Southside Farmer's Market

On Sunday morning the three of us went along to a nearby 'Southside Farmer's Market'. It's only a short drive from our house and I guess if we feel energetic we might even walk there one day.

It's a lovely time of year in Australia for such a thing as there were loads of fruit in season and we bought a big bags of nectarines, cherries and apples home with us.

The cherries are particularly tasty - I suspect we may well make the trip there again next Sunday!

don't worry - we got the pip!

Aisha's Birthday Party

Audrey was invited to a birthday party on Saturday morning. It was held at 'Kid's City' in the North of the city.

Kid City is essentially a big warehouse full of screaming kids, ball pools, climbing frames, slides and the obligitary cafe selling sweets, cakes and Cherryade so as to drive the kids into a state of hyper-activity. I think it's one of about 5 such places in the City.

Audrey had a really good time, although she's obviously still a bit young for most of the equipment there.

She did enjoy watching the hoards of other kids though. There was also a disco room (closed off from the rest of the hall) where the kids could play musical statues and other dancing games. Fortunately Audrey's also a bit young to be embarrased by her dad dancing to the chicken song.

Trip To Sydney

Last weekend the three of us took a trip to Sydney. It's about 3½ drive from Canberra. The drive takes you through some lovely countryside and we stopped a couple of times en route to give Audrey a break from the boredom of being strapped in her car seat.

By the time we hit the outskirts of Sydney though poor Audrey had really had enough. Trying to navigate a busy highway in the rain, while trying to listen to a sat-nav' whose instruction is being drowned out by your daughter's high pitched scream wasn't really conducive to a relaxing drive. I think we were all relieved to arrive at Tim and Hayley's house in Sydney.

It was lovely to see them and catch up. We hadn't seen them for nearly 2 years and their two children (Alex and Ted) were both really lovely and really friendly towards Audrey (even after the turmoil of her journey into the city). We spent a nice couple of days in their company.

On Monday Amy and Audrey visited Sydney harbour and encountered some Ibis (Audrey loved them) . Amy also bought Audrey a doll which she has remained attached to ever since.






We headed back to Canberra on Tuesday, and despite it being a tiring time for all of us we agreed that we had enjoyed our time in the 'big smoke'.

Train Trip to Bungandore

On Sunday the three of us went on a steam train ride out of Canberra to visit a small town called Bungandore to the east of the city. The rail trips are run every couple of weeks or so to a variety of destinations around the city by the Railway Historical Society of the ACT

It was a lovely way to spend a sunny day. The train was packed with day-trippers of all ages. We passed through stunning countryside on our journey and even spotted a couple of kangaroos enroute. The trip coincided with Bungandore's Spring Fayre and we had a couple of hours exploring the stalls and wandering round the town. We then enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park before returning home.

Poor Audrey went most of the day without sleep. It's a dangerous thing, as a lack of sleep seems to impair her co-ordination causing her to stagger when she walks, burst into tears without warning, be short tempered and in fact act not unlike a drunken student. Fortunately she finally dozed off when we were about 15minutes from Canberra.

Sausage Sizzle at Bunnings Warehouse

The Friday playgroup that we go to organised a 'Sausage Sizzle' at Bunnings Warehouse the other weekend and I went along to help out. For the uninitiated (i.e non Australians) Sausage Sizzles are an Australian institution where the cheapest available sausages are cooked on an enormous barbeque then given away or sold. The cheapest white sliced loaf is always used to hold the sausage (NEVER bread rolls) and diners are recommended to use lashings of tomato sauce and plenty of onions to hide the flavour of the cheap meat.

Actually they're pretty good fun (and that coming from a vegetarian). I was shocked by the length of the queues at the event and we were sucessful in raising $1200 for the playgroup which was great as well.

Lest we forget...

Today Australians everywhere should celebrate the Anzac spirit, true mateship, good defeating evil, making a difference to the World......yes, today is officially Steve Irwin day!

Even before he died Steve Irwin seemed to have become a caricature of himself. Venomous snakes, crocodiles, stingrays(!) all in the name of conservation of course (not forgetting the millions of dollars of of merchandise that got flogged to the USA and the miles of Queensland real estate that got bought with the proceeds). Then the tragedy of his death, the candlelit vigils, the tears, the desire to see the footage of the accident on youtube... how would 'Australia zoo' and the Irwins survive??

And then out of the ashes comes Bindi exercise videos, Terri cooking videos, the Crocoseum, phew the empire is saved, the dream is still alive, the cash starts rolling in again, the $50 million dollar property empire is saved...hurrah!

I'm off to don my khaki shirt in honour of it all.

Dora and Shrek

Today was mine and Audrey's turn at Friday's playgroup (sadly my last) to organise the 'craft' session.

We chose to make loo-roll animals/characters and so the kids there helped produce an army of Dora the Explorer and Shrek animals.

It seemed to go down pretty well, with not too much glue spilt/eaten, even though Audrey later chose to pick the google eyes off her Dora.

If you fancy making some loo-roll animals of your own - here's a really good site.

Some Photos from this weekend

We had a busy weekend with a 4th birthday party on Saturday at Cotter Dam (a lovely spot just outside of Canberra) and a trip to the lake in Tuggeranong on Sunday. Here's some pics we took..