Sunday 26th September 2004The weather today has been warm and windy. The temperature was 27° and sunny, the wind was so warm that it was cooler to be inside.
Today is Liam and Shirley's 45th Wedding Anniversary, so we all got together
for a 
barbie. It's Australia, so we
jump at any excuse for getting everyone around to drink local wines, eat local
meat and play in the sun.
Somehow I got roped into doing the cooking, but it does not really matter as
I enjoyed it, and I managed to get some meat whilst it was still hot and not
scoffed by the rest of the family. We were lucky to have Paul's family come
around, and they even brought presents for the parties and celebrations that
they have missed for the last 6 months. So Thomas got a great toy, Victoria
got a present, and even Brendan got chocolates. See the
photos
for more on this day.
The barbeque was great, Ann and I took our usual green beans in garlic, Linda brought her noodle salad, and Shirley did a fantastic coleslaw as usual. We had lamb steaks, chicken kebabs, porterhouse steaks and beef sausages, all Australian, all great food. Paul seemed relaxed, and Julie kept all the children entertained. There was a bit of a discussion over barbecues, as Liam's barbie gets a lot of use, but is not quite large enough to cook for over 9 people every time there is a barbie. Now that Ann and I are in Adelaide, and Linda's children eat as much as an adult, and we have seen more of Paul's family recently than in the last 6 months, it will probably end up that Liam will get a big shiny 5 burner gas barbeque. He has offered Ann and me his old one, but I don't want to take it, because that means that I don't have an excuse to get a nice big new one. Got to get a job first though.
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Nothing happened - I did some grocery shopping, called a few agencies and spent
some time on the Internet. I added some more
links to
the website (just
technical stuff), and we stayed
in because it is raining. Ann did some hoovering and life carried on.
The most exciting thing that happened today is that Thomas made his first movements at crawling. Ann got very excited, but I think it is far less interesting than the walking that he is doing. Thomas can walk quite a few steps, provided that I take the weight off his feet and dangle him by his arms. As long as Thomas gets the leg movements right, pretty soon he will start being able to walk by himself.
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Today is Thomas'
swimming
day. We decided that I would go in with him again, so that he would feel more
comfortable. It had been raining all morning, and the swimming pool was warm
and humid. Luckily I was carrying Thomas, because as soon as Ann walked in to
the pool area, here glasses fogged up! I stripped off Thomas at the side of
the pool, waited for the previous lesson to finish, and then we slipped into
the warm water to await our lesson. Thomas enjoyed everything except the game
where I hold him facing forward and he kicks his legs and we walk around the
pool - with a ball as an incentive. The intention is that I show him the ball,
toss it into the water just in front of him, and then "swim" him towards
the ball - the only problem is that Thomas did not want to let go of the ball,
and got upset when I took it off him. Thomas was OK with going underwater, but
Ann said that she saw him take on a bit of water - he will have to learn to
close his mouth.
There was one game we played where Thomas was chest-down on a float. Thomas
held on tight (like he has learnt to with his
trike),
but I noticed that there were a few teeth marks in the float - then when the
game was over and all the floats were collected, I noticed that almost all of
them had little bites out of the end - must be nervous children!
When we got home, I got some bad news. I found out that I
had been turned down for the SA Ambulance
job.
I still don't know why, but I will have to get on with other applications.
Thomas went down for a long sleep, and Ann then decided that she was going to revise her CV for some part-time work. It's not really for the money, but more for Ann's sanity and getting out of the house to meet other people. Ann has sent the CV off to a couple of companies and an Agency. We will have to wait and see. Money is OK at the moment, but it's still worrying not knowing what is going to happen. Both of us are going stir-crazy being in the house all day and not being able to go out - because everything costs money.
I took delivery of a part that I had bought on eBay today. It is a Pentium 4, which sells for $380 at the moment, but I bought a second-hand one for $50 a few weeks ago. It arrived today and it doesn't work. And when I went on ebay to complain to the seller, it turns out that they have disappeared and cancelled their account (or had their account terminated). Not the best day for this to happen.
Ann and I decided to get out of the house, and we went to a local garden centre,
to look at plants for the
patio
area that has the new roof. We looked at a few ficus and fruit trees - some
lemons and oranges and cumquat. I thought that some tomatoes would look good
growing up the
trellis,
but again, it costs money.
We also looked in on the
home-brew shop,
and the guy there was very helpful, remembering my question when I went in a
few weeks ago. I asked what other beer mixes that they have, and saw some other
blends and flavours. I liked the look of the Mexican beer, as it is very light.
5 gallons costs $15, plus another $10 for the extras like sugar and new tops
for the bottles that I have. $25 for 30 pints is not bad economy, it's also
fun to do.
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The rain had let up a bit today, so Ann managed to dry some washing.
Thomas has learnt a new word today - "telly". This means that [when he is in the mood] he will point to the "clock", a "light", his "foot" and "mummy" when he is asked "where is...". He hasn't mastered the understanding of the word "daddy" yet - more's the pity.
We went to have a look at a baby care centre today, so that Ann can put Thomas
with them for one day a week whilst she works. We looked at a place yesterday,
close to Liam and Shirley's house, and it looked good but messy - and we were
a little worried by security. The door to the Manor Farm child care had a big
sign saying "please walk in", and when we walked through the unlocked
door, we were immediately in a children's area. We were a little put off, but
then again we noticed that there were no children crying or unattended, and
there was lots of fun being had by all.
The Golden Grove childcare centre has a 6 month waiting list, and we had to
make an appointment to visit (unlike Manor Farm, which only had a 1 month waiting
list and told us to "just turn up" for a visit). When we got there,
a receptionist had to let us in through the main door, and the first thing that
I noticed was how clean it looked. Of course there was children's artwork and
toys everywhere, but it looked cared for. There were lots of rooms in the centre
which all had different functions. There were places for children of different
ages to sleep, play and eat, and there were sluice rooms and a baby changing
room. Manor Farm only had three rooms, so the babies ate, slept, played and
were changed in the same room. Were were impressed by the friendly staff at
the Golden Grove centre, but it is a pity that it is such a long waiting list.
We were lucky enough to be visited by Cathy and Julia this afternoon. They
had arranged to come over, and have a bit of a chat with Ann. I made expresso,
and then carried on making a chicken soup of of the roast chicken that we had
at the weekend. Julia is now 12, but looks 17, and she kept Thomas entertained.
After a little while, we all went up to the playground so that Thomas could
have a go on the swing. Cathy and Julia were very impressed to see how much
Thomas loves the swing. Whilst we were playing, Linda and Brendan appeared.
They had noticed all our cars were there and worked out that we were at the
playground. Brendan is 12 now, and had a discussion with Julia as to why she
is in Year 8 and he is still in Year 6. All of us returned to the house to have
coffee and a chat. A heated debate developed over the decision whether children
of Brendan and Julia's age should have mobile phones, and whether they should
be allowed to walk to school and go out alone. Linda lets Brendan cycle to school
and go out, whereas Cathy won't let Julia out alone yet.
No more jobs are on the horizon at the moment. This week 5 jobs that had been very interesting have all turned me down or said that the job is on hold. There is always the option of going to Sydney or back to London, but there is no guarantee that I will get a job there either. We will stay for a bit longer.
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Thomas had another physio session today. Ann thinks this should be the last, because he is starting to walk and crawl already, but they suggest that Thomas should come back until he is walking - I guess there is no harm in it, as it's free and there is a long waiting list to get back in. Whilst there, Ann had Thomas weighed, and he is developing fine (11.6Kg), but the nurse said that Thomas is overdue for his MMR injection. There has been no issue with MMR in Australia at all, and now all the MMR concerns in England have been dropped, we are feeling a bit more comfortable about it. The one thing that I am not comfortable with is that it was recommended that Thomas have the MMR and meningiococcal (meningitis C) immunisation in the same day. I think that having 4 diseases at once is a bit much. We will have to take professional advice next Friday when we are there.
Nothing new for jobs today. It's difficult when there is nothing on the horizon and it feels like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I can't think of any more clichés so I will drop it now.
I was chatting to Ann today about why I need to keep my skills fresh, and why
I spend time on the Internet looking up how to do things that I don't actually
need to do. IT is relatively easy to do, anyone can learn how to do something
after a while, but the skills that are marketable (and useful) is for people
who can fix things when they go wrong - someone who knows what to do in a crisis.
That is a skill that only comes from experience, and from remembering what the
cause of the problem was. People in my field are able to look at a system or
an issue, and see patterns and notice things wrong - much in the same way as
an accountant can look at a complex sheet of numbers and notice problems or
mistakes.
I was reminded of this when I looked up into the night sky. In England, I could
look up and recognise constellations and individual stars, and the sky looked
familiar. Now, in Australia, the
night sky is
totally different, and I even find it hard to notice which stars are in constellations
- they just look like dots to me. It must be the same when other people look
at computers - just strange letters and words that don't seem to have any pattern
or 'reason'.
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A start of another month. Another month of possibilities - one phone call or posting on a web page could change our lives forever. What could the future hold for us? We really don't know.
23°C, sunny and warm today. A "perfect" day with blue skies and clean air.
Luckily Ann reminded me to take out the bins last night, as
the rubbish
truck came round very early today. I am getting confused about recycling
in our area. In Liam and Shirley's house, they have three wheelie bins - one
for garden waste, one for mixed recycling, and a much smaller one for rubbish.
In our area (City of Tea Tree Gully, instead of City of Salisbury), we have
two bins, one large for garden waste, and a bin with a divider - 2/3rds for
rubbish and the remaining third for recycling. Ann and I have been very careful
to separate our rubbish, and we have two bins in the kitchen to allow us to
put cans, bottles etc. in the recycling.
This morning, I thought about the way that the
rubbish
is collected (remember my reference to a "hoon
downing
a stubbie", where the arm grabs the bin and tips it up into an opening
behind the passenger door...) well, I can't think of how they separate the recycling
from the rubbish, if it's all tipped into the same truck. Why are we putting
effort into separating our waste if it is all just going away to be buried somewhere?
Outside our driveway is a small patch of ground between us and the neighbours. In the last few weeks, the grass has grown to around 5ft tall, and it is looking very messy. I managed to borrow Linda's strimmer from Liam, so that I could cut down the grass. In Australia it's called a "whipper snipper" and our American neighbours called it a "weed whacker". After a bit of fiddling and fixing the cutting line, I started on my 2 hour effort to cut down 5 square metres of grass. To my shock, I found that under all the weed roots and ant's nests was a layer of white marble chippings, that had at one stage been put down as a mulch to suppress weed growth. I managed to squeeze all the cuttings into the garden waste wheelie bin, and then started to spray weed killer over the area. I hope that the area will look much neater now. At least it got me out of the house for a couple of hours.
Ann and I are disappointed that no new entries have been made on the messageboard
recently. As the
statistics show that nearly
20,000 hits came to this site last month, and that it was visited over 320 times,
surely there must be people who want to say something?
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