Busted

I put two items on the footpath for Hard Rubbish Collection this morning. One was a TV with a sign on the screen saying "TV works. Please take" and the other was a microwave with the word "BUSTED" written on the top. The TV was picked up after about 3 minutes by a guy who trawled our street with a shopping trolley most of the morning. The microwave is still there but I did have a knock on the door tonight asking if the microwave was working. I should've chosen more culturally sensitive language to describe the functioning status of the appliance in the first place.

The Day I Put A Prune In My Ear

When Is A Duck Not A Duck

In one of Angus’ books a duck is a white, fluffy creature made from the same material as Santa’s beard in another publication on the shelf. Quack, quack, quack.

In the bath he plays with soft toy that is bright yellow and orange and if you press it’s belly the mechanical ‘quack, quack, quacks’ always get a smile.

On his bedroom door is a small decal of a duck drawn with a thick crayon. Angus insists I quack whenever we walk through the door.

And when we go walking in Hyde Park there are brown ducks quacking as they waddle.

You couldn’t blame him for being confused about ducks. They all quack but none of them resemble eachother!

Happy Birthday Sydney Grandma

Not to forget Merrill in Sydney who shares a birthday with Cam. Hope you had a good day mum and enjoyed the DVD. Love all of us.

Happy Birthday Cam

Angus loves Cam - especially when he's making noises with the big toy. Last night we cooked a bbq and later ate Banoffee Pie to celebrate 35 years of The Cam. We named our son after him hoping for creative genius to flow through his fingertips too (when he's not breaking them on the football field).

Party Tricks

I just love him. Tonight when Michael was putting him to bed he spontaneously waved goodnight to me...something we've been trying to teach him. We cheered and praised him and he couldn't stop waving even long after I was out of sight.

The other cuteness factor is something Cam taught him. On the command "headbutt" he leans his whole head foreward to touch foreheads with you. This is his sign of affection. I just love him.

All Hats Off

Angus is smiling again after 11 days of groaning, fasting, lamenting, snot-bubbling and whinging his way through back-to-back viruses. Don't waste your compassionate love on me though...think of all those bubbas who are under specialist care for real illnesses. All our admiration to people like Simon and Karli who are on a much longer road.

Glad the Buttoneer

We were glad to take a break this arvo and visit the Hyde Park Festival. It was way more elaborate than I pictured with hundreds of small marquees housing vendors of all descriptions. Nestled in-between a stall selling wheat heat packs and festival pinwheels was an old lady selling her superfluous button collection. I took a quick peek at the small display on an upturned cardboard box and knew there was an opportunity for consumer adventure.

In my head I’ve named the vendor Gladys. She was ancient but sharp and not the slightest bit perturbed by the flurry of fairground entertainment shrouding her venture. She squatted on her stool in the middle of a space allocation 20 times too large for her needs.

On display was a collection of old buttons that Glad had sewn to a tatty piece of cardboard or to the back of a used envelope. Each selection of buttons was labelled with an approximate date, history and price. To make each item more marketable, the cardboard backing was decorated with a biro-ruled border. She wore her button-loving heart on her retro sleeve when she confided in me that this wasn’t her whole collection but that she needed to downsize. You can have too many buttons.

As I was perusing her collection it was like she was trying to interview me for suitability as a purchaser. “What type of craft do you do?” I was asked. I gave her a satisfactory answer but she pointed out that “If you are serious about buttons you’ll be interested in these” as she rattled a saucer of mismatching glass specimens. I was giggling on the inside.

It was my time to peg her on the Button Collector scale, “Did you used to work in the Button Trade - it seems you know a lot about buttons?” Apparently not, but she’d learnt a lot along the way.

I couldn’t leave without purchasing now. I’d had a lesson in button design and terminology as well as a head-to-head on my validity as a purchaser.

After I’d chosen a selection of fasteners she took them from me to record the sales in her inventory. Curiously, mine were the first on the list and she’d probably been there for the 2 days of the festival. At the last minute I added 2 crystal buttons that were in a recycled plastic display box and she was very quick to clarify that the box wasn’t included in the sale. After the transaction was complete Gladys was clear that the crystal buttons were actually glass but in the industry they call them ‘crystal’.

I assured her I didn’t need a bag but she ignored me and reached into her supplies to give me a wrinkled Red Rooster plastic variety. “I’m determined to give some bags away” she mumbled as she returned my wares.

As we walked away I commented to Michael that the age of this form of entrepreneurism will be extinct by the time Angus is a man. We’ve got to support it while we still have it.