« March 2006 | Main | May 2006 »
April 18, 2006
Posted by Faith at 07:37 AM | Comments (0)
April 16, 2006
Perdition
I have seen the devil, nay, stared him in the face more like and he lurks in a block of NZ Epicure (thats a cheese) and a Craiglee Shiraz. Or he did.... and then I ate him.
Posted by Faith at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2006
Our tractor
As far as I've ever been concerned there were only two things to be said about the types of vehicle Ron and I bought yesterday:
1)pedestrian and cyclist-un-friendly inner-city-maurauding eco-disasters owned by pretentious prats who would never go 'off-road' in the thing, were making the road unnavigable for other road users, and were using the beast purely to provide a cushioning-zone for their own inadequacies as drivers.
2)the mark of the suburban mum.
Just as well I'm not one for generalisations then hey! It does explain though why, after buying Fergie*, I was then plummeted into the dark depths of Sartrian despair and confusion.
We didn't plan to buy one of these, (lets face it, the only thing I was PLANNING on buying yesterday was some moisturiser) but when we went through the list of things we wanted to do with our car, (get around the city, mustn't be too big, but still able to do extensive travelling with bicycles and camping gear, drive up the alps with snowboards, go off road in National Parks, deliver pet sheep to Uncle Ben) this was the only thing that ticked all the boxes. Without being the size of our entire Amsterdam apartment.
A part of me would be a lot happier with a beaten up old Landrover, the guilt-ridden-Irish-Catholic-Virgo part I suspect. Teeth chattering as we hurtle over the tram tracks, the wind whistling through the gaps between the doors and the body, Jacob bouncing around in his booster seat and the dents and scratches testimony to the fact that we're not in it for the image. 'Cept of course it's just a different image isn't it. I suppose I'll just have to get used to all the extra-creature comforts. And to looking like everyone else. And I'll have to get my licence!
Oh and by the way, Fergie is a 2001 Mazda Tribute v6 Luxury, details schmetails.
(As I've mentioned elsewhere I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
*I've named her Fergie in reference to the fact that these are called "Toorak tractors" and of course the old Fergie tractors. Being a bit broad in the hips she does also bear some resemblance to that other Fergie.
Posted by Faith at 06:52 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Impulse buy
Ron and I went out for a coffee this morning before settling in to our planned day which as we both clearly recall DID NOT involve buying a car. Dus, we're both at a bit of a loss to explain how we arrived home a couple of hours later the proud owners of this.
Fully blown existential crisis now in progress. Ron coping somewhat better, my only consolation is I don't actually have a licence nor know how to drive. Just rounds off the lunacy nicely.
((As I've mentioned elsewhere I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)
April 10, 2006
Just a perfect day.
We had a quiet weekend after we all woke up on Saturday with sore throats and snuffly noses. Curse this damn cold weather! (18C!)
Jacob did manage to make it through his weekly swimming class after which he was rewarded with a certificate marking his graduation into the following level. From next week it's Swimming-without-parents. Some children may be apprehensive about this but its what Jacob has been waitig for. The first step in a masterplan whose aim is to achieve our redundancy as soon as possible. Preferably before Easter.
Sunday he was obviously feeling better (she thought, ruefully) and we enjoyed some post-dawn (just) football while the rest of the universe slept. I'd had a nano-second or so the previous week to allow my thoughts to wander and had come up with some plans of my own. These involved the ripening cumquaats in the front garden so Jacob and Papa and I killed another hour or so picking said cumquats. I then spent an hour or so seeding and peeling a miniscule portion of the cumquats and discovering why no one makes cumquat marmelade anymore.
Plans for some winter vegies are also being hatched and so it was a quick trip to Bunnings before heading over to Tante Alix's to celebrate her birthday. The prospect of my sister's plastic dinosaur collection was enough to convince Jacob that he had better NOT have that afternoon nap so while he made it through the birthday celebrations the last of the day was ended on a tired-and-slightly-cranky note.
(As I've mentioned elsewhere I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 01:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2006
Tante Alix
Tante Alix has a dog and a dinosaur collection which themselves are reason enough for extensive gezelligheid but when it's her birthday and she has an enormous chocolate cake as well Jacob is smitten! Happy Birthday Tante Alix.
(As I've mentioned elsewhere I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2006
Photo Friday: Organized
(As I've mentioned elsewhere I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)
Bloody cold
There were times in Amsterdam when, as I was cycling through yet another rainshower of biblical-sized-raindrops, with a radiant air temperature of 2 C and an icey cold wind cutting down the canals from the IJ, I consoled myself with the thought that at least once I was back in Melbourne it would never seem cold again.
So, why, now that autumn has really settled in here and we are suffering maximums of 18C (a temperature that only three months ago would have seemed to me a reasonable summers day, not a brilliant one, but reasonable...) am I so bloody cold?
Yesterday the central heating man came to service the thing and Thank-God-I-Say because it was freezing here! After he'd left I celebrated by having the heating on ALL afternoon and evening. Everyone in the house is wearing the traditional wilderness fleecies we don at this time of year and Jacob has been FORBIDDEN to step one foot outside without an overcoat.
The Dutchman meanwhile persists in wandering around in a t-shirt and sniggering everytime anyone complains of the cold.
Meanwhile, in the Pijp, Spring has sprung they tell me with sunny days and temperatures soaring to 8 C. I can still remember my spirits soaring with the mercury one day when I realised it was 11 C and spring had well-and-truly-arrived!
(As I mentioned below I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)
April 06, 2006
Kergunya
(As I mentioned below I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 01:34 AM | Comments (0)
April 05, 2006
Long in the tooth
One thing I NEVER did in the Netherlands and which is now coming back to BITE me big-time (pun intended) is go to the dentist. Five years. Without going to the dentist.
It wasn't for any particular reason but a combination of the difficulty of finding a dentist who'll add you to their list in Amsterdam, the waiting period for appointments and the assumption that as we were always on the verge of coming back to Melbourne I could always wait until then. Of course, 'then' turned out to be a bit further away than we had planned. Luckily I have teeth of steel, and in 40 years have only had one eensy-weensy-filling that was soooooooo small they didn't even give me an anaesthetic.
Sadly, my gums have not proven to be quite so invincible.
What started out as a check up has turned into two cleaning sessions, two x-rays and potentially three fillings. I'm three visits in and NOT enjoying this at all. And ALL of it is down to simply missing the once-a-year clean. The fillings are small and all a result of plaque building up on the gum line. They certainly wouldn't have happenned if I had been having my annual check up duirng the last five years. The cleaning is rigorous and uncomfortable and there is some permanent shrinking of the gums due to the extended period without cleans. 'Long-in-the-tooth' is no longer just an expression but is staring back at me from the mirror every morning.
Now, how dumb is that! Just to prove a point, one of the holes is in one of my wisdom tooth which as I see it is the only possible explanation for how I allowed all this to happen.
(As I mentioned below I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)
April 04, 2006
The A-List
Now that she's safely back in Switzerland and working her way through some character-building jet lag I can safely reveal that the blogger we met in March and with whom we shared the dizzying heights of Melbourne tourism was Elli from Macbebkin. I'm still sooooooooo impressed, it was almost like getting to meet the Queen. But better. 'Cos Elli was kinda interesting. And she blogs. Not to mention ALL those shoes.
What IS weird is that we had to meet in Melbourne. After so many years living just a one hour flight from each other we both had to travel to the other end of the planet to meet up!
Posted by Faith at 01:18 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2006
Harry Potter comes to Melbourne
Buried away on a middle page of The Age this morning was news of Jan Pieter Balkenende's visit to Melbourne. Ron and I were invited as 'Dutchies' to the reception held at the Melbourne Town Hall to welcome him. Harry Potter claimed to have had the 'perfect' day, first church and then the Grand Prix. Each to his own.
Also present was the fabulous Mr So, the Mayor of Melbourne, famous for his impenetrable accent and being the-most-popular-mayor-in-history-ever-anywhere. Mr So has generated his own cult following and more recently his own MP3. ( you can play it from here) Maybe he could give HP some tips?
Balkenende's visit is part of the 400 th anniversary commemorations, this year, of the landing of the Dutch East India Company vessel ‘Duyfken’, the first known European vessel to land on the Australian coast, in 1606.
(As I mentioned below I have removed the comments facility, you can email comments to you-know-where)
Posted by Faith at 01:44 AM | Comments (0)