Festivities

We had our Science Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. We chose the park in front of the Biol Sciences Library, which the VC also chose for the University's party last Friday. Purely by coincidence, the day before our party, 2 big piles of soil were delivered to the venue, which by the day before the VC's party, had been transformed into some gorgeous new gardens. However, we just had the piles of dirt.... Nonetheless it was a beautiful afternoon. Everyone brought food to share, partners and kids came along, boules was played, soccer balls flew around the lawn, and our green mascot (Kermit) did the honours as secret Santa.

Just for fun

I was reading a librarian’s blog today and saw that he had done the Jung Typology Test, so I thought I’d see if it came up with anything interesting.  I came out as an INFJ, which I always do, both on the web and in properly administered Myers Briggs Type Indicator courses.  This, of course means I’m introverted (quiet, private), intuitive (not good on detail, look at big picture), feeling (make decisions on value/the effect on people rather than logic), and judging (a list maker and a planner – not good at off the cuff “lets fly to Morocco today” decisions).  No surprises there, I guess.

My suggested careers were –

·         Literature/Writer    

·         Humanities         

·         Web Design     

·         Philosophy   

·         Archaeology 

·         Religious Education  

·         Psychology      

·         Counselling

Not sure where science librarian comes into it...  Funnily enough, even though this is supposedly the rarest of the “types” (about 1% of the population), Simon and I are both this type.  I think he must score higher than me on the J scale, as his use of a diary and bring up system is quite amazing.  While I admit I have a small obsession with my personal labelling machine and am addicted to my PDA, my in tray and task list still both get overflowing with alarming regularity.  And the writing thing is obviously a strong point for Simon – Mr “Robert Street Prize”.   

Visit from Ryan

Mel and Tim came over on Sunday, with 7 week old Ryan. Harrison was a bit nervous and shy at first, but was soon all over the baby, patting him, tickling him, coo-ing at him, and choosing books that Ryan might like to read. We lent Mel a few Mem Fox and Lynley Dodd books to try out on Ryan. After indulging in the gluten free jam drops Harrison had helped make for morning tea, we all went for a walk to the beach.

I've been getting into a bit of a fitness routine (for the past week, anyway) whereby I go for a walk up along the walking path beside the Boulevard and the dunes up beside the West Coast Highway.

Making plans

Harrison has some very firm plans about his adult life already.  He wants to marry 2 people (Lillian and Gemma from day care), and is aware of the legal ramifications of bigamy, so he intends to move to a country that allows you to have 2 wives.  Ever the romantic, he intends to buy them flowers on their wedding day.  I think that implies it’s the only time they’re ever getting flowers.

We are also to move to this country with the liberal marriage laws, as he wants to always live next door to us.  But we’re not getting too gooey eyed over that sentiment – he just wants us close by so that we can babysit his 2 kids (Hugo and Tracey) while he goes out to dinner with his wives.

Visitors from Toowoomba

We’ve just had a lovely visit from Mum and Dad.  They stayed for 2 weeks, and did a fair bit of tripping around (and a little bit of getting lost).  I suggested they stay at New Norcia in the monk’s guest house, which they did – and loved.  I think they would have stayed 2 nights had they known how interesting the place was going to be.  We all went up to Kalbarri (Mum and Dad took a few more days than us).  The widlflowers were spectacular up there.  We had a lovely meal again at the Grass Tree Cafe where the chef is very on the ball in terms of Harrison’s diet.  Dad indulged in the famous Kalbarri Rock Lobster.  They also visited the zoo with us, and we had the obligatory buffet at the Pines at Observation City.  On their last afternoon we all went to the Perth Royal Show where Dad naturally met up with various saddlers and leather work enthusiasts and got orders for whips.

Harrison just adored them both of course, and loved playing “roughing up” with Dad.  He went into their room in the morning and gently touched Mum’s cheek or Dad’s hand to see if they were awake.  We made a very interesting balloon dog using multiple balloons tied together with string (I have no skill in balloon sculpture!). Harrison drew the dog’s face, including a patch around one eye.  He was very pleased with it until one of the legs burst.

In a couple of weeks we get our next Toowoomba visitor – Simon’s mum.  Simon and Harrison are heading down to Esperance for a long weekend with Marg during that visit.

Ryan Sercombe

Mel and Tim’s baby arrived yesterday (Ryan James 8 pound 2 oz, 50cm long), and Harrison and I went to see him when he was just 5 hours old. Needless to say he’s very, very cute. Looks like he’s going to have Mel’s lovely thick dark hair. Harrison was absolutely besotted with him, and very gentle. He spent the evening at home putting Pooh bear under his shirt, lying down on the couch and ‘delivering’ him through a cut in his tummy, then breast feeding him.

More cuteness

Simon has just discovered this blog (a sign that he’s well and truly emerged from the fog of overwork), and suggested I record –

The kneecap search

Last night Simon and Harrison were having a “super-shower” which means they were both in our big bath/shower together.  Harrison leaned back in the bath with one leg raised, and started lifting his foot up and down, looking at the way his knee moved, and talking to himself – “look, kneecap, now you see it, now you don’t, now you see it, now you don’t, now you see it, now you don’t....”.

Concern for Grandma

This morning it was drizzling, and Harrison said to Simon – It’s starting to rain a bit.  We haven’t had rain for a while.  I hope grandma’s safe inside.  He also asked the other day if he could live next door to grandma when he grows up so that he can visit her every day.  AND he told us he loves her because she’s so old (she’s only 72!), and old people have floppy skin, which he loves.

Space man

Some time ago, Harrison added space man to the long list of professions he’s going to have when he grows up.  When asked why, he said it was because space men don’t have to get married.  When asked why that was, he said that’s because there are no girls in space.

It must be noted that he did relent and decide that I was allowed to share his rocket and go into space with him.  Mums don’t count as girls, obviously.

Taste test

The other week Harrison came home from day care, and as usual loitered around the front steps looking for slugs.  Suddenly there was an ear splitting wail and he comes running up saying he’s hurt his tongue because he licked a slug!  Apparently he just wanted to see what they tasted like.

This morning, he was stomping down the front stairs and looked back at Simon, announcing “For several months now, I haven’t been licking any slugs.”

Just gorgeous.

When I lived in England...

Harrison has had a long standing “other life” – probably for about 2 years.  He tells stories about when he lived in England with his new Mum and Dad.  There are odd details like the fact that there was coal between the bricks of his house, it was very cold, there was no dishwasher, and they didn’t have batteries for toys.  His new Mum and Dad were named Jeff and Murray (though they aren’t the real Wiggles – they just share their names).  This other life took on a new purpose on Thursday night. 

We had all been at the shops, and Harrison persuaded Simon to try his luck at a Skill Tester that had Batman soft toys in it.  Simon explained that it was unlikely he’d be able to pick up a toy, and that Harrison had to be prepared for disappointment.  He was not to make a fuss if he didn’t end up with a toy.  Sure enough, Simon couldn’t get the toy, and Harrison tried very hard to hide his disappointment.  A few minutes later we were in the car on the way home, and Harrison starts his story. 

“You know, when I lived in England, there was a toy machine, and my Dad Murray tried to get one for me.  My Dad Murray was so good at getting toys from the toy machine.  He got me one, and I really, really loved it.  So my Dad Murray got me another one, and another one, until I had too many toys!  Do you know why my Dad Murray was so good at getting toys?  He was really tall, and so old.  He was one hundred and one and two!”

Alistair...

I forgot to post on the most exciting news of late... Denis and Tracey had a baby boy – Alistair Bruce!  He was born on Sunday 27^th July at 12:45 am after Tracey spent 3 or 4 days in hospital with various attempts to induce labour.  He weighed a whopping 4.36kg (9 lb 10).  He’s sleeping well and feeding well, and Tracey made an early escape from hospital. 

 

Phone manner

Harrison is probably a late starter on this, but we’ve put our mobiles on speed dial from the home phone and taught Harrison how to call us (for emergency purposes).  (As an aside, he can recite our street address and tell a police officer each of our full names and where we work, but when it comes to telling someone our phone number, he just knows our speed dial numbers).

He’s just decided he can answer the phone himself, and it’s kind of weird ringing home and having him answer the phone.  This evening I’m working late, and he’s called me three times asking where various toys are, and letting me know whether or not he’s found them. 

 

Trauma at PMH

I had to take Harrison for a blood test on Friday, after our visit back to the paediatric gastroenterologist.  Knowing how much he hates needles, I didn’t tell him until we arrived at the hospital collection centre what we were there for.  He was absolutely terrified.  It took me and three nurses to hold him down and take his blood.  Unfortunately they needed 3 vials, so it wasn’t exactly quick.  I think only Princess Margaret Hospital staff would be capable of getting blood out of a screaming (and strong) four year old.  After it was all over, I tried to persuade him that it was all over much quicker than he’d expected, and didn’t hurt nearly as much as he feared – he thought about it for a second, and then announced that it *was* just as bad as he expected...

 

My first video

I have experimented with short video for the E-Learning course I did this year... and here’s my very amateur first attempt...

http://www.jumpcut.com/view?id=4A82ABF061C411DDBC04000423CF385C

Detention policy

Good news for Australia today – there have been “sweeping changes” announced to Australia’s mandatory detention policy (ABC News Online).  The Age reported on this today, and in an interview with Dr Graham Thom from  Amnesty International, Lateline foreshadowed these changes last night.  The upshot is that detention of asylum seekers will be a last resort and it’s likely that large numbers of people who’ve been indefinitely detained are likely to be released into the community.  This is such a more humane and sensible attitude to take.  You can also read the transcript from Radio National’s The World Today...

 

On ya Kev!

 

 

Kalbarri

We’re back from our holiday in Kalbarri – the first time we’ve ever stayed in one place for 7 nights on holiday!  We camped for a few nights, including at Coalseam and at  Eurardy Bush Heritage Reserve, where we met Paul and Leanne, and their 2 girls, Beth and Maysey.  Beth is 2 years old, and Harrison just adored her.  Leanne took us on her morning native animal monitoring run, and we checked their traps for dunnarts, frogs and native mice (I maintained a respectful distance...).  Leanne weighed and measured the animals before releasing them.  At Kalbarri we had a unit right across from the area where volunteers feed pelicans each morning (Harrison got to throw a fish to them).  We went bushwalking, canoeing and even hired a little surf-cat and went sailing.  Many of the tourist things in Kalbarri are a bit amateur and over priced, but the location itself is fabulous.  Plus there’s a cafe run by a woman with celiac disease, so we could buy food for Harrison with confidence.  On our last night we had a sensational meal at the Grass Tree restaurant, and the chef was really helpful with Harrison’s meal – he had a large (and healthy) kids menu with several things on it that were gluten free, and was happy to make whatever Harrison wanted to eat.

 

The band

Harrison spent the whole trip home yesterday afternoon planning his first band.  He picked 3 friends who would be in it with him (Andy, Aaron and Felix), who would play which instrument (he couldn’t decide between the piano or guitar for himself), who would sing etc.  Apparently Andy is very funny, so he’s the lead singer.  He’s decided that he will be the one who thinks of all the songs, and the major planning snag in his mind is how to fit a piano through the door when they play a concert.  When he becomes a rock legend in about 20 years time, this will be a good anecdote for the Rolling Stone feature on him.

Scamp's Adventure

I bought Harrison Lady and the Tramp 2 when I was in Melbourne. He loves Lady and the Tramp, and knew from the shorts on that DVD that there was a second movie. We've had to put it away, because he ends up in tears every time he watches it. He is heartbroken by the baby in the moving missing Scamp when he's run away, terrified of the dog catcher, and traumatised by the idea of a dog pound.

Melbourne

I had THE most relaxing weekend in Melbourne.  I was in Geelong for a leadership course last week, and Simon arranged for VJ to come down on Friday and shouted us 3 nights at an apartment in the city.  We did the usual Melbourne things – took trams, went shopping, ate out lots.  I went to the Medieval Manuscripts exhibition at the State Library also.  But the best thing of all was the fact that for 3 nights in a row I got 10 hours sleep.  This was the first time in 4 years that I have had sleep like that.  I know you can’t bank it, but it was VERY nice at the time.  So thank you Simon!!!!

Mystery solved

We got a call from day care on Wednesday afternoon asking us to pick Harrison up because he was sick.  Well, he looked terrible, and was sick again in the car on the way home. But after a bath he was suddenly full of beans, and hungry – as though nothing had happened.  This didn’t seem like an ordinary tummy bug, but we couldn’t think of any time he might have eaten any gluten.  Next morning he was full of energy, but we had to keep him home from day care in case this was a contagious tummy bug.  When we called them to let them know he was fine, they mentioned that he’d only had vegetable soup and couscous for lunch the day before, so they were sure it wasn’t the food.  Doh!!! Couscous!  The mystery was solved, and the cook was mortified by her “brain freeze”.  Everyone was very apologetic.  Of course, now they’re all nervous again about what to feed him...  We’re going to organise a dietician to come and talk to a staff meeting.

 

Happy birthday

Harrison turned 4 today!  Four seems such a grown up age for our little boy – I feel a bit sad about this milestone.  We gave him his first “real” bike with training wheels.  His feet only just reach the pedals.  I made the 4 cake from the Women’s Weekly Kids Party book for him to take to day care.  It looks very impressive for not much effort, as it uses plastic toy road signs, foil covered chocolate cars, and ready-made royal icing for the “roads”.  I converted my favourite chocolate cake recipe (which uses soured milk and a warm cocoa paste) to a gluten free one, and that seemed to work fine. 

ANZAC day

We took Harrison into the city this morning to see the ANZAC day parade. He particularly enjoyed seeing all the marching bands.
This afternoon I killed a couple of hours with Harrison at Uni, and we discovered a "Nearer Nature" marquis on the foreshore at Matilda Bay. They had various animals - frogs, snakes, lizards and snails there for kids to hold and learn about. Harrison absolutely loved it. Didn't want the snake curled around his neck, and got a bit girly about having a frog jump on him, but he loved touching all the animals, so long as someone else was holding them. Snail are his all time favourite animal, so having a basket of snails to explore was heaven for him. Nearer Nature is a Dept of Conservation program. They do various fee based things like overnight camping trips, but this one was free.

Seedy side of life

Simon and I wasted a date night last night on Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.  It was a very disturbing portrayal of a family of people with virtually no redeemable features who spiral into self destruction, and it left us both feeling less than good about the world. 

Piano!

We made a major investment on the weekend.  Simon bought an electric piano (in a single visit to one shop – most unlike him!).  The boys are already making good use of it.  Harrison is able to turn it on and bash away whenever he likes, and he and Simon have a duet of “Froggy went a courtin’” going (Harrison’s role is to hit a single note in time with the music).  The box (literally the size of a coffin) is also being out to good use as a boat, a train, or a hiding place.

 

A couple of weekends ago we took Harrison to a WASO concert for under 5s, and Harrison had his first go on a violin.  He also tried out Simon’s violin at home.

 

Along with Simon’s recent discovery of ITunes, which has reignited his passion for making compilations, the piano is changing the tone of our household.

Shannon to the rescue

Shannon Lush’s Speed Cleaning bible came into its own on Sunday after I discovered Harrison had used a fabric marker to draw with, and not always on his paper!  The laminated top of his kids table appeared to be ruined forever.  Sugar soap had absolutely no effect, and seeing as fabric marker stays on clothes even when washed in Napisan I wasn’t confident.  But Shannon advised that perfume on a cotton ball removes permanent marker from a whiteboard, so I tried it on the table.  Felt a bit silly using Red Door to clean Harrison’s table, but it worked perfectly (and smells nice!).  Not a trace left.

 

Gold digging

We ventured into the wilds of Kalgoorlie over Easter.  We seemed to share the Great Eastern Highway with quite a lot of Gypsy Joker bikies, and even more police on Good Friday.  They were going to Kalgoorlie, and even turned up at the Super Pit lookout on Saturday (police escort in tow).   There were plain clothes police, uniformed officers, marked cars, unmarked cars – it seemed half the WA Police force were tagging along after the Jokers.   We assumed there must be some huge drug raid in progress, or a murder investigation, but there was nothing in the news about it.  Asking around at work it seems that this is just all in a day’s work for WA Police.  Where ever a group of Gypsy Jokers go, so do several patrol cars, just to make sure there’s no trouble.

 

Apart from trying not to inadvertently offend any outlaw bikie gangs, we had a good time in Kalgoorlie.  Harrison got to pan for gold (and picked up a sizable rock that he decided was his very own gold nugget (we wish!)), and go down an underground gold mine.  The Easter Bunny managed to find him at Kalgoorlie and left eggs scattered around the courtyard of our unit.  He also got a soft Peter Rabbit toy with a blue jacket that has barely left Harrison’s side since Easter morning. 

 

We stopped at York on the way to Kalgoorlie and discovered a lovely cafe that had gluten free bread, and a gorgeous home-made gluten free chocolate cake.  Apparently there are several places in York with gluten free food (but on Good Friday only one was open), so a weekend visit is in order.  Kalgoorlie wasn’t so strong on catering for his diet, and we had to take food for him everywhere we went.  I guess it’s just something we have to get used to.

Leaving home

Harrison has announced his intention to move in with Carla, one of his day-carers. Carla has looked after him for 2 years, and leaves today to go on maternity leave. Harrison has decided that the way to cope with her loss is to move in with her and her new baby. He would like the baby to be a boy, and to grow up very fast so that it becomes his big brother. He has also started asking me to pull my hair back in a pony tail like Carla (and when I do he sighs, looks lovingly at me, and says "Hi Carla").... I'm trying not to take it personally.

Buried in books

We took this photo of Harrison as a memento after we came home from the Writers Festival.

Our house

Here are a few views from our house... They're taken from our balcony (sunset and Rottnest) and from our front door. We regularly see the colourful tops of kite surfers from our front door, and at night we can count the flashes of the Rottnest lighthouse from our dining room. On Australia Day we watched the City Beach fireworks from our balcony - close enough to smell and see the smoke.

City Beach sunset

I took Simon to dinner at Oceanus restaurant at City Beach on the 12th - to celebrate his native title book coming out, and also as an early Valentines Day dinner. It was a very hot night (and astonishingly, the restaurant isn't airconditioned!). All that glass directly facing the west, with the tables positioned for sunset viewing made for an uncomfortable dining experience. We did have a nice meal (the Asian influenced tasting plate we shared was lovely, Simon's steak was apparently great, but his dessert was simply scoops of a readily available brand of gelato, and mine was a bit uninspired).

Weather

I have Toowoomba, Brisbane and Perth weather on my iGoogle page...  so I can see if we’ve chosen the right place to live!  Over the last week it looks like Perth has begun its cool-down.  The overnight temperatures are usually lower than Toowoomba’s even if the maximum for the day is relatively high.  And it now takes quite a long time to warm up during the day.  For instance, right now it’s 21 degrees in Perth, and 29 in Toowoomba, and our overnight temp was 5 degrees lower than Toowoomba’s.

Writers Festival

The Writers Festival is on at UWA this weekend, as part of the Perth International Arts Festival.  Simon is away for a 4 day weekend (driving up to Kalbarri to check out places for us to stay in July), so I thought I’d take Harrison along on Sunday.  It’s the “family” day, so there are children’s book readings and actors doing fairytales.  Should be fun.

Best seller?

Simon’s native title book has sold almost 200 copies in the first month (which is about $24,000 worth). Pretty good for a “heavy” academic book.

On air again

Hooray - I'm at home and online! The Telstra guy came (6 hours late, but he did arrive), and found an apparently very simple problem which could have been fixed as far back as January 25th... It's so nice to make a call on the landline, and such a relief to fire up the laptop and find we're on the network.

Juno

We used some movie vouchers Simon got from a publisher the other night, while Marg babysat Harrison. There wasn't much of a choice at our closest Hoyts, so with some trepidation we decided to see Juno. The shorts had looked good, and it got great reviews, but somehow we didn't see how a movie about a sassy pregnant teenager could not end up being cringeworthy and predictable.



Juno turned out to be one of the best movies I've seen in quite a while. Loved the soundtrack, the script, the location, the cinematography... It managed to treat a wide range of diverse characters warmly. The highly strung Type-A personality would-be adoptive mum wasn't ridiculed in the script for her need to have a perfect life, the not-ready-for-fatherhood would-be adoptive dad got a sympathy vote despite some of his actions, the parents of the pregnant teen got much better than superficial treatment, the pregnant teen wasn't just a fast talking too cool for school chick....



Highly recommended.

Off air

We’re still off the air...  Our phone (and broadband) has been dead for 2 weeks, and isn’t likely to be fixed until at least Saturday.   Part of the problem (IMHO) is that Telstra owns the infrastructure, while AAPT provides our “service”.  Telstra won’t talk direct to me as I’m not their customer, but they have to identify and fix the fault.  So my communication goes via AAPT, and I’m sure gets muddled in the process.  Even getting a phone service when we moved was a lesson in telecommunications competition policy.  Optus point blank refused to give us a service because they had no control over how much Telstra would decide to charge them for line rental. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about the previous government’s decision to privatise all of Telstra, including the infrastructure... 

 

All this means that we can’t log in and check email at home, or pay bills online, or talk to friends or family easily (our house is in a bit of a mobile black hole, and unless you stand perfectly still in a particular spot with your right arm outstretched, your mobile connection drops out... plus of course, it’s expensive to talk to Qld on a mobile).

 

Return of the intrepid traveller

Simon had a week off to do some solo driving and camping (his favourite type of holiday). After to-ing and fro-ing about whether to drive north to Kalbarri and Exmouth to seek out good spots for us to holiday in July, or to escape the heat and go south, he decided Exmouth was too hot, and he would go south. He covered a good chunk of the south west – Margaret River, Pemberton, Augusta, Walpole, Denmark, Albany and the Stirling Ranges.

He did a very long driving day on Friday to get back early (he was expected on Saturday), stopping in at Bunbury to buy me a teeny tiny camera to thank me for letting him have this time off. I absolutely love it. It’s a Panasonic (like our other digital camera) except that whereas the other one looks and feels like a “real” camera and has a 10x optical zoom, this one will slip into a pocket or a small handbag and is easy to take out and about.

We went to Hillarys on Sunday morning for a swim (it was HOT!). We also went to Mel and Tim’s to meet their new puppy Coco on Sunday afternoon. H just LOVED the puppy. I think he totally exhausted her, as she’s only 6 weeks old and chasing a 3 year old around is hard work for her.

>

Simon has another 2 days leave up his sleeve, so is thinking of taking a 4 day weekend. I’m wondering what kind of gadget I can wrangle out of him for that trip…. Better put my thinking cap on!

I'm looking for my mummy

Simon and Harrison spent a few days down south this week, and one night H got himself worked up about missing me, and wouldn't go to sleep. Each time Simon put him to bed, he would come out a short time later. One time he came out carrying Simon's mobile phone, and handed it to him with a very serious look on his face. Simon noticed that Alison's name was on the screen. The conversation went like this -
Simon - "Hello"
Alison - "Hi, a little boy just rang this number looking for his mummy"
Simon - "Hi, it's Simon!"
Alison - "Hi, my name's Alison. A little boy just rang this number saying he wanted his mummy"
Simon - "Alison, it's me Simon - your brother in law!"
Laughter all round....

Kayley and Laura visiting

We have another set of visitors this week. Kayley and her friend Laura are visiting. Both 16, and lovely guests. The new Weber Q is getting a workout, and Harrison has developed a real 3 year old's crush on Kayley. Lots of hugs and hand holding... Laura is thinking of doing primary teaching when she gets to Uni. She is obviously on the right track, because she chose a lovely, age appropriate book as a gift for Harrison (Bob Graham's Let's Get a Pup). Here’s the Amazon record… I really must get going with Library Thing and catalogue H's books.

Qantas wins hearts and minds

Last January I had the fun experience of being made to wait 5 hours for the next flight to Perth because I missed the check in deadline by 1 minute. Qantas out did themselves this Christmas.

We all flew to Brisbane on Christmas night, arriving about midnight. Unfortunately one of our bags did not. It appeared at the time that another passenger with an almost identical bag had taken mine in error, leaving his behind. There followed 2 weeks of repeated phone calls and several visits to the Brisbane airport trying to get answers about where my bag was, and trying to get them to contact that passenger. The day after I got back to Perth, I got a call from one of the coach places inside Brisbane airport saying my bag had just been handed in (apparently intact). That same day as my bag was discovered in Brisbane, Simon flew in to Perth (he had a different flight from Harrison and me), with his luggage and a jogging stroller. It almost defies belief, but THE STROLLER DID NOT ARRIVE!!!! So now we had TWO pieces of missing luggage to be delivered. Thankfully they are both now at home, and I can hardly wait to get home tonight and make sure that everything that should be in the bag is there.