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..