Author Archives: DorkyMum

This is not a birthday blog post

March 21, 2022 By in Family, Tasmania 2 Comments

A boy walking on the trail in Tasmania's southwest wilderness

DorkySon turns thirteen later this month (THIRTEEN!!).

If you’ve read this blog for a while, you’ll know that I usually write a birthday post reflecting on the previous year. In fact, this year’s birthday blog would have been the tenth one… but reasonably enough DorkySon is not as keen for me to spend 1000 words going into raptures over how great he is these days. You never know who might be reading.

So this is not a birthday blog. 

Instead it’s just a reflection on our summer, and an update for far-flung family and friends on how life is going in Tasmania. If I occasionally, accidentally, veer off into saying nice things about DorkySon please just ignore that and move quickly onto the next paragraph. Continue reading →

Moving on up

November 30, 2021 By in Family, Tasmania Tags: , , 6 Comments

Image shows a child's hand holding a pen. On a piece of paper is written 'Tom's book Chapter 1 adventures'

I have to be honest… when DorkySon left his infant school at the end of Grade 2, I thought I would never love a school as much as I did that one.

It had been such a perfect fit. The nurturing little community by the sea that helped us settle into Hobart; the place where we made our first friends; the school where a succession of kind, caring and thoughtful teachers supported DorkySon from the age of four through to eight.

It was the school where we watched him learn to read, to write, to make marvellously messy artworks that he would come running up to show us at the end of the day. It was everything you would hope for in a school and so, so much more.

But I have had to eat my words, because it turned out that his next school – the primary he has attended from Grades 3 to 6, ages 8 to 12 – has been every bit as good. Continue reading →

Spring 2021

September 3, 2021 By in Family, Tasmania 2 Comments

Last Saturday was DorkyDad’s birthday and it began, as all the best birthdays do, with the dog jumping up onto our bed and vomiting all over it.

We hurried her back downstairs into her crate to let DorkyDad enjoy half an hour’s peace and quiet – drinking coffee and opening his presents, which included a watercolour painting of a ukulele from DorkySon, a voucher for a stargazing event on kunanyi from me, and a personalised video message from Phillies player Jimmy Rollins. Not often I’ve seen DorkyDad speechless, but it’s nice to know we can still surprise him.

Continue reading →

Puppy life: one month in

July 17, 2021 By in Family Tags: , , , , 5 Comments

A spoodle puppy sitting on a bed (There have been so many interruptions to my attempts to sit down and write this blog that it’s now a week out of date! We’ve had Luna for five weeks, not four. Ach well… most of it still stands. Better done than perfect, right?)

This weekend marked a month since DorkyDog joined our family. It has been… quite possibly the longest month of my life.

She is hilarious and infuriating and sweet as a mid-summer peach.

One month on, it is hard to believe that this wiggly, confident, jolly little soul is the same puppy who had to be coaxed, trembling, out of her travel crate into DorkyDad’s lap.

Here is a quick rundown of our first month together. Continue reading →

Introducing DorkyDog

June 20, 2021 By in Family Tags: , , , , , , 5 Comments

A chocolate brown poodle puppy looks up at the camera from a grassy lawn

We have been talking about getting a dog for years. Literally years.

We made several trips out to the Hobart Dogs Home. We followed the Facebook Pages for every rescue centre in the state. We asked friends to keep an ear out for local puppers needing a good home.

But the timing never felt quite right. There was always something we had to get out of the way first: an international trip, a busy work spell, visitors coming to stay. Continue reading →