Sunday, May 1, 2011

Today I am thankful - weekend catch-up

Weekend catch up!

- for community. I spent Saturday at a shopping centre in Endeavour Hills, selling tickets in the ABA raffle (hurry - ends Mothers' Day!), and it was great to get positive feed-back from so many people and introduce others to our services, our Breastfeeding Centre and their local (Dandenong) ABA group. It was a long day, which began with Plan B (they forgot to provide our table and chairs!) and ended with a shock when I realised my car keys had spent the day dangling from the boot of my car! The lovely cleaner retreived them for me - phew!

- for my Big Day Out today: we live an hour away from the Melbourne CBD and when I got a complimentary ticket to see Babies at a preview screening today and was already facing being in the City for a 7.30-8.30 registration at the workshop I am attending tomorrow, I gave in and booked a hotel for tonight.

- for Babies - the most wonderful documentary finally being released in Australia this week. I have been waiting since I saw the trailer last year and it was worth the wait. Without any narrative, we simply watch four babies in foour parts of our world in their journey from birth to toddler. The startling contrasts and incredible similarities between the children - from Namibia, Mongolia, Japan and the US - is the wake-up the Western world needs about its detached, yet helicopter parenting. By far my favourite is the baby from Namibia, who spends the entire time within close range to his mother (and her available breasts) yet gets into amazing mischief with his slightly older cousin - these two feature at the start of this trailer and really illustrate the film.


The screening I attended was put on by ABC 774 and the Babytalk podcast and the cinema was packed with babies, toddlers and parents. As the babies on screen learned to crawl and walk, the ones in the audience practiced on the stairs! When one baby in the film peels a banana, toddlers in the cinema announced "NANA!". 

- for free time. After a bit of an adventure getting to the cinema in time (the one hour train journey took 1 1/2 hours and involved a bus ride in the middle), I then had the luxury of the day to myself in the City. I walked to one of our lane-way cafes for lunch - "the world's best gnocci" the waiter promised me: it was great. Then I puttered around working my way up to the State Library. I love this building so much and head straight for the Dome Gallery. After an hour or so, I jumped a tram to my hotel in Carlton and checked in.

- for exploring: after a cuppa and a rest, I headed off and jumped a cab to Alice's Bookshop in Rathdowne St. I have been meaning to go there for years, having read and loved both books written by the owner, Anthony Marshall. I browsed and pottered and bought an old edition of Charles Dickens Dombey & Son, which has been on my wishlist!  Popping it in my bag alongside my Kobo e-reader ;) I set off on foot to work my way back toward the hotel, via Lygon St.

- for food: Italian-style. Carlton has been Little Italy since migrants arrived after WW2 and Lygon St is THE place to eat Italian. On the way, I stopped by Readings and Borders to browse more books and eventually stopped for a fabulous pizza for dinner. Followed by my weakness - gelati! 

- for an evening in: snuggled up in front of the telly, with sustenance by my side: Haigh's chocolate (today is their 96th birthday, I was told when I entered the store) and the most amazing wedge of cherry nougat from a deli in Lygon St. And in the morning - buffet breakfast (I love hotel breaky!) and then the workshop with Christina Smillie - my baby-led attachment guru!!!!!!!____

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