Robots

My brother, the sole boy with four sisters, did not much like drawing as a kid. He didn't like making things, or cooking. Having so many sisters did not seem to quell his passion for Aussie Rules, backyard cricket, and pounding a tennis ball against the garage wall for hours. He started a paper-round at aged eight, and saved his money to buy a calculator. It did basic addition, subtraction and multiplication, cost $24 (a small fortune circa 1978) and was the pinnacle of technological achievment in our household. He taught us the fine art of the 'chinese burn', the horse bite, the dead leg - mostly through demonstration rather than instruction.

His one creative passion, as I recall, was drawing robots. He would draw endless robots, which were always entirely comprised of squares of different sizes. Pages of robots, drawings of robots for every handmade card he was required to give and even, once, a robot rendered in DAS for Mum's birthday.

Lily, too, likes to draw robots. Robots with robots inside and robots inside the robots inside, a la 'The Cat in the Hat'. Robots with loopy arms a la 'Lost in Space'. Robots on (?)roller blades.

My borhter went on to have four sons, all of whom share his passion for Aussie Rules (different teams though, alas), backyard cricket and balls of any description. They also seem reasonably well-versed in the arts of sibling maiming. I'm not sure whether any are particularly into robots though, so it's kind of nice to see the love continue.

Christmas 2014

My photo record of Christmas this year starts and ends with Winnie, our ancient and increasingly decrepit pug.  She is a constant in our days, following me around the house on her arthritic legs, weeing on the carpets, whining for food and providing the soundtrack to our days with her chronic snoring. Poor old thing, we'll miss her when she's gone. 

Apart from a few photos of the present opening most of the photos are of the food - a very non-traditional selection of gnocchi, paella and salads as well as turkey and ham. I toasted nuts in my new frypan ( a gift to myself) and made gravy in my new saucepan ( a gift from

Craig). We had 24 for lunch and were grateful that the weather was perfect for eating outdoors as we wouldn't have fit in the dining room.  My lovely mother did nearly all the washing up, the kids had water fights and played badminton, my eldest sister and I sang carols - she's a wonderful musician. The kids joined in sporadically but weren't much interested which was fine. I always felt awkward when the adults sang carols when I was a kid too, 

At the end of the day we spontaneously decided to go over to my eldest sister's house for a swim and a bite to eat. I think we all wanted to prolong the day a bit. Tomorrow the Perth cousins arrive and my girls are so excited. It is so lovely seeing the cousins together, forming their own connections and bonds. 

I had an interesting chat with my brother in law about his own family history and his sole surviving relative on his father's side. That story, that history will one day be lost.  Our family changes too. What seemed so important fades away. We've made our new traditions and our children will make theirs - keeping what they like, discarding the rest. Really we have only now. 

Halloween - an evolving perspective

Once upon a time I would have agreed wholeheartedly with Susan Brown, of Frankston.  I didn't think Halloween had any place in Melbourne.  It certainly was unknown in my childhood (though familiar from TV and movies) and it did seem to me that participating would somehow dilute our 'Australianess'.

It was my friend, Bridget, who changed my view.  For years she has letter-boxed her neighbourhood prior to Halloween, offering people the option of participating in trick or treating.  In this way she has met most of her street and befriended many of her neighbours and they now have Christmas drinks, and street-wide garage sales and ladies nights out.

So the last few years the kids have dressed up and we've wandered the neighbourhood - finding more and more houses with a pumpkin, or some cobwebs decorating their hedge each year.  The kids have absolutely loved it, and increasingly, so have I.

Though it might be an imported event, let's get real - so is Christmas and Easter, and, for goodness sake, the Queen's birthday!  Our uniquely Australian celebrations - Australia day (culturally divisive at best) has no traditions other than a day off work and Melbourne Cup day is really a celebration of gambling and getting pissed (not that I'm rejecting the public holiday mind you).

I reckon there is room in the calendar for something that focuses on kids, fun, and local neighbourhoods (and fancy dress - who doesn't love fancy dress?).  I'm not rapt in the lollies, and it is a bit rich paying $20 for a pumpkin just to carve it up, but Halloween around our neck of the woods is a delight.  It's getting dressed up and painting faces.  It's figuring out how to incorporate Nina's crutches (soccer injury) into her costume.  It's seeing Ruby transformed into a teenager, albeit of the skeleton dias de los muertos kind.  It's groups of kids, with someone's Mum or Dad or both, dressed as pirates and mummies and vampires and princesses, wandering the streets on a balmy evening, running into school friends.  It's people having a glass of wine on their front porch while handing out lollies or chocolates, their dogs dressed as dragons, with panniers full of loot to hand out.  It's a crowd of adults catching up over a beer at the local pub while their kids plundered the street, in a (mostly) polite and gentle fashion.  And it's all over by 7.30.  

There is a minimum of planning, a minimum of fuss.  It's so good to see kids in the streets, feeling confident, feeling like their neighbourhood is a place they belong and a place they can be safe. And maybe it would be nice if we could come up with uniquely Australian thing that incorporated dressing up with wandering the streets - and there'd have to be lollies or the kids wouldn't go for it - but maybe it is uniquely Australian to appropriate everyone else's traditions and refashion them in our own way.  So   I understand Susan, I really do.  But I don't agree.

First Night

We caught the preparations for and the ticker tape aftermath of the New Years Eve parade, but we missed the parade itself. We were too busy watching the magic shows, the puppetry, the BMX spectacular and (best of all) Dan Zanes that were all part of the First Night celebrations that Boston puts on for New Years Eve. I caught the last light of 2013 over the Back Bay rooftops and then we headed up to the Common for the family fireworks. The girls were still hungry when we got home so we had a  late pasta supper and then Craig and I quietly saw in the New Year whilst booking our travel to and accommodation in Washington for later this week.  It was very cold, minus 8 C, a far cry from the BBQ at the beach with friends and their kids, drinking red wine and toasting marshmallows on a campfire (when it's not a day of total fire ban) which is how we've rung in most new years over the past decade. 

Apart from our visit to Washington, we are planning a road trip in New England. It's an exciting time, the beginning of a new year, don't you think?  I think 2014 will be interesting and challenging and not entirely an easy year. But easy is overrated. For those of you who visit here regularly, or occasionally, I hope 2014 is everything that you want and, if not, that it's everything that you need.

I'm easy. Oh yeah, maybe some chocolate.

Writing letters to Santa by candlelight

Dear Santa, I hope you have had a wonderful year.  I have bveen having a wonderful holiday and seems like only yesterday I was writing my last letter.  This year sure has gone fast! This year I would like for Christmas: Some surprises, something mini or a charm, an ipod nano (maybe) well, I'm not really sure what I want, anything really, mostly just surprises and anything you think of.  I'm easy.  Oh yeah, maybe some chocolate.  Well merry Christmas and I hope again you have had a wonderfull year.  Love from Nina

Dear Santa I hope youa re having a wonderful Christmas and I wood like to ash you how is Melbourne going and I wood like to have these things for christmas a charm bracelet and a picter of your family and some surprises.  Some candy to put in my candy bag a glow in the dark jumper that I can were to bed and maybe some more surprises. Love from Grace

Dear Santa, How are you? Did you have a nice year in the north pole? For Christmas I would like: Surprises, etch sketch/mini etch sketch (I don't care which) well crackle nail polish or glow in the dark or both: All I really want is surprises other than the nail polish and the etcha sketch.  Love Ruby

Sanders Theater, Harvard

End of the Revels - singing the Sussex Carol

I thought I'd put aside old traditions, at least temporarily, and embrace new ones. We went to the Christmas Revels yesterday on the recommendation of a woman from my knitting class. It was sweet and fun but I suspect much sweeter and more fun if you've gone every year for the past twenty or so, and like singing the chorus to Lord of the Dance repeatedly. Don't get me wrong, I love a group sing but I think I'm more of a Termanativity kind of girl when it comes to Christmas shows. 

On our return the girls realised they hadn't written their letters to Santa yet, and felt this must be remedied immediately. Fortunately 'a surprise' featured quite highly on all their lists. Lil did a few lists too, but it all ended in tears with her adamant claims that she is not a good drawer and that the list was not up to scratch. Is this the lot of the youngest child? To have siblings with whom to compare and find oneself wanting? It's true that at 4 she shows no particular skill as an artist but she doesn't strike me as being especially worse than her peers. Mind you, I don't think she has ever considered the other kids at kinder to be her 'peers', telling me once that kinder was boring because there was 'nothing cool' to do there. And once, when were dancing around the kitchen, she looked at me assessingly and then broke it to me: 'you ackly not really cool Mum'.

In any event Christmas letters were written and I had to capture them, even though they're nearly impossible to make out.  This one was one of Lil's rejects:

Today we went ice skating at our local rink.  $8 for our whole family to hire skates and use the rink.  We'll be making it a regular activity, even though each time we skate we seem to get blisters on different bits of our feet.  The sun came out briefly, and even though the snow has mostly melted except for dirty piles on the sides of the road, it's feeling pretty Christmassy.  We made lamingtons for our landlord and after I baked the sponge I put it outside to cool down quickly.  Five minutes later I caught a squirrel just about to help himself.  Cheeky bugger, I saved the cake in the nick of time.

As I write this, the girls are stringing popcorn and cranberries to hang on the tree.  Back home it's already Christmas.

Scenes from the Fete

The weather held! A few drops of rain late in the afternoon was the worst it got. We even had sunshine break through whilst we were setting up early in the morning. This year's fete was particularly special.

My personal highlight was probably the donation of ALL these hand carved swords, made by Pip, a grade 3 boy, and carefully priced (way too modestly) at 50c  - $1.99.  We re-priced them to a more reasonable $3 and $4 and sold out in about an hour.

You can't really see the adorable little mice tucked away there, but here is proof that there were moments of sun.

Gotta love a wooden version of minecraft.....

Baby goodies were popular.

My lunch: 'chilli con kanga'.  An aussie take on chilli using kangeroo meat.  Delicious and healthy.

I'm not sure what gives away the fact that this is an inner northern school fete most - the skinny jeans, the predominance of dark colours, the baby carrier, the beanies or the fact that this stall is selling vinyl records.  What do you think?

A new activity at this year's fete - fairy terrariums, or dinosaur terrariums if you prefer.  A big hit.

Flower garlands were popular as always.

The pizza ran hot all day.

The crazy hair booth did a roaring trade, as did snow cones, despite the cooler weather.

I'm always blown away by the guys who run the woodwork.

And simple pleasures like the Box Maze still get kids tossing their shoes and waiting for ages for their turn.  The Spooky Forrest was welcomed back, after a year away, by queues all the way down the stairs.

Gayle and her husband made boxes (and boxes) of wooden cut outs - shields, animals, shapes, to decorate.  Just lovely.

So simple, so popular  - toss keys and 'treasure' into the sandpit and let the kids dig for hours to see if they can find the key that unlocks the treasure box.

This is just a tiny section of the always-amazing plant stall.

And finally a cameo appearance by Harvey, the school's unofficial mascot.  Harvey lives in the same street as the school and sometimes wanders into class uninvited, or visits more formally with his owner who talks to the kids about multiple sclerosis.

If you've read this blog for a while, you've probably gathered that the school fete is a very big part of my crafting.  Partly it is because I really like making little projects which are ideal for fetes, partly it's because I enjoy crafting with others a lot and partly it's because I want to contribute to the school community.  Each year I am so impressed by and proud of our fete and feel so pleased and lucky that this is the community I get to be a part of.  The kids just love it and I love that the day is devoted to creative, interesting, funny and unusual ways to entertain, unite and (not unimportant) raise money.  This year I hardly bought anything myself, as we are in the process of packing up before heading off for 3 months.  I did win an item in the silent auction though, that I am extremely happy about - flea treatment, worm tablets, dental care food, a new leash and collar.  Our poor old terrier Pablo had his eye out last week (I'd post a photo but it is a bit gruesome), so I thought he deserved a treat.