| Forgive me friends for I have blogged |
[Mar. 29th, 2007|04:55 pm] |
It has been 6 months since my last digression :(
We have a new baby on the way, Janey framed one of the ultrasound pictures and put it on the wall. The baby is due in July. We're going to move Toby into his own room in the next month or two so he's got time to get used to it rather than being rudely displaced when the baby comes.
I started riding to the station a couple of weeks ago to get a bit of exercise and also save some money on transport (I ride into Zone 1). The most direct route feels very unsafe so I found a longer one that is mostly paths and service lanes. Last week I got a puncture, though, and when I took it to the bike shop they pointed out all my broken spokes and rust and anyway I bought a new one, plus some lights and a rain jacket. I will feel spending guilt for the next few weeks.
I'm coming off the project I've been doing so I've found myself with some free time, which I've spent studying for a Microsoft certification. This week I decided to be all teenagery so I joined facebook and did this thing, which I will hide behind a cut because it is lame.
Now I will make big lists of all the music and movies I like so that people will know how awesome I am and I will get internet friends by the bucketload. Bill Gates will notice me and send me money for making computers cooler. |
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| HELO JOURNAL FRENDS |
[Sep. 19th, 2006|10:53 am] |
I got a 10% payrise from "not nearly enough" to "not quite enough", so now I have to figure out what to do next. Our tax returns came in just in time for the water bill, car insurance, etc. I also got the second part of "family tax benefit" which I put straight on the mortgage (we can redraw as required: this is great). We should be fine for the next couple of months but I want to put a budget together and make sure it's workable for the long term. The project I was working on is winding up (though I still keep getting work to do) and it looked like I'd be moving on to a "support team" but now there's another possible project for which I need to provide an updated CV and meet the clients on Friday.
In any case, I'm taking next week off to do stuff around the house. I made an off-the-top-of-my-head list of things that need doing and it has 26 things on it.
Janey is doing her flute exam next month, on the day before Toby's birthday. She's just about entirely convinced that she won't pass, but that's not for lack of effort since she's been practising constantly since the last exam. My role is just to try and reduce her stress in the meantime.
Toby can clap and wave and is learning to stand by himself. He is an unending source of entertainment. |
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| SUMPTUOUS HELLOES |
[Jul. 5th, 2006|10:36 am] |
Janey's cat died. :(
He officially belongs to us (Janey saved him from being drowned as a kitten when she was living in the country), but he was living with Janey's grandfather down in Geelong until such time as Pop could no longer look after him. But he got mauled by a dog. Apparently the dog also attacked a person so the cat is going to be used as evidence. O_O
VALE BULLBAR
Of course my aunt also died, which is a far more significant event, but we knew that was coming. She had cancer everywhere and lasted a lot longer and in more comfort than was expected. Anyway mum's pretty sad right now and Dad's just headed off to a conference in Wales, so we're trying to make sure she gets to see Toby reasonably often as he is good therapy.
Janey's mum is going to use Pop's money to buy him a digital TV and video recorder. I'm not exactly sure why, as I'm sure Pop has no particular desire for either of these things. I suspect she just likes buying things. We've been offered his old TV which is itself only a couple of years old and perfectly good. I think it may even have been a previous mum purchase. It's probably better than ours for watching movies so if we can find a taker for our current TV we might go for the upgrade. If not, I'm happy to keep ours: there's no way we need TWO of them. I'm guessing Janey's brother might want Pop's for when he moves out and if so he's welcome.
I've found you can manufacture a sense of achievement in your leisure time by making lists of entertainment and ticking things off as you consume them. Computer games track progress internally so you don't need to make a list for those, but I've got lists of books, music, movies and TV shows. Hooray, my life is Progress Quest! I also have a list of actual things I have to DO, but it's been sadly neglected lately. This is partly because we don't have any actual money, but I talked to the guy I think is my manager at the moment about a raise and he agreed that this would be A Good Thing. Now I have to judge what's the appropriate intervals to wait before a) continually reminding him (also how to do this without wheedling) and b) giving up and finding another job.
I've started going to a Blockbuster near work to get the occasional weekly rental as they have a much better selection than our local stores. This means I can go back to gradually whittling away at the aforementioned movie list. We've seen A Very Long Engagement, Waking Life and Nausicaa so far. We also figure we're due for a "real" movie and so I think I'll have to choose between Superman Returns and Pirates 2. Janey's been to see The Break-up twice with different mother's groups but it's not something she'd choose to see otherwise.
Toby greets me with wide eyes when I get home in the evenings and comes crawling over at top speed. Last night he added unearthly hooting to the procedure. I have never known someone to be so impressed with the act of walking through a door. I hope it will not be too much of a shock to him when he realises we are not perfect heavenly beings. |
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[Mar. 7th, 2006|09:45 am] |
( WEIGHTY MATTERS, featuring: This AIM log. )
I stopped working offsite and got back to our main office to find out 6 or 7 people left. Hmm. The main reason is we've merged with another company with a substantially different approach to things and we're moving out to their premises, further away from the city. None of it is particularly drastic as far as I'm concerned. We had a meeting today so our new managers could explain that they're not so bad really, but it came a bit late. Oh well.
I've got a high-school reunion coming up in April. I guess I'll blog about it afterwards! Look out for that one, oh boy.
I jogged for two weeks and put on two kilos. I'll stop for a week and see what happens.
Toby keeps growing. He gets pretty heavy to carry around. He's also getting too clever by half. He woke up twice last night, but noticing how he kind of giggled when I went to get him the first time, we let him scream for a bit the second time, and he gave up and went back to sleep! Anyway, he's ridiculously appealing and is sure to take advantage of the fact as he gets older. |
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| Happy new thing |
[Jan. 17th, 2006|11:04 am] |
I haven't got anything particular to talk about but I'm "unallocated" this week so I might as well chat to my friend, livejournal. OMG SO LONELY
Ok for Christmas I got:
3 CDs!
- Silly Songs with Larry (VeggieTales)
- So Jealous (Tegan and Sara)
- The Dissociatives (Self-titled)
The last one is interesting. I told Janey I would like the latest Decemberists album but then at some point I mentioned the Dissociatives for some reason (I've never even heard them) so that took its place in her memory. We can't return it so I hope it is good!
Long-sleeved shirt with iron-on transfers featuring Toby!
Nice new wallet
Mystery Science Theater DVD - 2 episodes. Manos: Hands of Fate and Santa Claus conquers the Martians. We watched the latter on Christmas Day, then when we finished we were channel surfing and they were showing it (the original) on SBS!
Box of ten Chocolatte sachets
Tiny Teddy biscuits, caramel flavour
Mr Punch, by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean
How to Survive the Coming Robot Invasion, by someone
Where's My Cow?, by Terry Pratchett
Batman and Robin, the original 1940s series on DVD. Why? I don't know!
I bought the first series of Millennium for Janey so we are watching that every now and then. I borrowed the first season of The Office from the library and watched that last week. I also borrowed Pratchett's Thud! and Gaiman's Anansi Boys from my parents. I've only just finished Anansi Boys yesterday.
OK that was all pretty boring! Toby is 3 months old now and is the right height and weight for a 6-month-old, yoop. He had a cold for a while which had him waking up more at night but he's back to one feed in the middle of the night. He turns over on his front and yells, though occasionally he falls asleep like that and it's very cute. He has big eyes and a bobbly head. I had a terrible dream last night about finding him in the garbage. He was okay though. :/ |
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| My ass is marvelously evocative |
[Dec. 22nd, 2005|02:49 pm] |
This entry was going to be called "Christmas Party", but I mistyped it. Maybe I won't be linking my parents to this journal any time soon. :(
We took Toby to the company Christmas party on Monday! He yelled and yelled. Probably it bugged some people! We took it in turns to eat, and one of my wokrmates who is herself a recent mother helped out, and by dessert he'd settled enough that we could put him in the pram to sleep. Then we both relaxed and chatted for a bit. I had a nice rack of lamb which, apart from being a little cold when I got to it (I had baby-holding shift when it arrived), was pretty nice. Slightly rare and very tender. Janey had salmon. True to the excesses of the Christmas season, I had a beer AND a glass of wine. Wow!
The party was held at the "Kelvin Club", which is designed to evoke London gentlemen's clubs of the Victorian era, I guess. It had mahogany panelling and bookcases and musty old armchairs in front of hearths and stuff. The entrance was in a dodgy-looking alley. The owner was almost exactly the kind of guy I'd expect to be managing such a place, too. It's hard to explain, but he was kind of a little guy, and not quite obsequious to his guests, but close to it. He had a room dedicated to the fly-fishing club of Victoria (I know because Janey used it for breastfeeding). A whole wall full of fly-fishing books, all at least thirty years old! I guessed that the guy probably had model trains and emotional problems. The second part was proved right when I was walking Toby back and forth downstairs and the guy came down without realising I was there, going "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" like he had Tourette's and muttering something about the fucking kitchen. Poor man.
We left about 9:30 and took the train home, but it took ages because I kept doing really dumb things while choosing what trains to take. I should probably start pretending I have Tourette's so I can go nuts when this happens. Luckily by this stage, Toby was so fast asleep he didn't care. |
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| BUNYIP'S PUSH BOTTLES UP GERMANS |
[Dec. 13th, 2005|03:50 pm] |
Bunyip's push ... for legitimacy. Those Germans are screwed!
So, uh. I was checking out the Weblog Awards site (vote achewood :() and they have an Australia or New Zealand section. There is a "Professor Bunyip"! And wouldn't you know it, he sucks. He(gender bias!) is one of a goodly proportion of the sites nominated that are right-wing news blogs who all link to each other and try to one-up each other's reactions. He's diluting the brand, man!
Anyway I'm gonna have to take my important online journal to the next level. It involves stepping up my game, coming in to bat for the team, getting going when the going gets hot, and maintaining a list of tough-sounding phrases. I'm going to win myself a weblog award!
Steps in this process:
1) Have my own domain. I'm done slumming it on livejournal. The name should be smugly superior if at all possible, though Australian web space is at a premium and a non sequitur might be a better bet. I'm pretty sure www.bunyipspushbottlesupgermans.com is available (update your bookmarks please).
2) Link to news articles daily!
3) Make some snide comments on the article.
4) Link to everyone else's comments on the article. Comment on them appropriately based on what team the blogger is on. Sometimes you have to go back a little bit in their archives to find out the team, but if you get it wrong people probably won't notice. For my first few updates I'll probably have to make up some quotes since I don't have my favourite friends/enemies bookmarked.
I'm not sure if I'm left or right wing yet, but right looks angrier so more fun. Here goes!
More than mere trifle
By Stephanie Alexander
Every family seems to have its own idea of the perfect trifle, but there's no need to be partisan over such a versatile dessert.
This is even more than usually blatant for the multiculturalists who oversee this mouthpiece of propaganda. We're hit with two typical unchallenged assumptions - that trifle is "versatile" and that "every family" is apparently singing its praises. I guess MY family didn't get invited to this particular club! Plus, the idea of a "perfect trifle" will be taken as an oxymoron by all thinking people, but I don't count "Stephanie" under that banner so I won't act surprised. You'll note the claim to bipartisanship, but don't worry! That won't last long!
When I expressed an interest in writing about trifles for a Christmas piece, the Epicure editor lent me the charming work, Trifle, co-authored by Helen Saberi and the late Alan Davidson, who was England's foremost food scholar and editor of the monumental Oxford Companion to Food, as well as author of many other witty and erudite works. My copy is now on order. I have been warned it will take several weeks to arrive but it is worth the wait.
Only academics get this excited about bloated inefficiency.
Davidson writes: "One of the great paradoxes of culinary terminology is that what many people see as Britain's supreme contribution to the dessert tables of the world, for children and adults alike, to wit the trifle, should bear a name which suggests that it is of no consequence. This, surely, is carrying much too far the British tradition of playing down the merits of things British."
Davidson writes: a load of bollocks! The merits of things British are played down for a reason.
Saberi's introduction is marvellously evocative.
So is my ass!
"Trifles offer a rare combination of sensual and intellectual pleasures. How many times have I dipped my spoon into one and experienced in succession the light frothy cream, the smooth velvety custard, the tangy fruit mingling with the bouquet of wine (or sherry or liqueur), and perhaps a touch of almondy crunchiness from ratafias and macaroons, and lastly the sweet, soft but crumbly texture of the sponge or sponge fingers ..."
Pure filth. The rest of the article is an uninterrupted hymn to the deity/dessert that apparently built this nation. Funny, I don't see it paying MY taxes. No matter how they dress it up, trifle is still trifle, and is not the sort of dessert we need in THIS country. I'll spare you the bulk of these diseased ramblings, except for a couple of highlights from the trifle diversity hit parade:
Custard with a tiny bit of cornflour, custard without it - even custard made with custard powder.
WOW
A topping of whipped cream or syllabub.
Syllabub, eh. Man, you've just got to love those academics.
I was going to do more here but I realised that it was too long (do I need to cut it?), it started feeling like work and I was starting to giggle, which is a fair indicator that it's not funny to anyone else. But next year's award is mine, babeh. |
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| OMG |
[Dec. 7th, 2005|11:47 am] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | None - see below | ] |
Five things I've forgotten!
1) I forgot to put the bins out on Tuesday. Now I have to wait another two weeks before I can empty the garden bin! Where will I put the grass clippings? Perhaps I will forget to mow for two weeks.
2) I forgot to get the doctor's referral letter out of the car this morning so I can fax it to the hospital and make an appointment for Janey.
3) I forgot to bring my superannuation file to work, so I can call my IRA fund in the US and figure out how to rollover into my Australian fund.
3a) I forget if "IRA" is the right term. I'm pretty sure it is not, and that I have triggered some FBI/CIA terrorism alert flags. While I'm at it, bomb the american oppressors :(
4) I forgot to change the music on my flash drive. I do not want to listen to Iggy Pop or Kasabian again.
5) .... I forgot what the fifth thing is. |
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| Psht why would I update |
[Oct. 28th, 2005|10:57 am] |
It's just a baby!
( All the baby info you never knew you wanted )
Random thoughts: I'm not sure if kids' behaviour has ACTUALLY dramatically deteriorated since I was young or if it's just a symptom of the old "Everything was better (yet also harder) in the old days" syndrome. It is true that walking around in shopping centres etc these days we tend to comment on the well-behaved kids rather than the ones throwing tantrums, because the former is rarer and more remarkable. I did hear that one third of Australian parents feel they have no control or something like that so maybe it is a measurable phenomenon. I honestly think the Supernanny may be a hero of the age, if only to promote the idea that parenting doesn't HAVE to be a pointless day-to-day struggle. Even some of our nicest friends have ratty kids so it's tempting to believe that our dreams of polite well-mannered children are fanciful. The other worry I have is that we'd be doing our kids a disservice by raising them to be courteous and thoughtful when they're clearly going to be surrounded by shitholes.
Work update! I have a reasonably interesting project to work on, with shiny new technology that I'm actually looking forward to. Unfortunately I can't work on it until a) I get a better pc (this P3 won't cut it) and b) we've agreed with the client exactly what we're doing. So I'm back to "training" (eg updating livejournal). I should be watching Microsoft tech webcasts, but I am certain I would fall asleep due to last night. I'll only be at work two days next week due to Melbourne cup day (tuesday), taking monday off because pretty much everyone has so there's no use being here, then taking the next Monday & Friday off to go to my aunt's party in Mount Gambier. I am wondering if the state of Victoria is the only place in the world that has a public holiday for a horse race. Gobo and I thought that Kentucky, Tokyo and wherever they have the Grand National might be other possibilities. It's left as an exercise for the reader. |
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| It's over!! |
[Oct. 6th, 2005|08:59 am] |
My boss went to a meeting Tuesday afternoon to offer our clients one of four options: 1) Stop entirely, deliver nothing 2) Stop, but handover everything we've done 3) Continue with original scope 4) Continue with all the new stuff as well. We had a midwife appointment on Tuesday afternoon so I left work early. When I got in yesterday (Wednesday) morning, I had email from my boss informing us that our client had decided to go with one of the first two options so all us developers could basically go back to head office. Guess where I am now!
Anyway I'm now on the "bench", and I'm told this means that I come to work and surf the web until I'm needed on another project. I'm given to understand you generally don't have to wait long, but who knows? In the meantime I can update my livejournal, play web sudoku, maybe work on some two bit reviews (!!!) and (okay, there's an actual priority here) update my company profile. It's basically a CV, but you don't have to put references on it. "Don't be backward in saying how good you are...." apparently. Are they asking me to *gasp* EMBROIDER the TRUTH? I'm having trouble being enthusiastic about it.
Bunyip: "Bunyip is supporting a baby soon. If you give him money he will look awful busy."
Thorn: if any inspectors come to look at him they will be pleased!
Bunyip: ok i will take negative personality traits and make them sound like good things
Bunyip: bullshit artist: "creative"
Bunyip: lazy: "pragmatic"
Thorn: ok uh uh
Thorn: fat
Bunyip: woah
Bunyip: uh
Bunyip: generous?
Thorn: failure!
Bunyip: realist!
Thorn: idiot.
Bunyip: haha, "sincere"
Thorn: man! you're hired! |
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| Gratuitortoise |
[Sep. 29th, 2005|04:11 pm] |
Some dudes from Janey's school's affiliated church's alcohol and drug rehabilitation program's work project (deep breath) came and blitzed our garden for us. The dudes also took all the junk from the carport to the tip, including all the cardboard boxes I was patiently dismantling and stuffing in the recycle bin every two weeks. I saved some boxes so I'd still have a project and feel useful. :( Anyway we can put our car in the carport now, wow!
I'm still cleaning the pool when I can but it's made a little more difficult due to ducks apparently taking up residence. The water is pretty clear but the floor has all like gunk and when you run the vacuum the filter doesn't necessarily filter too great so the floor gets clean but the water goes murky. Then you wait a few days and do it again. I'm assuming the overall dirt level is gradually going down, but it would be nice to have a progress gauge.
Speaking of! TODAY'S IDEA is to manufacture little electronic gauges that monitor life goals and present them to you as progress, perhaps of your avatar in some silly game. Thanks to dynagrip I even have a title: World of Weightloss! Though dieting is just one of many exciting opportunities. And junk.
My sister came to visit on the weekend and brought 4 movies from my movies to watch list! We only had time for two though: The Italian Job and Soylent Green. The Italian Job was a lot, well, sillier than I expected. Soylent Green was interesting I guess but I did keep hearing comments from the MST3000 guys in my head. We made tacos! Then yesterday one of Janey's good friends who went to high school with her came for dinner and I made pizza. That is all the social engagements we had planned so it is now A Convenient Time For Us to have the baby. Go baby go! |
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| Boring old work stuff |
[Sep. 9th, 2005|01:54 pm] |
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We had a nice ra-ra meeting yesterday to explain about how great our company is now that we merged with another company and are publicly listed. The sandwiches were good quality so I'm willing to be optimistic. It's generally accepted that the project I'm working on is doomed, but also that it's not really our fault (the 6-7 of us working on it). They also want to give us all stock options, but I think I'll reserve judgement on that one until it happens. The most positive thing to come out of the meeting is that they are gung-ho about training and career development at the moment, and I think I could do with some training. Oddly, I'm kind of interested in going into business analysis. I've got more of an attention span for that kind of thing than for coding, honestly. In any case, I'll apply for maybe .NET training some time soon after the baby comes. When I got my Visual Basic certifications, I just read a book and got IBM to pay for the exam, so maybe I can do that this time around as well if training's hard to come by. |
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| Ramblins |
[Sep. 6th, 2005|01:56 pm] |
We got a new couch, but they call it a futon, even though it is not what I think of when I think of futon. Anyway it folds into a bed and we got some nice "Roman" blinds to go with it so now our loungeroom looks nice! And we got the carpets cleaned.
We went to Geelong again on the weekend, including a party on Saturday night for Janey's cousin's engagement. We took Pop along, he does not really know his great-grandchildren on that side of the family because they are such a clan. Stick with the clan, man! Her dad says it was a typical party for them as most were drunk when the party started and only got louder. Anyway Pop was our excuse to leave early. The cousin is nice enough and her fiance also seems like a reasonable bloke, but I hate how those parties end up as "girl group cackling and talking exclusively about how drunk they get" and "guy group just being incredible cockheads".
We went round to Janey's parents' place for a bit to give her dad a Father's Day present. We got one for my dad too but I have not even called him yet, that is bad. We got Pop a coffee table book with pictures of Australia all up ins. And we visited friends that we wanted to visit for ages and ages but about the time we were last planning to their 18-year-old daughter died in a car accident and we only got to see them at the enormous funeral. Father's Day would not be easy for them this year, but they were godparents for a baptism we attended the next day. One of Janey's good friends moved to Japan some time ago and he married a girl over there and they had a baby, so they were all in Geelong to visit.
I have a fantasy NFL football team now! So I am clearly an expert. Everyone else in the league except one person plays damn World of Warcraft so I should win for karma reasons. |
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| Crazy boarder update |
[Aug. 10th, 2005|10:47 am] |
MSN log! With my brother. I changed the names and fixed our typos.
Brantor!: Interesting day yesterday.
Bunyip: what happened?
Brantor!: Mother was sitting on the couch working on Dad's computer, when she looked up and Yvonne was leaning on the back door.
Bunyip: go on..
Brantor!: She yelled at me to call the police, then divested herself of computer and cat to get the camera
Bunyip: was she leaning looking in, or leaning with back against?
Brantor!: Leaning looking in.
Brantor!: Anyway, Mum went out the front with the camera to get a picture of her car, and she was about and tried to get the camera off Mother.
Bunyip: :(
Bunyip: Then what
Brantor!: There was a bit of push and shove.
Brantor!: I was on the phone, but Sarah was about and went to Mother's aid.
Brantor!: The camera was retained and Yvonne scarpered.
Bunyip: Did you get a photo?
Brantor!: I think so.
Brantor!: Anyway, the police turned up to take a statement, and the other car from the Mount Waverley station patrolled the area.
Bunyip: She is somewhat slow on the uptake.
Bunyip: So did they bust her huh
Bunyip: Did she get taken down
Brantor!: Well, we were listening to things on the police radios.
Brantor!: She was pulled over.
Brantor!: ...
Brantor!: Then she took off.
Bunyip: oh man
Brantor!: A chase ensued.
Bunyip: you're kidding
Brantor!: Nope.
Bunyip: Warning to all cars: target is inept, I repeat, completely inept. Approach with extreme caution.
Brantor!: She was pulled over eventually and the two policepeople at our house went to pick her up.
Bunyip: oh man
Bunyip: crazy
Brantor!: Mother went down to give a statement.
Brantor!: When she left, apparently Yvonne was being uncooperative under questioning.
and later
Brantor!: Aparently yvonne had words with Mother.
Brantor!: Yvonne said that we were trying to get her into trouble.
Bunyip: hahahahahaha
Bunyip: You are pretty good at getting her in trouble all right
Brantor!: Then she was claiming we were harassing her.
Brantor!: Apparently by reporting everything she did.
Bunyip: You keep being at home when she turns up to stare at you
Bunyip: HARASSMENT |
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| Things |
[Aug. 9th, 2005|08:36 am] |
As you may know Janey has a fairly advanced case of the pregnants. We're halfway through a 4-session pre-natal course, which has been pretty useful so far. Especially since actual labour seems to be quite different from what you might gather from movies and television. Firstly, you don't have to go into hospital immediately when the labour starts. Especially for a first pregnancy, it takes hours before the contractions are close enough that you really need to go anywhere. They recommend if the contractions start at night, just stay in bed and worry about it in the morning because you need to save your energy. Also, the water breaking very rarely starts a labour, that's more likely to happen at the end of the first stage (contractions, cervix dilating, 10-12 hours (!)) and at the start of the second (pushing!). Last night we learned about all the things that can go wrong! Joy! We're with a birth centre, which means you work with a team of midwives, no doctors, and they try to give you as natural a birth as possible. You get transferred to a medical ward if you want an epidural or there's complications or anything.
Anyway I got the study and bedroom painted over the weekend. It's not the best job in the world but it's probably better than the one I painted over. It took all weekend so I haven't been able to put the furniture back yet (we didn't get back from the course last night until after 9). Tonight we go back to the hospital for the regular checkup but should be back in time to at least vacuum up and move the major stuff (bed, drawers, desk).
So the shuttle landing got delayed by cloud, right? And one of the astronauts, Andy Thomas, was born in Australia. So today's newspaper headline? AUSSIE SPACE DRAMA!!!!!!! |
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| Back from NZ |
[Jul. 4th, 2005|02:52 pm] |
( We had a nice time. )
As for odd place names, not too many spring to mind, though Whanganui, Whakarewarewa and Whakapapa are all pretty good, especially as the "Wh" there is pronounced "F". "Waikikamukau" is sadly apocryphal, like the Australian equivalent "Didgerbringabeeralong".
Work didn't call me until the last day, and luckily they didn't ask me to work this weekend or anything, just to look at a proposed change and to provide an estimated impact tomorrow morning. My official estimate is that it will be a huge pain. |
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| Something happening |
[Jun. 23rd, 2005|10:01 am] |
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We're going to New Zealand this weekend! We're not exactly doing much touristy holiday stuff though, as we're mainly just going to visit Janey's relatives. The particular reason for the visit is to spend time with her grandad who is poorly, and we won't get this chance again for a while with the baby coming and all. We'll be staying in Auckland and getting a hire car to travel to Hamilton and Tauranga (and maybe Bay of Islands if we have a spare day). My boss asked me yesterday if it was possible to postpone my leave for a week, but we've booked the tickets so I said no. That might make things a little uncomfortable for me at work, but to be honest I'm not sure that a week here or there makes too much difference at the moment. |
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| Can't think of title, panics, eats pen |
[Jun. 20th, 2005|01:09 pm] |
We went to Geelong on the weekend, to visit various people, but they were all not home. All of them! We went to see Batman Begins instead, which was an enjoyable movie. We also took Janey's Pop to dinner, because there wasn't much around to cook. I picked a restaurant at semi-random: "Bazils Too". The name sounded dodgy but it's in a nice area and we weren't trying to go upmarket. Anyway it worked out, quite a nice cafe-feeling dealy serving "French Mediterranean" cuisine. Apparently there are kangaroos in France, because they served kangaroo!
I had peppered lamb cutlets with eggplant and couscous and yogHOURT. I've always thought people just made couscous because it sounds vaguely exotic, but hey actually this time it tasted pretty good. Janey had salmon and Pop had the kangaroo.
BONUS AUSTRALIA FACT: A "Cus-cus" is a marsupial found in tropical rainforests in Australia and New Guinea. It's sometimes spelled "Cous-cous", which might lead to some confusion!
Today's Australia fact was brought to you by Bonzer Bloody Beef Bits. "Good on yer Australia, yer a bloody ripper."
When we got home yesterday we went to Southland which has the dumbest carpark EVER. From my obviously vast experience of shopping centre car parks. It had a big supermarket but the amount of time it takes to find a park and then get to the store and then walk around it and then bring a trolley back... it ain't even WURF it. |
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| OH WAIT ALSO |
[Jun. 10th, 2005|03:01 pm] |
From Plahblo!
What lowers your stress/blood pressure/anxiety level? Make a list (at least 5 things), post it to your journal... and then tag 5 friends and ask them to post it to theirs.
1. Getting the work done that's causing the stress.
Uh that's pretty much it. I guess I could list some things that belay the stress, by making me forget about it and NOT do the work, but that really just makes it worse. Still!
2. Watching videos, eating junk. Works best with wife.
3. Walks in a beach or a treeish park. Wife rider applies.
4. Getting up early and having a shower and breakfast with the lights off (as much as possible). It's very peaceful.
5. A jigsaw puzzle!
I'm not tagging anyone :(
FIGHT THE PYRAMID |
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