jobhawkins: December 2008

Greetings and Christmas wishes to all!

Another year, another blog entry:-

Not a great year for the world: the insatiable greed of the Finance industry did what Marx promised it would more than one hundred years ago, sending entire national economies into ruin and destroying the livelihoods of millions, our new government celebrated one year in power with a predictable lack of courage and leadership on carbon emissions and global warming and America got a Black President. Oh no – that was a good thing. But, Man has he got a challenge or two ahead of him.

For us it was a year dominated by domestic joys and challenges and many laughs as we observed, rescued, tickled, cuddled and recovered from our blossoming baby boy: baby swimming and music lessons, toddler fractures, grated cheese and “giggle–eggs” - though like any parent of a young child, we desperately try to cement these precious early days into our memory, its all a bit of a delirious blur.

There has been blossoming in my belly too, along with those of my 2 sister-in-laws and the Black family as a result.

So, if you’d like to hear a little more about that now, please do read on. But don’t worry if you don’t: I wont be the least bit offended – or even aware.

xxxxx

Summer 2008

With the arrival of summer and the final trimester of this pregnancy I have decided the garden is now on its own, with only the help of an automatic watering system and a weekly leisurely stroll past a few pot plants, hose in hand, from me.

Fela continues to create the conundrum for us of deciding just what stage of development is the cutest. A very busy little walking and talking man, the most common comments we get about him are about how happy he is and how much he “talks”. A gregarious chap, he still loves a party more than anything else, so the current festive season is certain to become a favourite time of year for him (as if it isn’t for just about every child I know).

Matt made his debut this year as film director with a gorgeous little romantic comedy set in a display home. It was enjoyed I think by all who saw it but alas, not being about war, domestic abuse or repressed sexuality, it is unlikely to win any awards in our depression-obsessed film industry. His next project is about a 9 year old rugby league fan on holiday on the border of Lebanon and Israel. If the boy gets shot in the final scene, you’ll know why.

Matt’s been awarded a 3 year scholarship to do a PhD in screen writing starting next year, which will be a great opportunity for him to work on some interesting and useful stuff (including make a film or two) and add yet more letters to his name. He’ll do that along with ongoing teaching at the Uni and I like to think he’ll be available for a fair bit of daddy care of two little people as well.

I continue to keep variety in my working life, working at both an adult and the children’s hospital, as well as making visits to Broken Hill and doing a bit of private work too. Until I took on an extra half day of work recently, taking the weekly total to about 3 days, the “work-life balance” has been just about right…

Spring 2008

The winter rain had brought our garden back to life, and we returned to find it full of winter bulbs and in spring every week brought new surprises in the shape and colour of spring annuals and more bulbs….. and weeds, and more weeds.., and more.

Yep, spring for me meant filling the green bin each fortnight with barrow loads of the stuff, and recovering on the couch for about 3 hours after each session. But it was a labour of love, so pretty do we find our back yard. Matt has been providing food for the home from the potager, with highlights being delicious rocket (which I will never again buy from the supermarket, so unrecognisable as it is from the home grown variety) and we eagerly await our first crop of home grown tomatoes – surely one of the best things to grow in any back yard.

Mum and Dad went on tour to the centre of the civilised world (Iran) in October, so we took the opportunity to move in for 3 weeks while our musty bathroom was gutted and remade from below the ground up. Now we were actually quite partial to that 1950’s avocado green pedestal basin and bath – but for a loo within 3 closed doors of our bed and a window (in the roof - but we can still hear birds through it) – I’m sad to say they had to go. We tried to give a nod to the 1950’s origins of our house as we did it though.

Going into full bloom

The Potager

Old

is replaced with new

Port Willi September holiday

at Grannie and Grandpa's bushland farm

Matt had a notable birthday in October

enjoying the cafe lifestyle at Adelaide's Central Markets

Nearly summer

Winter 2008

In June we left our garden to soak up the winter rains and headed to South East Asia. For 4 weeks, Matt, Fela and I made an unlikely backpacking trio, Maclaren pram in tow as we visited our friends in Phnom Penh after I attended a conference in Hong Kong. Actually we did bugger all back-packing, limiting ourselves to about 4 destinations in the whole of Cambodia and Vietnam and just one 3 day tour along the Mekong Delta (so I too could witness people hand making those rice paper wraps: alas, it was the wrong season)

The river tour was not all G and Ts on the deck with a toddler on tow, but was quite lovely. The highlights for the trip for me, however, would have to have been the beautiful streets of Hoi-An, the spell-binding temples around Angkor Wat and the unbridled enthusiasm of almost every person we came across for Fela, his beautiful (huge) eyes and his fine (white) skin. I can definitely recommend travelling with a baby in such a place – there is no doubt that small children are something that bring people closer together – at least outside of the cafes and shops of Adelaide..

Other highlights would have to also include seeing our friends from days in Ghana, Ian and Katya and meeting their exquisite little girl Emefa (born just days before Fela), having access to their TWO nannies, tasty tasty food and finding out I was PREGNANT! (though not so good for the above mentioned G and Ts nor for fish markets)

A lowlight would be getting back and watching “The Killing Fields” and thinking about how all those people whom I’d met and who were running that devastated country were the very same children so frequently featured in that very sad film.

Hawkins Home

Garden views and winter sun in Fela's playroom

Fela's other playroom

Yum

Feeling the wind in our hairs

Autumn 2008

Still, I feel lucky to have experienced that summer before investing money or hope planning our own garden renovations, because, come autumn, out came the wimpy Silver Birches and Hydrangeas and in went the Olives, Crabapples and Crepe Myrtles, and anything else Mediterranean-like with a love of crappy soil and bugger-all summer rain (and, yes, an Australian native or two, as long as it I didn’t have to rely on an eastern stater’s report of “drought-tolerant”: “natives” from the rainforests of New South Wales or “4 seasons in one day” Victoria are not necessarily designed for summer on the Adelaide plains)

Matt worked like a demon with his shovel and wheelbarrow (thanks Geoff and Eri – an inspired Christmas present indeed), 10, 000L of rainwater storage was installed and plans were set to cover the garden with god knows how many metres of dripper irrigation system in time for another predicted paper-dry summer ahead.

Stinking hot at Womadelaide 2008