In 1543 Poland's Nicolas Copernicus discovered that the earth moved around the sun, which was the centre of the solar system
In 1822, geologist William Buckland uncovers the first dinosaur remains
In 1858 Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
In 1919 Albert Einstein unveiled his theory of general relativity in which he proposes that mass warps both time and space, therefore large masses can bend light.
On 6th August Trevor Hickman discovers that Banks's Mild can be purchased 10,000 miles away from where it is brewed (Wolverhampton, England) - in Canberra, Australia.
The last one was definitely cause for much celebration!! - what's more they were a snip at just $4 a can - thank you Plonk Beer shop in Fyshwick!
On Saturday afternoon I (Amy) took a very excited Audrey and a not-so-excited Eli to the grand opening of 'The Fairies' shop in Mitchell. The ad had promised that Harmony and Rhapsody (from The Fairies TV show) would be there to meet and greet children from 1-3.30 pm.
We got to the store around 2pm and I could not believe the number of people at the store...the crowd was spilling out in to the carpark. Never before have I seen so much pink, fairy wings, wands etc. Little did I know that so many young girls lived in Canberra!! We duly took our number from the somewhat harassed Fairy Assistant at the door. Number 10.
"What number are they currently up to?" I asked. "Number 3" the Fairy Assistant muttered, not wanting to make eye contact. Oh dear....we were in for the long haul. I was tempted to leave then but Audrey was sooo excited I couldn't let her down. So we looked at the merchandise (of which there was plenty) and I managed to get away lightly by only buying 2 books (1 each - it seems Eli was now excited to be at The Fairies shop). We joined the long queue to pay for our goods and then set about waiting...and waiting....and waiting.
There was fairy dancing and colouring to keep the children occupied but it all still worked on the number system and they were only up to number 5! Aaarrrghhhh.... The children were very good although Audrey did say a few times, "Waiting is boring". Finally, the dancing was up to Number 8 - I didn't care any more and shoved Eli and Audrey into the space to dance. They did 2 rounds of dancing - for Number 8 and Number 9 and then yes! our number was called for the craft room. Hurrah! We were getting closer to getting into the room to meet Harmony and Rhapsody. I pushed the children into the room to do colouring. It turned out the (other) harassed Fairy Assistant had called Number 10 by mistake and it should have been Number 9. Too bad! My kids were at the table now and we weren't moving. All the other parents thought the same. It was now almost 3:30pm.
Finally, after about 15 minutes in the colouring room we made it into the room to meet Harmony and Rhapsody. I did a double take at the two fairies sitting greeting the children. Something wasn't right. These clearly weren't the fairies from the TV show. They were dressed the same, had the right colour hair, but were NOT the fairies!! I said in disbelief, "It's not even them!". A dad next to me laughed (almost hysterically) saying, "No wonder they hid them away in a separate room!". We muttered about false advertising etc and having to wait for so long but our children didn't seem to be too bothered by it and gladly posed with the fake fairies.
I thought Audrey must have been fooled but on the way home she said to me, "They didn't do fairy kisses goodbye like the TV ones". Did she know they were different or not? I wasn't silly enough to ask, only silly enough to have waited almost 2 hours to have the pleasure of being duped.
Here's the pic of Audrey and Eli with not-Harmony and not-Rhapsody and a picture of the real deal so you can tell the difference!
Audrey and Eli with not-Harmony and not-Rhapsody
Harmony and Rhapsody - the real ones
Audrey and Eli while away the hours doing some art work
We're going on a little day out - we're off to a concert Listen to the orchestra - blowing on a trumpet See the girl play the violin - the little boy on the big bass drum Boom boom boom boom - here it comes
Audrey's daycare had an outing to 'Noteworthy Kinder' which was put on by the Canberra Philharmonic orchestra in the impressive Llewellyn Hall at the Australian National University (ANU).
It was a lovely performance - probably only 4 or 5 pieces, but the conductor (Mark Shiell) was excellent and really entertained the kids. In truth, the main entertainment for most of the children was the bus ride to the ANU and a lot of them seemed to really like playing with the flip up seats more than listening to the music, but it was a nice morning out nonetheless.
I went along for the ride as well, to help out - here's some pictures of our trip.
Fantastic entertainment can be had by cutting out some Disney Princesses from a tissue box, making them into finger puppets and fashioning a stage... thanks Kleenex - the cost of your tissues has been recouped 10 times over!
It's not surprising how much kids pick up on in the way you act and talk. Both Amy and I are always on our best behaviour around them in an effort to encourage them to not pick up our bad habits.
Eli picked up one of our 'slips' a couple of nights ago when we having dinner and repeated "Oh bugger!" over and over at least 20 times (very clearly) while smirking at how clever he was. Audrey filled in for us by trying to encourage him to say "Oh dear", but her requests went unnoticed and the Oh buggers continued. Fortunately by the next morning they'd worn off (for now)
Well, it's been a while since an update so Trevor said I should write something. I'm always a little reluctant, not because I don't want to share my news, but because the blog is usually filled with stories of our happy outings, the things Audrey and Eli are up to etc and my news is not really uplifting (yet!)
At my last appointment with my medical oncologist (about 6 weeks or so ago) I was told that the hormone treatment I am currently on doesn't seem to be doing the job we hoped it would. The cancer in my bones has spread a little and my tumour markers are still very high. So, the plan - to have more radiation treatment to my left pelvis and to my cervical spine. Then, we check the tumour markers again and if they are still high I go on to a different hormone treatment. I'll have more news on this after my next appointment on 2 August.
I am currently almost halfway through the radiation (10 sessions this time). I have been nauseous again and my saliva glands have been affected so my mouth is a tad dry. Not a good idea to eat dry crackers at the moment as I discovered last night when it took me almost 10 minutes to eat one!
The radiation has also made me really tired this time - twice this week I have been in bed before the children which they find very amusing! The first time, they came into my bed to read me a story but last night I was passed out so no stories for me!
