Saturday 23rd October 2004Word of the day for Thomas is 'ear'. Ann taught him where his ear is, so now he points to it when asked where it is.
We took Linda to the airport today. The rest of her family has driven to Melbourne to go to a 'sports carnival' put on by the tax office (who Ashley works for), and Linda could not go in the car as she had to work. So - this morning Linda went by plane, will be there for a week, and then come back by plane. After we dropped her off, we went to Henley Beach and had a pizza for lunch, then saw her Virgin Blue plane fly overhead. Then we dropped in on Francie - one of Ann's friends - for a coffee and a chat.
Thomas has been really good with his food today - eating everything and still acting like he wants more. Ann and I have also had big appetites today, I wonder what has got into us - maybe it is something in the water.
We got some good news from England today. One of Ann's old work colleagues has had her baby (only one day late). We are really pleased for Laura and Lorenzo, and hope that they have fun coping with their new baby. What an impact it is going to have on their lives! They haven't got a clue how much it is going to change them - they think that having the baby won't change them much... They are both great people and I am sure they will cope very well, but they won't realise how much work it is.
There are more Christmas decorations going up. We saw an advert
at a car wash that encouraged people to get their gift vouchers early to beat
the Christmas rush. Mmmm - Christmas in October! It's going to be hard enough
for me to cope with Christmas and New Year in the heat, let alone three months
of it!
Actually, thinking back, most of my Christmases have been hot - Barbados, Kenya,
Hawaii, Florida, Bali, the Maldives, Thailand, and all those holidays in the
Mediterranean with my parents when I was a child. I think that I have had more
hot Christmas days than cold ones.
Still - plastic holly and ivy with plastic snow, jolly red Santas and inflatable
snowmen really feels strange here. Why is every shopping centre covering itself
in Christmas decorations - does it make people want to buy more or something?
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Today it was 22°C, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. How is it where you are? Ah - what a pity.
Thomas' word of the day is 'mouth'. He can point at his mouth when we ask him where it is. Unfortunately he seems to have forgotten the word 'foot'. Maybe his brain is full.
We decided to drop down to Rundle Mall in the city, just to have a nose around. We went into most of the shops, looking at things that we didn't want to buy, or should not buy until I get a job.
There has been a lot on the news
recently about a company called James
Hardie. They are a manufacturer of building products in Australia, and it
turns out that most of their 3000 products contained asbestos. Since the link
between asbestos and cancer was made, James Hardie changed their products to
stop using asbestos. But now, there are millions of people in Australia who
have been contaminated with asbestos dust, and now it is 30 years later, they
are claiming compensation for their failing health and cancer. So, what the
company did was quite devious - they moved their entire operation and legal
holdings off-shore, and put a small trust fund as the owner of the James
Hardie company. This means that their is a limited pool of money available
for the people who have been affected by asbestosis,
and the directors and holdings of the "new" company is untouchable.
So instead of victims being able to claim, and having their compensation and
medical bills paid out of ongoing profits from the company, there is a mad rush
for everyone to make claims to get a bit of the money that has been put into
the trust.
It's been causing quite a stink here in Australia, as 52% of homes over 20 years
old have products from James Hardie.
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I had an interview for one of my agency jobs today. It went
extremely well, and it was a change to have a recruitment consultant who didn't
ask me questions that were answered by my CV, and she did very well. I think
that I can get the job, and it's looking very seductive, but it will have to
come as a lower priority over the full-time jobs.
Unfortunately I got a call today about the 'second' contract position. It turns
out that one of the agencies had given me the wrong company name, so both of
the contracts are the same job. It is good that two agencies thought that I
would be ideal for this job, but bad that my opportunities are decreasing. So
now I have one contract that might go permanent and two permanent positions.
All three are career jobs that I really want. Fingers crossed.
Another beautiful and fine day today. Again, we had to keep
the windows closed and the blinds drawn so that we could keep the heat out.
Thomas is starting to look like he needs a bath more often - instead of just
twice a week, every other day. We tried something new today, by taking away
the plastic seat that he normally sits in. He will normally lie back in the
seat, splash and kick his legs so that the water hits the ceiling, bet today
we sat him on a non-slip mat. He could not kick and splash as much, but he is
able to sit up by himself. He loved being in more control, being able to catch
his plastic ducks as they bobbed around in the foamy water. He was more upset
than usual to be taken out of the water tonight, maybe because he was having
so much fun.
It upsets me, but I have had to put a 
disclaimer
on the site. There are other bloggers who are talking about people complaining
about what they are saying - so I have written a little bit to protect me. It
also applies to the messageboard, so that I can delete any messages that I see
as offensive or inappropriate.
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I had my second interview at one of the permanent positions today. I was interviewed by just one person, and there were a few things in the interview that made me a little worried. He implied that he thought that the job would not offer enough challenge and activity, and that I might get bored. This is Adelaide! There is pretty much nothing in Adelaide that makes it as challenging and busy as London was - that's why I am here... We will have to see if he was just testing my boundaries, or if he really thinks that I will get bored.
Last night when I did my usual check on Thomas before I went to bed, he had dropped his dummy out of the bed. So, when I turned him around and tucked him in, I put the dummy next to his ear. I must have disturbed him, as he stirred. His arm moved and hit the dummy, and he felt it in his hand, so brought it up to his mouth - all whilst he was still asleep. It must be so automatic for him that he can do it in his sleep.
A while ago, some friends of ours sent a "logo
quiz", in
which you had to identify logos. Ann and I scored 97 out of 120, and it was
infuriating to try and discover the other 23 logos. Then I stumbled upon a website
where the quiz was being discussed
- and people were saying that some of the company names were mis-spelled (for
example, you needed to type MacDonalds to get it right). When I looked at the
answers, it infuriated me (not just because I had spoilt it).
So, I have decided to do one of my own, this time with correct spelling and
some logos a bit more infuriatingly obvious, but difficult to guess. Watch this
space...
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Thomas is learning more noises. This afternoon Liam and Shirley
(my wife's parents) dropped in to deliver some post that had gone to their house
from the UK. When I got Thomas' trike out for him to play on, I asked him what
noise it makes. He immediately replied with "brum, brum", and then
held up his arms so that he could be lifted on to it. He then showed everyone
how well he could go around the room on his bike.
I then dismantled the trike and made it into a walker (it's meant to do that!).
Thomas, with sweaty palms, held on tight to the hand rail, and gingerly took
a few steps - just enough to prove that he could do it, but not enough to get
very far.
We took Thomas to swimming this morning. He loved it as always, but he still is opening his mouth whilst he is underwater. Next time, it will be Ann's turn to go in the pool with him - then she will have to learn the movements and the nursery rhymes that all the babies and mothers do.
I have another interview tomorrow - this time for the contract job. It will be good to see their environment, which is far more along the lines of what I have been in charge of before - a SQL cluster and an Exchange cluster, in a high demand environment. It is a more technical job with no staff management involved, no budgeting or appraisals and an emphasis on documentation and planning. I will let you all know how it goes.
I got my first weird posting on the messageboard. Whoever it was masked their location, and said something very cryptic. The way that they said it implied that they were going to be trouble, so I blocked them from accessing the messageboard and deleted their message. So then they changed their IP address to get around my block and posted another message, again showing that they were going to be a problem. So, I had to take down the messageboard, modify some files and change the configuration so that people have to register before they can post a message, in that way if someone starts stirring, then I can block them that way. What a pity that the benefits of the Internet also allow some people to play silly buggers.
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An interview today for the Paliamentary Network Support Group.
They support Parliament in an office opposite, with hundreds of remote users
and some interestingly complex configuration and security concerns. It is a
technical role instead of a management role, and it's a contract until Christmas.
I think the interview went OK, although they did point out that the previous
position holder is on sick leave from work-related stress and may return.
The office is very cramped, but they all seemed happy when I was there. The
manager was very keen to point out that the role would be stressful, and was
at a high demand, and that there may be some out of hours instant response involved.
I explained to him that I knew no other work environment. When I looked at their
netwrok diagrams on the wall, and their monitoring system that was being projected
onto another wall, I could see that they way that they work is very similar
to what I would do, based on my recent experiences - they seem clued up and
quite professional.
Ann and Thomas went to the physio group today, teaching Thomas
how to walk. There are some babies in the group who are older than Thomas and
not crawling or able to sit themselves up. Thomas has done well, developing
more strength and abilities since the last visit. There is a new "teacher"
leading the class this time, and Ann was a little disappointed in the change,
as the snacks provided for the babies is not as good as the last "teacher"
provided...
Thomas has a new student working with him, a Scandinavian girl who Ann said
was very nice. Thomas seemed to like her too, but then again Thomas always likes
pretty women - he is always flirting.
At the top of the hill, between us and the Village, is a large open field that slopes up to the crest of the hill, where there are around 24 netball courts and a concrete skate park. Recently, a tractor came along and mowed the large grassy area, and then a few days later, a big-top appeared. The circus tent has three pointy tops, each with a red cap on top of the white curvy roof. When we drive up the hill, the points are all that we can see, and they look like a fairytale has appeared in the field. The circus is mostly acrobats and horses, and I don't know if Thomas would appreciate it at his age.
I tasted my latest batch of home-brew this week. It is really, really good. The beer is light and crisp, with a refreshing flavour that makes it ideal for the summer. So now I have found the right pre-mix blend, I can keep on brewing 30 pints every three weeks. The little pint bottles are starting to disappear much quicker this time, maybe it's because they are low in alcohol so I can drink more, or maybe it's because the yeast has settled out and I don't have to leave a little bit of sludge in the bottom. Ann liked it and Liam sampled some and said it was good. I think I might purchase another 30 bottles so that I can keep brewing as quickly as I drink it. It takes 2 weeks to make, and I can't start until I finish the old batch, which was a bit annoying last time.
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I have been working on this
logotest
for a week now - it's become an obsession. I spend late hours looking for logos,
sleep thinking about logos to find, and even when I am driving I am looking
around for logos to use in the quiz. My wife is getting a little worried that
she is only seeing the back of my head as I sit in front of the computer for
hours on end.
But, now, it is finally finished, and it is even secured and passworded so that
people can't "cheat". I put in code that means it will mark the logo
as "correct" when there are two possible answers. One example is the
World Wildlife Fund - the logo will be right if someone types in WWF or World
Wildlife Fund. I even had a logo that had different names in different countries,
and now it will mark it correctly. I just hope that people get as much enjoyment
out of doing it as I have had out of making it.
Today we went to a garden show in Adelaide, the "Festival of Garden Living". It seemed strange to have a big garden show at the edge of the city, but there was plenty to see. There were lots of watering systems and an emphasis on drought tolerant plants and storing rainwater, but there were also some exotic plants and lots of sculptures and garden tools. Even though Ann and I don't have a lawn, and out garden is already established (and we can't really do anything to it as it is a rented house), we still enjoyed the show. Of course, there were plenty of barbeques and places selling garden furniture and even a place that was building outdoor kitchens. Lots of ideas for the future, but we will probably forget them all before we get our own garden.
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