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May 30, 2006
Moonlighting
The World Cup is shaping up to be a pretty busy period for us this year, with TWO teams to support (Australia AND the Netherlands) in the first round. Luckily we have Jacob to train us into the broken nights and lack of sleep which he has been doing with gusto lately, having discovered a new fear-of-the-dark. His current obsession with bears, monsters and dinosaurs might have something to do with it.
Because of course THAT is the nub from this end of the world, the WK is generally a midnight-to-five-a.m. affair. At least if you want to see the matches live. Ron's boss is German, his account manager Italian and the rest seem to be barracking for Australia so I don't think he needs to worry about being the only one turning up bleary-eyed each day. I've re-assured him by explaing that this happens in offices Australia-wide every year with Wimbledon and Cricket Test Matches where midnight to dawn viewing is maintained for nights on end. No one in Melbourne, where liking sport is practically compulsory, will ever hold it against him.
Here is our viewing schedule for the first round:
June 11th 11.00pm Netherlands vs Serbia Montegnegro
June 12th 11.00pm Australia vs Japan
After this civilized start to the tournament the pace starts hotting up;
June 17th 1.30a.m. Netherlands vs Cote d'Ivoire
June 19th 1.30a.m Australia vs Brazil
June 22nd 4.30a.m. Netherlands vs Argentina
June 23rd 4.30a.m. Australia vs Croatia
Just before we first went to the Netherlands in 2000 I accompanied Ron to a Sports Cafe to watch Italy vs Netherlands in the match that we now refer to as the 'the-dutch-can't-kick-penalties-match'. It finished just before 5.00a.m. so we went and had breakfast and several strong coffees before going straight on to work. Just like everyone else who attended. At least this time we get to watch the matches at home and for free all free on our best public broadcasting television station SBS. Excellent preparation was also provided by SBS with Nerds FC.
Posted by Faith at 03:29 AM | Comments (0)
May 29, 2006
The fat lady bounces back
Melbourne used to have two full opera seasons until an-EVIL-step-sister merged the Victorian State Opera with the Australian Opera and moved them to Sydney. The resulting Opera Australia performed only a portion (ever dwindling) of their productions in Melbourne and we were left with a very barren and homogenous landscape.
The half season while pleasant enough is never satisfactory so it was with some glee and happiness that I heard that the Victorian Opera is being created. Obviously it's going to take some years before a full and suitably fabulous programn can be developed, after all, all the props, costumes, infrastructure, relationships, have to be rebuilt, remade, rekindled. And of sourse it 'will never be the same' but it might just might, be something fabulous in it's own right.
In the meantime we have been finding solace with the OA's half portion in a very nice La Traviata (ho hum....) and an especially fabulous bollywood-inspired Lakme. There is more of their program I'd like to see but of course it wouldn't on in Melbourne would it? And WHAT is with the Gilbert and Sullivan?
Posted by Faith at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)
May 26, 2006
Its not cricket
What also made the whole evening really enjoyable was the party atmosphere. The train we caught on the way to the ground was jam-packed with families and kids. Many people were wearing half-and-half shirts and scarves representing both teams. The atmosphere was keen and excited but also good-natured.
I only went to the football once when I was living in the Netherlands and although we sat in the woosy 'good boys' section of the ground (which held only 20,000 people), I was keenly aware that I was the only female in our section and there were constant reminders of the aggression and violence that mar the games there. The atmosphere was not conducive to your thinking "Now that was fun, lets do it again!"
My scariest encounter with football wasn't even at a match but happenned once at Utrecht station when I inadvertently became caught up in the escort of supporters to the ground by the scary-black-clad-poilce. Not the nice smiley everyday police. The ones that beat up squatters and wear riot gear and have enormous truncheons. Trapped in the concourse over the yards with supporters and police I still can't decide who was scarier.
At Utrecht it took half an hour to just get out of the stadium itself, which held a maximum of 20,000 people. This was mainly because of all the extreme measures they've taken to minimise the opportunities for violence to flare out of control. Last night, 95,000 people left the MCG without much trouble as far as I could see and within half an hour we were not only out of the stadium but had caught a train, got off at our station and were sitting in a local cafe enjoying a Shiraz while we mulled over the match!
Football in Australia (AFL) has traditionally been a family affair and I'm sure it's the presence of families in the crowds that helps keep a lid on any violence. There may be the odd idiot going off his rocker but people are less likely to blindly leap in when their wife and kids are with them, or when there are families in the vicinity. I hope this aspect of Australian Rules Football becomes a feature of football (soccer...) as it assumes it's place in the Australian sporting arena.
The other remarkable thing about the evening is that Ronnie ate his first real-dinkum-four-and-twenty-meat-pie (which is what you do at the football) and survived to tell the tale.
Posted by Faith at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
May 23, 2006
The definition of irony is......................
...NOT going to Koninginnedag celebrations (held on April 30th)in Melbourne because it was raining!
Yes, you heard me. They celebrate Koninginnedag in Melbourne now. This is apparently a recent phenomena, beginning last year with the first public celebrations in order to mark Beatrix's Jubilee. 40,000 people turned up,(I didn't even know there were that many Dutch people in Melbourne!) and it was deemed such a success it was decided to hazard another year of Oranje and gezelligheid at Federation Square. We were strangely fascinated, much in the same way as with terrible car accidents; you want to look but are afraid of what you might see. Being brave we had decided we'd have to go see it for ourselves.
Shame then about the weather. When the day dawned cold, grey and drizzly, (JUST like the Netherlands) we chickened out and decided to stay at home instead. Not very Dutch after all! Still, looks like they had fun without us.
Bizarrely, the world record for clog dancing was achieved and sanctioned by the Guiness Book of Records. Here in Melbourne! What next I ask you?
Posted by Faith at 12:39 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2006
Guus! Guus! Guus!
Posted by Faith at 12:25 PM | Comments (0)
May 21, 2006
Famous frisbees
A new shop was opening in our local shopping strip on the weekend and they'd pulled out all the usual stops. Sausage sizzle on the pavement, garish cars parked out the front, balloons and free fisbies. Spying the frisbies as we walked past I thought I'd whip in and grab one for Jacob. The frisbees were in a large pile guarded by a very fit looking shop assistant deep in conversation with a member of the public who was clutching at least half a dozen of the things.
I waited patiently, and patiently, and even a bit more patiently still........ I did start to wonder why none of the other shop staff, of whom there were plenty, said anything to the assistant guarding the frisbees, like "Come on Shazza, people are waiting" or "Shall I take over for you there Shazza?" or "Pull ya finger out Shaz!" and after what seemed like a VERY patient wait I stretched my hand forward and mumbled "Excuse me, I'll just take...." while making a dive for the frisbee pile. The very fit shop assistant sprung into motion, "I haven't signed those yet" she exlained, quickly doing so while I wondered what on earth would she be signing them for?
Having extricated myself once out on the pavement again I glanced down at the frisbee to see what she'd written on it. "Brooke Hansen Olympic Gold and Silver" it says, WITH a smiley face.
Bad enough all those early mornings in the pool and the hours of training but to then have to spend hours in shopping strips signing frisbees, balloons and god-knows-what-else for people who don't even recognise you!
Posted by Faith at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)
May 20, 2006
What I'm reading.........................
True to form, being too-busy has prompted a quick dash to the book shop to splurge on things-I'll-never-have-time-to-read. So sensible. so practical, so predictable! Just in case you were sitting there at home or work engrossed in the conumdrum of wondering JUST what IS Faith reading these days?; here it is;
Beyong the dictionary in Dutch by Bruce Donaldson of the University of Melbourne - much more fun than it sounds! I don't read it from A-Z but just dip into it now and then to amaze my husband with things he didn't know about his own language.
Why Birds Sing by David Rothenberg, Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. - a luverley little book with a gorgeous cover! Very important. (Not the cover that you'll see on the website.)The recordings that you can play from the site of birds singing along with David's playing are amazing!
De Engel van Amsterdam by Geert Mak - totally unexpectedly odd bits of this make me suddenly feel quite homesick for Amsterdam..........
The Heart Garden by Janine Burke -about Sunday Reed and Heide. Something I've been meaning to read for ages.
The Perfect Glass of Wine by Ben Canaider - which is a lot of fun and also has a gorgous cover besides being a topic I can relate to. As the blurb on the back cover says "...Drink generously. What else can you do of any real merit after about midday, anyway?"
Brian Banana Duck Sunshine Yellow by Chris McKimmie - I bought it for Jacob but he's going to have to fight me for it!
The lack of fiction may be explained by the fact that I am up to my eyeballs in manuscripts of Dutch fiction at the moment and that's probably more than enough for my puny little brain.
Posted by Faith at 03:05 AM | Comments (0)
May 19, 2006
Nectar Lounge
I was tripping from blog-to-blog recently, as you do, and stumbled across Nikki Shell and read about her preparations for the opening of the Nectar Lounge. Being the incredibly perceptive person that I am it was a while before it finally dawned upon me that the Nectar Lounge was the one and the same bar we'd noticed up the street undergoing renovations.
Ok, it's taken us a while but Ron and I FINALLY got around to going and having a look the other night. It's a fabulous little space and really nice to have somewhere where you can just sit and enjoy a drink or three without having to sit down and eat a meal. There is great tapas also! The wilds of Elsternwick are not reknown for lounge-life so the Nectar Lounge is a very welcome addition to the Glenhuntly Road streetscape.
Posted by Faith at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)
Photo Friday: The Road
Posted by Faith at 07:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 18, 2006
Just a perfect day........
Wednesdays Jacob stays at home with me and we do nice things together, like raking up leaves, doing the shopping, building houses with the ironing-board and glueing leaves to bits of paper that are then posted to Oma in IJsselstein. Imagine that getting past quarantine in Australia!
Yesterday was even more fun than usual as Judy came over with Beatrice, Queenie and little-not-so-little-Charlie. We met Judy while we were living in Amsterdam and coincidentally, she and Cees moved back to Melbourne only months before we did.
Jacob is crazy about Beatrice and Queenie being just between them in age. From his point of view it's a bonus that they also understand Dutch. Together they hold garbled bi-lingual conferences on topics ranging from who neeeds-to-do-the-biggest-poo to brilliant-but-illegal-things-to-do-with-play-dough. These discussions have to be conducted at high volume, with frequent screams and yells and interspersed with sprints along the hallway to be effective.
Judy and I ocassionally get to talk to each other through the din, in between serving a constant stream of food and drinks and coming up with more-imaginative-ways-to-scream-SHUT-UP, which of course neither of us would ever do. By the time they leave Jacob is a very tired but very happy little heap on the couch. With such nice visitors and the glorious autumn weather we're having at the moment there's now another notch on Jacob and I's list of Perfect Wednesdays.
Posted by Faith at 03:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 17, 2006
Running like papa
If you're missing Papa then the best cure is to put on his smelly jogging shirt and run-like-papa in the backyard. Works for us everytime!
Posted by Faith at 06:52 AM | Comments (0)
May 16, 2006
Turbo Mama Overdrive
Sunday morning Jacob gave me the best Mother's Day present of all and slept until 8.00!! Unbelievable.
Inspired by this and the laminated-sticky-poem-with-toddler-scribble that he had brought home from creche with him on Friday I went into turbo-mama-overdrive and this is what I did. Filled every empty container I could find with potting mix and transplanted the broccoli sprouts that, against all odds, have surfaced from our seedlings, and threw in some bean and spinach seeds for good measure. The boy shall get his greens! All of this was done with Jacob's 'help' so you can imagine the shovel loads of motherly patience and love required.
Satisfied with the outdoorsy component of the day and having offloaded Jacob onto his father who had started one of those vague meaningless digging exercises men undertake when they see a spade, I escaped to the kitchen. There I whipped up two carrot cakes, one with and one without raisins, a large quantity of pumpkin soup, tuna and mushroom pasta sauce, osso bucco and then just to top it off, my first ever loaf of bread.
The freezer is full, the bread digestible if leaden, (have to find a nicer flour to use but at least it rose and the kneading wasn't as bad as I thought it would be), the osso bucco was delicious, the driveway is in a mysterious half-dug state and the broccoli sprouts seemed to have survived the transplanting.
Thank God Mother's Day only comes once a year!
Posted by Faith at 05:27 AM | Comments (0)
May 15, 2006
English marathon
One of the most tiring things about working in another country is the second-language thing. Spending the entire day, reading, talking, and hardest of all, listening, in a second-language is exhausting when you haven't worked in that language for a while, no matter how well you know it. I can still remember blanking out every afternoon about 3.00pm unable to absorb one-more-word-of-dutch and just hoping to God no one in those late-afternoon meetings was actually saying anything important.
Ron's English is a lot better than my Dutch was then but still, we've planned to take things easy for the first month or two of his new job. Not too many evenings out (who are we kidding here?), quite weekends with lots of time for naps, brain-cell-replenishing beer and wine on tap....
The first few weeks weren't too bad, after all, with all the public holidays it was three weeks in before he had to work a full week and he has spent most of the time on training. Last week was his first full week that also entailed working so I guess it wasn't coincidence that saw him napping away most of Saturday afternoon before falling asleep with Jacob at 7.30pm! Ah the gezelligheid!
Posted by Faith at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)
Katoomba
Way, way, way back in February we borrowed my Dad's car, (This was before we'd bought Fergie), and made a road trip up to Katoomba to visit Dominic and Colleen. Besides our adventures on the way there and back which involved some exciting sleeping arrangements and a brief brush with truckie-life, we were on a mission. To photograph as many of Dominic's paintings and drawings as possible for the website I am building him. The website is a bit of a sad old thing but it's slowly getting there, one day when someone invents those extra four hours to each day I may even finish it.
Our mission was accomplished but even more importantly we had a fabulous weekend just hanging out in Dom and Colleen's sprawling house and garden, watching the girls boss Jacob around and drinking too much wine.
Photos from the wekend can be seen on Flickr here. Yup, I've finally succumbed to Flickr. I'd still prefer to have my own photo archives but I just don't have the time anymore.
Posted by Faith at 05:12 AM | Comments (0)
May 14, 2006
Love and marriage............
It was a year ago yesterday that Steve and Fintan tied the knot in Den Haag and I wore out my 'click' finger taking photos of the happy event. One year on and the happy couple have FINALLY shacked up together! Gefeliciteerd jongens!
Click here to revisit the luuuuuuuuuurv.
Posted by Faith at 01:23 PM | Comments (0)
May 08, 2006
Kids Krisis
Just when everything was going so well.
Just as in Amsterdam we really lucked out with Jacob's creche here. When child care is supposedly in crisis with people on waiting lists for years we walked into the first place we saw and discovered not only did we love it but that Jacob could start immediately. It is a privately-owned creche with a very real commitment to the children. They not only meet the minimum standards for qualified caregivers but go well beyond them in that every staff member is qualified or in the process of gaining qualifications. Food is bought daily and cooked on the premises and nothing is kept or re-used the following day. Children's farms, music and dance teachers, theatre groups, gym groups are all regular visitors. The staff have been wonderful and the comments they make each morning and evening show that they know Jacob well and must have spent a certain amount of time with him one-on-one each day. Most importantly, Jacob is as happy as Larry going there.
So, it was with some disapointment that we heard today that the owners are retiring and have sold the creche to Kids Campus, one of the big chain childcare providers about whom there is so much controversy at the moment. What's worse is a glance at their web site which reveals that they are the object of a friendly take-over bid by ABC Learning Centres, the biggest provider in Australia and infamous for their CEO's recent attempts to avoid responsibility for a breach of care with one of their toddlers. That a company with such enormous profits is determined to challenge the most basic precepts of the laws protecting children in care is very scary and frankly alarms me about the culture governing the environment in which Jacob would be spending his days.
I was worrying about having to move Jacob from the creche when we bought a house which will most probably be in another area. Now I'll just be glad too!
What says the most to me is that if I look at the websites of both these companies there is very little information about children and looking after them. They are very much corporate websites of profit-making concerns. Somehow the idea of a company that makes a AUS$38 million profit and then tries to shift the blame for breach of care to some of the lowest paid employees in the country, looking after my son is NOT confidence inspiring. If they will do this to their own employees what would they not do to my son? And why would anyone with any hope of a job elsewhere want to work for them?
Damn, damn,damn, damn,damn!
Posted by Faith at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)
Dinali!
Sunday we went to visit Hasitha and see in person the wonder of Dinali Kiyara, he and Dilini's new daughter. Being gorgoeus wasn't enough though to save her from having one of my umbilical-chord hats inflicted upon her as you can see from the photo above. Hasitha's little boy Kieran is almost the same age as Jacob and it's always fun to see them playing together. Long running disputes over bicycles, tricycles, trains and go-carts were put on hold to facilitate important discussions where it became obvious that the word 'cookie' transcends the limitations of mixed English/Dutch/Singhalese communication.
We also got to meet Hasitha's parents and gorge ourselves on a delicious feast of chicken curry, rice, dahl and prawn salad. The perfect way to spend Sunday!
Posted by Faith at 02:49 AM | Comments (0)
May 06, 2006
Now where was I...........?
Well, the short version of the last couple of weeks is thus;
Ron has started his new job, Jacob is now at creche four days a week and I'm working four days a week in my new and unexpecetd career as literary translator. A couple of nasty 'flus and colds have done the rounds, we've been to the opera, tried out the new car on the Mornington Peninsula and the Macedon ranges, seen wallabies at the Organ Pipes, bought seeds at Diggers, put in our bulbs for spring, are busy watching brocoli grow, have had more dentistry done in four weeks than in the previous forty years and have found a favourite cafe in which to work for a couple of hours per day.
All in all we're feeling pretty much 'settled' now and are in a routine that looks like being our daily one for a while.
Posted by Faith at 12:15 PM | Comments (0)