Update

So its been a busy time of year for me, with Easter and National Youth Week and uni assignments. So over Easter I had the flu it turns out, I was meant to carry Ping, but was not well enough to do so on Easter Sunday :( but it did mean for a change I got to watch the parade and Jared perform with Choi. I've also joined the plum blossom dancing team so I will now be performing at events with the BCA. Last week was Youth Week, and I was at events, the main one really, which was a Zombie Walk, Jared and Maddi were zombies, and I was there reporting on the event which was really different because I haven't been filmed as a reporter before, but I thought I did a really good job :D Uni is the same as normal, lots of assignments all due at once and with only 7 weeks until mid year exams I'm starting to try and not get stressed like I normally do.

I've been in Bendigo Magazine and Bendigo Addy both for YO Bendigo and Youth Week, its cool that I'm one of the first picked for interviews now, and I'm hoping to start building a portfolio that I can send in to the ABC in September with a cadetship application for journalism.

Curl's Column

It was a wonderful week of dancing. Ann is a very capable dancer, even though she claims not to be able to perfect them all. I would hate to dance with someBODY that believes they are perfect in every way.
Weather is great  in Bendigo, gets me out on my bike,
I think we'd be better off not to watch television, The Boston bombing is on at the moment.
Have a great day everyone. Regards Clive.

Gordon St Gossip

We've had another fairly quiet week, followed by a busy weekend. It was the second week of school holidays, so I've been trying to find ways to entertain the kids. Os and I did some baking together. I'd almost forgotten how fun it is to cook with my little boy. He's very capable and great at following instructions :) Both kids like to do "activities", so I've been sitting down with them to do drawing/stickers etc, as well as reading to them and making up games. It has been really nice to have time to spend with them both, but I think I'd start running out of activity ideas soon! ;) I've also taken the kids out shopping a couple of times, and sometimes a "bit of a drive so that Lily falls asleep" ;)
Tuesday Damien had lunch out with friends (cafe au lait, I think?) and I had a nap! :p I was very lucky that Lil wanted a nap, too, and Oscar was happy to quietly play with Lego. He only came into the bedroom once to announce that he needed to do a wee :D Once again, he's very capable and took himself to the bathroom :)
My parents came over on Wednesday so that I could convert my driver's license. Damien did his, too. We both thought it was worth putting in a bit of effort beforehand to get a decent photo, so we'll see how they turn out ;)
Friday night we went to the Mexican Kitchen with my side of the family. The food was good and everyone seemed to enjoy it. W"e also had a bit of time to do some wandering around town beforehand. We checked out the secondhand bookshop, as we as the View Point gallery/store (we saw your cards, Lisa! :)
Saturday was our big day. Damien left the house at 8am with Dale, Dale's wife and son for Supanova in Melbourne. (I'm sure Damien will fill you all in on the details! :) The kids and I left the house at 9.30 (early for us!!) for the Farmer's Market in town. We stopped by the Chinese Museum so that the kids could play on the lotus, then went through the Conservatory gardens so that Os could run around and smell the "rosies" :) Didn't buy much from the market just a lamb sausage and nashi juice for my lunch (as the kids had their own lunch). We met up with my parents and wandered around with them. We headed back to the car after a couple of hours and despite Os announcing that there had been "too much walking" he wanted to go through the Conservatory gardens again to run around :p Lisa, Carolynn, Trin & Daria happened to walk through the gardens as well, so Trin, Daria & Os ran around and hid from Lily, while Lil picked petals off the flowers :) We had dinner at my parent's house while we waited for Damien to return home. It was 8.30 when he got back with a bag full of comics/books and some presents. The kids were very excited to be getting presents. Lil sang "Happy Birthday to me!" and then "Bacon Pancakes" when she got her Jake (Adventure Time) toy :) Os was very happy with his new Lego mini figs. He put them together straight away! :) And I got a cute pair of earrings... little slices of cake!
Sunday we had a bit of a quieter day. Damien did some work in the morning, we had lunch at the Market Place, then dinner over at my parent's house.
So now it's back into the routine... Os has kindy 3 half-days, we have playgroup Friday mornings but no more cooking classes for myself so we at least have Wednesdays free now. I've been working on my resume, so hopefully I can start applying for work soon :)
So that's our "gossip" for this week :)

Church St chatter

Monday was Probus followed by lunch at the Schweppes Centre. Quick trip to Spotlight on the way home. Afternoon tea with Clive at a friend's place then dancing at Spring Gully.
Quiet day home Tuesday so I did some cleaning up in prep for visitors on Monday. No dancing since Clive has decided to be Secretary for the Spring gully hall committee since no one else would take it on and he had a meeting. Called in to Council and found I was due a discount on my rates and was entitled to it two years previously. I now have $311 credit on next years rates.
Wednesday was Day Club at the Bendigo Club. Different meals but a lot further to travel. We headed for Castlemaine for a dance lesson. I knew five and struggled with the rest. Walked through the same one we'd done last week. Maybe I'll get there eventually.
Thursday I went grocery shopping at IGA and met Mum. so she came back for a coffee.  Eaglehawk dance at night.Numbers are down there so we'd be missed if we skipped.
Did some op shopping on Friday and wore the top I bought to a dance at Trentham that night. Several compliments on my top.Good crowd and lots of fun. Very tired by the time I got home.(1.30am)  Not used to these late nights.
Saturday Lisa and the girls came to visit in the afternoon. They'd hardly left when Mum arrived for coffee.I went to Clive's for dinner then we went to Spring gully to dance.
Today there was another dance at Spring Gully. It was to raise funds for a five year old who needs a motorized wheelchair. $1500 raised.Really good crowd. I think that the afternoon dances are more popular than the evenings, especially as the weather gets cooler.
All my week so what has everyone else been doing?

Renting sucks; Renting in Sydney sucks more

I realised I haven't actually blogged about a move to Sydney in any detail. Here goes:

I'm currently spending all my time in Sydney for work, while Dee and Jules stay at home in Canberra. They've driven over and stayed with me a couple of times, but it's not really sustainable -- we need to put Lucy somewhere, for example, and the last three times she's stayed in the kennel she's come back malnourished and often with an injury requiring a vet consult. It's also easier for me to just be in a hotel, but it makes it hard for Jules to sleep when we're all crammed in together. So not fun: our sleep suffers, my work suffers, our relationship suffers. So for the last few weeks I've just been coming on my own, and while I get a lot done it's no fun leaving my family: video calls, while good, just are no substitute.

Dee is also looking at going back to work, and with her history (Deustchebank, JP Morgan) it makes sense for us to move to Sydney, where she'll have a much wider market. And, of course, Canberra is a small place! We're city people, I think -- I go out at lunchtime and enjoy the crowds, the vibe, the noise, the excitement. It really does make a difference, an essential one, and there's the added bonus that my "engineer brain" recognises the higher-efficiency of urban-vs-country living. So long as we can grow some veges and find a good organic supermarket!

Even if I end up working back in Canberra -- a good chance -- then at least I can stay in the corporate apartments there, set myself up with a little "bachelor's pad", and not worry about bringing clothes back and forth. And, really, it's only a 30-50minute flight, so I could probably come home a little more often (with frequent flyer points if required) if I'm travelling light. Wins, all the way 'round.

Except that finding a house is hard. It sucks. Real estate agents suck. They're lazy at the best of times, but the rental market at the moment is such that they literally don't have to give you the time of day -- there are only scheduled "open house" viewings, which you must attend if you want to apply (they take your name and phone; sometimes they even hand out the application forms only at the viewing). I've even heard stories of some agents running a "rental auction", playing desperate renters off against each other to maximise the weekly rent!! Abhorrent.

So keep your fingers crossed for our latest find: a 3BR house that still has tenants in it, is managed privately (no agent!), at which "pets are welcome!", for affordable-ish rent, 20 minutes on the bike to the city (and 26 on the bus, for lazy/rainy days), next to a park, with a backyard (but no offstreet parking), 2 bathrooms and airconditioning. And the owner may be willing to let me see the place before their open-house viewing on the weekend! In other words, everything we could possibly hope for.

But we've been disappointed before, so while you keep your fingers crossed, we'll keep our expectations suitably low.

Let you know how we get on.

Gordon St Gasbagging

Still in "school holidays" so it was a fairly quiet one last week. Cheryl and I did make the most of nearby babysitters and go out to lunch with just the two of us for the first time in a very long time. We went to El Beso on View St - it's a nice little cafe, and the food was delicious.

As Lisa mentioned, we also went out for dinner with them  to The Dumpling House on Friday. It's Oscar's favourite restaurant, even though he does call it "the sushi place" (they don't serve sushi). We copied our first time there and got chicken and prawn dumplings, bbq pork buns, fried wontons, shallot pancakes, and honey chicken. Oh, and plenty of rice for Lil to spread all over her face, in her clothes, and on the floor.  Really nice to head out with the Roberts/French clan.

Sunday we checked out the showgrounds market (I bought a few books, don't tell Mum ;)) and then relaxed at home. Os and Cheryl went to the park with Rach and Shaun and played badminton, but I was holding a sleeping baby so I read one of the aforementioned (shhh) books. Ender's Game. Good!

Then we went to Edith and Landon's place for dinner. We apparently didn't eat enough, because we're going there again tonight for leftovers ;)

So yeah, a quiet week, and we're expecting another quiet one this week. This weekend, though, I'm off to Supanova! I'm pretty excited :)

And that's us :)

Brooklea Park Blatherings

We missed last week, oops. So here's what we've been up to for the last fortnight.

B's been on holiday, he's been to the dentist (and going again Thursday - long story), cleaned the house and continues to make me tasty food.

I had Good Friday and Easter Monday off and we did absolutely nothing. It was wonderful. Been working hard otherwise and have definitely earnt Monday and Tuesday off.

We are currently in Mallorca (Majorca, Spanish spelling has Ls). Here for a relaxing short break. We arrived late on Friday and have a plane back on Tuesday evening. B booked it all as a package including our 4 star hotel (which is lovely but not the same as a four star in Aus or the UK).

Yesterday we explored the local area and drank a lot of sangria (as evident by the g+ & fb posts). Today we've stayed at the hotel, played a round of mini golf (see g+ for our quality performance), relaxed in the sun (photo on fb), and we're just off for a swim (in the indoor pool - it's not that warm outside!). No doubt later we'll be off to a bar or several, finding food somewhere on the way. We've got to make the most of our time away!

*hugz* to all,
d&b

Church Street chatter

Thought I'd try this instead of the email.
Easter Monday was quiet here.Made a coffee cake. I danced at Spring Gully in the evening and needed a plate. Remainder of coffee cake was my plate for Kyneton on Tuesday. Clive and I walked around the Kennington Res on Tuesday morning to try to get fitter and lose weight. (Both aiming for that) Wednesday was Spinners. First meeting as Secretary this time. Wrote up the minutes that afternoon so I could untangle the many and varied discussions. Wondering why I took it on again.(because no one else would)
Wednesday evening we went to Castlemaine for more dance lessons.Quite a challenge. I only knew three of the dances. We walked through two and sat one out. The rest I followed as best I could ( varying degrees of success)
Thursday I had a quiet day home.The kitchen floor needed another wash. I don't know how it gets so dirty when I'm not home that often.  Made pastry roll ups and a zucchini slice. You guessed it. A plate needed for Eaglehawk. A fun night of dancing. Jared came so did the mowing and Lisa and the girls came here from the pool.
Friday was a Red Hat morning tea. April's activity is an op shop tour I'm organising so we're doing Eaglehawk. Mum got a lift and went to the break away group ( called the Mad Hatters) She called  to visit and fill me in in the afternoon. More activities for the diary. Friday evening we danced at Newstead. Got away on time so we got a good park and a good seat.
Saturday we were invited to Pete's birthday tea at Pratty's Patch. Meals were enormous. I did eat all of my Hawaiian parmiagana but couldn't face supper at the dance later on that evening.
Sunday daylight savings ended so clocks back. An extra hour of sleep was much appreciated. Afternoon tea dance at Redesdale. I skipped lunch so enjoyed the afternoon tea.Had a very light tea and am ready for bed.

Wonder what I've forgotten. I've started reading Damien's Game of Thrones book. Planted some peas, carrots and beetroot when we had a shower. I needed to water since but this afternoon there's been a shower here so hopefully they'll do better than the summer crops. Starting to plan the Tassie trip. Brenda has booked our cabin on the Spirit and we have the weekend at the Casino organised.

Thank you Lisa for the earrings and ring. They are great. Next week is Probus, visit from the kinder girls here, Day Club at it's new venue and many nights of dancing.

Look forward to all of your replies.

Life is a dirt highway

Lots of work for Dee and I this month. I'm in Sydney every week until the end of the month, by which time we hope we've got our own place over here and we can just do the move. My deployment here is going pretty well, in that I don't feel like I'm drowning quite so much (except for the weather -- lots of rain this morning, and looking that way for the rest of the week), but there is at least some chance that I'll be working back in Canberra sooner or later -- so the travel may not end just yet. Shame it's not somewhere more interesting (although I do like Sydney).

So naturally I switched off the laptop and phone on Good Friday, determined to spend the long weekend at home with Dee and Jules with no cyber-augmentation or connectivity. Dee had other ideas, about the location at least, and had been looking for a place for us to get away for the weekend -- and at the last minute she found the farm-stay at Neriga. Perfect for Lucy, as you may have seen on Facebook. Less perfect for us but still good: the whole place is on solar power, so our "tea and coffee making facilities" were a camp-stove on the verandah (very cool). A tiny (!!) little cottage on 2000 acres of mostly bushland, and an owner-farmer with an interesting history and pretty good cooking! There was one other couple, so we even had grown-up conversation one night (we brought Jules' crib up to the main house so he could snooze and we could enjoy a glass of wine or 7). The next night I put the fire on (and then turned it immediately down when it was waaaaay too hot) and collected dinner from the house, navigating the tricky path with a torch.

Relaxing, in other words. Jules had fun walking around the place with us, but it wasn't somewhere you could take your eyes off him for a minute! Also glad we got the Jeep back, since it was at least 15km of dirt roads to get to the farm -- not to mention the dirt "highway" between Neriga and Braidwood, the next town over. Even the bitumened parts of the road were pretty rough. "Les wouldn't stand for this," condemned Dee.

We've decided to put Baker Street back up for sale too: we've had a valuation done, and if we can achieve the high-end of the suggested price scale we'll be able to pay off the mortgage, pay off our not-insignificant tax debt, and maybe have some left over for a holiday and/or the start of a new deposit. We still have tenants in the house so we don't need to rush, but we also know these things take a loooooooong time. It was great to hear that Dee's renovation work has added some value. ("What about that aerial? Add any value?" "I dug a hole, Dad!") We're a little disappointed we weren't able to finish the place up the way we wanted, but getting it off the books (and us back into black) will be a great psychological relief.

Slowly getting ourselves together, but still some way to go. Really hoping we can find a great place to rent in Sydney for a couple of years, settle in and dig some roots. But we still haven't found "home" yet!!!

Gordon St Gabbing

I thought I should finally follow Mum's lead and give you all some idea of what we've been up to.

We had a great Easter. Friday we headed to the Eaglehawk park in the morning to hang out with Lisa's playgroup. Os ran around until he was bright red in the face, which is always good. Then we swung by the city for a bit of a look (they have a huge market along the street) and then home so Cheryl could get baking for Easter presents.

Saturday we decided to go for a little drive to Maldon to check out the market. Edith and Landon came along. It's a nice little town, lots of antique stores and bookshops, so I was pretty happy. When we got home Os and Lily both fell asleep, so Cheryl did still more baking (those of you who enjoyed the honeycomb slice - you can thank the exhausting Saturday morning for the kids). We went out to the Dumpling House for dinner (they're great!) and then got out about 15 minutes before the night parade started, and about 10 metres from the start. There was a clear patch of grass, the kids were well rested so we decided to stick around and watch it. Lil and Os loved it - Os in particular was talking about all the people going past, and Lil waved constantly :)

Sunday we swung by the book sale in town for a look, had some lunch and then the kids played on the new playground in the mall. They had an awesome time. I feel like the playground needs a crows nest for parents to stand in so they can keep track of their kids as they run from one area to the next. But yeah, it was a nice relaxing morning and a beautiful day. Back home for another sleep for Lily, then out to Nanny's for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.

Monday we headed into town to do a bit of shopping (clothes for Cheryl and the kids, lego for me) and have some lunch. Then we spent the afternoon at home so the kids could wind down a bit.

Os doesn't have kinder for the next couple of weeks, which will be good. Usually he's there Monday afternoon, and then Tuesday and Thursday morning.. and it's a very early morning, I tend to wake him at 7 so we'll be there before 9 (it starts at 8:15). He's missed a couple of the Tuesday sessions because he's just been too tired. So yeah, a bit of time off will be good for him.

That's about it from us. We had the housewarming, which was awesome (and Cheryl was pretty much amazing at providing enough food for 45 odd people) and in a couple of weeks I'm going to Supanova in Melbourne, but I think that's it for plans for us. We might try to get to Melbourne for an overnight trip at some point, and our anniversary is coming up too, but nothing is concrete there. Generally I'll keep on working (GDD is very busy, which is good) and Cheryl will keep on finding new ways to entertain the kids as we settle more into life in Bendigo :)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter family,

Dayna and Bruce and Glenn , Dee and Jules , $30 in accounts from Nana and I. D&B will have to wait until next visit to collect and spend.

Great to read about how busy Lisa and co and Damien, Chez, Oz and Lil have been over the Easter break. Will be good to see them tonight here for an egg hunt and dinner. I made the white choc cheesecake so plenty of chocolate to be had.

I had a very quiet Good Friday and Easter Saturday. Went dancing last night and am having a very domestic Sunday. Will dance again tomorrow and Tuesday.

Love and hugs to all.
Mum

Playing in the snow

After a mostly restful night at the hotel, we packed up our luggage and carted it over to The Shire (our head office, two blocks away). It's hot here, positively balmy! So much for Winter.

We had enough time to rustle up a rough lunch snack before our bus left. Well, I say "our bus", but the fact is we didn't HAVE a bus - we weren't even on the list. Somehow I missed the RSVP. Luckily there was spare room, so we bundled ourselves on and hankered down for the four hour ride.

We finally made it to the ski village, after a lot of Giggle and Hoot on the iPad and a terrible meal at In And Out Burger. Another short bus trip from the resort building to check-in, then we were (finally!) ferried to our Inn.

And our room is huge! Older, but still lovely, with a fireplace, little kitchenette and small balcony. Audible sigh of relief, from each of us. We don't unpack so much as unzip the backpack and let it explode all over the room - but no time to spare, as we leg it back to Olympic House for dinner.

Which is when we see the logo - a giant Palantir circle-motif blazing fierce and bright on the side of the mountain. Incredible. We found a seat in the packed hall, and I filled a couple of plates with random buffet food. We ate quickly for Jules' sake, headed home and got him to bed. Then Dee went out for supplies. We sat in front of the fire, watched strange television and drank apple moonshine and wine.

Today we slept in (praise jet lag), then took Jules out for breakfast and a play in the snow. He enjoyed it, I think, but was a bit weirded out by it - crawling along on his stomach, touching the snow lightly with his fingertips, kicking snow drifts. He (and we) tired out pretty quickly, and came home for a lovely long nap.

Pizza for dinner, Inception on telly, bags packed for the journey back to Palo Alto tomorrow. Relaxed!

Welcome to America - Go F&€# Yourself!

Sitting in our (enormous!) chalet, nestled in Squaw Valley between snow-covered peaks, drinking moonshine in front of a roaring fire and watching strange American television - what a way to spend a Friday evening!

It was a massive effort to get here, with nothing seemingly going our way. First, getting to the airport - I arranged us a car, and they subbed in a taxi at the last second (no child seat available, apparently). No problem, once the cabby found our place. Off to the airport!

... Where they couldn't check us in until Jules' ticket was updated - it was booked with "Mason" as his first name! As they started the process, it came out that they had no record of his booking payment - no seat, so only 10% ticket price, but with $800 worth of taxes. For an $80 booking!

Got Tom (from Palantir) on the case and he sorted it (with much gnashing of teeth - he hates Qantas), so we headed for the lounge for the briefest of stays. And they wouldn't serve us a celebratory champagne!

On to Sydney. Bumpy ride in a dual-prop Dash 8 - which Dee has called "the Shakinator death-trap" on a previous occasion (just before I boarded, nice of her). Not the best of flyers, she certainly enjoyed our well-deserved champagne once we made it to the Sydney lounge. If only we had longer there!

Now the big flight - 13 hours in an Airbus A380. We boarded, and immediately had to ask where we were sitting, as our tickets - the second or third set issued - just said "infant". We were supposedly sitting at a bulkhead, with requisite bassinet for Jules, but the on board staff had no record. To their credit, they reseated us at a bulkhead near the back without too much hassle. Another bumpy flight, but at least our baby boy slept through.

Tired now, and headed for the gauntlet of LAX. "Say what you like about the English," I said, "they know how to queue." Unlike the Americans, who want to subject any and all visitors to the longest, most confusing lines. "Visitor or US citizen," asked Dee of a passing line-attendant. "Yes" was the unhelpful reply before she stormed off, yelling at people to form lines. 20 minutes, lucky we were in the right line AND we got there reasonably early AND they had more than a single Customs officer on duty (they had two). Painful, but we somehow made it through without Jules cracking it ( came close, but he's such a good little boy). At this point I'm feeling despair, and Dee is feeling frustration.

We got our bags, sans trolley despite Dee's best efforts at stealing one from a greedy Chinese couple - they had two! - and rechecked them. The dumbest system in the world. Hoofed over to another terminal and went through security again, making it to our departure gate with ten minutes to spare. Joy! Another flight, bumpier than it needed to be, and we're in San Franscisco.

"This is my favourite airport," says Dee, possibly because it's the last one we have to see for a while. Driver man meets us at the gate, helps us with our bags and drives us to The Westin, Palo Alto. We check in, collapse, go out for last minute supermarket shopping, collapse again, and sleep until 10am this morning.

(Will post again about life in a snow cone, but for now you're all caught up.)

Happy Birthday Jared!!

Hope you're having a fabulous day!
Did you get anything good?

:-)
*hugz*
-aunty dayna & unkie bruce-

Last day of work

It's Friday, which means today is my final day of being gainfully employed by Good Dog Design. Thankfully after a week off I'll move over to being gainfully contracted to Good Dog Design, but it wont be quite the same.

I haven't been thinking too much about it, because we've been knee-deep in moving preparations. Who'd have thought 8 years and 2 kids would bring with it so much stuff to be packed up? ;) This weekend is our final chance to finish up with all the packing, and Monday the truck will come and take all our worldly possessions away. Except a couple of air beds, sheets and pillows and the like which we'll use for the next few days.

We'll then spend whatever is left of Monday, plus Tuesday and possibly Wednesday if necessary cleaning, patching cracks, painting and doing whatever else the house needs to get it ready for rental (not that we have people ready to rent it, but that's okay). No fridge, microwave or anything that wont fit in the car means we might be eating out a fair bit. It should be fun.. suburban camping ;)

Meanwhile our stuff will arrive in Bendigo probably Tuesday, and Cheryl's family will direct it into rooms for us.

We'll spend a couple of days driving over, so we should be in Bendigo Thursday or Friday. That gives us another weekend to unpack the necessities before I'm back online and working on Monday.

It'll be a busy week at the end of what has been a very busy few months. Hopefully then things can settle down though, we can unpack gradually, spend some time playing with the kids and hanging out with family and generally try to wind down a bit. I'd certainly enjoy getting more than a few hours sleep a night, and getting rid of that 5-6am wake up should contribute a fair bit to that. I'm pretty sure Cheryl will appreciate some quiet time as well.

So I guess those of you in Bendigo - we'll see you in about a week. Those of you elsewhere - we'll see you next time you're in Bendigo :) Bye bye Adelaide.