Hottest 20 of 2000!

Running every year since 1993, Triple J's Hottest 100 is Australia's biggest music popularity poll. I really enjoy spending my Australia Day listening to the countdown, but I only attended my first Hottest 100 party in 2003 after I had been in Tassie for a year. Before this I had not had much, if any, exposure to Triple J. The town I grew up in was so rural it didn't get reception. Instead, I grew up on a diet of radio-friendly pop and mainstream music. My taste in music has improved dramatically, although I'm not sure my Dad would agree.

Anyway, this year marks 20 years since Triple J started the annual Hottest 100, hence the out-of-season 20 year retrospective Hottest 100. Having to choose 20 songs from 2000 has been a hard task*. It has been also quite time consuming. I choose songs that 1.) left an impression, 2.) I had listened to over and over again, and can repeat all the lyrics, and 3). brought back some kind of memory, be it happy or sad.

Based around the above criteria, I ended up with 60 songs on my list. So came the difficult job of cutting the list down by 40 songs. With great thought and consideration, I am now going to share with you my top 20 songs of the last 20 years. I hope people don't judge me too harshly on my decisions. Daniel is+ also going to share with you his top 20 with you. I wonder if our lists will have any common songs?

*I know the rules said that you where able to vote for any song within the time frame of 1993 to 2013, but to make it simpler, I only choose songs from the Triple J's hottest 100 lists from the last 20 years. If I was to make a list with any song in this time frame I think the list would probably look quite different but that's a post for another day.

2010 Birds of Tokyo: Plans

2008 Children Collide: Farewell Rocketship



Regina Spektor: Real Love 2007
I found it really hard to choose just one Regina Spektor song as I am a fan of all her songs.



2007 Feist: 1234

2005 Xavier Rudd: Messages

2005 Clare Bowditch: Divorcee by 23

2005 The Beautiful Girls: Lets Take The Long Way Home

Daniel mixed this song and Pearl Jam's ... and proposed to me by getting down on one knee, playing his guitar and singing this to me...how can it not be a favourite :)

2005 Emiliana Torrini: Sunny Road

Such a beautiful song of longing.

2003 Hilltop Hoods: Nosebleed Section
This is an odd one for as I am not a massive fan of hip hop but I choose it because it brings back great memories from the many Falls Festivals I've attended where they have played, especially the first in 2006.

2004 Lior: This Old Love

2004 The Waifs: Bridal Train
I first heard this song while I was doing the washing up in 2006. I cried.


2004 The Polyphonic Spree: Hold Me Now


2002 The Waifs: London Still
Love the Waifs. This was the first song of their's that I ever heard, and it's still an old favourite of mine.

2001 Augie March: There Is No Such Place
Usually One Crowded Hour is the favourite Augie March song. This one is much more beautiful and whimsical.

2001 Muse: New Born
Saw these guys live in 2010. It was awesome!

1999 Powderfinger: These Days
You can't not have a Powderfinger song in your list. They are a truely great and talented Australian band.


1999 Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Around The World

1997 The Living End: Prisoner of Society
Great for all those angsty teenage years :).

1997 Radiohead: Karma Police

1996 Bush: Glycerine

Did you vote? If not, what are your favourite songs from the last 20 years.

12 weeks already!

Well, the first 12 weeks are almost over. I can't believe how quickly it has just passed by. I know everyone makes this comment, but it's true. In some ways I can't believe it has only been 12 weeks because it feels as if Beth has always been here with us. I certainly can't imagine a life without her in it now.

People say the first 12 weeks/3 months are the most difficult. It's a time of transition in which you and your baby are getting to know each other, the sleep deprivation is extreme, trying to get into some sort of routine can be difficult, and getting your head around how much life has changed can take a while. This was certainly the case with Nicholas, and it took me a long time to adjust from having no children to having one, but surprisingly going from one child to two has been quite simple. This time round I didn't get to have the same amount of time to adjust. As soon as I got home from the hospital, life just continued on as previously, and Beth just had to fit in. This meant attending all our previous activities, such as Mainly Music, swimming, kindergym etc, but this time with a baby in tow. Thankfully, Beth is such a relaxed child that taking her out doesn't really present itself with any issues. As long as she has milk on hand, she is fine.

The most difficult thing I have found about this whole transition has been Nicholas. He has been super rough with Beth at times. The first eight weeks were the most difficult, with pinching and hitting being his main forms of expressing his anger at Beth being around. I didn't really expect this kind of behaviour. He has always been such a gentle boy, so I was unprepared for it. The most helpful parenting resource I have found throughout this time has been Janet Lansbury's blog Evaluating Child Care, especially this blog post: No Bad Kids: Toddler Discipline Without Shame, and there are many others that have been helpful too. This post in particular has provided me with insight and clarity in dealing with Nicholas' rough behaviour. Most of all, I appreciate how gentle and yet firm one can be while setting boundaries, and all without using spankings, manipulation, punishments and timeouts. This way of disciplining my toddler really resonates with me, as I know I could easily become angry instead. It challenges those first reactions, and requires me to have a calm and respectful attitude. Daniel and I have been consistent in applying these principles and I feel that in these last few weeks Nicholas has really developed an understanding of what we want from him. He is more gentle with Beth, and even interacting with her more (like placing little toys in her lap). I see their relationship developing and it is beautiful. I am very grateful for Janet Lansbury's posts and the way they are helping me become the parent I want to be.

I can't believe that next week I am going to have a two-year-old and a 12-week-old. I never imagined I would be in this position.

It's going to be a warm winter!

This winter will be a cosy winter for both Nicholas and Beth alike, especially when they wear these lovely soft hoodies I made them.

That's two more garments to cross off on my to-do-list :).

• Rain coat
• A hooded jumper for both Nicholas and Beth (have pattern and material)
• A hat for Nicholas (have pattern and material)
• Two long sleeve shirts for me (have pattern and material)
• Two dresses for me (have pattern and material)
• A shirt for me (have pattern and material), and I bought some nursing shirt patterns which I would like to make up (need to buy material)
• A winter skirt for me (have material, need to find a pattern)
• A pillow for Nicholas (have material and pattern)
• Finish the very first quilt I attempted (have the quilt top but need to buy the rest).

And I'm going to add a more things to the list:

• Curtains for the lounge room (I have material for them)
• Finish off the binding on the quilt I made for Daniel and I, and make some matching pillows with the left over material. 

Let it rain!

I finally finished the first of my to-do projects, a rain jacket for Nicholas. I bought the pattern from Peek-a-Boo patterns which I originally found on Etsy. Since then though I have liked them on Facebook and also visited their website. They have heaps of patterns. There are at least 5 or 6 that I really want to buy to make both for Nicholas and Beth. However, before I am able to do this I need to finish all my other projects.

This is the rain jacket pattern I bought. The pattern had a great tutorial that was super easy to follow, with both a written explanation and a picture beside it showing what to do. It was very easy to put together and makes a great finished product.

Rain Jacket

So when the first wet day presented itself we set off outside and to take some photos. I love these photos, the Autumn leaves everywhere are just so pretty, and Nicholas is rather cute too in his little blue rain coat. 

Aww...so happy :).

And here is my list of things to finish (I think it might take me a while):

• Rain coat
• A hooded jumper for both Nicholas and Beth (have pattern and material)
• A hat for Nicholas (have pattern and material)
• Two long sleeve shirts for me (have pattern and material)
• Two dresses for me (have pattern and material)
• A shirt for me (have pattern and material), and I bought some nursing shirt patterns which I would like to make up (need to buy material)
• A winter skirt for me (have material, need to find a pattern)
• A pillow for Nicholas (have material and pattern)
• Finish the very first quilt I attempted (have the quilt top but need to buy the rest). 

Hopefully I will get it all done before the end of the year, because there is a bunch of other stuff I also want to make. 

Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013

The Tasmanian parliament will soon have to decide on a Bill which would radically change abortion law in Tasmania. Public consultation on the first draft closed last week, and amendments are already being made. So far, DHHS has published 88 of the 140 submissions from organisations. Since it is not clear that the Department will actually publish the approximately 1910 individual submissions, Clare and I decided to publish ours in full here.
--Dan.

---

Regarding the Draft Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill, Invitation to Comment.

We write to express strong objection to the proposed Reproductive Health (Access to Terminations) Bill 2013, as we believe that the Bill's provisions: 

1. are not founded on a philosophically defensible system of ethics, 
2. are incompatible with long-standing principles which are foundational to international human rights law, 
3. disproportionately criminalise conscientious objection, and 
4. will not reduce the demand for termination services.  

These objections can be further explained as follows (n.b. we use 'termination' and 'abortion' interchangeably, as does the Criminal Code Act)...

Toddler Busy Bag Swap

I attended my first toddler busy bag swap yesterday. If you haven't participated in a busy bag swap, you should. All you need to do is get a few friends together (we had 10), and have everyone create an age appropriate activity (there are heaps of ideas on Pinterest. Just type 'busy bag swap' in their search engine), and replicate it 10 times. Then on the set date, meet up with the other 9 people and swap bags. At the end you get to take home 10 bags, each with a different activity. This is a great idea, especially with winter setting in and the days getting colder.

My activity was based around Tinkerlab's Art Dice concept. My Dad cut the cubes for me, I sanded and drew on them, added some more ideas for the using the die, and presto, I had a busy bag activity. It really was as easy as that.

And this is what I returned with:

Two threading activities

A colour matching activity

Two cars and a city map

Laminated shape recognition cards

And some craft activities

And already Nicholas is loving the threading activity.

I am so glad I participated in this busy bag swap, and have signed up for a pre-school age swap in June. I'm already looking forward to all the different ideas and activities that people will come up with.

Elizabeth's Quilt

Here is evidence of the making of Beth's quilt (sorry about the poor photo quality they were taken on my phone):

This was on my to-do-list of things before Beth was born. Surprisingly, I got it finished and even took it to hospital with me. I am really pleased with my efforts, especially as the last quilt took me two years to finish. 

Baby doll carrier

Although my free time at the moment is a bit limited, I have been trying to keep myself busy during the rare moments of silence. In the past this time would have been filled with study, but having graduated in December this is no longer the case. Instead, for the next few weeks at least, I am going to focus on finishing all the sewing projects I have sitting in my sewing room. I am not going to buy anymore new material, or be tempted to buy more patterns off Etsy. Rather, I am going to go through the material and patterns I have and clear out my 'to do' draws. It used to only be one draw but it recently spread into another. And when I finish all that I can go back to doing some quilting, as I have one that I made ages ago, without a pattern or any idea how to make quilts, that needs finishing.

To start off this project, I made this baby doll carrier on the weekend for a little person's birthday. I bought the pattern back in Feb with the intention of making and finishing it for Nicholas before Beth arrived, but as always, this didn't happen. As you can see from the photos Nicholas just loved carrying around the teddy in the carrier, so hopefully in the next few days I will finish Nicholas' carrier off and a few more I have on the go for other people.

In the next day or so I will take stock of all the projects I have to start/finish and will write a list here. Do you have projects that need doing? Maybe you could join me :).

A new addition :)

Since my mammoth month of posting in December I have been a bit lazy. This laziness arose from hot weather, a long list of things I needed to finish before the baby arrived, and being heavily pregnant. I certainly found those last few months of pregnancy quite difficult. It didn't help that this summer was unusually warm which meant Nicholas and I spent many a day inside, under the air-con, trying to keep cool. Plus, not being able to sleep at night didn't help with my energy levels. It is usually after you have the baby that people offer to help out but it was during that last week of pregnancy when I felt I needed the most help. At the end I was begging Daniel to stay home because I just wasn't coping and I needed help just to make it through the day.

Here is the last pregnancy photo taken of me at 39 weeks.

Despite the sleep deprivation that comes hand-in-hand with having a newborn, I have a lot more energy now that I am not pregnant. I can even last the whole day without having a rest. Although, if I can sneak one in, I'll take it.

Life with two children is busy. There are more nappies to change, more mouths to feed, more washing to do and more cleaning, but I love it because there is also double to joy, double the laughter and double the hugs. Life feels more complete with two, although I don't feel like our family is finished just yet.

Here is our new addition, Elizabeth Anne. Isn't she just lovely! Nicholas thinks very highly of her and can be very gentle and loving, giving her lots of kisses and hugs. Although, I do think the transition from only child has been a bit difficult for him at times (I'll discuss this more later).

Elizabeth only an hour or so old

First family photo

A month old

I will try to post more often from now on, and get back into this blogging thing...again :).