lace was the best bit so it's staying on. I'm expecting accolades on Christmas Day

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Caspie checks out our Christmas tree

Thursday, December 16, 2010

A sick chick and a dud do
Frontierlibrarian had a few scary hours yesterday after hearing that Mads has Scarlet Fever. So awfully reminiscent of death bed scenes in 'Little Women' and its contemporaries. But she tells me she is just a little bit scarlet and that her medicine is tasty and yummy. Thank goodness for the resilience that comes with being five years old.

My idea of a good time at the works Christmas do is dancing with my GFs, around our handbags, to the Village People, ABBA and other eighties music, wihout spilling our chardies. I'm not so much into STANDING for ages listening to sycophantic speeches.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Let's round off the week with some pictures of our Christmas tree. This is the first time we have gone for a colour scheme instead of just plonking years of post-Christmas bargains all over the tree.
It's blue and silver and features on its top the star we bought in one of the Weihnachtsmarkts last year. There are also the six decorations made of Alsation lace that I bought in Strasbourg's old town and have been dying to trot out ever since.

Two of the little dolls I bought in Russia a few years ago also made the cut. The other two failed the dress code. Ms Red and Ms Yellow, you have to stay in the
box this year.

The only exception to the colour scheme Mads's special decoration which is gold and red. Couldn't leave Mads out. Also worthy of note is Caspie's silver C.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

More wedding photos from Phillip Island

Here's a few more pictures. Sorry - I don't have time to crop or tizzy. See yesterday's entry for some others.





Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Perfick weekend
Friday to Sunday was a 3-day surf fest at Phillip Island with a wedding thrown in. The bride emerged from the waves in her red bikini, transformed herself into a stunning vision of bridal loveliness and married my famous tree hugging nephew.

There were eight speeches – bliss! I love a speech even when it’s not one of my own. I was brought to tears firstly by the bridesmaid, then by the groom speaking lovingly of his young daughter and finally by the redoubtable Auntie Buggers who took 20 minutes just to tell us about Gav's first 4 years.





Foot and I shared a house with Hil, Rob and Casp - very comfy and convivial. Only the presence of the triple Ms could have improved our perfick weekend.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Life begins at 40

My first born baby girl is turning 40 today. Here is a picture of her taken when she was 2 weeks old, looking at me in alarm. She was right to be afraid. I had no clue about what I was doing; no idea which end was up. But she survived, even thrived and was rarely sick. I don’t think she had a single day off in her primary school.
The daisy wheel printer and the floppy disc were also born in 1970 and where are they today?

I clearly remember my mother turning 40 when I was 9. She was depressed about it: 40 was old in those days but now I’m the mother of a 40 year-old I know it’s the new 21.

It’s also the first day of Summer in Melbourne but it will be very cold where Mere is today. I hope she’s feeling summery inside though.

Happy birthday dear Mere Claire

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Six and a half month old baby admits...

He still lives with his parents

Friday, November 19, 2010

Write it out a hundred times

There are many famous political slogans:
Ban the bomb!
All the way with LBJ.
It’s time.
The poetic, “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the NLF is going to win! (They did).
Free Zarb! (I’m still waiting for mine to arrive).

But a golden oldie from my early childhood is all you to need to remember on Election Day. You’ve got a week to make sure it’s etched on your brain before wending your way through those wonky cardboard partitions:
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last!
Put Libs Last! x 10

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The look of love
Kate Middleton has mastered the adoring wife facial expression already.


This is a look you’ll never see on my face but if you don’t know what I mean check out Mrs Ted Baillieu’s textbook example from last week.

What annoys me most about these pictures is that the man is never looking at the woman. He’s always thrusting his best angle at the camera while she gazes ecstatically up at him. My hero!


The unsurpassed supremo of the adoring wife look is Nancy Reagan. She didn’t just bestow it on Ronnie, but also on John McCain and even Barack Obama.



I’m on the lookout for anyone who can top Nancy. Janette Howard need not apply. We all know she is really the man in that relationship.

Monday, November 08, 2010

Halfway to a birthday. Callooh!Callay!
The Beamish Boy turns a half today so I bought some brioches from a posh Sth Yarra bakery to celebrate with the gals at work. Hopefully Casp is enjoying his first banana.

Here is a pic of the Half Birthday boy pinched from his mummy’s Facebook page

Monday, November 01, 2010

Pissed on and pissed off

The Timor-Leste Trivia Night is the one you really want to win. The participants are mostly librarians who have been answering questions for decades and the standard is high. We have been on the winning team the last 2 years so felt we had to defend our title. It was held in Geelong and despite the fact it was pissing with rain, we drove down there on Saturday night.


What they didn’t tell us in advance was that the questions were ABOUT Geelong. Examples:
Who was the third person to run through the banner at the 1963 Grand Final?
What business is found at 49 Malop Street, Geelong?
How many jock straps does Joel Selwood have in his third drawer down?
Was the blemish on Gary Ablett Senior’s nanna’s knee shaped liked (a) the grandstand at Skilled Stadium, (b) Denis Walter or (c) the Mayor of Geelong’s first pet?

Do we feel ripped off? I know the answer to that one.
Next year we’ll hold the quiz in Queens Road. I’ll set the questions and Right Foot can answer them. That’s fair.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Aussie sheila becomes saint

Mads turned 5 yesterday. She celebrated with her German kinda friends in Frankfurt but at least we got to see her on Skype in her sparkly silver party dress. Have a great year being funf Mads.


I found myself thinking about Mrs Rutledge, our bigoted, anti-Catholic neighbour when I was growing up. How she would have hated the canonisation of Mary MacKillop! The extent of the media coverage over the last few days has been astounding and all but the truest of true believers must be heartily sick of it by now. Mrs Rutledge would have died of apoplexy had she not done so already.
Everyone but Mrs Rutledge loved Mary because she was an Aussie who became famous. We stood up and cheered just as we would for a Wimbledon champion or Olympic gold medallist. Fitzroy claimed her as theirs because she was born in Brunswick Street and Penola claimed her because she opened her first school there. Even the Scots tried to claim her because her parents were born in Scotland. Don’t they know most Australians have parents born overseas? Get your own saint, Scotland.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Two little girls beautiful and bright

Friday, October 01, 2010

Grand Final Rematch
Get it right. It's a rematch not a replay, OK? I've got a great seat and am looking forward to it, especially the bit where Sarah Murdoch announces the winner of the Norm Smith Medal. I have Brendon Goddard in the sweep, maybe he'll take another speccie.

However, nothing we see tomorrow will compare for shear exhilaration with this YouTube clip. Be careful though: Auntie Buggers used up her entire pre-paid credit after I sent her this link. If you're of the Faith it's addictive.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Drawn Grand Final
For me, the most affecting pictures from Saturday were of the two little boys who missed out on their big moment - presenting the medals to the winning players.



Pictures: Herald Sun

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Eight Nine Ten
I wanted to do a post today just because of the cool date: 8/9/10.


Caspar is turning a third today. I don’t have a recent picture of him so here’s one of Campbell Brown instead. Under-appreciated by the club but loved by the fans, Campbell is one of those people whose names are never mentioned without certain adjectives attached – in this case ‘Hawthorn hard man Campbell Brown’. Others are 'recovering drug addict Ben Cousins' and 'royal love rat James Hewitt'.

We are going to miss you Hawthorn hard man Campbell Brown.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010


Julia! Julia! Julia!

Praise the Lord! Even though He doesn’t exist. Julia is over the line and we are spared Tony Abbott. Thank-you, thank-you thank-you.

Monday, August 30, 2010

A Shilling For Your Thoughts
When the Queen Victoria Hospital was demolished Right Foot was outraged. “Now how will they be able to put up a plaque to Mere’s birthplace when she is famous?”
Years later, to our surprise the chance came. As a fundraiser the Queen Vic Women’s Centre resurrected the idea of the Shilling Wall. In 1897 a whole bunch of women gave a shilling each to pay for the construction of the Queen Vic. By paying a bit more than a shilling, we could nominate our own special woman, have her name engraved on the wall and say 25 words or less of nice stuff about her on the website.
So on a rainy day in May 2008, Right Foot, Mads (aged 2) and I were at the open day and unveiling of the first panel of the new Shilling Wall. The panels are modest - no neon lights or gilt lettering on mahogany honour boards here – more a transparent perspexy sort of thing. We'd envisaged something grander but it is a fund-raiser after all. You have to be determined to find the name you’re after. RF and I searched for Mere’s while Mads got stuck into the afternoon tea.
We weren’t sure how Mere would react so said nothing. A year or so went by and we still weren’t sprung. Then they advertised for donors for more panels and we decided to nominate Hil, although she wasn’t born in the Queen Vic. Famous daughters need plaques and does it really matter where?

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

It’s a cakey sort of week and there's more to come. Two family birthdays and Caspar will be turning a quarter on Sunday. Here he is looking magnificent.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Buggies and Boogies

Last weekend we drove up to Albury where Right Foot was delivering a paper to the Carriage Builders Association annual knees-up. People kept asking us, if we lived in Queens Road, where did we keep our horses? On the mantelpiece in the living room of course.



On the Saturday night there was a trivia quiz which is my favourite way in the world of spending an evening. We competed for prizes such as canvas horse rugs, Zilco harnesses and the services of a stallion. Every second round was on a horsey theme: dressage, show driving, etc. We were reasonably useless but we learnt heaps. Last night, watching the finale of Masterchef, I expressed surprise at seeing the contestants chatting with the judges during the competition. ‘Yes’, said Right Foot knowledgeably, ‘You’d be disqualified in dressage for that’.





We spent Monday to Friday in Coolangatta, braving the waves in our wetsuits and boogie boards and trying not to blend in with the rest of the population whose average age was about 90. Everyone dines at 5.30 and toddles off to bed at 8.
Yesterday we went to ‘the State Theatre to see ‘The king and I’ and were greeted as usual at the foot of the circle stairs by Jeanne Pratt who seems to attend every performance by her company. Her late husband’s scandalous behaviour was all over the front page of the Sunday Age but she calmly sat a couple of rows behind us to enjoy the show.

But the best part of our week off was returning and catching up with our gorgeous boy, Caspar