Frazzled and 'frurled'...

It's been a long couple of weeks but we're nearly there! Henry has had a lovely time watching the builders and spent almost an hour watching the wall tiles going up. At the end of the day he said, 'I don't know Mum, that bathroom is pretty fancy, I'm not sure I can handle it!'. Bless.

The 'fanciness' hasn't come from nowhere and I've spent a lot of time running around looking, choosing, changing my mind, taking things back, swapping things over and generally getting very confused. On Tuesday I even forgot to go to Isabella's parent-teacher interview and when I collected Isabella from school she said I looked very 'frurled' (I think that's somewhere between frazzled and flustered?).

By Friday the bathroom was really starting to come together. It just needs sealing and painting before we can start using and enjoying it. I really had no idea how big a job it was going to be and I think I was very, very lucky to have found the builder I did. The only real hiccups have been with the crazy 1950s plumbing and with me not checking off my deliveries properly and ending up with two different styles of mixer taps (which were duly installed one day when I was at work). I've also conveniently forgotten that I have children and have nowhere to hang their towels! I'm sure there will be other things I've forgotten to include but hopefully nothing that can't be fixed (or fudged).

So for what it's worth, here are a few things to keep in mind if you're planning your own bathroom renovation...

• Take your time researching your taps, mixers and spouts and accessories (towel racks, robe hooks, toilet roll holders etc) and order them all at one time. This is actually quite a lot harder than it sounds as you often have to order things based on catalogue or internet images and the first time you see them all together may be when they are delivered at your house.



• Try and close doors or hang drapes across doorways throughout the rest of the house (the dust is incredible!



• Stretch the budget a little and hire a portable bathroom rather than just a portaloo (especially if you have a family and it's the middle of Winter!). More info in the comments section of this post.
  


• Get at least three quotes before you decide on a builder. We ended up with three very different prices and ideas for what we could do. We went with the builder who seemed most sympathetic to my 'unusual' plan and whose quote was in the middle of two rather extreme ones. We had to wait for him to start the job but I think it was worth the wait.

• Always remember, a good builder and his trusty sub-contractors are worth their weight in gold.

A Bit Of A Circus...

Well the bathroom is almost complete and I have lots of photos to show you but I can't find the photo cable to upload the images! Life's a bit like that at the moment - it's a bit of a circus here. Things are not where they should be. Books have gone missing as have shoes and vital paperwork but by next week things should be returning to a more manageable kind of domestic chaos. In the meantime I thought I'd up date you one what else I've been up to...

Marvelling at what the human body can do. You know how they say we only ever use about 10% of our brains? Well, after seeing the awe-inspiring Nederlands Dans Theater and Circus Olympia recently I'm convinced I'm only using .0001% of my physical capabilities!

Reading two great books about Australia in the 1930. The first one 'The Lost Mother: A Story of Art & Love' by Anne Summers is a memoir centred around a portrait her mother sat for as a child. The book explores the life of the artist who painted the work, Constance Stokes and the collector who held onto it for many years, a mysterious Russian emigre, Lydia Mortill.

If fiction is more your style and you're looking for some quirky local colour you might like 'A Few Right Thinking Men' by Sulari Gentill, the first in a planned series of mystery novels set in Sydney during the 1930s and starring gentlemen artist and amateur sleuth Rowland Sinclair. Very snappy dialogue and a colourful cast of characters. Sulari has a pretty nifty website over here.

Listening to Debussy. Many years ago I bought a CD called 'Debussy for Daydreaming'. I usually play music to the kids as they go to sleep and this CD is the current favourite.

Coverting this gorgeous glass Babushka drinking jug and glass.

Waiting patiently for the bathroom to be finished and the midnight treks to the outside portable bathroom to be over!

What have you been up to?

Oh, my!

This is what I came home to after work last night. There's my little 50s pink toilet and check out that creative plumbing. Looks like some sort of surrealist sculpture! There used to be a wall enclosing all those pipes but really, I ask you, how has it been functioning all these years? The builder claims never to have seen anything like it in his life and I'm just waiting to see the plumbers face when he arrives tomorrow...

A Change Is As Good As A Holiday...

Image via

School holidays + bathroom renovation = no time for blogging. Happily for all concerned school is back today and the bathroom is being demolished as I write (including the 1950s pink toilet!). Stay tuned...

The Year of Reading Backwards: Books 3 & 4: 'Animal Farm' (1945) & 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949) by George Orwell

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I've been a bit slack keeping you up-to-date with my reading progress this year haven't I? I've been reading furiously as usual but somehow finding time to write about the books has been more difficult than finding the time to read them! You may remember that some time ago I decided to read George Orwell's anti-totalitarian classics, 'Animal Farm' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four'.

I have a bit of a phobia about reading 'syllabus books' so had avoided reading these titles for years. I've always resented being compelled to read a particular book and I've never been really into the idea of pulling a book apart and putting it back together. Instead I like to experience a book as closely as possible to the way the author intended - I even wait until I've finished the book before reading the introduction and endnotes!

Anyway, I think I left my run too late to read 'Animal Farm'. The characters, plot and moral of the story are just so well known that I had a strange sense of deja-vu all the way through it. Reading 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', however, was a revelation. I was hooked from the first sentence...'It was bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen'. Although Orwell has been criticised for not writing very rounded characters, I really warmed to the main character Winston as he struggled to carve out a little piece of happiness for himself in a world where individuality and privacy are outlawed. The moments of happiness he shares with fellow worker Julia in the countryside and above the quaint old second-hand shop are like moments suspended in time as we are always aware that the life they have set up is as fragile as the glass paperweight Winston carries around with him.

As the reality of their situation starts to catch up with Winston and Julia, the second half the book develops a more serious, philosophical tone (I can well imagine my 16 year old self throwing the book aside at this point) and the sense of inevitablility that has built throughout the book comes to a climax. Will they or won't they agree to follow the party line and admit that 2 + 2 = 5?

More than sixty years on 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' is still shockingly relevant in both its description of totalitarian rule and its investigation of what makes us tick - the pull of memory, the need to connect with others and most importantly the need to have a place where we can feel 'utterley alone, utterly secure, with nobody watching you, no voice pursuing you, no sound except the singing of the kettle and the friendly ticking of the clock.'

If you haven't already read it perhaps 2011 should be the year you do...

Favourite lines...

'Winston was gelantinous with fatigue'. (I read that sentence while I was in hospital with Henry having not really slept for two nights so it really hit home!).

'He wondered, as he had many times wondered before whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one'.

'It was a heavy lump of glass, curved on one side, flat on the other, making almost a hemisphere. There was a peculiar softness, as of rain-water, in both the colour and texture of the glass. At the heart of it, magnified by the curved surface, there was a strange, pink, convoluted object that recalled a rose or a sea anenome...What appealed to him about it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite different to the present one. The soft rain-watery glass was not like any glass he had even seen. The thing was doubly attractive because of its apparent uselessness...'

Trip to Daylesford

One of the things I really love about living in Melbourne is that you can jump in the car, drive for an hour or two and end up in the most beautiful country towns. Last weekend we left town and headed for the hills. We have family living in lovely seaside climes so often get away to the coast but it's been a long time since we'd been truly land-locked. I can't tell you how long I've been wanting to go to Daylesford. Having grown up not all that far away as the crow flies I have circled it for years visiting Kyneton, Woodend, Macedon, Hanging Rock and Trentham without actually making it to the 'Spa Capital of Australia'. Was it worth the wait? Oh yes! Daylesford is my kind of place - beautiful mountain scenery......this is the view from the Convent Gallery...

Great secondhand bookstores and market stalls -we particularly liked the Paradise Books (14 rooms of books!) in the Vincent Street where we were greeted by this lovely black cat...

Fabulous local produce prepared and served with love at places like Cliffy's Emporium (below)which has a daily/seasonal/ local produce menu and Koukla where we had great wood-fired pizzas using local ingredients including some delicious slices of Tuki lamb sausage.

We also visited Lark whose fortunes I've followed for a number of years through Alison's blog. The kids absolutely loved the place and Isabella discovered swap cards ( she'd never even heard of them!) and bought an album and 18 cards to start her collection.

Inside the oh-so-sweet retro world of Lark...

But the piece-de-resistence for me was definately artist David Bromley's extraordinary, 'A Day On Earth', an enormous old factory shed full of industrial antiques, quirky set pieces (including an army tent and several rooms displaying mid-century modern furniture) and, of course, his own remarkable paintings and sculptures. We visited 'A Day On Earth' on our last day when the fog was so thick that you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. The wind was freezing so we rugged up in hat, scarves and jackets and made a dash from the car.

While I was in element from the moment we arrived it was interesting to note Henry and Isabella's reactions. Henry loved it and literally had to be restrained from touching and exploring everything...



A mini cover inside and out with Bromley's children's paintings (it also had a little half size trailer!)

Isabella on the other was what she described as 'a bit freaked out'. The poor love just didn't know what to do or think about such a seemingly random accumulation of 'stuff'. I tried to explain to her that an artist is someone who has a particular way of looking at the world and that we were actually quite lucky to see what went on in David Bromley's head. That just seemed to freak her out even more! I assured her that it was OK to feel uncomfortable sometimes because it reminds us that everyone sees the world in a different way. She seemed to settle down a bit after that but she complained of a stomach-ache for the next half hour (an anxiety sufferer in the making I'm afraid):(

Over-sized blocks featuring David Bromley's nostalgic children's series...

...this section reminded me of a play set and I half expected actors to emerge from some hidden door...

If you do get the chance to visit 'A Day On Earth' I highly recommend it - my photos really don't do it justice. If you're in Melbourne he also has a studio in Chapel Street, Prahran which is even bigger!

Happy Birthday Big Issue!

Fifteen years ago today the first copies of The Big Issue hit the streets of Melbourne. Since that time the plucky little magazine has sold millions of copies, gone national and enriched the lives of 1000s of homeless and marginalised street vendors and their customers. Long may she reign (and don't forget to buy a copy next time you see a vendor!).

Happy World Wide Knitting In Public Day

After a week of very cold temperatures we were blessed with sunshine today so we headed into town to be part of the Light In Winter Festival. This year the festival is centred around an enormous pyramid-shaped 'light sculpture' which the community has been invited to decorate with lanterns, fabric, knitting and crochet. Today was also World Wide Knit In Public Day and the first ever International Yarnbombing Day so there were plenty of knitters out and about which was great to see. Bella was mortified when I whipped out my needles but Henry entered into the spirit of things by creating a very handsome lantern for the pyramid.

In search of further woolly inspiration we also went to one of my favourite wool shops, Morris & Sons. While I was running maniacally from one beautiful yarn to another Henry and Isabella made themselves comfortable in 'Manland' - a corner of the store furnished with comfy 1950s armchairs where the menfolk can relax while they wait for the wool manics to make their final choice!

Winter Fare...

As Autumn slips into Winter I've been busy in the kitchen cooking all my favourite comfort foods. Earlier in the week I made my first apple pie of the season this time using an Australian Women's Weekly recipe. I wasn't all that happy with the pastry (it only had 1 tablespoon of sugar in it so was more savoury than sweet) but we all agreed that the filling was our best one yet. The recipe called for 10 apples (I used a mixture of Granny Smiths which hold their shape so beautifully and Pink Ladies which cook to a silky smooth mush) which I flavoured with sugar, lemon zest, cinnamon and ground cloves.

I was also lucky enough to be given some lovely organic beetroot by a friend at work. I thought about making Sophie Dahl's Borscht but then I remembered Jane Clark's Beetroot and Sweet Potato Soup which is always such a hit with the kids. Unlike the more traditional earthy beetroot soup, the addition of sweet potato gives this soup a wonderful sweetness and the colour is just amazing.

Breakfasts have also undergone a bit of a makeover with porridge back on the menu. We've been experimenting with different toppings (honey, cinnamon, nuts, dried fruit compote) but I'm dying to try this Carrot Cake Oatmeal perhaps with a Rhubarb Smoothie.

What's cooking at your house?

The good old newspaper...

Photo by [emb] on Flickr

I may be one of a dying breed but I still read the newspaper everyday. Here's a few things I've learnt from my reading this week...

• It's not my imagination. According to the a Melbourne University arborist the autumn leaves in Melbourne this year do have a deeper and richer hue. Apparently lots of rain followed by a fairly extreme cold snap has increased the sugar generated by many species. More sugar = richer pigments in the cells - who knew?
  


• I came across the word 'procrastibaking'. What a fantastic word, I can't believe that such a word has only just come into being! I procrastibake all the time! It was given as an example of an appropriate evolution of the English language as compared to the many new text-speak abbreviations such as LOL, u and da.



• I learnt all about Wovenspoke fabric designer Amy Carr Bottomley's stylish scarves and wristbands made for cyclists using retro-reflective thread. Now you can be chic AND stay safe.



• I learnt that star anise is reputedly good for people with asthma and bronchitis so Henry and I have been drinking a delicious concoction made by steeping a star anise in boiling water for 10 mins then adding the juice of half a lemon and a heaped teaspoon of organic honey. Could be my imagination but I started the week with a cold and sore throat but after drinking many of these drinks I'm already starting to feel much better.

EDIT:: After a little more sleuthing I found that star anise is the main source of shikimic acid one of the main ingredients in the flu vacination, Tamiflu. This led to a worldwide shortage of the spice in 2005 and again during the swine flu epidemic in 2009!