Blog

Saturday 9th July 2005

They were predicting hail and rain for the last couple of days, and apart from a few spits, it's been dry.

We all went out shopping this morning in Tea Tree Plaza, and arrived quite early. The crowds only started to build up at around 11 - and by that time we wanted to leave. We had successfully bought a present for Thomas (a tent with a few balls in it) and ended up browsing for a few things rather than buying. I did buy a bit of hardware for the house - a TV aerial socket.

Once we were all fed and Thomas was safely in bed for his afternoon nap, I went up in to the attic. I wanted to check for loft insulation, as I was concerned that the house was cold because of insufficient insulation - and I wanted to measure the space between the joists. I had done some research and decided that I wanted to put some fat batts in the roof. The only thing was, that once I actually got up there, I found that there was no space to put up the fat bats as it was already full with other insulation.
So, I did my next bit, which was to fix the aerial for the TV. When the cable TV went out last week for a few hours, we could not get a signal - so I wanted to find out where the broken connection was. It turned out that the aerial was connected to a socket in the lounge that looked like a cable TV socket, and the socket that looks like an aerial was not connected to anything - which explained the lack of signal. So, I re-wired it so that we can now get a TV signal.
This unfortunately meant that I had to get up on the roof and remove some tiles so that I could drop the wire down in the gap in the wall. It was really easy, just slide up the tiles and I could get full access to the roof, and then I could poke the wire down. The problem was that it started to rain when I had some tiles off, and I was very nearly finished, so I got a bit wet putting everything away!

Would you like to Comment on this entry? There are 0 comment(s).

Sunday 10th July 2005

An early morning start meant that I missed out on my weekly lie-in. Linda and Ashley arrived at 8:20 and then we all got in the car to go to the Clare Valley wine area. It was a cold and misty start to the day, which made it crisp and fresh. As we drove along the narrow winding road, we went through some mist-filled valleys which looked like enchanted forests with rolling grass paddocks separated by gnarled gum trees and exotic looking bushes.
Thomas' baby seat was between Ann and me in the back seat, and by 10 am we were in Clare, meeting Cathy and Katia to go to some wineries. It was great to be hanging out with our friends, and enjoying their company. It was very cold, and so many times we were dashing to the next place to warm up.

We visited some wineries, tasted local wines, ate local olives, had a pretty ordinary lunch, saw some sights. It was not as tourist-centric as the Barossa Valley, but it was still a very good place to go - much smaller and more rural, but still worth a visit. I think that we will go back in the summer.

After a long drive, we got home just before sunset. We were very tired, so all went to bed early.

Would you like to Comment on this entry? There are 0 comment(s).

Monday 11th July 2005

Thomas had a wonderful day at his grandparents today. Thomas' appetite has been growing, and he was eating everything in the house that was in view, including half of Liam's cake, half of his pear and everything that was put in front of him. Thomas was enjoying himself so much that he only slept for a few minutes, and was full of energy when I picked him up after work.

Today is the first day that the children are on their school holidays, so the roads were really clear. When I was selecting the route to work, I choose the roads with the higher speed limits - in England the speed limit would have no effect on the time it takes to get to work, the route decisions are all about the number of junctions and experience of where the traffic builds up. The other day when I was driving in to the city, it took the same time to get in at 8am on a Tuesday as during the weekend - 25 minutes.

When we got home from the Clare Valley last night, we had found that there had been a power cut for about 90 minutes at lunchtime. It was annoying to have to reset the clock on everything (it seems that everything has a clock, even the microwave and coffee machine!), but what was really a problem was the alarm in the bedroom. Thomas loves to run into the bedroom, and press all the buttons on the alarm clock, which switches on the two alarms. As the power had gone out, both the alarms were set for midnight - and Thomas had switched it on! We got a big shock, and were floundering around to try and switch it off! Thomas - of course - slept through it all.

Would you like to Comment on this entry? There are 0 comment(s).

Tuesday 12th July 2005

The rain came down today - and everyone seems quite thankful about it. The roads are still quiet, so I got to work 10 minutes earlier than usual.

Ann had a quiet day without Thomas - and spent the day doing the ironing! There was a little window of opportunity when Ann was able to go to the shops and buy some clothes for work - spending her newly found income!
One good thing that happened today was the delivery of another box of goodies from England - Thomas' grandparents have been buying stuff for him and today we got another shipment of clothes for him. Thomas seems to have a great love of his clothes, and particularly shoes - and this time he got a great pair of Nike trainers...

When I came home from work, I was disappointed to find that the laundry still smells of gloss paint. We have tried all sorts of things - leaving the door open for 2 days, putting an onion in a bowl of water, air freshener - and nothing is working. It's still really strong - I remember that last week when I was sick on Monday and Tuesday, the smell would make me feel really bad when I went through the room.

Thomas has still got a really good appetite, and now he is much happier and more energetic than before. He is complaining less, and able to amuse himself better. He is even enjoying his bath by himself again, so at least I don't have to get in the bath with him again.

Would you like to Comment on this entry? There are 0 comment(s).

Thursday 14th July 2005

The cold weather is starting to annoy me. The house has got wonderful exposed floorboards that are varnished and look great, in all rooms except the lounge. The problem is that it's a suspended floor above a well ventillated cavity - and so the wooden floors are all very cold. It will be great in summer, but at the moment it's very cold.
Another problem to do with the cold is that when we put on too many electrical items, we trip the circuit breaker. So we have be be careful not to have the electric fire, kettle and hair dryer on at the same time.

It brings back memories of my time at boarding school in England in the 80's. The school was a large old building on the top of a hill, and the heating was inadequate at many times. We used to go to the boys toilets in break times, run the sinks full of hot water, and we would stick our hands in the water to warm them up - 8 or 10 little boys all crowded around small sinks, shivering.
The coldest that I have ever been was at the top of a mountain in Verbier, Switzerland - the air temperature was -12°C, but with the windchill, it was approximately -37°C according to the sign on the ski lift. At that temperature, the water in your eyes starts to freeze - so we had to get skiing just to warm up.

Would you like to Comment on this entry? There are 0 comment(s).

Friday 15th July 2005

Naughty me. My advertising account has been cancelled, so there will be no more adverts on this website. I have been opening all the adverts on every page (several times) to both look at the ads and see how much revenue I can make for myself. It turns out that Google don't like this, and so they have cancelled my ability to have adverts. Never mind - it was only an idea.

The sun came out today and there was a wonderful blue sky and warm sunshine filled Adelaide. It made a great change from the last week! But then the rain started coming down again.

I had a little informal appraisal at work with my boss today - he wanted to know how I was doing and what my progress had been over the last few months. I made a list of everything that I had done over the last 3 months, and it was over two pages with 43 items - I was impressed by how much I had done, and I think that my boss was too.
It's a pity that mothers at home don't get the same appraisal and congratulations for their progress over the previous 3 months - it was great for me to get the feedback and encouragement from my meeting.

Would you like to Comment on this entry? There are 0 comment(s).

[Homepage]   [Blog]   [Slideshows]   [Links]   [Migration]   [Search]   [LogoTest]