The girl's like spaghetti : why, you can't manage without apostrophes! by Lynne Truss & illustrated by Bonnie Timmons

You know how there's always some little nugget of grammar that eludes you? Well for me, it was the proper use of apostrophes. I can do the apostrophes that denote missed letters as in "It's a nice day," but apostrophes used to denote ownership gave me the heeby jeebies. I am vaguely aware that putting the apostrophe in one place meant the thing had one owner and putting it in another spot could denote a thing had several owners but was never clear on which was which.

Well last night, now in the middle of my 40s, I read this gorgeous little book and it's all crystal clear.

Grammar perfectionist Lynne Truss demonstrates the correct use of apostrophes. Clearly, and aided by the lovely humourous illustrations by Bonnie Timmons, she shows how much difference the placement of an apostrophe can make to the meaning of a sentence, eg. "We're here to help you" compared with "Were here to help you".

Also by this author for children : Eat, shoots and leaves : Why, commas really do make a difference. And for adults, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation and Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Home and Bolt the Door.

Look down the side for slide shows

I was going to go to bed early tonight but I've been fiddling with our photo collections and if you scroll down the side of the blog you'll see I've added some slide shows.
I'm in the middle of labelling Jamie's Japan trip photos, but it's hard to get him to help when he's doing something else. When we've done I'll add them as a slide show too.

Busy weekend

Another busy weekend half way through.
Today, apart from the usual housework and grocery shopping, we have signed up the kids for their winter sport. Despite her less than enthusiastic end to last season, Ishbel has decided she wants to play soccer again this year so she was signed up to that today. Robbie wants to play Rugby Union this year. That coincides with Ben's wish for this year so Ian and Karen took the boys down to register for that this morning. Jamie says he wants to do a martial art. I think there's a guy does something in the hall at Faulconbridge so I'll have to be proactive in making sure Jamie gets along to that.
Tomorrow RFS training is on so I at least will go to that. Rob has made arrangements to go to see Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter) with some mates. I'll see if I can get Jamie up early.
For lunch we are going to Kim and Graham's. Their eldest son, Alex, was killed this time last year in a motorcycle accident and the lunch is a little family/friends get together and memorial for him.
At 5:45pm I've arranged to go and see Death at a Funeral with some girlfriends. Karen, Dan and Ben saw it and said it was hilarious. Could be the antidote to a potentially glum afternoon that I need.
Next week promises to be busy too. With the schools back, the Scouts also start so Ian will be out running the Joeys on Monday. Ishbel is going to be moving up to the Cubs sometime soon with her little friend Joanna but I think they go to Joeys still/also for a little while doing a 'link' or some such.
Tuesday night is RFS meeting night for me.
On Wednesday Ian is off to Adelaide for a couple of nights to train staff in new software that was installed over the Christmas break. He was devastated to learn that there was nothing in the way of budget hotels left and he's had to book in to an expensive one!
Thursday night I should be going to belly dancing but, unless I can persuade Ishbel to come with me, I won't be able to go this week. I'm not making much headway in the persuasion department so far even though there was another 7 year old girl there this Thursday past. I had been thinking about going for a while then Jenny at work said she and some others had been talking about it while I was on leave and so 4 of us from work rolled up. When we got there, apart from the ladies I knew from before, there was Francoise from RFS and Diana who is one of Cathy's friends.
My work promises to be frantic. The library is undergoing ISO (international standards) accreditation this year, starting on 18th February with the first, gap analysis, audit. I am in charge of the procedure manual (have I said this all before, I think so). To cut a long ramble short, it'll be a lot of work, not made easier by our supervisor, who has been on 6 weeks leave over the school holidays already, ringing to request another month off. She is also the only staff member in the library with ISO training. Vicki didn't think it would be a good idea to force her to come back if she wanted to be elsewhere so granted Robyn the extra time.
On Monday I also have to go in and fight with the enveloping machine again. Friday was a beggar of a day all up with all the technologies fighting me - I was fiddling with the library catalogue settings and had to do the same thing several times before it would work, the enveloper kept saying the envelope tray was empty when it clearly wasn't and kept jamming and messing up my mailout, I set the printer to double side print my mailout letters and must've taken a page out too early and ended up with the address to services on one side but the details of another service on the other and had to start all over again. When I tried to shred the stuffed up mailout pages, the shredder wouldn't work, with the bin full light on when the bin wasn't on. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh!

The ballad of Desmond Kale by Roger McDonald

This is an historical novel set in the early years of white settlement in NSW. Matthew Stanton, who seems to have elements of the Rev. Samuel Marsden in his character, is an Anglican minister, magistrate and sheep farmer. His aim is to grow the finest wool in NSW. In this his rival is the convict Desmond Kale, formerly assigned to Stanton but now on the run. Kale was daringly sprung from captivity and is rumoured to be doing his own sheep farming in the bush, beyond the area known and mapped by the white men. Kale becomes an hero and the subject of a ballad amongst the Irish convicts.

This book won the Miles Franklin Award (http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/milesfranklin/) and was chosen by someone else in my book group. I approached it with some trepidation as I usually find award winning goes hand in hand with being impenetrable where literature is concerned. Added to that, it is a big book, 636 pages long. So it was with delight that I found myself being sucked in to the story and wanting to get back to it. Roger McDonald started out writing poetry and it shows, the writing is not always easy, sometimes obscure but is beautiful and uses some of the expressions the first settlers may have used - duck mole for platypus for example.

All back to normal - or at least what passes for it round here

The boys went back to school at last today. They are starting Year 10. At the end of the year they will (hopefully) get the School Certificate.
Jamie says he has the coolest History teacher in the history of History teaching - because she knows when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (!?).
Robbie has two new boys in his group and has been buddied up with a boy called Mark who has come from Germany. His mother is Australian and decided after 25 years away she wanted to come back apparently.
Ishbel went back to school yesterday. Over the weekend and the few days in the run up to going back she had begun to speculate about who her teacher might be. She was hoping for a Mrs Dalkeith who is Scottish and hoping not to get Miss T. Initially the children go back to the classes they were in at the end of the previous year. Sometimes it can take a day or two for the school to arrange the classes, depending on last minute enrolments, leavers, etc. This time they sorted them out very quickly and Ishbel came back saying she was in Miss T's class and she was very nice.
Emails have been going round my group of Faulco mums, checking who is in which class. None of us are terribly au fait with who is who on staff and the question was posed, "what does Miss T look like?". One answer was that she was "the spinsterish looking one with the bad hair".
"Nah, that didn't help, need more info, that only eliminated (the glamourous) Anthea Lundqvist-Hayes."
Anyway, it's nice to be back in to some sort of routine and the children, while they are grumbling about having to go to school, have a good time with their mates and with something to keep them busy.
I'm looking forward to the silence in the house when I come home for lunch.

Australia Day Public Holiday

I got fuller today than I did on Christmas Day! All went as anticipated, we were 17 at lunch eating haggis, tatties in several guises, sauerkraut, haloumi, chocolate mouse, several tonnes of icecream and ricotta tart.
Just one more day till school resumes. Hip hip hooray!

Australia Day

As you'll maybe know the 26th is Australia Day here. We didn't do any Australia Day stuff this year, saving ourselves till tomorrow, and we are also busy painting our hallway.

Because Australia Day fell on the weekend this year we are having the public holiday on Monday. Like last year we are having haggis and kangaroo with friends, Kim and Graham Walker. We are being joined by the Birkners - Klaus is German and Mary is an Ukrainian Aussie. She has threatened us with stuffed cows udders!!! Karen and the gang are coming too (I may have omitted the cow udders bit when talking to Karen so shhhhhhhhhh).

The Birkners had haggis with us a couple of years ago when Klaus' brother Michael was out on holiday. Michael is back again this summer and Mary requested we do it all again. As she ate the haggis last time she sat saying, "this is so Ukrainian, this is so Ukrainian". She said when she was young they always had a pig fattening in the garden. She said her father would love that pig and make sure it had the best of everything until slaughter time. She said they used every part of the pig - even the snout!

We did go and have dinner with my friend Joanne and her four children. I made a yummy chocolate mousse which I will have another go at for tomorrow although yesterday I thought it was going to be a disaster. The recipe said to melt the chocolate which I did beautifully but then the recipe called for water to be added to the chocolate - as soon as I did so the chocolate went all stiff. I managed to beat it a bit softer but expected it to be a bit lumpen. I never noticed the lumps and it tasted great.

Camping Trip to WRS - Day 3 - Tuesday 22 January

Another night of no sleep - if I don't get sleep tonight when we are back home I will be murdering someone!
Again the horse came rumaging - this time we were ready and had put all things edible away in the eskies. Ha!
At one point we were invaded by two cattle dogs who came tearing along the field. We tried to scramble to pick Bella up but the dogs were all too quick for us. Mindy went off to hide but Bella faced up to the two big dogs and they were soon having a great game of chasies round the camp site. The cattle dogs were called Bob and Cindy so when we called Bella, Bob would come running up and when we called Mindy, Cindy would come too!
This morning the mist and rain was cleared and, although cool, sunny. After breakfast the children got into their swimming gear, lathered themselves in sunscreen and got in the water. But none of them lasted very long, even the youngest three - despite the sunshine the water was colder, or felt it.
The Laurences and Colquhouns were all leaving for home today - Holly has work tomorrow and we are expecting Jamie back from Japan - so we spent the late morning pottering about taking the tents down and packing the cars up again. Mindy tried to stow away, spending most of the morning in our car.
Our tent is the one Ian and I bought for going on holiday in Queensland my first Christmas here (20 years ago) and has definitely seen better days. The ease with which the new tents go up and down, and the much lighter weights has me convinced we need to get a new one. Ian is convinced he'll be able to sell it on EBay. I am to be convinced we could even GIVE it away!
Just before going I dosed Ben, Bella and myself up with travel sickness pills. Bella spent most of the time on the dirt track out leaning out of the window and was quite happy with her nose in the wind. Ben fell asleep. In short we all got home without chucking so I was quite happy.

Camping Trip to WRS - Day 2 - Monday 21 January

I had an awful night. The airbed Ian and I were sharing started out OK, but deflated as the night went on. I woke at whatever time it was, dark, with my hips touching the ground and needing a wee but not wanting to go outside by myself. There were lots of noises in the dark, including the sound of things entering the water - crocs maybe? I certainly didn't want to go to the camp ground toilets which were nothing short of revolting. I woke Ian up and did a "picnic wee" while he stood guard with Bella and the torch.
The day really started though with the horse rumaging through our kitchen. By the time Sharon shooed it off it had eaten all the fruit in the fruitbowl and had a go at the couscous box! There was horsey-appley slobber all over the kitchen table and the chairs.
We got up to a cloudy day that didn't get any better. It rained on and off all day. Despite that the kids all had a swim. Ben, Georgia and Ishbel, especially had a good day. Apart from a walk we all went on (except Ian who had hurt his back) they spent almost all day on the water. When we weren't pottering about taking walks, we collected wood for the fire or sat around eating and nursing the fire.
There wasn't much wood to be had. We collected all we could everytime we went for a walk and Steven took the trailer back up the track towards Mittagong and got a little bit. On one of our walks we launched a commando raid on one of the camp fires on the other side of the river - complete with commando face paint (will post picture later).

Camping Trip to Wollondilly River Station - Day 1 - Sunday 20 January

Today we went to Wollondilly River Station (WRS) between Mittagong and the Wombeyan Caves on a camping trip with the Addisons (Steven, Janet, Kate and Georgia), the Laurences (Sharon and Holly), Ian, Robbie, Ishbel, Heidi and Ben.
We were up early (relatively anyway; this holidays the children have turned into vampires, going to bed late and rising late also) and starting to pack. We borrowed a trailer from our neighbour, Bev, and loaded up tent, tables, chairs, clothing, food, etc.
At around 10am Karen came over with Ben and had a cuppa with me while Ian did fiddly things to the car and trailer like check tyre pressure. At 11ish we headed over to rendez-vous at Steven and Janet's but it was about 11:30-11:45 before we got on the road.
WRS allows pets to camp too so, while Karen was organised to come and feed the cat, we were able to take Bella with us. I wasn't very confident about how well she would travel, she winges the whole 1 1/2 km from Springwood home and I wasn't disappointed - she must've vomited about 10 times between home and WRS.
Ben also has a history of travel sickness, especially on bumpy, winding dirt tracks such as could be expected between Mittagong and WRS. When we stopped at Mittagong for lunch I got some travel sickness tablets and made him take one, by then Bella had chucked six times and I really wouldn't have coped with anyone else chucking up in the car. I gave Bella 1/4 tablet too but it didn't seem to make much difference.
Camping with the Addisons is quite an experience! We had a HUGE tarpaulin kitchen/dining area complete with kitchen sink and massive chest esky. We had 6 tents between us - Robbie is in his new cocoon tent (gives me claustrophobia just to look at), Kate and Holly are sharing, Sharon has her own tent as does Ben, Ian, Ish and I are in our big tent and Janet, Steven and Georgia are in their tent.
Now it is dark. We have a flashing collar on the Addison's dog, Mindy, a lovely fire going, citronella torches going and we are just waiting for Sharon to have her shower before we tuck in to marshmallows. Steven is distributing sparklers to the children.
But before that, during the HOURS it took us to set all this gear and tents up - someone likened it to playing cubby houses, quite aptly I think - the kids got themselves organised for a swim in the river. It is flowing well after the rains and is a smooth, 20m approx. band of brown.
There is a horse that wanders about the paddock we are camped in, much to Ishbel's delight, although she is worried it is too skinny. Bella and Mindy are able to roam freely - an absolute delight for our Bella who is usually either confined within the house or in a small pound in the garden. Mindy on the other hand isn't the back-to-nature type and has spent the afternoon firstly in the Addison's boot, then in Sharon's driver's seat and finally in the back of our station wagon!
A couple of ducks have also visited us this evening - almost had roast duck for dinner.