Flowers, Food and Fun

The Heart of the Nation family - Kirsten, Jon and little Sofie beneath the cherry blossoms on a beautiful spring day in the nation's capital.

Arrived back in Sydney yesterday evening after a very laid-back weekend in Canberra and am currently listening to Sahara Blue - a beautiful CD by Hector Zazou based on the poem's of Arthur Rimbaud, which I bought many moons ago when I was living in Osaka and which always reminds me of a friend Craig who, sadly, I've lost contact with.

I was going to have a gelato this evening, but it's already getting late and I have quite a few things I want to get done this evening - particularly since I'm going out tomorrow evening to see a - free - preview of a documentary about the rise and fall of Enron - one of the films I didn't manage to see at this year's Sydney Film Festival. I actually left work early today thinking I'd get lots done this afternoon, but the lovely Claire called to let me know she was at Newtown station, so I ended up having a wander around Newtown and Erskineville with her and her entourage - partner Alex, son Chaim and friend Kim. Claire and Alex have decided to move over to Sydney, so they're here on a reconnaisance mission - checking out possible areas they'd like to live in.

My weekend in Canberra had a bit of a floral theme - not surprising since Floriade is on at the moment. Canberra is beautiful in spring - none of the extremes of winter or summer - and its annual festival of spring - Floriade - has become a major attraction with hundreds of thousands of visitors. There were lots of people there when we went on Saturday, but yesterday was a public holiday here in NSW and in the ACT, so I guess it was to be expected. We went armed with a picnic and spent a few pleasant hours wandering around the gardens.

As always food was a major part of my stay with Kirsten, Jon and Sofie. I don't know what it is about Canberra (I put it down to the altitude - after all Canberra is 550m above sea level!) but whenever there I'm always really hungry. Luckily for me Kirsten and Jon also enjoy eating. On Sunday their friend Suresh came over and made dosa and idli for us - yum!!!

Young Sofie is growing up very quickly and is very talkative. She had an amazing vocabulary considering that she's not even 2 yet and can construct some quite complex sentences. She loves telling people what she's doing! Her latest trick - much to Kirsten and Jon's disgust - is to lie in her bed pretending that she's crying when she wakes up in the morning, which puts paid to any chance of a lie-in! Kirsten told me in the e-mail she sent today that after I left yesterday Sofie was asking where I was. She loved having me there and I was her first choice when she wanted someone to read to her.

Am not working Thursday and Friday this week, but already I have a feeling that I'm going to be quite busy as I'm hoping to catch up with Claire again and am also catching up with the lovely Ms.Suzanne on Friday. Am actually happy not to be working because at the moment I've had enough of work. Anyway...