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Ian was up in Queensland for work at the end of last week and spent the weekend WAAAAAY out West at Roma with Nelly, Jono and Fraser. I've added the pics to the Babies folder in Flickr:
You'll just have to look at the lot: Fraser and Xavier from last October
. . . but finally we have our lounge suite back!!!
Before we left Macquarie Road (ie. last August), we decided to re-furbish the old lounge suite which we'd shoved in the space under the house 15+ years previously. We contacted a furniture restorer and, with the nod of approval from Karen, chose fabric to re-upholster it too. Then we waited . . . and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited. We sat in the new sitting room on camp chairs. Ishbel used the room for cartwheels and dance routines. They all ignored the NO FOOD AND DRINK IN THE SITTING ROOM rule.
This evening it was finally restored to us Colquhouns. It's been taken apart, stripped back, re-caned, French polished, re-built and re-upholstered and looks just wonderful. I'm really pleased with the results. Have a look at the slide-show to see how it's gone from wrecked to stunning:
Now I just have to re-educate the children - they have had such a long time to make themselves at home in the sitting room that they think it's their space - and it SO is not!
My colleague, Patou, is very upset by Michael Jackson's death this morning.
Not because she was a big fan - No. Patou is a member of a group who have an annual tipping competition of sorts - this one earns points for predicting which celebrities will die during the year. And she's upset because she'd not picked MJ! The younger the deceased celeb, the more points earned.
She's been telling us she's been a member of this group for some years and has won on a number of occasions. Before submitting her 10 likely candidates she says, she does a lot of research. She keeps a document of likely contenders for the next year so an innocent remark about the newly diagnosed somebody will lead to hours of research into that person and their medical condition so she can work out whether the prognosis is dire enough to list them. The group members have parties where they dress in black and chat about their wins and losses that year. They argue about whether someone is eligible to be on the list or not.
All a bit odd? John reckons it's because she's French - his hypothesis being that all those hours spent knitting below the guillotine has left its mark on the French psyche!!!
Meanwhile, my friend Steve is sending bad taste Farrah and MJ jokes. Too bad to post here.
My colleague Gillian has been restless this afternoon, tossing tennis balls around and tutting or exclaiming over every book she's picked up to catalogue. To put myself out of my misery she has been sharing podcasting with me. From the Web 2.0 course we did late last year, I ran off with blogging and Gillian with podcasting.
As I've blogged before, the British Library have a Henry VIII thing going and I've had the podcasts coming into my RSS feeder for some time but hadn't done anything with them because my little cheapie MP3 player is stuck on scrambling everything and I hadn't the time or the wits to sort it all out. Last night I decided to give the Henry VIII podcasts a go and spent a blissful hour or so listening to (the rather snide at times) David Starkey declaiming Henry's early life - with lots of digressions. It was a bit uncomfortable at first. Our computer box sits on the ground and the cord for the ear plugs Rob had lent me wasn't very long and I quickly got a sore back. Ian came to the rescue, remembering we'd bought a new set of headphones when we bought the new 'puter and I was soon sitting upright and enjoying myself.
However, being a rip-roaring insomniac these days, I thought it'd be nice to be able to plug in the old MP3 and listen to it in the dark as Gillian does without disturbing anyone else. And so I came to put her to work. In the end it took no time at all to sort out my MP3 mixing woes and it's easy as to download files onto the MP3 player.
Got our computer back on Thursday. They still hadn't looked at it (a week later) when Ian called after work. As he told them, they'd had it longer than we had at that stage. They said they'd get on to it and rang back later to say it was good to go. Seems ok so far but we'll see . . . any more trouble and I'll insist on my money back.
Friday night we went up to Jamie's school to see the musical. Jamie is working as stage crew. The musical they are doing is "Into the Woods" (Wikipedia entry) and it's a 'fractured fairytale'. It involves the Baker and his Wife who, in order to have a baby, need to go into the woods and collect one red cape (from Little Red Riding Hood), one snow white cow (Jack of the Beanstalk's best friend), some hair yellow as corn (from Rapunzel) and a golden slipper (Cinderella's). All the fairytale folk are in it; the Big Bad Wolf and Grandma, Prince Charming and his brother, the Wicked Stepmother and Stepsisters, the Giant.
A friend's son is playing one of the princes ("I'm charming, not sincere"). He's a tall, handsome boy with curly hair and dark eyebrows which he put to good use, hamming it up with the audience. Adam planted his feet on that stage and owned it; he was very funny. He and the other prince, a friend of Jamie's, sang a duet that quite stole the show (unhappily, Jamie said last night Adam was off-key for that song which brought Matt undone too and it was not good). The cow was also hilarious.
At the end of the show everyone went home happy. The Baker and his Wife had collected everything and were to have their baby and the Princes had found their Princesses, Jack had been reunited with Snowy White the Cow.
Only it wasn't the end of the story. Just the intermission. After the break, the Princes were not so enamoured of their Princesses (Rapunzel was constantly in tears), the other Prince had a crush on the sleeping Snow White only couldn't get near her because of the dwarf guarding her, Charming fancied the Baker's Wife, Little Red Riding Hood's Granny had gone missing (again) and the wife of the giant that Jack had slayed was on the rampage looking for Jack.
It was all good fun and Ishbel has a crush on Adam now I think although her highlight was seeing Jamie each time he rushed across the stage, moving props.
Saturday had Ian and Jamie up at the crack of nothing to be across town for his AFL game. Jamie apparently played well and got a Coach's award : "James Coquhoun played his best game of the season and is this week's deserved recipient of the prestigious "Green Car" award". You can read the full Under 18s match report here. (No idea what the Green Car thing is . . .)
Rob went off up to Katoomba yesterday afternoon to the annual Winter Magic Festival with some friends. He stayed overnight at Leigh's house, Ian and Jamie are just away to fetch him home just now.
They are also taking home Ishbel's friend, Britney, who stayed the night. Only lots of threats (from both sets of parents) got them asleep before 10pm. Ishbel has had a lot of sleepovers, either here or at her various friends' houses lately, I think we may have to have a break for a week or so; she's just not getting enough sleep.
This afternoon I am off up to Katoomba for my book group meeting. We are having a fundraiser quiz for the MS Society in addition to our usual book chat. The fundraiser is called Throw the Book @ MS and all we had to do was register with them and they sent out all the questions. We held the quiz night with my Springwood book group at the beginning of the month and raised over $150. Unfortunately, we had to pay back Catherine $77 of that for wine prizes that she'd bought so next year we'll either not borrow, or make donations of prizes.
That book group we opened up to friends and family. We charged a $5 entry fee then I managed to squeeze extra money from people by charging 50c each time they called out an answer (they had to ping and then wait for me to invite them to answer), charging 50c each time they got a wrong answer and by charging $1 if they wanted to buy an answer or point - they were collecting sweeties - each correct answer, or $1 fee earned a sweetie with the team with the most sweeties being declared the winners. The Katoomba group weren't wanting to open up the meeting but we decided on a $10 entry fee and when I told them how I'd squeezed the extra out of the others they agreed to the extra squeeze so hopefully we'll raise a fair bit more for MS.
I started reading one of those Cyprus books of Shirley's this morning. I hadn't got around to it before because of the reading I need to do for two book groups. I've only read a few chapters but I must say I'm enjoying them. I'm looking forward to getting on to Google Earth this evening and having a look at the villages she talks about. I suspect things are not quite so quiet as 1984 when they first moved back. Harry's pictures are great, but I would have loved some photos of the house they built and some of the village characters. I'll email Shirley later on and tell her I've started reading.
This is a lovely book and I've been waiting for the film to be released for ages. Not sure when it's being released in the Southern Hemisphere. Here's the trailer : The Time Traveler's Wife
For several years now, Blue Mountains City Library has subscribed to the wonderful Good Reading magazine, it's one of my favourite reads each month. Now the library has an online subscription : Good Reading Online. It's an Australian magazine with all sorts of booky things including book reviews and lots of Australian and international articles, author profiles, stories on writers' houses, bookshops, short stories, book trivia and more.
The online edition is an exact digital copy of the print magazine with the benefits of access to the archive of past issues plus links to interesting websites and more. You'll also be able to browse and keyword search through all issues. You will find it in the Online Databases section of the library website (down at the bottom of the page) ~ Mum, I'll make you a library card and send your membership details via email.
Jamie and Ian were up and out early to Jamie's AFL game at Pennant Hills. His team is doing pretty well and they recorded another excellent win. You can read the match reports from this and other games here. Jamie is in the Under 18s.
Meanwhile Ishbel and I did the shopping and Robbie caught up on his beauty sleep. Ishbel and I met up with Bec and her boys in the shopping centre and managed to cadge a cuppa and a doughnut off Bec.
Jamie and Ian came home just in time for me and the boys to race off down to the shed for 12:30pm to join the other Valley Heights RFS members who were going to do a sausage sizzle at the Springwood School Fete and Fireworks. After setting up, some of us 'volunteered' to cut onions - 40kg of them. I was alright, my contact lenses protect me from the onion juice/fumes but it was sad to see grown men cry! Eventually we loaded all 40kg of onions (and more) on to 1000 sausages and accomanying buns/bread. Guess what I did in my sleep all night? And Ian had the hide to complain my hands smelled of onions still the next morning. I hadn't been able to get my lot to bring any vegieburgers along so I had two onion sandwiches, Come the revolution . . .
Robbie managed to dip out early and went off with his friend Leigh but Jamie and I stayed to the bitter end, taking money, cramming onions and sausages into rolls - it was relentless for several hours. My only break was a half hour cuddle and tour of the stalls with Xavier, Karen and Dan. Being his favourite Auntie Heidi, I bought Xavier a little blue maracca (after I'd borrowed $2 from Dan) which he loved the taste of!
Got home after 10:30pm.
Up early for training at 8am on Sunday morning. More cutting trails for our proposed hazard reduction (HR) - lots of back breaking work, scratching down to mother earth. Plotting our progress back at the shed we found we'd only done 120 or so metres - much less than the last few times we've done it - but the terrain was pretty hard going for us rake-hoeing types and when I looked despondent Hugh took pains to show me we'd actually done very well. This is the third training session where I've done trail cutting - if they put the HR on when I can't do it there'll be blood spilt!
(Will post photos later - have no computer at home again. Brand new computer we bought LAST SATURDAY already at the menders. Not happy!)
(Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants)
The course covers two days, lunch will be provided, as will instructions on how to take lunch from its packaging without a woman to hold it for you. Topics covered on this course include:
DAY ONE TOILET ROLLS : DO THEY GROW ON THE HOLDERS?
Roundtable discussion
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN LAUNDRY BASKET & FLOOR
Practising with laundry basket (pictures and graphics)
DISHES & CUTLERY : DO THEY LEVITATE/FLY TO KITCHEN SINK OR DISHWASHER BY THEMSELVES?Debate amongst a panel of experts
REMOTE CONTROL
Losing the remote - Helpline and support groups
LEARNING HOW TO FIND THINGS
Starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down whilst shouting - Open forum
DAY TWO
EMPTY MILK CARTONS : DO THEY BELONG IN THE FRIDGE OR THE BIN?
Group discussion and role play
HEALTH WATCH : BRINGING HER FLOWERS IS NOT HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH PowerPoint presentation
REAL MEN ASK FOR DIRECTIONS WHEN LOST
Real life testimonial from the one man who did
IS IT GENETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SIT QUIETLY AS SHE PARALLEL PARKS?
Driving simulation and anger management
LIVING WITH ADULTS : BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR MOTHER AND YOUR PARTNER
Role playing and slideshow
HOW TO BE THE IDEAL SHOPPING COMPANION
Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing techniques
REMEMBERING IMPORTANT DATES & CALLING WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE
Bring your calendar or PDA to class, NOT your secretary
GETTING OVER IT : LEARNING HOW TO LIVE WITH BEING WRONG ALL THE TIME
Individual counsellors available (male counsellors sadly unavailable-none passed training course)
Hurry and make your booking, only a few places left - Ian, Rob, Jamie, Dan, Ben and Xavier already signed up!
We had our brigade AGM on Tuesday night. Not only is my good friend Steve now the Captain but I won, for the second year in a row, the Attendance (aka Get-A-Life) Award. I also got a $75 gift voucher to spend in the RFSA shop : look at all the fabby things I can choose from! Should I get a kit bag or a helmet torch?
Ian has developed the 'flu and won't be able to have his surgery which was scheduled for tomorrow. He rang the specialist rooms today and his surgery will now be on 1st July!
Jamie and I successfully completed our VF (Village Firefighter) assessment on Sunday morning.
We were taken up to St Thomas' school and there had to do two scenarios, an (MVA) motor vehicle accident and a structural fire. We also had to demonstrate how to work with ladders, hauling tools up to the roof of a building (well in this case it was on top of the Big Red Truck). We also had to answer a whole lot of questions to demonstrate underpinning knowledge - a bit disconcerting because the questions asked were from the 1999 course, not from the 2005 workbook I was working from - even Ian knew the answers from drilling me! Got through them OK though.
What a relief to pass, I'd been almost sick with nerves when we gathered at Winmalee RFS in the morning.
Rob didn't do the assessment. With work commitments he'd not been able to attend post course training sessions and didn't feel ready. He also has mid-yearly exams this week.
‘The book can produce an addiction as fierce as heroin or nicotine, forcing us to spend much of our lives, like junkies, in book shops and libraries, those literary counterparts to the opium den’ - Phillip Adams.
Starting a novel is like opening a door on a misty landscape; you can still see very little but you can smell the earth and feel the wind blowing - Iris Murdoch, Under the Net 1954
What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it - JD Salinger
I have sometimes dreamt that when the Day of Judgement dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards – their crowns, their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble – the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, “Look, these need no reward. We have nothing to give them. They have loved reading.” – Virginia Woolf from The Common Reader
A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life - Norman Cousins – US editor (1915-1990)
Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it – PJ O’Rourke
With a library you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - nut no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how. - Doris Lessing, author.
Imagine that no-one had encouraged you to understand those funny little squiggles on the page called words that can make you gasp or can make you cry. You'd be a smaller person living in a smaller world - Home Page of the Reading Agency
I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians. - Graham Chapman from Episode 10 of Monty Python's Flying Circus, 1970
Th' first thing to have in a libry is a shelf. Fr'm time to time this can be decorated with lithrachure. But th's shelf is th' main thing. - Finley Peter Dunne, "Books" Mr Dooley SaysYou see
There are two types of books in libraries: Catherine Cooksons and non-Catherine Cooksons. The non-Catherine Cooksons are big books on Britain's Railways from the Air for men to browse through while their wives choose a Cookson. - Guy Browning, The Guardian, 2003
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. — Groucho MARX
My colleague, Patou, is very upset by Michael Jackson's death this morning.
