Saturday 2nd October 2004Today was a truly wonderful day. The sun was shining, there was not a cloud in the sky, and it was a comfortable 22°C in the shade. We had decided that we wanted to go for a picnic, but Ann had a headache and did not really want to go out.
So, we went out to the 
Central Market,
and picked up some South Australian Kalamata olives, marinated South Australian
feta cheese, and Australian semi-dried tomatoes (as it sounds, not quite as
dry as sun-dried tomatoes). We went to a sliced meat stall, and got 2 slices
of that salami, 2 slices of that meat, 2 slices of whatever that is over there
- that looks interesting. All the meat was Australian. Then we bought some South
Australian cheeses and picked up a freshly baked loaf of Turkish bread, made
from Victorian wheat. It was great to wander around the aisles picking up various
delicacies, and then we wandered over to the river Torrens, to have a picnic
on the river bank. We ended up finding shade under some fir trees right in front
of the
Hyatt hotel, laid out our rug and picked
at all the delicious foods that we had just bought. Thomas had his lunch, and
even had a few bits of chicken and cheese. Once we had cleared all the food
away, Thomas sat and played with the junk mail whilst we read the local papers.
It's school holiday at the moment, so there are lots of events on, and a few more people around. Still, it's not packed or heaving with people as it would have been in London if the weather was this good. We noticed that the streets still had all the flags and signs lining the street from when Port Adelaide Power football club had their procession down the streets, so that they could be presented with the key to the city after their Grand Final victory last weekend. On Tuesday when it happened, I could not get through to most of the job agencies as almost all of Adelaide was out on the streets (in the rain) to watch the Power players and celebrate their victory.
Thomas loved to be out in the sun, but he did not want to have his hat on - we had to keep putting it back on his head every time that he pulled it off. It's a habit that we will have to keep getting him into, so that he always wears a hat outside. We are also going to have to put more protection around the house, because Thomas is much more mobile now. He is now able to crawl whenever he has the inclination, and so we are forever pulling him away from sockets and wires, when he heads for that direction. We have decided that we will never let Thomas into the kitchen, and I want to go and get a baby gate. It's either a gate to the entrance of the kitchen, or 23 baby-proof catches for every cupboard and drawer.
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Grand Final day for the SANFL. Sturt did not get through, so it is Central Districts against Eagles in AAMI Stadium. Linda, Ashley, Ann and I went over to West Lakes to watch the match. Liam and Shirley looked after the children (Thomas, Brendan, Marie), and we all went in the same car.
The sun was out, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, it was 22°C in the shade,
and it felt considerably higher in the sun. There were 24,203 other people watching
the game with us. See my "match report" and the
photos
here.
The match was very one-sided, with Central pulverising the Eagles with a final score to Central of 23.15 (153) and Eagles 4.4 (28). Central [Bulldogs] got the highest score of any match played in the last 50 years. It was great fun to be at the match, and it was an experience that both Ann and I enjoyed. At half time, we were able to meet up with Kyle, and have a quick beer and chat about the game. Ann and I both had a hot-dog (no, not a square pie and sauce, as everyone normally does), and ended up having to watch some of the game on TV, because you are not allowed back to your seat with alcohol.
Thomas had had a really good time with Liam, Brendan, Marie and Shirley, and he was so tired that he fell asleep almost as soon as we got home. Ann and I were pooped too, the heat of the sun must have taken it out of us.
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Today is Labour Day - a public holiday. It's the first Bank Holiday Monday of spring, so most people do the usual and have garage sales, do the garden and crowd into the DIY stores. It's also school holidays, so there are lots of events on - special open days and the like.
It has been another perfect day, no clouds until sunset and a warm breeze through all of Adelaide. Why do prices for food and drink go up for today? If you go to a restaurant or bar, they increase the prices on public holidays. I would have thought that they would drop the prices to encourage more people to come in.
We dropped over to Cathy's for a quick coffee, and joined in on the end of a barbeque that she had been putting on for a couple of friends. We were also joined later by more of Cathy's friends, and it ended up being quite a little party.
One thing that I have not been talking about in my blog is the current Election
that is building up at the moment. The Federal
Election takes place on October 9th, and is mainly between the current power
holders of Liberal
and John Howard, and the
Australian Labor Party (ALP)
and their leader Mark Latham. There are elections for the Senate, and elections
for the House of Representatives in Parliament.
It's been getting dirty recently, with each party putting up adverts to put
the other down. I obviously can't vote, but Ann has to, and it's difficult for
her, as the voting system is not an "X" in a box, but proportional
representation - Ann will have to number all candidates in preference order.
Our current MP is Trish
Draper, a member of the Liberal Party. We got confused and thought that
it was Trish
Worth, who is also a member of the Liberal Party, but as you can see from
their maps, they cover a different electorate. Interestingly, if you look at
the map
for our area, it is quite a good summary of where we live, look for Golden
Grove, Salisbury East (Liam and Shirley) and Linda's family live near Yatala
Vale road.
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Today is the usual swimming for Thomas, and he is starting to get into the
swing of things now. I am even starting to learn some of the nursery rhymes
and songs, and the movements that we need to do. Next week we will be moving
to Wednesdays as Tuesdays will be Thomas' KinderMusic class.
Today was a bit of a shock, as I normally take Thomas into the shower with me
to rinse him off, and when we got there the showers were being occupied by a
large hairy man with his tool in his hand. He was fully clothed and repairing
the showers. There were tiles off and tools all over the floor, so we decided
to go home instead - besides, he was looking at me funny.
I got home and then decided to call all the job agencies to
find out if I will ever work again. It started badly, with the first two recruitment
consultants being unavailable (after I had given my name... are they
avoiding me?). Then I got hold of one agency that had 4 jobs that I was applying
for. After a bit of discussion, they discounted me for three of the jobs, and
then told me that the fourth would be delayed for a while as the employer had
decided to re-structure.
Eventually, after more phone calls to more agencies and more jobs were taken
from my "chase up" pile and put into the pile for "shopping list
scrap paper", I called back the two agencies that I had not been able to
get hold of earlier. For one agency, the consultant was still at lunch (3 hours
after I first called) - and his colleague, who I was previously told was not
at his desk, he was now in Melbourne until the end of the week.
One final call to the last person - ironically it was the job that I was most
excited about - almost the same as the job I was doing at Chordiant 18 months
ago, but at the level that I would have been - had I still been working there.
It was a bit more management, but still with a hand in the technical side. The
job spec sounded so great that when I sent my CV off on Friday, I spent nearly
3 hours editing my CV so that I only said what was asked for in the ad - and
removed most of the stuff that made me look too technical. I carefully
drafted a cover letter that pointed out parts of the job ad that I did not have
in my CV, and so this call was a very hopeful one.
When I spoke to the consultant, we had a great chat, and he explained that he
wanted to call me when he saw my resume on Friday evening. It all sounded good,
and I pointed out where my skills are, and made sure that I stuck in his mind.
Normally, it would take a week or more before I get a reply, but an hour later,
he called back and invited me in for an interview tomorrow morning. Obviously,
I told him I was more interested in having a lie-in and enjoying my time off
than wasting my time in job interviews.
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I had my interview today. I arrived in plenty of time, wore my lightest suit
so that the 28°C temperature would not make me look sweaty, had a great
interview and got across pretty much all that I wanted to say. The job looks
really interesting and if I was to describe my perfect career role, then this
would almost be it. The only thing I would change is putting the office half
way between
Rundle
Mall and the
Central Market, doubling
my salary and halving the hours. I don't know what the salary or hours are yet,
but I am hopeful...
I have been asked not to say what the company is, but I can say that it is a large retailer in South Australia. They are growing and developing and so they need me to go in and build up the department. The agency told me that I was their first of 3 interviews for that job today, and he told me that the shortlist would be decided before the beginning of next week. I am getting excited about this job, and I haven't even seen the office, the environment or any of the people who work there. The office could be a crumbling warehouse between a sewage farm and a leather tanners, with miserable staff with an average age of 92 and the computers could be stuck together with chewing gum and tape. I hope that I get a chance to interview the job and see if I want to dedicate myself to the role for the next 30 or more years.
I got back in time for Ann to go out to "do" lunch with the girls.
Ann, Linda, Shirley and Cathy went to the
Semaphore
Palais for around 3 hours, and Thomas and I stayed in to do the housework.
Thomas was not doing his fair share, so I decided not to do my bit either. In
the sun, my thermometer read 40°C, so we left the curtains drawn to try
and keep the house cool.
Ann had chili prawns on a spinach risotto, and had a great chat with the girls.
I think they talked about Australian Idol, but I wasn't listening when Ann started
to tell me about it. Ann says that it is great to be able to not have to think
about Thomas when going out - not that Thomas isn't normally really good in
public, but we still need to ensure that he is in the shade, cool enough or
warm enough, has a drink, has a toy, has his dummy if he needs it, is comfortable,
etc, etc.
My mother called me last night to talk about what has been going on recently. Apparently my father was given a gift by his staff (Christmas I think...) to go to Italy and drive Ferraris for a week for 2. Originally Terry mentioned to me that we could go together, but that would be a bit impractical with me being in Adelaide instead of Rome. Terry took my brother Nicholas instead. Nick and Terry loved it, but said that it was expensive, with the Ferrari gobbling up petrol and costing £700 for the fuel costs alone.
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We had our fly screens replaced today. The weather is getting hotter, so we need ventilation, but we don't want the bugs to come in. The old fly screens had holes large enough to let through a Funnel-Web spider (if you don't normally click on links in my blog, I urge you to click on this one, to see what we live with down here). The guy came around with his 7 year old daughter. She took apart the old screens with a screwdriver, laid out the new mesh and then her dad pushed it all into shape.
Whilst all this was happening, Ann was out doing tests at a recruitment company to check on her typing speed and Word skills. She has a speed of 76wpm and an accuracy of 100%, and her results in Word were 100% in "beginner" and "intermediate" and slightly lower in "advanced". Hopefully this means that she will get a short-term full-time job and get back into the swing of things, meeting people who don't have small children and seeing the rest that life has to offer. It will be typical that both of us will get a job at the same time, and Ann will have to turn down her work because we will have no-one to look after Thomas 5 days a week - we can only push the generosity and kindness of friends and relatives a certain amount.
Thomas is really crawling everywhere today. He managed to to laps of the lounge
room today, going from pile of toys to pile of toys. He is developing his language
skills too, he kept asking me what the new big thing in the lounge room was,
and when I said that it was a "fan", he thought that I said "foot",
and grabbed his toes. He still calls everything "clock", but he is
able to see that my wrist-watch and the wall clock are the same thing - he pointed
at my watch, and then the wall clock, and back again, saying "clock"
each time.
He has learnt "telly", but when we ask him where it is, he only looks
at it, and is not pointing yet. He points when we ask where the light is, and
where the clock is, and where mummy is - but he doesn't react at all when he
is asked where daddy is. He has this funny little quirk with his stacking
rings, where he likes the top ring to be a particular way up. The top ring
has a see-through top, with three beads inside the ring. If we put the ring
with the clear part facing down, Thomas stops what he is doing, takes the ring
off and puts it back on the right way up.
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Thomas had his MMR today. At first, we were a little worried when the doctor
recommended that not only should Thomas have the immunisation for Measles, Mumps
and Rubella, but also for Meningiococcal C. Then the doctor explained that MMR
has the lowest risk of any immunisation (as far as Australia is concerned),
and that at this stage, Australian children would normally have MMR with two
other injections. Thomas only had two injections, because the English immunisation
schedule is different, and he was already covered for the diseases. There is
one remaining immunisation for Thomas, Hepatitis B, which is not even given
in the UK, but we are going to delay that until next month.
Thomas coped OK with the injections, screaming a bit, but he calmed down very
quickly. Ann was upset, and it took her a bit longer to get over it.
The federal election is tomorrow. There have been murmurings about security, because of the fear of terrorist attacks like Madrid and Indonesia - both of which were near elections. I think that Australia is the least upsetting of any nations - that is I mean that other countries are not often offended by Australia's presence as they are with America and, in some ways, the UK. The constant TV adverts have stopped, and the election is only discussed on the news instead of during every Ad break.
The TV adverts in Adelaide are interesting because of the large number of local adverts for small stores (sometimes an individual garden centre or baby shop). It is obvious which ones are local, because they have the look and feel of the adverts that used to be on in cinemas before the main feature. A bit grainy, a really bad jingle, a rabbit-in-the-headlamps presenter who was obviously on the 50th take of the day, and bad sound. TV adverts must be much cheaper to put on than in the UK, but I imagine that is because there are only 2 million people here, and 3 commercial channels competing for advertising revenue. Some of the ads are really annoying in their "badness", including some adverts where a guy is just screaming about the bargains at the repossession warehouse - we often mute the TV when that ad comes on.
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