Author: Isolde

See how he stands so easily and lightly despite his knapsacks and uniform, steadying his gun as it leans upright beside him. His hat sits at a slight angle on his head and I can see the veins in his hand, which is hanging loosely by his side. I can see the ironed crease of his trousers. He looks relaxed, but more than that, his smile is cheeky and jovial, as if he’s having a great time. He is an Aboriginal soldier and the black and white photo was taken in November 1941 at Darling Harbour as he and his…

On Friday night, after a gruelling week, the girls and I walked to the primary school a block away for the school’s annual twilight fair. We arrived after 7pm and it was still light. The place was buzzing with kids eating, climbing the play equipment, jumping on the jumping castle, playing in the ukulele band and generally making a lot of noise. The girls were excited to be going out after dark (we rarely do). They were very chatty, just as they had been a few weeks ago when we went out for the light festival after dark. Dinner was…

We had more sad news this month with the death of an old friend of Steve’s family, Norman Beischer, who died from leukaemia on the second of February. He left a big legacy too in his field of obstetrics and gynacology. He wrote 180 published research papers, edited a journal for 17 years, co-wrote many editions of textbooks and lectured at Melbourne University, earning him (like his friend, Steve’s father) an AO. In between all that, he delivered 10,000 babies. That’s just over one every two days for 60 years. Among these babies was Steve and his sisters. Imagine the…

As we ease in to 2015, it’s not too late to look back at some of my favourite quotes from the girls in 2014. Enjoy. Lara: ‘Where do the clouds go at night time?’ Rhea: ‘Where does the sun go to bed?’ Lara: ‘There’s [w]ee’ and poo coming from both my botties. It’s tite [quite] ‘onderful!’ Rhea: ‘This car is dirty.’ Steve: ‘Yes. It’s a pigsty, like our house. ‘ Lara: ‘I don’t make a mess, no. But sometimes I put bower [flour] all over de boor [floor.] I did that 2 times. Rhea: ‘It’s a ‘it [lick]…

The first time mum had a brush with death was about 10 years ago, when she wasn’t even 60. She was in Paris with dad and Duncan and asked dad to call an ambulance from their hotel room because she was feeling that her heart was giving way. Duncan tells the story of the very efficient French health system, which sent not one or two but seven ambulance officers, all of them piling in to the small room and taking up their stations: some asking questions and taking notes, some hooking mum up to sophisticated machines that they brought with…

I participated in an activity earlier this year, in which the membership of the refugee advocacy group that I contribute to were invited to write a letter which would be delivered to an asylum seeker in detention, to help give them some hope that Australia’s harsh stance on asylum seekers is not representative of all Australians’ views. I wrote a simple letter which I felt struck the right balance between respect, compassion, friendliness and being down-to-earth. I didn’t hear back from anyone, but hopefully someone received it and it made them feel a little bit better. What must it be…

Spring is such a rejuvenating time of year. I love watching the blossoms singing out in their pretty girl pinks; bold, deep variations on rose and simple white; smelling the jasmine and lilac; standing under a neighbour’s carport completely roofed with bunches of wisteria and just drinking in the smell. Two or three weeks later and all this is gone, replaced by green leaves, green grass going to seed, wind, hayfever, and the unpredictable temperatures of the season, from lows of 2 to highs of 30, and everything in between. Before having the girls, I used to find a bit…

Steve opened the ‘communication book’ from school and groaned. The school was planning a Father’s Day concert – that bit was OK – and the teachers would appreciate the parents supplying costumes for the event, which was in around two weeks’ time (both intervening weekends of which we would be away). Lara had chosen to be a clown and Rhea, a lion. Parents were requested to provide costumes as similar as possible to the enclosed drawings so that the groups of lions, ballerinas, clowns etc would be somewhat uniform. I think I have mentioned that I used to attend the…

We had another weekend interlude without the girls this weekend. The last one a few months ago was for my 40th: hotel with harbour views, dinner, gallery. This weekend it was Steve’s turn, on the significant occasion of him turning fifty tomorrow. The restaurant provided us with a private dining room to ourselves, a striking space because the walls were unusually tiled in large squares of dappled brown and white imitation cow hide. And it was pretty close to Steve’s perfect meal, plates and plates of carefully selected, paired and cooked Italian food: terrine; home-made bread; garlic prawns; house-cured prosciutto;…

Winter holidays. Boy, was I due for them! I’d been flat out at work – no time for a lunch break in three weeks, then the girls developed successive viruses with high fevers, I developed whooping cough and the girls and I rounded it off with conjunctivitis and pneumonia respectively. Steve had a few days of sickness in there too, luckily hardly overlapping with me at all. After a long bus ride in the first leg of the trip, the dash to catch the plane before our luggage was offloaded was the second last struggle, the final one being wrangling…