Congratulations Elliot!

After years of learning the piano, we were finally brave enough to enter our first competition. Congratulations to Elliot for being one of the prizewinners at the UMT piano competition! We were probably more nervous than he was! The $70 prize money also came in handy...I would have uploaded a video of him playing if I had actually managed to get a good video. Oops..

A proud teacher!

Waiting to start

Elliot's cheer squad!

What better way to celebrate than enjoying chocolate treats at Max Brenner!

My favourite...the chocolate souffle

The classic Belgian waffle...yum

Suzuki Piano Graduation

Another year, another piano graduation concert. Congratulations to Lara who performed at the Opera House's Utzon room for the first time this year after graduating Book 1 and Book 2! Elliot also did well playing Chopin after graduating Book 5. It was a beautiful day for a concert for a family day out.

The sun is shining. The concert is over!

Tried to get a photo of all 3 children with no success

He decided later that he did want his photo taken

Having drinks as a family after the concert

The chips and wedges didn't last long

Concert At The Opera House

It was that time of year again...Elliot had graduated from Book 3 of Suzuki piano! So it was off to the Opera House for a graduation recital. The whole family went, along with Lanella, Oma and Opa to watch Elliot perform. I was rather nervous about Jonah's ability to sit through a whole concert without creating a fuss and I wasn't disappointed. I tried to pretend that I was not the parent of "that" child who kept shouting "I want food" multiple times during the performances. The same child, who when not shouting, was banging things loudly together. Lanella kindly came to the rescue and took him out for a walk in the Botanical Gardens.

Elliot did extremely well, considering that another child performed his piece near perfectly before him. We were very proud! So much so that I forgot to take a photo when he was performing. I was probably more nervous than he was. Alright, so I was nervous and he wasn't.

It will be interesting to see how Lara will go when her turn comes around...

Taking photos at the forecourt whilst waiting for the Opera House to open its doors

A reward for the whole family after the concert! Still reeling over a coffee costing $5...

The cause of my biggest angst that day!

Lara enjoying the treat

Terrific Thursday

Thursdays are usually my "community service" days, the day when I make the time to visit, call or help friends, buy presents, cook for others etc. Essentially its the day that I use to do things for anyone that is not part of our immediate family. Today I decided to allocate the day to shop for myself. And karma bit me in the bum. I organised myself to be at the shops right on opening time only to have to evacuate for a fire drill. What!?!??! Who has ever heard of fire drills for shopping centres? My perfectly planned timing for various shops was severely derailed. Luckily my visit to Borders was short-lived due to the unavailability of their e-readers (a present for the in-laws). I managed to get 2 pairs of shoes for Lara for $15 and some new PJs for Lara and Elliot, followed by snow boots for Jonah before doing my grocery shopping. Okay, so some community service was done. I was rewarded for this with a phone call from Malcolm telling me that he had finished for the day. Woohoo!

All plans to visit my father-in-law went out the window. Malcolm insisted that he had already visited him this morning and that it was enough. Yes, father-in-law has decided that it was his turn for a stint at Club Concord. He was admitted over the weekend for chest pain and shortness of breath. They are still trying to figure out what the cause is. So far he has been by cardiology, respiratory, immunology and haematology. Add this to neurology, neurosurgery, colorectal surgery, ophthalmology, dermatology, urology, vascular surgery, chronic pain management, geriatrics, orthopaedics, ortho-geriatrics and rehab (from other family members admissions and outpatient visits) and you can understand why Malcolm is Concord Hospitals' favourite son. The phrase "I'm an Albany" seem to be a magic password for all things nice at Concord Hospital.

"You can't use a mobile phone here"

"But I'm Malcolm Albany's dad. I'm waiting for him to call me"

"OH, in that case, that's alright"

So instead of the hospital, we diverted for a lunch of Korean at Eastwood. Following on from yesterday's lime curd production, I even had time after lunch to bake apple and cinnamon cookies. I was feeling very proud of myself.

Thursdays are also piano lesson days. Today the children played very well seemingly remembering a lot from the "last chance practice" session in the morning. Their teacher was happy and I was relieved. Until, Lara proclaimed, "Mummy, I have chicken pox." To my horror, I saw little vesicles on her hands. Hand foot and mouth disease. It had been going around at church and I knew it was only a matter of time before one of our three got it. Oh well, no school tomorrow for Lara. Lucky me. Luckily she had no other viral symptoms and appear to be well. She told me very firmly that she had to stay in bed all day because that's what one does when you stay at home from school. So maybe my day won't be so bad after all tomorrow...

Last but not least...before we left the house for trivia, we just happened to look at the Periodic table and noted with interest that Einsteinium was element 99 and Curium was 96 and all these other scientists had elements named after them. Guess what question came up? What is the atomic number of Curium? WOOHOO!!!! Tonight we achieved a hat trick. Victories for three weeks in a row. How awesome was that? Go the fruitloops!

A video is worth a million words

Well done Elliot! We are so proud of you.
Sydney Opera House - 21 Nov 2009

By George, he did it!

What a day! Flying solo the whole weekend when Malcolm is on-call was tough. Managed to scramble the troops together for church and had a yummy chinese lunch before getting ourselves ready for Elliot's first big concert.


After settling Jonah and leaving him in my father's capable hands (cough, cough, splutter, splutter), we headed out to the Theme and Variations showroom at Willoughby. Upon entry, my nerves started to surface. My brain went into overdrive "hope he remembers to repeat, hope he remember to play in time, hope he remembers the dynamics, hope he remembers to keep going if he makes a mistake...". Luckily, it appears that Elliot is still completely oblivious to the concept of being nervous.

Elliot on the Steinway concert grand

He walked up to the piano, sat down and started playing without much ado. And he played brilliantly! Maybe that's all that we needed all along, a $300,000 piano. After all, it is for sale...

A close up...

Despite the parental anxiety, I still thoroughly enjoyed every single performance. The music truly was beaufiul and the children all remarkably talented. I still can't believe that Elliot made it into the group chosen to perform. I have never been prouder in my life.

The talented little people

To celebrate, we all went to Ribs and Rumps. I lost the battle of wills and ordered a nice juicy cheeseburgers with chips complete with a large glass of coke. The healthy diet can resume another day! Tomorrow, it will be back to the grindstone in preparation for the graduation concert at the Opera House next week.

A toast to my little springroll

During mother's group today, a friend mentioned how proud she was that her son has passed his grade 3 piano exam. And on facebook, another friend posted a video of an incredibly talented 3 year old practising two of her piano pieces.

And it occurred to me that I should boast more about my own son's achievement. What is wrong with me?!?!? Why is the "competitive Asian parent" gene not expressing itself? So here it is, a tribute to little 6 year old Elliot's piano accomplishments.

We have been practising hard in preparation for 2 big concerts, the first being this Sunday. He is part of a small group who have been picked for the concert to raise money for the children in Cambodia, a charity that his piano teacher champions. He will be playing on a $300, 000 9 ft Steinway. As we madly try to get our scales in the Sonatina to be in time with the metronome, I have to be amazed at how far he has come.

We started lessons at 3.5 but had to stop because of my pregnancy with Jonah. This was a huge setback for Elliot. After a break of more than 6 months, we had to "relearn" everything. And this was a hard slog, not to mention discouraging for a little boy. He didn't understand why he couldn't "learn" new songs. To his credit, he never gave up. He would merrily sing along to all the songs and scales that he practices and still does presently. I should video it one day. Although very noisy, it really is quite cute.

I also have to give great kudos to Erica, his teacher. Ever so patient with such a great way with young children, her endless encouragement and clever teaching no doubt played a big role to keeping Elliot motivated. Elliot has not looked back since. He has flown through book 2 and managed to squeeze in 2 graduations this year. He is very proud that he is now a "Book 3" boy. We eagerly await his Sydney Opera House debut on the 21st of November. Well done Elliot! We are so very proud of you.

Here's to the same for my little char siu bau who started lessons 2 weeks ago...