Anthony Malloy Between Coffees

I had a day off today for some appointments. Some were good (see On The Dotted Line) and some not so good but any day is good when it includes a morning coffee with your wife.

We moved one step closer to our house today - we signed the contract to build. Half an hour of initialing pages and signing plans and we’re all set. They have 30 days to get the building permits, then another 30 days to start the building process. We’ve now paid for 3% of the house, which by my calculations is about two roof tiles. From here on it’s pretty much sit back and deal with things as they pop up, everything by and large is now in the hands of the good people at Henley. Oh, and the cool thing - we got to sign our docs on the 29th of Feb!

It’s an exciting time, but everything still seems like such a long way away. Next milestone will be pouring the slab and it’s probably then that I’ll really let myself believe that we’re going to have our own, new, house.

For the first time since the twins came along the entire family (yes, all 6 of us) went shopping this morning. It was great to get out as a family again, and all of the kids behaved themselves magnificently. Nicest moment was when the previously mentioned coffee guy said “it’s nice to see you all here”.

Now that Jen has been introduced to the delights of South Melbourne Market I’m going to have to keep an eye out for both her and Andrew Highriser when shopping.

And here I was thinking it was us who had Tom under control. I realised today as I trudged out the front to pick him and bring him in that the smart feline has it all figured out. Why bother wasting vital napping energy by walking to the back door and coming when you can train dad to come out, pick you up and take you inside?

That’s one smart cat and one not so smart owner.

Two things that made me smile yesterday.

1. The Coffee Guy

Normally I go to South Melbourne Market on a Sunday morning to do our grocery shopping and the last thing I do is grab a couple of coffees from the pizza guy to take home (along with donuts for the kids). I was in the area yesterday afternoon and as we needed a lettuce I dropped in to the market to get one.

It was 3ish, time for a coffee, so I walked around to the pizza boys for a takeaway. The young guy who makes the best coffee looked at me and said “hey, it’s not Sunday morning!”. When you consider I don’t go every week, and have been going less often lately, and the hundreds of coffees he’d make each day I was impressed.

2. Indy Is Back

No American readers, not the cars. Indiana Jones, the man in the hat, is back. When I first read about the new film I was worried they had pushed the series one film too far but after watching the trailer (see www.indianajones.com) umpteen billion times yesterday I can’t wait. Nanas be on notice - you’re baby sitting the weekend this is released.

Four hours ago this site didn’t exist but the client needed a new site by tomorrow to show to a “huge client”. Now, if you need to know anything about payphones in Melbourne, Australia you can find it at www.payphonesaustralia.com.au. Sure there’s a lot of work still to do but from nothing to this with no notice, I’m happy.

(And yes, that is a bit of baiting for a particular search engine.)

I’ve just read that Justice Betty King has ordered Channel Nine not to screen Underbelly in Victoria, my home state. A similar ban worked oh so well for Blue Murder in NSW back in the 90s with the videotapes available pretty much everywhere. These days it’s going to be even easier. Just ask the fifteen year old next door, they’ll be able to BitTorrent you a copy, minus the ads,  a few hours after the show goes to air.

I’m not sure what the answer is to Justice King’s problem but this sort of ban is just pointless in this day and age.

To my wonderful wife, the best mum in the world, happy birthday my love.

xox

“I’ve had so many forks in the road in my life and I always chose the wrong one.”

Hmmmmmmmmm.