well the spectre of the dead rat is now long gone (Very Expensive Carpenter managed to evict a nest of them in the remnants of a old fireplace under the floorboards), but obviously the legend of the rodent lives on in Finn’s world….
fyi, “Piak” is the Singaporean Onomatopoeic word for hitting something vigorously. As in “Don’t you dare Piak your sister on the head Finn!”
It’s not always roses down here at the L household. Well today was just one of those days. Firstly, I woke up to Odeur du Dying Rat. Don’t you love the smell of decomposing rodent in the morning? Well the wonderful summer (*BIG SNORT) has apparently come to a sudden end, and with the cool weather, the usual pest exodus to the warmth of the house has begun.
One particularly annoying, and very very dead rodent (*or I should say, SUSPECTED rodent) has come to an untimely end beneath our floorboards under the dining room. According to our helpful neighbourhood expert Rick, IF it is a rat, it could take 7-10 days to stop smelling (i.e. to get consumed by bugs and mummified) BUT and this is a big BUT, if it is something BIGGER, like a possum, or a nest of rats, or a misguided koala, it could take up to a month!
STREAM OF HOKKIEN EXPLETIVES DELETED!!!!!
So the Irishman got a Pest Expert (who was very bemused by my screaming) in to crawl through the access point in our floorboards today, but apparently the Big Kahuna is not accessible from that point as it is behind a SOLID MUDBRICK FOUNDATION WALL! So guess what, I’m getting a Very Expensive Carpenter in tomorrow to cut not one, but THREE frigging manholes (that’s Australian for trapdoor, not a Singapore gay bar) in our wooden floors to turf out the little @$)* turd!
And THEN, because this is Australia, and an expert may do only one task at a time, I have arranged for the Bemused Pest Expert to crawl through the Manhole carved by Very Expensive Carpenter and retrieve F**king Inconvenient Rodent and drop kick him into the dam. Hopefully all goes according to plan, or I will be checking into Tussie Mussie Estate, the Posh B & B next door to our house, by 2.00 p.m. (Standard Check in Time in Oz).
AND NOW FOR REASON NUMBER TWO on the why it was a terrible, horrible etc. etc. day today….
I decided to cut poor little Dylan’s hair out of misguided frustration/ a surfeit of artistic energy/ neurosis. And of course, little D, who started off so nice and quiet watching an episode of Wonder Pets on my iPad, decided to throw a good old tanty when I was cutting her fringe. And I’m not going to show you a side view, but let’s just say that she will be wearing a very large turban or headband for the next few weeks to conceal the large hairless patch near her ear. Luckily they are back in fashion.
This is Dylan going through the stages of coming to terms with her haircut – shock, denial, disbelief, stunned mullet etc.
Nanny S was trying to put a positive spin on things by saying that we could accessorise her etc, but truth be told, the only accessory for what her haircut looks like is a fraying old rope belt and dungarees, then you could cast her in one of the Cohen Brothers movies as Wastrel Redneck Child #2 or somesuch.
Oh well. There were another couple of reasons – like being promised dumplings for dinner by kind neighbour Kate, which didn’t materialise due to a traffic jam holding up the Dumpling Conveyor from Melbourne, a increasingly erratic and slow Mac computer, a too-boring-to-explain encounter with Beauracracy, and a whopping huge sore throat. So I’m just going to crawl into bed with my main man, F. Scott Fitz, and call it a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. Some days are like that, even in Australia.
It was a cold day and Dylan needed some comforting since she just woke up from a nap grumpy from a huge mosquito bite on her eyebrow. So the Irishman picked up my mongolian fur vest and bundled her up in it, and she was happy.
But I didn’t think we’d be sharing a wardrobe this soon….
No kidding, how insane is this cake! My friend Meizee is in town, ensconced in my Southbank apartment, visiting for 3 weeks while she does a cake course in Melbourne. She made this beautiful 30kg beast over 3 days, and brought it down to our place in the countryside for a dinner party yesterday and we had it for dessert.
Yes, this beauty literally took the cake and everyone’s breath away. I’m so glad that my friends here can finally get off my case now that I’ve found a even better prime specimen for overachieving – my dear friend Meizee, who is not only gorgeous and still gets carded at discos, but is also mother to three children and single-handedly runs a successful cupcake & dessert catering business. And of course the real reason I adore MZ is because, like me, she is a nocturnal animal who stays up till 3-4 a.m. and is seldom to be seen out of bed much before noon.
Every single petal is handmade and edible.
Meizee assures me that the flowers and painting is the easy part, the hardest part apparently is cutting the fondant bands around the cake evenly and making the joins blemish-free.
This is MZ telling everyone the doors are locked and no one can go home till dessert is finished!
You can see more of her work at her website http://letthemeatcakemz.com/ We still have 15 kilos of it in the fridge – any takers?
No, don’t vomit, but the Irishman and a few of the Peninsula Husbands put on the most amazing, crazy, romantic surprise Valentine’s Day dinner yesterday. Honestly, I’m still reeling from the shock factor. Valentine’s is not a big thing for us. Most years in Singapore, it was either forgotten, or a hastily booked dinner at Les Amis or some other credit card shredding equivalent.
Well, my evening started with me under the impression that we were going to have a picnic at Phillip Island because Mark put on this whole rigmarole of getting me to bring boat shoes, a windbreaker & packing a picnic basket. And he told me that we were going to James’ house first, to get the keys for his speedboat.
Then, when we pulled into the driveway, Mark stopped the car, got out and rooted around in the bushes for a bit, and then appeared with a dodgy looking blindfold and asked me to put it on. Of course I refused! Firstly, on the grounds that it would ruin my carefully applied mascara, and secondly, the whole thing was turning out to be a tad too Eyes Wide Shut for a Monday night… So we compromised on me holding it in front of my eyes as we drove on into the estate.
At last I was allowed to open my eyes, and I saw a very familiar looking marquee on the grounds of James’ magnificent estate, and a fantastic bar made out of bales of hay….
The gleeful husbands. Apparently they had plotted this at our Chinese New Year’s party – which explains why all of them disappeared halfway during the night and were nowhere to be found….
You couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening. This is one of two huge dams on the property.
The Irishman was in charge of appetisers and he made us these adorable ceviche hors d oeuvres in lotus bowls. And a spicy beef san choi bao. Duncan made a piquant cous cous salad and some crisp blanched haricots verts. Rick made miso cod fillets for a main course, and James finished up with a intensely lemony tart purchased from Fitzroy.
The wives were so blown away, especially Lisa, whose husband Duncan said that he had never ever remembered Valentines Day. In fact, during all the planning, Duncan was most worried that Lisa was going to think he was having an affair, so out of character all this cloak and dagger stuff was!
A toast for our incredibly thoughtful husbands, we always knew they had it in them!
I’ll be remembering this Valentines for a long time. Thank you husbands!
The Irishman has really outdid himself this time. I was feeling so rotten this morning bcos I had some heartburny-insomnia thing last night and ended up taking 2 antihistamine pills at 5 in the morning to help me sleep. But I woke up to this gorgeous Japanese breakfast on a tray, handmade by the Irishman who knows how much I love Japanese breakfasts (and how much I detest Western-style breakfasts. EGGS. CEREAL. MUESLI. BORING!!!!).
Obviously I’m a fussy cow because I had to ask him for some toasted nori and soy sauce as well, but it was so delicious I think I’ll be dreaming about that breakfast for a long time.
The leggy purple orchid on the tray… And the Irishman saying NO PICS! EAT YOUR BREAKFAST ALREADY AND STOP TAKING PHOTOS OF IT!!! Bloody bloggers huh!
And I also got a present of these vintage tin letters – the husband was trying to spell LOVE but they didn’t have a V, so the lady in the shop suggested that he take an A first, and put it upside down while she hunts around for a V. How cute….
And the little man came home from school waving a huge valentine. Gave it to me. And then decided to give his little sister a smack, which necessitated me spraying a can of Major Whoop-ass on him. Not to mention our cleaner found 2 tiny but too-large-to-be-mouse turds under his bed. WTF??! Oh well! Life’s not perfect! Happy Valentine’s day rascals!
Well, we were delighted to have Sean back from his Hong Kong trip. Now that he’s back on baby duty, we can go back to sleeping in on weekends…. We missed you Sean!
Finn & Dylan decided to try to unroll every single fern in the garden….
And to blow all the dandelion clocks they could find….
The little man with his curly locks…. I don’t know why the Irishman loves putting Finn in this stripey red shirt so much. When I look at my photos, it’s as if he only has one shirt! And I can assure you this is not the case – he has such an extensive wardrobe that my housecleaner and nanny have ganged up and forbade me from buying any more kids clothes.
Of course I invoked the “Chinese New Year Exemption” and ordered them a whole pile of vintage themed red goodies. Like Dylan’s red dress below…
What’s Dylan munching on now? Well at the time of press, she had consumed about half her weight in sugar plums, which are on special offer in our orchard now….
They are unbelievably sweet. I think I’m ruined now that I have tasted our produce, I can never eat supermarket plums again. Or raspberries, blackberries and cherries for that matter.
Mark bought me this little wrought iron bench last year as a surprise. And planted three of these beautiful chartreuse trees in a special “reading grove” that he made for me at the edge of our forest. We sat on it for the first time today and had a little tan while the kids were running about the vineyard.
And this is Finn’s latest obsession – Biscuit Bear by Mimi Grey. It is a hilarious and beautifully illustrated book about a spunky little bear and his rascally adventures in the kitchen. I was looking for more Mimi Grey books on Amazon and realised that it’s called Ginger Bear in the US. Do Americans not know what biscuits are?
Here’s Finn, rolling out pastry to make his own Biscuit Bear.
I really have to hand it to Nanny S. She comes up with cute activities based on whatever the kids are crazy about at the moment, and never seems to be bothered by the cleaning up.
For example, the other day, Dylan asked Nanny S if she could bring her stuffed toy Cat Cat into bath, and Nanny S shrugged and said “well, I suppose it’s time she had a bath”, and Dylan ended up having her entire menagerie floating about in suds….
Hope you had a great weekend too!
x,
C
I had to go to Tyabb the other day to pick up some equestrian supplies, and decided to pop into The Vintage Shed to do some treasure hunting. Lookie lookie, what I got for my cookies!
A very heavy and cool train sign for Finn’s room. Although I’m too lazy to figure out where it should go yet, so it’s brightening up the mudroom for now.
Some vintage wooden tennis racquets for lawn tennis…
A funky little leopard print book rack for Dylan’s room… oh how she loves her leopard print, and I’ve been feeling terribly guilty since I threw all her leopard pacifiers into the trash to wean her off that terrible habit…
And lastly, a very cute white and blue wicker pram which has gotten so much use since it’s been home. Dylan and Finn squabble over who gets to trundle this through the house everyday.
So far, Wicker Pram has played the role of baby carriage to Finn’s stuffed “sheep baby” (a very high-maintenance game… “Shhh! Rock the sheep baby to sleep mama! Sing the sheep baby a song mama!”), the wheelbarrow for the Fruit & Veggie market game, been the wheelchair to the wounded Sister Monkeys with Broken Legs, a High-speed Wobbly Ambulance, and Thomas the Tank’s long lost friend Little Caboose.
Phew! That’s a lot of value for the $15 or so that it cost!
Finn had his first day at a new school in a small town called Flinders today. Flinders is a quaint, sleepy little place with timber buildings, antiques shops and general stores. It also happens to be home to many reclusive mega-millionaires on the Peninsula who have their own helipads, adding to the weirdness quotient.
I’m lucky that Finn and Dylan both love going to school as I started them young (around 18 months) at unaccompanied Montessori groups. They do get a bit clingy at drop-off but are soon distracted and it is me who finds excuses to linger, smearing on sunscreen on their chubby cheeks and slapping hats on their curls while they scurry about reacquainting themselves with toys….
On Wednesdays, the Flinders church holds a charming music class for toddlers and tots. The church is a beautiful gothic brick building surrounded by towering pines.
I love the bottle-green glass windows.
Old hardware always appeals to me.
This is the backyard behind the church where all the kids spill out onto after music class, riding around on trikes and chasing the resident black lab puppies while the mums drink tea and have a muffin worry.
It’s a lovely community, full of charm and secrets and I look forward to having morning tea there this year after the school drop-off.
I was just clearing up the hard drive and found these old modelling shots of Finn, aged 18 months. These were taken from a photo shoot for Young Parents magazine – the theme was technology and Finn was given a PSP to hold and drool on to.
I remember Finn being so chubby that they didn’t manage to do up the crotch buttons on his dungarees, as you can see in the photo below. Finn was such a pro, the whole shoot was wrapped up in about 5 minutes. I got some calls afterwards from modelling agencies wanting to sign him on, but I wasn’t super-keen. He’s enough of a diva already!
Hello?? Can you call my agent? I’m a little busy at the moment!
* I can’t remember the name of the photographer, but he was kind enough to pass me a CD of all the shots. I’m sure someday Finn will be horrified that I posted these on the blog and require much therapy on a Le Corbusier couch….
the crystal bawl 