It's Thursday morning and I'm back at work. Will has gone for a day at the Sydney Aquarium (and other Darling Harbour delights) with his wonderful Dodo (aka Henry aka my dad aka Will's grandfather).

We are so blessed to have a loving family who are always willing and very happy to spend time with Will. It is probably the most precious resource parents can have and we really appreciate that both my mum and dad and sister are always enthusiastic about spending time with Will, whether it's for an afternoon or for the weekend. Sadly Jason's family live in Perth which makes it impossible for them to have the same amount of contact but it must be said that we are so very lucky to have wonderful family who love and support us, even if it is from a distance. I see friends struggling with the balancing act of children, work, household chores, not to mention a little bit of adult/sanity time without family support and I really offer a great big "thank you" to our own crazy family who, despite their little eccentricities, are always there for us.

It's been a busy week so far. Monday night was so a bit bizarro! Will was at mum's so we decided to go out for a quick meal. We were originally going to see the new Oz film The Oyster Farmer but I was feeling tired and thought a nice dinner out might be the way to go. Decided on The Ranch bistro - it's nothing flash but it's quite a decent bistro and not far from home. We got there at 6:05 pm expecting to see tumbleweed blowing down between the tables - I mean, who goes out on a Monday night? Well, apparently half of Sydney. It was chock-full! They have "mums eat free" on Monday nights and everything points to there being a lot of hungry but cheapskate mothers in the north-west area of Sydney. We decided not to wait.

So we get back into the traffic to head home and decide to pull into this weird little area between Marsfield and Eastwood where Jason thinks he's seen a few restaurants. We drive up to this intersection and yes, there are a few restaurants - including something called Ray's Chinese Restaurant. We should have been warned right then and there but it looked cosy and there were a few people in there eating. I decided it looked like one of those "local secrets" and that all the locals were in on this great little restaurant and we'd stumbled upon it - lucky us! NOT!

Once we were inside I decided it was actually a set from a David Lynch film. While it was called a Chinese restaurant there hardly any Chinese meals on the menu. Everyone around us seemed to be having huge plates of lamb cutlets with prawns and honey-mint sauce (this was a blackboard special). We stuck to our guns and ordered Chinese. Really it wasn't too bad but the plate of pork chops we ordered was HUGE. Never seen anything like it before. I have a feeling that next time we drive past it won't be there, that it was just some strange illusion.

Tuesday night we took Will to the Sydney Swan's Kids' Night at the SCG. It was basically a training session for the Swans and afterwards they came over and signed the kids' shirts, caps, autograph books, whatever. Will was thrilled to meet some of his heroes like Barry Hall (Big Bazza), Michael O'Laughlin and Adam Goodes. It was funny when Ben Matthews came over; Will isn't that familiar with Ben (who has played with the Swans for a number of years but isn't one of the "flashy" players). Will says to him"what's your name, mate?". Everyone had a laugh but I thought - Will is really a chip off the old block, so much like he's dad it's a bit scary. It was a great night and I'm very impressed with how patient and good natured the Swannie boys were with the kids.