Anthony Malloy

I tried to buy a DVD today, the remastered edition of Gone With The Wind. As we were at the local shopping centre I thought I’d try the two department stores there, both part of the massive Coles empire. You’d think they’d know a thing or two about retailing and it would pretty simple to walk in, exchange my money for their DVD and everyone would be happy. Let’s just say we’re not watching Gone With The Wind tonight.

First off K-Mart. A fairly large DVD section, lots of categories such as Drama, Kids, Television. Okay, let’s try Drama. Hmmm. Lots of kids DVDs, some Teliv, that one looks like action. No rhyme nor reason, I scanned the covers of those facing outwards but it was like looking for a DVD in a haystack. Five minutes and I gave up.,

On to Target and it was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen – they arrange them by price bracket! So, assuming you know how much the DVD you want will cost you have a starting point. I wonder who on earth came up with that idea and how it was adopted. Five minutes more of looking at covers of movies in no coherent order and it was time to head home.

Here’s a hint Coles. People tend to know the name of the movie they want to buy AND most people know the letter it starts with. Call me crazy but maybe if you arranged your DVDs in the order of the letters (let’s call it ‘alphabetical order’ shall we?) people may be able to find the movie they are after and then be able to pay you money for it. Go on, if you want to try this revolutionary idea it’s all yours for free It’s just so crazy it may work.

Mum and Peter have gone now, and with it the last bit of Christmas/New Year time off. Back to trying to earn a living now.

Still, we farewelled them, and my holiday, with a walk around Altona Beach followed by lunch at The Famous Blue Raincoat. Not a bad way to end the start of the year.

It’s been a great day. Mum and Peter are down for a visit so the kids have been over the moon, and over excited all day. They got to go to the park with them, have books read – the works. Tonight was parents reward time and we got to do something we haven’t had the chance to do in a very very long time. We went for a walk. Together. In the evening, and it was great. We live in a pretty nice neighbourhood considering it’s so young. We walked to the new school and around the ovals. It was interesting to see so many others out and about walking their dogs, picnicking or watching their kids play on the playgrounds. Hopefully before too long Phee will be responsible enough to watch the kids and we’ll get to do it again.

Happy New Year everyone. Amazingly enough we managed to stay awake until midnight last night. It probably helped we watched a movie with Rae’s mum (The Wrestler, fantastic film) and mother nature was putting on an awesome fireworks show all of her own. This time last year our neighbours held a massive, loud and long party that had us wondering how long we’d be able to survive in this house. This year it was thunder, a few illegal neighbourhood fireworks and that was that. There’s still a few cars parked in the street so there must have been a good party going on somewhere.

Best thing about this morning was a gentle ker thunk. I’m not sure what time  it was but I was awake enough to hear it. Thinking back it’s probably about 15 years since I’ve heard that sound on a weekday – the sound of The Age landing on the driveway. Thanks to a good deal from Rae’s work we’ve upped our subscription from only weekends to seven days a week. We’re trialling it for six months, as we’re not sure either of us will get to read the thing but it does mean we shouldn’t miss The Green Guide or Epicure for the next 26 weeks. No more calls on Thursday to check who is going to pick up a copy.

I’m not sure how much longer The Age can last. While I think main stream media ain’t gonna die completely it’s hard to see how a paper edition can survive in the long term. If The Age would remove those bloody annoying video ads from its web site  I’m sure I’d go back to it as my never ending source of news updates during the day. With Apple’s tablet just around the corner, and wi-fi and mobile net access omnipresent I’m not sure future generations will know the the quiet pleasure of unfolding a broadsheet on the table and settling down with a coffee. But for now we’ll make the most of it. Time to fire up the machine again, This week’s A2 is waiting.

How I’m loving these lazy days, I have no idea how I’m going to be able to switch back in to work mode next week. Maybe a quick peek at the bank balance will help but until then I’m just going to enjoy the hours with Rae home and with the kids still in a post-Christmas spirit. We’ve been to the market, had visitors, been to the zoo, lazed around the house, read books, watched movies and eaten enough chocolate to last a life time.

Last night Rae and I took Phee, at her persistent request,  to The Astor to see Alien and Aliens. The 13 year old bravado disappeared pretty quickly but we soldiered on. The thing that amazed me was how people behaved during Alien. You go to the Astor because you love cinema, and generally because you love the movie that’s screening so why was there a constant procession of people getting up, going out and coming back in a few minutes later. It started about 10 minutes in to the film and didn’t stop. I have a bladder the size of pea I can make it through. Is it DVDs that have made people accustomed to not having to sit still or to plan on getting a drink before the movie starts? I expect better next time people, you have been warned.

It’s a bit cooler today than it was this time last year. How can I remember? Because, this day last year we moved in to our new home and it was bloody hot! Thanks again to the wonderful friends who braved that day to help us lug all those boxes. That night we slept on a mattress on concrete in what is now the kids play room. We had no curtains, no drive way, no phone, no net and couldn’t have been happier.

In the past 12 months we’ve made our little house a home. We finally got our floors down, put up some curtains and summoned up the courage to bang nails in to our walls. With help we dug out the backyard for our wonderful deck and then the two of us flattened the rest of the wilderness to make a back yard. More help saw the front disaster area being turned in to the best front yard in the street.

We’ve each had a birthday in the house, an anniversary, a surprise coming out, first Christmas and hosted what will be the first of many Grand Final BBQs. Sure there’s a mountain of stuff left to do, not the least of which is to get a side fence built. They are nice neighbours, but. We want to put a roof in the deck, do the sides of the house, finish the front yard, do more to the back and on it goes. I guess it will never again.

So, one year down, many many more to come, and that feels great.

Presents are wrapped, fridge is stocked (both solids and liquids), house cleaned and kids excited. In short, we’re ready for Christmas. Should be a great day, our first Christmas in our house with all the kids really appreciating the day, I can’t wait.

Merry Christmas everyone, I hope Santa is kind to all of you.

Happy Gravy Day everyone.

Breakfast, coffee, papers then computers.The modern lazy Sunday morn.

That will teach me. I woke up this morning with my very own tramp stamp. No, not black swirls or two cavorting dolphins but a lovely bright red burn that look suspiciously like I’m wearing a g-string. It seems that even though I covered up and smothered myself in sunscreen yesterday I didn’t take in to account t-shirt creep while bending over doing the weeding. Ouch.

Was it worth it? Sure was. The front yard is slowly coming together, all it needs is some aerating of the soil, a bit more black mulch and another couple of hours and we’ll have the best garden in the street.