Sacks under my eyes

Another busy week has gone by. We made the decision to hire a cleaner, who starts on Monday, and that meant that I had a lot more time to spend with the kids. Jossie is at a wonderful age. Sometimes she acts so grown up and then she says something that isn't quite right and you remember how young she is. In the car, on the way to school, she asked me if she had sacks under her eyes because she was tired. I had a little giggle and told her she meant bags. After school she told me that one of the teachers asked her if she had a cold so she definitely has sacks under her eyes. It just makes me think of Santa's sack.

Bethany says something amusing every few seconds so I have become very complacent and can't remember any of them. She is very keen on knowing how things are spelt at the moment - I made the mistake of showing her, just in the air, how you write a P. Now she is writing 'poo' on her Megasketch. Here she is with pretty hair, wearing the little french outfit Mum and Dad bought for Jossie when Bethany was born. We've had their money's worth out of it!


We celebrated freedom from the vacuum cleaner by having Alice, Andrew and Sophie over for afternoon tea on Thursday. I made scones and even Sophie tucked in. She was offered a plain one at first but wasn't about to eat that when others had jam and cream, so Alice gave her a little jam. Andrew dropped one of his on the grass and while he was inside procuring a replacement, Sophie scoffed the dropped one, grass and all.That will teach us for trying to swindle her out of cream.

In Sydney last week Janice and I discussed the merits of babysitting clubs and I thought we really ought to get back into going out without the kids. Back in Wagga, Alice and Andrej were telling Andrew that it was time to start our babysit swap arrangement again and that Alice would be over on Friday night so we could go out! Brilliant. We went to the Three Chefs which is one of the best restaurants in town. Remember that we live in the country so I am not talking about Tetsuya's here, but it is a very good restaurant. I forgot to take pictures of the entree and mains. We shared Seared Atlantic scallops, chilled prawn bavarois, lime gremolata and shellfish bisque (an awfully long description for a small dish). I had dukkah crusted snapper fillet on a pea puree and roasted pumpkin and cashew risotto cake while Andrew had char-grilled eye fillet of beef with wild mushrooms sauteed in a cafe de Paris cream, steamed beans and white truffle infused mash. It all tasted pretty good but I think they are verging on getting a little carried away with their own cleverness. Andrew had their signature dessert - chocolate and caramel spring rolls.


I had Vanilla bean assiette, vanilla bean brulee, vanilla and mascarpone gelato and vanilla bean and pistachio biscotti. Thanks to the menu being available online I know, word for word, what we were meant to be getting. Thanks to google I know that assiette means the same ingredient prepared in different ways so the whole thing is the assiette. I was looking for a fourth vanilla concoction!
There are so many things I like about living in Wagga. I like only having to drive for a maximum of 15 minutes to get anywhere and that traffic jams do not exist. I like the lack of humidity if not the extreme high temperatures. I like the relaxed lifestyle and the fact that the town is big enough to have all that we need. I do, however, miss having family close by. On Friday night my little brother Tim was ordained as an Anglican minister at the cathedral in Newcastle and I wish I could have been there - it's about 8 hours away. Today was my Mum's birthday and I wish we could have seen her open her presents and I really wish we could have gone to Tatlers for lunch - also 8 hours away. Happy Birthday Mum. Congratulations Reverend Tim. We're going to have to stop using rude words in Facebook Scrabble!