Weddings

It’s official. We’re engaged. After eight and a half years, Sergei and I will be making it official in 10.5 weeks. I can’t wait! After weeks of investigating, phoning, emailing, tentatively booking and changing my mind-ing, we finally have the skeleton of the day planned. Ceremony location. CHECK. Celebrant. CHECK. Reception. CHECK. At least we know that the wedding can actually happen now, and that we’ll all have a good feed at the end of it. It’s amazing though to think about all of the hoops we’ve had to jump to get this far, and of all of the compromises and awkward family situations that have arisen as a result. It would have been far easier – and cheaper – to elope, but then I would have missed out on “every girl’s dream” – not that I ever had a particular image in mind of my wedding day, but if I did, it certainly would have involved more than just two witnesses! Read More…

Our Poison Of Choice

Sergei and I have a little obsession. DVDs. Think of it as a type of alternative investment. We tend to avoid “normal” television most of the time, and would certainly never consider forking out ridiculous amounts of money for Foxtel or a similarly ridiculously priced Pay TV option. We did succumb briefly, when we were offered the first month as a free trial, but the moment the contracts came out to extend the life of our 24-7 “televisual feast”, we told them where they could stick it. It wasn’t that great anyway, what with just as many, if not more ads, than normal television, and repeats galore. What we found the most ridiculous was that even if we did want to proceed with some sort of contract, we weren’t allowed to pick and choose the channels to which we wanted access. I’m not interested in this package or that package, because they’ve all been stacked to include a variety of things which frankly don’t all suit us. Therefore, we chose another option. Stick the Pay TV, we will forever after choose our favourite programs and purchase them on DVD – an option allowing us to access whatever we want, whenever we want thank you very much. No ifs, no buts, and certainly no time restrictions OR advertisements. Read More…

Christmas 2008

You’ve already got a pretty fair idea overall of Christmas 2008, particularly about the toy shop that is now our home. Yes, our little angel has been spoilt rotten, but it was her first Christmas so I think that’s entirely acceptable. Here’s a few (ok, 30) select shots from the day, and the general Christmas period. Trust me, limiting the photos to 30 was hard enough… plenty where they came from for another day… As always, your comments on my photos are more than welcome. Hope you like them! Read More…

She’s not spoilt. Really. Well, maybe just a bit.

I know, I know. It’s almost New Year’s Eve and I’m just writing about our daughter’s first Christmas experience now. The reason? Well, it has taken me several days to unwrap and unpack all of her presents. Our wheelie bin doesn’t know what’s hit it, what with all of the cardboard and bits of plastic that used to help to securely display her many new toys. Then there’s wrapping paper. Needless to say, it’s a time consuming business, especially considering not only that baby’s patience runs out after a while so I’ve had to constantly abandon my “wrapping up Christmas” activities (or unwrapping, as the case was) but also that I’ve tried to let her play with each and every new item as it has appeared, taking photos with each which I will be able to send to the relevant gift givers in appreciation of their contribution to her pile of loot… and what a pile it is. Read More…

Happy Birthday to You!

Well, we did it. We made it six months. Yesterday, Alexandra turned six months old. Ok, I know, it’s a bit OTT to be recognising half birthdays, but as this is her first, I’m going to anyway. It’s not like I threw her a party or anything… I didn’t even buy her presents. She did spend a decent chunk of time in her brand new Fisher Price “Take Along Hop ‘n’ Pop” activity centre, complete with lights/music/rattles etc, but that was technically an early Christmas present from her Daddy so it doesn’t count. OK??? Read More…

Rolling!

She finally did it. Yesterday, three days before being five months old, my little monkey rolled from her back to her tummy… and of course, I missed it. I had decided to give her some “tummy time” yesterday afternoon, so I laid out a sheet on the floor, and put her down between two lines of toys to keep her entertained (something to distract her away from the fact that she was no longer in my lap). She lay there for a good couple of minutes, pushing her torso & head up with her arms and having a good look around, before getting fed up and lying her head down for a bit of a “Mummy, you’ve got to be kidding me” style whinge. Fair enough. I didn’t really expect her to stay there for long, but she needs the practise. So anyway, I flipped her over onto her back, a position she’s much more familiar with, to buy myself a little computer time. Maybe a minute later, I turned to look at her, and she’s on her tummy again, looking around at her toys as if nothing had happened. She even fooled me for a minute, having only just seen her on her tummy. Then after one almighty double take, I realised what she’d done. Was I excited? Just a little bit. :) Between calling her father, texting her Nanna, and using the most high pitched congratulatory tone with her, I flipped her over again and waited, video camera at the ready, for her to do it again. I’m still waiting. Maybe I should try tempting her with Schmackos? Maybe not. Well, at least that works with Barkley anyway… Read More…

Health S.O.S - Calling All Recipes

A very good friend of mine has been told that for health reasons she must adhere to a particularly strict diet for the next twelve months. Now, of course, she will be obeying the good doctor’s orders, but I would dearly love to be able to assist her to make it through the twelve months without being entirely deprived of decent food! The problem is this: I am finding it very difficult to find recipes that exclude the key groups. She has been told to avoid anything with gluten, yeast, lactose, wheat, sugar and/or preservatives as they are interfering with both her iron and folate levels (and she is therefore anaemic). While I can find recipes that exclude some of these groups, I’m having trouble finding recipes that exclude all. I’m looking for any types of recipes – both treats and everyday meals. Can someone please assist? I would love to be able to help her out. Thank you!

Renters – Second Class Citizens?

Ok, let me get this straight. Real estate agents charge astronomical amounts of rent for often pathetic properties, and do whatever they can to make one’s life a misery while renting from them. No hoop is to be left “unjumped”, whether it’s signing this form in duplicate or that form in triplicate. Just recently we had to renew our lease, and despite the fact that we were basically agreeing to all of the same terms as in the previous twelve months (apart of course from the rent increasing – that went without saying) we had to sign the paperwork no less than 15 times. Each. I almost considered offering them my first born instead, but feared they’d take her! Anyway, we signed the forms, and believe it or not that was the least painful of our real estate dealings. We had just spent the week in the company of a real estate employed tradesman who managed to break several parts during his visit, and then had to be called back to our home on no less than three more occasions to replace all of the parts again, as they were either so cheap & nasty or so poorly installed (or both) that they broke within days of each other. Oh and then he effectively implied that we must having been tampering with them. What part of having a four month old baby does he not understand? The moment he left the house, I thought to myself, “I know, let’s just leave the baby sitting in her dirty nappy for another five minutes. I’ll just get the screwdriver and have a fiddle with the shower head instead. Yes, that sounds like fun!” Hmmm… I think I have better things to do with my time somehow. My point is, we work hard, we pay our astronomical rent bills like clockwork, we ask for any maintenance to be done only if absolutely necessary, and we look after the place. I would have thought that earned us some respect. This is sadly not the case. Why? Because we rent. If we were in the market to buy, we would be treated differently but as we are not, we seem to be viewed as second class citizens. This, when we live in a world where these same real estate agents have done everything in their power to increase property “values” to ridiculous levels, meaning that one must be earning a fortune to even consider a mortgage. They make it impossible for so many people to buy a home, then they treat people poorly when they have to resort to renting. It’s just not good enough. Just because I happen to be young, blonde, and currently not working (duh… I’m looking after a baby) does not mean that I am stupid or subhuman. I have two degrees! Or maybe that’s the problem. Maybe I shouldn’t have bothered to get any degrees at all because they enabled me to see the bullshit for what it really is.

Do you think I’m being too harsh? I’d love to know.

Hello & Welcome!

The sad little lunatic begins…

Originally a phrase from The Vicar of Dibley, I often feel this a particularly appropriate term for myself these days. As a relatively new Mummy, baby brain has well and truly taken over and given the thoughts most often occupying my brain, lunacy is never far away. I knew having a baby would be a life changing experience, but one wonders if the definition of insanity has something to do with being able to remember and describe my four month old daughter’s last bowel movement with incredible accuracy, yet being unable to remember the last time I washed my hair, or just about anything else non baby related to be honest…. Even as I type now she is precariously balanced on my left arm, and I am trying not only to stop her falling but also to convince her that this word document is just as interesting as the brightly coloured computer game she was watching earlier. Sounds like great parenting, that does. Well, sometimes in the 15 or so straight hours of baby awake time I need a little release – that, and it’s hard to think of quality baby entertainment for such a long stretch. Mind you, today I was lucky. We have just awoken from a two hour sleep. I say we, because on the rare occasion that the baby actually decides to sleep during the day, it is on the condition that I sleep right beside her. We both needed it, although fuzzy-brained as I am I often think I need it more. See, if I have her in bed before 11pm, it’s truly a miracle. It’s not that I don’t try either, but there’s something about her Mummy’s arms that makes her cot thoroughly detestable. I completely empathise – why would you want to go to bed when you can be warmly cuddled less than an inch from the food supply you utterly adore? As a result, however, 99% of the time I am conscious, she is too, and this therefore results in her sometimes looking at the computer screen along with me. Read More…