I always appreciate feedback and comments from readers. Many thanks to all of you who wished Edward a happy birthday. He enjoyed reading the messages and especially enjoyed chatting over Skype.

Another comment that I received this week was;

“I think you need to spice up the narrative…”

This got me thinking. At first, I understood Stephen Fry’s reaction on Twitter! But then I looked back at what I had written and realised that the posting about the zoo was rather weak!

It did however make me think about why I bother with this on-line diary. So I looked up the statistics on visits to the site.

In the last 20 weeks, I have made 37 entries. During that time I have had 2,261 views. This equates to an average of 113 per week and 61 per post. No bad I thought!

Of course the vast majority of visitors are family and friends, catching up with news, or reading out of a sense of duty, but we also receive some complete strangers looking up odd things on the web, eg;

“spirit of tasmania cabin”

“fromager des clarines, uk”

“coffee art hearts”

“robbers bridge”

But most importantly it keeps a record of our adventures across Australia. I’ll try harder in future to add at least one spiced up sentence in the narrative!

Photos of Edward’s Birthday

The day started with Edward waking us up at 6:30. He was fully dressed in his school uniform – “I want to have a long birthday” was his reasoning.

He rushed downstairs, to find presents on the dining-room table, and brought them up one at a time;

The first was a boogie board – pretty happy about that.

the next parcel…

was a BopIt. Rose and I had been given one by our American cousins (thanks Sophie) many years ago, however it is in a box somewhere in storage. We thought Edward would enjoy it, so bought a new one. We hadn’t realised that, rather than buying the normal one, we had got a BopIt Extreme 2. We were slightly worried when, as Edward was unwrapping it, we noticed that it said it was for ages 16+.

Still that didn’t deter Edward, and he managed to get a score of 3! Rose, who was the Maidenhead BopIt champion, had a go and got 30.

Now, 2 days later, Edward has just got the high score of 72, so we needn’t have worried.

Edward has become very keen on chess, not that he knows how to play! A boy in his class plays chess and Edward is very impressed, so has been asking me to teach him. You can imagine the excitement and enthusiasm with which his next present was greeted…

a Chess set (and draughts and backgammon)

Thank you to all those who managed to get presents in the post. He is aware of the postal strike in the UK and is keen to check the post box each morning to see if any new ones have arrived. Special thanks to David and Kitty for the book, Tammi and Hannah (and family) for the secret pen, and Rose’s parents…

The penguin torch has already been useful, as we had a power-cut last night and it was the only torch we could find! Thanks.

In the afternoon, we were invited to the Hawlings, for a swim in the pool and a birthday tea. The Ramsays were also there, and 10 excited children swam and ate…

Is Coles loosing its sparkle?

A quick update on the new Newport Coles.

After the initial thrill of having a modern deli, selling food at supermarket prices, one has to wonder if the shine is wearing thin…

On our fist visit, I was offered 5 different things to try as we wandered round, including pies, oysters and mangos. I asked at the time, if this was going to happen each time I visited, and was assured that yes, this was the way they like to do business.

Last 2 times I have visited, nothing on offer to try!

At the start, huge mangos were $1.95, now $3.95, melon prices have shot up from the 90¢ at the start. Bananas are nearly $7/kg…

However some of the staff are still friendly and greeting us with enthusiasm.

They have small trollies for children, and Ben enjoys pushing his trolly round, and even checking us out, using the self serve desk. On the last visit, the helper at the checkout was rather taken with Ben doing all the work, that she said the woman at the service desk would give him a lolly (sweet/candy) when he returned his trolly.

I didn’t really want Ben to have a highly coloured, highly sugared, teeth rotting treat, however he had been told he’d get one, so we had to go and collect it. We waited, but no lolly was forthcoming. I explained that he had been promised one, and was told very abruptly that lollies were only for crying children! This was absurd. Badly behaved children are rewarded with treats, and well behaved ones get nothing and are glared at.

I pointed out that he had already been promised one, and she might like to consider that if she now didn’t give him one there may well be tears, so he’d qualify. Very begrudgingly she produced the lolly!

Enough of this drivel!

Oh, nearly forgot – the spiced up part…

I have a very good recipe for potato and pea curry which uses cumin, coriander and chilli. If anyone would like it, I can put it up on the blog. Let me know.