Fruit based drink for the lady

Tomorrow sees the culmination of a five and a half year project when M attends her graduation ceremony as a Master of Clinical Psychology at Macquarie University. The most impressive thing is that she achieved this whilst having 2 children, holding down multiple jobs, keeping me in the style to which I have become accustomed and just being generally fabulous. An awesome job.

We're having a cocktail party to celebrate on Saturday, so lucky it's the end of our self-imposed booze ban ends today. I'm off to my film course tonight, but I think there may be a dram or two drunk in the following days.

Meanwhile, the kids have a new cubbie house which is being enjoyed already despite the lack of interior decorating:

Don't tell me I'm still on this feckin island

M&I have been off the booze for the last 4 weeks, in an effort to break out of some bad habits. We're back on the grog as of Friday, which happily coincides with M's graduation ceremony and all champagne-quaffing associated therewith. We then plan to develop entirely new bad habits over the next few weeks.

This has been happening only rarely:

Those who have seen it will understand my grief

Much of myeekend was spent watching Very Significant French Cinema, but the highlight was inevitably my first ever trip with B1 to go see a movie. She's a devotee of her Toy Story videos, so I figured Pixar's latest, Up, would be a good bet. B1 enjoyed all the hoopla of the trip, buying popcorn and suchlike, and she could tell I was pretty excited and joined in accordingly.

Unfortunately the film itself turned out to be a bit too "old" for her probably. It involves themes of grief and childlessness which would have been totally lost on her, and she thought that the hero was a "bad man" rather than the crotchety but kind-hearted soul he actually was. She also got bored of the 3D glasses and found the whole thing rather too loud. The worst feature was probably the really scary pack of dogs that the good guys are chased by for much of the film, an effect exacerbated by the fact that they were in 3D.

Still, she said she enjoyed it and would like to go again. Something more gentle next time, I think.

Incidentally, I spent a fair chunk of the movie crying at the sad love story aspect, and trying to conceal the fact from both B1 and the other adults seated nearby. Honestly, I can't remember sobbing so embarassingly at a movie since Brokeback and at least that wasn't a kid's movie.

My family

The latest with the family is as follows:

B1 - Has now learned how to print from the computer, which she loves. Mainly watching Toy Story 2, gleefully anticipating seeing Up next weekend. Favourite word "boooring", often followed by a world-weary sigh.

B2 - Gets excited by cricket/tennis/golf balls as only a two year old can. Loves his new train set.

M&I - Today we got tickets for the new Yasmina Reza play at the Opera House, and - yes! - The Pixies at the Hordern. Cool.

Tiger Goodfellow

(Technical Note: I recently changed my Facebook settings so that this blog appears in my FB updates. I'm still not sure whether this is a good idea. Will think on it.)

Last week I had the rare treat of playing a round of golf. I used to play a fair bit with my dad when I was a teenager so I have a swing of sorts, but I needed the impetus of a brand new second hand set of clubs to get me going. Windsor is a nice course and of course M's dad Max is a good playing partner.

It's a daft game, I spent most of the round with steam coming out of my ears due to my own shortcomings, but despite appearances I was thoroughly enjoying myself. My worst score on a hole was in single figures, and I scored a 6 on a par 5 which I have to be quite happy with.

I also look good in a glove:

Her father's daughter

The following exchange occurred just now as I was reading B1 a bedtime story, Bear About Town:

Me: And where is Bear today?
Beth: He's gone to see a movie.
Me: Right, and what's the name of the place that you go to see a movie?
Beth: Um...a film festival!

Sometimes the sequel is better than the original

Last week I was amused by Beth's skill on a skateboard, which led me to create this exciting movie theatre experience:



Now, in true Hollywood sequel style, we have reprised the original idea but upped the ante in exciting new ways. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: 1 skateboard, 2 children!