big day out

had been meaning to visit aunty lorna for some time. got a call from vanessa to let us know that her grandma died. arranged the visit. Poppy was not well and during the drive to Brisvegas, she turned a whiter shade of pasty pale and dribbled milky drool, however; did not begin shivering or convulsing or crying so Nanny kept an eye on her, Ayla looked out the window (so she wouldn't be sick because Poppy was sick) and I kept my foot to the floor, not wishing to pull out into the traffic (I don't mind the pulling over bit, there are emergency stop spaces everywhere; it's getting out of one and back into the flow of traffic that worries me). Poppy fell asleep and we arrived to find Lorna not only up and about, but out to greet us and offering to make the tea. she had fallen four times since the wee small hours of the morning and was due to be picked up at three for hospital admittance. so we enjoyed a short visit; had an early lunch and cups of tea made by Nanny, once we'd convinced Lorna to sit down and take it easy. she spoke a lot about what Maddy is doing (and what she would like Maddy to be doing) with her drama and senior schooling. mum had heard it all last time, apparently. but she has always talked to Sam and I too, about Mary and Maddy. I think she thinks we are naturally more interested in someone who is pursuing a life of creativity and theatre and very little else comes to mind. took some special photos before we left and for some reason, decided to spend some time at the shopping centre after all. for some other reason (or the same, emotionally drained reason), we didn't even get close to saba and witchery and dj's! horror! in fact, we went in the opposite direction and stumbled into the untidiest pumpkin patch store in the world.

now, having spent considerable time in the elegant world of wintergarden retail and laying claim to some sort of (recessive it seems) neat gene, I have always had extremely high expectations when it comes to stores and their stock and design and displays (we were faxed fortnightly, the design for our window displays and the clockwise-around-the-store coordinating colours and pieces). the state of the table inside the front door (2 for $25 tops) was deplorable and I couldn't even lift the sleeve of one top to find another underneath. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I moved directly to a rack of new season coordinating oufits, hoping for immediate relief. but no! I don't believe it! not in size order from left to right on the rack! inexcusable. I looked around for the girls, who must surely be run off their feet in their efforts to help big-spending, lactating, baby-brained mamas (or their suffering partners), with not a second to spare for tidying and folding...hmmm...one girl at the counter, serving someone. okay. a dozen other baby bellies milling around the store. one or two older, tired mamas with their energetic and enthusiastic shopaholic DDs (have I mentioned I don't ever want to be an older, tired mama? I'm okay with Poppy being energetic and enthusiastic. and a shopaholic. as long as she can keep up with me) and one girl taking something out to storage. or to the trash. or to make a cuppa. or to pee. who knows? but my point is this: WE'RE IN THERE TO SPEND MONEY, SWEETHEARTS!

anyway, cut a long story short- we ended up spending ours in the kids' department in myer. Poppy had her second wind upon catching sight of a 3' tall pony, with moving head and neck so you could actually snuggle into it and give it kisses and pretend that it was real. Poppy loved it (almost as much as her mama did). and then she found the boxes of fisher price musical tea sets and there was no stopping her. we had to press every tea pot! and mama had to sing the song every time! and she giggled every time! and I noticed a lot of security dudes in the vicinity so I decided it was a sign from above. you know, from the closed-circuit security room on the floor above, to leave. so we did. once we'd relocated Nanny and Ayla that is, which took some time.

had to stop for coffee (because again, the incompetence of young, inefficient self-proclaimed 'baristas' forced me to abort the original mission, whilst still inside the shopping centre. what they had actually studied and perfected in order to obtain the title of Barista is beyond me. the two of them had difficulty ascertaining which sandwiches were toasted and which were not, for the family in front of me. I wasn't about to entrust latte-making upon them). so, of course I felt compelled to stop at milko, in carseldine, which is like a mini, old fashioned milk bar. they make the best round mince jaffles and the prettiest and neatest little classic cupcakes in town. sadly for my dad, they do not serve their milkshakes in those tall, anodised cups (we used to travel with a set of four small anodised cups, encased in a black leather cup-tote-type-thing in the glovebox of the car. I always wanted to drink green cordial from the green cup). according to my dad, while it lacks anything of the anodised variety, this milko establishment is in fact, nothing at all like a real milk bar.

happily for me, gloria jeans has recently opened up next to milko. this is the perfect set up for Sam and I. good coffee and cupcakes. can't go wrong. I walked in and did a double take, "oh, thank god gloria jeans is here!" the girls (well groomed and smiling, surely indicating excellent coffee-making skills) laughed. and made my excellent coffee in 2 minutes flat.

random: for other coffee references, get onto Amarandi Barrett's Greece4Kids site (her dad, Matt, has the 5000 pages on travelling and living in greece). Amarandi's stuff is hilarious. just read it. it'll make your day. http://greece4kids.com/

our big day out didn't end there! well, of course not; we had to get home. rather than just drop Nanny and Ayla off at the house, I decided to take Poppy up for a moment, to relax before initiating the whole evening routine at home (which is exhausting for mama as much as for Poppy)......and then took them back to our house after Nanny couldn't get into the house. lucky we'd stayed for a moment! she had a key, which didn't fit the locks in the front door. well, it actually fit the wrong lock and it stayed there, stuck! that was my fault. rather than sit in the cold and the imminent dark on the deck, Nanny and Ayla spent some cranky Poppy time at home with us, until Bugsy could pick them up. Poppy slept through, after her big day out and cranky end to it, for the first time in a couple of weeks, until after 7am. I missed her in the big bed but I slept more soundly than I have done for a while.

this morning I was too worried to just leave her to have a lie in; I had to check that she was still breathing (just like in the first weeks of leaving her on her own in the cot, after the first 3 months next to me in bed or in the sweet little cradle. a little paranoid). she was sitting up, in her sleep suit (mamas and papas sleep bag, we say 'sleep suit') and happily drinking water from her sipper bottle. when she saw me, she scrambled up to give me kisses- adorable! we will have to re-name her audrey II, on account of all these gorgeous little kisses. everyone and everything gets kisses at the moment. remember the myer pony? even the pirate-head magnet on aunty ana's fridge got kisses the other night!

on other mornings, upon waking up on her own, Poppy has talked away to her baby or to the toys on the shelves at the end of the room. we hear her babbling away and chuckling to herself. I love hearing that. the first time we heard it and looked at each other (that lovely, shared moment look), it wasn't even Poppy's babbling! it was William's, when J and V stayed with us at nyes crescent one weekend. we heard William awake in the next room, from about six o'clock and over breakfast, they apologised and lamented the fact that none of us had been able to sleep in, while we both thought it was a delight to hear him so happy first thing in the morning!

we will get down to see them in dayboro on saturday- Bastille Day.