Category: Diary

12 months ago I decided I needed to kick my brain in to gear, I was feeling like a dinosaur when it came to my development skills. I started well with my nice thick book and kept on going but then I stopped. I half heartedly dipped back in a few times before giving up completely.

But I did learn something.

I’m not a book learning type of guy. I probably should have known this from uni but I learn best by listening, being shown and then doing it myself. I’m not sure what what learning style this makes me – kinesthatic with a touch of visual maybe – but I have to play to my strengths so I’ve started again.

I’ve signed up to the Microsoft Virtual Academy, a great free resource that hosts courses based around video instruction. The one I’m doing, for C#, has a great presenter and works for me. He encourages you to type as he does and to pause, rewind, experiment as he goes along. I’ve been chugging through the videos (it really is beginner level) and feel I’ve learned more in the couple of hours of this mode than I did in the hours I spent slogging through The Book.

I’m flat out with work right now but I aim to get this course finished in a week or so and launch straight in to the next level.

We have evaporative air conditioning at our house, and while it’s going to struggle over four days over forty it will get us through. We look at other ways of keeping the heat down too. Cool drinks. We got the Dallas roofing companies to build the roof over the deck to protect the living area and the boys room from the worse of the sun and we shut blinds.

The dark rooms make me feel like I’m living in the 70s. For some reason I associate dark rooms with the style of my childhood. Our place is always open with light streaming in so these days make feel like I’m five or six again. Any one else feel that way?

A while ago we had The Lemon Of Hope.

I’m now thrilled to announce the lemons have been joined by The Limes Of Hope and The Cherry Tomato of Hope. The limes have taken over three years to fruit so It’s fantastic see them finally come through. Time to look up baking with limes.

Over a year ago when I started C25K my aim was a) to make it out alive and b) to jog around Albert Park Lake, it’s pretty much spot on 5k around  the whole lake.

This morning I finally did it! Rae is away with the kids so what better time. I headed out early to beat the early morning traffic and, bonus for being an early bird, scored free parking. Off I went and amazingly enough, despite the head wind, I did my fastest ever 5K. It’s not a great speed but it’s my best, and on the day I achieved my aim.

After I sent Rae an sms she suggested I go for coffee at St Ali, like a local, so I did. Man it brought back the memories of when I lived there 20+ years ago. South Melbourne is a great place, especially early morning. I grabbed my superb coffee and went for a walk.

Nostalgia took me back to the terrace house I lived in, looking amazing after being renovated. I was there just in time to hear the old town hall bells toll 8 – I wonder how many other bells still ring in the hour in Melbourne? I walked around to the market but it was only partly open and then strolled back to the car to head back to the ‘burbs.

Can’t think of a better way to start to the day.

 

Two years ago we had our first Malloy family Christmas lunch. Today we had our third.

Tony and Rae from 2011, I’d like to introduce you to Tony and Rae from 2013.

I went to the doctor yesterday and the benefits of a better outlook on fitness and diet are beginning to show. I’m now off one of my daily tablets, the expensive non PBS one which makes it even better. I’m also 5kg heavier than I was this time last year but with exactly the same waist measurement. I’m no muscle bound wonder yet but 5kg of muscle is pretty impressive for me.

These two bits of good news give me even more motivation to continue down this path. I only wish I had have started 10 years earlier.

I’m terrible with faces, absolutely shocking. This hit me, again, yesterday when the coffee lady at the baseball greeted me like a long lost friend. I have no idea if I’ve met her before, she does look sort of familiar, or if she’s just naturally bubbly and friendly. (If you do know me and you’re reading this coffee lady, I’m sorry!). This is the total opposite to my wife who has a Google like ability to place any face she has ever seen, no matter how briefly.

I can be introduced to a person and five minutes later I can struggle to remember them, especially in a social situation where I am meeting multiple people for the first time. Faces all tend to look the same to me, I can’t describe people verbally, and it can take a couple of one-on-one conversations for a person to ‘stick’. Hand in hand with this goes names. No technique has yet improved my ability to remember names, whose retention can last less than a face.

It worries me that I can come across as rude, or vague, but I can assure you, whomever you may be, I;m bot being rude. It really is just me.

Yesterday I didn’t take a photo. This is odd for me, checking my PC I se I have taken (or kept) over 21,000 since I first had a digital camera. The number really began to climb though when they started putting decent enough cameras in phones and now I probably take a few each day.

Yesterday morning though I chose not to take one. I was in the kitchen getting the twins ready for their drama dress rehearsal when I looked up to see Kennedy doing up Henry’s top button and straighten his bow tie.

It was beautiful.

I reached for my phone but stopped. Not this time. I drank it in, a moment just for me.

Last weekend the horn stopped working in my car so I dropped it in to the local mechanic on Monday morning to be checked over. They found the problem – a faulty clock sprint – that was going to cost $509 to replace as they had to pretty much replace the whole air bag set up.

You can’t drive without a horn so it had to go ahead. I paid the deposit, they ordered the part and off I went.

Today the miracle occurred. They were wrong. It didn’t need an airbag replacement, they found the part they were looking for second hand AND it was significantly less.

So, for the first time in recorded history a trip to the mechanic not only turned out to be cheaper than expected – I actually received money back.

It’s a not-quite christmas miracle if ever there was one.

This morning I asked the twins “What do you think dad does for a job?”. Initially there were just blank stares before Moo shrugged her shoulders and said, well, nothing. Henry thought for a bit and said I drink coffee.

I then explained that I make web pages, like they see on the internet.

Henry asked “Did you make Google?”