Monday, September 12, 2005

My baby adds another year

It' s hard to believe, but my Triffitt baby is about to turn 11. Armed with presents, we went to lunch at Willow Pond as requested and sat down to enjoy a lovely afternoon.

The surrounds at Willow Pond, it must be said, are sublime. The weather was perfect and the Triffbatts were able to sit outside and enjoy the warmth of the day while overlooking the pond. The food was another matter. While some of us thought it was alright, nobody gushed about it. I love food. My beloved loves food. The kids love food. On the whole, we were all rather disappointed.

And I won't talk about the crappy service. Longest wait ever. Then Aiden found a hair floating in his coke and we had a fanta delivered that we didn't ask for, nor wanted.

After a while we decided to head of to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Half way there I took a look at Aiden and abruptly changed my mind. He looked awful. Very pale, very nervous. We turned around and headed for home with promises we'd try again on Sunday.

By Saturday night, however, A was looking better and we set out again.

A short pause while I tell you about Blakey-boy's presents.

We bought Baldur's Gate 2. Nothing surprising there. It's alright if you like that sort of thing. The boys love it. We thought it would be a good replacement for the Vice City game we confiscated two weeks ago (the violence really was abhorrent.)

But...

My boys talk incessantly about a cartoon called Happy Tree Friends. It's their favourite thing in the world. I know they've told me about it in the past, but, you know, it's like a cartoon, about furry animals and nature and stuff (I don't do nature), so I tuned them out. Anyhoo, Battboy sees a DVD for sale with bonus episodes. He thinks of the upcoming birthday and grabs it. He doesn't read the blurb. He brings it home, shows me, and stashes it in our pressie drawer. I take it out, wrap it up and put it in Connor's bag. Lee gets a card and fills it out. We're off. Lunch happens.

Blakey opens the presents and makes the appropriate excited noises over Baldur's Gate. He then opens the second one. Talk about rapture. This kid went into paroxysms of glee. Naturally he starts babbling about it. Naturally I tune him out. "Can we go home? Can we watch it now?"
"After Charlie," I answer, reading the back of the wine list.
As we know Aiden got sick. We went home.
The boys settled down on the couch and begin to watch HTF.
"Lyn!" my darling calls from the loungeroom. "You should see this."
Like, why? It's about furry animals. Being cute. As far as I'm concerned the only time a furry animal looks cute is when it has a band-saw hanging out of it's butt (Yes, I hate animals, but I have good reason. I keep Claratyne in business.) My lovely husband is persistant, so I settle down next to him on the couch and prepare to be bored.
Remember my flippant band-saw comment. Somebody took me at my word. An hour later I was still sitting on the couch, curled up against my burly protector, hiding my eyes from the carnage.
OH! MY! GOODNESS!
I'm still traumatised.
And to think we took Vice City of them because of the irrational violence.

Now, where was I before the pause. Oh yes. Charlie.

Thirty years ago I was treated to something really special. I mean, ultra amazing, six year old, never to be repeated special.
I was one of the two children in Western Australia who got to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory first. Before anybody else.
My dad and his best friend Bob worked as Props Technicians at the Regal theatre (at least I think it was the Regal. It seems right, but this is a memory 30 years old). They managed to get their hands on the newly arrived reels, set them up in the empty cinema, bought Bob's daughter Jane and myself some of those newly arrived sweeties called Tic Tacs and left us to watch the movie. All by ourselves. In that huge cinema.
We were first, man.

Now, anybody who knows me, knows that my dad was a monster. He was evil. Bad. Not one of the good guys. But that one action keeps him fondly in my memory. He occasionally did that sort of thing.

On the weekend, we took the kids to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I sat down on the chair. Stared up at the screen and made a decision.

I was not a reviewer. I was not a writer. I was not the wife of a mad film goer who holds opinions on every movie ever made. I was not even an adult.

With that settled, I sat back and allowed myself to be entertained. I was totally captivated. The movie was enchanting and I was hooked. It's on my 'buy this' list.

Sunday - The final day

We had cheesecake for Blake's birthday yesterday. Note to all. Fruit jelly and candles don't mix.

All in all, a wonderful weekend.

And now, on with the week.

1 comment:

Aria said...

Shame about the Willow Tree, I've only been the once but I liked it then, but it was very quiet that night which might have sped up the service and concentrated their attention on the meals.