Category: Diary

The kids have been obsessed with museums lately, ever since watching Night At The Museum and its sequel fifty times over. Most days Bert builds a museum in the lounge room and takes us on a guided tour.  I’ve been working pretty hard lately to get two huge projects finished, both of which got sign off yesterday, so I took this morning off and took the kids in to the magnificent Melbourne Museum.

I’m so glad I did.

They absolutely loved it, well, eventually for one of them. Poor Henry started freaking out as soon as I pulled in to the car park and told them where the surprise outing was to. Too many movies for that boy. No matter how many times I told him it was day time and the exhibits wouldn’t come alive he still didn’t want to go. He clutched me tight as we walked in and refused to look at the dinosaurs. Moo and Bert were in raptures though. Mr H eventually calmed down and realised nothing bad was going to happen.

We saw the dinosaurs, the wild animals (Mr H wouldn’t look at the lions), Phar Lap, the Melbourne exhibition and then back to the dinosaurs which leaves a good deal to see when we go back. Yes, even with Henry who, in the end, had a blast.

The three of ‘em ready to tackle Jonathon’s 5th birthday party.

I went to visit a new client this morning. Rae and I really don’t get to spend too much time together so, as it was a Saturday and for something different, we all went for a drive to Northcote and while I had a chat with the lovely Mary they all went for a walk. After the meeting we walked back to the car and Rae had parked smack bang in front of a Cash Convertors. She suggested we have a look inside so we did.

Bad, yet good, idea.

The first thing I saw was a brand new, still in the box, black Wii. Throw in a Wii Fit, an extra remote and a couple of games and $220 later….

We haven’t invested in a games system since I bought an X-Box almost 8 years ago. Phee would never get any work done and the young ones are just too young but the Wii seems a good fit for them for the next couple of years with it’s simpler game play for young kids. If Phee wants more complex games she can save up for them, which may give her some motivation to help a little and earn some money. In a few years the next generation of consoles should come out and a couple of years after that we may look at updating but until then they can Wii in the lounge all they want.

It’s not often you are surprised (in a good way) by your gas or electricity provider, and it’s even less often that you’re impressed. There was an envelope from Origin in the PO Box today so, as I do with each of their envelopes, I took a deep breath before opening it. To my surprise it wasn’t a bill. It was a letter,

The letter was about feedback they had received from door to door salespeople and how their customers weren’t impressed so they have done something about it. They included three ‘Do Not Knock’ stickers, as released by the Consumer Action Law Centre, that when attached to the front of your house make it illegal for door knockers to, well, knock on your door. There are three stickers, one of which matches our house colour scheme perfectly so we can now look forward to interruption free evenings.

Thanks Origin. Now there’s a phrase I never thought I’d utter.

It’s one of my favourite times of the year, pre-Christmas catalogue season. Our catalogue guy just wheeled his trolley past and dropped the mother load in to our letter box; 17 catalogues and one local newspaper! I’ve already divided the catalogues in to Essential, Possible, For Rae and Car-Related (ie straight to the recycle bin) and they’re waiting for me on the kitchen table. It may be time for afternoon tea, a long afternoon tea at that.

There’s one source of marital discord in our house and that’s our children’s football team. We’ve divided them fairly (one boy/one girl) each but Bert has been displaying disturbing Bulldogs tendencies thanks to being taken to games by his mum and nana. I’ve begun to try clawing him back by taking him to Tiger games but the allure of nana was proving strong.

Then, today, Bert drew me a picture.

He may yet be mine.

At last, a plant/tree we can’t kill. I was out, um, watering the lemon tree this morning when I noticed something – our very first lemon! Given our house is the place where all plants come to die it’s a major achievement and has made me disproportionately happy. Here it is, our Lemon Of Hope.

Not everyone is on Facebook and I want to be able to stumble upon this picture years down the track so, for those who haven’t already seen it, here is how my Tiger girl fell asleep last night, dreaming sweet Tiger dreams.

Go on, ask me what sort of phone you should buy.

Their parent’s genes run strong in these boys.