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I read, I write, I roller skate., Warrnambool (2025)

15/02/2025

Just off the Western Highway, less than a kilometre from the Giant Koala, are the Dadswells Bridge tennis courts. What an unexpected bonus to find these courts made of that perfect turf for skating. Fortunately this skater girl keeps her skates always at the ready in the boot of the car.
With songs playing softly from the phone in my pocket, I glide along in the gentle sun. Kangaroos look up from their morning grazing to see if I am a threat . Unsure of this woman on wheels, they bound away. What a great skate! 🛼🦘

01/01/2025

The Season. (1st read of the year finished)
Helen Garner is an Australian icon. Aged 80, with life speeding away she makes a choice to write a book of about love, family and of connection with her youngest grandson Ambrose. With a passion for the Western Bulldogs, many in the literary and football worlds presumed she would write an analytical and statistical piece but instead it is a glorious “Nana’s book about footy.”
Amongst the beautifully descriptive training rituals, coaches banter and pride in Amby, Helen questions her aging. Is she bored? Is she too old to write? Is she still safe to drive her Corolla around the suburbs? Is it too cold for her to watch training on Winter nights? Did she catch what was said with the wind whistling through her hearing aids?
Having been the team manager at my son’s football club, this book resonated so much with my heart. The experience, the people, the volunteers, the passion of footy clubs - she could have been writing about us at the Dennington FNC, rather than the Flemington Colts.
I hope Amby realises he is the luckiest Under 16 player to have his Nana chopping oranges and documenting his growth and triumphs of the season. A truly wonderful feel good read.

30/12/2024

A Summer’s Day. Everyone knows what they look like, sound like, feel like. It was one of those. The endless chirp of cicadas, the green grass turning brown, the sunshine frying bare skin. The sprinkler circling an area of the oval.
“I’m going to run through that sprinkler” the little lion man declares. Off he runs, returning saturated only moments later. His wet hair is plastered to his head, t-shirt darkened by wet patches, shorts dripping. His sister cannot resist such fun so off they both go towards the rotating shower. At 51 years old I watch them run away from my vantage point in the shade of a eucalyptus. That delightful inner child bursts out of me and off I speed shuffle to join in the fun. A phone in hand and car keys in pocket remind me of my adult responsibilities and I stop just short of the sprinkling water to protect these assets. My nephew grasps my wrist and drags me towards the arc of water and we laugh and squeal at the game of it. Through the arc of water I burst. Oh what joy!

26/12/2024

Two clever girls, my niece and my daughter made an elaborate pass the parcel for some Christmas Day family fun. The question was asked "Which Crowe would trade a sibling for a can of Pepsi Max?" The answer was, of course, me! Indeed I probably would trade any of my siblings for a can of my favourite beverage, what I call black magic. My prize within the layer of wrapping was a roller skate bath fizzer!
I am now relaxing in the bath surrounded by warm pink water, courtesy of the fizzer, reflecting on what was a great Christmas Day.
From this serene sanctuary I can hear my children and husband moving about the house, raiding the pantry, the lively commentary of the cricket on the telly and I am feeling ever so content.

21/12/2024

I read, I write, I keep left whilst on our adventures!
I am a woman going places, I walk with a purpose and a mission. I have amazing places to be and interesting things to do. However I’ve discovered that most city dwellers belong to the slow walkers brigade. Family groups and gangs of teenagers meander along together, four wide across the foot path. They stop outside stores and deliberate if they will enter. RG and I have become experts at ducking in between strollers, staying out of bike lanes and skirting large groups who stop suddenly, speeding between cricket supporters and theatre goers travelling at snails pace. Don’t even get me started on the people who stop suddenly to set up elaborate Instagram poses! For goodness sake people, just keep to the left of the footpath!

19/12/2024

I’m feeling all Christmassy. I’m also peri menopausal! These two feelings collided today resulting in me ending up in a mess of heartfelt tears.
We stumbled across the incredible Australian Girls Choir singing Christmas Carols in the Block Arcade. What a random delight! The sunlight streamed through the roof just so, they sounded like angels on high, they crooned harmonies of perfection and when they started doing dance moves to match the jingles, it was just the ultimate Christmas moment, but for me it was mingled with a ton of bittersweet nostalgia. I could see and remember my own little girl reflected in the stars in their eyes, I could hear she and her fellow Holiday Actors carolling with gusto. I was standing, listening, applauding, remembering, crying. Gosh my kids grew up quickly. I know and accept this is the order of life but sometimes it hurts so poignantly that I cry in public!

20/10/2024

The nicest thing happened today. A stranger gave me a rose! 🌹
We were in my favourite cafe (which everyone knows is 2Tarts Baking) when we noticed a stooped, elderly man with a weathered face enter slowly, pushing his walker, which for some reason was adorned with ribbons.
Leaving his walking aid at a nearby table, he was suddenly shuffling towards our table. I think his original intention was to give Caitlin the beautiful hot pink rose he held, when he thought better of the possible scenario of a creepy old man approaching a young woman, so he held the stunning rose out to me instead.
What a kind act. He proudly reported he had grown the rose in his own garden. We asked him about the species of rose and what he fed his roses to make them grow so beautifully. It was a lovely interaction between the old man, RG and our daughter.
We left the cafe all aglow, smiling at our new friend for his kind act. Clearly, giving us the rose and having a chat had made his day, as much as he had made ours.

29/09/2024

I love LOVE and I love the performing arts, so when I discovered that Trent Dalton’s best book (in my opinion) “Love Stories” was being adapted into a play and performed in Brisbane, I booked tickets immediately and worried about flights and accommodation later.
Today we rocked up to QPAC to discover that I had purchased front row seats. Bonus! Ticket holders were invited to send in what they thought Love is, in 25 words or less, so when we took our seats, my submission flashed up on the stage. What fun!
Because it was the final performance Trent Dalton himself was actually there, taking a seat to rousing applause. The show, including Michaela Banas ( a fave from Nowhere Boys - an ABC show our kids loved) was beautiful, emotional, powerful and incredible. The clever use of video, drums, music and dance was so unique. I think I cried at least eight different times. At the end of the show, there was even an actual real marriage proposal on stage. More tears! She said Yes!
The show was so good it had RG googling where it is touring next to see it again. Alas we are not going to Townsville. So instead I will tuck away into my memory bank the amazing day that we saw Love Stories performed with Trent Dalton sitting nearby. When we sat side by side holding hands, laughing and crying, in Brisbane as part of our own love story. ❤️

21/09/2024

Making it to school holidays is always a celebratory milestone, so after work yesterday we went to the pub to celebrate. The girl gang had decreed that we had to go out still dressed in costume from the last day of term dress up shenanigans.
I rocked up to the hotel in my Care Bear onesie, looking pretty darn cute, only to discover that no one had arrived yet. Picture me, in my bright aqua bear suit entering the pub, looking about for a raucous table of women dressed as hippies and instead seeing all eyes upon me and not a hippie in sight. Embarrassing!
“You look like you could use a drink” the bar man said to me. So I ordered a Pepsi max and acted like it was totally normal for a Care Bear to hang out in the pub on a Friday afternoon. Life lesson - never trust a hippie!
Hooray for holidays, a great time for reading. Already finished and enjoyed “Rebel rising” the memoir of Rebel Wilson - a clever bogan Aussie chick who made it in Hollywood.

06/09/2024

I have been in a bubble. I will call it the school camp bubble. From the moment we left the winds of Warrnambool last Monday until I exited the bus tonight, I have been switched on, on duty, at the beck and call of 64 teenagers. I’ve not seen a newspaper, watched any TV, only glanced at emails and barely called home. Being on camp is more than a full time job, and I loved it.
Surprisingly, one of my highlights was our tour of the Australian War Memorial. To see a group of fifteen year olds interested, engaged and very respectful to our grey haired tour guide Dave, who fascinated the students with tales of World War I, was amazing.
Each day we had three different destinations followed by a night time activity so it was go, go, go and go again. I’ve bounced at Bounce, raced around at Laser Tag, been evacuated by fire fighters and stayed fuelled on Pepsi max. I was lucky enough to have my own room with ensuite and bacon and eggs for breakfast every day.
I’ve soothed, calmed, laughed with and at teenagers, administered medications, motivated kids to climb mountains and reminded them to drink water and brush their teeth and it was all so rewarding.
My respect for teachers (already high) has sky rocketed. Maximum effort on minimum sleep is required for camp and I saw staff provide awesome care combined with excellent educational opportunities over and over.
See you next time Canberra. It was a blast!

23/07/2024

Aging disgracefully!

I went to buy a new moisturiser. I’m a simple gal so I looked in Big W. They had a rather large section for skin care but alarmingly they had a section within the section called “Anti-aging skin care.” Being slightly on the mature side I thought this would be most likely where I would find an appropriate choice for a new moisturiser.

The word peptides and retinol were splashed across packaging. Perfect for age spots and dull skin the small writing proclaimed. The lowest priced product I could find on these shelves was $40 for a pump pack of Olay regenerist, a micro sculpting face moisturiser. Regenerist? Micro-sculpting? What does that even mean?

Bamboozled by the variety of products, the claims they made about making my skin look ever youthful and purporting to reduce visible lines, I turned my back on this scary shelf of marketing falsehood. Instead, I purchased a tube of Redwin Sorbolene moisturising crème (note the spelling of cream even) for the grand sum of $3.50. And so far, so good. It’s a little greasy but glides onto my skin just fine.

I refuse to buy into the rhetoric. Life is short, so I’d rather spend $40 on a memorable meal, a ticket to an event, half a tank of petrol to drive off on an adventure, a kind act or donation to charity.

I want my face to show my laugh lines, my age spots and my freckles formed from a happy childhood in the sun. There are wrinkles made by times that I have worried about people that I love. I’m okay with this face I see in the mirror. Who defines beauty anyway?

08/06/2024

Our holiday at home fun continued with a trip to the Mahoneys Road boat ramp. We watched boats launch, people fishing and went for a meander down the river.
The Jean Jail cafe was jumping when we arrived for morning tea and I resisted temptation to buy anything from the ladies wear part of the store. Well done me.
Gallo bakery have been advertising family pies for $10 so that was lunch sorted. A very good pie it was too.
We went for another river side walk this time along the Merri behind the sweeping bend of Laverock Road. It’s such a pretty spot and we kept running into people we knew.
We bought some marshmallows on the way home and lit a fire in the back yard. Now I reek of smoke and feel a little bit sick in the tummy from too many toasted marshmallows! Perfect evening!

07/06/2024

Our Holiday at Home.

It’s a long weekend and unusually for us, we are staying put. However, in typical Caroline fashion, I have a weekend of excitement planned.
Adventures always include cake and this morning started with Rocky Road Cheesecake from Middle Island Delights. To offset this we biked into the Bowls Club for lunch using our new memberships. I couldn’t help but stop for some shenanigans along the way by activating the security camera of a certain property, giggling madly into it!
After riding home it was definitely time to put the feet up so I finished “After the Party” a challenging six part New Zealand made series on iview before we went out for dinner at the Food Truck Stop. What a social hub. So much choice and absolutely delish.

01/06/2024

Whoo hoo! We survived! Today our favourite son turned 20. That means we survived the parenting of teenagers. Two of them in fact. From November 2014 for ten years we’ve ridden the roller coaster of being teenager parents. I recall it as a fab time of first jobs, black clothing, One Direction songs, buying Clearasil products, taking deep breaths whilst teaching Learner drivers, volunteering at extra curricular activities, cheering from the sidelines and applauding from theatre seats. There were slammed doors, swear words, rude fingers, hogging of the bathroom, board games and card games, the biggest box of cereal in the shopping trolley each week, fascinating dinner table conversations, dirty footy boots, YouTube make up tutorials, exam angst, career nights, Open Days and seemingly endless online learning.
Yet it was over all too soon - the end of an era, this major milestone and whilst I’m glad, I’m also sad. I miss my babies, my toddlers, my tweens, my teens. The time passed too quickly as I tried to soak up all the parenting joy as the days, then years flew by.
Fortunately there are parenting adventures still ahead. My confident and very capable twenty somethings are still needing parental advice. What to do about tyre blow outs, how to make emergency dental appointments, where to find their tax file numbers and how to wash a doona. I’m still on the sporting sideline, still buying theatre tickets, still sending texts and memes to hopefully brighten their day. I’m still Mum, just in standby mode - if they need me, ready and happy to leap into action in a new chapter in our life as parents, with our front door and pantry wide open for their visits.
Teenagers - We didn’t just survive, we thrived!

19/05/2024

About six weeks ago, I answered a call on my phone from an unknown number (who even does that?!) telling me that I’d put our names down for “Have you been paying attention?” audience tickets (about two years ago) and that we could come on May 19. I thought it was a scam at first but they didn’t want my credit card details so I said “Yes please.”

Today was the day, so we jumped on the train at Lara and head into the city. It was a perfect morning and we had plenty of time so we strolled casually along the Yarra. To our surprise we saw Alison V and Kylie M on the path participating in the 35km bloody long walk for mitochondrial disease. Well done ladies.

We only walked the four kilometres to Chapel Street before having a long lunch in a cafe with large windows, perfect for people watching, before making our way to Studio 10.

I made good banter with the audience manager when we arrived, and we had come all the way from Warrnambool, so I was pumped when Sam Pang announced the audience prize went to. . . Caroline Garner! I think I will use my HYBPA signed coffee mug as a pen holder!

It’s fascinating to watch a TV show be made and my cheeks hurt from laughing. It was like seeing six different comedians do a two hour set.

Ours was a fab day out topped off with a visit to our dear Jords in Belmont right on dinner time, only to discover that best sister Denise had enough casserole and mash to feed us too!

12/05/2024

SHE IS ME ( A Mother’s Day reflection!)

She. births, she raises,
She feeds, she praises
She takes photos, she brushes hair
She bakes cakes for the school fair
She worries, she hears readers
She cleans footy boots and sneakers
Two precious humans become her all
They beckon and she answers their call.

She drives toy trains, she buys pink,
She sometimes can’t hear herself think
She sings Dora and plays Mario Kart
She watches swimming lessons & dance class
She’s footy manager, she watches choir
She adjudicates fights about who is a liar
She books holidays and trips to the zoo.
Their faves become her favourites too.

She builds LEGO, she colours in
She takes pride in the prizes they win
She Facebooks, she sends memes
She can’t believe they are suddenly teens
She texts, she buys tickets
She teaches driving, she watches cricket
From Dennington they all too soon depart
Two precious humans with a huge piece of her heart.

10/04/2024

Last night I put into Chat GPT all of the places I wanted to visit in the Adelaide Hills today and asked it to create an itinerary for the day. This blew RG’s mind! It was actually a really good itinerary too.

We visited pretty, leafy villages like Stirling, a patisserie call Les Deux Coqs, the climb up to the summit of Mt Barker, silly hats in Hahndorf, loading up on jam and honey at Beerenberg, and what a bargain to climb the Big Rocking Horse at only $2.

We did have a minor tragedy today - I broke my selfie stick. RG doesn’t seem upset about this at all!

09/04/2024

Interstate skate! 🛼🛼

I read, I write, I roller skate.