Too much Masterchef

Signs your husband has been watching too much Masterchef: he cooks burgers for dinner and plates up with a flourish of tomato sauce.Signs you have been watching too much Masterchef: you just wrote "plates up" and then photographed your dinner.

How cute is this?

Yesterday our daughter Emily invented a game in the garden for her little cousins. She hid bunches of flowers in vases all over our back garden, and the little ones had to search through and find them among the 'real' flowers. They had a ball. (This is Olivia and Mia returning with 'found flowers'.)Continuing the "awesome cuteness of family" theme, we had a quadruple birthday party at our house on Sunday and, not for the first time, the kids saved the day.

Aunty Alma, Aunty Bev and Baz, as well as little Mia, all turned a year older this week, so I organised a kick-arse Adriano Zumbo V8 Diesel chocolate cake for them. But after battling the Balmain traffic and lining outside in the pouring rain for over an hour, I discovered that the Zumbo folk had somehow "not received" my order, despite the giving and taking of credit card details online. I returned back to a house full of birthday-bbq-goers feeling deflated, sorry and soggy. And minus a cake.

Not to worry: Emily, Alexandra and Olivia (with a bit of secret input from Nanna) set to work and made an absolutely delicious chocolate cake that I think was better than anything Adriano could have concocted himself. This is Alexandra with the masterpiece. Did you ever see a cuter chef? Oh and also, we got hitched. In our garden that my mother fixed up, in front of the Notting Hill blue door that my father painted, followed by 10 courses of deliciousness with a very small group of beloved family and friends at Bistro Ortolan in Leichhardt. All in all it was a pretty darn good weekend!

Rainy weekend

Lovely rainy weekend that opened with an impromptu evening visit to Kurrajong, revealing my mother heading out for dinner at the Heights Pub wearing a brilliant turquoise moo-moo and a wooden necklace of carved African animals, in honour of Multicultural Day at Bilpin Public School. Saturday continued with a relaxing facial, a gift from the incomparable and adorable Sarah J Hyland, followed by a sublime cheese-tasting at Bistro Ortolan with my beloved. We spent the evening listening to music and rain. He made chocolate pudding while I painted little stick-figures on each of the 40 placecards for our wedding next week. Slept to the rhythm of rain on the tin roof outside our bedroom, sweet and unrelenting.

The sun came out briefly on Sunday, making Sydney Harbour sparkle as as we crossed over to the north side to visit my birthday-and-soon-to-be-anniversary-twin Kate and husband Nick, who served up a three-course lunch extravaganza of good food and wine and laughter. Joyfully distended bellies. It was almost dark outside when we left.

More rain, tumbling over the tin roof all night, entering my dreams.

Notting Hill blue

I'm getting married in two weeks. It's only a small wedding, and we're having the ceremony in our tiny back yard, which will be crowded and comedic to say the least. But my wonderful parents have been hard at work making it look like a paradise, and I humbly think it does. So does Ruby the cat.

Their latest idea was to paint the back door. Mum suggested a rust red, but Mr B was adamant: 'Notting Hill blue' was his choice. Remember the bright blue door in the movie Notting Hill? That colour.

(This is my dad painting the door earlier today, just before it rained. Get that blue!)

Possibly I forgot to mention I am marrying a little old lady. To whit:

* Notting Hill is Mr B's favourite movie * He is also fond of The Vicar of Dibley and anything with Penelope Keith in it * We have an Amish patchwork quilt on our bed * He enjoys drinking tea out of fine, floral china teacups, and * Is constantly on the lookout in antique stores for a really nice silver tea set.

Moreover, he is inordinately interested in the antics of the British royal family, past and present. I tender in evidence Exhibit A below, a very beautiful ring he gave me a couple of Christmases ago. I absolutely love it. But does it look familiar?

However, our love affair works because I am a little old lady too. I like all of these things (except the royal family, who leave me yawning I confess), PLUS I have gender on my side. And age, since I'm a year older than he is.

It's one thing to look forward to growing old together. Even better to already be old inside our heads, and have decades of mutual senility to enjoy ahead of us.

A match made in Shady Pines (or Portobello Rd).

Well hello, burgeoning addiction

Life lessons from antique Girls' Own annuals

How to make your home beautiful: Many women who are keenly anxious to dwell in beautiful surroundings, but who are unable to spend much on refurnishing, seem quite unconscious of the large part played by 'order' and 'suitability' in the making of a beautiful home. But order must not be confused with finicking tidiness; it is something far bigger and more dignified than this...

A woman's right to her own income:

Taxing a Woman's Marriage: An Article for Married Women with Incomes of Their Own, which tells of some Anomalies lately brought to Light, and How the Income of Husband and Wife is made to Bear Burdens Jointly that could not be Imposed Separately...

Curried tripe recipe:

Slice two large onions and fry them a light brown colour in two tablespoonfuls of dripping. Stir into the pan one teaspoon of curry powder, one table spoon of flour and three-quarters of a pint of stock...

Ladylike passion:

"We'll never let this house go, Uncle Tuck, never!" said Rose Mary passionately, as she pressed her cheek closer to his arm. "I don't know why I know, but we are going to have it as long as they - and you, you need it - and I'm going to die here myself," she added with a laughing sob, as she shook two tears out of her lashes and looked up at him with adorning stars in her eyes.

Speech therapy:

Paula brightened and did her best to look intelligent. "Bai Jove, yes wather, thanks, thanks," she said. "The air - why of course. I can't think why I couldn't wecall that fact before! But I've a tewwible bwain for poetwy, Miss Wedgwave, yes wather. Deplowa-"

"Yes, yes, Paula," Miss Redgrave cut in dryly. "I have already had ample opportunity to notice that fact."

Literary gold!