Saturday
12th March 2005 I've spent so much time in working on the new 
homepage
for the website, that I have neglected Ann a bit. I sit in front of the computer
for far too long, and so now that the homepage does everything I want (shows
who you are if you are logged in, shows the weather and the latest news from
Adelaide, and links to the latest blog entry), I will spend less time working
on it. So now we can stress about the house purchase together.
Hopefully now it is a bit more accessible, more people will use the discussion
forum to send messages and chat to each other - it's been a bit quiet in
there for a while.
Last night Thomas decided to walk into the edge of the dining room table - which made him scream, but luckily both of us kept our cool, Ann cuddled him and gave him the paracetamol, and I got some ice and held it on his head. He calmed down quite quickly, and I think the thing that was hurting the most was when I was holding the ice to his head - I think that it may have been too cold for him. Anyway, we put him to bed and this morning he was fine and had no swelling or bruising. Children really do bounce - we just both hate seeing it happen.
Ann and I are going to celebrate tonight - but it's been very hot today, so we have all been a bit tired and slightly grumpy. After a bottle of $7.99 Jacob's Creek sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir, we should feel a little better. In the new house, we have evaporative air conditioning in every room (except the extension), and it's apparently very cheap to run, so maybe we will all get a better night's sleep and be generally happier there. All the bedrooms also have ceiling fans, so even if we don't have the air-con on, we can still be comfortable.
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Last night Thomas' temperature was worryingly high. We gave
Thomas a cool bath and some children's Panadol, and for the first time ever,
Thomas cried in the bath. This worried Ann a lot, and so she called the Child
and Youth Health Service parent helpline (1300 364 100). They asked about symptoms
and talked to Ann for a while, and then suggested that we call the locum service
for a doctor - (it's an Adelaide number 8130 3420). When I called, I got an
operator who took all of Thomas' details and our address, and then said that
she would pass the call on.
Then, about an hour later, a doctor turned up on our doorstep, complete with
a crate of drugs and an assistant / bodyguard / porter / paperwork man. The
doctor dashed in, looked in Thomas' ears and throat and made us all feel better
by saying that Thomas had a virus and all we had to do was keep the paracetamol
up and keep his fever down. Ann and I felt very much more comfortable now that
we knew what the problem was, and that he would be better soon. Thomas also
seemed to calm down, and apart from waking up from the heat a few times in the
night, asking for a drink, Thomas was much better when he woke up.
Today we went to look at furniture and whitegoods. We saw some great garden furniture and we were stunned at the high cost of ovens and hob tops. There were some grean garden swinging chairs and lovely large lounge suites, we wanted to buy it all! Even though it was only 27°C, it felt like 35°C, and so we all felt very lazy in the afternoon.
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This morning there was a powercut
in Adelaide, which knocked out the cable TV, but did not affect us. On the radio,
there was a guy who was complaining that he could not get his children to school
because his electric garage door would not open, and there were lots of traffic
lights out, they estimate that 80% of traffic lights were affected.
On Friday, there was a flood
in Adelaide University - not something that should affect the University of
South Australia, but all the Internet traffic for all three Universities goes
through the building that was flooded. Today at work I got an email about how
the equipment that was in that room was completely destroyed.
Today I did not go in to work, because I had the cold that
Thomas and Ann have had over the weekend. I felt like death, but I knew that
I had to get up and move about, otherwise Ann
would say that I was just like any other man (thinking that I am dying but
only have a cold).
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It was a disappointing day today. The weather was a bit overcast, and somewhat chilly for a change. Autumn must be making it's way over to Adelaide. Also, my astonomy class was not very good tonight, as not only was it overcast, but also the lecture seemed to flail around with no real direction or new ideas. A little disappointing for me.
I went in to work today as I was feeling a bit better. The only thing is that my voice is a bit croaky, like Thomas' was last week. It's quite funny hearing a different voice coming out of your own mouth.
Ann looks 10 years younger again, she has had her hair cut and coloured. It's the same style and colour, which suits her very well.
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We had the meeting with the finance company today. The man
from Members Equity
came over and looked at all the paperwork. It was good that he came to our home,
because he asked for additional paperwork that we would not normally have taken
in to a bank visit. We were able to go to the filing cabinet, get the paperwork,
check with him that it was the right details, and then copy it by scanning it
onto the computer and printing it out.
Suddenly we lost a chunk more of our savings. The problem was that ME will only
give us a 90% loan, and we had calculated on putting in the minimum deposit
of 7½%, so we had to chuck in a bit more cash. It's not a problem, but
it will delay some of the luxuries that we are going to buy for another month
or two. On the happy side, because our mortgage amount had dropped below a threshold,
our taxes and fees have dropped by nearly as much as our deposit had to increase
by.
Thomas had a good day in Kinder Gym, but he missed his favourite ball pool. Maybe because of this, Thomas is now climbing more, which is turning out to be a bit of a problem as he is now able to reach more things to play with. He loves the mobile phones and the house phone - we have had to take my mother's number in England off speed-dial, to stop Thomas from accidentally ringing her in the middle of the English night.
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Eleanor left Adelaide four weeks ago now. Already she is planning her return, and planning to buy property on her next vist. Unfortunately for everyone, the Foreign Investment Review Board does not allow non Australian citizens to buy property without prior approval.
A bit of excitement tonight. I went to my first drive-through
bottle
shop. In Australia, it is common to have a hotel
(pub in English) with a bottle shop (off-license in English), and the bottle
shop will have a drive-though part where you can just rock up and point to the
wine or beer that you want, they put it in the car and you pay - all without
leaving the car. It's great if it's really hot and you don't want to leave your
air-conditioned car.
Tonight Anne told me that there was a special offer at the bottle shop at the
top of our road (opposite the Shell servo),
where you could get a pack of 7 bottles of South Australian red wine for $49
(that's £20). All the wine is really good quality, Wolf Blass, Annie's
Lane, Hardy's and Penfold - so Ann and I will enjoy drinking that.
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I submitted my job application for the permanent position in the Exchange and eBusiness team. I had a chat with someone who currently works in the team, and we talked about what was involved, and not only does the job seem great, but there are a lot of areas where I think that my previous skills and experiences can really add a benefit. I am really excited, because not only do I want the job, but also I think that I can do it well, and also even if I don't get it I am still secure in my current job. I don't have to tell my boss that I have doctor's appointment when I go to the interview...
Last night we watched a travel program that focussed on the
locations that are in the book "The DaVinci Code". The started in
Paris, at the Louvre, and showed the locations that are in the book and will
be in the film (Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon and Ron Howard directing). They
also showed Teabing's Chateau Villete - which was just as both Ann and I had
imagined it after reading the book. The program could not film inside the Knights
Templar church off Fleet Street in London, nor the tomb of Isaac Newton, but
they were able to film inside the church at Rosslyn, which is being renovated
in preparation for the film.
It was one of the four travel programs that are on every week, including Postcards,
which is just about things that can be done in South Australia. It's amazing
how much there is on offer in a place with only 2 million people.
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