Sydney Festival opener

Despite tummy bugs, toilet training (yes, in theory, it's still happening - not so much today) and the attack of Chicken Little*, we packed the kids up and took them into Hyde Park for the opening day of Sydney Festival. The really good stuff is on tonight, but as Responsible Parents, we are watching Iron Chef and Rockwiz instead of Al Green.

It was a fabulous afternoon. It was a little warm today in Sydney (probably still >30C outside now at 10pm), so the first thing that inspired all of us was this.

The kids embraced the opportunity to get wet with impunity.

Ben was in amongst it with the big kids in the raised part of the fountain within moments.

Charlie wasn't too keen to pose, but he loved the spouting water. A lot.

Elissa was just immensely happy to be wet. In any way at all really.

Of course, it ended in tears.

Ben hurt his finger and had a sulk. But I suspect it was worth it.

After we were all thoroughly soaked, we wandered around and found hula hoops for the taking.

That's St Mary's Cathedral in the background, and very probably Charlie's finger providing the smudge on the lens. It turns out that I can still whirl a hula hoop, but fortunately there is no photographic evidence.

There were snacks and strolls, and then we came across the wonderful bubble guy Mr Incredibubble, who Mim Tigtog previously blogged about, but I can't remember his name nor find her post** but I apparently can't remember anything. He mentioned he will have a website next week, so you may be able to check him out. ANYWAY, he makes huge bubbles, and if you throw a coin in the metaphorical hat, he will let your kids stick their heads in bubbles. They loved it. Squeals, smiles and giggles. Well worth the $5 I chucked in for the entertainment. I didn't take photos because I was too busy looking at the pretty bubbles.

Tram trip home, supermarket visit to buy hot dog makings for kids and meat & salad for ourselves, plus ice creams because a day like that should always end with ice creams.

There was happiness all round, significantly enhanced by the air conditioning we can turn on so as to pretend it isn't 30 degrees outside.

Further Updates (also courtesy of Mim): Apparently we were at the fountain at the same time as the SMH photographer. If you look hard in this photo, you can see Ben, Charlie and Me.

*Chicken Little is an employee of a client who has decided that small boxes being in an inconvenient spot might jeopardise a whole office relocation. I tried to be professional in my response, I really did. 

** Edited information provided entirely by Mim. I didn't even managed that bit.

One perfect day

I spend a lot of time whinging, so I thought I'd balance that up, and tell you about yesterday.

Ben was at a kids' art day on Wednesday and left his backpack there. It was in Darlington, and I thought rather than making a chore of collecting it yesterday morning, I would take Ben with me and we could visit the book shop in Newtown I rather love (Better Read Than Dead), and then go and buy him some sorely needed new shoes.

We got off to a great start with him deciding he would rather stay at home, but I dragged him out, whinging, anyway. After 5 minutes he was chatting away happily and the day really started. We collected his bag (from a much nicer person than had been there the day before) and headed up to Newtown. I performed the perfect reverse park. This bears mentioning, since I can't reverse park to save my life.

We went to the book shop and were slightly disappointed to discover that the book I wanted was out of print in hardback - looks like I am going to have to buy it from the US. Ben loved it, though - as he was browsing the picture books he asked "Why isn't everyone in here?". He picked one book to buy and we headed off for lunch.

He decided on pies, and then chatted with the woman in the pie shop in such a way that I felt it necessary to point out that his lovely nature is all his doing, I don't take credit for it.

We had a wander through Pentimento, a fun little shop with stunning books, jewellery, handbags, crockery and various other odds & sods. Ben was engaged and interested in everything. Back on the street, he was pointing out the mosaics in the foot path in Church St and the fig in the church yard.

We headed out to DFO to buy him some shoes, and we managed to find him 3 pairs of shoes for $45 at Rivers. He tried on about 7 or 8 pairs. He didn't whinge or resist or anything! I can't even manage that when buying shoes. It was just so damn satisfying.

Later on, our babysitter relieved us of our parenting duties for an evening and we went back to Newtown and spent the night at Zanzibar. We'd had a pretty good day work-wise, so we were celebrating that as well as having an evening to ourselves. Fantastic tapas and very fine cocktails made by very fine cocktail waiters. Possibly one too many of those very fine cocktails in fact. And a lovely, relaxed night chatting and enjoying each others' company.

One perfect day. There should be more of 'em.