Getting away
31 December 2005, 13:20
That’s holding the ball, Umpire!!!... Click to enlarge in Gallery
McG and I’ve just returned from a couple of glorious days down the coast at Rye. And never in my life have I seen Australia look more like Japan… there were people everywhere, I’m not kidding. You had to fight for a patch of sand, a carpark, a spot in the “highway” (the Nepean is so not a highway, it’s more of a crawlway) queue. The only thing missing was a band of friendly chaps to take your order for beachside bentos + cocktail service.
We have friends who have a holiday home down there which is about 10 minutes walk to the Beach, but Fat Gut can’t even walk that far, so McG was burdened with having to drop me off and attempt to sell his first-born (ouch… not yet thanks…) for an illegal park.
Rye Beach Hut (I think is meant to be Astroboy with a dodgy blue dye-job)...
The water, however, was magnificent. Melbourne is not exactly a beach culture and you kinda have to drive 2 hours from the city to hit a decent beach, but hell, it was worth it…
Returned last night to rather “balmy” temps – am doing my damnedest today not to lose my pleasant disposition in 43 degree heat. Yes. It really is very hot. Thank crap for aircon and a Husband who agrees to tackle the shopping in such a stifling state…
Since getting back, we’ve caught up with various friends in town for fly-in visits. At brunch this morning, the first thing our friend “S” said to me, was “Look at your boobs! They’re… magnificent!!!” Why, yes they are in fact. Pregnancy makes for top-shelf boobs. ‘Tis certainly a shame they are flying south for the Summer…
S was fascinated with Fat Gut and kept wanting to touch it. This I certainly don’t mind and it’s nice when people ask if they can touch it (which S did). So far I haven’t had any strangers copping a feel, but work colleagues and friends have occasionally gone the grope without asking. I don’t hate that exactly, but it is in the Golden Triangle people and can be a tad confronting.
Fat Gut, Friend & Husband…
Tonight’s New Years plans are very simple. Eat a salad. Have a cold shower. Get my Gut out. That is all. Anything else would be mere folly…
Permanent Link | Comments [3]Baby Tipping Comp - Closing Soon!
28 December 2005, 09:40
This post will appear at the top of the page until MiniMc is born
The Baby Tipping Comp will be closing next Tuesday, 3 January. MiniMc will be full-term then (37 weeks), so could happen any day after that. If you want to get your tips in, do it now! We still haven’t decided what the prize will be. We’re not very organised like that.
What you’re tipping:
1) will MiniMc be a boy or a girl?
2) What date will MiniMc be squeezed out?
3) How much will s/he weigh?
To cast your vote, go to the Baby Tipping Page…
and check out MiniMc’s new site, cheeky monkey…
Christmas Fun with Kinki & McG
25 December 2005, 20:13
101 things you can do (but probably shouldn’t) with Christmas Bonbons
Some hats were not made to fit
OK, who put the hashish in the kebabs?
“Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?”
Just spent a fab Christmas arvo with 4 fancy, and ever so slightly (cough) crazy, Canadians… just like the old Senkawa Orphans Xmas Days in Tokyo, only outdoors in the (relative heat of our) BBQ Pergola.
Much as I love my folks, spending the day with friends is infinitely more relaxing and raucous. I haven’t laughed so much for months (and how does MiniMc thank me for my jolly mood? Several bouts of hiccups and a fair boot in the kidneys, thanks for asking…)
I even misbehaved with a small bottle of Asti Riccadonna (only 7% alcohol!). Very decadent, me. One thing I’m grateful for is that I wasn’t allowed to write myself off like previous Christmases. Much as getting sloshed over Christmas Pud is ever so fun at the time, Aussie Christmases (ahem, for me anyway) invariably end up in a downward spiral of dehydration, nausea and slurred foolishness, leading to killer hangover later that evening (and relieving oneself of Christmas Pud over Porcelain Christmas Bowl).
Mais non!!! I nursed my little bottle quite happily and am now blogging whilst Husband is nursing sore head on the couch after a 7 beer (+ renegade glass of red wine which he has since suggested was not such a great idea…) Bender.
Merry Christmas Oh Faithful Readers and Site Hoppers! May your Porcelain Christmas Bus be unridden this Christmas and New Years (unless of course, that’s your “thang”...)
Permanent Link | Comments [4]Santa Claus is coming...
23 December 2005, 17:38
Local S&M Store Window Display
Music to give birth to
22 December 2005, 15:17
I have a dilemma. I need to pack some CDs in my hospital bag to play during labour, presumably to drown out the unearthly shrieks I’m bound to unleash.
Question is, what do I pack? I’m thinking relaxing music, as am bit of fan of ambient/chillout stuff, but so far I only have Cafe Del Mar Volume 7 (a standard) and Delerium’s “Karma”. I thought about Radiohead, but some tracks are too mournful or some Dave Matthews but not sure I could handle hearing “When the World Ends” though I would probably be able to empathise.
Please help. I need CD suggestions (whole CDs rather than individual tracks – the hospital isn’t that far advanced). I haven’t been into a music store for over a year so am a bit ignorant as to what is probably out there.
In terms of musical taste, I was thinking of sticking to chillout stuff (I wanted to get a Paul Schwartz CD but local JB Hi-Fi not that alternative), but all suggestions considered! Anything that won’t have me kicking the CD player in irritation (although McG prefers I do this than smacking him, apparently. Doesnt’ he know what his job as support person is????)
Things that make you go.... huh?
21 December 2005, 07:11
1. An adult guy on the tram (ostensibly not a complete spooner) picking his nose and eating it.
2. A woman doing her entire face makeup on the tram – foundation, powder, eyeliner, mascara, lippie, the lot. Reminds me of this fine paragon of female loveliness I was privileged to have captured on a Tokyo train a couple of years back…
Japanese charmer
Haven’t people heard the adage “A smile is the Best Makeup”???
3. Asking for 100grams of salami at Safeway, to which the deli assistant pops a wad of salami and snores “Is 60grams OK?” Why, no, dippitysnickets, if I’d wanted 60 grams I’d have asked for it.
4. Pregnant women getting pica, the abnormal (really?) craving for soil/dirt/gritty substances. Deffo my favourite Disorder of the Day (although eating roasted placenta would surely qualify?).
5. A guy in our ante-natal class wearing no shoes, his feet covered in dirt. Now, I’ve nothing against people putting their best bogan foot forward, but in a hospital?
6. An actress (Shannyn Sossamon) naming her son “Audio Science Clayton”. Would someone give that girl a shot of pseudoephedrine, already…
Permanent Link | Comments [2]Public Transport Etiquette Study (PTES)
18 December 2005, 06:43
You may remember a wee while ago, my foray into sociological research as I embarked upon an experiment that was guaranteed to shake up Melbourne public transport etiquette as we all know it. Or maybe not.
The results are now in! It must be said that of the 90 tram trips I took from the 3 October, there were only 15 occasions when the tram was so packed I needed to actually be offered a seat. Also note that all incidents took place on the 112 Tram down Brunswick St/St Georges Road, both during the morning and afternoon peak hours.
I’m not sure whether to be encouraged or alarmed by results. In an ideal world I would hope that a pregnant or elderly person be offered a seat 100% of the time, but alas, I was only offered 67%, which is still better than some preggo women who complain that no-one ever offers them a seat (which I find v. hard to believe). Perhaps they looked like Elmer Fudd. Just a guess. Of that 67%, 70% of the Offerer’s were female. And of those who offered, it was 50/50 as to whether they were a passive or decisive offerer.
% of times offered a seat
Battle of the Sexes
I don’t pretend to make any broad generalisations based on these limited set of stats (apart from confirming that, yes, I have been in touch with my Inner Nerd), but I have to say for the most part I found commuters v. sympathetic toward pregnant women.
There will always be those people who hog the priority seat pretending to be engrossed in their books/mags whatever and cling stubbornly to their right to sit when incapacitated souls are standing, or those who will happily push you out of the way to get on the tram, but those dudes are in the serious minority…
Permanent Link | Comments [8]Last Day
17 December 2005, 06:15
Yesterday was last day of work. Mixed feelings about it. I have been suffering from a bad case of “The mind is willing, but the body is not able” this week. My brain is still in overdrive, wanting to be productive, but my body is physically drained, achey, sore and fatigued.
I was ready to leave, but I will really miss it. Miss the everyday human (adult) contact, miss being intellectually stimulated, miss my boss, which is bizarre, as I don’t think I’ve ever had a boss I’ve actually respected or admired enough to miss. The end of an era. Sigh (world’s smallest violin droning in background…)
I was thoroughly spoiled yesterday though. My floor had a presentation for me (complete with yummo DJs chocolate cake), with speech, a huge card that everyone signed and an overload of pressies that I had to lug home on the tram. The whole lot was in very tasteful androgynous shades of silver, white, purple or yellow…
- Little (oooh sooooo tiny) outfits
- Bibs
- Muslin wrap
- Bunny rug (velour on one side, cotton the other)
- Musical Elephant Mobile
- The softest teddy bear, that is sooo not going to be MiniMcs, but rather mine. I fell in love with it…
- Hooded towel
- Pat Mat (educational toy for junior)
Completely OTT, but very touched…
Permanent Link | Comments [1]Wrigglepot
14 December 2005, 06:53
Permanent Link | Comments [2]Yum Yum
13 December 2005, 07:06
Permanent Link | Comments [6]Weekend Update
12 December 2005, 06:17
First up, obligatory monthly comparison tummy…
33w4d
Doesn’t look a hell of a lot different to 29w 5d except maybe a bit more tired looking (puffy?). I have grown roughly 6cm since then and am feeling very “full”. Right now, particularly full on my left side, as MiniMc’s elbow is poking out. Hours of fun I tells ya, hours….
Saturday had a smattering of comedies of errors – firstly I had my midwife appointment at 9am. I have a wee booklet called a “VMR” (Victorian Medical Record) which is a plastic covered book-sized folder which opens up to A4, which the midwife uses to track my progress.
I give VMR to the midwife, she opens it, and in the crease of the A4 page is a MASSIVE black house spider curled up (which promptly sprung into action). Scared the living SHIT out of me. Good to see how midwife reacted in crisis though – she promptly OK’d it with me to take it into the corridor and stomp on it, I agreed, she did just that and returned quite composed. Will now be forever known as Spider-Girl. Schmeck.
I got home and went to unlock our front screen door, and the lock had summarily broken. It’s one of those heavy wire doors – a real beauty – but suspiciously constructed so as to disallow unscrewing the lock to open the door. So we’re using the back door now. We’d just had the front corner of our house restumped, too (as our front door wouldn’t open) and thought we’d never have to use the bloody back door again. As it turns out, the front door started jamming yet again last week, so it looks like we’ll have to get the entire front section of the house restumped in the next few months. Rotten timing.
Went to see a fil-em at Nova that night – “Thumbsucker” – which was rather good. Sitting down for long periods of time is a chore so I check first to see if a fil-em is 90 minutes or less these days. How very geriatric of me…
As we returned home around 10.30, husband and wife thought they’d have a bit of a cuddle under the stars, when a cop car cruises down our street and stops, asking us if “everything’s OK” in that loaded tone. You know the tone. Um yes, I’m just having a frikkin’ romantic moment if you please. Seems the sight of a preggo woman canoodling is too unseemly for today’s constabulary. Good to know they didn’t have anything more critical to attend to, though.
Yesterday was exhausting. 4 hours of bloody ante-natal class. We did get to see a recently pushed-out, one-day old baby being bathed, but to be frank, I haven’t really gotten that much out of the classes. I think the support person generally gets more out of them anyway, as they’re not as anally versed in pregnancy and childbirth as those about to go through it are.
It got to 32 degrees or something yesterday… even parking my arse on the hammock was too hot (+ neighbour’s 4-y.o, a.k.a the “town-crier” was screaming and crying for about 15 minutes as if his parents had his thumbs in a thumbscrew…) and the serenity was far too serene. Ended up grumpy and dehydrated. Not like Kinki at all.
35 degrees today. 5 days of work to go. 1 very funny little baby trying to karate chop its way out of my belly…
Permanent Link | Comments [4]Ante Natal Class
5 December 2005, 18:58
Warning: graphic descriptions to follow. Don’t worry, I didn’t like writing them either.
Husband and I attended the first of these little gems yesterday. I’m not sure quite what to say about it.
About half an hour into the class, a woman, in the final stage of labour was wheeled into the birthing centre panting like an asthmatic Saint Bernard. The doors closed on the birthing room and 5 minutes later we hear the most unearthly and UNHOLY shrieking I reckon I’ve ever heard. The poor woman sounded like the devil had her hung, drawn and quartered from a telegraph pole.
The 10 of us in the class just looked at each other (terror mounting, well, it was in me anyway). Happily this godforsaken sound lasted only about 10-15 minutes, after which time we were informed that she’d had a baby. Which was just as well, given that we were in a birthing centre.
The midwife then showed videos. 2 of them in fact – both homebirths. The first one, the “Mexican” video featured a mother-of-the-earth type of woman treating childbirth like it was some kind of erotic experience, looking deep into her partner’s eyes, insisting that her pain was like their love BURSTING from her. Pass.
The second was of a dutch woman, with dodgy voice-overs ala the Iron Chef, seemingly in agony with the baby’s head (looking a little too like a shrivelled mussel for comfort) poking out of her fujutsa. I was half-expecting Takeshi Kaga to burst out from behind the curtain with an animated “Let’s get it ON!!!!!” So so pass.
It wasn’t so much the content of the vids, but the looking in on their intimacy that I found too much. Voyeuristic. Impending motherhood is sincerely weird. That’s all I’m gonna say for now. Must. reconcile. inner. weirdness.
So I’m undecided about the whole ante natal class thing. I was right yesterday. I’d rather not know. Honestly.
Permanent Link | Comments [4]December will be magic again...
4 December 2005, 08:46
Am actually looking forward to Christmas this year (whilst busy channelling arbitrary Kate Bush songs…). Last year was our first year back from Japan and Christmas was a bit strange – like reverse culture shock.
Although Christmas wasn’t spent with family in Tokyo, we had such a large network of expat and Japanese friends, there was never any question of being lonely at Christmas. And we’re talking about hard-drinking, hard-partying, merry characters enjoying daily bonenkais, hard liquor and karaoke.
This year, we’re in our own house (with v. smashing BBQ area to host myriad of friends), with a baby on the way and although we won’t be able to spend this Chrissie with family (not being able to haul Fat Gut on a plane or in a car, oh no sirreee) we do have a small band of Canadian expats who will be frequently our place over Chrissie.
Yes. Bring it on.
Update on Fat Gut
It’s fat. I get told I’m “carrying out front” all the time, which is bizarre. Have they not seen my voluminous love handles? The ever-increasing girth of fat butt? It’s fairly impressive though, this belly of mine. V. proud of it. Like to show it off. Oh, I am so shy…
Did give the pregnancy support belt a shot, really I did. But it made everything worse. An abject failure. My torso is quite short, so the top of the belt kept digging into my middle back, inflaming my original disc problem, that I’ve worked soooo hard to manage with pilates and posture etc. Was cranky about the whole sitch, so sent it back.
First ante-natal class at the birthing centre today. People keep telling me I’m “brave” to be doing the whole natural birth thang, but I’m beginning to wonder if that’s actually code for “certifiable”. One can never appreciate how painful labour is going to be before one actually does it, but I think I’m in denial. Part of me hopes the ante-natal class doesn’t shatter this illusion. Think I’d rather not know…
Permanent Link | Comments [2]Photo Friday "Experimental"
3 December 2005, 08:44
Dedicated to the Youth of Tokyo
Sorry, I know this is gonna kill y’all, but my Gallery is down for now. But fear not, as Super Husband is working day, noon and night trying to fix it (OK, perhaps not that long)...
(Brief) story behind “Dedicated to the Youth of Tokyo”
This week’s theme, from the Photo Friday dudes, is “Experimental”. I automatically remembered this photo I took in a hidden pocket in Shibuya, Tokyo a couple of years back…
No idea what the empty canisters are on the ground (probably something extremely urbane) but the scene reminded me of the Aum Shinrikyo sarin attacks, an experiment in mass murder, still haunting the Japanese consciousness, and the studied recklessness of some young Japanese, which is becoming more of a so-called “problem” for the establishment in Japan… Sociology 101, anyone?
Permanent Link | Comments [2]
