Introducing the Purple Princess.

Meet my niece, The Purple Princess. Daughter of my brother. She is an awesome young woman, in Grade 6 this year, and is a sensational dancer and athlete. She is pretty much made of awesome in every sense of the word. And she's my only niece, so when she comes to stay, she gets the full Purple Experience.

Now, everyone needs an Auntie Purple. Who talks to you about boys and farting and lets you stay up late and eat icecream for breakfast. Pretty much anything goes at Auntie Purple's house.. except for bad manners. It's pretty much as long as you chew with your mouth closed and say "please" and "thank-you", you can pretty much do as you please. every kid who has ever entered my home has pretty much worked out, as long as there are good manners, Auntie Purple will let you get away with ANYTHING.

Not such a bad philosophy, I guess.

So, this weekend, PP got to:

Make wholesome, healthy food and talk about carbon footprints, how sugar is bad for you and how eating ethically is important.


And then we made Nutella, banana and marshmellow pizza.


in the pizza oven.

and eat it at 10pm.

Then we talked about how it's very important to have good manners, and behave "properly" and hold your knife and fork correctly. Because dining out is a very important part of life and people who chew with their mouths open are disgusting, vile, ill-bred common guttersnipes.


But there was the lamb bone left over from the luncheon roast, so hey, who cares about all that stuff??

But the reality is, that she understands that at home, with Auntie Purple, it's ok to gnaw of the roast bone, and eat sticky marshmellow pizza with her fingers, as long as when you go out, you understand that it IS actually important to have good table manners.

PP, a soy chai spiced latte and the morning paper, discussing the environmental impact of the shipping disaster off the GBR.

PP eating her free-range eggs and organic bacon, discussing where bacon comes from, and why "this" bacon tastes "better" that the stuff from Coles.

It takes a village to raise a child, and every village needs and Auntie Purple.