We didn't get the memo!

I love living in Glebe. I must, hey? I write a blog about it! So because I love Glebe it doesn’t enter my mind to leave the suburb, say if I had children, for example. Some would say that children need space to run around and do stuff. The great Australian dream would have us living on the quarter acre block in a 3 bedroom low set brick house in “the suburbs”.

Arran and I have decided that we very much like living in Glebe in a Terrace house with a very small yard. We have a larger yard than most in Glebe but it’s still small by Australian standards. It’s a very convenient place to live. Within 200 metres of our house we have:

• an Indian Restaurant
• 3 Thai noodle restaurants
• A cocktail bar
• A pub which claims to have Sydney’s coldest beer and fantastic pub food
• Two small supermarkets
• A fish and chip shop
• 5 cafes
• A French inspired restaurant
• A bank
• A drycleaner
• 2 Japanese restaurants, which we never go to because I don’t “get” Japanese food
• A German bakery
• A Vietnamese/French bakery
• A nail and waxing shop – best mani-pedi’s going!

This is in addition to heaps more restaurants, shops and facilities within a 1km walk. It’s very convenient for two people who are not particularly organised. Over the years we have been living in Glebe the City of Sydney council have spent many rate payers dollars upgrading the street scapes and parks which means that there are many many beautiful places to be.

So this is all pretty nice isn’t it? Except we didn’t get the memo, that we were supposed to move to the suburbs once we had kids! Apparently that’s what the city planners expect us to do. Young professional couples move into the inner city suburbs to live and to work and to get married.  All good. Then when you decide to have kids you are supposed to need more space and you then move further out of the city.

But guess what? Arran and I don’t want to do this. Apparently there are lots of other parents living in the inner city who also don’t want to do this. Hmmm….so?

Well next year Aiden starts school as do many other kids in the area. This topic has been consuming mother’s group conversation for the past 6-9 months and frankly, I’m over it. I’m over talking about the same topic over and over and I’m over not having a range of education options. You see the small inner city schools are not able to cope with the fact that we didn’t choose to move out to the suburbs and send our kids to schools that are probably better equipped to enroll larger numbers of kids.

So here we are in Glebe. When Aiden was about 4 months old I paid $250 to put him on the waiting list for an Independent school in the area. Because we turned down a place for Aiden for pre-school we have to wait until October to see if he is going to get into Kindergarten. Welcome to Sydney people. Apparently I should have put him on the list when I conceived!

We are in the catchment area for a public school that doesn’t have a good reputation and doesn’t compare well academically with the other schools in the area. Every parent wants their child to go to a good school and I also want a school that is going to be able to AND happy to provide extra support for Aiden’s vision impairment. I don’t get the impression that this is the school for Aiden.

 The school that is within a 5 minute walk of our house and we are NOT in the catchment area for took 6 “out of area” enrolments last year. The admin person at this school happily informed me that there was no chance of getting Aiden in at this school as there is 44 kids already on the waiting list.

I attended a Kindergarten information evening at another school in a nearby suburb, which comes highly recommended and has a good reputation. I was solely there to find out the chances of getting Aiden in as an “out of area” enrollment, as were half the parents there. This topic was not covered as part of the “information” and I found myself with 10 other desperate parents grilling one of the teachers and Administration Managers. One parent was so desperate she was enquiring as to when she would be considered “in area” if she bought a house in the catchment. But when would she be considered in area? Would it be when she signed the contract to buy the house? Or would it be when the sale settled? What date would matter to get her child into Kindergarten in 2014? That’s commitment.

I have found another little school in a nearby suburb which is lovely and the principal was willing to meet with Arran and I. It would be a great school for Aiden and I have filled out the “out of area” enrollment application. Crossed fingers.

I know it will work out and the best option will come up for Aiden, but gee wouldn’t it have been handy if we had got the memo?

Does Arran need his head read?

So when your best friend/partner/husband says to you that he wants to travel to the opposite side of the world to ride his bike from Canada to Mexico for oh, about 5 weeks or so...well you can't but think IDIOT! FOOL! WHY?? Seriously. Why would anyone want to do such a thing? We had the winner of last years event here for dinner a couple of months ago and by the time he got to the end of the event his body had started to eat itself. Yep. Spent 5 days in hospital to try and turn around the effects of his body eating itself. Yep.

So Arran left yesterday to make his way to Bamf in Canada to start the Tour Divide and I'm left wondering how the next 5-6 weeks are going to be? I have spent pretty much all the time leading up to him leaving wondering if I will:

• Lock myself out of the house?
• Get really sick and have to look after the boys by myself?
• Get stuck at work and not make it in time to pick the boys up from daycare?
• Forget to drop off the daycare photo envelope in time, though that could happen if Arran is here or not. It's happened before.
• Have to travel overseas because the company I work for might acquire a business...I can see two small boys dusting off their passport.
• Want to watch Game of Thrones but can't work out the complicated tech set up Arran has going on with our Arran's big TV....

So really, nothing I can't handle. I'll be OK. Probably a little lonely but fine. I have the bed to myself. That's a positive.

Arran on the other hand has set off to do something kinda amazing. It wasn't until his mate Adam MacBeth wrote this post that it really hit me. Arran hasn't really been enjoying work over the past couple of weeks and its probably fair to say that he has been getting some pressure to not go on leave as the project he is working on seems to be at a critical stage, or something. But you know, when he looks back and remembers his life, he will remember the trip to North America to attempt something that not many attempt. I don't think he will look back in the same way on a software implementation project. Truth.

Arran, Aiden and Charlie (in the chariot), 2012 Sydney to Woolongong

So, while I think riding a bike for that length of time and having to carry all your own shit while not being eaten by a bear is not really my glass of chardy, I reckon Arran is really going to miss me and the boys and will really have a great time. This is a once in a lifetime (seriously Arran, you ain't doin it again), what dreams are made of kinda experience and I hope you chill out and lap it up.

Lisa xx

Day 4: Running Late

I remembered last night at oh about 11.30pm that I had forgotten to do the days blog post. I had already had a little nap on the lounge at our holiday house for the Easter weekend, after a glass of red wine. I barely had the energy to move from the lounge to the bed so the chances of writing a blog post were non-existent.

Thursday was another long day with working and then the drive to Culburra Beach, which wasn't too bad considering we left Sydney at 5pm, rather than the planned 4pm. The main traffic snarl was on the approach to Kiama, where the piece of road changes from two lanes to one. Overall a good trip. Small boys were good and the trip was happy. We managed to pack the whole house into the car, including bikes and only realised we had forgotten bath towels on arrival. We have beach towels. We will live.

Unfortunately the Rabbits didn't fare that well during the trip but I prefer broken Chocolate over Charlie screaming the whole way.

So the plans for the day?

Some reading of these:

Some cooking of this:

Chicken and Pistachio Terrine, in this month's Vogue Living

And some admiring of the holiday house style:

What are you doing today?

Day 3: Long Day. Short Post

So not being a morning person and having not gone to bed until oh about 1am and then getting up a 6am to ice cupcakes well, it's been a long one.

It's been a rush kind of day trying to remember to do everything and get everything done. This included icing cupcakes, decorating cupcakes, getting small boys dressed, getting me dressed, presents opened, phone calls answered, small boys into the car and off to day-care, arriving at work at a decent time, working all day, buying dishwasher tablets and then racing home to pick up small boys, a negotiation with Arran to pick up my dry cleaning, cook dinner for a little party, (thank goodness I had a common sense attack and didn't make pizza bases from scratch) baths for 5 little bodies and then cleaning up and my 2 little bodies off to bed.

Then Arran and I started packing to go away for Easter. Nuts!

The birthday boy with supermarket bought ice-cream cake. Best ever!

Day 2 of 5: It's probably unwise to bake and blog past 10.30pm

10.35 Arrive home from wine bar. It's important to check out quality of new wine bars. Because.
10.41 Get out packet cakes. It's Aiden's birthday tomorrow and there seems to be a tradition of mums bringing in birthday cakes to daycare.
10.45 Turn on oven and wonder if it's working.
10.48 Wish my second drawer didn't look like this. Again.

 
10.49 Can't find beater attachments. Swear at cleaning angels
10.51 Beating cake mix and using my fluro pink spatula. Feel strangely satisfied using a spatula

10.56 First batch in oven
11.02 Prepare ingrediants for next batch
11.05 Get final birthday presents from car to wrap.
11.14 Commence mixing for second batch

11.16 Pull out first batch. lookin good!

11.18 Lick beaters of second batch
11.22 Second batch in oven. Lick bowl. Why is raw cake batter so tasty?
11.26 Chop up pizza ingrediants for Aiden's little party tomorrow night
11.34 Wash up dishes
11.35 Pack remainder of items in dishwasher. Discover we have run out of dishwasher powder. Pfffft!!
11.36 Discover eggs still in cup and NOT in cakes. Think about crying.

11.42 Cakes look ok despite lack of eggs. Hmmm... will a 4 year old notice if I slather in icing? Wonder if there are any kids at daycare who are allergic to eggs? I have the cakes for them!

11.51 Time for bed.

Day 1: Self imposed blogging challenge

There I was, standing waiting at the checkout at Coles wondering why I was so tired all of a sudden. The man in front of me wanted to know my opinion on whether someone was rude or not. I told him I wasn't listening and wanted to be in bed. It was 9pm after all and I was at the shops and I still hadn't completed a blog post.

I had decided on my bike ride home from work (more on that in a minute) that I was going to set myself a challenge to blog for the next 5 days. You see I feel like I have been neglecting this blog, I haven't had much inspiration because I have been a relatively good mummy recently and very busy!

So yes, I rode my bike to work today. On average I have been riding my bike to and from work 1 day a week for about 5 or 6 weeks. It started last year when a group at work asked if I wanted to participate in Ride to Work day. Sure! Why not? Well to start with I was (am) so unfit that I thought I might die on that day. By the time I rode the 9km to work I wasn't feeling so great, and I couldn't eat for hours. I caught the train home.

Trusty steed in my office

Earlier this year I got a bit freaked out about turning 40 and thought I should perhaps get my body moving a bit faster than it had been. I walk a fair bit and go to pilates and yoga but haven't done anything resembling cardio for a while. I don't really like puffing. Maybe if I just rode to work by myself I wouldn't feel like I would have to keep up with the people who actually look ok in lycra?

This was a good idea. I can go at my own pace, enjoy the ride a bit when I'm not concentrating on breathing or getting run over, and arrive at work not wanting to vomit. Winning.

On today's ride I actually sped up on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and when I arrived at work I felt that I may have improved, and actually be a little fitter. Winning.

The ride on the way home is generally quite pleasant. There is a lot more down than up, the ride is much faster and I don't feel the pressure to get there quickly, like I do in the morning. I was feeling quite pleased with myself, powering up a small hill near home when a man, rode past on what can only be described as a "leisure bike". I had my head down peddling like a demon, my quads screaming but feeling "powerful" and fit (even though my stomach kept hitting my knees), when this man glided past, gently peddling his long legs, wearing dark jeans (it was 27 degrees) and a short sleeve button up t-shirt. No effort, no puffing. I may have well been standing still. Bastard. Not winning.

I arrived home without any injury except for my pride and helped with feeding and bathing the small boys, had a shower and then wrote a grocery list. We are having a little dinner for Aiden's birthday on Wednesday night and then going away for the Easter weekend. In an effort to be a bit organised I thought I had better grocery shop tonight.

Arrived home at 9.15pm, unpacked groceries, wrapped some birthday presents for Aiden and now I'm off to bed! Phew!

Things to be grateful for...on my birthday

 
So it's my birthday today. I'm 40 and feeling a bit, well, like it's any other day at this point. Arran and I had a combined 40th party last November and I fell foul of the household tummy bug and was too sick to enjoy it. I went to bed early having not enjoyed any of the lovely cocktails on offer or the amazing thai food from Longrain, or socialising with all the lovely people who came.

Arran is also away until Monday riding his bike in Victoria somewhere so there were no presents this morning. He did leave me a card from him and a card from the boys before he left on Friday which was nice, but I can't help feeling that my birthday is less important than riding a bike.

I have had around 10 automatically generated emails from various businesses who have my email address and birth-date offering various discounts and incentives to come spend more money with them. I feel so special.

I have also had some cards and gifts in the mail, which is nice. My sister and my nephews rang and wished me Happy Birthday and I have had a birthday message on Facebook, also from my sister. Mum and Dad sent me some money to buy a gift which I'm going to save for a trip to the US in April.

We are going away next weekend for my birthday but it's not really the same. You would think I was a kid but feeling a little low really. It's probably PMT and I need to pull myself together.

So in the spirit of this being a first world problem, there have been lots of things to be grateful for today and it's only 10am:

1. A work colleague told me I could ignore his emails for the day. He also called me a "Babe". I was chuffed. Until I realised he meant I was young (he is in his 50's) not hot! Not that being young is not a bad thing but being called hot, sexy, good looking etc is much better.
2. Slept all night without Charlie crying and having to fly out of bed to put his dummy in.
3. Had the bed to myself because Arran is away riding his bike. That's just a normal weekend though.
4. Charlie didn't stir until 7.19am which is when I woke up. I read my book for 15 minutes more before getting up. Bliss
5. Both small boys are happy
6. Aiden took up the bribe of a "present" in the shape of a train if it didn't wet his pants during the night for the first time ever. 
7. I cleaned up the kitchen before going to bed last night and it was really nice to come down to a clean and tidy house (clutching at straws)
8. Charlie didn't cry like a banshee when I got him dressed
9. Bookclub is at my house this afternoon and I have two people coming who contacted me through this blog, looking to join a bookclub. New friends! I also have two friends coming for the first time who I met through work and who I adore.
10. Laura and Luella are coming over to help with bookclub and to stay for dinner for my birthday.
11. I'm going to crack some vintage champagne for dinner tonight.

The day is looking good!