Eli at Pre-school

Here's a picture of Eli at his pre-school with his friend Leo. Taken from the school newsletter - the two boys are using eco-blocks to make a construction.

Water safety week

The kids have a weekly swimming lesson and each term they have one week given over to 'Water Safety Week'.

It means that they concentrate on life saving, wearing life jackets and jumping into the 'big pool'.

Audrey can now swim almost a width un-aided so she dived in without any problems and I was really proud watching Eli completing his lesson. Here's some pics;

Eli going through his paces

British Lions v ACT Brumbies

I went along with a couple of friends to watch the Brumbies (the local Canberra rugby team) play the British and Irish Lions who are on tour at the moment.

It's 12 years since the Lions last toured Australia and they have a massive following. Even a bitterly cold and frosty night in Canberra didn't deter the Lions supporters and there were 21,000 of us in Bruce Stadium for the game. A lot of Scots dressed in kilts and t-shirts.

Both sides fielded weakened sides - the Brumbies are still involved in the 'Super Rugby' competition (they finished top of the Australian section) and the Lions due to play three tests against Australia so they both had future games and players fitness to contemplate.

It was a bit of a dilema for me - club or country? I wore red of the Lions to the game (in fairness I had little option as my thick winter coat is red) but the Brumbies determination and defence was outstanding and in the end I cheered for the local side. Either way I couldn't really lose.

The Brumbies ended up winning 14-12 - a great result. Of course in reality it was little more than a friendly encounter but still a noteable result. It would be good to see the Lions go unbeaten for the rest of the tour with the only blot on their record occuring in the chill of Canberra.

Milo the clown at Kingston markets

I took the kids along to see Milo the clown at Kingston markets. It's our second major encounter with Milo (he'd been to a friend's boys party a few months ago). He's a funny guy with a well practiced routine. Mostly it's about making the kids laugh and humbling/humiliating watching parents.

His show went for over an hour a variety of juggling, diablo spinning and unicycle riding. He's probably a public servant by day but his make up masks his true identity. The kids loved him and we ate hotdogs and Jamaican curry from the food stalls afterwards.

Eli and Tia

A local cat by the name of Tia has adopted Eli.

It's a particularly friendly cat which I think lives a three or four doors away and comes running to our car when we pull into the drive to see our little boy.

We've never fed her and actively discourage her from coming in the house but she loves Eli nonetheless - meowing hello as she runs over. Eli returns the love and sits on our back step and strokes her. There are boundaries to the love though - we were laughing a couple of days ago as we watched Eli in the garden throwing sticks for Tia (over the cats head) for her to "fetch" while Tia stood looking at him blankly.

Eli pays his Mum a compliment (kind of)

My conversation with Eli tonight at bedtime:


Eli: Mummy, why do you have those lines on your forehead? Is it because you're old.

Me: (feeling deflated) Yes, I guess so.

Eli: But you're not as old as Yoda, are you?

The first rule of chess club:

Tim Freedman at Better Music

A new music store (Better Music) opened about 10 minutes from where we live. As part of the opening day the shop had invited Tim Freedman (lead singer of Australian band The Whitlams) to attend (promoting Yahmaha keyboards) - he's a great pianist.

After swimming the four of us went along and got front row seats!

Tim had played a solo tour last year and we met him in Canberra but this time it was a different experience as we were only about 5 metres from him.

He played a short set - we often play The Whitlams in our car and as he played Tim looked a few times at Audrey on the front row singing his lyrics. One of his songs has an 'F' word in it and he removed it from this rendition and commented that he had done it entirely for Audrey's benefit.

As his set concluded he offered up a chance for requests and Eli shouted out "Gough" - his favourite Whitlam's song. The song is about former Australian PM, Gough Whitlam and it amused Tim Freedman that one so young had requested a song about a PM - "You weren't even born when they'd made the documentary about him" said Tim as he struck up the first chord.

We met him afterwards. Being a music store it wasn't your usual post-concert scramble. Tim Freedman seems a lovely bloke, very unassuming. He chatted with the kids when they ran over to him and he said that he knew that they'd heard his songs a lot before (not least as Audrey had sung most of them) but also as they'd sat patiently throughout the last 30-40 minutes.

It was a great way to spend an afternoon. I hope Tim Freedman (and of course Better Music) continue to prosper.