It's been a quiet week, without ChrisTina ... and Astara dawn celebrations are coming!

Just reading Mum's email, thought I'd update the bandwagon -- although we don't have anything so exciting as chicken-pox to report!

We've had a quiet week this last week because Chris (our housemate) has been staying at Tina's (his girlfriend) place! Work is a bit hectic, but in the current economic climate we're both happy to have reasonably secure positions. Got to save our pennies (literally!) after all, with a view to house, car, dog, 2.5 kids ... or something like that anyway!

So it's been quiet, but the weather is slowly turning nicer and we've had a few occasions where we've been able to sit out on the balcony in the setting sun after work -- very nice! I've been going to a cafe called "Sumo Salad" for lunch, since the food is healthy and the front windows get a lot of sunshine. Topping up my vitamin-D, of course.

Last weekend we had one of Dee's work-colleagues over for lunch (roast chook) and then went to a quirky cocktail bar nearby called The Old Schoolyard (remember the days?). From the outside it looks like a dive; inside it's a big round bar complete with acrobatic mixing ala Cocktail the movie, scuffed couches, metal lockers and tall arcade cabinets. So we had pisco sours and Irish coffee and played four-player Ninja Turtles for 20p a game.

(Dad, you get home-made baileys as medicine?! Lucky. A bit tastier than the traditional "hot toddy" for colds -- hot water, whiskey, lemon juice and honey. Actually, hot toddy's are nice so long as you don't let 'em get cold ...)

This Easter (Eostre, Astara, Ostara) we're going to Leamington Spa with Chris and Tina (whom we call ChrisTina, just like we call Grant and Sheila GrantLa, and Nelsie and Picky, Pixie). Tina found a cheap deal somewhere -- she works for the University of East London and seems to get all these deals -- so we'll be relaxing and looking at Warwick Castle and playing chess and reading ... and eating the typical small ovoid shells made of a by-product of a particular cacao bean, sugar and milk of course ...

Update from us

Hey all.. Everyone seems to be using email to send out their updates, but I'm at work right now and don't have all the addresses here.. so it's a bandwagon post from me :)
Oscar's been a bit difficult these last few weeks, and we finally have a reason why - Cheryl took him to the Dr, who thinks he might be having silent reflux. Basically that explains everything - his tendency to feed only a little, and be hungry half an hour later, waking up after about an hour of being asleep unless you're holding on to him (and keeping him upright), general grumpiness and crying.
The solutions involve a drop of mylanta in his bottle, sitting him up to feed, keeping him sat up for half an hour afterwards, and using towels to angle his bed so his head is a bit higher.. of course in the meantime he's pretty high maintenance, which means when I'm at work Cheryl barely has time to eat, let alone time to rest or anything else.. and it also means of an evening neither of us get much sleep.
Hopefully the tricks can help lessen the effects, and hopefully it's something he grows out of.. although even then it could be months, at which point I suspect we'll both be needing a holiday! Ah, the joy of babies.

New job, new travel-buddy

I'm on the way home from my first day at the Museum of Science &
Industry (MOSI). It was mostly what expected a first day to be -
filling out forms for HR, reading the hand-over notes, exploring the
computer server for relevant info and trying to figure out what i'm
supposed to do over the next six months. :)

I had a welcome suprise with today's morning mail. Damien and Cheryl
and Oz had sent me a postcard and new travel-buddy. I'm not sure of
her name yet (she's a bit shy) but she's Patrick's younger sister and
is looking forward to some adventures of her own. I still miss Patrick
(stupid Royal Mail) but it's lovely to have someone to travel with. :)
*big hugz* thank you!

I'll attach a photo of my desk and the little ghost. I'm trying a
mobile post again - this time from my own phone (since now I don't
have a blackberry for work). All in the name of mobile internet. :)

Hope everyone is good. *big hugz to all*

--
Sent from my mobile device

Smile!

Testing email posting

Hello from the Isle of Wight!

I'm here by myself so I'm going to put the comments that I'd normally make to a travel buddy in here..

11:55
I'm on a bus to Alum Bay - on the other end of the island to where I arrived on the Hovercraft. We just went past a field full of sheep and lambs - they'd numbered them all so you could tell who belonged to who. Cute little sheepies, with big blue and red numbers painted on their sides. Hehe.

There are also quite a lot of thatched-roof houses in this area.

12:55

Just walked down 182 steps to the seaside. I can't call it a beach because it's made of pebbles and I don't think that's really a beach. :-) I wanted to see the cliffs of coloured sand. You're not allowed to take any sand from the beach - if you did that then you wouldn't pay for the little bags of it from the souvenir shop.. Anyway, just got down to the bottom and I needed the loo. Bugger! Took a few photos and then headed back up the stairs.

13:40
Bought an uninspiring lunch of sandwich, crisps and a ribena carton. I'll eat it after I've had a look in the Glassblower's.

Alum Bay Glass is quite pretty, but nothing exceptional. Lots

of dust-collectors really. I like watching glass blowers work. Stuart the Glassblower from Scotland was mezmerising. The three guys they had on the demonstration floor were talented but it wasn't exceptional. I guess it's hard to be exceptional when you're making paperweights or pigs. To be honest, the pig-maker was the most interesting to watch.

Take a blob of molten glass, add some coloured powder and twist it a bit to mix it. Let the glass cool just a little then using huge metal tweezers, pull out four blobs on one side (the legs), two blobs on the other (the ears). Swing it around a bit to elongate the

body a little and to assist it cool. Stand it on its legs and poke with tweezers to make eyes. Continue to twist until glass sets, break off twisting rod (at nose) and put hot pig into kiln for annealing.

14:10
Eating my lunch on a bench outside in the sun. Suddenly a couple of ravens/blackbirds (not sure exactly) flew onto the adjacent table. They're as bad as seagulls (which didn't come scavenging) - looking for any kind of scraps. I had an enjoyable time.. Taking photos, talking to the birds, watching other tourists try to feed them so they'd stay still long enough for a photo. Now it's time to get on the bus up the hill.

14:45

Paid to go in to the Old Battlement. They have a tunnel! Down a winding staircase which is only wide enough for one (and only just - I really need to do more exercise) and the acoustics are fab. The tunnel is only just wide enough for two to pass, but you'll hear them at the top of the staircase - even if you're at the spotlight at the other end, enjoying the view of the Needles. I wish someone had been there to play with the acoustics. I encouraged a young lad and his sister to mess about with it - and from the noise they made, it must have been fun!

17:30
I'm sitting at the front of the Hovercraft. Hehe. It's so exciting. I came over on it this morning, it's not like anything else I've been on. Low tide? No problem! The Hovercraft hovers over land or water - the only difference is the bumps from the waves. :-)

I'm going to send this now - it's already a long email/post and I'm on the way back to Portsmouth now. Hope everyone is good and I'll try to upload the appropriate photos soon.

*hugz*

--
Sent from my mobile device (and then edited because it put in line breaks that meant the post looked weird)

parents to Glenn

hi to Glenn and Danielle,
We received a letter from Budget about Citylink charges when you visited and have forwarded it to your email. Let us know if you want us to pay the bill. I thought you had kept up with the City link charges and hopefully could tell Budget what you had paid.Email sent, siblings will be on to you to check and so are we.

Happy Birthday Adam

Like the title says, happy birthday dude! We're looking forward to seeing all of you in a month or two (I don't actually know when you're planning to visit)

Update from Adelaide

Hey guys.. well, some pretty big updates on the bandwagon. Jared, I hope you had a great birthday, we're still organising your present, maybe we'll give it to you when you visit. Ma n Pa, sorry to hear about the scary ER visit, but I'm glad Dad's on the mend again. A trip to Emergency is never a particularly pleasant experience.

As far as we are going, things are all pretty good. We've had Edith and Landon here for the last three weeks, and Rach arrived on Tuesday, but they headed home this morning. I know Oscar enjoyed seeing his grandparents and auntie, and we certainly appreciated an extra few pairs of hands to cook, clean up and occasionally take the baby so we could sleep :)

We took Oz to the beach on Saturday, which was great.. he slept pretty much the entire time. Then when we got home he was awake for some photos and a quick webcam chat with his other grandparents (and great-grandparent). I've put still more photos in the Oscar set on flickr.

I think the photos are generally 1200x1600, so if you want them at a bigger size to print just let me know.. the originals are more like 2500 x 1900. Mum and Dad, you do have that book to fill up after all ;)

That's about it from us. The time just seems to be flying by, it's hard to believe Oscar's a month old already. In no time he'll be eating all the food in the fridge and sleeping until noon :)

ER

Hi all. Last night after Lisa and the children left, dad felt chilly. By 6.45pm he was shaking and had a temp of 38.3. Since those symptoms mean straight to ER at the hospital, that's what we did. Dad was very dehyrated so two litres of saline, blood tests, antibiotics and an Xray later (10.30pm) I could take him home, with more antibiotics. His temp was still up last night but was normal this morning. We called to see Nana on our way home because she had arranged to call in to visit after Saltworks last night and I knew she'd be worried. Dad had seemed much improved yesterday and we enjoyed a visit from Lisa and the family and Auntie Denise at lunch time. Hopefully now things will improve. He still has diarrhoea, but maybe the improved medicine we got on Thursday will work better if he isn't so dehydrated. Early night tonight I think.

Update

I thought that it was about time to update the blog. Well I'm a helper with the tiny's team at calisthenics. Schools going well and in about a term and a half we'll get to go in the new school.

Happy Birthday Jared!

Have a fantastic day today!
Enjoy bowling - I hope you win.
*hugz*

My dad is a pirate, what's yours?

Scars, tattooes -- our Dad is turning into a pirate! Perhaps we can get 'im a parrot for his birthday? Argh.

I've heard lots of anecdotal evidence that ground apricot kernels (in the appropriate amount) is good for healing/avoiding cancer growth. One of our friends in Melbourne has gone into remission (I almost said recession -- that's the financial climate over here!) from lymphoma. He had chemo, then super health diet (nothing processed, all fresh) including apricot kernels and mananuka honey. Actually, I'm on the mananuka in tea for a cold at the moment.

Us, we've been quiet because the only access to the Sillyweb we have is from work or on the phone -- so silly Facebook statuses have been updated from phone whilst walking home or at lunch or in a boring meeting or on the bus. Although I must confess I think it was a taste of how parents must feel when their child comes home with e.g. cybernetic implants (or a mobile phone, or a hologram for a friend) to hear that my Mum is reading about me on Facebook.

Well, it's a bit quieter at work today, so here goes. The move went well, because we were more organised and prepared this time than ever before in history. The weekend before we packed almost everything into boxes and put them into Colleen's room -- she'd already moved out. The following Saturday Chris, Andrew (Chris's girlfriend's brother) and I picked up a small van, while Dee and Tina (C's girlfriend) cleaned the new apartment.

The three men loaded the van, drove to the new place, and unloaded. It was regular as clockwork -- complete with roles: I unloaded from van to door (to keep an eye on the van); Andrew from door into elevator (he hates lifts); and Chris unloaded from elevator at the top. Two van loads and we were done by about 3pm! In fact, the only two hiccups were waiting an hour for a van (some mixup in their system) and a bookcase which was slightly too big for the elevator ... and had to be walked up (in shifts) 10 flights of stairs!!

The new apartment is smaller but with more usable space: We've got the desk in our room, the piano in the lounge, and are looking for a shelving unit to put in the kitchen. A few problems, mostly with our estate agents being "pants" about replacing broken stuff -- we've been there almost two weeks and they still haven't replaced the worn out mattresses, nor sent a sparky 'round to fix various lights and sockets. We suspect the last tenants were dodgy -- things have been thoroughly broken, then gingerly put back together to create the illusion of repair. The coffee table, for example, rested on four entirely broken legs, whilst the condition report listed it as "wobbly". The report now looks like a Grade 5 school essay in which the student didn't use spell-check -- it's covered with additions and corrections. I stopped short of giving them a C-minus on the front cover ...

So we're slowly but surely settling in. The boxes are all unpacked now, and today we had the phone-line connected (here comes broadband). Phone number, apparently (haven't tried it yet) is:

+44 207378 1204

The address for postcards is:

1004 Antonine Heights
City Walk
London
SE1 3DF

Here's a map showing the place, and where we work. Takes me probably 20-30min to walk to work:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=100294927689049556522.000463d02ac0f2411c4ae&ll=51.531387,-0.111237&spn=0.071441,0.154495&z=13

I'll get some photos up when we finally get online.

a scary weekend

Lisa may be able to add photos of how close the fire came to their house at the weekend. A dreadful lot of fires all over Victoria, with 44 degree heat and high winds. So devastating for all who lost houses and family members. We had a visit from Val and Peter and knew nothing about it until Lisa and the children arrived on Saturday afternoon. So glad we were here for them and they were happy to have the family room (Carolynn even managed to reclaim her old room so she had some privacy and didn't need to listen to Foxie's snores. ) Trinity was Foxie's companion of choice. At 3am he was sleeping on the end of her bed.(made from the couch cushions)Adam stayed initially to water down the house but he calledLisa to collect him as the flames got closer. He asked her to return him (and Manga the dog) about 10pm so he could continue any mopping up. Their power was off for at least 24 hours. Lisa and the children had a cooler night here as we kept the air con on until 3am when the cool change finally came in.We were able to feed everybody by adding more veges as I'd started cooking roast chicken and the frozen dessert was much bigger than we'd needed for just four of us.(There's still a slice left)
Denise and Peter had invited Mum down for tea, but they needed to keep their place damped down as the fire came within a block or so. Mum returned home to watch for embers and have water ready to put any sparks out.
Still no rain but a very welcome cool change today.Hope everyone else is keeping cool and well . Edith and Landon had a much better day to travel on Sunday. Hope they had a good trip and found your place, Damien and Cheryl.

Snowed under with work

Whilst we wait to find out who won the "guess the time and eye-colour" competition ... you would almost think those two had something better to do with their time ...

It is snowing in London today. The worst in 18 years, says Danielle's cabby, and more set for tomorrow. Most of the tube is down, or severely delayed - not the Victoria Line, strangely - and my office is just about empty. Which is okay for me, because I've taken my shoes and socks off and sequestered a small portable heater that was on a colleague's desk to warm my toecicles, legacy of a mis-step into an icy puddle only metres from my door.

Climate-change is brilliant! Picture it, Britain: a Winter Wonderland for six months of the year, and a humid, tropical oasis for the other six. With resulting destructive and violent storms in between, of course.

The walk this morning was fun. The city is pretty under a layer of the white stuff, but there's not much chance to look up and admire it - eyes down on the treacherous icy foot paths and snow-covered cobblestone lanes, else it's argon over titanium for a bruised and wet behind. And I don't think the few people in the office would appreciate me "dropping trou" and drying my undies on the heater the way I can with wet socks ...

It's warmer, and thicker, than when it snowed in Edinburgh. The wind is icy, but perhaps the built-up office blocks provide more cover against it. Overhead, a grey ceiling looms like an enormous doona (duvet) stuffed with snowflakes, trapping what heat comes from buildings and people and cups of cocoa and warm crumpets. Oh dear, I've made myself hungry.

Do I venture out? It's snowing again now, I can see through the windows, laying down another layer. Think I'll dry my socks first ...

BellyWatch: Week 39

Hey all.. well, we're down to the last two weeks before the due date, which means it could be any day from a few weeks ago to about a month from now. This means we don't tend to make plans, and I jump whenever my phone rings at work :)

Cheryl is still feeling good, although occasionally the baby finds a spot to poke that makes her uncomfortable... and of course at that point he decides it's a great game to just keep on poking that spot. Still, she's managing a walk every day of around a kilometre, as well as keeping up the various stretches and other exercises that are recommended.

In an effort to improve my fitness I've also managed the occasional walk to the train station in the morning.. it's around 4 - 4.5 kilometres, which means to catch the train at 7:30 I have a fairly early morning. It's a good walk though, mostly uphill :)

Apart from that we're pretty uninteresting I'm afraid. Just generally kicking around at home, staying cool in this stupid weather and not making plans for any long trips.

What has everybody else been up to since Christmas?