Gok comes to town



The view from my Friday morning run



The new nursery seems to have been a good move as Celia was so much happier when I left her off on Friday even though it was only her first day. This meant I had a guilt-free run along the Brighton coastal path, followed by coffee and croissants at North Point cafe overlooking the sea, reading my book while Max had a kip - bliss! Then I had a little bit of retail therapy in Elsternwick which is one of the many Melbourne suburbs where the local shopping street has really kept its charm and community feel so everyone chats to you and bends over backwards to help - chains like Starbucks wouldn't stand a chance!
This was followed in the afternoon by baby group in the park as it was such as a glorious day and Jess had made the most amazing cake. I was pretty much thinking life couldn't get much better when Andy arrived home to tell me he was off his nice city centre project where he gets home by 7pm most nights and was off to Sydney on Sunday for the week and Singapore the following week. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

On Saturday me and some of the girls decided it would be a laugh to go and see Gok Wan doing his makeover show at the local shopping centre. Gok was quite funny and a bit risque for midday but the makeovers were awful. They put everyone in stilettos that were too big and leopard print & black, including the woman who needed a makeover to get some colour into her wardrobe?! Oh well, it was worth going just to get a few hours with the girls childfree.

Late Saturday afternoon Andy’s boss was hosting a Teddy Bear’s picnic for all the families with young kids so we headed over to her house where Celia overdosed on chocolate, Max tried his hardest to overdose on chocolate (and leaves, twigs, grass etc) and Andy overdosed on Mount Avoca shiraz as not only is Lisa head of Deloitte, she also owns a vineyard as you do! 

A week in the life of.....

I seem to talk a lot about our weekends on this blog and although we did have another lovely weekend (barbie at Andrea and Dan's on Saturday, and a daytrip to Dalesford which is Australia's answer toWoodstock, on Sunday) I thought I'd let you know what I get up to during the week.

Barbie at Andrea's

On Mondays we go to the local church playgroup where we have storytime, singing, craft activity, group morning tea (which I had to provide last week - very stressful as I've never fed 25 under 4's before!) and they have the best stocked toy cupboard I've ever seen. We also had an easter egg hunt in the church gardens this week which all the kids loved, including me as I got to eat lots of chocolate as poor Celia's couldn't manage more than 2 mini eggs or that's what I told her anyway. You pay an annual fee of $120 and it's well worth the money - makes a change from my usual whinging about the price of everything else!

On Tuesday's we go to rhymetime at the library which is much like the sessions we used to go to in london except that it is overseen by a mini-hitler type librarian who shouts at the mothers if they let their children stray from their laps for more than 2 seconds. She had one mum in tears a few weeks ago so she is great entertainment value. Luckily Celia is very well behaved but I can tell Max is going to be a 'bolter' very very soon so I'd better watch out!

It is the expat playgroup on a Wednesday and this is where I've met most of my new 'mummy friends'. Mind you, the Monday playgroup is rapidly becoming an expat playgroup as 4 new british families have joined in the past 3 weeks and on our night out last week, 8 out of 11 of us were Brits!

This playgroup is less structured than the Monday one and its really just an excuse for likeminded mums to get together and have a gossip/moan about the price of bananas and flights home.

We go to my 'Prams in the Park' exercise session on a Thursday and so far it has worked out OK. Celia plays happily on her own for an hour (I'm sure any day now I'll regret writing that) and Max normally has a sleep in the buggy so I actually get quite a good workout.

Celia starts a new nursery this Friday as she was still crying every time I left her off at the other one which can't be right after 5 months. Luckily the local council childcare centre had a space so it will be a nice 5 minute stroll away rather than a 15 minute drive plus it's a nice small group of 10 children. So Friday will be my cleaning, shopping, jogging day every other week as I have my mother's group on alternate Friday/Thursday afternoons. This is where I pretend to be a first time mum and Max gets to meet all his pals.

                                                    Mother's group round at ours

And somewhere in the weekly schedule I try to fit in a few park visits, cooking, cleaning, washing etc so the weeks are flying by and generally I'm enjoying life as a fulltime mum. There are of course a few days where I miss having a 'proper' job and I got halfway through an application form for Ikea on Monday before I had a quiet word with myself! The fact that we are having an indian summer right now also contributes to the appreciation of my current 'occupation' as what job allows you to sunbath in your back garden for an hour at lunchtime, then head off to the park where you can sit under a tree with a book for another hour (is it any wonder Celia is good at entertaining herself - what a bad mother!).......