First Harvest

In three months our veggie garden has gone from this (26 June 2008):

to this (25 September 2008)

and tonight we eat the first harvest.

For those wondering about my ability to grow carrots, they are supposed to be small

- they are posh gourmet carrots. I figure they're good for half a bite each.

The real carrots are still growing.

The Devil is in the Icing

Tonight years 4-6 at Blossom's school are having their annual Trivia Night. This is a big occasion on their social calendar and much preparation has gone into Blossom's table.

Her team is called The Disco Devils and they will be dressed in red and black and wearing red sparkly devil horns. Blossom asked if she could take mini cupcakes as her food contribution, with red icing.

I have just finished baking the cupcakes and feel a little ill on account of the many spoonfuls of cupcake mixture I have eaten. I.just.can't.help.myself.

I tried my hardest to make red icing but to no avail.

In fact I think the icing is more akin to Waratah in colour.

Which is much prettier than red anyway.

Festival of Mary: The Weekend

One never needs an excuse to visit the Blue Mountains an hour and a 1/2 from Sydney, but sometimes a little nudge such as the lure of a surprise party doesn't go astray.

So when Blue Mountains Mary's husband J put out the word that he would like Mary's blogging pals to be at her surprise party Fairlie and I couldn't resist. Well, that is after we considered the possibility of tearing the very fabric of time and space by mixing the blogging world with the real world. Fairlie has this potential dilemma all covered in her post here.

So on Friday night Firegazer, the kids and I met up with Fairlie at our fabulous rented house in Katoomba. Above is a pic of the yard the kids had to play in. Such a struggle.

On Saturday, in an effort to avoid being detected in town, we avoided the main shopping strips and went to lovely Blackheath for our morning coffee. The Victory Cafe must've known I was coming and reserved a table in my name...

To further avoid detection we hotfooted off to the Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens. Stunning. When we mentioned to the kids that there was a Waratah festival on Padawan Learner exclaimed "What? The Waratahs are here? Where?". He was a little dismayed to find that the festival was about the NSW floral emblem, not his favourite Rugby team.

Later that afternoon the kids relaxed in the spa putting up with the views available from our rented house.

Then it was time to surprise Mary. We took along this box which contained gifts from many bloggers from around Australia who were unable to get to the party. We knew Mary had cottoned on that there was some sort of surprise party afoot but we were pretty confident that she didn't know about the blogger angle.

Fairlie and I, along with The Poolboy and Firegazer had a blast at Mary's party. We nimbly fielded questions about blogging and met some fabulous people, including one of my favourite bloggers, Pretty Essential.

The next day, after dropping into a fabulous recovery BBQ at Mary's house, we went of to the Circquinox Festival at Norman Lindsay's old house in Faulconbridge. The EasternMaxes had been there before but the addition of the fabulous circus acts in the gardens was a real treat for all of us.

All in all, a great weekend. A big thank you to Mary's husband J for organising such a mammoth event and giving us a nudge to visit the beautiful Blue Mountains. And thank you to Mary for welcoming us to her home to meet her family and friends.

Ms Frizzle is no Space Cadet

I have mentioned before that Blossom's teacher is a dead ringer for Ms Frizzle from The Magic School Bus series; in look and in personality.

If you insist that every living minute of your child's school day is spent on practising for academic competitions then this teacher is not for you.

If, however, you love a teacher who loves teaching, appreciates all children and their differences and will change the structure her day around an article in the newspaper then you will think she's wonderful.

She is, however, a bit ditzy. She forgets stuff, doesn't hand out notes and completely ignores most instructions from the Principal.

Like, for instance, the Stage 2 school performance yesterday. All year four classes were asked to perform a play, dance or song demonstrating their knowledge of the solar system.

But Ms Frizzle either didn't hear, or completely ignored, that instruction. So...

Blossom's class performed a dance routine to Razzle Dazzle from Chicago. Oh yes, the full box n dice - feather boas, boys in jaunty hats, canes and girls performing snappy high leg kicks*.

Priceless.

* Fe has a photo slide-show to music over at her blog.

[ pics from www.scholastic.com, me and www.amazon.com]

Food for the soul not enough for voters seeking a double banger sanger*

Today was local council election day in NSW.

Polling booths are typically set up in local primary schools. Local primary schools then take the opportunity to sell all manner of product to the voters. It's a great opportunity to bleed the community dry, rather than school parents.

If I was prepared we would've had a sausage sizzle (good for about $3000), a cupcake stall ($1500), a cold drinks stall ($1000) and a bookstall (range: $500-$1000). Being the excellent and prepared Fundraising Coordinator that I am I didn't even realise there was an election on until nine days ago, let alone put together any suitable stalls to suck money from the voters.

Well we had one stall. A bookstall. And that was only because the Principal cornered me nine days ago (hence how I found out about the election) and begged me to get rid of all the books we didn't sell last year because they were clogging up storage at the school.

Backing up from our school carnival two weeks ago and our Father's Day breakfast one week ago it was not easy to get volunteers to work on the stall. However, I managed to scrape together enough for a five hour stint.

Problem is I overheard these sorts of remarks all day:

"You'd think they'd have a sausage sizzle"

"I must've arrived too early for the sausage sizzle, we'll have to come back later"

"I can't believe there's no sausage sizzle"

"Where are the cupcakes, they always have cupcakes"

"No coffee cart? At 8am? They're crazy, this is a captive market"

I know, I know, I agree with you but jeez you try pulling a mini fair together with an unwilling workforce.

Thank God for the lovely lady who said "Oh I love your bookstalls, you have the best bookstalls" as she filled her little trolley to the brim.

We may not have been selling food for the tummy but we were selling food for the soul.

*for non-aussies: two sausages (bangers) in a piece of bread (sanger = sandwich) or bun usually served with choice of tomato sauce/onions/mustard etc.

Kindy Mum says yes!

When I placed an 'ad' in last week's school newsletter for someone to replace me as the school fundraising and functions co-ordinator I didn't hold out much hope. How do you sell a volunteer position responsible for overseeing 3-5 fundraisers and 10 functions a year with a parent body that, at best, can hardly be bothered? I didn't volunteer for the position in the first place. I was shanghaied. I didn't see it coming.

I practised my spiel.

"you get to meet loads of people"
"It's really social"

Oh god, I'm repeating myself.

"all the systems are in place, if you're smart there's hardly anything to do"

Now, I'm really crapping on.

Then I get a phone call. A mum who's seeking further information. I start off with my pathetic spiel, accentuating the positives. Half-way through the conversation she indicates she's interested. I immediately go into truthful mode.

"Have you got someone to help? You really need a friend to bounce ideas off"
"Volunteers are not like employees, they pull out at the last minute because their hair is frizzy"
"Everyone tells you how it could be done better but won't lift a finger to help"
"You'll be left behind at 11pm, in the rain, picking up half-filled soft drink cans and lolly wrappers"

She said she'd think about it over the weekend and get back to me.

Saturday 3.30pm. Email says yes.

I still can't believe it.

I forget. Kindy* mums are still fresh, they haven't burnt out and they believe it can all be done so much better. Just the sort of person we need. Really.

I feel better now.



*Kindergarten is the first year of school in NSW

Never did me any harm

Did anyone watch Never Did Me Any Harm on the Lifestyle channel this week? It's brilliant. In the tradition of wacky social experiments four families turn back the clock on their over-indulged, tv-addicted children and make them live the way they did as children. This week the McIver family who have six kids, six televisions and a game console per child have their house converted to the way Mrs McIver lived in the 1970s right down to the outside loo. The kids had to do chores, have sponge baths, take on after-school jobs and even go on an outing all.dressed.alike. Hilarious.

This show is very timely as Firegazer and I have been discussing doing something a little similar. Not the outside loo bit, or the sponge-baths but for a two-week period taking away all electronic entertainment and encouraging the kids to discover fresh air, board-games and the ability to just play.

We already do this to a point. Inspired by my friend Fe, some years ago we banned all television, electronic games and computing for the children on weekdays. An exception can be made for homework requirements. It's fabulous, I can't imagine going back to the old way.

The kids, however, are still glued to the TV and games on the weekends. Really glued. And Firegazer isn't called Firegazer because he likes to stare at fires... I think we would all benefit from going without. Even I could do with two weeks away from the computer...I think.

We are yet to agree on a suitable two-week period. Funny that.

When we finally conduct our own Never Did Me any Harm experiment I'll let you know. Meanwhile check out next week's episode - they're going back to the 1950s, that'll be a hoot.

Happy Father's Day to all our Dads

While most countries around the world celebrate Father's Day in June those of us Downunder celebrate on the first Sunday in September.

The Father's Day weekend started on Friday morning at 7.30am with the annual Father's Day Breakfast at our school. This is one of our most popular school events with 400 breakfasts served before 9am. The Dads were served bacon and egg rolls, a muffin, a cup of strawberries and bottomless tea and coffee. They were also given the chance to win a night out at one of our best local restaurants. A great deal for $8.50 I think.

This was a very relaxing morning for me because this time I wasn't organising it. I simply had to turn up and serve coffee. Comparative bliss.

Happy Father's day to all but especially to Firegazer here in Sydney and Grandpa and Pop in Western Australia. We may have left our run too late to send cards to the Wild West (as usual) but we will be thinking of you as we join the crush to get a table this lunchtime at our local cook.your.own.steak watering hole.

Vegie Garden: Progress Report

June: freshly planted garden with lots of promise

July: come on, COME ON, how long can a few little plants take to grow?

August: okay, so that's better. But I'm getting hungry.

September: That's looking more like it. Surely something will be edible soon... stay tuned - I hope I will be able to report on an actual vegetable soon.

On Festivals and Blogmeets

I have always held the Melbourne Writers Festival in the highest regard and would look forward to the one weekend each year that I would listen to interesting authors talk about interesting books and then watch with amusement as they leer at the author-groupies from the bar after their session had finished. After all what's a party without the people-watching?

Melbourne had the advantage over Sydney of an intimate space, a central gathering area for groupies, I mean festival-goers, and plenty of good, cheap and quick food options to munch on between sessions.

This year the MWF moved from the Malthouse in South Melbourne to Fed Square. An impressive location, to be sure, but lacking in the intimacy of the old Festival.

The venues were mixed. This one, the BMWEdge was spectacular, but cavernous. Great for large groups of people but if 100 people gathered to listen to an emerging author it was just plain awkward.

The central atrium was also spectacular. But without the convenience of hawker-style food we had to go to restaurants and cafes to eat and so festival goers were locked away rather than milling around the central court.

But, I hear you say, writers festivals are all about the writers aren't they? Yes, mostly. Or mostly mostly. But the choice of writers wasn't spectacular either. I find myself choking and gasping as I have to admit that when it comes to a Festival of Writers this year Sydney has pipped Melbourne at the post as the best party.

Sorry.

If Melbourne doesn't pull its socks up I'm afraid I'm going to have to plug for a weekend at the Byron Bay Writers Festival.

For a full wrap up of the festival, including the best bits (there were some good bits) check out Fairlie's excellent summary.

Melbourne did, however, outdo itself in the Blogmeet stakes. Fairlie organised a dinner for Melbourne bloggers and we were delighted to catch up with Frogdancer, H&B, Suse from PeaSoup and Stomper Girl. You can tell there was non-stop chatting because despite being at the restaurant for four hours we managed only one course and glass of wine, or two; and we completely forgot to take photos. These great bloggers came from all over Melbourne to this dinner and a great time was had by all.

To those who couldn't make it this time - I'd love to catch up next time I'm in the Great Southern City.