Expresso Yourself

Coffee here is awful. I was warned before I got here, but I didn’t really believe it. How could the universal “cup of joe” taste so different country to country? The upside is it’s cheap and everywhere. There’s Starbucks coffee houses in the supermarkets and cupholders built into the trolley for convenience. Because there is nothing worse than spilling your grande-skinny-non-whip-hazlenut-machiatto while trying to manouevre a wayward trolley.

Starbucks also have these cake pop snacks which I bribe…err, persuade the boys with if they behave. I never take kids grocery shopping. Sometimes one, but never two. Trying to think of meals and ingredients and deflecting a million questions all at once, my brain hurts. Perhaps thats why they put in the Starbucks. To keep parents in this exact situation focused and highly wired on caffeine beverages.

You can imagine my excitement upon purchasing a Nespresso machine this week. We were in Bloomingdales, marveling over the rainbow of coffee capsule “personalites” with exotic names like Rosabaya de columbia. A coffee capsule is selected by the tenacious, immaculately dressed sales assistant depending on my tastes and prefences. And that first sip? Well, it didn’t have that drinking battery acid sting. No I’ve never drunk battery acid, but I was dared to lick a battery as a kid, (oh come one, we’ve all done it at some stage in our childhood), and there was no similar sensation.

Now I am waiting for my free George Clooney to turn up. I’m not really a big George fan but hey, I’m not turning him away if he comes with my coffee machine. Kind of like those samples you get when you buy something, you give it a go because it’s there, free. He hasn’t turned up yet. Thats false advertising and I’ll be calling their 24 hour customer service hotline to tell them. Or perhaps he’ll arrive in the mail, allowing 10 to 12 days delivery time. Better go check.

Today brings no words, just a cup of delicious beautiful hot foamy coffee. Do you feel like one now?

What a knight!

For Hamish’s third birthday we went to a dinner show called Medieval Times. You sit in an arena and knights come out and joust and perform a variety of knightly competitions in front of the King and Princess. There’s a bad guy from a neighbouring kingdom that tries to muscle in on the King’s turf, more battling and fighting ensue. I know, I know script needs work, but it allows for all manner of combat I suppose.

And combat there was! Lots of noise from shattering weapons and jousting sticks, the children liked the big mace balls the best because they made the loudest noise. As I was watching them, I was thinking the boys are going to try and copy all this fighting, should I be worried? Nah, we only got them foam swords after all. But when you swing them they sting and Dylan sustained a big slap up the side of his cheek from an over excited little brother. He had a great big red mark on his cheek and after he calmed down, I said “do you want an ice pack?” to which he replied “no, I want to see it in the mirror and then show dad when he gets home” – war wounds to go along with the reenactment theatrics.

So what does one feast on at a medieval gathering? Meat, meat and more meat, to be eaten with hands of course! Actually there was a tomato soup served with it too, to be drunk right from the bowl. All washed down with the ancient Pepsi beverage of course. The kids were cheering and waving their half a carcass of chicken looking like they could have rocked the medieval times with the best of them.

I leave you with one final picture of the knight who we were cheering. What can I say, he could certainly whisk me away to his faraway kingdom…

Today brings no words, just a bit of horsing around fun.

Lets go out.

Yes, we have our cable and internet up and running. Today I let the children watch a little more tv than usual, just because we can. But in actual fact they also played outside alot today, in the 38 degree heat. My children are not really outdoorsy kids. I have to practically push them outside and lock the door. Only in the interest of them getting their daily dose of vitamin whatever and a tidy house. So I write about this because it’s surprising to say the least.

The kids will play outside at school and childcare and they love it. So I think of things to do to engage them in the outside world. Yes, I want them to be Bear Grylls style adventurists when they grow up (no not really). In fact you won’t get me camping and Dylan runs away at the sight of a moth so I don’t think he’ll be tackling wild animals anytime soon.

We have this beautiful green backyard, shaded by big leafy trees, flat grassy areas. And so I firstly entice them with a morning tea picnic (because we have no outdoor furniture) to sit on yet. Works a treat. They take their monster trucks and action figures and set them up and an hour goes by. They then move onto their bikes.

They find a good little track which takes them across the grass out the front, along the front side pathway and then into the driveway. And there goes another hour of good outside fun. They come in sweaty and red faced. Energy zapped and ready to refuel for lunch. The heat also tires out the three year old and after wrangling him into his bed he sleeps for a couple of hours.

I also let them have some super soakers and they have water fights. I come out to check on them and they are at the fence spraying the neighbours dog. Then the automatic sprinklers comes on and they get the brilliant idea to run through them. I remember thinking how running through the sprinklers was something that most kids don’t get to do in this day and age of water conservation. Especially in Australia, when long gone are the days of sticking the sprinkler on your lawn in summer. Not here though. But they have a ball running around out there.

So three cheers for being connected back to the modern world but also three cheers for good old fashioned entertainment and creativity that all starts in our own head.

Today brings no words, just some reflections on the one and only thing we need to entertain ourselves – our brain, oh and a picnic morning tea complete with cake for extra enticement.

Ps. I do want to tell you about our trip to Medieval times, but have lost the camera. So will post something soon.

Happiness is cake.

Today is Hamish’s birthday. He is going through a Curious George phase. So I make him a cake. In the perfect world where I have time and no distractions I’d make this:

In the real world my ambition and time affords me this:

And in the end the reaction is still the same. A happy little monkey who is enjoying his special day. That’s what it all about really.

Today brings no words, just a quick pic to express the simple happiness of a 3 year old.

Keep calm and get cable.

This may be my last post for a while. We move into the house tomorrow but the cable tv and internet service is all linked together and the company cannot connect us for a week. It doesn’t sound like a huge amount, but in this day and age, a week without internet and tv access really is an inconveniece. So much of communication with people for both work and leisure is via internet and it’s only when you are unplugged that you really notice it. We have iphones on order, fingers crossed they arrive and then civilisation once more.

The upside is I have a new favourite place called Applebees that I like to dine out at and it has wifi so we’ll have to go back a few nights in order to catch up with the outside world. I really need to get some gym equipment when we settle in. My exercise regime has slipped since moving and I don’t have a set of scales here but I know I’ve probably gained some all-american pounds thanks to all the non-frugality culinary adventuring.

We have been exploring the variety (not to mention abundance) of food here. Some are totally indulgent – for example pasta bowties that are crumbed and deepfried, served with a warm cheese and spinach dip. It was from a New Orleans restaurant and came on a platter with a whole load of other creole-crumbed and deepfried delights. Things that I would never have imagined would taste so good fried and or crumbed. I should say it was also shared between the four of us and with me pulling out the mum voice…”boys, this is a sometimes food”. I love that i can still get away with saying mum things like this without them rolling their eyes. That day will come. Pehaps my next post should be my “FUMs” (frequently used mum) quotes.

Finally, we went to Costco and Target here this weekend. At Costco the person on the register got very excited when we explained it was the Australian card, “wow isn’t that neat!” she exclaimed. And the interesting thing about Target is they stock groceries. If they had this in Australia I wouldn’t need to go anywhere else, it’s so convenient to pick up Hamish’s birthday presents, housewares and the tub of margarine I forgot!

So just quickly, what are we planning for the 3 year old’s birthday on friday? Dinner at a place called Medieval Times. You eat dinner in this ring side arena while they dress up as knights and perform jousting tournaments. They’ve see the broshures and bugged us to go, so we figure what not. So stay tuned, when I get a chance I’ll tell you how it goes.

Today brings no words, just lots of moving and settling and maybe just a few more culinary adventures. And hopefully some internet or tv connection.