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March 29, 2008
Earth Hour 2008
Despite oma and opa's scepticism they good-naturedly went along with our participation in Earth Hour 2008. Oma almost scalded herself making coffee and Opa couldn't see to write in his puzzle book but still, a 'gezellig' time was had by all. Sitting at the table peering over the candles at each other reminded me of nothing more than evenings spent in Amsterdams cafes wondering what it was that was on my plate.
Posted by Faith at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 28, 2008
Family Day out
Yesterday Jacob's friends Olive and Lyla came over to play. It was a rainy day and by the time they left Jacob was a bit sick of being indoors. I was also keen to get out and show Ronnie my latest discovery. And so it was that we piled into the car and made an outing to .......the coburg junkyards!
A friend had taken me there earlier in the week and I just had to show Ronnie the treasure chest of goodies available only five minutes away. Ron was left pale and shuddering, Jacob was impressed with the assortment of puddles if nothing else and I remained sober and purchase-free despite many temptations.
Posted by Faith at 03:15 AM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2008
Chook shed
Opa is busy building the new chook shed Ron and I have been planning. It was just after he'd nailed the first nails into the cross beams on the last outside wall that I came out to check progress and just had to ask whether it was intended that the old chook hut would stay inside the new one.
Aparently not.
A couple of nails hastily pulled out, a stud removed and bobs-your-uncle.... no one will ever know.
Posted by Faith at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)
This is one of the watermelons that, alas, didn't make it. Due to a combination of lack of water and a temporary loss of interest in gardening on our part earlier this year, the watermelons came up too late to ripen. After a few cold nights followed by hot days the vine was all but dead and today I reluctantly pulled it out.
Posted by Faith at 03:19 AM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2008
...............?
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Jet lag and 38+ degrees take their toll.
Posted by Faith at 06:58 AM | Comments (0)
March 18, 2008
Happy Birthday Oma!
Last night was a little warm. Luckily Om and Opa slept well after spending a day earning their keep sanding, varnishing and repairing an old kitchen table in the almost-40 degree heat. Oma did have a good incentive to finish the table. We ended up celebrating her birthday on it!
Yes, the bunglow-deluxe is turning out to be dearer than they expected!
Posted by Faith at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2008
Corny or I'm all Ears!
Posted by Faith at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2008
Nog een keer!
They've landed. Oma and Opa have arrived for their almost-annual holiday in Australia to check-up on how we're raising their grandson. When they left the Netherlands the high was 8 degrees celcius. They woke this morning to 38 degrees. Opa is now sunbaking in the sun! (And they say the english are crazy!)
Posted by Faith at 06:24 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2008
Strawberries
February was strangely cool slowing down the summer produce from the garden. That and the drought and a temporary loss of interest in gardening in January. Now that its officially autumn it's warmed up again, (of course!) and so the tomatoes, zuchinis, chillies and strawberries are putting in a last ditch effort.
These strawberries have to be protected from the chickens who love them and I suspect we'll have to do the same with oma when she arrives tomorrow evening!
Posted by Faith at 03:03 AM | Comments (0)
March 11, 2008
Gezelligheid!
I'm so glad I went to the trouble of getting that Dutch passport!
Yesterday an invitation landed in my inbox to a celebration of Queens Day at the Netherlands Consulate in Sydney. Only the biggest holiday of the year in the Netherlands so you'd think they'd be putting on quite a bash, wouldn't you?
I was a bit suprised to read I had to pay $10.00 to attend the reception and suprise turned to shrieks of laughter when I discovered that in return for my ten dollars I would get two drink tokens. Any additional drinks would have to be purchased by me. Drink tokens no less!
(I think I'm having a flashback to the Heineken music hall.... would the consulate actually employ young lads with those beer backpacks who walked around filling up glasses from a squirty thing?)
Posted by Faith at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)
New poo pipe with accesories
Recently we had the Construction Queen in. There were two reasons for this; 1) we liked the name of her business and 2) we wanted to establish exactly what it was that we couldn't afford to do to the house.
Like all good project managers she started off by asking what our budget was in repsonse to which we looked confused and repeated 'Budget?' several times. Just to make it clear exactly what sort of crazy dreamers she was dealing with we then gave her a wish-list a mile long to which she added a couple of the more practical (and expensive)issues like a new sewerage outlet since it appears that the current arrangement is now deemed not-good-enough by the authorities.* We also gave her a pile of pages torn from designer magazines, just to cement the madness, before sending her off to work a miracle.
Apparently she will have done this by tomorrow and we will then see an indicative floor sketch with a rough estimate of costs. At which point we will lie down and cry.
*We would just like to take this opportunity to say that we have been sharing sewerage with the Mokbels now for eighteen months and have always found it a pleasure.
Posted by Faith at 06:12 AM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2008
Eye Candy
Now that Jacob is staying up later he has taken to watching Robin Hood on Sunday nights. This was my definition of purgatory; sitting through a whole episode of goody-two-shoes-Robin and his sappy-men until that is, I discovered, .... Gisborne. Sir Guy of Gisborne. And his black leathers. He has the whole conflicted-bad-boy-thing going for him. I haven't quite gone as far as replacing Jacob with Gisborne as the wallpaper on my laptop but he certainly makes the Sunday evening TV schedule a lot more bearable! (The wallpaper I would replace Jacob with if I was to ever do such a thing -which of course I wouldn't- is wallpaper no.2) I'm not complicated.
Posted by Faith at 04:50 AM | Comments (0)
March 09, 2008
Posted by Faith at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2008
Volcano mama
Jacob brought this trophy home from creche. Apparently one of the staff (Zobeidah) made it for him.
"Do you know who it is, mama?", he asked.
"No, who is it?"
"You! I thought it was a volcano, but Zobeidah said it was you."
Posted by Faith at 03:19 AM | Comments (0)
March 06, 2008
Tuesdays
Tuesdays, Jacob often comes home from kindergarten armed with other little boys. He softens the blow by bringing their mum along with them. She and I indulge in further softening-up with a glass or two of wine. But what I don't understand is why it's only my child who feels the need to roll in the mud?
Posted by Faith at 04:04 AM | Comments (0)
March 05, 2008
Quince
In an effort to find ideas for what to actually do with our quinces I have been forced to buy, and try, some Maggie Beer products. Most memorably a very inspirational Quince Ice Cream. So memorable we had to finish it all in one evening!
Today I am road-testing her Quince paste and it's doing very well. To see more of what is in the garden keep an eye on our Flickr space.
Posted by Faith at 02:41 AM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2008
The Velvet Lounge
The Casio(see below) is providing even more entertainment than imagined. The polystyrine inserts that held it safely in its box turning out to be the most perfect castle-with-secret-cave-underneath. What you can't see is that once you have entered the secret cave and gone through the hidden passageway you will find yourself in the Velvet Lounge which boasts purple walls and ceilings. Just the spot to relax with a martini and kick back to the ambient sounds of "wild pigs running through the purple forest".
Posted by Faith at 02:33 AM | Comments (0)