Bye Bye Blankie

Today a beautiful Santa Bear arrived from England. Nana had won a name guessing competition and this was the reward, Sophie bear. After long discussions along the lines of 'Why don't we give this bear to cousin Sophie for Christmas? (me) or Why don't we give this bear to charity? (also me) or Why don't we give this bear to a kid who has no toys (yes me again). All received the same reply 'That's nice mummy (thinking)..... but no I would like to keep it.' (Ela). So after copious amounts of bribery and bargaining and stroking and touching Ela agreed that she would give up one of her toys in return for Sophie Santa bear. Ah but that's not good enough I said... how about you give up something more precious? 'Oh yes mummy I'd give anything for this bear' (Ela) Oh really? I replied, Anything? Oh yes ANYTHING she repeated. Ok then why not give up Blankie? (Silence...thinking) Well if i give up blankie and then i change my mind later on can i have blankie back? Oh no, blankie will be sent to Santa to keep his reindeer warm. Oh then I'll have to think about it some more. (Ela) Happily, not too many days later, Blankie was submitted for the swap and sent on its merry way. Needless to say, the bear lost favour after about a week and nothing more has been mentioned since. Phew thank goodness for bears!

Mortlake Music Awards

We were very proud of Ela today as she performed 'Jingle Bells' with a group of students who had been studying the violin this year as part of the Mortlake Public School Music Tuition program.

Although Ela had only been practicing for a few weeks, she played with confidence and was awarded with an achievement certificate at the ne of the concert. Well done Ela!

A harbour swim

Mark's latest escapade involved swimming across Sydney Harbour to cockatoo Island (from Balmain Baths). He and his partenr in crime Chris used this oportunity to get into shape for some longer swims coming up, including Bondi to Bronte and Coogee to Wedding Cake Island (and back). It was a fun morning for the kids - even if they couldn't tell Mark's orange clad head from the throngs of others, they still shouted 'Go Mark Go'!

Cruising the South Pacific

Well there are just too many memories and photos to do this holiday justice but here goes:

We set sail from Sydney Harbour - that in itself was just magical. Eating dinner as we sailed by the Opera House and how wonderful to be on your holidays and in your room less than 2 hrs after leaving home!

The Rhapsody of the Seas was a bit of a smaller ship than we were used to, but non the less the service was impecable and there were more fun activities onboard than you could possibly do in 12 days.



We had some awesome visits to beautiful tropical islands in New Calendonia, where we lazed on the beach, swam and drank cocktails. Ela had her first attempt at scuba diving in Vanuatu and although Tom had a snorkel, he was much happier watching big fish daddy swim under the glass bottom boat!

Vanuatu was close to being the worse stop we had when we were accosted by tribes of locals hassling us for taxi rides. There had been a time in our lives when this wouldn't have botherd us, being seasoned backpackers we would have just shrugged it off. However having two small children along for the ride added a whole dimension and caused us to tread a hasty retreat back to the boat. However we were lucky enough to bump into an expat Aussie who told us exactly which spot to head for just 5 minutes away and exactly how much it should cost and we found ourselves in paradise with the kids picking up enormous starfish ad us on lounges sipping cocktails...again!

We had two stops in Fiji and the first was somewhat of a blur as we raced between doctors clinics and the local hospital driven by the port agent as we tried in vain to find someone who was able to remove a large plastic bead that Tom had stuck up his nose the previous day! So much for our plans to pack the kids of to kids club. Ela on the one hand had to be surgically removed at the end of each day whereas after the bead incident Tom refused to leave our side and hopes of whiling the at-sea days away by the pool were scuttled by a very energetic 3 yr old. Luckily we had Nana and Grandad there for backup!


As for the bead incident after the first day in the onboard medical centre trying unsuccessfully to hold him down (it took 3 of us and we still couldn't do it) and tweezer it out or blow up the nostrils, we were finally able to get the surgeon in the ENT section of the very basic local hospital to get it out, She was obviously very experienced in this line of work and had it removed in a matter of seconds without any fuss.



The second day in Fiji Mark and I took some much needed R&R by ourselves on this beautiful tall ship that took us for the day to yet another idylic desert island and we swam read and enjoyed the tranquility!



Ela's highlight of the trip was getting her hair braided. She was the centre of attention when she returned to school with everyone including parents and teachers passing comment on how pretty it looked. She cried her eyes out when i had to remove the plaits for her dance photos a week after our return, not because it hurt but because she realised that she would no longer be 'special'!

Ela's 6th Birthday

Although it was wet and miserable (glad i opted out of the bouncy castle!) Ela's mermaid and pirates party was a huge success thanks to our friend Mermaid Wishes from www.findingfairyland.com.au

She did have me biting my nails and wondering what i would do if she didn't turn up, as the rain had gotten the better of her - timewise. But she had the kids enthralled the minute she got here with tales of using her tail to swim up the driveway! She came complete with fairy toadstool, games and prizes and it meant the mums could sit back and enjoy the cake and coffee. There was also plenty of dancing, fairy wishing powder and of course lots of presents from friends and family. 


An exhausting but thoroughly enjoyable day made all the more memorable as Nana and Grandad were here to share it. And of course a party wouldn't be complete without a wonderful cake from Nannie, a mermaid (of course) with a shell of chocolate treasures.


As you can see from the picture, Tom wasn't sure if he wanted to be a pirate or a mermaid so he opted for a bit of both!

Marathon Man

Mark's first Marathon was eventful, not only for me and the kids who tried to chase him all over the city, but for him as he battled with cramps at the 30km mark and passed us on the final kilometre gritting his teeth in absolute pain (see picture).

We saw him looking fresh as a daisy as he entered Centenial Park after about 12km, smiling and waving, and we had intended to see him again at about 35kms, near Circular Quay. However the road closures and traffic jams were so severe it meant we missed him. He said in hindsight though that it was best we weren't there because the sight of us may well have made him give up. Obviously at his lowest, after the cramps and the thought of another 7km (a whole Bay run) still to go.

We watched the video of him crossing the finish line as we couldn't beat the crowds to the opera house steps, but when we did eventually find him he was wearing his medal with pride and beaming ear to ear. He swears that crossing the finish line was up with his peak life experiences like the birth of the kids and our wedding!

Young Achiever

Today we went to Melbourne to attend the Australian Institute of Builders award night dinner. Mark was to collect the coveted award of AIB Young Achiever of the Year. We stayed in the Casino Promenade hotel on the 21st floor with a lovely view of the Yarra and city beyond.

Mark was a bit nervous but had practised the acceptance speech over and over and he pulled it off without a hitch. He had a fantastic night hobnobbing with some interesting and influential people in the building industry.

The next day we took the tram to St Kilda and lunched near the beach. In the evening we dined at Nobu which was a great trendy Japanese restaurant (with South American influence) how appropriate for us. Apart from plenty of R&R and some good shopping at DFO, we didn't see much of Melbourne so will have to go again!