Lights

I've just finished (with the help of a mate) putting up some Christmas lights around the house. The job is a bit underdone but it's a first attempt and provides a starting point for future endeavours. I've already got next years plans figured out (and the requirements I will provide for a willing electrician).

I should also mention we did it in the rain. I'm pretty excited about showing the kids - as dodgy as it is I'm quite sure they will be impressed by it.

A Guest

We had an unexpected visitor last night - Mrs G bought a friend home from the Christmas gathering!!! As is my custom I won't reveal her name but apparently Miss L was a little under the weather and there were some concerns about her getting home. It took them so long to get a cab back to our place that both of them were sober by the time they got here so I presume the fears may have been a touch unfounded ...

As a result our spare room was inhabited and I made very sure I was with LGR when he woke up this morning - I could very easily imagine the hysterics if he woke up and found an unidentified person wandering around the house.

Today was a very average day. It rained again. I did very little at work again. I went out for lunch again. The main point of delineation between today and yesterday is that Clan Jones went out for dinner - ending up at a 'hole in the wall' Chinese place that served very good food. When we went in there all tables were empty but by the time we left it was packed and they were having to turn people away. Even the kids liked it. We'll be using them as a takeaway venue in the future ...

What else? I finally got my first edition of a magazine subscription I took out a while ago. For some reason the first attempt to send a magazine to me didn't work and then it took several days to get in touch with someone who could answer my questions - then another week for me to actually receive the magazine. I also got a free hat :-) It's a small scale magazine but also a very good magazine - and it's all about running.

Which I'm able to do again. I've run 3 out of the last 4 days (I missed this morning - slept through the alarm) but on the other days it was relatively pain free. By pain free I mean injury pain free.

I've got a long way to go before I can call myself a runner again ...

The Smell

It's raining as I type. And the air smells of rain. That beautiful mid summer end of a stinking hot and/or humid type rain smell. It's fantastic. So is the sound of rain on the back deck. All very Australian and the type of thing you wish you could bottle.

Hayzey has started going to sleep with ballet slippers on. She got them as part of a fairy outfit and is completely besotted by them. It's very sweet to walk in to give her a goodnight kiss and see those tiny feet in those tiny slippers.

For a complete change of topic ...

Traffic. Grrr. It's been horrible this week. All week long the traffic reports are telling me how much better the traffic is in the lead up to Christmas because people are on holidays. What a pile of crud. It's still taking me over an hour to get into work in the morning and in the afternoons .... well, it seems as though a lot of people are getting new brake pads during the day and feel the urge to break them in by jamming on the breaks. Frequently.

To make it even better there are 3 new buildings going up on the block on which I work. One of them will house at least 1500 people and the other two will be between 500 and 1000. That's a lot of extra cars. On top of this is the new telco campus which opened recently for 5000 folk and at least 5 other large office type buildings going up.

Things are not going to get better. I need to get out of Sydney. Time for a new trade ....

Maybe I'll be a baker. Or a short order cook. A barman. A gardener. A coach. A restaurateur. A publican. A politician. A teacher. Who knows? There's definitely more to life than sitting in traffic and watching the guy next to you pick his nose while he talks on the phone.

Another random topic change. Mrs G is out at another Christmas party tonight. I believe it's with a group of lawyers at the MCA. Maybe I could be a lawyer. Then I would get to have fancy drinks with Mrs G while the kids are at home asleep :-)

So much to say ...

Hopefully I won't miss anything in this post ...

First and foremost is a loud and joyous happy birthday to Mrs G. She turned 'an age' on 13th December. Nice one sweetie :-)

14th December was a big day for LGR and Hayzey - it was the kindy Christmas Party. The affair was quite mellow. Usually the kids put on a show for all of us but for some reason this wasn't done this year. They did get pressies from Santa and we got to take ownership of their development portfolios. It's a good thing the staff there aren't teaching the kids how to spell ...

The most important part of the evening was a little 'graduation' ceremony for the kids going to school next year. They got a certificate and a big clap from everyone. I had tiny little tears in my eyes. Later that night while looking through the portfolios I got some more tears in my eyes. I still have problems accepting that LGR is getting bigger ....

15th December was my Dad's birthday. So - happy birthday Dad. Hope you had a good one.

Clan Jones went up the mountains on the 15th for a bit of lunch and then an afternoon lounging around Grandma's place putting up Christmas decorations. Lunch was good - Uncle G is a chef (and a damned good one at that) so we visited his restaurant to sample the new menu. Very impressed. I would go so far as to say the total dining experience was far better value for money (and at least as tasty) than my lunch at a prestigious Sydney restaurant the previous day. At the prices Uncle G's place offers it is very good eating.

In the evening Nanna and Aunt LU/Lillee joined us for a bit of dinner. Mrs G got another birthday cake and more presents ....

We spent the night in Katoomba - something we haven't done for years. Sunday morning was very relaxed - casual breakfast and showers followed by a walk with the dog. Nice and easy. The Clan was back in Prestons by lunchtime and spent the early afternoon looking for Santa and Christmas gifts. We succeeded on both counts - and don't need to worry about shopping for Christmas any more!!!

Christmas Season Has Begun

Since the last update there has been a lot going on.

Mrs G and myself have both been to our respective work Christmas parties. Mrs G come out of hers in an entirely more respectable than I did out of my own. In my defense however I should state that my work Christmas went for a very big portion of the day and I had a lot more fun.

We've knocked off just about most of our Christmas shopping. It's a nice feeling. There are still a few folks who we need to pick up some things for but at least it's only one or two things and not 30 or 40 things. Unfortunately for me one of these people is Mrs G - and I suspect she hasn't bought anything for me either. Maybe we could go without gifts this year ....

There's been a couple of late nights put in of recent times. Sunday night saw us get home at about 22:00 after an afternoon and dinner with the families McK and Chef and then a walking tour of the neighbourhood to see Christmas lights. It doesn't sound late but when you add in the requirement to have the kids at kindy on Monday morning in time for the adults to get to work it gets late. I've been told that LGR had stern words with Mrs G about how late we were out and how tired he was on Monday morning.

Mrs G was out late on Monday and Tuesday - one for personal reasons and one for work reasons. This left me at home with two kids. I missed some phone calls and will get back to you all eventually. Maybe even tonight.

It's Raining, It's Pouring ...

We got some rain last night. And we got a very large amount this morning between 04:00 and 05:00. 66mL apparently. It was very heavy. There was thunder and lightning. It was terrific.

I know all this because LGR woke up and was terrified. Too loud. Too bright. He has developed a fear of lightning and is currently asking a lot of questions about where you can be during a storm that is safe. He believes lightning can sneak through doors and windows but seems to have accepted that if you're inside then you will be pretty safe.

I was listening to a meteorologist talk late yesterday and he reckons we'll get 'a lot of rain' next Monday and Tuesday, that the East Coast is very firmly in a La Nina weather pattern and it should last until next March or April. I found out today that the Sydney water supply is currently about 60%. A nice improvement from the 38% it was about 6 months ago.

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Hayzey has been spending plenty of time in the pre-school room at kindy. So far this week she has been in there every day for most of the morning. She loves it and is very proud to be a 'big kid'. She has also become much more disciplined when it comes to toilet things - going in her pants is now the very rare exception. It's been quite a battle and I'm sure it's not quite won yet but we feel as though a massive hill has been crested and we're on the downhill run to home.

Back in the World

It had to happen eventually. We are back at work. And the kidlets are back at school. A notorious rogue (or criminal - depends on your point of view) once said "Such is life" and so it is ....

The reintroduction hasn't been too bad for either of us. A lot of the holiday mellowness is still hanging around and the difference betweeen pre-holiday dinners and post-holidays is very obvious. The quality of food is better, and the nutrition of the food is better. Most importantly of all the conversation around the dinner table is much better. It makes us all smile :-)

It doesn't hurt that there's a bit of rain about either. It's very pleasing to open the back doors and hear the sounds of cool, fat raindrops plopping down onto the pergola. We've even been treated to the occasional flash of lightning and crack of thunder. Our garden is terrifically green and, when it rains, the air smells superb.

The kids have been tremendously sweet. And they do it very frequently. They have been quite loving and very honest with their assessments of 'things'. Hayzey frequently tells Mrs G how beautiful she is and LGR shows us in a myriad of ways how much he has grown, but how young he still is.

It's hard to explain in words - more the type of thing you need to see and live to understand. Those of you out there with kids (or can remember when the kids were young) will almost certainly understand.

Happy Birthday

Crazy Hayzey has turned 3 - and isn't she proud of herself. As she should be.

The big day was actually yesterday and we did manage to make quite a decent day of it. The festivities started virtually as soon as Hayz woke up - there was a pile of pressies on the dining table and with minimal encouragement she started ripping into them and with various proclamations of 'wow' and 'cool'. It was very sweet to see her open the cards and then proceed to 'read' them before placing them all in a very neat pile.

After pressies we had a very quick breakfast and then it was off to swimming lessons before coming home to build the new climbing/monkey bar thing and getting ready for a small birthday lunch with family (Nanna, Grandma, the Kuckeks, Aunt and Uncle U with baby Lillee and Aunt BJ). The lunch was a last minute sort of affair but in the end both Mrs G and myself were very glad it occurred - it gave us a chance to sit down and actually talk to people without all the noise that comes with a full scale party.

There were more pressies from the various attendees which were duly ripped open and proclaimed in various ways. There was noise as the kids played and questions and answers about what's been going on in the world. It was very nice and very much enjoyed.

After lunch we headed off to the 'proper' party at a play centre. It's the first time we've done one of these and, I have to confess, it is very easy. We shared the party with Hayzey's best (who shares the same name and was born less than 12 hours after our own princess) and it worked well - for everyone I think. All the kids certainly enjoyed it and, for whatever reason, the party ran over and we got an extra 30 minutes of playtime.

Once we left the playcentre a small group headed off to dinner at a local restaurant. We were (luckily) given a table outside. Two tables actually. Not that the kids needed one - none of them sat at it for more than 2 minutes and they spent most of the night running around in the piazza/plaza type area. The adults got to sit back and have a chat.

So, as a final message - happy birthday my sweet little angel.