And another birthday

On Sunday another someone special had his birthday. And he got two bones and an extra special dinner. And extra pats from Jack.

Happy birthday lucky dog.

The gee -gees

Last Tuesday was Melbourne Cup Day, so of course I wore a hat to work. Actually I so enjoy wearing them that I took spares for co-workers to wear too. Amy wore this fab pink number that Jack rather likes to wear when he's dancing. This became obvious when as I handed it to Amy I noticed some peanut butter smears along the rim. She wore it nevertheless and looked smashing or as one library patron exclaimed, "Gorgeous!"When it came time for the race we gathered around the telly and I handed out my spares. Jen wore a tiara (nice), Helen wore the cowboy hat and Brian wore the Pirate hat. Then after three and a bit minutes the race finished and some of us took off our hats and we all went back to work.
I must say people may be a tad worried because that was my third day back at the library and out of those days I'd worn some sort of headgear on two. Well, you have to wear a hat on Melbourne Cup Day and as for Halloween, I went low key and wore cat ears and handed out chocolate eyeballs. Delicious.

Another Birthday

On Saturday there was another special birthday for a friend that is roughly the same age as the Caterpillar (give or take ten years). I met Louise when I was working a the bookshop and it was always such a relief to have her visit with her warped sense of humour and hilarious anecdotes. I really have no idea how we got any work done at all.
We got her invite and I arranged a babysitter (thanks Diane) and S and I togged up and went out. And it was great. I got a few photos after the speeches and before the cake and in between two renditions of happy birthday, one for Louise and the other for her Dad who is ninety. I also made her this as a present which she thought was hilarious.

I think she's taking it to melbourne next weekend to go shopping. As you do.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOUISE!

Pillar Party

Last Friday we travelled into Wagga to go to a very special birthday. The Very Hungry Caterpillar turned forty. There must be botox or something involved because he's aged very well. Wagga library had a special storytime in the gardens, where Michael, Nerida and Kim worked their usual magic (they are so good). At one stage Jack started to cry and I wondered what he was fussing about - tired? cranky? Turned out a fly flew up his nose and I only know that because he sneezed it out about four hours later - ugh.
After the stories there were glorious platters of fresh fruit (not the naughty foods that also feature in the book) and games but the play equipment (particularly the swing) beckoned.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is so clever in a really simple way. It's only after reading it about a gazillion times like I have that you begin to appreciate the colours, the counting, the nutritional education (and the benefits of a detox) and entomology. Obviously Jack agrees because when we came home I had to read it again and again and again. And then he told everyone about the 'Pillar Party' he'd been to.

Reunion Mosman High 1989 (yes, twenty years ago)

My reunion is looming - just over a week away and I have mixed feelings about going. It will be nice to catch up with some people but...
My curiosity is just too great to stay away.
I had a bit of a preview in October when I caught up with a schoolfriend Nick and his lovely wife Katherine in Sydney. They live in England so Nick (aka Sooty) won't be coming but I will be his eyes and ears. I forgot to take a photo of Nick for the blog (too busy talking) so I've got one from our year 12 formal.Nick is posing with Lindy Edwards. She is on the missing in action list. It's quite large list and some people that I'd really like to see (or see how they turned out) are on that list.
In the vain hope that in the next few days those people may google themselves and say,"Reunion! fantastic!" I'm putting their names on here with an email address to get in contact with the reunion organisers at mosmanhigh89@hotmail.com
Michaela Bennett, Karl brennan, Yvonne Chan, Jeffrey Dalton, Tim Duguid (aka Lantern?), Lindy Edwards, David Fletcher, Amanda Goode, Melissa Hall, Michelle Hampton, Tim Haughan, Cathrynne Henshall, Shelley Hill, Anthony Ho, Samantha Ingle, Rachel Kalcher, Lee Kerr, Elias Khedi, Raymond Mulcahy, Jason Murphy, Craig Miles, Sara Norris, Campbell Patterson, Ian Phillips, Mandeep Rana, Anthony Saunders, Michael Shitab, Lisa Sniderman, Mike Serio, Paul Sorensen, David Stein, Karyn Stockley, dave Thornett, Simona Thornett, Bernard Webber, Ben Wong, Hyun-Jung Yi and Julian Young.

A correction and a word of advice

On saturday evening I drove back to the showground to pick up my entries, my certificates and my winnings (I should've taken the armoured car). The Pavilion was abuzz with people doing the same. I decided to get my sewing first. The Head stewardess said, "Oh darling! We loved your bag. Do me a favour next year enter eight more things!" I think she was channelling Jeannie Little but I was nevertheless quite chuffed until I heard her saying the same thing to someone else.
I walked over to the cookery section to pick up my sadly unloved cake. A woman there seemed to feel it was vital that she told me what the judge had said, so much so that when her phone rang and I tried to make my escape, she grabbed my wrist and would not let go. I gave in and waited but I did get some funny looks. Was I an apprehended cake thief?
She told me that my presentation had let me down (Hmm? Didn't they notice my fancy plastic plate?) but that the cake did taste good. So they do taste the cakes, that's a relief. They take a tiny little sliver out, like a core sample of earth. You can sort of see it here. It's like the slice of cake Posh would cut if she was on a food binge. Apparently the issue with mine was the crack. I had a feeling about that when I made it but then aren't all cakes baked in loaf tins supposed to have a crack, especially lemon syrup cakes so all the lemony goodness can soak into the cake? I think next year I'll try something else instead of just cooking it ten degrees lower as she suggested.
I then picked up my winnings. Six dollars and then splurged on a DVD for S for the night.
By this stage the cake was a bit dried out, but you know it's cake so I cut a piece for Jack for morning tea. He turned to me and said, "This cake is old Mummy."
Everyone's a critic!

Showtime again!

Hard to believe that it's been a year since we went to the Junee show. After the confusion of last year, I swore that I would be prepared with my entries but yet again it was a last minute rush. The information in the booklet is kind of confusing (though me getting a booklet is progress) so I called one of the stewardesses but that just left me more confused. In the end I called the show office and placed my entries by phone with a woman who sounded a little bit scary. On Thursday night, after my first day back at work what was I doing? Putting my feet up, having a glass of wine? I was making Garn's lemon cake to enter in the Cake - any variety section. My taste testers gave it the thumbs up but I was worried that it didn't look like show quality. The thing with baking for shows is that the cake or biscuit or baked item is cut in half and ogled from every angle but nary a crumb passes the lips of the judges. Put salt in the cake instead of sugar? No problem. Biscuits taste like poo? As long as they look good, well you get the idea. It seems crazy to me, but then so is the thought of all those nice cakes sitting there going stale.
Early on Friday morning I dropped off my entries (a cake, a cot quilt, a bag and a little green monkey). In the pavilion, pandemonium was the order of the day and as I waited I caught a glimpse of some of the amazing creations.
When we told Jack we were going to the show, he thought we meant a show on stage like Thomas, so we explained that there would be rides and animals. When we parked the car and he glimpsed the showground he exclaimed,"party!party!" a much better way of describing it.
The first thing Jack spotted was a Thomas show bag, but we told him we'd come back after the rides. S thought Jack would like a go on the big slide. We paid the money and Jack hopped on. Then he looked up and turned around and hopped off again. The guy kindly gave us our money back and suggested some smaller rides. I can understand his reluctance - look how high it is. We saw a big caterpillar thing and thought Jack might like that. Does anyone else find it weird that you enter through the caterpillar's bum? He disappeared inside and we could catch glimpses of him some of the time but at others we weren't sure where he was. Pretty soon I could hear a plaintive little voice coming out of the grub's bum wanting out. He tried another slide and seemed to have more luck with that. Then he tried this ride and this one, which he really enjoyed. Then he had a go at those clown thingies, but we chose the (slightly) less traumatising version that had Mickey mouse and friends. He also tried his luck at this fishing game and won a small plastic truck that fell apart after exactly 3 seconds and a spongebob squarepants ball. Then, in danger of burning through all our dosh we decided to look in the pavilion. We searched and searched for my cake and finally found it shoved into a corner. We admired the fruit and veggie creations made by local kids and then we checked out the sewing. I was wondering if yours is the only entry in a category if you automatically get first prize (like some restaurant reviewing that I do) as S had suggested last year when I won first prize for chocolate muffins. Lo and behold there was my quilt with a first prize certificate and my bag and my monkey! Three firsts!Talk about your cup running over. I took some photos, but the bars hindered any good shots (that's my excuse anyway).
My friend and blogger Amy arrived with her kids and we were introduced as Jack and Mr and Mrs D. After we stopped looking for my in-laws (though I've never heard them called that) we realised that was us. I'd been thinking about this lately, when talking to Jack about my friend's or his friend's mums. Do I call them Mrs ..... like my parents always taught me to or do I go with first names. I'm not sure how I feel about being called Mrs D (old?) but I can understand where Amy is coming from - teaching her kids to be polite. After each ride we made Jack thank the operator and I have to say they looked surprised.
We ducked back into the pavilion to admire the cakes (and saw some we missed the first time). Jack spotted this one (I can't imagine why) and we also admired (tittered) over these ones (Amy had to explain to me that this one was a butterfly). I'm not sure about this one but does it have boobs? Then we walked past the beautifully fragrant roses to have a look at the wool and wheat and drawings. By this stage Toby was very keen to go on a ride, so we decided to do just that. We toyed with the idea of the trampolines but then settled on the dodgems. At first it looked like it would just be the 3 cars with Jack, S, Amy, Bethany, Toby and Jossie, (I was fulfilling my role as official blog photographer) but then people appeared from everywhere and all of a sudden the gentle little spin around the floor became very bumpy. Jack's initial smiles disappeared after some not so accidental collisions and so he and S made a hasty retreat. Amy and her crew battled on, turning in circles and having a ball.

Jack's tears were quickly stopped with the purchase of an ice cream and a freddo bag (don't worry the freddos will be rationed out over the next two weeks). The kids all had an ice cream and Amy and S and I (in spite of our diets) got a sausage sandwich. Mindful of my reunion related dieting regime S suggested we share one (outrageous!) but then when I saw that the sanger consisted of not one but two slices of bread and two sausages I had to concede that it may have been the better option. Amy even stopped to take a photo of hers for her blog and we joked that Lorraine from the food blog notquitenigella would be jealous. If you want to see a pic have a look at Amy's blog. Somehow we managed to eat them all and then we admired the baby animals (ferrets!) and vintage cars and then we called it a day, leaving Amy and her clan to enjoy the Beaut Ute competitions and all the other delights of the Junee show that lay in store for them.