Ookky ookook, ookle ookook.

Because everybody needs a monkey.

Spring

Some spring here.

Update from us

As usual, it's been a while since we posted anything on the bandwagon, so I thought I'd give a bit of an update. This week has could have best been described as Hellishly busy. After a few weeks of not much going on at work, suddenly a client came to us with a massive job and a really tight deadline.. today being said deadline, and I'm writing this over my lunchbreak while awaiting any more feedback from them. Unfortunately, this was also the week in which I've got two Iaido demos.. one on Sunday, and the other yesterday afternoon. This basically meant that the last few days I've been starting around 6 or 7am so I can get the work done and also so I could leave early Wednesday for the demo. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but the sum result is I'm pretty tired :)

So the demos. Yesterday afternoon Takeo and I were at a big park in Adelaide for a half hour or so. We did some kata together, then faced off against each other with Takeo attacking and me defending.. then we did five each alone (we were clapped at the end!) and finished with some bamboo cutting. The crowd actually built up to be pretty large. Cheryl has posted photos, and I'll chuck a couple in here.. you can see it's fairly sparse in the first one, but by the end there's people behind us watching as well. The demo Sunday should be a bit less stress.. it's just for my Dojo in Reynella, so myself and a couple of students will do about 3 kata each and that will be all.

If you want to see all the photos you can see them here.

We hung around at the Moon Lantern Festival after the demo to eat some delicious Korean food and watch a few of the shows on the main stage. Oscar also tasted his first ice-cream.. which was Cheryl's ice-cream, but he didn't want to share ;) We got it off him when we offered him a banana instead.. he loves his fruit!

Oscar is growing up so quickly and learning a lot. He's gradually adding more words, some from us (like "nan" and "up") and some from childcare (like "ta" and "more") and some he just seems to pick up himself. He started saying "nose", "mouth" and his favourite "eye" suddenly one day. He really likes to mimic us too.. sometimes you wont realise you're doing something (like scratching the top of your head) until you see Os doing it too.

He's becoming much better at feeding himself.. some foods are easier than others of course, but he loves using a spoon, fork and knife when he can. He also loves reading books.. I think that's his favourite quiet time activity. Sometimes he'll even sit down and look through the books himself. We play a lot, he loves chasing and hiding games, and really likes exploring outside. He can get a bit quiet and shy with new people, but I reckon it takes about 20 minutes for him to get used to them (and it took about 2 minutes with Sam :))

We're looking forward to seeing Mum and Nana next week, even if there is a fair bit of cleaning the house still to be done. I'm getting Wednesday and Thursday off work (which I appreciate even more after this week) and then Friday Cheryl and I will go out for a few drinks with friends to celebrate my birthday. Gotta make the most of the experienced babysitters :) Monday is a public holiday too! It's going to be a good week :)

Hmm.. I think that's it from me. Hopefully Cheryl can pop on and say how her work is going, and anything I might have forgotten. I'd better get back to work!

A busy day

Feeling very weary but pleased with what I've accomplished. I also washed and polished the kitchen floor and did a load of washing (still to put that away). The pic shows the old heater from Denise and Pete, which was in front of garage doors, moved next to the shed where there used to be lots of cut up wood to be burned. Moving it just around the corner was the best I could manage. There is still some cut up wood for Nana, Denise and Pete and the chiminea as well as some in a drum down the back. Even moved some old wheels round to the side where I can forget them. Other outside jobs done were poisoning the weeds and feeding the lemon tree and I made sure I didn't mix those up.
Cooking is on the to do list but Monday pm or Tuesday look good for that.

Work on the horizon

Just a quick note to say my contract with the place in London is all approved now, and I might be starting work for them on Monday (!!). Of course, I'm not sure if I should actually do anything before the actual contract is signed, sealed and delivered, but hey -- what else am I doing, really? (Plus it would be nice to get a little extra money now ... we're rapidly burning through our "holiday funds", even without rent to pay (thanks Mums) -- if I start on Monday I can probably put in an invoice on the 30th, and get paid for two weeks work thirty days after that. Better than nothing!)

I'm sure you're all reading The Long Way Home (you are, aren't you??) so you know we took a little trip to Albury-Wodonga this past week. Well, actually just Albury -- Wodonga isn't anywhere near as nice or clean or modern as the New South Welsh half of the pair. We had a trip to Ettamogah Pub (in Table Top) one day, and stopped in Beechworth on the way home. It's a lovely little town, full of boutique shoppes and lots of "housey" stuff ... Dee spent a couple of hours and could've spent more wandering around, checking stuff out and picking up business cards. I think we'll be visiting again once we find a house...

We also stopped at Wangaratta to see some family friends of Tricia's, and got scones with jam and cream! Diet starts (again) tomorrow.

Bathroom Makeover

On Thursday Cameron's came to measure Nana's bathroom. They suggested a large shower and no bath rather than squeezing in a shower and bath. Nana never uses the bath so she decided a large (1200cm) shower with glass on two sides would be nice. Today I took her to choose her vanity and taps. She's having a mixer tap on the vanity. Out of two, she picked one she'd fancied on the competition day. It has a narrower cupboard but Nana felt would be good to get close to if washing her hair. She is also having a cupboard in the corner, to store towels . They'll also provide towel rails. I mentioned an IXL light/heater and fan. We may have to pay the electrician to fit it. The girl helping us there showed Nana some taps that she loved for the shower.
We then went to National tiles to choose wall and floor tiles. Not a very big range to choose from. Nana found one she liked for the walls and we brought home four samples of floor tiles so we could see them in situ. They are a fawn colour with the floor ones slightly darker than the walls. Leaving them for Auntie Denise to have a say over the weekend. They are also replacing her toilet. Now I need paint samples to check against the tiles.
It's very exciting and everyone so far has been very enthusiastic. Work is to start on 11th October.

The tidy patio

Spring must be coming. Sitting out for a BBQ by the chiminea.Now I've cleaned the blinds. We're ready for summer.