Bettanin Family

Como with Grandad

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 01:39:00 +0000

Como House celebrated its 50th Jubilee by opening its doors to the public and throwing a nineteenth century style garden bash. Grandad was visiting for the weekend and cheered Tor on as he 'came to grips' with his first game of tug-of-war. Tor quickly out-paced his grandfather 'round the vege-patches, gaining (for the first time) the upper hand in the all-time classic Grandad game 'I'm a cumm'n to get-cha!!!'

Violin mania

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:12:00 +0000

Tor asked to learn violin after visiting the See family in Brisbane last winter. Their daughter Velvet plays, inspiring Tor to turn various house-hold objects into stringed instruments until his parents finally relented. This is his third group practice session. Neighbour and wonderful friend Alexandra wears a purple top.

Not Molly's day...

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:50:00 +0000

When you have a job interview....when your hot water fails...when you ask to borrow your aunty's shower...when her water gets turned off for maintenance...when she has a pool...even though its winter there's no option but to...

"Who ya gonna call?"

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:01:00 +0000

When there's some-th'n strange, in this neighbourhood...you can bet its Melbourne City Council. Why, I hear you ask would men clad in white and fluro suits stalk the streets at 10pm weilding fire-guns and driving a buggy rigged up with bubbling cauldrons? Apparently to re-paint parking lines! Full marks for the best council costume Blog Bettanin's seen yet.

'Kangaroo jumping'

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:23:00 +0000

"Everybody jump around!"

Visit from Grandma

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 06:22:00 +0000

Grandma visited recently during a Melburnian cold-snap. Undetered, we ventured to the Collingwood children's farm where Grandma proved bravest feeding the horses, and Tor speediest in chasing the lambs!

Grandma further proved a dab hand at 'Mastermind', surviving more than five challenges during the afternoon.

A talented 9 year old

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 00:48:00 +0000

This fabulous picture of an Australian kangaroo was created by Dash Biesemeyer. What makes it particularly impressive, is that Dash lives in San Fransisco USA and has never travelled to Australia. Anthony visited Dash and his family during a trip earlier this year. We understand that Dash and his energetic brother wore out Tor's daddy, who we all know to be a calm and peaceful fellow who is not at all enthusiastic about playing :-) !!!

Tor painted the picture below after our recent trip to the Kimberley region in remote Western Australia. It is a picture of a boab tree with large boab nuts.

Te-levision, can we fix it? Te-levision, no we can't!

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:31:00 +0000

Anthony accepted the Sunday afternoon challenge of trying to fix our tele, which had most inconveniently stopped working ahead of the final episode of "The Chaser's War on Everything".

But as the Chinese say, "one man's misfortune is another's opportunity". For, once an autopsy confirmed the machine was headed for the dumpster, Tor was allowed unfettered access. Being a dab hand with the old tool-box, Tor had a go himself and when his efforts proved fruitless, conveniently converted it into... a spaceship of course!

Tour d'Coventry Gardens

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 06:10:00 +0000

And the yellow jersey goes to....

Broome according to Tor

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:20:00 +0000

At 3 and a half, Mum and Dad reckoned me old enough to take on the Gipp River Road in remote North western Australia. They suggested we do something called 'camping' - first in a place called Broome and then in a different spot each night for 10 or so days.

I helped them pack. We agreed my 'motorbike' could come and I suggested that bigger bags were needed to fit in the furniture - particularly my bed. Mum said 'no', I said 'yes', Dad said 'wait and see'...

It turns out there are things called 'sleeping bags'. This is my Mum's, where I usually ended up from 5am each morning. Also, there are 'hammocks'.

Dad said we were in Broome to 'see stuff'. In Broome, this means pearling museums, historical buildings, pearl shops and indigenous art gallerys. (Yes, Mum was in heaven).

My motorbike carried me happily around town, and when it wasn't allowed inside the Nintendo DS usually was! (Here's Dad and I at the Sun Pictures open air cinema).

Gantheaume Point has lots of rocks and this is where I started learning to 'scramble'...you know, that funny cross between walking and climbing! Scrambling is great exercise and I was determined to prove myself "big and strong!"

Its 5km from the point to the surf club along Cable Beach and you guessed it, my parents wanted to walk it. They said 'motorbike?', I said 'no', they said 'icecream?', I said 'try and catch me' and the race was on! That night I was pretty tired.

We had lots of fun in Broome, but the best fun of all was the Courthouse markets. I scored a whistle in the 'lucky dip' and was eager to join the local muso's with some cool feet-tapp'n busking action! We drew a quite a crowd, particularly my indigenous partner who announced our act as 'mid-day and mid-night!'

Cruis'n on a pearl lugger was also fun. Dad's cousin Diana joined us for the day and she likes hammocks too.

The captain stopped the lugger so that we could swim 'round the back, cling onto the ropes and be dragged through the water. I didn't like this as much as they adults who kept calling it 'spa treatment' or something. More fun was when Mum through me off the boat to swim 'round to the ropes with my Dad. She told the panic-stricken crew I could swim, which of course I can :-)

Diana has cool parents called Vic and Pat. They have a huge teddy collection and let me borrow one each day to motor around Broome.

There was plenty of wild action too, but I'll leave that for mum to blog once she's finished sorting the 2,000 odd snaps we clicked on the trip!

Catchya, Tor

T'was the night before flying...

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 07:50:00 +0000

Twas the night before flying and all through the house,

camp gear cluttered the doorways while mum lept about

maddly stuffing the bags full exclaiming with glee

"Well they won't pack themselves up! Or will they? Lets see...

We've a trangia, some camp beds, a big blue tarpolin,

enough gadgets to weigh down our 737...

There's a point - extra stuff could be to no avail!

Quick hon, can you go grab our faithful o'l scales?"

So we booted a spreadsheet and typed in the weight,

the total risked making our check-in staff faint

Out charger! Out hand-cream! Out 'dressier shirt'!

Out clothing which could not be covered in dirt!

'Til by midnight our bags were lined up in the room

economical, light-weight and destined for Broome!

Hit it!

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 08:39:00 +0000

Eager to expand on the musical limitations of his mother's pots and pans draw, Tor assembled this drum kit himself...

The gift that keeps on giving...

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:09:00 +0000

Anthony took the brave step this week of opening one of his 'memorabilia boxes'. You know the type, we all have them. They hold those football medals, snippets from the local paper and dubious school artworks that we can somehow never bring ourselves to throw out. You can imagine his suprise in discovering a cake-stand. Blue, and still in its original packaging together with a card 'Merry Christmas, love Julie, Peter, Jordan, Zoe and Gabbi'.

Now I confess we've had the odd dig at each other over the years concerning the respective sizes of our collection of memorabilia boxes. After all, its not very eco-friendly to have piles of 'stuff', but I had not thought it possible that either of our collections could harbour a cake stand, for 8 years!!!

From what we can fathom, the Spriggs' must have given it to us at Christmas 2001, a few weeks shy of our first move to London which would explain why we never unpacked it.

So thanks for the gift guys. We were, need we say, very suprised. For his part, Anthony has spent the past week trying to convince Alison (who wouldn't mind some new salad servers) that his collection doesn't contain anything else of note.

CF Community Cup

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 06:53:00 +0000

Her Majesty's 'birthday' provided a great opportunity to visit family in Shepparton and attend the CF Community Cup in nearby Barooga. The Cup is an annual competition between representative sides of the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA) and the Victorian Country Football League (VCFL). Both organisations have strong links with Cystic Fibrosis Victoria and proceeds from the match assist in the provision of CFV support services.

A full article on the Cup will appear in this Spring's edition of 65 Roses - the quarterly newsletter of CFV. Copies can be obtained by contacting CFV on 03 96861811 or at admin@cfv.org.au. Here's a few photos of the day...

Long weekend gathering

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 07:40:00 +0000

It turned out that we weren't the only family who reckoned on visiting the nonni this long weekend. Wrestling playmates included Zane, Louise and that formidable dessert chief...Alana! When the heat got too much in the kitchen you can guess where the boys retreated - to the shed of course!

The love of learning

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:48:00 +0000

A visit from Grandad in late May provides inspiration for new favourite game - school teachers!

Yo Gabba Gabba!

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:01:00 +0000

The place to groove this Saturday was the Palais Theatre in St Kilda, where Moono, Foofa, Brodie, Tutti and Plex were mov'n to the tunes of DJ Lance. For the benefit of those without a three to five-year old, these giant, stuffed characters appear in a children's television show currently airing on ABC 1 called 'Yo Gabba Gabba'. The show has a moralistic and educative content that seeps into the psyche of its audience through the very groovy and repetitive music orchestrated by the show's DJ - called Lance. Now don't get me wrong here, I agree that Lance's hair-style does not aid first impressions of him (being closely akin as it is to an orange toilet brush), yet the warm personality and unfailing energy of the DJ does quickly make a lasting impression on his audience. Today, this audience included Tor, Anthony, a happen'n crowd of three to five year olds and a smaller yet possibly more obsessed band of teen cult followers. This last group (born too late to turn to Star Wars) have latched onto Lance as an idol. They enjoyed the show immensely, passing the intermission by quizzing the kindy group on the purchase location of thier character t-shirts. The answer - Myer. The reason they missed them on their shopping trip? They're in the children's clothing section, not 'the basement'!!!!

Moono! He's so unfriendly...

Foofa! She's pink and happy....

Brodie! The little green one...

Tutti! He likes to have fun...

Plex! The magic robot...

Lake Eyre

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:13:00 +0000

The Lake Eyre complex of salt-pan lakes filled with water this year to a depth of 1.5m during May. Quite miraculously, the flight path of Anthony's plane to Kuala Lumpur went right over the top. It was a clear day affording excellent views of the river systems. He took these photos.

Mother's Day Magic

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sun, 10 May 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Mother's Day started a little earlier than usual for me this year with the dawn start of the Mother's Day Classic. With the auspicious entry number of 6000, I jogged my usual Sunday morning round of the Tan Track alongside hords of others. Being a first-time entrant I was unaware of the unspoken dress code of candy pink, blow-dried hair and lashings of mascara, daring to hazard the circuit in my daggy track-suit!

I returned home to an array of inspiring home-made gifts which included a beautifully beaded necklace and a painted plaster-cast of Tor's hand. Sincere and dedicated efforts had indeed been made!!! After a pancake breakfast (thank you Anthony) we ventured back to the Yarra to party the day away with the excellent children's activities run by the Classic.

Scones on!

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:53:00 +0000

Molly and Tor in...the battle for the scone!

What's hip when you're 3

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 05:42:00 +0000

Hey fans,

Thought I'd update you on what's hip and happ'nen when your 3 (and a half!!!)

My favourite computer game is: Virtual Chuggington.

My favourite wheels are: my bike. Its fun tearing off down the street to kindy while mum runs behind with my Thomas back-pack!

The best food is: anything with tomato sauce.

The coolest chick around is: Kylie Minogue! No joke - now that she's pulled on a pink skivy she's become my favourite Wiggle. When pressed by mum I say I like her voice.

In the car I like listening to: U2

When I grow up I want to be: a truck driver, a crane driver, a train driver, a fork-lift operator...and a driver of most other vehicles.

I am now 97.9cm tall and weigh 16.1 kg which is supposedly too much for mum's back - although I remain sceptical. I am tip-top healthy and twice as cheeky.

Catchya, Tor

The Gathering

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 02:45:00 +0000

Zia Richetta's visit to Australia was celebrated on a grand scale at a family gathering in mid March. Her sister Zia Angela kindly hosted the event, which is difficult to describe to the uninitiated. Suffice it to say that a very very large number of family members warmly and enthusiastically enjoyed each other's company. We munched, nattered and wrestled our way through the afternoon departing with full stomachs and glad hearts.

Gormet delacies were spread across the billard table - come buffet - each carefully hand-made. Gabriel and workers put in the hard yards on the spit roaster delivering us a wonderful roast. Special mention must also go to Molly and her yo-yo biscuits that barely made it to the table before being munched out of thier container. Need she say that Aunty Alison is expecting great things when we welcome you back to our home this October!!!

Tor and a very large number of other children had a great time skidding off old tricycles, climbing around a wooden castle and wrestling in the lounge.

And Zia Richetta? Well she never looks a day older! Thanks for a great day Zia Angela and everyone.

Little fire-bird

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 04:23:00 +0000

We visited the Zoo one day and were eager participants at story-time...in fact we were the only participants. No to be put off, we begged the reluctant story-tellers to proceed in telling their Indonesian tale of the fire-bird and water-bird. Our little actor proved to be a very enthusiastic fire-bird, producing both a person and an orangutan from his 'cooking pot'. The story made such an impression that he later painted it in a stencil sequence now hung in his bedroom. Many thanks to the patient staff at Melbourne Zoo!

Minnamurra moments

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 02:24:00 +0000

We visited Grandma in Wollongong for a refreshing long weekend in March. The surf was up and the toy-box poised for action - so both boys had a wonderful time. Alison enjoyed catching up with her mum Liane and was delighted to discover that the dynamic duo were open to bushwalking at Minnamurra falls.

Tor's bushwalking legs are coming along - under protest. And so we've discovered the value of a pocket of reward lollies stuffed into the backpack! The only downside to this parental management strategy is that he now solemnly believes he is due a lolly should he spot a waterfall, creek or other free flowing acquatic feature.

For Tor, the weekend's highlights included checking Grandma's mailbox which features a winning 2-way viewing design. And of course there were the cup-cakes. Grandma is a dab hand with the hundreds and thousands and is suprising skilled at facilitating the exercise alongside a three year old bent on 'sprinking' the floor.

Thanks for a fab weekend mum!

Big kinder boy...

noreply@blogger.com (Tor, Alison and Anthony) — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:28:00 +0000

We released Tor into the world (yes 'world', not 'wild') this week when he started kindergarten. 'Huh?' I hear you exclaim, the lad's only three! And there-in lies the first lesson of today's educative journey - it starts young. For whereas I nostalgically recall spending my tender years running on the grassed expanse of my parent's suburban backyard chasing butterflys and the like, Tor will join fellow Melbournian 3 year olds in kindergarten...well for three half-days a week anyway.

In truth, the lad has consistently asked to go since he first spotted troops of happy paint-clad kiddies spilling out of our local kindergarten 18 months ago. To sooth over any first day nerves we engaged in a little role play (video-ed in the above clip) before leaping out the door the next morning onto 'silver flash'. For those who've not yet met flashy, he's an old children's pedal bike that Anthony attacked with a can of silver paint to mask the very pink indications that it belonged to Tor's female neighbour, the very generous Alexandra who gave it up. He now rides it without training wheels to kinder and back...while Alison runs alongside with his back-pack!