Party on, dudes!
Another busy weekend has flown past with two birthday parties on Saturday.
The first one was at Platform 1, a train theme park. It looked like someone had taken their obsession with trains and turned it into a profitable business. Willow and Dexter really enjoyed themselves and we will keep it in mind for future parties.
The second party was back down in the city, so I dropped Dexie and A off at home, changed Willow and dashed into Kmart on the way to buy her some more appropriate shoes than her daggy old sneakers. This party was a whole of class party held at home. What a home it was – let’s just say that it had garage space for 8 cars and looked like it came straight out of an expensive design magazine. She had a great time running around with her friends and I had a chance to chat to some of the parents. I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about this, particularly as I don’t do drop off and pick up, but I did quite well!
I came home and slumped on the couch while A got a roast chicken going in the oven. I did honeyed carrots and broccoli in an attempt to get Willow to eat more, but again she had one piece of potato, one piece of chicken, one piece of carrot and a teeny, tiny bite of broccoli. Sigh. I have no idea how the girl grows, but she does. At least she is willowy and befitting of her namesake.
While I was waiting for the roast chook to cook, I made some turkish delight. I thought it would be a nice way to use up the rest of the rosewater from the gulab jaman last weekend. I got the recipe from the taste forums so it wasn’t an officially tested recipe, but it seemed to work ok. What I couldn’t get over was the smell of the gelatine. Perhaps it’s because I know what gelatine is made from that it smelled so bad. Now, if there is a vegetarian recipe for turkish delight out there, let me know!
I just googled and there is – Vegetarian Turkish Delight.
Who listens to the radio? That’s what I’d like to know. Since I have been spending so much time on the road in this job, up to 6 hours on a bad day, I’ve become a serial radio station flicker. I used to be such a devout JJJ fan, A teases me about getting old. I have even crossed the border to AM stations! So, on Friday when I jumped in the car to go home, the radio was on 5AA. Not sure what the equivalent is in other states but I’m pretty sure I was one of the younger listeners. The host, Amanda Blair was talking about blogs, so I thought I’d ring up and pimp my blog. I was a bit surprised that I got through when I called, but I did, so we had a nice chat, mostly about my motivation for keeping this blog. So there is my 15 minutes of fame!
The woman who called the station after me has a blog which largely seems to be about her son with autism.
Friday morning started off very nicely – Willow’s school had a morning tea at a chocolate cafe called Bracegirdles. As usual in the morning I didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast, so I had a mocha and a chocolate brownie for breakfast. What a way to start the day! As I mentioned previously, A does the drop offs and pick ups from school, so I miss out on seeing other parents. For that reason I made a point of going to the morning tea. My long held desire to go to Bracegirdle’s swayed me just that bit more! I bought some chocolate rabbits and hens to take to colleagues and a Miffy chocolate plaque each for the kids. Again, I did a passable job of talking to the other parents.
Today we had a slower start, we actually woke up to rain which is a novelty for us here in the driest state in the driest country! Daylight savings started, so we were all a bit confused in the morning. We did the washing and housework until it was time to get ready for our lunch date. My friend and I had planned to get together at a particular playground but due to the rain we thought we’d meet at the nearby shopping centre. As it turned out, the rain cleared out and we let the children out to play after lunch at the cafe with poor service and underwhelming food.
My friend made the comment that Dexie is allowed to walk/run away from me, but I am not allowed to walk away from him!
On the way back to the car we stopped at a bead shop and Willow and I got beads to make a couple of danglies/suncatchers to hang from our windows. I was very proud of her fine motor skills and ability to use the pliers to crimp in all the right places. This kind of craft activity is something I’d been meaning to do with her for ages. I have some how managed to lose my big box of beads, so I hoped that by buying another pair of pliers, I’d find it – Murphy’s Law and all that. Hasn’t happened yet…
