stuff I learnt this week

: Turns out some newborns do just eat and sleep. I thought that was something people just claimed. We're not naive enough to know this may not all change tomorrow, but we're super grateful for Ivy being so chilled out right now. (And not feeding two-hourly through the night like her sister used to!)

: Having a newborn makes your older kids look ridiculously big and grown up.

(Henry and I having some downtime in a cafe this week over hot chocolate and gingerbread men. Gamer-boy preoccupied while I was breastfeeding.)

: Friends are awesome. This week ours took our older kids away and sent Ad and I out for lunch, they brought cake, they brought/sent/made amazingly thoughtful gifts and came around with champagne and lots of laughing. 

: Sydney Aquarium rocks.  

: It's a bit of a shame to go to the aquarium with a flat camera battery. (The iPhone doesn't really cut it.)

: Sydney Aquarium has a pretty proficient lost child procedure.

: Note to self: dress Matilda Daisy in bright colours, preferably fluorescent, when taking her to fascinating places with hundreds of other people amongst whom you can easily lose sight of a waist-high person in search of the turtles; thereby saving us ten minutes of rising panic wherein we each shed ten years off our lives. 

: My brother, visiting from the US this week, is superbly talented (no bias here. Absolutely objective.) New demo CD. He rocks. 

: My friend Vanessa, mum of one of Henry's besties at school, is super clever. Check out these cupcakes she made and brought over yesterday!

  

 
Amazing, right?

: Adam can cook. I don't mean to sound surprised, but I don't mean whip-up-scrambled-eggs-and-bacon cook. He's been cooking all week, and we had friends round for dinner last night and he made fabulous gourmet burgers (yep, a bit of meat is back on the menu here - more on that in another post) with haloumi and chutney, served with crispy and fluffy twice-cooked potato chips and a divine, light passionfruit flummery for dessert. Damn I hope this doesn't mess up our I cook/he cleans arrangement. I am seriously crap at cleaning. 

: It's illegal to bury someone without a coffin. My friend Ben (who appears in post comments here as Benoss) and Adam were cheerfully discussing funeral options, as you do, and Adam was saying he wants to be buried in a completely compostable (preferably cardboard) coffin, preferably with worms included. (Could you be any more green, baby?) Anyway, Ben suggested doing away with the coffin and so we sent another friend (the other Vanessa) who loves this stuff, off to call up a few funeral homes and find out the deal. Deal is: gotta use a coffin. No shroud only option. But she's making more calls so will update you as news comes in. 

: The weirder the better. And if you can come up with REALLY weird, send it over to Kate at Picklebums, OK?! (Everyone's going way too easy on her so far.)

xxx

Comments

[katepickle]

How annoying that you must have a coffin? I have a hankering to be burnt in a giant bonfire on our property when I drop off the perch.... but I know that isn't legal either!

And at the risk of jinxing myself, I do have to agree hardly any difficult questions so far... if you don't include 'what's the baby's name' cause that one is impossible to answer!

[Sue]

My Dad heard somewhere there's a $20 fine for burying a human outside of a designated cemetery- he chose the gum tree he wants to be under, and gave my Mum the $20 years ago.

Sounds like quite the week! We had adventures in London Aquarium a couple of weeks ago- I can imagine losing an excited small person.

Love you guys.

[Alex Nolan]

Sounds like you are have a fun-filled week. Yesterday we had James' official school opening. The Bishop came, as did a rep from the council, the architect, and Chris Packham! He stayed with the kids all day doing wild crazy enviro/nature/eco stuff which they all thouroughly enjoyed. He planted the last apple tree of our commemorative orchard and dedicated it. We had the Hawk Conservancy over too, and every child in the school got to hold the Barn Owl. Oh, and Chris Packham brought his pet bald python called Biter - James said his day was 'awesome'! Brilliant. Oh, and to top it all off, mother of the year award goes to me - for leaving Edward at Nursery as I completely forgot about him. Mercifully, my friend was collecting her daughter at the same time so with several phonecalls later, she was allowed to take Edward too. What it is to have wonderful friends - I'm hoping that Edward didn't really notice that his mother forgot him.....

[Y]

I absolutely love those two pictures of Henry. The first one looks very nostalgic/70s.

[innerpickle]

I've been thinking about this, your Dad giving your Mum the $20. They are a great Australian novel right there, you know. I love it.

[innerpickle]

Thanks! Hipstamatic app for iphone. I like the retro feel too. xxx

[bennoss]

of course the funeral home is going to say you need coffin, that's like asking a florist if i should buy my grandma some flowers...
seriously, good on ya Vanessa. i made a few calls myself.
http://www.accaweb.com.au/contact-us/
ken sais: you do not have to have a coffin. it is a new thing but coming into fashion quickly. a shroud or wrapping will suffice, only in some cemeteries though.
i also asked about the grounds (as in the location) of burial. apparently it is possible to bury a person anywhere as long as you have the approval of the council.
cool.

[bennoss]

some other cool links:

http://www.naturalearthburial.com/

http://cardboardcoffinsaustralia.com.au/regulations.html

[Hook and Needle]

What a good idea. I mean burial without a coffin. :)
I never thought of that, but besides being more eco-friendly, it DOES alleviate some of that "trapped in a box underground" thing, too.