So far we've had a very musical holidays with the kids discovering the hand bells that I'd bought for Christmas. There are 8 bells ranging from middle C to high C and, if played properly, sound fantastic. Tom currently thinks he wants to play the flute when it's his turn to join the band so I thought he could have a bit of practice on the recorder which would also help with reading music. I'd forgotten how awful recorders sound when they're not played properly and Tom really struggles to get any of the notes below G which is not helpful as almost all the pieces we have range from middle C to G. The recorders are being hidden on a regular basis!
I was very excited to discover that it is possible to get a bus from our street all the way into the City so the kids and I had to try it out. It was a bitingly cold day so we opted for an indoor activity and spent a happy couple of hours at the Museum of Sydney which I have never visited before. The kids were given a pamphlet with activities to do and it was very sweet watching them run around the museum answering the questions. We got the ferry back to Manly and discovered that it was a 45 minutes wait for the next bus back to our house so we decided to walk home instead. The weather had cheered up and it was a lovely walk with us stopping to say hello to every dog that we passed on the way!
Tess had her hair cut by her favourite hairdresser Crystal and decided to go shorter again - I think she is beginning to appreciate how much easier it is to look after shorter hair!
For my birthday, John and Rae bought me a butchery course so on Wednesday night I set off to learn how to butcher a cow. The course was held at Victor Churchill which is probably the smartest (and most expensive) butcher you will ever set foot in. There are no cabinets with bits of meat cut up and ready for you to buy. Instead there are butchers blocks all round the shop, a dry-ageing facility which has a wall made entirely of pink Himalayan rock salt and industrial style fridges which contain various "hunks" of meat ready to be butchered to the customers desire. There is also an amazing display cabinet with all sorts of home made terrines, sausages, jus, glazes, stocks and a glass cloche under which resided about $5,000 worth of black truffle! I loved every second of the course and was sent home with a beautiful rib roast which I had butchered myself.
On Saturday we headed over to Scotland Island to celebrate Charlie's 6th birthday. The kids were thrilled to be back on the island and disappeared within seconds of us arriving. We attempted to organise a sack race and a rugby game for the birthday party but actually the kids were much happier when left to their own devices! Liam and Jules were both held up at work and didn't make it to the island until late afternoon which meant that for once we all woke up on Sunday morning with relatively clear heads - a very novel experience.
We had an amazing taste of the community spirit that exists on the island when Tom came to find us at about 7pm suffering from a fairly severe asthma attach. I hadn't thought to bring any of his medicine as he's never needed it before on the island. Both Jules and I were over the limit and therefore driving home wasn't an option. Clever Leanne put a post on Facebook asking for Ventolin and also realised that there was an Island dinner happening at the fire station which is a 5 minute walk from their house. 10 minutes later Tom was happily puffing on Ventolin which Leanne had been given by a lady at the dinner and she'd also had 3 offers of Ventolin via Facebook - the power of social media combined with community spirit!
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