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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!