Saturday
18th June 2005Blog |
June 18th to June 24th 2005 |
Autumn 2005 |
I spent most of the day cleaning the shower today. I removed all of the old silicone sealant with a razor and scourers, and then re-sealed all the corners and gaps and smoothed it all down. It took me about 4 hours, the whole time I was inhaling fumes from the turpentine and sealant.
Ann is getting over her cold, although she is still coughing and has a running nose. Thomas is much better and wanting to do more playing. It's difficult with it being wet and both of us a little under the weather (if you'll excuse the pun).
Thomas has difficulty running around when there are obstacles
in the way. He can't walk over a cushion, as his little legs are not big enough!
When he fell over the cushion today, it reminded me of a funny thing that I
saw in England when I was quite young.
In a typically English old building that was a tea-room, there was a very narrow
staircase that lead up to the toilets. My mother and I were watching as a rather
large woman made her way between the tables and chairs towards the staircase.
We remarked that it was particularly unflattering for her to be wearing such
a large and puffy jacket, as it made her appear double the size. She was breathing
heavily as she went past us, with both hands in her pockets, and continued weaving
in and out of the other people drinking their tea. As the large woman started
to climb the narrow and steep stairs, she missed her footing and slipped - face
first - into the staircase. As she fell, her hands became pinned in front of
her, and she became wedged in and could not move.
I say that she could not move, but her short little legs were waggling furiously
in the air, as was her rather larger tongue. As her legs desperately fought
for purchase on the steps, she called out for help, in a very embarassed tone
of voice. My mother and I had seen the entire event, and were desperately trying
not to laugh, but we could not help snigger when the two very thin and frail
looking old ladies who worked in the tea-room tried to pull the wedged woman
from the staircase. They recommended to the large woman that she should try
to turn sideways - to which the response was "I don't have a sideways!".
A little bit of jiggling resulted in the large woman sliding down a few steps
until she was able to stand on the floor. All was resolved before I had a chance
to help.
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A wet a windy day in Adelaide today. We were planning to
have a little get-together with the family this weekend, but we called it off
because of our sickness and the cold weather. Instead, we had a little lunch
with Kyle, Heather and Anna at the Tea Tree Gully Hotel. Ann booked a table,
and when she called they told her that there was an opening of a new extension
to the hotel this weekend - an outside area. Ann decided to stick with an indoor
table for lunch, and we met Heather and Kyle at the hotel.
We all had a great time with our lunch, and Thomas nearly finished a whole plate
of chicken nuggets and chips. After lunch, we had a walk around the new 'outdoor'
extension to the Tea Tree Gully Hotel. Thomas and Anna held hands and walked
down the walkway to the new tented area. We all had a look around, and remarked
how warm it was in the area with the plastic window sheeting.
After the lunch, we all went back to the house to give a little
guided tour to Kyle and Heather as they had not seen the house yet, and have
a slice of cheesecake. The children played outside on Thomas' bikes, in the
enclosed verandah area, whilst the adults chatted in the kitchen.
Later, we were joined by Shiela, Chris and their son Julian. Ann met Shiela
and Julian at the playgroup every Thursday, and they have migrated from England
only a few months ago. Chris also works in IT (but he is in a totally different
area - ASP software programming, where I am in infrastructure management), and
so we had a chat about how difficult it is to get a job when there are recruitment
agencies in the way. All three children were outside playing, and the parents
were all huddled in the kitchen keeping warm.
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Thomas had a developmental evaluation today. Ann took him
to the Child and Youth Services in Salisbury, and the 90 minute appointment
covered all aspects of Thomas' development, called the "Griffiths Assessment"
- originating from Manchester in England in the 60's. We were most concerned
about Thomas' speech development, but he is right on track and is aligned with
the benchmark of milestones in development that would be appropriate for a 21
month old. His fine motor skills are very highly developed, and he was able
to solve most of the puzzles and games that the assessor set him. His greater
motor skills are slightly behind, but we were told that this is nothing to worry
about.
Ann had never really felt the need to take Thomas in for assessment, but other
doctors and care professionals had dropped hints that he should be assessed.
During the appointment, Ann was told that Thomas is doing fine - just what we
expected. Taking Thomas to daycare and other events where Thomas can interact
with other children was encouraged - which is good, as Thomas is with other
children nearly every day.
We have been concerned about the high cost of our phone calls,
so I have been investigating other methods to make phone calls. I looked into
advanced Internet-based phone services like Skype,
but the problem is that this depends on the computer being switched on to make
calls, and we need things like a headset or better quality microphone.
So, I looked at the Internet service provider that we use, and they have a service
called "Oz E-Phone" which allows you to plug your normal phone in
to the Internet connection. The problem is (oh no!) that it means we have to
change our Internet connection from a speed of 256Kbps to 12,000Kbps in a new
service called ADSL2.
The faster connection means that I will be able to put the videos back on line
as the speed from our home to you will change from 64kbps to 1000Kbps. Don't
worry if it sounds confusing, but I know about it, and have sorted it out.
The problem is (not another one!) that in order to do this, I have to cancel the current Internet connection, wait until the cancel is completed and then order the new connection - maybe with another ISP that offers the same service. This all means that we could be offline for up to 20 days (although it could be as little as 3 days). So please excuse me if there are no entries on the Blog for a while.
The other thing is that my mail server and web server at home depends on a fixed IP address assigned to my connection (which I paid extra for) - but the cost for this with ADSL2 (aka broadband2) is very high at the moment, so I will get a changing IP address ('dynamic'). This means that I need to use an Internet service called 'Dynamic DNS' to register each time that my IP address has changed. Again, this may affect the reliability of your ability to access our web sites - if you have problems, just wait 10 minutes and try again.
The rain is really coming down today - there has been minor flooding as there has been a lot of run-off from the previously dry hills. It's also getting colder and windier - winter is here!
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Its been raining today. A lot. We had 54mm of rain overnight, which has beaten all records - only 4 weeks ago we had the driest May in 166 years (when records began). There has been widespread flooding and traffic chaos - there were roads being damaged by the rain and people falling in to potholes.
It's even been snowing at Mount Lofty, only 5kms from the CBD of Adelaide. The temperature has been down to 7°C in the city, and it has been hailing and raining on and off all day. Being the shortest day of the year, it's been dark most of the day and was night before I got home from work.
Ann has been babysitting Brendan today. He's off school to recover from his appendix removal operation, so Ann looked after him.
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Our Internet connection was cancelled today, to make way for our new, faster, connection. So there won't be any new blog entries for a while.
This also means that we can't get email (it will queue for 2 weeks until the connection comes back) and we can't get to the Internet from home, to read the messageboard or visit other websites.
Ann got a job! It's really great - two days a week, or possibly three, and one of the days is a Wednesday, when Thomas is in daycare. It's a great opportunity for Ann, and we are both really pleased, excited and relieved. Ann starts on Monday, and after her first pay packet, she wants to get a dishwasher! Shirley will look after Thomas on Monday, and the daycare centre said that in an 'emergency' that they could take Thomas on a few Mondays, even though they don't have an offical place for him then.
Now all that we need is for me to get a permanent job, and we will be sorted!
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