Albury... groovy

I'm in Albury learning how to use Adobe In Design. Around ten people from council, mostly from the media department, tourist information and the art gallery left Wagga around 7.45 this morning, arriving in Albury for a 9.30 start. We covered the basics today which was an awful lot. I was getting a little bit silly towards the end and am glad that we were given a very comprehensive manual as I don't remember how to do the things we did. Tomorrow we move on to advanced material....

We finished just after half past four and drove around the corner to our motel which has a deceptively timeless exterior. I was looking forward to some quiet time to myself. I unlocked the door, turned on the light and discovered some loud decor. I think they are preserving it for when we require a museum of the seventies. Let me take you on a tour.

Nice floral carpet. Nice stripey bedspreads.

If you're going to have a velvet couch and velvet curtains, this is the colour. Note the matching leather on the chairs. Actually, you can see the colour better in this photo taken with a flash.

Brown bathroom.

Brown kitchen.

Please don't think that I am complaining. This motel room is enormous. Around three times bigger than the one I stayed in in Parkes. Best of all, it has wireless broadband. I had a lovely typed Skype chat with Kristin followed by a lovely long voice chat with Helen, whose voice I have not heard in eleven years. Not at all the lonely evening I was expecting.

So you don't think that Albury is all blue/green, brown and red I'll leave you with a photo I took of the main street when I went for a wander at dinner time. I do so love fairy lights in trees. Perhaps a better photographer would have made this shot less about the cars...

Dinorumble

Though I haven't blogged for ages, this is the only photo that I have taken. We have a new staff member at the moment who has yet to receive her security swiper. As it is frustrating in the extreme for her to have to knock whenever she wishes to come into the work area we prop the door open with a little wedge which usually looks like a piece of wood with green material around the middle to protect the door. Last week, on the two days our holiday programme, Dinorumble, was being held, Carol dressed the wedge appropriately! It really is a joy to work with creative, fun people.

Jossie and Toby attended Dinorumble and made it on to the local television news. You have to love living in a country town! Bethany and Joss were in the paper again too, and only Bethany's appearance was thanks to me (I contribute a fortnightly page and when I run out of Readers of the Week I am forced to use family members.)

We had a lovely week with Sue and Ron who came to mind Joss and Tobes while we were at work. I wish I could take good food photos because I made Nigella's porchetta with smashed potatoes, golden syrup dumplings, cherry mousse cake, brownie bites and lamb and pasta bake. The cherry mousse cake came from Gabriel Gate's (how do I put the accent on the e?) Taste le Tour. You can find it here and it was so delicious. Don't try to watch the video though, because the link is wrong and you will watch him make pate (again with the accent) and liver is not the thing when you are after cherries.

I may have only taken one photo but many others have been busy. My Mac book's photo booth has been running hot.

Bethany also amused herself with my camera before church started on Sunday.

She likes her boots.

Today I am sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose at home. I have made pumpkin soup and had a nap. It would be nice to have the occasional quiet day like this without having to be sick...

Slap Cheek

Andrew and Toby came home from Brisbane on Monday afternoon after having the time of their lives. Seeing Celtic play live was a fabulous experience for them and a pretty unusual one for this hemisphere. I left work to pick them up from the airport and then picked Jossie and Bethany up from daycare before going back to work. Bethany had a rash which was still there the next morning. I took her to the doctor and it turns out that she has Roseola/Fifth Disease/Slap Cheek. The rash has really been the only symptom so I was surprised that she would have to stay away from daycare for the rest of the week but I don't knock back a day or two off work. I discovered that Photo Booth on my brilliant Mac Book amuses children for hours and makes us all laugh so hard that we cry.

Like Bethany last week Jossie has been beside herself with excitement about her birthday. It is a big deal to hit double figures and she had a wonderful day. She was in raptures with every present and spent the day at home with Andrew, Toby and Bethany with Andrew having taken the day off especially. Her requested birthday dinner was macaroni cheese and brownies. We took photos on Andrew's camera as mine chose that moment to run out of batteries.

Spot the difference from yesterday...... pierced ears! After a most delightful catch up with Chrissie we went on a long anticipated trip to put holes in Jossie's ears. She was very brave and has spent a lot of the afternoon in front of mirrors. We had coffee with the Hunters after the piercing, took Milo for a walk and went out for a celebratory dinner and gelato - a fun filled day. Thanks to Bethany's "illness" I have another day off to do the cleaning. This photo is for Mum.

Girls' Weekend

Bethany's birthday was thoroughly enjoyable but yielded no photographs. We finally got around to booking her birthday party so there will be photos on the 8th of August, exactly a month after her birthday. Toby did a great job of being happy for Bethany when he was so very excited for himself. On Thursday he and Andrew went all the way to Brisbane, the return trip involving four plane rides, for the purpose of seeing Celtic (the Scottish football team) play. We have Skyped regularly so know that they are having a wonderful time. Brisbane is full of Celtic fans from all over Australia and New Zealand (!?) so Toby, decked out in Celtic gear, is getting thumbs up from strangers everywhere he goes. They went to Australia Zoo yesterday which was fabulous even though they didn't see Bindi or Terri Irwin. The game is this afternoon and I am looking forward to seeing the photos, maybe he'll put some here.

No boys, of course, means a girls' weekend. On Friday night we made our own pizzas and ate them in the lounge room while watching Pride and Prejudice. We went for the movie version so that we could watch the whole thing in one go and Joss was a bit put out that there was no kissing at the end. We have been giving Milo some exercise, taking him for walks to the park. He has that habit that many people have of walking next to someone and drifting into them. I tripped over him and sprained my ankle, only mildly. We have also being playing soccer with him, he's pretty good.

At the end of each year Bethany's dance school puts on a huge costumes, sets and lights extravaganza. In the middle of the year they have what they call a display where every class, just wearing their uniform and optional make-up and glitter, get up on a stage and give a little performance of what they have been doing in class. Bethany was pretty excited as we bought her some proper ballet tights and promised lipstick and mascara. There are so many classes held at the school in ballet, jazz, tap, cheer leading and acrobatics that the show was to go for three hours! Thankfully Bethany was on in the first half. Here she is before she left wearing the beautiful coat she got for her birthday and her new, super natural looking, screwed up face smile.
The jazz and tap kids were on first so we had a while to wait but Bethany really enjoyed watching the other kids on stage.

She didn't seem nervous but there were several small children who just stood on stage crying so I reminded her to smile and have fun. I could see her cheesy grin from our seats towards the back. She was great, remembering all her steps and smiling the whole time. She's right in the middle.

Jossie and Bethany had ice cream to celebrate a successful show and when they were both in bed I sat down with tea and scones.

I watched And When did You Last See Your Father which was a quietly lovely film. Ah, the serenity.

Almost 5

It is after 11pm and I have just finished making this retro little number for Bethany to take to daycare tomorrow. Don't be tempted to feel too sorry for her having to spend her birthday at daycare, she is very excited about it because her friends will help her eat the cake, it is her news day and she has ballet - all fun things as far as Bethany is concerned.

It was very hard to get her to sit still long enough but I wanted to take a last photo of 4 year old Bethany. Tomorrow she will officially be a big girl and the thing she is most looking forward to is being able to have chewing gum!

In front of the fire

It is not only cold in Wagga at the moment, it is decidedly wet. We are quite unused to this sort of weather, maybe the drought is breaking. I have sheets on the line that may stay there for weeks until they get dry. When Jossie and Toby begged to be taken to the bonfire and fireworks night on Friday I was torn. I like fireworks and I wanted to celebrate the last day of school for three weeks with everyone else but when I saw all the mud and puddles I decided that Bethany, Milo and I would have a night in. Andrew took Jossie and Toby and they had a wonderful time. Instead of bonfire photos I have only a shot of Bethany and I in our slippers, watching a ballet concert after macaroni cheese. Snug, warm, dry and not smelling like smoke.