Who's a Yummy Mummy?

I am.

About 5 years ago a group of 30 or so women and their 6 week old babies met in a room at our local Community Health Clinic. Over the weeks and months that followed, a number of the women left the group for various reasons (lack of interest, work commitments etc.). But a few remained. In fact, only 5 remained.

5 strong minded women, with their first borns, struggling to make sense of this new chapter in their lives, together and alone. These 5 women are the Yummy Mummy's.

Nearly every week for the past 5 years I have been meeting with these chicks and their gorgeous children, and have been supporting, laughing, learning, crying, bitching and observing together. They have helped me more than I can ever thank them for and without them, I'd be lost. And I know they feel the same.

Together we've been through births, deaths, job losses, job gains, sickness, new teeth, lost teeth, daycare, preschool, prep, moving house, moving towns, rough patches and hilarious good times.

"Mummy's group" means different things to different people. To me, it means the weekly gathering (but constant support) with women who understand that you might not be looking your best, but you're doing just fine. You might have a handbag full of baby wipes and odd socks, but you're still that glamour puss at heart. You might spend the whole morning whinging about how hard things are, but you wouldn't change them for the world.
The mummy's listen. They care. They know what you're going though and either have advice, suggestions or some sort of mocking sarcasm to help you along.

To our husbands, "Mummy's group" is "the weekly coffee mornings she goes on", the secret society of stay at home mums who meet each week and talk about god knows what, "but it's probably about me".

To coffee shop owners "Mummy's group" are those women with their prams and noisy children who will tear the place apart, bring their own lunch boxes full of fruit and crackers and leave the rubbish behind. The women who will order coffee and get annoyed if the kitchen isn't open before 11.30am.

And to me, "Mummy's group" is sanity. It’s getting together with some great friends and surviving this life I chose. It's making sense of sleepless nights, defusing toddler tantrums and cheering as each new milestone is reached. It's a sense of relief knowing there are girls on hand who know what's going on, know my kids well enough to offer some time out and know how to kick up our heels and enjoy the rare Mummy's Night Out.

Mummy's group is also the one piece of advice I give to every pregnant woman I know. Find one with children the same age as yours and give it a good go. There is benefit in having a group of friends with children, but to have a group of friends with children the same age as yours; going through the same stages at the same time is just magical.

And why all this reminiscing about Mummy's? Well last week we saw the newest breed of Mummy's group. While out at our local play centre, enjoying a coffee and chat as our 3 year olds all played nicely together, a group of about 10 women walked in. 10 women with their prams and giant nappy bags filled to cover any situation, and their children who looked too small to get much benefit from the play centre. The new Mummy's group. At one stage one of our girls went and said hello to the new ladies. And through a brief conversation discovered they had all met recently at the same clinic we had, all those years ago.

So to you, new Mummy's group, I say enjoy the support you get, enjoy the love and enjoy the ride!

And to my Yummy Mummy's: Julia, Stella, Ronnie & Lou - thank you. For everything.


Do you have a mummy's group? Share the love and leave a comment!

iPhone Dramas v2.0

There I was, happily living off my high from being asked to guest blog on A String Of Pearls and looking forward to the girls weekend. Things were looking good. By "girls weekend" I mean that it was going to be Lily and I for a weekend while Patrick took Ava on school camp. It was exciting to have a whole weekend with just one of my children, and we were planning big things.

During the week I'd asked Lily a few times what special things she wanted to do on our mummy and Lily weekend. Her requests were simple. She wanted to go to the local shopping centre food court for a mad feed, and she wanted to go to Officeworks. It's the small things that please Lily the most. Both demands were do-able.

"But Lily, we don't need anything from Officeworks. What will we buy?"

"Doesn't matter. We can buy one piece of paper. But can I have a little trolley?"

I'm not sure if its stationary or the little shopping trolleys that please Lily the most. I'd say the trolleys but she seems to really like looking at pens too.

We threw in some extra activities (a DVD night and floor picnic - but don't tell Patrick, and a trip to the pool if the weather was good) and so our weekend was planned. We waved good bye to Patrick and Ava and smiled at each other knowing we had a whole weekend of just us.

Friday night we tried to watch a movie. Lily didn't seem into it and I was watching her play and talk to herself more than the actual movie (can someone please tell me if the cats took over the world as they planned??). We both ended up falling asleep early which is never a bad thing.

Saturday morning and disaster struck. Disaster for a few reasons actually.

1. Lily didn't let me sleep in. She climbed into my bed and started talking loudly to her doll about something or other. I pretended sleep for as long as possible but in the end gave up to wakefulness.

2. It was a grey overcast day. Not a big deal, but definitely doesn't look good for swimming.

3. And this is the biggie. My iPhone screen shattered. My lovely, just survived iOS5 update, iPhone screen shattered. I won't go into exactly how (frankly because it was early and I was still sleepy) my phone somehow left my hand and hit the bathroom tiled floor, but this became our my number one priority. I must repair my phone. I must not wait longer than a few hours to have it back. I must not have my phone swapped for a new one. All this must happen now! It was 7am.

Thankfully my phone still worked and the screen protector sticker thing kept all the glass fragments from falling out everywhere. I immediately accessed the jungle call of my lifetime, Twitter, and sought out assistance. Who knows where I can get this fixed, in the smallest amount of time. Cost (at this stage) was no object. And Twitter responded. There were heaps of suggestions all offering support and information. I followed some leads and hit google but that didn't give me the answer I was looking for. In the end I decided that we'd have to head out to the Apple store at Chermside and investigate options. There is an iPhone repair store in my local area and before making it over to Chermside I decided we'd just swing by and see if they were open.

They were! And they can replace cracked iPhone screens in about an hour ("It will probably only take 45 minutes, maybe half an hour this morning") and charged under $50.

Lily and I enjoyed a morning coffee and chat while we waited. We went for a stroll to kill a little more time and decided to head back to the store after being gone about 45 minutes. There was my phone, all shiny and new, repaired and back to better than before glory.

If you ever crack an iPhone screen let me know and I'll give you their details.

And our girls weekend? Continued without a hitch and we're loving every minute of it!

Well Now I'm Published!

Ok dear readers, today is a more exciting day than I would have imagined. Today, I am a published author!!

Yes I've been writing this blog for a little while now, but today I am published by someone other than me! You might notice the lovely string of pearls button to the right of these words. I got that button after Jane asked if I would like to be a guess blogger on her Ezine. Naturally I said yes! Click that button and (hopefully) you'll be taken to my most recent post, this time about my misadventures of updating my iPhone to iOS5.

So please, click the button on the right. Or alternatively click the link below. Read my new post, and leave me a comment so I know you've visited.

A String of Pearls blogEzine

I've been to Bali too...

(Well actually I haven't)


But Red Gum have been to Bali (they wrote a song about it) and it seems every other person you meet has been too. I haven't been anywhere postcard worthy. In fact, my passport is embarrassingly void of travel stamps. But that's cool. While I don't have a clue what customs look like (apart from watching Customs on TV) and I've never been to the International Departure gates I do have other travel skills.


I'm awesome at finding my way around the airport. Find the best parking, closest doors and beer. Standing strong for everyone around, as there are tears and hugs before you head off on your amazing adventure. And waiting for ages as you're naturally the last to disembark the plane, and then shop duty free.


For all this I love the airport. I love watching the people coming and going and imagining what they are up to. I love making up lives for the people getting off the plane and I love the chance that you might glimpse a famous person. Like world famous surfer Mick Fanning. Who we were convinced we saw at the International airport on Sunday morning. We didn't though.

This is Mick Fanning. We didn't see him

Since Sunday morning I've had the Red Gum song stuck in my head. This is because I was at the airport awaiting the arrival home of a family member and the plane to land before hers had flown in from Bali.


This I know, not from reading the arrivals board, but by watching the passengers come though the magic glass sliding doors. There were families. Lots of families. Young girls with braids in their hair. There were coloured beads and shells galore. Boys who wore boardies and straw fedora hats. Mums who were tanned and relaxed. Dads who wore boardies and Bintang singlets.
There were the "surf holiday" boys who chased the sun. The lads who were ridiculously tanned and carried surf boards, normally more than one.
There were the honeymooners. The loved up couples who were tanned and gorgeous. All these people came through the doors, but they weren't who we were waiting for.


Someone I know went to Bali and all I got was this crappy Bintang singlet

The next plane load of people to come through had come from Dubai via Singapore. This was the plane we were waiting for. There were lots of older casual businessmen first, wearing jeans and sports jackets and gold chains. These guys either came through from Dubai and had pockets stuffed full of diamonds, or they had come from Singapore and left their new lady loves behind. We doubted mega rich Dubai dealing businessmen would bother catching just a horrible flight just to save a few dollars. So that left the other sort...

Next were the tourists. People who were either returning from holiday or starting a holiday in Australia. They seemed unsure for the most part, but that could have more to do with the early hour of the morning.

Finally, and I do mean finally, she was there. My mum had returned from a 7 week European holiday, tired but having thoroughly enjoyed herself.

And, our very long airport wait was rewarded. God bless ya Ma, you know us so well. Duty free cheers to you all!

We'll be back...

I would like to first thank all my friends for their phone calls and text messages, expressing their "concern" for my wellbeing and offering a breakdown of yesterday's AFL grand final with phrases such as "It was a really close game... until the last quarter" and "I was going for Collingwood too.... no really, I was"

Seriously I thank you. But I'm fine. I drowned my bad mood in scotch and got on with my night.

Yes. I am a Collingwood supporter. And you wouldn't be able to identify me as a stereotypical "Collingwood fan" if you saw me down the street. I have all my teeth. I have a job. I live in my own home, with only my immediate family. I have a car, with petrol in the tank. And I'm not a grandma.

Background (if you're still reading) into why I follow Collingwood.

I was raised in a NRL household. Not overly sporting mad but my family, being from Brisbane, are Bronco fans. And Queenslanders. Over the years NRL started to play a bigger part in my family's life. My sister is a bit mental for sport you see.

When I met my lovely (but sports mad) husband, Patrick, it was not much of a surprise that he too was a Broncos fan, and Queenslander. He (like my sister) insisted on watching every game he could. Which meant the TV was off limits on Friday nights, Saturdays and Sundays. And sometimes Mondays.

Well it all got too much. So I broke the trend and decided to follow AFL.

Up until now, AFL had not really registered on my radar. I knew about it and could name some teams but didn't have a clue how it was played or what the rules were. But damn those boys looked good!

So I sat down one weekend (somehow I managed to get Patrick away from the TV) and watched all the games crappy Brisbane TV showed me. My plan was to watch all the games and pick a team based on that one weekends research. I didn't want to follow Brisbane based exclusively on the fact that I'm a Brisbane girl, I wanted to follow one of the older Victorian teams. I'd told my family my plan. Their advice? Support anyone by Collingwood.

That weekend I remember a Lions game being shown, and the Kangaroos V Collingwood. Collingwood it was and has been, since. And now my darling daughters are Pies fans who love to sing the teams song at family events.

Love them or hate them it's up to you. But don't judge me based on that one fact.

We'll be back next year... Just you wait and see!