Calendar: Mathilda's Market

Trot on along to the gorgeous Mathilda's Market this Sunday 15th November at Manuka Oval. You'll find lots of divine treasures by local and very clever people, who will have their talent for creating and importing beautiful kids items on full display.

If you want a tempter of the utter gorgeousness available, just check it out by clicking on the birdies...

Manuka Oval (Bradman Room), Manuka Circle, Griffith

10am to 2pm

Plenty of free parking available

Free entry

California Adventure: The Streets of San Francisco - Day Three

Day Three of our California Adventure in San Francisco was very quiet. Lots and lots of rain. We had a much-needed sleep in, hung out on Union Street, shopped and took long reprieves in Starbucks.

That evening, we dined at - where else? - a diner. Johnny Rockets was super kitsch but so much fun. Such lovely staff, classic takeaway food and that authentic 50s diner feel, even down to the kids' paper hats.

Beijing Memories - 25 August 2006

...megastars take the town.

We Shall Remember Them

image: www.dovebrushes.com

Lest We Forget

Remembrance Day 2009

Beijing Memories - 19 August 2006

...sandcastles for six-year-olds.

The Confident Woman's Pelvic Floor

There's been many a time I've posted on the state of my nether regions. Yes, we are the sisterhood. We can share. Most notably was the time I leapt with glee on the kids' new trampoline to the overwhelming sensation that someone had hooked my uterus with some fishing line and was hauling it out of its hidey-hole.

The old pelvic floor, she ain't what she used to be.

I also talked, in that same post, about my wonderful friend, Mary O'Dwyer, who is one of Australia's foremost pelvic floor experts. Mary is coming to Canberra to hold an exclusive workshop on pelvic floor control.

Mary, an experienced physiotherapist and champion of women's health, is an engaging and inspiring speaker, and she'll only be holding one of these workshops here in the capital, so if you're interested in upping the ante - down under - make a booking by contacting Sharon on 02-6293 1955 or emailing here now. It will be well worth your while.

Saturday 28 Nov 2009
9am - 3.30pm
Southside Physiotherapy, Tuggeranong

$150 for the entire day is great value, and includes a copy of My Pelvic Flaw (Mary's book), morning tea, lunch and a workbook. Proudly brought to you by Redsok Seminars.

I'll see you there!

ArtSound FM Radiothon 2009

Sensational local radio station, ArtSound FM are having their annual Radiothon between 6 and 15 November... a listen-fest of fabulous music, fascinating talk and special guests - ALL LIVE!

The Radiothon hopes to raise $30,000 to help support the ongoing running of the station and secure its voice in the digital future.

Tune in now to 92.7 or 90.3 on your FM dial to keep up with the station's rapidly increasing tally, and please consider taking out membership ($44 for singles, $66 for families) or making a donation to support the local talent offering us such weekly temptations as SoundSpace, Arts Cafe, Global Village, Writer's Radio and, of course - ArtyFACTs and TASTE.

Call 6295 8444 or 6295 7444 to donate now! and keep the arts scene alive and transmitting.

See www.artsound.com.au for more.

My Heart for a Rug

I have a thing with rugs.

I don't like them.

Well, that's not exactly true. I adore them. It's just that I can never find any I like. Sure, classic Persian are beautiful and there's not much more luscious than a flokati. But for the most part, show me a typical patterned rug and I'll show you gag reflex in motion. For goodness sake. Who the hell is in charge? Even toilet paper embossers come up with more attractive patterning than ninety-nine percent of rug makers.

Until now.

Thank you, Catherine Martin. I want to wrap my limbs in every single one of these, and/or roll around on them with a platter full of cream puffs.

Complete and utter decadent magnificence.

I just hope I can own one, one day. Goal no. 1086.

California Adventure: The Streets of San Francisco - Day Two

Day Two in San Francisco was as dreamy as day one, only we had managed to shrug off a little more of the jetlag by then. Alas, it pretty much poured most of the day.

We took the fab bus system down to Presidio park to the sensational Exploratorium, right next to the Palance of Fine Arts.

Like, wow. Not much is going to compare to this in any one lifetime. Exploratorium veterans (Canberra has a wonderful site - Questacon), the kids nonetheless absolutely loved it.

They particularly loved the massive bubble-making capabilities and the music centre, where Riley played the drums to the exclusion of everyone else on the planet. Heaven for little boys.

After many hours, we struggled to drag the kids away. When we did, it was into torrential rain. So, we did what any self-respecting travellers who've been holed up in Beijing do, we went shopping along Beach Street near Fisherman's Wharf and found such knicknacks as San Francisco snow domes and trolley cars.

For dinner, we spent a decent whack of time at the fabulously kitsch Rainforest Cafe, which really is an institution unto itself. You enter at street level into a massive shop the envy of Walt, and then descend into an underground fantasyland via an elevator.

A cavernous area completely fitted out like the inner workings of a jungle greeted us, packed with tables and even a real life aquarium built into the rocks. Everywhere you look, animatronic animals peep at you from jungle leaves, including massive elephants, wildcats and monkeys.

Every now and then, a 'volcano' erupts and the animals start screeching and howling. It really is a sight.

But not as much as a sight as the meals. You could feed four on one plate. They are enormous. We paid around US$70 for dinner, including desserts and fantasy drinks like spurting volcanoes but only managed to finish less than half of it. Take note, new travellers to the States - you only need to order half the amount whenever you dine out.

And remember the tip - 20 per cent is good. Crushing, but good. If you're like us, you'll probably find yourself frequenting the supermarket, anyway.

Handmade Market - Christmas is coming!!

Have you heard about Canberra's Handmade Upmarket? Oh how luscious this market is.

It's like one of those markets where you have to travel to another place (and almost other time). Everything is beautiful. Everything sold is beautiful. Everything sounds, smells and feels beautiful. The atmosphere is wonderful. The sellers are gorgeous and this is probably because they are sharing their unique and special wares that a lot of blood sweat and tears has been upended and poured into with an enormous amount of talent.

This will be my third Handmade market (sometime seller, every time visitor) and I just CAN NOT WAIT.

I feel enormously privileged, considering the callibre of the sellers onsite, to be a stall holder at this festive market (thanks to the gorgeous Julie Nichols) - and I'm busily working on how to make my stall even partway as beautiful as other stallholders manage.

I'll be selling and signing my books, and Canberrans will be the first anywhere in the world to get hold of my new children's book - Riley and the Dancing Lion - so hot off the press, the books will still be warm.

Here are some pics from the incredible Spring in Bloom market held at a superb new venue - the old woolsheds at Yarralumla. An historic and stunning site, you could still smell the lanolin, and the spikes of high heeled shoes disappeared between the cracks where shearers would have once thrown their wooly mammoths, prepping for a shave. What an incredibly beautiful and very Australian site to hold such an illustrious event.

The enormous shed looked absolutely stunning, studded with strings of lights and meandering with music and the natter of overwhelmed stallholders.

I just can't wait.

Handmade Christmas Market

Friday 20 November - 5pm - 9pm
(boutique twilight market)

Saturday 21 November - 10am to 4pm

Yarralumla Woolshed
Canberra

(more information)

See you there!