Mumbled Mundanities

Entertainment QotW: Movie Prices

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 07:58:52 +1000

How much does a ticket cost at your usual movie theater? Does the price affect the number of movies you see at the theater?
Submitted by Kristie.

I have a usual movie theatre? LOL

I have not actually been to the movies since ... I don't know how long it's been. We took the boys to see Ice Age 2 when that was out, and I think we went to the drive-in to see Shrek 2 before that. That's how long since I actually saw a movie at a cinema. I was supposed to go see Sex and the City with a bunch of girlfriends a few weeks back but the scheduled night didn't work out for me. So yeah - I'm very much your "wait till it comes out on dvd" kind of gal these days.

That said, I think tickets are around $15 to $16 for an adult these days. I would gladly pay that amount if I could ever get the chance to actually go to the movies.

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Music QotW: Favorite Soundtrack

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:14:41 +1000

What's your favorite soundtrack?

When you say "soundtrack", I sincerely hope you are referring not only to films but also musicals.

I have two.

The first is "Sweeney Todd" by Stephen Sondheim, and not because of the recent, massively-hyped movie starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter, who, in my humble opinion, did not do justice to the musical score. I commented to a fellow Sweeney afficionado after seeing it that the score acted better than any of the actors in the movie version.

The second is "Jesus Christ Superstar". How I love this musical! How can you not, even if you are an atheist (and I am)?

Just as an aside, my daughter (now 14 months) has always been very responsive to music and was quite given to grooving away to any funky music she heard. Thinking I would do the right thing by her, I've been playing lots of "kids" music - eg, The Wiggles, Hooley Dooleys, various artists performing nursery rhymes etc. She's liked it, but hasn't been that enthused. I thought her days of grooving were perhaps a flash in the pan. Then last week, on a whim, I put on the "Jesus Christ Superstar" soundtrack. Well. No sooner had the overture started than she was boogie-ing away. Clearly she has a more mature taste in music.

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Disco Fever!

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:19:05 +1000

Yes, it's that time of year again. Last night was the annual School Disco. The 5-year-old had been asking me about it for a good 3 or 4 months - how many sleeps, etc, and then finally the announcement came a couple of weeks ago that it was to be on this week.

He'd already decided well in advance which outfit he'd be wearing, which glow product he would be purchasing (there's always a stall at the door for the kids to buy something) and on Monday night announced that he wanted to wear his hair all slicked back so he looked "really cool".

Which we did, and here he is, looking a little like a young Draco Malfoy:

Disco fever

The 8-year-old was less excited, this being his 4th school disco. He ran away when I tried to take a picture and condescended only to be photographed thusly:

Non disco fever

The evening included a complimentary packet of chips and drink of cordial. My sympathies were with the supervising teachers, especially those who were there for the long haul (the kindergarten - year 2 kids went from 4.30 - 6 and the year 3 - 6 kids from 6.30 - 8pm). The DJ was completely over the top and by the end of both sessions had whipped all the kids into an absolute frenzy.

Suffice to say, though, that both boys had a great night.

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Weekend in Canberra

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:42:54 +1000

Last week since we had no plans for the weekend, my partner and I decided that a family weekend away was in order. And since we had visited only very fleetingly a couple of years ago, we decided to make the nation's capital, Canberra, our destination.

So we booked ourselves a nice little apartment for the weekend and left on Friday afternoon after school.

I guess it was a reasonably pleasant weekend. It may have been the wrong choice for our family given that the baby is not the world's best sleeper and was slightly disturbed by us attempting to fit in as much as we possibly could in the two days we were there. It may have been better if I had not stupidly taken the 5-year-old into the Earthquake House at Questacon on the very first day, rendering him absolutely terrified that a real earthquake was imminent despite my repeated reassurances for the remainder of the weekend.

But I guess it got us out of the house.

Anyway, here are some pictures...

For no real reason other than I think she's cute, the baby pulling a funny face (obviously she has some kind of theatrical flair because she did this as soon as I pointed the camera at her):

Funny face

At Questacon, the baby and 5-year-old playing in a boat:

Driving the boat

The baby again, having spent about 10 minutes attempting to extract the little plastic ball from this cube-thingy:

Playing

Bubs yet again. They have a cool section for the under 6's at Questacon which includes a water play area (waterproof aprons supplied). She played here for a good half hour. Well, it involved water and balls - what more could a girl ask for?

Water play

A rather fuzzy self portrait in one of those wobbly-type carnival mirrors:

Self portrait

At Cockington Green - the miniature hedge maze:

Hedge maze

Also at Cockington Green - proof that boys really do play with dolls (note that they both - particularly the 8-year-old - played happily here for aaaaages):

Doll's houses

The boys enjoying a hot chocolate at our apartment. The 5-year-old desperately needs his hair brushed. Actually, he needs a haircut too, but he's planning on growing it long like the young Anakin Skywalker:

Hot chocolate

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Life QotW: This Week in Life...

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:34:11 +1000

What would you like to accomplish this week?

It's very simple - I just want to tidy my room. It's awfully cramped in there at the moment. It isn't a large room to begin with, yet it has a queen-sized bed, my daughter's cot, a built-in wardrobe, a spare lounge chair that doesn't fit anywhere else in the house, a couple of bedside tables and a small chest of drawers. I have a really bad habit of piling things up on the spare lounge chair to "put away later", and there are always piles of the baby's books and toys lying around the place. I've also developed quite a collection of things that the baby is no longer using (clothes that are too small, bedding that was for the bassinette which is no longer in use owing to the fact that she's been in the cot for a good 12 months now, heaps of cloth nappies that we aren't using because I simply don't have the time to do all the washing that they entail).

So my aim this week is to tidy all this up, get rid of the things I'm not using anymore etc.

There. I've said it. Now I just have to do it.

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Betrayed

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:10:49 +1000

So, I'm officially having "health issues" at the moment. Won't go into gory details but have learned this week that I have a certain "condition", for lack of a better word. It's not something that is actually affecting my health, and hopefully it won't, but it is something that is probably going to affect me and very probably my lifestyle for the rest of my life.

In reading into this I've also discovered that I had an indicator for this condition in the past that was noted by several medical professionals, yet no-one warned me of the possible consequences. On the other hand, I can't honestly say that I would have done anything about it or even known what to do, because more than likely I would have just viewed the possible consequences as something that happens to other people and not to me. And yet, here I am *shrug*.

Anyway, I'm just trying to digest and process this new information and decide what I'm going to do. I haven't spoken to anyone about it because when I think about it I feel like bursting into tears, because this shouldn't be happening to me, ya know. And I feel betrayed by my body that this is happening. Because after all haven't I given it the best years of my life and treated it well? Kept it fed and watered, etc.? And this is how I get repaid!

So that's where I'm at.

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What sort of crazy world do we live in when people just drop in without calling first???

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 16:30:59 +1000

(Let me just preface my rant by saying "Damn! It's been a long time since I've posted anything here!" There have been several reasons for this which I will not bore you with at this time...)

Anyway, as I was saying, this is an issue for me. People dropping by without calling. Partly because it's not something I personally feel comfortable doing, and partly because I am not the sort of person who keeps a company-ready house. Also partly because very often I am just not company-ready myself.

Take, for example, this morning.

Now, admittedly I knew my father-in-law and step-mother-in-law were in town because they had already dropped in on us randomly the other day when my partner and I, most unfortunately, were playing who-can-withstand-the-urge-to-sweep-longest - I couldn't stand it any more and went out to return the dvds and when I got home there they were. Meanwhile, partner had not yet succumbed to the sweeping urge. And I am aware of their bizarre knack for dropping by at the very worst moments. Once - pre-kids - when the place was an absolute sh!tfight for no real reason (as I now, in my post-kids wisdom, realise) and I had chosen, instead of cleaning, to go shopping all day, had crazy-sore feet at the end of it and was sitting in the loungeroom soaking my feet in a bucket of salts to relieve them and generally looking completely glamorous, and they dropped by.

Might I just add that FIL and SMIL dropping by takes quite some doing given that they actually live 10 hours away, and 6 months ago lived 15 hours away. And have I mentioned that when the drop by they very often present us with completely random things? - the last time they were here they brought a garbage bag full of towels and sheets they no longer wanted. But I digress.

Clearly I had allowed myself to be lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that they knew we had all been sick all week (with a stomach bug - bleh) and in any case they were coming for dinner tonight.

I was looking forward to a lovely relaxing morning today when partner told me last night he would take the boys to school as he had a late meeting at the other office. I even had a little sleep-in whilst partner attended to breakfast etc. After waving them all off, I threw off my lovely fluffy purple dressing gown and played with the baby for a little while. She wasn't really tired yet and I had a bit of tidying up to do in preparation for the arrival of FIL and SMIL tonight (like I said - I don't have a company-ready house), so I decided to be a bad mother and put "The Night Garden" or whatever that faux-Tellytubby show is called on for her, because she's seen it once or twice and finds it quite exciting. I figured I'd get to and do a bit of cleaning till she got bored and then have my shower when the baby had her nap.

So I'm swanning around in my raggedy flannelette pj pants, raggedy purple tshirt, no bra, hair unbrushed, have not even brushed my teeth. I have piled the chairs and random crap all over the dining table so I can sweep and mop. The laundry is stuffed to overflowing owing to the inclement weather of late. The boys room looks like the lego demons have been. I haven't made it anywhere near the bathroom. There is a knock at the door. For a split second, I considered not opening it, owing to the unsuitability of my appearance for public consumption, but then it struck me that it could be an emergency, or, like, someone wanting me to move my car in which case I was fully prepared to tell them to ... go away. In my folly, however, I opened it and there are no prizes for guessing who it was.

And they weren't unaccompanied, as they came lugging in a couple of white vinyl and chrome bar stools that looked ideal for someone's shag pad, which they thought we could use. Unfortunately, however, I had to point out that my house is literally packed to the rafters with furniture already, and we don't have anywhere to store them until such a time as we move to a bigger house and the boys convert the rumpus room/teenage escape to a shag pad of their own.

But I was horrified, for many reasons. After all - who turns up at 9.05 am? And the whole time they were here I was totally self-conscious of my boobs hanging around in all their unrestrained glory, but not in a good way. I soon deemed it wise to pick up my daughter and hold her close to me for the entirety of their stay.

I ventured to point out to them that I am not normally to be found lazing around in my pyjamas at 9 am (except for the weekends when I generally am still to be found in pjs until around 11, and I don't do housework then either). FIL attempted to put me at ease by telling me how SMIL used to wake and do all her housework naked in the olden days, which, of course, provided me with mental images I would rather do without.

To cut a long story short, I was glad when they left.

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Aahhhhh ....

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Sun, 25 May 2008 00:33:00 +1000

I have to say, this pseudo-blog is showing up my very worst fault - lack of commitment. I find it really hard to commit to things - I don't know why. I always want an open ended contract. But there you go.

I have been extremely busy lately. I was in a (amateur) show which was no great shakes and hence nothing to brag about other than it took up a hell of a lot of time. I've been dealing with small persons and the related lack of sleep. Note that this situation has abated slightly since the smallest person gave up breastfeeding owing to finding bottles easier owing to my lack of organisation and forethought when off doing shows, so I am now feeling slightly sad about that. Have been offering but she has been highly offended at me doing so.

I've also been busy being the president of the school P&C committee which is highly laughable in itself as being PRESIDENT somehow implies that I might actually be highly thought of somewhere along the line when the truth is there were only 3 of us present at the AGM and it was a choice of being treasurer, secretary or president and the other two got in first. Yeah, the parents at our school are, like, really involved.

Anyway, I'm sitting up late tonight because I want some space to myself. I haven't had that in quite some time. The only time I get it is before everyone gets up in the morning or after they've gone to bed, and tonight is one of the first nights in a few weeks I haven't collapsed on the lounge and fallen asleep.

But, you know, I crave peace and quiet. I love walking around our living area and having it all to myself. I love being able to read uninterrupted. I love just pottering around unimpeded.

*sigh* Quiet house, I love you, even though I'm plotting to be rid of you ...

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Vox Hunt: Treat Your Feet

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:06:34 +1000

Show us your favorite pair of shoes.

Bianco flats

These are my current favourites. They look pretty awful from that perspective, but are very comfy and I get comments on their cuteness all the time. Which is saying something as I have size 10 feet.

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QotD: Road Trip

nobody@vox.com(FrumpyGibbon) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:02:20 +1000

When was the last time you drove out of town?

Last week the kids and I drove down to my mum's for a day visit. She lives in The Gong, about 80 km from Sydney. I don't know if it really counts, though. Other than that, last trip I did was down the coast for a week in January.

I think I'm absolutely due for a road trip. We are planning a trip to Dubbo and possibly one to Canberra within the next couple of months. I'd also love a weekend in the mountains - we did this last winter and it was a fabulous escape.

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