Last Saturday night the baby shower (or 'Baby Sprinkle' is apparently the term for the second baby) was bigger than Ben Hur, with 25 of my SIL's closest friends and family at my house for a pamper party. This is where one or three beauticians offer guests a choice of 15 minute facials, manicures, pedicures and general girly stuff for a bargain price (I highly recommend Emma's Mobile Beauty Service). Though I was stressed about the whole event (never a fan of having to scrub my house before a party only to clean it all up again the next day), it turned out to be a great night.
About the time guests were arriving, my friend, D, her two kids and their dog from Melbourne arrived to stay for the week. We only get to catch up once or twice a year since they moved 3 years ago. We used to live at each others houses on the weekend and our kids are practically siblings. D and I used to work together and our partners raced each other to get us pregnant (that doesn't sound quite right). Our first borns arrived 8 days apart, our seconds one year and one week apart. We were there to swap babysitting nights for each other and she's the only one I can companiably cook in the same kitchen at the same time with.
I still had to work during the week (its been hard adjusting to not having school holidays anymore!), but we managed to have some lovely walks with the dogs and kids, a few games of cards, vodkas on the balcony and a night out with the Newtown mother's group (as well as a windy picnic at Coogee beach). Its odd to see these kids taller than us all playing together who, 15 years ago, were waddling around in the local beer garden stealing each others baby bottles.
After the Melbournites reluctantly left early yesterday morning (and we all had a lie in), I talked the husband son into a ferry ride to Cockatoo Island for the Biennale of Sydney (could not budge the daughter into moving out of her now empty room). I've always wanted to visit the island (not just because of the name) and here was a definite reason. Not to mention the ferry ride. I love catching the ferry anywhere in Sydney Harbour and the trip is way too quick from Drummoyne to the island.
But nothing will beat the commute I used to do in 1997 from Lavender Bay to Circular Quay on the tiny old wooden ferries that have been since retired. That feeling of rocking around on the waves and looking up at that bridge is a great way to start a work day.
The island was huge and full of great big spaces and machinery where art installations were slotted in. They weren't all to our taste (or maybe we just didn't get the significance of a video of a half naked non gender specific human crouching on a cliff yelling for 10 minutes), but we enjoyed exploring the spaces. I loved the history of the place, particularly the ruins of the convict barracks. Just wish it had been at night. Maybe one night Mr Moneymaker and I could make a night of it, there was some great bars there and a row of tents available for glamping.
The ferry ride home wasn't so great. To just make the one stop from Cockatoo Island to Drummoyne, we had to change twice and it took us almost two hours to get home. Still better than driving in Sydney traffic though.
*Joining up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT*
I wish I had a friend like the kind you describe here. Hopefully one day :)
ReplyDeletepretty nice blog, following :)
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