Saturday, January 31, 2009

MND

Dear Stef,

I just found this you tube but I suggest you don't watch it. To everybody else that is reading have a look. Stef''s Grandfather and my Dad passed away from this disease in April 2008. It is without a doubt the cruelest disease there is MND

Wendy do NOT watch this.

Heads and Shoulders



Love Mum

Friday, January 30, 2009

Stranger Danger

Dear Stef,

Firstly I cannot believe you are in Rome, secondly I cannot believe between you and Tully you had to pay 230 pounds in excess luggage - though I believe if you had done a small amount of research this would have been obvious.

Charlotte has developed an acute sense of stranger danger. It started last week when on a visit to the library some man had the great misfortune of asking C how old she was. I was made to report him to the manager of the library, I was forced to do this 'just in case'. All I could think of was I am sure this poor man is probably perfectly innocent but what if....... so I reported him.

Then C was asked a question by one of our neighbors, she has now written out a sign with this lady's license plate and her description, with the words 'BEWARE this lady may be a spy'. Now I have to make sure that she doesn't put it up anywhere.

Leaving you with a photo of Natalie.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Vegetables

Dear Stef,

Who'd have thought it possible but we now have have cauliflower, broccoli, beans and carrots along with the lemons, mandarins, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil and chives growing in our tiny garden. Last week I cooked the most beautiful tomato and basil sauce to go over pasta - just call me Nigella (without the hefty bust).
















I had at least 10 bowls of tomato's and now have a freezer full of sauce. Lucky you aren't here as it would be gone in a week.

Tully has informed me that the photographer taking the photo of you in a post below was actually a fashion photographer from a magazine and he liked your 'style'. The obvious answer to that is WHAT STYLE but I shall refrain from saying that. He clearly likes gangly, alien creatures.

I can't believe you are going to Rome. I told Stacey and she can't believe it either. We may have to come and visit you though I suspect Stacey and I will get as far as the British Museum and won't emerge for some time.

Love Mum xxxx

Monday, January 26, 2009

Hangover

Dear Stef,

Oh good heavens I have a hangover. Seriously at my age. It should be that as you get older you don't get a hangover. It just seems wrong that one should have to suffer after a good night out.

Charlotte and I had a brilliant Inaguration Day, apart from the fact that it was incredibly hot, everybody commented on our 'Obama is my Homeboy' tee's, C thought it highly amusing to be so prominent and couldn't believe the amount of people that stopped us to talk to us and ask us where we got our tee-shirts from.

Your new haircut looks interesting/amusing, sort of rock chic meets famous bikie girl meets an emo girl. As you said it will grow out eventually.

Love Mum xxxxx

Friday, January 23, 2009

Photo's of a Stranger

Dear Stef,

Why is this man taking your photo?


















Possibly he thinks you are some strange, gangly, alien creature - actually possible you are.

Love Mum xxxx

PS Sorry for stealing your photo Tully. Credit for this photo goes to my other daughter Miss Tully Smythe without whom life would not be so filled with coke, good websites and more locked out other daughter's.

Another Adventure

Dear Stef,

This was another trip (over a year ago now) another beach, another exotic location.


















This trip we decided to walk to the other end of the beach, it took 2 hours to get there!! It took so long and went so far away from the hotel we started coming across locals living on the edge of the beach.
















We finally got to the other end of the beach.
















We walked across to the other side of the rocks to find this....

















The water was SO warm, you could dive straight in. It was just so wild and remote it was like being the only people left in the world (except for the nice local).

We went to a local fish place and had some of the best fish I have ever had, so simple but so delicious. I had a very hard time trying to tell the lady that the fish I had chosen (out of a massive bucket) that I wanted it served without the head, she could not speak a word of English and it took quite some wild hand movements to get my request understood.

This was another location. Breakfast I thought this was a slice of cheese on toast (no point asking for anything in particular as nobody could understand you, I gave up after asking for 1 egg cooked for three minutes and was given three eggs cooked for 1 minute), anyway I thought this was a slice of cheese it was actually a slice of butter!!!



















We had the same breakfast every morning but I don't think we ever paid the same price twice.

Love Mum xxxx

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Only You

Dear Stef

Only you would go to a random nightclub.

Only you would be at that nightclub for an hour before you looked around you and noticed other people.

Only you would have picked a nightclub where white people weren't particularly welcome and you were getting dirty looks.

Only you would then manage to make friends with one of the other clubbers.

Only you would pick a person to make friends with that would then promptly order two bottles of Moet.

Love Mum xxxxx

Old Friends


















































They have to get married, they have no choice.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Tango

Dear Stef,

Went down to Berry this weekend. Weather was just spectacular (we did think of you freezing away as we sat in the dappled sun).

On Saturday night (after a glass of wine or two) Peter put on some music and the kids danced until they dropped though I'm not sure much dancing happened between William and Charlotte. He has met his match in Charlotte.
















































Sunday, January 18, 2009

Change

Dear Stef,

Change is good. Thank God for change, thank God we CAN change.

Thank you for our t-shirts, we LOVE them. We have decided to wear them next Wednesday on Inauguration Day.























Rani said to say Thank You for the box, she loved it and refuses to let Harley play in it. It is HER box. It is very funny but so many people here think Homeboy is a derogatory word. Please tell me it isn't and you aren't setting C and I up to be very embarrassed - well more so than usual. Please. (If anyone else reading this and lives in America please tell me Homeboy is an ok word). Actually that just remindd me of the time you went to babysit the pastor's children and you came down the stairs wearing a Jesus is my Home boy tee-shirt. The worst thing is you were cross that I made you get changed.
















Also this is a very interesting moth. I thought it had been plagued with some dreadful mould and was going to (with the help of Rani) capture it and take it to the CSIRO but then I found another two with the same markings.























Also (again) I got our electricity bill, the first without you being here. Stephanie it is less than HALF what it was, it went from $444 to $190!!!!!!!

Hope you are staying warm and well fed.

Love Mum.

PS Is that Dylan boy english or Australian?

Friday, January 16, 2009

Frienship

Dear Stef,

This is worth watching. I cried but still worth it. No violence, nobody dies, no swear words.



Love Mum

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Lebanese Fruit Bongs

Dear Stef,

I have to say I am amazed by this photo.

I would have thought that you had learnt by now.

Learnt that you will not win this.

















The delight you experienced when I bit so quickly, thinking the worse.

Do you not remember the time we went to Woolies very late one night and you thought it hilarious to slip a packet of condoms into my basket just before the checkout and the subsequent horror you experienced when on finding them in my basket I pulled them out and said in a very loud voice, excellent thank you for putting these in I had just ran out and need more, no hang on a second I need the extra large size.

And the embaressment you had infront of Nash when you thought you would embarress me into giving you money by suggesting that you would go and sell your body for money if I didn't give you any, my kind suggestion to make sure you used protection was met with a very amused, 'Mum I don't have any money I can't afford to buy protection' (nice help there Nash) so I offered to go up and give you some of mine.

Ah the deep red you blushed.

You will not win this war Stephanie, I don't embaress as easily as you.

Stay tuned,

Love Mum xxxxx

Monday, January 12, 2009

The Vagabond Son

Dear Stef,

Well this is how he was introduced to me by his mother and considering he looked slightly vagabondish and was driving around in this ute I thought it apt.
















I ended up having the most wonderful conversation covering so many topics my head was spinning, he was the sort of person you could stay up all night with talking about every subject imaginable. For a vagabond he was a very knowledgeable and interesting person. He travels around Australia in this ute going from pub to pub in the outback doing a comedy routine.

The ute is powered by used peanut oil that he gets from fish and chip shops that he encounters on his journey's. Well into our conversation I asked how old he was (thinking that he would be around 26 or 27) I nearly fell off my chair when he said 38 and then nearly fell off again when his mother piped in and said he has no mortgage and no children of course he looks that young.

He then (at the request of his mother - what a women) proceded to make balloons for all the kids, within seconds he had sussed out their personalities and C was soon in possession of a balloon sword.

His mother (really she is the mother of the year - much better than me) said he had recently been refered to as a most unlikeable character which was very, very funny as you can just imagine what sort of person would not see past the beard and the lifestyle as see him as that.

I am now just barely speaking to you after THAT photo on facebook - lebanese or not you will pay for that.

Plan to be back by September big event coming up.

Love Your Mother

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Sea Kittens and a Visitor

Dear Stef,

The world has gone mad(der) the people that protect the fish in the sea have tried to change their names from fish to sea kittens, figuring that if they were called sea kittens people were less likely to eat something that had a name that cute. This is a true story

I had a visitor. Bad Jane, Naughty Jane. Still naughty but not quite so bad!
















I am very glad the English let you into the country, surprised but glad!

I have finished the Twilight series, was over it so sped read the last book, will go back and read it again when I have more time.

That's all, good luck with the job hunting - I think you should take the job in New York - just my two cents (and that has nothing to do with the fact that I have enough frequent flyer points to get to New York not to mention a 'friend' going there on a job next year)!!!

Love Mum xxxxx

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Summer Days

Dear Stef,

Hope your not too cold. Yesterday was a scorcher, Suey came over for dinner and we made hamburgers on the BBQ and ate them outside. I have yet to start sanding back Grandad's wooden table - might save that till you get back :-)

Thank's to you I spent hours yesterday going through all my travel photo's. I love this one, it is truly the most beautiful pool and surroundings I have ever been to and the water was so warm you could just dive straight in *bliss*
















The thing I remember most about this place was lying on the lounge in my bikini reading my book (and surreptitiously watching all the VERY interesting people walk by) when a little Asian girl (about 3 or 4) and her mother walked past, the little girl looked at me, pointed and burst into squeals of laughter, her mother looked very embarrassed and hurried her along. I was left there to wonder what the heck was so incredibly funny. Even a visit to the bathroom to check out if I had something funny on me proved fruitless.
















This was also the place where a man lying on the lounge near me was called His Highness, all the staff walking by would stop and bow and say Good Morning Your Highness. Any inquiries as to who he was were met with 'we have no one special staying here at the moment' which made my companion once again doubt my story.























If you bump in to the Queen or High do send my regards,

Love Mum xxxxx

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Dearest Stef,

Please could you tell me where the remote control is to the air-conditioner in your bed room. I have searched everywhere and cannot find it. I lay on your bed and put my hand out in each direction (imagining you lying in bed with a shocking hangover knowing you would not move far to get it) but still no luck.

The photo's of the beach in Mexico are just beautiful. Although this isn't Mexico this is my favourite beach, the water was so warm, beach white and sandy, never a cloud in the sky and the nicest people.
















Another beach but the best sunset ever best cocktails too :-)























Hope your next plane trip involves no adventures.

Love Mum xxxx

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Pure Unadulterated Joy

Pure Unadulterated Joy



Saturday, January 3, 2009

Rainy Day's

Dear Stef,

It was a cold rainy day here in Port thus we were forced to stay indoors and read and watch tv all morning, Wendy and Charlotte were in heaven.

There was much talk this afternoon of many activities when Guy and Julie came over with Zac and Jenna but none came to fruition as we were all being too lazy and the afternoon has been whiled away. Cooper and I are currently lying on the daybed playing with Iggle Piggle (whoever that may be).

Hopefully we will get to the beach tomorrow so I can finally get Charlotte surfing the waves.

Love Mum xxxx

Friday, January 2, 2009

Holes and more

Dear Stef,

I am very glad you had such a good New Years Eve, I am relieved you have now stopped vomiting. Poor Jess there is nothing worse than not quite making the toilet let alone actually vomiting on the front steps of a posh hotel (or a house in Lane Cove).

Trust you two to pick friends that don't pay their gas bills and then go away and leave you in a flat in the middle of Winter in New York with no heating. As you said it's free!! Stay warm really does take on new meaning.

Beach again today. Charlotte dug a hole to the middle of the earth.


















She actually managed to reach water. You would have thought she had found gold she was so excited. She even made me take a photo - where ever did she get that from!


















Caught up with Julie and Cedar this afternoon, their house is beautiful and backs onto the bush. Cedar at 8 months is just the cutest and most sociable little boy. You will have to come up here when you get back (so you can defrost).
















Julie is loving being a Mum but still doing too much - some things never change!! It's hard to believe it's been two years since I sold the school - how life can change in two short years :-)























Had very loud dinner last night lots of people!! The kids all had an absolute ball, Cooper desperatly tried to keep up with them and only cried when they used him as a test dummy on something they were building,
















































Hope you get some warmth soon. Shame you are not here you would love it, though Tully wouldn't like the waves :-) You get to sleep on the floor though as C and I have taken the 2nd bedroom.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Jan 1st 2009

Dear Stef,

We are here.























You would LOVE this place, both C and I have decided this would be very easy to get used to. I suspect this is going to become a regular thing. Only a short walk to the beach and up high enough to get the sea breeze and a view.

In the car coming up I told C that you were out in minus 7 with snow dressed in your high heels and a dress. She cracked up laughing but then clarified it wasn't the fact that you were wearing high heels in the snow that she was laughing at it was the fact that YOU were wearing high heels.

We spent the afternoon at the beach and C learnt the art of surfing a wave, you would have killed yourself laughing at her, I will take photo's tomorrow.

Everybody is here and just about to have dinner. Tried calling you to wish you HNY but you were clearly too pissed to answer the phone.

Spoke to Travis and he is having a ball with the cats Rani has fallen in love with him.

Stay warm,

Love Mum xxxxx