My Blog Posts

A certain small boy of my acquaintance is a big fan of Thomas the Tank Engine, except he pronouns it “Thomas the Tanken Engine”. So much of a fan is he that when we went on our excursion to the Hunter Valley last week we had to take a Thomas DVD with us. The good news was that this provided many happy hours of baby sitting service for us, although the occassonal adult did get to sit with him and watch the stories.

It seems like ages since I’ve posted anything of note, for which many apologies. My excuses are many and varied, including sickness, apathy, the arrival of my folks from the mother country and the return of my new computer to the shop so that they can fix it’s wireless card. Regardless, I’m back having just had a week’s holiday including a couple of days in the Hunter Valley. We stayed at Lovedale Cottages where they have a very friendly dog. He’s called Zen and he’s pictured here getting friendly with JFGP.

Sorry about the lack of posts, I’ve been rather busy. And sick. In fact, I’ve had this same cold for two and a half weeks and it’s outstaying it’s welcome rather spectacularly. The kids have been sick as well. Then my folks arrived on Monday so last week was lost to cleaning and preparing. Did I also mention that I’ve been sick? Regardless, it doesn’t matter. Because today I found out that the Pub Landlord has a blog. Most excellent.

My commiserations to those living in the mother country. Last night the commons voted for the introduction of compulsory ID cards. There goes your budget surplus and any semblance of civil rights. Hey ho.

Following on from our last toothy news update, last weekend I managed to catch the boy smiling. So I whipped out the camera and got this shot of the tooth in question. Of course it’s already out of date as the second one made an entrance yesterday. You’ve got to be on your toes in the fast moving world of dentistry.

Over the weekend the youngest member of the team cut his first tooth. NTHE (as he shall henceforth be known about these parts) is now proudly sporting his first incisor and the second one should be appearing any day now. Luckily for SWMBO we weaned him off the boob several weeks ago so there shouldn’t be any biting pain. Apart from when he tries to chew my finger off, which seems to be the funniest thing he’s ever seen or done.

After a mere three and a bit years I’ve finally updated the stacker page. No thanks are necessary, I merely do it to improve your web surfing experience and at the prompting of the cheapskate tennis coach. By the way Chris, your site looks rubbish in Camino.

A gentle introduction to philosophy for those of us without a background in the subject, The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton muses on some of life’s seemingly intractable problems and garners advice from some of history’s most eminent and interesting philosophers. From Socrates to Nietzche via Epicurus and Montaigne Alain de Botton shows us that our lot isn’t as bad as we thought it was, and even if it is some very smart people can show you that you aren’t suffering alone.

Please ignore the man behind the curtain. SWMBO is out again. Rather than wolfing down a curry this time I’m taking the opportunity to upgrade the software that runs this diary. If things look a bit funny my apologies, but normal service will hopefully be resumed very soon.

Because I don’t live in Britain any more. Sadly those of you that do will be liable for a fine of up to two and a half thousand pounds if you don’t have an ID card. Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.

We have an arrangement, SWMBO and I. Because she’s not a big fan of food with flavour, and especially not anything containing coriander, I’m only allowed to cook and eat curries when she isn’t at home. Now that she’s a lady of leisure that isn’t often, but it’s Emma’s birthday today (happy birthday old bean) and so the ladies have gone out for a couple of glasses of falling down water and a slap up Thai. Which meant that after I’d put the kids to bed I got to consume a chicken balti and a couple of garlic naan washed down by a couple of cold beverages.

A rather belated happy new year to you and yours. NTHE and SWMBO are pleased to be in 2006 and hope that it will be a cracking year. On an unrelated note, Emma asked SWMBO and I what our highlights of 2005 were. She was rather stuck for an answer and couldn’t come up with anything immediately. I said that I thought that having a son was quite a highlight of the year. To which the reply was " oh yeah, we did that didn’t we."

For those like me who are at home on New Years Eve here’s hoping that your next year is all that you want it to be. I’m determined this evening not to watch crappy ghost hunting TV shows like SWMBO forced me to do two years ago. In case you’re worried, we have stuck to the Sydney tradition and watched the nine o’clock fireworks. The only difference is that this year we’ve watched them from the comfort of our lounge rather than live from the harbour foreshore. I am officially middle aged.

As we all know, timing is the key to good comedy. With that in mind I present to you this shot of our wall planner at home. As you’ll see SWMBO has marked up the major holidays coming up. But wait, there’s something a little amiss. Can you tell what it is? I think my lovely wife needs a new nickname after this miscalculation. Any suggestions?

Congratulations to the Ramsbottoms of Oxfordshire on the arrival of a son at 10:40am on the 13th of December, 2005. Exactly 94 years after his Great-Grandfather. Good work Vikki and Mark, we expect to see photos soon. Blimey, I’m an uncle. Update: He’s now been named, say hello to Ciaran Mark Ramsbottom who weighed 6lb 8oz when he was born.

There is hope for Australian television. For tonight at 7:30pm SBS are starting to show Top Gear. I’ll be riveted to my seat. The bad news, of course, is that this series is over a year old. The good news is that we will be able to watch the entire saga of Jeremy Clarkson and his Ford GT.

We bought a Christmas tree yesterday. Doing the good thing we paid hard cash to the local Scout troop for one of their trees. As you can see from the picture it’s a little bit tired, we’re hoping that a few days of love and copious amounts of water will perk it up a bit. Otherwise we are going to have a bit of a droopy Christmas. It’s nice to see though, that the appropriate attire was worn whilst decorating the tree.

If anyone at work suggests that I participate in any mutual gift giving this festive season (or any future one for that matter) I’m going to politely refuse and point them to this comic strip to explain my reasoning. Excuse me whilst I go and kick a few puppies as well.

I haven’t posted a photo for a while, but I’m making up for it with this corker of the kids. I managed to catch JFGP in a rare moment of rest and HBIB not sleeping, eating or crying. Not one to waste an opportunity I took a photo to prove that they were still and fairly quiet - at least the once.

This one is mainly for the 70’s throwback. Apologies if it makes no sense to you. Quoted in today’s Guardian over-by-over cricket coverage, from John Peel’s biography; “When Chris Moyles came to Radio One, I thought about strapping explosives to myself and taking us both out. I’m an old man now, it’ll make little difference.”