01 December 2007

In a week wherethere is lots of exciting things happening, including:
- labor kicked liberal's butt after having had its butt kicked equally hard last election
- lots of female polititians in high profile places as ministers and deputy leaders (isn't that nice?)
- climate change finally being on the agenda
- the newly turfed out liberal party bickering and sniping at whose fault it was that they lost the election and letting all that repressed anger that they couldn't direct at John Howard (even his father in law accused him of being an egomaniac!)
Not to mention all the things that are going on overseas that don't rate much in our newspapers...

In these interesting times, aren't you just pleased that news items like this make the papers? Stop press! Everyone - the ABC NEWSREADER HAD A COUGH!! I was actually watching the news at the time. She had to stop to cough a few times, and her voice actually sounded wobbly, like she was trying really hard not to cough. Then we switched to ABC news Melbourne for 10 minutes or so. Then back again after a cough lolly and glass of water. Big Whoop.

Hey Fairfax! I've got some news items that might be of interest:
Boy riding in shopping trolley this morning declares "I have an itchy bum!" really loudly!*
or
Professor in tanty throwing shock!

Anyone else got any newsworthy stories, given the new standard set by the SMH above?

*not my son...

26 November 2007

The big swim

A month or two back a few friends and I decided to do an oceanswim – partly as a challenge that we all agreed to and were therefore more likely to follow through on, partly as a “let’s pick somewhere nice to go for a swim” thing. None of us are competitive, it’s just swimming up and down a pool gets a bit boring but we’re also a bit chicken about swimming far in the ocean unless it’s well manned by lifesavers – so an organized event like an ocean swim is pretty much the only way to go (if you don’t live near the beach), and it raises money for the local SLSC at the same time.

So we picked the Coogee Wedding Cake island challenge. The swim was either 2.4km or 1km – the latter is too short, so I settled on the 2.4 km swim and proceeded to not think about it too much so I wouldn’t woos* out.

So Sunday morning rolls around…
- By 8:30am: 2 friends have pulled out (one sick but still offering to drive me there and mind my bag, the other opting for the 1km option). That just left me doing the swim.
- By 10am: I lost my goggles when I got dumped by a wave whilst warming up. This was a bad omen, but my friend had a spare old pair she offered to lend me.

So there I was, “warming up” in the rather cold November Tasman Sea, thinking, “I’m not sure this feels right”…. A mostly pool swimmer, I’d forgotten how hard it was to swim in the swell in unheated water!! I had a headache (not sure if it was due to not having coffee that morning for the first time in a while, or if I was coming down with something…), I was unusually thirsty, I had no friend to hold my hand, and the island I had to swim around looked a long way out…

At the last minute I met someone through my friend, and we walked up to the start line together and made “just having met” chit chat, which helped ease the butterflies quite a bit. Then suddenly my cohort of similarly aged swimmers (some very buff and brown and fit looking) was up at the start line, ready to have blanks fired out of a gun by a newly-in-government Peter Garrett, to make us run like startled sheep to the water!!

Off we went! The start is a flurry of kicking feet, waves, trying to find a patch of ocean on your own to swim in, and trying to catch sight of the buoys ahead of you whilst getting into a swimming rhythm in a body of water that won’t be still. After about 400m I felt settled down a bit, and started to enjoy it. The course is basically out to sea, around and island and back again, and I got to the island ok. The water was cool, but the sun was nice and warm on my back. Then the sea got a bit rough, and I actually felt a bit sea sick. Tried to ignore it – what else could I do but swim back?

By the return journey, the field had thinned quite a bit, so you didn’t have to worry about other swimmers so much. But each time you looked up to see where the next buoy was, you were taunted by a far off vision of the Coogee foreshore – was I really that far out? I kept trying to repress the sea sick feeling, tried to ignore the fact that I’d stopped having fun and wanted to just float for a bit, and kept going. Finally, I reached the last buoy, and suddenly, the bottom of the ocean was only a few feel below, the water was warm, and the waves - with a bit of careful timing – carried you into shore (despite my tiredness, I managed to not get dumped). I made it out of the water, made an effort to run like my co-swimmers (although I really couldn’t be arsed), and stumbled through the finish line, which quite strangely had the words “START” above it.

I felt a bit ill and cold for an hour or so after, and was mindful of the memory of my brother going in a Triathlon as a kid and vomiting afterwards from the effort of it. But after I’d sat in a hot car on the ride home, then eaten a bowl of stodgey vege risotto I’d made the day before, I felt much better. Then I had a bath, relaxed for a bit, and it sank in that I’d actually completed something quite hard, and had kept going despite wanting to stop.

I think I’d like to do more ocean swims, but maybe ones with better courses – triangular swims in bays or swims around headlands don’t feel so bad. With the Coogee swim, you round the island to head home and think “my god! I’ve got another KILOMETRE to go!” Which is quite hard psychologically when you are starting to get a bit tired at the same time!

* is that how you spell it?

23 November 2007

armed robbery, 3 way car crashes and lacerations to the left hand

It's been dramatic around here lately...

E-chan and I were coming home at around 5:15 on Wednesday, and found the staff of the nearby chemist hanging around outside their shop with a few other people. On closer inspection, one of the pharmacists had her hand covering her mouth. On closer inspection, she was gasping and going into shock. The other pharmacist was walking back from down the street, with an angry expression, as if she'd just come back from an unsuccessful chase. Concerned shop owners came in to comfort them, others were ringing the cops on mobile phones. They walked into their shop and locked the door shut behind them.

Then yesterday, there was a three-way car crash near my house. A car door had to be removed, peak hour traffic was diverted, fire engines and ambulances at hand.... the works. Many onlookers standing by.

And then also yesterday, without onlookers (E-chan was asleep, thank goodness), I foolishly and regretfully cut the webbing between my index and middle finger on my left hand whilst trying to remove the stone of an avocado with a blunt knife (note to self - get out a chopping board instead of holding avocado, and use a sharper knife next time). Wound was quite deep, so I saw before the blood. Luckily, I went into First Aid mode - my perception zoomed back up behind my head, and I watched myself locate my first aid kit, blood dripping all over the floor, washing the cut, finding a suitable gauze, and working out how to keep my two fingers from moving too much using my working hand and a bandage. Blood flow stemmed, it was avocado on toast (still thinking of my stomach - see?!) while my left hand was elevated for bit. This cut is going to be a bummer to heal. Seems I can still type though.

18 November 2007

Straya votes

Got an interesting email from Getup.org via a friend:

http://www.howshouldivote.com.au

According to the survey of 20 questions, they suggest which candidate in your electorate has views that most line up with yours. Depending on how many undecided people do this quiz and take on the recommendations, it could have an interesting effect on the election. For example, my best "match" was with an Independent who I'd never heard of before, and wouldn't have bothered voting for. Kind of an interesting way to find out about candidates running for your seat.

Another useful site is the ABC election site:
http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/
complete with Anthony Green's (the very properly spoken gentleman who gives a run-down of the swings in each seat vs the % of votes counted) election guide. I had a look around the site last week, and didn't realise, for example, that I was in SUCH as safe Labor seat.

Upwardly mobile young men

Well the clumsy first few weeks of motherhood all seem like a distant memory (I won't put a link there because I just don't want to go there).

These days motherhood is quite different. We have a little boy who is cheeky, gives us impish grins before embarking on something he knows he shouldn't. He will cuddle on occasion, but now I mostly get cuddles when I have to carry him through crowded or dangerous places, and he decides he has a better view up high.

He sings (often a song that goes like this: "doidey doidey doi!"), he babbles, but occasionally it sounds like something in context (e.g "Open the box?", "read-a-book?"), and he uses plenty of single words e.g. bubble, Daddy, water, shoe, car, pole, tree, hat, dog, ball, book, banana. He understands plenty more, and we can ask him simple questions and get either a shake of the head or a look of vague interest in reply. Some words have multiple meanings - e.g. "shoe" is not just a noun. It accompanies him getting his shoes and dumping them at my feet, dropping a massive hint that he wants to go outside. Then he gets my shoes and does the same (he knows which shoes are whose!), and maybe even his hat!

And he sleeps - mostly through the night, and mostly once a day for a good 2 hours. Sometimes he even voluntarily takes himself off to bed. And he sleeps in travel cots and at child care. And in the car and pram if the time is right, staying asleep as I pick him up, snoring away on my shoulder.

He walks around with his hands on his hips, in the air, or behind his back, as if he hasn't worked out how to swing them casually yet. He stumbles into a little run, and falls over less and less. He stops and squats and plays with puddles and leaves, and looks up at adults walking past and waves "ayooo!". He falls over and gets bruises and cuts, he wails for a bit and lets us pick him up and kiss and cuddle him, then he either gets distracted by something, or his cries settle down to a few big huffs of breath. He's stopped liking baths and started taking showers.

He smiles at us winningly. He bosses us around, and tells us we should put our oven mit back on its hook! He eats many things, but most things he'll refuse at first (with the exception of banana, most other fruit, yoghurt). He is able to feed himself for a bit, until he starts to lose interest part way through the meal. He loves it when we all sit down together to eat, and his head turns around from side to side, to grin at me or his father in turn.

If you can't read between the lines, I'm loving it!

go away... no... stay?

A week of humid hazy air, stuffy indoors, and sticky nights has me thinking "go away summer, we're not ready for you yet!". I wanted to get more wear out of my winter clothes before I realised my summer wardrobe had hit rock bottom. I wanted to be snuggly under my bedding before starting to sleep with only a sheet and having to work out where to store my quilt in the meantime.

But then... leisurely swims, cotton dresses and sun hats, gin and tonics on the balcony as the sun goes down, outings to the beach, bare feet, salads and summer fruit...

Enough to sway me for 6 months, I think.

10 November 2007

My first Lego invitation

Took E-chan off to Playgroup on Thurday morning as I do most Thursdays - it's held at an afterschool care cottage within the school grounds of one of the local primary schools. It was raining and I thought best get out and stimulate him before he goes bonkers at home.

A true child of the drought, E-chan has only just discovered puddles. So there he was running around, his puddle homing chip in full function, and there was me chasing him with his little raincoat, attempting to get it on him before he got too cold and damp (as I was getting!).

I had been chatting with a 5-year-old boy and his mum a bit on Thursday, and as E-chan and I were making our way home towards the gates, he ran after us and started talking about lego. I'm not sure why, but he might have heard me chatting with his mum about it. He mentioned something about having a certain set of lego at home - to be honest, I couldn't understand everything he was telling me, but as I'm keen about lego in general, I nodded enthusiastically and asked him if it was big or small lego. To which he said he had both, and it's really good and we should come over and play with it sometime!!

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

Saturday nite jukebox!

(Who said parents have no night life? We do - it's just largely home-based)

Tonight, the jukebox is 80's, complete with The Specials, Adam and the Ants, Cindi Lauper...

"Get into the groove boy..." (arms in the air and dance whilst showing off your armpit hair! damn which I hadn't shaved mine a week or so back!)

And now, for love song dedications... Bryan Adams with "Heaven". Get out your ciggy lighters and sway!!

08 November 2007

Yes I think my house was making me sick...

I've been watching a show on Telly when I can these past few weeks:
http://isyourhousekillingyou.sbs.com.au/home/. I lived in a damp-infested terrace a few years back and this is when a lot of my allergy problems got worse. I didn't know you could be allergic to mould at the time, had a vague idea about dust allergies, but didn't really manage it properly. We moved out of there, and things improved a bit, but then I went to an allergy clinic, got tested (and yes I do have allergies to mould, dust and pollens), and was put on an elimination diet.


There were days where I'd wake up (after a night on a dust mitey pillow, in the right kind of weather), and I'd look in the mirrow and almost scream with fright (see left), except my face was so sore and sensitive. You can't cover it with make-up, as that only makes things worse. Most days, I'd have to soldier on, feeling quite self-conscious, and putting up with stares and unsolicited (and uninformed) advice on what clears up eczema. In addition, my nose ran like a dripping tap (I'd thought this was normal by now).

It occurred to me that things - toxins, allergens etc - must have built up in my system and caused my system to overload and break out into symptoms. But I didn't really have any scientific knowledge to prove to me that my home environment may have been a major cause of my problems, say when compared to food intolerances.

Well this show has been enlightening. Poor families buy houses they can afford only to find out they have dreadful damp problems and their house is riddled with mould. Other families are inadvertently introducing toxic chemicals into their home, through cleaning solvents, treated pine, pesticides. I've been trying to manage dust levels in our new place for a few years, but I could be better at it - vacuum more often, air the bed, hot wash sheets etc etc. In addition, I think my allergy shots (pollen and dust mite) are beginning to have a desensitising effect (should be complete in a year or so). And I've gone low chemical with our cleaning materials - microfibre cloths, earth friendly, bicarb and vinegar etc. Did you know that vinegar is the most effective treatment of mould, and that bleach may even just provide mould with more food?

Anyhow, this above web site is worth a squiz if you want some pointers on potential issues your home might have.

01 November 2007

No, honey, don't sit down in the middle of the road...

...is what we are finding ourselves saying a bit lately. A few times we've crossed the road to get to the park, and half way through he's lost balance, fell down on his bottom, and decided the road or a leaf or a pebble is more interesting than walking. Luckily, it's a quiet road, so rarely is there a car in sight. But nonetheless, time to instill some road sense. Not sure how much of an impact it's making yet, but repeated lessons of "stop, look both ways, nothing coming now quick! Walk! keep walking, quickly!! We're nearly theeeeeeere..... Good boy!!! Good walking!!" has to sink in at some point, yes?

20 October 2007

Chronic disease...

Working amongst researchers that study the major chronic diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and obesity) starts to have an effect on you. I'm not particularly unhealthy, but nor am I 100% healthy. I have a bit of a chocolate habit. And I love hot chips, but can restrain myself from these better than I can chocolate.

Anyway, here's what I hear at work: I hear about chronic, non-communicable diseases having a large burden on the health system; chronic heart failure and pulmonary obstructions; Type 2 Diabetes.

It all starts to sink in.
Your ears start to prick up when your parents talk about a friend being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.
You worry about people of your parent's generation being diagnosed with high blood pressure and heart problems.
You think about how much more sugar you must be eating compared to your parent's generation, and how you will be doomed unless you start doing something now.

BUT THEN - I'm sure I'm eating less fat and salt than they did. And probably walking and exercising more than they did at my age.

But anyway, something to watch out for over the next 10 years as I enter my 40's. At some point, what goes into your body and how much exercise you do needs to be taken seriously.

I chatted a bit about this sort of stuff generally to my Dad a few weeks ago, and he "could not stress strongly enough" that breast cancer is something I should be watchful for. It seems that as well as my paternal Grandmother having this (not fatally) in her 70's, my paternal Grandfather's family was "riddled with it", and recently it has made an appearance on my mother's side of the family, albeit in a fairly distant relation. I'm going to have to get more informed about it - I'm fairly ignorant about the genetics of the condition for starters...

A baby that clings rather than separates...

doesn't that sound like a rice commercial?

We've had a difficult month in some ways - E-chan has been sick 3 times, and one of those (gastro) went through the whole family (I can confidently say that the incubation time of that particular gastro virus was 2 days). Imagine me running about the house cleaning up after a gastro-ey child - the futon couch was washed and hauled out over the balcony to air and dry, Japanese-style, and 4 loads of washing were done in one day (my record). These bugs tear through the community, through playgroups, day care, kindergartens, and there isn't much you can do about it but grin and bear it, until your kid's immune system has some clout of it's own. Oh, and washing your hands and certain surfaces regularly helps.

The last ailment E-chan has was a fever. After 3 days of fever, I took him to the Dr, who usefully informed me he had a sore throat (that explained the lack of appetite) and gave me useful advice on his pain relief. After both Mum and Dad re-arranged their work schedules for the week, E-chan had almost a week away from his regular child-care. A whole week with mum and dad, it seems, is enough to knock him out of his routine. As a result, he was lacklustre and pouty in care on Tuesday and Wednesday, and when I took him to Playgroup on Thursday, he stuck to my leg like a limpet. I took this seriously, and began to worry something was wrong, but then what do you know, on Friday he was back to his usual self at child care.

On Friday when I went to pick him up, I found him in a pack of 5-6 kids between 1 and 2 years old, busily doing something or other. He beamed at me and walked over to be picked up, and waved goodbye to his friends and carers. This is more normal.

For us, having no parents or close relly's in the city to help look after E-chan regularly, child care has been a necessity. We also view it as a good thing for him - we worry about him being too sheltered seeing mostly us only. Being cared for by others has been good for him - he's learned to be settled by others, learned to sleep in different places. He's a quiet, observant child (in public anyway, at home he's less restrained) and hanging out with other kids teaches him to stand up for himself a bit when other kids decide they want to touch his hair (ie whack his head), poke his eyes, snatch his toys, or pour sand over his head. So I basically don't know what we would have done had he not shown some return to his usual character soon - we just don't have any other options.

----------

But anyway, he's started walking. Did I mention this on my blog? He's now able to walk all the way to the park, about 200m, with little stops along the way, to check out doorways, leaves, moreton bay figs, cars, sidestreets. And he's getting bossy. He points to the swing next to him at the park until I sit in it and swing along with him. He pats the floor next to him to indicate that I must go and sit alongside him, he points here and there, he dumps books in my lap, he demands to eat what I'm eating (if there is something he's allergic to in there, I have to go into full-on distract mode, otherwise he may even tantrum until I give him some).

Ah yes, the tantrums have started in earnest. And it's getting harder to divert him from them... But he's also learning more words, showing lots of affection for us, clever, funny, bringing cups, plates and bowls back into the kitchen (without being told to), and doing a whole lot of amazing things that just astound us!!

Dumbledore outed!!

http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/jk-rowling-reveals-that-one-of-her-characters-is-gay/2007/10/20/1192301087070.html

I have to say at this point I didn't see this coming, but neither am I shocked. I lack a strong gaydar - by this I mean that if someone isn't a love interest for me, I really don't mind what your sexual orientation is, and don't spend a lot of time pondering it. Well I do a bit when getting to know people, to avoid making embarrassing assumptions about their partner's gender or gender of preferance that turn out to be wrong. But that's it.

10 October 2007

Hiatus in the fossil record

I too am having a break due to annoying lack of home internet coverage out of my control...
Am also thinking - as is trendy these days - about whether I will continue to blog, cut out embarrassing old posts then let a wider audience read or something else entirely.

In other thoughts - felt like a groovy "with it" mum when I got the PM's special booklet on protecting families on the 'net the other night - knew what all the lingo meant, and I myself use many of the precautions that they recommend that you recommend your kids use on the net. But will I still be "up with it" when E-chan when his little fingers start tapping away in the whorld whide wheb? It is my duty as a mother to be, surely? or any other excuse to spend time skyping, blogging or facebooking?

14 September 2007

I love it when we're cruisin' togetheeeerrrrr........

The past few weeks have been cruisey. E-chan has been going through some big developmental things - Wonder Weeks if you like - He's been trying out more and more new words, he seems to understand more of what we say, we've been having lots of fun moments playing and chasing each other, he's been eating more, sprouted 4 molars, had a bit of a growth spurt, and this past week, he's been sleeping so well that we've had 5-6 nights of un-interrupted sleep.

You know, wake up at 6:35 of your own accord, and realise you didn't have to get up once during the night. He's a good sleeper in general, but there have been lots of colds lately, and it's been a while since we've had such a good run of so many nights of not being woken up. And it's bliss!!!!! One gets used to uninterrupted sleep so quickly that I'm sure I'll be complaining next week when he starts getting afraid of the dark or gets another cold and needs to have a reassuring cuddle at 2am.

And he's just started walking this week! Bang on 15 months, just like my mother, but earlier than his Poppa, who walked at 18 months. He still has a long way to go before it's more than a few steps at a time, but we're pleased that he is willing to try walking. It will open up many new activities we can do together, especially in the wet weather - sitting and crawling on the wet ground is no fun.

And as much as we try not to worry that he's a later than average walker, parents of earlier walker's comments like "Oh he'll get there in his own time!" and "Oh? not walking yet at how many months?" get a bit annoying after a while. And "oh you wait until he walks, then you'll really have to keep an eye on him all the time!!!" (as if he isn't already following me about, charging everywhere and bumping his head, getting into cupboards, and climing everywhere already). Perhaps I should brag about how good a reader and enthusiastic a drawer he is already at 15 months?

But anyway, my point is, these past few weeks have been an utter delight! Fun, entertaining, and rewarding, as my little boy develops the ability to interact, be cheeky, sing, talk, walk and offer me some of his dinner!

01 September 2007

a little bit of sleep deprivation...

E-chan slept through last night! Yiharr! While this in itself is more common these days, last night follows two nights of unsettled-ness. A bit of a cough, and waking up almost hourly from midnight until we worked out he wanted another bottle (he doesn't usually have them overnight and hasn't since he was round 6 months old, unless sick or unusually hungry).

Yes, imagine two dopey, half asleep parents, running around like headless chickens in the middle of the night, one trying to calm a little boy, the other wishing the kettle would boil quicker for the bottle, then frantically making up the bottle and shaking it to mix. When E-chan saw the bottle, his noises changed from "I'm miserable!" to "right I'll have that then!" combined with little outstretched arms ready to grab the bottle and shove it in his mouth!! Then blissful sleep for us all for a few hours.

Last night, anyway, he sleeps through, and what do I do? I wake up at 5:30am! It's common for me to wake up with the sun, but this is ridiculous - the sun is 45 mins away at 5:30! Go back to sleep... but then I hear the birds chirping their pre-dawn song, think morning must be near, and MY BRAIN STARTS TO THINK! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Don't do it, don't do it... sheep jumping over fence, sheep ju......... hey wasn't that a nice miffy t-shirt E-chan's carer was wearing yesterday? Hey! Sleep jumping over fence, sheep jumping over fence....?

Oh bugger it! I'll get up and blog until the boys wake up!

19 August 2007

spending our way to climate change...

I know a little bit about climate change, and think about my impact on the environment quite a bit. I've thought a lot about how my parent's and grandparent's generations "made do" a lot more, by mending broken things, using hand-me-downs, buying second-hand. Goods were relatively expensive then, and it was more about home economics than anything else. It bugs me that goods are artificially cheap now, and that can't go on forever (the cost of labour will need to go up in manufacturing countries at some point, and I'm positive petrol will go up in price as we run out of it). I'm talking purely from an economic point of view here - however I've known that consumerism has a "carbon footprint", but not really known how much.


The results of a study by the ACF and Sydney University hit the press yesterday:


"Wealthy families in suburbs such as Woollahra, North Sydney, Mosman and Ku-ring-gai, who can afford to install solar power and large water tanks, still have the biggest ecological footprint because of the goods and services they buy.
Shopping habits represent such a large part of greenhouse gas emissions that even if every household switched to renewable energy and stopped driving cars tomorrow, total household emissions would fall by less than 20 per cent, the study found. On average, every additional dollar of consumption was responsible for 720 grams of greenhouse gas emissions and 28 litres of water."



Part of me says "Thank god someone has quantified this", part of me says "SHIT!". I've clearly got a long way to go. Here's what I do to reduce unnecessary spending/environmental impact:


- don't use detergent unless necessary, and use less than is recommended
- turn off all electronic equipment at the button/plug most nights
- use a blanket/extra jumper if cold
- shower every 2nd day or longer if I can get away with it
- drive only when I can't walk or catch train/bus
- I'm mindful of the miles the goods I buy at the supermarket have travelled
- increasingly buying organic (if the above is not too high)
- I'm restrained from buying stuff for the sake of it, including for our minor birthdays. E.g our CD player is circa 1990, and the speakers and amp we have are 2nd hand and many years older and we see no need to get a new one until it stops working.
- mostly use nappies made from recycled/renewable plantation/biodegradable material
- only use the clothers dryer for large things like sheets in wet, cold weather
- have changed most of our light globes over to energy efficient ones and have a water-saving shower head in our shower.
- we recycle everything we can (not just waste - keep every little paperclip etc that comes available to use later)
- we share/offer to share baby resources we've grown out of (clothes, bottle sterilisers etc) with friends


But:

- We use disposable nappies
- I have nowhere to compost my food waste and only a small area to hang clothes out to dry (not having a garden and only having a small balcony)
- I have to use some plain moisturisers that are pure petroleum product (a bit like vaseline, with no additives, scents etc)
- I don't seek many 2nd hand clothes when shopping for clothes
- I don't eat as much vegetatian food as I thought (so I found out last night when we had a Piscatarian to dinner, and I ended up cooking fish, despite intending to do vego food and combing my recipe books for ideas...)
- we waste some food each week


I'm sure the list goes on, but this is what comes to mind for now.

17 August 2007

Gunna do, wanna do list!

To do list:

-Make a 3 course meal (including pumpkin pie) for dinner party on Sat night
-Knitted toy snake (part way through), Monkey and Koala
-size 1 pants (part way through first pair), more on way
-Necklace
-Cover for record player/stereo (to stop/muffle E-chan when he's whacking it)
-Take up the legs of a few pairs of pants
-Fix C-chan's shorts

This is not including the un-fun things that have to get done in the next week (ie cleaning before we have guests, it being my turn to cater for staff meeting,

Work whinge averted by amusing editorial

A post about workplace discontent was bouncing around in my brain but I read this funny article about GenY workers and decided I couldn't top it: Baby boomer takes a swat at Gen Y!
I had noticed this difference between my generation (X/Y borderline) with our "screw you, I hate it here, I'm leaving" attitude and that of my my parents, who trudged along in the same job for years, moaning away but keeping going. But never really thought about it from this point of view!!
Feel like someone has shaken my shoulders and told me to snap out of it!!

16 August 2007

E-chan update

It's been a while since I've posted about E-chan's antics, I realised. So, he's 14 months old now, crawling, standing, cruising, chatting and saying the odd word, but very expressive with noises and actions. He's generally a cheerful and friendly chap, has a cheeky streak, loves fetching us books for us to read to him, and loves having baths (to the point where we have to spell the word out unless it's bath time, because he goes straight to the bathroom door and bangs on it otherwise, expecting a bath any moment soon).

He's not walking unsupported yet, but will do with a trolley to push or if we hold his hands. He mostly gets fed by us, but will feed himself chunks of cooked potato, bread, muffins, crackers, and cooked peas. He alternates between trying to use a spoon (ie banging, flinging, and tantruming if we try to shove food in his mouth) and just letting us feed him.

He seems to like going to child care, but sometimes reaches the end of his tether towards the end of the day, and wants to be at home with us (I don't blame him - I feel much the same!). He's learning to play with other kids, has great toys and a large outside playing area to play in (that we don't have at home), and best of all, likes the carers and will be settled and fed by them.

He's mastering attention seeking, and has a set of things that he know's he's not supposed to do that he does when he's bored or if he thinks we should stop whatever we're doing and play with him - namely pressing buttons and twirling dials on electronic equipment, playing with the vertical blinds, banging things, and clearing out bookshelves.

When we're out and about, we noticed he's frighteningly like us in some ways. For example, we're out at the playground, and we notice he's just sitting there watching the older kids play and try to encourage him to play a bit and crawl around. Then I notice I'm doing exactly the same thing - sitting and watching the other kids play! Is that learned or innate behaviour, or innate reinforced by watching us?! Many other examples of him copying me in subtle ways. But one thing that impresses us is his strong sense of self, stubbornness, clear sense of what he wants to do and how he wants to go about it.

Giving me the knits!

Thanks a lot*, Seagreen... you got me hooked on knitting again after a 20 year hiatus! All I did was comment on how mobile a craft it was compared to beading or sewing, and a weekend visit to her place resulted in a lend of some needles, spare wool, a book on how to make soft toys from simple squares, and a quick lesson on how to cast on, and I'M HOOKED!

(above - blurry image, but not bad knitting for someone who hasn't knitted since Grandma came to stay and taught me around 20 years ago...? I don't seem to be able to cast on very evenly, but am getting there...)

Anyway, since Sunday, have knitted the head plus three body segments of what will hopefully become a snake!! Very soothing occupation for those moments where you want to sit, chat, maybe listen to music or the telly but be productive at the same time!

* no really - thanks!

emails schmails

I don't know about you, but I find emails are mostly a really unsophisticated medium of communication. People treat them casually, as if because they are easier than sending a letter, they therefore don't have to be as formal. As a consequence, they don't always think as hard about how they are recieved at the other end. I have received countless terse emails that come across as narky when they needn't be or aren't intended to be (accountants are usually best at this - sorry but it's true). People run off emails in the heat of a moment and send them off, where they probably should take a moment to calm down, or even better, should just pick up the bloody phone and sort miscommunications out once and for all (far quicker too). Even the most casual and friendly emails, almost sms-like in briefness, can be misinterpreted in this way. And worse of all, the type of email that is a mighty battle of egos, deflecting blame (under the guise of "clarifying"), complete with people's bosses cc'd in.

One of my bosses over the past few years taught me something useful namely his discipline of always writing an email like a letter, complete with a "Dear ____" at the start and a proper signing off at the end. It makes a huge difference I think. I mean, as pressed as you are for time, how hard is it to add these to emails? Writing something properly first time around can save you a lot of time in the end. Yes, these lines can be blurred with good friends of course, or at the end of a friendly e-discusssion, or if you are just emailing to say "thanks!". But for most work emails, I think this is extremely important that people email carefully, even with people who work together all the time. Or am I just in an industry of bad communicators?

* yes I just got a terse email from someone at work that's upset me a bit

05 August 2007

Snapshot of suburb #2(?)

Old man sitting at bus stop whistling perfectly - good enough to be the whistling parts of "Jealous Guy" or "Dock of the bay". But he is whistling the tune to: "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!"

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Middle Aged man walking down shop-lined street on a Sunday morning, singing his heart out, made me smile. Good voice too*. Drew a lot of stares from those who expect the ordinary.

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Walking up past a row of 2-storey terrace houses late one afternoon, and the balcony of one of them is full of student-aged people. On the street opposite, there is an Alfa Romeo parked, and a young man is seriously checking the car out - walking around it, looking at the detail. Then comes a shout from the balcony, a posh woman's voice with a private school accent:

Posh Voice: Naice car, isn't it?!
Car Enthusiast: Yes!
PV: It's Mine! My Dad bought it for me.... for my birthday!
-pause-
CE: How old are you?!!!!
-pause-
PV: 18!

That, I thought, is the ugly side of wealth. That someone so young that they couldn't have earned an expensive car in their own right, shamelessly yells out to anyone who listens that her Dad bought her the car for her 18th birthday; that her voice almost seemed to be jeering at the young guy who may never be able to afford such a car, possibly challenging him to come up with a better story.

Even if I was moderately wealthy, I would try and teach my children not to take wealth for granted, not to disrespect or flaunt it to those not so fortunate, to think how they could use their wealth for the good of society. They would not get a car for their birthday - they'd have to save up for one if they really needed it.


* Does anyone from 'Delaide remember that busker who used to don a barber-shop hat and red and white suit and sing light-operatic songs in Rundle Mall? Well he had the same kind of voice.

04 August 2007

Rant about unit design...

Apartment design is one of my pet whinging topics. It just gets me so AAAAANGRY when I see such poorly designed unlivable dwellings! Don't bring this up when I'm feeling a bit passionate and have had beer or two, as I probably won't shut up. No doubt designed by someone who never lives in an apartment, built by someone who never lives in an apartment, sold by someone who never lives in an apartment, and owned by someone who either never lives in an apartment, or lives in it for 6 months before moving back in with Mum and Dad once the 1st home owner's grant can be claimed. I know everyone involved is trying to eke out the biggest profit possible, but there has to be some point where places with solid walls that can actually be lived in get built and are affordable for people to buy.

I am just astounded at how badly places are designed. Bear in mind that for a 2 bedroom unit, many tennants will either be 2 housemates sharing, or parents with a kid, or a couple with the spare room as a guest room/study. For this to be liveable, the living area needs to be big enough for a dining table, lounge area. If the 2nd bedroom is occupied, the living area needs to be also big enough. Don't even get me started obout the lack of 3br units around. So here are my issues with just about every unit that I've seen that has been built in the past 10 years:

- No laundry cupboard. When I looked at one apartment to rent a few years back, I mentioned that there wouldn't be anywhere to put a vacuum cleaner. "Wardrobe?" was Real Estate agents' reply. "Well that would be full of our clothes, as it would barely fit 2 people's clothes," I said, thinking out loud. "Well," said RE Agent, showing how out of touch with reality she was, "most people have cleaners these days!". (Der - you still need a vacuum cleaner). Aside from the vacuum cleaner, you need somewhere to put a laundry basket, clothes airer, and those of us who iron (not me if possible!) need somewhere to put an ironing board and iron.

- No linen cupboard. Every household has sheets, towels, blankets, and often medicines, odds and ends, tablecloths. Therefore, why isn't it standard to have a general use cupboard built into the living area??

- Bedrooms too small or badly shaped. We have one massive bedroom but it can only be laid out one way. We could perhaps fit more stuff in our bedroom if we had a double bed instead of a queen, but we don't, and neither do many couples. The main bedroom has an ensuite (which we could easily do without - a pointless luxury as far as we're concerned), yet the 2nd bedroom is so puny it would barely have room for a single bed, a wardrobe and a chest of drawers.

- Bathrooms from mars. Apparently the plumbing in our main bathroom/laundry has an experimental plumbing set-up unknown to any trained or accredited plumber, which leaked into the kitchen below us. That's all fixed now, and the problem was all down to shoddy workmanship apparently. However, it's great to have a bath, enough room to air clothes inside on a tiled floor, and a place for a washing machine, as many units don't. In addition, check out this picture:


Our washing machine is medium sized, and is in the only place it can be - under the washing machine taps. Now look at the toilet. My not terribly large bum presses up against our washing machine every time I sit on it. And I often wonder why the toilet roll dispenser (which I might also add is cheap and frequently falls off the wall) needs so much room??






- small living room spaces with not enough walls to put your furniture along. Most furniture and audio visual equipment needs to go against a wall. Our living area isn't bad in this respect, as we can separate it into living, dining and computing. Many other places I've seen are small rectangles. When they are open for inspection, they only have the bare minimum furniture on display, to make it look roomier than it is.

- Common/outdoor areas that are useable. No echo-ey outdoor areas where people are tempted to drink late and keep everyone else awake. Our common area is not used as much as it could be as it's bright, tiled, unshaded, and half the units look down off their balconies onto you. Not very relaxing. Oh and it'd be wonderful to put my compostable waste somewhere other than the garbage bin...

- Somewhere to hang your washing outside where it won't get stolen. Some councils in Sydney have the most ridiculous and environmentally unfriendly LAW that if someone complains about your washing/bedding being aired from outside the building, you can get a warning, and a fine if you do it again. And the unit comes with a energy inefficient clothes dryer that you are supposed to use instead.

- No stairway option. Lifts are necessary in multistory apartment buildings for prams and wheelchairs. But able-bodied people should also have an option to use stairs. That's right, some of us like using our legs!! We have a fire escape that we can use to leave the building, but not to enter.

03 August 2007

I must be sick...

I have no appetite whatsoever.

Gastro. Stay away from me!

Bummer!

02 August 2007

Thanks, and talking about long term relationship habits....

Thanks for kind expressions of sympathy about my Nan. I didn't go to the funeral, but took a moment somewhere by myself to say goodbye.

My RL friend Seagreen was talking about family relationships. Kind of in a similar vein... Both my sets of grandparents reached at least 50 years together, and no doubt created a few dynamics of their own in that time.

I thought it was interesting to hear, amongst the grief, what my Gran had to say about losing Grandad many years ago, and (superficially) how my Pop has changed after losing his partner of 60 years.

I think my Mum's parents were truly happy and content together. Nan did all the talking, and Pop was quite quiet - e.g. "How are you, Pop?" "Oh, well thanks, dear!". And that was often the limit of his conversation. Mum says after Nan's funeral last week, he just started talking all the time!! Mum was suprised!! Perhaps he always talked more than we knew, but mostly when alone with Nanna?

My dad's dad was a bit, well, traditional (didn't talk about emotions and at times said insensitive things). But all in all, I think they were fairly happy companions, until Granny started to get alzeimers. Anyway, years ago I was visiting Granny just before Grandad's funeral, and one morning, after a sleep in, she said "oh, it's sooooo nice to sleep in! I haven't done it for 50 years!!". (She used to do a lot for Grandad, who had hurt his back during his life and was quite an invalid for the last 10 or so years).

26 July 2007

Bye bye Nanna

My Nan died early on Monday morning, aged 78. My poor Pop - who described Nanna as his soul mate and has been with her for nearly 60 years - is a bit lost, and I don't know how things will go for him with time. My Mum is naturally upset, but over the years (ever the practical nurse), she has talked honestly with Nanna about her mortality. While it was a bit sudden, in some ways it wasn't - she smoked for 40 or so years, was quite obese for much of her life, and in the past 15 or so years, there have been many angina attacks, bad arthritis, and a few other conditions that increased with frequency over more recent years. So when it came down to Nanna being in a coma hooked up to machines, it was clear to her immediate family what Nanna's wishes were, they were able to instruct the doctors accordingly. And her poor old body had really had enough.

My Nan was born at the beginning of the Depression, and her mother died when she was 3. She and her sister were fostered out with family, and her father went back to living a bachelor life and went looking for work. She lived for a while with an Aunty and Uncle who loved her, but who were having difficult pregnancies, therefore she was handed around the family a bit. Sometimes she was "a bit of a handful" - according to her - and she was whipped or hit for it. Her dad remarried later, but she didn't go back to living with him. She went to work as a nurse when she was 17, soon met Pop, and they married by the time she was 19, and had my Mum when she was 20, followed rapidly by my Auntie and Uncle. They lived in rental houses most of their life, but bought a beach shack north of Hobart as Pop neared retirement - they moved into their first fully owned home when they were retired. They moved back to Hobart recently, when it became apparent they were too far away for ambulances to reach them in time if something went wrong.

I didn't get to see my Nanna that often, as I grew up interstate. However, she always loved me unconditionally, was kind and loving, and I know she thought of me often. Nanna had such a difficult childhood, yet became the loving matriarch of 3 children, 7 grand-children, and 9 great-grandchildren, and she remembered every birthday! I realise now how important that unconditional love is - I am grateful that she was able to give my own mother such a loving foundation to her life, with flow-on benefits to me and my family.

23 July 2007

The big things in life

I find myself thinking a lot of the past at the moment - in fact have done this a lot since having a baby. Suddenly my family history, the stories of what came before me and what happened when I was too young to remember are becoming important. When in this mode, I'll just be standing there waiting for the kettle to boil, and faces from my past flash before me - people I haven't seen in years. The memories aren't tinged with longing or upset or undue happiness - they just are. It's been a necessary and helpful time of review, but even so, I think I need to do more thinking of the present, and have just decided to work on that.

But first, there are two things looming that are forcing particular memories of my Father and my Nanna (Mum's Mum) to bounce around in my head:

The first looming thing is my Dad's 60th, and that I decided to write a speech for my brother and I to read out at his party later on in the year. Was chatting to my bro yesterday, and having lived overseas for over 12 years now, I was interested to find he partitions a lot of his memories of growing up as ancient history. I have had an almost equivalent moving out and moving away, but have a continuum of memories of my dad, starting off as a caring and fun Dad as a young child, evolving to a slightly dorky alien during teenagerhood, to a good friend from my late teens until now. I suppose the difference is that living in the same city or country allows weekly contact, whereas moving overseas in the mid-90's was a big barrier to communication when we weren't emailing, phoning, or skyping as much as we do now.

The other thing that has loomed rapidly over the weekend is that my Nanna had a fall, and they found out when she went to hospital that she has serious liver problems, and septicaemia (all-over infection in blood). She's now in an induced coma, and having surgery this afternoon to remove a large cyst on her liver. Mum has flown interstate to be with her Dad, and everyone is "on standby", as she may not survive surgery. My thoughts are mostly with my Mum, and my Pop who has lived a symbiotic relationship with Nanna for 58 years, one of the few truly long and happy marriages I have known. All the things Mum told me about her upbringing are floating about in vacant moments...

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In a similar vein to above - I'm someone with a long memory, and a good memory for faces. There are some people I've met and re-met, with me remembering each time, and me apparently being new to them each time! Young people, not people with alzheimers either! I often used to think that I must have made such a small impression on them that they forgot me each time. Now I can give my battered self esteem a rest, and tell myself it is more than likely just that they suffer from face blindness.

Plug for food additives intolerance lobby group

The Fed Up With Food Additives site is the only lobby group I know lobbying for food companies and regulators to reduce the amount of additives to food. When a food company changes the ingredients of their product so that it includes a nasty additive, they write to them and request a re-think. They help people by recommending an elimination diet to determine if you have food/additive intolerances: you remove all problematic food additives, and also certain natural foods from your diet for 3-6 weeks and have a diet from blandville. Then gradually, you test your system by adding things one at a time.

I can't say for sure that the science in their fact sheets is ridgey didge, but a lot of people have a wide range of symptoms, try everything over the years (regular doctors and pharmaceuticals, chinese medicine, naturopathy, aromatherapy, avoiding dairy etc etc), find they don't get better, but find this diet helps them. I also know for a fact that we eat a lot more processed food than we used to, AND on top of that, the powerful and rich food industry has managed to get a lot of preservatives/colours/flavour enhancers introduced via the food authorities in the past 50 years. That's just over a generation in our long evolution of bombarding our systems with things we didn't use to, just so things can last longer on the shelves, be brighter-coloured, or be morishly tastier so you want to go back for more. I also suspect that the food authorities, like many areas of science in this country, don't have much of a budget for independent research, so rely on food industry money - so you can guess at how independent research on food additives is.

So next time you are about to buy something with a use-by date of a year in the future, or a lime drink that uses blue and yellow food dye to achieve an unrealistic bright green colour, think twice about what is going into your body...

21 July 2007

Sock fetish

I know ladies are supposed to have shoe fetishes, but I have never been more fond of shoes than I am of any other type of apparel. And because of my slightly wider than average feet, the need to wear orthotics and "good calves" as I was once told I had, I do prefer to wear chunkier shoes (e.g. mary janes, clompy boots etc), and when daintier shoes are in fashion, I don't tend to be buying.

And I think I'm just resigning myself to the fact that I will never be someone with style. I'd like to, but can't be bothered putting the time or money into it. I envy those who always look immaculate and stylish, but much of the time would rather wear comfortable shoes (literally), jeans and t-shirt. Which is much more practical for a mum anyway. I actually am quite restrained when it comes to spending money on clothes. And I also see clothes or accept hand-me-downs that I like because they look warm and comfy, and tell myself they'd be good to wear around the house - but then I end up with a disproportionate amount of a wardrobe that is suitable only for around the house or nipping out to buy milk from the corner store.

Over the years, I've gotten better at finding clothes that suit, but have my own standards I rarely deviate from no matter what the season's fashion is. I like patterned skirts, and like the idea of brightly patterned sundresses, but can never find ones I like and don't cost a fortune (and have never suceeded in sewing something from a pattern that fits). And I have strange hankerings for things like pink corduroy jeans. I'm sure you note these were never in fashion, but I wanted some. I was thrilled to find that the new t@rget near my house stocked them, and bought some; then I lost weight, and they are too big, but that's another matter entirely.

And I like socks, it seems. Don't get me wrong - I don't buy socks all the time, it wouldn't be worth it as I don't wear them every day, I only need about 10 pairs in total, and it takes forever for me to wear them out. But I'm a sucker for slightly novel socks. I see a new range of cotton explorer socks in stripey blue and want them. I was excited by the lavendar scented socks my mother-in-law bought me for mother's day. I see the laundromat near my house advertise that they sell socks and stop for a few minutes to investigate. I could expand this sock fetish into patterned tights, but don't let myself, as I don't look good in short skirts anyway.

What a dag!

hearty soup-ville

I checked out the only butcher left in my area a few months ago, as it's near where I take E-chan for playgroup. You know the sort of place: small multicoloured 60's tiles on the floor, those long multicoloured plastic strips blowing out in the doorway. The meat is not quite your usual range - distinctly Eastern-European. Lots of salami-like sausages, loaded with paprika, and things like speck, and other preserved pork products I can't name. Things at this butcher are sold as what they are. For example, "lamb" is only lamb in the springtime - at other times of year they have other names such as "yearling" or "mutton". I like buying meat here much better than the plastic and polystyrene packaged stuff at the supermarket - before, I didn't have the time to make separate trips to the butcher, but now I can so I do.

It's run by people who are from (the former republic of) Yugoslavia. There are always 3 people running the shop, and I suspect it is a family business - two men in their 50's at least, and an older lady - thick, dark rimmed glasses, and hair that you know is grey but dyed black and tied back in a bouffant bun. The men are nice and friendly, but the lady has "character" - once when I was there, a very old man was trying to buy some speck/prosciutto/preserved pork product, which was kept a couple of metres away behind the counter. He asked to see it (probably because his eyesight was not too good and he wanted to make sure he was buying the right thing). But the shop lady took great offence: "It's fresh, I tell you! You don't need to see it!" in thickly accented English. She proceeded to argue with him about this for a minute or two (E-chan found this very funny, and so did I!), then he eventually agreed to buy some. Funny - usually if someone is this pushy with me in shops, I get out of there as soon as I can and get what I need somewhere else. But from this lady, it was like my Grandma telling me what's best for me, with pursed lips insisting that breakfast was the most important meal of the day when I was a teenager and being a bit funny about eating breakfast*, and eventually winning me over with her amazing home-made raspberry jam on toast.

So anyway, I went to the butcher and saw bacon hocks! "Mmmm, hearty soups" went my brain and stomach simultaneously. I make 2 different soups with bacon hocks: Pea and Ham, and a regional Italian variation of Minestrone that I saw on "The cook and the chef" - I don't usually put meat in minestrone, but this sounded nice. And the little tacker loves them too!

Pea and Ham soup (from Stephanie Alexander's cook's companion)

1 bacon hock (or bacon bones to equivalent size)
1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
2 small carrots
(my nb Could also add a stalk of celery)
4-500 g split peas
sprig thyme (I've never had this handy, so haven't used)
Bay leaf ( " " " " " " )
3 L water
Pepper (no salt needed - bacon salted enough)

Throw all ingredients in pot. Bring to boil then decrease to simmer, with lid on slightly ajar, for 1 1/2 hours. Remove bones, blend soup until smooth, then carve off meat into small bite sized chunks. Throw meat back in soup, reheat if necessary, then serve with crusty bread.

Minestrone variation
Use a tin of borlotti beans, or soak equivalent amount of dry beans overnight.
Throw in large pot with some chopped onion and bacon hock and cook for an hour or so, until beans are getting tender. Take out bacon hock and strain the beans. Keep stock for later. Cut meat off bone and reserve.

Meanwhile...
Chop large handfuls of chopped veges into bite sized pieces, e.g.
Onion, Garlic, carrot, zucchini, tomatoes (no more than 2), celery, cabbage, peas, green beans (if using frozen, reserve until the last 5 minutes of cooking). Leave half of a carrot unchopped and a small potato cut in half.

Fry oniony veges in butter, then add celery and carrot, then the remaining veges, and borlotti beans. Add cold water at first then make up volume with stock to taste. Simmer with lid on or off depending on how much liquid there is. When potato and large bit of carrot are cooked, remove them, with a bit of liquid and bits of some of the other veges and puree (I use stab blender). Incorporate with rest of soup. Add bacon meat, and your choice of pasta and cook until pasta is ready (I like the little star shaped pasta that B@rilla make, but small shells or spirals are good.

Serve with parmesan cheese, a bit of drizzled olive oil, and crusty bread. (or you can make the whole thing without Bacon hock - just cook borlotti or even black eyed beans in vege stock and do everything else the same).


* Now I am such an enthusiastic eater I can't for the life of me understand what all the fuss was about!!

18 July 2007

Oot and aboot and enjoying the sunny weather!!

Gender identity in one year olds

Sometime in the past couple of months, our little boy has started to identify more with men and boys. He's aware that his body is not like mine. I'm not sure how much of that is due to going into women's changerooms with me and men's changerooms with his dad when we go swimming. I had a bath with him a month or so ago for the first time in a while (his and my bath times haven't been converging that often), and he spent a bit of time pointing at my bits as if to say "hey there's no willy there!" and "you've got those two lumps there!" (he hasn't had a breastfeed for over 5 months now).

So here's who E-chan hangs out with: that's 2 days a week with me, 3 days a week at child care, every weekday morning and most weekday nights he sees his dad (and me), and then he has all weekend with both of us. I can honestly say that E-chan's Dad and I are equal in the division of parenting "tasks" and time when we are both around. Due to the fact that we're geographically isolated from our family, he spends more time with some of our friends than he does with his grandparents. Most weeks I'll catch up with other mums and bubs at a playgroup, in the park or at each other's places. The child care centre he goes to is staffed entirely by women. In fact, I know of only 3 childcare centres in the inner west of Sydney that have one male child care worker (and I know at least 20 mums in the region, mostly with kids in different centres). So it's not entirely suprising that when C-chan goes in to pick up E-chan from child care, he usually ends up with a throng of baby boys around his ankles.

So I suppose what I'm saying above is that he's not exactly deprived of male contact, but most of his male contact is with his Dad. I've started noticing lately that whenever I'm in a waiting room (weekly at the moment for my allergy shots), E-chan will happily play away with whoever is there, but he will make a special point of trying to make eye contact at "chat" with adult males. On Monday in the park, there were 2 older boys (around 7-9 years old), and Ethan spent a lot of time watching them play, and giggling along as if he wanted to join in. He can tell who is a girl and who is a boy. Don't get me wrong - he's not a total bloke, he does like playing with women and girls, and any kid I have is going to have the opportunity to play with girls and boys and non-gender-stereotypical toys. All I'm saying is his sense of gender is well formed already, and he's eyes are open wide looking for multiple male role models.

16 July 2007

I'll meet you at the cemetary gates

Went for a wander inside the Newtown cemetary last Thursday to kill some time before meeting up with someone. Was suprised to find it busier inside the cemetary walls than on the outside, where people walk their dogs, kids play in the playground, some read books in the sun, some are just passing through, and others covertly sip bottles wrapped in brown paper bags.

Inside the cemetary, there was a film crew. I don't know what they were filming - didn't ask - but bets are a film clip or possibly a short film. There were too many nice cars parked there for it to be a student project, but that was my first guess. Through the trees, I could see a lady dressed all in black, with four black trails being held out from her dress like a satanic maypole. Smoke machines spewed bursts of grey, to make it look misty. Goulish looking guys in ill fitting, hired suits darted back and forth on errands to the shops. I met a pair of gothy young lovers looking at graves and asked "are you with the shoot?", but no they weren't - don't know why I assumed that in a cemetary! After all, there was another group of goths hanging out in one of the corners of the cemetary.

The cemetary is beautiful inside with lots of tall shadey trees, and long green grass growing around the gravestones following the recent rain. All of the headstones that I understand were taken from the rest of the cemetary before it was reclaimed as the park line the inside of the cemetary wall. There is a little jutting out bit in the wall that holds a memorial to a ship that wrecked over 150 years ago, including a large anchor and some headstones of the ship's crew. I looked around for the oldest headstone I could find, and 1853 won the yellow guernsey.

Finally, I encountered a wheelchaired man, taking his old labrador for a walk. We exchanged tips on good walks - perfect for entertaining the bored baby (in my case) and exercising pets (in his). Turns out his mother is on the church board, and he knows more than average about the cemetary. It's recently received a grant to help with maintenance; a tree recently fell down; it's great for little kids to run around (I'll store that in my memory for a few month's time). Finally my questions exhausted his knowledge - no there wasn't a book written about the history of this place, or even on the area in general, but perhaps I could find out more if I do a tour. They're on once a month.

Might just do that.

13 July 2007

Photos of the 'hood!

This is an image that sprung up all over fences and walls in our area for a little while. Reminds me of animated films by Miyazaki - the Japanese director of "Spirited Away" and "My Neighbour Totoro" - which tend to have beautiful, sad giant monsters that appear only to the main children characters.

I'm amazed at how brackeny things, moss and grass can grow out of walls... but trees? Hadn't seen that before.

The photo below is a stencil of a monster from "where the wild things are" with the head of the AU$100 note stuck on top, with words from the same book. Photo compliments of Min (one of my suburb-roaming mum friends), as by the time I got around to taking a photo of this, someone had graffiti'd over it!

08 July 2007

Wimpy immune system, get some muscle!!

For some reason, Blogger won't let me type in my post title. Anyhow that's irrelevant.

My immune system and I aren't talking as of now. I have caught my second cold in about a month. My son has had 3 colds since starting child care, which I kind of expected but had perhaps unrealistically hoped he had my Mother's robust constitution, innately. My immune system, which I used to be able to boast would withstand colds that C-chan would succumb to (yeah, go me!), has packed up and gone on holiday somewhere no doubt with palm trees and daily maxima in the high twenties, while I linger on in Sydney's coldest months (which really isn't cold at all, but you acclimatise the longer you live in a place, don't you?). I'm hoping it is getting lots of exercise and rest and staying in a health farm, ready to come back and work for me.

In addition, I have a subcutaneous lump the size of a 10c piece on my right arm right where my dust mite injection was... well injected... 4 days ago. The pollen injection reaction isn't as bad, apparently.

Hmph!

05 July 2007

who knows where the tiiiiime goes??**

Life is ticking along, with lots to do, people to see and time to sit down and write posts are rare. Work is still going OK, but working part time is always hectic. I think I'm more efficient that I ever used to be. Boss is still OK, even though I hear occasionally about things that others don't like about her. I understand their points, but I reckon I've had or seen worse over the years. I enjoy working with someone who communicates in a straightforward way. I'd rather be given rapid feedback (I'm a big girl, I can take it) than never know where I stand because my boss's only response is "that's good" whilst doodling on their notepad. And I think it is a BIG plus that she is understanding about being a parent due to having had 3 of her own and recently become a grandma of a girl a few months older than E-chan.


Speaking of babies, another friend, who worked with me in the fruit, nut and vege days, has discovered she is pregnant (yay!), which is lovely news, and 2 ladies at work told me on a tipsy ladies night out that they are trying to conceive (TTC) or thinking about it soon. Ahh baby booms. I still maintain that it has little to do with our Treasurers' baby bonus. My statistitian friend in Canberra may know better if she's ever had a look at birth data, but I reckon the baby boom can be explained simply by the fact that a majority of the baby boomer's kids (ie our generation) are reaching their 30's and some level of financial stability at the same time.


E-chan is standing up all the time - I just took him to the park this morning, and he crawled everywhere and climbed up to a stand. He can stay standing for 5 or so minutes at a time, has discovered the video, and is getting over his fear of the vacuum cleaner*. Brave Boy!

I've had 2 weeks of dustmite and grass pollen injections. First week was fine, this week was a doubled dose (it increases each time), and I had quite itchy arms all day yesterday. BUT I resisted scratching. 13 to go, then monthly maintenance doses for a year or two.

And finally, C-chan gets admitted as a Solicitor tomorrow (nothing to do with prostitution, I assure you). Due to the big anticlimactic back injury around his graduation day last year, we are making a bit of a fuss this time. His folks are coming to stay for a few days (yay, baby sitters!), and we may even take E-chan out to dinner or a late lunch somewhere. C-chan has been ultracareful with his back, even though we've had a sick baby who's required lots of extra bending and picking up in the middle of the night, and he has been religiously going along to his pilates session every week.

* some might say that it has something to do with the fact that we rarely vacuum. I actually think it has more to do with... the noise... er herm!

** Judy Collins? I'll have to check our daggy vinyl collection to see if I'm right. By the way I'm not copying Seagreen by title-ing posts with song lyrics. I've always done that, and it's my fallback for when I'm too lazy to think up something of my own.

28 June 2007

Pushing the bounds

E-chan comes from a line of late walkers, apparently. His paternal grandfather walked at 18 months, which is the later end of the scale for normal children. This was reassuring to learn - about 6 weeks ago (when he was 11 m old), we were worrying about his apparent lack of motivation to move on his own. Anywhere. Apart from the occasional roll onto his tummy. Of course, his communication and hand-motor skills were superior, given the amount of time he spent sitting and playing, or directing us when we were carrying him.

Then, soon after starting childcare, he learned to get from a sitting to a lying position on his own, then he started the belly-shimmying crawl, then he started crawling in the style that most babies crawl. All within a month! Then he learned to crawl to a standing position, and now he does it all the time. And he has started to cruise (move in a standing position from one bit of furniture to another). So in 6 weeks, he has rapidly made up for lost time.

Now we love hearing the little padding of his hands on the carpets as he crawls around after us in the flat. And gradually all our cupboards are getting baby proof locks or the knobs are linked together with rubber bands to prevent opening. And things are getting put high out of reach.

23 June 2007

Achoo!

Booked myself into the allergy clinic to look into getting desensitised to dust and maybe one of my other allergies (pollen or mould), as quite frankly, I'm getting sick of the asthma/eczema/hayfever that they cause me. Especially when I visit family and stay in dust-ridden spare beds, but it affects me almost on a daily basis. I also wanted to talk about getting E-chan tested soon, just in case he has some allergies.

So there we were in the waiting room, which I must say has the coolest toys ever, and a Paediatrician there, who had a spare appointment, took one look at E-chan and said "I want to see him!" (he has a rash around his mouth). So we changed course a bit, and talked about us both. After my appointment, E-chan got tested for allergies. At his age, environmental allergens are only just developing as their bodies get exposed to them increasingly, but food allergies are possible. Given both his dad and mum has allergies, he had a 50-80% chance of having allergies, poor sod. And he does.

To eggwhite (no suprise there, he's had some exposure, and I ate it while breastfeeding), cashews (I gulped a lot in the middle of the night when ravenous whilst breastfeeding), so again, no suprise but the shock allergy was: SESAME!!!

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

This means he will have to be raised without hommous (one of my 6 food groups) and tahini!! I guess I must have wolfed down more sesame than I realised whilst breastfeeding.

Next week, I'll ask about the likelihood that he'll grow out of these with time. The good news it that he isn't allergic to fish, milk, or soy, and due to not being fed nuts, he has no other nut allergies. And the other good news is that we know he's had egg and hommous recently, and there was no extreme reaction (e.g. anaphylaxis). But avoiding them will help keep him clear of eczema. Along with avoiding tomato, broccoli, mushroom, avocado and other things that bother me, as it's likely he has the same intolerance to salicylates.

But for me, there will be 15 weeks or so of weekly allergen injections, followed by monthly maintenance doses for a year or so. Probably followed by allergy-free bliss. It worked for my Dad, and countless others. Oooh, and Seagreen - they reckon my so-called cat & dog allergy is probably just my dust allergy - they told me to think of cats in particular, being indoor creatures, as "big dustballs"!! (NB This says nothing of the past cleanliness of your house - I've reacted to every cat I've been near since I was about 3).

10 June 2007

Happy Birthday, E-chan!

Well the 10th June whipped by, and our little boy turned 1! We were inundated with grandparents (his) and and uncle*, that weekend, and some more close friends on the day, and we all crammed in our little flat on what turned out to be the wettest weekend Sydney has had in a while. He was spoiled rotten with lots of lovely presents, both bought and hand made. My biggest suprise was that my folks brought over my own private jet (above) - a retro 70's toy jet, complete with nuclear family (mum, dad, boy, girl) and luggage. Being a 2nd child, this was apparently one of the few toys that was bought especially for me when I was very young, and my parents kept is all these years to give to my own child. And it's a hit!


I made a banana cake, his dad and I designed a teddy shape, and his dad and uncle decorated it with chocolate icing, marshmellows and licorice. The cake wasn't too much to his liking at first, which is fine by me.
So anyway, happy birthday, little fella. We love having you!

* I think I 've mellowed a bit - it was much more enjoyable this time, and the house even felt empty when they all gradually went back to 'delaide.

04 June 2007

New roomy

After 4 weeks in the job, the lady I share an office with has gone of leave for 3 weeks, and has been replaced with a temp! It's funny to spend time getting to know someone on this level for a second time in as many months. And last month, I was the newby, whereas this month, I actually know a bit and can help out new chick.

I got the dreaded unsolicited eczema advice again today, from this temp. It starts as it often does "Oooh! what have you done to your wrist/fingers/throat?". I replied, then warned her that the reason I had come over a bit wary was that I get a lot of unsolicited advice. "Oh, I know, I know exactly how you feel!! I get it too!" But unfortunately it didn't stop there. I gave her the benefit of the doubt that she has suffered as I have, but there were few parallels in our cases. She, for example, has never felt the need to get allergy tested and find out what causes hers. For her, finding the right low scent/chemical moisterisers and soap alternatives was enough. Not for me, I told her. She ranted about the brand of moisturisers/cleaners that had "cured her". Sigh.

I decided to rant on for a while about what I had tried and hadn't worked, and that I was considering getting dustmite desensitisation done as my dust allergy is becoming worse, and how hard it was to keep up the 3 pronged attack of no irritants/soap, no allergens, and treating the symptoms. Finally, a bit of silence, before a last ditch effort to push her brand of moisterisers/cleansers on me "I was sceptical, but it worked for me!!". Some people just can't take a hint. And one of these days, I will just routinely nod and say "thanks for the advice!". But dammit, she had me at "...I get eczema too!"

Yawn. Back to work. At least the topic probably won't come up again.

31 May 2007

keeping me on my toes...

Ho hum, here we are with E-chan at almost 1 year old, and just as we were getting accustomed to him having 2 naps a day (ah! 2 chances to slow down and take a breath during the day...) and he starts transitioning to 1 nap a day! Naps have been all over the place, and I've been running around like a madwoman on my days off work, trying to work out when to try to settle him, when to feed him, when to give a bottle. So now we are aiming for 2, but if he doesn't get to sleep until late, I whisk out an early lunch, shove it down the gullet as quickly as possible, and let him sleep long in the middle of the day. We are ever hopeful for a late afternoon nap, but they don't seem to happen any more.

On top of this, there have been childcare settling/new people/new places things for him to get used to - he's decided "I like the way they settle me there, thanks!", and poor Mum and Dad have had to adjust to that! AND, he's decided he wants to awake with us as much as possible when he isn't at childcare (very sweet, and reciprocal of course), but unhelpful for putting him to bed at night time. There are some toddler like tantrummy things starting to happen, which ain't pretty.

All this has lead to me having to upgrade to a new, hyper-efficient version of myself. Yesterday, for e.g., I managed to do an hour of work and make E-chan lunch while he napped, and eat lunch myself. Every little window of opportunity is taken up with doing little things. Yesterday I felt like I'd crammed more into my day than I had in ages. No wonder I've lost a few kilos (and of course this would be a few weeks after I bought some new jeans - I've hot washed them once and they didn't shrink, darnit!!).

E-chan is now regularly moving around greater distances than the few metres he used to venture before, and opening up cupboards and drawers and pulling things out! Time to baby proof!! 2-3 times a day, I tidy the floor up - blocks, trucks, toy monkeys, and maracas etc strewn all over the place - put everything back in place so we can walk around with up tripping up on things, only to have them all pulled out again later. Seems a bit pointless, but not doing this leads to things getting lost, people tripping up over things, and there not being a clear path to wheel the pram out the door, so it must be done.

Might make myself a coffee and tidy up now... ciao for now!

23 May 2007

"Career crisis" is too strong a phrase...

So. Work.
Sure I'm still in the "honeymoon period", but I'm liking things so far. If I'm going to pause my "career progression" for a few years and pursue convenience and fit with my family needs & lifestyle, this is the sort of job I'd want...

Location: tick (within walking distance of home and son's childcare centre)
Salary: tick (high enough to be worthwhile)
Boss: organised, high flying, with shit together, seem to get along with her, sympathetic to people with families.
Greater office/colleagues: nice people, already invited me to a girls night out, great cake at staff meetings, good systems in place

As C-chan was saying the other day, you learn from people who are better/smarter than you, or more experienced than you. So even though I don't see a future for me in the area of work I'm working in (although it is a noble cause in the big scheme of things), I can absorb certain things - how and what my boss delegates, how she accumulates contacts and networks for example. But every so often, working where I do raises questions in my mind.

(I'm suprised I have the time to think about it, but I do).

I've done the opposite to what I think you're supposed to do, and that is that I've started of specialised and am becoming more generalised in what I do. This is a trend that was deliberate initially, as I worried about job transportability - I wanted to make sure that if my position was cut or I was restructured out of my fairly specific job role, I could take my skills elsewhere easily. But now becoming more generalist is starting to concern me, as I get further and further away from the areas of research I care about. In order to get more interesting again, I need to actively seek work in interesting areas and/or study again. Where? What? I know what areas I find important generally, but I haven't thought deeply about which direction I might want to head in the future, where I might make a difference, where I might be driven enough to maybe end up working at the level my high flying boss does, 20 years down the track.

I suspect I need to back track a few years of my "career" and take another fork in the road that I didn't explore all those years ago. Because when it comes down to it, what I wrote I wanted to be in my Yr12 school year book wasn't that far off the mark, conceptually (don't ask me to tell you - high school year books are just EMBARRASSING all round). Not that I have any regrets on my career up until now, I've learned a LOT, I know what sort of work I'm not suited to, what I wouldn't want to do, and what I'd need to work hard at. But for now, it's not high enough up the priority list for me to focus on it. I just have to take the next few years one year at a time.

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Yesterday I was pleased to find one part of my new job that is engaging. My institute as has all these Associates - that is, people with various related expertise who advise the institute on direction, high level projects etc etc. Most of them come along to a meeting every 4 weeks, to discuss matters, while us lowly staff sit in the background and eat cake*. The ensuing discussion, I was pleased to find out, was very interesting. Associates noted how (our Institutes' area of research/governance) received almost zero attention in federal budget as (causes I actually care more about, but dont tell them that) seem to be 1st tier election issues this year. Some of the experts who work in communications or political party policy development then discussed how and if (our Institutes' area of research/governance) would be used by the current government as issues that are no brainers for the public to agree with in the election campaign. They also discussed how they might put (our Institutes' area of research/governance) on the agenda, including Today Tonight style heartache stories, backed up with "here's what to do about it" policy papers to thrust at relevant ministers or shadow ministers.

Very interesting!!


* yesterdays cake was this Yummy cake with zucchini in it. Might have to get the recipe...

17 May 2007

Happy Mother's Day


Hey there! My first Mother's Day ROCKED! It wasn't anything in particular that anyone said or did (but the wellwishings were nice also). I just looked at what we've created and felt happy, chuffed. Even though E-chan was a tad miserable with his little middle ear all achey and infected, I can't remember what I did with my time before he was around.

The other night I was even remembering going into labour, when I was ringing the hospital to ask when I should come in, had to put the phone down until a contraction passed, and C-chan was there to help me stand up. I thought - "Hang on, where was E-chan at that moment?", before remembering that as that was the day he was born (derrrr!) , he was in my tummy! So there you go. Suddenly you forget there was life without the little critters, and you wouldn't have it any other way.

14 May 2007

Continuity...

There was a big break in my family between my generation and the next. For starters, my family had moved away from my grandparents and extended family, so we just has a small family unit of 4, relatively unconnected. Being the youngest, I have few memories of babies and little kids, bar a few childhood friends who had younger siblings. So as I outgrew nursery rhymes, so did my family. Then my brother moved overseas, and his family is growing up a bit disconnected from us too (but less so, now that the digital age allows things like this, and cheaper telephone calls and flights than there used to be, and at least he has his wife's family). And I've moved interstate, and am again disconnected from my family geographically when I'm starting mine.

This is presenting challenges at the moment, now that I'm back at work, and E-chan came down with his first big cold the same week. The works - snozzly nose virus, which developed into a chesty cough, that went bacterial with conjunctivitis, then an ear infection. It's been about 10 days now since the first hint of it. Last week, C-chan was sick too, so he took time off to care for E-chan at home, and also because it was my first week at work. Today, I am taking carers leave. C-chan's mum very sweetly offered to fly over and help out, but apart from this being a hideously gross usage of carbon and money for the purpose of a few days of babysitting, this is not a long-term solution for us when we are in need.

So, what are our options? Unfortunately, apart from making lots of lovely new mum & baby friends (who I hope stay as friends), my mothers group is not quite what I hoped it might be, in my naivete. The first thing that has started to happen is going back to work, which means we all work different days and don't have much spare time anymore, so staying in touch is getting harder. Secondly, as people consider needing cheaper living costs or a larger house for a future second child, they are gradually planning to move out of our suburb - mentally I think they are suspending putting down too strong roots for now. Also, most of my mother's group has family in this city, and choose to rely on grandparents etc to babysit. I have offered to babysit for anyone who needs it, given a bit of notice, but only got 2-3 of our group of about 10 saying they might take me up on my offer. A few have offered to babysit E-chan regardless of their need for babysitting, which is nice.

That sort of takes care of the occasional night out for C-chan and I together. But what about the other sorts of things? Picking up E-chan in case of emergency or illness from day care/school because they can't reach us, alternative role models, E-chan learning there are different ways to live than ours, and people who care for him in varying degrees? We're doing our best. Obviously, this is more daunting for our childless friends and difficult for our few friends with children, as E-chan is so young and "high maintenance"*. It will get easier as he gets older. And people are busy, and work full time, and have their own extended familes to catch up with. I keep telling myself, my parents coped, and I turned out OK**, so we should. But mum didn't work until I was 3, and then it was part time nightshift. Moving back to 'Delaide was something we explored last year, but we have an ever diminishing circle of friends there, so while we'd have 4 grandparents and an uncle for E-chan there, we'd be faced with re-integrating with friends there, the awkwardness of getting back in touch with those we've not kept in touch with***, and having to find new friends of our own (not to mention finding jobs).

So, I'm (still) finding it really hard to put our vulnerabilities out there on a placard, but am having to do it out of sheer necessity. And thanks a lot to those of you whom I've had to call on in the last year who have said "yes". And to those of you who brought me around hearty soups/lasagna/lunches to eat when E-chan was first born so I wouldn't have to cook. (Just for the record, if any of you have friends who have new babies, this is one of the best things you can do for them - bring them healthy meals and snacks. Even if they're not breastfeeding and therefore eating around the clock, it's one thing they don't have to do when adjusting to everything else).

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* no offence, buddy, it's just the way it is when you're so young!!
** feel free to disagree!
*** you know, was it them or was it us? Was it something I said that made them drop us from their christmas card list? Did they ever really like us that much?