Packed with original ideas and a first rate cast, The Hunger Games provided this mother-of-three with a thrilling night in the cinema. What’s more, I went without the children. My Saturday night audience was crammed with ranks of tweens, some accompanied by parents but many without, all bursting with excitement, loudly rustling bottomless crisp packets, at turns squealing or whispering to each other.

I’m not sure whether it’s because my life is a blur of carline duties, Sao biscuits smeared with Vegemite and a smattering of writing and acting here and there, but the lead up to this box-office record smashing behemoth seemed to pass right under my radar. It was only when I noticed not one but two parents reading the book at my daughter’s swimming club that I began to draw obvious comparisons with Twilight and allow myself to get swept up in the growing excitement. After [...]

Feb 13.

I’m getting bloggers-guilt on top of my cupcake-anxiety. My youngest turns five today and I’ve some baking to do. You’d think, three kids down the line, that I’d have had ample years to perfect the cupcake but all I’ve mastered is the art of buying cakes at vastly inflated prices in lieu of making a burnt mess that then needs cleaning up. However, my new year’s resolution is to get a grip, to have more dollars and sense. (Less puns would be good too but I’ll start that next month.) None of this provides a very good excuse for my lack of blogging, so I’m going to fill you in on my Xmas vacation in exchange for your leniency.

Headline news?  I learnt to ski. The only other time I had a crack at it  was twenty-five years ago- and that [...]

In winter I like to dream about the perfect Bali escape. But it seems my dreams are stubbornly rooted in the fantasy realm. Maybe you read an earlier blog about a family holiday come undone when the airline grounded two of my immediate family for passport irregularities.

http://www.happychild.com.au/blogs/sophielee/2010/12/10/sorry-your-son-wont-be-travelling-with-us-today

Actually, now I think about it, there are a few Bali holiday realities I’d prefer to permanently shunt back into my dreamworld. Like the time my four-year-old was scratched on the chest by a wild monkey. Or the time we were in a car lurching along the winding road from Seminyak to Ubud when came first reports of the Global Financial Collapse, giving my motion sickness a whole other dimension.

You know what? This year we did actually make it and spent the first few days casting off stress in the familiar ambience:  heavy skies and luscious [...]