Category: Diary

It was a glorious day today and with a run of hot days coming up we decided to make the most of it and headed off to the zoo. We got to see some of my favourites today; meerkats, crocodiles and my number one – the wombats. The funniest moment was when the twins where excited at the picture of a koala, pointing and yelling, completely oblivious to the fact there was real live one sitting a metre away from them. We’ve used the FOTZ membership three times at Melbourne zoo so far and the kids absolutely love it, so money well spent.

  

 

No more Richo

No more waiting to see which Richo turned up to the game.

No more covering your eyes as he lines up dead in front 20 metres out.

No more cheering as he kicks the impossible goal from the impossible angle.

No more amazed gasp as he still manages to take the mark with three guys hanging off him.

No more watching him prowl the MCG as if he owns it.

No more heart and soul of the yellow and black.

I was doing a silly dance for the kids as I brought them some cake.

"Stop it Dad." says Moo.

The "you’re embarrassing me" was implied.

Today was glorious but I couldn’t tell you what yesterday was like as I spent almost all of it asleep. Woke up yesterday, managed to stay awake long enough to have some breakfast but then the aches set in and it was all over for the day. I slept, slept and then slept some more – I simply couldn’t wake up or get get myself off the bed. Thankfully Rae was home, she got to enjoy a Dad free day with the kids.

The weird thing is that when I awoke this morning it had totally gone. I guess you’d hope this was the case after 30 hours of sleeping but to have absolutely no ill effects….just plain odd. Good thing too as we had to take Bert off for a quick trip to Royal Children’s Hospital today. Everything is fine, and when I tell you we went to see ‘The Prince of Poo’ (as the specialist calls himself) you’ll thank me for not going in to details! The RCH is an amazing institution, we are truly luck to live in a city with such a magnificent hospital but one thing they need to do is redevelop their web site. If there’s one thing in this world I know a bit about it’s hospital websites and the RCH deserves a lot better.

Anyway, after a great appointment (yes, it really was) we made use of our FOTZ membership again and went for another hour walk around the zoo. This time we we got to see the cool animals – gorillas, elephants and tigers – the kids loved them all. Next trip we get to see the crocodiles, the most requested animal of the lot. It’s fantastic being able to rock up and just go for a wander for free. It’s like having a neighbourhood park with really cool animals.

Now if you add an afternoon nap and great fish and chips you have a perfect day to balance the complete lack of a Thursday. Rae’s back to work next week so the fun stops and its back to earning a living full time next week. i don’t know who will miss having mum here the most, me or the kids.

At long last I made prawn and pork rice paper rolls. Delicious. Only problem is Bert likes them so we had to sacrifice two.

This morning I had the opportunity to head in to the ABC and be interview on Alan Brough’s breakfast show. Someone on his production team saw a mention of Our Fading Past and invited me in for a chat. It was great fun, he obviously loves Melbourne and its history and he knew his stuff. It was great watching the behind the scenes goings on, the signals, the messages popping up on screens, the puzzled looks as lines went bad. I felt really comfortable chatting away and there’s no way it felt like the 20 minutes it was.

If you’re interested to hear about the signs, and Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills, check out the segment.

Listen at 774 Melbourne | Right Click to download, click to play)

I wondered if anyone would be listening but I’ve already had several emails and new contributions and I apparently surprised both a sister and uncle when I started talking to them on their radio.

After the excitement of that we headed off to the Zoo. Rae, in her wisdom, decided we should join Friends Of The Zoo. A single trip to the zoo would cost us over $55 just to walk through gates and after spending that sort of money you’d want to stay and wander for a fair while to get your money’s worth, not an altogether practical thing with the young un’s. Having a FOTZ membership means we can skedaddle on over for an hour and then head on home. It’s going to be fantastic for weekend strolls after the market or those Fridays when I have absolutely no idea how I’ll make it through the day.

Today we got to check our the roaring lions, lazy big cats, frogs, bears (Bert was scared!), the giraffes, the tortoises and a few dozing kangaroos before the kids had had enough of their big adventure morning. I can see that we’ll get our money’s worth over the next year, Mr Henry in particular was fascinated and was most reluctant to move on from each animal.

It’s late in the day and with Rae on a weeks holiday a very lazy mood has descended on the house,. I’ve just finished a book so now it’s time to decide which one to tackle next, Iain Rankin’s latest or Shutter Island.

At last, good weather on the weekend. Of course this means it’s time to get some work done outside. For now I only have to mow the back lawn but, before too long, it will be the front lawn as well. Yes after just a couple of weeks the first blades of grass are beginning to appear out the front. Thankfully this patch won’t have a swing set and clothes line smack bang in the middle of it so a couple of passes with the trusty mower and we should be right,

The lemon and lime tree seem to be in a little bit of trouble, the leaves at the top are turning yellow. I mulched them today so I’m hoping that may help but my bet is the soil may be a bit too much clay and we may have to replant to try again with the trees on top of the soil.

I should be weeding a garden bed out the front and taking care of the nature strip with another dose of weed killer but I’m running behind on a couple of projects for my business so it’s time to hang up the gardening gloves and switch in to nerd mode for a couple of hours. Then it’s then time to cook up some satay chicken on the bbq after which my weekend duties will be done. I love days like this, roll on spring and summer for many many more.

Rae has headed off to the Yarra Valley with her work for the next couple of days. This means having the bed to myself, Battlestar Galactica on the telly and dad making dinner. Now this isn’t a big deal, I can and do cook (admittedly not as much as I should), and Rae had even put takeaway on the menu calendar but this morning it dawned on me – I’ll make Dad Dinner!

Growing up it was mum who cooked, every meal, every day except maybe a couple of times a year when Dad would take a turn. My memory tells me it was generally a Sunday night when he would serve up the one thing, apart from barbecues, that I ever saw him cook; omelettes. There are eggs in the fridge, some ham, chives, cheese and that’s pretty much all we need. So in honour of dad, tonight the kids are going to experience their Poppa Ted’s Dinner Extraordinaire – omelettes fit for kings, princess and princesses.

It started almost five years ago when I bought my first iPod – a 40GB white 3rd generation. It was fantastic. This lasted a couple of years until the hard drive failed so I replaced it with a reconditioned 20GB 3rd generation. This one is still going strong with Rae using at work but I replaced it a couple of years ago with an 80GB classic. Last year I found a 1GB shuffle on sale and added that. Now any normal person would be happy with a two sitting on their desk, or so you’d think.

Last week I added a 32GB Touch to the family, and it’s superb. I wanted a way to take my notes in Evernote with me and to carry my Google calendars, mail and contacts too. It does this and sooooo sooooo much more. I can see I’m going to go broke with buying apps, although the free ones are amazing. I can Skype for free from the beauty, have installed a spirit level, can play air hockey against Rob on his Touch, check my RSS via Google Reader, check my Google apps email, send Tweets via Twitterific and Facebook is better and easier to use via their app.

Now my holy grail for tech has been to find a way to stream 6 Music and my Canucks home games no matter where I am and, with thanks to the Touch, I’m almost there. Fstream is a fantastic app that lets you listen to almost any radio stream off the net – and it has no problems with 6 Music or the Canucks broadcasts. I can move away from the desk and as long as I have wifi I can listen and once I upgrade to an iPhone (yep, I can see it coming a year away) I’ll have my stations wherever I go.

For now though I’ll be happy and take delight  in my shiny new toy and drive Rae mad by making her look at every new feature I stumble across.