Bingo and Bunnings.

Brian has beeen in Singapore for the last 3 days. We've been to Bunnings (/B&Q) in his absence and bought a few more plugs, a lawnmower and a lemon tree with large pot. Well, to be precise mum and Dad bought us the lemon tree as a sort of housewarming. It's a dwarf tree called "Lots of lemons" and apparently it produces just that- and even better they're normal size, it's only the bush that's dwarf :o)
I must say they've got the right idea for keeping the children happy too. There's a childrens playground area actually in the store which allowed me to drop them in and leave one or other grandparent sitting watching over them. It makes life far easier from a shopping point of view and I'm sure it makes sound commercial sense too. I have before now had to leave a trolley load of stuff in B&Q and just leave when I could no longer control my childrens desire to run (and I guess my own).
It's been distinctly cooler here and indeed it rained and blew on Wednesday both day and night. We joked about needing to make our own entertainment as the boys couldn't go out, and they had great (albeit fruitless) fun chasing a fly round with a newspaper for about 20 minutes.  Apart from the light relief afforded by the trip to the DIY shop we actually made and played bingo as Alfie absolutely loves it and it's great for his familiarity with numbers. I also decided we'd make some "letter" bingo so that he gets good practise with his alphabet too.

Homemade bingo game. Numbers 0-20.

Lower case letter bingo. More than just a fun game (but don't tell the boys!)

Yesterday too was much cooler, although the monsoon style rain showers had stopped. The boys were delighted to get back out on their bikes and scooters and work off some energy and Alfie is getting used to his stabilisers being much looser as Brian altered them last weekend. He really needs to do some straight runs to get his balance as mainly here he's doing circles which does make it harder. Down to the cycle path along the river at the weekend I think.

Last night I made a Thai green curry for our dinner. The boys loved it and came back for more which is a true compliment for my boys who are by no means fantastic eaters. I used a bought paste as the base I must admit, but added extra kaffir lime to the mix which made it smell really amazing. This was courtesey of Brian's cousin and her partner who live in the hills to the East of here and have lots of citrus trees in their garden. I must admit it had never really occurred to me that a kaffir lime was a fruit tree, it was just a name for a recipe ingredient. They're funny looking things though, and you don't eat them but can use the zest as well as the famed leaves. I did both and the kitchen was filled with an incredible lemon-grassy aroma.

A fresh kaffir lime. Wrinkly as a bulldogs face but full of heavenly scent.

Thank heavens it's been much warmer today, to the point that Alfie even went for a dip in the pool. Ru was less brave and made his own sport filling a bucket and tipping on Alf as he swam underneath. I waited with bated breath for war to break out but Alfie thought it was great fun so they played that way for a while. Later when Mum and I went to the supermarket we invested in some baking ingredients so that we can bake some fairy cakes and bread in the next few days. Can't wait I must say.