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December 30, 2006
Cookin'
In the lead up to Christmas Oma was busy baking Dutch specialities that she'd never before made from scratch. And so it was that we mastered the art of making amandel-spijs from the original ingredients instead of buying it. We were spoilt with Dutch apple pie, gevulde speculaas and a boterletter. Jacob and I contented ourselves with making gingerbread cookies. The left overs we bought home from Christmas Day at Grandma's included Christmas cake, trifle, cheesecake and Christmas pudding. So you can see we're a bit spoilt for choice these days when coffee-time comes around!
Posted by Faith at 11:08 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2006
Wind
Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without a pantomine. Thursday we went to the Botanic gardens to see Wind in the Willows. I'm not sure who enjoyed it most, Jacob or Opa, despite the language barrier!
Half-way through the performance Ratty started looking strangely familiar. It turned out he had house-sat for me for a month when Ron and I went to the Kimberley just before we moved to the Netherlands.
After the performance we visited the Ian Potter Foundation Children's garden, the Observatory Cafe, the Shrine and Alexandra gardens before heading home. More touristy things crossed off the list!
Posted by Faith at 11:39 AM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2006
'Tis iets.........
Christmas and Boxing Day passed in a blur of food and gezelligheid........just for a change. Christmas Day dawned with Jacob sleeping in to a respectable 7.00am. He discovered Santa's presents before we all dug into a breakfast of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and champagne. Opa was a bit shocked at the idea of drinking champagne for breakfast but in the end seemed to have made the conceptual shift more than adequately.
After breakfast there was just time to exchange presents before we headed off to Grandma's house for lunch. Practically the whole family was there and all the usual supects on the table, ham, beef, chicken, roast veggies, (we're not turkey people), Christmas pudding, trifle, cheesecake, (for the non-fruit eater) and custard. Jacob was learning quickly intermittently breaking into "Ho Ho Ho's Merry Christamas and lost of presents!". After lunch hours flashed past with face painting and card games (uugh!)before we ventured back home, the car laden not only with presents but also enough leftovers to keep us going well into the new year.
Posted by Faith at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
December 25, 2006
Ninja Xmas
Posted by Faith at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)
December 24, 2006
Merry Christmas
Posted by Faith at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2006
Gefeliciteerd 1
Today was Opa and Oma's wedding anniversary and we decided to celebrate by taking them to the Night Market at the Victoria Market. This was a brilliant idea on my part; easy to manage with a three year old, food choices for everyone, music we could all enjoy and a relaxed atmosphere that would be appreciated by everyone. The only flaw was that the Market wasn't open tonight. Something I only discovered after we got there.
We ended up going instead to the Supper Inn in Chinatown, almost just as good; easy for a three year old and always worth it just for the address alone: Celestial Lane; followed by a visit to the Myer windows and ice-creams all round before a tram trip back home up Sydney Rd.
Posted by Faith at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
Can you even see them?
Representing the traditionally wimpy-anglo-australian approach to Christmas decoration in our street .........
Posted by Faith at 05:27 AM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2006
Two santas
Posted by Faith at 04:21 AM | Comments (0)
Learning to love the saint
Saturday we saw Santa in the local shopping centre. Quite a traditional looking Santa quietly passing in-and-out of consciousness inside his costume and beard; not one of these new-fangled-metra-Santa's with their obviously-fake-beards, barefeet and self-referential-irony. It was possible to have your photo taken with the sweltering Saint but Jacob wasn't going anywhere near him so we left that alone. He did receive a balloon and little Santa-book to read.
The Santa-Claus-is-coming-to-town jingle on ABC Kids is enough these days to send him into an over-excited frenzy. He's still not sure exactly what it's all about but he knows it's worth risking my wrath and leaping excitedly on the furniture for. After watching the promo carefully a couple of times he has announced that he may now be ready to give Santa another try.
Posted by Faith at 12:22 AM | Comments (0)
December 21, 2006
Is this Christmas 2
As you can see from the photo we bought our Christmas tree on the weekend and have taken advantage of the deck outside the living-room doors to place it in a sort of lurking position, just outside the room. At this time of year we have the doors open most of the time anyway as actually enjoy being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
I think as a reaction to all the European Christmasses we've had lately I've really been unable to get into traditional decorations so opted instead for just the plain outdoor lights for the tree and a star left in the shed by the previous owners. Just to confuse things even further I became obsessed with some little paper lanterns from one of the el-cheapo stores in Sydney Rd and have decided to thow them into the mix as well. They are particularly fetching in the Japanese Maple in the back-yard.
Together with the stars Jacob and I painted and grassed there is certainly an air-of-something about the place. Not quite sure what but definitely something......
Posted by Faith at 03:09 AM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2006
Animal crackers
We managed to drag Oma and Opa away from their chores long enough on the weekend to take them to the Royal Melbourne Zoo. Jacob made a must-see list of animals which took us the best part of five hours to cover and which he only just made it through before collapsing and falling asleep.
Ron and I put Phase 2 of The-Master-Plan into action and made Oma and Opa Friends Of The Zoo. This means they have unlimited visiting rights with their grandson for the next year. Just the next six weeks will do us.
After the Zoo we all ventured over to the south side of the Yarra for dinner at Grandma's place. Jacob spent most of the evening in the kitchen-sink-cupboard being the pudding-monster after replenishing his reserves with lasagna and Lemon Delicious. It is my favourite desert and has become Ron's since he was introduced to it in Australia. Puddings aren't well-known in the Netherlands and the Lemon Delicious was also a big hit with Oma and Opa so I spent the later part of the evening translating a recipeinto Dutch for Oma.
We were thinking of making a detour on the way home to The Boulevard, Ivanhoe but it became apparent that none of us would be able to stay awake long enough to appreciate the lights. Rather than have the Mazda drifiting eerily through the traffic full of sleeping passengers like some sort of 4WD Marie Celeste we opted to go home and try again another night.
Posted by Faith at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)
December 19, 2006
Chook Update
Our four chooks have been free-ranging for a couple of weeks and are now confident enough to have taken over almost all of the backyard. They have also been grazing (is that what chooks do?) over my vegetable gardens without harming any of the seedlings. The volume of chook-poo in the backyard is such that it is only ocasionally even noticeable so that is working out alright as well. After all they are only wee little things.
They all seem to be growing quite a bit which is good and they are noticeably a group of four now whereas earlier they were very much two pairs. The size difference between them (one pair is a week younger than the other) is also less noticeable. I think they may be 10 and 11 weeks old? Can't really remember.
They all have quite distinctive personalities and these are also developing and becoming more pronounced as they get older and as the group dynamics settle.
Thus, below we have Floortje,(the top photo), and Bluey. Bluey was quite red when we got her and is a lesson in not-naming-your-chooks-too-early, or at least not after colours. As you can see she is not very 'Blue' now. Bluey is the most adventurous and inquisitive of the four. She is the only one prepared to wander of without the pack and go exploring and the last to follow the rest of them.
Floortje, the white one with the black flecks is a real madam. She has the most extravagent feet and tail feathers and is exceptionally gorgeous and carries herself as glamourosly as a chook can. Other than the way she looks she's a bit boring really.
I'll tell you about the other two once I've got some decent photos.
Posted by Faith at 05:23 AM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2006
Twinkle twinkle
Determined to meet my maternal responsibilities and ensure both a suitably festive atmosphere AND Jacob's creative development I spent an evening cutting out what seemed an endless number of cardboard stars of varying sizes from saved bits of it'll-come-in-handy-later cardboard.
The next day Jacob accompanied me to one of those el-cheapo shops lining Sydney Rd where to his delight we stocked up on waterpaints, brushes, glitterpaint and glue. It was a nice enough day to paint outside so we sat under the Japanese maple and started with the water paints. Jacob did about two stars before deciding they were boring and demanded pictures of reindeers printed from the internet to colour in. I finished the other thirty-something stars while Jacob rendered Rudolph black in a hundred different ways and mixed all the watercolours into a muddy mustard. Luckily, I'd kept the glitter paint in reserve.
The glitter proved only a short distraction (for him, ....I'm still into it.) so while I painted glitter over the dry watercolours Jacob finally unleashed his creative juices and proceeded to stick bits of dried grass on top. A move that was not only inspired but actually lookd really good. I resorted to painting the leaves from the gum tree with glitter in a feeble attempt to keep my end up and not be completely outdone by a three-year-old.
I was planning to adorn our gorgeous fifties-mantelpiece with the stars but in the end blu-tacked them to the doors opening from the side of the living room. The best ones ARE the ones with grass on them.
Posted by Faith at 02:49 AM | Comments (0)
December 17, 2006
Working for their keep
We are going to have beautifully painted front windows whether we deserve them or not...........
Also apparently, clean floors, cupboards, clothes, bathrooms and nicely finished interior woodwork. Not to mention the garden, the car, the ironing and a host of other chores and DIY jobs. If I can't find enough things to keep them busy they'll be starting on me next!
Posted by Faith at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)
December 15, 2006
Is this Christmas?
Santa Claus came to Jacob's creche the other day. Jacob had prepared for this event, ruthlessly practising Jingle Bells for days and days beforehand. He admitted he might be a little bit afraid of Santa and might need me to accompany him when his name was called out but after watching a tardy, tall, skinny, bare-footed Santa hand out presents to the first five or six kids advised me that he was no longer scared and my services would not be required. Twenty minutes later and still waiting for his present to emerge from a now-alarmingly-empty-looking sack he had once again changed his mind; the anxiety of missing out was playing with his mind.
Santa was a bit rushed having started late and hence niceties such as singing, ho,ho,ho-ing and small-talk were ditched. This and the mid-30's temperature left Oma and Opa looking slightly bemused by the so-called Australian Christmas cheer.
Posted by Faith at 04:28 AM | Comments (0)
December 14, 2006
Op de fiets
Jacob is visiting Grandma today and Oma and Opa are off to explore the south leg of the Merri Creek bike path. I get to stay at home and work.
Posted by Faith at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2006
Still smokin'
This morning we woke to a brown sky, red sun and the smell of smoke. This photo was taken at 8.30am! The wind is coming from the NE again and the smoke from the burning alps is blanketing Melbourne. The only time I've seen anything like this was 1983, during the Ash Wednesday bushfires. The only time worse than that recorded by Europeans is the infamous Black Friday fires in 1939. But Ash Wednesday didn't happen until February and the end of a long hot summer. Its now December and the summer has only just started. God knows what it will be like by March.
Posted by Faith at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2006
42 C and chocolate ice cream.......
Posted by Faith at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2006
Smokin'
Yesterday we awoke to the smell of smoke and a layer of haze thick enough to make it impossible to see the city- only 5kms away and normally visible from the end of our street. It was forecast to be 37 C so we decided to take Oma and Opa into the hills, the Dandenongs, where amongst the forests and tree ferns it might well be a few degrees cooler.
After much admiration of cockatoos, lorikeets and galahs we set off looking for dinosaurs along the Lyrebird Walk. We didn't find any but as usual, did find plenty of what our resident Dinosaur expert, Jacob, described as dinosaur-poo. After restoring picnic and iced-coffees at a local cafe we headed back down to Melbourne to grandma's house. Jacob enjoyed a swim in the backyard and grandma inadvertently served tea at 5.00pm after misreading Oma's watch. This is when Opa thinks it should be served anyway so no one minded too much.
Today was forecast to be cooler but was actually 42 - so we are just hanging out at home waiting for the cool change and reminding the foreigners to keep the door shut!
Posted by Faith at 04:24 AM | Comments (0)
December 08, 2006
Christmas specials
One of our neighbours has been busy getting into the Christmas spirit. As she put it, "I started off with the candy sticks last year and this year bought everything that was on special in Sydney Rd!". Considering what might be on special in Sydney Rd I think we all got off quite lightly. It has bought out the competitive spirit in at least one other neighbour who was last seen marching off to her mother's to dig out her old Christmas lights so who knows where it will all end?
Posted by Faith at 01:34 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2006
Wiggling on
Thank God the new Wiggle is cutting it!
Posted by Faith at 03:40 AM | Comments (0)
Domesticity Brunswick 101
Wednesday Jacob and I tend to do exciting things like grocery shopping.This Wednesday we invited Oma and Opa along and took them with us to Ceres where we bought some vegies and olive oil while admiring chickens and sheep. After a reviving coffee at the Ceres cafe and a play in the adventure playground we wandered down to the Merri Creek so that Oma and Opa could see how to navigate their way onto the bicycle path from our house.
Lunch was a picnic at home in the backyard followed by a walk to Spotlight, Bristol, the Post Office and the butcher in Sydney Rd. It doesn't get much more exciting than this. I'm suprised Tourism Victoria aren't on my doorstep begging me to come work for them!
Posted by Faith at 02:07 AM | Comments (0)
December 06, 2006
Photo Friday: Not
I had my first chance today to check my email and came across LAST Friday's Photo Friday theme; stillness. I might have been able to dig out something in that vein had I seen the email earlier but it would have had to have been from the archives as at the moment there is absolutely NO stillness around here. Aaaaaah gezelligheid!
Posted by Faith at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)
Orientation Day
Jacob was at creche today so I took Oma and Opa into the city to make sure they knew how to get in and out by themselves, which trams and trains to catch, and to try and give them some basic idea of the orientation of the city to the other parts of Melbourne we keep talking about.
We went in early and stopped off at the Myer Christmas windows first before going up to the Rialto observation deck. These are two things you NEVER do when you live in Melbourne so it's good to have visitors here to remind you to do them once in a while.
After the Rialto we wandered through the Casino to gawk at the gamblers before making our way along the river to the Blue Train at Southgate for lunch. Opa seemed a bit shocked at the idea of a 'meal' for lunch (I think it was tandoori chicken salad....) but managed to cope alright in the end. After that it was ice cream and sitting on a boat on the Yarra for an hour before wandering around Federation Square and catching the train back home. Not the most exciting day but at least now they do have some general idea of how to get in and out and around the city by themselves. We'll start with the rest of Melbourne at some later date.
Posted by Faith at 01:32 AM | Comments (0)
December 02, 2006
Studley Park Boathouse
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December 01, 2006
Irony Part 3
Unbelievably the yellow wiggle has been forced to retire due to an illness of which the symptoms are worst when wiggling.
While obviously not quite as serious as Steve Irwin's death or that of Peter Brock it does have the same ring-of-irony about it.
Posted by Faith at 05:09 AM | Comments (0)
Globalisation 1
Globalisation gone wrong.
Dutch father-in-law demanding of the Vietnamese butcher at the Vic Market whether she had any "chicken herbs" (...its a Dutch thing...) to go with the chicken he'd just bought. In Dutch!
Posted by Faith at 04:41 AM | Comments (0)