I won something!

I won something!

A week or so ago I saw a competition on The Livingroom (I think it was -- we weren't actually watching, just surfing for something to watch). Typical "25 words or less" with a website under tenplay -- or maybe I just went to the site looking for a way to win an Xbox One? Whatever the case, I entered (with a barely witty appeal to the competition sponsors, Temple & Webster) ... and a few days later I got a call telling me I'd won!

Not a small prize, either: a $20,000 living room makeover, complete with our own personal interior designer figuring it all out for us, and delivery and "bump in". We don't even need to be here! Once I'd gotten over the feeling that it must be a joke or a mistake, I was excited: what with the house and everything, we were planning on a pretty austere Christmas (no presents for each other, but of course we have some stuff for Jules). But winning this competition is OUR Christmas present!

On Friday morning I met Jess, our designer (see her style on Pinterest). She toured the house, measured stuff and helped me pick some "styles" from a bunch of magazines. Really just a fact-finding mission for her -- she'll go away and select some things from the suppliers to Temple & Webster and get back to us with options. Since we do most of our "living" throughout the whole house, there's a good chance at least (I'm flying blind here really) that her suggestions will run all the way from our little kitchen to the outside balcony where the dining table is. We might even get some bedroom stuff, towels, and possibly garden supplies! Who knows. I'll yay/nay stuff when she comes back to me, then I expect there will be a bit of back and forth until we're set on the "look", if not the individual items. So freakin' excited!

(Dee's taking a passive role, which was a surprise to me (perhaps doing our place in Cockatoo was stress enough?).  She just wants to come in one day and have a new living space, which I totally understand. It will be a surprise! Luckily I'm reasonably confident that I can pick stuff that she will like -- and, more importantly, veto those that she would hate! And of course I'll try to take some "before" and "after" photos -- they're the best part of any reno show, aren't they?)

In other good news, our house sale is now unconditional -- the buyers have been approved their finance, and the building inspection was clean. We're going to ask if they want to move up the settlement date (it's February at the moment) but I'll be taking a (frequent-flyer points) flight down to Melbourne (and a visit to the 'go if I can squeeze it in ;-)) to get the last of our stuff. (Yep, part of the sale deal included the furniture, so we don't have too much to move. Perfect, as we were just going to sell it on gumtree anyway!)

I really feel like our karmic investments are finally paying off.

Happy birthday Aunty Lisa!

I like berries!

Happy Birthday Carolynn

Happy birthday cousin Carolynn! Sorry it's late, lemme put the clock back ...

Work, swords, costumes, and general fun times.

It's my final week of work - I'm taking two weeks off over Christmas/New Years, and rather looking forward to them. Last week I was averaging 10 hours a day trying to hit a deadline for a job. It's not fun. On the plus side, though, I made the deadline ;)

On top of that Shihan contacted me to say he'd decided to come to Bendigo for a training session rather than doing one in Melbourne. That caused a mad rush to find an available hall, since my usual dojo was pre-booked. Thanks to Cheryl's quick thinking and Lisa's useful contacts I was able to organise the EUC Hall. I've since discovered my estimated 8-12 students has ballooned out to more like 20. The Melbourne guys disorganisation led to Shihan deciding to come to Bendigo in the first place, so I shouldn't have been surprised to find out only today that there's about 8 coming up. Anyway, the logistics are sorted I think and it's a huge win for the Bendigo club - hopefully if we look after him Shihan will consider coming here for gradings in the future too :)

Speaking of the dojo, we had our end of year BBQ Sunday. Cheryl did a Herculean effort organising stuff for that -and- did the actual barbecuing while I waltzed around teasing the teenagers and generally not being very productive. She is a saint. I was sorry to see Daria wasn't feeling well, and Lisa took her and Trin home. Lucky for Jared and Carolynn Nanny couldn't resist the temptation of a free hamburger and took us up on our offer to join us for lunch so she could shuttle them home afterwards ;)

We've been organising our costumes for Lisa's birthday party too. We're being a bit secretive about who we'll all be going as - all I can tell you is I've done my best to grow a beard in the last month for my costume. Oh and we're very thankful Edith is nearby and knows how to sew :)

After that Christmas day is going to be relaxing by comparison, even with two very excited little kiddies ;)

That'll do from me. Oscar's got a Kindy concert on Tuesday during which he'll apparently sing "lots of songs" and Nanna, Granddad, Nanny and Nanny's Nana are all coming to watch, but I might let Cheryl post about that after it's happened.

Cheerio!

School, Moving and China!!

So I know its been ages since my last post but I've been busy. I have finished uni and decided that this isn't the course for me, so I've applied at TAFE her in Bendigo to do a cert 4 in professional writing and editing that I find out in a week or so if I'm in, and I hope I am pretty confident with it. I get my uni results next week so I'll see how I went with that. Other than that I've moved from where I was and I'm now at Nanny's and still collecting stuff from mum's because I was there for a couple of weeks before I moved, and after thinking that Brady and I were friends I learnt that he wants nothing to do with me really but oh well friendships can fall in a heap.

I've been to China so I'll do a short post about it and put it up in full on my travel blog. So China was great fun I got to bond with a few of the girls (all younger than me) and fall out with them over little things, like knocking on the door and running away lots of times and invasion of privacy. We climbed the Great Wall and visited all the places the emperor and his family lived and visited. We spent 7 days for 3 hours dancing although I didn't do all the hours because I managed to get sick and injure myself :/ I have lots of photos that I will put up on facebook at some stage too. We had lots of eastern food and the occasional western food, like KFC, McDonalds and chips and tomato sauce. The photo is from the second day at the Ming Tombs :)

Happy Birthday Dee!

We've been quiet on the Bandwagon (and other places) for some time now. Mostly we've felt squeezed, I think - moving, work, the house in Cockatoo...

Happy to say we have one of those mostly sorted out now - we have accepted an offer on Baker Street! ("Mostly" because it's contingent on their finance and a building inspection - we SHOULD be fine but will know on the 19th.) Less than we wanted, but it is just a liability for us, an ongoing source of  expenses and stress. So it's a massive relief!

We had a long lunch and the afternoon together yesterday,  and today (Dee's actual birthday) we are... scrubbing the outdoor furniture, eaves and pavers?!? Don't tell ME I don't know how to show a girl a good time!

(Disclosure: Dee is scrubbing. I'm playing cars with Jules. # DadLife)

Otherwise things are okay. My work at Palantir is always busy, but especially so at the moment because my pilot finishes in January. Dee is submitting a proposal for funding her own project which would see a 12 month extension to her contract, so we have our fingers crossed on that one too.

Jules is totally settled into day care, and his vocabulary is steadily increasing - a speech therapist claimed he was not as developed as he should be but I think that's bollocks: he's a shy boy, so didn't really want to talk to her. He does still love his dummy so we're trying to encourage taking it out to speak.

I think I've said it before but we all really love living in Sydney. This area is so nice, Dee's work colleagues are great, we can cycle into the city, there are beaches and parks and markets and cafes.

Christmas is coming up mighty fast. We are staying up here this year, so will have to get on a Hangout on Christmas day. The Melrose family are visiting (from Scotland) on Tuesday so that will be fun; Dee's mum and brother are joining us for Christmas.

Signing in from Shaft St

So it's been about 6 weeks since I've posted, that's better than 6 months LOL  So, I've officially finished work until February when we start back. It's sort of a relief, I've got those 3 days a week back to sort out this house, but I also won't have the extra $$ coming in. It's not too bad, we can survive, I've just enjoyed watching my account balance rise, if slowly. The car is going into the mechanice tomorrow and I hope it's not going to cost too much. My ignition has been playing up, by that I mean it won't lock without jiggling the key madly. I was thinking about when it started and I remember when we parked at the club for Trinity's cali break-up I was sure that I locked the car, but when we got back my door was unlocked. Nothing was missing so I didn't think too much about it. What can I say, I have children and it's not uncommon for me to find the car unlocked, usually it's one of their doors though. So I suspect someone has tried to steal my car and stuffed my ignition, b@$t&s. I'm also still having trouble with the alternator, or that is my suspicion anyway. Will ask the mechanic tomorrow and hope that 1. it doesn't cost me too much and 2. I get the car back in time to pick Trinity up from school.

I spent last Saturday at home cleaning out the shed, or attempting to make more room for my own stuff. There was still a lot of stuff belonging to Adam's family. I've bagged up clothes for Cheryl's mum or sister to take to the Phillipines, thrown out heaps of old schoolwork, and found a heap of books. I was going to keep the books, or donate them to playgroup, but since it's likely we'll see Rick in just a couple of weeks I'm considering giving him the option of delivering them. Under the books was a photo of Adam from primary school, I'm keeping that. I made room for 2 of Carolynn's tubs so that means there is a little more room in the laundry, but I have a long way to go to make this house less cluttered.

Jared has finished up at school, including 2 weeks of orientation and Bendigo Senior. He's made some new friends. Hopefully he'll help me out around the house for the summer holidays, but I won't hold my breath. He's warned me it's time to get him to work shortly so I'll cut this short...

Rugby is the national sport

I know, I know.. I said I was going to update the bandwagon weeks ago.. sorry! I've been overwhelmed with work lately and haven't found the time nor inspiration to write a post.

I've been able to recuperate somewhat this weekend - B & I joined one of our mates to see Wales play Australia at the rugby! :-)

Millenium Stadium is in the middle of Cardiff, so match days always cause a big stir in the city. Around the stadium becomes super-busy as 70,000 people try to get in and find their seats before kickoff. All the bars in town fill up, especially those showing the match on TV. To avoid these crowds we decided to have a drink in the pub near the university. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones to have that thought! Properly hydrated, we wandered past Winter Wonderland and into the throng, stopping to buy a match day scarf as we headed to the gates.

Our seats were on level six, so we had a great overview of the game. I felt like a tiny island in a silent sea during the Australian national anthem (and yes, I sang!) and was completely immersed by the Welsh national anthem - so many voices! I still don't really understand the rules of rugby but it was a good game and I think I know more about the game now than I did before.

It was really good fun. It's just a shame that the weekend is over so soon!

4 weeks until Christmas!

Time is flying by now and it's less than a month to Christmas! Cheryl and I share a Google calendar (which means it's on all the computers and both our phones, very organised ;)) and the weeks are filling up with events.

We all got our eyes tested a few weeks back - Cheryl will be picking up her glasses this weekend, and me the weekend after (Lil is wearing my chosen glasses in the photo), as well as doing some weird eye test where they put drops in my eyes to make my pupils widen and then take photos - the general photos don't get up around the sides of the inside of your eyeball, and the optometrist recommended doing this once every 4 years or so. I've never had it done, so that'll be fun.

We also got Ossie's eyes tested, which you might have seen on Facebook. He was terribly nervous, and did his trick of not saying a word. Luckily it was less of an issue for the optometrist than when we went to the speech pathologist ;) He was well prepared with a sheet of letters Os could point to, iPad activities and other games.

Ossie's vision is fine. It's one point long-sighted, which isn't an issue and shouldn't (fingers crossed) degrade over time. If he can avoid my stupid super-shortsightedness and astigmatism that'd be great.

We also had Oscar's Kindy Art Show/BBQ last Friday. Oscar's picture is great, and has pride of place on the lounge room wall :) Apparently there's a concert coming up which grandparents are welcome to come and watch - Mum I'll send you details. It'll be during the day.

My Iaido Christmas breakup is approaching, we're going to have a barbecue in the park. Should be nice. Then Shihan is visiting Melbourne, so a few of my students might go down to grade. I think I'm more nervous than if I was grading myself, actually.. I know these guys are representing me. We'll be making the most of the final 3 classes, that's for sure. The club is going well, anyway - I'm averaging 4 or 5 students a night, which is great. I only need 3 to cover the hall cost, but we could certainly fit in more now.

On Sunday I looked after the kids while Cheryl went to the Food and Wine Festival. I'll let her fill you in on that one - as for me I took the kids shopping and then we lazed around the house in the afternoon.

We've got our planned movie for Lisa's birthday party - I'm not revealing anything, except to say we might be appealing to Edith's greater sewing ability if we can't find what we need in op shops. I think it's going to be a great evening :)

Oh, and if you've made it this far I'll ask again - who will be around for Christmas?

Quick update as promised ;)

Just a quick one from us - our weeks aren't nearly as interesting as Mum's I'm afraid :) We did put up the Christmas tree the weekend before last. Oscar is so excited by the idea of Christmas so we decided we might as well kick it off early. The kids loved putting the tree together and decorating it, although both of them have a tendency to just put every decoration on the same branch. I think we'll have to make putting the tree up on November 1 a bit of a family tradition.

We're going to get an advent calendar for December and watch as Ossie's brain gradually explodes from the building excitement.

We also had a picnic for Landon's birthday. The weather was beautiful.. lucky he wasn't born a week later since it's been pretty cold and rainy since then.

Last weekend we drove to Melbourne to check out Highpoint Shopping Centre again. It's a good one - huge and out our side of the city, so you can avoid tollways and the like. Daiso is the best store there.. it's like a Japanese $2 shop. I bought socks! Tutti Frutti is also a winner.

But that's about it for us, apart from that it's been work and kindy, looking after the kids, iaido, the same old same old. Somehow the weeks are still flying by mind you. I haven't worked out when (if) I'll take time off for Christmas but I'm sure I'll get a week or so in. Gotta catch up on sleeping in ;)

Happy Halloween

This morning I came back from the water-cooler to find a tiny skeleton dancing on my laptop...

Happy Halloween everybody!

Happy Halloween

I've just had a really fun evening making my first real jack-o-lantern. :-D I made a mini one when I lived in London but this is my first "real-size" pumpkin. Bruce made one too - you can see the photos. :-)

This week is fairly quiet for me after another busy one last week (three Spectroscopy in a Suitcase visits and an open day at the uni).  I've been catching up on paperwork and not doing much after-hours.

Unfortunately B found out today that his job is going to finish early - they don't have enough work for him and didn't get the extra funding they were hoping for. It's a real drag because it means B has to start looking for new jobs again - we thought he'd have until March, not end of November! O well.

We're popping over the channel to southern France this weekend. I'm looking forward to wine and cheese. ;-) I'll update after we get back.
*hugz*

Angry cats are the best cats

Saturday we took the kids to the Bendigo Show. We knew someone at the gate and got in for cheaper, which was nice. The kids really enjoyed seeing all the animals - Lily certainly liked the flat-faced "angry" cat ;)

The kids also did a cooking class and made rice paper rolls. You may have seen the photos on Facebook. Right at the start the chef accidentally sprayed Lily with water, which made her cry (she was probably a bit tired anyway). Still, she recovered and made her roll, then when she started making the second one she sprayed Ossie in the face, so he cried, and that made her cry again as well. The chef kindly gave them both a hat and apron combo which cheered them up enough to taste their rolls, at least :) He only had about 5 or 6 to give away so it really was nice of him (and yes, he had a variety of colours including green and I think yellow or red).

After that I took Os on a ride (a spaceship thing that moved around while a video played at the front) and Lil got a balloon (since she was too small for the ride) and then we headed home. It was a nice day out. I'd planned on buying an Adventure Time showbag, or maybe one of the lolly ones, but they were $28 each! Just a bit too much to spend on a whim, really.

Sunday Cheryl went to the movies with Oscar. He's been wanting to go with her since he and I saw Monsters University - I guess he wanted to share the experience with his Mummy, which is sweet :) I took Lil to the playground in the mall and then we all met up for lunch.

Tomorrow he's off to school! Just one hour in the morning, and he'll be there with cousin Daria which I think he's really looking forward to. I do hope he enjoys school as much as he's enjoyed Kindy.

Brooklea Park Banter

Back from holiday and straight back into it! My week was a little insane really..

Monday: drove to Aberystwyth for a Spectroscopy in a Suitcase session (the team there are just starting with the scheme).. unfortunately, crossed wires meant there were no students, only one teacher for the session.. oops!

Spent the evening talking to members and non-members at the RSC Mid-Wales Local Section Mixer Meeting.

Tuesday: drove to Swansea after a morning meeting with two of the RSC team who had also stayed in Aberystwyth. Spent the afternoon catching up on emails in my hotel. (There was initially a Chemistry at Work event scheduled for the day but it was postponed - and I'm very glad that it was!).

Wednesday: Chemistry at Work event in Swansea - we delivered our Body in the Lab session five times throughout the day to a total of about 80 students. Phew! Stayed at the hotel again.

Thursday: The second of my Chemistry at Work events for the week, this one in Neath Port Talbot. This time we had six sessions throughout the day and I was really tired by the end of it. I thought that I was going to lose my voice during the day (it was really husky on Wednesday night) but somehow I made it through! Finally got home to see Bruce. :-)

Friday: Another early start, this time to head towards Barry for an outreach session followed by a Spectroscopy in a Suitcase session. Busy day but a great bunch of students! By the time I got back to work (3pm-ish) I was really tired and decided to finish early. :-)

Saturday and Sunday: Sleep! And did my best to get better. At the start of the weekend I was sure that I'd lose my voice sometime this week but I was definitely feeling a bit better by Sunday evening.

This week isn't quite as bad as last week - we had a SIAS session today (just in Cardiff, so no long drives) and tomorrow is another day similar to the Chemistry at Work days (six sessions throughout the day)! I'll fill you in on it all next week. :-)

*hugz* to all.

Same old same old... or is it?

Ok, my turn. The year is flying past too quickly, and yet so much has been happening in this little house. In the school holidays I got new glasses, Carolynn had an eye test and also needed glasses, and I bought a new bed. Add Carolynn's trip to China and my plan to buy a new car has been postponed, so we're stuck in Bendigo for a bit longer since I have been recommended NOT to take the Laser on long drives. It's good advice, I'm finding when it's been going for a while it's running pretty rough. I'm sure the alternator is having a hissy fit despite the auto-elec saying it's fine.

Carolynn can update about her trip later, for now - she joined the Bendigo Chinese Association (BCA) Plum Blossom Dancing Team earlier this year after finding out that there would be no senior calisthenics team for Sabelle. Trinity is now a Sub-Junior so we've still had 4 comps this year. Anyway, the Plum Blossoms got a grant to help them go to China to learn more about the culture and to attend a dance school to learn more about traditional Chinese dancing. I thought it was a great opportunity for Carolynn and supported her going. She left last night for an overnight flight with those of the team that were going, there's a photo on Facebook. We're on Skype and waiting to see her online. I bought Skype credit for her to use but it will need to wait until she's somewhere with free wi-fi.

Jared's still with the BCA Lion and Dragon Team but has given up karate for now. He also got his Ls on Friday - eek. Now I have to psych myself up to take him out in the Laser! To top it all off he got his first job as well last week. A junior in the kitchen at Pizza Hut. The problem is his hours, 6.30-8.30pm. The girls have been staying up and watching Dr Who, which is difficult but does mean we can all go and pick Jared up, but it does delay their bedtime that bit more.

As I said before, Trinity is a Subbie in calisthenics. They performed their best at the last comp in Shepparton. They placed in every item, but it was their 4 firsts that gave them the points to win Aggregate. Basically they got the most points over all, there are points for placing in items. I could explain it all but I'm not sure you need to know :)  They've also had comps in Melbourne, Echuca and Horsham in the last couple of months, so lots of travelling - carpooling of course, and not in the Laser. Their end of year concert is the 9th of November and then we're all done with cali until next year. Trinity loves it, it's just great for her self confidence, she's come a long way since she started 3 years ago.

Now Daria, she's going to a big school girl next year. Orientation starts at the end of this month, of course Damien and Cheryl know that :)  Of course all of her orientation days fall on group days for work. It's not too bad, orientation is 9-10am and group starts at 10am. We're supposed to set up at 9.30am so it's possible I can help out a bit before I pick Daria up. It's also kinder for her so she'll be late to that too.

Work for me is going well. I have some training days coming up so it's good that I can work around most of it. I love the flexibility, but I'm also looking forward to finishing up for the year in the first week of December. I'm so not ready for Christmas... at all!  I'm going to need to do some serious last minute shopping. I'll have a handful of Mondays where Daria is at kinder and Trinity is at school and I can get out alone ;)

I think that's about it for our news. Busy but run of the mill for us.

Plaguehouse

Hi all,

I'd somehow missed the visit to Kryal Castle, but it looks like you had heaps of fun!! Been a while since we went, and we will definitely have to take Jules along next time we're down that way.

This weekend hasn't been much fun for us -- we're all sick (Jules least of all, but I suspect it's something he brought home from daycare) so it's been long nights of coughing, some throwing up and general misery. The only "silver lining", if it even counts as one, is that Dee and I have miraculously chosen different nights to be sick as dogs, so that one of us at least could look after the other (and Jules, of course). Not fun at all, but fingers are crossed that we're getting better (and that J-dog doesn't get the throwing-up virus).

Last weekend was better; quiet, but still a fun little day of garden maintenance for my birthday. It's getting so hot here these days! You've probably seen all the bushfire warnings; nothing near us, thankfully, but I'm glad we're not still in our "tinderbox" house in Cockatoo, that's for sure. Oh, we haven't sold the house yet either. Poop.

So it's been pretty bleugh for us, and I'm enjoying reading all the fun stuff that OTHERS are doing instead of doing them myself! :-)

Kryal Castle

Hmm.. looks like comments have disappeared again, so I'll just say sounds like Dayna's having a great time and Mum you're being very productive!

Last weekend as I'm sure you saw on Facebook we visited Kryal Castle. I'd heard a while back that it had closed down, which was a shame, and then heard that it had reopened with new owners. The weather was looking to be good so we decided to check it out.

(Also, we've been out to Castlemaine, to Daylesford.. this area of central Victoria is really nice countryside to drive around for little trips, especially while everything is so green)

Kryal Castle isn't cheap - it cost us around $70 for the four of us - but had events throughout the day and lots of other stuff to see. Apart from the main area that had weapons displays, guys on horses spearing rings and hitting little shields and stuff and, of course, the main event of jousting, there was also a pantomime show the kids loved and a story reading (of which Os was the sole spectator  for the first 5 minutes or so) and a bit of foam swordplay too.

There were some new things - fairies, dragons and other kid-friendly fantasy elements - and some stuff I remember from when we visited like the stocks, the maze and the throne room. Although the torture chambers were still there (we didn't go in) generally I think it's tending more towards kid-friendly entertainment instead of more historically accurate and somewhat terrifying medieval stuff.

This coming weekend if the weather is nice we might check out the Bendigo show. It's nice to have the kids at an age where we can have a day trip out together.

The photos are up on facebook if you want to check them out: https://www.facebook.com/damienmason/posts/10151648256510683

A Spanish Holiday

You can either read the post below, or watch the video summary (10 seconds per day) here:  http://youtu.be/JpsqieuM0bQ


Saturday (travel travel travel)
After an early breakfast, we piled in John's car to head to Luton airport. Our holiday had started (well, if you didn't count the cheeky wine I had Friday afternoon before we drove to Wednesbury). Eventually, after two hours drive, 15 minutes in the bus, a lunch break, queuing for half an hour, a two hour flight and a coach ride for forty minutes, we arrived at the hotel we'd call home for the next seven days; Hotel Royal Sun.

Our stay is "all inclusive" - as much food and drink as we care to have... And that includes alcohol! Don't think I'll be keeping track of my food this week.. and I'll cross my fingers that the scales aren't too mean on our return.


Sunday
Today was a day for local exploring. In the morning we wandered along Santa Susanna's main straight and in the afternoon we explored the shops in the next "town", Malgrat (although you really can't tell where one "town" ends and the next begins!)

The first couple of tourist shops were really interesting - I love seeing what kitschy souvenirs are on offer - but after a while everything became a bit same-y. I still managed to buy myself a new hat (it's a hat winter for me) and looked at dozens of handbags (mine is on its last legs and apparently Spain is a good place to buy them).

Between all this looking and shopping we found time for our meals at the hotel, a drink by the beach (at the back of our hotel), a drink at the hotel John and Gwen stayed in last year (same chain so it didn't cost us anything), and a scenic ride on a little train (we thought it just went up and down the main straight... apparently not!). We were pretty worn out by the end of the evening so we didn't get up and join the (mostly line-) dancers in the bar, even though the live singer was pretty good.. she was also very good at pretending to play the keyboard. ;-)


Monday (markets!)
Up early today to head to Blanes (bla-ness) for the market. Everybody loves a good street market! There was something for everyone - clothes, handbags, scarves, toys, jackets and more. The market stretched along the path beside the beach and seemed to go on forever. There were bargains to be had if you were lucky/could be bothered rummaging (I found a pair of €5 shoes that match my green dress, and a €6 grey jumper for work).

After a substantial snack (that we had to pay for!  There weren't any of the chain hotels there), we made our way back to Santa Susanna and the lads had a swim in the sea. It wasn't warm enough for me -  the morning had been lovely but the clouds covered the sun as soon as we got back to the hotel. :-( hopefully tomorrow will be good and I'll get to go for a swim.

Tuesday (sunshine and cocktails)
(Happy birthday Dad)
Made the most of the sunshine today and spent most of the day by the pool. We went for a quick dip early on (brrrr! Had to keep moving or it felt too cold!) and then spent the rest of the morning on the loungers drying out and warming up. We also made the most of the "cocktail of the day" - a mixture of peach and kiwi schnapps with some lemonade. :-)

Late afternoon we went for a swim in the Med. The sand is like tiny little pebbles so it hurt to walk on but is easier to dust off. :-) The sea was warmer than the pool and got deep really quickly - after two steps I couldn't touch the bottom! It was really relaxing to just bob around for a while and then lay on a towel in the evening sun. This is what holidays should be like!


Wednesday

(Happy birthday Gwen)
Cava for breakfast for Gwen's birthday (and most days this week ;-) ) and then up the coast to Calella for the day. Spent the morning wandering along the pedestrianised high street looking for bargains. There were plenty of bag shops but the ones we went in had really pushy sales people. I'm sure you know the type - they follow you around, rearranging everything you touch and every time you pick something up to look at it they tell you how wonderful it is. Needless to say, none of us bought anything. :-)

We headed to the local chain hotel for a morning drink (it looked really close but the map lied - it took AGES to get to!) and ended up having a few to make up for the walk. :-) We didn't have as many as some people had obviously had and we were happy to be staying in a different hotel. =-O

On the way back we took the train one stop past Santa Susanna and I bought the handbag I'd seen on Sunday (at least it was still there). By the time we got back to the hotel we were all pretty tired. But we still had time for a celebratory pastry with a little candle for Gwen (including singing, even though she told us to shush. :-) you can't shush a birthday!)


Thursday (an excursion)
A slightly earlier start today so we could spend the day in Montserrat, a monastery on the top of a mountain.

The coach journey took about 90 minutes and was broken up by some facts about Montserrat from our tour guide, Annalise. For example, Mont = mountain, serrat = sawn, The sawn mountain - sawn by angels.

Montserrat is a holy place because back in the 10th century someone saw the light of the Virgin Mary in the hills. Monks came to the place and lived in the caves for years, until an Abbott came along and built the monastery (completed in 1026).

People who made the Virgin Mary statues decided they needed money, so they placed the statues along the roads and spread rumors that it was lucky for people to leave money at these statues. People would leave money and all their belongings! Initially the monks condemned this, saying it was a lie. But then saw that it was a good way of raising money and installed the Madonna. People have been making pilgrimages since!

Rather than driving all the way, we caught the rack railway up the mountain and had a few hours to explore. Unfortunately we missed the boys singing live because there were too many people in the church (and they only sing for 10 minutes!).. but the views were amazing! And we'd been able to hear a recording of the boys as part of the audiovisual visit included in our ticket. Also included was a tasting of some of the liquor that the monks make - it was fairly regimented, no time for contemplation of the flavors, just one shot after the other: herbs, walnut, hazelnut & Catalan Creme. We would have bought a small bottle but they only had large ones so we bought flavoured chocolate instead. :-)

The time disappeared and before we knew it we were back in the bus and on the way back to the hotel. Needless to say, we are all tired (but happy) and won't be staying up late tonight!


Friday
Initially B & I were going to go to Barcelona today but when we saw the weather we decided to leave it for another trip. After low- to mid-20s for most of the week, today is cold and wet (expected top 13 degrees!). I didn't bring clothes for this weather!! After a lot of deliberation, we headed back to Calella for the morning (we had to pick up our embroidered towel souvenir) and had a relaxing lunch for two (Gwen and John stayed at the hotel).

The hotel's evening entertainment was probably the best of the week - a flamenco show. Watching three talented dancers strutting their stuff was a fab way to finish the holiday. It's back to the UK tomorrow.


Saturday
Another day of traveling - the reverse of last week. :-)

I'm not looking forward to going back to work on Monday - I've got a very busy week coming up. I'll add some photos to this post once I've had a chance to go through them. And hopefully I'll remember to write another update next week. :-)

Your turn!

Happy Birthday, Damien!

Hope you enjoyed your day yesterday! Presents, food and family! :D And hope you enjoy the rest of your birthday week :)
Looking forward to a game of Creationary later!
Love you lots and lots
<3 Chez Os Lil

Li'l Lily's Birthday Party

We had Lil's birthday party on the weekend, and were once again reminded how handy it is to have family around when Mum, Edith and Rach all brought food, and I caught Mum and Edith doing dishes part way through the day :) I'd modified a picture of Li'l Lulu to make it Li'l Lily for the invites, and that set the general theme for the party - tiny versions of food (mini party pies and party sausage rolls, little quiches and pizzas, hotdogs made from a cocktail frank and dinner roll, chicken nugget parmas, and Cheryl's delicious mini muffins and tiny rumballs). Thankfully we made up for the size with volume, and I don't think anyone went home hungry.

Lil had an amazing time. She tore through presents while we were getting food ready, but lucky for us Mum and Auntie Denise were there to write the gifts on the back of the cards so we knew who gave what, and Carolynn took some photos for us too. Actually there were a few people taking photos over the day (Joel took the ones in this post) so we'll have to gather them all together for a look.

Then we had a bit of a treasure hunt outside (little bubble blowers and a chocolate ladybug) and the kids returned to doing what they do - drawing on the pavement with chalk, playing on the swing set, riding bikes around and generally enjoying the beautiful weather in the way only small children can :)

Back inside for an amazing cake that Cheryl had made (and that she cut up perfectly - there was only one small piece left over after dividing it amongst 30 or so people) plus the aforementioned muffins, cupcakes and more cookies than even I could eat.

That led, of course, to even more crazy running around until the end of the day. Not having relied on Cheryl's family enough already we went there for dinner. Combined with the dishes being done already it meant there was not nearly as much packing and cleaning up as expected.

It was really good to catch up with everyone and to see the kids all playing together. I think Cheryl did an amazing job getting everything organised beforehand and cooked on the day, and I know everybody loved the party bags she put together - both the kids, who got big ones, and the adults who also got one :) Huge thanks to everyone for the help, especially Mum! Also Edith and Rach, not that they'll read this ;)

Post goes here

I wanted to write about our trip to the zoo the other week, but I just haven't got around to it.

Brownhill Creek Blogging

We're in Adelaide! My Iaido club are running an instructors seminar this weekend, which gave us the justification to come up here for a bit of a holiday. I'll be working at the GDD offices for 4 days as well, which will allow us to claim the trip on tax ;)

We drove up over Thursday and Friday, and the kids were really well behaved. Lily actually slept for about 2 hours when we started, and woke up just in time to go crazy on the Horsham Maccas playground while Cheryl and I got some lunch (the kids ate sandwiches in the car before we got there). Cheryl is also very clever and wrapped up some activity books for both kids so they got to unwrap them and have a play when they got a bit bored in the car.

We stayed in Bordertown over night and arrived in Adelaide rather early Friday, so we decided to swing past a shopping centre for a bit of lunch and a wander. Then we dropped our stuff off at the caravan park and then headed in to Chinatown for dinner. Oscar has been asking for the triangle sushi and pork buns for a very long time, so he was rapt to finally get them.

Saturday we headed to Chinatown again for lunch (so much good food there, although Os wanted "the same as what I had yesterday") and then into the main city for a look around. There's a new shopping centre in the Mall now with an Apple store, so the kids played on iPads for a bit, ate some Menchies, and then we headed home. We decided to have dinner at home and an early night since it had been a big trip over.

Sunday we went to Marion shopping centre (more Menchies!) and the kids played on the indoor playground there. It seems like this trip is all about us slotting in time to do the things we want to do between the kids playing on stuff. Well, that and eating at all the places we want to eat at (Sunday night was Sushi Train)

Today I'm at work and Cheryl has taken the kids to the Beachouse, which is a big job even when there are two of us so we'll see how she goes. They dropped into the office before heading out there and were already going crazy :) After work the plan is burgers from Fancy Burger and then home for another early night. Tomorrow might be Harbourtown for them and Good Dog for me. Wednesday, though, I'm taking the day off and we're all going to the zoo. I reckon that will be great fun. Pandas!

That's it for me for now.

Aquarium

It's been about a million years since we posted any news here, which means too much has happened to be able to recap -- so instead let me tell you about Jules' birthday!

Going for a bit of a 20,000 Leagues thing, we spent the morning at the Aquarium, complete with those underwater tunnel under the bay. We saw lot of freaky creatures: enormous sharks and rays, tiny Nemo and Dory, a smiling dugong and something with tentacle for a face...

Lunch was fish and chips at Bondi -- Jules flirted and got a bucket of pencils and a free bubbacino (he made a mess with both). No matter what I did, I couldn't convince him to eat a lemon.

Home for a nap, and then cake and presents.

You may have already seen the yellow submarine cake Dee made, which was inspired by The Beatles and Octonauts both. We also decorated the verandah/balcony with homemade jellyfish (bowls with ribbons), a balloon octopus and streamers.

Just driving home from a day up the coast now . We'll have to go again with Nanny and Clive, and actually remember to pack swimmers this time.

Happy Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to Jules, Ann, Trinity and...oh, me! :p

Hope everyone is enjoying their celebrations!

Looking forward to when Jules and Trin are older and maybe we can all have a four-day non-stop birthday party together ;) 

Long Time No Post

So its been a while since I last posted but a lot has happened in that time. I am back at uni after a few weeks break which has been nice. I have classes 3 days a week this semester, doing math, programming and databases.

A few friends and I have been on a few roadtrips to Vaughn Springs, Mt Macedon (to see what little snow was there) , a few towns between Bendigo and Melbourne and Lake Mountain, which was closed when we got there :( Two weeks ago Shaun and I went to Upwey for dinner in this nice little Thai resturaunt, they had amazing food it all looked really good but having never had Thai it was a hard decision. Last week he asked me out after dinner at home, he makes me happy and he makes me smile, Mervyn thinks he is super amazing and the reason we are together, in a way he is because he started the conversation that lead us to knowing how the other felt but it was Shaun that asked me. I went to Melbourne with Shaun, Ange and Jen on Thursday and we went to China Town and Crown Casino, I had never been to crown and I won $10 on the pokies, then Shaun and I had dinner in Lygon Street at Tica Tera. Saturday night we had a friends engagement party, it was heaps of fun and lots of photos got taken :)

I'm going to China at the end of October with the BCA Plum Blossom dancing team to learn more about the culture and to learn more dances at professional dance schools as well as doing some touristy things. I shall try to update more oftern :)

Happy Birthday Dayna!

According to Google it's currently about half past 12 in the night on the 22nd over in the UK, so it sounds like it's time to kick off the birthday celebrations :)

Happy Birthday! I trust you'll have a break from work and find time for a quiet drink or ten ;)

Stop! Hammer Toe!

Hey all, a quick update from me to explain the toe shenanigans I've been getting up to.

So for starters, it turns out there's a name for the freaky curled-around toes I have - it's "hammer toe", and it's generally caused by bad footwear. I've had it pretty much forever, although since moving to Bendigo I've been walking barefoot more and it's actually been easing up a bit.

On Saturday while at what I think we'd all agree was an awesome party I was up in the playground with Lily, who wanted to crawl through some tubes for a bit of a look. I followed her, but as I clambered over raised ladder-style steps that were clearly made for tiny feet I felt pain in my toe. I checked it once we got out, and realised along with pain I couldn't move said toe (the second along) and it was no longer curled around - it was, in fact, almost normally straight.

This freaked me out, so we headed off to the doctor, who, after commenting that he hadn't seen toes like mine before (thanks dude) said he didn't think it was broken, or indeed that anything was wrong with it, but we could get an x ray anyway. I thought, given his lack of familiarity with my freakish feet, a second opinion was probably worthwhile, so Monday (after a weekend of quite a bit of pain, ice packs and bad sleeping) I got photos taken of my bones.

Today we went back to another doctor, and he cleared it all up. My bones weren't broken or dislocated, what I'd (probably) done was torn or snapped a tendon or ligament. If I take neurophen and use either hot or cold packs to lessen the swelling the pain should hopefully go away, and my toe should heal up. But yeah, my toe hadn't straightened up because bones were broken, it had straightened up because the tendon that was too short and causing it to curl around had snapped.

Interestingly, if you look up possible solutions for Stop! Hammer Toe! if stretching isn't working they suggest a surgical procedure where they cut the tendon. So I suppose I've saved myself some money there. Too bad for old righty, since I'm not going through that again just to have a matching pair of feet.

Here's hoping it heals up before the Iaido seminar in Adelaide at the end of August.

Gordon St Gossip

I opened my dojo, Zen Shin Kan, last night. I had four students - Carolynn, her friends Conor and Dylan, and an older guy named George who came up from Kyneton. George will be an occasional student with that drive. I hope Carolynn and her friends continue - all three of them did really well. I don't know if it's just having a younger brain, but they were picking up the fundamentals very well.

Of course there are two types of students - those who pick up the style naturally, with little trouble, and those (like me) who have to work at it and persevere. The thing to realise is that after 10 years these two students are indistinguishable :) so I guess the best trait in a new student is patience.

But yeah, I think it went well. We covered a bit of cutting, a bit of a waza, and some general principals. A lot to build on.

The hall I'm hiring is $15 an hour, and I'm hiring for 2 hours to allow set up and pack up time. I'll charge my students $10 a class, so the mathematically-minded amongst you will be able to work out that I need a minimum of 3 students each class to cover the cost. Based on Reynella, that means 4 or 5 ongoing students would be ideal, since inevitably people miss occasional classes. The hall isn't huge - it fit the 4 people along one wall okay, and if there are more that that I'll line them up on the other wall.. but if it got much larger than that we'd probably have to look at moving.  So I have an ideal class size in mind of 5 - 8 ongoing students - If I got that I'd be very happy :)

I bought some bokken online and they got shipped here in a week, which was great. I might get some more so I can return the plastic bokken to Adelaide on August. I need to buy some wrap to rewrap my two iaito so the students can use them when they're a bit more advanced.

I also signed up to a sword club, which provided me with a license to own the swords. You need this even for a blunt sword, sadly. Lisa, Carolynn mentioned you have some of Adam's swords in a cupboard somewhere - I was thinking you can either join the club (it's $25 a year) or I can put them in the cupboard here until the kids are old enough to join the club themselves. I'll post the club info on facebook.

Of course the best part about getting the dojo kicked off is that I now have an excuse to train once a week.

Brooklea Park BBQ

I agree with Mum - it's July! !?!

The highlight this week was our impromptu BBQ on Saturday. We bought a little charcoal barbie during the week (one we can easily pack into the shed, or a cupboard, or take in the car - you can see it in the photo below). The weather seemed good so B went and bought charcoal and some vege sausages while I sent a message to some of the people at Uni. Our neighbours' son and partner are staying with them at the moment, so they joined us on the lawn and two of my workmates also turned up. It was a really lovely afternoon with sunshine, tasty food and drink, and great company; and it turned into a fun evening too - when it got too cold to sit outside our neighbours went home and the rest of us ended up playing the Wii for a few hours. :-D

Not much else going on for us last week - I tried to have two days off but worked from home for one of them and then had a ChemNet event, two Spectroscopy in a Suitcase sessions (one I couldn't go to so my team had their first trip alone) and an education conference.

Bruce says that everything he got up to is in the last post.

This week I've got to sort out a bunch of Outreach events for July - though I had today off (mostly.. had some emails to do in the morning) and it's Bruce's last week at the school (so he's not doing much at all :-P).

Your turn!

Gordon St Goss

It's the beginning of school holidays and it's nice for Os (and Damien!) to have a break from the 8.15am kindy starts. Hopefully we'll be able to do a few activities etc when Os is feeling well (he had another episode of "being-sick-due-to-not-eating-enough-dinner-the-night-before", or ketotic hypoglycemia), but I think he may have recovered as his appetite has returned and he is back to bugging Lily! :-\

Last Saturday we had Lisa and the kids (-Carolynn but +Maddison) over for dinner. The little kids had a ball running around and going nuts :p It was nice to have everyone here. 

The next day I went to a Thermomix demo- it was awesome :) So much great food and a very impressive machine! Then again, for $1939 it needs to be pretty damn amazing!! 

Tuesday was my mum's birthday, so we headed over there for dinner. It's always hard to find a birthday present for parents, and because of my mum's type 2 diabetes it's even harder as we don't have the usual chocolate/treat food as a fall-back. I did, however, bake her some spelt bread (thanks Dee for the recipe) and vegie muffins, as well as a wholemeal sugar-free banana and blueberry birthday cake! Os also bought her some watermelon seeds to plant :) 

Friday night was Carolynn's ex-teacher's farewell/birthday drinks at the Golden Vine. The kids enjoyed being out "late" and it didn't take long for them to warm to Josh & Belinda and start calling them "cheeky bum!" :)

Damien has organised his dojo! He has a hall (close to Lisa's house) and has set a day and time for each week. I think it'll be great for him to get back into it. He has a lot to offer as a sensei! I'm looking forward to being able to help out with the promotion side of it... but that will happen when we're back from Adelaide. I'll let Damien tell you all more about it :)

I think that's it for now!

Brooklea Park Piffle

Ok so this is my first post on here – mainly because I’m lazy and I believe in being succinct, which doesn’t usually make for good reading!

Since Dayna’s last post we haven’t really been up to much, just the daily grind of going to work, eating, sleeping, that sort of stuff. Last week I was offered a new job at the science centre in Cardiff, I start on the 8^th of July (yay – 1 week to go) and I’m really looking forward to it. It does mean I miss out on the nice 7-week school summer holiday, but I’ll still be glad to leave the school, it’s basically run by the parents and they complain about everything! It’s just not worth the hassle and they haven’t exactly treated me well!

Needless to say we went out for a few tinnies to celebrate my new job but apart from that we haven’t been out much – ‘cept for a trip at the weekend to the ‘bargain shops’ which resulted in us buying lots of ‘tat’ which we probably don’t need.....but hey - it was cheap!

At the end of July we’re going to Prague, which is in the Czech Republic. They have relaxed laws on prostitution so it should be quite interesting – just kidding J hopefully we’ll get some nice weather to do some exploring - so look out for the postcards soon to be heading your way.

Hold on – just need to shut the window...our groundsman Jeeves is mowing the lawn and it’s frightfully noisy!

Ah that’s better...where was I? Oh yes, I was about to mention our new BBQ which I bought the other day. It’s a ‘proper’ BBQ...i.e. one which is fuelled by charcoal...not one of these ‘let’s just have a gas grill outside’ – what’s that all about?? It’s good that you don’t have to wait 20 minutes before you can use a gas BBQ...but BBQ’s are for men to show off their inner Homo Erectus and somehow gas grills just don’t seem dangerous or manly enough to me! Though I have to agree that they are easier to use. Apparently we’re not actually supposed to have BBQ’s at our place, but since nobody has officially informed us of this I chose to ignore the hearsay, and purchased a portable BBQ which we can hide in the garage. Ok so the smell might give it away when we use it, but we can always blame it on the neighbours J or rely on the driving rain to somehow contain it.

Anyway, as I said before we don't really have much to report and I’ve already rambled on enough, so I’ll say ta ta for now and I’ll go and feed Ky a tasty mouse....mmmmmm

Speak soon

Gordon St Gossip

I don't keep a diary but Cheryl and I both use a shared Google Calendar to keep track of our week, so I can use that to work out what we've been up to these last few weeks.

We went to a friend's birthday at Piya Wat a couple of weeks ago. It was the first time we'd been in a very long time.. Cheryl went there for her hen's night, so as a couple it was from before 2004. It hadn't really changed :) The food is good, exceptional really, and a very reasonable price. Be warned, though, I got a salad and it was spicy! You'd want to check with the waiter if spicy is not your thing. But yeah, it's a fancy eating experience at a good price :)

We also finally got the car serviced this week. Mum, the guy you recommended was great! Really nice, good service and very affordable. Our poor car has a few things that need fixing, so no doubt he'll get repeat service from us.. but yeah, the last time we got it serviced they ended up doing an extra $1,600 in work which may or may not have been necessary.. in retrospect I should have told them not to and got a second opinion. I know we asked them to fix the boot cable and they charged us $20 to inspect the bonnet cable and say it wasn't broken (with an additional note that the boot cable was) so that particular garage will never get any more work from us or anyone who knows us.

The reason we wanted to get it done (apart from that it was about 6 months overdue) is that we're going to be visiting Adelaide in August. We've been looking for an excuse, to be honest, since our good friend had a baby recently, and I know I miss the Chinatown food court. Then the head dojo emailed me about a 2 day seminar they were running for instructors, so that gave us the final excuse. The plan is to head up on a Thur/Fri, stay for a week while I work at the GDD offices, have the weekend seminar, then come back Mon/Tues. It means 4 days of not working, which is a fair bit, but then I've been working a lot recently and a mini holiday would be nice. Plus this way Cheryl and the kids get a holiday while I work, which will be nice. Good to see everybody as well.

Oh, speaking of working a fair bit, this week we had a mad push to get a site launched by Tuesday US time (Wednesday lunch for us). I had built the original templates (well within budget I might add) and then passed it off to someone else to finish up. Then it had to be converted to a CMS, which essentially meant rebuilding the site in a slightly different language.. this was passed back to me on Thursday, with the launch Tuesday. That's not enough time! Still, I worked on the weekend, pulled a couple of rather long days and we got there.. and the additional benefit is I only have to work 3 hours today! I'm going to go to Kinder with Cheryl and the kids this morning. Should be fun.

Oh, one other thing - I took Ossie to Kindy yesterday morning. As we entered a little girl (Lillian) said to a boy sitting next to her (Foster) "Here he is!" and Foster said "Hi Oscar". Os somewhat mumbled a reply and went off to play with a wooden train set, at which point Lillian came over to join in. If you ask Ossie he says his friend is Abby, who is Foster's sister.. but I suspect Lillian and Foster consider him a friend as well, even if he's not aware of it. Of course when I asked him about it he couldn't remember who Lillian was and claimed that she -was- Abby.. so who knows :) Anyway, it's really nice to know he's making friends. Hopefully they go to Specimen Hill next year as well.

Brooklea Park Banter

I agree with Mum - time is flying!

June means (British) Summer, such that it is... and we actually had lovely weather for a couple of weeks. Last week (when the photos are from and when I started this post) we were sitting on the verandah drinking cider (Mum, we even found a berry Bulmers in our fridge.... did you drink all the ones we gave you for Xmas?). This week, it's grey and rainy and you'd be decidedly damp if you were sitting on the verandah this evening. :-/

This week has been same ol', same ol' with both of us feeling overwhelmed with work - B with report writing and marking and me with trying to keep on top of lots of stuff..

We had a lovely but busy weekend last week - Friday we headed to Rochester in Kent for Pete and Charne's joint birthday party (Pete was my boss when I started at Cardiff - he and Charne held some great dinner parties, right Mum?). Their party was on Saturday night and involved lots of food and drink. Sunday we drove up to Birmingham for the Bon Jovi concert at Aston Villa Park. Rock on! They played for 3 hours!!! I don't know much of their later stuff but they played a good lot of their oldies. Lis, I thought of you. :-)

The last week of May was the Urdd Eisteddfod in Pembrokeshire. The Urdd is a bilingual youth festival. The RSC worked with the Institute of Physics and the British Science Association to host a stall. Happily this meant I only had to look after the stand for two of the six days - Friday and Saturday (yes, some of my weekend!). Bruce came along to help out (a volunteer/voluntold) so we tacked on a couple of days and relaxed in a lovely little b&b in Pembrokeshire.

I think that just about takes us back to our last post. The only other thing of note was that I strained my foot at a conference. It was all bruised and swollen but I could always walk on it - I think I've attached the photo collage of the first week. We went to get it checked out one evening and spent 5 hours in A&E. :-/ Not fun but at least they told me that there weren't any breaks. It's still achey today, even though it has been nearly a month. O well. I'm taking it easy and it will get better eventually. :-)

So, that's our mammoth update - we'll try to update more regularly.
Lots of love to everyone!!

Gordon Street Gobbledygook

A busy couple of weeks for us! This week we toured a few of the primary schools in our area and we have decided on Specimen Hill for Oscar...so he'll get to see Trinity & Daria more often! Damien and I (thankfully!) both had the same thoughts on the schools that we saw. We found the staff at Speci to be very approachable and friendly, with a genuine interest in their students' well-being. The grounds are a good size with shaded play areas, there's a garden and plans for an outdoor classroom (it'll be completed by the time Os starts). We were very keen to tour Quarry Hill where my brother's kids go but found they had a very strong academic focus but possibly to a fault - lots of statistics that look good on paper but not that warm, friendly atmosphere of Speci. And Spring Gully... they are a school under development. A couple of great study areas, but then lots of concrete and steps everywhere. And a terrible canteen menu!
As well as school tours, I took Os (& Lil) to a drop-in speech pathologist. He is having trouble with a couple of sounds (S & L) and the pathologist thought it would be a good idea for him to continue having sessions. Just need to get a recommendation from kindy, and then a 6 month wait for an appointment :-/
Speaking of kindy, Os still really enjoys it. He told us he has a girlfriend! She is blonde and had a bunny on her t-shirt. He doesn't know her name ;) He knows Elliot from Lisa's playgroup, but generally he doesn't know names but is happy to play with everyone :)
Lil has her own special appointment next week- paediatric physio to assess her walking... she tends to be pigeon-toed when she walks quickly/runs. Looks like it is a hip-related thing which will hopefully correct itself  by around age ten.
Damien has been working hard, but was still able to look after the kids while I went to the school parent info nights :) And because he started stupidly early this morning he also had time to go out for lunch with us :)
We had Ann & Clive over for dinner last Sunday, and my parents are due back this Tuesday. My sis' boyfriend/our landlord looks like he's returned from his overseas trip, too, so very soon things will be "back to normal" ;)
That's about it I think. I'm sure Damien will fill in the gaps :)

Gordon St Grapevine

"Grapevine" makes it sound like I have some juicy gossip to share, but alas, no, just a regular post ;)

I was going to just post a comment to Damien's post, but I  noticed with Lisa's post that it's saying there are zero comments (at least for me) even though there are four there now. So to be safe, I'll do a new one.

Firstly, geez, Damo! Should have been Father's Day yesterday, I reckon! You have been busy busy busy! And still managed to help out with the kids! Better make sure I think of an extra special present for September :)

So yes, busy week for us, although after reading Damien's post I feel like maybe I could have done a bit more! Monday morning I took the kids for a "quick trip" to Big W to print some photos for my parents to show family in the Philippines. Os had kindy that afternoon.
Tuesday morning Damien took Os to kindy. In the afternoon I drove my parents to the bus stop and waited until their ride to the airport arrived. I then took the kids out to the uni to pick up my sister and she joined us for dinner.
Wednesday morning we went to Lansell Plaza. Os had completed his "toilet chart" and was due for a prize :) He wanted a Thomas toy from the vending machine and luckily he got a "good" one (I personally would have been disappointed if he got another set of boring tracks! ;).
Thursday was kindy morning again, so Damien dropped Os off and I went in an hour earlier for the special Mother's Day morning tea. Damien looked after Lil at home and it was really nice to spend time with my little boy. He brought me a scone that he had helped make and then we played in the sandpit. I'm sure you saw the photos of him buried in the sand! Unfortunately that did mean that there was a few little piles of sand on the carpet later on at home. Haha! In the evening Damien and my brother picked up some shelves from a friend- woo hoo! Shelves in the laundry and the office now :)
Friday was playgroup day. We're always late :p But after a busy week it's nice to let Os have a sleep-in. Os loves running around with Daria, and they both like playing with the toys :) We never seem to get there in time for craft, but to be honest that would be more for me anyway ;) Friday night we had my sibs and niece and nephews over for dinner. I made mini pies- beef Guiness & onion for the big people, and mince pies for the kids, with mashed potatoes and green vegies. My brother's wife brought over a fruit crumble. All of it was delicious (if I do say so myself!). We usually all catch up at my parent's place for dinner Sunday night, so it was nice to still eat together even though my parents are away.
Damien covered Saturday- Oak Forest and Castlemaine. It was a beautiful day! I ran into a primary school friend at the cafe. Haven't seen her for over ten years and it was great to have a chat. After lunch we looked through a cool store that had a lot of bits and pieces for around the house as well as antiques. It was quite a large store even though it looked like a tiny cottage from the outside (think TARDIS ;) Both kids napped on the way home. Yay!
Sunday I enjoyed a lovely morning with Damien and the chickens: breakfast and presents :) Then dinner that night where we ordered a little too much, so leftovers for lunch today. We don't go out for dinner as much as we did in Adelaide, so hopefully we're saving money, but it is always nice when we do. The Dumpling House is our current family favourite, although we really must try some other places for dinner! When we were back home I found another handmade gift for me in Os' kindy bag haha! He had forgotten about it :) All up, a really nice Mother's Day. The kids are at a great age where they can make/do things... it's very sweet :)

So, that's pretty much our week. In between those things I have been working on my resume and doing baking (nothing interesting.. mostly healthy stuff for the kids). The kids have been good. Os has been sharing his dreams with us, practicing writing, helping me with baking, and Lil has been... a cheeky little monkey :) She still likes to chat, sing, climb, play with her babies, mimic us and most importantly eat a LOT! :)

Hoping this week is a little less busy for Damien, with maybe lunch out and some quiet time to catch up on Game of Thrones & Downton Abby :)

Gordon St Gossip

These last couple of weeks have been a bit nuts for me. As I posted on Facebook, as a freelancer I don't get holidays (at least not if I want to get paid) and I can't really get sick. After a week of being sick, I could have really used a holiday ;) Unfortunately it was about then that a job I'd quoted on weeks back came through. In true form the client left it to the 11th hour to confirm the design, so on top of my usual 7.5 hours a day of GDD work I had to squeeze in another 8 hours of work for this guy. I also had an illustration job (2 hours) pop up, and a mail form (another 2 hours) due today.  Suffice to say I've had some late nights and early mornings but I've got it all done. On the plus side, at least I get paid.

Of course there's no point doing all this work if it causes me to neglect my family, so I had to work around the kids being awake and helping Cheryl out with them.  Most mornings I'll get the kids dressed and fed, and Tuesdays and Thursdays take Os to Kinder. Also Thursday I looked after Lil for an hour in the middle of the day so Chez could go to Ossie's Kinder for a special Mother's Day morning tea - I'll let her fill you in on that. Saturday morning we made the most of beautiful weather and went to the Oak Forest out near Harcourt for a bit of a look, then on to Castlemaine for some lunch. The food was exceptional.

Sunday morning the kids and I made Cheryl breakfast in bed (which, as all children do, they helped consume) and they gave her presents. Then after a trip to the supermarket and more work we headed out for Mother's Day dinner.  Again, I'll let Chez post about the Mother's Day stuff.

Anyway, the point of all this isn't to have a whinge, just to say it's been a bit crazy and I'm not entirely sure what we've done this week. Except I know I got all my extra work finished while still having time to play with the kids, so that's good :)

Brooklea Park babbling

The sun has come out this afternoon so we're sitting on the veranda making some much-needed vitamin D, drinking some vino and listening to random old music tracks on B's computer (remember Love Shack anyone?). :-)

So what have we been up to this week?

Monday I was in a school with SIAS. Tuesday was full of meetings. I worked from home on Wednesday but still had a full day. I was away early Thursday for a very important meeting in London about funding for the SIAS scheme in Wales (it went really well) but I didn't get home until late because I took the afternoon off and wandered around Covent Garden and Leicester Square. After the long hours I've worked lately I took yesterday off but met the girls after work for a quiet drink (or not so quiet.. we were out until after 1am!).

I still have work to do on the work-life balance but I do see a light at the end of my extremely busy tunnel. Another upside is that I've recently been given a pay rise. Yay! Think it's time to book some more holidays! ;-)

B hasn't done much - still working at the school and not really enjoying it. Keep your fingers crossed next Wednesday - he's got yet another interview.

This weekend is a long one - May Day holiday - so we're going to Caldicott Castle on Monday to see a random battle reenactment thing. :-) should be fun.

"Tin roof rusted!"

Shaft St Sh*t

Yeah, ok, so my attempt at jumping on the update bandwagon isn't as clever as the rest of you LOL  Of course, I'm pretty slack at doing this mainly because I don't think our lives are quite as interesting as the rest of you.

I'm working Monday to Wednesday, and I'm enjoying it. I just wish I had more time at home. Thursdays I shop with Tania, though I'm trying to get out of it occasionally. It's just so busy when we have tea with mum before Jared goes to karate while I set up playgroup, with Julie-Anne's help of course. Then we get home and have to get the girls in to bed. Friday is playgroup from 9.45am until about 12, though by the time we've packed everything up it's often 1pm before we leave. Trinity finishes school at 3.15pm but to get a car park I need to be there by 3pm, 2.45 to get a park in the side street, I usually miss out on one of those when I'm working.

This weekend is the Relay for Life so after picking Trinity up we headed out to the Flora Hill track to help decorate the BCA site and then I hung around for the opening. Carolynn and Jared walked the carer's lap on mum's behalf, hope that was ok :)  Then Trinity, Daria and I walked the 2nd lap before coming home. Carolynn tells me performances start around midday so I have tomorrow morning to get caught up on housework. That's about all I get done these days, catching up. I'd love to be able to get ahead of it and actually declutter. I'm waiting for the holidays, despite the fact that the last ones zipped by with very little accomplished. In terms of house-keeping that is. I chose to take the kids out to meet friends and check out stuff in town instead so I've no-one to blame but myself.

Adam isn't well. He's really breathless a lot. Hoping the doctor he sees next Monday will listen and send him off for some tests, I for one refuse to believe it's "just asthma".

So that's it here... busy but boring.

Something nice though... my boss is leaving us (that's not the nice part, we'll miss her) and she was going around talking about those in the office and about me she said that when she goes around to see people it amazes her how many people know me and speak highly of me. I thought that was nice :)  I said "I get around apparently" LOL

Gordon St Gossip

Another quick one from me.

Wednesday we went to My Teppanyaki for our anniversary dinner. It's pricey, but good. We were the only ones in the restaurant which was a bit weird - the Japanese dude came out, cooked our food, then left :) After dinner since we didn't have the kids with us we went to the ice creamery - I got a sundae and Chez got pancakes. Both were massive. We think that was the second time we've ever had dinner together without the kids since Os was born - the first being our anniversary in 2010, when my boss looked after Ossie. Hopefully now we're in Bendigo nights out wont be three years apart.

Thursday Ossie skipped Kinder again. He'll be back this arvo. Friday they also skipped Playgroup.

Saturday we had a barbecue lunch with friends - Os and Lil had a great time playing with their 3 year old son on what could only be described as a massive trampoline. Then they dropped me off at the cinema and I saw Iron Man 3. Huzzah! Seeing a movie is another thing I'm hoping might be a little more regular than once a year. Cheryl's parents came over for dinner Saturday night.

Sunday I took the kids out in the morning to find a Mother's Day present while Cheryl cooked chicken sausage rolls. We had no luck so I went out again in the afternoon while Lil slept and found something. The kids helped me wrap it. I asked Os if it looked good and he said "no" so I flipped it over to hide the edges of the paper and asked again and he said "yes". Perfect!

Sunday night was dinner at Nanny's, and both kids were so excited to see Trin and Daria. They had a great time playing together. I think Trin likes Os because he goes along with whatever she wants, and then Daria does too because the others are. Lil kind of does her own thing right now.

Brooklea Park blabber

This week has been much the same as every other week - we get up, we go to work, we come home and B makes dinner, we watch some tele and it all starts again the next day. Ahh, the monotony.

Actually, it isn't that depressing - we had a lovely afternoon on Tuesday, the sun was shining so we sat on the verandah with a glass or few of wine. :-) And Friday afternoon we had a couple of drinks at the Ty Mawr (but we sat inside because although the sun was out, it was still cold!). :-)

I continue to work long hours (I worked yesterday!) and am trying to work out when I can take some time off in lieu. Hopefully everything will settle down a little in the next few weeks.

B continues teaching, although he's not really enjoying it so he's keeping an eye on the Vacant ads.

It's great reading what everyone else is doing (especially you, Mum - you do HEAPS) - it just highlights that we need to do more stuff.... if only so we have something interesting to post.

Gordon St Gas

Oscar was back at Kinder last week. He was there Monday afternoon, and then Tuesday and Thursday morning. We actually made it pretty close to on time which, given that they start at 8:15, is quite an achievement. He should have been there yesterday and today, but he's sick. He's also given it to me, which is a shame because now I'm freelancing I don't really get sick days. I suppose I could have them all the time if I wanted, but then we might have issues with the rent and mortgage ;)

Cheryl took the kids off to playgroup on Friday. She sent me a photo of Jared and Lil saying some kid had made Lily cry and Jared had comforted her. What a good cousin :) So yeah, illness aside we're back into the busy routine.

Saturday was a nice sunny morning so we headed to Good Loaf for lunch. It's a really nice little caf - good food and very kid-friendly. Then we went home and both kids had a sleep, which was good because that night we went to a 66th birthday party. Dale and Joel were both celebrating their 33rds so they had a joint thing ;)

Sunday we decided to drive to Daylesford for a look at the market. It was nice to get out of the house and have a little trip as a family. Unfortunately after lunch Os had a stomach ache and we had to head home, praying he wouldn't spew in the car. He had some panadol and then fell asleep for the whole way, while Lily pretended to eat grapes out of her pockets before stuffing them with tissues :) Sunday night now we go over to Edith and Landon's place for dinner, and Darryl's family, as well as Rach and Shaun were all there, so it was a very full house. Os had clearly recovered from his belly ache thanks to the sleep, because he ran around squealing and harassing Shaun pretty much the whole time.  A quick chat with Dayna and Bruce and then the kids headed off to bed.

Yesterday I actually had a meeting with a potential new client for Good Dog - BSSC. They want an App developed for their students. I've brought the information back to Henry to see what he says, but they budget is rather low so I'm not sure we'll be quoting on it. Still, it was a good experience to go out and talk to them. Once I got back back Cheryl headed out to get her hair cut. We're so lucky to have Nana and Granddad nearby so they could watch the kids while I worked.

Tomorrow is Cheryl and my 9th anniversary. Oscar's very excited by the prospect of us giving each other presents, but no matter how often he promises "I wont tell anyone" neither of us are telling him what we got the other, so the suspense is killing him ;) Our plan is to go out for dinner together, once again making the most of nearby babysitters.

So that's us :)

Busy busy

Hi all,

Great to see so many updates on here and apologies for my tardiness.

This week has been very long! I've travelled nearly 1000 km and done more than 7 days work in 5...  (map here: http://goo.gl/maps/OlvVJ)

Monday I was running workshops in Cardiff for Spectroscopy in a Suitcase (SIAS); Tuesday lunchtime I headed up to Bangor for an evening meeting - the RSC North Wales Local Section AGM & Committee meeting; Wednesday morning I was on a train back to Cardiff, had a couple of hours in the office and then headed over to Bristol that evening to support the South West Regional Coordinator in a training session (got back home after 9pm!); I'd organised an event for 45 students at Swansea University on Thursday afternoon (part of the STEM in Medicine residential); and Friday I had a fairly early start for an RSC ChemNet event at Lafarge Cement, we learned about how cement is made and had a tour of the site.

Anyone else tired yet? 

Definitely feel like I've earned a relaxing weekend and that's what we've done. Last night we had my old boss, Pete, over for dinner. B did most of the cooking and it was very tasty. Dessert wasn't great - I'd tried to make a chocolate pudding but it just didn't seem to work. O well. 

B can update what he's been up to. :-)

Recipe site

Hey all, I put together this CMS site for Chez to record recipes. I was wondering if anyone else wanted access to add recipes?

It's here: http://damienmason.com/recipes/

Let me know and I'll make you a log in.

Mudder Training

With the most important problem -- a roof over our heads -- now settled, it's time to start thinking about the future: particularly the Tough Mudder challenge. I need to get training!

It was pretty much fate: I'd been looking for something to get me motivated, and then saw that the next Sydney Mudder was on the 12th and 13th of October. The day before my 35th birthday, then! I immediately signed up, before I had a chance to reconsider. I then proceeded to forget all about it, since it was suitably distant in the future and we had so much other stuff to deal with.

Except it's not that far away, now is it? Almost May already, and then it's 5 and a half months. Yeah, that's not long to prepare for a 20km run, let alone one with the all the devilish obstacles that TMHQ see fit to torment us with ... so I better get training! I've had an absolutely crap week dietwise, but it means I'm feeling motivated to do better and so I've been sitting here watching TV and reading various sites and blogs: body-building, marathon training, mountain-biking ... anything to geek-out on.

Last time I wrote up a calendar, crammed as many training sessions in as I could, and tried to stick to it. Even worked, for the first month and a half (lost it completely on month 3, and then it was go-time). So this time I'm thinking about a calendar but also how I can avoid losing focus. Any ideas?

There are two aspects to the challenge, and consequently two (maybe three) areas I need to train on. The first is running, which should be pretty straightforward (but still difficult) -- I just need to go running 3 to 5 times a week, building up my distance and stamina. I've got the same C25K app that I used last time, as well as a fun little game called "Zombies, Run!". It's just a matter a picking the best time: when I'm not too tired, too distracted, too engrossed by the computer, too unmotivated. Dee and I talked about it tonight, and we've agreed to put aside 30 minutes a day each to doing something fun and physical. Exercise-alone-time.

The second type of training is for all the obstacles. TMHQ provides a "boot camp" training plan which seems pretty good. In theory, I could do some/all of these combined with a morning run, kind of a half-way. Especially if there is a playground or some open-air gym equipment in one of the many parks near our new place. I think having a good plan written down for that is probably important, so I don't just try to make it up (and then feel silly, and then just stop doing it).

The last thing I definitely need to do is more stretching. We had a stretching class at Palantir for a while, and it was pretty apparent to the trainer that my knees were out of alignment and lacking the kind of strength I'll need to actually run for the full 20km. (Last time I ran 5km, tops, before my knees started hurting. I ended up walking most of the course. Not this time!) She gave me some stretches to do, but I'm not going to do them unless I specifically put time aside and it's on my training plan.

So that's it. Anyone got any good advice on how to stay motivated, what exercises I should be doing, food for training? As mentioned, there are parks near our new place, and we've both got a Palantir gym membership (at Fitness First -- still got to make sure we can use the Sydney gyms), as well as our bikes. Food-wise, I think we know what to do (even if it's hard to do it) with good, natural food and the perfect combination of Fitbit and MyFitnessPal; provided we get decent sleep, and are together to keep each other strong, we won't fall off the wagon. Fact is, I don't have TIME to fall off the wagon again. So I guess I'm hoping you can keep me on the straight and narrow!

And after you're done ... this is how a Mudder recovers:

Tough Mudder Boot Camp Training℠ | Tough Mudder

Lease signed, we're moving to Sydney

Did I mention we got the house in Annandale?

Yesterday I met Kate, one of the owners, and signed a 12-month lease on 301 Nelson Street, Annandale. It's expensive, but not that much more than we're currently paying in Belconnen, and we get all the benefits of living close to the city -- it's a 20-minute bike ride! -- and a lovely little community. Wide, tree-lined streets; a park just behind us; a child-care and supermarket opening up just down the road; bike paths, off-leash parks, Rozelle Bay. Everyone I've spoken to has said how nice an area Annandale is -- I can't wait to move in. Kate said that it wasn't uncommon to see neighbourhood kids playing together, running in and out of each others' houses. And that never happens in Sydney!

Which means only one more week of flying to Sydney, flying back to Canberra for the weekends. We move in on the 26th (or thereabouts), the day after ANZAC day. In fact, I've only got today, tomorrow, and three days next week away from Dee and Jules! Yay! "Settling" will be like Christmas, with so many boxes to open and sort through, including some we haven't unpacked since Melbourne.

Once we do settle in, of course, I'll be coming back to Canberra every Monday, and maybe more often if I get put on a particular project. But somehow that doesn't seem so bad, and sooner or later we're going to open a Sydney office (Shannon was even scoping out buildings yesterday) so our long-term plans are now based around living in Sydney. Settle, get our life back under control, save a little money. It's a good plan!