Sheesh.

You leave two sick kids in a recently tidied room for ten minutes and what happens?

This.

Port Fairy

We headed down to Port Fairy for their annual Spring Music Festival on the weekend. A four hour drive, but well worth it. I had the chance to experience four whole concerts, in child-free bliss. The first was violin/piano duo who played Beethoven's Sonata No.7 in c minor, op.30, No.2, which was stunningly beautiful. The violinist Cameron Hill especially was, well, just fabulous really. And speaking of fabulous, that night, I was dragged (protesting) from the house at 10:15pm to see the Stiletto Sisters, a trio that combine hungarian/russian style folk music with a dash of french passion and one hell of good time! I can't rave about them enough. The next day gave up some beautiful Schubert played by The Benaud Trio, and some very good (if rather unchallenging) Jazz. A great festival, but really, they do need to try and expand their audience somewhat. I'm sure I'm not the only person under 50 who enjoys a bit of classical and/or jazz every now and then. But sitting up the back (as I often was) my field of vision was filled mostly with a sea of grey. Which is fine. It's a grown-up alternative to the folk festival. But still, that's a whole two thirds of the population that they seem to be neglecting in their marketing.


Of course, being in Port Fairy, Mari was very interested in looking for fairies at the bottom of the garden, with moderate success, spring being the right time for fairy watching and all. And Rosa had fun playing with her very good friend Alannah. We also got the chance to walk along the wharf to check out the boats and soak up some sunshine between performances.

Big Smoke

We ventured down to Melbourne last week. The girls and I caught up with friends, and walked (and walked!) around Prahran, Camberwell and St Kilda. We attempted to have a quiet lunch on Wednesday at Fed Square followed by a gentle stroll around the Charles Blackman show, but were foiled by the football extravaganza(!) and an Australian Idol (i think) concert. Oh dear god! The rest of the week was spent shoe shopping (joy!), catching up with very dear friends and exploring Luna Park and St Kilda community garden. A fun but exhausting three days. Did I mention the walking? In new shoes! Phew.

yuck

This is the image I want you to have of us this week; not one of virulent gastro, projectile vomiting, ruined sofa, and stuff too horrible to mention.

My Sunshine

How much do I love these three people? To the sun and back. And some.

You guessed it...

I've been putting off posting because I know that all I'll talk about is sleep. Or lack of it. And how much everyone else is getting compared to us. Guard on night duty at a fire cracker factory during a thunderstorm? More sleep than us. Insomniac owl? Waaay more sleep than us. The hapless mouse that scientists kept awake for a week and a half just to see how long it would last before it went doolaly and died (which it did). More sleep. Than us.

See. I'm talking about sleep. Humour me for just a minute more. For those childless people out there (I know you exist), use this scenario as a reference. A stranger (aka Rosa) breaks into your house in the dead of night, creeps up to your bed and ~PAARRRRP!~ lets off a fog horn next to your ear. You; A. cheerfully throw back the covers and invite him to chew on your nipple and yell at you a bit more for the rest of the night, or B. scream, knock him on the head with a lamp, and run to dial 000. Yes, well. We choose A. Every time.