Family

How to dial an old-style telephone

by Cellobella on Thursday, November 10, 2011 · 3 comments

See I didn’t think you would need a lesson but then, probably, you’re not 14.

It has taken nearly two years but finally we have got cable which means we can now use my old bakelite phone as the house phone.

Ahhh I am quite excited but the rest of the family, less so.

Groover: It’s useless! I tried to call a 1300 number today and I had to “press 1″ but you can’t on that phone.

Dippity: So does that mean I can’t take the phone into my bedroom??!

Hugamuga: Meh. I don’t use the phone anyway.

It’s not as if we don’t already have a surfeit of phones in this house – five active mobiles at last count, and one spare.

I quite like not having an answering machine too. After all, if you really want to speak to me you’ll ring me on one of my mobiles right?

And who uses caller ID anyway.

So for those of you who want to go retro communicado – here’s a little how-to video from my girl.

In other news – which you might also get if you rang us on our home phone – my boy finished his last exam today. It was Geography and he reckons it went well.

Interview for St George’s tomorrow. Good luck!

On not inviting girls

by Cellobella on Friday, April 8, 2011 · 7 comments

Bloody hell - can I go now?

This is my boy, pre-ball.

My creation.

Well mostly mine.

Okay okay he had a bit to do with it.

Oh and Groover.

But for tonight?

That’s mostly me.

With my boy’s agreement.

Y’know a lot has been said about how expensive girls can be when it comes to the Year 12 ball but I found myself forking over huge wads of cash.

Suit, shirt, shoes, tie… haircut.

Okay admittedly the haircut was a bargain.

I don’t know.

I didn’t think I’d care so much.

How hard is it being a boy – turn up in any old suit and you’ll look good right?

Probably right.

But I wanted him to feel good and look good.

I wanted him to feel special, coz you know… he is.

And besides…

The lads

How gorgeous do they look?

And he’ll wear that suit again.

Hopefully.

Travelling in style

Interestingly lots of the boys didn’t invite girls to the ball.

They go to a co-ed school and I guess they figured girls would be there anyway.

Still I was a bit disappointed.

I think a lot of the girls would have liked to have been asked.

And I bet there were a few who wished one of these lads had asked them.

But maybe not.

Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.

Or maybe…

Maybe these boys are lucky they don’t go to an all-boys school.

Yeah.

Then they’d have had to ask someone!

Improvising in the kitchen

by Cellobella on Monday, March 14, 2011 · 4 comments

Essential oil burner

I came home from work today, opened the door and was transported to the outer suburbs olfactorally speaking.

To the tip to be precise… which may or may not be in the outer suburbs… I haven’t been there… that’s what rates are for.

The kitchen bin REALLY needed emptying.

But not onto the floor which is what happened when Groover pulled the plastic bag out of the shiny stainless steel bin and trying to stop the small drips from a hole in said bag managed to tip it over the floor.

Then the house really started to reek.

A shame as we’d done quite a good job in cleaning the house over the weekend.

Apart, obviously, from actually emptying all the bins.

Anyhoo we needed DRASTIC odour manipulation but an essential oil atomiser was not to be found.

Fear not, says Groover, and he quickly rigged up the above home atomising kit.

Now our house smells of lavender.

Ahhh.

Later it was Dippity’s turn to do the washing up.

She likes to dress for the occasion.

My little maid

Aw.  Cute.

(she did a good job too)

Global domination

by Cellobella on Monday, January 3, 2011

Hmmmm Asia or Europe... who shall I pwn...?

We spent much of the afternoon and evening (and night) playing Risk.

The battle was joined.

Groover is red, Dippity is blue, Hugamuga yellow and I’m blue.

He looks like a nice chap... but looks can be deceiving...

His advice to his daughter… was killer… and Hugo and I were the victims.

I scored Asia!

At the time of this post,my sweet daughter holds the Americas, my darling husband holds Asia and Australia, Hugo is out and I am holed up in Africa with the red menace on my doorstep.

Update at 10.15pm

later in the game...

A strong postion

Winners are grinners

At 10.35 we conceded to the small one.

Gloat much?

Why I don’t have any more teacups

by Cellobella on Thursday, December 16, 2010 · 1 comment

Just a video today.

This is one of my favourites from my daughter’s early days.

Here she’s about 14 months old.

A determined wee lassie.

Many people can’t watch this film without wincing.

I’m not sure what it says about my parenting style but I can assure you that no children – or for that matter teacups – were hurt in the making of this video.

I hope you love it.

Blonde ambition

by Cellobella on Wednesday, December 15, 2010 · 3 comments

Waiting for the blonding agent to work

So this summer my baby wants to be blonder.

We went down the supermarket to get one of those streaking kits with one of those caps that you pull through bits of hair but of course who wants to follow instructions!?

I’ve been to the hairdresser.

I’ve seen them do foils.

Piece of cake.

I can do that.

So we cut up strips of foil (a bit thin… thicker foil would be easier to work with), got out my comb with the sticky bit at the end.

And by sticky I mean stick-like not covered in goo.

And away we went.

As you’ll see in the video, Miss Dippity was a little worried.

“Can you book me into the proper hairdresser tomorrow Mum?”

Pfft.

Just wait and see I said calmly.

(OMG I’m a bit worried I said inside)

But the result was…

Not bad for a beginner...

Okay.

And probably not blonde enough for my daughter.

Sigh.

Still I reckon I passed my apprenticeship:

Wife, mother, radio presenter, manager, actress, cardplayer, zumba dancer, cook, nurse, seamstress and now hairdresser.

Booyah!

(I don’t claim to do any of them particularly well)

A cool tattoo?

by Cellobella on Friday, December 10, 2010 · 5 comments

I don’t normally take photos of hunky blokes down the beach.

Surfee dude types

Especially not ones who – lets face it – could be my sons.

I’m not the cougar type.

But when I spied that tattoo on his back… well!

Smiley face tattoo

My first thought was… are you kidding me?!

Who gets a smiley face tattoo.

My next thought was… have I missed a “cool” lesson somewhere?

So tell me internets – cool or uncool?

And then we went for a walk.

It had been a hot day.  Bushfires.  Windy.

So I thought an evening stoll en famile would be nice.

Cottesloe Beach

Fishing from the groin

When we got to the beach it was COLD!

Really windy.

A little… unpleasant.

So rather than a longer walk towards Swanborne – we headed for the groin.

A bit pathetic really.

The pylon with the smog of the fires on the horizon

Of course you can’t keep a teenage boy out of the water no matter how much you talk about shark weather…

Fun in the surf keeping an eye out for sharks

A snippet of Groover in action

by Cellobella on Monday, December 6, 2010

As you know Groover has been in a play recently called The Beat Goes On by A Lad In Sane productions.

Well, I have a tiny bit of the show so you can see him in action.

Actually you see more of his co-star…

My only excuse is that I got too involved in the play to remember to video later…

Doh!

Sweet sixteen but has he been kissed?

by Cellobella on Wednesday, November 24, 2010 · 5 comments

Well as if I would know, I’m only his mother!

five months old

Five Months Old

Opening of the Graham Farmer Freeway

Opening of the Graham Farmer Freeway

At Rally Australia

At Rally Australia

sliding across lake deborah

Love this one, sliding across Lake Deborah

Mates

In our kitchen with his mate

Leaving for India

Leaving for India

So has he been kissed?

Watch the video to find out. :)

A shameless plug for a nasty character

by Cellobella on Monday, November 15, 2010

Groover... is Mr Williams in The Beat Goes On

Groover is in another play – The Beat Goes On – which opens this THURSDAY at Camelot Theatre in Mosman Park.

The play is really three one-act plays all, as you might imagine from the title, about police work in the home country.

Groover is in the third of these plays, directed by Sinead Bevan (the co-director of his last play Arsenic and Old Lace) and he plays a nasty piece of work.

Mr Williams is a thug.

He’s been arrested countless times and always seems to get off on a technicality – the police powerless to do anything about it and forced to be polite and over-courteous all the time.

Honestly, practicing his lines with him, I just wanted to slap him!

Still it is quite amusing and thank goodness this time at a theatre closer to home – although he has some performances out at Midland as well.

I’m going both Friday and Saturday nights - hopefully I’ll see you at one of those performances!

Book here.