Category: Diary

We’re down to the difficult boxes now, the ones that you leave unpacked until the next move. Only this time hopefully there won’t be a next move for a very very very long time so we have to face our cardboard nemesis.

The trickiest problem is what to do with the CDs. Rae has a few hundred, I have about 600 or so. I’ve burned all of mine to iTunes, and Rae has taken what she wants of hers for her iPod so what should we do with the shiny platters? I’m not that trustful of hard drives, even backed up (locally) and on the Pod doesn’t seem secure enough for me. I could upload them to a remote backup service, like I do with all of my business files, but pushing 80GB up the pipe and, knock on wood, having to pull it all down again just isn’t practical at current speeds and bandwidth limits.

Those plastic cases represent a good chunk of my younger years spending, some mean a lot more than bits of bits on plastic probably should, but realistically we’re never going to play a CD again.

Decisions, decisions.

And don’t get me started on 5 odd years of UK Empire magazines I’ve been lugging around for over a decade…

When dad passed away the wonderful people I worked with at Cabrini sent the family two rose bushes. Mum said she would keep them until we had our own house and when we moved in she brought them down.

They live by our front door now, and this is the first bloom.

Been a busy week so it’s taken a while to get around to this but I made it in to a paper last Wednesday. The map of old Melbourne signs I created and turned in to a web site was featured in The Herald Sun’s geek section. Thanks to those who emailed, and sorry Jen for making you choke on your lunch. If you missed it have a look at  High Tech Historian.

The other sort of sun has risen on a new school year too so now Phee is back to school and Rae is back at work. This means it’s time to get in to a new routine. In the couple of months since it was last just me and the kids a lot has changed; new house, hot weather, completely mobile kids, new nanny. We’re finding our rythym here. We now all eat breakfast together once mum goes ’cause the young ones are now sitting up to the table. This makes lunch fun too. The kids are great to watch. Bert and Moo (I really should use her proper name, it’s so lovely and we kept it for her for so long) love playing together and Mr Henry is happy off doing his own thing, a bit like his old man. They are all down to one nap a day, Bert often skips it even though he still needs one. Apparently it’s not cool for big boys to sleep during the day.

There’s other stuff to talk about, but it’s been another long day so time to hut Publish here and hit the mattress in the bedroom. Night all.

I just overheard Bert asking the nanny “How many husbands do you have?”.

Looks like we have to turn down the volume a bit more when we are watching Big Love.

What a great break, three days of recharging the batteries. Saturday was visitors day. Daniel, Marita and Ren all propped over for afternoon tea and to check out the new house. All made lovely remarks about how lovely the new place is so are welcome back any time. Ren was even brave enough to try the first roast from the oven and after more favourable comments she’s welome back to dinner any time, After dinner it was movie time, Capote, a fantastic film that was made doubly enjoyable as I’ve almost finished In Cold Blood.

Sunday morning we packed the tribe and headed up to Shepp for a visit. Packimg in summer is so much easier,  only having to throw some t-shirts in a bag makes for less space and time. Lunch at mums, afternoon tea and then takeaway at my sister’s place, watching some tennis, drinking some beers, having the kids running around Aunty Helly’s until they literally drop and fall asleep where they lay down – a great way to spend a summer’s day.

This morning it was coffee, paper, kid wrangling, lunch and the drive home along with the thousands of others returning after their break. Rae’s back at work tomorrow, just in time for the heatwave ahead. Thankfuly we’ve now got our blinds installed so between them and wen should have the 38, 39, 40 and 40 degree days covered. We’ll worry about our carbon emissions and elctricity bill later.

Tonight is the end of the beginning for our new home. Rae goes back to work tomorrow, after almost a month off. It seems like an eternity ago we were packing our life in boxes and calling on the help of friends to get us in here.

Now a few weeks after we moved in we can look back and see how far we’ve come. It’s slowly becoming our home after we got the carpet in, survived idiot neighbours on new years eve, had the air conditioning balanced in time for the hot weather, survived on a wireless internet connection for what seemed an eternity, made friends with the guys across the road, got the clothes line and letter box up, unpacked most of the garage and just these past couple of days had our drive poured.

This week it’s just me and the kids again, I hope I haven’t lost the knack, it’s going to be tough as the young un’s have become very accustomed to having their mum around. It’s seems Dad hugs just don’t have the same calming power as a Mum hug. I guess we’ll have to work on the new routine too with different surrounds and no back yard to play in.

While we’re all adjusting we’ll be working around guys installing fly wire screens on sliding door, some extra wiring and (finally) having blinds installed over the next few days. After that the bank balance will be zero and the house will be settled for a long time as we start saving for the next round of development, things like decking, landscaping and some new furniture.

I’m going to miss having Rae home, but at the same time this is really the start of what we’ve been dreaming about and planning for for years, and I can’t wait.

So far this morning :

• Washing is hanging on our newly erected clothes line.
• The guys are here preparing the driveway for the concrete pour later in the week
• The blue lights on my modem flicked on – we have the internet at last!

It seems the meme of the moment is Seven Things You May Not Know About Me. Daniel, Jen, Kathy and Toria have all done it so I thought I may as well too, so here we go.

1. I’m not very good at counting.