My Blog Posts

We have made it to April, 2011. Here are two boys showing off their acheivement awards from Manly West. In April we have had the Easter school holidays and the start of the second term of the year. Both boys went to ‘vacation care’ at their Mum’s office and loved every minute. Both have lost a tooth (or two) and no one has had a hair cut.

Today was the last day of the 1st term of 2011. The end of MIGO’s first full term of school. A double whammy day for the Todd boys. At Manly West they give numeracy and literacy awards at the end of each term and the two apples of my eye received one each. JFGP received his award for “excellence in Mathematics” and MIGO was rewarded for his “keen interest in numbers”. It fair brings a tear of pride to my eye to have a couple of swots on the team. Although they have also joined the Chess club, and that may be a nerdy step too far.

Here are the two boys in question in March, 2011. Since we last published a photo we haven’t done much. We did go to Jervis Bay and dress as Romans, but aside from that they have been spending most of their time at school and then recovering from being at school. This year the boys are in before and after school care and adapting to a new routine. Instead of lounging around the house in their pyjamas until 8:30 and then sauntering down the road to school they have to get up early, get dressed (usually whilst still complaining that they are asleep), have some breakfast and then be out of the house by 7:30. Then after school they stay until we pick them up at 5:30. After a quick dash home it’s time for homework, dinner, bath and then into bed. With all of this going on there isn’t much spare time for causing havoc and mayhem.

It would appear that I have been remiss. A quick check of the archives shows that I haven’t shown you any photos of the kids since November 2010. I have been taking them, honest. In fact if you check the photo set you will see entries for January and December. The December one is a bit different as it was the official family photo from Christmas 2010.

This one is a bit late, but has been up on flickr for a while. Here are two small boys in November, 2010. In the month since the last photo the junior members of the team have been on their first camping holiday. As a sign that they are growing up the smallest member of the team has attended his initiation at Manly West and is all ready to start at big school next year. He has the uniform the hat and the bag and he has taken to wearing it to pre-school most days. Photos will be forthcoming of a small boy and a very large bag.

It’s ok. We survived. The Todd family went on our first camping holiday for a weekend. Although the weather forecast had been dire for the previous week and we drove down under grey skies and drizzle Saturday dawned bright, sunny and hot. We spent most of Saturday and Sunday on the lovely white beaches of Jervis Bay. The ankle biters and I, with “help” from some of the other kids in the party and the team civil engineer, dug an enormous hole. And what do you do when you’ve dug a big hole in the sand? Why, jump in it of course. According to two small boys this camping lark is quite fun.

It all started in the pub, as these things often do. Ben told us that he had applied to take part in the Red Bull Flugtag, and been accepted. Whilst Richard and I were very happy for him we wondered why he was mentioning it to us. We soon found out because we were informed that we had been selected to be Ben’s support team. And so I found myself on a Sunday afternoon in November perched on a platform 6 metres above Sydney harbour wearing a completely black outfit, fake moustache and full wig headbanging to ‘Ace of Spades’ and then - oh just watch the video …

As it was the last day of October the ankle biters insisted on dressing up and then roaming the streets in search of sweets. Ordinarily I’d be a little bit concerned but given that this is October this kind of behaviour is considered quite acceptable. In fact they were part of one of the many gangs roaming the streets this evening. I must say that they got away with quite a haul. It’s probably a good thing that I took them both to the dentist for a check up last week. If I took them next week there would be much pursing of lips and shaking of heads by the dental professionals due to the amount of sugar that is going to be consumed in the next few days.

Here are the two apples of our eyes pictured in October, 2010. They have just come to the end of two weeks school holidays, a small break before the final term of the school year. Many people have gone away, we didn’t. Mum was working hard on a hardware upgrade and I have no holiday. It didn’t stop two small boys having a great time. They have play dates, been to the movies, tried a couple of new parks and spent far too much time playing computer games. In fact they even persuaded Lesley to let them rent a couple of Wii games for a few days last week. Now I just have to explain why I won’t be buying them their own copies of these games.

Here we find our intrepid small children in September 2010. A little larger, a few more teeth (this time) and to show that spring is in the air JFGP has even taken his socks off. This month’s highlight for the boys was the renewal of our passes to the local swimming pool. This means free and unfettered access whenever they like. Or at least whenever they can persuade someone to take them. So excited were they that they made SWMBO and I take them one Sunday afternoon towards the end of August. The air temperature was in the low teens and the pool temperature not much warmer. In order of “northern-ness” the family rankings were: last - SWMBO, not quite as soft - MIGO, equal rock hardest - JFGP and my good self. I think I need say no more.

It has been a while, but here is the latest instalment in my occasional series “two growing boys”. Since the last time they were featured on this blog the boys have had a birthday each during a visit to the mother country. This had two great advantages for me - no birthday parties to fund and less presents to buy because the baggage allowance wouldn’t allow much. They did have a great time and were spoilt rotten whilst we were away. But that has all stopped now that we are back home. The poor dears now have to exist on a diet of bread and water and endure regular forced marches, all the way to school and back.

We have been in the UK for the last couple of weeks. Sorry for not posting anything sooner but here are some snaps. Today we went on the rattler to London (from sunny Bracknell) and went on the London Eye. Here is the proof. This was the first time Granny Perry had been on the train to the capital for the best part of 30 years, but the trip went smoothly. The weather was sunny and the skies clear so we could see most of London during our ‘flight’.

Taking a leaf out of the ever smashing Scaryduck’s book please find below a top tune for you to love. It’s from Justin Currie’s first solo album “What is Love For?” and comes in two parts because it is double good; No, Surrender - Part 1 No, Surrender - Part 2 For some unknown reason I only got hold of this album a couple of weeks ago. It’s a bit dark but blimey it’s good. Give it a listen.

Do you remember that card game you used to play as a family when you were younger? You know; rummy, cribbage, 500, 9 card brag, Canasta, or some other equally obscure game. But do you remember the rules? Because I certainly don’t. For an afternoon, or more usually a damp British summer, I would have been able to quote you chapter and verse on the game we were playing. Thirty years later and my memory gets a little hazy. Don’t fear though gentle reader because this is the internet and everything is here.

Here we have the great hopes for the household in their usual pose. Here in Sydney Autumn has finally arrived and sensible people have started dressing in warm(er) clothes. Some members of the household have taken to demanding hot water bottles and extra blankets at bed time. They are in for a rude shock when we visit the UK in July, I suspect that they will be demanding thermal underwear as soon as we touch down at Heathrow.

Here we have the two little charmers in April, 2010. We have survived the Easter school holidays, including a trip to Albury and Wodonga. Some say that it is the wild border country, we just couldn’t spot the joins. I did try and convince JFGP that he needed his passport every time we crossed from NSW to Victoria (and vice versa) but despite some initial gullibility he just wasn’t buying it. Back to the drawing board.

Here we have the junior members of the team in March, 2010. Not a lot has happened since last month’s photo, although it is getting towards the end of the first school term of 2010 and everyone is getting a little tired and emotional. Not least the parents of these two little charmers.

There is an old adage in management circles that people optimise their work towards what is measured. In my business if you measure someone on the number of bugs they fix it has been observed that some programmers will actually introduce problems in their code just so that they can fix them and increase their measured ‘worth’. Something similar has happened in our house. One of the junior members of the team (no names, no pack drill) has made a habit recently of climbing into our bed in the middle of the night. The occasional cuddle is OK but this had been happening every night for a number of weeks. I’d tried rational discussion, encouragement and even a little bribery but it still was carrying on. As a last resort I reached for the metaphorical stick. I said to the cuddler that every time he got into our bed I would charge him a dollar. He even paid up for the first two nights.

Once more it has been a little quiet around these parts. Whilst I’m busy doing things other than writing here are some things which I have recently discovered to be rather good: Outbursts - the last track on Outbursts by Turin Brakes Glad and Sorry - track 3 on CD2 of There’s a Whole New World Out There by the ever marvellous Francis Dunnery The fine work of Graeme Swann on Twitter Halting State by Charlie Stross

We’ve just had our annual weekend at the beach in Huskisson, and a great time was had by all. Most of us were expecting a couple of quiet days by the beach with the evenings spent in convivial conversation, good food and perhaps a glass of wine or two. Little did we know that Team Reeve had been plotting and planning. With the aid of a range of suppliers (“it’s amazing what you can find on eBay”) we were all kitted out with full pirate gear and participated in themed events including a treasure hunt. To quote our t-shirts “To err is human, to arr is Pirate!”