"No reading at the breakfast table"

Oh dear - this is a long overdue post.  I have been reading this year but I haven't written much about the fiction I've been enjoying.  Quite the oversight. So here are a few suggestions for your holiday reading.  Mr Ali has retired.  And he needs something to do so opens a marriage bureau that arranges marriages for rich Indians.  The book is set in India, but is very similar in many ways to the 'Ladies' No.1 Detective agency'.  Lovely, easy read. This is just one of those lovely books to read.  Harold Fry has recently retired (there are similarities to the book above!) and finds himself struggling with a difficult relationship with his wife.  He receives a letter from an old work colleague, Queenie, who is dying of cancer but at the other end of the country (England).  Harold writes her a letter but instead of posting the letter in the box, he keeps walking.  And he decides that he is going to walk to Queenie, believing that i...

... in the movies. In a 10 AM (that's the morning, straight after school drop-off) session. In my defence, I was seeing 'The Great Gatsby' and I recently read the book. It does not have a complex plot. It was a nice nap. I'm feeling quite refreshed (and mildly concerned about exactly how tired I am). I think the combination of sitting still and a dark room were not conducive to keeping me awake. Although I WAS at the movies with my friend who is just coming out of 8 weeks of isolation after a bone marrow transplant for leukaemia. She stayed awake. She is seriously tired. The movie was fun and beautiful to watch. Well, for the bits I was awake for. Poor old Leonardo dies-again... I didn't like some of the bits that were added and some of my favourite scenes in the book weren't in it. Or hold on, maybe they were.

Yay-I'm on holidays! This is what I would like to get stuck in to. But what I actually need to do is clean my house. This is primarily because I can now see the dirt. What? We have been swathed in a romantic semi-darkness in both the bathroom and kitchen for days. Well, more like weeks. (Or is it months?). Anyway, finally got around to fixing the lights and argh! All is revealed! And 'all' is not good.

Today I'm wearing my minister's wife hat. The minister's wives in our diocese have a conference every two years. About 300 women here today. Great bunch of lovely women. All very normal people! Just now listening to a panel discussion about serving in ministry through the different stages of life. Lots of funny and encouraging stories.

Here we are almost 15 months in. My hairdresser has been so keen to do nice cuts for me and is always so positive about my 'lovely' hair. Makes me feel ok about it all.

In the past few weeks we've celebrated a few birthdays.  That time of the year.  I think the 15 year old's birthday freaked me out a little.  Not because he wanted Portuguese chicken for dinner... that didn't freak me out. But because he is FIFTEEN.  What?!  He is old and since he is old, I must be old.  No wonder my Dad was complaining about how old my 40th last year made him feel.  Can't even imagine what state I'll be in by then. Anyway, enough stream of consciousness thinking for you. Last week we celebrated the 4th child's 9th birthday (keeping track of all the numbers?  Confusing myself here and they're my kids, so you've got no hope). He doesn't like cake.  This is normal and conventional and expected.  His normal is none of those things. He likes Tim Tams and Maltesers.  We tried to make a 'cake' like structure to celebrate his birthday.  It did not work. But he was thrilled.  He thought it looked...

I'm leaving the creation of news (A Healthy Snack) - already late from last week - to my almost 13yo. I have things to do. Busy, busy. No, nothing useful like cooking dinner or folding the washing. I got my new book. All about queen bees in the school playground. She has four kids. Should be good (I hope!). I'll let you know what I think.

We had a lovely day, enjoying the Queen's birthday holiday (we are all conveniently monarchists if a public holiday is on offer!). We went for a walk, exploring the Middle Head of Sydney harbour (lots of old battlements to protect Sydney from attack - frankly I did wonder who was going to be bothered sailing all the way down here in the 1880's to attack little old Oz ... but I digress). The 8yo boy thought it was very exciting exploring the old buildings. We actually had fun. Not much complaining. It was nice. We laughed (mostly at the 13yo who was mortified by, well, everything). I love living in Sydney. It is just so beautiful. Great to have time to get out and enjoy it.

This looks ok but it has crunchy rice, bad instructions on a spice mixey packet thingey, tried something new in a hurry, big mistake. So we welcomed in our faithful friend 'not-so-good-food'. He was a welcome addition to our evening (not sure why hot chips are male in my head-some kind of knight in shining armour thing maybe). I felt like it was a fail, kids quite thrilled!