Last weekend Lydia and her sister Julie took a well deserved break on the Mornington Peninsula for two days. It is fair to say that the strains of dealing daily with three young children are taking their toll and so, thanks to the generosity of my colleague Jane Hallam, the girls had some R&R in the form of wineries, hot springs and long costal walks in beautiful winter sunshine.
Meanwhile in Melbourne it was dad's turn to manage the children. On Saturday we all went sofa bed shopping and came back with no sofa bed but two new sleeping bags. It's a start. In the afternoon we made pancakes which went down very well with the fresh lemons from our garden (with sprinkles -aka hundreds and thousands - and sugar). Bed and bath routine went pretty smoothly and operations were completed right on schedule in time to sit down with a large vino tinto spot on kick-off for the first Lions test at 8pm.
On Sunday, with Celia feeling great and clear blue skies crying out for a day trip we all wrapped up warm and headed to the zoo. We had a wonderful, full-on day seeing almost all the animals, eating fish and chips, ice lollies, lots of toilet trips and very few tantrums. Max was very vocal in his enthusiasm for the monkeys in particular - running, jumping around and screeching in a manner that bore a strong resemblance to many of the animals themselves. The only dad errors of the day were forgetting to get ketchup for the chips and forgetting that Celia is now scared of some very strange things. Lions, tigers, gorillas and elephants are all fine - but taking her near the hobby horses was met with screams of terror. Max was vey happy to ride alone and talk to complete strangers and fellow jockeys about how much he liked the scary tigers.
Everyone had big sleeps in the car on the way home, Mabel had her bottle an hour late (and survived), dad made special pasta for tea and we all played 'camping' before bed time. I knew the sleeping bags were a good buy. Basking in the glow of my new super-dad status, my bubble was burst in style when Lydia arrived home and kindly pointed out that it was inappropriate to have all the contents of the bedroom, playroom and living room piled together into one 'tent' at 8pm on a Sunday night when pyjamas had yet to be adorned. Oh well, all good weekends have to come to an end at some point.
Meanwhile in Melbourne it was dad's turn to manage the children. On Saturday we all went sofa bed shopping and came back with no sofa bed but two new sleeping bags. It's a start. In the afternoon we made pancakes which went down very well with the fresh lemons from our garden (with sprinkles -aka hundreds and thousands - and sugar). Bed and bath routine went pretty smoothly and operations were completed right on schedule in time to sit down with a large vino tinto spot on kick-off for the first Lions test at 8pm.
On Sunday, with Celia feeling great and clear blue skies crying out for a day trip we all wrapped up warm and headed to the zoo. We had a wonderful, full-on day seeing almost all the animals, eating fish and chips, ice lollies, lots of toilet trips and very few tantrums. Max was very vocal in his enthusiasm for the monkeys in particular - running, jumping around and screeching in a manner that bore a strong resemblance to many of the animals themselves. The only dad errors of the day were forgetting to get ketchup for the chips and forgetting that Celia is now scared of some very strange things. Lions, tigers, gorillas and elephants are all fine - but taking her near the hobby horses was met with screams of terror. Max was vey happy to ride alone and talk to complete strangers and fellow jockeys about how much he liked the scary tigers.
Everyone had big sleeps in the car on the way home, Mabel had her bottle an hour late (and survived), dad made special pasta for tea and we all played 'camping' before bed time. I knew the sleeping bags were a good buy. Basking in the glow of my new super-dad status, my bubble was burst in style when Lydia arrived home and kindly pointed out that it was inappropriate to have all the contents of the bedroom, playroom and living room piled together into one 'tent' at 8pm on a Sunday night when pyjamas had yet to be adorned. Oh well, all good weekends have to come to an end at some point.
Very sweet!!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes from rainy London (again). Melbourne in the winter seems warmer than London in the summer...
Sevda