The Hill Family Blog

The Best and The Worst of Times

2012-01-26T22:39:00.001+11:00

It has been a tumultuous few months.

And I have gotten in trouble from mum again for not updating the blog for so long.

So we brought Jordan home from the hospital after 3 weeks, and the first couple of weeks were great. He ate. He slept. He pooped. Not necessarily in that order.

And then the reflux hit. I first noticed the grunting and squirming and hoped that it wasn't. We went through 7 months of reflux with Josie. Surely we wouldn't have to go through it again. No such luck. By about 6 weeks he was fully refluxy. I was still breastfeeding exclusively, and although he wasn't bringing much up, he was screaming from the acid pain.

At that point we put him on Zantac, which is what Josie was on. Unfortunately we didn't see much improvement but we persevered.

At 9 weeks we had his Brit Milah (or circumcision). To help with his recovery we hired a special nurse for the day. The day was quite stressful but we made it through it. Jordan was a trouper and cried for a bit, understandably, and then slept mostly.

When we got home it turned out that the nurse was a reflux specialist and she told us that Zantac was not used anymore because babies got used to it within a week. We took Jordan to a doctor then, who was also recommended for refluxy babies, and he confirmed that Zantac was no longer used, so we moved over to Losec. After a couple of weeks of Losec, and increasing the dose slightly, the doctor referred us to the Paediatrician, who doubled the dose immediately. We are currently still trying to get the dose right.. Jordan is heaps better, he no longer screams in pain, but he does still grunt and strain in his sleep. He has been waking up at about 5am and grunting through his sleep for about two hours before waking up. Of course that means I am awake that whole time. Hopefully we will be past this soon.

At around 9 weeks, the stress of the reflux, and the circumcision, meant that my postnatal depression hit again. I had it with Josie but never really recognized nor treated it. By the time I saw a psych it was all but gone.

This time I recognized it. And I got help. I saw a doctor, and a psych, and got some medication. For a period of about three weeks, every single morning saw me go through panic attack after panic attack. I'd never been through anything like it. Until the meds kicked in, as soon as I woke up in the morning I would be unable to get out of bed, or think, or breathe. My chest would hurt and I would break down in tears and hyperventilation. I was literally catatonic. And I gave up the breastfeeding. By that time Jordan was fussing badly on the boob. Obviously the stress was having an effect on my milk supply. I figured I had made it to 3 months exclusively breastfeeding, which is so much better than with Josie who we comp fed from the beginning.

I was also massively lucky. I had a husband who had been through massive panic attacks, was on meds, and was supportive beyond measure. He took care of Jordan, survived on very little sleep, and coached me through breathing exercises and calming techniques every day. The panic attacks happened every morning and lasted until after lunch, when I could finally think with a clear head.

For three weeks I was unable to function as a human being. It was the most difficult period I had ever experienced. I didn't go anywhere, I didn't see anyone, and I could barely take care of myself.

And then finally the meds kicked in and I started feeling human again. I started having more good mornings than bad and tony was finally able to catch up on some sleep. I am extremely grateful to him for all his help during that horrible horrible time. I am still on the meds and probably will be for several months to come.

So now we are 16 weeks and settled into some sort of routine. Jordan feeds four hourly during the day, and has one night feed around 2-3am which Tony does for me. Although last night he actually went from an 8am feed to 430am!

He is still an easier baby then Josie was. He falls asleep with only a little bit of help, dummy repositioning and some light stroking. When he does cry, it's a pleasant kind of non-piercing cry, quite the opposite of Josie. He has started giving us the most beautiful smiles and laughs. And he is totally and completely a mummy's boy :-)

He loves walks in the pram, he loves sleeping in the car, he adores bathtime and he is starting to grab small objects. He is a calm baby who will happily sit in someone's lap or arms without fussing and he has started to coo and make all sorts of different sounds.

And my god the boy is a chubber. He is my little Buddah! In three weeks he put on 1.5kg, and then the next 2 weeks another 500g. He is now 6kg and has oodles of rolls on his arms and legs, as well as a multitude of chins!

It's such a new thing having a baby in the house again. I am so unused to it. A very big adjustment, but well worth it.

As for Josie, well she is a handful to say the least. She is starting year 4 this year, has just turned 9 and is a very independent and strong willed girl.

She has spent most of the holidays playing with the kids from the complex, as well as being very involved with her new little brother. She is obsessed with him, to the point of insanity. She carries him around, helps with bath time, nappy changes, dummy duty and generally wants to be involved in everything to do with him. She loves him to distraction.

Bath time is especially fun. Jordan just loves his bath!

As for me and my weight loss, well it's still inching down. I am weighing less now than when I met Tony I think. I've lost 65.5kg now and am feeling fantastic. I bought my very first skirt in decades a few weeks ago. And a couple of new swimsuits, which for the first time, I wear with some pride and very little self consciousness!

So I hope you have enjoyed all the photos! I will end off with some photos from today's Australia Day festivities!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Welcome Jordan Emrys!

2011-10-08T23:33:00.003+11:00

He's here and he is just beautiful.

So I will start from the very beginning (cause that's a good place to start).

Saturday morning, after spending 15mins getting Tony out of bed, we headed off to the hospital. Being that it's now Wednesday, I have very hazy recollections of Saturday but I will try my best.

We got there, were admitted and then settled into a room, where we waited.. And waited.. For a while we thought we might be taken in early but it was not to be.. 10:30am came and went and we still waited.

At one point a nurse came in to prep me and had to lie me down flat on my back. I told her that this was a bad idea, but she said she would be quick. And as predicted, the results were spectacular. Blood pressure dropped like a lead balloon, I lost the ability to breathe and I thought for sure I was going to faint, at which point she took one look at my very blue face and quickly raised the back of the bed.

Then at 11:00am they finally came for us. As I was being wheeled down the corridor I noticed the digital clock on the ceiling said 11:11am. Yes that's 11:11am on 1/10/11. Freaky!!!

Then I was taken to the pre-op room where they do the anesthesia and Tony was taken to change into his scrubs.

There were three things that sucked about the whole experience. The first was the canula. The first place the doctor put it in was bad. There was some kind of block and it wasn't good, so he had to put another one. The first one was ok cause he had given us an anesthetic patch to put on at 530am that morning. The second one.. Not so much. That was unpleasant. And then I had to have the two in until after the op.

Once the canula was put in it was time for the second thing that sucked - the epidural. The last epidural, I remember that the local anesthetic was heaps worse than anything else, but since I had put one of the anesthetic patches on earlier, I figured it would be a cinch! And I guess in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't so bad, but the epidural is a fairly big, long needle, and although I didn't feel pain as such, I did feel a whole lot of very uncomfortable pressure going into my back. This was also unpleasant. And then they had to very quickly lie me down before the epi rendered me completely useless.

Now they put me on my side, because of the whole blood pressure thing, and then wheeled me into the operating theatre, where they had to transfer me to the operating table, and when they did that, they put me flat on my back again, which leads us to the third and final thing that sucked - another blood pressure drop, which I couldn't do anything about because I couldn't move. Once again the results were spectacular.

Now I have had three very very brilliant doctors during this whole experience. I am in awe that I seem to have scored brilliantly in my obstetrician, my anesthesiologist, and in the pediatrician.

So when my blood pressure dropped again before the op started, my anesthesiologist worked his magic and spent a lot of time verbally assuring me as I struggled to breathe and not panic, that it was about to get a whole lot better, and it did. His voice calmed me a lot.

And then the Caesar began. This is how it looked..

Now see those lamps above me? They gave me a great reflection of the surgery to watch. It was fascinating watching my own operation :-) it took heaps less time than Josie's Caesar because before I knew it, I was watching them lifting Jordan out of my stomach, and then watching Jordan pee all over my OB :-) Brilliant! If you look closely at the below image, you will see the proof :-)

I heard his cry and knew it was all good. He has a lovely cry. Nothing loud and piercing, just a short and to the point mewl.

Birthdate: 12:27 01/10/11
Apgars: 8, 9
Weight: 2.108kg
Height: 45cm
Head: 31.5cm

So then they took him away to the Baby Station to weigh and measure, along with Tony who was busy throughout the whole experiencing giving Facebook a blow by blow, as well as video taping and keeping me amused.

I'd like to thank Tony at this stage. As always he is my steady rock who just gets me through anything. I would have gone mad through this whole thing without him. I love you baby!

And unlike Josie's Caesar, Tony got to cut the umbilical cord!

After the Baby Station they finally brought Jordan over to me and it was just love at first sight. Adoration and devotion. The anesthesiologist, having done the majority of what he was there to do, was running around with my canon taking photos. He took some truly awesome photos and I am so grateful to him for this. He got the shot of Jordan and his first pee, and Tony cutting the cord. And then he managed to take a photo which was so identical to the one we got with Josie, I had to do a double take when I saw it. I haven't had a chance to do a composite, and I don't have access to the original Josie equivalent from the ipad, but here is the photo of Jordan, Mummy and Daddy that blew me away. I will post a composite when I have a moment to breathe :-)

So they took Jordan and Tony away, and I stayed to get sewn up. This didn't take long at all before I was being wheeled into recovery. And in recovery, I discovered I was quite weird.

Having watched my whole Caesar via reflection, and found it fascinating to watch, when they started moving my legs around, my dead weight, epi induced, unfeeling legs, I was completely grossed out.I couldn't watch. To see my legs being moved around and not feeling them.. Blergh, it really freaked me out. Watching the Caesar was great though!

Meanwhile they took Jordan up to the Special Care Nursery, where he currently resides. They would only allow Tony and Josie in to see him though, the rest of the family had to wait because the hospital has a policy that until mum has been in to see the baby, only immediate family can be there. Which suited me just fine :-) I couldn't wait to get my hands on my son.

So Tony and Josie stayed in the SCN with Jordan till they released me from recovery and took me to see him, bed and all.

Josie is just besotted with him. She constantly wants to see him, hold him, just be there.

And 6 days on, he seems to know her. He always looks at her and the times she has held him he settled and fell asleep while looking up at her.

And I am just blissed out. Utterly and completely euphoric. Day after day I am happy. I haven't been this happy in a very very long time, he has just brought such blessing into our lives.

So after the initial meeting I was itching to move into the SCN to be with him. I couldn't wait to see him again.

Tony went and got the family through to see him and he was gushed over from head to foot. Becca especially is all gushy. Jordan has come at the most inopportune time for Becca. Four weeks till HSC, she is trying to study, and Jordan is not making it easy for her :-)

Now initially Jordan was in a special crib with a heat lamp above him. It wasn't an incubator, just an open cot with a heater above it. He had no breathing issues, in fact no issues of any kind, so after a day or so, they moved him to a standard crib, where he still is.

He is being tube fed every 3hrs, and I am putting him on the boob every second or third feed. Now that I have come home, I am going in to feed twice a day, and really loving each visit, and really loving breastfeeding. So different from last time. I really hated the whole breastfeeding experience. My milk never came in, I was stressed out of my mind and Josie just wouldn't latch properly. It was a traumatic experience. Now, my supply is getting there, I am expressing every 2-3 hrs in the day and 3-4 hrs at night and I am seeing results. Jordan is now sucking so well and latching and drawing, and each time I put him on he is better and better at it. It's just a matter of getting my supply up now.

So I think I will end it there for now. I'm not going to scare people with breastfeeding photos. That may be carrying the blogging a bit too far :-)

I am also going in to bathe him every second day. I will blog about the bathing after tomorrow when I will have some photos of it. It's quite an experience, and Jordan loves it :-)

So thats it for now. I hope you have enjoyed the photos!

Mari
Newly appointed mummy to Jordan Emrys :-)

So Here We Are..

2011-09-30T20:44:00.002+10:00

I will have a son tomorrow.

Yep, its all happening. I am booked in at 1030am, for my caesar, at 34weeks. Since my waters broke last weekend I have baffled the OB as to why I am still not in labour. *shrug*. I guess Jordan runs on his own timetable, as does his father ;-) However, while his father is perpetually LATE, his boy may be on MY clock ;-)

Have had a strange day today. The blood pressure has been down, and I have been dizzy and short of breath and nauseous.. but otherwise ok. I am still leaking, and the leg cramps have started up again.

Had a meeting today with the Anaesthesiologist which Becca took me and Josie to. He asked me a bunch of questions, went through the procedure for tomorrow and then I met with the midwife to go over more questions and more forms and then I had some blood taken.

So tomorrow morning, after spending 15 mins trying to get Tony out of bed, we will proceed to the hospital to have our baby boy ;-) He will probably be in the NICU for at least a couple of weeks, but we will manage.

Josie is sleeping at Becca's tonight, and she is beside herself with excitement for tomorrow, and meeting her baby brother.

So till tomorrow.. when we become a two child, 4 member family!

Mari

Karaoke and Flooding

2011-09-26T08:54:00.001+10:00

Remember this line from the last post...?

"...and on my side I just need to get my hospital bag ready. But that's still a ways off.."

Keep that in mind as you read..

Last Friday night I went out with some work friends for a last Hurrah at Karaoke. It was an awesome night, filled with singing, rapping (well not me obviously), eating, drinking (again not me) and general rowdiness. Huge amounts of fun were had.. And after 4 hours of this we weren't ready to bail yet so we went out to a bar on George St called 3 Wise Monkeys (??) where we danced and chatted drunkenly (I chatted soberly). As one of my drunken colleagues told me three times at that bar, I was sober, 8.5 months pregnant (probably the only 8.5 month pregnant woman in the city) and I got hit on (yes, you heard right, I got hit on!), so I was doin' alright that night. I did take it easy, I danced, but not outrageously, just on the spot. And I went home before midnight, so it was pretty sedate.

Tony and Josie were at Mat and Wendy's for dinner and they were staying there the night cause it got pretty late, so when I got home I was on my own. I caught up on email and Facebook and hit the sack around 1am feeling very stiff and tired.

At 2am, I felt a bit of a leak. And sorry folks but this is gonna get a bit graphic cause I need this down for posterity.

I threw myself out of bed (well I kinda dragged myself) and in the three steps from my bed to the toilet, I was gushing. Luckily I was able to make it to the toilet for most of it, but let's just say I had no time to pull off undies or anything like that. So I sat, and gushed. And gushed. And gushed. Man there was a huge amount of gushing going on. So once the gushing abated some, I noticed water on the floor in front of the toilet so I mopped that up with some toilet paper which I chucked in the loo (effectively blocking the toilet when I flushed, and then tried to push it through with the toilet brush, which my wonderful husband fixed the next day). At that point I was still leaking, and not wanting to continue leaking everywhere but knowing I had to get to my phone which was in the bedroom, I kinda waddled quickly, got the phone and then went and stood in the shower.

First I txt'd Tony to see if he was awake. That was kinda silly cause I wasn't gonna stand there waiting for a response now was I? It was about 215am by now so I just called him. He was still awake, and when I told him that my waters had broken (which I had to repeat three times for it to sink in!) he said "Have you called the ambulance?", and when I said "No, I called you", I could FEEL his eyes rolling at me from across the bridge! So I hung up with him, (he left Josie with Mat and sped off home at that point) and rang 000.

So the lady on the phone asked me a bunch of questions:

Lady: Where are you now?
Me: uhm in the shower.
Lady: is the water on?
Me: no..
Lady (laughing): why are you in the shower??
Me: cause I am still leaking and I don't want to have to clean the floor...
Lady (still laughing): ok then..

So after a few more questions she tells me the ambulance would be there soon and to go sit and rest somewhere. Yeh right. I'm still leaking lady, as if I'm gonna go sit somewhere.. So practicality winning over, I wrapped myself in a towel, went and put on a decent top (I was about to go out in public after all!) stuck my phone in my bra (as you do) and went downstairs to get comfortable. The only thing I could realistically sit on without making a mess was a little round plastic stool so I got that, put it in front of the front door and sat to wait for the ambulance.

It was an amusing sight I must say.

Luckily I didn't have to wait long, and I don't know how many speed limits Tony broke, driving from the north, but he arrived at the same time as the ambulance.

So they put me on the stretcher outside, and then stood over me discussing whether to take me straight to maternity or to emergency, while I lay, freezing without a blanket, and with it just starting to rain. Finally I cleared my throat and mentioned I was a little cold and they jumped into action and got me covered and into the ambulance and off to maternity we went.

I started getting contractions in the ambulance. About 2 min apart. Which was not good. It was a short ride and then we were at the hospital and they took me up to the delivery suites. There I was given a shot of steroid and a couple of pills to stop the contractions.

I am only 33 weeks so while not dire, it's still a bit early to deliver. The steroid they gave me was to faster develop Jordan's lungs cause at this stage they are not fully developed and it takes 24-48 hours to do it's job, so I had a few rounds of the pills to stop the contractions to give the steroid time to work. Contractions slowed right down almost straight away and by the middle of Saturday I was having maybe one or two contractions an hour with several hours in between. Not especially strong and very irregular. They also put me on antibiotics for the increased risk of infection after the waters have broken.

So now it's Monday, I have been moved to the maternity ward cause nothing was happening, and am waiting for the OB to come tell me whether I can go home or not. I am crossing my fingers for shore leave. I want to go home. I want to finalize some things at work (via VPN of course). I had two weeks left to get my shit done!! If I do go home, I am on full bed rest until I go into labour again, which means I am pretty much on maternity leave now.

And that's the story so far. The hope is that I don't go into labour and that Jordan has a few more weeks to cook but if I deliver now, the OB is confident that all will be fine. Feeding will be an issue, and he will have to stay in the NICU for a few weeks, but it won't be anything dire.

I'll update again when I know something more :-)

Mari

Perception vs Reality

2011-09-10T14:25:00.001+10:00

This morning the Lee/Hill household was involved in a situation that I thought beautifully illustrated the concept that what we call reality is merely an illusion projected onto our brains as experience passes through the prism of our perceptions just as light passing through raindrops creates the illusion of the rainbow.

Josie's Morning
Josie is woken up by Kaylee excited to see Josie sleeping in her room.
Josie, being such a good babysitter, takes her cousin downstairs to get some breakfast.
Opening the fridge Kaylee points and squeals "Yoghurt! I want yoghurt!".
"Okay Kaylee" replies the very professional babysitter, "we'll get you yoghurt for breakfast."
Taking the large yoghurt container over to the bench Josie tips the yoghurt into a bowl and, along with a spoon, places it on the dinning table in front of Kaylee's highchair where Kaylee waits in wild anticipation.
Kaylee gleefully begins to tuck into her breakfast and Josie smiles beatifically and nods to herself in the satisfaction of a job well done.

Wendy's Morning
Having woken to the blissful sounds of silence (ie no screaming children) Wendy wanders downstairs to find her eldest child gleefully tucking into a block of butter that Wendy had stored in the empty yoghurt container the previous day.

It's all in the way you perceive the world around you people.
Enjoy your day and watch out for the butter.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back on the Blogger Horse

2011-09-10T11:38:00.001+10:00

Has it really been FOUR months since the last post?! Good lord. I need to get started again, for my children's sake :-)

Where to start?

So I am very pregnant. 31 weeks now. Sometimes uncomfortably so.. Lets get my whining out of the way...

I feel like a whale. It always really annoyed me when women said that. Normal sized women that is.. I always thought 'Quit your complaining woman. You are pregnant. That's such a blessing!'. I never felt 'like a whale' when I was pregnant with Josie. Maybe because the size difference between between the two states of being was not massively different.. My body didn't really feel the difference all that much? Now however.. 54kg down.. Bloody hell. When I walk, I really waddle now.. And slowly. I can't hurry anywhere. Next week we are having a fire drill at work. I have refused to go down 8 floors of stairs. Forget that. They would have to carry me.. I feel like every time I stand up, my uterus falls down between my knees. Pleasant. Not.

Which leads me to my next gripe. Low blood pressure. I have never ever had any issues with my BP. Not low, not high. And I guess I should be grateful that it is low and not high, but wow it's unpleasant. If I stand for more than 5 mins or so, I start getting head spins, shakes, ears ringing and short of breath. Grocery shopping is now out of the question. I can manage to do fruit/veg and deli, and that's it. Hello Coles Online. And Tony has had to fill and empty the dishwasher for me.. Hehehe.. I don't think he has touched a sink full of dishes for years :-)

Moving on. Leg cramps. At night. Excruciating. I have tried the pillow between the legs but it only helps briefly. And because I can't sleep on my front or back anymore, and I AM a whale, turning over requires careful planning and precision. I have to hold onto the bed head to pull myself across. I really need to start enlisting Tony to give me a push :-)

And we're done! I don't think I have anything else to complain about :-)

I am getting very excited about meeting the boy! Oh yes, have I mentioned it's a boy? With a penis?? What the hell am I gonna do with a penis?? Apparently they pee EVERYWHERE! Geez...

Yep that's it there. The dreaded penis.. Might leave it to his father.

And here is the boy himself.. Mr Jordan Emrys Hill.

So the story behind the names.. Jordan was picked out in the 90's. Tony and I were married in everything but name from the get go. We started talking baby names back at uni. Anyone who knows Tony will know that Jordan came from his beloved Michael Jordan, basketballer. Tony has waited a long time to be able to use that name for a boy :-)

And Emrys. I needed a name starting with E for my paternal grandmother, Eva. E is a very difficult letter for a boy. Girls we had a few, but not boys. And Emrys was surprisingly obvious for us. This was my idea and my choice, and Tony, while a bit embarrassed at the geeky origin, loves it too.

So Emrys is Old Welsh for Ambrose and it means 'immortal'. And the geeky part of it? Well Tony and I are big fans of the old Arthurian Legends. King Arthur's advisor and friend was Merlin the Magician. Merlin's Old Welsh name was Myrddin Emrys. Some of you may recognize Myrddin as the online name that Tony has used for a long time.

We are geeks. But you knew that :-)

So, moving on again.. The nursery is almost done, the furniture just needs moving around, and that is happening over the next few weekends. I have washed and put away all the clothes that people have very kindly donated and on my side I just need to get my hospital bag ready. But that's still a ways off..

I finish up at work in 4 weeks. I am SO ready for this. By this time with Josie I was already not working, having been retrenched 3 months before my maternity leave was to kick in.. There are massive things happening at work right now, and while it's all very exciting, I really am ready to go.

Aside from all the baby news, all else is good.

Josie is growing up too quickly. A couple of months ago she started asking about periods!! She's not quite 9years old! I went through a long talk with her about what happens.. I told her that every month a girl's body releases an egg.. And her eyes went wide and she went white and I quickly assured her it wasn't like a chicken's egg.. It was much much smaller. LOL.

She just came back from her very first school camp. 2 nights, 3 days, in cabins. She loved it. They did all sorts of things like canoeing (she threw up once and fell in once), cycling, climbing and various other sporting adventures. She managed to come home with everything (although I believe there is a towel in lost property) and she got some valuable experience being away from home.

I am really excited to see how she will be with Jordan. She is so so good with her younger cousins, Kaylee and Zoe, that I have very optimistic hopes for when Jordan comes. Josie is very attentive with her cousins, takes care of them, plays with them, feeds them. She is also very keen on helping with Jordan. Can't wait.

And then there is our latest newest addition to the family - Charley.

Charley is a 2011 Series II Holden Cruze. And she is so pretty :-) She has leather seats that warm up, iPod connectivity and a sunroof. And she is red. Red Hot in fact. Every time I see her I get a buzz.

So I think that's about it.. You have now been caught up in the life of the Hills.

Fingers crossed I do better from now on! It's just so hard with Facebook. Everything that happens, happens in a Facebook status update and I just never get around to updating the blog. But I have to. I will be good.

I hope..

Hello Coffs !

2011-05-11T08:30:00.003+10:00

So here we are at Coffs Harbour and it is a bit chilly! Brrrr!

The last full day at Q1 was a non eventful. Tony slept, I watched tv, Josie did some school work. That was pretty much all morning till Tony got up and went down to the Q1 Business Centre to do some work. The weather that last day was fairly dismal actually. It was the first day that was anything but bright and sunny, so it felt great staying put all day.

In the afternoon the Lee Family came to sleep over and we had a lovely dinner of Beef and Bean Stew that Tony prepared, which was scrumptious, and also as much of the left over food as possible. They ended up taking quite a bit home with them :-) The girls had a great last day playing together, and Josie spent a lot of time playing with 9month old Jakob. Good practice I say :-)

Sometime during the night, Sam had to change Jake and for the first time in about 8years I woke up to a baby crying. And wow that was a memory that made me twitch, better get to used to that I reckon!!

The next morning we packed up, took everything down to the car and said goodbye to Q1 for another year or two. And then we all went to our traditional final breakfast at Pancakes in Paradise, which was, as usual, lovely.

After breakfast we went over to Billy & Sam's to pick up a whole heap of baby stuff! Clothes, blankets, BUMBO, travel bed.. Somehow managed to squeeze it into the car too! Josie was well padded on both sides :-) Thanks so much Sam, this will be a huge help!

And then off we went! It took about 4hrs to get to Coffs. We got in about 730pm, had a quick dinner and then sent the kid off to bed. She has school tomorrow so needs to get back to normal sleeping patterns.

We managed to finish Season 3 of Smallville (what a season finale!!), and then I berated my husband for not bringing Season 4!!

So this morning Josie is doing her final bit of school work, I am about to get Tony up and then we are off to Sydney. I go back to work Monday, have given myself a couple of days to unpack, shop, sort through and wash a mountain of baby gear!

It's gonna be a long drive today.. I think we may start with a final bit of Cold Rock to get us going :-)

Mari

Seaworld, Mother's Day and The Eye

2011-05-08T21:31:00.002+10:00

So yesterday we went to Seaworld. We got there just before lunch and managed to catch the Sea Lion Show and the Dolphin Show. Both were great, although the Sea Lion Show gets a little more dull every time we see it. In between snow cones and stingrays we managed to score not one, not two but three toys for Josie! I don't think we have ever had such a haul. First Tony played hoops and got two balls in so Josie got a pink dolphin, then Josie won herself a giraffe and then somehow I managed to get two balls in a bucket and scored a purple monkey! Woohoo!

We walked around and saw as much as we could and while we brought some swim gear, we left it in the car so we didn't have to drag it around with us everywhere, but by the time we got to the pools and watersides it was well after 4pm and just too cold. Josie was very disappointed but it's just what happens when we come in May.. It's just not as warm as October.

So around 5pm we caught the monorail back to the front and off we went home to wait for the Lee family who were coming for dinner. Tony made a lovely lemon roast chicken with roast veges that were to die for and then we had Cold Rock for desert. It was yummy!

After dinner Josie went to sleep over at Jessica's places so Tony and I watched some Smallville and went to bed. Yeh I know, we are boring :-)

Today I relaxed and watched tv all morning before we got ready for lunch. Lunch with the Lees (and with our daughter back) was at the Hard Rock and it was a great Mothers Day lunch. Serving sizes were still massive but the food was great. After lunch we walked up to the Wheel of Surfers Paradise which looks like a mini version of the London Eye. It was really fun, we had 15 mins of going round and round and round :-)

Then we walked back to Q1 before saying bye bye to The Lees and having a few hours relaxation in the rooms. Around 6pm we went for dinner at a Serbian place called Balkan on the Board. Again the serving sizes were just MASSIVE and we took a lot home but it was delicious! Josie declared her pizza to be the best ever, even better than Pizza Hut!

After dinner we went back to the Wheel of Surfers Paradise to take a turn on it at night. It was spectacular and we had a great time!

So now we have one and a half days left here before heading off to Coffs again. It has gone fast again, but with 7nights here this time it feels like more of a holiday than previous times!

Till next time!

More Gorgeous Weather..

2011-05-06T20:31:00.004+10:00

Proudly brought to you by the letters Q, L, D, and the numbers 1 and 26.

Yes the weather continues to amaze.

Thursday was a long day that started out with an hour drive to Brissy to see Jacqui and her new diggs. First we went to lunch by the river and had an awesome meal. Then we had some ice cream at MovenPick?! And then headed back to Jac's place. She is staying in a lovely apartment that managed to escape flood damage because it's on top of a hill in Toowong. She moved up to Brissy the day BEFORE the big floods! We hung around and chatted for a while before braving the traffic back to the Gold Coast. We of course managed to catch the worst of the traffic and it looked like it was going to be a three hour trip back, and then Josie started to complain about having to pee! It was all happening! At that point we were stuck on a bridge or freeway and couldn't get off either. We eventually managed to get out of the traffic and find a MacDonald's, of course.. I reckon Tony must have some homing mechanism for Maccas. So we had dinner at Maccas, Josie went to the loo and all was well with the world. When we did get back on the road the traffic had cleared up and we had a nice drive back.

Today was a great day! I left Tony to sleep and after some more school work I took Josie down to the pool. The outdoor pool was way too cold but the indoor pool was great and Josie and I swam laps and races for a while before I got out and dried off and she hit the spa. She had a great time down there, and I even managed to squeeze in a business teleconference. When we came back up she jumped in the bath for a while, while I made some lunch and woke up Tony. Then after lunch we went off to Pacific Fair so I could do some shopping. Managed to get myself a nice winter jacket, and Josie a whole bunch of long and short sleeved tops, a couple of dresses, a couple of skirts and a couple of tights, all of which were on sale! I had found that we are very lacking in winter gear this year so it was good to stock up on sale items! Tony, meanwhile managed to do some work, have lunch and then we came home. Before going up we all went to Cold Rock to stock up on ice-cream and then went up where Tony started preparing dinner for tomorrow night when Billy & family would be coming over for dinner.

And that's pretty much it for today! Sea world tomorrow! Woooo!

Mari

Day 2-3 In Sunny Queensland

2011-05-05T10:37:00.009+10:00

So on Tuesday morning off we went to Queensland. The drive was nice and short, comparatively, it rained a bit, and when we were about 30min out of the Gold Coast it really started to pour and the clouds rolled in and we had some spectacular lightning. We got in around 330pm, got into our room at Q1 and then went shopping.

Our room this time was not as good as we were used to. We have truly been spoilt by our Q1 experiences. This year the three bedroom was actually a two bedroom where the enclosed balcony was made into a third bedroom with a queen bed and curtains. But aside from that, and no dishwasher, it's all good. Lovely views of the river, And a bathtub to sink into :-) I am a happy camper.

So we went out shopping and bought up groceries for the week. And then Tony dropped me off at a nearby medical centre to get my eye checked out, while he took everything back to the room and put it away and fed the kid.

My eye was really bothering me by that stage. I didn't even need to sneeze or do anything to set it off. And it was so painful. So I waited to see the doctor for an hour or so, managed to check my work mail.. Finally went in and was told I had hit a nerve when when I hit the eye, a neuropathic nerve or something. The nerve that runs up and out from the top of the nasal bridge, and I had irritated the poor thing, and it was letting me know it was irritated. Poor diddums.

So he gave me a prescription for cortisone for three days, assured me it was safe in pregnancy, took my $70 and wished me a happy holiday.

After confirming with the pharmacist that the cortisone is safe in pregnancy, I filled my prescription, Tony picked me up and off back home we went. It was a horrible evening. Every time my eye exploded I felt more and more exhausted, and it was happening more and more often. After struggling through a couple of Smallvilles, I finally went to bed.

In the morning I took my first lot of cortisone, and within a few hours I was already feeling better!! Throughout the day I had another couple of eye explosions, but it was heaps better, thank god, and Category A drugs :-)

So Wednesday was a great day. I started the morning with doing schoolwork with Josie, and then we went to the Top One restaurant at Australia Fair for Yum Cha with Billy and Sam and Jess and Jakob. This was our first time meeting Jakob and omg he is so gorgeous!! Such an easy baby, I want one of those!! He was happy and sunny and went to anyone without a fuss. He sat and played on your lap or in the pram, there was no fuss at all!! I need one of THAT variety!

So Yum Cha was fab as usual, and afterwards off we went to Dreamworld.

The girls went on a bunch of rides, got their faces painted and we saw the new White Lion display, which was just amazing.. They built the enclosure so that there was a platform right above your head where the Lioness sat looking regally down at us. It was simply spectacular. An absolute highlight of the day. Then of course we went and saw the Tiger show, where Tony reacquainted himself with his pals Taj and Sia. The first time we came to see the tigers, Taj and Sia were 3month cubs and they were so so cute. So now every time we come, Tony goes and spends most of the time we have there with his pals.

By the time we left we were soooo tired, but the day was not done! off we went for dinner at the Jupiters Buffet. It was soooo yummy! We sat around chatting and catching up till well after 9pm before we finally went home with a very tired child. Billy and Sam went home with two very tired children so they trump us :-)

After getting home I jumped straight into the tub and soaked the tiredness away for a good hour or more.. With a view of the Gold Coast to entertain me. It was soooo lovely. After one episode of Smallvilles I collapsed in bed and slept till 9am!!

So now we are off to Brisbane to see Jacqui and her new digs, as she studies medicine up here. My eye seems to be all better today, which is fabulous! You don't know how awesome it is to be able to sneeze in peace!!

Mari

And We're Off!

2011-05-03T08:21:00.002+10:00

So off went went yesterday on our big adventure. Well not so big, but exciting nonetheless.

We left for Coffs Harbour around 11am yesterday, car loaded, child loaded and the cats prepared (physically but not emotionally). It wasn't an epic a drive as Wisemans Ferry (for those who know that story, for those that don't, check the blog from March 2008), but it was fairly long. And I hate to say it, but thank god for Telstra. When Tony got the iPad 2 he signed up for a month on Telstra for the data, to see what it's like, and well it shits the pants off Three. We had data coverage almost the entire way, even in the middle of nowhere. And even when it lost signal, it picked it up again within a few minutes, literally. In comparison, I sit here in Coffs Harbour with absolutely no Three coverage at all, and only the free hotel wifi to save me.

So anyway, the drive was good, long but good. I emailed, I facebooked, I napped, I played secretary to Tony while he drove and I typed out his work email as he dictated.. It actually went quickly. Towards the end I started to feel the lower back pain. I've always been perfectly happy in the car for hours. I can live in the car, and I love napping in the car. But this time I was expecting the lower back pain because of the pregnancy and it didn't disappoint. But it was only in the last hour or so so that was good..

Oh and I have another ailment. The other night we were out at friends having dinner and you know when you are laughing really hard and you laugh with your whole head? Well I was laughing, I was laughing so hard that I swung my head down, full force, onto the corner of the Tasmanian Oak hard(hard)wood chair next to me. It connected with the corner of my right eye socket. It hurt. It hurt for a while, but then it was ok.. That was Saturday night. Sunday it felt a bit bruised but only to the touch. Monday morning I sneezed and OMG. It felt like my eye ball was going to explode. It didn't help that I am feeling a cold coming on. So now every time I sneeze, yawn or in any way put pressure on my eye, I get about 4-5seconds of intense sharp pain from the corner of my eyeball that radiates outward and then releases. It's fun. Not.

So we got to Coffs around 7pm, and to our nice surprise we found that the hotel had upgraded us to one of their suites. It's a small hotel so it's not like it's a 'suite' suite, but it is a bigger bathroom and the bedroom has two massive windows that look out at the water. It's lovely.

We brought up some of our stuff, had dinner, put the child to sleep and then watched a few episodes of Smallville which Tony brought on the laptop and then managed some elaborate setup with the laptop, the iPad and some cables. I didn't get any of it, but was impressed nonetheless.

The sleep was comfy and I am now up and blogging, waiting for the man of the house to wake up so we can get going to the Gold Coast :-)

I will try and blog each day :-)

Mari

First Official Ultrasound

2011-04-29T16:22:00.007+10:00

We had our 12 week Ultrasound today, and got the Nuchal Scan results. Results were all fabulous, and the scan itself was awesome.

Baby was SO active, at first on it's front, then turning over, and bouncing around everywhere, it was spectacular to watch, and really brought it all home.

Too early to tell the sex, but probably at the 18 week scan.

And here is a belly comparison at 3 months from 2002 and now.

Mari

More Good News And An Update

2011-04-25T08:43:00.000+10:00

So firstly we have some awesome news!

We have finally sold the investment unit in the north!

After 8 weeks being listed at 'Offers over $650k', the first weekend we changed it to '$650k or near offer' and we got an offer at $650k!! We are absolutely stoked and relieved.

We bought the unit in 2005 for $543k and it was never meant to be an investment property. We bought it because we fell in love with it. the layout was perfect. The three bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and massive living room were perfect and the pool and spa were an added bonus.

The strata and the travel costs to the city and east were killing us though.

We tried to sell it at the beginning of 2007 but didn't get a nibble. Well we got a nibble but it was $40k under what we paid for it. So we decided to tenant it and we moved to the east.

In hindsight our parents were right. Yes, there I said it. They were right. We should have bought in the east that last time. But I guess it was a learning experience.

So now we are finally getting rid of this massive monkey off our backs. We plan to get a smaller investment unit soon.

In other news, we've had a great long weekend so far.

Last Thursday Josie's new loft bed got delivered and Tony and Mat spent Friday putting it together. It's a bit wider than we expected but Josie LOVES it. In fact she has spent almost all of the time since Friday that we have been at home in bed watching TV!

Meanwhile Vika and I went to Paddys on Friday for a bit of a shopping trip. And had a really nice Yum Cha lunch before clearing Chinatown of it's take away Yum Cha to take home for dinner with our cousin Anna. The evening went really well and we all had a great time.

On Saturday I took Josie to see Rio 3D and we both loved it. It has been a long time since I saw a cartoon that I really enjoyed and Rio was fabulous!

Sunday we went to the Powerhouse with our friends Roman and Helen and their daughter Stacey. It was... well... fun cause we were out and with them.. but honestly.. the Powerhouse just let us down. It's so big and disorganized. Questacon it is not.

Had Yum Cha at Marigold for lunch which was awesome and then went our separate ways till they came over for some Crust pizza.

That was the first time I had tried Crust and I have to say it was the best pizza I have ever had!

So today we are taking road trip with Roman and Helen down to Wollongong to see the Science Centre and Planetarium. Should be fun!!

On the pregnancy front, all is good. Feeling less tired. Having strange vivid dreams, like last night's whopper. I dreamt that I had an arm and a leg growing out of my stomach and they were seeping mucus out of the base and I had to keep them dry. And then they eventually grew flush with my stomach and kind of got absorbed. It was so gross!!

I am still losing weight, 50.2kg in total. It's very exciting and I feel like I am living a brand new life. One with a lot more energy, and hope, and happiness.

Next week we are off to the Gold Coast for a couple of weeks and I just can't wait! I know it's going to be cold but I am sure we will still have a fab time and we may even be able to catch a few storms from the 29th floor!

That's pretty much it for me. Off to get ready for the trip to QLD!

Mari

1st Obstetrician Appointment!

2011-04-12T21:00:00.003+10:00

Ok so firstly, New Zealand was a bust. Started feeling sick the night before and didn't want to risk anything so pulled out. Quite disappointing.. but not worth the risk.

Now today I had my first appt with the new OB. He was.. a character.

Mat and Wendy used him for both the girls, and every nurse I speak to raves about him.

He is.. a character..

Aside from him having a potty mouth.. and using the f-word twice (with Josie there!!), I really liked him. He was very relaxed, very confident and knew what he was talking about.

Not to mention he didnt charge $6000 for 'Pregnancy Management' !

He also accurately calculated my real due date, based on the fact that I actually ovulated a week late, so you cant just use the first day of the last cycle.

So now my official due date is.. wait for it... 12.11.11.

And I am 9w4d today ;-)

This is really gonna be the Longest. Pregnancy. Ever!

Flying Away

2011-04-01T21:22:00.002+11:00

So I am off to New Zealand on Monday. Going for work for a week.. my first trip to NZ, and my first trip overseas in about 5 years..

I'm looking forward to it, and not looking forward to it. I've never been away from my family for this long before.. and especially now, its a bit nerve wracking! Gonna really miss Tony & Josie.

But I think it will be a good trip and good experience.. and I am back on Tony's Birthday!

Tony is being left with lots of instructions and reminders. Josie has been organised. And my fingers are crossed that she gets to school on time!! ;-)

Mari

And Now, For the Biggest News Yet

2011-03-20T22:19:00.004+11:00

Hmm.. so a picture tells a thousand words..

... or in this case just 3...

We. Are. Pregnant.

And before getting this:

.. we were due on the coolest date!

11/11/11 !

But now we are due on 16/11/11, which is not to say that 11/11/11 isn't still a possibility.. it is! Just gotta book the Caesar NOW! lol!

So everyone is really excited! Josie is beside herself and has already volunteered for all nappy and feeding duties ;-)

We are measuring 6w2d, with a strong heartbeat.

And I am feeling kinda dazed.. I really cant remember how to do this anymore! Its been 8 years. Do they still do it the same way, or has there been advancements in techniques?? - lol ;-)

So here's to an uneventful 8 months ;-)

Mari

Anniversary XIII... or is it XVIII?

2011-03-01T12:58:00.002+11:00

Today is our 13th Wedding Anniversary.

I never really feel very big emotion around this day. This day each year for me is really a reminder that, what to me is, the important day is approaching. And THAT day is the anniversary of the day Mari and I became a couple, five years before we were ultimately wed.

From the day we became a couple we lived as a married one. We immediately shared a bed and a room (and later a house) at Uni, we shared our finances, we shared our lives 24/7 from minute one. And for nearly 18 years so far.

We got really good at being a couple, at being a single unit with a common goal. And then we got good at driving each other batshit. And 17.5 years later we're still working on getting good at not driving each other batshit. So it's a work in progress, but what in life isn't? And who else would I choose to drive me batshit? I wouldn't choose anyone else to NOT drive me batshit. So I'm definitely not going to put up with the crap I do for anyone else. Except our daughter... who seems to have figured out exactly what it is about each of us that annoys the other and tries valiantly to emulate those qualities as often as inhumanly possible.

But I digress. The point is that my life with my lovely wife is one that, no matter the ups or the downs, I have never wished were with another. I have never wished for a change at bat. 'Cos who else could possibly be better to share it with than she? Even when she is the cause of the upheaval her companionship gets me through it.

She often used to ask me why I loved her. And all I could say was "I don't know, I just do.". Which as you know, is not what a woman wants to hear in response to that question. And she would ask "why? You're often angry with me, I'm not beautiful [she is -ed], etc etc etc". I never had a good answer. Until now. It's because I was born with my heart outside my body (not literally in case any medically knowledgeable people are reading). But I found it 18 years ago on a train to Wollongong. And I grabbed on tight and I'll never let it go.

When the anniversary of that day comes in April this year I will have spent half of my life with and half without the love of my life.

And the ONLY thing I regret, enough to want to go back and change it, in this life is that she wasn't there with me the whole time.

I love you because you are my heart. And I need my heart to go on living.

I love you Baby.

Tony

Grab The Goat By The What Now?!

2010-12-25T08:30:00.000+11:00

So we're laying in bed on this fine Xmas morning 2010, awake after having to change the sheets and blankets after Zac pee'd on Mari while she slept, when for reasons I won't go into out of respect for my wife I had a sudden desire for a bullhorn.

And the following conversation ensued:
Tony: Man I wish I had a bullhorn!
Mari: A what now?!
Tony: The thing you talk into that amplifies the sound... you know when Bart put them all together and caused a big explosion?
Mari: Isn't that called a megaphone?
Tony: Bullhorn is an American term
Mari: Bart called it a megaphone...
Tony: A Southern American term then!
Mari: Why Bullhorn?
Tony: Because it looks like a bulls horn?!
Mari: I've never seen a bull with horns like that...
Tony: If you strap the cone to the side of the bull's head then the handle faces forward like a bull horn.
Mari: looks confused and makes twirling motions with both hands in the air above her.
Tony: you're thinking of a goat dear.
Mari: I'm thinking of a goat!

A HERO

2010-12-06T16:42:00.006+11:00

I am a HERO.

What happened?!?! (you may ask...)

Well let me tell you.

On Sunday my Xmas lights were going up. ~~I was~~ We were all very excited! We hadn’t put up lights in over 3 years! And I rock Xmas. So it was especially hard for me.

~~Tony~~ I happily pulled out the three massive Xmas Decoration boxes from the attic and sorted through it all. I ecstatically went and added to the collection and got it ready for Sunday.

On Sunday Becca and Mat came over to help put it all up. Becca first helped with putting up the internal decorations. The signs and pictures and hanging things. When we were done it looked like Santa had thrown up all over the living room. It was a picture of Xmassy goodness!

And then Mat came over to do the lights, and he and Tony were like machines! They put up heaps of lights on the balcony upstairs, but our step ladder almost ended the happiness of the day.

Mat was standing on the ladder when it decided that enough was enough and suddenly collapsed straight down! In a split moment decision, and knowing I was only wearing socks, I heroically stuck my foot out, imagining the Adamantium running through my veins would be enough to stop the ladder’s descent, but alas no! The ladder continued its journey into oblivion, and with it my beloved brother-in-law, who had the presence of mind to ride the horrible beast to the floor.

And so endeth the tale happily, with Mat still alive and kicking, and coming over next weekend to put the tree up.

And although this tale could have ended so tragically, it did not. Because I am a HERO. A HERO with a bruised foot.

A HERO I say!

Thank you.

The Awful Truth

2010-12-02T21:32:00.003+11:00

Mari realised the awful truth of her advancing age tonight.

And in the most heinous of betrayals, this realisation was brought to her by her beloved Days Of Our Lives.

A recently returned character from days long past mentioned that "the last of his kids had gone off to college" and in the midst of chuckling over how fast and loose these daytime soaps play with time her hindbrain completed the calculation, she went deathly pale and a hoarse denial tore itself loose from the pit of her soul, bursting forth from out her mouth in horror and fury.

It had indeed been 20 years since Justin and Adrienne got hitched and started knocking out babies.

Sorry Baby.
Better luck next time?

And We Do

2010-11-13T14:53:00.000+11:00

So I've turned the shirt over.

And she's turned to face away from
the shirt and gone to sleep.

And tomorrow she'll wonder why I don't want to do any if the fun jobs she has lined up for me.

'Cos there's nothing like job satisfaction.

At least, not in the Hill household.

And we close our eyes.....

We Have To Close Our Eyes

2010-11-13T02:17:00.000+11:00

It's 3am and I've just been ordered to bed because my (usually) lovely wife needs me to run to the chemist tomorrow morning and get her the magic anti-chicken-pox pills.

So we're laying in bed in the dark and she says "you know what's annoying?! turn your #%^*ing t-shirt off!"

I've just taken delivery of a tshirt from threadless.com with a lightsaber on the front where the blade is an energy saver fluro lightbulb. Awesome, I know. The best bit is the bulb glows in the dark! Right? Yeah baby!

So anyway she complains that the shirt is bright and I say "you can NOT see that with your eyes closed!". To which she replies "I can't keep my eyes closed all the time!!!".

Now I want to point out once again, it's 3am and we're laying in bed in the dark...except for the shirt...so in the almost complete darkness.

And I realize why she can't sleep.
It's not the pox. She's doing it wrong.

"Baby, you have to close your eyes!"

Crazy 101 - The Teacher Is In!

2010-11-02T22:30:00.003+11:00

So we're watching an ad for Duracel's new contact charge pad and the following conversation ensued:

Mari: Cooool *excited*
Tony: Yeah
Mari: A cheaper alternative *very earnestly*
Tony: Ye..wait what?
Mari: A cheaper alt...
Tony: yeah yeah yeah I uh... Why is it cheaper?
Mari: ...it's duracel... or energizer... It's gotta be cheaper than... like... a website...
Tony: Wow! That's some crazy sh*t you said right there
Mari: *completely cracked up* It sounded right in my head...

For bonus points see if you can guess at what point the crazy lady got distracted by the next ad during the conversation.

I Think Its Time For An Update.. No?

2010-11-02T22:21:00.009+11:00

Lots to update.. lots and lots!!

Ok so I should start with our new addition!

Meet Zena.

Zena is about 9 weeks old, is a domestic short hair, and is absolutely nuts!

So a guy at working was giving her away last week and after a quick consultation with Tony, it was decided that we would expand to a 3 cat family ;-) She was delivered to us on Tuesday night, Josie was very surprised, and after a quick trip to the vet to get her checked out, she was pronounced in perfect health with no fleas! Hurrah!

At first Zak and Zoe were a bit freaked. Zoe more than Zak. Zak was more like 'Meh.." and only hissed at her twice on the first night.. once when she rolled off the couch onto him, and once when she attacked his tail. Both times, I reckon he had a point.

On the other hand.. Zoe was freaked out for a few days.. she would hiss at Zena quite often, jump 10 feet into the air every time Zena twitched and ran away from her. However, but the end of the weekend Zoe had stopped hissing, and was just run around after Zena going "Thats mine! Dont touch!".. "Thats mine as well..".. "And that too! Muuuuum! SHE'S TOUCHING MY STUFF!!"

So now we are a week in, and Zak and Zena are sleeping together and Zoe and Zena are chasing eachother round the house and playing. Its all good ;-)

So now you can officially call me the Crazy Cat Lady (tm).

Zena is so so so cute. She loves being held (which is so weird for us). She is mega playful, I dont remember Zelli or Zoe being so playful.. Zak yes though.. and she is SO tiny! Teeny next to Zak, and tiny next to Zoe. Until Zena arrived, I always thought Zoe was small.. but that was only next to Zak.. Zoe looks huge next to Zena!

So thats the story of our new arrival.

And now my other big news.. I have lost over 30Kg over the last 5 months or so.. and I have done this thanks to a kick start with Optifast, and then an operation called a Sleeve Gastrectomy, where 80% of my stomach was cut and removed. This procedure is permanent and irreversible.

So now I eat very little. And the weight has been dropping off.

I am so relieved, and so happy. I have more energy, more confidence and am generally all good. Ive dropped at least 3-4 sizes and fingers crossed in the next 12 months we might even add ANOTHER mouth to the household ;-)

I would like to lose another 30Kg or so.. but right now..

Life. Is. Good ;-)

So here are some comparison photos..

Aside from those two biggies, Josie is doing well at school and about to head into Year 3 next year. The school has a compulsory Instrumental program from year 3 so Josie has chosen Sax, Flute or Trumpet to learn, but ultimately it will depend on what the teachers deem appropriate for her.

And I think thats it for updates..

Dreams That Make You Cry

2010-09-13T18:21:00.001+10:00

So the other night I am dreaming and, as you do, I suddenly realised that my Dumachka (which is a little square pillow that I use on top of my regular pillow, don't ask, all Kleytmans have always used them), was an onion. Yes, an onion. And you know, I didn't want to put my head on an onion, cause you know, they smell, so I moved the 'onion' up above and to the left of my head. But when I put my head down, there was no Dumachka, and I was uncomfortable, so then I realised that the onion, was in fact my Dumachka, I moved it back and all was right with the world.

The End.

So.. Dream Doctors.. what does it all MEAN ?!

Don't Strangle Granny!

2010-09-13T10:07:00.001+10:00

On the car ride home from Baba's:

Josie: Daaad, the other day I was on the grass and I was booored so Granny said I could run across the road really fast.

Tony: What the hell?!

Josie: It's ok, I ran really fast!

Tony: *fails to find the power of speech through the red haze of rage*

Josie: *babbles incessantly about various things for a while*.....daddy?...DADDY?!

Tony: What?!

Josie: Are you Listening?!

Tony: No. I'm thinking about what I'm going to do about Granny.

Josie: What are you going to do?

Tony: I'm thinking about strangling her.

Josie: Daddy! What have I told you about strangling Granny?!

Tony: ....nothing, it hasn't ever come up as yet.

Josie: well...add that. Don't strangle Granny!

Tony: I'll try to restrain myself.

Turn your face away, ask me a question

2010-09-10T01:49:00.002+10:00

Just a quick one today.

So we went to the movies tonight, my lovely wife and I, and saw Vampires Suck (note to parody-ists: you need to be better than the thing you are making fun of - score: C- occasionally funny) and Sorcerer's Apprentice (quite good).

Right in the middle of reading the cast credits Mari turns to me (away from the credits up on the big screen) and says "so who played Morgana?".

Realising her mistake (as I burst out laughing) she turns back in time to miss the name as it slides off-screen.

Priceless.

Those Crazy Cushion Eating People!

2010-08-24T21:43:00.003+10:00

So Mari is telling me about Becka doing the 40-hour famine soon, and how she can give up two other things rather than food.

Mari: So she's giving up talking and furniture.

Tony (twirling a string with a weight around): Furniture. Where's she going to sleep?

Mari: On the floor.

Tony: On the floor.

Mari: Yeah.

Tony: How Amish of her.

Mari: More like Mediterranean.

Tony (still twirling): Uhhhh.

Mari: You know, those people that sleep on the floor.

Tony: They don't sleep on the floor in the Mediterranean.

Mari: The Japanese!

Tony (still twirling): They don't sleep on the floor either.

Mari: The, the, the....

Tony: You're thinking of homeless people!

Mari: No, like the people who eat on cushions!

Tony (the twirling gets wobbly): Theeee what now?

Mari: You know! They eat on cushions!

Tony: The food is on the cushions?

Mari: Noooo (like THAT is just noodle doodle!), THEY sit on the cushions!

Tony: Where is the food?

Mari: ....I dunno

Tony: But you sai..

Mari: Moroccans!!!!

Tony (the weight hits the floor): ......I have to blog this.

Josie is Officially off the Market

2010-06-30T12:06:00.006+10:00

We have always said that Josie and Joshy were gonna eventually marry. Its totally on the cards.

Especially after this exchange between Josh and his mother:

Josh & Ines are at Ines' bed.

Joshy: I love your bed mummy, its so big! And you have two pillows! I wish I had two pillows!

Ines: Well no Josh, there's only one of you, you dont need two pillows.

Joshy: But I want two pillows ;-(

Ines: Well when you get married, you can have two pillows.

Joshy: Married? Like to Josie?

[Josh claps his hand to his mouth and giggles]

I think the deal is done now.

Ines, David, what kind of dowry are you guys expecting? We have no goats, but I can provide two cats, one slightly used, and the other well used ;-)

Mr Mom Epic Fail

2010-05-21T16:35:00.000+10:00

This morning was one of those rare mornings when I am on child duty; get her up, dressed, teeth & hair brushed etc.

So I did all of the above, and even managed to brush and tie up her hair, and got her to school (only 20-odd minutes late - I can hear the gasps of disapproval from my maternal audience already) without any arguments or tantrums, from either of us.

45mins later I'm sitting at my desk at work feeling pleased with myself when I receive a call from my suspiciously chipper wife. I then have a couple of microseconds to think to myself "she sounds happy, she must be ringing to compliment me on doing such a great job that allowed her to get such a refreshing rest." before she asks (in an increasingly worrying sunny voice) "hello husband, so...what did you make Josie for her lunch today?".

Oh crap, "er..."

"Mmhmm. And recess?"

Double crap! "I-I-I... er... well..."

"Mmmmm. Aaaaaand nibble?"

Ahhhh frak me!!! "*whimper*"

In contrast to her hopelessly useless father my offspring managed to discover her lack of foodage, take herself off to the office and ring her mother to complain about the terrible staff & services offered at Shez Hill this morning, "definitely not up to snuff you must agree my good woman." and all such.

I'm sure you all agree.

Caution: Proliferate Use of the F Word Ahead

2010-04-15T12:47:00.003+10:00

The other day Josie & Daddy were playing Mario Kart on the Wii when Josie is run off the road by Bowser.

Josie: Fuck!
Tony: Josie!
Josie: Naaaooooo I didnt say 'Fucken' I said "Fuck"
Tony: Fuck is rude!
Josie: Noooo "Fucken" is rude! Not "Fuck"!
Tony (now starting to hesitate to keep saying the word): ...F...Fuck is also rude.
Josie: No it's not! It's "Fucken" *pronounced very clearly as if daddy is retarded* is the rude one!
Tony: Sweetie you know the word "throw"?
Josie: yeah
Tony: and "throwing"?
Josie: yeaaah? *again like Daddy is retarded and is not making any kind of sensible point*
Tony: and you know the "ing" in "throwing" is just the word "throw" with "ing" added on the end?
Josie: yeeeesssss *becoming testy with daddy's mental limitations*
Tony: so if "throwing" was rude then it's not going to be the "ing" bit that is rude is it? "ing" doesn't mean anything by itself does it?
Josie: nooooooo *as if daddy is the most obtuse, obvious man in history*
Tony: So It would be the "throw" part that was rude right?
Josie: Yeah *of course you silly little man*
Tony: well some people say "en" instead "ing"
Josie [mouths "fucken" and "fucking" a couple of times, gasps and looks at Daddy, stricken]: I didn't know!
Tony: Really.
Josie [looking embarrassed and sad to have lost an argument with Daddy, mumbles]: someone told me
Tony: who?
Josie [rolling her eyes]: you don't want to hear it
Tony: Oh I really really do
Josie: Paris *as if this was eminently obvious*

Meanwhile Mummy is sitting at her computer, safely hidden, wetting herself laughing.

An Update - Finally!

2010-02-09T08:31:00.001+11:00

So much happening, and really, I have lost the enthusiasm for blogging.

So lets see, we have new house, new kitten, new school. We've gone to the Gold Coast, we've lost our cameras, we've BBQd (a lot) and we've gotten used to new surroundings.

So after a long an arduous search, losing two houses in the process, we finally secured a new house last month. We are in the eastern suburbs still, in a lovely 3 bedroom townhouse. Upstairs has 3 bedrooms, a bathroom and a WC, as well as a ladder up into the attic in the roof. Downstairs is the living room, dining area and kitchen, as well as a laundry, toilet and nice, manageable courtyard. We moved in a few days before Xmas and then frantically cleaned and unpacked so as to have the downstairs ready for guests on Boxing Day. The house is in a gorgeous complex of townhouses, with a central grassed area and gazebo, and heaps of kids for Josie to play with. She is very happy with our new home, mainly cause all of a sudden she has lots of kids to play with at home, a huge area to play in, lots of dogs, and freedom and independence. It has been very challenging for her to adjust to this new found freedom. She hasn't really known how to handle it, to know what is and isnt appropriate, but she seems to be getting there.

Zakhari, on the other hand, has suddenly found himself for the first time, with stairs. He is climbing them slowly, he is old and has back problems, and he tends to stay downstairs a lot, but he seems to also be liking the extra space. He has even ventured into the courtyard a couple of times (under supervision of course).

Tony and I, meanwhile, are insanely happy to be out of the renting game, and the rut we found ourselves in. I will post some photos of the new place soon. In the move we have lost our cameras unfortunately. I have a new one now, but haven't gotten round to taking some nice photos of the house set up.

Which brings me to the new kitten. We felt that after Zelli's passing, Zak needed a companion. So we started looking for some nice, quiet, passive breeds. We looked at Ragdolls and we looked at British Tabbys mostly, and we found Zoe, who is a British Tabby. She is black with silver streaks and is just over 12 weeks old. Being a kitten, she is quite insane ;-) The first week she and Zak basically hissed at eachother. She stopped hissing first though, and kept trying to come up to him and smell him. He is still a bit stand offish, although this morning I saw him try to groom her for the first time, which is a good sign ;-)

Josie is loving the new kitten. Zak and Zelli were already adults when she was born, so this is the first time she has had a kitten, and its been difficult stopping her from picking Zoe up ALL the time. Zoe doesnt seem to like being picked up. By anyone. But when she deems we have been good, she will consent to lay on our shoulders, heads, chests, and occasionally up against us. The first week she slept above Tony head on his pillow and on occasion would attack the stray hair that would offensively wave at her in the breeze from the ever constant fan in the bedroom.

And now to the new school. We made the decision after Kindy, to move Josie from the private school she was at, to a local public school. We just couldnt afford the fees anymore. She went through Year 1 at the public school, and while the education was great, some of the kids, and the interaction we had with the teachers, wasn't the same. You really can tell the difference between Private and Public school. Anyway, late last year her old private school offered a number of bursaries. We applied, were successful, and the rest is history. She is now (very happily) back at her old school. We are happy, she is happy, and our families are very happy too.

Our annual trip to the Gold Coast happened in October. We once again stayed at Q1, and this time Vika & Becca came with us. We stayed on the 33rd floor this year. Again phenomenal views, and again too many theme parks. If we go again this year, we will either cut down on theme parks, or go for two weeks. Depending on the cost.

Work has been good, my team has expanded, the work has become more complicated (thanks to SAP!), but the views are still great, and the people greater ;-)

And thats about it..

So I Married A Nerdlinger!

2009-11-27T19:57:00.000+11:00

Tony just tried to convince me to let him buy a stupid Harry Potter Wand Duel iPhone game.

His final, last ditch effort was "C'mon! Expelliarmus baby!!!".

Nerd.

He Said WHAT Now??

2009-09-09T19:35:00.006+10:00

Driving home from Baba's this evening, Josie expressed concern about having to leave us when she has a boyfriend. We had a long conversation about how she would stay with us as long as she wanted to, boyfriend or no boyfriend, and that even when she has grown up she will always be able to stay with us as long as she wanted to.

And, kind of to explain where all this was coming from she went on..

Josie: Tomorrow at lunch time, Nicholas and Paris have to see the teacher.
Mari: Why?
Josie: Because.. uhm..
Mari: Are they in trouble?
Josie: Yeh, cause Paris asked Nicholas.. and he said he was going to marry me and kiss me and share sex with me. And Paris LAUGHED! So now they cant go on the walkathon tomorrow.

Mari: [at a loss for words..]

Josie: I don't want to marry Nicholas.
Mari: Thats ok sweetie, you are too young to get married, and too young for a boyfriend, so you can tell Nicholas that Mummy said No.

Achem.

As I tried to keep a strong grip on my steering wheel, my mind spun wildly out of control. Surely I dont need to have 'The Talk' with my six and a half year old?!

Moving on..

2009-09-06T21:50:00.003+10:00

Its been a week of sadness that has gradually gotten better. I guess this is a good thing.

Last week we decided to let Josie chose whether she wanted to get her ears pierced or not. She said that she did, and was hugely excited all week.

So the big day arrived - Saturday, and after her dancing class we took her to the chemist to get her ears done. They were just brilliant in there, suggesting we have two of them do both ears at the same time. How brilliant is that??

So after spending about 10 mins picking out the earrings she wanted, Josie finally chose a pair of little pink stones.

She sat up in the chair, and the two girls, Becka and Eleni got themselves ready with the piercing guns.

Eleni to Becka: On 3?

And they both got into position.

Eleni to Josie: What year are you at school?
Josie: Year 1.
Eleni: You know what year is really good?
Josie: No which?
Eleni: Year 3!

Bang goes Eleni's gun!

We all look at Becka, who is still poised ready to go, obviously not getting Eleni's subtlety.

Tony to Becka: Go..

Bang goes Becka's gun!

We all breathe a sigh of relief. It was done, and Josie was too stunned to cry, and by the time she thought she might need to do a courtesy cry, she was just too excited about having earrings ;-)

So now we spray and rotate every day.. and she still hasn't really complained about any pain..

Go figure.. I was miserable for two days after having mine redone three months ago.. but then I am just a wuss.

RIP Zelli our Beautiful Furbaby

2009-08-30T12:02:00.004+10:00

It breaks my heart to let you know that our beautiful Zelda passed away this morning.

Zelli was 10 and a half years old, we got her to keep Zakhari company. She was always a very nervous cat, and it took a long time to win her over, for us anyway. Zakhari and Zelda were siblings from the get-go. They played, ate and slept together every day. We always said Zelli was Zak's cat.

On Friday she started acting funny. I found her lying in places where she never lay. She was a very habitual cat and things out of the ordinary always signaled something wrong. On Friday night she peed on Tony, as we slept. The first thing that struck me was that she was lying asleep near the pee. Neither cats would ever do that. They would pee and then find somewhere else to sleep. Who ever said cats were not smart??

When we changed the sheets, the pee that Zelli had left us was bright bright yellow. More yellow than I had ever seen cat pee be. On Saturday we took her to the vet. The vet delivered the bad news that whatever it was, it was serious.

They put her on a drip, took some blood and told us to leave her there overnight for an ultrasound the next morning. The vet thought it was either heart disease, or feline flu. Either one was devastating.

This morning we got the news that Zelli had passed away during the ultrasound. There was just too much damage to her heart.

Tony and I are fairly devastated, Josie was also upset. We had the death talk with her, and asked her whether she would prefer to have Zelli buried in Granny's backyard with all of Daddy's past cats, or have her cremated and bring her home. Josie chose the burial.

Rest in Peace Zelli. We will all miss you, especially Zak.

We're On A Roll!

2009-08-25T21:58:00.002+10:00

Daddy didn't get home from work till late so he was sitting with Josie while she went to sleep.

And after a while Daddy hears whispers from the darkness.

Josie: Daddy.. it stinks in here!
Daddy sniffs: Smells alright to me.. ?
Josie (still whispering): Must be coming from YOU then!
Daddy sniffs himself: Hmmm, could be from my feet?
Josie replies in a cheeky whisper: Nah.. I farted! *giggle*

ROFL.

To Facilitate Her Mum's Obsession..

2009-08-24T20:17:00.003+10:00

After losing the townhouse at Botany, Tony and I agreed that we really like that street it was on and would really love to find something else there.

In order to facilitate that, we decided to write some notes to the residents across the complexes in that street (handwriting apparently attracts more attention) that announced our eagerness to buy there. After writing up about 20 of them we got bored, and decided we should just photocopy the hand written notes.

I got the photocopies done today and brought them home and the thought of having to cut up all the photocopies into the 4 notes per page was giving me chills, so, enter the 6 year old.

Mama: Hey Jose, you wanna do some cutting out for me?
Josie: Yes! Thank you Mama!!!
Mama: No no dear, thank YOU!

lol..

So after about 10 mins of cutting, Tony came home and saw what she was doing..

Daddy: You got her doing your job?!
Josie: Yeh, cause she's harvesting and stuff..

Hehehe.. well trained I say ;-)

A Personal Message to my Mother

2009-08-23T22:36:00.003+10:00

Mum, please read below. There is a very important message I wish to impart to you..

Josie, sitting chatting with daddy, has the following conversation.

Josie: Daddy, when you and Mama got married, did Mama take your shirt off?
Tony: What?!
Josie: Did Mama take your shirt off? Did she undo your buttons.. did your shirt have buttons? Were you wearing one of those button shirts?
Tony: What are you talking about? Why would Mama take my shirt off?
Josie: To kiss you all over.. [at this point she pulls the front of Tony's shirt down to look at Tony's chest and says..] even though you are hairy everywhere?
Tony: You mean.. are you talking about when we had our wedding?!
Josie: Yeh..
And Tony thought for a minute.. and said: What have you been watching ?
To which she replied: Bold and The Beautiful with Baba.
To which he replied: MARI!!!!!!!!!

So Mum.. NO MORE Bold & The Beautiful. It is now in the same category as The News.

Geez.. sex education via US Soaps..

She Said What???

2009-07-21T20:56:00.004+10:00

So Tony is really sick right now.. bad flu.. not the un-kosher kind..

Josie was at Baba's yesterday and was meant to come home, but we decided it was best for her not to be at home where she can catch Tony's lurgy, but should stay at Baba's overnight and then Baba & Dyeda (who is now retired!!) can drive her to Auntie Carol's place in the morning for their scheduled Big Adventure (tm).

As she was going to bed, Josie lay down, but kept tossing and turning.

Josie: I can't go to sleep!
Baba: Why not?
Josie: Because my tooth is wobbly and if I go to sleep I could swallow it and choke!
Baba: But you would be asleep, how would it come out?
Josie: Because as I sleep, my tongue might play with it and it might pop out and I might swallow it and choke!
Baba: So what are we going to do???
Josie: Hang on a minute.. Let me think..

(some time passes silently)

Josie: I know Baba.. you can take my tooth and I won't swallow it then.
Baba: But how can I take your tooth if its in your mouth??
Josie: Oh its not anymore!
[Josie hands Baba a bloody tooth]

We now have three missing teeth up top and one down the bottom. I am finding it very hard to understand what she says! And I am a little concerned at how long its taking for the top two front teeth to come out..

School Photos

2009-07-09T20:57:00.003+10:00

Just as I was starting to wonder where Josie's School Photos got to, they arrived today!

Here is my little First Grader.

G.I. Josie

2009-07-05T14:37:00.002+10:00

So Josie found Wolf3D on my iPhone.

We're driving through Coogee and we hear from the back of the car:

Josie: Sorry! Sorry! I have to shoot you or you'll shoot me! Argh! Sorry!

So after we recover from the fits of laughter we have the following exchange:

Daddy: Josie I don't think I want you playing that game.
Josie: why not?!
Daddy: you know you're not really shooting ppl right? It's just a picture?
Josie: yes I know that. (in the duh! What are you retarded? voice)

Time passes with much grunting and exasperated utterances when the final little perl drops out:

Josie: argh I hate this game!
Daddy: so why you playin' it?
Josie: 'Cos I love this game! I just can't always find the bad guys! I tried for ages with the blood searcher.
Daddy: the blood searcher?
Josie: yeah, the guy....blood squirting all over the place...the searcher. (In her best distracted monotone).

So Thats That Then..

2009-06-27T12:31:00.000+10:00

The townhouse has sold, and not to us. It went for $582K. That's 2K above what we were going to buy it for, and 42K above what the idiot valuer valued it at. Thank you idiot valuer.

Needless to say, I am not taking it very well.

It's Saturday so we are of course house hunting again.

I didn't think I would be doing this again so soon. I can't seem to get very excited about anything though.

Oh well. That's life I guess.

Back To The Drawing Board..

2009-06-23T20:43:00.002+10:00

So the bank valuation on the townhouse came in and it was $40K under our agreed purchase price. What this means is that the bank won't loan us enough to be able to purchase the property.

We tried renegotiating with the seller but he wouldn't budge. We needed him to come down 15-20K. We have rescinded our offer and he has relisted the property and will see how he goes.

I have a very smaller glimmer of hope that he won't find anyone willing to pay that amount and will come back to us and accept our offer.

Meanwhile we are house hunting again.

And I am just... devastated..

And now..

2009-06-09T21:34:00.006+10:00

Some photos from the new house!

Josie's room. I am hanging to get her bunks like this.

The third bedroom, now officially Becca's Room ;-)

Part of the HUGE bathroom upstairs.

The main bedroom. Ours. Josie gets the biggest room though!

The Walk-Through robe, this joins our bedroom with the bathroom.

View from the front door towards the dining area and kitchen and courtyard.

The kitchen.Yes! Thats a DISHWASHER you see! After almost 3 years of no dishwasher, my dreams are about to come true!!

The stairs looking down.

The stairs looking up.

This is a storage room under the stairs.

The garage looking in. Its got some shelves, and Tony will put up more.

We are hoping to put in a gate here to stop the cats from going into the main part of the garage, cause we'll be using that for the car, but the litter can go before the gate.

Tony in the courtyard, with baby.

Everyone in the living room.

September cannot come soon enough!!

Bollocks!

2009-06-08T20:29:00.003+10:00

So we're watching Funniest Home Videos tonight and one of the videos is of some teenagers creating bottle rockets by shaking up 2litre soft drink bottles and throwing them to the ground lid first, and of course for one of them, the bottle shoots straight up into his crotch.

To which Josephine responds (with her usual amount of paying attention):

Josie: What happened?
Daddy: The bottle jumped up and hit him in the.. PENIS!
Josie: You mean the BOLLOCKS?!

Mummy laughs.
Daddy laughs.

Josie: I have a BOLLOCKS!
Daddy: You do NOT have a bollocks!
Josie: I do have a BOLLOCKS!
Daddy: As I have told you already, you will have to wait to inherit mine from Mummy.
Daddy: You dont even know what a Bollocks is.
Josie: Yes I do, its your front bum.
Daddy: No its not.
Josie: Iiiiiiii-ve got a BOLLOCKS!
Daddy (shaking his finger at Mummy): BLOG that! BLOG that now!!

Addendum:
Josie says: I've got a BOLLOCKS and I LIKE IT! Write that down!

Just When We Thought it was Hopeless...

2009-06-06T15:39:00.006+10:00

... we found a home!

It was hiding from us the whole time! Around the corner and down the street...

So I can't believe how lucky we were with this place. First of all, it was being sold without a real estate agent, privately. That in itself is worth an extra $10K ;-) It was such a different experience dealing directly with the owner.

So.. we exchanged with a 10 day cooling off period yesterday! Its a 2 storey townhouse, 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car. Ground floor has a good sized living and dining area (DINING area! Finally, to have people over again!!). The kitchen is electric, with a dishwasher (WOO-bloody-HOO!), laundry, WC and exit to the garage and courtyard. The first floor has 3 great size bedrooms, enormous bathroom (with room for a Spa in the future!!) and seperate WC. The main bedroom has a walk through closet, into the bathroom. Josie's room is painted pink and purple, and has a built in, and the third bedroom has a built in.

The townhouse is in a gorgeous complex with about 80 properties. There is visitors parking all over the place. Mostly owners, and mostly older people.

We are so excited! And so nervous! But SO excited!!

So its a long settlement, as per the seller's request, but suits us just fine cause we are able to save a heap of money in those few months! We move in for my birthday mid September!

Best. Birthday. Ever!

And The Hunt Continues..

2009-06-03T22:50:00.002+10:00

So the 2 bedder is gone (it started 20K over our max at the auction, and there were so many strata issues..)..

And now we're onto a 3 bed 2 bath 2 car townhouse in Botany. Also in our price range.. seeing it tomorrow.. being sold by private vendor and not real estate.. should be interesting.. ;-)

More later.. ;-)

Soul Destroying..

2009-05-09T14:03:00.003+10:00

Yes we are once again on the house hunting trail.. and once again, despite the reports, its soul destroying..

Going from a 2 Bedder, to a gorgeous 3 Bedder in the north was awesome. Going from the gorgeous 3 Bedder in the north to renting a 2 bed semi in the east was depressing.. trying to now find another home to buy is just.. well.. we're a little stressed.

We've found a lovely 2 Bedder in the east, with slight water views.. only 6 units, lovely street, enclosed wrap around balcony, floorboards, 2 toilets, great sized laundry and living area.. bright, cheery.. they want $500-550K. And its going to Auction. I have a feeling it will go over $550K.. and unfortunately that is our limit. We are going to go ahead with trying to get it, pre-auction offer.. negotiating.. but its just.. soul shredding.. I am so over the stress, and its only been a couple of weeks since we started all this!

Cross your fingers, wish us luck ;-)

And Now A Word From The Holy Land

2009-04-03T18:48:00.002+11:00

From Becca:

Mum had texted Baba to go on MSN so I could talk to her, but Dyeda came on so quickly I didn't know if they got it or if it was a co-incidence that he came on at the same time.

Becca: Hey!
Dyeda: hi it is deda
Becca: Is this both you and baba?
Dyeda: baba looking now bold and ....
Becca: haha
Dyeda: me to xaxa, cant helpet
Becca: deda go ask baba if she got mama's text message.
Dyeda: tell me how it was last day
Becca: It was good we saw grisha and kids
Dyeda: How they are
Becca: the girls are gorgeous
Dyeda: baba read your block but no any other messages
Becca: I am just about to write a new blog about yesterday now
Dyeda: good
Becca: go tell baba to check her mobile if she got a text...but you dont touch because you dont know how to read the text
Dyeda: and we now how you get last day by reading blogs
Becca: sigh... deda just do as you are told, go and tell baba to check her phone because mama sent her a text..
Dyeda: I talk to baba, she open phone and show me message: GO AND CHECK MSN, REBECCA IS ON LINE
Becca: okay so is that why you came online
Dyeda: i have phone on my hands, yes
Becca: okay thats good
Dyeda: now I have skipe nose

I tried and tried but to no effect, I could not establish what a skipe nose is...
____________

Completely unedited.. I swear..

Bon Voyage!

2009-03-31T20:14:00.002+11:00

My sister and niece are off on a big month long vacation today. They will be visiting Israel and England.

We hope they have a lovely time and will miss them heaps.

Dont worry, we will make sure the cat enjoys midnight strolls in the neighborhood and the Tivo is shut down for the month ;-)

Mwahahahaha!

Uh Oh. Another Hill Roadtrip!

2009-03-29T12:47:00.001+11:00

We are on the road back from Wyong where we and Roman, Helen and Stacey went to a place called Amazement.

It was great and the girls had an awesome time. They had mazes and games and animals and great big board games.

Going through the mazes was great fun, pretending to be lost, but I think the girls enjoyed the animals the most. They held bunnies and ducklings and guinea pigs.

We are now on our way to dinner at Ramsgate, completely exhausted but satisfied.

Photos to follow.

Mobile Blogging from here.

Weirdest Dream Ever

2009-03-28T11:48:00.003+11:00

I had a dream last night night that my sister was making dinner. She had a large pot on the stove and in the pot was a huge fish. The fish was descaled, covered in some kind of batter and was boiling in the pot. The only problem with this was that the fish was still alive and breathing and looking forlornly at me.

I was incensed. I couldn't believe that Vika was being so cruel!

I asked her why she was being so cruel to the fish, and she said she was making sushimi, so the fish had to be alive.

I was just horrified and began yelling at her that she must kill the fish to stop it's suffering, so she took a large BBQ fork and stabbed the fish in the stomach.

I think the fish died after that but I can't be sure cause I can't remember any more of the dream.

This whole thing stems from guilt I think.

On Friday, one of the girls at work got an aquarium and a Siamese Fighting Fish for her birthday, which she put on her desk. We got a mirror and put it in front of the bowl and made the fish think it was facing another Siamese Fighting Fish, just to see it puff up. Deep down I think I knew I was being a bit cruel to the fish, and finding it a bit funny.

So while I think it was really ME cooking the big fish alive, Vika, please don't cook fish for dinner for a while ;-)

Third Tooth Loss !

2009-03-26T13:27:00.003+11:00

Many months after the last lost tooth, Josie has now lost her third. Its her top right tooth and it came out last night at a dinner at Baba's place. Auntie Vika had a hand in it:

I came in and Rebecca said to Josie to show me her tooth and how wobbly it was.

She skipped over and moved it with her finger. The tooth was almost out as I could see half of the root already detached from the gum and the tooth hanging by few threads. She was playing with it all the time so it was just a matter of minutes before it came out.

I told her it would be easy if she did it herself and just pressed on the tooth inwards and it would just pop out.

The answer was no.

I then asked her if she wanted me to take it out, and at first she said no, but I could see she was not afraid and wanted it to come out, but afraid to do it herself. So I called her over and said let me see again. She let me. So I just took it into my two fingers, pulled it down and it was over in 2 seconds. It started to bleed, we ran to bathroom, she washed her mouth with cold water for 2 min and that was it.

The excitement was pulsating out of her she was absolutely ecstatic, running all over. I sent her to look at herself in the mirror, she looked so cute with front tooth missing. I asked her if it hurt and she said nope.

Apparently multiple Tooth Fairies arrived immediately – special case for a special girl and she got 4 gold coins.

We put the tooth and coins in a plastic bag for safe keeping and decided that she would not tell mum and dad what happened and will wait until they had arrived. She would just start talking and see if they notice.

Lucky she did not have to bubble over for too long and first mum and then dad arrived and of course both noticed straight away with appropriate amount of excitement. Huge day for Josie!!

So there we have it. My big 6 year old has lost her third tooth! Thank god it didn't come out at school. I was having nightmares that she would lose it ;-)

On the street!

2009-03-20T19:29:00.001+11:00

Hear 'ye, hear 'ye. I am blogging from the car en route to Mat's!

Josie & The Teether 2003

2009-03-19T21:29:00.003+11:00

We were going through some old home videos and came across this one..
we laughed through the whole thing..

Update on Harry

2009-03-11T17:42:00.000+11:00

Just an update on the Harry situation:

Bec: So Josie how is Harry going?

Josie: He's good.

Bec: Have you told him you like him yet?

Josie: hmm... no. You see I love Harry but Harry loves May, but Harry also loves me too.

These are complicated matters in the first grade..

Josie-isms

2009-03-04T19:52:00.002+11:00

Vika & Becca brought Josie home from Baba's tonight, bursting with Josie-isms.

Becca was sitting in the car and telling Josie how Miriam has a boyfriend and that its so cute.

Josie: I also have a new boyfriend!
Becca: What about Beck? (old boyfriend from her old school)
Josie: Yeh Becks my boyfriend from my old school but I have a new boyfriend at my new school.
Becca: So whats his name?
Josie: His name is Harry.
Becca: So tell me about him.
Josie: Oh he's so annoying cause he keeps poking me with his pencil.. but I like it.
Becca: So whats gonna happen with Beck?
Josie: You know, he really doesn't like me hugging him, but I'm so in love with both of them!
Becca: Are you gonna tell Harry that you like him?
Josie: Oh god no, I'm just in love with him!

At Baba's Becca & Josie had a big discussion about who Josie loves and what level of love she reserves for Becca. Then in the car on the way home:
Becca: Tell Vika how much you love me.
Josie: I love you lots.
Vika: What about me?
Josie: Oh! I know the order of who I love now! Ok so first there's my parents, then my cousins (with Becca at the top), then there's the grandmas and the grandpas, then the uncles... and then the Vikas.
Vika: How many Vika's are there?
Josie: Just one!

And then..

Josie was really, really good on the way home with Becca and Becca told Vika that if she was good for Baba that she would get a black chip (reward system we use). Vika took Becca to Kumon, and Vika and Josie waited at Baba's while Vika kept an eye on Josie's behaviour.

Josie was watching one of her DVDs and was fully engrossed in the show, to the extent that she couldn't hear anything anyone said to her. Baba was trying to get her attention.

Baba: Josie.. Josie.. Josephine.. ? JOSIE!!! etc..

.. No reaction.

Vika: Josephine? Are you having hearing problems?
Josie: What?!!?
Vika: Baba is talking to you!

.. conversation with Baba ensues. 5 mins later, same scenario.

Then on the way home with Becca, Becca asked how she behaved and does she deserve a black chip.

Vika: Yeh, hmm I suppose..
Becca: Why? What happened? Josie, was there bad behaviour?
Josie: Well, you see, my ears.. they don't work properly.. and the Tv.. and it was just too loud.. and my ears just didnt work..
Becca: Josie! Seriously! Spit it out!
Josie: Ok. Well, you see, the problem is that my ears dont really work properly when the Tv is on because I cant really hear 2 things at once and the Tv is so loud and I cant hear and I have to tell Daddy about my ears.
Vika: Yeh its a big problem. You might have to go to the hospital and have an operation.
Josie (rolling her eyes): No.. dont be silly.. ill just turn it down!

Once they got here, we dumped Josie into the shower, when we heard: Daddy! Daddy!

Daddy sends Becca to go check.

Becca finds Josie sitting in the bath pointing to her ankle.
Josie: Look, I boompsed my foot bone!

And thats the end of the Josie-isms for today ;-)

Happy Anniversary 2009!!!!

2009-03-01T00:55:00.002+11:00

Another year has passed and again I find myself reflecting on the past year and the past, now 16, years of marriage to my other half, my soul-mate, the other side of my coin; head to my tails.

It's fair to say we've neither of us made it easy on the other a fair amount of the time but I'd not have it any other way. There is no other soul on this or any other planet that can be who she is to me, can occupy the space-time that she does, the sub-net of neural pathways that specify not a perfect match but an actual part of myself that must be found outside the self and which she embodies. When I say "I" I mean "we".

I had a dream a few years ago that I was young again, and deeply in love with a beautiful young lady.
And when I woke up and realized it had been only a dream I felt a profound sense of loss; it had felt so real. I felt the tiniest inkling of bereavement. And I was depressed for days afterward.

When I finally came out of my funk I found that details of the dream had faded and were lost. And amongst the fragments I had lost was the face of the young lady. I felt that I knew her from somewhere in real life; an actress, perhaps a childhood crush - I couldn't remember.
Time passed and the memory haunted me less until finally I forgot about it altogether.

Late last year Mari started scanning old photos given to her by all parts of her extended family. And 3 weeks ago she showed me a picture that shot like lightning to my heart and squeezed. I was almost driven to the floor with the power of it. But for the photograph I knew to be the cause I would have thought I must be having a heart attack.

She had found the young lady.
In an old photograph in an old photo album that had lain forgotten in the bottom of a packing box in our shed.
It was Mari.

I knew it was so immediately.
The only image I had left of the dream was a vision of the young lady smiling at me with love; a vaguely familiar room in the background. The room in the background of this photograph.

16 years is a long time. And people change a lot in such timeframes. And in other ways they change very little. And in both ways is the strength of love tested and strained. And the fierce, sharp feeling of those first few days, weeks and months becomes a memory. Replaced by a distant echo of the original.

When my subconscious sought to feel once again the fire of the first passion, it brought my Mari back to me from the distant past and reminded me of the girl who drove all thoughts of others from me. Burned them out with a searing flame until there was nothing left inside but a vision of her, etched on the walls of my mind. Emblazoned on my retinae, ever after I saw only her.

It is for this reason that no matter the row, no matter the problem, no matter the sting of harsh words, I cannot hold onto anger. I cannot hold onto anything but the love I feel. All else slips, silky, through my fingers like smoke and is blown away. Blown away by the solar wind of the sun she ignited in my chest those many years ago.

I can but pray nightly that the same is so for her.
Because I am not easy to live with.

Happy Anniversary Baby. I Love You.

iPhone Contacts Sync Epic FAIL!

2009-02-24T16:05:00.002+11:00

So I set my iPhone to sync contacts and it asks me "Do you want to sync your gmail contacts list?". So I say "awesome YE-ES!" and away it goes.

The next time I need to ring someone I open up the contacts list and HOLY BAT..er...POO BATMAN!(tm) there are 600+ contacts in my list. What the hell?!

Turns out it creates a new contact for every email address found in the gMail contacts list. And since every email address you ever send to or receive from is entered into your contacts list in gMail this is a phenomenally bad idea. This was The Little Fail.

So I lived with it for a few weeks and then a couple days ago finally put in the time (45mins!) to delete all the crap. And then just now I went to email someone in gMail and typed in the first few letters of their address and waited for the auto-completion to do it's thing. And then I waited some more. And some more. And then I started to panic. And then I absolutely flipped out!

When I sync'd my iphone this morning it went back to gmail and removed all the stuff I removed from the phone!!!! Now I know, I know; that's what "sync" means stoopid. Yes, yes it does. However in my defense usually when an ipod talks about sync it is talking about between itself and iTunes. I had assumed (I know, again; ass...me...yeah) it would download th econtacts from gmail and store them in iTunes and then sync between the iphone and iTunes!

This sux. *8'(

Disaster Averted: iPod Nearly Lost At Sea!

2009-02-21T23:10:00.006+11:00

So most of the time I walk around the house with my iPhone headphones snaking from the iPod in my back pocket up my back under my shirt, out the back of my collar and into one ear.

Well earlier today I went to the loo to perform some 'routine maintenance' and I walk in, turn around... do a little dance, make a little love, get down tonight... sorry where was I? Oh right, so I turn around and drop trow and my spider-sense kicks in suddenly; something doesn't feel right. A horrifying thought occurs to me and I turn around very carefully and my worst fears (of the moment at least) are confirmed as I behold the dry-mouth inducing sight of my 'pod dangling precariously from it's earphone cable over the bowl!

As the opening scenes of Cliffhanger race through my mind, I VERY carefully reach forth, and with the concentration of a neurosurgeon, enclose it once more in the safety of it's masters hand.

After reeling it in I was so shaken I had to sit down for a moment, which I was going to do for longer in the first place so that part worked out well.

Be careful people. Do YOU know where your iPod is right now?

Mr Mom

2009-02-11T09:55:00.003+11:00

Mari had a seminar in the city yesterday and today she is sick.
So I've been in charge of the child from first thing in the morning for two days.
And for the second day in a row we (the child and I) were late for school.

Tony: C'mon sweetie out of the car quick we're running late!
Josie: We have to get a late note.
Tony: Did your teacher tell you yesterday?
Josie: Yeah. I didn't know where to get it then but I know now. You have to go to the office. And I want YOU to come with me!
Tony: *Sheepish* yes dear.

I've never actually seen Mari hand the jar she keeps my testicles in to Josie as they tag out in the morning but it must happen.

Incidentally at 6 years of age children do not see the late note process as a negative, deterrent-type experience. Josie is so excited to go to the office to get her late note I fear we may need to go to the office via the toilets before she pees her pants. And once acquired holds it clutched, triumphantly in her little fist and waves it about like a trophy.
Josie: IIII have a late noooote! Yeeeesssss! *in her best Bea Arthur voice*

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

So we go to the office and I tell the nice lady that we need a late note.

She stops smiling. Obviously I've committed a terrible crime against humanity.

She regains her composure, looks at her watch and seems to need to revise reality so that this crime has, in fact, not been perpetrated on her watch.

Lady: They usually give you a couple of minutes.... but if they've read the roll already... you better get one.

She seems defeated by the facts and unable to complete her attempt to alter reality so that we are not, in fact, 5 minutes late for class. She then proceeds to point out all the places on the small form where not only is it clear that I have to fill something in but it is labeled clearly with what I have to fill that particular space with.

Lady: Put her name here. *in the underlined space with "NAME" under it.
Lady: Date here. *in the space with the unmistakable date-separator slashes*
etc etc etc
Lady: You can put a reason for being late here if you want, it's not mandatory.

So I begin filling in the form and two fields in, and in the midst of an internal monologue mocking the lady for pointing out all the obvious fields, I am stumped for the date. So I ask the child (as you do when your most constant companion is a little person who seems more like an 80year old curmudgeon - like George Burns basically - than a 6 year old girl). Who, of course, has no idea. Another nice lady in the office looks at me like I'm a mental defective.

Lady #2: What did you need to know? *she didn't hear the question, but she knows by the familiar pattern of sound that one of the idiot parents has asked their child for some actual information that needs to approach correct, and that the child has answered in the inevitable and distinctive sound pattern identifiable from 100 yards as "Idontknow?!"*

And then proceeds to give me yesterdays date, which I don't discover until I get to work 30mins later. So I continue filling out the form.

Name: Josephine Hill
Date: 10/2/2009
Class: *classified*
Reason my son/daughter is late: Mummy is sick and Daddy is hopeless.

Hill Xmas & New Year Wrap Up Plus Mega Update

2009-01-14T17:28:00.009+11:00

Us at The Eiger

I really should not have left it this long to blog cause my world famous memory is growing fuzzy ;-)

Knowing my world famous memory, I enlisted my niece Becca to do some of the work for me ;-)
______

24th&25th- Xmas Lights, Sleepover and Trudy's
On Christmas Eve, Mari, Tony, Josie, Rach and I went on our annual Christmas Lights inspection, doing our usual Eastern Suburbs swoop. They did not disappoint this year, the display was spectacular and we even managed to catch some illegal firework action in one place.

The girls had an amazing time "ohhing" and "ahhing" at all the pretty bright lights. The one particular house we make a stop at every year, with the Luna Park display, was just as beautiful as ever. Unfortunately 2008 was their last year putting up the lights as it is an elderly couple who own the house and cant manage putting it up anymore. Josie particularly enjoys this house because she has been coming to see it every year for the last 4-5 years, and while she isn't so impressed by the lights anymore she still gets a kick out of the bubble machine and the ice cream truck parked out side of the house.

The girls managed to stay awake until around 10:30 before their eyelids wouldn't stay open any longer. Mari, Tony and I drove around for another hour before calling it quits and driving home.

Last year Mari and Tony had been going through a Tetris obsession phase and had even bought it on the Wii. Mari was set on getting me into it so she could play it over the Wii with me and made me stay up for another hour watching them play Tetris, even though I was asleep half the time, only being awoken by their random outbursts of "Silence, I kill you!".

The next morning I went with the Hills to Trudy's place for Xmas lunch, it was beautiful. The food was magnificent and I was very grateful to have been invited. After lunch, everybody opened gifts, one particular gift that stood out was Mat and Wendy's present to Mari: "Twilight: the complete and illustrated movie companion". I was very jealous as I had wanted this also but it was sold out, not just in every store but from the warehouse too! It is currently on my bedside table, where I am taking my time reading and enjoying it before I have to return it to Mari ;).

After the gifts, everyone played Singstar ABBA & Disney, which was a great hit! All in all Christmas 2008 was excellent.
______

Thanks Becca for putting the time in to write this up.

Now to the rest of it.

On the 26th, we had our Boxing Day at Mat's with David, Jacqui, Philip, Trudy, Carol & Gloria. Lunch was magnificent as usual and Josie even got to make cookies with the awesome cookie making set that Mat & Wendy got her.

On the 27th we had our New Years get together at my parents place where we had the entire family over, 30+ people!! It was very crowded. Food was awesome as usual and it was good seeing the cousins who we never see much (Rach, Zac, Ian, Daniel *POKE*). Ian (being the oldest) played Santa and gave out all the presents to the kids. They had a ball and Josie got very spoilt.

On the 28th, we went and saw Madagascar 2 again. Tony hadn't seen it the first time and Josie loved it. I am keen on taking her to the movies a lot. She has this irrational fear of the movies and we really need to get her over that. We also saw Bolt a few days after that. Bolt was an awesome movie. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Tony & Gloria at The Eiger

We also had a couple of cleaning days where Tony and I spent many hours cleaning out Josie's room and the living room. We managed to get together 6 garbage bags, yes SIX, of old toys, to give to charity. I felt so good afterwards! And her room suddenly looked so much neater!

On New Years Eve we went to Mat's. This has become kind of a tradition now. Mat cooks, we eat, Davo throws Josie around.. its tradition..

After we had dinner, Tony spent an hour trying to get his trial contacts into his eyes, then he gave up cause we had to go to Easties to watch the 9pm fireworks from the rooftop.

The fireworks were great, but too short! We came back to Mat's after only about 20 mins, and managed to enjoy the Coogee fireworks from Mat's window a whole lot more. Those went for almost 30 mins!

At some point during the night, Mat put on this wierd asian cooking show where they showed this competition where these people had to speed cook this huge fish so that it's body was cooked but it's head was still breathing. It was SO wrong. I have NEVER seen anything like it. They stuck the poor fish's tail into the boiling oil up to its neck. They then quickly pulled it out and plopped it on a platter, and the body was all deep friend and the head was still moving as it opened its mouth to breathe in and out. It was awful! They did the same thing with a snake. The chopped it up and cooked it so fast that when they put it on the plate, the chopped up parts were still slithering!! *SHUDDER*

Jan 4th, we had dinner at Vika's and Vika made a mountain of BBQ Octopus and a HUGE pot of crabs. OMG it was good. We sat there for HOURS fiddling with the crab. HOURS. MMmmmmm!!!!

Vika & Becca at The Eiger

I went back to work on the 5th, and to be honest, it was a relief. It was good to get my mind working again, and the air conditioning was niiiice. Have I mentioned yet how hot it has been? No? I'll get to it..

The next few weeks consisted of us ferrying Josie from one Grandmother to the other. She slept over one night each week at one, then the other grandmother's, and the rest of the days stayed with Baba or Granny or Becca, as well as one day of vacation camp per week. She wasn't really impressed with the Vacation Camp.. mainly I think cause Rachel wasnt there and she didnt know anyone but we encouraged her to make new friends.. she would have to do that anyway once she started school there.

Josie, Dyeda & Baba at the Eiger

On Jan 20th, we celebrated Josie's 6th birthday by going over to Baba's for dinner. She got spoilt once again, but on the plus side, it marked the day when a big change took effect. She was no longer to have big girl sleeps (where daddy or I sat in the room while she fell asleep). She would be going to sleep by herself every night now (which she has done successfully). We have had some whinging, calling and constant excuses to get up, but we're getting there ;-)

On Australia Day we went over to Vika's for another Octopus & Crab dinner. Once again it was DELISH!

On the 26th, we went to Trudy's to celebrate Philip's 16th and Josie's 6th. Again, the food was awesome and the kids had a great time.

This brings us to the start of school. On the 28th, Tony & I both took Josie for her first day at her new school. She was nervous. We were nervous-er. She took it much better than we I did. They put into classes, sitting on the ground, but of course Josie didn't have a class so one of the teachers took her hand and led her over to her class. Josie sat down and listened to the Principal give a little speech and then they all got up and got led away to their classroom. Josie looked a bit forlorn but bravely went off.

I had a bit of a cry.

That Sunday was a busy one. We had Stacey's birthday party in the morning, which was heaps of fun. And the weather wasn't too hot, so that was a bonus.

Afterwards we had lunch at Coogee with Mirna & Rob, Granny, and Kylie who is visiting from Scotland. It was hot hot hot! Lunch was lovely, and catching up with Kye was great! Afterwards we went for a walk along the beach where Josie just *HAD* to get into the sand, much to my horror.
This brings us to February. Dinner at Mums on the 6th for Vika's birthday was nice. Great food as always, and air conditioning. It just can't be bad ;-)

Which brings us to this weekend's horror bushfires in Victoria. You will have heard, and if you haven't, you have been living under a rock, like my husband!

I remember the 2001 fires in Helensburgh, and they were not as bad as this. 131 dead so far.. its just so heartbreaking. If you can, go donate some blood. I wish I could, but I only donated for the first time ever about 2 weeks ago and you can only do it every 3 months or so. Otherwise I would be right there.

So on Sunday we had lunch at The Eiger Swiss Restaurant. As usual the food was divine.

Swiss Barley Soup

Chicken Schnitzel with Spaetzele & Roesti

Grand Manier Ice Cream with cream

Chocolate Fondue

And the after effects of the Chocolate Fondue.. This is Chocolate Fondue Art by Becca.

Mat & Kaylee at the Eiger

Which brings us to today. Today was my first day as Team Leader at work. My team consists of 5 people, and I have to say, today was not much different from last week ;-) But I am very excited to have this opportunity and I am *STILL*, after 2 years, loving my job.

On a completely different note.. this is a Dragonfruit. My first one. It was delish, and oh so pretty!

And thats about it folks. I have uploaded a heap of photos lately at Flickr, so do check them out. And I have finally succumbed to the dark side that is Twitter (find me as charis1974). I tried it out in 2007, but got bored very quickly. I am hoping its better now..

Till next time!

Josie's Faux 6th Birthday & Mega Update

2008-12-22T16:17:00.010+11:00

I know, I know! Its been ages!

Everyone and their mother has complained.

I'm updating, I'm updating!

So whats been happening.. lets work backwards..

I started my Xmas leave today so Josie & Becca and I went and saw Madagascar 2 this morning. The movie was awesome! Then I had to do some shopping so I dragged Josie around the shopping centre. She drove me absolutely crazy with the "I want that.." and "Can I have that??" and "I wanna push the trolley!!" and "Don't touch the trolley!!". ARGH!

The rest of the day was spent playing Wii, and Rummikub and watching cartoons ;-)

Yesterday was a very relaxing day for me. Josie went off to a birthday party in the morning, and then Tony took her to Granny's so that he could put up the new trampoline there. He didn't finish, but I had a great day sending thank you emails and editing photos and catching up on the Tivo.

Josie had her 6th birthday party on Saturday. We had a 'Magical Jester' who was a great hit with both child and adult alike. The kids ran riot, played on the park equipment, and were generally rowdy.

The cake was great, much better than last years!

After the party we went to Vika's for present opening and a sumptuous crab & octopus dinner. It was absolutely awesome! The present opening was lots of fun and Josie got a bunch of excellent presents.

Friday was an interesting day.

To adequately explain Friday, we must go back a week. Tony went to a regular eye check up last Saturday. As part of the routine tests, they discovered some discolouration on the back of one eyeball. After some furtive looks by the optometrists, and a strong suggestion he go see a retinal specialist, and soon, Tony was reduced to a freaked-out puddle of stress. Especially since it was on the same side of the face as the skin cancer that was removed several months ago.

That was Saturday.

Appointment was made for Friday with a top of the line, mega special retinal specialist on Macquarie St. (Ooooer Macquarie St apparently!)

Meanwhile.. Tony decided the internet was the place to alleviate his worries..

By Tuesday Mr Freaked-Out was near catatonic, so we went and saw Dr George the family doctor hoping for a prescription for Valium. Dr George delivered Tony. Dr George knows the family inside and out. Dr George refused to prescribe Valium and insisted Tony should take some Zyrtec. Uh huh.

While there we showed Dr George the retinal scans and Dr George scoffed at the C word and said it was definitely a vascular kind of thing. This made us feel heaps better! Well me anyway, Tony wasn't gonna feel any better till he saw Dr Macquarie St.

The week passed in a sludge of worry and sleepless nights.

Friday morning was a relief when it rolled around. The appt was at 7:40am. Yes, that's in the morning, folks. We had to wake up at 6am. That in itself was stressful enough.

So after finding parking right next to the Retinal Centre on Macquarie St in a parking station that charged $28 for the first hour, assuring ourselves we would only be about an hour and then choking a bit over the price.. we headed inside.

After getting more and more stressed over the waiting time, and watching the parking fees roll by, we finally went in to do the initial eye tests and have the drops to dilate the pupil. The lady doing the tests asked some questions about why we were there (couldn't she read the referral note??) and Tony told her about Dr George's thoughts about the shadow being vascular. She wrote it all down.

Then he got the drops and we went back out to the waiting room to wait for the pupils to dilate.

By this time, I was resigned to the amount of money we would be spending on parking that day. You can't put a price on health.. You can't put a price on health..

After what seemed like an eternity (and meanwhile noticing that Tony's right pupil dilated kind of funny.. sort of droopy in shape) we finally went into the room with the big machinery.

They took photos of his eyes, and scans, and then put dye in, and took more photos and more scans.. and at certain points Dr Macquarie St graced us with his presence, chewed out the assistants for not taking the right kind of shots, the shots being off centre or fuzzy etc, and then withdrew again.

Finally he came in and had a good look at the pictures, and asked about the referral (to which the assistant replied that he had only read the other lady's report and not the referral, which he got chewed out about as well).

Dr Macquarie St picked up the report and scoffed "What's this vasculitis stuff?? Pff! What you have is a small tumor on the eye".

Huh?! What did he say?!

I must have looked like I was going to pass out because he came over to me to see if I was ok.. Meanwhile Tony looked like he was about to pass out himself.

Doctors seem to always insist on using words that are very likely to scare their patients half to death.

After making sure that I was ok, he went on to say that the tumor was very small and at this stage we don't know if it was benign or.. not. We needed to do more tests and then we will be able to tell whats what.. in about 10 minutes.

So we waited around, and got the very good news that the discolouration is just a freckle and we would just need to monitor it in 6 months for any growth.

So after paying for our $660 freckle, retrieving our $65 parked car, we finally made it to work around lunch time, a lot less stressed (surprisingly) than we were on Thursday.

So that was Friday..

Nothing much happened through the week (mostly due to the stress), but on Monday was Josie's Kindy graduation presentation where she performed in the choir and received her graduation certificate. It was very cute, and also very sad.

We have told her that she will be going to a new school next year, and while she took it a lot better than we had anticipated, we're not there yet. That first month is still looking a bit scary.

But we have her uniform, and she has been going to the After School Care at the new school, so she knows her surroundings now, but it is still very sad to be leaving her current school, where she has been through 2 years of pre-school and a year of Kindy.

We have also started Josie on Violin lessons with her cousin Jacqui who started Violin herself when she was Josie's age. We bought her a 1/4 violin and she just loves her lessons.

That brings us back to last Sunday when we spent most of the day at Grandma Trudy's doing some massive gardening in her backyard. Well Tony & David did most of the work, with help from Carol, Philip, Jacqui and myself.

We managed to clear out a mountain of green, and unearth one very large Mummy Redback Spider & her flock.

Surprisingly, Tony didn't freak out! He just sent Carol for the spider spray ;-) Mrs Redback didn't stand a chance.

And that brings us back to Saturday again. Saturday night Vika, Becca, Tony & I went to see Twilight at Greater Union Gold Class. It. Was. So. Good.

So good.

Not as good as the books. Obviously. But good enough! And now they are making the 2nd book into a movie (New Moon) !! A.W.E.S.O.M.E !

And thats about it. I'm not gonna go further than a week cause.. well.. this is long enough ;-) I'd be surprised if you're still reading at this point.

So I think the next update will now be next year.

Have a great Xmas/Channukah/New Year !

And now..

2008-11-05T22:02:00.003+11:00

Introducing Miss Kaylee Michelle Kwok Yee Hill..

Could you just eat her!?

Go Obama!

2008-11-05T14:20:00.000+11:00

.. 'nuff said..

Welcome Kaylee Michelle Kwok Yee!

2008-10-30T08:34:00.010+11:00

Well I am an Aunty for the second time. HUGE congrats to Mat & Wendy!

SMS's recorded for posterity (the black is Mat, the red is me)..

29/10/08 2:56:02 - Waters broken. At the hospital getting checked out. No labour yet.
29/10/08 11:51:59 - No labour yet. Ob/gyn's just been in. Wendy's got until tomorrow morning to go into labour and then they'll start talking to us about inducing.
29/10/08 19:43:11 - Just to clarify, if Wendy should go into labour at 3am, do you want me to call ?
29/10/08 19:43:30 - Yes!
29/10/08 19:44:09 - LOL. Okie.
29/10/08 19:48:05 - How is she doing?
29/10/08 19:50:26 - Bored. Been napping. Bought a Uno deck to play with her.
29/10/08 19:51:16 - ROFL!
29/10/08 21:25:23 - We have early contractions. But not regular yet.
29/10/08 21:25:51 - Woo!
29/10/08 23:14:39 - 3-4cm. Wendy's decided to go the epidural. Not yet headed down to delivery.
29/10/08 23:15:47 - Geez its gonna be a long night.
29/10/08 23:18:52 - Nah the first few cm are the slowest. It should be over in a couple of hours.
29/10/08 23:38:05 - Packed up ready to go down to delivery. Wendy's just had some pethidine. Waiting on a free room I think.
29/10/08 23:36:50 - Ok wimping out. Send sms updates but dont call. Going to bed ;-)
29/10/08 23:39:26 - LOL! You big wuss! This is shaping up to be a quick delivery.
29/10/08 23:39:31 - Ooo wonder if she will make midnight. Funny we both had night babies. Typical with you two.
29/10/08 23:40:28 - Is Ant going to be willing to bring mum and dad or should I tell mum to bring herself?
29/10/08 23:41:25 - Tonight?
29/10/08 23:42:45 - Mum will want to come tonight I think.
29/10/08 23:45:37 - Ok he said he will get your mum but your dad is still sick.
30/10/08 12:20:19 - How many cm? How far apart?
30/10/08 01:39:24 - 8cm. Epidural in.
30/10/08 02:23:34 - Oh yummy. Mucus and blood. Just waiting for 10cm now. Nearly fainted earlier for no adequately explored reason.
30/10/08 02:54:35 - Fully dilated at 2:50am.. and all you big girlie wusses are snug in your beds. Hmph!
30/10/08 05:29:23 - Everything ok?
30/10/08 05:30:37 - Coming out right now.
30/10/08 05:31:14 - Like now now?
30/10/08 05:32:33 - Wow and Zak just had a hairball!!
30/10/08 05:33:10 - Push! Push!
30/10/08 05:33:15 - Out. ;-)
30/10/08 05:33:51 - Woo!!

And thus Kaylee Michelle came into this world.. ;-)

The Young & The Newsless

2008-10-23T20:43:00.005+11:00

Just a quick post. We will be posting our Holiday Story soon ;-)

Tony was sitting with Josie tonight as she went to sleep, listening to his iPod.
Josie [whispered]: Daddy?
Tony: Yeeeeesssss?
Josie: Are you laughing?
Tony [hesitates (knowing he's going to get in trouble from the little Hitler)]: ...yes
Josie [crossly]: Daddy! What are you laughing at?
Tony: Nothing.. a podcast I listen to.
Josie: What is it?
Tony: Nothing you would be interested in, go to sleep.
Josie [also crossly]: Tell me!
Tony [frustrated]: Its a podcast, its news, its about the news, you dont like news, you're bored of news.
Josie: No I'm not! I watch the news with Baba every morning!
Tony: What!? What news???
Josie: Uhm.. its called.. The Young and The Restless...

Tony groans.

Labour Day Long Weekend Update

2008-10-07T18:35:00.003+11:00

So the weekend was long and involved ;-)

We started on Friday when we went to Uncle Mat's for dinner. Had a lovely time and even played Carcasonne a few times. When I started to doze off, we went home.

Saturday morning, my darling husband let me sleep in, and then didn't wake me up, so I ended up waking at around midday! We spent Saturday lazing around the house, and then went and saw Wall.E in the afternoon, which turned out to be a fabulous movie! Josie liked it too ;-)

Saturday night we watched a few episodes of Stargate. We have been watching Stargate almost all year now and have just started Season 9. Its actually quite exciting cause we watched the show when it was just out for about 6 years religiously, and then in Season 7 kind of lost interest, but it was still our favourite show so we had all the DVD season as they came out and we didn't really worry about it cause we could always catch up. Then this year we decided to finally catch up but we had to start from the beginning cause my memory is shocking. So the last Season or so we have been watching episodes as if they were new, which they are to us. Very exciting ;-) I know. Sad. But exciting! ;-)

On Sunday I decided to let Tony sleep in, since he had let me sleep in, but it was daylight savings, so at 11am, it was now midday, so I could wake him up at 11am and honestly say it was midday! Mwahahaha!

So at midday, after an hour or so of playing Uno (Josie loves it!), she and I went in to wake up daddy.. and make him play Uno too (he loves it too!). As we got settled onto the bed, a distant sound caught my attention. The sound was low, but close. It tolled like a church bell in a rhythm that stirred many childhood memories.

Mr Whippy! Driving down MY street! I suddenly thought of Eddie Murphy in Delirious (or was it Raw??) and yelled ICE CREAAAAMMM!!!! ICE CREAAAAMMMM!!!

After a few pointed looks at Tony, he sighed and hurried to pull on pants and a tshirt, Josie ran to get shoes, and off they hurried down the street after Mr Whippy, with me yelling "I want the nutty one, with the flake!!".

Fulfilling their mission superbly, the mighty explorers came back with the loot.

After scoffing down our melting soft serve chocolate nutty scoops of heaven (ok I exaggerate, but I'm in the moment..) we played a few hands of Uno (with Josie deftly hiding her cards and then winning the game on more occasions than I would like to admit), we went off to Uncle Mat's to help him (well for Tony to help him and us to 'hang out') with the nursery. The room is looking great with Josie's old cot and a new single bed in there.. not long now!! ;-)

We hung out there for a few hours before being invited out to dinner with Wendy's family. Dinner was lovely and Josie entertained the table with her hilarity and occasional tantrum ;-)

When we got home we watched another few episodes of Stargate ;-) Once we finish Season 10 of Stargate, we move on to Stargate Atlantis (an offshoot series), then move onto Xena: Warrior Princess (which we also didn't watch the entire series of), and after Xena.. well ask me in a couple of years ;-)

So that brings us to today. This morning I met Vika and Becca and we all (minus the sleeping husband) went and saw Beverly Hills Chihuahua. It was better than I was expecting. I even cried in a few moments (altho Vika started crying way before I did). After the movie we went and got Daddy and went to Vika's to hang out for the rest of the afternoon.

We first went to a park up the road from them, where we stayed for all of 5 minutes before heading back because:

a. It looked like it was about to rain.
b. It was getting cold.
c. Josie suddenly decided she was hungry.
d. Josie suddenly decided she needed to go to the toilet.

*rolls eyes*

We spent most of the afternoon playing Uno (Becca has a special Harry Potter set). Then we watched some Australian Idol. Then we played some Wii. Then Tony put Josie to bed, while we played some more Wii. Then we watched a bit more of Idol and then we went home. In amongst all that, Vika painted Josie's, Becca's and my toes and fingers. So now I am all ready to take on the Gold Coast ;-)

As we were playing Uno, Josie was getting more and more disgruntled at having to pick up cards (Daddy kept giving her pick up cards!). So out of nowhere, silently, daddy got handed the following note:

.. which was quickly followed by:

.. just so I didnt feel left out ;-) And she didn't actually write 'You suck my mum'. She was trying to write 'mum' but ran out of space ;-)

Josie has another Vacation Camp tomorrow, then is going swimming and spending the day with Becca, then is going to Baba's and then has another camp on Friday. Tony and I are taking Friday off to pack and get ready for the trip and then Saturday morning we are off!! Woohoo!

I am dire need of a vacation! ;-)

And SoThe Preparation Begins..

2008-09-29T21:48:00.002+10:00

Some may know, some may not, but we are moving Josie out of the private school she has been at for the last 3 years, to a public school in our area. The private school fees were just doing us in.

We are just dreading the day that we have to tell her, and the first few weeks of term 1 next year. She has never been very good with change, and new situations. I guess like most 5 year olds, she is frightened of the unknown, and who can blame her ;-)

So we had and idea that might make the transition to the new school more manageable.

The new school has an after school/before school/vacation care center, right there in the grounds. Its very convenient and not too expensive. So we thought, why not introduce her to it this year. And taking it one step further, why not enrol her in a few vacation camps over the holidays.

So today was the first camp. It was a science camp, and I was having panic attacks last night, imagining the scene that I would have to get through when I left her there this morning.

So we've been telling her for a week or so now that she would be going to three days of camps over the first two weeks of the holidays. She was quite excited at first, she's been to vacation camps before, but affiliated with her current school and where some of her friends go. Last night though, she asked the fateful question: "Will Rachel be there?". And we told her "no".

I must say, she handled it well. She was upset at first, but then accepted it, and was... I wouldn't say happy to go.. lets just say.. tolerant of the idea. I was relieved. We gave her a mission, to find out about two kids and tell us their names and what school they go to. We are hoping she will form some good friendships out of this to carry on till next year.

Then going to bed, she started moaning that she didn't want to go and that she was shy. I was unrelieved.

This morning I was nervous about how she would react. I let her pick out what to wear (a skirt was the key ;-), I told her I would stay for a little while till she was comfortable, and she relented a bit.

I kept up a steady chatter on the way to the school. Its only a 10 min drive from home. When we got there she was introduced to another kindy girl there, Ella, and sat down to colour in. I went and signed her in, chatted with the supervisor, and then sat down next to her. She looked over at me and said: "Mummy, I'm a little bit less shy". This was promising. After a few minutes, I said to her, "You're looking a lot more comfortable now sweety, can I go?" and she said: "not just yet..". I waited a few more minutes, told her I needed to get to work, she rolled her eyes, said "Oh alright then" and went back to her drawing.

Drama averted.

I fretted at work. Even called up to see how she was going and was told that she was good, having a great time, but she had lost her toy dog, but she wasnt upset. Ahh well, if thats the worst that happened today..

I went to pick her up after work at about 530pm and could barely drag her out. She was colouring in, absolutely filthy, and her dog was found, buried under the bark in the playground. Blergh.

And there was a kid, who apparently moaned and cried for her dad from about 5 minutes after he left, till the end of the day. Josie seemed quite proud that she was ok.

As its Erev Rosh Hashana, we were off to Baba's for dinner so on our way we chatted about her day.

Mari: So did you have fun today?
Josie: Yes!
Mari: And did you complete your mission?
Josie: Yes I did! The two kids I found out about were Ella and Aiden and they both go to this school.
Mari: And were they nice?
Josie: Yep, I played with them allllll day! And I played in the playground the most, and I watched a movie! It was Garfield.
Mari: Thats great honey, I'm so glad you had a great day!

So I am incredibly relieved that it went well.

Dinner at Baba's was lovely, if not noisy. I dont think I have ever seen a quite day when Josie and her cousin Jayden are together. The two of them are just... loud!!

So after dinner, and once Jayden had left, I put Josie to bed, and went home. She is spending the day at Baba's tomorrow.

Hopefully next week's two camps go as well as today's did.

Night Wanderings

2008-09-15T21:09:00.003+10:00

So we're getting a bit concerned that Josie is still in night nappies. She is such a heavy, deep sleeper that she just does not wake up when she wants to go.

In the last few weeks we have started putting her to bed in undies, and then getting her up and walking her to the bathroom to go to the toilet at about midnightish, when we go to sleep. She does (usually) a wee, and then we whack a nappy on her for the rest of the night. The last week or so she has been waking with a completely dry nappy, usually. So she has one, maybe two wee's a night.

When we get her up at midnight, she is usually so hugely groggy that we have to lead her to the bathroom. She usually cannot even open her eyes, and she wobbles all over the place. And afterwards, she usually comes in to bed with us.

So last night, Tony asked me to bring her into bed with us, and closed her bedroom door. When she came out of the toilet, she was so out of it, she went directly to her own room and pushed the door open. I asked her if she wanted to come into bed with us, and she stood there thinking for about 5 seconds before turing around and climbing into her own bed, turning over and instantly going to sleep.

Daddy was VERY put out.. lol...

And then the other night she wandered out of the bathroom after drying her hands, took a step towards her own room, changed her mind, turned around and walked straight into me, shuffled backwards a step, tried a couple more times without success before putting her head down and forearming me out of the way with a little grunt of inarticulate rage and frustration. She looked like she was muttering to herself and gesticulating as she stumbled around to daddy's side of the bed, got in and fell instantly asleep.

Mari's 6th 29th Birthday Celebrations

2008-09-14T10:30:00.005+10:00

Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes. I had a fantastic day this year.

First, my wonderful husband allowed me to sleep in, and got up with Josie when she woke up.

Then I got a call from Harri, and it was so good to catch up ;-)

Then I got to open some presents - a great set of hair accessories from Harri, Sven & Ella, and from my daughter an amazing iPod ready, audio synched, vibrating seat!

It has speakers up the top, and cables where you can connect your iPod, or connect the cable to your computer. And then, it has vibrating massage settings that you can set on Audio Sync (where it will vibrate in time to the music) or use three settings that vibrate in different patterns up and down your back and along the seat. It is just AWESOME!!

So after trying that for a while (I am using it right now!!), we got ready to go off to Yum Cha for lunch with mum & dad, Vika & Becca.

After trying a new Yum Cha place (East Ocean in Chinatown) last week for Father's Day, which we found to be as good as Marigold, we decided to go back to our old stomping grounds. East Ocean was very expensive.

Yum Cha was.. well.. yum.. and I got some more presents, the monetary kind from my parents and sister & Becca, and Tony gave me another present, a silver chain, he had gotten me a photo engraved silver pendant for Mother's Day this year that I didnt have a chain to put it on. Now I do ;-) It has a photo of Josie on one side, and Tony and Josie on the other. See below.

Afterwards, we went and voted (local elections) and then went home. We hung around at home for a couple of hours, and then dropped off Josie with Granny, and off we went to Mari's Birthday Mega Movie Marathon.

We saw three movies.

The Mummy 3 was good.. it came no where near The Mummy 1 & 2, bt it was entertaining. We missed Rachel Weiss, it was not the same without her. Jet Li wasn't in it all that much but he was good too.

HellBoy 2 was probably my favourite of the three. It was funny. The main Big Bad in it is played by Luke Goss! Who is Luke Goss you might ask.. well!! For those of you who grew up in the late 80's/90's, you should be ashamed of yourselves! Luke Goss, together with his brother Matt, asked the eternal question: When will I, will I, be famous?? Yes, after calling a halt to Bros, Luke went on to be an actor! I can't believe I actually recognised his name, but I still had to confirm with IMDB this morning ;-)

And then Tropic Thunder. Oh Tropic Thunder... the stupidest, most moronic, idiotic movie since Chicken Park. Seriously. It was so stupid I even laughed a lot. Usually I love Ben Stiller, in a sort of 'watching a car accident' kind of way... but this.. was.. just painful.. Tom Cruise was very funny.. Jack Black wasn't.. Robert Downey Jnr was just.. brilliant. Absolutely saved the movie for me.

We got home around 1130pm or so and watched an episode of Stargate, and then crashed (although towards the end of the episode I was so tired I was actually whimpering to go to sleep..). Had a lovely sleep in this morning till 10am, that never happens!! ;-)

So all in all, it was a lovely birthday, thanks to my wonderful hubby ;-)

Dropping Like Flies

2008-08-25T21:57:00.002+10:00

Josie lost her second tooth on Sunday!

She now has a huge gap at the bottom of her mouth! And the new tooth coming through from the first lost one is clearly visible and peeking out!

Waaaaa !

In Threes..

2008-08-22T18:49:00.005+10:00

Back when Tony had his operation, which was shortly followed by my mum having her thyroid out, my sister said to me that these things happen in threes.

I poo poo'd her.

So Tony is fine, his scars are healed and he is having 6 monthly skin specialist checkups (when he remembers to make his appointment!).

Mum is recovering from her surgery nicely. It was difficult the first few days post op, getting her calcium dosage right, the scar healing, the nausea and tiredness. Now she is doing better and the pathology on the thyroid came back non-cancerous. Excellent.

So that was two.

And now, ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce number three.

Last Thursday, when preparing to go see mum in hospital, I was carrying some bags into the house, when I lost my footing, my ankle gave way and I fell (typically) face first, arms (typically) above my head, with an earth-shattering kaboom!

A bit shaky, got up and went inside and didn't think anything more of it (well except that Mat and Tony would piss themselves that I fell, and kick themselves that they missed it!). I felt a bit achy but I figured it was shock, and a badly grazed knee.

I went to the hospital and sat around with mum, dad and Vika waiting for them to take her to surgery. I started telling them about my fall (only cause I suddenly remembered about it when my grazed knee kept rubbing against the inside of my jeans), and suddenly realised that it hurt when I laughed. In fact it was hurting when I took a deep breath in.

I toyed for a while about popping into emergency for them to check me out but figured even if my ribs were fractured, the best they could do was give me some panadeine forte. So I bravely took the pain and tried to ignore it.

That night was horrific. Not only could I not sleep on my left side at all, but I couldn't lie flat on my back either. I thought I was going to go crazy. Every time I moved or turned or twitched I would wake up in agony. So Friday I decided to stay home and recuperate.

Friday night I was feeling a bit better so I decided to join Tony and Josie at our usual Friday night at Mat & Wendy's place.

By Saturday morning I was feeling much better, well not much, but not in constant agony. I just had to hold myself together a bit if I needed to cough or sneeze. Josie had a double birthday party Saturday afternoon and for a while I thought I would take her, but Tony agreed to take her instead because he thought I should be resting. I stayed in my armchair for most of the day and did my usual grocery shopping online. I did sneak out to get fruit and vegetables and deli stuff though. That was a bit of a mistake it seems.

Saturday night was again horrible and Sunday, while everyone went off to Grandma Trudy's, I again stayed home and tried to rest.

Monday I went back to work.. and well.. worked. Its a desk job, its not like I was doing anything strenuous.

On Wednesday afternoon, my body decided to punish me.

The pain from my ribs started to increase again, exponentially. To the point where I was considering, well Tony was considering, taking me to emergency. I decided to go to the Doctors the next morning to potentially get an Xray. That night I almost cried. After most of the night waking in agony again, I gave up and at 5am went to sit in my armchair and try to sleep there. At least I was upright.

I managed to doze on and off till about 7am when Tony started getting Josie ready for school.

At about 930am I went off to the North Shore to my doctors. They had no appointments available but very nicely squeezed me in. Robert listened to my sob story, felt me over, and told me that he wasn't sending me for an Xray. An Xray wouldn't show any fractures because the pain seemed to be too far down the rib cage.

He was sending me to get a CAT scan, because he was worried I had ruptured my spleen.

Huh?!

So an emergency scan was booked at Royal North Shore Private at 145pm. I had hours to kill though. I rang Tony who also listened to my sob story, although very attentively, and then told me to go home, he would meet me at the house and take me back to the North Shore for the scan.

Robert told me that if they found that my spleen was damaged they would admit me there and then. I took my Doomachka (little square pillow that my family have always used on top of the normal pillow, its a little Kleytman quirk, like calling eachother across noisy shops by going TSSSSS!).

The scan was unpleasant. First they made me put on this dark blue, what felt like paper, gown, which didn't tie up very well in back, and sit in the waiting room, with an old man in a wheelchair.

Unpleasant.

They then took me in, put me flat (and in pain!!) on this long table and injected me with this dye stuff that made me feel all hot and like I was going to pee my pants. Then they rolled me on this table through this round circle thing (think Stargate!) where I had to hold my breath longer than was comfortable!

Unpleasant.

Luckily it only took about 15 minutes all up.

After finding Tony, we went and had some lunch in the cafe, and waited for the results.

The results came back good. Spleen all good. Not even any fractures seen. Must be one hell of a good bruise.

So then Tony took me home, with strict instructions not to let me do anything, or go to work till at least Monday. That was yesterday.

So today I was home again, and giving this rest and recuperation thing a determined whirl. And all I wanna do is go back to work. I am SO bored. Tivo is all caught up and I have nothing to watch!

And that folks, was number three.

Hopefully I won't have anything that exciting to report for a while now..

Mummy's Baby Teeth

2008-08-14T10:30:00.002+10:00

So here they are.. again.. and some close ups..

Its funny seeing the fillings.. these days they are white.. and if you look closely, some of the teeth had split before my dad glued them back together.

I can't wait to see Josie's teeth all set up.. in my set, dad had glued the teeth on in an exact replica of a jaw.. the top and bottom teeth both match up, the molars fit together.. its awesome ;-)

There also used to be some foam eyes, nostrils and a red tongue stuck on, eons ago ;-)

All I Want For Xmas....

2008-08-10T00:43:00.010+10:00

... is my two front teeth!

My baby lost her first tooth today! It was her bottom left tooth and it had been wobbling really badly for a couple of weeks now.

Anyone who knows me will not be surprised that I have a little obsession with her not losing her baby teeth.

When I was a kid, my dad collected all my baby teeth, took an old jewelry box, filled the top and bottom with foam, and glued my baby teeth to it, to form a jaw. I still have it (and will update with a photo next week after I get it back from the GM of my department who insisted he had to take it home over the weekend to show his family because he had never seen anything like it.. long story).

And here is a photo of it:

Anyway, I want my dad to do the same thing with Josie's teeth. So its imperative that she not lose any.

So today Tony needed to buy some pants, so he took her to Bondi Westfield to do some shopping. I had to do grocery shopping so I didn't go.

Apparently he was standing at an ATM when Josie said "Uhh Daddy, my tooth is sideways!". Tony had a look and it was indeed sideways and hanging on by a thread, so he grabbed hold of it and yanked it out. Josie didn't scream, didn't cry, she was just SO incredibly excited and was just jumping up and down.

So we now have our first tooth safely in her tooth container, which is a little pewter dish with a lid that has a ballerina on it.

As Josie is sleeping at Baba's tonight, the Tooth Fairy is going to wait till tomorrow night to come visit, cause well, she doesn't know where Baba lives. Tonight however, the Tooth Fairy brought her a big black fish for her aquarium. She won't know till she gets home tomorrow.

We were talking to her in the car on the way to Baba's..

Becca: What do you think the Tooth Fairy is going to bring you for your tooth?
Josie: Money!
Becca: How much do you reckon you'll get?
Josie: 20 BUCKS!
Mummy: Thats a pretty expensive tooth... geez...

Its a MAAADHOUSE I tell ya!

2008-07-26T17:51:00.003+10:00

Ok so now that I have been fully shamed into updating the blog.. here's the long awaited update.

Lets start with Tony's update.

He had his operation.. the skin cancer was cut out and the pathology report said there was no more skin cancer left. Woohoo! Now he has this scar.. it looks like a paddle.. he's like my very own.. pirate ;-)

But he's fine. Checkups every 6 months. And I'm relieved.

And the other big news.. well after getting a fairly nice tax return this year, we decided to get a Wii. Mainly because I wanted a Wii Fit, as a new and fun way to get exercising, but also cause.. well.. its cool ;-)

So once we had the money safely in our account I started looking around for good deals.. including Ebay.

You know, I remember Ebay a few years ago, and you really could get a good deal.. those days are over.. people are selling things over retail price, plus some! Its insane.

So anyway, I found that Kmart and Big W had their half yearly sales on, so all excited I rang around to see what deals they had. Unfortunately they were all sold out! But Target's big half yearly sale didn't start till the week after, which was last week.

So all excited, on Thursday morning, I stand, front and centre, in front of the closed Target doors, at 745am.

A M !!!!

So I'm standing there, and around me are about 30 people, and that number is increasing steadily. 75% of the people around me, are mothers, both hands firmly gripping shopping trolleys in front of them, their posture in the 'Ready, Set, GO!' position. (I can almost hear motors revving!)

Looking around, I feel very.. intimidated. Suddenly, my heart constricts, as I realise, that I don't actually know how to get to the electronics dept. I usually just wander around.. but wandering is for the losers who dont get their Wii Fit!! Luckily, right near the unopened Target doors, is a store map. I surreptitiously stroll forward to check out my route.

Route firmly in mind, I stand, ready to bolt.

I wait. I glance at my wrist watch. Its 755am. 5 minutes. Its tense. I look around. I scope out the competition. I inch forward.

Suddenly the doors start to rise! You can cut the tension with a knife.

I inch forward.

The doors are half way when a bunch of mid 20's make a break for it under the doors. The mothers with the trolleys growl and hiss after them.

And then we're off.

I got to the Electronics dept in record speed. But I was still about 10th in line. They had two registers open, and behind the desk were two huge metal cages, which I soon discovered were full of Wii bundles, DS bundles, PS bundles and Wii Fits!

I got to the counter and ordered my Wii Bundle and two Wii Fits (one was for a friend at work) and then smugly sauntered off with my trolley chockers full of Wii goodness ;-)

So then I looked around for a bit, before remembering that I was meant to get the Wii Play too because it comes with a remote and we wanted two remotes. So I look around, before it dawns on me, in a horrifying way, that the Wii Play, you also have to line up for.

I look at the line.

I groan.

I get in line.

Again.

Aaaanyway, long story kinda shorter, I get my Wii paraphernalia and then go off to work, to spend the rest of the day desperately trying to concentrate on something other than the Wii stuff in my boot!

The Wii Fit is sooo much fun! I love it!

And the other games I got in the bundles, Wii Sports, Lego Star Wars and Wii Play are all awesome too. Josie just loves the Star Wars game, although listening to her and her father play together sets my teeth on edge.

I have uploaded a bunch of photos to Flickr, so check them out. Oh and I am going to update Mat's post about the Ice Skating with some photos in a minute.. so check that again..

So thats that.. my update is done. Happy!?

Josie On Ice!

2008-07-24T14:26:00.003+10:00

Ok since Mari is being lazy, I will tell of last weekend's exploits. At least those I was privy to. A couple weeks ago I suddenly was reminded that I hadn't been ice-skating in a while. No doubt a combination of seeing our cousin Jacqui (with whom I'd last gone ice-skating), and the current cold weather. And it also occurred to me that as far as I knew, Josie had never been.

So last Sunday we all went: Ant, Mari, Josie, Jacqui, Philip, Rebecca and Wendy and I. Being over five months pregnant, Wendy came to observe.

Now I expected that Jo would feel intimidated by the crowd of people. That she'd not like the cold of the ice rink. That she'd have the usual troubles first-timers have with ice-skating. That basically we'd be lucky if she gave it a go and then called it quits. Could ... not ... get ... her ... off ... the ... ice. She loved it!

She was nervous. Until the last half hour she wanted one of us on each side of her, holding both hands. But she was like the energiser bunny and Jacqui and Rebecca had to do a tag team thing as the second support person, while I was more or less in for the duration. In the last half hour Josie was feeling a little more confident and consented to skate around with just Rebecca or I holding one hand. She even went in a limbo competition - with her helpers in tow of course.

She'll need proper lessons before she'll master skating on her own but she looked like skating could be something she could really get into.

Mari, get into gear and post the photos.

(Ed: Yes dear.. ;-)

Jam Packed Few Days

2008-07-08T19:35:00.003+10:00

Firstly, Happy Birthday to my dad, who is a sprightly 35 today. He is too! Really!

So a recap of the last few days.

On Saturday I had the onerous task of buying three, yes THREE birthday presents for Sunday. Thats two birthday parties for 3 kids!

So most of the day was taken up with present, and grocery shopping. I got some nice presents and then headed home to do my annual filing.

Throughout the year, documents pile up on the filing cabinet, until July-ish when I file everything away and prepare our documents for the accountant to do our taxes returns. This turned out to be a long and boring task which I happily finished about 2 hours later.

Meanwhile, Tony was cleaning out the spare room, finally! That took most of the afternoon, and now we can actually open the door, and walk into the room!! Woohoo!!

Sunday was long. The first party was for one of Josie's best friend's, Cade. Cade is about 6 months older than Josie, so she turned 6, and her party was at Plaster Master. Josie had a lovely time, and it was also the first time I did a drop off at a party. All the parents left so I did too, and went to mum & dad's for about an hour (where they had a secret stash of pickled tomatoes !!!) and then picked her up. She had ended up painting a plaster Princess, what a surprise!

After that it was straight to the next party at a park. This one was for two of Josie's friends, Ariel and Lily. This was a boisterous party, where there was a man, who turned himself into a clown and proceeded to teach the kids to juggle. This was also a great party and Josie had a ball.

During these two parties, I was approached by four other mums with suggestions for playdates. Next week is gonna be busy I think!

Monday was a normal working day, Josie was at Granny's, and went on a trip to the hairdresser and had her fringe cut, and her hair trimmed.

Which brings us to today.

Today was a very long day. Tony and I had the day off work, for reasons which will become apparently shortly. And Josie had a playdate set up with Cade. And another first, a drop off playdate. We were eternally grateful to Cade's mum, Basha, for taking Josie all day. Josie had a fabulous time, and was just raving about what a great time she had.

So a few weeks ago Tony went to see a skin specialist about a red welt that has been on the side of his head, near his ear, for the last few years, on and off. There was a biopsy done, and it was diagnosed as a skin cancer [Nodular Basal Cell Carcinoma -Ed]. This totally flipped me out and I had a semi nervous breakdown. After I recovered from the shock, Tony organised for the welt to be removed. That was today.

He had day surgery this morning where they cut out all of the cancer, and he will forever more have sexy scars on the side of his head. Awesome! ;-) [Er, hopefully not. That was the whole point of using a plastic surgeon instead of my Dermatologist (who is also a surgeon) -Ed]

Tony is fine now, out of the anesthesia, and on basic Panadol and Neurofen. We are now waiting for the pathology reports, which will report... something [Hopefully that there are no cancer cells around the outer edges of the volume they removed -Ed].

So that was our last few days..

Again, Happy birthday dad!

Movin' On Up

2008-06-20T14:24:00.003+10:00

When I first started at my present job, in Dec 06, there were rumours flying around that the company was thinking of moving. They had outgrown the current premises and they were on the lookout to move.

Well that happened last weekend.

Over the last 18 months lots happened to prepare us all for the move. There was a website set up with great bits of information about the new sites (two sites, one for the office, one for the warehouse), colour schemes, floor plans, information about the area, and neighbours. It was awesome.

The office block we have moved into is brand new, only just finished being built. Ten floors (of which we have floors 5 to 9), and we share the building with one other major company and a small one that is on the 10th floor.

I am on the 8th floor, with amazing views of Sydney Airport, Port Botany and the eastern suburbs. Over the last week we have seen countless planes in the sky, and awesome weather changes. The floor is bright yellow, which is ok. Certainly better than the flouro orange that the 6th floor is.

We were told to leave all desktop accessories. We got all new things, including a new flat panel monitor (finally!). And the building has a small gym, and allocated parking (which we do pay a small amount for each month).

Its just awesome.

We have gone from a dark, dingy, 3 floor building, to a bright, fresh, new 10 story building. Awesome!

This job just keeps getting better and better ;-)

Sleeping With The Cat

2008-06-17T21:20:00.002+10:00

Over the last couple of weeks Zakhari has taken to sleeping with Josie.

We are all really pleased this has happened. When we used to cat sit for my sister when I was a kid I used to love sleeping with him. And I love the thought of Zak curling up with Josie.

As long as he doesn't pee in the bed!! ;-)

Heres some photos..

The Kitten and the Ambulance

2008-06-11T18:02:00.005+10:00

Taking Josie to school this morning we pulled up next to an Ambulance.

Mari: Jose, do you know what that is?

Josie: Its a pom-pom (her standard answer for when she doesn't know something)

Mari: Thats an Ambulance.

Josie: Ohh

Mari: Do you know what an Ambulance does?

Josie: It goes eeee-awwwwweee-awwww..

Mari: And what does it carry?

Josie: [without missing a beat] Pizza.

And on a completely different note, a short time later, we're driving past a huge African American dude in a beanie and long trench coat (lookin' kinda tough, you know?), walking along the footpath carrying a bag, a jumper and an umbrella. All of a sudden, I see him jump into the air, give a shout and brandish his umbrella at something as if it was a sword. All afire with curiosity, I look to see what had terrified the man so.

A little black and white kitten was standing on a small wall, fur upright, hissing at him.

Eurovision '08

2008-06-01T00:34:00.004+10:00

Our annual Eurovision Night was a little different this year.

We went to Mat & Wendy's place for dinner, and to introduce them to the joys of Eurovision. They were Eurovision virgins prior to this night, so it was all that more special ;-)

I will let Mat describe the wonderment that was that night, but for us, once again Eurovision rocks!

I must say that the caliber of acts were not up to the previous couple of years, but it was still great ;-) The voting was nail biting, Greece being ahead for most of the time, and Russia only taking the lead at the end.

Politically motivated voting was rife, as always, and Terry Wogan was brilliant, also as always ;-)

Serbia put on a great show and I can't wait till next year in Moscow!

There's always more..

2008-05-08T10:14:00.003+10:00

Driving Josie to work this morning she was practicing her counting (missing a few numbers, but thats ok).

I was trying hard to hear the radio..

Josie: [counting, counting] Mum..
Mari: Yep?
Josie: Is there more?
Mari: Of what?
Josie: I got to 129.. is there more?
Mari: [laughing] yes dear, much more..
Josie: [Sighs in defeat]

Conversations With 5 Year Olds

2008-05-06T21:25:00.010+10:00

Josie has discovered the wonderment of using a telephone.

As you may have noticed by the last post, she loves making calls. And she knows my mobile number. This makes trying to work a little difficult.

Josie has been a bit sick since the weekend. On Saturday she woke up with a sore throat, and then on Sunday she had a 39 degree fever. Hence it was decided to keep her home. On Monday she spent the day with Baba, and today she was with Granny.

So today I get a phone call from my daughter.

Mari: Hello?
Josie: Mum?
Mari: Yes?
Josie: Listen, Granny is being mean. I want to go to [muffled sound]

I need to explain at this point that Josie doesn't yet know how to hold the phone properly. She holds it far too close to her mouth and speaks far too loudly, which makes her very hard to understand.

Mari: You want to go to what??
Josie: [muffled sound with an exclamation]
Mari: I can't understand you Jose, you need to hold the phone further from your mouth and speak quieter.
Josie: I want to go to [mflflfthf]
Mari: Josie, give the phone to Granny.
Josie: No.
Mari: Well I can't understand you.
Josie: Ok fine!
Granny: Hello?
Mari: She is holding the phone incorrectly, I can't make out what she is saying.
Granny: I know.
Mari: You need to show her how to hold the phone.
Granny: I will.
Mari: Where does she want to go?
Granny: Phillipa's house. [Next door neighbour] Phillipa was sitting outside in the backyard and Henry [her son, born a week before Josie] is sick and is at home today too. Josie wants to go over there but I have said no.
Mari: Right, can you show her how to hold the phone properly and I will talk to her.
[Granny shows Josie how to hold the phone]
Josie: Mum? [Slightly more coherent]
Mari: Yes?
Josie: Granny won't let me go to Phillipa's.
Mari: I know. You can't go to Phillipa's because Henry is sick, and you are sick, and I don't want you getting sicker.
Josie: I am NOT sick!
Mari: You were sick, but you are a lot better now, but Henry is sick, and I don't want you catching anything from him.
Josie: Mum! I am NOT sick!
Mari: Ok, I know you are not, but Henry IS!
Josie: [Silence]
Josie: Ok FINE!
Mari: [Inner triumph!]
Mari: Right, now give the phone to Granny.
Josie: No.
Mari: Josie I need to speak to Granny, and I need to get back to work.
Josie: FINE! But I am going to call you later!
Mari: [Laughing] Ok!

So she gives the phone to Granny, we talk and then I go back to work.

About two hours later, I get another call.

Mari: Hello?
Josie: Mum?
Mari: Yes?
Josie: Granny is messy! And Rascal.. is crazy!
Mari: [burst out laughing] Yes, ok, but Jose, I cant be talking to you all day, I have to work!
Josie: But I told you I would call you later!
Mari: I know, but this isn't that much later!
Josie: MUM!!!
Mari: Ok, is there anything else you would like to tell me?
Josie: Uhm.. no..
Mari: Ok, then give the phone to Granny.
Josie: No.
Mari: Josie..
Josie: FINE!

Another quick chat and I was back to work..

A few hours later, my phone rings again..

Mari: Hello?
Josie: Mum?
Mari: Yes... ?
Josie: Now that Granny is not being Bossy... [click]

The phone goes dead.. I wait with baited breath..

[Ring...]

Mari: Hello?
Josie: Mum?
Mari: Yessss...... ?
Josie: Mum, as I was saying.. I took that thing out of my ear.. you know that thing.. what is it called?
Mari: Uhm.. the phone?
Josie: No Mum [exasperated], I don't put the phone IN my ear.. [I could just feel her rolling her eyes at me]..
Mari: Uhm.. the thing to hear the phone? Are you talking about the headset?
Josie: No mum! You know. The thing!
Mari: Jose, I have no idea what you are talking about.
Josie: [deep sigh, obviously Mummy is not firing on all cylinders]

{Slight detour here, I just turned to Tony cause I couldn't remember what the end of that expression was, firing on all.. ?, I thought it was firing on all fours, this led to about 5 minutes of hysterics from myself and Tony.. and now on with the story}

Josie: [Implied anyway..] It was a hundred and four..
Granny: [in the background] Don't tell your mother that, she'll be in hysterics! And it was a hundred POINT four!
Mari: Oh right! You are talking about the thermometer!
Josie: Yes! I was a hundred point four!
[Mummy twigs that this is probably in farenheit]
[Mummy sets about finding out what 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit is in Celsius, turns out to be 38 degrees]
Granny: [in the background] Josie, you are ok.
Josie: I am NOT ok! I am 100.4!
Mari: Uhm 38, thats not so good.. Josie tell Granny thats not so good.
Josie: Granny, its 38! Its not so good!
Mari: Ok Jose, its time to give the phone to Granny.
Josie: Fine!
Granny: The thermometer seems to be stuck in Fahrenheit and I don't know how to fix it.
Mari: So it might not even be 100.4? How does she feel?
Granny: She feels fine.

And so endeth the phone call.

A little bonus, Granny tells me she has been very talkative all day. Nothing new there:

Josie: Granny, I am NOT impressed with your behaviour!

Josie seems to be ok now. Hopefully will go to school tomorrow. They have an excursion tomorrow so hopefully she will be ok to go to that.

And now for a word from Tony..

Voicemail From a 5 Year Old
======================

One on my mobile:

Josie: Huh?!
Granny: You have to leave a message.
Josie: Ok well let's leave a message [in a tone to mean: "Well if you know what we have to do why aren't we doing it already?!?"]
Granny: You can't now, you've got to press..
Josie: >click<

One on my work VM:

Josie: [clearly infuriated] That! Lady is STUPIDDDD!
Granny: [patiently] It's not a lady it's a recorded message
Josie: >click<

I'm awesome!... or not.
=================

I recently decided to break my self-imposed ban on playing one of Josie's games on the DS. It's called Wario World Touched and I had heretofore resisted it because it is a collection of simple intuitive games of the type that I generally ridicule Mari for playing and didn't want to:

a) give up this favorite past-time or
b) give her the ammo to return fire.

Also I knew I would become addicted to it.

Unable to stop, despite the screams emanating from the little barred and locked room in the dark recesses of my soul in which the emaciated form of my free-will lays imprisoned; casualty of the consumer-wars.

So I'm playing this stoopid game and at first it's kicking my ass (I'm lame) but no damned machine is going to beat me!!! (I bare the scars psychological of a prolonged stint in software support) so I knuckle down and slowly the tide starts to turn until finally I claw my wretched and unwilling way to the Boss Level where upon I am presented with..... a bunch of little flies... no they're too small for flies... gnats.. a bunch of gnats I have to squish with the stylus without hitting the screen too much because each hit makes the "glass" "crack" and if you hit it to often it will smash and you lose.

Well I squished the ever-luvin' crap outta those damned gnats. HA! Boss my ass! At which point I raised my voice in victory and shouted my triumph into the wind (Josie has been self-amusingly flatulent lately)!

Tony: I'm AWESOME!!!!!
Josie: [immediately, with emasculating matter-of-factness and without even looking up from what she is doing] No you're not.

And there was silence but for the barely audible sobs from the darkness beyond the bars.

For an artist's representation of the above scenario, see below.

Dinner & A Phone Call To Remember

2008-04-24T18:23:00.003+10:00

Last night Tony and I joined Ines, David, Harri & Family at a Turkish Restaurant for dinner to celebrate Harri's birthday.

Dinner was delicious and the company was lovely.

It has been fantastic catching up with Harri, and meeting Ella, and seeing Harri's family again. Ella is just so gorgeous and always smiling.

So last night, Josie stayed at Baba's overnight and all day today.

Around mid-morning I get a phone call, that goes something like this:

Josie: I want you to tell uhm somebody to check on Becca.. and if you go see Becca after work and tell me its ok, can you let me see her?
Mari: Sure honey, I will call Becca and see how she is and we will see if we can go see her on the way home.
Josie: And can you see if the wii is working.. and I need to let you know, I.. need to tell Baba something and its a secret and its not for Baba, its for me..
Mari: Uh huh...
Josie: the secret is.. dont tell Baba.. tell Baba not to tell you too.. not do nothing to me.. not even be rude.. not be wrong or be right.. im going to be right.. and next time im gonna be rude..
Mari: Uh huh.. [getting distracted here amongst the ramblings..]
Josie: mum.. arent you at work already ??
Mari: yes I am..
Josie: when are you going to come?
Mari: 6-630
Josie: I have this little baby and she is always silly and always naughty.. well besides me.. and she cries and cries and bites me..
Mari: ok..
Josie: Can you tell baba a secret?
Mari: Uhh sure.. what is it?
Josie: I love you and Baba.. and daddy and everyone.. BABA!!! Mummy has to tell you something.. here's Baba Mummy.. you tell her..
Mari: Uhm Josie loves you and me and daddy and everyone..
Baba: Great! Now Josie, you come eat...

lol..

Josie-isms Part The Whatever-We-Were-Up-To

2008-04-16T16:12:00.004+10:00

On Saturday night, Ant, Mari, Jo, Mum and our cousin Martin and his daughter Maddison came over for dinner. Jo and Maddy had met once before and gotten on very well but hadn't seen each other since, and it'd been a year I guess. So there was some initial shyness but pretty soon there was giggling and tickling, playing of XBOX games and the usual carry on that you get with young children. And they got on like a house on fire.

I cooked leg of lamb for dinner, which Maddy ate and I'm hoping the concept of eating the same food the grown-ups eat will rub off on Jo before the sixth birthday deal. Maddy wasn't so sure about the sweet potato but then it took me some years to appreciate it too.

Later we were watching DVD's, Josie laying against me and Maddy laying against Josie. Maddy had the hiccups, and periodically would shudder a bit as a hiccup hit her. After a short while Josie whispered, "Mad ... Mad! .. I'm not a trampoline you know."

Such indignities are not to be borne after all. *grin*

A good night was to be had by all, finished off with a delicious dessert which Marty brought with him. I'm not sure what it was but it involved chocolate in copious amounts, and berries on top - which Josie proceeded to relieve everyone of.

Those Were The Days..

2008-04-08T00:16:00.003+10:00

By Tony.

The days of Josie accepting any story I tell her are over.

About two years ago she figured out that my 'Princess Josephine' stories were nothing more than chastisement in pretty wrappers and now she has started to criticise my choice of material and demand immediate rectification and improvement.

Tonight I was reading from a Golden Book of bedtime stories all about bunnies, and after the first bunny story and a poem about bunnies, I got only one paragraph into the second story when Josephine decided she has had enough of bunnies and wanted one of daddy's tales and the following exchange occurred:

Josie [interrupting the story being read]: Daaaad...
Tony: Yes Josephine?
Josie: Can you tell me a story and I'll go to sleep?
Tony: [Confused]
Tony: Thats what we're doing.. I'm reading you a story, and I want you to go to sleep..
Josie: uhh I've got a better idea.. you TELL me a story while I go to sleep...
Tony: [Very confused]
Tony: Thats what I'm doing [pointing to the book]. This is a story, I'm telling you a story! Please go to sleep..
Josie: No.. one of YOUR stories..
Tony: Ahhh.. fine..
[Puts down the book, turns the light off..]
Tony: Once upon a time, in a land far far away, in a small garden, beside a castle, beside a lake, there lived a family of bunnies.. and there was Mummy Bunny, and Daddy Bunny, and little Josie Bunny, and they lived in a small garden beside a castle in which lived Daddy King, Mummy Queen and a Princess Josephine, who had two pet dragons, Zak...
Josie: Daaaad...
Tony: Yes Josephine?
Josie: Do it cats.
Tony: Huh?
Josie: Make it cats instead of dragons.
Tony: What? Why? She has dragons..
Josie: Nooo.. I dont want dragons. I dont like dragons..
Tony: What do you mean? You have two stuffed dragons right next to you.. you loved the dragon that used to hang over your cot..
Josie [interrupting again]: yehhh... but I dont like dragons anymore
Tony: Dragons are cool!
Josie: They're not
Tony: Dragons are awesome!
Josie: Nooo... they breathe fire and burn people up and they eat people..
Tony: Not all dragons.. there's good dragons too.. Only the bad dragons hurt people..
Josie: Weeeeell... if I hurt a good dragon... it would burn me..
Tony: Well don't hurt it then... ?
Josie: Just make it cats. [rolls her eyes, tolerating no more of daddy's backchat]
Tony: Fine.
Tony: A long time ago, in a forest far far away, there lived a family, in a cottage...
Josie [interrupting again]: Noooo...
Tony: What?
Josie: They live in a castle!
Tony: No.. she has dragons! You wanted cats. The girl in the forest has cats.
Josie: Ugghhhhhh....
Tony: Just lie down and listen to your story.. [tolerating no more of Josie's backchat]
Tony: As I was saying.. there was a daddy and a mummy and a little girl Josephine, and her two cats, Zak and Zelli. Daddy was a woodcutter and every day he went out into the forest and cut some wood... and sold it to people. (Not being arsed to go describing any complex system of villages or fairs where wood may or may not be sold, as inevitably this would draw some kind of criticism from the 5 year old peanut gallery). Mummy baked pies all day, and made dinner, and... did stuff around the house. And the little girl Josephine and her cats played in the garden and ran along the banks of the river that ran through the woods and past the house. And they ran through the field past the house chasing butterflies.
Josie: Cats don't chase butterflies.
Tony: *groan* Jesus Christ! How do you know??
Josie: I know.
Tony: [&*%$*&^] Finukan! (I yelled, but only in my head, gritting my teeth and twitching).
Tony: These cats chase butterflies.
Tony: And they jumped over the river, it was a thin river (before she has a chance to object) and...
Josie: Daaad...
Tony: what!?
Josie: Can you do it not Josephine? Its annoying when you keep putting me in it!
Tony: What?
Josie: Its annoying. Always having Josephine in it..
Tony: But..
Tony: But..
Tony: Mhmmm (whimpers).. ok.. fine..
Tony: A long time ago, in a mountain far far away, there lived a race of gnomes who dug into the roots and depths of the mountain and dug rocks and jewels out of the mountain, and gold and... sold them to people nd became very wealthy. And they built roads and galleries and caverns and mines and they were happy. And one day there was born a young gnome who didn't want to live in the mountain. He wanted to see the light and feel the sun shine upon his face. He wanted to feel the grass underneath his feet, smell the wild flowers that grew in the valley beyond the mountain and watch the wild horses run. But his father said that he could not leave the mountain as it was dangerous out there and he would get hurt. That he should stay where it was safe among his people. And the young gnome was sad and wandered uncaring through the dark caverns of the mountain, and his father was sad to see his son so. And finally one day he said to him, "Son you must leave this place and go out into the valley and do as you would. Take this cloak, it will make you invisible to the dangers beyond the..."
Josie: Dad, this is a scary story.
Tony: Wait, let me finish. It gets better.
Josie: Aallriiiight...
Tony: Thank you.

[At this point I take no responsibility for the drivel ahead. Suffice to say, she fell asleep, sometime early on I would imagine. Ed. (Mari)]

Tony: And he put on the cloak and was happy and his father said, "Come back after a time and tell us what you have found." And the young gnome said "I will return after one year and bring news of all that I have discovered". And hugging his father, the young gnome ran to the front gates of the mountain and hesitated on the doorstep, wondering what he should do first, whether to go down to the river, or to the wildflowers, or seek out the wild horses. He decided to go down to the wildflowers first, and he smelled the wild flowers and eventually he tripped and fell into the flowers, disturbing a swarm of bees that were feasting on the flowers nectar. They gave an angry Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, and the young gnome said "I'm very sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you, I tripped". But the bees weren't listening, and with an angry Buzz, Buzz, Buzz, they chased him from the flower bed and stung him on the bottom. And they chased him all the way until he had to jump into the river to escape them. And the river flowed swiftly and bore him away until he entered the woods and finally could pull himself from the river by the roots of the trees that stood by it. And the young gnome was cold and wet and had a sore bottom and so he walked back out of the forest, seeking the sunlight to dry his clothes. And he sat on a large rock and let the sun dry his clothes and warm him once more. And he bathed his bottom oin the river once more and the cool waters soothed the sting until it hurt him no more. Then he climbed back onto the rock to enjoy some more sun.

A rumbling caused him to turn and he saw the wild horses of the valley running towards his rock and the vibration of their hooves caused him to lose his balance and as the lead horse came past the rock, its tail swished out and smacked him in the face and he fell over backwards back into the river, hitting his head on the rock as he fell. And he was borne once more into the forest. Dragging himself out again he decided to explore the forest, as the valley had proven dangerous, as his father had warned. He walked and he walked until night began to fall and he became afraid and thought he had better get out of the forest and get back to the valley lest some forest creature attacked him. He turned and began to run back the way he had come. After a little while he heard a noise behind him, and turning saw the gleaming eyes, and large teeth of a wolf chasing him. Screaming he ran faster than ever until at least he burst form the forest into the light of the last rays of the sun. Turning once more he saw that it was in fact a large squirrel that had been chasing him. And he shook his fist at it and said accusingly "You scared me!". And the squirrel said "Its not my fault you thought I was a wolf, I just wanted to get a drink from the river". And he went down to the river, took a long drink and ran back into the forest.

With no shelter in the valley, the young gnome looked towards the mountain, and wondered whether he should go back and give up on his dreams of the outside world. But he though, "No! I should not give up. Nothing too bad has happened to me after all. Maybe I should just try again using the knowledge I have gained, to avoid the same mistakes." So the gnome turned back and re-entered the forest, looking for a tree with a nice wide branch covered in leaves to sleep on. Finding one, he climbed up and went to sleep.

He awoke the next morning to find the squirrel, sitting on the branch looking at him. "Good morning" said the squirrel. "Who are you?". And the young gnome told him all about his story. "You can't live in the trees for long" said the squirrel. "You will need to go back to the valley and build a house. Winter will come soon and it will be too cold to be without shelter." "how will I build a house?" Said the young gnome. I have nothing to cut trees with. The squirrel said "You're too small for cutting trees. You just need to find some sticks of appropriate size and I will cut them to the right length with my sharp teeth for you. And then we will use vines for rope to tie the sticks together to make a wood house." And so they dragged large sticks out of the forest and the gnome found vines while the squirrel cut the sticks with his teeth and they lashed the sticks together to make walls and the walls together to make a house and roof. And the squirrel said "And you will need a fire to keep warm, but you will need stone to keep the fire form burning down the house. So you will need to get river stones... from the river." "But the current is too swift" said the gnome. "Maybe we could tie a vine around your waist and around the rock, and that will stop the river from taking you away." So they did this and after many hours of jumping into the river and hauling rocks out they had enough and built a chimney and fireplace in the house. "But you will need a bed." And they got more sticks and the squirrel cut them to size with his teeth and they lashed them together with more vines to make the frame and they got pine needles for a mattress and horse hairs form the valley and wove them into a blanket. And...

At that point I noticed she was asleep [I don't blame her. Ed. (Mari)]. And figuring that it sounded like my gnome had got himself sorted out well enough at this stage, and could do without me, I kissed Josephine goodnight and left her slumbering.

Parent Teacher Night

2008-04-02T19:37:00.003+11:00

On Monday we had our first real Parent/Teacher night. Tony and I both had appointments with the classroom teacher, the Hebrew teacher and the sports teacher.

When we got there we were scheduled to see the sports teacher first, but of course, as these things usually go, everyone was running late. We actually saw the classroom teacher first and got a low-down of how Josie is doing in class. We were told that she is a bright and happy girl, very eager to learn and loves the activities and being with her friends. She said her attention is getting better focused and she is doing amazing things with her writing/journaling and spelling.

We were given her journal to have a look at, and her worksamples folder to take home.

Her journal was simply incredible. Each page had a drawing and a sentence underneath. She was writing (by herself) things like "I went to the park with my cat Zelda and I had an ice cream". And on a couple of pages "I went to Rachel's house and Benny hurt me" ;-) I am sure it was not unprovoked. We were just blown away with her writing and spelling!

Her worksamples folder included various assessments she had, to test her pattern matching and comprehension and counting etc. It was incredible to look at. We were meant to go through all the assessments with her at home and fill in an evaluation with her. Below are her Comprehension Q's and after that the evaluation questions we filled in together.

Comprehension Questions

Who is the main character in the story?
a chicken

What is the little red hen baking ?
Bread.

Why do you think the animals didn't want to help the little red hen ?
He had so many stuff to do.

Where do you think the story takes place?
In a book.

Where do you think all the animals are?
In the story.

What do you think the story is trying to teach you?
Reading.

Seriously.

Those were her answers. No joke. Its stuff you read about on those emails you get sent from 5 different people in the space of a few hours.

Evaluation Questions

What am I most proud of?
Me doing good work.

Did I achieve my goals?
Yes.

What would I like to improve on?
Painting, learning & I want to do 'going to school' better.

Hehe..

Anyway.. so after the classroom teacher we saw the Hebrew teacher who also said that she was doing very well, was recognising letters and sounds and words. She asked us if Josie was using hebrew at home at all and we told ehr that 80% of her awake time is spent singing. In hebrew, in english, in Josie-nese.

After that we managed to grab the sports teacher but he was't able to tell us much. With so many kids he really had no idea who was who, all he could tell us was that so far in Kindy, he had noticed no kids with any problems with any of the skills they were learning.

So that was our first Parent/Teacher night. It was good to hear how she was doing.

And to finish off, here is an exchange I had with Jose a couple of weeks ago:

I had bought her a Dora umbrella. We all know how much she loves Dora. Or so we thought. As I handed her the new umbrella, her face fell and she said: "You know mum, it doesnt have to be Dora ALL the time!!".

And then she rolled her eyes at me.

When did she turn 13?!

Anniversary the 10th: A Bisaster of Epic Proportions Pt5

2008-03-23T15:52:00.016+11:00

Welcome back to the stunning conclusion to our tawdry tale of woe-begotten wallies. In this the final double-episode there will be revelations, intimations and in the end abrogation of aspirations as we let go of our desire to break out of the rut of 15 years solid routine and settle back into the comfortable buttock-groove of our sedentary natures.

Without further ado let's jump right into the first part of our finale:
Episode 5: Reasonable Precautions (plus Tea-time for Hitler)

Gathering up the small amount of luggage I had brought up to the house before the revelation of the brown water, we returned to the car, loaded up and, leaving the key under the BBQ hood, set out one final time in search of shelter, arriving finally, after 18-odd hours, at the place which we would call home for... well for a fairly short period of time at this point. As we pulled into the driveway next door I was once more struck by the beauty one can find in the absence of filthy, spider-infested trees.

The house was directly opposite the driveway and only minimally encroached by tree. It was a single story, wooden affair with a large central living, dining & kitchen area separating wings to the left and right; each containing 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and an en suite off one of the bedrooms. Best of all the Port Wing (in the absence of any idea of the direction the house was aligned to I'm going nautical) was that closest to the car park and virtually devoid of tree or shrubbery. We quickly decided upon sleeping in this section of the house and shunning the Starboard and, no-doubt, incursion-threatened wing. After checking all windows and ensuring all were closed and locked, I went back out to the car (which I had temporarily parked outside the house in the shade of the many-tree'd - but noticeably webless - section of the grounds) and began bringing in the luggage for what I prayed would be the last time.

While I was about this, Mari and Josie had the opportunity to begin exploring the house in greater detail and what wonders they did find. Firstly while the original house had been very modern-looking and very well kept, this house had an air of being much more "purpose-built". The purpose being to get a good return on investment rather than premium experience for the occupants. The floors were of varnished particle board (and pretty thin particle board at that) over joists raised above the ground. The kitchen wasn't yet completed; the gaping hole in the floor-cabinets awaiting the dishwasher that was surely on order and the skirting missing from one section of wall. The rough, unfinished wooden pillar in the middle of the living area featured a light-switch which did nothing (the 10 cent piece sized hole in the floor at its foot mute evidence of the vagaries of building contractors in the area or at least their electrician sub-contractors) and the double beds in the two main bedrooms turned out to be two singles pushed together.

Additionally the lighting while plentiful, was rather ineffective. After turning on all the lights I could find (about 12 would you believe in the living area alone) the place was only marginally brighter than your average coal mine. Looking out the back sliding, glass doors I found an enormous window complete with glass and metal frame leaning up against the back of the building and a bunch of half used paint tubs, bricks and other building errata laying outside the back door.

Clearly this one was a work in progress.

By contrast the house next door which we had originally been slated for was a palace and had obviously been bought by the retreat to offer at a substantial premium over their other... abodes. Presumably they had picked it up at a bargain price after the owners had fled the campaign of terror inflicted upon them by the horrors in the trees.

At the end of the day however (and given our desire to avoid still being in search of accommodation by the end of another day) it was a big, roomy house with a large living area you could relax and stretch out in. The high ceilings enhanced the feeling of space and ensured that if there was an incursion, the distance from us to the Abomination(s) would be maximized, and the wall of windows at the front of the living area ensured maximum sunlight in the 1st half of the day (the mountain at the house's back ensured gloom for the remainder) and afforded a picturesque view of the fields, river and mountain opposite. In a gargantuan act of mental agility to rival the laws of fluid dynamics I embraced the new environs and set about retrieving the last of the gear from the car, instructing Mari to ensure that she kept all bags closed to avoid nasty surprises (which she ignored, to my aggravation, for the rest of the weekend).

After leaving Mari and Josie to sort out all the paraphernalia we had brought with us, I took the car down to the car park, selected a spot exactly equidistant from the trees at either end and set about implementing a few "reasonable precautions". Retrieving the professional grade creepy-crawly killer from the boot, I set about spraying a meter-wide swath of arachnid death around the car, proceeding on to the gaps between the doors and the body of the car, the under-side of the body, the wheel-arches and the bottom edge of the entire frame. Satisfied with the protections now enswathing the car I moved onto the house where I sprayed the door and window-frames and the landing outside the door (which I now saw had an enormous gap underneath just begging to be violated by creeping horrors). Returning to the in of doors I found Mari and Josie relaxing on the couch, the one reading a "woman's magazine" and the other playing her DS.

Sweaty, grubby and insect poison encrusted, I grumbled my way to the bathroom where I proceeded to shower and change, making a mental division between the last 19hours and the next. The holiday from hell was over and a new day was to begin. Well, the late afternoon of a new day at least.

Emerging from my cocoon cleansed and in fresh threads I joined my lovely wife and progeny in the living room. Seating myself upon the second leather couch (at least the furniture in this joint was superior to the other place) I faced my family and waited for my presence to be acknowledged. Giving up after 5 minutes of oblivious magazine reading and game playing I said:
"So, what are we going to do now?"
"Relax"
"That's it?"
"That's it"
"We could have stayed in Sydney for that!"
"It's not relaxing at home. I feel like I should be doing housework"
"You don't do housework"
"Yes but I always feel like I should be"
"How about we go to dinner?"
"Sure"
"Ooooooookay, I'll just organise that shall I?"
"Yup"
This entire conversation occurs without eyes being raised from the thrilling adventures of celebrities played out upon the glossy pages of No Idea and Womens Weakly.

I must admit here that the crack about housework was entirely apocryphal and I was expecting an angry retort rather than the witty response I did receive. In fact while we do have cleaners come once a month the bulk of the rest of the housework is done by Mari. Too often including my jobs as well.

Since the info sheet with the number of the retreat people was in the car and I couldn't be bothered going out to get it, I rang information and got the number of the restaurant which had been the original reason for my organizing a trip to Wisemans Ferry in the first place. See, a co-worker of Mat's had heard him speak of the Swiss Eiger we go to regularly in Sydney and had mentioned a Swiss restaurant in Wisemans Ferry that was supposed to be very good. It was called the Forgotten Valley Swiss Restaurant and apparently had a B&B attached to it. So I did a search on www.whitepages.com.au for "Forgotten Valley", finding the retreat listed and booked via email. So I get the number from information and give it a whirl.

The line was answered after a brief period of overheard laughter by an amused lady who had obviously been having a joke with someone on their end. I asked if we needed a booking (how many people could there possibly be looking for a night out here!?) and was told, in a tone full of mirth, "oh yes, every time the phone rings my husband interrogates me." As she said it my eyes happened to fall upon the woodbox (for storage of, not made of, although it was) by the front door. And I noticed with alarm that it was covered in swastikas!

The words Swiss, interrogate & a swastika flashed in my minds eye repeatedly and, remembering an old routine of Robin Williams' I was momentarily thankful we did not own a BMW.

Slightly put off I stammered out a request for a table for 3 for 5:30pm and figuring, while I have her on the phone, I may as well ask for directions rather than wander around the grounds looking for the restaurant I inquired as to the location of the place. And was asked which bank of the river we were on. Like I had any idea. Realising that she had no way of knowing we were staying at the retreat and that she was likely thinking farther afield I informed her that we were guests of the retreat. And was told to catch the ferry to the other side of the river, turn right and go about 600m down the road. Turns out the Forgotten Valley Swiss Restaurant has nothing whatsoever to do with the Forgotten Valley Retreat. Not only that but once I explained the confusion she seemed quite amused that we were staying there and asked if there were many people at the retreat at the moment. In a tone that spoke volumes. An encyclopedic number of volumes filled with tales of woe and sadness and people to be pitied.

Thanking the lady vaguely I hung up and related the wealth of knowledge with which I had been impregnated in the short phone conversation. My long-suffering wife was less than surprised to learn of my incompetence anew at finding the correct accommodation and unsurprisingly alarmed at the decorations upon the wood box.

Thinking it must simply be some generic pattern that some young punk had scraped the paint off of the parts that resembled swastikas we took a closer look. And found that no in fact it was actually a generic pattern surrounding very clearly defined and purposely included swastikas. Thinking this quite odd, slightly disturbing but vastly less interesting than the rumbling in our stomachs, we exchanged shrugs and went to get the Spudlette ready for the journey to dinner.

Leaving the house I looked about the landing in the hopes of seeing some evidence that my defenses were working. Alas there were no bodies of Abominations upon the stoop to sate my blood lust. Making our way down to the car I instructed wife and the Spudlette not to touch the car (since it was covered only a few hours previously with insect poison) and opened the doors for them.

Our journey down to the ferry was uneventful now that we had had so much experience with driving around the general area. The ferry was just arriving as we pulled up and so we proceeded onto it without much of a wait and we all had our very first car ferry experience (well I went on the ferry to Tasmania when I was 3 but of course I dont recall it). It was quite pleasant and so smooth that we were surprised to see the scenery moving and had to look back to confirm that we were indeed moving away from the near shore. Josie was very excited by this but became convinced we were going to crash as we approached the far terminal.

Disembarking at the other end we turned right, as directed, and proceeded down the road where, true to form, we drove straight past the restaurant.
To be fair the restaurant was perched atop a hill about 4 storeys above the road way, the sign was on the other side of the road and the light was fading (since the mountains on the east and west of the valley meant late sunrises and early sunsets) so it was only once we were right up on the sign that we could see that it did indeed say "Forgotten Valley Swiss". But by that time of course the driveway was past.

Following a brief repeat of the u-turn discussion (see Part 1) I turned around, located the driveway and drove up the steep slope to the restaurant car park.

Whilst it was perched amongst the woods of the mountain, there was enough space cleared that there was no imminent danger of infestation by the Horrors. Upon exiting the vehicle I turned around and immediately saw to my later self-flagellation that the B&B that was attached to the restaurant was the top two floors of the same damned building! And, that there was a third floor that seemed to contain a single penthouse type room (it was a large building with a peaked roof) which would have offered absolutely stunning views to any competent enough to secure lodgings there. I pointed it out to Mari and received my well-earned look of disgust as reward.

As we approached the restaurant Josie went ahead and Mari, of course, began snapping photos of her. After a minute one of the proprietors came out and offered to take a photo of us all with the vista of the river and mountain afforded by the height of the location as backdrop. After taking the pic we entered and were seated at a nice table with a wonderful view of the valley beyond the window. We were just admiring the interior decoration and commenting on the differences between this place and the Eiger in Sydney when the waitress brought over the specials of the day and we nearly burst into gales of laughter. The days specials were almost identical to the specials the Eiger commonly offers and written in chalk upon a portable blackboard exactly as the Eiger people do. Complete with little illustration of Swiss origin.

I was sorely tempted to order my usual (Beef Burgundy half Spatzle/half Roesti) Eiger meal in order to compare the two but finally decided to instead partake of a meal the Eiger does not offer (Gypsy Roast Beef). For the first time I managed to resist the urge to get the Pea and Ham soup as entree (it always fills me up too much to finish my main) while Mari enjoyed her usual Swiss entree of fried Camembert and did have the Beef Burgundy for main.

The food was good, the child well behaved and the conversation of people around us yobbish. The music was very Swiss sounding but also very different from the Eiger where I seem to recall more polkas being in evidence. Dessert was Apple Strudel for me and neither of us can remember what Mari had (being that she has blocked out the whole weekend and it evidentally wasn't something I wanted some of). Finishing our meals we paid up, drove back to the ferry and crossed once more, in serene stillness, the calm waters of the Hawksbury river.

Driving back to our lodgings in the half darkness was quick and painless this time and while I couldn't see precisely where the outline of death was that I should park the car within, I trusted to the bathing the exterior had gotten to protect it from intrusion during the night. Entering the house I set about getting the TV/DVD situation sorted out while Mari took Josie for a shower and bedtime clothing change. I was pleased to discover that they had hooked up the foxtel with every channel available and settled back to watch some scifi channel before Mari emerged and tagged me in to handle the putting to bed of the little one while she went to organize the long-awaited spa-bath. Unexpectedly she lay still for her story reading and went to sleep straight after without the usual protracted attempts to refrain from doing so.

I emerged from the sleeping section and settled onto the couch next to a very grumpy looking Mari.
"What's up? We going to have a bath?"
"NO! @#$% waters brown!"
"Oh FFS!"
"Yup"
Shaking my head I asked her what she wanted to watch and started flicking channels while she wrapped up her magazine reading. While not actually stopping her magazine reading she proceeded to criticize every selection I made of the tv programs on offer and threaten to not stay up with me (and read her magazine) if I did not put on a DVD (that she had not had any input into the selection thereof and would undoubtedly not approve of). In the end I took the magazine away from her and tossed it accross the room at which point she agreed to properly contribute to the evenings entertainment choices. Now here's a perfect example of the differing (and unexpectedly so) natures of myself and my lovely wife. I suggested 50 First Dates as it is one of our favourite movies and a romantic, soppy one with a tear-jerking ending to boot and I thought it a perfect choice for our 10th Anniversary night movie. Mari chose Constantine, "cos I haven't seen it for ages" and wasn't moved in the least by my suggestions along the lines of the above in favour of 50 First Dates.

So, Constantine it was. Unfortunately 15minutes in Mari threw her magazine (she had retrieved it while I was up putting the DVD in the machine) down on the coffee table and stated "I'm sorry Tony, I'm just knackered. I've got to go to bed." I followed her in, tucked her into bed and went back out to the living room with an admonishment not to stay up too late. I returned to the living room, opted not to continue watching Constantine in a dark, creaky house in the middle of the pitch-black woods and instead began flicking channels on the foxtel, discovering in the process that the movie channels were not hooked up to the retreats tab and nor were the "adult channels". I watched a couple of scifi channel shows, an NBA game and the last 45minutes of a movie on the free movie channel I can't for the life of me recall before stumbling across an interesting-looking movie on SBS about a woman stranded in the desert of North-Eastern Africa when her husband dies after dragging her, her mother and her daughter out there for some stupid reason. It's called House of Sand and an intriguing mechanism they employed was that at 2 or 3 points in the narrative a significant amount of time elapses (10years, 20years) and the actresses playing the mother and the protagonist shift down one place (so the actress originally playing the protagonist is now playing her daughter - now grown to womanhood herself - and the actress originally playing her mother is now playing the part of the protagonist). I liked the movie very much. It was very well acted and shot and very sad and poignant. I have a masochistic tendency which draws me to the bitter-sweet stories of love won but lost or of the endurance of the harsh struggle through the vagaries of circumstance leaving only the few short twilight years to share what should have been a lifetimes companionship. Happiness sometimes overshadowed, sometimes sharpened by regret.

Finally at 2am I retired to my throne with The Deathly Hallows before heading wearily to bed. On the way I stopped in to check on Josie (as I had done about 6 times already) and what do you know but theres a bloody spider on the curtain in her room. Luckily far away from her bed and also luckily not a big, hairy one. It's a large, thin-legged, thin-bodied one kind of like the arachnid equivalent of a stick-insect. I retrieve Josie from her bed and deposit her in with her mother before doing a tour of the house to check the doors and windows before bed. Checks complete I retire to bed and fall asleep remarkably quickly despite the spider in the other room. Only the big, hairy ones bother me especially.

Episode 6: River Cruise To Nowhere (The Journey Home)

Next morning we rose (well they rose and I slept in), packed and leaving the baggage in the living room headed out for a final outing to see if we could track down the river cruises advertised on a large banner attached to the mountain wall along the road into town. After driving up and down the main street a few times we spotted an information sign outside a building featuring various offices and a nick-knack shop. We turned into the driveway and proceeded to the back parking lot where we saw another information sign nailed to the wall outside a restaurant tucked away at the back of the block. Mari went in to find out if they knew where the cruises left from and came back out and said that they said information was to be gotten from the nick-knack shop out the front. Why they had an information sign on their wall was a mystery at this point.

We pulled back out of the driveway and parked on the street outside the shop. Mari headed in and came back out saying that the cruise was leaving right now but that the guy in the shop was calling the captain to see if they had left yet as they often didn't leave for 10mins after the official time to wait for stragglers and that I should go in and pay as she had left her wallet back at the house. I went in and after 5mins of waiting for the phone to ring the guy decided we'd better just go down to the dock and tell them Brian said we could pay after the cruise. If we were to make it in time that is. We headed on down to the dock but could not spot a cruise-sized boat and proceed on to the public ferry dock right next door to inquire of the staff there if the ferry had left. They pointed back toward the private dock and said "yeah there it goes now". We turned around to see a cruise-sized boat leaving the dock we had just departed. Looking at each other we decided that this was indeed a fitting way to end our disastrous anniversary weekend and headed back up the main road. As we neared the information offices I suggested we have lunch in the restaurant we had found out back and securing consent I turned in and parked once more out back.

Settling ourselves at a table out on the back veranda we were pleasantly surprised to find it two storeys off the ground and open to a beautiful view of the valley. The weather was the best it had been all weekend and the air was clean and fresh. We wiled away the late morning in pleasant conversation while the Spudlette played her DS or did some coloring in. I drew a pony for her. Mamma drew a mutant Yak for her (also meant to be a pony). Immediately upon being seated I noticed the cruise ship standing anchor in the river only about 50 meters up river of the dock it had left from and every now and then I would turn around and look out over the river and see that it had not moved an inch. Pointing this out to Mari we were suddenly glad that we had not taken the River Cruise To Nowhere and had instead landed here on this pleasant veranda overlooking the valley. When I think back on that weekend now the first memory that springs to my mind is not the disasters or the horrors or even the eventual meal at the Swiss place that was the origin of the choice of location. The first memory is of that morning/afternoon we spent on the veranda in the bright morning sunlight and cool mountain air overlooking the valley. It was our little family at its best. Sitting relaxed and well fed in lovely weather enjoying each other's company. I really couldn't ask for more than that at this stage of our lives. Maybe I will want something more adventurous when Josie tears my heart, beating from my chest and leaves home but for right now I just want to sit and relax in the company of my wife and child.

If this were a movie that would have been the perfect image to fade out on. But life is seldom as well directed as a movie and so it was that the weather turned and it began to rain sending us scurrying inside with the remains of our mains. Boom boom. But it was a pleasantly hard rain that brought with it a nice strong breeze that further cleared the air. Customers came and went, the place never more than half full, and we were content to remain and idly chat and play with Josie as time seemingly passed us by.

Finally we rose, paid our bill, returned to retrieve our stuff from the retreat and left Wisemans Ferry contented and happy in the end just to be together.

The End.