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Wednesday 20 February 2013

Passionate.

We are a family of extremists. When we are interested in something we don't hold back.

It's no secret that I am addicted to Bikram Yoga:



To the sceptics out there all I can say is that this posture is called 'Standing Separate Head Stretching' or to give it its correct title 'Dandayamana - Bibhaktapada - Paschimottanasana' and it is fantastic for.......getting rid of muffin tops. But it gets better....today, in class the teacher reminded us that two sets of 'Half Tortoise' pose is like having a mini facial AND the equivalent of eight hours sleep. I shudder to think what I would look like if I hadn't done this pose. And if that's not enough, over the holidays, when my children were at their zenith of bickering and carrying on, forcing them to drop and adopt 'Dead Body' pose or 'Savasana'.....sometimes even on the pavement....worked no end of wonders on miraculously bringing them back into line. Don't take my word for it, try it.

My husband is obsessed with his road bike. As soon he turned 45....virtually to the day..... he became a MAMIL....to the uninitiated that's a Middle Aged Man in Lycra. There's a whole parallel universe inhabited by MAMIL's in Hobart...so much so, that most days mine gets up hideously early to rendezvous with a pack of them down on a specific corner of Sandy Bay Road from whence they go and ride their little heats out up hill and down dale......for an hour and a half. He gets back in time to bring me a cup of fortifying tea in bed before we embark on the horror that is getting children to school on time.

Our eldest daughter eats, lives and breathes, of all things, Irish Dancing. To this day, I have no idea how this came about. On Sunday we took her out to the St Andrews Highland Festival which was held in the gorgeous country village of Richmond for  an opportunity to exhibit. Here's a dance she and her friends choreographed:




This is the year that she is hoping to actually set foot on Irish soil and to manage to convince us to squander more money than was spent on my wedding dress, buying her a special dress to perform in. Hmm, we'll see. She also has this habit of breaking into fast and fancy dancing feet.....with no prior warning. I am now somewhat used to this yet when she does it in public you can register the shock on people's faces.

After school and on weekends, our boys inhabit a world of immaginitis where they believe that they are Aquabats:


Over time they have also been Thunderbirds, the whole gamut of Star Wars characters, Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean. Over the holidays there was some inexplicable connection that buzzed between them and 'The Aquabat Supershow'....a program very spasmodically shown on ABC3. This was enough to incite them to vacuum the entire house every second day, to keep their usual pig sty of a room immaculately neat and to complete a whole host of other odious chores so that they could save up the money....in increments of 50 cents....to buy the helmets and goggles. The rest of the costumes were acquired after a turn around the girls clothing department at Target and they leant on my mum to make them the super belts which she kindly obliged and then sent down in the post. Now, they spend most of their time trying to defeat the 'Floating Eye of Death'.

Our youngest daughter loves 'Maisy' mouse and dogmatically demands a 'Maisy' book to be read to her every night before she goes to bed. Most of our collection of 'Maisy' books belonged to her older sister and I remember being surprised then......as a recent convert to motherhood.....when I discovered that Tony, from that utterly dreadful show 'Men Behaving Badly', was the narrator on the TV version. That seemed somehow fundamentally WRONG to me....yet it wasn't as though it was a freak brief foray into children's voiceovers....he even scored the gig for 'Bob The Builder' too. How I wonder.

Rx

11 comments:

  1. Certainly you're a family of extremists! Jemima's dance routine was very good - can't believe they choreographed it themselves.... but you must have introduced her to Irish dance somehow. Did you erroneously show her a video of Michael Flatley, Lord of the Dance himself in his Riverdance heyday which had her begging for Irish dance lessons? xx

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  2. No Michael Flatley videos in this house! Suspect it may have inadvertently snuck in through one of those v. old almost homemade Wiggles videos...and I use the term video as opposed to dvd! Otherwise no accounting for it! Rx

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  3. I endorse Hardcore Passions 11/10.

    Old Mr FF is addicted to Golf. He plays it, practices it, watches it on telly, talks about it, travels the world doing it and is generally obsessed.

    I am addicted to cooking gardening reading watching movies watching tv entertaining walking clothes socialising and the internet.

    I get cross when I can't spend time actioning same.

    The Baby is addicted to cars trucks and anything on wheels. he loves the movie Cars and is obsessed with Dora. he also quite likes golf and destroying the house.

    It's nice to have a hobby.

    x

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    1. Love that scene in 'A Room With A View' where George is having an existential crisis and Lucy tells his dad that he should get a HOBBY....because collecting stamps did all manner of good for her brother Freddie! I agree it's nice to have a hobby....do have others apart from yoga.....Rx

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  4. Love this post Romy!! The boys dressed as the Aquabat's is absolutely priceless, as is the fact that they vacuumed the entire house in order to watch it. Jemima's dancing really is wonderful, although I am alarmed that the dresses are so expensive. I can remember those Wiggles episodes with I think it was Anthony's sister/cousin/niece doing the Irish dancing, back in the day when Anthony also used to double as Captain Feathersword! xx

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  5. Vacuumed the house not once....every day for about three weeks! I agree the cost of Irish Dancing dresses is SCARY.....tempted to learn how to use a sewing machine and whip one up myself! Rx

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  6. They are so cute- love obsessive kids always makes life interesting!

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  7. Love it! "Go hard or go home" is our Motto too Romy, although we have different obsessions to yours. Your boys are hilarious. I'm a bit sad we missed the Richmond festival this year, would have been great to see her dance. As for the yoga, get's rid of muffin tops you say? Might just have to check this out....Melx

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  8. Oh yes, I live with a MAMIL too.
    All the talk about components...it goes in one ear and out the other!
    My addictions are probably baking and blogging.
    And the little one would watch Peppa Pig all day long if I let him!

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  9. Oh Romy, all sorts of wonderful here. Mimi's footwork takes the cake, though. Fabulous. Loved Millie's supportive cries, too. The boys are too funny. Somehow that show didn't register on Planet Baby. I should be glad? J x

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I LOVE hearing your thoughts! Rx