Flip Out!

Canberra is home to three trampoline 'warehouses'. Two 'Flip Outs' and a Skyzone. There's not really much to choose between them. Skyzone is probably a bit more 'polished' but they're essentially huge warehouses filled with trampolines and staffed by 18 year olds.

The kids love their trips there and I guess they are perfect for kids who are full of energy and bounce. Skyzone is a bit more regimented on time allotted to jump, whereas Flip Out is a bit more easy going (I think we paid for an hour and they jumped for two). Here's some pictures.

Sk8er Grl

Audrey landed herself a skateboard for her birthday and she's pretty good at it so far - learning to 'ollie' in a couple of afternoons. Hopefully no broken arms await...

"The Emergensea" by John Hegley

"The Emergensea" by John Hegley
The octopus awoke one morning and wondered what rhyme it was.
Looking at his alarm-clocktopus
he saw that it had stopped
and it was time to stop having a rest
and get himself dressed.
On every octofoot
he put
an octosocktopus
but in his hurry, one foot got put
not into an octosocktopus
but into an electric outlet
and the octopus got a nasty electric shocktopus
and had to call the octodoctopus
who couldn't get in
to give any help or medicine
because the door was loctopus.
The octopus couldn't move, being in a state of octoshocktopus
so the octodoctopus bashed the door
to the floor
and the cure was as simple as could be:
a nice refreshing cup of
seawater.

Bought the kids and I new sandals for summer...

A tadge unimaginative, but at least we don't wear socks underneath.

Uriarra Crossing

We like it at Uriarra Crossing. It's only a short 20 minute drive out of town and Sunday was gloriously sunny, so we headed out for a BBQ with some friends.

We've had a really wet Autumn and so the river that runs through the area and feeds into the Cotter, is torrential at the moment. In summer we often swim or paddle in the river, but the water thundered by on Sunday and the small rocks we often play on were submerged under several metres of water.

Still the banks were (relatively) dry, and despite a couple of aggressive magpies who tried to swoop us (Eli hates magpies) we cooked sausages and played with my new rocket :)

Here's some pictures.

The 'Airburst rocket' I bought it for the kids (honestly!)

Often this is only a small stream

The kids with their mates

The banks of the river were covered in Californian Poppies - so beautiful.

The Whitlams

The Whitlams are something of an Australian institution. Formed in the early 90s and continuing (following a few changed line-ups) through to the current day. Lead vocalist and keyboard player Tim Freedman is the ever present member and during the life of the band a couple of band members have died (either via suicide or drunken misadventure).

They play an interesting, rock-come-folky-pop kind of thing - often tinged with political or social commentary, their music isn't immediately accessible but after a couple of plays it's really easy to come to like their style. They sing about everything from hamburgers to social isolation. The band themselves are named after eternally popular Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (a Labor PM sacked by the Queen in 1975 - who remains the only Australian Prime Minister to have his ministry terminated in that manner).

I caught up with them playing Canberra's excellent Street Theatre. They played three sell out nights there and after the show went on to share some drinks with them at Molly's Speakeasy (an interesting bar buried beneath Canberra's streets). It was nice to have a rare night out and enjoyed the chance to rub shoulders with the band.

Eli's Topic Talk

Proud of my boy....