Lynwood Life

Great to read what everyone's been up to! 

Little Masons, sounds like you had a fun (and productive) holiday! Congrats, Damo! It's so cool that you're so far up the ladder with Iado.. But that you continue to climb and improve yourself. Cheryl, I've seen a few of the fb pictures, so even tho it sounds like the kids were a bit difficult, still looks like everyone had a fantastic time! I love Lily's comment about being naughty but still getting chocky! 

G&D, we'll keep our fingers crossed for you! Sounds like what B & I had to deal with lay time we moved! It's so disheartening! But keep your chin up, something will come along.. Hopefully soon! Our flat here isn't as lovely as our last one - hard wearing carpets, odd shaped rooms, no built-in a wardrobes.. But it works and is convenient for both of us getting to work (easy and fast train links for me, not too far to the motorway for B). We actually had a brief look at the market (both rental and buying) a month ago - there's nothing out there that's as good as this place in the same price range! So we're staying here for at least another year.

For the last fortnight, work has been full-on! I was in Bath Monday for my quarterly review in Bath (my RSC line manager is going on maternity leave soon, & it was easier for me to travel to Bath than her come all the way to Cardiff) - of course, no issues, keep doing what I do! Tuesday took me to Swansea to talk to trainee teachers. Then for the rest of that week I was in Cardiff - meetings, catching up on email, and training PhD students (I run the training.. And I had feedback that it was the best training they'd done at Cardiff Uni! Woohoo! Even if it was only one person's comment, I'm taking that and framing it!). *phew*

Last weekend we took it easy - went to a couple of shops on Sunday, nothing much.

This week has been even more mental for me - I spent 10 hours on trains! I headed to Aberystwyth first (a Local Section meeting..) But I had to leave early to get the train to London! Our Regions Team meeting was in London Tuesday, then they bussed us to Cambridge for night & second day. I started an extra night (didn't fancy another 13+ hour work day this week) and came back to Cardiff Thursday. I even took the afternoon off to make up for Monday's mammoth day! Yay! Yesterday I ran another training session and hopefully this means I won't have to go out on as many SIAS sessions! Hopefully! 

So, not very exciting.

I'm definitely counting down to our trip to Aus (less than two weeks!).. Might start to pack this weekend (b's folks are visiting next weekend).. I've currently misplaced my fitbit, my Myki card and my Bendigo Ambassador card, so I'll probably need a few days to "pack". :-)  What's the weather like, Bendigonians?

Keep smiling! 

Nelson Street Nomads

More house-hunting today — I think we saw five places today (might’ve been more, as for a couple of them I stayed in the car with a sleeping Jules and let Dee scope it out on her own). Of those, we’ve applied for just one, a tiny place (really), but probably not any smaller than our current house, and nicer: 3BRs all on a single level, on-street parking and close enough to the city that we can still ride in.

I have appropriately low expectations this time: there were quite a few people looking at it, and I’m sure at least one of them will offer more, or not have a dog (or a child!), or bribe the real estate agent or whatever it is you need to do to get a rental property in Sydney these days. We’ll keep looking!

The other places were mostly unworkable — no yard, or smelly (damp and mouldy), or just weird. (One place had a toilet in the “open plan” bedroom — what the…? Privacy, who needs it??)

We’re not going camping this weekend, but we have taken Monday off and will be putting Jules in to daycare so we can go see a movie (thanks K & M for the movie voucher). Think I can convince Dee to watch the new Star Wars movie? (see image above)

I continue to train, but apart from that we’re being pretty boring until we find a new house.

Gordon St Gallivant

We just had a bit of a holiday in Adelaide.

The main reason was so I could do my next Hokushin grading - they only happen once a year (actually once every two years for me), and it's likely we wont be around when Sei Shihan travels to Victoria around April.  Good Dog have also brought in a few new people in the last year or so, so it seemed like a good opportunity to meet them.

It was an interesting trip. Cheryl wrapped up some presents (pencils and colouring books) and snacks (rice crackers, nuts) for the kids, so for the first few hours they were very excited to open them up, and delighted at finding snacks (even though it's the usual stuff they eat during car trips, wrapping it in foil just made it so much more exciting). We stopped off at Horsham at a caravan park with a pool. Not our entire motivation for stopping there, but nice nonetheless.

The next day (Friday 8th) was 4 and a half hours to Adelaide, where the kids got a little tired and stroppy. We got there by around 3, and I had a quick trip into the GDD offices to catch up with Tom (over from the US, leaving Saturday) before heading to Chinatown for some dinner.

That weekend we caught up with some of our friends and checked out our old house in Morphett Vale. We also wandered around Marion Shopping Centre, and I had a quick wander through the mall. The kids hadn't really recovered from the trip, so we were somewhat limited in options, but we did go out that evening to check out my friends Japanese restaurant/Izakaya.

For the next week I worked at Good Dog, which was weird but familiar. I trained on Tuesday and Wednesday night at a couple of different Dojos, which was great - really good to have an instructor again. Cheryl took the kids on adventures across the city, but she'll need to tell you about that. I did finish early Friday so we could go into the city for a look.

Saturday we headed to Glenelg Beach to have a little play at the Beachouse and a swim in the ocean. Lily now loves the ocean.

Sunday I finally had my grading. It was for 6th dan, or Rokudan. I passed, so that's good, and Sei Shihan has given me some advice for how to proceed with my training, which is even better.  It's nice to be at a point where he's no longer saying "put this foot here and hold the sword like that" and is now saying "relax, move faster, have an opponent". We had another little wander around the mall, ate at the Japanese restaurant again, and then we were done.

We stopped in Bordertown on the way home (once again the kids went to the pool, although this time I lay in the hotel room recovering from training while they did so) and were back on Tuesday to a very affectionate Max.

Back to work

Bruce and I were back at work this week. For me, that meant a trip over to Aberystwyth to talk to trainee teachers, a little bit of office work and two workshops for 14-15 year olds. *phew*
B spent the week looking at flights and stop-over destinations, with a bit of work here and there. ;-)

The result - we're coming to Australia!

We arrive into Melbourne at 10pm on Saturday 6th February and will stay over at the airport. We'll then make our way to Bendigo on Sunday 7th. Hopefully the weather will be warm - I'm bringing my togs and hoping for some swimming time! :-)

We leave from Tullamarine Airport at 4pm on Friday 19th February. Rather than flying straight back, we're stopping for 3 days in Abu Dhabi - which will give us a chance for more adventures and hopefully reduce jetlag a bit (since we're back to work on the Wednesday after arriving at Heathrow Tuesday night!).

So the visit is a little sooner than we thought - it was the best option to fit around work and everything. I know we spoke about flying in to Sydney and out of Melbourne (or vice-versa) but by the time we came to booking the trip, those flights had become stupidly expensive. That and the fact that Glenn, Dee & Jules need to move in February means we probably won't get to Sydney this trip. Sorry guys - we'll just have to video chat more.

Somehow I picked up a cold this week, so I've been taking it easy this weekend - I've got more travels coming up (Bath on Monday, Swansea on Tuesday..) but I'll tell you all about that next week.

*hugz* to all!

Nelson Street Nomads: Is it 2016 already?

(Caveat: There is every chance that my optimism and dedication to writing on the Bandwagon is a stereotypical “new year, new you”-type thing, and I may well fall back into my old habits of isolation and radio-silence -- BUT I HOPE NOT! “Intention” is a necessary (but not sufficient) precursor to “action”, after all — and right now, my intentions are strong! I have a good feeling about 2016, and think we’ve planned just enough fun and challenge for the year: a little camping; training for a second attempt at the Sydney marathon; learning to snow-board; and later in the year, a week-ish long “motorcycle sabbatical” whereby I hire a motorbike, pack a swag and travel to my 20-year high-school musical reunion.)

I think the last time I posted, we’d just found out that the owners of 301 Nelson were selling, and that we would have to move. No change there: they sold (in two weeks, without advertising, just via Facebook (!!)), we agreed to a shorter lease (Feb) and have the benefit of “no notice break-lease” to boot — so as soon as we find a place, we’re outta here!

This weekend we started packing. Something like twelve boxes, which has made a dent but is just the beginning. (When did we accumulate so much stuff??) Fingers are crossed for a place around the corner, which is available for viewing on the 18th — 3BR, a little yard, “pet-friendly”.

We really want to stay in this neighbourhood: apart from the well-regarded primary school “catchment”, our neighbours are amazing. Today, for example, I took Jules up to see Allanah — they ran upstairs, I came home for more packing, safe in the knowledge that one of the older neighbourhood kids would bring him home if needed.

Christmas in Brisbane was nice, but busy — we visited both the Australia Zoo (by crickey!) and Movieworld, as well as catching a football game (Melbourne Victory vs. Brisbane Roar) and the Christmas Parade. And of course I have to confess: your Christmas gifts didn’t arrive in time (sent to work) and I *still* haven’t sent them onwards — we only just got around to sending a year of birthday pressies before Christmas arrived! I’m hopeless. (But Lisa, one of your birthday cups was from me — Dayna is a MUCH better sister than I am!)

NYE was pretty low-key: Dee was sick, so stayed home and babysat our boy; I took Uncle Chris and Aunty Sarah into the office for a barbeque and fireworks, since we have such a great view of both the bridge and the Opera House. T’was a bit of a mission getting home on public transport afterwards, but I think we made it by 2:30am.

Yesterday was a good day, which you may have seen on Facebook. After a delicious breakfast (barbecued bacon and halloumi, with eggs and avocado) we spent most of the day packing boxes; in the afternoon we took Jules to meet his friend at the playground, and actually got to relax (sort of) as they played together. Dinner was Mexican, at a real-live restaurant no less, then home for Little Big Planet on the Playstation.

I’m trying to remember that “life” is the more important side of “work-life balance”, and as part of the social committee I get special preview on some of the events we’re planning, including craft-beer, bubble-soccer, Chinese New Year, a pancake breakfast, board games, a LAN party and karaoke — seriously, if I can just forget about project deadlines and the pressure I put myself under to try to ship the software, I could be having a ball!

So there you go: my first, but hopefully not my last, Bandwagon post for the year. I’ll let you know how we get on with the house, and try to get these presents off before NEXT Christmas, and look forward to seeing you all on Hangouts on a Friday or Saturday afternoon/evening.

I can't comment on posts

Feeling frustrated - just read both posts from today but when I click to leave a comment, nothing happens!

I've spent the last half hour trying to get it to work and I cannot! So I give up. You'll just have to accept that I would have left a lovely comment - but now I'm just grumpy about the failure of technology!

P.s we're in Dublin!

Moving

I've now finished my writing course at tafe and decided that it was really good but I don't think it's what I want to do and getting into the industry is super hard because everyone is downsizing and the work is being sent overseas. So I'm going back to tafe to do a diploma of info tech networking and then I'll have the option to do the advanced dip the following year and the option to do the cisco certification at the end of the year too.

We got some news on Jarrad's health but it still doesn't explain his major health issues. I'll check with him before I post more about it though.

Jarrad and I signed a lease a week ago for a house in Truscott st, and since then have spent our days slowly moving furniture from 3 houses in to our place, with the help of Nanny, Mum, Jared and some friends Darren, Daniel and Ryan. We're pretty much settled in and have lots of unpacking to do as you can see.

 This is the dining room that we've turned into the study because it has the phone connection.

 These 2 are the hallway/entrance way

 The second bedroom (currently storage while we sort stuff out)

 The living room

 Kitchen

And the laundry and toilet are through there.

We have a big back yard with 2 lemon trees, apricots, pears, almonds, and 2 mystery fruit trees. One we don't have much of an idea what it could be and the other I think are cherry plums. 

A busy month

Good to read about everybody's comings and goings!

We've been keeping busy over this side of the world too. I can't believe that it's been more than a month since Mum went home, and I've had over two months of being forty. The week after we waved goodbye to Mum, Bruce spent a week in a tent. No, we didn't have a barney; he was working at the Green Man Festival making solar cells, batteries and woollen molecules. In the end, the molecules were made out of pom-poms rather than crocheted (but thanks for the prototypes, Mum!).

Bruce making a water molecule

The weekend after that, we enjoyed a very Welsh weekend - beer, bogs and Brecon. We spent Saturday evening tasting local ales at the inaugural Cardiff Brewfest.

Cardiff Brewfest

Then on Sunday morning we headed into the Brecon Beacons to watch some of the International Bog Snorkelling Championships.

Bog snorkelling championships

After a picnic lunch (in the car because it was starting to rain..) we headed across the hills (through Ministry of Defence land, around a rally and along some very winding single-track roads) to the Llandrindod Wells Steampunk Weekend. Apparently they'd had a whole "Victorian Week" (the era, not the place) and this was the final weekend. It was disappointing - no activities, only a couple of people in costume, and the heavens about to open. So instead of staying around for a few hours (for the music and fireworks), we drove back towards home and watched the latest Mission Impossible movie instead. :-)

The next week was fairly non-eventful, I took some leave and did nothing (ahh... doing nothing.. although I feel a bit guilty for not sorting out the photos from mum's trip..). B had to work as normal.
The weekend of 11-14 September our friends, Vicki & Steven, visited us in Cardiff. I collected them from Bristol airport on Friday afternoon and we had a lovely evening in playing Killer Bunnies.

Killer Bunnies game in progress

We had a relaxed start on Saturday - brunch and a few games of Forbidden Island (the game that Glenn introduced us to when we last visited). Vicki and Steven's visit was well-timed - it was the Millennium Centre's 10th birthday celebration, so we headed to the Bay for Ar Waith At Daith - A journey of Welsh myth and magic. The outside performance told the story of The Birth of Taliesin using puppets, storytelling, music, projection and pyrotechnics.

Ar Waith Ar Daith at Cardiff Bay

We explored Waterfall Country on Sunday. We packed a picnic, drove into the Brecon Beacons to the Waterfall Centre. We decided to take the shortest waterfall walk, the Elidir Trail - a trail past four waterfalls with a round trip distance of 4 kms. It was beautiful weather.. right up until we'd finished our picnic back at the car! Score!

Waterfalls on the Elidir Trail

Before Vicki and Stephen headed home on Monday, we popped over to Weston-Super-Mare to experience Dismaland - the depressing arty exhibit curated by Banksy. I'm hoping to get my photos sorted soonish so you can see more of the exhibition. It was such a busy (and fun) weekend!

Stephen & Vicki outside Dismaland

After another week of work, we drove up to visit B's folks - we were going to visit Grandad in the care-home but a number of the residents were ill, so no visitors were allowed. We still had a good visit with John and Gwen, so it wasn't all a waste.

As a belated birthday get-together, Vicki, Steven, Bruce and I travelled to the Black Forest in Germany last weekend to catch up with Angelika and James. Vicki, Angelika, James and I worked at Manchester University together seven years ago. James and Angelika moved to Waldkirch a few months ago, and with two small kids it seemed sensible that the rest of us would visit them.

We were only there for a long weekend, but still managed to pack a lot in. All of the things you'd expect from the Black Forest - beer, hiking, and Black Forest cake. In Waldkirch we ate home-made spatzel (a type of pasta), read books to the kiddies, went hiking on Kandel, drank champagne (for my belated birthday), and explored the lovely little town.

Waldkirch

We spent a day in Freiburg, wandering around the market and the Minster.

Freiburg

And on our final day in Germany, we went to the tourist-town of Triberg - cuckoo clocks, the highest waterfall in Germany, and tasty Black Forest cake. Yummo!

Triberg

What a great weekend!
So that catches me up.. Sorry for taking so long to get there!
Who next?

We (probably) have to move

Ah, beautiful, delicate irony. I becomes apparent that I spoke too soon when I confessed to feeling satisfied for the first time in years — within hours of my last post, our landlords called to tell us they’re selling our home.

We love living in this area, and our landlords have been brilliant: it is no exaggeration to say that they’re the first positive experience we’ve had, from either side of the rental market (and in two countries to boot). From the get-go they were accommodating (hyuk hyuk) — letting me view the property before it was officially available; waiting patiently for our security bond; organising all those typical rental-property things from afar whilst trying to get their own feet on the ground in a new country. Unfortunately (for us), they have indeed established themselves — and they're not coming back.

Hence the sale.

(Just to show how positive our experiences have been with them, they have even offered us “first dibs” on buying the property. We almost certainly can’t afford it, of course: property prices in Sydney are ridiculous. But we will be speaking to a financial planner once we’ve liquidated some pre-IPO stock-options of a certain Silicon Valley juggernaut, for some much needed advice.)

If we have to move, we’re hoping we can stay nearby — we want J to attend the school here, for one thing, and even if we can’t snap up this house we will be looking for a place to call our own sooner or later. Ideally we’ll even stay on the street — we’ve only recently started hanging out with our neighbours a few doors up (the Masons, would you believe?), and seeing our boy playing with the other kids “from the block” is a beautiful thing indeed.

This weekend has been both busy and eventful.

On Saturday Dee announced that we were having “a day off” — which translates to ONLY tidying up the house, a job which took some of Sunday too. Even as I undermine it, I have to admit that it was a pleasant change to have Dee skip yoga in the morning, and not have to rush off to swimming lessons for Jules.

Instead, we tidied (as mentioned) and took Jules to the toy-store (I forget what that was for, but he bought himself a mini Venus (Fireman Sam)) and we went for a late-ish lunch at the new Grill’d that has opened on Norton Street. Yum! I had a beer, which was possibly a mistake; continuing the clean-up job was definitely harder in the afternoon, and I didn’t get around to any more undercoating of the back porch.

… not that it matters, since our landlord rang while I was playing in Jules’ room. We rang her back, but already suspected the worst — they’re staying in France, and therefore selling 301 Nelson Street. (To be fair, I actually expected her to tell us that they were returning, and would therefore need us to move out. Either way, we’re moving.)

Today we got up at 6am to catch two trains to the start of the Blackmore’s Running Festival, aka the Sydney Marathon. Sure, we only ran the Bridge Run (9km in an official 1hr30something, but at an unofficial average Strava pace of 09:something min/km — and that’s pushing a pram!), but it was a good distance for the three of us and I was happy to see Dee cheering up after the news about “our” house.

I better go to bed, or I’ll get in trouble. If I can’t sleep — I’ve mixed a coffee with wine (not literally, mind you!) which may fight the exercise fatigue — then perhaps I’ll sneak back upstairs for some more writing.

Lily's birthday celebrations

We had a great weekend celebrating Lily's 4th birthday :) Friday night was dinner with Lisa and her family (Lil's favourite "dumperlings"). It was a good evening and nice to catch up with everyone before they headed to Horsham.

Saturday morning Lil got to open her presents, and then after Iaido we went out for lunch (Lils choice again- sushi this time!), and a doughnut (another thing Lil asked for :)

Sunday was party day! It was a teddy bears picnic themed party. Guests brought along their teddy, and we had a few activities. The kids made picnic baskets (which we later filled with party favors) and decorated bears, there was pass the parcel (with bear themed prizes), and cupcake decorating (where they were supposed to create bear faces... ;) And of course, the bear cake!

Everyone seemed to have lots of fun :) The weather was lovely! Perfect for sitting outside :) 

I had taken Lil to Target earlier in the week to chose a party dress for herself. She chose this cute top and skort combo... Even colour coordinated it on her own! :) 

Gordon St Gossip

It's been a while since we've posted, so here's a quick summary of our weeks now.

Monday Lily goes to Chinese playgroup.. it's a 2 hour immersion session, so they learn Chinese words while playing games and the like. It took her one session to decide she doesn't need Chez there, and to tell her "You can go now Mummy". She's made a few new best friends, not that she knows their names ;)

Then after school Ossie does his soccer class - an hour of games with between 8 and 15 kids aged 4 - 6. He's improving, especially his dribbling. His favourite game is called "Big Bear Little Bear", where the kids compete with the teachers to see who ends up with the most number of balls in their goal (the kids remain undefeated)

Tuesdays I have Iaido. We've been having some cold nights, so I'm happy if I can get 3 or 4 students in. Having got through the Seminar, and being a few months away from grading prep, it's a good chance to cover the more advanced stuff with them.

Some Wednesdays (or Fridays) Cheryl will take Lil to Tumble Tots, which is kind of a gym for little kids. Lil certainly applies her jumping and climbing skills from there back at home on the couch, her bed, the cupboard etc.

Thursdays Chez has Pilates in the morning, and Edith and Landon look after Lil. I remember Chez saying when she started how strong and graceful someone else there looked - now she's the one with new students telling her she's so strong and graceful.  

Friday isn't too busy.

Saturday morning I have Iaido again, with a 30 minute kids class followed by an hour seniors class. The kids are doing really well - I've got Trin, Isabelle and Ossie doing it. I try to focus on useful skills like balance and muscle endurance while teaching them the basics of the Hokushin katas and cutting. Then Ossie gets an hour on the iPad while I teach the seniors.

Then Sunday nights we have dinner with Edith and Landon.

Add to this the rigmarole of the school runs, grocery shopping, and work, and you can see it makes for a pretty busy week. It's good for the kids to have structured activities though.

Tonight I'm off to school with Os for a special night with kids and the men in their life. Last year after 90 minutes of games Ossie cried when he realised the promised pizza didn't include one he liked. He tells me this year he'll be more prepared for disappointment.

Tomorrow Lisa and the kids are coming over for dinner since they're missing Lil's birthday. I've worked out how to get Minecraft to run over the LAN on two computers with one account. I suspect that'll be Daria and Os taken care of.

Then Sunday is Lil's birthday party. We've got our friends coming over, plus a bunch of little kids. It's a Teddy Bear's Picnic (Lily's choice) Should be fun.

And that's us. Nowhere near as exciting as holidays or trips overseas but it keeps us out of trouble ;)

Mum's Five Week Pub Crawl

Sitting outside at the Rogers' place, enjoying the evening sun. Mum's inside getting changed into her travel clothes (including layers for the arrival in Melbourne). It's crazy to think that she's been here for five weeks! Send like yesterday that we were at Birmingham Airport to collect her. Although, as you will know from Mum's posts and watching fb, we've been able to fit in quite a bit since then. :-)

This week Mum's been hanging out with Gwen, B's mum. I had a two day meeting London and Cambridge and B has had long days getting ready for a festival, so we weren't going to be good company. I'll let Mum tell you what she and Gwen got up to - they certainly weren't idle! I arrived late Wednesday night and we had a girlie day on Thursday; Op-shopping (called charity shops over here) and then we all got our nails done. Would you believe that neither Mum nor Gwen had ever had their nails done in a salon before?! We got gel polish (also called shellac), so they should look lovely for at least two weeks. Hopefully. (What a good excuse to not do the dishes!)

Last week we explored north east England: Nottingham, York, Scarborough, Whitby and Derbyshire.

In Nottingham we went to the UK's oldest pub, The Old Trip to Jerusalem, as well as a pub in a church, the Pitcher and Piano. We had a wander around the city and found a beach - a temporary one with sand, deck chairs and a shark! We beat the crowds to Sherwood Forest the next morning, saw the Major Oak (it's about 1000 years old), bought ginger biscuits from Robin Hood's mate (well, he looked the part) and high-tailed it out before all of the kiddies descended (ah, school holidays). :-)

York is one of the few remaining walled cities. Lots of history! The Minster is amazing - it's like a cathedral but was a meeting place for the ministers.. (I forget the detail.. Mum or Bruce, do you remember?). We spent an hour being guided around the transept and then another exploring the undercroft - there was so much to see! Whilst in York we also walked on the city walks, wandered around the Shambles and took a ghost tour.

Our seaside day took us to Scarborough, where we walked along the prom, saw a fair (are you going?), had a go on the penny arcade machines and paddled in the (very cold) sea. From there we headed up to Whitby and spent the afternoon there. Whitby was the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula and also where James Cook did his sailing apprenticeship. We explored the Abbey ruins (with an audio tour), walked down 199 steps into town, wandered across the bridge and up a steep hill to the Whale Bones and Cook memorial, and finally took a short cruise on a mini version of the ship Endeavour. At the end of the day we had to walk back up all of those steps to get back to the car! Phew!

We stopped a few times on the way back to the West Midlands. First stop, Chesterfield - market town with a cool church spire. Second stop, The Heights of Abraham - a cable-car ride up a mountain, tours of old lead mines, a spot of history and some beautiful views. Final stop, Goathland - tiny little town in Derbyshire, also known as Aidensfield (from tv's Heartbeat) and the pub makes really tasty alcoholic floats (ie spiders). We made it back to Brum just in time for dinner. ;-)

Saturday took us back into Wales - but just for the day. We headed towards Llangollen for a boat ride across the Pontcysyllte Aquaduct -amazing engineering by Thomas Telford!  A picnic feast by Horseshoe Falls, and a quick stop in town filled the rest of the day (we even got to say hi to Thomas the Tank).

That's enough for now.. I'll post photos once I get them sorted (but it might be some time - they're are quite a few!). Mum's on the plane now - she'll be home on Monday.

What have the rest of you been up to lately?

Situation report: Dome 301

It's been so long since we posted that I can't even remember what we've been up to. All the usual stuff - work, wanting a holiday, swimming, housework, and exploring Sydney when we can.

For a while we were all sick with (at least one each of) pneumonia, 'flu, "slap face", sinusitis... It was not a happy couple of weeks. Things have improved since then, thankfully, and we've been training for the swiftly approaching City2Surf. So far we've each done at least 5km in a single run - Dee even ran from her work to Bondi!

Oh, except I seem to be allergic to something - I've come out in a rash on my arms and chest. Responding to antihistamines and some cream I found in the medicine cabinet...

Dee's brother Chris visited this weekend, which was a great excuse to visit a couple of the microbreweries in the Inner West (I hope it's not craft beer that I'm allergic to!) and check out the beaches. A beautiful spot, although the fish and chips were pretty ordinary. Jules and I had a ride on a little train ("I was a bit scared," he told me afterwards.)

Back at work and looking forward to a break, if we can afford it, in September.

Madness as usual

Sorry I didn't check this sooner or call you mum, since I spent all day yesterday home in the girls' room. Oh well.
Yes, school holidays. I'm assuming I passed my last placement and will be right to continue with Diploma next semester. I ended up working the last Friday of school then did an 8 hour day on Monday as well. The first Saturday of the holidays we ended up over at the Parker's for the night and I showed Belinda how to make snowflakes for Ella's Frozen party. Sunday I was feeling exhausted, we went to bed around 1am and I've been feeling full up with a head cold since finishing placement. As a result I missed going to Craft Alive but I wanted to rest up for work. It was freezing Monday morning, the car was iced over when I went to leave at 7.45am. I finished at 5pm after a day with 3-4 year olds which ended with an accident - yeah, cleaned up a poopy pre-kinder, ekk. Anyway, told them I couldn't do Tuesday (7.30am-4pm) and instead took the girls to see Inside Out at the cinema with Julie-Anne and Mitchell. Came home to cook, I made Ella's birthday cake, blue toffee to decorate it and blue fudge. Called Belinda, she was at Spotlight getting 40 balloons filled with helium so I packed up our stuff and met her there to help get the balloons back to her house. We stayed the night again and I decorated the cake, her sister had already helped decorate the house. Wednesday morning we were mostly ready for the party to start at 10.30 and I think it went really well. We would have stayed that night too but Trinity wanted to come home after tea. At least the house was put back together and tidied up.
I had 2 calls for work but really don't want to at this point, I stayed home Thursday and completely emptied the girls' room. I said anything without a home at the end of the day would be gone, but also emptied their wardrobe so now they have their clothes in there - previously it was full of toys and their clothes were in my room.
Today, Friday, Trinity had a dentist appointment at 9am, her last filling, now she's right for 12 months but next week we start with Daria's check up. We went from there to visit Julie-Anne and ended up having lunch with her. She was minding 2 extra boys so it was a full house. The girls have wanted to visit Adam and Connor all week so we planned to drop in and see how they were, but Belinda J asked me to watch her boys while she took her dog to the vet, so we left there around 3.30pm. The girls still wanted to visit the boys, we left there at 5pm. So a busy day today. Tomorrow we need groceries, will check out Damien's Iaido seminar before lunch, then the girls want to visit Adam and Connor again and sleep over. Sunday is the Lego Expo. No plans Monday but Tuesday Trinity has been invited to a birthday at Jumpz, we're having lunch with Nanna and co, and then Daria has a dentist appointment at 2pm.
School holidays... Busiest time of the year as far as I'm concerned lol

School holidays

School holidays! We enjoyed a good weekend together: shopping on Saturday, and a trip out to Atisha Centre and the Stupa on Sunday. Damien also took the kids over to Nanny's house for a play, and brought home the metal detector and totem tennis (they have been enjoying both! :)

Unfortunately the kids are both unwell now :( Lil had a high temp for about 24 hours, and both have a chesty cough. We'll have to skip a birthday party today, and if the kids are better I'll take them out for activities tomorrow. At least Os gets to do what he has been asking to: stay at home and play with his toys! :) Lil is happy enough watching her favourite shows, and I have been using this time at home to catch up on housework and... reading! An actual book! Haven't had time to do that in a while! I've also started work on a scrapbook for Oscar's school years. 

Damien has a big weekend ahead with the Iaido seminar he has organised. He'll be picking up Sensei Tao and his wife from Melbourne on Friday, train all day Saturday (followed by an Iaido dinner) and then drive them to the airport on Sunday. Busy times! Fingers crossed the kids will be well enough and we can join everyone for lunch and dinner on Sat.

So that's our holidays so far. Apart from that, Os received his mid-year school report (and had his parent teacher interview) and no surprises he is excelling in Maths! He is doing Maths with a group of grade 2 students :D He is also excelling at reading and is doing really well with spelling too. He still needs to work on his fine and gross motor skills, but after a chat with his class and PE teachers it seems that he is improving :)

10am. Better shower and then get onto that housework I said I was doing! ;) :D