What did you learn in kindergarten that you wish you did a better job of applying to the way you live your life today?

I started primary school at the tail end of the Australian Government "Free Milk Scheme":

Between 1951 and 1973 the Commonwealth Schools' Free Milk Scheme provided one third of a pint of whole milk per day to primary school children throughout Australia. The scheme ceased in 1973 because of escalating costs,resistance from teachers who felt that the distribution of milk was not their responsibility, and evidence that the protein and calcium deficiencies that had prompted the introduction of the scheme no longer existed.

Source: Powerhouse Museum

There is a fantastic photo of Melbourne school children drinking milk from those little glass bottles here.

1969 schoolchildren

While my memories of the milk are not particularly pleasant ones (can still remember the layer of cream on top and how horrible the afternoon milk would get on hot days), I suppose the lesson that CALCIUM IS GOOD is something I should be applying more in my diet today.

My other memories of Kindergarten (or Prep as we called it in Victoria) are of learning to sing "God Save the Queen" (can't think of a lesson in that!) and using those cuisenaire rods and little plastic counters to do "sums".  I am not particularly maths-literate these days so maybe I do need to go back to Kindergarten to re-learn all this stuff. 

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How many houses have you lived in? How is where you live now different from where you grew up?

All up, I have lived in 10 houses and 2 flats/apartments.  These have been in Melbourne, Canberra, Jakarta and Sydney. 

This is what our current house in Sydney looks like from the front (have since finished the painting and no, it is no longer either of those colours):

Our house

and this is the view from the backyard:

Backyard view

Despite what you see in the first photo, most of the house is actually made from brick (the old brown Sydney kind) with sandstone foundations.  It was built during the Depression by a man who had owned a big mansion on the main road going through our suburb.  Back then, the rocky, hilltop location meant that he got the land fairly cheaply but now is it actually seen as an asset - although the blocks still very tricky for building on.  It was originally only a one bedroom cottage.  The front room which is what you can see in the first photo was added on much later. 

Our street is a surprisingly bustling little cul de sac on top of a hill.  We know some of the neighbours but not all (there are quite a few who are a bit nutty or otherwise antisocial).  We are endlessly renovating and think this is the reason we have stayed here for so long (almost 10 year).  This is actually the longest I have lived anywhere apart from the house I grew up in which was a 3 bedroom brick veneer in a quiet suburban street in Melbourne.  My mum still lives in this house and this is a photo from her front garden:

Pebble garden

And now a word from Madness on their house:

Madness - Our house

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I have posted about this blog site previously but thought I would again as it now includes some Melbourne photos as well.  I think it epitomises the Love Where You Live ethos and has made me look at my home of Sydney in a different light. 

Building entrance

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A trip down Swanston St, Melbourne, as it used to be:

AC/DC - Its A Long Way To The Top If Ya Wanna Rock And Roll

Also read that one of the laneways in Melbourne was renamed ACDC Lane a few years back.  Apparently it is now the most stolen street sign in Melbourne.

Acdc lane

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Protea

My husband planted this protea bush (above) a few years ago when visiting my mum and it is really going gangbusters now!

Having a bit of a vague out at the moment and can't for the life of me think what this one (below) is called.  I have seen them used a lot in native flower arrangements in the last few years.  Like the protea, this one doing very well in Mum's garden despite the drought which has really bitten hard in Melbourne.

Native flower

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The kids and I have just returned from a few days visiting my mum/their granny in my old home town, Melbourne.  We took them on an outing to a Build a Bear shop on Thursday (a bit of a rip-off but Mum was paying ;) ) and on Friday to visit their Great Nana (aka 'Little Nana') in her nursing home.  On Saturday we decided to be tourists in our own town and took the kids on a tram ride into the city. 

Day out in Melbourne - on the tram

I think my son quite enjoyed being on the tram but my daughter moaned most of the way about how slow it was and kept 'accidentally on purpose' elbowing, squashing and generally annoying her brother (note evil glint in eyes in above photo). 

We got off at Flinders Street Station at the end of the very long tram ride and spent 20 minutes or so watching a buskerin Federation Square.  The kids thought he was hilarious and my son tried to give him some M&M's at the end of the performance (as his sister was the one entrusted with the money to go into the busker's hat).

Day out in Melbourne - watching a busker perform

(You can see a tram like the one we caught in the background of this photo). 

There was a whole lot of Chinese stuff going on elsewhere in Federation Square (from the flags and other paraphenalia, I gathered it was mostly pro-Beijing Olympics related).  Kids tend to spend a lot of time in Chinatown in Sydney (daughter even marched in the Chinese New Year parade this year with her Kung Fu group) so not as impressed with the dragons as I thought they would be:

Day out in Melbourne - Chinese dragon

My son and I then went and visited the NGV's Ian Potter Centre (free bits only) while Mum and my daughter went and got themselves a "cup of chino".  There was some kind of gaming exhibition on at one of the other exhibition spaces.  We didn't go to it but did stop and say 'hello' to Super Mario:

Super Mario

We then walked up to my brother's apartment which is near this historic Melbourne building called the Forum:

Forum

Not sure what the Forum is used for these days.  Back when I lived in Melbourne, it had fallen into disrepair and was being used by some religious organisation (the Scientologists I think) as their Melbourne HQ.  think it is back to being used as a performance space again now and is typical of the revival of Melbourne itself in the past few decades.

Kids had a great time at Uncle M's.  Will post more on that and on the rest of the Melbourne trip later.

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This is something I always mean to do but never seem to get around to.  I work right in the city of Sydney so have numerous interesting places I could go to on my lunch break.  I am also in the city frequently on weekends taking the kids to their various activities.  I am going to set myself a challenge to try and do at least one touristy thing a month in the city and write about it on here. 

One of my first ones is going to be participating in a guided tour of the Great Synagogue.  This is so close to where I work that I feel quite remiss to have never have gone on one of their tours.  It looks like quite a striking building from the outside with beautiful, ornate gates.  I actually took some photos of the detail on the gates the other day but they are on my broken phone.

I also really want to go at see the Archibald Prize (portrait) finalists at the Art Gallery of NSW before it closes on 18 May.  I really love the winning work this year by Del Kathryn Barton:

You are what is most beautiful about me

Link to all the finalists here.

I was similarly apathetic when working in Jakarta.  In Jakarta, my office was just a few doors down from the National Museum and opposite the National Monument but do you think I ever visited either of these places?   Canberra was a little better as i was working shift work so used to get so bored and lonely that I did a lot of cultural type things on my days off.  I also do all the touristy things when visiting Canberra with my kids these days - helps that the attractions in Canberra so easy to get to and so attractively priced (or free!).  I used to do lots of things in Melbourne but not anymore.  I think my daughter has been the Museum and the Healesville Sanctuary once each.  My son's biggest adventures in Melbourne are typically going down to the playground near my mum's place or to that Mecca of the South Eastern suburbs, Chadstone - the fashion capital. 

Anyone interested in trying to join in my challenge to be more of a tourist at home?

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