Retreat

We're having the house painted. After two days, we've decided that we should retreat into somewhere without the smell of paint. The last straw was when the painters packed up the computers. So we're staying in a little flat in cremorne for a week and the boys are bingeing on Cartoon network.

I don't know how we would cope without any electronic devices!


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Location:Harrison St,Cremorne,Australia

Competitive speaking

Callum represented his class in the speak-offs this week. He did an absolutely stunning job and I was so proud of him. He spoke out so clearly and confidently; surrounded and, mostly towered over, by other Year 5s and 6s.

This was the first time the speeches were prepared in class, so no parental involvement or crafting.

Also for the first time, in addition to his prepared speech he had to do an impromptu speech. The kids were given 5 minutes to prepare a speech on a given topic ('celebrations'). Cal made a good fist of it (limited, he says, largely by the fact that his running writing is still slow and so he couldn't get his ideas down on palm cards).

As we went to School on Tuesday, Alice, who were were giving a lift to, was discussing her speech. "Oh yes" says Declan "mine is due today too". This lead to a quick chat with his teacher and frantic few practices that night. He did his speech on Wednesday and obviously made a good job of it as he came third and so was the reserve for the speak-offs.

Modern cousinship

I went over to NZ on the weekend, and stayed with my cousin Hamish and his family. Joshua and Michaela (who are 10 and 8) were playing Club Penguin, so when I got home, Kerry and I emailed, and Callum and Declan just spent a very enjoyable half hour making Joshua and Michaela's acquaintance over the internet.

I wasn't sure if they would be that interested (as although all four cousins have met, it was six years ago so nobody remembers), but Callum and Declan were both very excited, and commented several times how cool it was to be playing Connect 4 with their cousins.

Vivid Sydney

In an effort to get people out of the house in winter, Sydney has created Vivid Sydney, which is a festival of light in June. It got us out of the house tonight, certainly! With Declan's friend Finn and his family, we all caught ferry into town, watched the Firewater show, and then walked up Macquarie St to see all the lights. We had a great time, although the boys were exhausted by the time we got home.

St Mary's Cathedral was particularly good, as it had a much better space to sit and watch, even though we saw it last when everyone was tired.

Callum commented that the whole of Sydney must have been there, it was so crowded. I doubt it, but there were certainly far more people out and about than you'd get on a normal Sunday night in Sydney.

Declared victory too soon

Callum was invited over by his friend Angus for a bike ride this afternoon. I warned Fiona, Angus' mother that Callum wasn't a very good bike rider, but she seemed unconcerned, and happy to use the chance to get Angus to be understanding as they rode from their place to a nearby park.

I left wondering how Callum would go (since he really still had trouble starting and stopping last time I saw him).

When he got home, he told me with much excitement, "I learned how to ride my bike this afternoon! All I needed was someone to be patient as I learned!". He was most impressed with himself, even as he was telling us the blow by blow account of every single time he fell off and bruised various bits of his anatomy.

He's promised to show me how he can ride his bike tomorrow. We may even be ready for a family bike ride soon!

Lego cleanout

We're having a cleanout, and have decided to sell our "big lego" (big connections, rather than the more traditional lego that is now popular with the boys) on ebay. We just spent an enjoyable evening sorting it out and displaying it to best advantage. The boys are on a promise that they will share in the proceeds if they help us organise it.

Callum had a great time counting and organising everything, and Declan enjoyed putting the display together and taking the pictures. It turns out we have nearly 1,000 pieces! (including the train track that Callum was given when he had his tonsils out).

Favourite Sunday

We are in the middle of one of our favourite Sunday things to do. A walk across the bridge to the bookshop, buy some books to read and then coffee and reading. Here are Callum and Declan enjoying their purchases.

Next stop the Leonardo exhibition at Town Hall.

Fort Denison

To celebrate Grandma's 70th birthday, and to farewell Granny Marta (who is off to Israel) we had a lovely lunch at Fort Denison today. We were all very nervous about the weather, as we had 50mm of rain yesterday, but today the rain held off until we got home, and there was even intermittent sunshine!

Callum and Delcan had kids-sized fish and chips (but the same quality as the adults), which was very nice, and Declan demolished a grown up dessert all on his own. They did pretty well at sitting with us for a while and making conversation, but luckily there was also plenty of room for exploration as well, while the grownups ate at leisure. Callum was quite fascinated by the tide measurement, several times going back to look at it, whereas Declan has more fun climbing up and down the walls.

Declan's decided that his new nickname should be "Climbing Boy" rather than "Hungry Boy" but I think both names were equally apt today.

Canberra trip

Callum and I went to Canberra for his school trip. Well Callum, me and 220 other kids. Cal seemed to enjoy himself with Questacon being the perennial highlight of course. He survived being in a room with Alex and five year 6 boys - not completely without incident, nor without learning some significant new swear words and concepts which I hope he will restrain himself from sharing.

I came away in a welter of significant flashbacks as the dinning experience and the Canberra Carotel was almost identical to College (first night everyone ate toast in preference to the mass-produced roast beef). I also spent two cold evenings cruising from cabin to cabin and acting out the role of grumpy parent when the whispers got beyond a certain level - but can't complain as the kids were, overall, remarkably good.