
Hi all, thanks for tuning in to this week’s instalment of madness from Oz-trail-ya.
Well, what can I tell you this week? I’ve started my Easter Egg shopping this week and have been REALLY eggs-cited to see that they sell chocolate koalas, wombats and bilbies! Couldn’t resist and bought one of each. How fab that they have covered indigenous wildlife in choccy and we can have fun chomping their heads off! They do look cute, although Mum still thinks that the Easter Bunny is preferable to an Easter Bilby! I have to disagree.
The kids are fine. Sam’s gearing up for this week’s assembly that his class are taking. They have made papier mache animals and learnt songs about marsupials – I can’t wait. I shall be taking my camera and video – because I can!
On Saturday a few of the ex-pats from the forum met up in Mandurah. It was good to see everyone. The sun was shining and the kids played for hours. Fantastic!
We took the boat out yesterday and didn’t have a major mishap (for the first time!). Sam and Darcie both had a go at driving, although Darcie comes from the slalom school of motoring and we’re all left feeling queasy by the time she’s weaved her way up the river! I tie a rope around Adam and he then has the ‘freedom’ to roam around the boat – occasionally lasso-ing himself, but at least he doesn’t plop overboard! We went up and down the river for a while, then moored at a jetty where they had a climbing frame and a BBQ and we had a picnic lunch. The kids played in the water and made some friends and we stayed about two hours before going for a blam in the estuary. Whilst we were there, the mossies mistook me for an ‘all you can eat buffet!’, so I resemble the elephant man today with all my bumps! I’m sure if you did a dot to dot with them, there’d be a constellation – maybe Ursa Major – or the Plough! Or alternatively, if a blind man were to feel me, I’d probably be the equivalent of a newspaper article.
Paul and I had our photo taken today for an editorial they are running along side our ad in the local press. Good grief – would you buy a security system from these people? Paul looks like Grant Mitchell and I look like an extra from ‘Prisoner Cell Block H’. The sad thing is, this was the best one she took! I did ask her to ‘airbrush me’ so I looked tall and thin. She emailed me later to explain that in order for me to look thin, I was actually 7 feet tall and it made the house look out of proportion, so she would have to go with the original! Thanks mate!
We’ve had ten signs made up (like the one in the picture). We have distributed them around the neighbourhood in our attempt the ‘crack the Australian market’. It was funny the day we had them all lined up after I’d glued them. I said they were my chickens and christened them ‘the girls’. I swear after that they would all shuffle amongst themselves and change position. Anyhow, the ‘girls’ are now all out working their street corners…………… hope they are pulling in the punters!
Sam’s been a bit of a toad again lately, so Paul’s told him if he continues to misbehave, we will send him to boarding school. Paul explained that when his Uncle worked abroad, his cousins still went to school in England and flew backward and forward on their own. Sam thought about this for a while and asked how old they were now and what jobs they did. Paul explained that one has had his own IT business and the other was a film director. Quick as a flash, Sam replied, ‘oh well, at least if I have to go to boarding school, it’ll be good for my career!’ Where in heaven’s name does he get this stuff?
We took Adam out for lunch last week. We were just chatting when he picked up his cup, clattered it against mine and said really clearly ‘Cheers, mate!’. We laughed, so now it’s his new party trick and said at every possible occasion. I’m perservering with the potty training, (although I might have to wait until I’ve been shopping tomorrow to pick up some more kitchen towel!). Honestly, it’s like having a puppy in the house! He says ‘poo’, so I whip his nappy off and wheel out the potty and then he just smiles at me, shouts (really loudly), CAN’T and drops one on the lino. Thank heaven for wipeable flooring. Three times now he’s pooed on the floor. I wouldn’t mind, but I know he understands what is required of him. He’s just being a little shit – literally!
Just had to add this photo of Darcie for Mum. I complained that all the clothes in the shops now were winter ones; thick coats and knee high boots and I only wanted a pair of sandals for Miss Parcel. Quick as a flash, Mum grabbed her shopper, put on her head scarf, pulled her tights up over the waist-band of her skirt and she was in Clarks before you could jump-start a broomstick. This is Darcie modelling her ‘sensible school, navy blue sandals’. She also has a pair of beige ones with co-ordinating accessories and a spangly pair for dancing. Thanks, Mum! Love ya!
Got to go – Darcie’s just come up to me demanding clean-pipers to make the anna tennas for her egg box caterpillar. Never a dull moment, eh?