Category: Diary

My phone photos are automatically backed up to Google+ (as well as my PC and Crashplan) and this morning I was reminded Google+ has a great feature called ‘Auto Awesome’. It found a few snaps from last night that it could put together in a little animated sequence.

Introducing the ‘awesome-ised’ Mr Henry.

This is what you would see if you were me sitting on my office chair and decided to spin around.

Talking to Henry this morning and I mentioned how he had such a good room.

“Not really, Phoebe’s room is faster.”

It turns out that Phee must have said how she was close to the router so wireless speeds to her phone/tablet would be faster than in the boys room. Even though he doesn’t have either a phone or tablet yet he’s already looking ahead and is disappointed at the internet speed he’ll have.

If there was ever any doubt he was my boy….

I have a problem. I seem to have damaged my left arm somehow and I’m not sure of the best approach to fixing it. I recently had a steroid injection as my GP thought it was a combination of tennis and golfers elbow and while they fixed up pain in my elbow it revealed that pain was actually masking a bigger problem.

I’ve lost strength in my left arm, there’s a tender spot about half/two thirds of the way up my arm that when pressed makes me want to crumble to my knees and when I try to lift or push anything in a particular way I get pain, or more like severe discomfort, in my forearm and upper arm. My arm also feels ‘warm’ a lot of the time.

Now I’d normally go to my GP but in this instance I don’t have much faith in him as he seems to have little or no knowledge of sports injuries. Dr Google is leading me towards a torn bicep but I want to know for sure. Can anyone point me in the direction of which particular health professional can help me best?

This morning I was procrastinating, sitting on the bed reading thing son my phone when Moo piped up ‘Dad, are you ever going to the gym?’. It appears even the 6 year old knows it’s not about motivation, it’s just about getting it done.

This morning I was the only one there, even though it was a late start of 7.30 for me, so I decided to play with a new feature of my phone called PhotoSphere – you can take a fully immersive picture on your phone.

So for all those who have wondered, this is what my empty gym looks like at 7.30 on a Sunday morning.

I’m a very recent convert to baseball but know I like it enough to have taken out a membership with the Melbourne Aces for the coming season.

Today was their members only preseason practice session, a fantastic opportunity to not only see a quick practice session but to meet the players, have a bbq and get to stroll on the field. They’re an incredibly welcoming bunch of people.

Part of the day was a member only raffle. I’d just been talking to their marketing guy, a recent arrival to Australia who had the good sense to pick Richmond as his team, and said how I wanted to go to the MLB game in Sydney next year but the tickets were too expensive. He commiserated and we moved on to talking about Ivan Maric.

Then they drew the raffle.

Yes, You probably guessed.

I won two tickets to the MLB game in Sydney next year,.

I can’t thank the Aces enough. I’m still a little in shock at my luck but will be planning on taking Rae with me. Helen and Bill, do you happen to have a spare bed? Nanas do you have a weekend free?

Thank you, thank you and thank you again Melbourne Aces and here’s to a successful 2013/14 season.

Rae and I were married 8(ish) years ago. It was a hot day and we hired out our then favourite cafe’s backyard for dinner with family as our reception.

* insert swirly time passing images here *

Last week Rae and I decided we need to get out more, just the two of us, so we started looking for a baby sitter to give us this time. We decided as our first go we’d head out for coffee for a couple of hours, just to see if everything went smoothly. We had a look online and eventually found Claire, a well qualified and local sitter. She was available so we organised a time for Sunday.

Come Sunday and Claire arrived. I opened the door to let her in and called out to Rae, but Rae didn’t hear as she was drying her hair. I made small talk while waiting, she seemed lovely and the kids (especially the boys, who I have never seen act all giggly like that before) fell under her spell instantly. Rae came out and said hi.

Then Claire asked “Have you lived here long?”

We told her no, we’ve only been here a few years and that we previously lived in Spotswood.

She smiled. “I though so. I’m Claire from the ‘Coat”.

It ends up that the young woman standing in front of us had recognised us straight away – she had been the waitress at our reception all those years ago.

Of all the people we could have selected – what would be the odds of that?

Saw this as I walked back to the car this morning, ironically enough after being interviewed for television.

I’ve always wondered what it would have been like to have grown up with a brother.

Big change today. After 20 or so years of wandering out the door to pick up The Age off the driveway and fighting the plastic wrap I no longer have to freeze my feet off in winter.

I’ve gone digital Monday to Friday with the paper version thrown in as a bonus by the Age on the weekends.

I never thought I’d see the day I’d willingly give up my paper edition but times change, even for the most stubborn of us. The way I get my news has changed. I realised I was only scanning the paper in the morning, there’s always something to do when wrangling three kids to school, and I actually picked up most things I wanted to read online during the day.

I also updated some technology recently, moving to a 10.1” tablet (why, it;’s a Galaxy Tab 3, and it’s fantastic, thank you for asking) instead of a laptop for business meetings and this is a great form factor for reading The Age app in the morning. It seems most of the content is the same across the delivery mechanisms so I don’t miss out there and on a recent trip to Sydney I could still read my paper over breakfast.

And then there’s the cost. I think it was $40 a month for paper delivery and online access. Online/tablet access and the weekend paper is only $25 a month. It’s only $15 but given I skim the paper version it’s worth the savings.

I’ll miss the Green Guide ads and the inserts such as the melbourne magazine but this is the way of now so I may as well get on board.