evivo

Georgia and Byron are always excited around 2 April - it's Simone's birthday! With unusual restraint and quiet for first thing in the morning, they added their special touches to the birthday cards, gifts and surprise breakfast. Then there was the joyous bedroom invasion, with both diving on to the bed with squeals approximating wishes for a happy birthday. At one level it seems unfair to unleash festivities on someone so recently slumbering, especially when there's a camera involved, but there seems no fitting alternative, especially to our two enthusiastic cheerleaders! Georgia takes great delight in giving. She is attentive as cards are opened and read, and relishes the hugs that follows. Byron is always there too, but sometimes he'd like the process sped up a bit. And Simone's appreciation of a book voucher is something ... read more

After weeks of anticipation by Georgia and Bryon, and endless speculation concerning the treats Father Christmas would bring them, Christmas Day and its associated mayhem finally arrived. Byron had made an early morning raid on our bed, but Georgia had gone into the lounge and discovered the brightly covered treasure trove. Georgia and Byron concluded that Santa had been and left a swag of gifts. He also drank the Scotch that we put out for him, so I hope he wasn't in charge of the sled afterwards. Every gift opened seemed to be their favourite, but it was the scooters that G&B took outside to road test in the garden. One of our neighbours also got a scooter, and he joined our crew in their F1 qualifying laps. Joggy arrived and we had our family breakfast. ... read more

The early morning queue of several hundred people showed that ours had not been an original idea to visit the zoo during school holidays. And so before we had the chance to see the world’s diversity of animals, we had a taste of the rich diversity of Australians. Inside, children rushed around excitedly, while parents explained things, answered questions, or like me, made things up to disguise their limited knowledge. The zoo is too big to see everything in one visit, so we chose a route past key animals. The big cats are remarkable for being impressive even when seemingly comatose. Byron gave the lions and tigers his best ferocious cat impersonation, which is eerily like his dragon, dinosaur, and monster impersonations. The big cats, perhaps recognising him as one of their own, seemed quite relaxed. ... read more

A cute little girl just got cuter. Georgia turned four years old on 8 October. Simone had found the perfect gift – a doll’s house. Armed with a previous degree in Ikea, we put it together the night before. Not surprisingly, Georgia made an early appearance in our room, closely followed by Byron. Birthday hugs and the reading of cards followed, something that G continues to take a real interest in, even though she knows somewhere in the apartment is a cache of gifts just waiting to be unwrapped. When Georgia got into the lounge she had to race Byron to get to the doll’s house and the brightly wrapped gifts. Together they tore the paper and examined the gifts. Simone had thoughtfully put some gifts for Byron amongst them, greatly reducing the potential for ... read more

In June, Bali experienced a different sort of Australian invasion – Simone, Georgia and Byron teamed up with Jenn, Jamie, Zoe and Billie, for a pleasant time in Tanah Lot, the non-Kuta beauty of Bali. Sort of an Eat, Pray, Love, except with sensible, likable people. The beach shack turned out to be something on a different scale from the fibro cottage in Dromana. Known in unAustralian terms as a ‘villa’, the place was pretty comfortable. It’s close to the beach, has a pool and is surrounded by rice paddies and village people who don’t sing ‘YMCA’. It is about as far away from the stress of normal life as you can get. Perhaps surprisingly, there’s much to see in Bali, and Jenn and Jamie made a great adventure of sightseeing and experiencing the pleasures of ... read more