Quinoa

Have you caught up with Tiffany Beverage's Pintrest board called My Imaginary Well-Dressed Toddler Daughter? As the mother of, she confesses, two ordinarily dressed boys, she started this board as a bit of joke but it's taken off and she's about to launch the book. (Oh to have a MWW's book!!!)

Anyway, back to Tiff. I don't know her BTW, she's American and I just stumbled on her on Pintrest. She's called her imaginary daughter Quinoa and in essence, she pins these crazy (and ethically questionable) vogue-like shots of young kids on her board with some very sassy editorial. Here are a few of my favourites.

     

But really, once I start, I just can't stop! It's addictive! You have been warned.

I love it so much that on this holiday, I've taken to calling Sass Quinoa - especially when she's having a Quinoa moment - and texting them to my poor business partner Mandy (who also loves a bit of MIWDTD).

Oh looking nonchalant can
be so much work.

 

Quinoa enjoyed a glass of
sparkling water in her late morning bath.

Fed up with the on-going bad weather on her
holiday, Quinoa felt she had no choice but to
don her daisy chain wreath & pale blue
fingerless wrist warmer to complete her preppy
look and SHOP!

Exhautsed after yet another hectic day of
wineries in Margaret River, Quinoa settled into
the back of the Beemer for a nap on the way back
to her 5-star resort

And our friends who we were with us in Margaret River emailed us this greeting card - which reads (in case it's too small) Which part of 'I want a pony' didn't you understand?

What do you think??

Touring in Margaret River

We're in Margaret River for a few days and the weather is apparently 'unseasonal'. In other words, blowing a gale and raining frequently. Knowing it's unseasonal isn't actually much consolation but we're here wth some friends and there's plenty to do so we're not complaining.


We're staying at a beautiful resort smack
on the beach and in 'seasonal' weather it
would apparently look like this. (I took it from the brochure.)










But it looks like this. ( I took this after breakfast.)

So we've done a few tours. The first was a winery tour which was good, but the stand out was arriving at Knotting Hill as another group were leaving, only to hear this woman screaming like a banshee "LOUIE!!! GET OUTTA THERE! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! COME ON!!" Someone's in trouble, we muttered to ourselves expecting some recalcitrant kid to emerge. But no, out slinks a grown man in a zip up tracksuit, sunglasses and a beanie - head bowed in submission. All afternoon we thought of poor Louie.

The next day we'd booked a Heritage & Cave Canoe trip on the Margaret River. We drove the hour to the meeting point and arrived just as it began to pour with rain. Paul, our guide, said to get back in our cars (phew) and drive down to the river mouth where we'd meet everyone else. As we all arrived, my friend Penny pointed... 'Isn't that Louie??' And indeed it was!

Thankfully it had stopped raining and as we launched the canoes, Paul gave us the drill, despite admitting he'd only been guiding these tours for a couple of weeks. So what did we learn? Well, pretty much everything about Paul. Including, but not limited to:

• His wife loves roses and orchids and always has fresh flowers in the house
• He loves gardening and is also fond of flowers
• His daughters are 12 (going on 26) and 9 (going on attitude - boom, boom)
• His oldest daughter loves horse riding and is, in fact, 'a bit of a jill-a-roo for those of you who know what that means'
• He's a huge fan of his Thermo-Mix
• His wife is a school teacher
• How much he got paid working FIFO (Fly In Fly Out) on a mining rail road (over $100k) but he missed his family too much so threw it in - it just wasn't worth it
• How much he weighs, the fact he's about 11kg over what he'd like to be for his favoured past time - mountain bike riding
• How he snapped a mountain bike but the manufacturer (Giant) replaced the frame - from America no less
• That he'd like to be riding '1000k' a month but just isn't getting the time

Getting the drift?? If you'd like to know more about Paul, do drop me a line.

So what did we learn about Heritage? Not much. There was a family who built a house on the banks of Margaret River and moved in.... in eighteen seventy - ..... Paul was struggling to remember what year. Trying to helpful, I said '1874? Seriously Paul, none of us know - just pick a year.' 'No, no, no,' he insisted 'I need to get this right. 1876!' Phew - what a relief.

We walked up from the river to explore the cave where those of our party who were feeling brave could crawl on their stomachs, combat style, through water and dirt in a claustrophobic passageway that led from the main chamber.... back to the main chamber. Paul explained that there has been a shipwreck in the 1800s and a group of 30 or 40 people lived in this cave for 6 months to 7 years. (Yes, I didn't understand that either - maybe some left after 6 months and maybe some left after 7 years??). Penny had the audacity to ask a question; what nationality were they? Paul didn't know, but he was quite sure they were Caucasian - not European. And believe it or not people, for once in my life I did not pipe up to correct him. I was quite proud of myself. And anyway, he was doing a fine job all on his own.

Yes, I could put this review on Trip Advisor but I do feel that would spoil the surprise for the next lot of unsuspecting guests!!

We're headed to Perth tomorrow for a few days before we catch the Indian Pacific train across the Nullabor to Adelaide so stay tuned.

Farewell My Van

My van was picked up by its new owners yesterday. No more sliding doors for me! You may recall I have posted about it before. I've never loved it but it certainly served its purpose.

We got it 5 years ago when Jaz had scoliosis surgery and we weren't allowed to pick her up for fear that the rods in her back could dislodge. She had to be hoisted in a sling and stay in her wheelchair until they were sure it had fully healed. So it was farewell to the Pajero - which I was very fond of - and hello to the van. I always thought if I had to drive a van, this was definitely the pick of them. Fortunately, Mercedes was a client of the agency I worked for at the time and helped me out by finding an ex-demo that I could actually afford.

We also then had a hydraulic lift fitted. None of this is a secret - I did tell the new owners who thought the bracket to hold the lift's remote control was a bottle opener! We had the lift taken out less than a year later when Jazzy died.

It was then handy for George's wheelchair too, as it was easy enough to fling in the back behind the third row of seats where there was still plenty of room and a surprisingly low floor.

But I do have some great memories:

• The Cubs loved it when I was with Scouts. 'What happens in the van, stays in the van,' they'd say (ie eating lollies I'd bought them at the petrol station.)

• I had a whole routine for Sass and her friends:
   'Welcome aboard flight Mother Who Works, destination school. Please ensure your seat belt is firmly fastened, your seat upright, table stowed and all hand luggage secured. In the unlikely event of an incident, please follow the instructions of the flight crew. Should we lose cabin pressure, a mask will drop from the compartment above. Place it over your nose and mouth and breath normally.... blah, blah, blah. Estimated time of the flight, approximately five minutes. Thank you for choosing to fly with Mother Who Works."
  The kids thought it was hilarious - even when it was repeated again and again and again. 

• I loved that 'Don't make me come back there!' was never an idle threat
• I've driven Elle and her friends to parties and collected an entire van full of them in the middle of the night
• We've been camping with a trailer hitched on the back and the canoe and tables on the roof
• Around the neighbourhood, everyone knew the van and when we were out and about
• It's trucked teams of advertising peeps around town (many who think they're rock stars requiring a van!!) and served as the mobile office on many an occasion

But with just the two girls now, we don't need it and I'm not sad to say goodbye. I think it could almost drive from our house to The Royal Children's Hospital on auto-pilot. And the family who bought it are just lovely, so I'm glad it's gone to a happy home. 

My new (second hand) car is a black 4WD with a black interior and seats a mere five. Not even any flip out seats. Just five. And it feels so zippy!! But I can't change the radio station or work the heater and I keep setting off the windscreen wipers. I've even managed to immobilise it when we were late for a meeting...ahhhhh!!!

So it's so long to my van and hello to a whole new, annoying learning curve....

It's Official

I hope you can read this - it's gold. And I had to share. Click on it and you should be able to see it on a black background - much clearer.

If it's a bit tricky, here's a highlight:
"One woman had to be rushed to the hospital after her assistant shredded important company tax documents instead of copying them."

I think I worked with that assistant once.

A friend who runs a busy cafe assures me common sense isn't that common. When told to just empty the water bottles from the tables down the drain, she found her new, university-educated waiter on the floor in the kitchen tipping them down the drain alright - the one in the floor in the corner. 'I meant the drain in the sink...' she suggested.

I worked on a fashion account briefly and in one meeting a model was asked to step out and just take off what she had on underneath the big, furryjacket she was wearng (a shirt of some description as I recall). She came back, naked but for the jacket. Eeek!! And was rushed from the board room a second time to put her pants back on.

Seriously kids, like the ads on TV say, if you not sure, ask!