[meleliza]

Friday afternoon, i took the kids to the new KidZooU. It’s full of rare breeds of sheep, goats, chicks and stuff. Many were from Australia, so I was thinking of all of you while we petted them. 🙂 I got my breakfast in bed and sleep in on Saturday. In the afternoon, we were off to a chart fair. Sunday morning we went to Mass, but when we got home, Hubby poured me a mimosa and I spent the rest of the beautiful afternoon on the sofa in our sunny family room reading and sipping mimosas. Thanks to a new sandbox, the kids played outside happily for the entire afternoon! I can’t remember the last time I had such a restful weekend. Wonderful.

[Sarvi]

That sounds so lovely, happy Mother’s Day.

[Maggie]

We spent Mother’s Day with my brother and his family. I was amused when my 4 year-old got jealous of her baby cousin. “You give baby to him” she told me and pointed at her uncle. I guess she thinks she’s still my baby.

[lattemama]

No sewing today for me since we had a sudden change in the weather almost over night. It’s been nearly 30C today after weeks and weeks of below 15C and I have a hard time adjusting.

But the Sketchbook pattern is traced at least so maybe I can get something started while we wait for the Eurovision Song Contest to begin tonight (it should be cooler in an hour or two). I live in the hosting city (Malmö, Sweden) and my town is packed full of people who’s here to see the show or just wanted to experience the atmosphere.

The show starts at 9 pm but my littlest one asked so nicely if she could stay up to see it. She even agreed to take a nap after hiking – which she hasn’t done, but at least she’s been resting in bed. We’ll see how long she’ll last.

[needlewoman]

Wow, lattemama; wait til I tell my Eurovision fan friend that I “know” someone in Malmo! I’ll bet the tourists are thrilled with the warmer temps. Is it making your everyday life very difficult with traffic etc?

The only mimosa I know about is a flower/bush (c/o Gone with the Wind); what are yours made of, Mel? Whatever, I’m glad you had such a relaxing M’s Day.

[Tamara]

There is a dress in an old issue of Australian smocking and Embroidery called Mimosa – I thought it might have been a girls name before I found out it is the name of a plant! But then girls could be called that – like the daisies and poppies of this world!

Wow! Eurovision! That would be exciting! How did the children like it?

In between being buried under my quilting project trying frantically to get it done and able to be used, we have been battling with bugs again. It is only week three of the term and I have been called twice by the school already saying one or other of my kids have thrown up! It is going around and quite a bad strain where some kids have ended up in hospital (as a friends wife also did). Now we have the loose crackly cough thanks to the spontaneous idea of lighting a bonfire in the back yard. My kids don’t fair well with this weather of cold evenings. It goes straight to their chest! They fed the “arsonist” in them though by lighting up the rubbish my fil had piled to burn but it wasn’t without the request to get my cooking marshmallows out to “roast” – wrong type, too small and they would end up melted mush on the end of the sticks! Next time I said when the decision is actually a planned one! You can tell marshmallows are not really a staple in our house!

I did eight blocks of quilting yesterday and managed to complete a whole corner! Only three more to go and then the border!

[lattemama]

The girls were both excited to stay up but Sofia bowed out before the singing was over at around 11 pm while Isabel stayed until it was clear that Denmark had won but three countries still had to leave their votes.

The show was great though. The woman who hosted it is very professional and there were great writers. Not sure how it went over in the rest of Europe/the World but I liked it.

The Danish song was ok I guess. There wasn’t one that stood out – in a good way I should say. If you are so inclined you should google/search Youtube for “Cezar Romania esc 2013”. Trust me. It’s hilarious.

As for living in the hosting city – I haven’t noticed much. We live in the suburbs and I work on the outskirts of town. My husband has to travel by bus through town to get to his office but he’s been away on business most of the week. There has been lots of activities down town but we’ve missed most of them. Which is sort of a shame in hindsight.

[JohannaO]

No kidding on the Cezar Romania. Wow. There are just so many things to say, and yet, words fail me. I did like the winning song though.

[lattemama]

Johanna – I feel the same way, my jaw dropped and I couldn’t stop giggling.

There is another funny thing to google/Youtube search from last night “Lynda Woodruff EBU esc”. She’s a Swedish singer/comedienne who did some sketches both last year and this year pretending to be a representative for EBU (European Broadcasting Union). Her English accent is hilarious (and unsurprisingly good since her parents are from the US and the UK – but she was born in Sweden – Sarah Dawn Finer is her name and she sang in the interlude last night – ABBA’s The Winner Takes it All).

[meleliza]

Bush? flower? Mimosa is a breakfast cocktail: a little orange juice, a splash of Cointreau topped off with Champagne. In England it’s called Bucks Fizz.

I remember the first time I saw Eurovision when I lived in Germany. Not sure I ever watched it again and I can’t quite say I miss it. Quite the spectacle to be sure. We get lots of festivals in Philly too. Right now it’s graduation and street festival season. We’ve got quite a few big universities right downtown, so it gets awfully busy and crowded in May. We haven’t moved the car all weekend for fear of losing our parking spot. 🙂

[needlewoman]

Thanks for all the answers, ladies – between you all, this forum is better and more fun than Wikipedia.

I saw a picture of the Euro winner; thought the song was dreary but loved the accompanying drummers. What a hoot! We’re coming to the end of our graduation season in Oz; it’s a little different to the US in that it’s the students who finished their studies at the end of the previous year (Nov/Dec) that get their opp to dress up/be photographed and receive their diploma during April/May. Two of my nieces have just ‘graduated’, and I’m hoping for photos. Could be a bit of a wait.

Sorry to hear about lurgies and chests as our nights get colder, and the tummy bugs. Glad to hear the quilting is progressing, however. I spent the weekend sorting my quilting fabric after having rummaged through a couple of buckets for pieces for a friend’s quilt. Result: very tired this morning but extremely well consolidated/sorted fabric, and scraps for library, and bigger pieces for quilting group subtracted. Now that’s done, really hoping to return to sewing soon.

[needlewoman]

All my sympathy and thoughts are with any forum member who is affected in any way but the terrible tornado near Oklahoma city. Fiona.

[Tamara]

The lurgies are taking hold unfortunately. Apparently six of our teachers were down with one or the other (or both) on Monday. Imogen came home rejoicing over no homework and told of how she spent the day with the year 6/7 ‘s whilst others had to go to the preprimary class because there weren’t enough teachers to take the class as a whole.

I think of it this way. It is probably our turn to get a bout of this seeing as we have escaped the previous ones. But I have been advised to keep the children home until they are really 100% as they can fall flat on their faces again if they are sent back to school not fully recovered. Imogen got her wish to “drop like a fly” although I don’t think she enjoyed it.

Yes, I heard that on the news last night about the tornado. All I can say is to the communities affected is that you are strong and you have love and support from the whole world not just your country and most importantly you will bounce back eventually.

Needlewoman do you ever get a sore neck whilst FMQ-ing? My neck feels like it has been in a vice! Nothing one of those fab lavender and wheat bags cant fix. I am going to try and take advantage of the non school organisation part of the day and keep going in small deliverances.

So what degrees did they do?

[Lightning McStitch]

I only knew mimosa as a flower, but I like your idea of a breakfast cocktail Meleliza.

Mimosa is very similar to the Australian wattle, which brings me to a favourite poem….

(best read aloud in your broadest Croc Dundee ‘strine)

I love the golden wattle,

Emblem of our land.

You can stick it in a bottle,

Or hold it in your hand.

[Tamara]

Have you got your hands hooked together just so in recital mode while saying it Lightning? I am wondering how Australian am I? Born and bred here sing: I am Austray- li – un! Yet I admit that is a new little ditty!

Isn’t there a Mimosa tea? Or am I making it up?