I'm back, but not for long

The year has flown by since my last post before Christmas. And while I was away and sans Mac it made me realise how much more time I spent with my lovely other half while the monkey was in bed. So when we got back I made a resolution to spend less time blogging and more cooking, sitting around the kitchen table, enjoying each other's company and early nights.

Australia was lovely, we really needed the break and the sunshine. Oh the light, the wonderful Aussie light was such a tonic from the bleak of London winter. We kicked back, relaxed and enjoyed it even more now we had the monkey to introduce it too. Seeing the novelty of feeding kangaroos, swimming in friends' pools, gelati and going to the beach EVERY DAY in our 3 year old's eyes was worth the airfare alone. And seeing how quickly she bonded with her grandparents on the other side of the world was priceless. I cried at the airport on the way back to London, you would have thought it was my homeland we were leaving, I was so unwilling to leave.




It was hard coming back to London. Last year was a really tough one. But things are now looking up and I'm ready to commit a few more thoughts to keyboard. I'm going to mix it up a little though and try a different format over at: http://lindsays-list.blogspot.com/ so pop on over soon and see what I've been up to.

Panic on the streets of London

Hurrah the Smiths are talking again!

Double hurrah Blur are doing two gigs in Hyde Park next year!

But really this song words title refers to the fact that we have only a few days before we leave for Australia and I have to:

Dig out summer clothes for all 3 of us
Check Olive's summer shoes still fit
Finish writing and sending Christmas cards
Finish buying and wrapping Christmas presents
Stand in line at the post office to post Christmas presents
Pack
Make Olive's nursery teachers' Christmas presents (note to self, this was not the year to get all crafty, should have visited SpaceNK like every other year)
Pack
With Olive write and distribute her Christmas cards
Pack
Clean and tidy house for friends who are staying here while we are away
Stop worrying that temperamental boiler will cause them havoc while we are away
Stop asking Matt "Have we definitely got a child's meal for Olive?" 3 or 4 times a day
Stop asking Matt "Can we check-in on-line all the way through to Adelaide?" 3 or 4 times a day
Stop asking Matt any other questions to do with our flight
Pack
Make lists of what we need to pack
Chase FedEx for delivery of new Charlie and Lola wheelie case for Olive AGAIN
Pack
Ad infinitum

Matt and I woke up this morning and decided that we would pack, sort out our list and be very organised so there is no last minute rushing around.

So what did we do?

Downloaded Christmas carols from iTunes, built a bear cave with Olive and ran around the house growling, then spent most of the afternoon in The Prince Arthur eating moules and drinking and laughing at Olive playing with her dinosaurs and her new found skill of mimicking people's voices. Then lit the fire and watched The Muppets Christmas Movie.

And what will I be doing tonight?

Sitting in front of a roaring fire with a glass of something fizzy watching the X Factor final.

There's going to be lots of last minute rushing around.

And Olive says that she will most definitely not be sleeping on the plane.

But here is a pic of an earlier industrious afternoon. Despite both of us being full of snot Olive potato stamped, then decorated a huge batch of Christmas cards. She looked at her labours and said "I do good work Mummy".


PS I need suggestions for books to read on the plane. Something light and relaxing as I'm not a good flyer. I spent my last long haul flight pregnant and worrying about the fact I couldn't help myself eating peanuts, and worrying about the fact that they sprayed insect repellent around the cabin when we touched down while reading a proof copy of Saturday by Ian McEwan.

Adelaide anyone?

We're off to Adelaide soon and are starting to plan our trip. We want to do lots of fun things for Olive and, as we'll have babysitters to hand, once Olive has settled in, Matt and I would like to have a few dinners and drinks out. Has anyone been to Adelaide recently? Got any suggestions of places to go and things to do that would make a 3 year old happy? And some lovely places to eat and drink that would make two 30 something parents happy?

On our list so far we have:

Cleland Wildlife Park to cuddle koalas and feed kangaroos
Victor Harbour to see the fairie penguins hop out of the sea at dusk
Horseshoe Bay Port Eliot to have fun on the beach and lunch at the Flying Fish Cafe
Central Markets to buy lots of lovely food
I read about a place called Bistrodom which looked good for dinner
Visit to Maggie Beer's

We also need to fit in some Christmas shopping.

Brick Lane

I watched this on DVD last night and was so disappointed. It's been a while since I read the book, but it felt like the screenplay just missed out or skipped over so many of the key elements of the story. It's such a good book, but I felt a bit 'so what?' by the end of the movie. I had to present this book at the annual sales conference to all the sales reps when I worked in publishing in Australia. It was pretty daunting, standing up there, on a stage with my Scottish accent trying to describe Banglatown!

It's such a dank and dreary day today. We've been stuck indoors all day and Olive is slowly climbing the walls! We've painted, made home made pizza and bread, drawn pictures of the rain, built, played with trains and now she is rolling around on the rug watching Dora and yelling Muuummmeee! O has a physio appointment at 6pm so we will have to venture out in the rain to Great Ormond Street, yuck!

Frequency and Volume

Olive and I went to see the Rafael Lozano-Hemmer exhibition in The Curve at the Barbican. He's turned it into a big interactive space where shadows are tuned to 48 different radio stations simultaneously. It's heaps of fun and great for children. Olive loved running around, making her shadow big and small and dancing to all the music she made.

The London Children's Film Festival

The programme for the London Children's Film Festival has launched. Check out the Barbican website for full details. We've booked to see the Moomins movie, can't wait!

Happy Halloween

Olive loved Halloween this year. I remember her first one, she was only a few weeks old and kept waking up every time the trick or treaters bashed on the door. Her second one I sat on my bed attempting to rock/breastfeed/sing her to sleep and again trick or treaters bashed on the door. Her third one she was terrified by a boy in a Scream mask as we opened the door en-route to bed. This year we embraced it a bit more fully. Milo, Freddie, Bobby and LouLou came over to make pumpkin lanterns and trace spooky stencils. We put decorations up and Olive donned her witches cape and hat. We got big bags of funsize treats and ordered pizza and Olive got to stay up late and answer the door and say Happy Halloween in a little quiet voice and handover a treat. Then as soon as the door was shut she yelled 'They were SCARY!' and giggled and laughed. It was fun.