Food for thought

New York, New York

I can hardly contain my excitement! This morning, out of nowhere, my wonderful and amazing husband surprised me with an early birthday card he and Avalon made that included inside a flight itinerary to... 

NEW YORK CITY!

That is right, we are off to the 'Big Apple' this weekend! All three of us are going to take in the sights of Manhattan and surrounds. I have always wanted to travel to NYC and am absolutely floored that Grant has managed to organise this as a surprise present for my 30th birthday, with the inclusion of our families. Considering I was hoping for a pair of wellies, My Lovely has certainly surpassed any expectations I had for birthday gifts.

Top marks, Dear husband and family.

Feeling very thankful... very blessed... and extremely spoiled.

Pearl Jam Twenty

Last Tuesday night the hubby and I went to see the Cameron Crowe documentary 'Pearl Jam 20' which chronicled the career thus far of the band since their inception in 1991.

As I have mentioned many a time before, we are huge PJ fans and as the documentary was only showing in cinemas on this one night, we took the opportunity to have a date night. Many thanks to Granny for looking after Avalon for a couple of hours.

The film was brilliant, definitely a must see for any PJ or rock music fan. Crowe used hours of rare and unseen footage and I particular loved that the film focused so much on the early and mid 1990's.

It was also nice to have a night out with hubby at the cinema, snuggling together in the couples seats like we used to do.

Love. You.

Last Saturday, the 17th of September, I got my first 'love you' from my girl.

That is all.

There are no words...

I would kill for this.

I. Love. Sushi. I could eat it every day without fail. I crave it and along with family, friends, beach, coffee dates, sunshine and Byron Bay... I miss sushi the most.

Avalon Update

So, what has been happening in our world that is all things Avalon?

She has started to put together two or three words at a time. Usually questions. I have mentioned before how amazed I am at how quickly her vocabulary is growing, this age (16, 17 months) is such a time of growth it seems.

She loves to play with her books and when she is talking whilst reading, she is recites the story from memory. I can hear key words from the book as she flips through the pages- something my husband used to do as a child I believe. Right now she loves Naughty Parents, Where is the Green Sheep? and Each Peach Pear Plum.

She loves to point out objects, animals, people- 'Shoes!' 'Up Stairs!' 'Izzy!' 'Sheep!' 'Apple!' 'Horsey!' (yes the exclamation marks are necessary.

We were nursing the other morning and in the dawn light she pulled away from me and said, 'Ducks!' I hadn't even noticed the twittering of the birds outside our bedroom window. We also have a painting above our bed that she did of a crocodile stencil... 'Cocadile!' She exclaims when entering the room.

She is a very confident little girl. I watch her playing in groups of other children, sitting back and observing before jumping into the play with a friendly smile. She is an avid sharer which makes me very proud, as it is something she has seen mirrored as opposed to being told to do. She loves being around people, especially children and loves spending time with 'babies' and her friend, Izzy.

I love her little cotton socks x

On this day...

On September 11th 2001, I was living on the Gold Coast in Australia in a house share with 2 others.

I was 19.

I was in my second year of university and was home alone that night. I went to bed early(ish) when I was awoken about 11pm by a phone call from my then boyfriend telling me to 'just turn on the TV.'

I walked downstairs in the dark and flicked on the small TV in the living room. Every channel was covering a terrible accident in New York City. A plane had flown into one of the towers of the World Trade Centre. The newscasters were speculating if  this was a terrible accident or was this an act of terror. Within one minute of me turning on my television and sitting on the carpet in front of the screen in the dark, I watched as a second plane flew into the second tower. I cannot describe the shock I felt, followed by the enormity and realisation that this was no accident. I called my boyfriend and we talked about what was unfolding. I will never forget him saying, 'This is war.'

That day and the next I don't think I left the living room. hearing further reports of what had happened in Washington and Pennsylvania. I was glued to the news coverage from the US, I spoke to my family on the phone. Australia was so far away from what was happening and yet, everywhere we went for weeks, the devastation of what had happened could be felt.

I cannot believe that 10 years have passed since that day and I remember it like yesterday.

I have never been to New York, but it is a city I would love to see. The resilience of her people is inspiring.

It's my party and i'll covet if I want to.

It is exactly 6 weeks until my birthday.

For those that may be wondering what I would like as a gift (tongue firmly in cheek) and may be viewing this blog, I have showcased a few things* below that would make me a very happy woman to recieve during the month of October.

A day in Camden Market- For the lady who prefers to shop... alone

Perfume- For the lady who likes others to choose it for her

 

Hunter Wellies- For the lady that rambles

Dr Hauschka skin care- For the lady increasingly concerned about premature aging

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey- For the lady who has heard good things

A shellac mani/pedi voucher from the ladies at Polished in Godalming

*more items may be added at a later date.

You are...

Envy

I dream to one day have a living room that resembles something a little like this...

Books upon books, upon books.

August Book Club

Ina May Gaskin is one of the Founders and the current president of the Midwives' Alliance of North America. She is a powerful advocate for a woman's right to give birth without excessive and unnecessary medical intervention.

Her clinical midwifery skills have been developed entirely through independent study and apprenticeship with other midwives around the world. Ina May and fellow Farm midwives were instrumental in the development of the rigorous Certified Professional Midwife (CPM) certification process.

This book is a MUST READ for any woman who is wants to empower herself and her birthing experience.

I look forward to reading Gaskin's other works on natural childbirth. Filled with numerous birth stories from women under Ina May's care care at The Farm and in some case, on the road. It was uplifting, positive and affirmed my feelings of what childbirth is.THIS book should be a mandatory read for expectant Mothers- this is what birth can (and should) be.

~*~

'Brilliant, beautiful, shockingly lucid and real, this is a novel as big as life built from small, secret, closely observed beats of the human heart. A cool, calm, irresistible masterpiece.' --Chris Cleave

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009, The Slap is an international bestseller.

At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own...The reverberations call into question the relationships between all those who witness it. 

It is a single act of violence, but this one slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen. In his controversial, award-winning novel, Christos Tsiolkas presents an apparently harmless domestic incident as seen from eight very different perspectives. The result is an unflinching interrogation of our lives today; of the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits...

I loved this book. I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about it at first as I thought it would centre around the idea of corporal punishment but in actuality I found it to be so much more than that; an insight into cultural differences and the complexities of relationships.

I found many of the characters despicable but still 'human'- Tsiolkas' style of writing is captivating.