Another December birthday and one of the main reasons for our visit home. Davina turned 30 on December 13th. Happy Birthday Davina! (She was lucky enough for her actual birthday to fall on a Saturday. Meant that the "I was 29 yesterday" badge I gave her to wear at her party was totally relevant.) To celebrate her birthday, Davina hosted a Roaring 20s themed party.

A 1920s party meant that there were lots of flappers and gangsters in attendance. (My favourite gangster was carrying a violin case.) I wanted to go as something a little different than a flapper. I did a lot of a research to find something that fit the bill. The 1920s is a fantastic dress up decade for boys but not so good for girls.

After looking at movies set in the 1920s, I decided to design a "Singing in the Rain" themed costume. Singing in the Rain is about a film studio's transition from silent films to talkies. (Did you know that all the songs were picked for the film before a story was decided? So they had to generate a plot that fit the songs.) For my costume, I had an umbrella to which I taped blue and silver sparkly, curly streamers to simulate rain. I also had music notes dangling from the umbrella when it opened.


Andrew dressed as the aviator Charles Lindbergh, who in the 20s was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean. This was perfect for him as he is a pilot. For his costume he had a pair of aviator goggles, a "leather" cap and a white scarf. There were a few other aviators there but they were dressed as Biggles, Andrew was the only Charles Lindbergh.

Some of the other costumes that we came up with in our research include:

• Charlie Chaplin
• Harry Houdini
• Tutankhamun (discovered in 1922)
• Babe Ruth (played for the New York Yankees in the 20s)
• Mickey and Minnie Mouse (created in 1928)
• Little Orphan Annie (first appeared in 1924)
• Winnie the Pooh (first appeared in 1926)

More photos on Facebook.

Last night, I managed to fit in a bit of pub trivia, tagging along with Mum and her team, Serendipity at the Harlequin in Pyrmont. Paddy and I must have given the team a bit of a boost as Serendipity ended up winning the evening.

Some of the questions from the evening:

1. What animal can last the longest without water?
   
   
2. What is the 3-letter airport code for Heathrow?
   
   
3. Who is the patron saint of children?
   
   
4. Which country won the America's cup last year?
   
   
5. The members of which pop band co-wrote the musical Chess with Tim Rice?
   
   
6. What weather phenomenon is named because it occurs around Christmas time?
   
   
7. Who was the highest run-scorer for Australia in their recent test series against India?
   
   
8. Is Tuscany on the west or east coast of Italy?

Feel free to leave your answers to the questions in the comments. No using Google to cheat though!

The other day, as I was sorting through my photos I realised that I never posted about our second attempt at the Monopoly Pub Crawl. The aim of the Monopoly pub crawl is to have a drink in pubs that are on the streets, avenues, roads and stations on the Monopoly Board. Sensibly enough, you're only supposed to drink half pints at each pub but with 22 properties and 4 stations on the board it still makes the crawl a big challenge.

Andrew and I first attempted the Monopoly Pub Crawl in November 2006, only a few months after we moved to London (I actually blogged about it in my first year of NaBloPoMo). It was a event to say goodbye to Tash (I can't believe you've been home that long Tash!). This time round our Monopoly Pub Crawl attempt was to celebrate my birthday and as a touristy thing for visiting Bel and Dan to do. Notice how I use the word attempt. Both times we've only done half of the crawl. The first attempt, we did the second half and on the most recent attempt we did the first half (plus a couple of extras).

As the event organiser, I decided the crawl should have a fancy dress element (of course!). I asked people to dress up using the Monopoly Board as inspiration. And, people who love to dress up (and people married to people who love to dress up) were happy (encouraged) to play along.


We had Natalie as Chance, Ali as Angel Islington, Gemma as a gaolbird and Bel and Dan as Mr Moneybags. Andrew dressed up as the Policeman (Do Not Pass Go! Do Not Collect $200) and I dressed up as Second Prize in a Beauty Contest (one of the Chance cards). Thanks for making an effort guys!

Some Monopoly Pub Crawl tips:

• Start the day with a good breakfast. We started out at Borough Market this year. I had a very yummy breakfast wrap. It was scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage and tomato wrapped in Lebanese bread. It.... was... good. I'm still dreaming about it (must make it at home one time.)
  
  
• Print out several copies of the route. As the crawl progresses, make sure that the the most sober person is leading the way (this obviously may change through the course of the day.)
  
  
• Skip Old Kent Road. It's out in the sticks and not very exciting.
  
  
• Try and stick to the same drink the whole way through. This means, you have to pick a drink which you think you can consume 13 pints of. I picked Cider this time. Girly drinks are too sweet, Beer is too filling.
  
  
• As the day progresses you might want to order a pint of water with your half pint of alcohol.
  
  
• Know when to quit. The day is supposed to be fun. When it's evident that people have had a little too much fun it's probably time to head home. Several pubs at the end of the crawl have asked to be removed from the published Monopoly Pub Crawl route. I can imagine that these pubs have probably seen some very messy nights serving pub crawlers.
  
  

We started at pub no 2. at around 11am and finished at pub no. 14 at 10pm. That's a solid 11 hours drinking in 13 different pubs. Ugh! So, over the course of 2 days (2 years apart) we've managed to finish the Monopoly Pub Crawl (except Old Kent Rd of course. Skip it!) Do I get a t-shirt?


More photos on Facebook

The Half a World Away project was inspired by A Year of Mornings. (I use inspired here very loosely. Maybe completely copied is a better phrase.) The Year of Mornings project was started by two friends in America who live on opposite sides of the country. Each morning they would take a photo and post it to a shared blog. It was a way of keeping in touch. A way of sharing a morning even when they were 3191 miles apart.

I was inspired and when I mentioned it to Sue, so was she. We're more than 3191 miles apart, we're half a world apart. When it's daytime in Sydney, it's night time in London. London is heading into Winter. Sydney is having days with temperatures of 35 degrees. I regularly chat to Sue when I'm at work and she is at home of an evening, busy with uni work or cooking dinner. I'm usually asleep when she is at work.

I thought November would be a good month to try out this project. Sue and I decided that taking a photo twice a week was ambitious enough for us.

First up... Sydney Days and London Nights.

From London:
Winter is coming. It actually feels like it's already here. Every evening, when I finish work, all I want to do is head home. As soon as I walk in the door I change into my favourite pair of PJs (my pyjama bottoms have gnomes with Christmas trees on them). It's cold enough now that I also pull on a pair of Hello Kitty socks and my red fleece. Last night, I tucked into a steaming bowl of mac and cheese for dinner while watching NCIS on my laptop. It was the perfect Winter evening. I've officially entered Hibernation mode.



Check out Sue's site at noodlebowl.net and her photos on Flickr.

Yay! Another trivia evening. This time Natalie, Grant, Andrew and I headed to a Trivia Fundraiser hosted by Bek's basketball team, Westside Ladies. We didn't do so well this time. We tanked in the first round getting only 8 points out of a possible 20. (It was really hard!). Thankfully, in the second and bonus rounds we redeemed ourselves to finish fourth for the evening.

Some of the questions that were challenging included:

1. What personal trait do Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Sir Allen Sugar have in common? (it has nothing to do with money.)
   
   
2. What is the Super Nanny's real name?
   
   
3. How many teeth does a garden snail have?
   
   
4. What is Mr Big's (from Sex and the City) full name?
   
   
5. What was the occupation of Patrick Swazye in Ghost?
   
   
6. Where were Venetian Blinds invented?
   
   
7. What does OPEC stand for?
   
   
8. In 1916 the Olympics were cancelled because of World War I. What city was originally slated to host these games?
   
   

Feel free to leave your answers to the questions in the comments. No using Google to cheat though!

Btw, the title of this post was our team name for the evening: Fat Kids Win At Seesaw.