I love it when dreams become a reality!
I remember when a
friend of mine (right)
first told me about her
idea of setting up a romance bookstore.
“A store with ONLY romance books? Is there a big market for that??” Oh little did I know. I’ve discovered a whole drove of closet romance fans. People into contemporary romance, fantasy, crime, thriller, medieval and even vampire romance!

Personally I’m not a big fan of romance novels. She’s tried countless times to get me hooked. But I just find them too cheesey and contrived. And I just can’t stop the stupid images of Hugh Grant bumbling through his lines in the rain or Meg Ryan riding horseback with Hugh Jackman [pun intended].

Anyway my naughty opinions aside. Her business is thriving! Drop in on her! Temptation : The Romance Bookstore, Shop 9, Crossways Shopping Centre, 184 Rokeby Road, Subiaco, WA.

Oh and by the way, I’ve finally updated my bio page. Enjoy.

My Kermit frog was scaring all the little children last night.

We had a dinner party for some friends visiting Perth. 3 families. 5 kids in total. All 4 years old and under.

The girls saw him and screamed, shrieked and hid under the dinner table. Maybe because he was the same size as they were. Or maybe it was his buggy eyes. I found it unbelievably funny, and was trying so very hard not to laugh.

The children’s whimpering stopped only when my husband CAUGHT Kermit, WRESTLED him to the ground, and DRAGGED him off to the bedroom to be TURNED into frog leg soup!

*Drools. Mmmm… frooooog leeegs…

It’s Callum’s FIRST birthday today!

We decided to postpone his birthday party, because my parents are away on holiday. I would’ve been happy to hold a simple little picnic with family and friends. But my parents want to throw a huge party, roast a suckling pig and invite the whole neighbourhood when they get back. So I’ll let them organise it and I’ll make the birthday cake. Yay.

Anyway, Callum and I made some chocolate chip + macadamia nut cookies this morning. Or rather, he banged some pots lids while I made the cookies.

The other day I was washing the dishes when I heard the awful my-child-is-getting-up-to-no-good silence. I looked around the house and found Callum under the table munching on an Easter egg! He must’ve pulled it out of a box and ate through the foil!

I wiped the chocolate from his face, pried his little sticky fingers appart and took the Easter egg from him. Then, for the first time in his life he screamed and threw a tantrum!! All of the sudden, he developed all these new communication skills. He pointed at the chocolate. He screamed an I-WANT-THAT scream. He gave me a very angry grumpy scowl. I almost laughed at how cute it all was. I gave him a cheese biscuit, which he tossed onto the floor and toddled off in a huff.

Now he knows what the special brown stuff is. And I have to eat the rest of my chocolate in secret.

    Kicked off my bunny slippers and went gallivanting around town today. Ok not really. I went to a fashion event at the Perth City West End. They closed down King Street and had stick-insect models parading in very unexciting clothes.

  Did I mention… we bought a new car!
Yay! No more tow trucks. No more waiting by the side of the road. No leaking tubes. Rattling windows. Broken buttons. Rusty doors. I can finally torch my 20 year old BMW.

  So our “new” car is actually 2 years old. And it still has that new car smell. I bought it at an auction and outbid a man who looked like Santa Claus. Auctions are crazy man.
I felt like I was at a cattle stockade… and that my entire life was hanging on the thump of a stupid little hammer.

  I ate the most delicious Chinese meal the other day. Two words: Peking Duck. It was soooooo yummmmmmmy. The juicy, crispy, crunchy, fatty skin pancakes were orgasmic. I couldn’t get enough of it. Callum munched on gai lan stalks and pulled funny faces when I gave him some ice kachang.

I took some really funny photos of Callum the other day. He was plodding around the house picking up objects and placing them in different places. After his game, I found plastic balls in my shoes, wooden blocks on the sofa, toy cars in the kitchen drawers.

(Excuse the spooky photo-stitching. I DON’T have triplets.)

At first I had ambitions of making a rubber-ducky cake sitting on a pile of marshmallows. Then I wanted to make a pile of colourful cake blocks which spelt out Callum’s name.
But once I saw Jenny’s bunny cake, I decided to try something a little less complicated… a number 1! So this is my first attempt at making a kid’s birthday cake.

I made two chocolate cakes. One square and one rectangle. Cutting straight lines was a lot harder than I thought. The icing covered up most of the wonky edges.

Covering the vertical edges with hundreds and thousands took ages! I poured them down a bit of paper so they slid and stuck onto the sides. But they also went all over the floor.

I finished it an hour before the party. The floor was covered with chocolate cake, icing sugar and smarties. It was a real mess. But it was such fun to make and it turned out great!
I also think I did ok with piping Callum’s name. It was easier than I thought.

All the while, Callum was sitting on his high chair playing with the icing sugar.

My parents have chickens in their backyard. They lay eggs. Eat all the kitchen scraps. And every now and then they would fly out of the coop and take a stroll around the garden. I swear they must take a dip in the swimming pool when no one’s watching.

Whenever we visit my parents. I pray that there are eggs for us to collect. Callum would flap his arms wildly and point at the eggs in the hutch. It’s so cute.

I’m also trying to teach Callum animal sounds. Cats go meow. Chickens goes cluck cluck. Dogs go woof. But when I ask him what sound does Callum make, he looks at me blankly and goes “Ooo?”.

I can’t wait for his first farm visit.