Archives for June 2006

Just chillin’

June 30, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

After the absolute intensity of last weekend’s birthday celebrations we’re not up to much at all this weekend. Last weekend I hardly sat down, and when I did sit down it was to do other stuff like filling lolly bags or to have a well deserved drink.

This morning, I got up to turn on ABC kids for JJ and went back to bed to read my book and then got up, had a shower and had breakfast. All I’ve done so far today is grocery shopping, made pumpkin soup and done a load of washing that is now sitting out in the rain.

In a little while we will wander to the video shop with our umbrellas (JJ got a cute one for his birthday), get a video then I’m going to light the fire and fold up three loads of washing. Tonight we’re hanging inside and tomorrow night I’m going to an adult only birthday party. It will be lovely to catch up with my friends in a relaxed atmosphere and not worry about kids running amok around me. I also get dinner cooked for me before I go. What a luxury.

Hayfever

June 29, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

In the last year or so I’ve developed hayfever. The other day at the tail end of a cold my nose was running heaps and it was really itchy.

I felt like ripping my nose off to ease the annoyance. Once I clicked that it was actually hayfever and not just a cold relapse I took a hayfever tablet and eased the itchyness. Thank goodness for this type of medication.

Happy birthday gorgeous boy

June 28, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Jj_2daysa1 This time five years ago, my love, you were born after a 24 hour labour. You were a big baby (9lb, 6oz, 4.25kg) and you nearly had to be delivered via a ceasarean but I pushed you out in the end. In the hospital you were really good at first, just lying there and sleeping when you were tired. Then the wheels came off around the time my breast milk came in. The last night in hospital you just cried and cried and cried and you also did this the first night you came home – probably because you slept all day and just couldn’t settle that night.

By the time the next morning came around after I’d had a couple of hours sleep all night I was ready to send you back. Only joking – well kinda.

Mummy sorted out your sleeping and it was a hard struggle but I stuck with it and I’m sure you’re a happier boy for it now. You go to bed on time and without a fuss which sure makes my life a hell of a lot easier.

On Monday, you turned five. The five years have gone quickly, yet slowly, and you are preparing to go to school.

Because it’s a milestone in your life mummy decided to throw you a big party and I think you had a pretty good time. You were very well behaved and opened up the cards before opening the presents. You thanked people for their presents and were a great host.

We invited heaps of kids from childcare, some friends and family came from two hours away to help you celebrate, and some other local friends came, including your special adult friends. I wasn’t sure about how the party would go and I didn’t sleep very well the two preceding nights as all these guests totalled about 20 kids and nearly as many adults.

I worried that there wouldn’t be enough food or enough entertainment but apart from me suffering from a head cold and forgetting a few things it went really well. Because the party was at a local community centre I had to remember to take everything and I forgot some of the food and then the milk for hot drinks. I even forgot to bring some things home which we had to pick up a couple of days later.

A couple of kids left early and I even forgot to give them their lolly bags. It wasn’t until one of my sisters reminded me about them that I started giving them out.

We were lucky with the entertainment in that Kazza and Miss M were the entertainment directors. Miss M led the games and got the kids playing musical statues. I found it hard to be the baddy and tell the kids that they’d moved and were out of the game but we got there in the end. Then Miss M led a game of Duck, Duck, Goose followed by Kazza doing an animal parade before telling her story of Tiddalik the Frog. The kids, and you, loved it.

Mummy, caught up in your fifth birthday madness, invited a heap of these party goers back to our place for a soiree that night. It’s not until I get a few guests around that I realise my house really isn’t that big, especially with kids running around. I get a bit stressed about it all and it took me a while to wind down. Once I got all you kids to bed I was able to relax a bit more and you thought it was great because your mate Izak slept with you in your room.

You did well with all the presents you got and the common theme amongst them was books and games. You love books and you love games so it’s a winner all around. You even got a little fish tank with two goldfish and a yabby. I’m a bit worried about the yabby as it hasn’t moved for a couple of days.

Anyway sweetheart, I hope you embrace the next phase of your life. I love you lots and lots and I’m blessed that you came into my life.

Party etiquette

June 20, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

I would have thought that if you receive an invitation for a birthday party that has an RSVP date and contact numbers on it that it would be polite to let them know if you will be attending or not.

For JJ’s fifth birthday party I’ve invited quite a few kids and not all of their parents have let me know whether they are coming or not. If I didn’t have to worry about catering and game prizes and stuff I wouldn’t care, but I do and I object to having to chase people up. In fact, hopefully not to my detriment, I’m not chasing people up.

Enid Blyton lives on

June 16, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

Magic_faraway_tree When I was in primary school I avidly consumed an extensive diet of Enid Blyton books. I couldn’t get enough of them and it got to the point where my primary school librarian told me in grade 7 that grade 7’s weren’t allowed to borrow Enid Blyton books. I was devastated. I still had some of her books to read and now they were being denied to me.

Being the good girl that I was I didn’t question it until I saw a fellow grade 7’ner borrow one. I used that as ammunition and was allowed to borrow Enid Blyton again. I think that in her misguided way she was trying to get me to borrow other author’s books but she should have been more proactive in getting me interested in other authors. She should have also been thankful that I read at all.

I think Enid Blyton has influenced me more than I realise as my son has the same name of one the character’s in one of her book series. This didn’t gel with me until after he was born and his name given to him but it makes sense now.

Enid Blyton’s copped a lot of flak over the years for racism and so on, but despite what people say about her writing, it lives on and has pretty much stood the test of time.

I loved The Secret Seven, The Famous Five, The Naughtiest Girl, Galliano’s Circus, St Clare’s but one series that I hold dear to my heart is the Magic Faraway Tree.

When I was pregnant, I bought The Magic Faraway Tree and only now have I started reading it to my son. He loves it as much as I did when I was a kid. He doesn’t worry about the character’s names, Dick and Fanny (and no, my son’s name is not Dick). My adult dirty mind has a bit of an inward cackle when I read these names but JJ doesn’t care what they’re called.

It’s still all magical and wonderful. I think it’s appeal is the escape from the everyday life and away from parents. These kids have a hell of a lot of freedom, but then in just about all of Enid Blyton’s books, adults don’t really feature much. And what fun it must be to be able to visit a different world whenever you want, have fabulous adventures and escape unscathed.

JJ’s going through an ‘I love fairies and magic’ stage and that’s why reading him The Magic Faraway Tree is very timely. It’s broken up into fairly short chapters so even when they are in a bit of trouble at the top of the world and a chapter ends I am able to say that’s the end of that day and I’ll read you the rest tomorrow.

I hope that one day he’ll be reading The Magic Faraway Tree book to his children.

Tram, damn tram

June 14, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

A couple of weeks ago or so I wrote about a couple of things I’m liking about Adelaide at the moment.

I take back what I said about the empty tram in peak hour morning. It must have been a one off. This morning the tram (a new one) was so crowded we went past a couple of stops because it was too full. If we were in Japan people would have just shoved in, but we’re in polite Adelaide where personal space is a must.

I’m new to the morning tram commuter ride so it’s probably always been crowded but I would have thought with the new trams there is one less conductor in the mornings per new tram so surely at least one more tram can be put on? That’s probably a bit simplistic and there’s loads of reasons why this isn’t happening.

I’m hoping that with petrol prices steadily rising that more people catch public transport and eventually there will be more trams, buses and trains added. Ideal world? Well, a girl can dream can’t she?

Turning a website into a blog (part 2)

June 12, 2006 by Jen at Semantically driven

As written a few days ago I’m thinking of turning a website I’ve done into a blog.

I finished off the last instalment with how easy it was to install WordPress and that I’m very impressed with the WordPress documentation. That was before I started the configuration.

I find myself going round in circles with it.

I’ve managed to install another theme. That’s easy. Anything that has to be installed is easy but trying to do anything else more manually isn’t easy for me yet.

There is loads of documentation, but I haven’t yet come across the type of documentation I’m looking for and that’s probably because there is so much out there that wading through it all is the trouble.

I’ve created some categories and I want to change the order of the categories. I found out how to do that I thought and went and did it but nothing’s happened on the website.

I started putting the About page together and then realised that inserting an image wasn’t so easy. The website I’m converting is very image heavy so after some reading I’ve had to install yet another plug-in to add images. There are loads of image type plug-ins so it will be trial and error.

I’m about to spend some more time on it now so hopefully things will start to fall into place.