p.s. (or procrastination. seriously.)

this should be the rest of the sydney story but we'll just see how far we get before we digress.

so we both flew down with Poppalina EARLY tuesday morning. it was only just getting light. ridiculous o'clock in the morning. we now know, having been extremely sternly spoken to by the assistant on site, that in the future we will need to stay overnight. this is nsw policy for working children, on account of the travel time, which actually means it's the client's policy to pay the talent for only one trip. too bad if the agent didn't make you aware of that for the first (and subsequent) trip. and too bad if the client doesn't call the agent and the agent doesn't call the talent (well, the talent's mama) until AFTER boarding for the late sydney-brisbane flight has closed. such are the complications of working interstate. nice of the woman to explain it once we arrived, sharing loudly and confidently, as one is wont to do when one's child has been chosen from en masse to represent a multi-national brand, that we had to be up by 4am to get our flight and yes thanks, despite that, we're feeling fine. oops! now we know. I guess I should explain further by acknowledging that other parents have a problem with this additional travel time because, officially, it should be logged and paid for by the client. to avoid anything ugly starting, we just as brashly elected to record only one trip and add that we stayed overnight at....complicatred. this new stuff. not like the old days when your agent or photographer calls you to arrange a mutually convenient time and you do the shoot and you get given your proof sheet and a 10x8 to take home and add to your book!

so Poppy was still sleeping when we arrived at the studio because she went on the boob and went to sleep in the pram while we had coffee up the street. thy told us no rush, let her sleep, which was perfect. that left us to watch the wiggles and meet the crew, which included a stylist, an assistant, a coffee and tea-maker and a huggies woman who was busily steaming little disney princess pull-ups fitted over slightly blown-up balloons! can you picture it? I wondered too and had to ask! Poppy awoke of her own accord and had a snack and a look around the place. when she was dressed and styled (hair sprayed), it was her turn to climb up under the lights onto the pre-set toilet, holding onto the edges, wearing hot pink and perfectly-steamed-straight-so-princesses-could-be-clearly-seen-pull-ups around her knees and smiling at the camera. she did really well. there were some fun shots, which we will never see again because they belong to huggies. if she's the successful talent we'll see just one of the pics on the packaging of huggies girls pull-ups!

after a four hour call, what could a little family do but visit circular quay for some sunshine and food and FLIES! OMG! THE FLIES! unbelievable.