Category: Diary

Waiting for the game to begin.

Today we retired the oldest pc in the house. It is so old it actually has a floppy drive and the usb ports were added via a card. Over the years it had memory upgrades from 512MB to 2GB, I think it was on it’s third hard drive and had seen XP, Vista and Windows 7 but there comes a time in every PCs life where its time is up and after 10 years faithful service today was the day.

When I bought the machine it was around $1200 and was cutting edge, complete with a 15″ crt monitor. The replacement I picked up today cost me $284.50. Sure, it’s far from the edge but it is more than adequate for the kids and the power in comparison to the old one is staggering.

It is all set up now, ready to go. I’ve given Bert and Phee their own log-ins and put a link to Angry Birds on their desktops. I wonder if this one will last for 10 years? I assume by then the kids will all have a laptop or tablet and be laughing at just how primitive their old man’s old tech is.

Daniel has gazumped once before (can’t remember what it was) so when I saw his post last week on I’m Not A Drinker I couldn’t believe he’d done it again. I’ve been meaning to write for ages on the same topic because over the past year I’ve all but given up drinking.

It started last February when on a whim i decided to do Feb Fast. I’d never been a real drinker, a couple of drinks,  maybe a few on a Friday or Saturday night every now and then or joining Rae with a glass of something over dinner. This meant Feb Fast wasn’t too much of a stretch, although I did ‘break’ it to have one beer when we were out one day.

The end of February came and I was allowed to drink again, so I did,  but it didn’t seem the same. I realised that all up, I really wasn’t enjoying what I was drinking. I found that wine, especially white, just smelled too strong. I also found that some times after having one beer I’d get grumpy and easily irritated and that I hadn’t enjoyed or liked the taste. This, of course, made me pause and wonder why I was spending so much on something I wasn’t getting any pleasure from. So I stopped.

I’m in now way an anti-drinker, it’s just that for me, now, it’s not something I want to do. One exception is champagne, I still enjoy that but that’s a once every couple of months drink. There are plus sides; we’re saving a bit of money on the beers I would buy and Rae now has a designated driver. I’m sure it’s probably better for my health too. Downside is I really need to find something else to order apart from a lemon, lime and bitters when we go out.

Friday is a no-sitter day for me and today I decided to take the morning completely off instead of juggling the kids and work.

It was a perfect morning, which probably pushed me in to the decision, so we headed off to Williamstown for a little time by the sea. After parking in a bay and realising it was $3 an hour (!!!) we drove one block further on and began our time with a little stroll from the free parking area. We walked along the shops and stopped in a bakery. We took the spoils, along with a coffee, to the park where the kids sat and ate their cup cakes and bonus Easter egg.

Then there was a play on the fantastic playground and walk along the pier to see the boats and wave at mum working in the city. Moo suddenly realised she could see the water through the planks of the pier and couldn’t get back to dry land quick enough. We walked back to the car and headed off to Taco Bills for a special treat lunch of nachos and tacos. As soon as we pulled in to the car park Moo asked for hew own glass of punch. They know what they like.

Of course I couldn’t escape work completely. One call came through and it was important. Thanks to the wonder phone I could fire up a browser, log in to my control panel and solve the problem on the spot. A year or so ago and I would have had to have packed up and gone home to deal with it.

The nice days are running out now for a few months so we won’t get to do this again for a while. I know I’ll have to work over the weekend to make up for the morning off but it’s worth it. I wouldn’t swap working for myself for the world.

He seems to be growing bigger every day.

For someone with such abysmal handwriting it may seem odd but I love stationeary. I’m sure it goes back to the fact that dad had a stationary shop and to this day nothing makes me happier than walking in to a little office supplies shop and being hit by that wonderful smell of paper and pens. When you add computer stuff you can see why Officeworks is my idea of heaven on earth.

Today a couple of parcels arrived. The kids collected them and deposited on Rae’s desk so I didn’t see them until she got home. One of those parcels was a wonderful present for me; Rae had bought me The Kit from Field Notes Oh my, such wonderful note books and pencils. They look so good it’s going to be agony to open them. Of course Rae knows this and I received very firm instructions that they are to be opened and used or no more presents ever.

I’ve written about how bad The Age is when it comes to subscriptions before so it’s no great surprise that today is the last day of our home delivery and we haven’t heard anything at all about renewal. No special offer as a loyal subscriber, not even a ‘hey, did you forget to renew?’.

Times have changed a little since that post. Bert is now at school and leisurely breakfasts with coffee and paper are a thing of the past. At most I’d get 15 minutes to rush through the paper in the morning and even that is interrupted with calls to help find lost socks, make sandwiches or finding clothes to wear. Then when we get back from dropping Bert off it’s pretty much straight in to work for me, so things will change.

We’re going to keep the weekend subscription (life just wouldn’t be the same without The Age on a weekend morning) and we’re going to take advantage of their secondary student offer. Phee will now bring the paper home from school each day (well, we can dream, but after a while we hope  she’ll remember). We will still get the Green Guide, Epicure and the sports section to read, just later in the day. Of course by then the main news section will go straight to the recycling bin – the paper can’t compete with the net when it comes to fresh news. It’s only during term time too, but $15 for the whole year isn’t too bad.

It’s a footy Sunday today, a Doggies home game so Rae, Zita, Phee and Bert have gone off and left the twins and I all to ourselves. I love these days, they are generally a lot quieter with only two kids around and today was especially quiet.

We went for a little drive to Dirt Cheap Books where the kids got to choose a book each. Everyone in the shop would have heard Moo debating loudly with herself over the best one to select. Mr Henry made his choice quickly (a sticker book) and didn’t waiver. Moo eventually settled on Stories For 4 Year Olds, after being talked down from the 5 year old book.

Due to popular demand we dined at McDonalds on the way back and then home where both hopped in to bed for an increasingly rare afternoon nap. I’d already (mostly) cleaned the kitchen, (most of) the house work had been done and I had already decided to take today off working  so I was presented with the rarest of things – an afternoon to do as I pleased.

It was overcast outside, but not cold, so I grabbed my Kindle, downloaded a new book, pulled up a couple of chairs and that’s how I spent the next two and a half blissful hours. It’s so quiet here it felt like I was the only person alive in Derrimut. The loudest sound was a couple of birds flying by.

The kids are awake now, reading their new books and playing with their Happy Meal toys. The footy is over so that means a happy Rae and Co are on their way home, the sun is already beginning to set on this first day of non daylight savings and I’m has content as I have been in a long time.

We moved in two and quarter years ago to basically just the house. We quickly added a drive, not so quickly a front and back garden, no where near as quickly the missing side fence and that left one thing to complete – the sides of the house. Up until today they were just as the builders left them, muddy weedy wastelands. We had tried a few times to get them done and finally Hire A Hubby came through. We’ve finally finished the beginning of our house.

Before

After

20 years ago this scene would have been from a science fiction movie. Three laptops, a Nintendo DS, just out of shot Rob is on Facebook on his iPod Touch and the photo was taken with an Android phone.