Oliver's favourite German children's show is called "The Show with the Elephant" (Die Sendung mit dem Elefanten). It has the most annoyingly catchy theme song ever, it really gets stuck in your head. Elliot is going to try and download some episodes for him.
The world is ele-fantastic, it is beautiful
Your friend the elephant helps you to learn!
Mummy got new wheels and can finally retire the cheap shitty umbrella stroller which was 2" too short and made me walk around like a hunchback. Check out the new Zapp:
Soooo much easier to push than the crap umbrella stroller! My back is cheering, let me tell you.
I've been crapping on to anyone who will listen for the last 10 odd years about my dream to attend a Sensation party in the Netherlands. Ideally, I wanted to attend both Sensation White and Sensation black. For those who don't know, Sensation is a huge dance party put on by ID&T. The white party was fluffy trace (you know, stuff with vocals) and the black party was more dark/progressive (or evil, if you prefer ). However last year, or maybe the year before, they canned the black party and changed the white party to shitty house music. I don't think I bothered to blog about it, but there was a Sensation White in Melbourne for New Years which was advertised on telly and I was super dirty about it - firstly, that it was in Australia but was in Melbourne when I had no chance of going (no money, no babysitter etc) and secondly, that it was shitty house music. I assumed, as I said in my last post, that the chance had passed, the ship had sailed, the dream was over.
Then, I spoke to Markus about Oliver and I coming to Zurich to visit him for the weekend. Markus tells me that a) Max is moving in with him that weekend, and b) his best mate from London is coming for the weekend and c) they are all going to Sensation Zurich and did I want to go? Um, HELL YES I DID, even if it was going to be shitty house music! Oliver and I had dibs on the spare bed so I was going to be there with bells on!
So that started a week of frantic babysitter angst. I ended up hiring a baby sitter through Joanne's Babysitter Service who were great. I did the whole thing via email and was crapping myself about it, but Lena was lovely and did an excellent job.
Anyway, Schatzi wanted to visit Kläli who lives in a nursing home (or retirement home?) in Sharfhausen which is just over the border into Switzerland, and Gisela agreed to drive us there. After visiting, Oliver and I got the train to Zurich, and spent a while getting lost at the station before finding Markus and his mates from work. Thursday had been a public holiday for some Catholic feast day or something, so Markus had taken the Friday off work as well for a long weekend. We went from the station by train and bus to his friends Nathan & Rennette's place (I think his name was Nathan anyway. Might have been Nick?) where we had a South African Braii (BBQ) for dinner. Oliver liked Rennette very much and sat very nicely in her lap and let her give him some dinner. He fell asleep on my lap at 10pm and slept the whole way home which was good of him.
On Saturday Markus, his mate Marc, Oliver and I went walking around Zurich so we could see the place. I also got some new sneakers (I hadn't brought sneakers to Europe, only my black leather slip ons and I couldn't wear those to a white party). We had a sandwhich for lunch by the shore of Lake Zurich which was lovely. Oliver had a quick nap in the stroller but we really wore him out in the afternoon so he'd sleep well that night. We had another BBQ back at Markus' place and waited for Max to turn up from the airport. I put Oliver to bed at normal time (8pm) and prayed he'd sleep through.
Lena, the babysitter, go in around 9pm and although she spoke English it was far easier to Markus to do his bit in Swiss-German (ie, here is my ohone number, here is the fridge, here is the phone, here is the tv, here is the internet, here is the baby). BTW, my Swiss-German skills hover around zero - it sounds soooo much different to the German I'm used to hearing. I can't follow at. all. We all left at 10pm. Lena had Markus' mobile so if there was any drama I could leave the party and come home. But Oliver was extremely well behaved and slept through without waking at all, so it was a very easy job for Lena after all.
The party was great. The DJ's, eh, not so much, but maybe that's because house isn't really my music of choice. Dirty South was ok, and the Megamix was great but Sebastian Ingrosso was shit. Tocadisco was a bit whack but hey, I still had a good time. The decorations were awesome - the whole thing was sea theme and there were 8 huge jellyfish from the ceiling. The DJ booth was a giant rotating circle with runways from each side and a huge coral thing and speakers above. There were 8 green lazers - 4 mounted in the centre pointing out, and one in each corner pointing in. There were girls who came out at intervals on the runways doing performances - they came out with these huge lit up beach balls which were supposed to be pearls which change colour every time someone hit them; they had giant bubbles on their heads which they popped; they had jellyfish costumes (umbrellas, basically); and they danced around with the water in bikinis which the male potion of the audience enjoyed. There was fireworks and fire shooting up as well. It was really, really well done.
I had a great time - it was really good to see Markus and Max again. They both crack me up. I got to have a dance and I got a good break from Oliver which I badly needed. Markus made me wear the earplugs they gave out at the start of the night even though I didn't want to. I've never worn them before at parties, I've always just suffered deafness the next day, because I've always thought they muffled the sound. But they don't if they are in right - the sound is still clear and you can hear the person next to you talking, but they knock the decibels down enough so your ears don't ring the next day. We also got free glowstix on entry which was funny, and because I had my bluetooth enabled I got the timetable automatically sent to my phone which I thought was very cool. Oh, and you could buy FOOD there - hot chips, sausages, sandwiches - it was very strange. I've never been to an all night event with food before.
We ended up staying to the end as we hadn't had a call or message saying I was needed at home. The party ended at 5am with a fizzle rather than a bang. It was a bit weird, it ended, the Sensation voice said some crap, the lights came on, everyone started to leave, then suddenly they played Born Slippy. Then the lights came on again. And we left and walked back to Markus' place. There was some discussion about staying up for breakfast but I wanted to try and get some sleep before Oliver woke up for the day so once I'd paid Lena and she'd left I crawled into bed with Oliver. My back was well shagged from all the dancing though, and I had a lot of pain in my lower back, pelvis and down my left leg. I managed to sleep until Oliver woke up at 8.30am though - what a good boy, sleeping in for mummy! Lately he's been waking anywhere from 6am onwards. At that point I got up and took some ibuprofen and moved to the living room where Oliver introduced himself to Max who was sleeping on the couch while I sorted him some breakfast.
I went back to bed when Oliver napped and got another hour then, but was still pretty uncomfortable. The bed was awesome (see Oliver's massive sleep the night before), it was just my stupid sciatic nerve, so I got up and found Markus making an English breakfast which was awesome. Fried food is excellent after a long night out. When Oliver woke up Marc and Max were watching the car racing (Monaco?) so I sorted him some food then Markus and I decided we should go for a walk, so everyone got up and off we went. Max payed out on the shitty umbrella stroller so I made him push it from then, and he and Marc took turns playing race cars with Oliver, who enjoyed that very much.
On Monday Max had to go to work as it was his first day, and Oliver cried when he left. The rest of us had a lovely leisurely breakfast and then we went to Zurich HBF so Oliver and I could bugger off back to Germany. We had such a good time, both of us, it was so much fun. A big thanks to Markus for letting us crash his place and cooking for us all weekend, and thanks to Marc and Max for entertaining Oliver.
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A very brief Eurovision 09 wrap up. Everyone here thought I was completely mad for wanting to watch it, and no-one but Ralf would watch it with me. Elliot watched it at the annual Eurovision BBQ at Andrew's place as usual. Elliot and Ralf both liked Iceland best, I quite liked Azerbaijan. Everyone thought that Denmark (the winners) were complete crap. I thought Germany's entry wasn't too bad. Very gay, but not bad.
Iceland:
Azerbaijan:
There was a decided lack of big hair, sequins and velcro pants this year. I'm a bit concerned that the golden age (or is that holographic age?) of Eurovision might have passed.
I bought Oliver lederhosen yesterday (squeeeee!). They are too big because they need to fit him for the next Tenterfield Beerfest when he will be three, but I put them on this morning for a little fashion show anyway:
Germany has been good so far. The weather has been a bit iffy (lots of rain) but a few beautiful sunny days too. Oliver has been enjoying the excellent playgrounds and has decided the slippery dip is a favourite. He likes to go down on his tummy both head first and feet first.
He's been actively partaking of the 4 German Food Groups - Weiner, Kartoffel, Bretzel und Kuchen (sausage, potato, pretzels and cake). He's become quite the fan of nutella too (throws a tanty if he sees the jar, sigh) and of kinder chocolate, which everyone keeps trying to give him. He has been a bit fixated on banana and carrot at the moment too.
Yesterday we went to Bodenee (Lake Constance) for the day which was lovely - beautiful scenery, the water is so clean and calm and there was just the slightest breeze. We had a picnic at one of the Speilplatz (playgrounds) which Oliver enjoyed immensely, then went for a walk for a bit, then had icecream at a icecream parlor overlooking the water. The strawberries here actually have flavour and the strawberry icecream was TDF. We bought Oliver's lederhosen and then went for dinner at a beer garden owned by two brothers from Ralf's band. I had pork knuckle, dumpling and sauerkraut which I shared with Oliver. Yum.
I'm uber, uber excited to say that I'm going to SENSATION in Zurich this Saturday. I've wanted to go to a Sensation party for 10 odd years now and I'd honestly thought that ship had sailed and I was never going to get a chance but Markus messaged me this week to say he was going and did I want to come. Oliver is coming to Zurich with me but I've organised a babysitter to stay overnight while he sleeps. Even though Sensation is shitty house music now instead of trance I'm still so excited, its going to be awesome!
I'm almost off. Oliver, Schatzi and I fly out at 4pm tomorrow. Nothing is organised so I have no idea when we will be seeing people over there or what, but I'm cool with that. Oliver and I will just go with the flow.
I haven't packed yet which is stressing me out slightly, but I needed to finish a nappy order and do some laundry first. Both are now done so I can pack first thing tomorrow. I also still need to shop for snacks for Oliver for the plane, and I need to get myself a couple of books to read. I did order a bunch from Amazon but they haven't turned up yet (boo).
I will have limited internet for the next 7 weeks so am very unlikely to blog between now and then. But will post a full recap with photos when I get back. Let me leave you with this German-theme O Rly Owl I made in Photoshop for my avatar:
The store will be closed from 6th May - 28th June as I won't be here to fulfill any orders. I could ask mum to do it, but its a big responsibility and its easier not to. Sales have been going slowly but I'm very happy to have had sales at all - on Etsy I've had half a dozen sales in 4 years so its a big improvement on that.
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I've decided that I adore Twilight the movie. I've come to the conclusion that it craps all over the book. I never, ever thought I'd say that about a movie version of a book ever. I'm quietly hopeful that with some ruthless paring down of the manuscript that maybe, just maybe, Breaking Dawn the movie will be watchable.
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I'm going to take Twilight and my HP DVD's, plus Press Gang and House seasons 1-3 with me the Germany so I have something to watch while I'm there and Oliver is napping. I've ordered a box set of books from Amazon to take too (Sookie Whatsherface - more vampires) but it will depend on how much room they take up. DVD's fit into a cd wallet and are lighter.
Just quietly, I'm crapping myself about this trip. I'm really, really worried Oliver will crack it and spazz out on the plane. I have new toys (little cars, etc), pencils, a cloth book, and I plan on taking a stack of snacks. And phenergan, just in case it all goes very badly. Schatzi is in a tizzy about the Pig Flu thing but I'm not going there. There's nothing that can be done about it anyway. I just need to sort out travel insurance for Oliver and I.
Twilight: I came for the fluff, stayed for the snark, and got obsessed for the lulz.
I finally got past chapter 3 of Twilight on Good Friday, then spent the next week reading the rest of the series. There is so much wrong with the series I doubt I could cover it all here even if I had the time and/or inclination. But in summary:
The writing is appalling; the characters are complete Mary-Sue's; there is so much mushy purple prose (god-like, anyone?); the 'chagrin' abuse; the horribly-named life-sapping babypire; toddler imprinting (ew!).
Book 1 should have had the first 180 odd pages condensed down to about 50. I found it really hard to get into, it wasn't until the meadow scene it started to get even remotely interesting.
Book 4 was about 300 pages too long and a complete let down on many fronts. It could have ended about 50 pages into the third part and left the end off entirely and not been any worse.
Hell, the entire series should have been edited down to 2 books IMO - school/post school (or, human/vampire if you like). Could have been done easily.
But they are horribly, horribly addictive - even knowing how awful it was and having a fairly good idea of what was coming up (I'd been warned about the horrendous baby name ages ago) I still sat there and read all 4. I haven't read Midnight Sun yet but I've downloaded it. Will get around to it eventually, but I'm having way too much fun with the snarky online commentary.
I especially like Cleolinda's book discussions and they they are fairly spot on. And I'm loving Growing Up Cullen - I enjoyed it far more than the series itself and I reckon they have Edward pretty spot on.
I saw the trailer for the movie on YouTube and about wet myself laughing at the wangst, so I'm going to have to buy it this week. I'm thinking I might save it for the plane and watch it on the way to Germany (assuming Oliver sleeps and I get some time out).
ETA: The more I think about it, the more its annoying me. Gah. Point form and its not organised in any way at all. Here be plenty of spoilers - you are warned.
- Edward was supposed to turn Bella by biting her FFS. What was with the hypodermic of venom? It was supposed to all sexy angsty vampire fun. Gypped!
- Edward giving her a c-section with his teeth (fangs?) is so wrong on so many levels.
- Renesmee. Sum total of. But mostly, her existence is a massive kick in the teeth to Rosalie. Which would be ok, if it generated some angst or plot or something, but it doesn't.
- The ease at which Bella goes through the newborn vampire period is a huge kick in the teeth to Jasper. And IMO only manages to make Bella more irritatingly perfect. And is completely BORING.
- What was the point of the Volturi at all if there was no goddamn fight at the end? A freaking third of book 4 is devoted to this crap, and a ton of new characters, and NOTHING BLOODY HAPPENS.
- All this crapping on that leads nowhere and adds nothing to the story wastes page space that could have gone to interesting characters - all of the other Cullen's have interesting back stories which get sort of glossed over.
I bought the movie today and god damn its awful. Hilariously awful. Its awesome.
My new online store on Oz Handmade launches tonight at midnight. I have a special promotional deal to celebrate the opening - spend $30 in a single order and receive a free pair of beaded earrings. Please click the logo above to go directly to my store and check out my pretties!
Will be back with an Easter wrap up shortly. I'm in a world of pain right now as my sciatic is being pinched again and I'm going to push off to bed. But here is a photo of Oliver to tide you over until I come back:
So I'm back. I had physio and acupuncture on Thu and its helped considerably.
Easter was really good. From the bunny (aka mummy) Oliver got a dressing gown, his easter basket for the egg hunt (the one in the above picture), a Bunnykins egg cup and spoon with one egg, and some bits and pieces for the plane - plastic animals, coloured pencils, etc. We let him have the egg and he loved it.
We went to Uncle Fred's for lunch and the egg hunt. Oliver was so funny with the hunt - I chucked some eggs into his basket and he then spent 5 minutes taking them out and putting them back in. Then Poppy opened one up and gave it to him and he realised what was going on and it was all on.
I took the basket away from him to stop him eating chocolate and plopped him on the grass for the group picture. I sat him next to Lucas and Lucas decided to share with Oliver and promptly gave him another egg. So cute!
I taxed the rest of his eggs. It sucks though, he knows now that foil = chocolate and will go nuts if he hears it or sees it because he knows I'm eating it and not giving him any. I can't sneak it in any more while he is awake.
I'm sad to say that Zeke died this week He had been living at Steve & Libby's and they are currently away on holidays in Italy so a catsitter has been coming over each day to do feed/play/litter. We were always going to be doing the long weekend though as she is away. We turned up on Friday and found him already dead. We aren't sure why and probably won't ever know, but we suspect he might have eaten something he wasn't meant to and was poisoned, or perhaps was bitten by a snake or spider (both of which are known to lurk in their backyard). We buried him in their backyard with the help of their wonderful neighbour Rod.
So things are slowly moving forward with Minkie Baby. I own minkiebaby.com but haven't done anything with it yet. One of Elliot's friends is a web developer and has agreed to do the website with a proper shopping cart for a fee. So that's in the works. I'm in the process of having a proper logo designed and I expect that process will be wrapped up in 1-2 weeks. Once that is done I can order new business cards and other printed promotional material, and I'll be able to use it on the website. We are also going to have custom woven labels for the nappies with the logo on them - the current labels I use are good, no complaints, but very basic.
We are looking into outsourcing the production off shore, probably to Fiji, China or Bali. Once I get my backlog of current orders cleared I'm going to run up a sample of each size to be sent over. We have decided to pare down our size range to small, medium and large only. As much as I love the NB nappies, there isn't that big a demand for them. Most people just aren't in the right space to use cloth with a newborn - they are more worried about learning about this new person and figuring out their quirks and preferences. Plus, the smalls fit from around 4kg, and the average newborn is around 3-3.5kg anyway. I have plans for a NB fitted and cover system but I'll have to a) draft it, b) make it and c) have another baby to test it out on before I can even think about having it produced for sale. The XL size is too big for the average toddler so I'm not going to bother. The large is sufficiant for most toddlers. The decorative tabs are being phased out too, its just going to be the continuous tabs.
So my list of things to do includes getting a proper, dedicated MB bank account (I've been using my old SGE personal account for it so far) and getting an dedicated MB ABN and business registration as opposed to using my sole trader ABN for it. I have around 6 weeks to get this done and finish up my current orders.
Yes, its official, I am crazy. Opi's brother in Germany asked Schatzi to come over for his 80th birthday. She didn't want to go alone and as the only technically non-working* member of the family I was nominated. And Oliver goes where I go. So the three of us are going to Germany. We leave on 7th May and stop overnight in Singapore to break it up. Elliot is coming over on the 7th June and we all fly home together on 24th June. We will mostly be in Germany but we will probably be popping over to Zurich to see my cousin, to either France or Belgium to see our mates, and to England to see Felicity. It has me both excited and crapping myself at the same time.
*My night time contract work I'm currently doing finishes up in a fortnight and Minkie Baby/LDD Jewellery apparantly don't count as "work".
Last week we went to Tenterfield for the Bavarian Beer Fest.
Oliver and I went up with mum and dad last Thursday. We stayed at Hinchinbrook on Wed night but because I had work until 9pm we didn't get there until after 10pm and Oliver didn't fall asleep until almost 11.30pm. I got up around 3.30am to have a shower, pack the car etc and we left just before 5am. I had to wake Oliver to go but left him in his wondersuit so he'd be comfy and sleep. He slept quite a bit in the car but we did have to stop for an hour for breakfast, plus a stop at a park in Guyra so he could crawl around and play for a bit.
After we got to Tenterfield he cried every time we put him back in the car. Poor kid must have thought we were going to force him to stay in again. We had dinner at the Bowling Club (Oliver threw lasagne everywhere) and then popped over to Card & Elcira's to say hello and pick up the porta cot. Oliver hit the wall around 10pm so Karah drove us back to the club where we were staying. Everyone who hung around predictably got hammered on schnapps after we left.
On Friday we went for a drive to some wineries. Oliver cracked it in the car on the way to the first one so I put him in the hugabub and carried him in the hope he would sleep, but no joy. We wandered around Angelo's for a bit and everyone else bought handmade gourmet foody stuff but we decided to head to the German winery for lunch. Felsburg was lovely, it had this beautiful German style building on top of a hill, and one wall was glass windows so we could enjoy the scenery. Oliver crashed in the hugabub as soon as we got there - he'd cracked it in the car again and was exhausted. He woke after 45min and had some of Schatzi's chicken and leek pie and some of my sausages and was much happier after that. I had hoped he'd have a proper nap back when we got back, but no joy. So he was a bit of a terror at Bill & Glenda's place where we went for dinner. Dad let him snack on cheese and crackers so he refused dinner then cracked a wobbly because he was tired. So I bunged him back in the hugabub and he went to sleep there.
Saturday was a free day. Elliot was driving up and we all decided to give Oliver a break from the car. Mum, Schatzi, Karah, Natalie, Oliver and I went for a walk up to main street and check out the shops. We got lunch at the Willow Tree Cafe after (crap service, as usual, I don't know why we go there). Oliver had a nap in the afternoon and I just chilled with my ipod and read Twilight. I only got 2 chapters in before doing some sudoku instead. I assume it gets better because everyone else is so obsessed with it. I bought it with my gift voucher from Sascha (thanks again Sascha!). Elliot turned up in the arvo and had a rest then we were off to the Fest. Oliver loved the Oompah music, he was bopping away and having a great time. He had some giant pretzle and some German sausage for dinner and spent a lot of time outside crawling on the grass.
Sunday was a big BBQ at Card & Elcira's. I went with mum to the Schubert Mass at the Catholic church before hand. The band did the music and it was very nice. They also played at the BBQ. Dad organised a spit for lunch. We lasted until after lunch then Oliver cracked it so we went back to the room for a nap (all three of us). Didn't end up going back because Oliver slept until after 4pm and it was due to end by 5ish anyway. Everyone was cranky in the evening but we went and got pizza anyway.
We drove back to Sydney on Monday and went via Thunderbolts Way. Oliver got car sick and chucked all over himself and his seat, so we had to stop in Gloucester to strip him off, wipe him down, change him and wipe off his seat. Other than that it was fairly uneventful. We stopped at the Maccas on the F3 so Oliver could have a play on the playground equipment and we could use the change table there and then I drove from there home. I didn't do too badly considering I haven't driven since I failed my P's in October. Only 68.5 hours of logged driving to go before I can sit the test again!
). However last year, or maybe the year before, they canned the black party and changed the white party to shitty house music. I don't think I bothered to blog about it, but there was a Sensation White in Melbourne for New Years which was advertised on telly and I was super dirty about it - firstly, that it was in Australia but was in Melbourne when I had no chance of going (no money, no babysitter etc) and secondly, that it was shitty house music. I assumed, as I said in my last post, that the chance had passed, the ship had sailed, the dream was over.
