A Little Bit of Affection

All happening ...

We've had a busy last couple of days. Thursday was another 04:00am start for myself, and I got to bed at about 10:30 that night .... In the middle of the day I went for a bike ride and my rear tire started to go flat about 5km from home. Felt like I was peddling through mud by the end of the ride. We also went out for some Chinese for dinner. The kiddies were very well behaved and the food was quite good as well.

Friday was a washout. Literally. It poured where I work and I got thoroughly saturated going to my car to get home. This was after missing our traditional Friday lunch up at the golf club due to work (What is the deal with that? Who would ever imagine you could miss a lunch with work mates because you have to do actual work? Life is hard sometimes.)

It also poured at home. Athletics was cancelled so we watched movies with the kids.

Saturday .... started with some groceries, saw us in Helensburg for lunch with some folks we hadn't seen for a good while and finished with Grandma driving Hayzey and myself to get some dinner in a downpoor of monsoonal proportions because I forgot to leave out some meat for dinner ......

And today was party day. There was a frenzy of work activity to get the Sunday chores done by 09:00am so we could attend a party at Gledswood for Hayzey's best mate, and then it was off to a little bloke who LGR goes to school with for an afternoon pool party. Even better because they live on the same block and we can walk there ....

Interesting side note - I blacked out our house this afternoon by managing to cut through the power cord for the hedge trimmer while I was using it. I didn't think much of it other than "I wonder why I didn't die just then?" I grabbed the manual clippers and started chopping away. About 2 minutes later Mrs G came out and told me there was no power in the house and asked if my trimmer was working. I'm sure you can all figure out why there was no power in the house :-)

Big Kids

LGR and Hayzey showing the world how big and strong they are!!!

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I took LGR down to Little A's State Relays on the weekend to let him see a synthetic track and a large-ish gathering of athletes. He was initially quite thrilled by the whole thing and was very, very keen to get out on the track for a run ... but ran out of enthusiasm within 30 minutes. He was cold and bored and couldn't find anywhere to sit down. He was asking questions but mostly they consisted of "Where's the canteen?" and "What can I get with my money?" (which was only $1.65).

I think he kind of enjoyed it. For me it was a nice little blast from the past - I saw quite a few uniforms which were very familiar but none from my old club .... What was most amusing was watching all these kids warmup and compete in a very serious fashion - almost as though it was the most important thing in the world. I wasn't like that. Was I?

Maybe a bit :-)

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What else? I might have bought some DVD's on the weekend. All six Star Wars movies. So far I've watched the first two and found them to be kind of ok. A little bit hit and miss and, in some ways, almost rushed. There are holes in the stories and some of the plot lines are very vague and jumpy. I love the effects (for the most parts) and LGR loves the fighting bits. 

Phone

I got a new mobile phone today. It looks very slick and is quite different to my last phone. I don't really know how to use it - but did manage to sort out the Bluetooth component very quickly. My car has a Bluetooth interface and when someone calls me in my car now I can talk to them without having to put an ear piece into my ear ....

All my herbs are dying. Most of them are shuffling off because of the dog and some, such as the coriander, have gone to seed really quickly. My tomatoes are still alive but only just. I haven't paid them a lot of attention. Must have other things on my mind.

Chicken Rissoles

We had some chicken rissoles with salad for dinner. The rissoles were not very nice. Mrs Jones and I used to eat them quite a bit when we were younger and a bit less discerning in our food tastes. I'm pretty sure we used to be able to get rissoles that actually contained chicken (not sure which parts ...).

The last few times we've tried them they have been miserable, insipid dry pieces of excretia - with a texture vaguely reminiscent of cardboard and a taste just shy of what I would imagine prison porridge has. The only redeeming feature is that we can smother them with sauce - but even that's not as much fun as it used to be.

Growing up is such a bummer :-)

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Mum Jones has been at our place quite a bit over the last two weeks. The kids have loved it. It's been a bit of shock to see how tired she is but at the same time quite uplifting to see the way she deals with it.

Facebook

I had a peep at Facebook this morning and I just don't understand the appeal .... but others say the same about blogging. Each to their own.

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As always there has been a lot going on. My little sister had a birthday which we helped to celebrate (by going to a pool but forgetting our swimmers and then heading out for some lunch), my Mum is back in chemo and hopefully on the path to recovery and the kiddies are behaving wonderfully (at this point in time).

Not much more to say.

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Christmas is approaching .... and,as always, Clan Jones is overcommitted and running out of time. I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year - for the first time in years. Most of the family are coming to our place for either Christmas Day or Boxing Day. We've got a few invites to various other places and are in the process of trying to juggle what feels like a million things in a very short period of time.

But - I am looking forward to Christmas. I almost feel like a little kid again.

Just for the record - I don't particularly need or want any pressies. The kids both need and want everything they see ...