Freya – a star at 20 weeks (gestation) Thursday, 20th March, 2008
Posted by nomadical in Family, General.1 comment so far
It’s a funny thing, but every time we check the stats on our blog, one story has been the consistent favourite for months now. And no, despite recording the most page hits on a single day when we announced Freya’s birth, that’s not the most popular post ever. That honour goes to her 20 week ultrasound image. We couldn’t work out why – until we started looking at the list of search terms people had used to find the blog. And what do you know – googling “20 week ultrasound” currently brings up Freya’s ultrasound as an image at the top of the page. Wow! That’s the kind of fame that only Google can bestow.
Freya demonstrating that at five weeks she now comes with – facial expressions!
Image credit: Helen
Womad Magic Wednesday, 12th March, 2008
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We’ve been playing host to a couple of visitors who came over for the weekend for the Womadelaide ‘world’ music festival. They very kindly managed to arrange for us to get in for the final night, so we waited until the evening cooled down and headed down to Botanic Park, with Freya in the pusher. It’s a record-breaking heatwave here in Adelaide, 10 days straight over 35C, with another week in store. As I write this at 10:30pm the temperature is still over 30C. (Update, 11 days straight over 35C, and counting.)(Another Update: we endured 15 days straight over 35C - including several over 40C.)
It was a bewitching evening – after a 40 degree day, the energy of the crowd in the cool of the night was tremendous. It reminded me of the feel of an Egyptian market, when the entire population emerges to enjoy the night air. Late in the night, I slipped off with Freya to a secluded spot under a tree, and we listened to Tibetan monks chanting in the distance while Freya watched her very first flames – a fantastic fire installation by La Compagnie Carabosse.
Fire, exotic music, the cooling night air, the smell of dry grass, the distant hum of the crowd and the sight of Freya transfixed by the dancing flames – what a night!
Image Credit: Handby at Flickr.
Culture Continues Tuesday, 4th March, 2008
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While Freya takes up most of our waking hours, and provides amazing entertainment, we have managed to keep up with some cultural pursuits – and give her a taste of what the world outside our doors has to offer.
It’s Festival time here in Adelaide, and we’re trying to make the most of the family friendly and low-budget events. Thanks to a generous friend who is a musician in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra we got tickets to the dress rehearsal of the Festival headline act: a modern opera by Osvaldo Golijov “Ainadamar” (Fountain of Tears). Freya came along, safely tucked away in the sling her Oma (that’s grandmother) made for her.
We’ve so far also smuggled Freya into the outdoor Tropfest short film screening in The Garden of Unearthly Delights and a preview screening of In the Shadow of the Moon – a fantastic documentary on the moon-landings, as well as taking her around a marvellous exhibition of the works of Robert Hannaford (who comes from Riverton, Mike’s home town):
Robert Hannaford self portrait “Illness”, 2006.
and the Festival opening night lighting extravaganza.
So don’t feel too sorry for us, we might be missing out on some sleep, but we’re not missing out on everything.
Image Credits: Ainadamar- Adelaide Festival, Robert Hannaford – Robert Hannaford, Northern Lights – Badjonni on Flickr.
