MORE babies!

Don't panic - it's babies of the green, chlorophyll kind.

We spent Saturday buying veggies, herbs and plants for the garden. Catherine had given me a lithianthus plant earlier in the week. She knows I love them. They have lovely little blooms that are almost rose like. To them we added basil, oregano, thyme and sage, tomatoes, strawberries, zucchini, eggplant, silverbeet and a variety of lettuces and rocket. We now tend them carefully, watering them nightly (except last night because it'd rained all day) and chasing off the snails (the snails are kept away by the sugar cane mulch when it's dry but don't seem to mind it when it's wet).

In the evening we had Karen, Dan and Xavier over for dinner. Ben was away partying in Hazelbrook. We also had Sharon, Janet, Steven and Georgia over and they all goo-ed and gaa-ed over our little boy who slept peacefully through the whole evening except briefly to ask for a nappy change and feed.

On Sunday afternoon Robbie had a cricket match but they lost. Ishbel had a birthday party at the pool and had a great time. Jamie was supposed to go with Dad and Rob to cricket but mananged to persuade Dad to bring him home and my dream of a few hours in the house all by myself in perfect peace and quiet was ruined.

The weather has been all over the place. It was wet before the weekend, very warm on Saturday and it's been wet again since. Our rec AFL was called off last night because it'd rained all day. As I sit here typing with a fleece on, it's hard to believe that the forecast is for 36C tomorrow, a Total Fire Ban has been called for the 24 hrs from midnight and we'll be on standby all day tomorrow. No wonder the kids have colds!

Fraser George Colquhoun

Faser George Colquhoun, born 9.09pm on 9/10/08, grandson of Ian, son to Jono and Narelle. Weighed in at 8lb 7oz and 52cm after 6 hours of labour. Fraser arrived home in Kingaroy on Monday 13/10/08 with Mum and Dad and Grandma Sarah. On Wednesday I flew to tag team with Sarah who went back to work in Brisbane(reluctantly). Fraser went straight onto a management programme of feeding, pooing and sleeping. He has been sleeping 4 hours regularly since. He hasn't yet got the bit where he eats and poos in 30 minutes but Mum and Dad are working on it. The ultimate complimate, I got to have Fraser to myself on Friday morning while Jona and Narelle attended to messages. I had to leave them to cope alone this morning 19/10/08 to fly home, confident they will do better than manage.
I rang on Tuesday, the anxious Grandad, of course they are doing well, Fraser is sleeping 5 hours night and morning, Mum and Dad are healthy and happy at having tamed, for now, the beast.

The Great Escape

Have a look at this clever pup

~ even puts old Derek in the shade!

Japanese banking crisis

Following the problems in the financial sector in the US, uncertainty has now hit Japan. In the last 7 days Origami Bank has folded, Sumo Bank has gone belly up and Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches. Yesterday, it was announced that Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song, while today shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived. While Samurai Bank is soldiering on following sharp cutbacks, Ninja Bank is reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black. Furthermore, 500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop and analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal. Oh yes, and the Karma sutra bank is f****d.

(Thought I'd get a laugh in now whhile we can)

Sign language

These Sign Language pages from the Daily Telegraph had me laughing out loud.

There is more than just one sign each week; see there are more to scroll through at the top right hand side of the page. To go to a previous week click on Related articles under the scrolly thing or on the Last week's sign language link under the main picture.

Not the weekend round up

Ian is away up in Queensland to help Jono and Nelly with young Fraser. Sounds like they are all having fun.
Meanwhile, Ishbel and I got our baby fix by spending some time cuddling with Xavier. He likes sucking and got a little ratty when he couldn't get his finger in his mouth. At other times he was sleeping and lovely to cuddle.
Ishbel and I were at the bus stop a bit early this morning (she takes the bus from outside the front of the library). Jamie had announced at 10 to 8 this morning that he needed $10 for a calculator for his maths exam today. I had not 10c, never mind $10 so we had to duck up to the shopping centre and raid an ATM. So Ishbel and I were at the bus stop a bit early this morning. We decided to go and get a hot chocolate. Ishbel also conned me into getting her a chocolate freckle too.
Getting to the end of the chocolate freckle, she announced that it had been too chocolatey. She doesn't really like chocolate. What is a girl who doesn't really like chocolate doing having hot chocolate and a chocolate freckle?? Anyway, I didn't even get a little nibble.
The children have all gone back to school this Monday after two weeks holidays. Jamie and Rob went straight into exams - on Monday morning! Didn't have a chance to catch their breaths. Rob finished his last exam this afternoon and was angling for a day off - no way Jose and Jamie will finish tomorrow. There'd not been much evidence of study so the results will be interesting. They have the proper School Certificate exams in two or three weeks (equiv. to the O Grades we did).

Here's Karen's new boy

Xavier Christian Hale

Born : 12 October 2008

Time : 21:52 hrs

Weight : 3.845 kg (8 lb 7 oz)

Length : 54 cm (21.25 in)

Head Circumference : 36.5 cm (14.3 in)

Pictures in the slideshow at the right or via the Flickr site (link above).

Giving Karen Curry

With the Colquhoun boy arriving on his due date, young baby Hale is on notice not to keep anyone hanging about.

Karen and I had lunch today and decided to try out the (relatively) new Indian restaurant in Springwood, something I've been wanting to do for ages as everyone I've met has enjoyed their meal there. Folklore has it that curries hurry babies so we had extra reason for giving it a go. That having failed (as far as I know thus far), he's in for a long drive down a bumpy track! And other remedies which are too rude to write about.

Another generation of Colquhouns

Fraser George Colquhoun

So the long-awaited first grandson has arrived, born last night in Brisbane.

His grandmother reports that "He's pink, well-covered, 52cm long and "chatted"!!!! Long fingers and toes, significant shoulders! Mum was very calm, probably pretty tired, but happy and well".

Jono, Nelly (Narelle) and Fraser George

Aussie Rules

I've been playing Aussie Rules tonight! There is a summer social comp. for over 14s and other old folk and Jamie and I are going to go only Jamie is at his friend's house tonight and didn't go. I didn't have much of an idea of what was going on but it was a fun time.

Holiday Monday

We arranged to go to Manly with Sharon & Holly and Steven, Janet, Kate and Georgia (Addison) for Monday. We arranged to get the 9:05 from Springwood. So with great difficulty we dragged ourselves out of bed and were almost ready to go out the door when Sharon rang to let us know the Addisons weren't ready, could we aim for the 10:05? So we all stood down for an hour. Only to get another call to say the Addisons weren't coming with us, the weather didn't look promising (it was overcast & spitting), Steven had hurt his back and Janet wasn't in a good mood. We took the train to the city then caught the ferry over to Manly. Manly was very busy, it always is but this weekend not only had Manly won the Rugby League Grand Final (40-0!) but there was a jazz festival on. There were several stages on the corso (which stretches between the harbour and sea) and more on the beach front where there was also a market. We got some fish and chips for lunch and sat dodging the seagulls on the beach wall. Then we walked round to Shelly Beach which is a nice little beach tucked into a corner south of Manly. There is a restaurant and cafe down there so we walked round for a coffee/hot chocolate.

By the time we got round to Shelly Beach the sun was out and we had to buy some sunscreen. Ishbel went for a swim but it was a bit tame for the boys who wanted to go back to the surf beach at Manly but by the time we'd walked back again not only had the clouds come over but the heavens opened and it chucked down for a while. We took refuge amongst the stalls of the street market.

After an icecream we headed back for the ferry. The sun came out again and we had a nice journey back to town. We took a picture of the sun on the water and sent it to the Addisons to tell them what a lovely day we'd had and when we got back to Springwood we went round to their place and cleaned them out of cheese, biscuits and pickled onions!

A good day!

Cirque du Soleil update

We thoroughly enjoyed the circus last weekend (not that the pictures show that!! They were taken at the interval and it was very hot and thirsty but the food and drink prices were a complete rip-off.)



We were in a block near the back with Ian's work colleagues. Although it was near the back, the view of the stage was very good. There was quite a lot of empty seating though and after the interval we were allowed to move and went closer.

The clowns were Ishbel's favourites. They came out before the rest of the performance started. They helped one man get to his seat - follow me they said then proceeded to climb over the back of seats to the front, then along the front of the rows and then back up to where he started from! Later they pulled him out of the audience and made him do the introduction to the circus, picking his pockets and generally being silly. They picked on the poor man several times during the performance but it wasn't until the fourth or fifth time that we found out he was one of the clowns too!! Meanwhile we had all just been thanking our lucky stars it wasn't us they'd been picking on.

I remember Dad taking us to the circus in Camberley. I must've been 6 or 7 at the time. All I really remember was the gorilla who came into the audience and took a lady's handbag. It then took out her undies and a bra! And I remember Karen being absolutely terrified and clawing her way up Dad's front to get away from the gorilla. Anyone else remember that?

Kitchen renovation - our current obsession

Thought some people might be interested in the kitchen plans. Can be skipped over for those competely disinterested - just be grateful you don't have to hear us in full flight if you came to the house!

Our kitchen is being done in Kitchen Connection Bordeaux style. It will be off white and has tongue and groove panels in the doors. The benches will be made of Caesarstone.

Here is the kitchen as it is now. Instead of the U shape we will be having a galley style kitchen, open on both ends.



The space where the fridge is will not change - just the new cupboard above it.

Next to it there will be a narrow cupboard with winerack above then a corner pantry.



Next to the pantry, sort of where the microwave is now, will be a wall oven then a little bit of bench space then the cooktop.






We have chosen a Smeg induction stove. It was not only on sale at a very good price; it comes with $500 worth of pots and pans.















The bench top against the wall will then extend another couple of metres. Under the benchtop, from the wall oven to the end will be 3 sets of drawers. They have a shallow drawer on top for cutlery, etc. The bottom two drawers in each are deeper, for pots and pans and other stuff. We had deep drawers at Macquarie Road and found them much easier for keeping pots and pans in than a cupboard - less bending to see where things are.

On the other side of the kitchen will be a bench running parallel with the one against the wall. In it will be the sink - a white, square, porcelain Butler/Belfast sink and a dishwasher under the bench beside it. The bench will then extend down to end at the same place as the one on the wall and will have an overhang on the other side and at the end so we can put a few stools under and have a breakfast bar thing happening.

Long long weekend

It's a public holiday long weekend here this weekend. I also had an RDO (rostered day off, I get one every 3 weeks) on Friday to make the weekend extra long. Spent most of Friday at the hairdressers. Bit boring for Ishbel but she had to come - she'd cut her own fringe earlier in the week so the hairdo needed rescue work!

On Friday night I had my book group girls here for our October meeting. We'd been reading Enduring Love by Ian McEwan (marvellous story). We also watched the movie which stars the aesthetically pleasing Daniel Craig. While it's a good movie there were so many changes to the story from the book it got a bit frustrating. "Why did they change that?" was our constant cry. I hate it when film-makers take a perfectly good story and fiddle with it. Anyway we still had a nice evening and it really showed us how great this house is - we girls could be tucked away yapping and watching TV in the family room while the boys watched their movie in the sitting room (on 3 camping chairs, can't wait for the couch and armchairs to be ready).

Friday was very very hot and windy and we were on Standby 1 fire alert (on standby at home). Actually the bushfire season officially started on October 1. I've been travelling around with my kit in the back of the car incase of call outs so I can go from work or wherever. There was rain on Friday night and we woke to much much cooler weather on Saturday morning and it rained on and off all day.

We went down to Penrith to finalise our kitchen and appliances on Saturday morning. It's all the little choices like tile and benchtop choices that I find the most difficult. I find it hard to visualise what a large expanse of benchtop/splashback will look like from the small samples you see in the showroom. Anyway, we think we've chosen well and have a preliminary date of 11 November for the installation.

Last night we were at Bec and Steve's for their housewarming party. During the evening they got engaged, Bec having chosen to get a bracelet instead of an engagement ring.

Daylight Savings has started this morning so the time difference is now (according to Skype) GMT +1. The boys were up early to go to RFS training. Ian is going to the footy grand final today. Carolyn, who usually takes Ishbel on the first Sunday of the month so I can go to RFS and Ian can go on a bike ride, works at the stadium where the final is on so I can't go to training today. When Ishbel finally wakes up we'll have to find something girly to do to pass the time.

Hugh is bringing the boys home from training. He has a business as a bush regeneration person so he's coming to give us some advice on the bushy bit of the back garden. Robbie and Ian have been busy pulling out a whole load of bushes which they think are weeds. I'm hoping Hugh will confirm they have been pulling out weeds and help us with what should be planted for the sake of the little Red Crowned Toadlets that should be out there. Robbie has also taken care of the Spider plant that was out the back - we now have 6 or so HUGE bin bags full of the stuff.

Will try and take some pictures of the house and garden so you can see how we've progressed.