New niece

Sunday:

Exciting news early this morning, my new niece Ashleigh was born! We went and visited in the hospital in the afternoon, after mum Ping had got some sleep. Ashleigh is less than 12 hours old here.

Yesterday we spent all day out at a big shopping centre, Christmas shopping in the morning and then we saw "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" after lunch. We haven't finished our Christmas shopping yet, in fact we have no idea what to get for a couple of people including my sister-in-law Ping! I don't want to just get baby stuff, I want to pamper her, and it's her second baby so she already has a lot of stuff. I asked her but she had no ideas. Also her parents are here looking after her so she doesn't really need me for anything. Hmm, still thinking.

Only two weeks to Christmas!

Professional ethics

Sunday:

Tim was exhausted by the week away and I'm always pretty tired, so Saturday was just hanging around the house relaxing. Lovely!

Today we babysat my three-year-old niece Emma for about six hours so her parents could go to the theatre in the city to see Aladdin. She was happy and well behaved all day, Jasmine did most of the minding with help from Aiden and Tim. Tim is so good with kids! We managed to head off a couple of "where is mummy?" moments. It's funny how bad a three-year-old is at Hide and Seek! She would say "I'm going to hide under Jasmine's bed!" then run off. Um, that is not how this game works. And when she was supposed to seek, she counted to ten beautifully then stood still and looked in a vague circle and said to me "I can't see them". I had to take her around the house and say "let's look behind this door" etc. A bit young I guess but she enjoyed it.

Tim's dad and his partner came for lunch and stayed most of the afternoon too. He has recently self-published the second volume of his trilogy and wants me to read it (I have read an earlier version a couple of years ago) and put a review online. I said yes but I find the thought a bit stressful. He is so excited about his books and basically thinks they are perfect. I think they are quite good. Me giving them anything but a stellar review will be upsetting, disappointing and confusing for him. It's going to be a fine line to walk. I am not willing to outright lie to please him, I have been a professional editor and book reviewer and fiction judge in competitions. This is my conscience and my reputation! Obviously I'll emphasise the good and minimise the bad, but I think anything less than "best book I've ever read" might be a problem...

We have a kookaburra visiting every day again, so maybe they will come every spring when they are nesting and like having that easy source of fresh food. They are very picky and only seem to like raw meat. But they are so nice to look at I indulge them. I haven't seen our resident lizard Skinky for a few weeks now so maybe he has moved on or died. :( He made it through the winter so I'm choosing to believe he's gone off in search of a mate now that the weather has warmed up and he no longer needs the bathroom heat lamp. In spring a young lizard's thoughts turn to love.

Car and cup

Friday:

I spent the morning getting the car sorted. Took it to be inspected (browsing at Bunnings Hardware while I waited and buying some gardening gloves) then drove to RTA, unscrewed the license plates (again) this time not having to chase a gleefully escaping screw under a parked car, very tricky that was on Wednesday, or finding a large spider like I did the first time; waited only a few minutes for my number to be called at the RTA, this time all paperwork present and correct, new plates handed over (for a fee, of course), screwed them on, DONE! Car now registered in correct state. It's only taken ten months...

I exchanged my cracked teacup with no problems, and they gave me a two year warranty so they will replace this one even if I break it myself! Nice.

It was in a gift set with a matching plate. I had to buy the triple-choc brownie separately. I tried it out for my afternoon tea when I got home, in future it will be my breakfast set.

I always wash my delicate cups by hand, at the moment our dishwasher is broken so I'll be washing everything by hand. Or, alternatively, not washing. The kitchen bench is piled high.

I decided to make a cute bunny cross-stitch for my new niece due in a couple of months, and I bought the material and threads today after seeing the pattern in a magazine. I used to cross-stitch quite a bit, before I had children of my own and no longer seemed to have the time or energy. I have a large project that has been in an "almost finished" state for twelve years. This is a little project that shouldn't take me too long, maybe it will get me back into it. I like to have something to do while watching TV. TV only takes one eye and a quarter of my brain.

There might be a problem with the pool, the council have decided the biggest tree right in the middle of the backyard has to stay. Bugger. Need to squish the pool right over one side and turn it the other way, and have leaves drop in it all year. Unless we find it's close enough to the house to constitute a bushfire hazard, need to measure the distance. Not that the council told us about that. It's like in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where information is "on display" in the basement in a locked filing cabinet guarded by a leopard.

Niece

Saturday:

We babysat our three-year-old niece for a few hours today so Nick and Ping could enjoy their anniversary with lunch and a movie. We walked up to the park, quite a distance for little legs, and had lunch at McDonald's before walking home again. That took up a lot of the time, and Jasmine entertained her the rest. Emma is a little inclined to wilfulness but it all went smoothly and was fun.

My plantar wart is back. 48 hours back to full size and sore to walk on. Sigh.

In the evening we went out to a surprise birthday dinner for Tim's Aunt Vanessa's 60th. She thought she was just going out to dinner with her husband, walked into the restaurant to find 60 of us waiting! Far too much food, I feel quite bloated. Her son, Tim's cousin Matthew, is a musician and he played guitar and sang throughout the evening which was lovely. I'll have to find you a link to his YouTube channel.

My Christmas present last year from Tim was a big TV. As well as wanting a bigger screen, I particularly wanted one so we could put the old one (only ever had one TV before this) in the kitchen. In our old house I could see the TV from the kitchen while I was cooking, as well as the lounge and eating area. But in this house I can't, the lounge is separate from the kitchen. I like to watch while cooking and washing up etc. Anyway, tonight the new one suddenly died! It's only six months old! At least it's definitely still under warranty.