Marketry

It's our habit of a Saturday morning to go to Kelvin Grove Markets for to get the weekly veggies.

Yesterday of course Honey Bear had to come. Generally Eloise's little friend Jessica is there and they are prone to play around her relatives' stall while we go about our commercial business.

Today no Jessica but her aunt's art-and-craft stall was there as usual and Eloise and Honey Bear tried on hats before we got Slushies and went for coffee.

Later we watched Eurovision, When Germany won Eloise made the choice comment: "Germany may have won Eurovision, but they lost the war, didn't they?"

She's been a bit ill but has soldiered through, with fevers and listlessness which are miraculously cured by Panadol and Ibuprofen or by something or someone interesting happening.

Last night she was reportedly having hallucinations. Nicole woke up for that, I slept blissfully through it. I found out shortly after frog-marching her around the forest with the dogs.

Ooops,

Circus Circus

The school, in their eternal fund-raising-a-thon which knows no rest and will not be deviated or distracted, put on a circus a little while ago.

There was a Big Top and Everything! Ponies, Jumping Castles (that's bouncing castles to the civilised), Rollercoasters, Slack-Jawed Inbreeds, the lot.

Except entertainment. They forgot about that bit.

Maybe it's just me being old and cynical or it's a side-effect of the glossy polished "media-savvy" world in which we live, but I've come to expect more from circuses than grown men who should know better doing crap tricks in oversized trousers with a sideline in crap humour.

The old geezer masquerading as a clown appeared to be half-cut. His wife (I presume) frightened the hell out of us with her whips. The ponies didn't look altogether happy to be there.

Slightly amusingly they hooded the audience volunteer for the knife-throwing and hooded him Al-Quaida style so they could stick the knifes into the board next to him manually without having to throw them. Possible they didn't quite trust themselves to do it.

The lady doing the rope-acrobatics was all right though.

Eloise and Honey Bear

With the onset of winter there are bugs about. Ms Dale the teacher has been ill, Mrs Boone the teacher has been ill. Nicole has been ill.

And now Eloise is a bit ill.

Now I'm not one to be strict, but it's only a headache and a cold. Ibuprofen has miraculous effects upon it. So it's off to school.

Even in the face of comments such as "I don't think I can go to school: I think I may have cancer" it's off to school.

Yesterday when I picked her up at the end of the day Ms Dale reported that she had been listless in the afternoon, so I resolved to deliver Ibu at lunchtime today to keep her up and running.

Also yesterday it seems that we are to play host to Honey Bear, the classroom cuddly friend who is doing the rounds in order to develop the students' journalistic skills.

Eloise is pretty happy about that.

Limb Foamer

Well there's been a lot of water under the bridge since my last little sashay, if that's how you spell it, into the blogosphere.

We've had cross-country days, school trips, sleepovers, computers dying.

Hence the lack of postage. Busy. And unable.

However at the risk of inviting burglary now I have a new laptop, and it's working a bit, which is something.

The unfortunate news is that Tiny is on the pathway to her, how to say it, end-point. Terminus. Nullity. Death.

She's had a blocked anal gland and was on antibiotics for it. They weren't really working so we took her back to the vet and in passing I mentioned that her glands were a bit swollen at which point he suggested an aspirate biopsy and told us she probably only had three months to live.

The biopsy results came back the next day while I was at the cross-country event aforementioned and after working out that this was the vet phoning (cross country was noisy) and not the dog-pound, I listened with a sinking feeling as the worst was confirmed. Lymphoma it is.

So Tiny is on special treatment. Kindness. We'll probably get bored of that in a few days, as she's in reasonably fine health at the moment, cancer aside, and quite perky, although the outlook - much as I would look to deny it - is for a rapid descent into illness and at some point we'll have to take the dreaded decision and lay her down to rest.

Oh well.

Here's a picture of Eloise with her head stuck through the sleeve of my T-shirt to cheer you up. A hope that's slobber there and not the sweat of my oxster. If that's how you spell it.

Where was I...

....oh yes. I remember.

Been busy, and not busy. Spending a lot of time... doing stuff.

Website, nearly ready. Bank account, opened. Paypal integration progressing. Over it.

Eloise: playdates, school, swimming, dancing, yoga.

Dog walking. Exploration. Reading.

Had a birthday. Got an iPod.

Podcasts.

The weather is turning chilly in the evening, still warmish during the days. The long trousers are out.

Although this is also because all my shorts have holes in the right-hand pocket. Except for one pair that have been fixed now three times.

Holidays

Not too much going on for the rest of the week... that I can remember... other than a child being dragged, kicking and screaming, into the old routine wherein dogs get walked and school isn't attended.

Except for the fact that school was attended, every single day, for an "Intensive Swimming" course. Eloise is very pleased to have been promoted from Level 4 swimming to Level 3 and she started off with a new teacher whose name she has decided is Miss McKenzie, even though it isn't.

So, Big Arms, blowing bubbles, fooling around followed by playground invariably, then in the afternoon dog walking and cookery.

Oi Oi Oi

There was a round-the-camp-fire entertainment thing that night which consisted of an enormous bonfire with lots of people sat around it on logs.

The main conversational topic, brought up by some old craggy battle-axe was an exploration of the dynamic of the Australian character and a de-construction of the expression of the heartfelt patriotic sentiment.

Yes, it was "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi."

The entertainment moved on to Chubby Bunny, an amusing game wherein the participants ram marshmallows into their mouths, not swallowing and utter the immortal words "Chubby Bunny" before ramming more marshmallows into their mouths until they can no longer contain themselves or are incapable of further utterances.

The winner managed 17 marshmallows.

Nicole, representing the Poms, managed six. I hesitate to report this... but feel obliged.

The fire, resplendent in its conflagration, consumed our attention until some people indulged in some didgeridoo lessons. All good fun.

We left early and retired.

Around 1.30am we were rudely awoken by the sound of our next door neighbour (the other one) emptying his guts just outside our tent. Not only emptying his guts but making inhuman sounds of animal torment concurrently. Must have been those cans of Bundy.

Unpleasant.

And difficult to get back to sleep also since the other other neighbours were in full voice again. Turns out that the loud-mouthed lady is a teacher! Ho hum.

Marion and Hannah left us the next day, due back in Brisbane for work obligations, so we were free to explore a little, so we explored a little in the bush around.

Eloise was a little scared by the Laser Skirmish thing going on in the bush, she couldn't quite get her head around the fact that the mean-looking individuals with big guns were in fact just pretend soldiers.

The next day it was our turn to go home too and we took the scenic route back via Toowoomba and Ravensourne National Park, then through Esk and down by the lakes, over the D'Aguilar Mountains and back to Brisbane via Samford. Very scenic.

Toowoomba

The admonishment of the previous night must have had some kind of effect because our neighbours were quiet as mice on Saturday night: so a good night's sleep for us, notwithstanding the Eloise-Hannah sleepover strife which re-occurred.

Murphy's Creek lies not terribly distantly from the base of the Great Dividing Range, atop which lies the pretty city of Toowoomba, and after a morning in the camp site with the girls doing something or other, we set out in the car up to Toowoomba for a checkout of the parks along the top of the escarpment. And to get some gas.

The Warrego Highway leads up to Toowoomba, climbing the range's Eastern flank. Toowoomba nestles on a plateau on the range and along the top are a range of parks. We stopped at Picnic Point and drank coffee from a 20's-style restaurant in some pleasant parklands while the playgrounds were made use of.

The first Easter Egg Hunt was scheduled for just after that, and things went well as long as Hannah found more eggs. She's a competitive little thing. And not afraid to speak her mind. A little like someone we know. No, not Nicole.

After a couple of Easter Egg Hunts we went to a park to have a barbecue, and an Easter Egg Hunt, just to keep some continuity going.

The barbies up there were a bit funny, little wood-fired things with chimneys, designed for some reason to look like mailboxes. Nicole handled it with.... aplomb.

Murphy's Creek

Someone had the bright idea to go camping on Easter weekend. Along with the rest of the world. And his dog.

Nicole tracked down an interesting-looking campsite just outside Toowoomba which was dog-friendly. They were organising kiddy activities too, so we thought what the hell and booked it up. We invited Hannah and Marion along too.

So on the last Thursday of school we yanked E out early with the car packed (with a minimum of fuss I might add). I won't mention that Nicole went internet shopping and bought a huge self-inflating mattress which hardly fit into the house, but it fit into the car in the end.... just.

Just a couple of hours up the road, and we were there in the Lockyer Valley camping in the forest. We had thought we would have a creek-side plot but alas we were consigned to some freshly cleared woodland further up, so no grass for us... just dirt. Joy.

The girls were soon colouring in while the tents went up (with a minimum of fuss) and we footled about until the sun went down and bedtime came.

This was a considerable drama as of course sleepovers are a big deal for little girls. Hannah initially wanted to sleep with Eloise, then she didn't then she did then she didn't. It all ended in tears and trauma. I ended up snuggling next to Eloise to calm her down and the next thing I knew Nicole was coming to bed and the bogan next-door-neighbours were pissed up to their eyeballs and very very loud, til God knows what time in the morning when they were reprimanded for the second time by the camp manager.

So a little tired the next day... but we went down to the swimming hole in the creek where Nicole swung in on the rope swing before that was taken down for Health and Safety reasons. It's just so 21st Century.

The girls went for a brief swim in the icy waters before Hannah decided the time was ripe for some naked rock climbing.

Nicole and I explored the land out back before getting hopefully lost and making our way back along the road.

Easter Under Canvas

I will go into more detail about our little Easter camping trip at a later date.

Suffice it to say that there were bunnies and easter egg hunts. Aplenty.