Hello……is it me you’re looking for?

Once apon a time there was a blog, and it’s loving blogger posted regularly. The he stopped doing it.
The big questions is…..is there anybody still out there or is blogging so yesterday?

Splash

I have almost been back at work for three weeks, long enough to work through the phases of denial, depression and acceptance that I do actually have to work for a living and might as well just get on with it. I did ease myself back in, namely by taking a long weekend that turned the first two weeks back at work in to four-day blurs that seemed to slip away quite satisfactorily.

My Christmas break was unique (I suppose they all are), because of the sheer weight of activity that it involved. This might sound like we took day and weekend trips, visited multipel tourist attractions and enjoyed the companionship that only comes from spending quality time with one’s family. What crap. For the first time I can remember I lost weight over my Christmas break……6kg in fact……by virtue of two things: two karate lessons a week and persistent physical strain from projects around the house. Do you remember that nice view from my place? It came with a hill…..and pushing wheelbarrows of sand up that hill was funny for about five minutes. With the pool, the base for the water tank and various other things I went up and down that hill enough times for anyone’s lifetime. The upside? Well, I needed to lose the weight, and the pool is fantastic.

Thank goodness we paid someone to put this together.

 

The results, I have to say, are great so far. The kids (and Beloved K and I) are loving the pool. We’re in it nearly every day, and it makes a real difference when you’re feeling too hot or just had a rough, wearying day.

Child S lets us know just how much fun it is in the pool.

 

Child A can see clearly now the water is not in her eyes.

 

The karate lessons have been interesting, and I feel like I’ll stick to them this time. The feeling at the dojo is welcoming, and I will have my first belt grading test in about three weeks. I think part of the secret is I’m not just doing it for exercise/weight loss. I love it the most because Child A and I do classes together, and having done it for five years she is much more advanced than I am and can (and does) tell me everything I’m doing wrong…..great father/daughter time. I’ve continued keep reasonably healthy, watching what I eat, walking the dog in the mornings (a couple of times a week, anyway) and doing the karate classes. I also gave up beer for February which, apart from the temtpation repeatedly (and deliberately) offered by my neighbours each weekend, has been pretty easy. And no, I haven’t just switched to an equivalent amount of wine! In all I’m down by 8kg, the belt has come in two notches and my size 43 business shirts fit again.

Musical update – I still can’t sing a note, but Child A is in her high school’s concert band number two, and Child S has had his first two viola lessons. I could give you the inside view on Child A’s venture into secondary education, but I think that’s a whole separate post. I wonder when that will happen!

Cheerio!

Santa Post…..he delivers!

What better way to start a seasonal blog post than to give a 2000-year-old bloke in a red suit the credit for Australia Post’s delivery work. OK…he does it all himself, but I’m sure Auspost is getting a cut in there somewhere….aren’t they our last true government monopoly?

We promised news on the retaining wall before Christmas, and here it is. The two-person petrol-powered post-hole digger was a great success, until we got to a couple of really hard, dry spots that it just couldn’t deal with. Cue the electric jackhammer. This thing rocked (so to speak), and dug holes to our heart’s desire. Eight sleepers went in as posts (extra postcrete was required, but it’s cheap) and they were left to stand and set for a couple of days. On one fine Saturday the rest of the sleepers were put in as panels and the Great Wall was born

Yesterday I put a coat of bitumen paint on the back of the wall to give it some water proofing before we back-fill it. I put the second coat on this morning. Bitumen paint is great stuff as long as you don’t get it on any hairy parts of yourself. Naturally I discovered this after the first coat. You, dear reader, can imagine the rest.

Good wishes are extended across the country to all the people I care about. Brother Joe in the far north, Sister Nell in the middle, Father Ron (who was heading home from hospital today), and Mother Nicki and the rest of my family and friends in the far south.

Tomorrow we are looking forward to Christmas madness of  the usual kind….With Sistern Nell and crew coming over for a (mostly) seafood lunch.

Merry Christmas to one and all.

Cheerio!

And then the sky went green….

Many readers will have heard about the stroms that have afflicted my part of the world in recent times. Sunday was particularly impressive. There we were, enjoying a quiet beer with the neighbours while the kids played an exciting game of cul-de-sac cricket, when the ominous clouds that had been approaching became significantly more ominous.

With the words “nah, the weather bureau warnings don’t include our council area” having just passed my lips, the sky literally turned an aqua-green colour that I had never seen in something as large as a sky before. Let’s just say you wouldn’t paint your house that colour, but it does have a place in certain mild-minty toothpastes. Within 10 minutes it was bedlam….the dog ran off (in to a neighbour’s garage), the 100km/h winds blew out of the south, which happens to be the direction our front door faces. About a dozen towels plus some dog blankets were used to soak up the water that came in under the front door and front window frame. The neighbour’s back fence blew over, and after the storm passed I joined a gaggle of other neighbours in jerry-rigging it back up again with rope. Won’t last though….the termite-ridden posts snapped off at ground level.

Some more of the dirt under our house was washed down on to the concrete pad underneath, covering it in slimy mud and further exposing some of our footings….not good. It has basically accelerated the Great Retaining Wall Project, for which I hope to provide pictorial evidence at some point. We had several quotes for doing a retaining wall, ranging from $3500 to $8500. Deeply suspecting that somewhere back in my family tree is hidden a long line of economic conservatives, I thought something along the lines of “stick that” and made plan B. Plan B arose when my urge not to spend between $3500 and $8500 on a retianing wall surpassed my belief that I was completely incapable of building one myself. Plan B consists of buying no fewer than 41 2.4m x 200mm x 75mm treated pine sleepers, 11 bags of post-crete and enough really big screws to put the wall together myself. At the moment digging post holes is a problem because of the shaley rock in the ground, but for the sake of an $80 hiring fee I suspect I’ll be hiring a two-person post-hole digger to get the job done. After that it is concrete the posts in, drill holes, use drill with socket to put screws in and Bob’s your uncle…..one uncertified-by-engineers retaining wall to help prevent our house washing away. The best news is the total cost should be less than $1000, leaving enough cash to finally build the shed to hold the crap that’s been under the house for a year.

Final project news….we seem to have made the decision to put an above ground pool in the back yard. Beloved K will make all the appropriate calls for installation quotes etc. and hopefully we’ll have it ordered by the end of the week.

Stay tuned before Christmas for more construction news!

Cheerio.

Crash test Grandma

As most of my avid readers would know, I’m in Melbourne at the moment. In theory it was a quickfire trip for Grandma’s 90th birthday, but as she fell over and cracked her head and her pelvis on her actual birthday on Thursday, the party has been cancelled. I was going to cancel my trip as well, but the compassionate people at Jetstar advised that I would forfeit the fare to here and have to pay $40 to change the return flgith to another date (and then another $40 to change it again if I couldn’t use it on that date). Thanks for the compassion Jetstar.

I’m sitting at Mum’s place on a cool but sunny Saturday morning, digesting breakfast and getting ready to get in to the day. I got to Melton about 3.30pm yesterday, Mum picked me up and we went straight over to see Grandma. She was asleep when we got there so we left her to it for a bit. Don and Shirley were there. The nursing home is pretty amazing…..fitted out a bit more glittery and glammy than I expected, but really nice and comfortable. There was a notable absence of bad smells, cramped spaces or grumpy staff…..all really good. I met the director of the place who was really nice, and very switched on. Met some of Grandma’s friends as well….apparently she doesn’t really talk to many of them, but they all really like her. Is the no-talking what they like? Who knows. After about half an hour Grandma woke up and chatted for a while. She knew who I was, and was surprisingly on top of what had happened to her. She knew she had fallen over, knew she had missed her birthday (Shirley, Mum and Jan were on their way there to do family-cake with her when she fell) and responded to various people with a few different versions of how she was. She is in bed and was expected to stay there for a few days, but apparently after we left she did get up for a short while – painfully but manageable – so that was good to hear.

 

While we were in there (nearly a couple of hours) she had half a dozen other residents and at least as many staff members pop in to her room to see how she was doing. Her respoonses seemed to depend on who was asking, and ranged from “no use growling” to “shocking”. Jan came a bit later on in the afternoon. A bit later Shirley and Don left and we left about half an hour after that (about 6.15-ish). Considering that Grandma hit her head on a table on her way down, she actually looked fairly good. She has a bandage around her head to protect her ear stitches and other cuts and grazes, and a couple of new bruises on her arms and hands. She has either a fractured or cracked pelvis, but she is able to lift her right leg normally and her left leg a bit, so she hasn’t been completely immobilised by it…definitely a good thing.

 

Mum was exhausted because she and Jan had spent the entire night in the emergency department. Grandma was actually discharged at midnight and they were waiting for patient transport, which they kept promising could be there “at any time”. When it arrived, they found out the service doesn’t start until 6am. Grandma complained about the roughness of the ride back a few times yesterday.

 

Beloved K, please tell Child A that Great Grandma liked the card that she made and read it a couple of times. Joe, your flowers arrived, along with some from Aunty Mollie and Uncle Les, about three minutes after Don Orr asked a staff member “have any flowers arrived because we were expecting some”. Ask and ye shall receive it seems!

 

Today I will head up to the shops with mum, if only to pick up a cheap hand-held radio so I can listen to the Collingwood game this afternoon on my way out. We’ll go and see Grandma again, possibly around lunchtime. I’m catching the 1.53 train to Spencer Street (I don’t care how many signs call it Southern Cross Transit Centre). The 3.55pm bus from there to Avalon gets to the airport about 4.40pm, so I’ll have some sitting around to do before my 6pm flight back north, which gets in at 8.05pm. I might have to buy the Saturday Age…..dare I live the dream?

I’m looking forward to getting back tonight….and spending Fathers Day at home with Children A and S….maybe walk the dogs, kick the footys (better than the other way around, apparently!) and…and…and whatever, as long as I get to spend it with them and Beloved K.

Last but not least, I must say something in this blog that I can’t say at airports…..why the hell do I always get picked out for the explosives residue test? I got it again at BNE, and I’ll probably get it at Avalon. Seems to happen to me just about every time I fly. Was it the neatly shaven face? The threatening-looking Auskick backpack? The Fantasy novel under my arm? What!?! Needless to say the looks on the faces of the people who do this important task don’t exactly invite a lengthy discussion about their methods of choosing targets. I’d love to read that profile, just so I know how I get picked every time.

Cheerio!

Speeding to September

We’ve had one of those months where everything seems to be somewhat of a blur. You turn your back for a second, and the next thing you know Child S has turned 7, Child A is about to turn 12 (who allowed that?) and my annual leave for the school holidays has been cancelled because there is just nobody else to do three different people’s jobs.

Who is Child S at 7? He is a funny, quite cheeky, clever boy with passions for Warcraft (a computer game) and footy. On Saturday night he played footy at the Gabba, half time in the Lions game. He got lots of kicks, and absolutely loved the experience. He played in the centre, which means he has already been identified as having a lot more run than his dad ever had….ever!

Who is Child A at (almost) 12? She is smart, a bit sassy, who has a firm grasp of what she doesn’t want to do but is not terribly decisive on what she wants to do……decisions are not really her thing. She has a sharp sense of humour that makes me laugh nearly every day, and loves her footy (possibly because she’s daddy’s girl, but aren’t they all at that age?). Child A loves her Warcraft as well. She has quite a clear insight in to herself….for example at the markets on Sunday she bought a badge that reads “I don’t have a shot attention span, I just……Look, a kitten!”

Beloved K has been sick…..really sick…..sick enough that I had to take Friday off work to get her through the day. Suffice to say, when the thought of swallowing water makes you want to throw up, you’re sick. She is largely recovered, but is down 4kg.

It was nice to catch up with Jury and Nephew J on the weekend…..and pass on a belated birthday present. Jury’s work schedule might mean we don’t catch up for another couple of weeks, but I’m sure we’ll get there.

Other than that, there are plans left to make…..more birthdays, a smidgeon of travel and work work work.

Cheerio!

Back to me…..

Next time you are typing something (even a comment on this blog) try this exercise – type normally with your right hand, but only use the index finger on your left. Not so easy, is it? How did I discover such a thing? By breaking the middle finger of my left hand last Thursday. How do I know it was broken? Well, the swelling is still there going on to a week later, and it still hurts mightily when i bang it on something…..or when I use it to type, button my shirt or lift a full, heavy saucepan. Last Thursday I drove to another office of my company to pick up a manager on the way to a restaurant to meet two representatives of an important client. When I got out of the car, I slammed the door shut on the tip of my middle finger on my left hand. By the time I got inside the nail had started to turn bright purple, but as you can imagine it has since turned to black….I’m going to lose the nail eventually. During the drive to the venue (half an hour away) I managed to concentrate largely on the 99 per cent of my body that wasn’t hurting. All was covered nicely until I went to use cutlery……it’s quite embarrassing to have a major client offer to cut up your lunch for you. All-in-all it has been a painful and frustrating experience, but one that I will no doubt learn from.

Right now it is 51 and a half minutes short of one of my favourite people’s birthdays….happy birthday Mum. Thanks for the inspiration, the believing in causes and the example of making a difference. One thing readers might find amusing…especially you Nicki…I did some quick-fire shoppping during my lunch break yesterday and, keeping with what is slowly becoming a tradition, bought Mum a biography for her birthday, bought a card and sent them via express post in the hope they would arrive on her birthday tomorrow. In the early hours of this morning I woke in a cold sweat…dead certain that I had sent her the exact same book as I sent for the most recent previous celebration of the same occasion. Nicki….if you could check with my Mum and report back here it would be lovely! Everyone else, please continue laughing while I shop for a replacement.

I have been enjoying a bit of work/life balance (or whatever they call remembering your children’s names) lately. Both Child A and Child S have started another season of Auskick….and both are loving it. Child A has just about the biggest kick of anyone there, and Child S’s kicking and marking skills have improved out of sight. Tonight I saw Abbey sing with a mass choir from about 14 different primary schools. It was great, but it was much easier to hear her as we sang Missy Higgins duets on the way home in the car! I’ve booked a leave day for Monday, the September school holidays off and four weeks at Christmas as well. Woohoo!

Beloved K is having a rough trot…..the cold/flu bug has knocked her for six and she has so far lasted a grand total of two hours at work this week. Get well soon … we’re missing your smiling face! Tonight she kindly suggested that it would be better if I was sick at the same time so I could stay home and keep her company…….hmmmmmmm.

Haven’t caught up with Jury for a week or so because she’s been working. Might have to bring Child S around to play with Cousin J this Saturday anyway. Can Nephew K make a decent coffee?

Cheerio!

Burning out

No…..that’s not the process you go thorugh when you spin the tyres rapidly while trying to get a small four-cylinder car up a steep, wet driveway. It’s more the process you go through when you attempt to do two full time jobs at once, and try to do both of them properly. I have to confess to being less than thrilled at having a second full time job thrust in my lap for four weeks (fourth week starting today). Bad enough that I had allowed myself to think I was above the level of the extra job, but add the fact that it was the position I held up until about two years ago, and that I have had to commute an hour back across the damn bridge to get there because I moved house to be closer to work, and it just hasn’t been particularly enjoyable. I have had many former contacts call me saying “great, you’re back”, which is really nice for my ego but doesn’t say a lot for how those who followed me in the job have maintained my legacy to the area. On balance, too many people wishing I was back for good for my liking…..I don’t want our GM to get any silly ideas like sending me back there.

The other bummer was that this all took part in a period that covered the school holidays. Spending valuable Child A and Child B time is hard enough at the best of times, but go back to commuting two hours a day and it is just that much tougher. Yesterday, however, was really pleasant in a lazy kind of way. I spent the morning playing Monopoly with Child S (he beat me without too much help, although he would have gone broke if I hadn’t gently dissuaded him from “helping” and “being nice” as my play-money ran out. Sweet really. I spent the afternoon introducing Child A to the Lord of the Rings movies. She loved them, and we enjoyed making jokes at the expense of the orcs and marvelling at the return of Gandalf. We’re two movies down and one to go, but I hope she still reads the books one day……great reading.

The visit from Brother Joe was great, although again it would have been nice to work closer to home so my time was more flexible. I’m very excited to hear that he will tread the well-worn path of ageing that I once followed and lace on the footy boots again. “You’re a long time retired” is a very true football sentiment, and there’s nothing wrong with playing until you’re hounded out of the game for being too old/slow/fat/talentless…..and even then you can get a second, third and fourth opinion. Remember BJ….beware the “tap and fill”.

Beloved K is a level 51 night-elf, who can change in to a bear and has a mechanical yeti for a pet. What more can I say?

Cheerio!

Role reversal

I have a friend and somewhat of a mentor at work who I really enjoy the company of. We have lunch together on most days, we chat several times during most days, I often ask his advice on corporate/business/ladder climbing issues and a lot of the time it is good advice. He is 20 years older than I am, and has often remarked that he sees a lot of his younger self in me.

Yesterday he asked if I would come for a beer after work (we live one suburb apart and probably do this once or twice a month), and I accepted, thinking it would be our usual chance to let off a little steam about the colleagues who caused us grief, and to laugh at the corporate world in a way we don’t dare do at work. Instead, he wanted my opinion on whether he should retire…..and he was serious. He wasn’t for a moment suggesting that the decision was hanging on what I thought, but he valued my opinion, and that made me feel really good.

We talked about the ins and outs of the situation, and I made a few comments here and there, but I told him I didn’t want to give an opinion off the cuff. This man has been with our company for nearly 30 years. I’ll think about if for a day or so and see what comes out.

Nice to be asked though.

Cheerio!

Busting a gut

It’s one of those interesting phrases that is particularly practical because of its adaptability to different circumstances. It’s a bit like the word “set”, which has more than 50 dictionary meanings, depending on the context.

Being an Aries, let’s talk about me first. I have been “busting a gut” at work for the last month, finally putting in the actual hard work required on the property guide project that has been my greatest work objective since before Christmas. In short, I told them it would work, it is working, and I’m getting all of the credit. Great result really. It has entailled an incredible amount of work personally. Much of this work will not have to be redone next time, which is a wonderful blessing. I have largely myself to blame for how much of the work I ended up doing myself, but there is nothing like keeping the maximum level of control over the results when you have put your reputation on the line to make something happen. Anyway, all’s well that ends well, and this has (so far). Much of the pressure (and, again, long hours) have now subsided.

Sister N and Nephew J have unfortunately suffered a different form of “busting a gut” this week, with an unkind bout of gastroenteritis. I’m hoping they have somewhat recovered from the poor shape they were in earlier in the week. They still were not up to having visitors when we did the Child A and Child S piano lesson run this morning, but hopefully they will be on the mend really quickly.

That’s about all I’ve got in the “busting a gut” category for now, but rest assured I will post again immediately if I come up with something else of that order.

Sad to hear that Grandma is doing it tough in hospital at the moment. I hope she gets on the mend soon. Great to know that her daughters are rallying around her each day, and I’m sure it makes a real difference to Grandma. It wouldn’t be easy to see her in such shape after a fall, but I can say that the almost-daily updates via Nicki are avidly read by all up here and greatly appreciated.

Child A has a friend coming over for four hours tonight to watch the Goodies DVDs that Child A has told her so much about. Should be interesting. Child A is also in training for her first full-on competitive karate tournament (a statewide invitational event), and has taken some impressive steps with her karate, especially her kumite (belting people, while not getting belted). Child S brought us home an invitation to his class play “Adventures in Space”. Sounds good, and I reckon I’ll take a Monday morning off to go and see it with Beloved K. Speaking of Beloved K, she is heading out with some of the ladies from our street tonight. Good fun in adult company, so I’m sure she’ll have a great time.

Dog M is still lazy, spending most of every day sunning herself on the deck. She made a great attempt at being an inside dog, but blew it when she jumped on the bed while I was sleeping at 1.30am.

Cat E is still fat, and decides what time I get up each morning. Hardly fair, but what are you going to do….she’s a cat.

Last but not least, great to see all those great photos from the far north. I’ve almost got enough of an impression to find my way around Brother J’s house, but not quite. I’m really impressed with how he is tackling his property investment/home ownership dream. Quite amazing. It’s almost enough to make me think I could develop skills of a practical nature.

Nahhh.

Cheerio!

Does anyone today even know what a Bolshevik is?

It has always been one of my favourite little sayings (and one that I may have erroneously thought was ascribed to Winston Churchill) -If you’re not a socialist when you’re young you’ve got no heart, and if you’re still a socialist when you’re older you’ve got no brain. Last night I was told by a guest during casual dinner conversation that when the guest had met me they considered me extremely left-wing and was surprised what a full-on capitalist I had now become. Naturally I responded with a diplomatic and sober version of “get stuffed, comrade” and carried on with an enjoyable dinner of Indian food and high-sugar dessert. It has got me to thinking (as I have on some other occasions) about the ways that people’s views of society and the world, and even people, change over time. Am I who I was last decade, or last year, or even last week? I think the answer is no. I personally believe that few people are actually self-analytical enough to know this about themselves.

I wonder who I will be tomorrow?

Cheerio!

What’s that sound?

Ah…….it’s silence.

Children A and S have been spending the school holiday week with M-I-L A and F-I-L K, a nice trip for them and kind of convenient for us because we are still working and didn’t want to send them off to vacation care if we could at all avoid it. Not that they have ever been to vacation care, so for all I know they might love it, but childhood trips to the grandparents do create special memories. I know they did for me.

This has left us with the problem, however, of it being so darn quiet here in the mornings and evenings. “Will you hurry up and……oh, you’re not here”. Kind of takes the wind out of the sails really.

Tuesday night Beloved K and I went and saw Vantage Point at cinema. It was really nice just to spend time out in each other’s company, and the movie itself was passable as well. Last night we met after work at Borders Books, our wonderful discovery (well, we discover slowly) of a massive bookshop that has titles we haven’t seen for years, plus a full scale Gloria Jeans coffee shop right there in the middle of the bookshop! Yep, browse and drink coffee….hard to beat.

I’m enjoying a really busy but successful period at work. Beloved K is still bored senseless by very slow work days. One wonders whether they would have received more applications for the job if the advertisement read “wanted, someone to sit around reading novels all day, and occaisionally treat patients – must have nursing registration and own library”.

Cheerio!

Back at home

Got in late on Monday night and I reckon it has taken me three days to actually feel normal and energetic again. I didn’t even misbehave in the land of Nicki…..just enjoyed Nicki’s company greatly. I’m missing her now that I’m back home.

On the home front, Beloved K is a bit low at the moment, suffering some side effects after her flu shot earlier in the week. Like a trooper she is soldiering on, even though the work environment is a bit tense at the moment. You have to wonder about a medical practice that trims back the medical supplies order to save money. K is playing the diplomat at the moment, but I’ve very proud of her efforts to resist pressure to work extra days. it’s not easy to say “no” to a new employer, but she has done it with style and grace. Good on her.

Today is Bike Day at the school of Children S and A. I was so proud. Child S is not confident at all on a bike, and has spent the last couple of months refusing to ride it until we put the training wheels back on. We haven’t done so (he is six and a half, after all!). This morning, with his sister’s patient help, he rode all the way to school, all of 800 metres. He might have done it 50 metres at a time, but he got there and was really pleased about it judging by the look on his face.

Cheerio!

Long way from home

I am a long way from home today, spending some time in Nickinightrider-land to catch up on family business. Last night was Cousin M’s wedding to K (his K, not my Beloved K…..gee, that’s confusing!). The weather wasn’t perfect (I would have been freezing to death whether I was at a wedding or not), but the ceremony was creative and enjoyable. Note for Cousin M – best “function food” I’ve had anywhere…..bar none. I saw faces I had not seen for a while….some for months, others for years. It was really fun and good for the soul too, I felt. All the members of my extended family were who I remembered they were, even if some were struggling somewhat. Helping Grandma up the stairs was nervewracking….not that I thought I would drop her but that I just didn’t have the experience in doing it carefully but properly that some others had. All ended safe and well though. It was so much fun watching the various kids running amok. An excellent dose of harmless fun.

I have to confess that I am missing my babies terribly. Beloved K and I have a running joke….to anyone who asks what I do for a living, she says I “go to work and play with my friends”. On this trip I’m catching up with all of two friends in three days, preferring to spend my time talking to Nicki. Sure, I could have the same conversations on the phone, but somehow that just doesn’t have quite the same qualities…..the glint in the eye, the knowing expression at just the right moment. I guess moving nearly 2000km away will do that (no regrets, just wistful “wouldn’t it be nice if we all lived closer together”). Not seeing Beloved K and Children S and A is hurting. I want Child S to talk all the way through a movie, asking questions he already knows the answer to and will declare loudly as soon as he determines that I don’t know. I want to hear Child A play the piano so I can tell her how wonderful she is. And I want to fall soundly asleep in Beloved K’s arms.

One more sleep, and then I get home in the middle of the night.

Cheerio

Star Trek XVII: The Search For An Avatar

My wide audience of blog commenters and readers……I need your help. I am suffereing from a brand identity crisis. In just the last few weeks my blog avatar has gone from a picture of myself (I now weigh far to much to justify using that trim, taught and terrific image) to a genius murderer, a parrot and now a kangaroo. I tried to upload Jack Sparrow but it wouldn’t work…..I decided that was telling me something as well. With a complete lack of inspiration myself, I throw myself on the mercy of the audience. Help me!

And about time too

At long last, after many months, the waiting-for-football season is finished. Tonight, the football season begins. Yes, I have to wait a couple more days for my beloved Magpies to take the field, but the feeling of optimism is even more irrational than in most other years…..I think we are going to do very well.

Must go….have to check snack levels in the cupboard!

Cheerio!

I’d like…….I’d like? I’d like a trip to Europe!

Quality Daffy Duck quotes aside, I really would like a trip to Europe at some point. For a year or two know I have talked about my long service leave plan – when the kids are 15 and 10 to take a two or three month family holiday to the UK and Europe. This is partly so Kath and I can have the holiday of a lifetime, but just as much to open the eyes of Child A and Child S that there is a magnificent wide world out there and that one day they can explore it. Knowing that I still have around four years up my sleeve, this week I have taken the very first steps towards turning this from a dream to reality. I have requested an update on my long service leave entitlements to work out exactly how long I can take while continuing to get paid (might help somewhat, since the mortgage won’t go away by then). I picked up a couple of comprehensive Europe travel brochures so I can start looking at the practicalities of travelling through a series of foreign countries with children. I will have to find a holiday experience that allows us to see the magnificent and famous things, but also allows enough tastes of real life in these places so that the kids come away with some genuine experiences that will enrich their lives. I’m thinking I also need to make sure that we dont’ spend three quarters of our time on buses. Scenery is lovely, but I don’t think a 15-year-old and a 10-year-old would get the same enjoyment out of it as me and Beloved K might. It might be that we look for more “do it yourself” itineraries than grand tours that last a month.

Such are my random thoughts for today.

Cheerio!

Life as normal…..whatever that is

Yesterday we took Children A and S back to their old piano teacher to resume lessons. After weeks of Beloved K leaving messages on the recommended new teacher’s answering machine, and listened to the household piano skills getting rustier and rustier, we decided we had to take action. So Beloved K kicked things in to motion last week, calling the old grump of a teacher (I don’t like her that much, but she gets good teaching results!) and booking the kids in for the remainder of the term. This has upsides, including the chance for weekly catch-ups with Jury and Co., which is always good.

The lessons went fairly well. Child A was, as indicated, rusty but nothing insurmountable. A bit of regular practice and we are sure she will be back on track and in the swing of things. Child S has remembered everything except the way he was supposed to hold his fingers while he played. You would think his last lesson was three days ago, not three months. Lunch was equally pleasant, an extra-large Woolies chook, lettuce, tomato, mayo and a dozen fresh(ish) rolls. No, that was not just mine…..that was for everybody.

Nephew K seemed very relaxed, as you would on your day off from work. He said furry animals sold a lot faster than finned ones, and that if fish had fur they would sell a lot better. Chances are we won’t find out. Niece H was at work, obviously still juggling the work/study thing. Then again, at 18 I didn’t give a toss about work-life balance at all……or know what it meant. Ahh for the days when we could just re-prioritise sleep to find the extra couple of hours we needed.

Today we are going shopping. I might pick up another new shirt and tie for work. I’m hoping Beloved K will spend some money on her own wardrobe….just because she deserves nice things. She is inclined not to spend on herself and often comes back with things for everyone except herself when she goes to the shops. I’ll try to post an update when we get back.

Cheerio!

Easy dinner recipes

I must admit first up that I don’t cook anywhere near as often as I should or could, but I do love good food (as anyone who has seen my bodyshape would likely attest to). I have the good fortune to be married to a woman who has talent in this field, not to mention creativity. Beloved K has her own time pressures, working three days a week and doing the bulk of the child-based running about, but despite this she puts wonderful meals on our table and seems to do it with relative ease.

Tonight was a case in point……Starting with frozen pizza bases, the first came to life with spaghetti sauce (in place of tomato paste), pumpkin, sweet potato, brocoli, ham, cheese and leftover roast lamb. The second was different, but just as good……she replaced the lamb and ham with tinned salmon. The end result was a great family dinner, cooked in no time at all and everybody happy.

My question to the assembled masses is, what is your favourite throw-together meal, and how do you do it?

 Cheerio!

Waiting for payday

Funny how it doesn’t matter how much you get paid, or how often, you always seem to be painfully ready for it whenever it is almost here. For the last week or so Beloved K and I have been in one of those pre-payday holding patters. There’s food in the cupboards, petrol in the cars, everything is still working…….we’ve just stopped spending any money. Are we worried? Not really, because K gets paid tomorrow and me two days later (mmmmm…..monthly pay) but it still has us feeling on edge because, well, the bills have stacked up a tad and we haven’t done many of the things that we promised ourselves yet (garden shed, insulation, deck sanding and sealing). We have just started tracking our financeds using Quicken again, which is another funny thing because we never seem inspired to track our money properly unless we don’t have much of it. When we are in plentiful supply, we don’t seem too scientific about tracking it at all! As I’ve said for a long time, whether you’re rich or poor it’s nice to have money.

Yesterday I had an interesting “wow, fancy that” moment. I was at a historical society-run museum set-up for some work research, and I saw a clock just like the one that takes pride of place on the dresser in our dining room. Mine, of course, was a wedding present given to my great grandfather, William Taylor, on the occaision of his wedding in 1914. The one I saw yesterday was the closest I had seen to the exact design, although it had been left (or made) in natural wood tones rather than painted a shiny black. I have to say it was also in nowhere near as good a condition as mine. Suffice to say mine still makes noises like “tick” and “ding”, whereas yesterday’s had obviously not done so for many a year.

Just a month to go before my brief jaunt down to Melbourne for Cousin M’s wedding……looking forward to it actually. My brilliant plan has me getting in to Avalon Airport around 1pm on the day of the actual wedding, then conniving a friend to come and pick me up, grab a quick cuppa and a chat and then drop me off at the wedding before it starts at 4pm. Risky? Maybe, but you have to have some adventure in your life, and I had already promised to take Child A and Child S to the footy the night before, and I didn’t want to let them down. Flight home will be at some ridiculous hour on the Monday night, leaving me looking for taxis around midnight. Just for good measure, I took the Tuesday off to avoid problems like suffering concussion when I went to sleep and banged my head on the desk.

Musical update – I still can’t play a note. Besides that, however, we have decided to drive the kids an hour each Saturday back to their old piano teacher. Potential new teacher just wouldn’t return calls….most annoying….but old teacher was over the moon at having them back. Upside is that old teacher lives close to Jury, and we’ll be able to visit just that bit more often than we have managed as late. Woo-hoo!

Cheerio

So NOW I get busy

My job has involved a lot of planning, negotiating, persuading, influencing, calcualting and estimating. This last week or so an interesting new development has been added…..doing. I had really enjoyed being an influencer, planner, persuader, calcualtor and estimator……but I’ve enjoyed it so much that I must have gotten out of the habit of all this doing. This has made me feel a bit rusty in this department, but there is nothing like pressure to shake the rust off. This week everything (to do with me anyway) on our three projects was progressing according to plan until the goalposts moved. Week three’s project has now been moved to week two, and vice versa, leaving my timing and allocation of resources somewhat out of whack. The only viable fix was to take on much of the actual week three work myself in order to get it done in time for week two. Suffice to say that I will most likely be spending Saturday researching the history of a place I’ve only been to twice, let alone know anything about! By contrast, getting the week two project under control by week three will be a breeze……and hopefully that means the third week of the project will be a little easier…more like coasting to the finish line when you know you are well in front.

Great to see the piccies of Brother Joe’s new house……sure, he has work to do, but I bet he’s going to love every minute.

Sorry to hear about Sister Nell’s recent injury re-occurrence. I hope it’s not restricting her too much.

Hmmmmm……..now why can’t I find Nicki’s blog?

Great to see another flurry of blogging from Beloved K………we still haven’t answered that avatar question though.

Cheerio!

Sacrifices

Today my Beloved K is going to work. She has a bit of a commute this morning because she must be inducted in to the ways of her new employer, and they do that at a place other than that which will be her regular workplace. I know she will be good at this job, because she has done it before and been very highly valued wherever she has worked. I also know (it’s easier to tell when you live here) that she doesn’t really want to go. Since leaving her last job when she moved, Beloved K has grown attached to the time she has been able to spend with our children. Having had 5 weeks holidays myself, I have a small insight in to this, but I have been used to the full time work routine for a long time now, and a holiday still seems to me like a holiday rather than a new lifestyle trial.

What I do know is that going back to work does cause Beloved K some pain. No, she is quite physically capable of her work. It is the emotional pain of separation from firstly her children, and secondly the lifestyle she would prefer to have. If this sounds like criticism to you then read it again – it is not the rant of a husband who “doesn’t get it”. Deep down inside I wish I had the power to grant her the lifestyle she craves. Maybe this taps in to some old fashioned desire to be the great provider, I’m not really sure, but I feel this way anyway. I encourage Beloved K to follow dreams, to pick a job or career she could fall in love with (no matter how unreachable it seems) and to pursue them, but instead she has gone back to her previous field of work because she knows we need the money to pay for the things we want – karate and piano lessons, a pool by the end of the year, and holidays to see family, friends and amazing places. I hope she understands that I do understand her sacrifice, and that I want her to be happy above all things. I hope that, one day, she decides her dreams (work or otherwise) are still there, and that I will stand behind her every minute to help her realise them.

In other news, it’s raining……..and raining and raining. A certain monsoon trough mentioned in passing at jweg.wordpress.com is making its presence felt in our part of the world today. Dam levels have already risen from 16 per cent to 36 per cent in the last month, and the talk is all of easing our level 6 water restrictions. I reckon they should leave them in place for a while yet, but that probably won’t be up to me. Anyway, levels are expected to pass 40 per cent this week. Lovely!

Cheerio!

Bite me

Some people talk about life in stages. It seems we’re are all in one stage or another, depending on how we view the stages. I am, by some measures, in the “earning stage”, when I make money, progress through the ranks as best I can at work and be a good little capitalist business unit……spending most of the money as I go.

My son, Child S, is going through a completely different stage of life – the “look, I can poke my tongue through the gap where my teeth used to be” stage. The evidence for this is here:

It is not possible to see it in this picture, but he has actually lost three teeth, the two middle ones on the bottom, and one middle one on the top. The top one came last, and the one next to it is wobbly as well. The top one came out when he was eating dinner. Beloved K, either cleverly on purpose or blissfully unaware of the likely impact, served corn-on-the-cob with dinner. Child S went to take a bite, and the top tooth popped out and rattled across the floor. With blood streaming from his mouth, the unconcerned Child S said “Mummy, I don’t think I can eat my corn any more”. It was priceless.

In other news, Children A and S have both settled in to thier new school very well. They have started karate lessons at a new dojo that they really like, and organising piano lessons will come shortly (plenty of practice going on though!).

Beloved K sat a job interview Monday morning, was offered the job Tuesday morning, accepted it Wednesday morning, is visiting there Friday morning and starting work next Tuesday morning. I wonder what she will do with the afternoons? Seriously though, it is three days a week in a medical practice that is all of 12 minutes from home – perfect! There would not have been much point in moving house to get rid of my commute, only to give Beloved K a longer one. She doesn’t seem overly excited about having a new workplace, possibly because as a medical practice/treatment room job she has done it all before (recently) and doesn’t see much of a challenge in it. Hopefully the people will be great and she will enjoy the process of working with them.

Lastly, but not leastly, thank goodness it is almost football season. I am not much of a cricket fan at the best of times, but this summer’s contents have been particularly insipid and boring. Bring back the Ashes, I say. The Pies play a meaningless preseason game on Saturday night (in Dubai of all places), then it’s only six weeks to the real stuff. I’m looking forward to seeing more games this year – Pies V Lions on March 28, and Pies V Bombers on April 25.

Nice to talk to Jweg, Jury and Nicki over the last 12 hours or so….glad all are doing well.

Cheerio!

Public holidays

I’ve lost count of the number of conversations I’ve had about the fact that I work on public holidays, and that I really don’t mind because I get two weeks of extra annual leave to compensate for them. For some reason, today feels a little different. The kids are off to their new school tomorrow, making this school holidays one of the biggest in terms of change that they have experienced in their young lives. It feels like I should be at home, sharing their last non-school day of the term with them. Instead, I’m going to work, where I will effectively be as in-charge as anyone else. That means the “I feel like staying home” feeling is clashing directly with my usual “if all else fails, be in charge, it’s more fun” feeling.

Still, work has to win this one – too much to get done today and nobody else to do it.

Cheerio!

A thousand words (or so)

Pride in a new home is not a new or even rare thing, but we do feel it in our new home, so I will now (after much promising) attempt to share some of it. You have all seen the front of the house, although I will repeat it here:

 

That was the sight that greeted me when I first drove up to the front of the house to have a look. When I reached the top of the stairs, I saw this:

 

At that point I decided to buy the house. I hadn’t even looked inside. On the off chance there was a major chemical manufacturing facility to the left, I glanced in that direction and saw this:

 

At this point, with the place already mine in my mind, Beloved K arrived, and was also suitably impressed with the view. She, however, wisely decided to look inside the home before deciding to part with the cash. On the deck, she saw this (without the tables, chairs and cat):

 

Inside the front door, there is a loungroom to the left:

 

And there is a bedroom (with ensuite and walk-in robe) to the right:

 

The kitchen looks like this:

 

And the dining/second living area looks like this:

 

Child A sleeps in here (after much furniture rearranging):

 

And Child S in here:

 

I couldn’t leave you without some outside shots, so here are the continuation of the deck around the western side of the house, the view from that side, and the back yard:

    

And the prize, of course, will go to the author of the first comment that points out which photo shows the now famous me-constructed gate!

Cheerio!

The gate

For all my internalised feelings of inadequacy when it comes to working with my hands, it appears that my (assisted) efforts to hang a gate and decorate it nicely have paid off. OK, so I had already hung the gate (as described in the previous post) but it was a work of epic proportions and required a greater flourish in the telling.

The gate materials were a kit or two from Bunnings. I realise having personally mined and refined the steel myself would have sounded more heroic, but let’s face it, nobody who reads this blog would have believed it in a second. Assembling the pieces in the right order was a cinch…..drilling holes in to steel to make it stay together was where my courage failed somewhat. For some reason at some point years ago I developed a highly attuned aversion to stuffing things up. I can’t imagine how that was since my attempts at manual labour were so few and far between. I know I did a few things right (and even once developed muscles as a teenager that I have never had again) but it is the memory of getting things wrong that seems to have stuck.

Anyway, putting the actual gate frame together turned out to be the easiest part of the whole deal. I was really worried when I had to pre-drill holes in very tough steel posts on our existing deck to attached the hinges and the latch. I managed this, hung the frame and sat back for a couple of rainy days marvelling at the fact that I had destroyed neither the deck nor the gate to this point.

Yesterday I carried out the relatively easy job of spraypainting the gate to match the posts on the deck. We came pretty close with “Killrust indian red”, which is closer to brown that the name suggests.

Today was the challenging part – attaching 14 steel “eyelets” to run steel wire across the gate, keeping the wires at the same level as the existing wires in the deck fencing. To cut a long story short, the Beloved K provided sterling aid and ingenius ideas that helped us to get the job done just 28 drilled holes, 14 eyelets and 8.5metres of steel rope later, it is done.

I still don’t have pictures of our home for you, but the time is coming, and you can bet that the gate will feature at least as prominently as the view from the front of the deck.
Ahhh…the legend of the hanging of the gate is growing already….I can feel it!

Cheerio!

Moving experiences

It is a little hard to comprehend that it has been a mere six weeks since I last blogged. Much of our world has changed since then, not least because we wanted it to. I haven’t returned to work yet, but it is already good to know that when I do I will not be spending upwards of two hours every work day just getting there and back. I have another week of holidays before I go back to work, so I will be spending time doing house stuff, enjoying the company of Beloved K and kids A and S, and (hopefully) relaxing to the best of my ability. I’m still hopeful of getting at least one round of golf in somewhere, but at the present rate of golfing invitations I will have to go and play a round by myself – not a disaster, but it can be a lot more fun to share the game).

What can I say about moving house? Beloved K had the packing plan down pat before I even finished work, so I just had to follow it. A workmate loaned me a trailer, which took some of the bits and pieces pressure off, and the rest of it barely fitted on the truck. Dents and scratches now adorn all of our wooden furniture pieces, although the piano came through OK (with an excessive amount of shoving uphill by me – removalists would not have managed it by themselves). Overall, however, it was a lot more pleasant than doing it all by ourselves. We were not as physically destroyed as we had been after most of our previous house moves, and that left us in much better shape to do the unpacking and arranging.

My handyman skills have come to the fore more than ever before. I have successfully hung the dryer (second time in five years), I have put three nice hooks on the walls (one in the ensuite, two in the walk-in wardrobe) and – the toughest of all – hung a new gate frame, hinges and gate at the new house. OK, I still have to finish the gate, but significant progress has been made and it is just finishing touches to go. The fence around our deck/balcony thingo is one of those steel frame and tensioned wire jobs, and making the gate match is the challenge. You wouldn’t believe how much the sets of wire, turnbuckles and eyelets cost….and drilling in to steel makes me nervous (by virtue of the fact that you can’t undrill it once it’s done. The scale of my achievements, however, still pales in comparison to what Brother Joe will most likely achieve in his first week of renovating his new abode. I’ve heard all sorts of renovation advice over the years, much of which can be distilled in to “if you won’t risk breaking it, you can’t fix it”. Good luck Brother Joe! We’re barracking for you all the way.

There are no doubt more happenings of the last six weeks that I will think of after I blog, but I wil try to record them as I think of them. Next post will include pictures of our new abode….promise!

Cheerio!

Known unknowns

With apologies to Donald Rumsfeld, there are so many things that we know we know, things we know we don’t know, things we don’t know we know, and (best of all) things we don’t know that we don’t know. None of that has much relevance to what’s been going on in my world lately, but it’s a great piece of nothing-bureaucratic speak that I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

My last post referred (in a very relaxed manner) to the contract on our house. At this time I am happy to report that the deals are all but done. We have been advised by our real estate agent that the person buying our place has had their finance approved. That’s great, but the wheels of the legal world don’t move quite so fast, and we are still waiting for the buyer’s solicitor to advise our solititor that all is OK. This will happen by Monday (December 3) at the latest. Our own finance (to buy the other house linked to in the previous post) has been approved so all is looking absolutely excellent in that regard. Beloved K is struggling with one element – she can barely recall the inside of the house at all and is not sure what will fit in our new living spaces and what will not. What we are not struggling with is plans. We have so many plans that we can spare some for you if you are a bit short of them. We have the Plasma plan, the DVD plan, the Retaining Wall plan, the TV Cabinet plan, the Filing Cabinet plan and the Dishwasher plan. All of these are good plans. Almost all of them will come to fruition with borrowed money. All of this is good.

Beloved K plans to spend plenty of time with the kids over the school holidays. So do I. Kath will leave it until mid to late January before seeking out a new place to work. She is keen to try something a bit different, like working in a book shop instead of nursing, but we’ll just have to see how things pan out. I have taken holidays to unwind and enjoy the family’s company in our new digs. I finish up on December 12 and don’t go back until January 14. Fun really!

For the record (and for the unbelievers!) I did actually appear on TV. It was a two-minute interview on a Channel 9 program called Brisbane Extra. The interview was about an annual survey conducted by my company. Interesting? Well, yes! And it does suit my ever-growing ego to be on TV once in a while!

last but not least, I have just enjoyed my first ever booking of cheap airline flights on impulse. Faced with cheap fares ($50 each way) I have booked for myself, Beloved K and children A and S to travel to the home of real football on April 23 and returning (early!) on April 27. The mission? To fulfill a promise to take my family to quality football game at a REAL football ground……..and as everyone who knows me will attest, there can be only ONE!

Cheerio!

Off the market

Well, what a difference a month makes! With apologies to Nicki and Jury for sharing this news blog-wise instead of talk-wise (I tried to call you both last night – no luck), we are no longer in the real estate market. This is good news, because we have sold our house (contract should be unconditional within days) and have made an offer on another one. The seller came back with a counter offer and we have said we’ll take it….very excitement! The only piece of the puzzle that remains is for the seller to negotiate with the tenant in the house for them to leave (they have a lease until June, but are pleasantly disposed towards moving on as long as they get time to find somewhere). We have discovered that, in Queensland, the sale of a property is not a legitimate reason for a landlord to turf the tenant – probably a good thing in the grand scheme of things.

 For those of you dying of curiosity, images of our (all things going well) new house can be found here: http://www.realestate.com.au/cgi-bin/rsearch?fslm=1&a=o&id=104383443&t=res .

The house has four bedrooms, and is not overly huge, but the position makes it absolutely amazing. Views for miles and a great deck to take advantage of them. A house we looked at halfway down the same street two weeks ago was nicer, but the views were not even in the same sport let alone in the same league – and it went for $30K more than ours. Makes us rather cheerful about the whole deal really!

There is a long way to go yet…..our place won’t settle until December 7, and we have given a 60-day settlement offer (but sooner if the tenant leaves) on the new property. We will be “camping out” with Beloved K’s brother for any interim period thanks to a kind offer of using their “spare” house (hard to grasp the concept, but when you have seen the historical development of this, it makes sense). It will be simple living but not a worry as we know what we are moving in to and we’re really stoked about it!

Well, I must go. A busy day looms, and I have to be extra-pretty because I’m being interviewed for TV this afternoon. For those out of range of my general location, I will do what I can to get it taped (showing tomorrow night at 5.30pm) and distributed (or uploaded?). For those within my general location, my statement about how pretty I have to be should tell you which program I am talking about.

May all your contracts be unconditional.

Cheerio!

On the market

After much conjecture, computation and complaint (well, I made the last bit up), we are going to move house. The real estate agent banged his sign in to the grass in front of our place this morning, making it official that our house in on the market. If you check realestate.com.au tomorrow you should see pictures of our lovely home. Just search for homes in our suburb between $400,000 and $450,000 and you should find it. A prize to the first person to comment on this blog with the name of the pet that appears in one of the photos!

Moving house is stressful. Selling your house and looking for another one to buy, all the while trying to keep going with work, keep the kids happy and somehow have a life as well is something else entirely. Look up stress in a pictorial dictionary, then imagine that face a bit more twisted, red and tired, as well as frustrated and excited all at the same time. Fun huh? The move will be for the best, reducing my commuting time by some 2 hours a day (all going according to plan). If things work perfectly the move can be executed neatly between school years to minimise disruption to the kiddies as much as possible.

Caught up with Jury yesterday, which is always nice. Her dog didn’t bite me….I mustn’t have been all that tasty after moving furniture and stuff (decluttering).

Must go….more real estate paperwork and stuff to do.

Message for Muse: Any chance of a username and password?

Cheerio!

Vandals

We (Beloved K and I) were somewhat cross yesterday to discover that we had been the victims of an attack by vandals. A couple of weeks ago we had noticed some rocks that did not belong sitting on our driveway (about the size of two 20 cent pieces side by side). Thinking little or nothing of it, we tossed the rocks in with our own on the garden next to the garage. On Saturday we noticed that there was actually some damage to the roof of K’s car, pock-marks from a pretty heavy hit that had damaged the paintwork and left noticable dents. Yesterday (Sunday) we noticed a brand new dent on the boot of the car, obviously fresh, and some off-cuts from sandy-coloured pavers were scattered next to the car.

As I said, we were cross. Somebody (presumably young and stupid enough not to understand the fact that cars cost money) took it on themselves to inflict this damage for some reason. If they had a problem with us then we are not the scariest people in the world – you would think they would talk to us about the problem. It’s actually worse that it’s random, because that means we mean nothing to these people and they did the damage anyway, not caring who we were or what the damage would mean to us. Screw them. I hope for their sake I don’t catch them because I don’t think they would appreciate the outcome. What it has done is ad impetus to the argument for us to move house. Add vandalism to my 1hr 20min commute to work and it gets easier to leave. The possibility of a move unsettling the kids is a restraining factor, but the reasons to move keep adding up. Making the dollars add up might be a different thing, but we’ll wait and see.

Cheerio!

My Hogwarts house

I have often wondered which house the sorting hat would put me in at Hogwarts. Now I know. Click on my Hufflepuff graphic and do the test yourself….don’t forget to let me know which one you were in!

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

 For the record, I was 13 points for Hufflepuff, 11 for Ravenclaw, 10 for Gryffindor and 8 for Slytherin.

Cheerio!

Exam

It’s 1.49am. I have completed one of the exam questions. I have comsumed several coffees, a bottle of V and almost all of a 150gram block of chocolate. I have (largely) completed the research for the other question. I am now going to bed. I have set the alarm for 5.30am. That should be enough time to finish it and file it by the 10am deadline. I might even have time to read it again before I send it. Spell check? Nah.

Home alone

No, I’m not advocating the continuation of one of the most tiresome movie franchises in history. I am, this morning, home alone, cramming for an exam that runs from Monday afternoon to Wednesday morning. Beloved K and Children S and A have headed off down the coast to visit K’s mum and dad, taking advantage of the kids’ day off school Monday to put together Child A’s cloak to go with her (borrowed) medieval dress for school. I’m fighting the procrastination forces, and (despite finding time to blog) so far I’m winning. I spent hours yesterday going right through the unit’s reading again, and I’ll spend today doing the same, as well as updating the learning journal I need to keep for the second assignment of the unit. Tomorrow I have a normal work day, but I’ll cut it short when the exam lobs in my inbox so I can come straight home and work on it.

As I work I have the TV on in the background. I actually find I get more done reading with a familiar movie in the background than I do with silence or a close equivalent. Maybe I’m just addicted to electronic entertainment.

Must go, otherwise I will be procrastinating….and that just won’t do today.

Cheerio!

Congratulations…..so, what does that mean?

Finally, after a lot of waiting (not good for an Aries), I know what my next position at work is going to be. On Friday morning I enjoyed a very entertaining meeting with most of the company’s senior honchos. There was the GM, the EIC, the deputy GM, the business development Mgr. These are all very talented people, and very successful. I know some of them fairly well, but others I still have more to learn. Suffice to say that they are all big assets to the company and really good to work with. Friday morning was entertaining because they were sitting around the table talking about me and what my new job will be. In short, I will be the manager of strategic publishing. Beloved K was talking to Jury about it on Saturday morning (while I was off on a fruitless search for my missing glasses). When I asked Jury whether she understood what I would be doing, it turned out that neither of them did. Oh well, the title sounds impressive so substance becomes a little less important. The short version of what I will be doing is coming up with ideas for one-off or semi-regular publications, usually themed around a single event or topic, working out how they can be sold, them making sure they are sold, while also co-ordinating the editorial content of these publications. The objective is to create new revenue to boost our bottom line. It is quite like my company to move quickly once a decision like this has been made, so my appointment is effective from this Tuesday. I will be based at head office (a 10-minutes longer commute than now – doh!) so it will be good to be at the heart of the action.

Child S is recovering, although his chunky cough is going to hang around for a while. He managed a full day at school on Friday (after not making it to lunchtime on Thursday). Both Child A and Child S are coming along nicely at piano, and their teacher is all enthusiastic about their prospects. Child S is very excited about the upcoming medieval day at school (thanks to Aunt J for the dress, and Mum for the postage).

Cheerio!

Finding out stuff

Today should be a good day for finding out stuff. I have a meeting scheduled for 11.30am with the GM and EIC to nut out the details of my next role at work. It’s looking exciting, and I’m jumping out of my skin to get in to it. My commute to work won’t be any better, in fact it will be worse, but the role itself will be more flexible and will have more scope for creativity. I’ll let you know how it pans out! Sick child S went back to school yesterday, and almost lasted the morning. Beloved K had to leave work to pick him up and take him home. She’s worried she will have to do that again today, leaving her work in the lurch, but what can you do? If the boy’s sick and the school won’t have him it doesn’t leave much wriggle room. By all reports there were just 14 kids in child S’s class yesterday, and that probably included him. Between Flue and Norovirus a lot of classes are like that. The radio news freaked me out on the way home last night – a 4-year-old boy died from Flue on Tuesday at a Brisbane hospital. Beloved K took Sam to the doctor after that (one doctor on duty, almost 2 hours of waiting) but the medical opinion was that he would be OK. I supposed paranoid parents are good parents (I hope so, because I am one!).

Cheerio!

The joys of sickness

Like many men, I am a completely useless whinging mess when I am sick. The best people (I mean my beloved family) can hope for is that I will be sick enough not to talk too much, meaning the net amount of whinging might decline as I do. Some context is important here – my almost-six-year-old son, Samuel, is sick as a dog right now. He has the flu, and I don’t mean a bad cold. Last night he woke three times. Once with the sweats and burning hot, twice with the chills and the shakes. My beloved K knows these symptoms (she is a nurse after all) and knows how to handle them. She has seen plenty of worse things. I, on the other hand, do not have the same experience and therefore I find a cold boy (my son, no less) shaking uncontrollably at 1.40am a little unnerving. It is one of those things where you have to repress the little voice that squeaks “this is serious, call and ambulance” and do the sensible thing, which was to grab the neurofen because at that hour he was able to have another dose. Then it was back rubbing, neck rubbing and pats on the head until he managed to slide back in to an uncomfortable sleep.

My only upside is that, at this stage, I am not as sick as he is. I’m still going to work today, but by tomorrow it might be a different story. We’ll see. For the record, Child A has a cold but nothing that seems more serious at this stage and my Beloved K has escaped unscathed (she had a flue shot – smart lady!).

Must go….got to pick up that lung I just hoched on to the floor.

 Cheerio!

Increasing number of hits

While the title of this post might well be a flagrant (and fraudulant) attempt to improve my blog stats through poorly directed search engine traffic, it does have some vague relevance to life a the moment. Last night (and the Thursday night before, if truth be known) I played indoor cricket. I played indoor cricket when I was younger, and was even fairly good at it if I do say so myself, but that was not really enough to have me confident of how I would go. Suffice to say that last week I batted well and bowled OK, and this week I batted OK and bowled…shall we say…inconsistently!

Another player sent me a text message a day after the first game to ask how I was feeling. I said that, apart from a stiff knee, I was fine. He cursed me, proclaiming that after his first game he was in traction for three days. Game two has left me a little stiff in the back, but it’s not as if I feel like I’ve done 10 rounds with George Foreman.

All of this exercise is surprising to say the least, but it is certainly necessary as I have put back all of the weight I lost in my charity weight loss challenge a year and a half ago. Time to put some routines in place again I suppose, just maybe not quite to rabid as the last time.

Catching up with Dad, Brother Joe, Jury and others this weekend….should be fun.

Cheerio!

Kids and footy

Last night Jury and I took our respective young sons to play Auskick in front of more than 20,000 people at the Gabba. Cold wind, indifferent main game (Lions V Demons…..who cares?) and the confusion over seating allocations aside, it was a great evening for Child S and Child J. The great news is, we have the pictures to prove it and here they are! 

Child S ignoring the group leader’s instructions to smile sweetly for a photo in the changerooms before the game.

 Child J stretching a lower limb while listening to pre-game instructions.

Child J discovers that full forward can be a cold place when Team Red is winning.

Child S thinks carefully about having a kick in front of the adoring Gabba crowd.

More photos are available on email for those family members who would like to see them – just let me know.

Cheerio!

Excuse me sir, did you realise…..

I’m feeling less tired now because I am on holidays. A couple of months ago one of my bosses (yes, I have several) came to see me, sat me down and asked how I was. I said I was feeling pretty good, to which she responded something along the lines of “well, you look like crap. When are you taking holidays?” So now I am on holidays, and it is also the school holidays up here so I am enjoying plenty of time with the kids and even some with my beloved wife, which is great! We are about to head down to Kingscliff for a few days. We’ve booked a rather swanky two bedroom apartment across the road from the beach and hopefully it will be too cold to do much other than hang around and enjoy each other’s company. We’re off tomorrow and we’ll be coming back on Thursday.

Anyway, back to the title of this post, we did the obligatory round of parent teacher interviews in the second-last week of school, pre-empting the release of the school reports in the final week. It was an interesting process, as ever. Child A’s report was good. In fact, even considering that we often have high (even unreasonably high) expectations of Child A’s academic achievement, we were very happy with what we read. Science is an increasing area of interest and achievement, so we are encouraging that. We’re pretty sure, however, that some other child’s music report was attached to our daughter’s. We have no problem with the “B” grading that appeared in the main part of the report……good achievement really, IF it is actually her grade. The supplementary music report attached to the main report is all well and good, except that it compliments her on her achievements in keyboard (which she doesn’t do at school at all) and doesn’t document her school-based extra-curricular participation in flute or choir at all. Our conclusion is that the grade in the main report might be right but the supplementary music report is most likely somebody else’s. We’ll take it back and get them to “reconsider”.

The suprise of the process came with Child S, our grade one boy. Love him as we do, and knowing he is no dumb bunny, we have always considered him, well, just not as sharp as Child A was at the same stage in life. We pondered all sorts of reasons for this…..he’s a boy, every child is different, how could he get a word in at our house anyway etc etc……and felt generally happy with this state of affairs. We went to his parent teacher interview to be told that the teacher believes he is “borderline gifted and talented”. Oops! BLK (that’s Beloved Wife K, for anyone who is unsure) and I were suitably flabbergasted. And as gasted as our flabbers were, we also felt this sense of excitement, tempered by a sense of guilt that we hadn’t worked this out ourselves and might not have supported him in some of the ways that he needed. The guilt has passed somewhat, but we are still a bit lost as to what to do next, other than to keep doing what we already have been because it must be helping to an extent, or at least not doing much damage! The teacher described him as more mature than most of his classmates (male or female) and advancing through the various Grade 1 learnings at a great rate of knots. For anyone wondering whether we have started social isolation training with him yet, don’t worry…..he is still finding a lot of time for Spiderman 3, Star Wars, Warcraft (re-enactments because we won’t let him play it) and, the latest addition to his imaginary play, Pirates of the Caribbean.

Must go…..we’re off to Jury’s place today with a hell of a lot of pasta and some great sauces (they would be marinara, bolognase, carbonara and whatever the other one was!).

Cheerio!

I’m so……

I’m so tired, I haven’t slept a wink
I’m so tired, my mind is on the blink
I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink
No,no,no.

I’m so tired I don’t know what to do
I’m so tired my mind is set on you
I wonder should I call you but I know what you’d do

You’d say I’m putting you on
But it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm
You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain
You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane
You know I’d give you everything I’ve got
for a little peace of mind

I’m so tired, I’m feeling so upset
Although I’m so tired I’ll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
He was such a stupid git.

You’d say I’m putting you on
But it’s no joke, it’s doing me harm
You know I can’t sleep, I can’t stop my brain
You know it’s three weeks, I’m going insane
You know I’d give you everything I’ve got
for a little peace of mind

Patience – more than a card game

This week I received some great advice from a senior work colleague – be patient, but don’t be patient forever. Very kindly, he essentially said if I wanted him to look for another appointment for me (one that would enable me to put my learnings and experiences of the last 12 months to better use) he would be happy to use his connections to do so. Really nice of him really, and it’s great to have tha sort of support in my corner. I told him I was happy to be patient for another two to three months, but would get back to him then if such a role had not surfaced at my present workplace by then. Intriguing, and heartwarming really.

Yesterday, despite a really shocking headache that started around 3am and didn’t quit until about 6.30pm, I made a really successful presentation to an important group of colleagues about a new initiative that should be one of our big successes in the next financial year. Fun!

Looking forward to catching up with the Eagle (AKA Nicki) on the weekend. Should be fun. Meanwhile, we’ve all still got Friday to get through.

Cheerio!

Special night

Last night I had a night to remember with my daughter, Child A. We went to the Gabba to see Collingwood play the Lions, and we just had a fantastic time together. I was showing her things about how football worked and she was soaking it up. We cheered the goals, we booed the opposition’s goals, we talked, we jumped up and down with excitement, we chanted for our team, and we laughed and laughed and laughed. It goes right up there with some of my favourite days, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

Cheerio!

Developing situation

No, I haven’t taken up the habit of home photograph developing (I prefer digital photography, it’s cheaper), and I don’t have any super interesting new work assignments. I do have snippets about work though. On Friday my fellow managers and i went up a mountain, and we didn’t come back down until we felt ready to improve ourselves (and as a consequence, no doubt, our results). The company has declared that this is our year of the people – admirable, but one that it is really hard to feel excited about unless they put their money where their mouths are. Well, lo and behold, that’s exactly what they did, right down to the part where they are going to fund personal developement and business coaching for all of us, to help us more clearly set our professional AND PERSONAL goals. This stuff does not come cheap, and I for one am really looking forward to it. Should be great. For the record, we came down the mountain late on Saturday, and I was home by 6pm.

Beloved K is battling along, trying to keep up with a really hectic life schedule. Kids A and S are doing well, and also keeping a fairly hectic schedule. Hoping to make their Auskick session again tomorrow, but I’ll have to see how it pans out.

Other than that, looking forward to Nicki coming to visit. Have told the kids and they think that’s pretty cool. Weather is turning quite cool, especially at night (down to 10 degrees – brrrrrr!) so that should suit Nicki nicely. Still getting nice 25 degree days though, even when it rains.

Sent an email to Brother Joe the other day. I thought I was being thought-provoking…..obviously not!

Budget shmudget

I love Federal Budgets. This wouls sound like a very silly statement to most people, but I enjoyed myself immensely in the couple of days lead-up to this year’s national cash splash. The msot fun I had was pointing out to my younger (and some older) co-workers that I loved the budget “because it is when the government takes money from people like you and gives it to people like me”. This didn’t quite prove correct this time around, but hey…..it’s an election year. The Feds still have plenty of time to re-woo the “families with children” votes. Can’t wait.

Made another highly-enjoyable investment in quality family time on Wednesday. I took half of the afternoon off and raced home, managing to catch the last half hour of Child A and Child S’s Auskick session. I saw Child A score a run in AFL baseball (trust me, it works) and I helped Child S by trading a few short-distance handballs with him during a “parents help” exercise. Child A looked resplendant in her black and white vertical stripes (I have been accused of child endangerment but I’ve reassured people it is character-building – just look at me!). Child S enjoyed the small handballs for about 20 seconds, then had much more fun trying to punch the ball as far as he possibly could, even if the wind-up could be seen from miles away!

No news on the work front. I hear a few whispers here and there, but I’ve become excited about such things before and all it does is wind me up, take a lot of energy, and then turn out to be nothing. It’s not that I won’t be excited when things do happen, I just don’t have the energy to waste on excitement that’s not the real thing.

NOTE FOR NICKI: Keep an eye out for a package today….Express Post.

NOTE FOR JURY: Study-free environment is going just lovely, thanks (note time spent with kids…..good thing). Catch up with you tomorrow morning?

NOTE FOR BROTHER JOE: I’ve got nothing. How are you? Must get my hands on the Missy Higgins album…..no, the first one. Any suggestions?

NOTE FOR SIL….K: Do you need anything from the shops before I come home?

 NOTE FOR OTHERS: Yeah……like there’s others.

Cheerio!

Public holidays

Public holidays are the strangest of beasts for me. Most people have the day off, enjoy a long weekend (or a short week) and generally seem to get quite a deal of mental welbeing out of the whole thing. I work on public holidays and get extra annual leave instead. Sure, I don’t exoect sympathy on that score – taking five weeks holidays at Christmas and still having some in stock is pretty cool – but sometimes I wonder if I feel more busnt out as a result. I could, in theory, take very public holiday as annual leave, but then that would seem a waste of good holiday time.

We (the family we) are hoping to get away at Queens Birthday Weekend time. We haven’t found a location yet, but hopedully it will be somewhere relaxing where we can just be outselves, and most importantly be ourselves with each other. We have found precious little time for that recently and it’s not an enjoyable feeling.

The weekend just gone (still going for some) was really nice. I spent time at home, no study to do, had conversations with my beloved, went to the park with the kids a couple of times, really relaxed. This is something I just HAVE to find more time for. I think it’s good for all of us, and certainly seems to have a good effect on that feeling of pressure.

Cheerio!

That’s a relief

The gnawing worry I have carried in my stomach for the last few days has just about gone. Results for my exam and assignment came in this morning, and I passed both. Tat for me! Marks were not fantastic (that is, not as good as for the first assignment in the unit), but I couldn’t give a hoot about that really. A pass is a pass is a pass, and I’ll take it! Nwext unit won’t start for a month or thereabouts, but hopefully they will release the reading for it in the next week or so (yes Nicki….your advice is as good now as it was when I was at uni first time!). Once again, my lazy study habits have both caused me stress and been unfortunately vindicated by the results. The lesson from that? Dunno…..they must teach that in a different unit.

Attention

Call it paying attention, call it needing attention (OK craving), but I want attention! Why? Probalby because I feel guilty over paying no attention to a few things because of the work/study conundrum.

My assignment (last for the subject) was largely ground out over last weekend, starting on Friday night, taking all day and half the night on Saturday and finishing 6pm Sunday. Suffice to say I owe plenty of other people more attention than I deserve. I found the assignment really tough, and even though It means my Business Accounting and Finance unit it over, I find myself having nagging thoughts (several times a day at least) that I might not have passed it. This is not like me, as I usually have the “why worry over things that won’t be changed by all the worry in the world” approach to things. Anyway, there is nothing I can do about it, so I’ll just have to wait patiently (!) for the results.

Work is getting us down at the moment. When I say “us”, I mean the family “us”. It is just so hard to get home at a reasonable hour at the moment, and that is starting to drag badly. Tried to organise a surprise weekend away this week (Labor Day weekend) but, even though I could get the Monday off, nothing else fitted in so it didn’t really work. I guess I’ll try again around the Queen’s Birthday weekend.  In the meantime I’ll just have to create what time I can. Trouble is I’m carrying more responsibility at work. Other managers have been sick/away/training/leaving/just not there all the time, and so people have been looking to me for solutions. That is a symptom of something good – that I’m seen as a go-t0 person to an extent – but it wears you out a fair bit. It’s nice to be thought of that way, but it would be nice for things to return to “normal operations” for a while, even a week, instead of this constant barrage of left field things that we have at the moment.

The life-long scarring of my children appears to have almost completely taken shape now. I was greeted when I got home by both of them dressed up in their Collingwood gear, clutching footballs (real ones, not that rugby league crap). They are both signed up for Auskick and are really excited about it. Child A is even doing AFL in PE, with her first game coming up on Tuesday. Now if I only had 16 more children (Yay team!)……..

Thanks for the kind birthday wishes from so many (Nicki, Jury, B-Joe and Grandma). So far being 35 has been so busy that I haven’t had time mto reflect on what being 35 is like. I might have to get back to you on that one.

Sorry – I have to go now – real world is chiming in again and I have to get to head office (1 hour, 20-30 minutes drive) for the weekly meeting of managers. Back on the roundabout again. Still, it could be worse. We have a managers’ retreat (a Friday, overnight stay and most of Saturday) coming up in a couple of weeks. I’ll report back afterwards.

Cheerio! 

Out of the frying pan…….

Just when I made it through three days of a business accounting and finance exam, I am rewarded with a three day work course on, you guessed it, finance essentials! It is actually great fun, because my learning in the field is so recent that I can actually share some really good insights in to what we are doing. The work course is good because it is an insight in to how the global corporation that I work for does accounting and finance, so it is (hopefully) directly applicable to roles I will play in the company, and fingers crossed sooner rather than later.

Speaking of my next project, I still do not have a clue what it is! Well, that’s not quite right. I know what one option is, and have vague impressions about what a couple of other options are, but I couldn’t truthfully say I KNOW what is next for me. Never mind…..I have actually found quite a nice groove at the moment, doing reasonably good jobs at my various roles, and generally winning points all around. Rather nice really!

Study-wise I have one assignment to go to finish my unit, then one unit to go to finish the graduate certificate. Feeling OK about the exam result. I didn’t wake screaming on Sunday morning, so I must have had it under control. I hate waiting for results after submitting uni work, because you never quite know how you have gone until you get that mark back. As far as the exam goes, I’ll be happy with a pass.

On a last note, hope SN’s arm is doing better. Disappointing if it doesn’t bruise really impressively, but the marks left by the Kingswood should be worn with pride.

Cheerio!

Suviving exams

Eyes bulging……coffee repeating……brain frying……..still going.