Angie does Murray (the red Wiggle)

Angie was able to channel his favourite Wiggle (red guitar playing Murray) this afternoon, after opening his second birthday present from Nanny & Poppa.

Rob reckons he was chanelling "Dave Hole" at this point.

Rob tried introducing him to some SRV riffs

Ollie maintained his focus on the party food, a few overs of cricket and reading some more chapters of his favourite Robin Hood story book.

Ella has loved all the birthday parties this month, including her darling mummy's (who celebrates a big one herself tomorrow).

She continues to enjoy all the party food - especially my muffins, blue vein cheese, chocolate cake, lamb kebabs, croissants.....

The design for Angie's birthday cake this year was an obvious choice.

Happy birthday Angie Murray SRV

Remember that once

there was SR---V

but now there's Ang----ie

Play that thang!

T & J & J together again

Jane came from Balmoral, Brisbane, Tania came from Roseville, Sydney (via 2 year stints in each of Chelsea, London and Tokyo, Japan) and Rob and I came up from Canberra via Coogee so that we three "girls" could recapture the fun we had teaching together at Canberra High in the late eighties. We started off in Coogee on Friday, talking, laughing, walking and then lunching at Barzuras on the beach.

Saturday morning Jane, Rob and I explored the Paddo Markets and Oxford St before meeting up with Tania at Kirribilli for lunch. The Whiteley's house at Lavender Bay is so close by and Jane and Tania had never seen Wendy's garden before, grown magically out of the overgrown dump beside the old railway line circling this part of Lavender Bay.

We always wore a lot of black in the late eighties too - it was great for hiding paint marks! Jane and I had perms too back then.

Sydney was cold and windy so it was extra lovely to visit Tania and Alan at home in Roseville on Saturday night. Their beautiful, big old home with its fire burning and wood panelling softly glowing was warm and welcoming. Tania had prepared poached ocean trout - in champagne no less, preceded by a tomato soup...... an amazing meal!

It was wonderful to meet the beautiful Morgan, sociable Aine and friend Becky and Lola the incredibly cute Jack Russel/ Pug cross. We were also privileged to taste one of Alan's 15 year old Penfold's St Henri Shirazes.

We all met up for brunch at Kazbah on Darling St, Balmain on Sunday morning before Rob left for home and we three headed off to the Powerhouse Museum (via ferry from Balmain Wharf to Darling Harbour) to experience the Sydney Design Show. We found lots of inspiration (and laughter) at the Young Designers' expos (one international and one local) and lots of opportunities to talk with the young designers about their beautiful products.

Best fun of all was being able to "buy" art works from young Sydney art students who had set up a temporary painting studio outside the Museum, as a bit of a fund raiser. I have christened the portrait I "purchased" (by $10 donation) "Pablo" as he looks like a bumptious version of Pablo Picasso in his south of France days (you can tell that it is the south of France because he's wearing a striped top)!

Jane and I headed back to Brisbane and Canberra today after completing the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk this morning in cold, windy but clear conditions. Unfortunately we saw no sign of the 2 whales (and one calf) that had excited us so much on Saturday morning as they looped and lolled about in the water off Coogee Beach.

We missed out on seeing Miss E this weekend so I have had to post these week old images of her enjoying her bath. Last weekend she was enduring the effects of a head cold, like almost everyone else in Canberra. She really enjoyed her hot, steamy bath and chance to have a clear head.

Dinosaur rapture

We drove back early from Sydney today on a beautiful late winter, windy morning; clear blue skies and all the wattles around Sydney out in bloom, although still too early in the season for them to be out around Canberra. We had to be back in time for Ollie's fourth birthday family party. Luckily there were enough presents for all three littlies in the family to enjoy an adventure filled, battery driven afternoon.

They were all amazed by the "dino-raptor" which growled and lumbered around the house with reptilian swagger.

They were all intrigued by its tail which curled and swung and shivered when you touched it.



Angie was most impressed by the Explorer Set binoculars which he was convinced needed to be viewed through a point in the middle of his forehead.

Rob took the best picture of the day: Ollie looking angelic in his new Fireman's uniform.

Ollie took this beautiful picture of his Mummy

and paid me back for taking his picture, by taking mine.

And then there is the cake...

The seven hour lunch

This is what Christmas in July at Murrumbateman looks like. "Green drought" is the way the locals describe it. The light winter rain showers have resulted in a dusting of green, but it only goes thin, shale rock deep.

The vineyards in winter are a feather dusting of grey brown twigs across the Nanimo ridges.

The Fischer's sheep are still producing best quality, superfine, merino fleece but only because of their carefully selected gene pool and because they're hand fed. These are tough times for vignerons and wool producers.

Our Christmas in July lunch today is a celebration of continuing friendship and bounty, despite the difficulties of our troubled earth. Freshly shucked oysters, roast turkey and ham, plum pudding and all the trimmings seem to taste so much better on a cold July afternoon at Murrumbateman than Christmas in December.

We enjoy perfect partnerships: Majella with onion jam canapes; figs with Castello cheese and proscuitto, reisling with oysters, Word of Mouth Shiraz (from Orange) and Campbells Shiraz Viognier with turkey and ham and the most devine Seppelts Rutherglen Tokay with our plum pud. It was a marathon 7 hour lunch, including all the Fischer travel tales from their recent trip to Italy, Switzerland and Northern France.

Maddy and Thomas kept the Christmas spirit alive by introducing live music. Maddy is sounding amazing in her first year of clarinet and Thomas gave us some snippets of his jazz repertoire on piano. Sophie was kept busy attending to Maggie the Jack Russel (mix).

Serious business

C& J, big O and little A went off to Coogee this weekend-not to annoy the pilgrims but to take in a show in the city and get some time on the beach. We stayed in cold and wet (yay!) Canberra, inundated with breathless updates on World Youth Day and the latest pronouncements of the pontiff. We tried to imagine an extra 400,000 people in Randwick for the 2 hour long Mass this morning.

We were lucky enough to see little E after her visit to the Fyshwick Fresh Food market. She spent her time there sniffing out the freshest pasta and vegies and pointing out all the people wearing a hat (which she can say now). It was amusing watching her eat (and enjoy) dill pickles (Marco brand, favoured by all the Croatians), black olives and Greek style yoghurt.

She really did enjoy it.

We found time to make some pretend pizzas decorated with pink dill pickles.

"Naughty Mouse" has sent us some of the latest pictures. She looks dreamy (one week old now)and we are sending our best wishes to the beautiful Clare in Sydney.

Girl power

A new baby girl has arrived in the family, so far known as "naughty mouse" (nm), born at 01.18am Saturday morning 12 July, a rather cold one for Sydney. She weighed a trim 3.142kg (6lb 141/2 oz) and looks absolutely beautiful, like her clever mum Clare, despite a tiring labour.

And here is our other special girl, taking a keen interest in everything around her, especially foodie delights. I was amazed watching her at the weekend eating great handfuls of steamed broccoli with such gusto. She loves our fruit bowl, especially the "ananas" which she currently enjoys saying more than she does eating.

Every time I see her she is growing more and more a little person, rather than the baby girl she was only yesterday.

Rob and I took a chance on seeing Mumma Mia last weekend-a choice most unlike our usual preference. We both loved it-a great celebration of magnificent middle age, corny music, and great set piece dance numbers without a trace of cynicism or even cheesiness. Meryl S, Colin F, Pierce B & Julie W don't have great voices, which made it even more endearing. What a bunch of troopers! Benny and Bjorn even had tiny cameo roles which was an absolute hoot. Take a chance and go see if you love it too!

Three days in Sydney

We had an inkling of our post retirement lifestyle by taking a 3 day weekend in Sydney this week. The only qualification was that I spent Saturday on work related matters: a conference at the beautiful old Public Library of NSW - the 2020 School Education Summit. I really enjoyed listening to and thinking about presentations by some of Australia's leading academics and researchers - around future possibilities for public education.


Sunday we were up early to meet with Sydney Clare at Glebe for breakfast at digi.kaf in St John's Road. She is looking really fit and energetic despite her 8 and 3/4 month pregnancy. The weather was beautiful in Sydney this weekend, clear, brilliant light, gentle warmth in the sun. We were amazed to see magnolia blooms so early in the season on our walk down Bridge Road.

We were intrigued by the old Abbey Restaurant in Bridge Road. Why has this beautiful old house been left to get so dilapidated in The Abbey's grounds?

We still felt like exploring so we headed off west to Granville in search of more exotic settings and foodie delights. Once at Granville we felt quite subdued walking across the infamous railway bridge that still evokes strong memories of that shocking accident in 1977. Once we'd crossed the Bold St bridge a wonderful find cheered us up enormously.

Abla's Pastry Shop has a very bland and modern exterior but once inside its size and amazing displays of freshly baked Lebanese cakes, pastries & Arabic style chocolates are awe inspiring. The range is vast and fresh daily and we could not resist ordering a rather large selection. We found them fresh and luscious, drenched in honey, nuts and fruit, and thankfully lighter and less sweet than expected.

We celebrated a wonderful day in Sydney with a meal at our fave Little Istanbul in Perouse Road and a night finishing our weekend DVD watching marathon: The Home Sung Stories, Norma Khouri and Hunting and Gathering (Ensemble C'est Tout -yes another French film starring Audrey Toutou).

Monday we spent walking: 8/85 to Bondi Junction then Bondi Beach back to Coogee. It's all great sightseeing and allows us to walk off all those Abla pastries. We stayed quite late on Monday night so we could attend our first body corporate meeting - making it a very late return to Canberra that night and a bleary eyed start to our working week.