16/7/2003

Did you know that cotton candy was invented by William Morrison and John C. Wharton in 1897?

Well neither did I until 4.30am this morning -when a pink pig woke me up.

Last weekend my youngest son, Paul brought his two children and his lovely new lady down to see me, we went out for dinner along the local waterfront. During dinner in a quiet moment alone with the children, we decided to ask daddy if Maddy could stay the night with me. As I had promised to buy a few clothes for her at my favourite Op shop. He agreed and Jayk decided he would like to stay over as well.

So I shared a bed with a six year old with six arms and legs.

What a joy that was. It's not the amount of time you share with them it's the quality of the time you spend with them and this was quality time I didn't mind being woken for.

Next day as we headed off to shop, we past a small fair at a local hall. We stopped looked at a few things and I promised to come back to buy some Fairy Floss on the way home.

Among the treasures we bought at the Op shop was a small shoulder bag covered in sequins the colours of the rainbow, which she promptly wore all day and till she went to bed, I've been told. It cost me 20 cents. The rest of the week in between great productive meetings in Noosa Shore that have given me the most amazing group of people all wanting to help and a place to base our projects out of.

In between organising my ticket to Taipei and finalising the detail with Roxen for my trip.

A email from an intern with the Alliance for the New Humanity writing my 120 word Bio for the December launch in Puerto Rico. I proudly added Grandmother as a major achievement. Even Bush and Howard haven't achieved that :-)

Scot the documentary filmmaker brought his wife and two children up while he filmed Caitlin and myself at our favourite park and catching the little blue bus that is a Caitlin and Kerry thing. Sitting on a seat watching the Pelican, we talked about where it might be going sailed passed us on it's way up the creek. Caitlin also discovered for the first time a accidental face in the woodwork of the playground structure, was so excited and puzzled why it didn't have a nose. I can't wait till she finds her first dog in a cloud!

Her favourite words crossing the wobbly bridge as she climbs to the slide, " I'm strong, I'm confident and "I can, I can, I can" Helen Reddy move over! Caitlin Jean Futurist is on her way.

I also found time to go to the park again with her and her dad, on one of the two days a week he looks after her. A new park by the sea, we sat and watched Caitlin as she rocked and climbed, ate and slid.

Then onto her dad's shoulders and down to the beach, where she thought the sand was wobbly. Strolling along the beach, she picked up smooth stones and put them in her pocket, we thought to take home to show mummy, only she decided to place them all back on the beach before we left, saying " They stay here!" Playing hide and seek with her shadow she had discovered for the first time that it followed her one way and she could chase it when she turned. At two and a half it is a world of amazing discoveries.

Yesterday was Maddy's seventh Birthday, we were invited up to her dad's place. He asked me if I would buy a cake as he had run out of time. Finding the cakes were pretty expensive and I was pretty poor. I decided on a apple sponge with cream in the middle on special for $2,00 and found a packet of pink meringue pigs also on special, placing three on top of the cream and with no room left on the cake - I ate the last pink pig.

A dinner at Mac Donald's and a piece of Birthday cake and a small piece of another pink pig.

The reason I found myself awake at 4.30 this morning and feeling not the very well.

Turned on the computer and checked the emails, to this from my son.

Cotton candy is a soft confection that is made from sugar that is heated and spun into slim threads that look like a mass of cotton. It was invented in 1897 by William Morrison and John C. Wharton, candymakers from Nashville, Tennessee. They invented a device that heated sugar in a spinning bowl that had tiny holes in it. It formed a treat that they originally called "Fairy Floss." As the bowl spun around, the caramelized sugar was forced through the tiny holes, making feathery candy that melts in the mouth. They introduced it to the world at the St. Louis World's Fair (1904) and sold huge amounts of it for 25 cents a box (that was lot of money back then). They sold about 68,655 boxes at that fair. The term "cotton candy" began to be used for this treat in about 1920. In the United Kingdom, it is called "candy floss."

It's amazing what brings a family close together, not the planned expensive things, but the simple things you share and never forget.

Pink pigs, Cotten Candy, a sequins shoulder bag. Shadows and pebbles and "I can I can I can", are the memories for the week. A father and his children working finding out when Cotten Candy was invented have made me forget what woke me up.

The joy of watching growing minds develop by the seeds we plant - knowing,

The seeds we sow, give us the crop we hope for!

Have a nice day, I will sowing a few more seeds - after I go back to bed for awhile.

Kerry Bowden
Global Children's Alliance
One Mind One Voice.
A Famility of Humanity

Proudly part of th Alliance for the New Humanity

PS: Caitlin say