It's the most glorious feeling. To have endured months of darkness and cold, bundling yourself up everytime you walk out the door, all the windows in the apartment closed, the ground outside hard and frozen. And suddenly the snow and ice have melted away and spring is upon you. It's the most amazing thing - especially to a girl who grew up in sub-tropical Brisbane, where the change of seasons is almost indiscernible.I have never enjoyed 7 degrees so much before in my life! In Brissie it would be...
Help! Mikus has gone feral. I love him desperately, but lately he is very hard to manage. I know it's just a stage, but its him 'against the world' at the moment and close family members are in the direct firing line. I think it must be a combination of him starting to learn to talk, the frustration of not really being able to talk, realising that he doesnt always have to do everything that Matiss says, and that yelling REALLY loud sometimes DOES actually get what you want!His favourite words in...
Meet Zelta - Tiss' first real friend.Before this, Tiss has been playing cooperatively with other kids, but he has been equally friendly/ equally indifferent to all of them. No matter how hard we parents have tried to push our various offspring together, ultimately, the kids themselves are the ones who decide about friendship. Which is the way it should be!Zelta is also an Australian born Latvian kid living in Riga. She is three. Tiss and Zelta go to the same kindy but Larisa (Zelta's mum) and I...
I just listened to a podcast of a Radio National programme in which they were discussing the recent phenomena of "Geneological Tourism" - that Australian tourist destinations today are often based on a wish to explore their pre-Australian roots. The programme suggested that in the "post-Mabo" Australia non-aboriginal Aussies are trying to find their own "indigenous landscapes". Well here's part of mine:Yesterday mum and I drove 2 hrs north of Riga to appraise my family's forest with the forestry...
I love kids' drawings. Don't care if they're my kids' or someone else's. The freedom of line and imagination is something an adult can't replicate. The other day I almost became an art thief when I saw Meta's (kindergarten friend) drawing of a black cat with multicoloured polka dots.So it was most distressing when Tiss stopped drawing last year in November. During last summer he'd really started getting in to it - you know, drawing those smiling round heads with legs sticking out where their bodies...
Well we've almost done it: we've almost bought a house. If all goes well, it will change hands before August, when the land is subdivided officially (big downpayment has been paid, so I'm tempting fate by boasting already). So here are the specs: 2 storey, 200 square metres (which is BIG for Latvia), 100yr old, wooden terrace house in Agenskalns, Riga. This is a suburb with lots of potential - like Brisbane's West End around 20 years ago. Right over the river from the city, lots of cultural developments...
Well its probably about time I got into this blogging world, considering Jem and I make a living out of internet-related activities! Thought this would be a good way of keeping in touch and perhaps even an appropriate platform for my random ramblings. Expect a whole lot of boring stuff about the kids and the fact that the weather over here is cold! Not sure how often I'll be posting things here - seeing as there's NO TIME, but you never kn...
