Farewell to the west coast

We've now left the west coast and are in Quebec city. We exchanged gifts with Pamela (Harrison's nanny) last week. Harrison made her a book with his drawings and collage detailing a "crazy" day they spent together (various buses taking them to the wrong places, ending up going back in time, getting lunch pinched by a dinosaur, and finally walking home in the snow). Pamela gave us a collection of photos she'd taken of Harrison (and one I love of me feeding Evie). This one of Harrison being a totem pole was her favourite.

New Science Library

We had a tour of the unfinished UWA Science Library on Friday. It's looking good, though there's a fair bit of work to do. Seems so BIG at the moment. The furniture selection is fabulous. Very high end and stylish - but of course it's not in the building yet. I spent a fair bit of time on the weekend working on the 5000 metres of fixed book shelving - how wide each bay is, how many shelves are in each bay, where the reference collection, quartos and folios go, how much room there is if we shelve at 80% full ... We don't have all 900 mm shelves, but some are 600mm, 1050mm or 1200mm. A bit unusual, but it's so our shelves fit around pillars and look like they're of a uniform length. We also don't have all bays with 7 tiers of shelving. Most are 7, but we have some 6 tiers, and quartos are 5 tiers. Makes the calculations nice and complex!

Next job is to get my staff to fill in how many mm of space each call number from each of the 5 collections we're merging takes up so that we can tell the removalists where to put all the books. And this is before we even look at the 8000 metres or so of shelving for journals!

Above is a photo of Friday's tour group. I'm in the red shirt - can you tell I'm 7 months pregnant? Jill is next to me in black . She's doing my job while I'm on maternity leave.

Ryan Sercombe

Mel and Tim’s baby arrived yesterday (Ryan James 8 pound 2 oz, 50cm long), and Harrison and I went to see him when he was just 5 hours old. Needless to say he’s very, very cute. Looks like he’s going to have Mel’s lovely thick dark hair. Harrison was absolutely besotted with him, and very gentle. He spent the evening at home putting Pooh bear under his shirt, lying down on the couch and ‘delivering’ him through a cut in his tummy, then breast feeding him.

Happy birthday

Harrison turned 4 today!  Four seems such a grown up age for our little boy – I feel a bit sad about this milestone.  We gave him his first “real” bike with training wheels.  His feet only just reach the pedals.  I made the 4 cake from the Women’s Weekly Kids Party book for him to take to day care.  It looks very impressive for not much effort, as it uses plastic toy road signs, foil covered chocolate cars, and ready-made royal icing for the “roads”.  I converted my favourite chocolate cake recipe (which uses soured milk and a warm cocoa paste) to a gluten free one, and that seemed to work fine. 

Buried in books

We took this photo of Harrison as a memento after we came home from the Writers Festival.

Our house

Here are a few views from our house... They're taken from our balcony (sunset and Rottnest) and from our front door. We regularly see the colourful tops of kite surfers from our front door, and at night we can count the flashes of the Rottnest lighthouse from our dining room. On Australia Day we watched the City Beach fireworks from our balcony - close enough to smell and see the smoke.

City Beach sunset

I took Simon to dinner at Oceanus restaurant at City Beach on the 12th - to celebrate his native title book coming out, and also as an early Valentines Day dinner. It was a very hot night (and astonishingly, the restaurant isn't airconditioned!). All that glass directly facing the west, with the tables positioned for sunset viewing made for an uncomfortable dining experience. We did have a nice meal (the Asian influenced tasting plate we shared was lovely, Simon's steak was apparently great, but his dessert was simply scoops of a readily available brand of gelato, and mine was a bit uninspired).

Return of the intrepid traveller

Simon had a week off to do some solo driving and camping (his favourite type of holiday). After to-ing and fro-ing about whether to drive north to Kalbarri and Exmouth to seek out good spots for us to holiday in July, or to escape the heat and go south, he decided Exmouth was too hot, and he would go south. He covered a good chunk of the south west – Margaret River, Pemberton, Augusta, Walpole, Denmark, Albany and the Stirling Ranges.

He did a very long driving day on Friday to get back early (he was expected on Saturday), stopping in at Bunbury to buy me a teeny tiny camera to thank me for letting him have this time off. I absolutely love it. It’s a Panasonic (like our other digital camera) except that whereas the other one looks and feels like a “real” camera and has a 10x optical zoom, this one will slip into a pocket or a small handbag and is easy to take out and about.

We went to Hillarys on Sunday morning for a swim (it was HOT!). We also went to Mel and Tim’s to meet their new puppy Coco on Sunday afternoon. H just LOVED the puppy. I think he totally exhausted her, as she’s only 6 weeks old and chasing a 3 year old around is hard work for her.

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Simon has another 2 days leave up his sleeve, so is thinking of taking a 4 day weekend. I’m wondering what kind of gadget I can wrangle out of him for that trip…. Better put my thinking cap on!

Christmas party

I hosted my team's Christmas party at home last night. Most of them are in the photo to the left. It was a lovely night - I decided to just have cold platters (shamelessly ripped off from Jane Brook Winery), so that no one had to be in the kitchen, and there were no issues with timing etc. We had three types of platter, one with smoked salmon, one with scotch eggs, and one with cold meats. Each was accompanied with various cheeses, dips, chutneys, antipasto or salads, fresh and dried fruits, and a couple of different breads. For dessert we had simply delicious Amono gelato and sorbet in waffle cones. Again, very easy, and everyone helped themselves.

It was undoubtedly the easiest party to cater for, and very relaxed. I'm really enjoying entertaining in this City Beach house. I had a great time - they are such a lovely bunch. Everyone pitched in to help put food out and to stack the dishwasher and clear away. Today we've all had leftovers for lunch in the library. I suspect there may still be leftovers on Monday for our Christmas eve morning tea.

Before and After

I put those two "chocolate" pictures of Harrison together - on the left is him just pre-diagnosis in October last year, weighing about 11.3kg. On the right is him in August this year, after 9 months on a gluten free diet, and weighing about 15.3 kg. He is still quite underweight for his age, but he is catching up on the height he lost.

Chocolate scones

Simon took Harrison to watch the splashes and crashes at the Avon Descent on Sunday (I had the flu so stayed in bed). Mel provided rocky road (aka chocolate scones). Harrison looks much healthier in the August 07 photo than he does in the October 06 one. He's also about 4 kilos heavier.

Happy birthday Marg

Marg Y's birthday was on Saturday (Bastille Day), so Harrison, Marg and I went to Whiteman Park, where we had a ride on a steam train and a birthday picnic, and then to Caversham Wildlife Park, where we hand fed kangaroos and patted a koala. It was a glorious weekend in Perth - clear and sunny and pleasant. Quite unlike the very chilly weather they're getting on the east coast at the moment.

I made a gluten free cake for her birthday... an interesting combination since it started out being a butter cake with a hint of lemon, but then we added squares of chocolate at the insistence of my assistant chef. He couldn't conceive of a birthday cake that didn't involve chocolate! We decorated it with gluten free hundreds and thousands, and gluten free marshmallow flowers. Now if only I had a daughter I could roll out the old "hippy flower" cake for about 15 years in a row, I reckon. With Harrison I think it's going to be variations on the train theme for a few years to come.


On Sunday Harrison went to his first "theme" birthday party. It was a superman theme, so he had an excuse to wear his superman costume. The boys had no trouble dressing as super heroes, but for girls, it seems fairy and princess costumes are all they can come up with. We coped very well with the food issue - he had his own iced mini-mudcakes instead of birthday cake, and we brought along a big bag of coloured pop corn to share, plus he had a few of his own snacks as well. There was another girl who also wasn't able to eat the party food, so he didn't feel too "special".

In a couple of weeks he has a pirate party to attend, which should be fun.

3 today

Harrision is 3 today. He had a little party yesterday (more of an afternoon tea really) with his "significant adults". Much easier to handle than a party with kids. He got thoroughly spoiled, of course. I bought gluten free lamingtons from Alternative Bites, and made a lamington train cake for his birthday. We had to replace some of the sweets that the recipe called for as couplings and cargo etc with gluten free alternatives, but it turned out pretty well. Today he has taken a GF cake in the shape of the number 3 to day care.

He's also taken all his Lego Thomas trains to daycare. Simon said that he started off well, giving trains to the other kids to play with, and being very excited to be able to share them, but then there was a bit of snatching when Harrison was distracted, and he ended up with no trains at all. Worst of all, some other kid took Toby (his birthday present), which has hardly been out of his hands since he unwrapped him. I'm sure it's all a lesson in negotiation, disappointment and compromise...

Lake Leschenaultia

We went camping with the Zerring/Mashers to a little place only an hour out of Perth last weekend. It was pretty luxurious - hot showers, flush toilets, a lovely lake with sandy beaches and canoe hire, and a little kiosk. The three kids had a lovely time together. Harrison is a bit too little to do all of the things Matty and Sam can do, but he tries to keep up, and they're very considerate of him. Saturday was a glorious day and the kids all paddled in the water and played in the sand. Sunday was overcast and drizzly, so while we did do the walk around the lake it wasn't as pleasant as it could have been.

Birthday

It was Simon's birthday yesterday, and there were lots of celebrations. Harrison proudly got Simon's presents out of their hiding spot first thing in the morning and helped him unwrap them. Then we had a nice fruit platter for breakfast (better than Simon's usual Up'n'Go in the car on the way to work). We had a "special" dinner of pan fried snapper with a caramelised potato and tomato salsa side dish. I had made a gluten free mud cake for his birthday cake, but the ganache hadn't had enough time to cool and solidify, so it was more of a sauce. Leah took some photos of a chocolate covered Harrison looking decidedly drunk, and one where he looked like a vampire with dark chocolate sauce dripping off his mouth. I'll add one to this post when I get a chance. After H had come down from his sugar high and gone to bed, Simon and I went out for coffee while Leah stayed home with Harrison. All in all a nice day.

Photo of Adam

We visited Adam today (and Terena of course!). I think he looks a bit like Rhys, but darker reddish-brown hair. He was pretty sleepy when we were there (as most newborns are). Harrison loved him - gave him the most tender kisses on the forehead and feet. After making quite a fuss on the way to the hospital about Adam's gift (he decided he was baby Adam and he needed the teddy bear), he gave it to Terena very graciously. Terena looked very happy, if a bit tired. She'd just been moved to a room with a double bed and a nice view, so hopefully the remainder of her stay will be pleasant. Second time around she's taking advantage of the rest times and trying to get some much needed sleep. We took a couple of photos. Here's a cropped one of Adam... I told Terena I'd e-mail a photo to the playgroup mums, so I'll probably just send a link to this page.

Thomas again

Harrison is so into Thomas the Tank Engine now... the Wiggles are taking a bit of a back seat (although Dorothy and Henry were being squeezed into the back of a Troublesome Truck yesterday). We are using a big Lego Thomas set as "incentive" (did someone say bribery) for getting him to sleep in longer. Each morning if he waits quietly for us to get him up he gets another part of the set. He's only got two bits left now, but it has been bliss hearing him stir early, and then lie quietly waiting for us to come and get him. He has read the "newspaper" that came with the Thomas and identified that there is a James and a Toby set that he doesn't yet have. So I guess birthday and Christmas are taken care of now.

Thomas

This is a shot of Rhys and Harrison with Harrison's new Thomas the Tank Engine one night when Rhys was staying at our house while his parents went out. Harrison got a huge Thomas set from grandma for Christmas (it was Andrew, Tristan and Jeremy's old set gathered over about 10 years). It's all battery operated and the tracks are quite complex. I'm not sure that they even make that type of set anymore. After a few incidents of trains being dropped on tiles, and many requests for the carriages to be re-coupled, we decided to put it away for another year or so. Harrison is playing with a Lego Duplo version now. It's not as fancy, but more robust and probably better for his level of fine motor skills at the moment. He can easily put the carriages together and has fun swapping Percy and Thomas's faces around and making them the wrong colours. Hopefully this means that when Harrison is old enough to deal with the overpasses, smaller engines, batteries etc, the big set will still be in working order.

Christmas festivities

We've done a couple of nice pre-Christmas events with Sharon, Carson, Sam and Matty lately. We had a picnic and saw the carols by candlelight at Peppermint Grove on Sunday, and on Tuesday went to the live nativity play at St John's church in the centre of Fremantle. They actually had a petting zoo inside the church, which kept all the kids enthralled. They had a real donkey carrying "Mary" down the aisle, and the finale was allowing the kids to file past a very very young baby swaddled in the "stable" on the alter. Being raised in a religion free zone meant that Harrison had no idea of being quiet in the church, so when the hymns started he was up doing his best dance moves in front of everyone. Then he discovered he could see his shadow on the stable walls which were along the front of the alter, so he danced AND sang Wiggles songs AND did shadow puppets whenever the music started. Outside the church there were free camel rides for the kids, which Harrison also loved. We went to Little Creatures for dinner, then to Cottesloe for icecream on the beach. There was a low wooden platform (kind of a park bench / picnic table thing) which Harrison decided was a stage, so it was back to dancing and singing and watching his shadow on the grass. He is completely besotted by Sam (Sharon and Carson's 5 year old angel). She is just wonderful with him and very protective and big-sisterly.

Post - script - here's a pic of Harrison about to open his "real working" accordian from Marg and Neil on Christmas morning. Wags the Dog lies discarded to the side... 8 months of wishing for Santa to bring him a Wags, and 2 hours into the festivities he finds something better.... tsk tsk.

Esperance

We had a week in Esperance early in December. It was a long drive (about 7 hours each way), but we broke it up at Wave Rock on the way down and Hopetoun on the way back. Esperance is a really lovely place - the beaches and bays are magnificent. Even at the start of school holidays we had beautiful turquoise bays all to ourselves. Harrison loved the sea. We found a gorgeous restaurant - Taylor Street Tearooms which catered for coeliacs, had fabulous water views and great service and food as well. We camped at Cape Le Grand NP and at Hopetoun, and Harrison loved it. It's hard work camping with a 2 year old, he needs to be supervised every minute, and is into everything, wanting to climb trees, wander into the bush, play in the dirt... He made friends with a couple of kids (Darcey,8 and Hannah, 6) who were about 15 months into a trip around Australia with their parents. They arrived at Cape Le Grand the same day as us, and the 3 kids spent hours playing chasey and splashing in the sea and building sand castles. Darcey was particularly good with Harrison. He made up stories for him and held his hand walking around camp. They will be coming through Perth in a few months time, so hopefully we'll catch up again.