2 weeks ago...

2 weeks ago we took Abigail to the Sydney Royal Easter Show. We made a bee-line for the animal nursery which was only open once at 9:30am. Abigail loved petting the baby animals and walking around with other kids in the nursery. The nursey was really the highlight of the day and I contemplated hiding a baby goat under my jacket and making a run for it. We saw the cows, pigs, sheep and bulls. I felt guilty walking through the animal halls and said to James I was considering becoming a vegetarian... I couldn't look a pig in the eye for the rest of the morning.

The showbag hall was so huge, we bought Abigail 2 bags. The Dora the Explorer bag and the Sesame Street bag. As a child my favourite showbag was the "Gag Bag" for $12 jam packed with random junk. Fly in the ice cube, a fake bloody thumb to put into someones drink, woopee cushion, plastic flat vomit that you could try and cast off as your own to get out of school, that kind of stuff. I walked past and laughed when I saw it, remembering how cool I used to think all the showbags were.

We lasted 4.5 hours and that was more than enough. Highlights of the show were the animal nursery, racing pigs, the $3 Giant Slide, and watching Abigail enjoying the whole experience. Lowlights were the cost of the whole day, rough teenage kids at the rides, Robosaurus, parents feeding their TODDLERS chips and coke for lunch and most of the all, the junk factor.

I think we might go every 2nd year, if at all. Might just stick to the children's concerts that tour Australia. Next up is the Wiggles this week then Yo Gabba Gabba in June, then Disney on Ice in July. Yayayayay.

xxx

Weekend Purchases

Picked up these nice things on Saturday...

Can't wait to break in my new Converse at Gymbaroo next week. I love wearing cool shoes to Gymbaroo, I don't know why though. Most mothers wear gym clothes and trainers. Well... Not me! haha

Story Time!

Abigail loves to read. She reads to herself at various times in the day.

But story time before bed is her favourite time of the day. We read 3-5 books every night before bed, but these 3 are her current favourites. She knows them page by page and gets hysterically excited when I say the words "ocean", "rumble" or "penguin" before story time. The anticipation is brilliant, she LOVES these books.

Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz was the 1st book in the series that I bought, and I think still her favourite. The story is short and sweet about life in the jungle. Her favourites are the Gorilla, Zebra and Chimpanzee.

Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz is so much fun to read. I actually look forward to reading this book. I almost sing the words now, I know it off by heart like Abigail. The 1st line is:

"There's a curious commotion at the bottom of the ocean, I think we outta go and take a look".

Abi loves to say "bzzt" on the sting ray's tail, squeak like a dolphin and jiggle like a jellyfish. She loves this book so much, we have to take this book on every overnighter, to Nanna's house or on holidays.

Perky Little Penguins by Tony Mitton and Guy Parker-Rees is a fabulous story about the life of a penguin. Abi loves counting how many penguins per page, and loves seeing little baby penguins wearing floaties on their arms, just like she does in the pool. I do a special voice for the lost baby seal pup, which Abigail likes. I sound like a little scottish boy, it's really quite terrible, haha.

Currently - The April Edition

This wonderful idea is borrowed from Lauren From Texas and I love it. Thanks Lauren!

Current Book (s): Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. This is the 1st novel in the Sookie Stackhouse collection. I watched the TV series first so already have a clue about the characters and story lines, but it's definately a fun read. My next few reads will include Andre Agassi - Open and In Cold Blood by Truman Copote.

Current Playlist: Wow, too many to mention but here we go. Lots of new albums released recently but some oldish tracks here too.

• Gorillaz - Stylo
• LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean
• Goldfrapp - Rocket
• Miike Snow - A Horse is not a Home
• Florence and The Machine - You Got The Love
• Band of Horses - No One's Gonna Love You
• Lady Gaga - Alejandro
• Yeasayer - Ambling Alp
• Lykke Li - Possibility
• Laura Marling - Rambling Man

Current Shame - Inducing Guilty Pleasure: Finishing the leftover Easter eggs... I have 4 left I think, but it's time to throw them out. I also had a Quarter Pounder last night and feel so guilty! But it was to help *cure* my 2 day long migraine. Greasy food always helps. So I tell myself...

Current Color: Black. I always wear lots of black. And grey. That's about it. Boring.

Current Drink: Water from my SIGG bottle. Am trying to cut all softdrink and caffeine from my life, which isn't alot, but I want to bannish it for good. So for the time being, it's water all round. I'm a slave for sparkling water with lemon which I drink on weekends.

Current Food: I recently bought this book Crunch Time Cookbook: Recipes For Rapid Weight Loss and have tried a few recipes. The portions are tiny, which is what I need to drill into my head... PORTION CONTROL. From the book this week, I'm cooking Salmon Patties, Lamb Cutlets with salad and a lean Beef Stir-Fry. Our usual family favourites are being cooked in the next week as well, Beef Tacos and Spag Bol which Abigail loves.

Current Favorite Show: I am a terrible TV addict and love my shows. We have 2 nights a week without TV, but most nights we watch a few episodes of something.
At the moment, I'm loving HBO's Big Love about a fictional fundamentalist Mormon family in Utah that practices polygamy. It's so sad and disturbing at the same time. We are currently watching Season 3.
We have finally started Dexter Season 1 and while James loves it, I find it quite graphic and gory.
United States of Tara Season 2 has just started again in the US and this show is just brilliant. If you aren't watching it, start right now!

Current Wishlist:

• A Kindle so I stop buying hard copy books and save paper. This is what I keep telling my husband, who has reservations with me buying one.
• Blazer from The Gap.
• Jacket from Spyder for this year's ski season. Very cool indeed.

Current Needs: Sleep. I've been struggling with little sleep all month, but the last week has been ridiculous. A facial would be lovely. A remedial massage even better! Also, finding and hiring a real estate agent to find me the perfect home.

image from here

Current Triumphs: FINALLY starting to get the wheels in motion to buy a house. We purchased a block of land 5 months ago and are reconsidering building a new house. Fortunately we can sell the land and hopefully get more than what we paid for it, but in the mean time, we need to find a house. I'm OVER apartment living in the city. So yes, the plans have started, time to get serious! Woo, more open houses on weekends.... BOO!

Current Bane(s) of my Existence: My weight. And my anxiety. Both feel out of control at the moment. *Tear*

Current Celebrity Crush: John Corbett from United States of Tara. Andrew Wyatt from Miike Snow. Alison Goldfrapp of Goldfrapp.

Current Indulgence: Reading online blogs. I've spent WAY too much time this month reading online blogs. Another reason why I will need a kindle AND/OR ipad... Also buying tickets to EVERYTHING! I have tickets to see -

• Tom Green Live (A comedian, and that's a stretch at best. He was big in the 90's).
• The Wiggles next week with Abigail, my gorgeous older sister Jacki and nephew Michael.
• The Silver Rose (Australian Ballet). Date night with James. Norrrrrr
• Yo Gabba Gabba. Hell yeah! We are in the 8th row for this. Cannot wait. I foresee myself dancing for the entire show, I know all the songs, as does Abigail... AND James! YO GABBA GABBA!
• Warren Miller's Dynasty (A ski movie, which my siblings and I see EVERY year. It's tradition as it excited and prepares us for the season ahead).
• Splendour In The Grass. These tickets aren't on sale yet, but I will definaly be in line to buy 2.

Current #1 Blessing: My daughter Abigail. She is blossoming into the most amazing little girl. She is my light, my love. Pictured here on a hike in Thredbo over Easter break.

Current Slang or Saying: Calling Abigail, "missy". It's such a bad habit, she will think her name is Missy soon, so I'm trying to kerb that.

Current Outfit: The usual Autumn attire. Jeans, Converse trainers, ballet flats, Bonds jumper, Bonds tracksuit, scarves, Country Road beanie if weather permits. Almost ready to wear dresses with leggings, big coats, and I'm on the prowl for a black trench coat.

Current Excitement: The possibility of moving to Dallas, Texas, USA for 3-6 months for my husband's work. Would LOVE to have the opportunity to live in The States and experience everything it has to offer. Will know more about this very soon, if the plan goes ahead we could be there as early as June/July! YEE-HAW!

Current Mood: Exhaustion. Confusion. Tired. Anxious. Nervous. Overwhelmed. But loved... which is all that matters.

Current Link: Perez Hilton and DListed for all my tasty gossip treats. I don't buy any magazines anymore, after calculating that I had a $100 a month magazine habit. Husband wasn't too impressed either when I told him. I know the gossip mags/websites are pure trash, but I'm drawn to them. I really need to know how many more plastic surgeries Heidi Montag is going to have... NOT!

Film

Reality Bites is a surprising cult classic, a film that many Gen X's hold dear to the heart. The soundtrack defines the movie and the cast, excluding Winona Ryder, were all relatively unknown back in 1994. I do find Ethan Hawke rather annoying during the whole film.

Watching Lelaina, Troy, Vickie, Sammy and Michael secure jobs, stealing snickers bars from a news stand, falling in love and exploiting petrol cards was nothing I could relate to as a 13 yr old, but I loved it nonetheless.

It's a hopeless romantic comedy and quite pigeonholed but still fun and engaging. I particularly like Troy telling Lelaina that she looks like a doily on her 1st date with yuppy cheeseball Michael.

The trailer is pretty tragic though, take a trip back to 1994...

Music

This is the song that I never skip on my ipod. It's impossible to skip this song. It's infectious and warm. It's lovely and sad at once.

This song reminds me of friends at my old place of work. We had an inhouse music system and I would always queue this song to be played on a slow afternoon or quiet morning. No-one ever got sick of it either. It's just simple and I love love love it.

Music

I'm feeling very musical tonight so here's another all time fav.

I first heard this in the movie "Fear" starring Reese Witherspoon. Then fell in love with the song watching Buffy and Angel dance at 'The Prom' in Season 3 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

While I usually don't like covers more than the original version, this cover is just sublime. The Stones version is amazing, but this is just... devine.

Music

This is definately in my top 100 all time favourite songs. I can listen to it whenever, wherever. I wasn't the biggest Guns N' Roses fan, not like my husband who LOVED them like every other teenage boy in the 90's.

The filmclip is fab too. Tight leather pants. Dust. Slash. A church. A wedding. The most important things to Axl Rose at the time.

Solo mission to GAGA

Image - MTV Brazil

Wednesday April 7th 2010
Sydney Entertainment Centre
Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour Live in Concert

I hesitated for so long to buy tickets to Lady Gaga's Monster Ball tour of Australia. I waited so long, that I actually missed out on tickets.

Friends went to her other Sydney shows and raved about her crazy antics, brilliant costumes and surprisingly great live vocals.

I have been a fan of Gaga since Day 1 of her career and don't take her songs too seriously.

Since all of her shows had sold out and after rave reviews, I decided to hop onto ebay and see what the going rate was for tickets. I can't believe people make a LIVING from scalping tickets. Before moving to Singapore when I worked for inthemix, we wrote an article in 2006 for our annual magazine about the life of a full time scalper. We were astonished to hear of his profits and little secrets he did to buy the best tickets.

I refused to pay the inflated prices for terrible seats and left it at that. Well no, I whined all the way home from our Easter holiday saying how upset I was that I missed out on tickets. I called Ticketmaster at 5pm on the day of the concert and asked if they had any tickets. Well low and behold, they had just released some single seats in the side view section for $89. $89!! In Row A as well. Even better... The scalpers wanted $200 for REAR VIEW seats! Since it was so last minute, I decided to go on my own. And I don't regret it. James and Abigail dropped me off at the concert, I felt like a teenager all over again.

She was brilliant. Not the best vocals in the world, but still great live. Her costumes were amazing. Her dancers were average. Her stage set-up was extravagant and crude. She simulated masturbation to the crowd during at least 2 songs and talked about homosexuality, sex, politics and money. I cringed for the parents who had brought their 8 yr old daughters to the show. I'm sure those girls asked lots of questions on the car ride home!

From the crowd's reaction, I predict most fans were new as they didn't seem to know music from her 1st album. Bad Romance, Telephone, Poker Face, Speechless, Just Dance and Love Game were the favourites.

Would I see her again? Possibly. Another stellar album with original pop music would seal the deal. Has Gaga sold out? Yes, a little. I want to see more of her walking around in London, carrying a purple tea cup.

13 days ago...

We left on our Easter break 13 days ago... Where have the last 2 weeks gone??

The McKinnon trio packed up the car and headed south to our holiday house in Thredbo in the Snowy Mountains.

The usual 5.5 hr drive took 8 hours, with 2 stops on the road for meals, a detour in Canberra due to roadworks and then a 1 hr grocery shop in Jindabyne. 8 hours, it took us 8 long hours to get there. By the time we arrived, we felt like zombies! Abigail was especially brilliant on the car trip and slept most of the way.

Our family holiday house in Thredbo is located up on the mountain, and in the winter, we ski down to the lifts which is probably the best thing in the entire world! Anyone who has ever walked more than 10 metres in ski boots will understand how amazing ski-in / ski-out accommodation is.

We settled in and unpacked our bags for our 5 night getaway. Abi loved sitting in front of the fire and watching the flames twist and turn. We spent the next 6 days shopping and eating in the village, walking around the streets of Thredbo, taking Abigail to the playground and the Leisure Centre where she and James rode the waterslide.

On Easter Sunday after the overhyped easter egg hunt in the park, we decided to take Abigail up the chairlift to the top of the mountain. As soon as we sat on the chairlift, I felt sick. Vomit worthy sick. Abi was just sitting on James's lap with a unsafe looking bar holding her in. James assured me he was holding her so tightly that breathing would have been a struggle for her, but I still felt sick. She sat very still and watched the mountain bike riders zooming down the hill. She was very calm and enjoyed the 10 minute ride to the highest skiable point in Australia. I can't imagine how scary it is when you have 3 young kids on the lift with you, swinging their skis and swaying the chair. Mum told me she used to scream at us to sit still on the chairlifts when my siblings and I took our annual ski vacation. Poor Mum!

The days were lovely with sunshine but a cool breeze. The nights were very chilly, Easter Sunday the temp dropped down to 1.5'c and it was very fresh indeed! We bought Abi some gorgeous Croc winter boots with a fleece trim. I couldn't resist, as they were 60% in the shop.

We hired a hiking pack and took Abigail on a 2.5km walk around the Golf Couse and river which she loved. Poor James with the pack on his back, was left quite breathless at times as the altitude in the village is 1365m (4478ft!) above sea level.

We are considering going down for opening weekend which is the 2nd weekend of June, but are not 100% sure yet. It is a long way to drive for a 3 day weekend. We have our eye on a pair of baby skiis for Abigail and James is keen to have her on the slopes this winter. Mind you, slopes = flat area and you never know how long a 2 yr old will last on the snow wearing 5kgs of ski clothes.

Pulling into Sydney was uneventful, no Easter traffic and it was good to be home.

Last Easter we were in Hong Kong, enjoying the sights and tastes of modern Asia. This year, we enjoyed the local feel of a very dear place to our family and can't wait for our next alpine adventure.

Ikea goodies

Ikea. Some love it, some hate it. A visit to the Swedish homewares giant is always exhausting. In NSW, there is only 1 Ikea store which is at Rhodes Shopping Centre in the Northern Suburbs. I actually don't mind driving to the shopping centre, because it is next door to James's work building and I know my way around the area pretty well.

I could have bought ALOT more than I did, but James was diligent and insisted we just buy what we need.

Here are some of the goodies we picked up this week.

New purchases for Abigail

It's that time of year. Change of seasons. New clothes. New shoes. Pack away the light, small summer clothes and refill the wardrobe with winter ones.

Here are some of this week's purchases for Abigail. James picked up a few things from the Gap in Singapore too.

1. Betts Black Patent Leather Mary Janes

2. Betts Kids Winter Boot in silver and pink

3. Country Road Smock in floral print

4. Country Road Corduroy Pinafore (I bought the red colour though, not cream)

5. Country Road Grey Marle Hoodie. Matching pants not pictured.

6. Gap White Butterflies Tee

7. Gap Pink 'Little Rider' Tee

8. Gap Pink Logo Hoodie

9. Gap Navy Soft Denim Pants

The art of music

Music is a passion of mine. An obsession some would say.

I love all genres of music. My parents love music too and this obviously influenced the beginnings of my musical sentiment. By age 7, I was the proud owner of a "My 1st Sony" red walkman, which I treasured until it died. I remember my Dad driving me to Saturday sport, and we would sing along to Split Ends, The Skyhooks, Men at Work, Jefferson Starship and more. My mother loved The B52's, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and ACDC, her secret passion. We would beg Mum to put on the Thriller LP on the record player and dance around the living room. 'Beat It' was a much loved favourite, so much that the song now permanently skips on the warped vinyl.

I've owned many walkmans, discmans, I have 4 ipods and an iphone. I have thousands of CD's and even more digital downloads on my trusty PC. I love live music. I try and see as much live music as I can. I've been to many festivals, most in Australia, some international.

I worked in the dance music industry for 3 years before moving to Singapore with James and becoming a full time lady of leisure. I miss work often, the buzz of it all. Doing what I love, all day. Although I don't listen to dance music all that much anymore, I still love it. And certain tracks still trigger off fond memories of parties and massive nights out whilst clubbing with my friends.

Recently a friend looked at my ipod and was overwhelmed by all the music I have. She asked me what my all time favourite song was. An impossible question to answer. Top 10 favourite songs? Still impossible to answer.

Here is one of my top 10 favourite songs of all time. Depeche Mode's 1990 hit 'Enjoy The Silence'. I have attached the piano version of the song because it's just beautiful. Have a listen, tell me what you think.

Lykke Li - Possibility

This song is just haunting. I love everything about it. The song was featured in the film, The Twilight Saga: New Moon and since then, become a massive hit in the indie scene.

I hope she tours Australia soon.

xxx