Surprised by Chesterton

We received our copy of the play "The Surprise" by G.K.Chesterton. This is a very funny play.
I am not going to tell you much of the plot as I think that may give away some of the plot twists, but we found it very enjoyable.
As always, G.K.Chesterton has some very clever lines including [from memory] "It is not the best to marry the one you love, but to love the one you marry".
I would greatly recommend watching this one as a family. Younger children (under 10) may find this a little slow, but older ones will be able to understand what is going on and quickly understand the contrasts between the two parts of the play and the surprise ending.
We will be watching this many times.

WYD is closer

Yesterday the World Youth Day (WYD2008) Cross came through the local area. We joined in with locals to carry the Cross and Icon to the Pauline Fathers Monastery.
In July this year Pope Benedict XVI will be visiting Sydney, Australia to be with hundreds of thousands of Catholics.
Perhaps we should attend seeing we are this close?

7 is so much older

This being the closest weekend to the actual date we celebrated Clare's birthday today. She is very excited to be such a big girl now she is 7 years old.
One of our friends asked her what it was like to be seven.
"Wonderful! I was six for just so long!" Clare replied excitedly.
"What else is good about being seven?" I asked.
"You're older. You get to get more things. Like Ariel. She has more things because she's older."
"So you want to work, too, like Ariel?"
"No!" she answered quickly, "When I'm older like Ariel's age. A long time from now."

Once more, time is a relative thing.

What brothers are for.

I looked over at Martin during dinner and saw his hair in a mohawk style.
"Who did that?" I asked
Eric looked sheepish with a grin - would that be elfish?
He has lots of fun playing with Martin.
I figured this would make a good photo to include in Martin's 21st birthday collection. You have to plan ahead for these type of things.
Earlier efforts of his with Rose are here and here and here.

What Spider is this?

Dad was watering the daisies and saw this amazing spider. Naturally he took a photo to show me and now we are sharing it with you. (Click for more details)
Does anyone have an idea as to the type of spider this is?

Update: The Australian Museum thinks the spider may be this one.

I suspect your spider might be either Eriophora (formerly Araneus) praesignis or a close relative. It is harmless and builds a small orb web amongst lush foliage. It is not thought to be particularly common. We could be more positive of the identification however if you can supply a specimen.Here is a link. You will note that the colour is different but the species seem to be quite variable.

The Search and Discover facility of the Australian Museum is a very useful service provided by the Australian Museum. Thanks for the help!

A Trip to the City

Yesterday we had a boys day out. Eric, James and I visited Sydney for some wargaming, but also to visit one of the large bookstores and just have a day out. I realised we hadn't been to the city for a while when James and Peter were impressed we travelled in a tunnel which went under lots of houses and roads and we travelled under the runways of the airport while planes were landing and taking off.
As we were approaching the city outskirts, Peter was amazed at how tall some buildings were. I suggested he wait until we get to the city center as 10 stories isn't really that big. When we saw a really tall building in the city center, Peter said, "It's so tall they called it Ernst Young. Why did they name the building?".
Their experience of large cities is limited as there is little parking for large vans like ours. Maybe that's why you rarely see families in the city center? Our first photo here is of a stack of "Smart" cars. These are itsy bitsy cars which would be great for singles and couples and for driving around the city, but would fit in the storage space of our van.
The boys thought they were cute. Whereas other boys might say "ooh" and "aah" over sports cars, our boys first comments are normally, "Where do you fit the children?"
Another thing they saw was some statues outside a pub of the three wise monkeys - See no evil, speak no evil and hear no evil. This led to good discussions too.
As there are so many people, there are more advertisements, which means there is a chance some of the advertisements are actually interesting. Our second photo is for a series of advertisements promoting Wonderbread, a brand of white sliced bread with lots more additives to make up for the additional processing which took everything out.

In Search of ... 12 Chickens

I was ambushed by the children on my return home last night. I had been away or a few nights for work and they had most important news to tell me.
"You need to find the chickens, Dad!"
"There are 12 of them throughout the house."
I paused a moment.
"Chickens?" I enquired, "We don't have chickens."
"Those ones!" they pointed, revealing a yellow easter promoting chicken stuck to a door post, "We have hidden them everywhere."
So I keep finding these chickens everywhere - as promised.
This chicken is stuck above the mirror in the bathroom, inspecting me as I get out of the shower.
So this must mean Easter is getting closer. The Triduum is next week and chocolate Easter eggs aren't far away.

Deep Thoughts from Rose

Rose was sitting on Eric trying to get him to play with her.  He wasn't co-operating so Rose tried using "little girl logic".

"Boys have to play with girls or they won't get married." Rose said.

Eric replied, "Well I can't marry you anyway as I'm your brother."

Rose put her hands on her hip and said, "James, then."

"No.  He's your brother too."

"Peter."

"No.  He is your brother too."

Rose let out a deep sigh and said, "Well who am I going to marry then?"

Little Helpers

Lana has an early start on Saturday Mornings when she makes fresh Strawberry Cheesecake muffins for the local shop. These are the ones she and Ariel won First prizes at the Robertson Show.
Rose gets up about this time too and wants to help.
"How do you want to help?" asks Lana.
Rose thinks carefully and answers, "Licking."
So Rose helps Lana by licking the spoon and bowl.  Other days she wants to help by putting in the muffin papers.  (And then licking afterwards)
****
Earlier in the week Lana asked all the children to be quiet while Dad was on the phone. Afterwards Clare said to Lana, "I was very quiet. As quiet as a whistle ..."  Then she paused for a moment and added  "not being blowed."
Suppressing a laugh, Lana replied, "Good girl. That was very quiet."

A trifle into Defcon 4

Martin has just made it into Defcon 4. He has begun climbing chairs (but hasn't yet worked out he can move them), opens cupboards and runs with items that NEED relocating.
Here he is pointing out a tasty target of interest - a huge trifle. A trifle is the best way to use stale cake.
Start with a butter or sponge cake and chop it into about 2" squares. (Accuracy here is not important)
Place them decoratively around the inside of a bowl - glass is better because all the children can look in awe at the yummy contents.
Pour fruit juice over the cake so it soaks in nicely. Place this in the fridge while you make some jelly (Jello) in a  slightly stronger mix than usual. Let it set, then chop it up and throw into the middle of the bowl amongst the soaked cake, or pour it in partly set so it mixes up.  Then throw in some tinned fruit too.
Make up some custard (or pudding) and pour over the top so that it fills all the gaps.
Then you can make it pretty with a bit of cream and fruit on the top.
Refrigerate so it's all cool and serve with ice-cream (of course)
Very yummy.

Oh yes - an important safety tip: Keep chairs away from the bench so that little children don't stick their fingers in.

The Robbo Show 2008

Yesterday we attended the 2008 Robertson Show. This is a truly Australian Country show and it is great fun. If a rule interferes with a family enjoying itself in a wholesome manner it is ignored, over-ruled or changed. The main four commentators - Bruce, Bruce, Bruce and Paddy - keep up a constant banter and ensure no-one is immune from their friendly jibes. They always ask where a competitor comes from and then use that in their banter. "Oh from the US? You certainly swam a long way!" and so on.
Our first photo is of the Robertson Show Girls. As you can see they are sensibly dressed in the classic Robertson weather - unpredictable. The day was very sunny, but with a mean chill in the air. We all ended the day with sun or wind burnt faces - everything else was covered.
We entered 48 entries into the Pavilion in the categories for cooking, tapestry, knitting, vegetables, photographs and any other crafts the children wanted to enter. We ended up with 19 first prizes, 7 second places and 3 highly commended awards as well as Ariel being awarded Junior Champion Needlework and Eric received Champion Exhibit Junior Vegetables. Clare's photo we showed earlier won First prize. Peter and Clare won prizes for their other photos too.
Lana's cooking deservedly won first prizes all over the place, which is just as well as she is making Anzac biscuits and muffins regularly for the local shop.
There were also many events held on the day everyone could join in. James thought up a good pet to enter in the Pet show under the "Most Unusual Pet" category. Our skinned Raccoon. Somehow, in a judging controversy, we didn't win, so we re-entered again under the "Ugliest Pet" category and were awarded second prize. All the boys and I went to go into the Pie eating competition. Unfortunately the meat pies, which are apparently world famous, were full of meat and COLD. Have you ever tried eating a cold meat pie. We all could have eaten lots of hot meat pies, but as you can see by the photo, Peter wasn't too impressed.
Eric and I entered the Pumpkin Lawn Bowls competition. This is where you bowl a pumpkin and the closest to the marker wins. No practice bowls, the four pumpkins were all slightly different sizes and you were encouraged to hurry up.
Eric was the second bowler up and was immediately in first place. I followed shortly after and was in second place right up until the last bowler when I was pipped at the post. Eric won first prize. Lana took some photos and figured it was about time my photo was shown in Bruggie Tales.
We are now regulars at the show and the various stewards have learned how to spell our non standard last name as they have to write it down so often. We'll be back again next year.

Autumn Cleaning

Now that Summer is ending I thought it was time for some Autumn Blog Cleaning. You may have noticed the change to the layout and also an updated Logo. The old one was pre Martin! This photo was taken last week on our working holiday and Rose was too curious to see what I was doing fiddling with the camera to face the glorious view, so we told her to keep looking at the camera.

Now that is a tree

Another bonus of the farmhouse was this really old tree. It was a great climbing tree and before we had unpacked James and Peter were already exploring its upper reaches.
The trip was split into two days of around 6 hours driving each day. We listened to The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Alice in Wonderland, Mort by Terry Pratchett and The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. 

The trip went very smoothly, even with Martin who we thought would get a little stir crazy. He certainly did enjoy running (!) around once we stopped but he didn't complain too much.
On the way we stopped at various farmer's fruit stalls and purchased fresh fruit. The bananas we bought were especially yummy and Martin happily chomped his way through a few.
On the return trip Eric read out the Lord of the Rings Trivial Pursuit questions and we all competed to get the most answers. It was close but Lana narrowly beat Ariel and James.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

On Day Two, Lana and the children went to the beach while I visited a client near Palm Beach in Queensland. There had been many storms and floods in the area recently and much of the beach had been washed away.
But this didn't stop the children enjoying themselves at the beach. Martin enjoyed watching the seagulls and then chasing one. I don't know what he would do if he actually caught one.  

(Click the photo for full details)
Ariel gathered a great collection of sea shells and the boys dug holes and ran into and out of the water's edge.

A house with a view

Sometimes it's worth taking a trek a little out of the way. This is the view we had from near the back porch of the farmhouse we rented last week. (Click the photo for more details)
There was a river and creek nearby which Lana and the children visited on day one while I visited one of my clients that day.
The house was a much better idea than our earlier attempts to find accommodation at a hotel/motel/caravan park. Instead of being squeezed into one or two little boxes we were able to enjoy the room of a house with plenty of space. The cost actually worked out better than the silly motels/caravan parks.
In Australia most motel type accommodation charge a base rate and then an amount per person. They only allow 3 or 4 people per room and then cheekily say "children are free". Ah, but you will need an extra room because "fire regulations" limit us to only 3/4/5 people per room. Bah!

Trust but Verify

We have just returned from a working holiday up North. The main location in which we stayed was a holiday house on a farm about 30 minutes south of Beaudesert, Queensland. It was a very isolated spot out of Internet and mobile phone coverage. Also, being so well placed in the bush, the GPS needs to be monitored carefully.
With directions to get to the accommodation from the North, we used the GPS to get there from the South. The two photos in this post indicate two of the roads we were suggested to take.

The fence line on the second photo is called "Strong Road" according to the GPS. Hmmm, I think I would need a strong car to attempt it.

The GPS is still pretty good. It allows us the confidence to try alternate routes even though we know there is the risk the road may not actually exist. We can always back track and try an alternate route.
It also lets us find places like Wonglepong!

The Family Rosary

We have been reliably informed that one can gain great graces by saying family prayers together and that the family Rosary is very effective and worthy.
I am sure that it is not because of the deep meditations one may ponder or spiritual feelings one may experience. I think the benefits accrue from sheer perseverance in the face of all the distractions little ones cause.
This is a quick snap of Martin doing his best to distract us from our determination to say our prayers. He looks like he is bowing to his appreciative audience.
It takes a great amount of perseverance to concentrate of the part of Jesus' life and meditate on that area on which we are praying.
We have read that being distracted during prayers is a very common thing as we are human after all. It is the returning to prayer and not abandoning the effort which is the good thing.
(Note that Martin has now learned to climb onto the Treasure Table, but as he hasn't actually climbed ladders or chairs onto tables, we are still hovering at Defcon 3.5)

Snap Happy Children

We're getting ready for the annual Robertson Show. The children are making lots of craft items to display and they have planned a massive cooking day just before the show.
All the children (except Martin) have been going around with digital cameras taking photos. After the first round or two, I showed them the results and explained important concepts such as standing still when taking a photo, lining up the subject with the little cross in the middle of the screen, waiting for the camera to focus and so on. Since then the results haven't been too bad. And being digital, there is no cost of developing or delays to seeing the photographs.
This photo is by Clare, capturing Rose taking a photo of the flower. Quite by accident it is a really nice photo. (Click for greater detail)

Defcon 3.5 - The Relocator!

Martin is excelling at his new job. He is a Relocator.
It is important that you pronounce this is in an announcer's deep voice, as in
"... and here is THE RELOCATOR!"
Anything left on the floor has a good chance of being elsewhere when you return.

Guardian Angels on Duty

We have often said, "The fact you have survived childhood seems to be a proof for Guardian Angels."
The boys had setup a rather dangerous arrangement around the trampoline. I explained to them all the dangers and suggested they should dismantle or re-arrange the lot to make it safer.
"We've had it this way for months," replied James, "Nothing's going to go wrong."
Famous last words.
Peter bounced too far and hit his head against a plastic pipe and narrowly missed damaging his eye. As it was he received a rather nasty cut and a lovely black eye. He also received great experience that should help him be more careful in the future.
And to be thankful for Guardian Angels.