Category: Diary

“Hello my love, did you have a nap?”

“Yes Dadda.”

“Did you fall asleep and then wake up?”

“I’m not sure I did that Dadda.”

Last night the clouds were pretty impressive, even if we missed most of the storm.

If Dad was still around he probably wouldn’t believe this but I’m feeling pretty good this afternoon after spending a couple of hours in the garden this morning. Yes, Me, in the garden (I think ghost of dad just had a heart attack). I never thought I’d actually want to spend that much time mowing, edging and weeding.

I remember one particular afternoon when I had to mow the lawns while Dad was at bowls. I sulked in my room, no doubt reading Dr Who books, until mum eventually forced me out to the back yard. I think I yelled and grumbled through the lawns, there may have even been some tears when the bloody lawn mower refused to start and it began to drizzle. I’d do anything possible to put off my one hard job. Nana’s lawns though, not a problem but they may have had something to do with the jelly beans and five dollars that came with them.

Any ways, no tears or grumbling 30 years later and I’m a lot better with an edger.

Had a blast from the past today, and it was a smelly one.

Now this may surprise you (especially those who know my not-quite-an-iron-man physique * cough *). but in the dim dark past I worked in a furniture store’s warehouse (just found out it’s still trading too) way out in Braeside. It was my job to unload the vans that brought furniture in; anything from a side table to Queen size mattresses and couches and if any needed Scotchgard that was my job too. Even if I could have been bothered to I eventually would have lost count of the number of cans of I went through.

Today we had two new couches delivered and instead of some poor uni student stuck in the middle of nowhere doing it I dusted off the old skills and applied the Scotchgard myself. The smell took me back 20 years to that pokey little warehouse, the days spent with no delivery at all and the long trek home. They eventually shut down the warehouse (or so I was told) and as I had to pay the rent I ran off to uni employment services. They told me they had a position at a hospital in Malvern up for grabs.

I had no idea where Malvern was, what a Cabrini was or what food service entailed but I thought I’d give it a shot. Got around to leaving just over 16 years later.

I’ve just received the monthly phone bill for our home phone. We made 11 calls. It cost us just as much to have a silent number as it did to make calls. All of those calls were to just two numbers too.

I wish we could rid ourselves of this antiquated service but when we moved in I had to have the phone connected to get an internet service. Naked ADSL wasn’t available here back then and now if I want to move to Naked ADSL I’d have to have the phone disconnected and wait for up to two weeks yo have it reconnected, and given recent growth in this area there’s no guarantee there would be a free port. When you consider my livelihood is directly connected to having an internet connection I’m stuck paying $30 a month for a service we don’t need or use.

The only way around it that I can see is that we all go on holidays for two weeks.

No, not half…

This morning Rae and I were having a little kiss in the kitchen. Phee turned around and said “Ewhhhhh, they’re snogging! You know, from Harry Potter, snogging.”

My bet is she thinks it’s a made up word, like muggles or quidditch.

Today was the last day of Rae’s mini holiday so I took the day off too and we spent it in the city, or more to the point, in and around Federation Square.

The main purpose of the trip was to see the MSO provide the music for a screening of the Oscar winning animation of Peter and The Wolf. It was fantabulous – the three young ones were enthralled, although Henry thought the wolf was bit scary. The live musical accompaniment was something special, with Henry taking a look every now and then to see which instruments were being played. I think it’s on again tomorrow and would be well worth the trip.

After the show/screening/performance we wandered on off to Screen Worlds. I’ve been twice now but both times with kids in tow. One of these days I’m going to go by myself so I can take in each and every exhibit. It’s unbelievable that an exhibition of such quality is free, I know I’m going to need a few hours to do everything justice.

A wander through the square and in to the city proper for a something to eat. The less said about where the better but the kids were happy. Then it was back to Fed Square and a stroll by the river to the kids playground at Birrarung Marr. The kids had a blast – running and jumping and sliding and climbing along with seemingly every other child in Melbourne.

With some time to kill we then walked up to the NVG. I was in heaven as I got to stand and soak in Collins St, 5.00pm, The Bar and Rooftops. The kids were getting a little restless by this stage so an ice-cream from Nana, another quick burst on the playground for the boys and it was time to head home.

We spent almost an entire day together just in and around Fed Square and it was fantastic. Everyone had a great day, the kids are now exhausted (Mr Henry is fast asleep) and with dinner being cooked by Zita, a lovely evening outside and a nice cold drink you really couldn’t ask for anything more.

Daylight savings starts tonight and I always forget how to change the clock on our oven. I checked on the web but couldn’t find instructions so I had to dig around and find the manual.

So, in case anyone else is looking for how to change the clock/time on a Damani electronic oven (our model number is DA6DOSS) you hold down the automatic cooking button (2nd from left, the shallow pan with wiggly lines above it) and the Stop button (third from left, shallow pan  with Stop above it) and use the + and – keys.

This has been a public service announcement…

I was heading out the back when a slithering caught my eye. I had a little look behind the planter box and found this guy there.

Any body know what he is?