In the past week, I've flown to Brisbane and back twice. My Uncle Frank got very sick. My sister, my cousin and I are his closest relatives, and we all live interstate. Thankfully we were able to go and see him. He passed away on Sunday morning. It was peaceful in the end, but it was still a shock. You may have noticed I've been pretty quiet this week.It's because my uncle passed
From my sister's "Best of British" birthday party in October. I used to love The Bill (before it went all soapie), so I thought I'd go for it. I didn't know until we were had all arrived that my cousin Justin and his girlfriend Valerie had the same idea. We've had the toy helmet sitting around for years. The top was a $7 safety vest I decorated with a home-made stencil and spray paint. The
Marita's dad Michael was the nicest bloke you could meet. Tragically he died in a farming accident on Wednesday afternoon. RIP Michael 1941-2012
My cousin Justin's move to Melbourne gives me an opportunity to see the public transport network from the perspective of a brand new user. He's pretty well travelled, having spent extensive time in Europe recently, mostly based in London, but with plenty of travel to other cities. So he's used PT systems in many other cities. Welcome to Myki On my prompting Justin got a Myki card, topped it
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to have my cousin Justin in town. He grew up in Brisbane, then Newcastle, before moving to Perth, so we barely saw him when growing up. He moved to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, and is now settling into his new flat and job here. Heading over to the flat on Saturday to help him take a fridge delivery and do an Ikea run for essentials got me thinking
This creation by my super-talented sister, for Isaac's birthday.
So this is Terminal 4 Arrivals -- where you greet passengers arriving in Melbourne on Tiger Airways: You can't go in, they can only come out. There's no shelter to speak of -- if it rains, you'd better wait in your car (if you brought one). Inside there's just luggage collection. No trolley until you get outside. Up the back there were some toilets and chip machines, and possibly a bench
In 2008 I started a project I wish I'd started earlier: Every few months we get out the tripod, switch the camera to auto, and take a photo of ourselves in front of the house. I got the idea from a newspaper article. Some of them are taken just as we leave on a weekday morning, in school uniform/work clothes. Some of them are on a weekend. We try to stand in the same positions each time.
A bit late, but some things I plan to do this year: Teach my kids chess Try to declutter the house Get Jeremy into his own bedroom Get all of us more exercise Write a computer game (even a simple one) to get more enthused again about programming Replace the TV with something shiny, flat, and digital -- DONE! Have a more regular bedtime Plan a Proper Holiday Not let any g
Quieter than usual due to my boys being away in Hawaii, but I chatted with them on Skype this evening. Presents are easier now all the adults in the family have switched to (non-anonymous) Kris Kringle... and of course we stuffed ourselves full of heaps of food. The only downer was being locked-out of my sister's house for a little while, and I managed to get the wrong thing for my niece's
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