Eli's Father's Day Assembly

Eli had a Father's Day Assembly today and all his class read and sang songs. It was a lovely morning and all the kids and teachers had clearly worked so hard in preparation.

The day started with a family breakfast in the school courtyard (from 7.30am) and went on to the Assembly.

I got to take home a lovely bag of fudge (which stood for Fathers, Uncles, Dads, Grandpas and Everything in Between.

Eli gets ready to sing

Eli with some of his artwork (a picture of Dad - though I don't know why I look so grumpy!)

This one's for you Dad

I like to think you still read this blog Dad. I know you would have liked this.

Audrey's 6th Birthday

I read an article recently that the typical cost of a children's birthday party is now around $300. The same (UK) survey said that according to kids their perfect party would be held at a theme park, include 30 guests - and a guest appearance from David Beckham!

David wasn't available last weekend (and anyway I've never really understood the fuss about him myself) so in his absence Audrey celebrated her 6th birthday at a local pizza place together with her best mate Amber (and little sister) - rather than 30 others. There's a really good play area there and so the kids could go wild while parents could chat (in relative) peace.

Audrey had a Barbie cake which was well received and loved the presents she received, including a load of new Barbie clothes from Grandma, new lego, a sticker book and some excellent new pens/texters.

pressies for all!

new clothes for Barbie

Happy Birthday to You!

Barbie Cake

Space the final frontier

space monster and star

Book week at school brought with it a fancy dress pageant with a 'space' theme.

Audrey went as a star and Eli as a space monster (with multiple sock/arms).

Here's a picture of them on the way to school.

Canberra All Stars v Newcastle Jets

I ventured out into the cold Canberra evening to watch Canberra All Stars v Newcastle Jets.

Newcastle Jets are an 'A League' team - Australia's professional football league which gains sparse attention in Australia.

Here the sporting landscape is dominated by Cricket, AFL (Aussie Rules), Super Rugby (Rugby Union) and NRL (Rugby League) whereas football gains little attention bar for the two weeks every four years during a World Cup campaign in which an ever-aging Harry Kewell tries to turn back time and finally deliver the promise his skills really should have.

What confuses matters even more is that football here is called 'soccer' (both in Australia and America) while almost every other sport is called "footy". I'm actually quite surprised that even hockey and basket ball aren't also called "footy" such is the over/mis use of the word.

The game was played at McKellar Park (previously the Belconnen Soccer Centre). The ground had a nice grandstand with tea/coffee bar and good seats, the pitch showed signs of Canberra's winter but was generally flat. Ages ago you would have said "the pitch isn't Wembley is it?" - but that was before the pitch in Wembley became rubbish itself  and rendered the phrase useless.

Years ago as a little boy while on holiday I was taken to watch Threave Rovers (who now play in the Lowland League of Scotland) and both the pitch, attendance and temperature brought back memories of that.

Back in Canberra 768 souls turned up and watched Newcastle Jets score an early 2nd minute goal. At that point it looked as if it was going to be a landslide but Canberra tightened up and created a couple of chances themselves. The match was 2-0 at half time and finished 3-0. Relatively respectable.

The Canberra team had obviously been warned off against injuring any of the Jets players and were noticeably stand-offish when tackling for the ball. Newcastle also failed to bring Emile Heskey with them - the old and now rather stout, former England player opting to avoid taking the chilly trip to the nations capital.

 It was a good night, but really only served to remind everyone that Canberra will never really be a football ('soccer') town. There's an undercurrent support but even if the town was awarded an A league side it would only draw 3-4k attendance and would struggle to compete with other sports going on here.

Never mind there's always the World Cup to look forward to - where Harry Kewell will again pull on the Socceroos shirt and the team will get knocked out following a disputed penalty.

The boys from the ACT

Shredding Branches

We'd hacked a lot of branches off our old apple tree which have been piled up in the garden for the past couple of weeks until I spotted our neighbour had a 'Shredder' which he very kindly lent me.

It's good on long thin branches (of which we had plenty) and turns them into a (kind of) mulch. It basically smashes the wood and as the apple tree branches were pretty green makes a twiggy-greeny-mulch out of them which I've put on one of our borders where I want to keep the weeds at bay.

As twilight approached the kids got increasingly interested in what I was doing and so we all fed the machine with twigs while the kids chortled in a slightly disturbing Lord of the Flies kind of a way. I'm sure children aged 5 and 4 shouldn't be operating machinery like this, but no fingers were lost.

**If you're reading this blog from some Australian Health and Safety Commision and you're wondering about minors using dangerous garden equipment without proper supervision, barefoot and with no safety protection then don't worry about it as these photos are quite clearly photoshopped.



Face painting courtesy of Bunnings DIY store





Eli with his mate Leo (and his sister Ava)

...Smart move choosing a big boy as your good mate!