Elephants going international...

A picture from Paris – Amandine kindly sent me this photo of the Sweet Olive Press letterpress coasters at home in her fabulous new apartment.

I'd love to be back in Paris, so yes – I am a little jealous of them...

Doing and not-doing things in Sydney

If we wait until I have something clever to say to go with these pictures, you'll never see them.

So without further ado (side note: I saw someone write "without further adieu" the other day, and I think it was done with a straight face! The horror! Now I'm wracking my brain trying to recall whether it was one of my friends, and if they'll be offended.)

Ahem. Where was I....


Right – Sydney! When we weren't battling public transport and delighting in the luxury (*cough*) of the Travelodge Wynyard (serviceable, but definitely un-plush), Mum and I did manage to see some sights with the kids.


In fact, I was determined beyond reason to do many many many things with them, and I frequently lamented the fact that Kickbaby no longer fits in the Baby Bjorn (and hasn't for a good six months) because then we could've ditched the stroller and done soooo much more.


But stuck with the stroller, we took a ferry to Watson's Bay (where we saw the charming waterfront "Gondola House", above), to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and to the Opera House.


Berry ran up and touched the Opera House with one fingertip, and then ran away. Kickbaby (I have to get that poor child a new name, he's so far past being a baby) climbed every single step, all the way up to the Opera House. It's a real feat, and I'll have to show you a picture another time.


More Watson's Bay... Mum kept telling me about this great hike we could do there, "but not with a stroller... and not with the kids" – so really, a great hike we couldn't do, which she claimed had totally made their last trip to Sydney. Naturally I was delighted to hear about fabulous things we couldn't do.


People really are creative with their gates and fences in Watson's Bay, aren't they. Well, not this next one – I just liked the view through the little tangle of progress.


Ah Sydney. Very cool.

Friends in far places

No one else has ever taken a "picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge" quite like this.

That's half my head on the left there, and about a third of photographer-extraordinaire-Jodie's head there on the right. And in the background you can see exactly none of the Harbour Bridge, which we were aiming to highlight. Nice.

The one below is a bit better – lacks the pizazz our faces would've lent to the scene (!) but it's a sort of moody view across the rooftops of The Rocks towards the Opera House. Jodie took me to The Rocks, a piece of history I've wanted to visit ever since I read Playing Beattie Bow when I was twelve.

But I'm getting this all back to front, really.

Jodie, of Meringue fame, is a friend-I'd-never-met despite a good year or more of almost daily emails. We fixed the never-met bit over drinks one night with Stuart, my childhood next-door neighbour and sometime partner-in-crime, and his work mate Paul.

I should mention that Jodie drove up to Sydney from Melbourne, and that Jodie and Stuart and Paul know each other through Facebook, and that I had never met Paul and hadn't seen Stuart in at least 15 years. It all gets a bit involved, really.

Anyway, to get such unprecedented freedom (more than two hours! at night!) I left the kids with poor mum at the hotel, and Kickbaby yelled for a solid hour. He has his preferences, and I am one of them.

The next morning Jodie and I had a Very Important International Business Meeting with Simone Walsh at Bill's. I don't have a picture of that. Simone said almost before we sat down There will be no pictures and I must have been feeling especially acquiescent that morning, because my ever-ready camera stayed in my purse. I regret that now.

I've got no excuse for not taking any pictures of Jodie and me at The Rocks or down on the harbour. None at all.

I did get this beauty, though. On a bustling street right in Darlinghurst, there was a little apartment above a newsagent, topped with what looked like a rooftop refugee camp. The picture can't do justice to the crazy low-rent clutter that filled that tiny space.

And one more from The Rocks... and still none of Jodie and me. Maybe next time.

Attenzione!!!

I wonder how many times Kickbaby will have to bang his head, hard, before he grasps the fact that standing up under tables is not a real option.

I also wonder how many of his "learning experiences" are going to involve "minor head injuries".

.

Spotted in southern Mississippi

I've thought of about 80 different things to say about this, but – I just... I really... somehow I think the back of the truck speaks for itself.

Don't you think?

J is for Jet Lag

For the first week we were home, Berry and Kickbaby crashed into deep, absolutely unwakeable sleeps during the day and wanted to have games! and lunch! and more games! from midnight through 5am.

If they had both fallen into simultaneous unwakeable daytime sleeps, then I would have slept too – and life would've been upside down but bearable. But noooooooo, they slept at different times, so that I always had to be up and alert in case the awake one got into a medicine cabinet or a knife drawer or an electrical socket. Toddler conspiracy at its finest. So I stumbled through the days and dreaded the nights and got absolutely nothing done.

Things have been improving bit by bit, through some brave/foolhardy nap-prevention on my part, noisy games and sunlight, and just the passing of time I guess. Of course now Kickbaby is teething again, so last night – just as an example – I spent 1.30am through 4.40am pacing the floor with him.

An-y-waaaay... all this is a very long way of explaining my lack of posting, and my very unsatisfactory reporting on the Australia trip. I'll patch it all together again when I'm getting more than two hours of sleep at a time. Promise.

Zzzzzz.

Sweet Olive Press | Sneak Peek {3}

Pssssst... want to see the letterpress invitation for the party in Australia? You can, here on my Sweet Olive Press letterpress blog.

I also found a little window of history on the press!

Spinning

This might be my favourite picture from our time in Sydney. Berry got on the steps to the Opera House and started jumping and dancing and twirling out of sheer happiness.

The undiluted joy of being three...

{click on the picture to see it larger... it's one of those that's worth it – ahem – if I do say so myself}

There for the taking

My brother Jules is standing at the foot of the Stairway To Knowledge. If you squint, you can see it written on the wall there.

But did he climb the Stairway To Knowledge? No he did not. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.



(Okay, neither did I. You know... it was getting late and the babies were cranky... If it wasn't for these pesky kids, I'd be enlightened by now! )

(You really have to say that in a Scooby-Doo villain voice. Never mind.)

Oh boy

After a month in Australia, I'm back in the USA – with two intact children and several medals for bravery.

Blogging from the other side of the world was a logistical nightmare, hence the slacking. I'll make up for it in the coming days (or weeks) with countless random and out-of-order posts. But there will be plenty of pictures to balance out the incoherence, so stay tuned...