Introducing Larry

Here is the newest member of our family. He is cute, mischievious and has very sharp claws! His favourite spot to sleep is in the lining of one of our couches (yes, actually in the lining underneath. Couch is now in need of repair). Eddie is in love with him. Larry would have Eddie disposed of if he could. Mieke likes wheeling Larry around in her doll pram. Quinn likes having Larry on his lap. I like is when Larry doesn't wake me up in the morning by clawing my feet off. Matt would like Larry to stop costing us money at the vet. As the sixth dysfunctional family member with his very own quirks, he is fitting right in.

Brand new Aidan

On April 22 at 4:34pm, Adelle, Justin and Ella welcomed Justin's very own minime Aidan James to the Fenn family. He is a teeny tiny 6lbs 6oz. And way cute. WAY cute. Hoorah to being an aunty!

Oxfam Trailwalker 2010

The past 7 months has all been preparation leading up to this day. We have walked over 300km together in training. I have been running and going to the gym. We are fit and well prepared, if not a little anxious. 

The epic 100km trek from Wheelers Hill to Wesburn Park began for us in the very wee hours of Friday morning April 16. Because we raised over $5000 (we think more likely around $7000 but we haven't done the final tally yet) we were offered a priority start time of 7am. This shot was taken around 4:15am. Nuts we are.

Here we are just as dawn breaks at the start line. My awesome team consists of Sue, Nerissa, and Clint. Nerves aflutter, we ate small amounts of food but no one really wanted to. And there were many toilets stops while we waited!

Checkpoint 2 around 11ish. Lunch stop. This is Lysterfield Lake. We are all in high spirits, running ahead of our estimated schedule. It is a glorious day. I think this picture caught Clint sniffing some happy powder and Sue attempting to jam her foot into her backside. Perhaps she had already snorted her happy powder... Nerissa and I are all about the food and sitting. I should mention here that we had a fantastic support crew, consisting of Amanda (Clint's wife), Trevor (Nerissa's husband), Matt and Mark (a friend of Amanda and Clint). Without them we would not have been able to complete the event.

Say cheeeeese! Taken with a full belly, change of socks and about to set off for Checkpoint 3.

We are still smiling at Checkpoint 3. What on earth is wrong with us? I have a couple of blisters by this point but nothing will dampen our spirits!

There is a big gap here in the pictures which I'm kind of disappointed about. This gap is our walk through the night and into the next morning. We walked from Olinda (where we stopped to have dinner), to Mt Evelyn, Woori Yallock and reached Warburton at 10am Saturday. We were cold, sad, and ever so tired. I have 7 blisters by this stage. My knee hurts. Clint has chafing. Bad chafing. Did I mention we were cold and tired?

Below is us around 11am at Warburton. After a pie for breakfast, dressing blisters again and the supportive smiling, encouraging faces of our support crew we are able to muster little smiles before we tackle the last 7km into Wesburn - over Mt Little Joe. It is nearly over and the just the daylight alone brings enormous relief to our spirits. It is hard walking all night in the dark with nothing but a little patch of light from a head torch to look at. Oh and my ipod went flat with over 5 hours of night walking to go. Sob.

The last dreadful hill in Mt Little Joe. 900 metres of this. See right up there in the middle of the picture? That's the track. And it goes around the corner too. Nice one.

I have never been so happy to see a sign, ever.

It's OVER. Not only did we finish, we finished as a complete team which only 58% of teams did this year. We walked it in just under 31 hours. I have 11 blisters in total. Going home for a bath, a meal and a SLEEP! My three nutty team mates would do it again but not I. I'm going for easy peasy things from now on, like half marathons!

                                             

Mieke is seven

Happy birthday darling girl. I am always in awe of you. Your spark, your intelligence. Your imagination, your tender nurturing heart and genuine concern for the welfare of all living things.

Family will be here to celebrate on Friday, a pool party with school friends on Saturday. Special mother/daughter time including ears pierced on Sunday. Ears pierced? Am I crazy? I might be, but I'm committed now!

She said to me this morning "I do feel older today".

Who's your doppelgänger?

There is a facebook thing going around at the moment about doppelgängers and I thought I'd post  here about it. According to Wikipedia, doppelgänger has come to refer (as in German) to any double or look-alike of a person. Beginning early years of high school I've been told I look like Sally Field. So much so that I acquired the nickname Gidget (one of her characters, TV series of the same name) for a few years. I was also compared to Jenny Morris, though now that my hair is shorter I don't see any resemblance.

Who do you look like?

Randomness

Firstly I have to get off my chest how much I love eating at the Pancake Parlour. Perhaps I've never been confident in my own pancake making ability; perhaps I secretly enjoy spending my money on overpriced flour, eggs and whipped butter; perhaps I'm just a big kid really who can't wait for her iced chocolate and the giant game of chess. Whatever the reason (a delicate blend of all the above?) I heart the Pancake Parlour. I visited today and had a trusted favourite, the cheese and potato pancake. I also very much enjoy the traditional bacon and eggs. I'm hungry again just thinking about it.

Quinn commented the other day about the plate he was eating from. He said "China made this for me. God and China made this plate for me and they sended it to me..." This has no tie to the first paragraph, hence the title of this post. I simply needed to write it down before it gets lost amongst the clutter in my brain. They just say the funniest things, both of them. This is a good place for me to record it.

Fact about me: I can be oversensitive. Sometimes other say things to me and I take it personally (often I don't). Logical thought processes would reach the conclusion that the intention was not to upset even though words spoken are clumsy (a slip I am often guilty of despite being trained in how to phrase things 5 different ways to suit particular recipients of information) and yet sometimes it just does. Today I am having an oversensitive day. An I'm oncall. Which I hate. So that adds to my annoyance. My solution? Pizza.

Australia Day, the Zoo and photography

Australia Day for us this year was celebrated in a different fashion to previous years. Amongst the discussion about the Australian of the Year Professor Patrick McGorry, population explosion, immigration and whether our flag should change (a change Mieke announced she would support because our flag as it stands "is too hard to draw") we visited the Melbourne Zoo. I don't think we've been to the zoo since Quinn was about 6 months old so it was an outing long overdue.

This strapping fellow below caught my eye and posed handsomely while I snapped away. Then, after watching me put the lense cap back on and relax my grip on the camera, he proceeded to defecate into his hand and nibble it like scroggin. Thank goodness we have evolved further.

The butterfly enclosure is breathtaking, the zoo I think is worth a visit for this alone. They are exquisite creatures. I was able to get some great close ups - you all have been spared the thirtysomething shots I took but here are a couple of my favourites:

Mieke and Quinn with cousin Jack. Quinn adores Jack. Loves him stupid.

The giraffes were Quinn's must see (he admitted to feeling quite scared of the tigers but "I have to look at them anyway". Like his own personal mission). I really like this shot of Mr. Giraffe, my camera did some good work today.

Well ok so I probably don't need to comment on all of these. Look, a penguin!

What you see below was how exciting the lion exhibit got. In my many visits to the zoo over the years I don't recall ever seeing any awake. Anyhoo. I quite like this shot, the dappled lighting creates a nice atmosphere over the beast. They look just like big soft cuddly kitty cats when they're not roaring with their ginormous teeth or tearing apart defenseless animals for their supper...

This needs no introduction! Too cool.

And finally we stopped in to the new seal enclosure with a bit of a show - some handstands, some waving, some fish treats, that sort of thing. Kids enjoyed it. Seals seem to like their home. Despite those scar-looking marks we were informed that the girl below just has wavy hair, cowlicks.

 

Quinn fell asleep about 5.2 minutes into the drive home. Mid stick-wave.

Australia Day 2010 was an enjoyable combination of family, sunshine, happy snaps and animals in captivity. Might be a good tradition to begin. Next year anyone?

Lazy Sunday with a sore head

This was my day today. I alternated between sitting here in the lounge and lying on the bed. You see last night we went to a party - a real grown up party without fairy bread and cupcakes and children. I had a great time, probably the most fun I've had in ages (which speaks volumes about how seldom we get out). I also had more glasses of wine than I care (or am able even) to remember. So this morning me and my poor head sat as quietly as you can with two children playing around you. It's only now, at 9pm, I'm feeling as though I resemble a human. Yay for parties without kids.

Birthdays

Matt had a birthday last Tuesday. Happy day of birth, Mr Not-Thirty-Seven-Anymore. We celebrated by barbeque with his and my family yesterday which was typically relaxed and easy.
Someone counted that we now have twenty four people in our family. We are a busy lot. Mieke is next, Miss Seven.

A tshirt I'd like to own

Love it. Getting one. Courtesy of www.snorgtees.com

Things that make my heart sing #2

Coming home at 7am this morning to a just woken little fellow with hot sweet breath who clambers up onto my lap and says quietly "Where were you anyway Mum? I came in for a cuddle but you were gone and so I had to sleep with stinky Dad instead. You're my favourite mum".

Loss

There's something about the idea of death which fills me with terror yet is somewhat calming at the same time. The calming bit comes with the knowledge that we all die and I can't imagine wanting to live forever - even with the most fulfilling life. My issue with death is that it's permanent and one usually leaves loved ones behind. I cannot bear the idea of dying before I see my own children grow into adulthood - that is possibly my biggest fear.

In one week, my team has experienced three deaths. On Monday a colleagues partner of over twenty years lost his battle with asbestos related cancer. On this same day, another colleague had to face the unspeakable grief of turning off the life support to her week-old baby son, born only five or six weeks premature. On Wednesday evening, another colleague learned that her father had died suddenly earlier that day. The week before Christmas our team dealt with the death of one of our long term clients, just sixteen. Through each one of these events we shared the quiet shock and after a bit someone would nervously say "well it can't get any worse" or "it can only get better from here".

We have stopped saying that aloud.

The past week has made me squeeze my children so hard that my son told me I was going to squish his dinner back out. I have had many a sad, reflective moment not just at the funeral but all over the place. It has made me stop and take stock of what I do have - which in the past few months I have not appreciated as much as I know I should have. Healthy family. Enough money to get what we need. Lots of laughs. People I can call at 2am, knowing without a doubt they would get in the car and come right over if I needed them to.

People can be gone so suddenly and unexpectedly. Love your people.

Infrequent but here nonetheless

Alright so I'm pretty slack with this blogging lark but I've been busy doing other things like, well, living my life.
This is my first post for 2010, thought I should do it in January while the year is fresh.
Definitely the highlight in what was a fairly miserable 2009 was my trip to Europe. I was lucky enough to spend 4 weeks with my mother in England and Scotland, with a flying visit to do the touristy bits of Paris.

Ely CathedralEdinburgh Castle

The landscape of Bath

London

Breakfast in a hotel in Waterloo (I had an upset tummy so the closest I got to it was to take a photo - shame)

Other highlights of 2009 were that I resigned from my job, Mieke excelled at school, I made another life long friend, the business continues to do well. We are lucky in many ways, at the moment I am grateful we are in a position for me to leave work - at least for a wee bit while I gather my thoughts about future employment.

I am also currently training for the Oxfam Trailwalker in April. Basically in a team of 4 we have up to 48 hours to walk 100km. We need to raise $3000 to be eligible to begin the walk. Our team home page (where you can sponsor us, as much as you like) is here. Our team name is May Contain Traces of Nuts. Appropriate we thought, on more than one level. Please sponsor us, I warn you I WILL resort to shameless begging, probably along the lines of targeting individuals and following the person around for a day saying things like please please please please please please please (etc). I also promise to put up photos of my suffering for your pleasure.