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Sconal experiment

Question:
If one has the desire to make savoury scones, will Sister Suffragette's scone recipe still work if soda water is used instead of lemonade?

Answer:
Yes! Still just as moist and fluffy and delicious. Mmmmmm



The weird shape is due to the foot-shaped cookie cutter I used. You might just be able to see the little toes, teehee.

Anzac

While I was a-browsing the USPS website, as you do when you should be cleaning the kitchen/doing washing/playing with the kids I happened across the list of items which cannot be mailed to Australia. It was all fairly obvious stuff like precious stones, firearms silencers, etc, but this jumped out at me:

Goods bearing the name “Anzac.”

Off to Google I went and discovered that

Various restrictions on the use of the word 'Anzac' have been in place since 1 July 1916 and the importation of goods bearing this word have been prohibited by regulation since 1934. (ref here)

In 2002 the regulations were amended to allow for

the personal importation of goods bearing the word 'Anzac'. The importation of such goods that are for commercial use or otherwise significant must have a permit and will be examined to ascertain whether the goods are appropriate and do not offend against the Anzac spirit. (ref here)

Wow! I knew the word Anzac was highly significant in Australian history but I had no idea there were regulations governing its usage.

Sunday night summary, embarrassment and scones

Apparently poo is doing some fan-hitting at ANM's work tonight, so he's been called in. I have no idea when he'll be home... today... tomorrow... who knows... At least the Littles are sleeping. Mr T is not because he's just watched "the scariest Doctor Who episode ever made" so is lying in his bed freaking out about goodness knows what. I was sensible and very deliberately didn't watch it. I should probably have advised him to do likewise but he would not have listened anyway, because he is 13 and therefore knows everything.

Am I the only person in the world who is a nitpickety nanna about other people's spelling and grammar and such things, but is totally incapable of writing a coherent sentence that doesn't contain at least one instance of Chinglish? Tonight I wrote an email to a friend, proof read it I don't know how many times, hit send, reread it and realised I'd left out half a sentence, which made me sound like a wee bit of an eediot. So what did I do? I sent an oops email with the correction, so the first email would make sense, but I forgot to read over the second email before I hit send and on rereading the second one I discovered a major typo which totally changed the meaning of what I'd written. So, you guessed it, I wrote a third email correcting the mistyped word, except again, I didn't check it before I hit send and it turns out I misspelled the same word again, but in a different way. I was swearing profusely by this stage. I think email number four made sense as I did proof read it approximately 467 times before I hit send. Let us hope so, and let us also hope that my friend does not disown me for my idiocy.

The domestic goddess in me reared her pretty little housewifey head briefly this weekend and baked two (2) batches of the most awesome scones. I don't often bake tasty extras like scones or biscuits because they are usually too fiddly or messy for me to enjoy cooking but these scones were so quick and easy that they were actually a pleasure to create. I don't have photos because they were also very much a pleasure to eat and there are precisely zero (0) remaining.

Forgotten anniversary

Bad, bad husband, you might be thinking, but no, it was me... again! My brain doesn't appear to have the capacity to remember the date we got hitched. I know we were married in August a few years ago, but ask me the exact date or year and you'll more often than not get an embarrassed mumble.

Anyway, it turns out that yesterday was our five year wedding anniversary. ANM didn't actually remember until this morning, so I don't feel quite so bad, but I probably should make an effort to remember such things, or at least put them on the calendar. I suppose the forgetting sums up my feelings towards our legal union. Yes, we wanted to make our relationship formal, but the actual legal marriage thing didn't change anything in our relationship, and wasn't a huge event with dresses and bridesmaids and all that stuff, so the date doesn't seem to want to stick in my head.

But our first date... that one I remember! May 19, 2001... Ah, memries. :)

Phone fandanglings

My mobile phone has been dodgy and unreliable for over six months so I've finally bitten the bullet and bought a new one. Not exactly bought I guess as I haven't handed over any money for it, but I'll be paying it off over the next two years. Not super happy about starting another two year plan seeing as we've only just paid off and chopped up all our credit cards but with all the free calls we can make to each other now (ANM got one too) it should work out cheaper than our old plan... I hope. Yeah, we even got the same phone... again! Our wedding rings match too except his is bigger and manlier of course. Awww, how dorkishly sweet.

I bought my first mobile close to ten years ago, back in the days when phones were for making and receiving calls. Then there was this fancy text messaging thing that came along, which was pretty cool. Now, oh my goodness... My new phone has a 5mpx digital camera, shoots video, has a GPS receiver, a barcode scanner (uh, yeah) and of course an mp3/4 player, bluetooth, email and internet stuff, calendar that synchronises with my computer and has about a gzillion other features that I doubt I'll ever get around to working out how to use. And it's just a cheapie, with nowhere near the wowness of an iphone. I'm not even sure I know what's so spesh about the iphone, except that everyone seems to want one because it does everything. I'm not sure how much more everything there could possibly be...

The boy has weaned... I think

After 3 years and 9 months I think Little C has weaned. Of his own accord his breastfeeds have become less and less frequent over recent months. His last gap between breastfeeds was 6 weeks and he tells me he's a big boy now... so I think we're done.

This was his first feed, still slimy from birth:


and this was his 2nd last feed... in June this year:


And while I'm all teary and reminiscing I thought I'd post this little thing I wrote on Alternative Baby back on Little C's 1st birthday:

And the winner is...

Wooohooo, Little C turned 1 today and still boobing happily many times a day
(and night). :D :D :D

I've made it this far. Things were looking bad at around 5 months when my misinformed doctors were trying to convince me to wean him because of his numerous allergies and intolerances. They made me feel guilty for wanting to continue to breastfeed him (I was the cause of his pain).

In true Arias fashion, I have a few thank yous:

To Dr Jack Newman, breastfeeding guru extraordinaire. 'Twas Dr Jack who in the end convinced me that breastmilk really is best for my baby and gave me the scientific evidence to back it up (and shove under the noses of my unsupportive docs, much to their disgust, hehe). Thanks Dr Jack. You are a legend.

To my lovely naturopath, Georgie, who not only cured Little C's reflux within 3 days of first seeing him, but has put so much effort into sorting out my not-very-well system and helping me come to terms with some fairly full-on emotional issues from my past. Thanks so much Georgie.

To my darling husband, who has supported me 100% percent through all the hellish stuff.

To my mum, who refused to believe that any formula would be better for Little C than my breastmilk, and kept telling me so.

And a HUMUNGOUS thank you to all on AB who were so supportive at my lowest times. I really appreciate all the encouragement I have received here. This is the only safe place I have found on the net where I don't have to apologise for wanting to breastfeed my baby or parent my children gently. You are all ace. :D :D :D

Thanks again to you all, and thanks also to Little V for being a fabbo tandem feeder for the last 7 months.

And of course, cuddles and kisses always for my Little C, who is now so big and strong and healthy and wonderful.

Grandad and the medium

Still buzzing...

Tonight I was at a gathering of spiritual folk, including a few mediums. As part of this event one of the mediums stood up the front of the room to bring through a couple of passed spirits, John Edward style. Now, I've been to such gatherings before and have always been fascinated by the mediumship but had come to the conclusion that I was unlikely ever to be picked out as I've really only ever been close to one person who has died, and well, I didn't think our relationship had any loose ends to be tied, and there would always be other people in the room much more in need of closure than I was, etc, etc.

So tonight I was sitting there listening to the medium when bang-bang-bang-bang: "Old man, very tall (the medium was a shorty), injured leg, sore back, very fond of his garden, grandfather figure, the name T... (he said Mr T's name), end of April (Mr T's birthday is at the end of April)". My heart was pounding like crazy but the medium seemed drawn to a person two seats in front of me. When she vehemently denied that this spirit had anything to do with her I raised my hand. The medium confirmed a few other things with me to make sure I was the person the spirit wanted to connect with, being careful as always not to fish for info, and then passed on a message to me from Grandad (which I shall keep to myself for now, hehe).

How flippin awesome, and so nice to know he's out there watching over his grandkiddies (and great grandkiddies).

Once upon a time in Arkansas

It's a song. I don't know if that's the name of the song and I don't even remember all the words but it was the song I sang at my audition for the Sydney Children's Choir in about 1987. Yes, I used to be able to sing in tune but my hearing is too crappola these days... It wasn't called the Sydney Children's Choir in 1987, but the 2MBSFM Choir but I was still around for the launch of the new-look SCC in 1989 (yay me!) and spent a another couple of years singing with them until I was too adultish to get away with it any more.

...which brings me to Facebook. How cool is it that I can type in Sydney Children's Choir in the FB search and come up with a group chock full of all my old choirmates? And old schoolmates too (different group of course). I didn't get the point of FB when I first joined but am now really appreciating the social networking side of things. I love getting in contact with people from my past, who back even 5 years ago I wouldn't have had a hope of finding.

I've found a heap of old friends from my favourite high school (I went to 3) and have caught up with one who happens to live not far from me. Talk about a blast from the past! It's so cool to see the paths people's lives have taken over the 15-20 years since I last knew them.

Okay, got off my bum and googled the song. (I lie. I sat on my bum the entire time). Here's a random Youtube chick fiddling at the tune that she liked to hear, captured with some truly ace camera work:



and here are the lerrks (lifted from http://ingeb.org/songs/ohonceup.html):

The Arkansas Traveler

Oh once upon a time in Arkansas
An old man sat in his little cabin door,
And fiddled at a tune that he liked to hear,
A jolly old tune that he played by ear.

It was raining hard but the fiddler didn't care
He sawed away at the popular air,
Though his roof tree leaked like a water fall
That didn't seem to bother that man at all

A traveler was riding by that day,
And stopped to hear him a-practicing away
The cabin was afloat and his feet were wet,
But still the old man didn't seem to fret.

So the stranger said: "Now the way it seems to me,
You'd better mend your roof," said he.
But the old man said, as he played away:
"I couldn't mend it now, it's a rainy day."

The traveler replied: "That's all quite true,
But this, I think, is the thing for you to do;
Get busy on a day that is fair and bright,
Then pitch the old roof till it's good and tight."

But the old man kept on a-playing at his reel,
And tapped the ground with his leathery heel:
"Get along," said he, "for you give me a pain;
My cabin never leaks when it doesn't rain."

Woohooo, feeling better today

Mr T had a new friend over today. Well, not a really a new friend, but a kid I hadn't met before. He seemed really nice, was very sociable and was kind to and inclusive of Little C. Turns out he has 2 younger sisters aged 7 and 1, so that may have had something to do with it. Thinking about it, Ted does seem to have an unusual number of friends who have much younger sibs and his bestie has two younger brothers aged 3 and almost 2... I wonder if this is a new trend in kid spacings due to the higher divorce rate and people having a 2nd marriage and 2nd batch of kids well within their childbearing years, or just a random happening exclusive to Ted's friends. Hmmm.

Anyway, I'm feeling better. I even cooked muffins OMG OMG! There is one left. It's supposed to be Little C's but I think I might scoff it, or perhaps share it with ANM if I'm feeling generous, although I bought him a beer tonight. Choc chip muffins and beer don't really mix... do they?

Frustration and anxiety

These two feelings have been overwhelming me this week and I'm sickofitsickofitsickofit. I've been seriously questioning my character, integrity and niceness. Friends are annoying the crap outta me and I've been hibernating instead of doing all my usual social stuff, but even at home I've just been sitting around doing nothing in particular except looking after the kids' basic needs and sitting on my bum wasting time until ANM gets home from work, when I suddenly feel the need to apologise for not having done any housework. Ugh! I used to feel like this all the time, when I had antenatal and postnatal depression, but I've been feeling great for months now, so it's really hit me hard.

Ughness be gone!!