Category: Diary

With Bert back to school today and Phee going back yesterday it’s all back to normal around here. Well, it will be a new normal as of next week when the twins are at kinder full time two days a week. This means with two days of nannies and a day with Nana I’ll be effectively full time. I’m hoping after I catch up that I’ll be able to start doing lots of little things for the business that I just haven’t had the time to do up until now.

I was woken up this morning by Rae tapping me on the shoulder.

“Ah hon, I think the kids start kinder today, not on Monday.”

Once I could focus my eyes I could read the brochure that we were given last year and, sure enough, they were to start kinder today. Why on earth we thought it was next Monday we’ll never know but even with them having a little sleep in we were able to get them organised and things together so we could take them off on time.

The second surprise packet of the day was out Mr Henry. We had been worried about Mr-I’m-My-Dad-All-Over would cope but he was the one who waved by and happily wandered off to explore the room while Little-Miss-Social hung back and followed his lead.

It’s only a half day today so I’ll have two very excited kids home for lunch, I can’t wait to see how they went.

Thanks to www.nearmap.com we can confirm that we do have all the panels we paid for.

Having a look around the neighbourhood we have the largest array of panels but some would be more efficient with less panels as they are facing north.

I’m going to write up a little thing about my recent adventure soon but I’d just like to reflect one part of being Australian. Because I have the great fortune of being born here, over the last three days I was able to call a free government health service that made sure I was sent an ambulance, I had prompt emergency treatment, I had a chest xray,  I had an ecg, I had  a cardiac ct scan using the latest technology available, I was given drugs to help me, I had three nights in a hospital and will receive ongoing care.

And none of this cost me a cent.

A happy and healthy Australia day everyone.

There’s great responsibility in our marriage when it comes to choosing a movie to watch. If you get it wrong and the movie turns out to be a dud it can have serious repercussions for days so after picking three for three of late (Rare Exports, Rise Of The Planets Of The Apes and Contagion) the pressure has become too much and I’m ceding to Rae while my streak is intact.

Tonight it’s all up to her but I have to say that her choice of Dead Snow looks inspired. Pressure will be right back on me to follow up that one.

Rae will roll her eyes when I tell you I’m a create of habit.  It tends to drive her mad . “Coffee? No thanks, it’s after 3.30.” (you can’t have a coffee after 3.30, it’s just wrong.) would be just one of my many quirks that drive her mad.

Today is Thursday, the day Nana takes the kids so I can work, and my Thursday habit revolves around lunch. It’s my one day of the week I eat out so at midday off I’ll head and pick up my rice paper rolls and my sushi rolls, they know me now and I don’t generally have to ask. If it’s school time I’ll also generally have a take away coffee after dropping off Bert.

It will be interesting to see if things change this year with the young ones in kinder and the elder two at school. I’ll have every day of the week to work now. I wonder what new habits I’ll pick up.

This morning Bert came wandering in. “Dad, these spots are really itchy.”

Yikes. I checked his bedding, where he’d been sitting and his siblings and there was no sign of bugs or spots on others so it was off to the doctor who has confirmed chickenpox. Yes, despite being immunised he’s managed to catch a dose. The doctor said she saw a few cases before Christmas and he was the second this week. He’s been swabbed (it’s a reportable disease, apparently) and sent on his way.

We’re now on spot watch for the others (who have been immunised, but….)  and on the look out to warn off any pregnant ladies.

I’m a regular reader of Clients From Hell so had to chuckle when I had this exchange today.

Client (irate) : “The email you set up for me isn’t working!”

Me : “Okay, are you sure you’ve been sent email?”

Client : “Yes! I’m not getting any of it.”

Me : “What are you using to check your email?”

Client “Outlook.”

Me : “Have you set up Outlook to check for mail?”

Client “No.”

Rae’s been on holidays since Christmas but I’ve been back working since New Years, sure with a few distractions along the way but it’s been busy and I have had to spend a lot more time at the computer than I wanted to with Rae at home.

However I did take Thursday and Friday off and got to see a little more of the world than what’s outside my office window. Thanks to Zita, who looked after the kids and gave us a Christmas gift of a night away, Rae and I got to have a mini holiday. We spent it in town, staying at a nice hotel, having lunch out, going to the movies, walking through the city, going out to dinner at not only a grown up restaurant but a groovy one (Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons where I firmly jumped back on the wagon for one night thanks to their Montenegro Muels), more walks through city and then some journeying around town the next morning. It’s not often we get to spend so much time together without one of our swarm running in with some emergency so these little ‘us times’ are very special.

Then this morning it was me and Bert time. Masters hold free workshops called ‘Build and Grow’ for kids aged 5-10 so off we went. It was great. He received his own Masters apron to wear and today he got to build a since lab. It was a nifty little kit of a couple of test tubes, a dish and some cards with experiments on them that all slotted in to a little shelf you built. The nails were a bit tricky, or stubborn,  for 5 year old arms so dad had to come to the rescue (stop laughing!) but we walked away with the apron, the kit and a certificate. He’s now all pumped up for the more workshops, which they plan on holding once a month, so it looks like I know where I’ll be at least one Saturday a month for the foreseeable future.

Rae’s back at work on Monday so one day left for excursions. We’ve got breakfast planned but not much after that. Maybe the chance for one more trip before life settles back in to routine. I love these first couple of weeks of January, they’ll always be my favourite time of the year.

We were very lucky to receive a generous gift this Christmas and rather than frit it away on ‘stuff’ we decided to invest it in our house. We talked for a while and decided that given rising costs, rises that don’t look as though they will ever stop, we would buy some solar panels for our roof, so calling the roof top services one of these days too.

After some research and recommendations we decided to give Tony a call. After a chat with him we decided to get him over for a quote so I gave him our address. “You’re having me on aren’t you?” he said. It ends up his best mate of 30 years is our neighbour and his is the mystery ute I see parked out the front of the neighbour’s house ever day.

It ended up his quote was fantastic for a quality install. We’ve gone with a 3.6kW system (18 panels) that we can upgrade to 4kW (or maybe it’s 4.2 or 4.4) at a later date. This will cover almost all of energy needs based on the past 12 months of usage and reduce our electricity cost to about $25 a quarter based on the standard calculations all installers should use. As most of our install cost is covered by the gift we are lucky in that we should see a return from the part that comes from our savings fairly quickly. Once our wallet recovers we will probably go the extra few panels to cover our needs completely.

Here’s our roof as it was last Wednesday.

And here it is as it was this Wednesday.

One week from quote to installed. Now we just have to wait for the inspector next week and then it’s all up to Origin. That’s the one part of the process I’m not looking forward to.