The Rules of Guising

November 1, 2013 By in Guest Posts 3 Comments

This is a guest post from my good friend Adam Ramsay, who thinks that Halloween isn’t what it used to be…

Last night was Halloween. I arrived home to adorable hoards of marauding small children, giggling and shrieking their way up and down my usually quiet residenial street – the kind of street where couples move to breed. Knowing my housemate was walking home from work, I quickly called her, and soon, she arrived with a large bowl of sweets to distribute to the various parties who knocked on our door.

The whole event made me infeasibly happy. But it seems that the cultural phenomenon that is Halloween has changed significantly as I have moved South and with time.

You see, I grew up in rural Scotland – the land where Halloween comes from. And so for me, it was all a bit different. So, let me tell you how Halloween worked when I was a child. I think there are five rules:

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5 Great iPad Apps for Preschoolers

October 30, 2013 By in Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

You might remember that during our move from the UK to Australia, I had a pretty horrendous mummy failure moment. I left the iPad with all of DorkySon’s games and apps on it at Dubai Airport. It was particularly bad timing because I knew that in our first weeks here we’d be spending a lot of time standing in queues, sitting in meetings, waiting for estate agents and the like. I’d been planning on using the iPad as a needs-must babysitter for those first few weeks, and had loaded it up with quite a few new apps.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we survived those first few weeks without the iPad (DorkySon ended up eating his own weight in bribery-related chocolate buttons instead), but we did eventually, miraculously, get it back.

Since then, DorkySon has been enjoying some of the new apps that I’d installed for him before we left, and I thought I’d pull together a roundup of some of the best ones. Continue reading →

20 Signs that you’re Getting Old

October 29, 2013 By in Family Tags: , , , 38 Comments

An image of the rings in a tree trunk, with the text '20 signs that you're getting old'.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that I turned thirty earlier this year. I wasn’t too worried about it at the time, but in the months since I’ve noticed some odd things happening that definitely weren’t part of twenties-life. I think *whisper it* I might be starting to get a bit old.

In an attempt to reassure myself that I’m not the only one (that means you have to leave lots of comments agreeing with me, please) I thought I’d compile a list. So here it is. 20 signs that you’re getting old.

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Seven Weeks

October 25, 2013 By in Family, Tasmania Tags: , , , , , 11 Comments

A lemon tree in our garden

Exactly seven weeks ago, we landed in Hobart.

Today, we picked up the keys for our new house. We walked around the light, bright empty rooms, imagining how they will look and feel when we move in next weekend. I can’t wait to see them, crammed to bursting with our books and rugs, our paintings and photos, our love and our laughter.

As we were leaving, DorkySon plucked a perfectly ripe fruit from the tree that grows in our new garden.

Anyone for lemonade?