Deck Day 2016

It’s that time if the year. The deck has had it’s couple of coats. The deck around 7 years old now and needs a bit of tlc, one end seems to have come loose from it’s anchors and it’s time to give it its first sand back before the next go round with oil. This being said it would be the best addition we’ve made to the house, one that’s made it feel like a home.

Freshly oiled deck.

Follow Me

I was standing at the start line for parkrun on Saturday when the bloke standing next to me asked “What time are you running?”. I explained I was coming back slowly from injuries and was going around 26:30. He nodded and said “Thought so, that’s what I’m doing and each week I see you in front of me and think ‘if I catch him I’m getting faster’.” Then the horn sounded and off we went.

It made me laugh that I’m the hunted because this is exactly what I do. Once you run a few parkruns you get to know the people who generally finish in front of you and for me it’s become my challenge to peg them back. I was going pretty well last year slowly reeling some in and eyeing off the 24:30 finishers. I thought I must have been the only one who did this. Good to know I’m not alone.

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And There Goes Number Two

This morning Moo joined her brother on the ride to school.

After dropping Henry off I waited to see them turn up and she came racing around the corner, grinning from ear to ear.

Two down, one to go.

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And He’s Off

Much excitement, and a few nerves, this morning as Bert took to his bike to ride to school for the first time. Happy to say he made it in one piece and had a grin from ear to ear having made sure he rode by his friends who were waiting in the school yard.

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Lunch?

How to get Tony to look forward to lunch.

Say :

  • It’s cheap
  • It’s spicy
  • It’s at Vic Market

My wife knows me too well.

Help Less

Rae is away all this week, busy in Canberra learning new things for her job. She left on Sunday night and is back this Friday. This means I’m in sole parent mode, and I think it’s the longest she’s been away by a couple of days. Things are going fine in her absence and this made me realise something.

Years ago I would have been asked if I need help with the kids. This time, nothing. I’m not sure if this is a reflection on my capabilities as a parent or simply changing times, but either way, it’s a good thing.

Back On The Road

It finally looks like I’m back.

This morning I ran, well, jogged, a whole 3 kilometres. It was at an almost six minute pace and even given the humidity and heat I still felt it when I stopped, but I did it.

The best thing though? Given how my foot seems to have pulled up I should be able to do it again tomorrow.

It’s been a horrid four months. It started off when I popped my hip flexor way back at the end of August. This had me laid up for two months which was just enough time for me to recover and get an infection in my toe. Great. This lasted a couple of weeks but oddly enough my foot didn’t seem any better and I still couldn’t run so I went to the physio again and it turned out the hip flexor and infected toe were masking a pretty severe case of planter fasciatis, It was back off my feet again. The inflamation from the planter fasciatis spread to where my calf muscle connects at the ankle and this put me back a little more.

So, after months of stretching, icing and putting on weight I seem to have recovered from the shopping list of ills and my physio says I can start running again. Slowly and short distances at first, and he has suggested I concentrate more on endurance than speed in the future, but I’m back and I don’t want to go through this again.

To The Beach

I’m not a beach person. As a young boy I’d spend our two week vacation, at a house literally on the beach, upstairs reading a book. But then you have days like today; a perfect evening, two kids who have been great and deserve a treat, Rae out to the movies and a busy day that could do with a relaxing ending. All of this adds up to fish and chips by the beach so we packed up and headed to Altona.

We had fish and chips in the park, the kids had a run around on the big playground and we went for a stroll out on the pier. You couldn’t have asked for a better evening

Altona beach looking towards the city.

 

The pier at Altona beach.

The playground at Altona beach.

Back to A ‘Driod

For most of last year I had two Windows Mobile phones (both running the Win 10 Mobile preview) and I loved them. Unfortunately one of them (the 640xl, my personal phone) developed a screen burn so I had to take it back. The good news is that it was a straight swap, the bad news was thanks to bad timing with model releases there were no 640xl’s to be had anywhere in Vic.

So I swapped back to Android, a Samsung Galasy 5S.

I’ve had the droid for a week now and here’s my quick summary :

  • Windows Mobile OS is a far better OS.
  • I miss the battery life on the XL. That thing could go all day and still have 70% left.
  • Samsung Touch Wiz interface is incredibly annoying.
  • It’s all about the apps. No matter how much better the OS is,  Android just cricifies WIn Mobile when it comes to quality and availablilty. I now have all of my banking apps back (I had no ANZ on Win Mobile) but it’s the quality of the apps that makes the difference. Android apps make Win mobile apps look like kid toys.
  • Microsoft have the right approach in making their apps available on all platforms.
  • My ideal world would be one where I could run Android apps on the WIndows OS, but with the abandonment of the Win-Droid bridge that’s never going to happen.

Here We Go Again

Back to work for 2016.

My work desk.

It will be challenging for the next few weeks as the kids are at home and Rae is back to work. Rae normally takes the first couple of weeks of Jan off but work comittments means there won’t be many holidays at all for her until October. The worse thing is I wish I could spend more time with them while they are home but January, which was once the quietest time of the year for me, has now turned in to one of the busiest. I’ll do my best to fit in some visits to parks and fun stuff, and no doubt feel guilty that I didn’t do more when I send them back to school. Just one of the joys of a working from home parent.