More on Camden .... or should it be Islamden???

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:34:38 -0700

I couldn't find this on youtube back when I posted my Salam Cafe link. Take a look. It is really funny:

For anyone not familiar with the background to this, it centres around the hysteria generated in a small rural (ish) town outside Sydney over plans to build an Islamic school. The solution? Turn Camden into the Islamic State of Islamden! The guy behind the Uncle Sam character is called Waleed Aly and he has a blog on the Salam Cafe website. He and his wife, Susan Carland (a lecturer at Monash University), are both also panellists on Salam Cafe.

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Our Mothers Day

nobody@vox.com(Emu with a Clue) — Sun, 11 May 2008 19:46:39 -0700

We had a great day yesterday. The kids were so excited to give me their gifts in the morning. As well as their purchases from the Mother's Day stall at school, they had also spent time making me "treasure maps" which were pretty funny.

I had read in a free parents magazine about a place called Belgenny Farm that was having a free open day for Mother's Day. Our kids love farms so decided to hit the freeway and take them out to this one. The farm which is now State Government owned and run is located in a historically significant area called Camden which used to be a small town south of Sydney but is now part of the wider suburban sprawl.

There were lots of people there but it wasn't uncomfortably crowded. We missed the working dogs demonstration but did get to see some sheep shearing and watch a blacksmith and wool spinners at work. We also said "hello" to some horses:

Belgenny farm - Mr Ed

and my son had a ride on a very calm donkey.

Belgenny farm - donkey ride

A highlight for the kids was handling the animals in the young animal nursery. Felt sorry for some of the animals though, ie, one kid threw a tantrum about having to leave and tried to stomp on a couple of the chickens on his way out. Fortunately my kids pretty gentle with animals.

Belgenny farm - bantam

Belgenny farm - guinea pig

Belgenny farm - sheep and goat

On the way home, we thought we would stop off and have a look at the Mt Annan Botanical Gardens not realising there was a huge Mother's Day event there. There was a covers band playing (the kids were thrilled to hear the band playing "What I like about you" when we first arrived), free massages for mums, an animal show and circus training. My daughter got to be one of the "volunteers from the audience" for the animal show which meant acting like a tree for a ring tailed possum (didn't get a photo of this) and also had a go at stilt walking:

Mt Annan - stilt walking

Mt Annan - stilt falling

We also had a walk around the gardens and had a play in the very cool playground there which included a proper flying fox (similar to one in a much less scenic park near where we live - all the kids love it). Would like to go there some other time for a picnic when it is not so crowded.

After we got home, my daughter and I had cooking lesson number two in which she learnt how to make her favourite pumpkin soup. She swore that the end product tasted even better than when I normally make it!

All in all, a fantastic Mother's Day.

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