Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Coolest Park Ever In The Whole World

In my last post I eluded to a recent visit to the coolest park ever in the whole world. It is... Oh yes it is.... No, it really is! You're right, I guess I havent visited every park in the whole world, but perhaps we can agree that it might be in the top 100?

Okay? Good.

It was a warm Friday afternoon. I had Hatchling No.2 in one arm (this child really needs to consider the merits of walking some time soon or I my arms are soon going to become Popeye-esque). In my other arm was a bag of supplies - critical items needed to maximise the enjoyment of an afternoon playground session followed by a sausage sizzle. As we opened the gate to the best playground ever in the whole world it was like entering another world. There was green grass (almost as rare as pixies and unicorns in Melbourne), trip-trap bridges, wiggly paths to follow on an adventure, slides, swings, shade (woo hoo!), totally child-proof fences, and free bbq facilities. Is it sounding pretty cool so far?


It was like a little haven for kids. Because it is so secure we were able to let them run and jump and play and hide and do whetever they felt like - FREEDOM!

In a society of super-cautious parents these poor little tackers don't often get much real freedom - we are always watching! Well, not at the best playground ever in the whole world. Here there was little harm they could come to (except maybe falling off a slide or something), so for the little people it was like taking off down the wide open road with the roof down. Fan-tas-tic!

A special mention to Gus for his choice of location for shoe removal - it took a long time, and in the end sheer luck for the Mum's to find those shoes. Another special mention to Chloe and Tilly's dancing - Hi-5 must surely become Hi-7 to include you two.

The final mention has to go (of course) to my little Hatchlings. I had two grubby, hot, sticky, slightly flushed and more than slightly grumpy little boys in the back of my car on the way home. Sleep came easily to them on Friday night, content with the promise that we could, one day, go back to the coolest park ever in the whole world.

Jen x

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

What a Weekend!

G'day,

What is your measure of a good weekend? Read the following description and see if you can tell what the enjoyment factor was for my family and I last weekend:
  • Clean washing that awaited folding on Friday afternoon hadn't moved a muscle by Sunday afternoon.

  • The amount of grime left in the bath by the Hatchlings on both Saturday and Sunday nights was an all time record.

  • Every member of the family suffered the pain of our favorite mug/bottle/plate/bowl being dirty in the dishwasher when we wanted it - more than once

  • The house was used only at eating and sleeping times

  • Everyone is bone-crunchingly exhausted and in need of a couple of days off!
Yep, you guessed it - our weekend was AWESOME!


The weekend truly commenced on Friday evening with the Mum's Group BBQ at the coolest park ever in the whole world. (More on the coolest park ever in the whole world, and the great sausage fiasco some other time). Then, Saturday morning marked the start of our local festival. There was a parade, endless live music, a reptile show, billy cart derby, rock climbing, face painting, a waterslide, art, craft - you name it, it was there. I am always amazed at what a small committee of volunteers are capable of putting together for our little town. I was also amazed by this guy:

How do you do that?

The festival was colourful, dusty, noisy, dusty, hot, dusty, creative, dusty, fun, dusty, strenuous - did I mention dusty?

Thank the lord that our festival is an annual event. Amen.

Jen x

P.S. I may have just spotted how to add more than one picture per post - oooooh!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Horsing around - GOOD LUCK COURTNEY!

My niece, Courtney, is participating in horse trials this weekend. The horse wont be on trial in the legal sense - I'm pretty sure has hasn't been involved in any crimnal activity to date. I think its more a trial to see how skilled both horse and rider are. Courtney is 11 and will be taking on dressage, show jumping, cross country and I'm not sure what else. I don't know about about you but I'm impressed. Here is a picture of Courtney and her noble steed Bobby from a competition back in January:





They look pretty smart huh? Both horse and rider did a tip top job on that occasion (which was the first trials Courtney had participated in).


It was when Courtney reported to me earlier this week about last weekend's pony club camp that I got a surprise. She told me that camp was good, but Bobby was a Tosser (note: with a capital "T"). This came as quite a shock for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I didn't even realise that Courtney was familiar with the term 'Tosser', and she used it to describe how she felt about her four legged friend perfectly. Perhaps this is evidence of the influence of her pommy uncle? Secondly, and most important, by all accounts Bobby is not generally a Tosser. He is quite the gentleman in fact. Take another look - is that the face of a Tosser? I don't think so. Maybe he was just having a bad week? Look at him - he's gorgeous!


So, I would like to forward to Courtney an enthusiastic "Good luck!" for this weekend, and in case Bobby is a follower of my blog too - "Stop being a Tosser and do your best work out there. There's bound to be apples/carrots and other yummy stuff in it for you!"


Knock 'em dead you two.


Jen x


Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Strange occurences

Da-da Da-da Da-da Da-da da da da:

"I feel the earth, move, under my feet..." - sing it Carole!

You might well be wondering what I am on about here - or if you too are in Melbourne, maybe not.

At around 4.30 this afternoon most of Melbourne did feel the earth move, as we experienced our second EARTH TREMOR in two weeks. What's going on?

Here's my account: I'm at work merrily paddling in a kitchen sink full of soap suds when the building starts gives an almighty creak. "Oooh!" my colleagues and I exclaimed oh so eloquently. Then before we knew it we were shaking and moving a bit - similar to the feeling when you are on the train maybe (??) How strange!

And yet its not the only strange thing to happen around here recently.


  • Obviously there was the first earth tremor on 6th March - my first ever and it freaked me out!

  • Prior to that were the dreadful bushfires across a large part of Victoria. God bless all those who were affected, may we never see another day like February 7th 2009.

  • On a lighter note a wallaby and her Joey appear to have taken over my garden, and quite frankly my place just isnt rural enough to find roo poo at the front door - but we did.
  • Hatchling No.1 slept in so late this morning that I had to wake him in order to get him to childcare and me to work on time. Why doesn't that ever happen on a home day?!

I wonder if Mother Nature is currently going through a rebellious phase? Hmmm, it sounds to me like somebody needs some Cadbury Dairy Milk to soothe the soul. Or maybe a Snickers - the all time greatest chocolate bar ever (so far). Hmmmmmmm.

No! Quick, think of something else... Stop it! I'm not eating ANY chocolate tonight. Not even one of those yummy teeny weeny Cadbury eggs I bought for the kids...

Huh! Me not eating chocolate for a whole 24-hour period - yet another strange occurence to add to the list. Or will I?

Jen x

PS: Here's the map showing where the tremor's epicentre was located - in case you're interested in that sort of thing.





Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Visitor

Hi there,

I am going to commence 'Jenny from the blog' with a really poor quality photo of a recent visitor to my house. Bearing in mind we are but 30 short minutes away from the city of Melbourne, and this photo was taken from inside my lounge room, take a look:
See anything interesting? Let me talk you through it.
In the foreground is Hatchling No.1's bug catcher, behind which there is a few drought stricken plants, and a bank and ooh! What's that? Yes its cheeky Ms Walaby and Joey having a snack on the cherry plum tree. She visits daily at the moment. The drought has forced her to become tame enough to come and eat her way through my garden. The things we do for a decent meal hey Ms Walaby?!

I plan to post day to day occurances to keep friends and family up to date, and to offer a bit of insight into life as 'Jenny from the blog'. Oh, and I am on a mission to learn how to use Photoshop, so with any luck the photography on offer will improve too.

Thanks for reading,

Jen x