Ok we have just arrived in Canberra. Very good trip, long tiring but now complete.
We are collecting the keys to the house tomorrow and our furniture arrives on Friday.
I will post up some more information after a sleep. 🙂
Big News!
Ok well things that have been on simmer for a while have come to the boil.
I have been offered and accepted a new role and promotion down in Canberra. This means that in the next 2 – 4 weeks I am going to have to pack up the whole family and move them.
So if I am a little slack on the web site, photos, email, phone calls and the like please understand.
Busy, really busy.
Well it seems I have not had time to scratch myself over the last 4 weeks. Travelling for work, for my wifes family reunion, and having family stay for 2 weeks.
I promise I will start again soon.
Photos of the Romavilla Winery
When I first left school I worked at the Romavilla winery for about one and a half years. It was great, I learnt a lot and worked fairly hard.
I recently visited again and here is a collection of photos that I took while there.
Enjoy
New Year
This year we got away from home for a few days. We went out to see Dani’s mum and stay a few days, so leaving the father in law to go and see the mother in law, sounds crazy but we needed the change.
So we towed my brothers trailer out with some furniture for my mother in law. This was the first time we have done a long trip (600km each way) towing a trailer with the 307. I was really pleased with the performance and the economy ( about 7.4 l/100kms – 50 miles per gallon).
Heading out to western Queensland gave me a chance to catch up with my boss and workplace, Romavilla Winery. I have some photos of the place being processed so I will post them up later.
I enjoy getting out of the city once in a while, however being away from an Internet connection is very trying. I miss reading the news, blogs, new photos and comics that make up my daily routine. I have been taking more photos, arty shots mostly and I will post them up once I have them processed.
Although the temperature was higher out there it is more pleasent due to the lack of humidity, a nice change from the hot and humid weather here. I am heading back to work tomorrow and I can honestly say I am not in the least bit motivated.
Well enough rambling, my family and I wish you all the best this year and hope the year provides happiness and opportunities.
Family
Family re-unions are always fraught with the fear of disappointment. Families fracture and move apart, and when they come back together ….. the pieces have grown and moved on …. so they never quite fit again. Sort of an ancestoral jigsaw. Children have grown up, but older members forget that, they only see the child. So the domineering and overly paternal attitude grates, and threatens to fracture the family again. And heaven help you if you are labelled “a disappointmentâ€. The ties are no longer as binding, and todays generation don’t feel the same driving need to maintain relationships like previous generations. A stressful and fastpaced life means I don’t feel the pressure to maintain anything outside my direct line.
I met up with a long lost cousin. Like me he never really fitted with the family dynamic….. I ran away, he probably did too. I didn’t have many memories…. A tall gangly teenager, with wild surfer curly hair, and a slightly bemused patient smile when he had to deal with the attentions of two preteen girls. An older big brother cousin, who didn’t tease or torment me, didn’t call me fat like my other cousins.
And now …… in ways he’s very different, and much the same. That same bemused smile when I start rabbiting on. A smile that reaches to his eyes, and reminds me so much of a favourite uncle (and godfather). But like me he has changed, like me he proabably hasn’t liked all of the changes. The curly hair is gone, and not quite so gangly. As I have grown, he doesn’t seem quite so tall. But still change is good. It remains to see how this new jigsaw will fit together though.
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas to all my friends online. This year has been trying for our family and we are greatly enjoying this Christmas.
Over the next couple of days I will be posting up some pictures of our fun.
Happy Anniversary
To my darling husband,
Yet another year has passed, one of many. Sometimes it feels we have been married forever, at other times its hard to believe its been 17 years. As usual our anniversary has been lost in a sea of birthdays and preparations for xmas, but you must know that this day is incredibly special for me ….. because its today that I got to tell the world that I loved my best friend.
Happy Anniversary sweetheart.
Noisy Neighbours
Well, its Saturday night and the neighbours are having a party.
Nothing unusual you say … and normally I would agree with you. This street is a great street …. a combination of young families with babies, a large extended arabic immigrant family, a couple of christian asians, some guy with a horse trailer we never see, an extremely weathly buddist family and normal old us. On the whole a quiet and peacful bunch. However the arabic family next door are prone to some very loud and well populated celebrations.
And tonight … they are having an engagement party. So along with the incredible volume of people talking and singing, you have this fabulous modern middle eastern music …. accompanied by the occassional arabic yodelling (what on earth is that actually called?). And thankfully tonite the dog has decided it does not mean the world is ending, so I don’t have to lock him in.
I hate to say it but compared with your average Aussie BBQ, full of the sounds of dunk the stubbie, drunken fights and late night renditions of “Kaysan” …. its a lovely background noise.
Green Frog
We found this guy on our back secruity screen, where the dog was pestering him.
So we decided he had to be taken out the front and into the garden. Check out the other images at fliker.com
“Forced” Holiday’s
Well I am going on about 2 weeks leave starting… Thursday. It was that or sit at work doing nothing or travel away from home again.
So leave it is. Planning a few things while off, photography, kids events, new style for site, etc.
So keep your eye’s open for changes 
The blond stereotype
Now I know I shouldn’t subscribe to the classic blond stereotype. And I have enough intelligent and sensible blond friends, to know that not all blonds are dumb. But really, my neighbour should be shot for adding to the blond stupid name.
Picture this. Blond is 35 weeks pregnant (plus carrying a fairly young hernia scar). Blond see’s 300L fridge on the footpath. Blond waits until husband is in bed, and then moves said fridge into garage while hubby is sleeping.
Now am I the only one who’s see’s the folly in this? 😆
Another turn of the page
Well …. thats the last of it.
Today I delivered my stroller to my cousin for her gorgeous baby daughter. Yesterday I had the garage sale, sold all the baby toys and nappies. Then I bundled up what was left and delivered it to the Salvos. I have kept a few things …… the rocker, the high chair that attaches to the table (cause they are handy when babysitting), the cradle (an heirloom). The pram still hasn’t sold, but I will be putting it in the paper next week.
*sigh* ….. I have no baby stuff left in the house. No baby seat or booster seat in the garage. No toys or duplo. All the soft toys are gone. Even Elmo. Feel just a little lost and empty.
😥
Visitors, Still!
A while back my lovely wife wrote about our visitors. Well we still have one, my father-in-law. He has be very unwell and while not in hospital he has been at out place for nearly 2 months now.
This has been very hard on us, we have never really had a close relationship with him, and my wife ran away (back to her mum) from his household when she was 15 or so. He has very different values from us but in respect for his ailing health we have been reluctant to confront him with the issues we have with him.
We have been married nearly 17 years and have gone through some tough times. We get through these by putting the other one and our relationship first. First above everything else.
We have “ticked off” other family members at times as we set rules of acceptable behaviour in our household and around our kids. This includes (what is considered normal now) no smoking in the house, we decide what the kids can and cannot eat when we are providing the meals (if the relation is providing food or our child is at their house then our kids will eat what is provided). We have always made it clear they are welcome in our lives if they have respect for us as people and parents.
As yet we have not had this conversation with my father in law because, up til now, the longest we have seen him is one to two days. I am sure our conversation will occur soon, probably the next time he says “slope head” in our local shops.
Drunks are funny – he he he
Hubby had a blah day today …… and decided to solve it with slightly more than half a bottle of wine tonite. Now witnessing this is always a reminder of why he usually doesn’t drink.
He has a low body weight, and a fast metabolism. This means that the alcohol hits his system fast. Within a hour of starting drinking, he is moderately incoherant and having to concentrate on not running into the furniture. 2 hours? …. and he is explaining to me why he isn’t as think as I drunk he is. Overall the effect is milding amusing and ever so slightly annoying. See, being a big girl …. it takes a considerable amount of alcohol to get the same effect.
And worse of all, thanks to a fast metabolism … he will have processed all the alcohol before bed, and therefore won’t have a hangover ….. which stinks! 😡