My Blog Posts

An occassional competition, run when I feel like it and when I find a name that is so good it must be applauded - or the parents prosecuted for child abuse. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present this week’s winner, spotted on an internal email at work - “Irish Fearsâ€?.

Many apologies, December and January seem to have slipped by without much in the way of photography. But I am pleased to show you a picture of two smalls boy in February, 2010. In the last 3 months they have had a fine old time with 2 holidays, 3 trips to various soft play facilities, an outing to feed sharks and rays, a Christmas full of presents and delights, and a return to school for a new year.

In 1995 I bought an album called “Tall Blonde Helicopter” by Francis Dunnery. Last night he played most of it in my living room. Accompanied by stories about the events and people that inspired the songs he was singing Francis managed to engage and entrance an audience largely made up of people unfamiliar with his work. Well, to be honest, apart from Chris and Tom (who came with Francis) I was probably the only one in the room to have listened to more than one or two of his songs. But at one of Francis’ house concerts it doesn’t matter whether you know every chord (and word) of every song or if you’ve never heard a note of his before. With wit, warmth and an infectious enthusiasm he draws everyone into “the jacuzzi” and shares stories, insights, philosophy and a side order of therapy to entertain and inform. For the best part of two hours he had a room full of people firmly in the now and not worrying about their pasts or their futures. What a top bloke. What a top evening.

Welcome to November, and here is the monthly shot of JFGP and MIGO presented for your “haven’t they grown” pleasure. Note the particularly fine outfit that my youngest son is wearing, the only way to get it off him at the moment is to offer to mend the holes in it. Pretty soon the whole suit will have more repairs than original material. The competition now is for you, dear reader, to spot the differences between this month’s picture and the one from last month. Answers on a postcard, or in the comments below.

On Thursday the 19th of November we are hosting a night of music and entertainment and you’re invited. Francis Dunnery has been making music for the best part of 30 years, first as the singer and lead guitarist of It Bites and since the early 90s as a solo artist. He combines great songwriting and virtuoso playing that never fails to entertain. In his spare time he has played and recorded with such artists as Robert Plant, Carlos Santana and the Fugees.

We have made it to our holiday destination. Unfortunately the weather would better suit an English winter than an Aussie spring. The good news is that the driving rain and southerly wind are due to come to an end. The bad news is that the bureau of meteorology are saying that this is going to happen just as we are packing the car and heading home. So we are having a typically British holiday. The jumpers are on and any child friendly facility that is indoors is on the agenda. Photos may be forthcoming if I don’t ruin the electronics by getting them too damp.

I appear to have missed September, sorry about that. But here is the second in our series of pictures of two small boys growing up. You can see the first one here. It’s a bit more than the calendar says, but we will call this month 2. I would try and give you a running commentary on changes, but apart from hair a bit longer (MIGO) and shorter (JFGP thanks to a haircut) I can’t really say that a lot of things have actually, you know, changed. See you next month.

At about this time for the last couple of years my lovely wife’s thoughts have turned to holidays for the family. Spring is approaching, the weather is getting warmer and we can look forward to getting away as a family for some fun in the sun. In appreciation of the delights of the global financial crisis and the corresponding impact on our incomes we aren’t going on a big summer holiday this year. We may ‘go large’ next year and given a following wind and a decent bonus are planning to visit the UK next July - mark your diaries dear readers.

I have decided to start a project. With two small boys in the house and around all of the time its hard to see the changes that are going on in and around us. They must be growing because the food bills are staying high and only the other night JFGP told me that I would have to get a different pair of pyjamas out for him the following night because the ones that I had provided were too snug. Although he did graciously allow that he would wear them for one more night because it would have been too much bother to change them now that he had got them on.

One of the things that has been keeping me away from writing on this blog is a little bit of rock and roll. I’m pleased to announce that on Thursday the 18th of November, 2009 we will be hosting a Francis Dunnery house concert. I’ve been a fan of his for (more than) a few years; starting with discussing Big Lad in the Windmill with Craig Elston in our Economics class in 1987, watching It Bites at the Birmingham Hummingbird in 1989. The 70’s throwback introduced me to his solo album Fearless in 1994, and I bought every album he has put out since then. Other highlights include the best live concert I’ve ever seen at the Birmingham Mac in 2002 and a great night at the Union Chapel in Islington including an appearance by Chris Difford. Heck, we even played his music at our wedding.

It is July and the ankle biter’s birthdays (JFGP turns 6 and MIGO turns 4 in the next week) are fast approaching. Small boy’s thoughts then naturally turn to presents and parties. Luckily SWMBO was on the case and organised a sports activities party for the boys and a few of their close friends. Presided over by Terry the small people got to run around for a couple of hours, interrupted only by breaks for light refreshments and the odd rain shower.

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.

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 …)

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.

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; I’m waiting for someone to tell me how to sort this out. 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.