What’s Doing

The boy’s great Aunt and Uncle are in town so we met them at their hotel and then went for lunch in Darling Harbour. Whilst we were waiting for our food JFGP decided to try out the new video camera.

Many apologies for the speedy pans, you have been warned, but his Mum says that he is a natural and will be turning out ninety minute feature films before you can say “Alfred Hitchcock”. I’ll leave it to you to decide on the quality of his work, which you will find here.

For our second video this month JFGP explains what he is doing. Why am I sharing video with you? Because it is the first one from my new camcorder. Special thanks to Grandad Perry for posting it on to us.

Expect much more moving picture goodness in the near future as the whole family seems rather taken with it. SWMBO thinks that it so easy to use she is planning on taking it to work tomorrow. Keep an eye on YouTube for the fruits of her labours.

I’ve just checked and there is a bloke at the end of our street with a pile of wood and nails. Not to mention a variety of interesting looking hammers. He is calling himself Noah and I’m beginning to think that he isn’t that mad after all.

I love the sub-tropical summer.

Today was JFGP’s first day at school. For those not paying attention he is now a student at Manly West.

When I got home from work I was keen to find out how he had fared. You can find the results here.

Oh dear. The most striking anagram for my name seems to be;

"Traded Down".

A good alternative seems to be "Tad Drowned".

I don’t know what this tells us about me, I may have to go and think about it for a while with a cold beverage. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Or go there and try out your own name then let us all know through the wonder of this blog what it comes up with.

A Colbertian tip of the hat to Hamish Newlands for the link.

I’ve been doing a little tidying up hereabouts, there will be points awarded if anyone can spot what I’ve changed.

Meanwhile I rediscovered an old gem. Have you seen this page?

Happy turn of the year everyone. I thought I would get in early this year with a shot of the family sitting on Manly harbour beach watching the ‘family’ fireworks this evening.

This year we didn’t plan so much as just wander down there and see what was going on. The ankle biters got to go on a bouncy castle and we managed to nab a spot on the beach to watch the fireworks. When they were all over (I counted 7 “the big finale is just coming up” from SWMBO) we simply walked up the hill and put the tin lids to bed. Sadly by that time it was over two hours after their normal bedtime. I suspect that we will have a couple of tired, grumpy munchkins tomorrow (and we will notice the difference how …)

Anyway: charge your glass, raise it in our general direction and ‘chin chin’ everyone.

Festive season anticipation is reaching fever pitch in our house at the moment.

The tree has been up for a few weeks and JFGP and MIGO have been very particular about dividing up the space under the plastic branches for their presents. To the left as you face the tree is the elder ratbag’s pile of plunder and the youngest member of the team is to the right. The aged p’s (that’s me and SWMBO) get a sliver of space between the two, which is lucky as so far we don’t seem to have more than a single wrapped present at the moment.

I have started the festive cooking blowout today by whipping up a batch of mincemeat. Then SWMBO is going to whip up a batch of proper shortcrust pastry and we will be in mince pie heaven. Then I will move onto my famous sausage rolls, and time permitting may be persuaded to whip up one of Alex’s famous apple flans.

Here’s hoping that your Christmas preparations are progressing well and aren’t too stressful.

Today’s spark of inspiration is that the world is divided into two types of people. You can tell the difference when they are faced with a problem of some sort, of any sort in fact. The two approaches are;

1. I’m waiting for someone to tell me how to sort this out.
2. There are the ways we can sort this out, one of them may even work, let’s try this one.

I would like to hire lots of people who fall into category 2 please.

Having experienced a numerically significant birthday in the last couple of weeks I don’t want to regale you with stories of my derring do or lists of expensive presents. I’d rather share with you a couple of quotes. The first is from a birthday card sent by my brother in law and his tribe:

"being forty is having a choice between two temptations and choosing the one that will get you home earlier." - Dan Bennet

The second was from a friend via text message on my big day:

"Many happy returns for your birthday … Can you see me I am all the way back in the 30’s waving"

As those of us who have achieved peace and enlightenment know, he can say that now but I’ll be waiting for him in a few years.