I’m sure Mark Zuckerberg was a difficult child. That’s how I console myself when my children are having their difficult moments. Yesterday my day was mentally so well planned. Then it all turned south when Arabella woke in the night with vomiting and then in the morning was beside herself from the pain in her […]
Poached Eggs on Polenta and…The Opportunist
May 21, 2012 By 49 Comments
I have a sister with three primary school aged children living in a quiet suburban street in the Eastern Suburbs. It’s a great street because it’s full of houses with families of children of similar ages and so the children have all become great friends and spend a lot of time playing outside on the […]
Nudity Has Its Advantages
May 17, 2012 By 45 Comments
When Archie was at boarding school he didn’t always obey the rules and in fact, the school’s sergeant once told me, ‘You have the nicest son, but you know what? He has the thickest file of detentions I’ve ever seen’. One of the things Archie didn’t like doing was attending, (especially by the time he […]
The Riddiford Baths and…Leek and Feta Quiche
May 4, 2012 By 52 Comments
I was at swim squads a few days ago and after the session I was in the change room talking with another swimmer who has recently joined our group. It turns out she is from New Zealand, so I asked what part of New Zealand she came from and discovered she lived a few streets […]
Vegetable Tagine and…Dinner is Served – On a Shoe!
April 27, 2012 By 30 Comments
The sleeping arrangements weren’t to either of our satisfaction. My father said she had to sleep downstairs in her basket in the kitchen and not upstairs with all of us because she was a ‘guard dog’. But Sophie didn’t like sleeping downstairs, she wanted to sleep in my bed. So under the cover of darkness […]
Spaghetti With Puttanesca Sauce and…One Hundred and Two Hours
April 17, 2012 By 70 Comments
Arabella turned 17 last September and so became eligible to sit for her driver’s licence. But as she hadn’t completed the 120 hours of driving under supervision, she couldn’t book in for the test. And six months later she still can’t because we’re only up to 102 hours. Eighteen hours to go and half of […]
Potato Scallops and…Thursday Nights and Saturday Mornings
April 3, 2012 By 38 Comments
When I was 15 I thought I needed a job. Part-time work was available for teens in most retail stores for Thursday night/Saturday morning shifts. (This was back in the day when weekend trading was only permitted on Saturdays from 8am until 12md. I went to my local shopping mall and walked from store to […]
Sweet Potato Salad and…’Wanna Be Friends on Facie?’
January 23, 2012 By 22 Comments
A couple of years ago, Arabella went to a ‘gathering’ (under 18’s word for ‘party’). I wasn’t too keen on the idea because I didn’t know the host’s mother very well but acquiesced when I realised the gathering was being held close to home so if anything untoward happened I would at least be close […]
Spinach and Sweet Potato Cannelloni and…Haere Mai
January 11, 2012 By 38 Comments
Translated, that’s ‘Welcome’ in Maori. I did experience a Haere Mai when I was eight years old and it was an experience I’ve never been able to forget. When I was growing up in New Zealand I went to Waiwhetu Primary School and it wasn’t multi-cultural because there were just two cultures – the Maoris […]
Breakfast Basil Eggs and…Stranger Than Fiction
December 29, 2011 By 69 Comments
This is a true story that you will have no trouble believing because, as you know, the truth is always stranger than fiction. This is the story of how I came to be, ‘Charlie Louie’. When I was born in Wellington, New Zealand, I already had an older sister whose arrival had displeased my grandmother. […]
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