I’ve been a bit slack posting photos of our advent activities over the last few days, so allow me to make amends by providing you with hyperlink heaven … Friday and the totally controversial activity from Saturday are now in their rightful places. You can also take a peek at Pilchen’s magnificent fortress of solitude, but the page is the same as Saturday, so really I’m just being a smart ass (surprising, really!)

Yesterday was the second horrendously hot day in a row, and Miss M, Mr Dog and I walked a long way in the heat to take her to Alex’s birthday party, which normally would have been magnificent, but the red cheeked child I picked up was fairly shattered. Happily, I’d given her one of our favorite 1.5 litre bottles of water to keep her sane. I’ve never met anyone who drinks as much water as that girl. Mr Dog and I walked home, and he took the opportunity to thrown himself in the river a few times, and again when we’d picked her up. Smart dog.
Yesterday afternoon was an organisational nightmare, thanks to Miss M’s papa being stuck up in the bushfire zone filming for SBS news. Because I work on Sunday afternoon, she’s usually with him, so I had to organise a tag team of babysitters (no one human being can deal with the child for more than a couple of hours), comprised of my magnificent next door neighbours, Harry and Mieke, and my wonderful brother James, who is always there for me in any kind of crisis. So Miss M spent Sunday night with me for the first time in months, resulting in me having to cancel some work, but it was worth it to see her smiley face this morning.

This afternoon she’s grading for her orange belt in Karate, which will mean she’s the highest ranked student, and the only girl ever in the Richmond Kenpo school. We practiced a bit over the weekend, and she is deadly. I’m planning to reward her with Peking Duck from one of our favorite Vietnamese BBQ restaurants, which will be as much of a reward for me as her.

So for the rest of the afternoon I’m planning my yoga class, doing the weekly review of mags, and making a salad out of chickpeas, rocket, feta, tomatoes, with lemon, olive oil and garlic dressing. Those of you who are observant may have noticed the lack of the Top Five Newsletter over the last couple of weeks - it’ll be returning in the new year, with more yoga poses, recipes and exercise tips. If you have any exercise related questions in the meantime, please feel free to post a comment, and I’ll reply.

Today I’m loving: the possibility of rain

Miss M's drawing of her school campYesterday's activity