09 Sept 2014
Yesterday was a long day: forty-one hours long. There’s nothing quite like crossing the dateline to leave you delirious with exhaustion. By the time we crawled into bed we were over-tired, had splitting headaches and couldn’t sleep. It’s not surprising 

after approximately six hours sleep in the last forty-one.

This morning Sonya and Bernie kept the kids entertained upstairs for a couple of hours for which we were grateful. Banjo’s face lite up when he saw I was finally awake. He climbed down from the highchair and toddled over to me offering a hug and big wet weetbix kiss. It was adorable and a little awkward.

After playing with the train set and mediating property disputes, it was time for Sonya to take Fox to Kindy. Bernie had an audition, Sonya went to work, and Dave couldn’t stay awake any longer. So light-headed and a little dizzy I had Banjo to myself.

Banjo, who usually loves to sleep, stayed awake for ages but we managed a brief snooze when he finally did. This is a brief taste of the full-time exhaustion of having young children.

Dave and I walk down to Melrose for a coffee at Blue Jam Cafe. The food looked so good we decided to stay for lunch.

This was our first moment together in our own head space. We’d had a frantic week before coming away and had boarded the flight tired. This compounded with the stress of Dave working up to the weekend before we left and then getting sick; with jet lag, and then the chaos of kids; means we don’t feel relaxed yet.

Sitting back in a cool cafe quietly enjoying a salad and fresh juice, with indie rock in the background, finally we felt like the holiday had started.

The plan was to take the kids to LACMA in the afternoon. It took some time wrangling the kids out the door, making me think of a Michael MacIntyre stand up piece http://youtu.be/uFQfylQ2Jgg By the time we arrived the gallery was closing. We managed a quick 5 min whip around to the kids’ favourite exhibit (an automated mechanical metropolis sculpture filled with trains and cars).



Sonya’s oldest friend Jo and daughter Pepper arrived today and we met them for dinner at the Farmers Market. Fox was so excited about seeing Pepper again, he announced the he was in love with her. Fox is four, Pepper is five. The kids went nuts running around every which-way excited, happy and exuberant.




After dinner, ice cream for the kids and ice cold beer for the adults, Dave and I decided to leave the cray-cray and walk home through West Hollywood. We walked past the the old house which they were given three weeks notice to leave (so the owners could sell) and we’re told on the day they went to Mexico on a family vacation. Needless to say it’s still up for sale 2 months later. We fantasized about buying it as an investment property.

Crossing Melrose we noticed an amazing full moon- it was huge on the horizon.

Full moon on Melrose

The evening was spent chatting, watching a moving documentary on Robin Williams, and researching Palm Springs.

I’m so excited to see the desert. I’m not sure Dave shares my feelings.