Going off to play in Melbourne

I'm off to Melbourne tomorrow!

It's only a quick three day visit but its the first time the whole family is going together.  I've been there once (DPCON12) on my own, Mr Moneymaker has been a few times and even the Chicken went down there during the school holidays. But this is the first time all of us are going together.

The house sitter is booked (thanks Wendy), the casuals are coming in to fill in for me at work (thanks Danni and Lisa) and the schools have been notified.  We've got a bed or two waiting at my BFF's place (thanks Dee), the boys' tickets to the Liverpool/Melbourne Victory game have been purchased months ago and a little parents' time out hotel room has been booked in St Kilda for Thursday night.  We're going to wine and dine and actually have a conversation without interruptions during the rare time we are in one place and awake at the same time.  And sleep in a hotel bed.

I love hotel rooms.  It's not just the king size bed with luxurious sheets and soft pillows, or the spotless bathroom without hair covering everything, or the mini bar and room service with no washing up afterwards.  OK, its all that.  And the fact I can go to bed without kicking out a small person first that left cracker crumbs all through the sheets.  Aaaahhh.

Now before I pack (lots of warm woollies), I need some suggestions of the must visit places in Melbourne.  Places to shop, eat and drink.

The best touristy website I've seen for awhile is the Play Melbourne site.

The only downside (besides not enough time) is that I won't be able to take on the plane any interesting homewares I find in all those cool shops - but I'll definitely be leaving room in the suitcase for clothes shopping!

So you tell me, where are your favourite hangs in Melbourne?

*Joining up with Essentially Jess for IBOT*

**This is not a sponsored post**

Why my wardrobe is full of old stuff

I cleaned out my wardrobe yesterday and I had expected I would have a whole lot of air space afterwards.  After all, I practically wear the same outfits to work every week and the same two pair of jeans on the weekends. I might get crazy and wear a dress for a night out occasionally but there are probably only half a dozen outfits I stick with and have done so for the last 5-10 years.  When I do buy something new (very rarely) its usually for a special occasion.  It's an ingrained habit that I guess was formed from only having second hand or hand-me-down clothing as a child.  I don't remember being bothered by it or knowing anything about brands until I was well into my teens but I guess kids are a bit more fashion conscious today.

So most of my clothes are old, either because I don't throw stuff out or they are from second hand markets, Vinnies or other people (my friend at work recently cleaned out her wardrobe and I wasn't too proud to say thank you very much - some of them even have the tags on them still, shhh don't tell her husband!).

(Denim jacket $20 from vintage shop, belt $2 from markets, 

dress from friend, boots $99 from Diana Ferrari 2 years ago.)

For a few decades my sisters and I have been rotating our wardrobes around. Every time one of us did a clean out we would keep a bag for the next time one of us visited. Sometimes we discover we could be wearing a top that was worn by one of us 25 years ago! That's what I call vintage!

But I can see the attraction of 'going shopping' as a monthly/weekly event for some, like a hobby. I sometimes get the urge to go in one of those big, cold shopping malls full of loud teenagers and crying babies that are sick of being dragged from boutique to boutique.  I, like many others, think that if I can just find that perfect outfit my life would all fall in to place. For the possibility of a new look that will make me look younger, skinnier or just not invisible. Then I realise I've been picking up the same type of clothes off the rack each time and proceed to talk myself out of buying it ("it's too expensive, I've got nothing to go with it, it's hand wash only, it looks exactly like that white shirt I've had hanging in my wardrobe for fifteen years").

And then there's the big question of where is that new top coming from? Where was it made and who made it?  Was it made ethically and from sustainable products or was it made by poorly paid workers in unsafe conditions with highly environment-damaging cotton?  Is it a cheap overseas imitation of an Australian product?

It all gets too much and I go home and put on that favourite horsey t-shirt I bought at a garage sale three years ago.

There's been a lot of media buzz about knowing where your cheap clothes come from lately, particularly since the horrific collapse of a clothing manufacturer's building in Bangladesh recently.

There was this piece on the Mamamia site today and the story on 60 Minutes on Sunday night.

Melissa Wellham's Mamamia story points out the Aussie chain stores profiting from the hardship of those workers and says we as consumers also have a responsibility to pay just a little more for that third pair of identical brown sandals.  After all, we only have two feet.

Would you be willing to pay an extra dollar for your child's pair of shorts to buy ethically?

*Joining up with Jess on Essentially Jess's IBOT**

What I did in the Holidays (written from the view of 12 year old daughter, hopefully)

We did not go away on holidays this Easter because Mum said our new house is so lovely it is like a holiday house and we have to keep sending money to the bank so we can stay here forever. So these are the things we did to keep us amused and to stop Mum having wine before 6pm:

• Shopped in the best shopping centre ever where they have Diva, Smiggles, EB Games and the biggest Target in the universe.

• Shopped in the discount centre for sports shoes for my little brother where the shoes were exactly the same price as the expensive best shopping centre ever but took another day to find out and convince him that these were much better because they have red stripes on them.

• Shopped in the local shopping centre (a lot) where they have disgustingly coloured hotdogs which my brother loves and my mother really hates paying $3.95 for but does anyway because it means she can sit down and have a latte.

• Went to Ikea for A WHOLE DAY but wasn’t so bad because we only had to line up for 40 minutes so my little brother could play in the kids centre for an hour. This gave us just enough time to do 2 laps of Ikea, one in the direction of the arrows and one against (just for fun). Plus we bought lots of lovely coloured plastic stuff for the kitchen and a quilt cover for Mums bed which she has been wanting for years and she says its finally only $20 where it was a huge $29 three years ago. Plus we ate Swedish meatballs and jelly (before the kids centre – good planning Mum!) … and a $1 hotdog after. He has to eat a hotdog EVERYWHERE!!

• Went and visited Mum’s friend from school at the beach. I can’t believe she can even remember her friends as it was AGES ago, like 30 years!!!! Anyway, she was lovely and was almost exactly like my Aunty’s wife but younger and lives on a farm. She also has a great laugh which she does a lot when she talks about her sick Mum and about her partner who died. It was a really nice day, not only because of Mum’s friend and the beach and that she bought us icecreams, but because my little brother got his foot stuck in the playground tube and didn’t want to take his shoe off to get free because he was wearing the sandshoes I just gave him and they had pink on the inside. LOL!! (oops, Mum hates me saying that, just because I actually say it all the time instead of laughing at something).

• Wasn’t all good that day because when we arrived Mum’s contact played up and she couldn’t see out of one eye all day and I got scared on the 40 minute drive home. Apparently it turned up broken at the back of her eyeball the next day (eewww).

• Watched my brother learn to ride a bike (he’s 8!! OK, I secretly think its pretty good because I can’t). He then preceded to nag Mum constantly to take him out to ride around the bay which she did half the time because she wanted the exercise, she said. She is looking a little thinner, I think.

• We also went to the cheaper Easter Show, the Family Show at Moore Park. It poured so we went and watched Arthur at the movies first with Aunty Moo and Uncle Nate and my little cute cousin Chloe.

• We picked the coldest, wettest, foggyiest day to visit another Aunty in the Blue Mountains. We had a yummy picnic inside – my Aunty says that’s how they have picnics up there. We almost didn’t make it because we drove into a bottomless hole in the road which burst our tyre and Dad was very quiet while he changed it on the side of the road in the freezing rain – Mum kept asking nicely if he wanted to put his jacket on but he wouldn’t answer her.

• On Easter Sunday and Nanny and Poppy helped Mum hide 1000 chocolate eggs which my brother started frothing at the mouth at because his little cousin found more than he did. They didn’t even notice the icing sugar bunny prints I put in the hallway this morning! We had a big roast pork lunch for all 10 of us and then everybody fell asleep on the couch while Mum walked my little brother round the bay on his bike for and hour and a half. They came back in the dark and Mum was a little tired and cranky so everyone went home.

And that’s what we did on the school holidays! I don’t want to go back to school but Mum says she is looking forward to going back to work tomorrow?!!??!!