live the life

Artist Date - Aimee

In week of sick grumpy chillen, school holidays, 5 million requests beginning with MAAAAMMMA, laryngitis for the third time in as many months and the descent of the winter smog all I managed was one glorious hour. One timely perfect hour of uninterrupted 60 minutes. I listened to music with my eyes closed and drank 3 cups of herbal tea. I listened to the sound track the film FRIDA and sat firmly amongst my imaginary dream lives. When the bliss ended I was much more equipped to get on with 'Viva-la-vida' (live the life).

Stood Up

Greer - Go on an artist date

I remember well the rules of the artist date. A solo outing somewhere, anywhere, to seek inspiration, ideas, quiet reflection, energy, play.

Is it OK, then, that my artist date is this, here, now? Or, at least, it was meant to be. I'm meant to be in a bookshop (with a pot of herbal tea) rather than at my kitchen table (with a glass of red). I made the trip, I promise. Both local bookshops were open, but the cafe in one had finished serving for the night and the wine bar in the other was closed "due to unforseen circumstances." I could hardly loiter at the tables with the laptop, so home I came. 

Via the bottleshop.

I had a quick poke about, though. I like the craft shelves these days - so many more knitting books than there used to be. I'm a bit taken by the title 'Best in Show: Knit Your Own Cat'. I'll see how long I can resist before that one ends up in my shopping basket.

But if tonight's 'date' was a flop, I can happily report a solo trip to the cinema last week to see 'Eye of the Storm'. I've never read a Patrick White novel but this film was exactly how I imagine his novels to be. Stylised. Sparse. Quite beautiful. Funny-sad.

May there be more movie and bookshop/writing dates in my very near future.

Choux Choux

Greer - Try Something New

In my fantasies - or at least one of them - I'm a pastry chef. And a baker. And perhaps a chocolatier. Making the sweet stuff all day long. Pies and tarts and cakes and little French patisserie-type delights. I put it into practice as often as I can. I'm good like that. Dedicated.

And for shame...until today I have never made choux pastry, much less a profiterole.  And until today I didn't realise how bloody easy it is to do! By far the easiest type of pastry I've ever made. There was a bit of beating involved at the start, which was a nice change from all that 'don't overwork it' stuff required with shortcrust pastry. And once baked, the little puffs puffed up beautifully, even sounding hollow once tapped, just as the recipe demanded. They were deliciously moist and chewy to eat. But of course, a plain choux puff is not the most exciting thing, so what was needed was a batch of creme patissiere (or custard, for us simple folk) and some melted chocolate for dipping.

Et voila - filled profiteroles. Someone stop me, please, or there might just be a croquembouche on my kitchen bench by tomorrow morning!

Something just for me...

Try something new - Kate

What a wonderful task! My mind delights in the fantasy of all the new things I could do; go to New York, eat out at Quay restaurant, dance until the sun comes up at an exotic beach party, run naked into the water in a secluded waterfall...

REALITY CHECK!!!!

My something new is simple, and new... enough...

It has been 15 months since I had my hair dyed. The regrowth is so bad that it is now only on the TIPS at the END of my Heidi Klum bob and the grey in my hair certainly "catches the light" and then some!

SO IT IS BOOKED!!!!

TOMORROW AT 8.30am, I will become a NEW WOMAN!

I am so excited it hurts...

Someone told me when you have a baby you should imagine you have 12 eggs to spread over three baskets. The baskets represent your relationship with your baby, your relationship with your husband and your relationship with yourself. When the baby is born naturally all 12 eggs are in the baby basket. Then gradually, gently and with love and time...the eggs should be redistributed over the three baskets.

My egg basket has been a little too empty for a while. But I have started meditating, going out for little adventures without my gorgeous Hannah and now the BIG ONE....

The hair colour adventure.

It will involve coffee, trashy magazines, even more pointless conversation about the trashy magazines...and not one mention of poo, breasts, sleep or solids.

My something new is something just for me.

Hurrah!

Key Lime Divine ..

try something new - Aimee

OK a few new things attempted on the weekend. Firstly entertaining at home with 2 children! I haven't done it that often, mostly because of the concern of getting number 1 to bed and being able to attend to conversation, drinks, dinner, breastfeeding etc etc

But we had a BBQ on the weekend with 2 families of friends, a whole handful of little boys, candles, torches on the trampoline, a stack of new recipes and an esky full of booze (in Asia eskys are the size of Barbie's bathtub). Sounds like it went off a treat doesnt it.....

Well it did, but this picture is of my Key Lime Pie.....as it turns out a lovely metaphor.

I have to admit I am a little shaky on it, I was a bit frazzled watching Hugo begin a few mellays on the trampoline, all the while holding down meaningful conversation, getting kids fed and finally settled for the adults to dine..........husband emerges whilst I am squeezing in a breastfeed and nappy change between cheese plates, to announce "No GAS" in my mind I am screaming "I WILL GIVE YOU NO GAS" but I overcame it to get all the stuff on the grill on the stove.

Finally we eat, and kids are fighting over torches, oh god did Hugo start it, quick find more torch thingos, find a DVD they are interested in. Find the pie, my new thing, and in my trip from the kitchen to the table with Key Lime, I know deep down the Martha Stewart Donna Hay Jamie Oliver in me is being blended by the spinning buzz lightyear which seems to be my brain.

So in our gourmet times of 'culinary bestestness', I have resigned to fight it a little. There is grace in the humble sausage and tearing open a bag of rolls at the table. Bring back the Neapolitan ice-cream and a bit of ice magic, and with it my brain might re-emerge....then perhaps I can chat and chuckle about the wide world and the tiny world around us as easily as my folks did with a houseful of friends, kids, dogs and guinea pigs. It doesn't matter what we eat just as long as it is done with friends. And thankfully I feasted with good friends on the weekend who all seemed to enjoy the BBQless BBQ.

Formal season

Amanda - Try something new

It's formal season in Australia - year 10 and year 12 girls are replacing the stress of study with the stress of trying to find a dress that is different and something no-one else will have. I know this because my blog task of trying something new was shopping with my two future sisters in law for the first time. Not just any shopping day out but a whole afternoon of scouring every nook and cranny in Melbourne for a dress for a year 12 formal that would match the picture Amy had cut out from one of her magazines. It was so much fun! As we stood giggling at some of the options in the change rooms at Myer it dawned on me that this was actually my very first outing to look for a formal dress - growing up in a country town didn't really call for such dedication to finding the right dress. I had it easy. To look different from my colleagues all I had to do was avoid the blue chambray shirt and pearl necklace.

After a coffee to refuel Amy tried on a total of 12 dresses before calling it a day. We had found one or two potential options that needed to be tried on again the following day with a clear head. It was exhausting and exhilarating and so much more than just a shopping trip. My first outing with Amy and Natalie will be the first of many in the years to come and I feel so lucky to be adding two more sisters to the sensational one I already have in Torie. In truth a girl can never have too many sisters! As for Amy its now onto sitting her first HSC exam on Tuesday and another four weeks before she can glam up for the final formal of her school years. She will of course look gorgeous in which ever dress she chooses.

Apologies for the lack of photos - I was banned from taking them by the star of the day - this is the best I could do!

The Banjaran puhleaseeee I SAID PLEASE!

Aimee -

We talk about the places we live in currently, but if you could have one day anywhere in the world, where would you go and how would you spend your hours?

It started with this photo in Time Out Malaysia.

But it got better and better and better.......check out this place and see if you would have trouble filling in 24 hours...........oh and don't forget the winebar in the limestone caves! Oh bum, it's not really for kids............. they wouldnt be able to come................ they would have to stay at home..................without me. Yep, it would just be me and the Banjaran!

I guess Scott could come if he didnt talk too much.

http://www.thebanjaran.com

Five Star

Greer - We talk about the places we live in currently, but if you could have one day anywhere in the world, where would you go and how would you spend your hours?

The name of the place is irrelevant, though I'm pretty sure it has to be a city, preferably a big bustling one. I don't care if it's in Australia or overseas, though if I've only got a day, we may as well keep it local. Sydney will do. The time of year doesn't matter, nor does the day of the week. All that matters is that the hotel is five-star, the room is well-appointed, the bed is comfortable, the bath is large and there is room service.

For my one day, anywhere in the world, I'd like it to be quiet, even silent, and I'd like other people to bring me stuff that I need. Dinner. Newspapers. Champagne. A massage, perhaps? One day (and night) within four luxurious walls, a big city pulsing beyond but me with no desire to do anything but sit, knit, read, sleep, eat, drink, watch a few DVDs, eat again, then sleep some more. 

And children aren't welcome.

A day of indulgence at home

AMANDA - We talk about the places we live in currently, but if you could have one day anywhere in the world, where would you go and how would you spend your hours?


I just printed out 999 photos of our past three years of travel through Europe. If office works had let me print more I would have got up to 1057. Tim and I have traveled to so many amazing places in the time that we’ve known each other. We have beautiful memories of drinking Sicilian coffee in the sun, climbing the snow capped Mount Etna, spending Christmas in a bell tower in Belgium, walking till our feet hurt past so many of the London icons and Paris, beautiful magical Paris. There are so many places in the world I would still love to visit but not for a while to come. The place I would love to be for one day anywhere in the world is exactly where I am right now. Sitting at my mum’s kitchen bench in Mornington listening to a mix of chaos inside and the noisy Australian birds outside who are clearly enjoying the first signs of Spring.

Mornington is a special place. Something changes in me as soon as I pass the Frankston, Home of Sandcastles sign on the Nepean Highway. I let go.

My ideal day in Mornington would start with a walk along Mills beach past the coloured bathing boxes and back. Home for breakfast and spoilt with the fresh ciabatta that Basil buys from Frank’s bakery in Main Street. Smeared with full cream butter and some Red Hill jam its one of life’s greatest pleasures.

After breakfast it would be a drive to Tyabb Packing Shed with mum. You need to see this place to believe it. It’s an old apple packing shed filled to the rafters with anything and everything from antiques to junk to treasures. Clothes, crystal, books, posters, jewellery, furniture, linen – everything. I love it.

For lunch I’d head to the Montalto vineyard and indulge in their divine organic produce with friends and family. Post lunch wines on the lawn overlooking the vines followed by a stroll through the sculpture gardens.

It’s hard to add anything other an afternoon nap to make that day any more perfect.

After all the travels and flights my one day anywhere in the world is spent at home – there is simply no where better.

I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles...

Kate - One day anywhere in the world...

Oh this one is easy...or is it?

When I think of going anywhere in the world for a day my mind returns to the holiday Sam and I took to London, Paris, Venice and Rome two years ago. This was my first trip overseas (not including New Zealand, sorry if this causes offence...). I have to say that staying on the Ile Saint-Louis with Sam, I fell in love again...with him, with Parisians, with Art, with coffee, with shopping, with the Eiffel tower at night...I fell in love with Paris.

I would return to our little bedsit, complete with cheese man and chocolate croissants just downstairs. I recall our delicious coffee shop just on the corner and the red wine and cheese feasts by the Seine each night at sunset... just divine.

My perfect day would start with a chocolate croissant and coffee, then a long walk down the Seine to an Art Gallery. My favourite gallery we would visit would be the Musee-de l'Orangerie to see the eight magnificent Water Lilies by Claude Monet, which on first view brought us both to tears...such beauty and perfection. We would sit quietly for a while, breathing in the water swirls. Then lunch in a little place we stumble over, more Art in the afternoon (Musee Rodin), then shopping back on our little Ile Saint-Louis.

Dinner of cheese, baguette and red wine consumed on the banks on the Seine, then a ice cream dessert from the gelato shop on the corner.

More foie gras on baguette with sweet wine to end a perfect day back in our little apartment. I must add this trip would be all the sweeter by our squealing, squeaking, raspberry blowing Hannah. She would love the sunsets and look with awe at everything...just as she does now in our little Waitara apartment. Sometimes the magic and beauty of Paris can be found in a babies gaze at just about anything!

Ahhh Paris, I love you in the springtime, I love you in the fall, I love you in the summer...

Task # 36

We talk about the places we live in currently, but if you could have one day anywhere in the world, where would you go and how would you spend your hours?

Weather Shmeather

How are you taking the change of season in your stride?

What, we've only been back here at Tale of Three for three weeks and we're already talking about the weather? Well, pardon the pun, but Sydney's climate leaves me a little cold. It's all good and well if you live the beach lifestyle, but I prefer my seasons in quadruplicate, and I don't mind if, when they change, they stay changed.

A few weeks ago, it appeared we'd bypassed spring and were already in the midst of a typical Sydney summer. It's the humidity I can't stand (which is why I wouldn't cope living over there with you, Aimee). Sydney just can't seem to do hot, or even warm, without sweat. The summer before last, heavily pregnant with twins, I watched the weather reports obsessively. Anything edging the high 20s was unbearable, and the few days that hit 40 were horrific.

Yet, for all I endure all summer long, we don't even get a decent winter to match it. I'm a knitter, for godsake. I need a climate that requires scarves and wrist-warmers and woolly hats and glorious cowls. I think I wore my boots three times this winter past, and my coat hardly got a look in.

Spring, of course, is lovely, as is autumn. But not as lovely as in the countryside where there are gardens and trees and rolling fields. And how lovely can lovely be when it only lasts three minutes before the onslaught of the awful hot or the mediocre cool?

Get me out of this city, I say, and off somewhere pastoral where there are four distinct seasons that one can plan by, grow by, cook by, knit by and live by.

these boots are made for walking.....

How are you taking the change of season in your stride? Aimee

The same as last year the mid autumn festival (mid sept) brings with it a wind that blows off the relentless, sweltering sauna of Hong Kong's summer. Now I am a sun lover, but the humidity in Asia is ....urgh utterly exhausting. It can be summed up in two words really, ankle sweat, or if you don't know that feeling, then imagine every time you step out of the house you can feel a little river running your boobs. So summer is out of my good books during these years but one of the determining factors is that I am forced to wear SHORTS day in day out for about 5 months. Now in Sydney you can get away with a summer frock, mixed up with some denim and shorts perhaps on weekends, maybe you have one or two pairs. I have about 9 pairs on my rotation, and it kills me every time I succumb to the practicality and pull them on.

Firstly, shorts are designed to draw attention to your bum, so if you are past the cut off (ie 23 years old) and would prefer to steer the attention to other regions of yourself, wearing shorts will do you no favours.

Secondly, seeings I spend so much time pushing strollers up hills, or rescuing someone from ladders at playgrounds, or running after kids that are much faster than me, the casual summer dress is rarely an option. Not forgetting the Hong Kong sand fly sees no barriers with a dress and has often ventured higher than the cloth.

So sadly shorts it is, and I am growing to loath them, I never feel nice, I always feel.........practical.

So with this mid autumn wind, I am celebrating my jeans! Yes thank you, so much more mysterious, and flippant yet full of gusto and passion. I love a pair of jeans.

Ah to be honest, we haven't yet dropped below 28 degrees, but I put on this pair the day after the typhoon this week, and whilst I endured a mild degree of ankle sweat, I pumped out a couple of rounds of hopscotch to celebrate.

This is as close as I can get to getting a photo of the welcome mid-autumn wind...