Anniversary the 10th: A Bisaster of Epic Proportions

A.k.a National Lampoon's Hill Family Vacation

Destination: Forgotten Valley Retreat, Wisemans Ferry, NSW
Expected Journey Time: 1hour 45minutes
Actual Journey Time: 6hours

That's 4 hours to get to Wisemans Ferry and 2 hours to find the retreat in an area roughly twice the length and width of Eastgardens Shopping Centre. Let's find out how we managed that shall we?

Sit back and strap yourselves in folks; it's going to be a long and bumpy ride. Catheters are recommended.

Episode 1: The Drive Up

We begin our tale of tragedy and triumph, of victory and bisaster, at 8pm this past friday night when we finally got underway and hit the road on our 10th Wedding anniversary family weekend vacation. After dropping Becka home, detouring via Mari's parents place to pick up some russian snacks (containers full of chicken schnitzels and rissoles) and then to Uncle David's to pick up the GPS (which I have come to know as That Bloody Stupid Female Canine for reasons that will become apparent as we go on) we were an hour into the journey and not yet out of Sydney. It was a sign of things to come.

Having been to the area we were heading to (Wisemans Ferry) before Unc offered to setup the GPS (@#$%#^!) with the destination and evaluate the route it proposed. This is where we hit our first obstacle; the road on the accommodation confirmation was not in the GPS. However after about 10mins perseverance Unc got it sorted enough so that it would "get me to Wisemans Ferry and from there it's good luck mate"; good enough for now, thanks Unc!

At this point since Mari had wanted me to get home from work earlier and to get going at least an hour earlier than we had done she was in no mood for any further delays or other developments not unknown to crop up on one of my operations; at this point Mari had no idea where we were going as it was meant to be a surprise. Given this need for secrecy Mari's traditional job as navigator was a bit restricted as she was not allowed to look too far ahead. This didn't last too long however, as you'll soon see, and given the way the night developed I'm glad she got not quite fair but at least some warning.

It started out fine however, the GPS directed us to get onto the Pacific Hwy and (according to Mari) remain on it for 67kms. Given that the GPS had only charged for 30mins (the Schotts got late notice we wanted to borrow it) we figured we should conserve the batteries even though it was supposed to be such a short drive. To that end once the nice lady (having not yet shown her true colors) advised us to stick to the same road for so long we switched her off and zero'd the trip meter on the car. Traffic was light for a friday night and the drive up Pacific Hwy was uneventful until we got to Hornsby and I missed my first turn-off where Pacific Hwy has an identity crisis and decides to turn onto a completely different road while the one you're on reverts to whatever it was before it was possessed by Hwy Numero Uno. It does this with alarming regularity. Alarming if you've switched off your GPS in the naive belief that staying on the same road actually entails staying on the same (physical) road. After a complicated set of right hand turns necessitated by my refusal to do an illegal u-turn and a semi-legal 3-point turn necessitated by bloody stupid No Right Turn signs affords us the opportunity to :

• observe teenage girls practicing to become street walkers (given their attire and the fact that they were leaning into cars to talk to boys who were at least smart enough to (a) dress more warmly and (b) not bother getting out of their cars when they dropped by the local hang-out/hooker-training-camp)

• teenage girls desperate to become tomorrows sexual assault headlines (given their attire, the time of night and the area they were traversing - don't get me wrong, I place the blame squarely on the offenders in these cases but just because I think you have the right to walk about at 10 o'clock at night on semi-deserted streets in shorts so short I can tell if you have piercings in interesting places doesn't mean I think it's a smart move)

• have the following marital exchange:

"Do a U-turn"

"No"

"Pull into a driveway and do a 3-pointer"

"I'm trying but I can't find a driveway"

"Driveway... driveway....... drivew-"

"I know! But by the time I see them I'm past them!"

"Slow down?"

"Yes dear"

"Driveway"

"@#$%!"

"Look here's an empty 10 car parking bay, do you think you can make that?!"

"Dunno let's find out, hang on"

"Jesus!"

We get back onto Pacific going in the right direction and make the turn we missed 15mins ago.

So we continue on our merry way, heading down the Pacific Hwy (looking for the love getaway indeed). At about the 50km mark I decide it's time to check in with TBSFC and confirm we are still following her instructions and low and behold what do we find, but that there are now TWO blue lines; one on the Pacific Hwy and one on the freeway. Looking ahead Mari finds that it is leading us to an entrance to the freeway around Brooklyn which will leave us heading BACK to Sydney.

"Impossible!", I proclaim. "I'm sure she is leading us around to the other side of the freeway to continue north!"

Alas it is as Mari says and we find ourselves heading back to Sydney along the F3. After 5 mins I pull over into a breakdown lane and check TBSFC myself and Mari decides that she can't navigate properly if she doesn't know where we are going. I tell her and she rings the place to get directions from where we are, all faith in TBSFC having long since departed.

While she gets directions I discover that TBSFC is in fact leading us back to Hornsby so that we may take the left turn we missed at around the 37km mark onto Galston Rd. While Mari and I debate whether or not to follow the new instructions of the Retreat Proprietors or the GPS's new route the operators ring back and after I inform them we are in fact heading south and not north, proceed to give me exactly the directions the GPS is giving us. And so faith restored in the GPS we get under way once more and make our way back to Hornsby (again) on the F3. We get back, turn around, manage not to miss the turns we missed the first couple of times through, find the turn off to Galston Rd and soon find ourselves descending a densely wooded mountain in a series of tight switch-backs that have Mari constantly telling me to slow to a crawl and freaking out because the trees are "spooky!". Once down the mountain we regain a measure of civilization and proceed to the end of Galston Rd, turn right and proceed for about half an hour down the Old Northern Rd at the end of which we once again find ourselves descending a steep, densely wooded mountainside via a series of tight switch-backs which Mari once more finds unnerving and spooky. At the bottom of the mountainside we spill out onto the main drag of Wisemans Ferry very much as if we had been hammering on a door which someone has suddenly opened spilling us unceremoniously to the floor.

Now, we still do not know where our accommodation is to be found and it is now midnight. However, WF only has one road so we feel fairly confident that it can't be too damned hard to find. Oh how little did we know.

We turned right on the main drag and proceeded slowly along it, looking at all the locations along it's length until abruptly we found ourselves at the end of the road staring at a very dark, closed ferry dock; glad that we had not taken the alternate route north via the F3 which would have had us arrive on the wrong side of the river with no ferry 'till morning. Turning around we proceed even more slowly (assuming we have missed our accommodation somehow on the previous pass) along the main drag looking for our place. We find, right up the other end near the foot of the mountain, a place called "Retreat at Wisemans Ferry" and, hope springing eternal, begin to concoct stories about how the "Forgotten Valley" part must have been removed from the name of the place since we booked. Entering the car park we find it is a fairly standard (and quite substantial) motor inn type affair with all the facilities promised by our accommodation (golf, tennis, pool, etc) and in a cruel twist of fate, aimed squarely at me, sports a parking lot guaranteeing I wont have to worry about dirty great, hairy spiders stowing away in my car.

Cruel because alas it is clearly not the place we are looking for. It looks nothing like the pictures in the brochure. With a heavy heart I turn the car around and make to depart the place, however we stop for a moment for Mari to see if she can get any mobile coverage on either of our phones (mine wins, ha!) and calls the proprietors again. While she's talking with them, the proprietor of the place who's carpark we are currently idling in walks up to the drivers-side window and asks if we need a room. I tell him where we are looking for and he gives us directions (and an offer of a room should we decide to stay) which, much like the 67kms on the Pacific Hwy thing, will turn out to be just slightly wrong enough to send us down the long and lonely road to nowhere. For what will seem like forever.

Tune in next time for :

Episode 2: The Road Goes Ever On... And On.

Josie-isms

On our way to school this morning, on the second day no less, it was pouring with rain (after a 30 degree first day!). We were stuck in traffic on a main road when out of the blue, someone runs into the back of the car.

After checking Josie I get out of the car, a bit shaken, and go check the damage. The other guy also stopped and got out, also came round, and we decided that there wasn't any visable damage, so we got into our respective cars and continued on our way.

As we drove off, I checked Josie in the rear view.

Mari: are you ok?
Josie: yeh
Mari: did you hear the bump?
Josie: no?
Mari: did you feel the bump?
Josie: no?
Mari: okie dokie.. doesn't matter then..
Josie: what happened?
Mari: someone bumped into the back of the car
Josie: ohh.. the car is sore now.

I managed to drop her off today at 8am on the dot! I was out of there by 815am and was at work by 840am! So no more late mornings! Woohoo! I have also organised to leave half an hour early one day a week to take Josie to her swimming lesson.

I left work today early as well and picked up Josie. She was happy to see me and had another great day at school, although this afternoon she came home in Rachel's socks, declaring that they were 'better'. In fact they were identical and I have to return poor Rachel's socks tomorrow.

I found out today that Josie made two new friends at school already. Another Rachel, and Alexa. Nice to know she is mingling.

After school yesterday and today we took Becca home as well and hung around at her place playing with the Wii. It was good fun.

All in all the first two days of school were great. Looking forward to Monday.

To School!

We are about to head of to school!

Missy is dressed and ready and (as usual) we are waiting for Tony to finish getting ready.


Waaaaaaa!!!!!

Josie Turns Five

I can't believe that my baby turned FIVE and starts big school in 2 days.

Last Sunday (the 20th) Josie turned five.

Most of you will know that Josie was very fixated on her dummy for most of her life. When she turned 4, we reduced her dummy time from whenever she felt the need, to just bed times and on that day we also told her that when she turned five the dummies would go completely. This was a repeated theme over the last 12 months. We would remind her every so often, when she turned five, there would be no more dummies because she was a big girl, going to big school.

As her 5th birthday drew nearer, we reminded her more often, and she was quite ready for it. She would tell all and sundry that when she turned 5, she would not be using a dummy anymore. Up until that time however, she made the most of her dummy time.

So the day she turned five she was very excited because I had told her a couple of months ago we would take the dummies and give them to the sick kids at the hospital. We made our preps and off we went to the Sydney Children's Hospital. We had wanted to prepare the nurses there so we asked a friend who is a doctor there to contact the front desk to let them know that a crazy lady and a 5 year old were bringing a bag of dummies to them. When we got there I explained the situation and the nurses were just lovely and did the whole handing over of the dummies ceremony and even gave her a birthday present. Josie was very proud.

After we dropped off the dummies, off we went to her 5th birthday party.

The entertainment was a family who did Sand Art. It was so much fun!

We had about 20 or so kids there, from school and family. Everyone had a great time making their Sand Art.

Its a fabulous idea.
In the first activity, the kids picked a little bottle and then used the coloured sand with a funnel to fill it. They then put a lid on the top, the bottle was sealed and the kids got to take home their creation.
In the second activity, the kids picked a picture which was sticky with sections covering the sticky bits, and you peeled off the sections and poured coloured sand on the exposed bits and the sand stuck. The kids then got to take home the sand painted picture they made.

I think the kids really enjoyed themselves and even the little kids had fun.

After the party, and the packing up, we headed off to Baba & Dyeda's to open presents. Josie got thoroughly spoilt and it took over 40 minutes to open everything up. Becca was Santa bringing her the presents one and a time and Josie loved opening so many presents.

It was a lovely day for everyone.


On Australia Day, Philip turned 15, and we celebrated his and Josie's birthdays at Trudy's place where we had fantastic food as usual and relaxed and played Scattegories. Granny made a wonderful Barbie cake which Josie just loved.

This Sunday we go to The Eiger Swiss restaurant. And that will be the last outing for Josie's birthday this year ;-)

Keep Searching, You'll Find it..

It took me 4 days to write my last blog update, but I did it!

Its down below because I started it and then Mat posted a couple of updates, so its down below those!

;-)

Twice Around The Block Driver, And Don't Spare The Horses

Yesterday Ant, Mari, Josie, Philip and Jacqui came over in the early evening. Wendy and I first of all took everyone for a walk down to Mahon Pool, around to Lurline Bay and back home. It's a nice 45-minute-ish walk around the north Maroubra coastline, and we'd earlier driven by the beach and seen the huge seas that are battering the beaches at the moment.

On the way down to Mahon Pool, we passed a driveway where what can only be described as a horde of ants were tucking into a couple of worms. Josie hopped over these while eyeing them with interest, and commented a little later that "those ants were having a party back there."

When we got down to Mahon Pool I took a few photos of the waves, which were sweeping over the pool and the few loonies in it in huge foaming swells. Josie had decided by this time that she needed to pee, prompting Mari to attempt to hold her in a normal toilet-sitting pose in mid-air while Josie illustrated the true meaning of the phrase "p*ssing into the wind". I had pointed out that there were public toilets just 15m away but nobody ever listens to me. Except Josie, and her parents would probably prefer that she didn't.

The rest of the walk passed without incident, and Jacqui and Philip and I went off to hunt the wild pizza for dinner, while the others went back to the flat. Several family sized pizza's later, and Josie asleep in our spare bedroom, we resumed our game of The Dungeons Of Dorukan - a card-based D&D-like game.

Today, it's back to work. With a very rude beginning of an 8:30 am meeting. *sigh*

Josie Quote Of The Week

The scene: Ant, Mari and Jo have come over for dinner. I had made a somewhat French-style pork stew. Josie is poring through the half a million green shopping bags in which Ant and Mari lug around the apparently endless supply of 'stuff' which Josie might require at any given moment (despite this there is almost always SOMETHING they've forgotten).

Jo: You didn't bring my ... FOOD!
Mat: Would you like some pork stew?
Jo: *exasperated look* No.
Mat: Why not?
Jo: You know.
Mat: No, I don't know. That's why I asked.
Jo: You know. You're a big boy. You know everything.
Mat: *p*ssing myself laughing*

Happy New Year 2008 !

So I guess I had better round off the last month or so ;-)

Lets start with Dec 1st. We went to the Eiger Swiss for Uncle Mat's birthday. He turned the big 4-0 so we had to celebrate in style at our favourite place to eat. We had a lovely time as usual, thoroughly enjoyed the food and then feasted on chocolate fondue for desert.

On the 2nd we went to Trudy's for lunch for Mat's and Jacqui's birthdays. Jacqui is now 19 years old, which I totally cannot believe. I feel so OLD!!!

The first week of December Josie had her end of year Concert and graduation. My baby is starting big school next year!! Waaa! The concert was magnificant. The kids sang and danced and it was just so SO good! And then they did the Graduations and all the kids came up one at a time to get their certificate. It was so cute! And Josie was so proud to have graduated too!

On the 8th we went to see Jay's Place. It was fabulous, Becca and I took Josie and Rachel. The girls behaved beautifully and enjoyed the show.

The next night, Vika, Becca and I went to see Abba Mania at Star City. It was a fun night, we had second row seats and it was amazing to see 6 year olds singing away to Abba!

On the 10th and 11th I was on an introductory course for MS Access in the city. I can't tell you how much I hate being in the city, but the course was great! And I caught public transport! All by myself! I haven't sat on a bus for years and years!

That Saturday we made some new friends. We met them through Michelle and Sam previously and so that night we had a get together at their place. They have a lovely house with great views and a jacuzzi. Unfortunately Josie had a staf infection at the time so she couldn't go in the spa, but she had a great time anyhow. Tony and Mandy have a 3 yr old called Gabi and Josie and Gabi hit it off really well. Josie has always been really good with the younger kids so she fell into the mothering role with Gabi very easily. We were there quite late and Josie and we had a wonderul time chatting with them.

On the 16th we had Rachel and Miriams birthday. They had Go Seek performing and the theme was Outer Space. All the kids had a great time!

On the 17th, school ended for the year and Josie had her last day at preschool. It was quite emotional, they could come in in the school uniform for next year so dressing Josie in school uniform that morning, I almost burst into tears. She was SO excited about wearing her uniform though, I imagine that won't last long once she starts big school though.

On that last day I had arranged to have a birthday cake for Josie since her birthday will fall in the holidays. They had a gorgeous little ceremony where all the kids stood in a circle and Josie was in the middle and all the kids gave her 'a present from the heart' which was in the form of a kiss, or hug or smile or special message. It was lovely. They then sang songs and danced and Josie was in her element (the centre of attention ;-). We then went outside and Josie blew out her candles and cut the cake. She had a great time.

And then preschool was over.

The first two days of her holidays, Josie was at a Shrek Camp at the school. She had a great time and got to hang out with Rachel and do arts and crafts and watch Shrek.

The next day she spent with Baba and then Daddy was on leave and she spent that Friday hanging out with Daddy.

On the 22nd we were going to go to the Domain for Carols. One of Tony's best friends, Kylie, is visiting from Scotland with her husband Andy. We were going to meet them at The Domain but the weather was a bit dodgy, raining hard one minute, sunshine the next, that we decided to bail. We watched some of it on TV, but instead we went to Vika's place and set up the Tivo that we gave to Becca for Xmas.

On the Sunday morning I had a lovely chat with Harri on Skype, which we need to do more often!! She is coming to visit in April for 4 weeks! We are just beside ourselves and cannot wait!!

After our chat we went to Coogee to have lunch with Kye and Andy. It was a gorgeous day and afterwards we went down to the beach where Miss Josie once again got herself drenched ;-)

And sandy. Blech.

And then it was Xmas Eve! We had lunch with Jacqui up at Balmoral Beach and then went for a walk on the beach. Well Jac and Josie did. Tony and I walked along the promenade. Cause, you know.. sand.. Blech..

Obviously my daughter cannot walk along a beach without getting herself drenched, so missy decided to take off her dress, which is great, but also her undies, so there she was running all over the beach stark nekkid. She had a ball, but Tony was told in no uncertain terms that the child was not entering my car with even a grain of sand on her. Well I got a few grains, but oh well.

So that night we went driving around the East looking at Xmas lights. Seriously, the Eastern Suburbs have the best Xmas lights ever! There is one house that has a full scale replica of the Luna Park face, the Harbour Bridge, Centrepoint and lights just everywhere! It is just amazing! And then around the corner from that is a street of mansions that are all lit up like nobody's business! Just truly amazing lights. We had Josie and Becca in the car and Jacqui was in another with Mat and Wendy and we drove around till almost 11pm. We dropped Becca home and then drove Jac home and Josie fell asleep around 1130pm! Needless to say we had a nice sleep in the next day.

Xmas day we went to Trudy's for lunch and as always it was fabulous. And then Boxing day we went to Mat's for lunch and that was also fabulous. Too much fooooood!!!

Josie scored in presents. She got a bunch of board games and some computer games and some toy sets and books and clothes and she was just a happy camper.

The best present of all was a HUGE, and I mean HUGE, box. Yes, box. It was the box from the 100 metre Sony Bravia TV that David bought. They had made a door in it and Josie spent Xmas day running in and out of her new cubby house ;-) It now resides in the spare room temporarily.

The next day was a not so fun day. Well for me and Tony anyway. Well it wasnt that bad. Josie went to Granny's place and Tony and I spent the day cleaning her room. We got rid of two garbage bags of old toys and clear some space in her room. It was great. We had hoped to work on the living room and spare room as well but we never got there. Another time.

That night we went out to Doyles for dinner with Kye and Andy. We hadn't been to Doyles in ages. It was nice to be back there.

The next day was lunch at Baba's and Dyeda's place. As always the food was magnificent and Josie got spoilt once again with presents and ran around playing with Jayden.

Saturday went went to Tony & Mandy's for a BBQ and Spa. Their Spa is amazing, with all the bells and whistles (radio, jets in all the right places, coloured lights!) and we had a great time lazing around in the spa.

On Sunday we were babysitting Jayden so Becca, Josie, Jayden and I went to see The Bee Movie, while Daddy put together Uncle Mat's new bike, and then after the movie we all went to the park to ride bikes/scooters or sit around on benches ;-)

The Bee Movie was a great success. As usual Josie was scared of going (I have a wierdo kid who is scared of going to the movies), but once we got there and the movie started she loved it. After the movie I took a short side trip to the phone shop. After Coogee beach the previous weekend, I had accidentally left my mobile in my pocket while my pants got washed, so it drowned. I wanted to see what I could do cause I still had about 6 months left on my contract. Luckily they cut my payout figure by half so I got a new Nokia 6500 slide phone.

So once that was all organised, we met Tony at the park and he went off riding and scootering with the kids while Vika and I played with our phones and read a magazine ;-) It was nice and relaxing ;-)

So NYE was great. We went to Mat's for dinner with them and Wendy's family. At almost 9pm Tony and I and Josie went off to Easties carpark to watch the fireworks, which were good, but quite far away and we couldn't see the bridge, but at least we watched them. When we got back we were lucky enough to catch the beginning of the Coogee fireworks which we could see just perfectly from Mat's living room window. They were spectacular.

Tony put Josie to bed and then Mat, Wendy, Tony and I sat down to play a new board game, The Order of the Stick. It was a great game but it took about 4 nights to finish it! And we left Mat's around 3am!

On New Years Day we slept in and then went to Balmoral Beach again with Jacqui, except this time we were prepared with swimming costumes and towels. We all went swimming, even me! And we all know how I feel about beaches and sand!

I dont know what it is about beaches and sand. I just hate, hate the feeling of sand on the skin, and I just loathe the feeling of sand on wet skin. Blergh.

I managed to live through the whole beach experience without losing my mind though, and even got tanned, and dare I say it, burnt.

Josie, however, loves the beach.. and sand.. she had a fabulous time in the water with Daddy and Jacqui.

After the beach we came home and changed and then went to Mat's again to, firstly, finish the game (which we didn't, but Jacqui and Philip joined in), and also to take a walk down to the Maroubra cliffs and around to Luraline Bay. It was a lovely walk, around an hour and a half. I got some great photos (up on Flickr) of the insane waves and hostile ocean that evening.

January 2nd was a 'easing out of holidays mode' day. Tony went back to work, Josie went to Granny's for a few hours in the morning and I went and did grocery shopping. It was nice to be able to just lose myself in grocery shopping again. I am find it relaxing to just wander through Coles ;-)

When daddy came home from work we once again went to Mat's to 'work' on the boardgame we had started on NYE. It was progressing, but we were still not finished.

January 3rd was cooking day. Josie helped me make veges for her dinners, helped me make cookies and cupcakes. She had a great time and I really loved the time with her. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing before I took her to spend the night at Baba's place while Tony and I went out for dinner.

We went to dinner at The Wharf restaurant overlooking Sydney Harbour and the bridge. The atmosphere and the views were magnificent. We got to see the bridge up close and watched the Hourglass they put up for the NYE fireworks working and turning as time passed. The food was great but scarily overpriced, and we even saw Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban dining there (she had the muscles, and is apparently confirmed to be pregnant, although we swore on the night that she had absolutely no bump!). We had a great time with a big group of friends and chatted the night away. The dinner was in honour of our friend Kylie and her husband Andy visiting from Scotland, and it was great seeing them again.

Friday was a very long day! In the morning I picked up Becka, then picked up Josie from Baba's and then we all went to Darling Harbour to check out Sydney Wildlife World. It was fabulous! We caught the mini train across Darling Harbour to get there and Josie loved that. She has been bugging me about riding those things for ages. SWW was amazing, and certainly bigger than it looks from the outside. It went on and on and on inside. After the initial hundred of 'ewww' 's as we walked through the spiders and bugs exhibits (stick insects just freak me out!) we managed to catch the koalas, wombats and wallabies.. and the girls even walked through a butterfly enclosure.

After getting out, and having some lunch, we caught the mini train back across to the car and we, thoroughly exhausted, headed home.

I dropped off Josie with Granny for the night, Becka at home, went home, changed and then was off to pick up Tony from work for the concert we were seeing that night - Natalie Gauci with Matt Corby.

You may poo poo Australian Idol, but this year they scored. Gauci was awesome. Absolutely awsome. She has a voice that can do anything. She sounded like Tina Arena, Christina Aguilera, Monica Trapaga, Sinead O'Conner.. all at different times.. all perfectly sung. It was an awesome concert.

The next day turned into a bit of a sleep in. I believe we slept in till about 1130am! Josie was at Granny's so we got some sleeeeep!

We had our first "drop-off" party that day. A drop-off party is one where the parents leave the kids at the party and pick them up after. Needless to say, we were a little nervous. It was a Tennis Party for her 'boyfriend' Tyler. After dropping her off, we popped down to Coogee Beach for some lunch (we had about an hour before we had to come back for her). After eating (and stopping ourselves from just going to the party, we went down to the beach, which was closed due to dangerous surf conditions. The sky was bright grey, it was amazing. There were still people on the sand, and even surfers in the water but the lifeguards were patrolling quite vigorously.

We got back to the party and found that Josie had been hit in the eye by a tennis ball and had sand in her eye. Her first drop-off!! LOL. By a wierd stroke of luck, one of the dads there was an optometrist, so he washed her eye out with saline as much as he could and then she sat with the adults till we got there. They said she was very well behaved but she was still complaining about her eye being sore so we took her to Sydney Children's Hospital. They checked out her eye, pronounced her good to go and we went home, got some night gear for Josie and went to Mat's to finish the board game we had started the previous weekend.

And we finally did it! We finished the game! The girls all beat the boys, and we eagerly put the game away.

Sunday we were meant to go to the beach with friends Roman and Helen and their daughter Stacey but with Josie's eye still being sore we postponed to this coming weekend cause we didnt want to put her anywhere near more sand ;-) So instead we went to Trudy's for breakfast, and then afterwards took Jacqui and Philip and sneaked into Vika's place to play with Becka's new Wii. Well I did get permission first ;-)

It was great fun actually, and Josie was brilliant with it. She bowled like a pro and beat everyone except Philip. She also played Tennis and golf. I tried them all too, and they are really active games. Got a good workout with boxing. Obviously now Tony is on my back to get a Wii ;-) Which we are NOT going to do BTW.

And then Monday I was back to work and Josie was at Granny's. We actually had a pretty shocking night on Sundday. Josie woke up several times complaining of an ear ache so Granny took her to see the Dr who diagnose an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics and ear drops. Its better now but she has been an absolute nightmare to get the drops into.

So every day since they left I have been going to feed Vika's cat. Its actually been really nice cause they have an airconditioner so I have been able to cool down after the hot days we have been having.

We have also started taking down the Xmas lights and decorations. Its taking a while cause we cant be bothered ;-)

And that pretty much brings us up to date I think. I have been enjoying being back at work but I am stressing out that in about 3 weeks my baby will start big school and we will have to get her there by 815am and how is she going to cope etc etc etc.. I know she will be fine but I am still freaking out.

Oh and I have a new mobile phone after my old one went for a swim in the washing machine with my pants ;-)

This blog has now taken me about 4 days to write. And I still need to add photos. Actually no, I am going to just upload the photos to Flickr and you can click the link and go see them.

Just a reminder that I have made my new photos private, so if you aren't listed as a contact in Flickr, you wont be able to see them. If you would like to be added, let me know.

And here endeth the epic..

A Final Note for 2007!

I thought I should throw in a final post for the year, since December has REALLY sucked for blogging!

Wishing you all a very safe, happy and prosperous new year.

See you next year!
Mari

I know! I KNOW!

I suck!!

But its 1130pm and I'm going to bed.

Theres new photos up on Flickr.

Mum, don't hassle me!

I'll get to it!

Bloody blog..

;-)

Elton Bloody Awsome John!

Its past midnight.. we just got back from Elton John..

It was A W E S O M E !!!

I had scored some free tickets to a corporate sponsored Elton Concert in a suite at Acer Arena. It was A W E S O M E!!!

They even gave us an Elton CD as we left, and also fed us before the show. 2.5 HOURS!

A W E S O M E !!!

Now I go to sleep..

When it rains it pours..

This blog post starts off on a funny note.

On Thursday night at my aqua aerobics class, the teacher had forgotten
to charge her ipod and so we were facing an hour of aqua with no music!
It was a horrific, horrific prospect, so when she asked if anyone in the
class (who were currently in the water) had an ipod on them, I had to
let it be known that I did, albeit in the car.

So off Becka went to fetch the ipod (all us grown ups were cold and
wet.. And well.. Lazy). I was a bit nervous about it.. Its amazing how
laid bare you feel when exposing your private music to strangers. After
making sure no one said diddly about my choice of music, she put my ipod
on shuffle and away we went.. To the strains of.. War of the Worlds..
Phantom of the Opera.. Olivia Newton John.. Dean Martin.. And mostly
Russian music. It was an interesting experience ;-)

Saturday is where this story starts to decline..

We went to a birthday party for the 1yr old daughter of a friend of
Tony's. It was at Homebush at Bicentennial Park. The party started out
ok, but then Josie ran down a hill, fell, skinned her knee good and
proper and howled for the next 30 mins. Poor thing was very clingy for
the rest of the party, till the pinata came out and she gave it several
good whacks and managed to break the thing.

Around the end of the party we found out that a number (5-6) cars had
been broken into in the car park where our car was. When Tony went down
to have a look he found that our car, while the window had not been
broken, had been broken into through the drivers side lock. They broke
apart the glove compartment, pulled out the stereo, went in the back,
moved the child seat aside, climbed into the boot and took Tony's
backpack.. Which had his laptop in it. Oh joy. The rest of the day was a
bit of a nightmare. We sat around waiting for the police for about 2
hours and when they didn't come we gave up and went home. After speaking
to the NRMA we found that they wouldn't cover the laptop and we're not
sure about the stereo, their claims dept needs to call me back. Gio was
less helpful, telling me that while I do have Personal Effects cover on
my home and contents, because we didn't specify the laptop, its not
covered with them either. What the HELL do we pay insurance for!?

So. What fun. Like we don't have enough to worry about.

Sunday was a bit better, with a nice brunch at Coogee with my Baba, Vika
and Becka. After brunch I dropped off Josie at Granny's so that she
could take her to Jacqui's dance recital that we all missed last night
while waiting for the Police. She enjoyed that immensely.

After that we met at the school to check out the P-6 Artwork Exhibition
that was on. Apparently every child in the infants and primary had
something up. It was gorgeous.

And that was the end of our weekend.

Its A Bad Idea...

.. to, when making an omlette in a little frying pan, on a gas stove, to spray spray-on olive oil on the previously mentioned little pan..

Long Awaited Canberra Update And More

I know.. I know.. I just couldn't get myself into the whole blogging thing lately..

Ok so weekend before last we went to Canberra. We left on Saturday morning (after stops and starts) and had a nice drive down. Josie played with her Nintendo (we remembered to charge it this time), I slept a bit.. and we stopped for lunch at McDonalds where Josie played in the playground. It was fun.

We got to Canberra in the afternoon, checked into the hotel (Formula 1!) and went immediately to check out Floriade.

It was just beautiful. I am not too much into flowers per se.. I was excited about taking some nice photos of Josie with flowers, and I wasn't disappointed. The photo ops there were lovely. I even managed to snare some nice macro shots of tulips and the like. Flickr has been updated with all the photos. Check it out.

We spent a few hours there, until we were all knackered, and then went to dinner with some friends of Uncle Mat's. Peter, Jennifer and their kids took us to this fabulous chinese place that had amazing food!

After that we retired back to the snazzy Formula 1 hotel where Josie had a room with Granny and Tony and I had a room to ourselves and of course Mat & Wendy. If you have never stayed at a Formula 1, its quite an experience. Its very cheap, but the room was clean and neat. The reason its so cheap is cause amenities are quite scarce. And the rooms are quite small. But if you are not planning on spending a lot of time in a hotel room, this is the place to be. The room had a queen bed with a bunk above it, and a sink and TV in the corner. Also in the room was a bathroom, but all it had in it was a shower and a toilet. There was no sink (that was out in the main room). The bathroom was made out of fiberglass (??) and basically reminded me of an airplane toilet.

Anyway, we spent the night quite comfortably, and then the next morning we checked out, and headed off to Pancake Palace (?) for breakfast where we all gorged ourselves on pancakes. After that we stopped briefly in the Koko Black chocolate shop where we bought some choccies and then headed off to Questacon.

We took Josie to Questacon a few years ago, but to be honest, she was just too young to really get her feet wet so to speak.

This time was very different.

We spent many hours at Questacon and Josie just loved it. If we had something like that in Sydney, I would have a yearly pass to it.

There was just SO much for her to do. Things to push, things to pull, things to poke and prod. There was an entire section devoted to younger kids where there was a water area with water equipment that carried water along pipes and turnstiles. Josie got drenched, but she had an absolute ball there. And at every step there was something else she could get her hands on. It was a 5 year old's dream!

Eventually, exhausted, we dragged her out, and headed off home. We got home around 9pm or so, Josie was already asleep and absolutely knackered.

And the next morning Term 4 started.

Term 4!

The final term at preschool. She starts Kindy next year. Big school! *CRY* I am more stressed out about this than she is obviously.

So that covers Canberra.

Last weekend was pretty eventful. I had Friday off and on Friday night, Josie slept at Vika's place and Tony and I went out to dinner at a russian restaurant. It was great! Live music, great food and lots of it! It was like going to mums for dinner.. except we had to pay for it ;-)

On Saturday, Tony picked up Josie from Vika's and took her to dance class and afterwards we all went to Coogee for lunch. After Coogee we dropped Josie off with Granny and Vika, Becka, Becka's friend Daniella, Tony and I went to see Harry Potter & the Order of the Pheonix at iMax. Absolutely fabulous! Especially the 3D bit at the end. It was a great night.

Sunday was a long day with two birthday parties (one in the morning for a 1 yr old and 1 in the afternoon for two 5yr olds), where I got branded with a few temp tattoos (which I still have). After the parties I was absolutely done so I decided it was time we went for a swim, so we met Vika and Becka in the afternoon for a quick swim at the local pool before they closed. It was quite refreshing.

And thats that! Go check out the photos in Flickr and have a look at the Floriade set.

Josie Speak

From Becka:

I was looking on the Luna Park website and she saw the big face thingo and goes:
Josie: I've been there before
Bec: No Jose, you're too little, you havn't, you're too little
Josie: How can I be little? I'm 4 years old! You are only little when you are 1, 2 and 3 and I'm not 1, 2, or 3, I'm 4, so I'm not little ok? I'm 4 years old!

And this morning driving to school listening to the radio:

Josie: I think this is about God
Mari: What is?
Josie: This radio show
Mari: Maybe.. who is God honey?
Josie: Uhm.. God is.. the man's brother.. at first, he wouldn't let his people go, and then he killed everyone.
Mari: Uhhh honey.. I think you mean Pharoah?
Josie: [Throwing hands up in the air] Ugh! I don't think I know God..

Well you can't know everyone..

And yesterday walking to the car Josie tells me:

Josie: I had a dream last night.. that Uncle Mat was in your bed! With Daddy. And you. And me!
Mari: Oh really? What was Uncle Mat doing there?
Josie: He was sleeping. And kicking me!

..I must have a talk to Uncle Mat.. the next time he sleeps over.. no kicking Josie in his sleep.. or us for that matter..

I know, I know.. Canberra update coming soon..

In which Josie "handles" Daddy

The other night I was putting Josie to bed and when I asked her if she wanted Potter or Belgarion (the two "big" books I am currently reading to her - she alternates as neither has managed to capture her attention like The Hobbit did) we had this little exchange:

Daddy: Which story do you want Potter or Belgarion?
Josie: Show me! *she looks over the edge of her bed eagerly*
Daddy: *pulling out the container with her current rotation of books on top of it and lifting out the aforementioned books*
Josie: Get the Green Book. (The "Green Book" is the leatherbound edition of The Hobbit I had already read to her)
Daddy: *making a face* No green book sweety. Potter or Belgarion.
Josie: Nooo I'm gonna choose!
Daddy: *thinking he's smart, asks slyly* Which one are you going to choose?
Josie: *being actually smart* Let's find out! GO get the Green Book!"

Having been undeniably "pwn3d" by my 4 year old I hung my head (actually I laughed so hard a little pee came out) and went and got the Green Book as ordered.

And I thought we'd be dealing with the kid's nightmares about now...

So I'm sitting up in bed the other night doing my brain training (a NintendoDS game), and Mari is already asleep somewhere beside and to my back when she starts whimpering, tossing and finally thrashing about and crying out.

Now, normally I give her a few soothing pats on the arm and shush her back to a more peaceful sleep but tonight I'm busy with my training so it escalates, culminating with her jerking awake panting and with much palpitation:

"Whoa, Tony, you've gotta wake me when I have a nightmare like that!" she admonishes me groggily.
Wondering how I got designated the Hasslehoff of the bedroom and where I should stick the flags I enquire, "What were you dreaming?"
Dreamily, already drifting back into sleep she confides, "The playdoh was chasing me!"
"You what?", and of course I'm picturing formless blobs of playdoh but nope nothing is quite so simple with my dearheart.
"A playdoh dinosaur! It gripped my arm in it's mouth! And it hurt!", she shudders as she relives her ordeal.
"How big was it?" I ask, presciently guessing what the answer must be knowing my wife as I do.
"Hmf?" Not even the horror of the playdoh dinosaur can long stand betwixt my love and her sleep.
"How big was it?" I say again, speaking in the distinct tones one adopts when unsure if the listener has reverted to understanding only russian as she so often does when only half awake.
"Mmmm BIG! Like THIS big" She replies, raising her arm about a foot off the bed.
"Mmmm huge" says I in the best approximation of seriousness I can muster under the circumstances.

And with that I give her arm a belated pat and send her off back to sleep and hopefully no further run-ins with The Dreaded Midget Playdoh Dinosaur of Hill Manor.

Grown Ups Night Out & The Weekend

Last Friday night Josie slept at Baba's so that Mummy and Daddy could go on a date.

It was fabulous!

We went out for dinner at a place at Fox Studios. It was delicious! The only thing that marred the night was the bloody thousand bogong moths flying around. Honestly, do we have to have a yearly plague?

After dinner we made a quick trip to Jacqui's place so Tony can fiddle with her laptop. They have a medium sized aquarium and some tropical fish. One of which has had a number of pregnancies (even though her mate died a few months ago!!) Currently they have a million baby fish inside the tank, another million in one breeder box and the mother, currently pregnant again, in a second breeder box. I tell you, baby fish are SOOO cute!

We got home around midnight and didn't get to sleep till around 3am, which was quite silly because we had organised a conference call with Harri for Saturday morning. I sent her an email saying we were pooped and can we do it Sunday morning instead.

On Saturday morning, once I had woken up, I went and picked up Josie from mums, and we went shopping.

Shopping is always an interesting experience with Josie. If its not "I want this!" "I want that!", its always Josie trying to steer a full trolley of groceries all by herself. The afternoon was uneventful though, so thats a blessing.

Sunday morning was very exciting though. We had our Skype call with Harri, Sven and Ella.

It was so exciting to see them all, especially Ella, who was a trooper lying in mums arms the whole time. We were lucky in our timing cause Ines & Dave had come round to drop off some stuff at just the right time, so we all got to chat with Harri.

Josie was very excited to see Harri and Ella and 'Auntie Sven'.

After the call, and after Ines & David left, we got ready and went to meet Mat, Wendy and Granny at Coogee for lunch.

Coogee is always a favourite place for a meal cause we sit outside and bask in the lovely Sydney weather.
After lunch, Mat, Wendy, Tony, Josie and I all went Bowling. It was so much fun (Josie's second time). Mat won, Josie beat both me AND Tony, Wendy came second and I came last ;-)

Let me tell you though, bowling has changed some since the last time I went!

Firstly, the shoes are VELCRO! Can you imagine? VELCRO! Last bowling shoes I put on were lace ups!
Secondly, there were no computers! All the names were programmed in at the front desk, and the scoring happened automatically!
And thirdly, the kids gutter guards came up AUTOMATICALLY every time it was her turn!

I was muchos impressed!!

So thats pretty much it for last weekend. I am now back from Canberra the weekend after and need to update about that!! Bah!!

The Cook And The Niece

Josie has become somewhat interested in cooking shows on TV, since watching an episode or two of Kylie Kwong's new DVD at my place. Where normally you'd need to use a nailgun to convince her to stay still for two seconds when she's visiting at Uncle Mat's, after a few seconds of the show starting she was transfixed. Antony is hopeful that this will progress to her keeping him well-fed until she moves out of home.

She is now willing to watch anything to do with cooking, and on her most recent visit to my domicile settled down to watch some Jamie Oliver while sitting in her Uncle Mat easy chair. Having grown a little pudgier in my old age, I apparently make a good beanbag.

But I was assured that aliens had not in fact stolen her brain and swapped it with another - she grew impatient with Jamie riding around on his mo-ped buying ingredients and insisted that he get on with the cooking. I tried to make her understand that before you could cook food you had to go out and buy ingredients but I don't know if I convinced her. She's very adept at giving you this look that says "Ok I'm sure you believe that. You're obviously either insane, stupid, or both, and have little or no idea as to how the universe really works."

I mean everybody knows food comes out of the magic fridge right? ; )

A Letter For The Ages..

Every now and then, dad pens a letter that is just gold.. no edits from me.. see below..

To Body Corporate

I bring you my attenition to dengerous situation on trafic on our body corporate garage.

As you now all car stay nose in to the wall and we are moving from parking spot backwoods.

But next to my parking spot on left hand side (entrance to building) is full wall and this wall close view fir trafic cars from top off the garage. The cars moving by left side (as Australian rules) it is make very dengerous situation for car moving from parking spot backwoods, because wall next to my spot obstruct view and I cannot see any car (or even people moving from top of garages - which is happends very often).

Last week accident nearly happend when car moving from top of garages to main gate and I was moving from my parking spot. If accident happend on such situation all recponsibility of accident to be on body corporate insurance.

To avoid such situation I suggest to install mirror on this area like we have mirror on other spot inside of garage.

Please have install this mirror as soon as possible.

And after this piece quality writing.. no he didn't get his mirror..

Oh My Goodness, The Chips!

Implementing a Token Economy

A token economy is a psychological tool that is used to encourage desirable behaviours in children. Children earn “tokens” or points for exhibiting a range of desirable behaviours and can then redeem them for goods from a store at a pre-determined time.

A few weeks ago we started implementing a Token Economy at home. Josie had been getting progressively more and more difficult to manage since she turned 4 so we decided to try it. We had actually heard of this method from The Mommycast, a couple of years ago, but it was too early to implement then. Now however, is a different story. We bought a case of real poker chips, they are the good quality heavy ones that feel like you are holding something substantial, not the fake plastic ones, and away we went.

And what a change. I hardly recognise my daughter. She has taken to this like a toddler to Toys R Us!

Whenever we see that Josie has done something we have asked her to straight away; has obviously listened to what we have said; is told not to do something and actually stops her actions to talk about it with us; is being attentive, helpful, pleasant, etc she gets a poker chip.

The poker chips come in 4 colours, red, blue, green and black, with the red being worth the least, and the black being worth the most.

Red is 10pts.

Blue is 20pts.

Green is 50pts.

Black is 100pts.

1 point = 10c.

Usually she will get a red, however when we see that she has done something extra good or say if she has had to behave through a number of activities in a row (eg getting up, dressed, hair and teeth brushed of a morning without throwing any tantrums or refusing to co-operate) she will get a blue. After just 3 or 4 weeks she has even started to earn greens! Which she does by being a good girl for an entire afternoon/evening. The blacks she can only get by trading in groups of the lesser ones. Although we have told her if she is good for an entire weekend she will get a black one. But that is more as an encouraging, "lofty goal" to give her an emotional boost rather than a real expectation on our part. No 4 year old should be expected to be perfectly behaved every minute for days. As luck would have it the black ones are her favourites. So that gives her an extra incentive and a longer term goal to accrue the smaller ones so she can trade them in.

She's collected quite a few of the chips now and her behaviour has changed dramatically. She still gets into a mood occasionally, but it is now the exception, not the rule. Its amazing.

Last week we went and made our first purchase with her chips. An elephant game where the elephant blows butterflies out of his trunk and she has to catch them with her net. She loves it. And she knows that it was her good behaviour that bought her the game.

Also, a couple of months ago we were at Tony's uncles place and Josie found cousin Jacqui's Nintendo DS and wanted to play with it. To all our astonishment she was immediately able to play the thing! Well, we had a trip to Dubbo coming up and this was obviously the PERFECT thing for the long drive. So we borrowed Jac's and it worked a treat! Coincidentally we started the token economy shortly before the trip so we decided to offer her a second hand DS Lite from ebay "if she got 3 blue chips!". Remember this was early on so we couldn't foresee how quickly she would accrue 3 blue chips. Given what we have learned we would probably have set her the goal of 3 green or even 3 black ones! Anyway she got it last night, and as it happens it depleted her of the majority of her chips as we fiendishly devised a way to make up for the blunder with the initial cost of the thing; she had to pay extra for each of the games she got with it (it came with 14 GBA games). She was not too thrilled that she was left with only a few chips (of course being a 4 year old she is as fond of the poker chips as she is of a high-tech game system!), but we just reminded her what a good girl she was and told her we were sure she would have piles of chips again in no time and she was ecstatic!

Its brilliant. Its fantastic. I highly recommend it to all parents.

We have tried many disciplinary methods (has anyone else noticed how many punishment-based ones there are compared to so few reward based systems? Change comes slowly I guess.) over the years and never got a tenth of the results we are getting now.

Birthday Weekend Update

It was a loooong celebration ;-)

You don't turn 29-again every year! err.. well.. some of us actually DO ;-)

So for my 5th 29th birthday we had dinner at mums, dinner at Mat's, then dinner at Mat's again and then lunch at Trudy's! All the while, my tonsils were swollen and not getting any better!

Starting with the night of my birthday, Thursday, we went over to my mums for dinner. Dinner was lovely as usual and Josie had a great time playing with Becka.

On the Friday night, Mat offered to make dinner for us for my birthday. This was such a lovely gesture and I was very touched. Then I laid down some ground rules.

1. No Roasts.
2. No stupid movies
3. No Snatch (a movie Mat has been trying to get me to watch for years!)
4. No British Movies
5. No Victor Borg

I had to lay down rules or I would have ended up watching some comedian from Scotland who I couldn't understand! And The-Rules(tm) I relayed via Tony.

So then we had the following conversation on Meebo:

Mat: so Miss Fussypants No-Roast .. what DO you want for your birthday dinner?
Mari: lol
Mari: did you get my list of demands?
Mari: No Snatch
Mari: No Victor Borg
Mari: No English crap
Mari: No Stupid DVDs
Mat: nothing good in other words
Mari: ;-)
Mat: how bout we all sit around and read The Belgariad?
Mari: YES!!!
Mari: HOW wonderful!
[The Belgariad and The Mallorean are my all time favourite books by David Eddings]
Mari: as for dinner.. uhm.. the only exception to the No-Roast rule is chicken ;-)
Mari: We like roast chicken ;-)
Mari: and a no-weed salad policy exists ;-)
Mat: you'll get baked beans on toast at this rate Missy
Mari: lol
Mari: well like i said.. chicken's ok ;-)
Mari: how about steak & kidney pie ?
Mari: ;-)
Mari: or you know.. any seafood is likely to make my night ;-)
Mari: any seafood and I may even move in ;-)
Mari: and messy seafood.. the kind of seafood you can get up to your elbows in
Mari: lol
Mari: seriously though, anything is fine ;-)
Mari: I was only joking ;-)
Mari: but if theres no seafood then Ill pout.
Mat: lol
Mat: your husband works VERY close to the fish markets
Mari: hehehe
Mat: of course this is of little use as he will not transport any seafood to my place within anything approaching a reasonable timeframe
Mari: I could get him to buy stuff.. he would HAVE to cause its for my birthday
Mari: Ill make him
Mat: how about .. you get him to buy the stuff at lunchtime or in the morning
Mat: and you will probably have to make it VERY clear to him that this really needs to be done, or else his 'nads are forfeit
Mari: yup!
Mat: and I will go by his work on the way home and collect it
Mari: ok done deal
Mat: if you can convince him that buying seafood would be a better option for his health than playing basketball
Mari: he can bite me.. im more important than his bloody basketball
Mari: lol
Mari: oookay
Mat: so .. what seafood to get ...
Mat: prawns
Mat: can make some of that really nice sauce that Wendy and I learned at the seafood school for BBQ prawns
Mat: you can either marinade the prawns in it and bbq them or you can just dip em in it
Mari: hmmmmm.. prawns!!!
Mat: scallops?
Mari: and crabs
Mat: I have a very nice scallop recipe
Mari: yeh.. scallops will come up to my finger nails
Mari: elbows!
Mari: ok.. so what about lots of crabs.. in a pot.. with some spices?
Mari: ;-)
Mat: hmmm ... got a seafood spice blend from Herbies that should be good
Mat: I'll make a shopping list for Ant
Mari: hehehe cool ;-)

So then I relayed the mission onto the field agent..

Mari: Here is your mission
Mari: You have no choice but to accept it
Tony: I symbolically accept the mission
Mari: on Friday during your lunch hour
Mari: we (me and Mat.. mostly me..) need you to go to the fish markets..
Mari: Mat will provide a list
Mari: You must fulfil the list, and store it in your fridge at work
Mari: Mat will come by after work and pick it up
Tony: ok
Mari: You must state categorically that you accept your mission
Tony: I categorically accept my mission

And the deal was done.

Mat: what about fish .. I suppose Antony will whine if there is no barramundi on the menu
Mari: yah
Mari: lets just provide something symbolic for him
Mat: a picture of a fish?
Mat: a photo of a fish!
Mari: LOL

So on Friday my wonderful, dutiful, loyal, loving husband went to the Sydney Fish Markets and got:

• 2Kg Prawns
• 1Kg Scallops
• 3 Mud Crabs
• 2 Lobsters
• 1 Barramundi fillet
• 4 John Dory fillets
• 1 dozen oysters

(are you starting to see WHY we had dinner at Mat's two nights in a row ??)

Unfortunately, my wonderful, dutiful, loyal, loving husband didn't actually pay much attention to how long his list was and decided against taking the car to the fish markets. He walked. And then walked back. Carrying two huge boxes of seafood. Poor thing.

And then I get this msg from Mat:

Mat: ROFLMAO
Mat: Ant is having fun with the crabs
Mat: Tony: these crabs are alive!!!!!
Tony: you didnt warn me about live produce!!!!
Tony: and the biggest one has slipped his bonds!!!!
Mat: ROFL
Mari: ROFL

We laughed.

And then I get this:

Tony: the beast refuses to die!!!!!
Tony: over an hour in the freezer and he immediately tried to escape from the box as soon as I took it out to check on them!
Mari: ROFL

All in the name of love! ;-)

So Friday nights dinner was exquisite! I cannot even put it into words!

However we did run out of time (and stomach space!) to cook it all, so hence dinner on Saturday night.

On Saturday morning I went and did grocery shopping while Tony took Josie to her dance class, and then I got Josie, and Vika and Becka picked us up and we went to my cousin Anna's for lunch. This was fun and Jayden and Josie played for ages really well. Josie always loves playing with Jayden.

After lunch, Vika dropped us off home and we got Tony and went off to Mat's place for dinner where we were joined by a very lucky Karsoe who scored a magnificent seafood dinner ;-)

Then Sunday started off with a party for a school friend of Josie's (Jessie). Josie had a great time playing with her friends, and watching the show (The Funky Bugs).

After the party we grabbed Josie's best friend Rachel and headed straight to Grandma Trudy's place for lunch. The girls played beautifully inside and out in the backyard the whole day. Lunch was fantastic and we had a great time.

By the end of my 4 day birthday celebrations, I was pretty much over my tonsils. On Monday I went to the doctor with the intention of having them out but my doctor convinced me to give the antibiotics a last go. By Tuesday afternoon I was feeling much better and now I am fine, just have to finish the course of antibiotics, then take another month at a reduced intake, and then cross my fingers that its over.

I have always had large tonsils. Since I was a kid everyone was always impressed with my tonsils. They are big and round and surround my uvula. When they swell they are so big that they actually partially block my airways so that when I lie down, I dont get enough oxygen and wake up every 20 minutes or so gasping for air. Thus I hadn't had a good nights sleep in about two weeks! Its nice to be able to breathe again!

This has been a long one.. I am ready for bed ;-)

Happy Birthday Mari!!!!

I would like to wish a very happy birthday to the first love of my life (and mother of the second)!

To my wife, my heart and my soul, thank you for sticking with me for another year.
As most who read this site will know I am basically a disorganised, clown of a man most of the time and I thank God every day for her continued presence in my life.

In the latest of Mari's 29th years she has started a new job (the first in her professional career where she actually enjoys the role - and that's a long time for someone to wait to be happy in an endeavour that takes up such a big chunk of all of our lives) and has quickly shown her quality and come to be relied upon and looked to as a leader by her colleagues and boss. In the same time period we moved house in a long, drawn out and complicated procedure involving a layover of several months at Mari's parents and through all this Mari has continued to raise our daughter while also taking care of the vast bulk of organisational requirements that come along with a young pre-school-age child. She has done all this with little effectual help from the previously mentioned circus performer (except for the raising of the rug rat - I think I do alright in that area but lets face it, I find my hands full with just that one shared task).

Thank you baby.

LOVE

DUBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

.. otherwise known as DUMBO!

So our long weekend began on Friday morning when we all got up to pack (!) and get going to Dubbo.

We were all very excited.. and true to form, even though it was a 2 night trip, we had 2 big bags, Josie's suitcase, two fridge bags and a bathroom bag! Comparatively it was a lot better than our US trip.. but still..

So away we went.. at about 1130am (I had desperately wanted to leave by 10am but it was not to be). Our first stop was Uncle David's house where we swiped his GPS. That GPS turned out to be a godsend! More on that later!

After having secured the GPS, I was horrified to realise that the Nintendo DS that I had borrowed from Jacqui for Josie to play on the way was almost out of battery and while I had a charger for it, it wasn't a car charger! Josie was told quite firmly that she had to ration her DS use and I was SO surprised at how well she did that. Every time I reminded her that she should take a break from it, she handed it over without a problem. On a couple of occasions she actually handed it over without a reminder from me. I was very impressed, considering how little impulse control our daughter has! ;-) The DS lasted to about the Blue Mountains. After that Josie was quite content to look at books and draw. In fact she was just an angel on the way there. I don't remember her complaining at all (although I may have just blocked it out ;-). We stopped a couple of times at Hungry Jacks, to have lunch and for a toilet break, where she could play in their playground. I think this broke up the journey somewhat for her. She was just magnificent on the way there.

The journey there took about 9 hours. 9 hours! This was mostly due to the long weekend traffic. The huge long weekend traffic! Having said that the GPS was wonderful. We were able to bypass chunks of the traffic by finding parallel roads and just taking them. She (the GPS) would freak out when we would do this. She was quite happy when we stuck to her instructions, but when we strayed, she became quite irritable, however, once we did take other roads, she was very helpful in finding our way back to the highway!

We got to Dubbo at about 830pm. Josie was already asleep by then, so we basically put her in her room, shut the door, and melted into the tub. I had specifically booked an apartment that had a spa. It wasn't a round type spa, it was long, but it did have bubbles. We couldn't turn on the bubbles cause it was too loud, but the bath was larger than a standard bath, so we both managed to relax in there for a while.

On Saturday morning I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. I figured it was probably from the dry, dusty outback air.

We got ready and headed out to the Western Plains Zoo. When we got there, the queue of cars waiting to get in was down the road. We got the the end of the line, and 45 mins later we finally drove through the huge zoo gates.

The Western Plains Zoo is just beautiful. Its huge, with animals everywhere and I don't know how people do it all on foot. We took our car around. We managed to see lots of animals and Josie loved it all. I will post some photos on Flickr soon.

Unfortunately, after about 4 hours there my throat started to hurt a lot more, and by the time we got back to the hotel, my tonsils had swollen so much that lying down I could not breathe. I lay down for much of that evening, and when it came time to go to bed, Tony had to prop me upright with about 4 pillows so that I could sleep and breathe at the same time. It was the most uncomfortable night of my life. I woke up every 15-20 minutes and the time just crawled. By about 6am the swelling was down a bit and I was able to lean back, so Tony went into Josie's room (she had woken up), got in bed with her and they fell back asleep. I figure I must have kept him up half the night. Once he left, I removed all the pillows, left mine, lay back, and slept till about 8am. It was bliss. My back was aching though.

That morning (Sunday) we packed up and headed off back to Sydney. The GPS once again was great in helping us avoid the Back-To-Sydney traffic, but the trip, even though it was only 7hrs this time, was difficult. Josie was quite restless and sick of the whole thing. In the last 2 hours she basically kept repeating "I wanna go home!! I wanna go home!!" over and over again, to the point that Tony and I were just ready to leave her on the side of the road and make her walk!! ;-)

We finally made it home at about 530pm. We were all exhausted!

I went to work Monday but left a bit early to go see the Dr.. took Tuesday off to recuperate and am now back at work with very little of my sore throat left and my tonsils back to normal. Yay!

It was a nice trip.. but I think next time, anything over a 5 hr drive, and we'll just fly ;-)

Slow News Day in Sydney.. ?

Read it here. Give me a break! ...

Meat and greet all the president's lunch

September 5, 2007 - 3:00PM

He may have a lot on his plate during this week's APEC negotiations, and critics have argued he bit off more than he could chew in the Iraq war, but a Sydney nutrionist is now chastening US President George Bush over his choice of food during an official lunch today.

The main concern with the plate is the quantity of the protein-rich foods, with a very small amount of vegetables and no breads at all

Mr Bush - a self-confessed "meat guy" - was snapped holding a plate with a large steak, two sausages, at least four prawns, a sliver of carrot and small piece of corn.

Not Poxy!

.. but here's some spinning.. sideways...