Day 24 A brief history of Othodontistry.

Over time I have had different people take different approaches to my teeth/jaw problems. Most are in agreeance though, that the removal of teeth in my childhood was an incorrect move by the dentist concerned. As a result I have had multiple dental appliances to either relieve symptoms or help correct my bite.

I started my first round of orthodontic treatment 2 weeks before my 21^st birthday. I had expanding plates (the pink ones in the pic) for about 15 months. Then I got braces. I fell pregnant with Declan very soon after and suffered terribly with morning sickness. The metallic taste of the braces made it fairly unbearable, so I had them taken off, and was told I could go back to treatment later (having paid for all but a few hundred dollars of the few thousand dollar bill this was encouraging). When I returned for treatment, however, I was told that I would have to pay in full again! Having no income and a small child to care for, this was not possible.

As my symptoms continued (headaches, clunky jaw and jaw joint pain) I had a few different dentists attempt to fit appliances to relieve the symptoms.

Then at the end of 2010 I went to an orthopaedic dentist who deals more with the structure of your mouth than just straight teeth. I have had 4 different appliances in the past year and today, I got another new one. The dentist is impressed with the gains my mouth structure has made, as he said that in 8 weeks, I movement I gained was about what he would expect in a child over 6 months!

Although my symptoms are getting less, my most recent appliance (the one in the bottom of the pic) is rather large and bulky and means I have a very pronounced speech impediment! The thing about this is as I have had a similar appliance previously I kind of know what to expect. The last time I had this, I was in an office environment where most of my work was over the phone and my spiel “it is Felicity calling from the CES” meant that I changed my name to Mary at work so I had fewer esses (s) and ells (l) to say! This time round though I only have to wear the appliance for 14 hours a day which means I don’t have to wear it at work!

Day 23 I am no longer a keyholder.

Today I went in to QWPS to drop of the last of the bits and pieces I still had from the end of last year. I handed some paperwork to Kylie, picked up the last of my belongings from my tote tray (thanks Belinda) and dropped off my keys to Elva. I feel a little sad and my lanyard looks considerably emptier than normal. I had a front gate key, a front door key and a classroom key that I carried with me whenever I was at school. As my students from last year would appreciate though, I still have my pen and USB so I am still able to function even if I can’t get in through locked doors!

Day 22 Farewell Sydney.

On our final day in Sydney, we packed up and checked out of the hotel room and headed down the road as Sean wanted to check out the park at the end of the street I mentioned to him. When we got there, we saw 2 rowing teams on the harbour and the above photo is where they would have ended up had they kept rowing! I was amazed that with all of the huge boats around, the only boats that were moving were the 2 rowing team boats and 2 rubber dinghies with outboard motors that were headed out under the bridges! Brave people I reckon!

When we left there we went and drove around Olympic park as Sean wanted to have a look around at how things had changed since 2000 (he was on army security detail for the Olympics). Then we went to Ikea (sigh) and Costco (same as Canberra but with 50 million more people in the same size store!) and then continued on home. A huge weekend and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight!

Day 21 Can time be gorgeous?

Today we woke to an overcast day. It was still quite warm, so I started the day with a swim in the hotel pool. When we all finally got moving after last night’s late night, we caught the tram in to Star City to walk in to Darling Harbour sightseeing along the way...however sightseeing and walking in the pouring rain is not a good mix.

When we got to Darling Harbour, we sat and had coffee to collect our thoughts and decided to explore the shops in the Darling Harbour precinct. This turned out to be a good choice as by the time we emerged, the rain had stopped and we were able to continue on our merry dawdling way. We had hoped to pop in to the Chinese Gardens, however as it was the weekend of Chinese New Year, the line up to get in was quite substantial, so we continued on.

The kids had never been to Paddy’s Markets, so we wound our way through. Illi spent most of her money but Declan wanted things that were more than he had available.

After Paddy’s, we went to the Harry Potter exhibition at the Powerhouse Museum (if you go I would strongly recommend paying the extra money for the audio tour) then went and sat on the foreshore at Darling Harbour and had frozen cokes and rested our weary feet while watching the barge being set up for the fireworks later in the night.

After we grabbed some dinner, we hopped back on the tram and went back to the hotel where the kids hopped in the pool for a relaxing swim to end the day.

The above pic is the watch Illi got at Paddy’s markets. She loves it and even slept with it on…it cost her a whole $10! She is looking forward to going back to school so she can show off her new watch!

Day 20 A long day with a sweet end.

Today we went to Sydney for a few days away. We arrived in Sydney around lunchtime and as we were a little early for our hotel check-in, we wandered down Glebe Point Road (in Glebe). I love Glebe and lived there for about 6 months in 1994-95. After a stroll, and some lunch, we checked in and went exploring. We walked about 2.5-3km in to Chinatown (via a few detours) and had some dinner. Then we caught the tram to Star City. Ill and I hopped off and Sean and Declan continued back to the hotel. Illi and I went to see Annie at the Lyric Theatre. As a show, it was great, but as Annie devotees, we were a little deflated as it deviated from the original story-including changing the order of the story, left out some great songs and added in some others! Afterwards we popped in to Adriano Zumbo’s Patisserie (it is open ‘til 11pm!) and bought some dessert. Illi chose 2 macaroons, a redskin flavoured one and a milo flavoured one. I got a creamy slice called a Carmello. We waited to eat them until we got back to the hotel and took pics. I offered some of mine to Sean, but he got distracted and the above pic was the result of my late night snack!

Day 19 Getting the gear.

Since Kindergarten, Illi has been taking dance classes of some discipline or another. She started with All Stars which did dance drama and singing, then she went to ballet, then jazz and tap, then callisthenics. Now at the beginning of year 8, she has decided she doesn’t want to dance any more. I insist my children do some sort of sport as if they weren’t committed to attending, they would be totally inactive (at least they have to attend a class a week of some sport to get them out the door).

When we were in Newcastle Declan went to Tae Kwon Do, but here in Canberra TKD did not work out well for him and he started Karate with some school friends. For a few months, Declan and Sean have been hassling Illi and she finally gave in and decided to join in and try karate too!

Declan has grown so much in the past year that he needed a new Gi (karate suit). The thing is, he didn’t need the top and the bottom at the same time. So he swapped pants some months ago but only swapped to the new jacket recently. It turns out that we threw out the pants in a bag of clothing going to charity ages ago, so while we had a jacket suitable for Illi, there were no pants to go with it!

I tried ebay and a local sports shop but I was either going to have to fork out $30 for a pair of pants or $35+ for a whole Gi. Then I had a brainwave…what if other people also donate their Gis to charity?? Today’s pic is of Illi checking out things at Vinnie’s at Tuggeranong where we found a suitable pair of Gi pants for $8! At next Tuesday’s class, she will be suitably attired!

Day 18 How to get a child out of the house pt 1

Today I had a fairly busy day going here and there. I also tried to structure my day so that I could taxi Illi to an outing she was to attend. Unfortunately she decided not to meet up with the group of girls but I am still yet to hear a reasonable excuse as to why. So far these holidays, neither Illi nor Declan have done much at all, preferring to play with their computers or watch tv than step foot outside. So today I used one of my back up tempters to get Illi out of the house. She made a comment yesterday that she had NOTHING to read (hmmm…I seem to remember a child who got 2 new bookcases for Christmas, who had no trouble filling them!) so I said that I was going to the library and that if she didn’t come, there was no way that I was going to be at all sympathetic to her “nothing to read” whinge!
The above photo is our much loved library bag with my books and Illi's DVD still in it, Illi has already taken her pile of books and is working her way through them. I have a feeling she will be in trouble for not turning her light out at a decent time tonight!

Day 17 Tastes peppery!

Today I went to Rowena’s and she asked if I knew of any recipes using kiwifruit as she had some she needed to use. I couldn’t think of any off hand so I Googled. I found a recipe for coconut kiwi and something else muffins but as she had no coconut, that wasn’t possible. I thought though, I wonder if they could be used as a substitute for lemons in lemon butter, thus making kiwi butter. I pureed the kiwifruit to directly substitute the lemon juice and zest for the same quantity of pureed kiwifruit. It behaved as it should and went custard-like on cooling, the only thing is that as it cooked it developed a peppery taste! We made a pie crust and filled it with the kiwi-butter and then made a meringue top separately to then sit on the pie (as I was unsure how the kiwi-butter would go in the oven if we put the meringue on top to bake) making it a lemon meringue style pie but using kiwifruit instead! While I wouldn’t make it again, it was a very unusual combination of flavours. I must say a drizzle of the original, uncooked pureed kiwifruit on top made it taste a little more like the original ingredient. (BTW today’s pic is of a slice of the aforementioned pie)