Saturday
15th January 2005This morning Ann tried to have a lie-in, but of course it never ends out that way. I was training my mother how to look after Thomas in the morning, so that tomorrow she could let both Ann and I have a lie in.
This morning we all went in to 
Rundle
Mall to do some browsing and shopping. We decided to have our morning coffee
in the cafe behind the Art Gallery
on North
Terrace, and then wander through the gallery on our way out. Eleanor was
very pleased to see that most of the art was Australian, and that a large proportion
of it was South Australian. Thomas even seemed to appreciate some of the art
and sculpture.
We went along North
Terrace to Rundle Mall to have a look around, and it ended up that all of
us got some shoes. Ann got some black sandals with heels, Thomas got some blue
sandshoes,
Eleanor got some comfortable shoes and I got some brown suede shoes for everyday
wear. Ann also managed to exchange a top that Terry had bought her that was
too small, and got a replacement. We all enjoyed a good look around the shops,
and the weather was not too warm and the crowds were not too bad, so it was
a good day for all. It was a very tiring day, and I ended up spending 2 hours
in bed in the afternoon.
This evening, Ann and I went out to dinner together, leaving
Eleanor and Thomas at home. Thomas had just gone to sleep for the evening, and
then Ann and I left. We went to the closest restaurant to the house, which is
just at the top of the hill. We have driven past it nearly every day, and there
are 4 restaurants in one complex, but we had never tried any of them. As it
was Saturday night, the car park was full, but once we got there we were lucky
enough to get a table at "Green Ginger", which is an 'oriental fusion'
restaurant, including Indian, Chinese, Thai and other food styles. It was great
food and very good service and a reasonable price, so we are going to go back!
Whilst there, we bumped into Anne who I car-pool with. It was a real coincidence
as we both arrived at a similar time. We introduced our partners and then returned
to our meals. After the meal, Ann and I went to the local pub, the Village
Taverner, which we had never been to before.
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Ann and I had a long lie-in until 9am today. I stayed in
bed for another 1½ hours getting some more sleep, and my mother looked
after Thomas. Once we were all up, Thomas was put down for his morning nap,
and Eleanor and Ann went out to do the grocery shopping. I took the opportunity
to make my next batch of
home-brew beer
whilst Thomas was asleep and everyone was out. I made another 5 gallons, which
will be ready in 2 weeks - my current stock will not last me that long, so I
will be beer-less for 10 days...
The day was slightly overcast, so I decided to clean both
cars with my Christmas present from my in-laws, a Turtle Wax car kit. As my
father had decided to use my only bucket to spread around chicken manure, I
used the nice new bucket that I got at Christmas time, to avoid getting both
cars smelly.
The Scenic came up nice and clean because it has a coating that was put on the
paintwork when we bought it, but the Laser is in a terrible state. After I cleaned
it, I noticed that the paintwork is rough in places, and that the side windows
have tiny spatters of white paint on the glass. I scraped the paint of the glass
with a razorblade, and then put on two coats of Turtlewax to try and smooth
out the paint. It didn't really work, so I will just have to work harder on
it next time.
Whilst going in and out of the house, I did a terrible thing today. I walked straight through the flyscreen door, ripping it from the frame and pulling the frame out from it's tracks. When Ann did it the day that the flyscreen was installed, I tried hard not to laugh or make fun of her, and when we learnt that Liam had walked through one before, we all took it as a serious matter. But when I walked through the flyscreen, we all laughed and made fun of the grazes on my knuckles. Luckily, I was able to fix it, but it was a bit of a dent to my ego.
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Today was a monumentous day for Ann and Thomas, it was the
first day that Thomas went to daycare at the Surrey Downs Daycare Centre. Ann
took Thomas there and then spent a few hours with him, getting him acclimatised
to the environment and other children. It was a big step for Ann, as it was
the first time that she had left Thomas with other people who were not giving
Thomas one-to-one attention. Thomas has been with relatives and a nanny before,
but never in the sort of environment where he would spend more time being entertained
by other children than by adults.
Ann coped quite well, but after the time came for her to leave Thomas alone
for a while, when Ann returned, Thomas was alone and crying - having refused
his lunch. This gave Ann a bit of a shock, but Thomas seemed to have had a good
time.
At the same time, Eleanor went in to the city by her self, taking a bus from
the Village into Adelaide. Eleanor did some shopping and sightseeing, but we
all knew that she had gone out to be out of Ann's hair for today's big event.
When it was starting to rain last week, Anne from work told
me a story that she told her children. The story is about a frog who was in
a puddle, who got out of the puddle just as it was starting to rain, so jumped
back into the puddle to avoid getting wet.
That reminded me of a time when I was diving in Bali. I was with two Swedish
girls and we had all driven up to the north of the island, where there was a
large wreck that was accessible from the beach. So we all got ready for our
dive on the volcanic black sand of the beach, and then walked into the sea from
the tropical beach, with a warm breeze blowing across the shore.
The sea was warm and still, and with the visibility being an exceptional 40
feet, we could see the wreck looming in the distance like it was passing by
in the fog. As we swam towards the wreck, we could see that it was sitting upright
on the sea bed, and looked in very good condition considering that it was 40
feet below the surface that it had been designed to be on. As we approached
the wreck, colour was visible on the surface, a mixture of coral and anemones
with thousands of tiny fish swimming around them, making the surface shimmer
and move as if it was chinese silk blowing in the wind. We then swam around
the bow of the ship, under the anchor and chain that had caused the problem
in the first place, and then drifted along the side of the boat, observing the
large gash that had been left by the boat's unexpected encounter with the volcanic
rock of Bali's north coast. Shoals of tropical fish followed us around, hoping
that we might have some food for them - when one of the divers produced a banana
from his jacket, the fish kept their distance, but as soon as he started to
peel it he was mobbed by every shape and size of fish - some mistaking his fingers
for a lump of banana.
After the excitement of feeding, the group of divers proceeded inside the wreck
through the largest hole, which filled me with anticipation with what might
lurk in the shadows of the iron ship. I had always been taught not to enter
a wreck or go anywhere that you did not have a clear view of the surface, but
when the dive master and the girls went straight in to the dark cavern of the
hold, I decided that it would be safer to stay with the group than stay outside
alone. As the darkness drew in, and the sun shone down in sharp rays through
holes in the deck, I kept close to the sparkling bubbles coming up from the
divers that were just in front of me. My heart was pounding as I knew that this
was something that we were not meant to do, and as I was bringing up the rear,
I thought that if anything happened to me that I would not be able to draw attention
to myself.
As the welcoming sight of a large opening towards the rear of the ship appeared,
I put on a burst of speed and left the wreck nearly at the front of the dive
group. I kept calm to conserve my air, and stayed close to the middle of the
group for the remainder of the dive. As we started to swim towards the beach,
I noticed how the water was getting more disturbed and visibility was dropping.
When my head broke the surface, I realised what had caused the visibility was
a sudden and vigorous tropical rainstorm. The noise was deafening compared with
the tranquility of the undersea silence of bubbles, and as the rain thundered
down on the sea and the palm trees, I staggered to my feet - suddenly weighed
down by all the equipment that had been weightless just a few seconds earlier.
As I struggled to take off my flippers and clamber up the shifting black sands,
I noticed the two Swedish girls running out of the sea for cover. The girls
were running to get out of the sea to shelter from the rain.
I, on the other hand, decided to stand in the rain, as it saved me having to
rinse off the salt water from my kit before we put out equipment away.
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At work today, I joined the group of people who walk
around the lake at lunchtime. It's a bit more than around the lake, it's
more like 3km around the Technology
Park and the houses. Mawson Lakes used to be just wasteland, but now it
is a new housing development, so there is still lots of building going on. People
buy a plot of land and then choose a house developer, and choose a house plan
from them. Unfortunately, the land is expensive and highly sought after and
so what normally happens is that people buy a small plot and then build a big
house on it, resulting in every house being just feet away from each other.
It looks crammed and busy, but it still seems to be a popular development.
Today Brendan came over to be entertained by Thomas, as his sisters are out and his mother is at work. Brendan spent the day with Ann, Thomas and Eleanor, helping entertain Thomas and doing some work around the house.
There was a little bit of an issue this morning with keys.
I had taken my mother to see my dentist, and then left her there so that I could
go to work. Ann was due to collect her from the Tea Tree Plaza shopping centre
(which is next to the dentist), but at the allotted time, Ann realised that
she had left her keys on the table - after she had closed the door.
Ann is normally very good with her keys, and frequently ends up with my keys
in her bag too, but for some reason she had managed to lock herself out. Fortunately,
over New Year we had given a spare house key to Shirley, so that she could water
our plants, and so a quick call to Liam and 10 minutes later Ann was let loose
into the house. Ann then had to get over to Tea Tree Plaza to meet my mother.
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Eleanor went out to the movies today with Shirley. They went to see the Phantom of The Opera. Both of them enjoyed it but said that it was not as good as the stage versions that they had seen in London and Melbourne, respectively.
Ann and Thomas went back to daycare for a few hours today,
and Thomas played by himself and with the other children for a bit - soon he
will feel comfortable enough to be left there by himself. All the children were
outside playing, and when it came time that everyone had to come back inside,
Thomas got very upset and decided that he wanted to carry on playing outside.
There was one girl that they referred to as "the dummy thief", who
would grab the dummy out of other children's mouth, and then throw it somewhere.
Unfortunately there was a little boy who had been left in the daycare for his
first day, and he had been crying for most of the day, and the girl came up
to him and stole his dummy and then threw it through the fence to the outside
- so one of the adults had to quickly go and rescue it, to calm the now frantic
little boy.
There was a bit of amusement today as Brendan found difficulty in opening the child-proof lock on the fridge. The idea was that Thomas would not be able to play with the door and leave it open, but it turns out that it is preventing teenagers from being able to get a can of coke!
We had another barbie tonight, this time we had steaks and
mushrooms. Ann made a salad, and I got the defrosted steaks on the barbeque.
For some reason, one of the steaks was slightly different to the others - darker
and larger. I ended up having the odd-one-out steak, and it didn't taste too
good. I filled up on salad instead.
I have been having lunch at the Mawson Lakes Chinese/Thai restaurant called
Indochina. They do a lunch special for $6.90, which is a large tub of noodles
or rice and a soft drink. I have been having the rice quite often - and today
I went to Woolworths supermarket (almost next door) and got a bottle of soy
sauce to have with my rice. It's great to work where there is sun, open space,
no crowds, a full supermarket and a chinese restaurant doing special deals.
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Today I didn't car-pool with Anne. She needed to have her
car today, so we both drove in seperately. I had a good day at work, and made
some good in-roads into more diverse and interesting arenas which are slightly
outside my current job-role.
For anyone interested in statistics, before I started at UniSA,
the largest organisation that I worked for back in England had 3700+ staff.
The computer AD (Directory of users) had only 1340 users in it, 57 security
groups and 3 Organisational Units (OUs). Now at UniSA, my responsibility is
to look after an AD of 72,000 users and 77,000 groups, with over 1300 OUs. For
any of you Windows 2003 administrator type people, the Security log on each
DC is over 620Mb per day of logons etc. - in the LAS, it was 2Mb...
Plus, this is the AD size whilst midway through the migration of 18 NT4 domains
into one domain - so the AD is going to get even bigger!
That's VERY big. And it's all up to me to keep it working.
Eleanor went in to the city with Brendan on the bus, and Ann went in to the doctors to have a quick weigh and measure of Thomas. Thomas has put on 100g since October, and grown 4cm - he is taller than 99.99% of children his age, but an average weight.
At lunchtime I went for another walk, and this time I took
my
camera. The walking group is changing
each day, and it's a good way to be a bit sociable and get some excercise at
the same time. I had another chinese on the way home. Well - I had worked off
some calories...
We went out for dinner tonight, again to the Tea Tree Gully hotel, and we had another fine meal. We were almost the first people there, and the buffet table had none of the usual hot vegetables until our dinner arrived.
Eleanor went to a camera shop today
that sells telescope equipment, and bought me a new lens for my telescope. I
originally had two lenses, each with different magnification. When Eleanor carried
the telescope through customs before Christmas, she had unknowingly left the
larger magnification lens back at home somwhere, so I have been only able to
see feint dots in the sky.
Eleanor bought a new lens, but unfortunately she bought the highest quality
and best lens that I have ever seen - it's probably worth more than my whole
telescope. The problem is that it's such high quality that my telescope can't
take it - the focal point is just a bit too far for the focus tube to reach
it. So it's been tantalising, but I am going to have to take it back and swap
it.
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We all slept very heavily last night. It makes a change from Thursday night, when the thunder and lightning was so loud and bright that none of us slept well - except Thomas. Ann and I were woken by thunder above the house about 4 times, and we went to check on Thomas each time, and he was still solidly asleep each time.
Today was a very pleasant 24°C, with bright skies and fresh winds. It was an average day for Australia, but in England it would have been one of very few 20 or so perfect days that you get in a year. The rain of the past few days has completely evaporated, and green has returned to the grass. One of the best things when the rain started to come down on Wednesday afternoon was the smell of summer rain, as the fat rain drops fell onto the warm soil and hot roads - it's a smell that has no equal, and gives such an indescribable feeling.
Today at work I moved back to the room that I am meant to be in. Just after I started work in December, the other people who work in my office all went on holiday at the same time, which would have meant that I would have spent my first three weeks in a room by myself, so I was moved to a spare desk in another office with the other 2/3rds of the team. Now that everyone is back from holidays, I have moved back to my original desk. As I have done this, one of the people who I have been sitting with for the last couple of weeks is considering moving in to the same room as me.
Ann took Thomas in to daycare again today, this time to let Thomas have lunch with the rest of the children, as it was such a problem last time. Thomas did really well, even managing to feed himself a few mouthfuls. The arrangement for lunch at the daycare is that all the toys get put away, then the low tables and small chairs come out, and the children all sit up at the table, and then bang on the table until their food arrives. The children are all fed, and some are able to feed themselves - but Ann remarked that there was so much mess and food flying around that she would not be able to cope. One baby thought that it would be easier to feed himself if he simply put his whole face into his bowl of food, and so he ended up with a face decorated with chicken and rice. When they were sponging them all down, one of the childcare workers remarked to Ann that she had never seen rice get into so many places.
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