Monday, February 27, 2012

Abigail at one week

I couldn't decide which of these shots I should use to celebrate Abigail being one week old today! So far she is a very calm, easy going baby. She's been home four days now and is feeding well, sleeping well and very easy going about the continuous cuddling she enjoys from her adoring big sister.

That light up the world smile of Ella's is a fixture these days and that well fed, full cheeked, deeply asleep look is very typical of Abigail. Aren't they both gorgeous!









Saturday, February 25, 2012

The boys

We're lucky to be a part of Ollie and Angus's lives too, along with our close connection to Jody and Josh's two (now) beautiful girls.

We had a lovely long visit yesterday - and all the boy's toys came out. Rob's 50 year old (slightly battle scarred) collection of Marchbox and Corgi cars still seems as popular as ever. When he's feeling very generous Rob lets the boys take home a car of their choice from the collection. Angus took all afternoon yesterday trying to choose between the red Mini and this sky blue Mercedes roadster. The last minute choice was the Mini, which we know his Daddy will find hard to understand.

The boys ended off their visit with a jam session with Rob. Ollie is playing a pretty mean version of "Paint It Black" now and seemed to enjoy how it sounded on Rob's guitars, while Rob played the chords alongside him.


..and while Angus played rhythm!!


Rob can't wait until the boys are ready to continue the tradition of the Christmas Day boys' guitar recital. That day is getting closer we reckon!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Abigail day three

Abigail slept throughout our visit today. She's feeding well and seems very relaxed, serene and sleepy despite the excitable queue of visitors competing for cuddling time with her.

Joshy takes father's rights first.



I think Abigail's chins and cheeks have grown even more cushiony over the last three days.


Ella was watching the clock ready to take over from her Daddy the minute he dropped his guard.


Jody's doing so well too, recovering fast and being very calm and serene herself; counting down the hours until she's able to go home with Abi Girl.



Sunday, February 19, 2012

Abigail

Beautiful Abigail was delivered safely this morning, a bit before 8.30am on 20th February. She weighed in at 4.46kg (9.8lbs) and is 53cm long......a beautiful new baby sister for Ella who is already madly, deeply, in love with her.

Ella had to wait with us for over eight hours today to see her Mummy and her new baby sister. We were amazed at her maturity in coping with the long wait, the level of excitement and the inevitable anxiety.

Jody has had a bit of a reaction to the C-section pain killers and is still not feeling too well. We will all be relieved to see her keeping food and fluids down and feeling more able to enjoy her great achievement (very soon hopefully).

We are struck by how similar Abigail and Ella look as newborns......thick dark hair, Jody's beautiful mouth and hands, Jody's little frown and those lovely cushion cheeks (although Abbey's are not quite as cushiony as Ella's were).




This was Ella at 4 days old - just home from hospital. They look very similar don't they?

Joshy is doing a wonderful job looking after his family...the man of the moment. He and Jody make beautiful baby girls.

It's been a blessed time for our family with the birth of Erin and John's gorgeous Liliana in Melbourne on Friday 17th February. Two beautiful healthy baby girls in the family in just over two days! All my sisters are doting grandmothers now.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Wall

Gate 42, Row G, seat numbers 289 and 290 at the Allphones Arena at Sydney's Olympic Park gave us a GREAT view of Roger Water's The Wall concert last night. Over 20,000 people in the audience and we didn't see one face we knew-although a lot of people were our vintage, and wearing their favourite Pink Floyd merchandise. After all it's been 32 years since the Wall was first performed (in Earl's Court, London).

They say this show cost over 37 million GB pounds to stage. The pyrotechnics, animations, graphics and surround sound were pure Pink Floyd, including the small plane that crashed into the wall (in flames) in the stunning concert opener.

I just loved all the projections of the original Gerald Scarfe animations from the 1982 film and the historic Wall Concert in Berlin a decade later. They give the production a really strong, graphical anti-war stance with all that visual imagery inspired by the 30s, pasted with stuff from the 60s & 70s and current stuff too.

All the songs from the album were there - including the "we don't need no education" refrain from Another Brick in the Wall (Part 11). (Roger Waters must have had some really BAD teachers growing up in Britain in the 50s!)

I don't know where these kids were from - hopefully from a school in Australia. Their teachers were at the front in the pit doing all the actions along with them (just like Claire does with the Bom-Funk preschoolers)!

With the brick wall almost completed we had the wonderful Comfortably Numb - but we really missed Dave Gilmour on this one!

And of course - no Wall concert is ever without a flying pig Trust Us.

I got some decent little iPhone video clips too but for some reason they won't upload. I'll have to get some advice on that.

I overheard one young thing gushing afterwards that the concert "was INSANE - like totally!" I would have to agree!!







Monday, February 13, 2012

A big week

Ella's big news on our return from Malaysia was her "loose tooth". Initially she was quite upset by its wobblyness and tendency to bleed (yikes!). But by lunchtime Saturday it was a source of obsessive fascination and a menu choice changer on our lunch date at Happy's.

With Lunch date over Ella rang us an hour or so after, very happy, very excited; tooth had fallen out.

It was the start of a big week of firsts: first day at preschool for Ella (very successful) (especially with a new smile to show off)......first days back at work for me.....

......and first day on the job for Wayne's team, fixing up the leaks in our ensuite shower and toilet. A scene of mass destruction at the moment, but all will be fixed!



Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Bon Ton

We've spent the whole of the last 28 hours at Bon Ton...so not much to report. We had our least enjoyable meal of the trip yesterday, a late lunch at a Chinese seafood restaurant at Pantai Cenong. My whole fish in a hot chili sauce was good but Rob chose dishes that were too fried and not too flavoursome. The flies were terrible and the outlook wasn't too good either. We decided we'd stick to Bon Ton for the rest of our stay.

We got over our lunch experience last night with sunset drinks at the Rick Stein anointed Nam Restaurant at Bon Ton.

The cats are not allowed in the restaurant!!!!

Our Big Bob spends the nights and early mornings on our verandah then when we surface in the morning he requests to be let out the back door where he spends the rest of the day lazing in our open bathroom and sun deck. Yesterday while I was out there he jumped onto the bathroom basin expecting me to fill it so he could have drink. Of course I did what he expected!

The no make up, no GHD, Bon Ton look.

Gorgeous sunsets are Bon Ton's specialty and come free with evening drinks. Every hour or so during the day an Air Asia (small) jet lands or flies out of Langkawi airport from and to Penang. The airport is quite close to Bon Ton so that's another thing we can do during the day (look at planes). That's two of Rob's loves covered at Bon Ton: cats to pat and play games with and the occasional plane to admire in the sky.


Today seemed to just fly by: 9 hours sleep, late breakfast, 3 hours or so by and in the pool, rest in the afternoon, read another book (me) have my lovely new reading glasses delivered by Mr Lee from iZone Optics right to the door of our villa at Bon Ton. Then it's time for sunset drinks again and dinner at Nam Restaurant.

This place is a visual delight and such a lovely place to stay. We have loved it! The owner is an Australian. She's staying here at the moment. We watched her last night getting some of the staff to realign this row of daybeds. They use a bamboo pole to check they're the same distance from the pool edge. They do look nice all in a row! We guests mess them up during the day moving them into shaded areas under the umbrellas, or the sunny bits, depending on the whim of the moment. We've found it a rare privilege to stay at a resort where there are only 8 rooms (villas). We mostly have mornings at the pool to ourselves.

Our final evening meal in Langkawi is very memorable: a selection of Nyonya style dishes served on banana leaves. Very delicate beautifully balanced flavours. We shared a wonderful dessert platter too of some old favourites: black rice pudding, a fusion style creme brulee with glutinous rice, handmade coconut icecream and fresh mango, banana with a passionfruit syrup. Yum! Love Bon Ton.