Feeding time at the zoo

And no, I’m not talking literally about our house for a change…

The school holiday program at the Melbourne Zoo “totally rocks”, according to some very happy Zoo Detectives of mine. Despite a wild, cold day, the Jennings girls and gorgeous, but camera shy Tom Fewster headed off bright and early to detect their way around the zoo. Please excuse the amateur photos, with some trepidation I gave custody of my camera to the girls for the day and remember, they’re just kids, not gifted photographers ;) If they had their way, this blog would have 50+ slightly unfocused and honestly, rather boring shots of sedentary animals and plants LOL

The undoubted highlight of the day was a spectacular behind-the-scenes experience - getting to handfeed the giraffes, from inside the back of the enclosure – seriously! Now, there’s something different to write in your first day back “what I did in the holidays” essay. And just to show what a fabulously educational blog this is, did you know that giraffe’s tongues are 40 cm long? “More than a ruler Mum!” And they have 7 bones in their necks – “the same as humans, but longer of course Mum”. Amy got a little lion toy for being a good helper for - get this - sorting stick insect eggs – as you do. Apparently they are often deliberately laid in ant nests as they look like ant eggs, so the ants get fooled and look after them, clever little things. The things your kids learn, every day …..

It’s been a week of critters for us. As well as the event-filled afternoon rescuing Tiger the puppy (see previous post), I also had the experience of arriving at the school gate to pick up Amy and Sophie on the last day of term, to be greeted with a joyous “SUR-PRI-ISE”. A surprise that comprised custody of several class yabbies in a large fish tank for the school holidays – a surprise that was met with an ever-so-slightly forced smile on my part. In addition to a bit of an “ick” factor (they’re not exactly cute and cuddly pets and I’m a more traditional dogs and cats lover rather than a rodents and reptiles kind of gal), I had an immediate flashback to when I was a kid and we killed the kinder budgie on our weekend visit. Actually that really should read – the kinder budgie died while at our house – we didn’t actually torture it or anything, but oh the shame, it has clearly stayed with me in a post-traumatic syndrome kind of way. Do you think it didn’t like us and committed suicide???

I did manage to bail on looking after last year’s class mice (by the way, whatever happened to a nice simple class fish??) after having to put up with the smell each day in the classroom and being completely grossed out by the tale of what happened when one of the mice happened to have a litter of babies one weekend and then proceeded to eat the lot of ‘em! UGH just doesn’t do that justice at all…..

Anyway, please send good yabbie vibes our way for the next two weeks as I’m sure I could never face Amy’s teacher again if we didn’t keep her beloved crustaceans healthy. And I, for one, am sticking to dogs – nothing exotic or slimy around here!

And a quick link especially for Tom's Mum - the lovely and erudite Kate Fewster (who I'm sure wears the "bad grammar makes me [sic]" badge I gave her with pride):

http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/

http://www.apostrophepolice.org/mission


Its vital that you enlist, Constable Fewster and keep all of blogland safe from those apostrophe criminal's .....

Overheard.....

sex education: 10-year-old-big-sis-to-9-year-old-lil-sis style

9yo: "So can you go for a swim when you have a period?"

10yo: "No way - of course not! "

9yo "Why not?"

10yo "Because a shark would get you, wouldn't it?"

9yo: "Ohhh, ok" (files that little gem away)

well, der...

FOUND

We are the Jenningsgirls dog rescue team with a great reputation for protecting the canine lost and helpless and reuniting them with their loved ones. Amy can sniff out a lost puppy a mile away and won’t rest til we’ve saved it.

A few months ago I walked our dog Lucky to school on a sunny afternoon to pick the girls up. We wandered around the outskirts of the local park on our way home, throwing sticks for our obsessive-retriever until Amy spotted an unsupervised little terrier. “He has no owner Mum” – “I’m sure his owner is around here somewhere sweetheart” – “no, he doesn’t belong to anyone, we can’t just leave him here” – “sigh”.

So after sending Amy to ask any likely suspects about ownership with no success, I did have to reluctantly admit that this dog looked like he’d gone AWOL. Fortunately he had a mobile phone number on his tag and I had my phone in my pocket and moments later I was speaking to his surprised owner who was 20 minutes drive away at work – he was an escapee! I offered to drop him off on our walk home only to find that she lived further up the street from us, so in the end Kubrick came home with us to have a playdate with Lucky until our neighbour came home from work.

Amy has stopped another neighbour’s dog Luigi from being accidentally run when he got out (there are clearly armies of North Fitzroy dogs tunneling away merrily each day) and today we saved the adorable Tiger. She is just the sweetest puppy, scampering down the middle of the road all on her lonesome this afternoon - thank goodness she hadn't been hit by a car. I called out "puppy, puppy, puppy" to her and she just leapt into my arms and snuggled in, trembling, poor little thing.

So we scooped her up and tried to find her owner, but to no avail. Went to the local vet to find that she had no microchip, they wanted to take her to the animal shelter, but the look on the girls’ faces - oh no! We couldn’t give her up without trying for a reunion and said we planned to doorknock first – she brought out the protective instinct in all of us. LOL

We doorknocked a little, then decided to try again after 5.30pm as I figured her owner was probably at work (no convenient phone number on the tag this time). The girls just cooed over her happily while I worked on a FOUND poster (with the photos above) until a knock at the door revealed her frantic owner who had been directed to our house by someone we'd spoken to – she was wildly grateful and relieved as it was her sister’s dog who had dug its way out while she’d been at work. We were all sad to see her go – she had burrowed straight into all our hearts, but she’s another dog we can proudly add to our SAVED list! (Oh and just to show what equal animal opportunity rescuers we are, we also saved our neighbour's cat Oomi from what Amy called "the bully cat" who was beating it up thoroughly.)


Thanks for the great suggestions for a holiday song to send out into the universe with hope, but this is my fave oldie-but-goodie on the topic. Love vintage Madonna - her style, her choreography (kind of a groovy aerobics routine) and maybe that she looks like she's really enjoying herself - long before she was British Madge with the wincingly cut biceps, leotards, botox etc. Or maybe I just feel so affectionate because this was from when I was just a teenager, taping my favourite songs off local radio 3BA in the days when the dinosaurs roamed the earth... ;) Imeem is down for maintenance at the moment, so here's the youtube video clip in the meantime. And it is the last day of term today (YAY), so v. appropriate...

it's a whine-win situation

As a number of friends can testify, I have a kind of space-cadet, looney-tunes, new-age-esque hodge podge of a belief system. I don’t believe the number of fateful coincidences, precursors, apparent messages and kismet that life serves up is entirely random. I believe we send energy, karma, messages out into the universe and it invariably responds if we’re listening. I believe messages and opportunities are placed under our noses and it’s up to us whether we’re ready to receive. I guess I simply believe in method in the madness. But I’m probably just talking madness LOL

Ahem, the point of all that Sue? Well, I am trying to remember to change my blog music on an at least monthly basis in the hope that this doesn’t become of those annoying blogs where you have to remember to turn the volume off before you visit ;) So after a blog desert and a fertile little big life in the month of May, Emmy Rossum’s “Slow me down" seemed an appropriate accompaniment to this mad juggling act of mine. Out into the universe I sent the sentiment:

Rushing and racing
and running in circles
Moving so fast, I'm forgetting my purpose
Blur of the traffic is sending me spinning
Getting nowhere

My head and my heart are colliding, chaotic
Pace of the world
I just wish I could stop it
Try to appear like I've got it together
I'm falling apart

Save me
Somebody take my hand, and lead me
Slow me down
Don't let love pass me by
Just show me how
'Cause I'm ready to fall
Slow me down
Don't let me live a lie
Before my life flies by
I need you to slow me down

Less than 48 hours later, the universe answered, in digital forum naturally – an email:

Subject: SUSSAN - Congratulations you have won!

Dear Sue,

You have won a relaxation package from Sussan.

You have won:
1 x Sussan Organic Lounge Outfit consisting of pants, jacket & top
valued at $124.95
1 x Massage Voucher valued $100
1 x 3 month Fernwood Gym membership

:-O I never win anything! And thanks Emmy. Now I have just two questions – is the universe telling me to get fit? And does anyone know a song about a holiday in Tahiti I can put on my blog?

Thirteen years ago

Now...



Then ...











The day the universe expanded, exploded - in direct proportion with my heart. The day my life changed – a quantum leap, paradigm shift, transforming the very landscape of my path, the person I would be – changed so completely, so quickly, so utterly, so unrecognisably. From high-flying, ambitious corporate workhorse to stunningly contented SAHM, it was a reincarnation that surprised pretty much everyone, including myself.

The day Kate blazed into this world. I had no idea how hard I would fall for this divine, squalling creature we created. What a gift she is.

So let me introduce my darling big little girl Kate. Please understand that this post is going to be completely self-indulgent and dripping with sentiment. If this is likely to have a nauseating effect, please feel free to pass on by and return on a day when I’m feeling more acerbic or silly ;) I would just like to record all of this before it evaporates into the ether/falls out of the sieve that is my head….

Katie kitten is the quintessential big sister to the world. She even big sisters me on occasion, especially since she started towering over me. If Andrew and I are not around, Amy and Sophie will turn to her to make everything better – and she does. She has a gorgeous, generous soul with just the faintest streak of hormonal tween bitch LOL In fact, the occasional flashes of hormonal attitude in such an easygoing daughter put the fear of her sisters reaching adolescence into my heart! There is part of me that secretly respects the way she challenges me, that somehow she is metamorphosising from a compliant child into a woman with her own mind – that suddenly I have this wonderful, complicated, fiery, opinionated other woman in our house.

So yes she does have legs that go forever and come in handy on the netball court – I’m proud that she doesn’t stoop, she walks tall, owning her space in the world. Life is about people – friends, family are what make her world go round. She wants to try everything, is impossibly self-possessed and takes such enjoyment out of life. She has hit the ground running (actually she was so impatient she tried to head on out of the womb 8 weeks early, giving us all a scare, but I put up a fight to keep her a little longer and held on til 38 weeks when she insisted on greeting the world). Not much has changed, she has always taken every single step further into the world at full-tilt, at a run, eagerly embracing each new friend, each new experience. I am always so glad that she does everything first, scales every new mountain, starts every new chapter – she makes it so stressfree. She has effortlessly moved this year from a primary school that she could walk to in less than 5 minutes to a secondary school which she needs to take a train and then a tram to get to. She loves it – both the independence and of course, the inevitable mobile phone LOL I love her school uniform after 7 years of none at her primary school!

She came home from her very first day at high school talking animatedly about a term-long alpine residential camp which nearly made her mother’s head explode. It’s not til year nine, but she was ready to go on the first day. Next it was the school trip to France which she’d love to do this year but which has been vetoed til she a) speaks more than half a dozen words of French and b) gets a part-time job to contribute ;) Which really won’t be a problem as she’s lined up at least 3 jobs at the tender age of 12, the little A-type that she is. We are trying to stall friends with babies and toddlers and wanting her to babysit to “wait til she at least turns 14”! Lil ones just adore her, it’s no wonder she’s in demand already. Not to mention how oh-so-comfortable she is already behind the register or pricing gun at her beloved Kate Fewster’s shop, Little Smarties (see link on the left).

She told me she wanted a bank account at the age of 9 and started saving. What for, I asked and she airily explained she was saving for her apartment (a beloved babysitter was moving out of home into an apartment at the time). When I asked when she was moving out, she declared “12,” and when I explained that most 12 year olds didn’t have their own apartments, she decided she could wait til she was 15 LOL I will never have to worry about this child/woman. She is going to make magic happen in her own life, the sky is the limit and I’m pretty sure that’s where she’s aimed herself.

She loves a sleep-in, has only two speeds, full steam ahead or sloth. She can argue til she’s blue in the face and even in the face of complete wrongedness, can achieve an impressive level of articulate denial. She already ties up the bathroom for half an hour at a time. Bald for more than 18 months, I despaired as friends played with ribbons and pigtails – of course she grew an impressive mane of blond curls that were certainly worth waiting for, christened “Kate with the Bubble Hair” at kinder. She looks so very much like her Dad if you can get past that cloud of curls and even my mother said so the day she was born. She loves clothes (what a huge surprise!), wants to be a children’s fashion designer and stylist who coaches netball on the side when she grows up.

I truly don’t know what I’d do without her, I rely on her so much with Andrew away regularly and with a few physical challenges myself. I’d say we are so very alike, except it’s like she’s really a new, improved version with extra features, new technology, stronger, better, louder, faster, taller LOL She is a kindred spirit, I am already starting to enjoy books, music, cooking, girlie shopping trips and chick flicks with her.

So this is thirteen. Happiest of happy days my big little girl

Love love love
Mum
xxxxx

and the festival of Kate continues…..

She’s in sleepover heaven at this very moment, with her BFFs, a couple of chick flicks, tv and dvd player IN HER BEDROOM no less! (don’t get used to it Kate, it’s going back to the playroom tomorrow).

They had dinner out at the roolly noice local pizza restaurant on their own (no younger sisters allowed), called the Mum taxi (which handily also pays for dinner), then back home for the homemade mutant chocolate covered icecream creation (ice cream and melted chocolate are natural enemies – the hot chocolate melts the ice cream, the ice cream warms the chocolate back to solid too quickly – hard to work with, but hilarious and most importantly, YUM). They are still giggling away happily, all is well in tween world.

And no, she’s not actually 13 yet – roll on Monday LOL

Appliance failure is the mother of innovation…

… not to mention the easy peasy cheese(y)cake

This recipe (dedicated to the very patient Stompergirl) has been roadtested by not only my personal team of three little taste-testers (who love to check that my cooking isn’t “poisonous” LOL), but also by the staff at the school where I work and by a number of bloggers and friends who hit town recently and caught up at Little Smarties (FAB children’s clothing shop in Kew, see link on the left). Gotta love a combo of shopping, friends, champagne and cheesecake :)

It is just ridiculously easy and doesn’t even require the use of an oven. This is because just before I needed to provide the aforementioned morning tea, my oven died and my dreams of making a sampler of bitesized cheesecake portions shattered. A quick google search for “recipe cheesecake no bake” later, I threw together a couple of different results (using the added melted chocolate from one, the shortbread base from another etc) and created this now treasured addition to my repertoire. Of course, the oven was resurrected in time for morning tea, so I added some baked cheesecakes to the platter as well – variations on a theme kind of thing. But really, from now on, will I bother to bake?

So, take a packet of shortbread biscuits, put in a freezer bag, crush with rolling pin and add about 50g of melted butter and mix together. Press into tin (baking paper/sprayed/buttered/greased) - or if you’re into all things mini like me, put into individual patty pans - and refrigerate. Take a 250g pkt of cream cheese, leave it out of the fridge for a while til it’s soft, add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice and mix. Add a couple of teaspoons of vanilla essence, a can of sweetened condensed milk and 100g of melted white chocolate and beat for about a minute, seriously, that's about all it needs. Pour on top of shortbread base. Refrigerate for a couple of hours. Tada! Yes, truly, that’s it.

You can fiddle around with it too – I’ve done these with strawberry puree (squishing fresh strawberries through a sieve and adding a little icing sugar), then pouring a little on top of the cheesecake and swishing around with a toothpick to make pretty patterns. I also did them with melted Lindt dark chocolate with orange filling – yum! Of course you can put a raspberry or strawberry or grated flake on top etc, etc etc – it’s all good or, as Sophie would say, “scrumalicious”. Oh, and when you have too much cheesecake filling, you can just grab some good ole Marie biscuits and create cheesecake sandwiches for the kids’ playlunches which is a v. popular move, I must say.....