Afternoon Tea

One of our favourite things is to "do afternoon tea". The two birthday girls make great companions as they don't mind dressing up and spending the afternoon being sociable.

Maddie's favourite was scones and cream.

While Sophie was drawn to anything with a strawberry in it. Luckily the Saturday afternoon Hyatt buffet included a range of strawberry based delights. The girls were very strategic in their timing at the buffet and kept notes on how many times certain guests returned to it (and the effect on their waistlines).

We did a lot of talking about our favourite topics: food, school, exams, music, Maggie the dog, our fave films and TV shows, certain house guest's habits, travel and jewellery.

Our favourite girl came over for afternoon tea today. Despite her obvious enjoyment of my fresh batch of date, banana and orange muffins and bio dynamic yoghurt we saw her frown (for the first time) a few times as the afternoon wore on. I think she knew her Mummy & Daddy's week long holiday was coming to an end.

Despite this we still saw plenty of smiles. Miss E seems to be aware of a lot of what we are saying now, vigorously nodding in agreement or shaking her head in disagreement at all the appropriate times and able to point to things (especially body parts) accurately when required.

Three states, three cities in three days

We squeezed a lot into the long weekend for QE2's birthday: to Sydney overnight on Friday; to Brisbane with Bobbie on Saturday morning; time to gape in wonder at the extreme Asian makeover in Sunnybank, including some great eateries with a distinct HK feel in Market Square; more gaping as we drove through the distinctly Africanised Moorooka on Sunday morning to catch up with Joel L. at the now remarkably gentrified Bardon.

We caught up with all J.'s good news and successes over a long breakfast on the verandah of the very mellow Paddington Flowers and Cafe on Latrobe Terrace. Nobody will be surprised at where this very talented young man will end up!


We got back to Sunnybank in time to spruce up for the late afternoon wedding. I took this shot of Rob and his mum in the garden of Bobbie's unit at Sunnybank. It is a big relief for us to see her in this relaxed environment where there are so few hassles for her.

Cate and Philip's wedding was at the very pretty Hornibrook Park at Teneriffe. Briefly catching up with my fried Meg C-R just before the ceremony started was an added bonus for me. Meg C-R was making a brief escape, with husband Steve, from the rigours of marking year 11 essays.

It was a great opportunity to catch up with all our P. family, including our nephew Matt and the beautiful Mel.

Matt was the wedding MC and had to hurry around a lot getting things underway - especially important when the three sisters in the bridal party were half an hour late.

But their entrance made the wait worthwhile. This is the only young woman I know who can successfully navigate her Commerce Law exams and those killer stilettos, all in the same weekend.

The park setting beside the Brisbane River was a beautiful backdrop to Cate and Philip's relaxed and happy ceremony.

Rob and I were struck by how alike Bec and Joanne are getting. They both have sparky personalities and a wicked sense of humour-great party girls and stars of the dance floor (although minus the shoes by the end of the night).

May we present Mr and Mrs A.....

Then followed a very happy reception at the adjacent Aqua Linea Restaurant. The champagne started flowing as the ceremony ended and Cate's careful planning ensured the 3 course French inspired menu was thoughtfully balanced and beautifully prepared. Philip's brother, the chef, prepared handmade truffles for all the guests as a special little gift. The Brisbaneites found the evening cool, but we didn't.

Weddings provide great opportunities for far flung family shots. There aren't many opportunities for these 5 siblings to gather in the one place at the one time any more with Clare in Sydney, Cate in Melbourne and Joanne leaving for London next week. Dad Col is away a lot too, in PNG, helping to build the telecommunications infrastructure for Oilsearch for their huge gas operation in the NW highlands.

Rob managed to take this shot of the other stars of the dance floor when Bec and Joanne had temporarily left the scene.

We were back in Sydney Monday afternoon after sharing a crowded and much delayed flight from Brisbane with the George Negus clan. We had time to catch up with Miss E and J&J at Coogee before collecting our car for the drive back to Canberra. Miss E was looking devine in her new Esprit gear and LOVING the Sydney eats scene having lunched at Cabramatta, Japanese at the Coccola, Randwick and Persian at Darban, Auburn in just the last 3 days!

The best part for her though is having her two most favourite people around 24/7 for the next week.

More shu shu

We had another excuse to buy more Shu Shu from the Paddo Markets yesterday as we all prepare for the arrival of Sydney Clare's bub in July. We celebrated over a breakfast Tagine with Sydney Clare, friend Liz and baby Flora at Kasbah on Darling this morning, picking up more pastries from Adriano Zumbo to share with Canberra Claire & family this afternoon for Jeremy's birthday.

We took advantage of warm and wonderful weather in Sydney yesterday, enjoying a long, leisurely picnic lunch in the sun at Balmoral Beach after showing Bobbie her Rodd family heritage at various points (and an island) off Five Dock.

I am reading my Brett Whiteley biography again (written by his sister Frannie Hopkirk) and am taking much more notice of all the lower North shore reference points throughout the text. We'll be exploring Lucretia Ave. Longueville next time we're in Sydney. We passed Longueville on our right driving from Five Dock to Mosman.

I had an exciting week last week: Public Education Week which I formally launched on Thursday in Civic, followed by a big dinner at the National Press Club on Thursday night. I was positioned next to the local leader of the Liberal opposition, Zed Zjelsa (spelling?) over dinner, which was interesting.

Ella is one

Ella's first birthday celebration yesterday included all the elements necessary for a successful party. A gorgeous birthday girl, great setting, party goers from all age groups, and all excited about sharing the fun, great food, champagne and thrilling present openings. The exciting announcement by Erin of her wedding date for next year (April) added to the drama.

Ella loved all her new designer head gear which looked a treat with her first grown up girl's Oobi dress from Ros & Pete at Sandy Beach.

It would not have been the thrilling party it was without A. & O. who contributed age and experience to the present unwrapping, a running commentary on all proceedings and appreciative consumption of the great birthday cakes on offer after our brunch. Little A. did a couple of renditions of his famous version of Frere Jacques with Papa.


After everyone had gone home Ella changed into her new birthday tracksuit (thank you Maxie) and "kicked back" for a while on the couch with fluffy dog.

The Tolo shape sorter was a favourite on the day, especially when it showed potential to be designer headgear too.

Happy first birthday Ella!

Winter wardrobe

We had an early taste of winter this weekend; maximum of 12oC today, perfect for a visit to the Kingston Bus Depot markets (which we did this morning) and tea and home made pumpkin scones (which we did this afternoon).

Granny Bobbie arrived yesterday, bringing with her a whole new wardrobe of handknits for Miss E. She enjoyed the unpacking and trying things on just as much as the older women in the family do

It was terrible exciting to have a new handbag, a great place to store books and your favourite dummy.

It's great to have new hat to wear when you're checking out the lemon tree.

Duelling Canons

Rob won't be left out of our blogosphere now he has his own Canon-IXUS 970 IS. Can you pick between the IXUS and the EOS30D shots? This question is mainly for Joel L.


This afternoon we celebrated all the fabulous mothers in our Canberra family with a glass or two of bubbly, delicious finger food and some wild entertainment provided by O, A and Miss E.

Ollie took this shot with Rob's IXUS.

The car gets an outing and does several circuits with different drivers.

Miss E with her fabulous mother.

It's always more difficult to take pictures of the boys as they are always on the move. I took my chances while Ollie demolished the last of this season's crimson seedless grapes.

Ollie with his fabulous mother.

You can see Miss E's back molar coming through in this shot. No wonder she is a bit "fragile" this past week. It didn't stop her having fun this afternoon, stacking blocks (for the first time) and giving hugs to teddy.

Rob's guitars are always a big attraction. Angie loved playing the 12 bar blues riff.

Sun sea surf sand and seafood

For no other reason than to celebrate seasonal delights and time to be together, we asked chef Jane to prepare our lobster and oyster feast at Rosedale this weekend.


Main course was fresh local lobster (caught yesterday) with skordalia and mixed dressed green leaves, braised chickpeas with spinach and preserved lemons, soused eggplant and zucchini, broad bean pilaf-lebanese style and warmed organic Turkish bread. The kids were very considerate and stayed asleep while food and wine were served!

The cool conditions didn't stop the big O and little A doing some "surfing" and "diving" in the rock pools and some large scale drawing on the huge sand canvas created by low tide.

Highlights for Ella were: spending quality time with her favourite people, opportunities for some air kissing while wearing designer sunglasses

getting some sand between her toes

and in her fingers

and finding her fave Mary Janes had not disappeared down the sand hole to China.