rock on

Thanks so much to my friend Robin over at lolidots for giving me this fab award. 

Think of 15 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that, no matter what they were thought of musically, shaped your world.

I have to say I'm looking forward to taking you all on this little trip down memory lane. 

1. 
   
   Human Frailty, by Hunters and Collectors, the greatest Australian pub-rock band ever.  They sang Throw your arms around me, which is my all-time favourite song.  Go on, click the link and listen!
2. 
   
   Planet Waves, by Bob Dylan
3. 
   
   Now that's what I call quite good, by The Housemartins
4. 
   
   A Room With a View - Soundtrack
5. 
   
   If this is Rock and Roll, I want my old job back, by The Sawdoctors
6. 
   
   Talking with the Taxman about poetry, by Billy Bragg
7. 
   
    Modern Times, by Bob Dylan
8. 
   
   Back to Black, by Amy Winehouse.  She's a wreck, but she can sing!
9. 
   
   William Bloke, by Billy Bragg
10. 
    
    The Internationale, by Billy Bragg
11. 
    
    Fundamental as Anything, by Mental as Anything (another great Australian band from the 80s, although Pacino can't stand them)
12. 
    
    Mermaid Avenue, by Billy Bragg and Wilco (lyrics by Woody Guthrie)
13. 
    
    Local Hero Soundtrack, by Mark Knopfler
14. 
    
    Spike, by Elvis Costello
15. 
    
    Amadeus soundtrack (Mozart)

Billy Bragg  is an English folk-rock singer who can take the credit for my very left-wing political stance.


That was really fun, and really hard!  I'm sorry my taste is so obscure.  And I'm sorry it took me so long to post this.

Thanks again, Robin!

slacker mcgee, that's me.

I didn't mean to go so long without blogging, I really didn't.  It's just that life has been pretty hectic lately.  The Bear has stopped sleeping during the day.  Although I still put him in his cot every day, the time he will spend playing in there is getting shorter and shorter.  It's now down to about twenty minutes.  And when he's awake, I need to be with him every second.  If I'm not, he's climbing on the kitchen bench, climbing up to the TV and rocking it back and forth, climbing onto his chest of drawers and playing with his heater...in other words, climbing is his thing.  And before you ask, I have child-proofed.  My house is the most child-proof house I've ever been in!  This is as good as it gets.


Anyway, enough with the whinging, and on to the good stuff.  Well, I've been given an award by the perenially cool Robin over at Lolidots.  She gave it to me about three hundred years ago, or so it seems, and I am going to share the love, I really am, but not today.  I'm about halfway through, and I'm a bit stuck.  But in the meantime, hop on over to Lolidots and see what Robin has to say - it's always a good read, and if you're lucky there'll be a photo of her hilarious and very cute kids.


On another note, the Gig and Pacino went to a training session for their favourite team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, when they played here last weekend.  They also went to the game, but let's draw a veil over that and move on quietly.  It was a bit of a shellacking, I'm sorry to say.  For those who are wondering, the Rabbitohs, or Bunnies, are a Rugby League team.  Oh, Rugby, you're thinking.  I've heard of that.  Well, yes and no.  There are two forms of the game, Rugby League and the real one Rugby Union.  I was never, ever a League fan growing up, but since marrying Pacino, I've learnt that if you can't sulk them out of their obsession, you might as well join them.  These days, although I wouldn't watch the Bunnies for my own amusement, when they're playing I am as involved as anyone.  Except perhaps Pacino, who takes it very ...personally... when they lose.  Which they do a fair bit. 

I've written before about my children and their love for their comfort toys, but today I've got some sad news.  Mousie, the Bear's partner in crime, is no longer with us.  He's missing in action; we think he's at a park in our old hometown.  The Bear has been very brave, and his good mate Ted has stepped into the role of Commander in Chief of the Cot, but it's still very depressing to think of Mousie alone by the swings (or wherever he may be).  Goodbye, Mousie.  We will miss you.

And now, here's a picture that explains why the Bear fully deserved the praise that was being lavished on him for "lovely eating..all those vegies!".

slow train coming

I just wanted to drop by my cob-web-ridden blog and say Hi!  I'm still alive!  I've not really been in the mood for blogging or playing on the computer generally for the past few days.  (What's wrong with me?)  But, I'm in the middle of a long post that's taking me forever to write, so I promise there'll be more news very soon.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, just to keep you going, here's a photo that I looooove!  The very first brother/sister cuddle.  It seems like yesterday but it's nearly three years ago.  Time flies by way too quickly.

random thoughts

The Gig had a nightmare about caterpillars last night.  What's that all about?  She felt better after I told her to imagine them with the face of the one from Alice in Wonderland.


I can't remember the last time I slept all through the night.  I'm so very, very tired.


This morning the Bear and I went to our friend's house for coffee and a play.  Her little boy is a few months younger than the Bear.  The Bear had so much fun flushing a different toilet.  Oh, and there might have been a slide and a couple of toys and three extra kids to play with.  He wouldn't know.  There was a toilet that needed flushing.

My sister and her family are moving to England.  I'm excited for them but sad for me.  And regretful that we haven't seen enough of them lately.

I'm slowly getting my house organised.  On Thursday when my MIL is here, I'm going to clean out my laundry.  You know you're jealous.


I am desperate to have some time for reading.  I belong to an online bookclub and I haven't read the monthly book for the past two months.  And I'm still waiting for Amazon to deliver this month's.  All I can concentrate on at the moment is magazines and chick lit that I've read before.


We're buying the Bear a bed soon.  I'm sure that'll be the end of the daytime sleep.  RIP.

And last but not least, dogs are excellent at homework.

smug pride or deep shame?

I'm back, after a week long blogging hiatus.  And what a week it's been!  I've had both kids sick - the Bear with a middle ear infection in both ears, and the Gig with tonsillitis.  She had four days off school, and has only gone back today.  The Bear missed playgroup at his special school and speech therapy, but the Gig did, after much soul-searching on my part, get to go to Girl Guides last night, and she had a blast.  She missed her guitar lesson, but you can't have everything.

Not only were the kids sick, but Pacino has lost his voice.  He came home from work at 10am yesterday, as his job involves mainly dictating, immediately logged into his work server and worked from home for the rest of the day.  Today I'm picking him up at 3pm.  Pacino is the world's biggest workaholic, so this is huge.  He's been with his current firm for over three years and hasn't used any of his sick/personal leave yet.

You'd think that with two sick kids, I'd have had an unproductive week, wouldn't you?  Well, think again, my little friends!  Not only have the Gig and I completely sorted out her room (6 bags of rubbish, 2 bags for her little cousin, 2 bags for my friend's DD, 2 bags of books for charity, and a big crate of books for the Bear), but I have sorted my linen cupboard.

I'm the anal type, I must admit.  Anal, but lazy.  My linen cupboard, as it looks now, is my dream.  I keep going to look at it and purr, like a self-satisfied cat who has just polished off a bowl of cream.  I have even (shhhh) been known to stroke the lovely, organised stacks of sheets.

After I had it all looking lovely (3 bags for charity and 1 bag of rubbish), I realised that something was missing.  I knew where everything went, but how, I wondered, would anyone else? 

The answer?

Labels.  Lovely, organised-person labels. 

So what's the verdict?  Should I feel smugly proud, or deeply, abidingly ashamed?

flashback friday: a christening

It's been a while since I've done a Flashback Friday.

The Bear's Christening was such a special day, complete with senile, possibly slightly sloshed stand-in priest, who, despite the Bear's three very masculine, traditional names, still thought he was a girl.  Maybe it was the dress!

be careful what you wish for

Yesterday, I sat down at my computer, all ready to blog.  Nothing.  Nada.  Not a single thing of interest to say.


It's the kids' fault.  They haven't done anything interesting lately. 


And Pacino - what's he been doing?  Work, and being man-sick.  Better call the man-bulance.  Bor-ing, people. 


Me?  I'm the mummy.  I ferry these people to their interesting things.  I can't be counted on for fascinating and hilarious anecdotes. 


Come on, family, do something funny/entertaining/annoying.  Give me some material here!


At that point, as I wiped the table down after lunch - told you I'm not the scintillating one - I suddenly realised that all was strangely, worryingly quiet on the Bear front.


Then I found him.


In my bathroom.


Being interesting.


With my brand new, not-terribly-cheap lipgloss.


And here, my friends, is my little monotony-breaker, channeling his inner drag queen.

As I said, be careful what you wish for.