Coastal day trip

Hi all,

Cheryl and I have just arrived home after a bit of a drive down the coast. We headed down to Normanville beach, which is about the same distance as Victor Harbour. We had some breakfast there, headed up the coast a bit to another beach, then back to Normanville for a picnic lunch (it was good food!) and then home again via Myponga beach. It was basically a joint "we need to test out the car" and "it's 33 degrees today" decision, although the hot weather didn't stop the ocean from being freezing.

Manchester

Just a quick one.. I've been here since Wednesday lunchtime.. and most of the time I've been here it's been raining! I have been willing the rain over to Mum and Dad.. heheh.. other than the rain, it seems like a good place. I've got a chat tomorrow with the people at the Uni, so keep your fingers crossed that it's all happy - cos then I'll have to find myself a flat here. :)

I'd best get going - I'm in a hostel and only have a short amount of time.

*big hugz*

more Wallace

Been doing some family tree stuff. Glenn and Dayna, you are descended from the Wales clan who I think was also the Wallace clan. I'll try to get a summary of our Scottish ancestors in case you can do any research there more easily than here.
Today we had a phone call from Tamara. They'll be visiting on Saturday/Sunday. I have an Intimo (bras) demo here on Saturday so hopefully the men will make themselves scarce. Dad thinks he'll go to Talbot to the wreckers if he's not playing bowls. He opted out of the team last week because it was the Swap Meet. Also Auntie Denise's birthday so we may go out for tea.
Lisa has given me the Laser info so I'll get onto that tomorrow Dayna. Who was the compulsory third party insurance provider? Did you tell them you'd sold the car? Lisa has deregistered the Magna and put the Laser in her name.
Glenn and D, I suggested we photograph your furniture. You'll feel at home when you visit with a fridge and a set of shelves(now storing CD's/ DVD's, a food processor and a toolbox). Dad worked out a way to stack them that I'm happier with. I was trying to push the drawers in, but I think they were made to stick out a bit. Dad could fix that. We'll just need to put you in the back room and you can pretend it's your flat. Your metal shelves are in the store room and have made that much easier to access. If you want them back I'll have to buy you new ones.
Lots of love to all. Hope all is going well for you.

Walking!!

Yes, something truly blog-worthy! Last night Trinity took her first steps ALONE! It was a proud moment, obviously, and we made sure to get photos. I will have to do some editing but here is a better one. I don't know if it was the idea of walking the cat that inspired her, but that is what she did. Carolynn put the cat harness on Trinity's toy kitty - Trinity says "ow, ow" and pats it, it's very cute. Now she can walk it (I have since cut the lead so it is Trinity sized)
Another cute Trinity story - my chair is close to a table, and Trinity was standing up on the chair, she leant backwards and hit her head on the table, so I rubbed her head and gave her a hug and a kiss. When she was happy I gave her her baby doll. She gave it a hug and rubbed it's head and I asked if she had bumped her head too. Well, Trinity held the doll by it's arm and whacked it's head on the table, then rubbed it's head and hugged it. I laughed and said "oh, poor baby, she hit her head. Are you going to give her a kiss too?" Trinity made kissy faces and offered the doll to me so I kissed it then she did too. It was just too cute!

In other news, Glenn, Dee, Dayna, there should be a parcel on it's way to you guys soon. Happy Birthday Glenn (late) Happy Birthday Dee (early, unless it takes a while to get there) and Merry Christmas all (again, early) I hope you all enjoy it. :) And I hope you are good at sharing. lol.

39 hours and a space cadet

Hello hello..

Another blog from me to let everyone know that I made it safely to Glenn and Dee's place last night.

After getting to Melbourne airport around 5 or 6pm on Wednesday afternoon, I arrived in Edinburgh at about 8.30pm Thursday night. You may be thinking "that's only 28 hours.. where did 39 come from?".. and the answer, my friends, is Time Difference! Yes, the times above are local times.. so to get an accurate length of travel, simply add the 11 hours that Melbourne is ahead of Edinburgh. *phew*..

By the end of the trip, I was very much a space cadet... and I must say that I still feel like one today.. so this will just be a short post before I head in to town to sort out my phone and to get some fresh air (so very fresh - brrr).

During the trip I traveled in an assortment of ways - buses, trains, planes, the underground, a taxi and my own two feet. I had about 40 kgs of luggage to contend with - which was fine for the plane ride but not so fun for the tube/underground experience.. especially since the direct line from Paddington (where the Heathrow Express (train) dropped me) to Kings Cross (where I caught the train to Edinburgh) was not working.. that might not sound like much but it meant two underground trains, at least one extra set of stairs (with my 25kg backpack and a trolley with another 20kgs of so). *phew* I certainly got my exercise yesterday. :)

Anyway, I'd best get a move on - I think it's about lunch time over here and I'm going to get something whilst I'm out.

Take care and let's see if everyone can write a new blog entry (not just reply to other blogs). :)

*hugz*

Trin's christening, packing up and a whole lot of things

Hi all,

I too have been quiet on the Bandwagon front. I meant to send something about Trin's Christening ages ago.. oops. Anyway, better late than never I always say. *grin* Do you like the picture? It's one of my favourites.

I really enjoyed the few days I had in Bendigo - it was great to see everyone again.

Jared, how did the production go? Did your hero pose go down well? How are you going with the AstroJax? There's even a website about it - maybe you could find some new tricks.

Carolynn, did you end up going to the park? Did you talk to your music teacher about learning the clarinet? I think it'd be really cool for you to learn it - I learnt flute and then clarinet when I was at school. *grin*

I'm glad that the Laser coped with all of the stuff that I packed into it too. For those of you who didn't see it, I had packed the poor little car almost to the rafters. The influence of Dad's packing ability along with three years of living at Halls and coming home (with all my stuff) for the holidays, followed by two years as a Smover having to carefully pack a station wagon every tour means that I am really good at packing things into as small a space as possible. The car didn't handle as well as it has in the past - but given that it was FAR heavier than it's been before, I'm not surprised.

I finished work last Tuesday, and have been packing and cleaning since then. I managed to sell most of my furniture (the bed, coffin shelves, bookshelves, tv and other stuff). Today the Salvos are coming to pick up the washing machine (some time between 7.30am and 3.30pm - so I've got to wait around all day.. blah!), removalists are coming Thursday morning and carpet cleaners on Friday. It's really strange to be packing up the house - but strange in a good way.

Anyway, this is already a long entry, so I'm going to stop here and let someone else have a say.

Ooh, and I DID get a Halloween Bandwagon header (mostly) done - I'll send it through once I finish it.. see - better late than never! *grin*

*big hugz* to all..

Birthday, Wallace, Specs

We've been a little quiet on the bandwagon, so I decided to put my day off to good use and write an update about Dee and my activities of late.  (Unfortunately, after writing about 500 words of classic prose, poignant reflections on the craziness of la vie moderne punctuate with amusing quips and quibbles, Firefox crashed and lost my bloggy efforts.  The following entry is thus an attempt to reconstruct based on the principle of "er, what did I write last time?")

First I have to say THANKYOU THANKYOU THANKYOU to everyone for their well-wishes (and presents) for my birthday.  I had a great time -- a brilliant meal at a fancy-pants restaurant with my beloved, then getting stonkingly drunk on semi-expensive wine, then chasing it with a tall coffee with cream and those delicious little mints.  A brilliant night -- and well and truly worth the headache the next day.

I got some very nice gifts, too -- Egglings (eggs that you crack open and little plants grow from); Ambergris wash (made from whale sick, look it up!); green tea picked by specially trained monkeys (as opposed to monkeys who have a more general education such as the VCE, or A-levels). 

From Dee I got an awesome gift -- the Suunto T3 heart-rate monitor watch!  Stylish in black, the T3 records heart-rate, calories and "training effect" for each training session -- brilliant, since I'm trying to concentrate on my personal fitness goal of running the Edinburgh marathon (I've actually been running the equivalent of a couple of miles about three times a week at the gym -- which I can only do now that I got fitted for some new runners, as my old ones were horrible, plastic and hurt my feet).

We took a weekend away to the foot of the highlands a little while ago, staying at the little cottage house shown here.  We travelled by bus to Stirling, home of the William Wallace monument, and spent an afternoon climbing circular stairways and learning about Braveheart.  We've not been anywhere since, but we're both working as much as we can at the moment to save up some dosh.  We've got all the tickets and everything for Paris in Decembre, and then we're planning on visiting Egypt early next year, and maybe a bit of an Eastern Europe tour sometime too.

Of course we're looking forward to seeing Dayna in a couple of weeks, and having her with us for Christmas.  Dee wants to make her "Haley's Comet" again this year -- the Christmas pudding with enough brandy to run a 1925 Silver Anniversary Buick for about 17 hours straight -- so I've got to get the local fire department on speed dial before then, you know, just in case.  She also wants to instigate a new family tradition -- making home-made Baileys.  (Actually, this is a borrowed tradition from some dear friends, and so much fun.)  We're going to get a "living tree" for Christmas, then put it out on the balcony (or in the hallway) until 2007, and try to keep it alive!

The other news is, as you can see from the picture, that I've got some new glasses.  It's about time, really -- since I lost my "nice" ones in the ocean off Adelaide's coast I've been wearing contact lenses and the "spares", which I don't really like that much (they were two for one at Budget Specs back in Uni).  These new ones are, I think, pretty trendy.  I'm also trying out monthly contact lenses -- that is, lenses that you wear for 30 days (including overnight) and then throw away.  It's brilliant being able to wake up and see in the morning, and until my prescription settles I'm not going to get laser surgery (it needs to be stable for a couple of years, really).

Not much else, although I've uploaded the baptism photos to Flickr if anybody wants them.  (Such a cutey!)

powered by performancing firefox

Lemony!

Here's our friend Lemony.

Trinity

Well, you all know we had Trinity Baptised last weekend. We got lots of photos, and I have some of the photos Dayna took as well. Fiona got some but I have to catch up with her to see what she has.
I thought I would also let you all know that Trinity has been trying to stand up by herself. At Jared's school production she sat up the front with Carolynn on some mats. She pushed up onto her hands and feet, and balanced herself to stand up for a few seconds before letting herself down. She did this a couple of times, it was a bit sad that Adam wasn't there (he didn't feel well that night)
But she did it again at Carole's on Saturday night, it was so cute. She did it a few times, like, oh, that was fun, see if I can do it again! The other thing she has started this week is climbing up on the couch! Such a clever little girl! She will be walking by Christmas I'm sure :)
I'm having trouble uploading photos, so I will do that later.

Car shopping

Cheryl and I are in the market for a car. It's part of a longer term plan to buy a house, possibly next year. We've got three cars in mind which we've heard good things about - the Holden Barina, the Ford Laser and the Toyota Camry. Based on the amount of money we have, something in the range of 1995 and up for a year.
We're going to have a look at a 1997 laser this weekend, but based on last weekend I wont hold my breath. We'll let you know how we go with it all.. it's possible that if we come back for christmas we might even be driving :)
What have you guys been doing? And have you heard anything good or bad about the cars we're looking at?

And the birthday wishes continue..

Happy Birthday Glenn!

I hope you've had or are having a good day. What did you get up to to celebrate?

the internet is not a series of tubes. it's a sack of presents!

Hi all,

Just a gift update. Mum and Dad, the book is still on order in the US, so the current approximate delivery is the end of November.. but it's going to depend on when they get the book, and then about three weeks after that for postage. It's being posted straight to your house though.

Glenn, happy birthday for Saturday! We've ordered you a gift from your wishlist online, so don't go buying anything off there. If it's not at your house already, it can't be far off.. and sorry if i've ruined the surprise ;)

Thank you Mr. Internets.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Just what the title says, Happy Birthday Dad. I hope you're having a relaxing day :)

How good in your hearing?

Apparently there's a sound which no "adult" can hear. Kids in the UK have been using it as a ringtone, so they can recieve calls in school and their teacher wont know.

It's based on the fact that your hearing degrades over time, although I can hear it and so can Cheryl (and technically we're too old) .. so i'm interested to see if you guys can too.

Click here to listen to a wav of the file. Then let us all know if you hear anything.

Happy Boys-day

Happy Birthday Damien!

I hope you're having/had (I can never remember the international time ... I think it's now the day after the day before, er, you know what I mean, or if you don't then, well maybe you're me) a brilliant day and enjoy all your gifts and (more importantly?) the attention *wink*. Did you enjoy (wait, that is definitely NOT the right word!) appreciate "An Inconvenient Truth"? We're going to look out for it in the local Indy (that's Indy-speak for "Independent", Mum and Dad *even cheekier wink*) cinema.

How old are you now, little brother? Twenty-six or something equally ridiculous, no? I can still remember all our childish misbehaviour -- He-man vs the Ninja Turtles, battling it out in either Castle Grayskull, the TMNT Sewers or that place where Hordak and his goons hung out, what was it called? I remember painting Superman black to make him an evil Superman (your Batman toy had so much more anghst, dang!), and how the Transformers could kick butt over regular Matchbox Cars every single time, despite Matchbox's superior numbers. Ah, good times.

And that was just last week on your podcast. (Hey, there's a topic for next week!)

Anyway, Cheryl said you got your pressie, and so did you from work the other day, so enjoy! Thinking of you tonight as I have 一献 of sake. Mmmm, sake. Tell me again when you heading to Japan? How many bottles of delicious rice-wine are you allowed to smuggle bring back completely legitemitely? (Yes, I just found the strikethough button in this editor. It's cool!)

In other news: today, whilst looking for some gym shoes, I got Dee a guitar.

It's nice, too -- a black acoustic Fender, sweet tones, came in a beginners pack which included a tuner, set of strings and DVD. I also got a stand for it, so it can sit out in our lounge-room and tempt us to play, or at least attempt to play.

We've watched the first lesson on the DVD, and have been practising E5 and A5. I'm sure all the guitaristas out there are probably laughing, but it's a start for us -- I can't wait to get some tablature and have a good ol' jam some time in (probably) a couple of months. Maybe she'll even go for an open mic night somewhere? I'd be in for that, provided I could do vocals ... and got plenty of time to practise!

As I say, it's some time away. Not maybe places, even in Edinburgh, will let you play a gig when you only know two chords. Well, maybe Bannerman's Bar, but that's a student haunt I think (put enough beer in students, or "suits" for that matter, they will clap anything ... as any purveyor of open mic knows all too well).

I didn't find my gym shoes of course. It's always the same -- you go looking for a particular something, guaranteed you will find something else equally compelling.