The Royal Melbourne Show

Pete and I took the kids to the show today. We caught the train at 8:50 and were in the showgrounds by 9:30-9:45. It seemed far more open and spacious than I’d remembered from my visits as a kid.

There were plenty of rides, which were rather expensive. We had one ride early on, before the crowds arrived, but costliness of the rides kept the queues quite short… which made it easier to take a second ride before leaving! Bella and I went on a rollercoaster (which was a bit lame) and another ride which goes round and round (lucky I don’t rely on writing to earn a living). Milo was content to play sideshow games in lieu of rides – he finds them a little overwhelming. Like father like son. At least when we finally get to Disneyland I will have one daredevil child to keep me company on the scary rides

We watched the horses in the arena; visited the cows and cow judging; saw the arts & crafts; tasted samples of chilli, licorice, sausages and other tasty morsels; checked out the Government area with the SES, police and fire brigade – where the kids got to sit in the back of a divi-van and “ride” the Police motorbike; we watched the wood chopping competition; saw the snakes. There was plenty to see and do.

Then we entered one of the show bag pavillions. The kids were squealing with excitement, eyes like saucers. They couldn’t believe there was sooo much stuff.

Who invented pocket money? Our miserly Bella had accumulated enough money to buy half the sugar at the show. She came home with 5 show bags stuffed full of sugar infested “food”; with every artificial colour and flavour known to man.  But she thinks this is heaven and says as much. She can’t believe her luck… being allowed to buy so much sugar… and then eat it!!

Arriving home, I now sit and watch the kids stuff themselves with the sugary lollies contained in the showbags. My dilemma – let them stuff themselves now and get it all over and done with… or ration the lollies and put up with the sugar highs for the next few weeks and the constant nagging.

I do remember the bittersweet pleasure of eating way too many lollies to the point of feeling ill. I guess we all have to do it once in a while, after all we are only young once. I ate one lolly and it made my tooth hurt.

I have tended toward the over and done with philosophy. Maybe it will create a lolly aversion due to excessive consumption. (Who am I kidding.) Anyway Bella is going to a friends house for dinner… so at least the kids will bounce off the walls rather than each other.

Wish me well as I deal with the aftermath….

Milo Loses His First Tooth!!

Last Saturday (23rd Sept) Milo lost his first tooth. Fortunately, we learned from our experience with Bella not to allow Pippi (our cat) to sleep in his room as this can scare off the tooth fairy (the tooth fairy did come to Bella the second night when Pippi was kept out of the room …) .

Our tooth fairy is Very generous and gives $5 for a first tooth!!

Here’s some pictures of him – proud as punch.

His adult tooth was already through, just behind the baby tooth – which is called shark’s tooth. Bella had the same thing occur for her lower teeth.

10,000

Today I passed 10,000 hits on my blog!! With my highest day of 152.

Certainly an improvement from the days of my whining blog about not getting any hits

And 366 SPAM comments!

Shopping for Dairy and Egg Free Food

Thanks to a comment I received from Jami, here’s some info on where to buy the various products in the recipes:

Dairy Free Margarines can be bought from most supermarkets and are found amongst the other margarines. We use BECEL, but NUTTELEX is also dairy free. Make sure you read the ingredients, as there are some products you would assume are dairy free like “Olive Oil Margarine” actually has dairy in it.

Chocolate Chips – some dark chocolate contains no milk – but you need to read the packs. I have found the CADBURY DARK CHOCOLATE CHIPS have no dairy – however it “MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF MILK“. I purchased these at a Coles or Safeway (Woolworths) – although some stores don’t seem to carry them.  The Max Brenner Chocolate chain also have milk free dark chocolate chips… however I don’t know if they contain traces, so if this is an issue you will need to check with the store.

Soy Chocolate/Soy Choc Chips – Soy chocolate is available in the Health section of the supermarket. We would often buy one in a purple wrapper. Bella loved it. Health Food shops also carry this line and have more variety, though I found them more expensive too. I have not used Soy Chocolate Chips but would suggest a health food shop. Around Easter you can find Soy Easter eggs and bunnies in Health Food Shops and larger supermarkets.

Soy Ice-cream – try SOY GOOD from the supermarket. So far all the kids who’ve tried it (even dairy eating ones) love this stuff! We also discovered the Soy Delicious brand. Turtle Mountain, who produce the range have a brilliant approach to managing and testing for contamination – check them out here. If only there were more companies like this one!!! Plus the ice-cream is awesome. (Not that a two year old would appreciate it)

Egg-replacer – I bought “ORGRAN EGG REPLACER” at the supermarket. I asked the shop assistants and they told me they didn’t think they had any. It was in the Health Food section. I would assume that a decent Health Food Shop would also stock this.

Soy Milk – We use Vitasoy Calci-plus. They have a fresh version and a long life version. The fresh is much nicer, but the long life is handy for the emergency situation. I think the calcium enriched version tastes better – plus I think the added calcium is a must for dairy free kids. The picture below is the Calci-plus low fat – not our preferred option but all that was available. The normal Calci-plus is purple.

Soy Butter – I buy Soy Butter from the supermarket. I think its in the health food section near the other nut butters like cashew butter and almond butter. I imagine this would be available from Health Food shops too.

Improver – I used the standard baking flour improver purchased from the flour/baking area in the supermarket. I don’t have any in the cupboard at the moment. I think it was in little sachets??

We have just had a “Macro” supermarket open up near us, and it has proven to be a great source of interesting, allergy free and organic/bio-dynamic food. Pete shops there regularly. They have a fantastic bio-dynamic, dairy free salami that Bella adores, but it is expensive.

If I’ve missed anything out – or there is something specific you are after, please leave me a comment.

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Commercialising the Blog

I often look at the data that shows how people get to my site.

Mostly people use search engines and are looking for egg free and dairy free recipes, or allergy pictures.

One blog site that has a link to mine is another allergy blog, that is only a month or two old, and they have google ads. If you sign up to Google Ads they put 3 or 4 small, content relevant ads on your blog. If surfers click on the ads, the blog owner collects a small fee (quite small I imagine). As the clicks build up – they eventually accumulate enough $ that google will send them a check.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. I certainly didn’t set up a blog to make money… but I also know I now get a lot of hits.

So what are the ethics associated with putting ads on your blog?

On the one hand – they are a small and non-intrusive, people can see they are paid ads – so it is not deceptive, and it may prove useful to surfers to find more info.

On the other hand – it would feel sort of fake. Would it change what I write about in an effort to attract more visitors? A blog is to jot down your thoughts – have a rave – reach others. Is attempting to make money from it right? Is this capitalism going crazy? These days everything seems to have an angle. I can’t imagine we would be talking about enough money to make it worth the hassle… or would it?

What are your thoughts?

I am keen to know.

Happy Father’s Day

Today is Father’s Day in Australia.

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads, especially mine and Dunx and all my friends that are new Dad’s…. Happy first Father’s Day.

S-L-A-C-K

Boy am I SLACK.

I have been neglecting my blog! An my commenters (sorry guys).

So here goes – what’s been happening!!

The week before last I was in Queensland – up at the Twin Waters Resort for our national dealer sales conference. It was a blast. (I mean it was very hard work and very tiring;)  I drank a little too much – but it was fun and the weather was fantastic. Why the hell don’t we all live in Queensland?? (Mmmm that would be the tropical summers I guess).

Work in general has been crazy. We have won a couple of huge contracts with Defence, Qld Health, plus we are still integrating two other business acquisitions into our business, plus the usual day to day stuff.

Pete has been a bit crazy too. He has been getting heaps of IT work and working on an ad for Samsung. His next is an ad in Dubai, and he may have to head over there for 3 weeks. I want to go too – but I’m not sure if that is going to fly. (Hi Mum – want to come and visit )

I was in a meeting (two weeks ago I think) and someone said “only 17 weeks until Christmas”). How did that happen so fast!

Two weeks ago I spoke with Bella’s new specialist about her allergy blood tests – and its all good!! Her Dairy allergy came back negative and her Egg allergy test was low. That means she will have her Dairy challenge at the end of October and an Egg challenge at the end of November. It may prove that she has a Milk intolerance, but we’ll wait and see.

We are planning a party for Bella post her Milk challenge, a sort of “coming out” from Milk allergy. She would like Cheezels, chocolate and ice-cream cake!! She can’t wait and neither can I!

It will mean quite a different Christmas this year – and we can go on a holiday and relax about eating. Fish is easy to avoid (relatively speaking). We have never been on a family holiday, besides visiting the interstate relos. Ever. It will be a lot easier now.