Redsultana

My long service leave is rapidly coming to a close and while I haven’t been on any extended overseas vacations, retrained, or sorted out my love life, I have played A LOT of bridge. Four or five times a week will see me pulling cards with the best of them. The last two weekends have been two full days of competition. First the Swan River Pairs where we didn’t do that well… 56 out of 88 pairs… sigh. And then in the last two days the GNOT finals. This is the first time I’ve played in the GNOT – Grand National Open Teams – and up for grabs for the top three place getters a subsidized trip to the Gold Coast to play in the national play offs. The GNOT’s start off at club level. We placed second in the Nedlands Bridge Club heats and so with 19 other teams

Following my last post, after two days in Sydney I can no longer fit into my daughter’s size 5 jeans (size 5 is about a 9 in real language). A pork roll from James’s favourite cheap lunch spot. Lasagne! At least I have avoided all the yummy pastries from the (count them) five gorgeous bakeries that surround our hotel. The food in Sydney is cheap and delicious and so difficult to not eat. The first night we went to a little Vietnamese place in Surry Hills (or was it Darlinghurst) called Phamish. They started serving at 6pm and there was a queue waiting to be seated (including us). The highlight – the to-die-for duck and prawn rolls – watching mum eat one and then realise they had prawns in them was priceless. We’ve also gone to see Wicked – the musical. Clever story, great music and amazing set and costumes.

OMFG! I can fit into my 13 year old daughter’s size 5 (US) jeans! Sure I can’t breathe. And luckily they are lo-rise so all the wobbly bits squeeze “above the line”. But still. Size freaking 5! I am happy. Now why am I suddenly craving a muffin… Share and Enjoy: RSS Facebook Twitter Digg StumbleUpon Technorati Google Bookmarks

Check out the eyes! When my son was a little tacker – about 2 – we asked him what he was thinking about. He answered: “I’m thinking about that spider.” I don’t remember what spider – or even if there was a spider or if he was thinking about another spider somewhere else but it was such a sweet response that we have used it ever since. You know, when you are staring off into the distance with your mind in limbo. Or when asked what you’re thinking, you suddenly forget. It’s a handy response to have in your back pocket. This spider, the one in today’s photo was hiding behind a piece of loose bark on the tree my son was climbing. It dropped to the ground and I think the spider was a bit stunned because not even the very close lens of my camera startled it. Even

Listening to Tony Abbott on the 7.30 Report today I was left with a question. His argument against Labor’s broadband policy appeared to be not “ours is better” but “they can’t implement it”. TONY ABBOTT: The thing is all of what you’ve just said, Kerry, depends upon this government getting it right. Now this government hasn’t got anything else right; why do we say that they’ll get this right? And this isn’t just $2.5 billion dollars in home insulation. This is even just the $16 billion in school halls. This is $43 billion that they’re putting at stake here. The old insulation batts argument. So here’s my question Tony, if it’s not the policy but the implementation – why don’t you adopt the policy and implement it?! In the Liberals favour they do have a record for implementing their policies – even the bad ones. Share and Enjoy: RSS Facebook

Today I wandered towards the Crawley boathouse and the Eliza statue for a bit of a looksee. On Saturdays you struggle for space as the jetty out to the old boathouse is groaning under the weight of bridal parties keen for those “special shots”. (or maybe not so special as there are A LOT of brides who get the boatshed shots) But have you ever wondered about the boat that lives inside the boathouse? Me too. Afterward I wandered back to Neds for a coffee and then had lunch with an archaeology friend. She is so enthusiastic about archaeology that it is impossible not to be inspired, so afterwards I enquired about post-graduate diplomas. It’s a “next-year” project if it ever happens but I confess that some of the units do look very interesting. And oh! The excitement of field trips. I loves it. Hmmmm. We’ll see. Share and Enjoy:

And I thought my alarm was bad. These birds were so loud this morning. I felt I was in the Hitchcock film “The Birds”. And such an unattractive call. Share and Enjoy: RSS Facebook Twitter Digg StumbleUpon Technorati Google Bookmarks

It seems only yesterday that I was posting photos of my glory vine’s last bright red leaves. It is now a twist of twigs over my rotting pergola, the beams sagging, held together by inexpertly attached shadecloth. Well it was. Today, as the bright sunlight of winter shone through I noticed greenery. It’s budding. And there are still two red leaves from last season. Spring has sprung my friends, and we didn’t even have winter. Well, maybe a day or two of winter. And that freak storm in March. Maybe we’ll have winter in spring? Then my glory vine WILL be confused. Share and Enjoy: RSS Facebook Twitter Digg StumbleUpon Technorati Google Bookmarks

No, not the school, me. My son has lost 4% on a recent maths test because of me. The question read something like this: Sam went to a restaurant, he had the choice of two entrees, three main courses and two desserts.  Pate and pumpkin soup for the entrees, steak, chicken and beef for main course and icecream and chocolate cake for the desserts.  What is the probability that Sam would choose soup and chocolate cake? The correct answer is 1 in 4 but unfortunately my son had no idea what pate was (see image on the right if you are unsure… no, not the bread). He thought “pate” might be “some kind of random gourmet product you might turn into soup”. In other words he thought BOTH entrees were soup. Bugger. Knew I should have made him eat pate! This is why feeding expensive, overpriced gourmet foods to your

I thought it was just me that kept a pair of tweezers in my car but the other day I discovered another close friend of mine had the same secret. Yes we’re both (cough) forty-something (cough) and yes occasionally we’ve sat at the lights… looked in the visor mirror and almost spat out our take-away coffee. Ugh!  What is THAT doing growing THERE?!!! The problem is that at 40-something, not only do you start growing hair in unusual places but your eyesight is failing. So it is rare for you to notice that stray hair until you are faced with the mega-magnification of that little mirror on the inside of your visor. And even if you did notice that rogue – wtf is that doing on my face – hair… quite often,  because you need glasses, you can’t do anything about it. Have you ever tried to pluck your eyebrows,