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Saturday 16th July 2005

The day started as a filthy wet and miserable day with wind and a bit of hail and dark skies. We all wanted to just stay indoors and keep warm, but we knew that there was a special day ahead of us. There was an event at the Port Adelaide Train Museum, called "Friends of Thomas" - where some of the trains are dressed up as the characters from Thomas the Tank Engine.

We met up with Chris, Sheila and Julian - Julian loves Thomas the Tank Engine and has lots of the toys. It was only $10 to get in, and Thomas was free, and we had full access to the train museum. Thomas was a little confused at first, as we were going through the parts of the museum that they had not decorated in Thomas the Tank Engine designs. We had a look through some of the wonderfully well restored and powerful looking trains and carriages, and Thomas had a look around, but the real excitement started when Thomas saw a large picture of Thomas on the wall (I hope you get that...).
Some the best engines were out the back, and it was relatively quiet out there, so we had the freedom to explore the carriages and museum pieces on our own. Julian and Thomas seemed entertained but not overcome with excitement.
The train ride was a different matter. There was a little narrow guage trainline that went around the whole museum, and it had little carriages pulled by two tiny steam trains that were decorated as Thomas and Gordon. Thomas was a little apprehensive at first, but once he got the hang of it, he was rocking in time to the train movement, and when the second lap finished, he did not want to get off!

After the museum, we all went to the Semaphore Palais for a lunch by the seaside. It was rougher than any of us had seen before, but we still went for a walk along half of the jetty until the wind and cold got too much for us all. It was quite cute to see Thomas and Julian holding hands for a bit, and they were both dressed up in warm clothes that made them look so grown up. Julian loves wearing hats, but Thomas normally does not - we had a woolly hat for Thomas, but we have lost it somewhere, so wer ended up putting on one of my old ski-hats that fits him perfectly.

After lunch, we went our seperate ways and then I started on the garden. Thomas had fallen asleep in the car on the way home, but woke up when we returned, so did not get his afternoon nap. Ann kept him amused whilst I went out to dig up two old stumps from some bushes that used to grow out the back of the house - I want to make that area a little herb patch but need to get rid of the roots. I just managed to clear the area before the rain came down again.

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Sunday 17th July 2005

I started the morning by digging over the entire herb patch area down to about a foot deep - removing stones and roots to make it good for new plants. I threw in some of the fertiliser that my father had bought last year, and buried the chicken poo in with the soil. By this time, Ann and Thomas were out in the garden - Ann sweeping up the autumn debris, and Thomas spreading it around again. Ann then sent Thomas to come and help me, and he went straight for the bucket of poo and was running his hands through it...
I then went out to the garden centre to buy some herbs - but they all looked tiny and wimpish, so I bought vegetable seedlings instead. When I got them home, both Ann and I were disappointed to find that we could not fit many of them in the small area that I had dug over. I really should have stuck to herbs instead. So now, I will have to prepare another part of the garden, and transfer over the seedlings when they are a bit larger (if they survive!)

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Monday 18th July 2005

An exciting thing happened last night - I think that Thomas said his first sentence. He had a fist full of cake, and he sat on his little chair and said to the rubbish bin "I like cake". I got very excited and asked him to say it again to me, and he just smiled, and then opened his mouth to show me all the cake in it, then stuffed the rest of the cake into his already full mouth. Unfortunately Ann missed his first sentence - but she has seen him opening his full mouth before though, so that was not something that she missed out on.

It was a very cold morning, and I had to scrape the ice off the windscreen before I took Thomas down to his grandparents for the day. I was earlier than usual, which meant that I was able to get in to work earlier and earn some more flexitime.

Ann had a day at work that was busy and typing up legal documents that were distressing for her - obviously I can't write anything about that here. For the first time since she has worked there, they managed to catch up, so that there were no tapes left to do by 5pm.

When I went to pick up Thomas from his grandparents this afternoon, he was all ready, with his bag packed and his coat on. When I arrived, he kissed his grandparents goodbye, picked up his bag (which was too heavy for him) and then proceeded to the car. I went to get his trike and pushchair - and he went to his chosen parking space for his trike, and road it out of the garage to the back of the car, and got off it so that I could put it in the boot - then he walked to his side of the car and waited. It was all very organised and he obviously knew what was going on. He then waved goodbye whilst I belted him in, and waved until Liam and Shirley were out of sight.
He had had a good day.

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Tuesday 19th July 2005

Thomas woke at 5:30am this morning - typical, as Ann had been up late with a cough that was keeping us all up. I looked after Thomas for a bit, and managed to 'trick' him into going back to sleep for another 30 minutes, but still had to get up at 6 to sit with him whilst he played.

Last night, I went out to the cinema with Linda, Shirley, Marie and Victoria to see "War of the Worlds" film with Tom Cruise. It was an exciting and enjoyable film, with special effects that were not corny or overdone. But - it dragged on a bit in places, some of the music was a bit of a cliche and didn't suit the drama of the moment, and some of the "horror" scenes were almost straight out of a cheap 70's film - with blood soaked fields and a little girl standing on the ridge of a hill screaming up into the alien's eyes. We came out of the film entertained but disappointed.

I have been putting together a new blog system, which will save me a lot of time in the maintenance of the underlying structure and navigation that I have to manually edit each week. It's a system called BirdBlog, and I have started to customise it so that it looks similar to the current blog. If you want to have a look, tell me what you think by posting a comment on the new blog. I will enter stories into both of the blogs for the meantime, but at this moment I can't convert the old blog entries to the new blog. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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Wednesday 20th July 2005

Thomas woke again at 6am. It was annoying as it was so cold, and neither of us wanted to get out of bed to look after him. He was getting quite agitated, and so I got up and gave him his dummy, but it turned out that he was wet. It seemed like he had drunk at least 2 litres of water by the dampness of his nappy and his pyjamas.
No wonder he was upset.
I changed all his clothes and then brought him into bed with us. He was good enough to lie down and stay under the covers, unlike his usual practice to bounce up and down on the bed. But, he would not stay quiet or still - so eventually Ann got up and showered at around 6:30 so that she could look after him.

It was my turn to take Thomas to daycare today, but he did not want me to leave. I had to make a run for it when he was calmly reading a book, but that meant that I failed to fill out the 'sign in' form to say that Thomas was there. It won't matter too much.

We had pizza for dinner - freshly made with a tomato past made from sundried tomatoes, chilli, garlic, fresh tomatoes and olives. Then I coated the top with marinated artichokes, olives and shredded salamis and cheese. It was great.

I went out to the monthly astronomy course event tonight. It was a 'Supernova' night, and the talk was all about the development of Anglo-Australian rockets and satellites in Woomera, South Australia. It was very interesting and well put together. There were about 30 people there, and it was great to meet new people who are equally interested in astonomy and space. I have hinted that sometime I may want to do my own presentation to the Supernova group - but the guy tonight had spent 3 months putting his presentation together, so there's no rush.

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Thursday 21st July 2005

Thomas was listening to music with Ann today. They were sitting on the sofa, listening to the Abba CD that I gave to Ann for her for her birthday, and Thomas was bopping along to the music, waving his arms in the air, and getting very animated about "Dancing Queen".

He often nods his head in time with the music, particularly when there is music with a good beat in the car. He also taps his hand in time with the beat.

We got our dishwasher delivered today. The only place that we could put it was in the laundry, next to the washing machine. It's still easy to get to it from the kitchen, and the best thing is that we can close the door on it (and the noise). Luckily, I decided to go out and get some rinse-aid and washing powder, so we could use it tonight...
I had gone out to get an adaptor so that I could connect the water supply from one tap into both the dishwasher and washing machine - but there was nothing available that was designed for the job. I ended up having to go to the gardening section to get a Y adaptop that would fit! When I put it in place tonight, it leaked terribly, until I fixed it up with tape.

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Friday 22nd July 2005

At my favourite lunch destination, they have had a robbery. Someone broke in and took their till, but left all the alcohol and the un-secured bags of cash that were under the bench.
When I went to go and get my lunch special of chicken fried rice for $6.90, they had no notes for change, and as I had a $20, I ended up leaving with $13 in dollars and 50c coins!

I have decided to switch over to the new blog. At the end of this month, I will stop updating this old blog, and all new entries will only be made in the new blog system.
The new system will allow Ann to make entries, and it is much easier for you - my avid readers - to be able add comments, and view each other's comments.
There are a few bugs in the system - but I am in contact with the developers of the software and telling them what changes I want to put in. They are also looking in to a way that will allow me to import my old blog entries, so that it's all in the new system.

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