Happy Birthday Ossie!!

Dear Oscar,

Hope your birthday was very fun. 
Can't wait to see you!

Lots of love and hugz,
aunty dayna & unkie bruce

Where did January go?

On the train from Birmingham to Cambridge, perfect time to write an update. This month has disappeared far too quickly! And there hasn't been anything much going on.

Was back at work on the 6th and I've had a trip away most weeks.. to Aberystwyth for three days, an overnight in Bangor, a day trip to Swansea, and another overnight in Bangor. This trip is for a three day team meeting in Cambridge - I get back late on Wednesday (just less than a week after leaving, because it was less travel to spend the weekend with B's folks rather than heading home before Cambridge). Phew!

And yet work has felt less busy than the end of last year.. I'm trying to get more organised, GTD style (Getting Things Done  by David Allen - bottom line is to write down everything that needs be done and free up brain space). I'm also trying to cut the long hours but it's difficult when there are so many things that wouldn't happen if I didn't do them. :-\ and it doesn't help having to work evenings and weekends (eg, now)... but I'll get there.

B has had a tough time with work - the Techniquest job finished at the end of December, so he's back doing supply teaching. The schools aren't great, the classes are challenging (not in a good way), and it's such a temporary existence. There haven't been many jobs to apply for but he's had interviews for all those he did. Unfortunately, none have ended with a job. :-(

It's not all doom and gloom from us - we're off London next week to see Cirque du Soleil's Quidam. It's my present to B for his birthday (next Monday). And we've got three weeks at Easter to look forward to too. :-) by the time we come back, the weather should be less depressing. Hopefully. :-)

Let's get back to regular updates.. the Little Masons are putting all the rest us to shame. ;-) Lis, Glenn & Dee, Mum, Carolynn, Jared? How's January been for you?

*hugz* to everyone.

Lots-o-stuff

Time from a post from me! We've been pretty busy since... Lisa's party, I think? So, there was the party, followed by Christmas Day, our Boxing Day Brunch, a few dinners out with family, lunches out with friends, Shihan's visit, and then Damien returned to work. We're back into the usual routine now, minus kindy. It was so nice to be able to spend a lot of time with everyone during the break, and especially nice to have Damien on holidays :)

The kids loved Christmas! Presents, cousins and lots of food... we all had a good day :) It was our first one living in Bendigo, so we took the opportunity to host Dinner at our house (with the help of mum and Rach!). And no driving 7.5hours afterwards!!

We had planned on getting a kitten in the new year, but as the Bendigo Welfare & Community Services took a while to get back to us, we've decided to wait until after our overnight stay in Melb later this month (for a friend's wedding). Looking forward to going away for a night, and then getting a kitten! 

Os' birthday will be the same week as school starts. We've got a couple of things planned for his birthday, plus iai-do starts up again, so it will be a busy week! At least Os' first "week" of school is only one day, so he'll have the following weekend to recover :)

Last weekend Shaun (landlord) installed an air conditioner into the office. It's Lovely! And just in time for the heat wave we're currently experiencing. Air conditioning for the rest of the house will happen at the end of this year, so for now we're using the existing AC in the lounge and vising family/friends/shopping centres. Nights have been pretty terrible, but the cool change is on it's way!

My final "Nourish" questionnaire and weigh & measure have arrived in the mail. It has been really good to be part of the study (childhood obesity) for 5 years! Hopefully some programs/information for new parents will come of it :) 

I'm still doing pilates once a week. It's a studio session, so me and two others plus our instructor. I'd have to say, pilates machines are fun ;) It's working very well, too! My abdominal muscles are closer together and can actually meet in the middle! :) Damien's also got me started on some exercises at home.

I've probably missed something, but I'll leave it at that for now. Hope everyone is well and enjoyed their break.

Our Pre-Xmas Trip

One of the benefits of living in the UK is how easy it is to travel. We decided to make the most of Bruce's leave with a quick trip to Northern Ireland before Christmas. On Thursday 19th we flew out of Bristol. We caught the coach from Cardiff and it dropped us right at the airport. It's only a short flight across to Belfast and on arrival we collected the tiny hire car that would take us around for the four days.

After a lovely dinner with one of my work mates, we headed to the hotel. We arrived at 11.10pm and found a sign on the door that said "Check in by 11pm or your room will be re-sold"!! We phoned the manager and our room had indeed been re-sold!! However, after some discussion and a half-hour wait, we had somewhere to sleep that wasn't the car! 

Our day in Belfast started with Paddy's Black Cab Tours - our driver, Sam, was great. He told us about the troubles and took us to some of the main areas - Protestant murals near Shankill Road, the Peaceline (a wall longer and higher than the Berlin wall with gates that are still shut at night and weekends), and a Catholic remembrance garden. He dropped us off near the town hall and even gave us an umbrella (because the weather was damp). There was a Christmas Market at the town hall, so we had a look around before wandering around the city centre. It's much the same as any other city - shops, cafes, a sight-seeing dome on the top of the shopping centre(!).. There was lots for us to see.. and that was without going anywhere near the Titanic!

The next day we headed west (go west, young man) to the highest sea cliffs in the country, Slieve League. Our teeny tiny hire car didn't have guts but it managed to get us from one side of the country to the other. Eventually we found the parking for the lookout - or so we thought. We walked up the hill to discover that the lookout was another couple of miles along! A short drive later we had the chance to admire the view. Bruce went for a wander even further up the hill.

From here it was more narrow and winding roads to the thatched cottage which was our bed for the night. Beautiful building with slate floors and an open fire. We ate at Leo's Tavern - a pub owned by the father or Enya and Clannad - and chanced upon Rudolph enjoying a pint. :-)

Day Three had us driving back into Northern Ireland and over to the Giant's Causeway - columns of basalt, formed by a volcanic eruption or a giant who threw them into the sea to make a path to Scotland.... We parked, paid our exorbitant entry fee (thanks National Trust) and collected our audio guide. The stones were quite a walk from the visitor's centre and by the time we arrived we were frozen! I'm sure the audio guide tells you some interesting things but my hands were too cold to work the buttons. We might have to visit again in summer (and walk from the Inn - it's free if you don't park or get the audio guide).

We had planned to visit Bushmill's Distillery on Day Four but it was closed for Christmas (d'oh!). So we headed along the coast to the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge. Fortunately, the bridge was open (weather was a bit dodgy, so we weren't sure it would be), so we paid our fee and went for another walk. The bridge crosses to a little island that used to be used for salmon fishing. To be honest, I think the steps down to the bridge were scarier than the bridge itself - even though the attendant told us to hold on with both hands on the way over. Having cleared out our cobwebs, we got back into our teeny little car and headed down the costal road - arriving just in time for our return flight.

More photos here: Pre-Xmas Trip 2013

Roll on 2014

Happy new year! Good riddance to 2013 and roll on 2014, says I.

We celebrated with the Melrose clan (the Scots) by taking a picnic down to Bicentennial Park for the fireworks display -- it's the park right near our house, so not too far to go and we had a good view of the fireworks from both the Harbour Bridge and in Balmain. We also weren't the only people with the same idea! Very family friendly: they even put on early fireworks ("fa th' wee wains") at 9pm, after which Dee took Jules home to bed. He was kind of over the crowds and noise anyway. It was a pretty impressive show!

We had a few drinks, it must be said, but we also had a stack of sandwiches (Dee) and pastries (Dot) to help even our respective keels. We sat around on a blanket (ooh, which I need to pop in the washing machine! Red wine accident, thanks Rab) and chatted -- me picking Andy's brains on how to prep for a marathon, what kind of nutrition he uses before, during and afterwards, etc. Did I mention I'm running the Sydney Marathon this year? And Andy may fly back for it too (but he's already run a marathon, so is already much, much more advanced than I am).

2013 wasn't all bad for me personally, but it certainly had moments that felt like it was never going to end. To focus on the positive:

• We sold our house!
• We moved to Sydney!
• Dee got a job!
• We won a prize!

Some of the stuff I'm looking forward to this year includes:

• Doing a lot of running!
• Going snowboarding and/or skiing! (September, maybe?)

So that's it! I'm going to have a look at the calendar to plan a visit (to Cockatoo, and Bendigo) but in the meantime feel free to update the blog!

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 ;)