Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington

Esther has been a member of the Boom Boom Dance Academy for the past 10 months. You may reasonably assume, if you have ever met Esther, that girlfriend loves herself a little bit of centre-stage. She is no wallflower. So I was surprised that she got so nervous before her performance. There were nerves to the point of feeling sick. 

I watched her walk onto the stage for the first time with the rest of the coven for her 'little witch dance', I watched as she walked straight over to her dance teacher with a worried face and then I watched as her dance teacher ushered her immediately off the stage. 

My first instinct was tears, my second fury (there have been several hundreds of $$$, yup hundreds, and a whole bucket of parental hours invested in the Boom Boom Dance Academy, not to mention how disappointed I knew Esther would be when she realised what she'd missed out on); but I have not spent my most recent night shifts watching Toddlers and Tiaras for nothing. I know what a stage-mother must do when her offspring baulks...yes reader, I dashed backstage and shoved Esther back on*. 

She did me proud, and once she realised there was a buzz to be got from dancing in front of an audience there was no stopping her.

Make-up application, possibly Esther's favourite part of the show

With her witchy BFF

The show Esther must go on! Taken from the wings. Stupid blogger randomly refusing to rotate my photos again, grrr.

Talented little witch!

Mermaid, far left

Curtsey after being presented with her participation award <3

I have super cute film clips of Esther as witch and mermaid in her matinee performance but I'm jiggered if I can work out how to make them play on blogger. I am rather going off blogger...

*Esther was cajoled rather than threatened: true story!

There is a light that never goes out

Cute, pink boombox

Esther had a cute, pink boombox so she could listen to her CDs. Her current favourite is Jay Laga'aia's "I Can Play Anything". I also love Jay, his songs are great and he, along with Matt and Rhys, makes Playschool very watchable. Indeed there is much to be happy about in the world of children's TV these days: Jimmy Giggle, Steve Backshall... c'mon, I know you know what I'm talking about!
I digress...
I bought the cute, pink boombox a few years ago so it also had a cassette deck which was awesome because we inherited a heap of story and music tapes from my Canberra cousins (they are likely to be unique among their Gen Y peers in their ability to recognise an audio cassette). Anyhoo, the CD part of the cute, pink boombox packed up and Esther was missing Jay at bedtime so I had to find a replacement. I failed. It transpires that one can not buy a boombox that plays cassettes these days (why did that surprise me?!). So she has a CD/iPod boombox (still pink!) for her bedroom and the cute, pink tape-deck has moved to the kitchen. Which is where I was yesterday...
I was rolling sushi, washing up, baking (my Melbourne Cup lunch got cancelled last minute, what's a girl to do?!)...I needed a soundtrack so I dug out my box of tapes! What's left are the mix-tapes, made for me by dear friends, old boyfriends and first love. The playlists are handwritten and annotated, they have cut and paste front covers and names like "music for dishwashers" and "Spamella Anderson". They contain the songs of my university years and some from the subsequent 90s. Nostalgic? Much!

My sentimental reverie was interrupted this morning when I found a note from Ade on the kitchen bench:
Hi hon,
Can you please give our room a good spray today.
I saw a huge huntsman twice last night but didn't manage to squash him.
Love you xxxx
WTF??!! Didn't manage to squash it? Allowed me to sleep in a room with an enormous arachnid? I am too scared to go back into my bedroom. Adrian, this does not constitute a 'love letter', you need to show me some love with a mix-tape please!

In other news: we've had our first electrical storm of the season and it's raining!

Strange grey shapes in the sky that deposit water

What's new pussycat?

What's new Chez Jonker?
We've got a new kitchen bin. It's fancy: opens when you wave your detritus over the top of it and closes automatically too.
It's currently my favourite piece of furniture.

We spent today doing some garden maintenance, inspired by what is happening in our garden without any input from LAFE:

Beautiful frangipani out-front, making our house look purrrty :)

And, lo, the fugly tree next to the back patio turns out to be...

...a mango!!! There have been 4 fruit to date, 2 of which are already on the ground. We are instigating a watering program for "out-back" so that next year we might harvest some of our own mangoes.

Long to reign over us (*sigh*)

Sweet baby cheeses, Australia is lovin' that the Queen is down under. I have always been a bit 'meh' about the royals* but we do get a public holiday for the Queen's birthday, which is...noice.
This year (in W.A.) the public hol got moved back a bit to coincide with CHOGM. I'm glad Julia got to meet Her Maj, I dig that girl-power but I think Julia's days are numbered...
It seems Liz has received a right royal send-off in Perth, 'fess-up you Perth-ites, who went along to wave??!!
Anyhoo, what are LAFE doing with our long weekend? Well, we went to the pool today and we'll go again tomorrow. We are keen TP pool supporters for a few reasons:
i) It's blinkin' hot up here.
ii) There's no pool in our backyard.
iii) We are a long way from the sea.
iv) Ade is vice-president of the swimming club**.
This weekend also saw Picnic Day 2011; an afternoon/evening of activities, entertainment, food and movies brought to Tom Price by Rio Tinto. 
I gather that the purpose of Picnic Day is to remind residents that they should have no other mining company before Rio Tinto. Word on the street is that this year's Picnic Day was craphouse compared to previous years. The girls enjoyed it...

circus skills

decorating cupcakes

Tug o'war

Captain Quirk's juggling show

Brought to you by our sponsors...

* Confession: in 1996 (or thereabouts) I did see the Queen. She was in a car being driven into the Epsom Downs racecourse on Derby day. Despite my being a bit 'meh' about the royals I got stupidly excited when I saw her and jumped up and down and squealed.
I was appalled at myself.
In my defense I squealed far, far louder when Dame Judi Dench drove past me on a country lane near Redhill a couple of years after my brush with QEII. J'adore Dame Judi.

** The only man on the committee, he thinks it gives him extra rumpy-pumpy value....like I'll sing "Happy Birthday Mr (vice) President" or something. Dream on Ade.

TP Book Club

It's been a while between good books. I bought the latest Michael Connolly paperback in Coles but (while I luff Mr Connolly) this is snack-food literature and I was still hungry.

There's a good little library in Tom Price but my relationship with libraries is much like the one I have with Blockbusters and VideoEzy: they lend me things, I forget to return them promptly and then I have to pay more in late fees than it would have cost me to purchase my entertainment in the first place. 

And so I dropped in on my pals at Book Depository. I bought several books that Jen had recommended, she's usually spot on but I couldn't get overexcited about The Book Thief (so shoot me). This pile also includes a lend from Helen, another Coles top 10-er, A Perth purchase and a book my mum sent me which I have since discovered is a Christmas present for Freya!

While I get stuck in to this lot I will have to find time to re-read 'Red Dog', it's a shortie so a spare morning should do it, and think about some discussion points. This is in preparation for my first Book Club meeting. Below is the email I sent to other interested readers:

Hello,

Thank you so much for your interest in a Book Club. I thought I'd better get this show on the road or it'll be 2012 and still no BC!.

So here's what I was thinking:

• The first rule of book club is that you do not talk about book club. Kidding, of course! BC may grow, It would be great if it did. We may be the (hard)core but please invite other interested readers to join us.
• The second rule is "anything goes" (in a literary sense!). The books we choose can be fact, fiction or anything in between and of any genre. I'm looking forward to reading other people's picks but if, for some reason, you don't want to read the chosen book, don't. Feel free to skip the meeting.
• BC to meet every 5-6 weeks. I figure this is enough time to source and read the chosen book. The date and book for the next meeting will need to be decided at the preceding meeting (make sense?!).
• Each meeting will have a 'host' who will chose the book and lead the discussion. We will take it in turns to host, I'll go first! The meeting can be at the host's house or, if that is not convenient, at a venue of your choice (pub, park, someone else's pad...).
• BYO booze and some nibbles to share, host to provide softies. In case this wasn't clear, I think BC should be a happy, sociable event with as much emphasis on the 'club' as the 'book'. Wine is good, coffee and chocolate are also good.
• At the end of each meeting the next host will let members know their book choice. That way we can immediately set about sourcing/reading the book. Any volunteers for host no.2? You'll need to have decided on your book in time for our first meeting.

So can the majority make the inaugural TPBC meeting at my place (3 Ingerup Pl) on Thursday 3rd November from 7pm?

RSVP before the date :)

My first pick for first book is....

Red Dog by Louis De Bernieres. It's a quick, easy, geographically relevant read that is (I believe) available from the tourist information place. I also have a copy that I am happy to lend.

Any of you book-clubbers? I'm happy to receive your hints and tips :)

Sorted...

...kinda. The photos are upright but it took a fair bit of fiddling. Maybe I'll read the instructions on my new camera now :)

At home with Silke!

I love this photo, gorgeous baby E!

Esther makes another best friend!

RT and L xx

Me, Ains and any day now!

We did a few drive-bys of the old place in order to admire the garden, it was glorious...apart from the weeds which the agent assures us will be dealt with.

Busy time in Perth but it was great to see y'all. Much love (in no particular order) to: Tylers; Karl & Chris; Ti & Jay; Adam & Janine; Helen & John; LIL Ludgerus; the Ferndale mums crew and BCPS kids; Homelink posse; Early Shirley; Anita & offspring; Ains; Rooneys; Lizzie; Gem, Simon and E; Baxters; RT, JS and L; Uncle Trav. To those we didn't manage to catch up with...TP is an awesome spot for a holiday!

To Perth and back

The lovely fortnight we spent in Perth has been marred by my inability to properly upload some of the photos I took on my new (and currently maligned) Nikon. My technological ineptitude and unsuccessful troubleshooting have delayed my bedtime; I am entirely crankipants.
Ade (who is usually so useful at times like this) suggested I read the manual... Well that's just crazy talk.
So, dear friends and family, I would warmly welcome advice regarding rotating and saving pics (although any patronising or rude comments will be met with a Paddington Bear stare).
Here are some "landscape" shots to keep you going while I try and work out how not to give LunaRover readers a crick in their neck.