If you were a 'Masters of the Universe' character?

Buster made me clean out my side of the wardrobe last night. Yes, he made me. He stood in the doorway and wouldn't let me out until it was tidy and sorted. Apparently he was sick of my side looking like a clothes bomb had gone off while his side was tidy and ordered in, I might add, a distinctly pathological manner.

It was actually quite traumatic. I had to make decisions and, as you know, I am a confirmed decision-phobe.

I had to sort out everything in the cupboard into only three piles - the hang in the wardrobe pile, the charity pile and the too big/too small pile (which I managed to compromise to a store in the spare room in case I shrink or blimp). It was awful but surprisingly cathartic.

I probably gave about a fifth to charity, two-fifths to the too big/too small pile and retained the remaining two-fifths in the cupboard. I also gave three handbags and three pairs of shoes to charity.

So now my cupboard looks a bit bare but at least I can wear everything. Apparently if I was a 'Masters of the Universe" character my name would be 'Hoardac the Horder'. No big surprises there then.

Squirmy speaks!

So Squirmy is now 13 months old and has finally decided to attempt to communicate with us using our native language (although he still relies on squealing to get his own way most of the time). His first word was 'ta'. For months we've been saying 'ta' every time we gave him something or took something off him, and on Thursday, he finally said 'ta'.

Buster was bit disappointed to miss the first word, so when Squirmy was in the bath, Buster starting giving him a toy, then taking it off him and saying 'ta'. Squirmy politely said 'ta' a few times until Buster put the toy down and went to lift him out of the bath. Squirmy, realising that he wasn't getting the toy back, sat there with his hand out saying 'ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta'.

Obviously, while I think 'ta' means thank you, Squirmy has figured out that it really means 'gimme, gimme, gimme'. Bless him.

Now we've moved on from 'ta' and are working on 'no'. On Saturday he was on the other side of the dining table and was playing with the power pack for the laptop and talking to himself 'no, no, no, no'. Now I know when he's doing something naughty because I can hear him saying 'no, no, no, no' to himself. Funny little guy.

Visiting Brisbane?

Planning a visit to Brisbane, well, do I have a itinerary for you!

Day One: A wild bird will sit on your head.


Day Two: Visit the local Japanese Garden*.


Day Three: Take a photo of some sheep.


Day Four: Hug a koala and then feed some wallabies**.



One of our friends from Japan recently came out for a short holiday to visit us so we've been doing the tourist thang lately. It was actually kind of fun to look at our home town through the eyes of a tourist - a Japanese tourist at that.

Miki was a friend of the guy who ran the coffee van, Daisuke (pronounced Dice-kay if you are interested). Daisuke introduced Buster to Miki and then Buster introduced me to Miki which is the way things are done in Japan. Anyway, Miki finally got a week off (she's a librarian) and came to visit us and meet Squirmy.

It was so much fun to catch up and show her around. She couldn't believe how multi-cultural Australia is. In Japan, most people are Japanese or white foreigners, so she was really surprised at how many different skin colours there are here. Nor could she believe how much we ate. Everytime we went out for breakfast or lunch, she could only eat about half of what was on her plate. She arrived as skinny Japanese Miki and went home as fat Australian Miki.

*Yes, I know she's Japanese.
**Not the rugby playing variety.