one down, one to go!

school hol weeks, that is. 

news from the hillocks as follows:

jeebers ! watch this if you enjoy feelings of inadequacy as regards the pianoforte

wonderfulness! who says hollywood hasn't dumbed down?

Royal Melbourne Show 2012

Parental highlights: Tastes of Victoria pavillion had awesome stone fruit jams and teas but the roasted goat knocked my socks off, so I bought a leg to try roasting myself. Anyone here ever roasted goat?

Kid A Highlights: Rides! Showbags! Flashing Minnie Mouse bow headband! PLEASE can I have more than one showbag...why not? Can I spend my own money on another ride? Yay! Bungee jumping..slides....beanie kids...inarticulate but constant babble...

Kid B highlights: Asked for and got the Batman showbag,which had a Batman cossie in it. Kid B put it on and channelled Batman for the entire show with a solemn and passionate focus cute and funny. Fell asleep n the car with his mask on. Woke up and howled when I slid his mask off. So I held it over his eyes for 10 seconds and he fell asleep again. (Betty, you may recall giving me a bag of dressups last year- Kid B lives in the pair of Spiderman pants and hat from that bag much of the time- should post a photo!)

We have a photo of Kid A with an ENORMOUS cheapo ball she coveted and her flashing headband, and kid B as Batman with his $2 light sabre which really sums up the whole horrorshow, will download if I can because it just screams 'showtime!'.

and a third thing - which will, in the upside downy ways of bloggery, appear first

I feel a lack of hornbag hereabouts.  Remind me to post a few slobbery pics next week.  Yes yes ... school hols notwithstanding in my personal space.

and another thing

what's the latest drumroll on our corporeal hobnob ?

going grey

just thought the world should know I've gorn cold turkey on the hair dye.  you can call me silver foxy in about another 4.5 haircuts :p

Puberty Blues

Nah, yeah, its grouse. They pash off & stuff? And Debbie and Bruce, they were going round together, but she was a dud root, so Bruce told Straccy to tell Vicky to tell Sue to tell Debbie that she was dumped? And Gary is a good surfer and that, but Vicky pashed off another guy and they had a root and then Gary got stoned and sprung em rooting and he was gutted.
Catch up episodes on the ten websites, laydeez. http://ten.com.au/video-player.htm?movideo_p=48039
This show is very funny and twists the knife.
Fabulous 70s reminders from the show:
- ham steaks topped with a ring of tinned pineapple ( I feel sick thinking about it)
- drink driving was funny & no one was concerned about the danger (which was of course still present)
- People sat in the sun till they burnt, in the quest for a tan. Then they peeled the skin off and did it again.
- 'cover your heads girls' dad says to the girls during a sleepover. Then he saturates the air with aerosol insecticide.
- Chiko rolls (I feel sick thinking about it)
- Storm Boy at the Drive In!
- smoking was sooo cool (comeon mamas with older kids, tell me thats changed..)
- being pashed off!
Not so fabulous 70s reminders:
- Misogyny EVERYWHERE
- kids being date raped and gang raped and other kids looking on with no understanding of what was happening (please tell me thats changed..)
- bullying cultures in schools being par for the course (please tell me....)

Watch this if you can my friends. This really is AWESOME and reminds me how important the original book is re Oz culture.

And BTW!
our long time missing Jonesy's written some fab reviews of the episodes so far on his website 'Change the Channel.' He's at

http://ctchannel.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/review-puberty-blues-episode-4/

in the same vein, but more

owing to kid #2's current fascination with the Charleston, I've been trawling through endless toobs.  I like this one.  give a good look at those crazy kids what invented modernity :D

Charleston? or Melbourne Shuffle?

Seriously, what are we gonna do?

You lot horrified by whats happening to our newspapers? Speshlly our political commentary? Any idea who's left the Fairfax papers? I dont know if there's anyone left whose columns I want to read. Shaun Carney, David Marr, Misha Shubert, Adele Horin, Simon Mann, Julie Szego...these names may mean nothing or everything to you. They're some of my favourite reading. As the fabulous John Birmingham (blogger, Brisbane Times writer, author of 'He Died with a Felafel in his Hand' and one of my fave writers via Fairfax websites) put it:

"Elvis has left the building. And BB King. And Mick 'n' Keef. And Frank and Dean and Sid Vicious and Kurt Cobain and Dirk Diggler and Kermit the Frog, and Buffy and Faith and Ripley for good measure. That's what it feels like when the talent leaves the building. That's what Fairfax felt like last Friday when hundreds of years of experience walked out the door for the last time."

(His whole article re this stuff is great. He goes on to rant about the benefits of amateur blogging, ahem.It's at the link below)
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/opinion/blogs/blunt-instrument/the-fifth-estate-comes-forth-20120903-25ac3.html#ixzz25XhjMCjo

One of the only things that makes our stupid, mental politics palatable is flicking onto a column filled with the measured reasoning of Shaun Carney or the fabulous prose of David Marr. Glad Katherine Murphy's still around. Peter Hartcher is NO substitute for Sean Carney as political editor. Tony Wright is good, but not amazing. Michelle Grattan survived, hehehe. Praise be, a number of the columnists on the ABC website are still there and still worth reading (heres looking at you, Annabel Crab, Mungo McCallum, Barrie Cassidy..). They're there...for now. But I am afraid. For years I've lived with the sense that there are a pile of people in Canberra called pollies making decisions about the country, and that there are genuinely some journos who listen as best they can and WANT to tell us what they find and what they think of it. And they've ALL GONE AT ONCE.
I trusted them, goddammit. I dont want my political commentary flavoured by tabloid crap. I want to read bloody good minds unpacking complex ideas and occasionally having a giggle at the antics of the pollies who cooked the ideas up.
sooooo.....I've tried Crikey but I'm struggling with their format. Anyone come across other alternative news sources?

Ahoy!

...just resigned from one of me three jobs.
I'll miss the dosh but looking forward to the peace of mind....
How goes it luvvies?
Looks like I have some reading back to do..