Happy New Year, and That's All Folks!

This is it, its New Years Eve and I've been typing up my final post! I thought I'd summarise the year of Blog posts I've made, although there is much finer reading by going through the archive sets.

• In January we had the Crying Baby, and The First Day Of School.
  
• In February we had The Story of Wednesday (the Dog), Callum's so called First Word (and he still doesn't talk), and our favourite past time of Going to the Beach.


• In March we had Callum's Chickenpox, Sleepy Children, The Golden Crutch (one of my literary masterworks), and my first Taekwondo grading.


• April brought the first of the birthdays with Aidan's birthday, Stupid Faces, Our Melbourne Trip including Going to the Zoo with all the nieces and nephews, and Ethan having a Heart Attack at soccer.


• In May we had Six Strange Things About Me, Hell Morning followed by Aidan's Child of Courage Award, Anth's Birthday, and my first trip to the U.S. for the year.
  
• For the first part of June I was in the U.S., but I did have the good fortune of seeing my Sister and Her Family. On the return I got to see Callum Crawling and had My Birthday.


• In July, we saw what it was like to have Dinner at our Place, Discussed God, had Ethan's teeth fall out, and had Ethan's Sports Day.


• In August Ethan got the Taekwondo Student of the Month Award, I did the Bridge to Brisbane run (and paid for it for months!), went to the Ekka, Went to a Farm, and had Aidan's Sports Day.


• September brought forth Aidan's Charity Art Auction night, spring Callum eating Chocolate, and had Callum's First Birthday


• In October I went down to New South Wales to watch the AFL Grand Final with mates, Callum stood for the first time, I headed back to the U.S. again and wasn't home for Ethan's birthday, and Callum really got going walking.


• In November Ethan took up Auskick, we had family outings to the Park, and I got very very sick.


• Which brings us to December, where we've already had many trips to the beach, we completed nearly a whole year of Taekwondo (including with Snake!), we got our new Bird Beefy, and recently celebrated Christmas.

Well, that's if from this particular Angry Dad for a Year in the Life Of experiment. I've enjoyed doing it, and hope this can be around long enough for me to get a complete copy for my kids prosperity. Thanks to all those who read, commented and offered advice throughout the year. Your reveiwing and reading generosity has been muchly appreciated.

Ciao for Now, Finished Angry Dad.

P.S. I haven't gone completely, I'm going to attempt a new blog called I Love Brisbane. Check it out!

Go Kart

How cool is this! My nephew Christopher got a Go Kart for Christmas. As Uncle Andrew lives on a nice big block of land, he is able to ride it all over their yard. He's already set up a track which loops around the main house and the guest house, and covers most of the back yard. We went up to Noosa again today to do a Christmas visit to my brother's family, and this is what welcomed us. Ethan was wrapped, and fortunately he got to have a go too!

Chris seemed quite happy to have us there. He even let his uncle have a go. It didn't quite go as well up hill as I would have hoped, but once I got it on the down hill run, I was able to power slide it around the bottom half of the yard. I even took it around the house, and once it got off the grass onto the bitumen, it showed its extra bite. Quite scary, but also a hell of a lot of fun.

We had to face over a two and a half hour drive to get up to Noosa today, which was twice as long as normal. It seemed everyone in Brisbane was going North. We therefore didn't stay too long at Uncle Andrew's, enough to say Hi, eat a sandwich and some cake, and then nick off. As our kids were being their loud, annoying and destructive selves this was probably not such a bad thing. We also had to fit in a quick trip to see Grandma again for Aidan's benefit. So most of today was spent travelling or visiting in a rush.

Ciao for Now, Lets Go Karting Angry Dad.

Aidan's Pants

This should have been a nice, relaxing post about our day trip up to Montville on the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Instead its about Aidan's Pants. We braved the Sunshine Coast traffic today, and sat on the main highway north out of Brisbane for a good half an hour before getting off for a long winded alternative route. This meant we ended up in Montville for a later than expected lunch.



It has changed a bit since we were last there. There was a new restaurant and shopping area called The Edge, which has great views back down to the Pacific Ocean. Callum was less than impressed about having to stay in his stroller, but Ethan was happy to be there. At this point, Aidan was behaving himself as well. We had lunch, and then decided to have a walk through the township. The town itself is very arts and crafts oriented, with several shops catering for the more eclectic arty farty types like us. Our unfortunate restriction is we never have any money to buy anything! (and if you didn't know by now, I'm tight)

So we'd walked down hill down the the main street of Montville. At this point, as you can see, Aidan was still behaving himself. We went and took the kids to a park so they could run around and let off some energy. That's when Aidan decided his pants didn't fit him quite right, and he undid the cord holding his pants up. From that point on, nothing we could do with his pants would settle him. He bit me. He used his Tourette's like screaming. We had to literally drag him screaming all the way back to the car, a good 20 minutes walk through the holiday crowd. I tried to use all the calming / soothing techniques we've been shown. Nothing worked. Anth took him for the last 10 metres, as I'm sure she was petrified I'd throw him over the edge of the view. It was also then that he started apologising for being naughty. It didn't help. He got a good hour of time out in his room when we got home. He needs new pants.

Ciao for Now, 365th Post Angry Dad. 2 to go!

Surfers Paradise

Today Aidan, Ethan and I went down to the Gold Coast to Surfers Paradise. We were all going to go, but I stuffed around too long in the morning and Callum fell asleep. Anth stayed home to look after him and have what she hoped would be a restful day. I found out afterwards it didn't quite turn out that way for her, as Callum woke up about 5 minutes after we left and wouldn't leave her side for the whole time we were away. Oh, well, they could have been on the beach with us making sand angels.

We spent about an hour wandering on the beach. Aidan decided that he would make a sand chicken nugget, which he'd had at McDonald's for lunch. It probably would have been as tasty. After about half an hour of constantly telling everyone that he met that he had the so called nugget, he decided to take a bite of it. This of course led to a mad dash down into the water to wash his mouth out with sea water. What a lovely way to cleanse the pallet and sand wash your teeth. We did make it down to Cavill Mall, and I got them to stand still almost long enough to take a photo under the beach sign for Surfers.

From there, it was up to Timezone to play some games. They have a great small scale bowling game with side bumpers which was perfect for the kids. The balls are slightly larger than tennis balls, and are rubberised. The kids could hold them in their hands, which made it easy for Aidan to play, although he does bowl very slow balls! They both thought it was fantastic, so I'm glad we went in to keep them entertained.

Ciao for Now, Gold Coasting Angry Dad.

The Best Christmas Card for 2006

I finally got around to looking through the Christmas cards we got this year and I came across this little gem. This was from our nephew Ben, who knowing my penchant for all things Simpsons, drew this number for us. He must have known that as soon as Anth and I opened it up we would be in hysterics. We have a pretty low brow sense of humour, which extends easily to bum jokes. Thanks Ben!

The weather here is playing tricks on us. The past few years have seen this week have temperatures up around 40 degrees Celsius. Today, its rained nearly all day, and has hardly made it above 20. The great thing is that it is raining, and hopefully a bit more will make it into the dams. Our lawn has recovered a little bit, so this has got to be good for that.

All the rain has meant a fair amount of indoor activity. For me, this is mainly watching the cricket on TV. For the kids, this has meant jumping on me whilst I watched the cricket on TV. They've also at times tried to entice me to listen to music, change the channel, watch them dance, fix their toy car sets, play with their toy car sets, fix their radio, turn down their radio, go outside, go inside, give them lollies, give them chips, provide lunch and act as a punching bag. At least Callum was distracted with his new tricycle. I just want to live, goddammit. Won't you let me live?!

Ciao for Now, Still Living Angry Dad.

Boxing Day

Today we came off the high of the past few days. We tried to sleep in, but we had two little friends who kept us awake during most of the night. The first was Callum, who woke up screaming. Anth managed to calm him down enough and get him in to our bed, but within an hour he decided that it would be fun to crawl all over mum and dad in an effort to get comfortable. When he nearly fell out of bed, I took him back to his cot. Soon after that, Aidan decided that he'd get up for the morning. His problem is the constant in and out of the bedroom, slamming the door as he goes. Well, maybe its not his problem, but it sure was ours.

So with tired eyes, we had breakfast, and jumped in the car for the Boxing Day pilgrimage to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Every one else in Brisbane seemed to have decided that they'd go out driving then too, as the roads and highway were packed. I told Mum that because we'd been eating heaps for the past few days, something light was in order, so we got a nice salad and cold meats for lunch rather than a full on cooked meal. This suited me fine. The kids also got spoiled with more presents, including a great ride on tricycle for Callum which we can push and control.

Aidan, Callum, Mum and I went down to Noosa Beach in the afternoon for a walk, whilst Anth slept and Ethan and Dad played games back at the house. It was overcast, although there were still a fair few people on the beach. Callum had a great time walking around in the sand, and Aidan loves it. I love it too, and would live on the beach if I could. I just need to starve myself for 6 months so I can get wash-board abs like most of the other blokes up there!

Ciao for Now, Ab-less Angry Dad.

Christmas Day

In true Aussie style, it was hot on Christmas Day where we live. Not stifling hot like it has been, but hot enough that we went for a swim this afternoon to cool down. We were fortunate that only one of our boys was up early this morning, so we made him wait for the other boys to get up before we got into the presents. This gave us an extra 2 hours sleep in from 5:00am, but made for a cranky Ethan most of the latter part of the day! We ripped into the presents from Santa almost straight away, with Callum the first who had to be placated. As you can see, he liked his shiny new wheelbarrow.

Ethan probably struck the most booty. He got a digital camera, amongst other things, as well as a number of new games and toys. Aidan had only one thing on his mind for the past month. His two favourite television celebrities are Jamie Oliver and Bert Newton. In particular, with Bert he has been telling all and sundry that for Christmas he was getting a Bert Newton DVD. Imagine my surprise when whilst shopping I actually found one, and could let Santa know that it was available. He therefore got DVD's of both of his heroes, and was happy for all of 30 minutes.


Anth and I were happy to get a sleep in. She got a massage iCush for Christmas, which we've all had a turn on. Its like a massage chair with speakers. As you can see, I got something for my lower mandible, also known as the chin, also known as my hairy fatty fat fat face. Christmas is a time for not shaving, so I haven't tried it out yet. I also got a biography on Ricky Gervais, who is a particularly talented comedian I like! All in all, a bloody good Christmas. Cheers!

Ciao for Now, Fatty Fat Fat Fat Angry Dad.

Christmas Eve

We're spending Christmas around home this year. Today we had two local functions on. We had morning tea this morning at Anth's friend Sharon's house. Its great to have friends who are cooks, and we had delicious scones, jam and cream. They then tried to sell me their piano! I just played it instead, badly. I know how to play "Jingle Bells".

Most of the afternoon was spent preparing for our Christmas Eve meal with Graham and Katrina. Amongst other things, Anth makes a spectacular chocolate cake, which takes 2 hours to bake, and is covered in about 6 layers of chocolate. MMMmmm Chocolate. You can see here how we're introducing Callum into the delights of licking the spoon from an early age. Aidan sugared himself up by getting into the act as well. From about 2:00pm it was like he was on speed through to about 9:00pm. Hopefully he'll sleep well tonight for Santa.

Come late afternoon, after the kids had been in for a swim, we started serving up dinner. We had ham and chicken, with a wide selection of roast vegetables. It was delicious. After dinner we did a walk around the suburbs to look at Christmas lights, and then it was back home for the cake. With four adults and four children we hardly made a dent in it. Looks like its chocolate cake for the rest of the week.



Ciao for Now, Christmassy Angry Dad.

Christmas and Shopping

Why is it that me and every other numpty out there decides that the best time to do their food shopping coming up close to Christmas is just before the shops shut? Today was an active day. The morning was spent trying to do some gardening with Callum helping by running through every pile that I'd sweep up, so that I'd have to sweep it up again. Then he'd steel the broom, and the gloves, and the rake, and I'd chase him whilst he thought that it was hilarious.

Late morning, we went out and looked at more cars, and then went into the City to South Bank for lunch. We let the kids loose through the Parklands, playing at the various playgrounds and watching everyone swimming at the man made beach. From there, it was back home, and then out for the last minute shop. Here in Brisbane, all the shops closed today at 5:30pm. Ethan and I were there from 3:30pm, but we had to go to both the supermarket for food and the Big W for last minute gifts, bulk nappies and dog food.

It was packed. And not with normal people. Normal people have done their Christmas shopping by now. Normal people got their groceries earlier in the week. This afternoon was Rage people. People who left everything to the last minute, and now are in a rush, complaining about what's on the shelves, how expensive everything is, and how their favourite piece of crap isn't there. And after I yelled at everyone in the store about the aforementioned things, I got escorted out by security. Well, maybe in my own Angry fantasies. I put up with it like everyone else, because, hey, it's Christmas.

Ciao for Now, Bah BumBugs Angry Dad.

Aidan and Beefy are home

Aidan got back from camp today, and after the drama of dropping him off, I'm happy to report that all the staff members considered him wonderful. There were apparently no tears, and other than a few minor calls for "Daddy" (Why, I'll never know, considering its Mummy who does everything for him) he did not cause any problems. They even commented that for a skinny little boy, he eats like a horse. He came home full of stories and excitement about going to camp. That said, he still wanted to be sure that he was staying home with Mummy and Callum, and not at camp, for the next few days at least!

We also had a new addition to our family. I rang the vet this morning, and there was still no one who had come forward to claim the budgie we found last weekend. Ethan still wanted him, so we agreed with the vet that we'd go down and pick him up. Yes, he is a boy. We then had to organise a cage, and fortunately Katrina and Graham had their currently unused cage available. After a trip over to see them, and a trip up to the pet store we were ready to go.

I took Aidan and Ethan with me to the vet. This proved very interesting with Aidan. Aidan has a crush on Bert Newton. He thought that when we were going to the vet to get the bird, we were actually going to get Bert. You can imagine his anguish when rather than the much loved Australian TV personality coming out to see him, there was this little golden green bird. He freaked out, but fortunately I was able to get him, Ethan, and the bird out to the car without too many people noticing. We got the bird home. I wanted to call him "Bert", but Ethan has won out, and our new birds name is Beefy.

Ciao for Now, Bird Boy Angry Dad.

Last Day of Work

Today was my last day of work for the year. I was fortunate in that we finished up just after lunch, which meant the afternoon was free for Christmas shopping and test driving cars. My Christmas shopping was good, as I knew almost exactly what I needed to get, and was able to run around the city stores and grab the things I needed within an hour. Even though it was busy, this strategy worked a whole lot better than my browse for hours normal method. The problem is I haven't quite finished yet.

The rest of the afternoon, as mentioned, was spent going to various car yards and checking out what was on offer. We are thinking about upgrading our car, as with the 3 boys, we're sadly running out of space. We currently have a Toyota RAV 4, which has been a great car over the past few years. Unfortunately, it is just that little too small for all of us. Especially at the moment, with Callum still in a car seat, we find that on any longer trip the kids are all over each other.

So the decision is whether to go with something with a bit more space in the rear end, with possibly a third row of seats, or to go with a people mover. Anth hates people movers. They're not trendy enough. I'm aghast at what most of the car manufacturers claim as their 7 seat vehicles. For most, you couldn't fit a ferret in the back seats, let alone 2 so called adults. It's a gyp. So we'll argue, and discuss, and review, and finally come to a consensus soon. When and if we do, I'll let you all know! (Unless its after the new year of course!!)

Ciao for Now, Car Testy Angry Dad.

Camp

Aidan went off to camp today for two days. It is a special kids camp, only for boys, and they are going off up to the Sunshine Coast. Our main concern was that although he would know some of the kids going, he wouldn't really know any of the carers, as it was another independent special needs care group who were running it. We were referred to it from his regular after school care.

We have been trying to acclimatise Aidan to this camp. He has gone on camps with the Special School, but in those instances he has gone to school, and had all of his regular teachers with him. This time, he was going to a new location to head off from, with all new carers. When we got to the drop off point, from the second he got out of the car, he didn't want to be there. He started crying. He wouldn't put his bags on the bus. He continually said "I want to go home to mummy." This was really hard.

Both Anth and I know that both we and he need these type of activities. For him, it helps him with his socialisation, and gives him a level of independence. There's also no denying that for us it gives us a short break, especially at a time when he will be at home over the Christmas holidays for several weeks. I waited with him for about 15 minutes before the carers suggested that it may be better for all of us if I left, as he still hadn't settled down. This sucked, but ultimately it was the right thing to do. Fortunately, we got a call at lunchtime to tell us he was fine. Fingers crossed for the rest of his camp!

Ciao for Now, Missing Aidan Angry Dad.

I need to go to the toilet...

Don't you hate when you're out and about and out of the mouths of babes comes "I need to go to the toilet." This is painful at the best of times, because usually the utterance only comes when the real addition to the phrase is "Right Now." The immediate adult response, well, at least in our family is "Holding On" and then a mad dash to wherever we believe a toileting facility may be.

Tonight Ethan, Aidan and I went out to look at cars and go for a drive. We were walking around a car yard at around 7:00pm when Aidan decided to go. The conversation went something like:

"I need to go to the toilet."
"Holding on."
"No holding on. I need to go now."
"Wees or Poos?"
"Poos. Now."

So what do you do? The car yard wasn't open, so we started the mad dash back to the car in an effort to do the mad dash back home. Fortunately, as we got to the car, a security guard came over to us and asked the kids if we wanted to see a large lizard which was on one side of the lot. Not really, but then Aidan piped up with "I need to go to the toilet." The guard then said, "Oh, you can use the toilet inside if you want to, then I can show you the lizard." Thank god for bored security guards. And I got to see two lizards too! (Bad pun intended)!!

Ciao for Now, No Poos Angry Dad.

6 days to Christmas

In our house we have a chalk board which says "Santa is coming in ___ days." Every morning, Ethan gets up and his first activity is to change the number. Today it has been changed to six days. Although this isn't strictly correct, because Ethan believes Santa will come on Christmas Eve then he isn't counting the actual Christmas Day. It all seems to be happening so fast.

It has been interesting keeping what is effectively an online diary of our activities for the year. Actually, it really is just my embellished recollections of our activities for the year. I haven't specifically reflected yet on highlights and lowlights, but I know that a lot has happened. The biggest change would be with Callum, moving from a baby into a toddler. However, there have been changes with both of the other boys. Ethan received an exemplary first year report this year, which shows how much great work he did over the course of it.

Anth and I have had our subtle changes as well. The addition of Callum has meant we've had to rethink the household structure, and means that next year we'll probably have to extend the house. We also have to think about a new car so we don't have to put up with the kids fighting for space in the back. We're both now one year older, and in my case, no more wiser. We're both trying to exercise more, but we both still eat too much chocolate and drink too much fizzy drinks and milo. Anth will punch me again when she reads that, because you don't mess with those things!

Ciao for Now, Reflective Angry Dad.

Boxing Christmas Lights

It was an interesting and activity filled day today. We have been promising Ethan for some time now that we would take him to see The Santa Clause 3. Finally today he and I got dropped off in the city so they could go, and I took Callum and Aidan out for a drive along the Brisbane river. Callum fell asleep, so we drove around for about 45 minutes until he woke up again. We then headed back into the city, parked, and walked up to meet Anth and Ethan again. Lunch was had in the city, and then we went to the city Botanic Gardens to run around on the lawns there. Once the kids got worn out, we headed back home.

The afternoon was spent fairly relaxed, until I decided to go out and do some boxing practice. This of course brought everyone outside to have a go as well. Obviously, I don't do it very often. Callum kept trying to grab the gloves off me. At least he knew what he was doing, putting the gloves on, and then standing underneath the punching bag punching the bottom of it. He's already a feisty little character, so I don't know if its a good thing to be showing him how to punch any more! Aidan sat outside on his bike offering advice, and Ethan danced around trying to show us how he could punch without gloves on. Wednesday was just happy for all the attention of us being outside.


After a nice evening roast lamb dinner, we all went out for a walk. Well, sans Wednesday. In our local suburb there is a lot of competition for Christmas Light displays, so we took in some of the main contenders. In one area, there is a whole Close where around 10 houses have their setup all done. This is but two of the houses showing off what they've done. Down the street their is another group where there must be 30 odd houses all done up. I'd be like my brother and fall off the roof if I attempted it. Klutzyness does run in the family.

Ciao for Now, Just Looking Not Participating Angry Dad.

Budgie Smugglers

No, this isn't a debate over whether board shorts are better than speedos, rather it's about budgies. Real Budgies. Well, actually, a single budgie, who was lost. Ethan and I went out for a morning run, and as I ran out of steam because it was very humid this morning, we walked the second half. As we came back past the local park, we noticed a small bird literally hiding up against the park fence. He, or she, was green and yellow in colour, and obviously quite frightened. I didn't really have anything to pick him up with, so I thought I'd go home and see what we could get.


Anth is our resident bird expert, so she suggested taking down a small towel to wrap him up with. Ethan and I jumped in the car, and headed back down to the park to see if he was still there. He was, having shifted about 2 metres away. He was quite easy to pick up, and once we got him, we took him back home so Anth could have a quick look and make sure he was alright. She checked him over, and then said we should take him to the local vet, because he was obviously lost.


So off Ethan and I went down to the vet, who very quickly took him off his hands. She of course asked Ethan if he wanted a budgie, if the owners couldn't be found, and after that little adventure what more would he say except "Yes!". So we will ring up the vet on Tuesday and see if he's been claimed. Lucky Wednesday isn't a cat.

Ciao for Now, Budgie Smuggling Angry Dad.

Mullet Clothing

Today was the first day of the School holidays for the kids. Because of this, they stayed up a little later last night, and subsequently they slept in this morning. I also slept in, so it was a bit of a mad rush trying to get ready for work so I could get in at a semi-reasonable time. I also had our work Christmas party scheduled for today. The weather was meant to be hot, so I thought I'd make a clothing choice which reflected this.

After the morning shower, I got out a branded work polo shirt and put that on. I then thought that because it would be hot, rather than wearing work pants, and because it was Christmas, I'd put on a pair of shorts. The one's I grabbed were light cargo like shorts, knee length. I was also going to throw on a pair of runners so I'd be comfortable. After all, some of us prepare comfort over style. As I walked through the bedroom, this is the conversation Anth had with me.

"What are you wearing?"
"A work shirt and shorts. Why? What's wrong with that?"
"You're wearing the clothing equivalent of a mullet."
"What do you mean."
"Well, you've got a work shirt on, so your serious up the top. But the shorts, they're saying you want to party. Mullet Clothing."
"Ahhhhhh riggghhhhht."

I still went and changed though.

Ciao for Now, No Dress Sense Angry Dad.

Ethan, Taekwondo and a Snake!

As Ethan was sick on Monday, he didn't get to find out if he'd made it to his next level at Taekwondo. Last Saturday we both did our grading. I unfortunately didn't get to see him do his grading, as I was doing my warmup for mine outside. Note that this wasn't through choice, you basically get taken aside as a group. After he was done, I asked him how he thought he had gone. He was non-committal, but did say that the main examiner had told him he was doing the wrong pattern. Like all kids, he then clammed up, and wanted to tell me about how sunny it was. Over the weekend neither Anth or I could get any real indication of how he thought he had gone, and the angst was only added when he was sick on Monday!

So we came to this evening, and we got the result. No faults were recorded at all on his grading form, and he now has a yellow belt with a green strip! He was so proud of himself again when he got to go up and get presented to our branch instructor, Warren. He got his grading details back, as well as the new addition to his belt. Now all we have to do is teach him his new pattern.

On top of all this excitement, Instructor Warren had also brought in his pet snake for the kids to have a look at. It is a black headed python, but was incredibly sedate. At first, Ethan was happy just to watch the other kids, but then he jumped in to give it a pat. Then he was asked if he wanted to try to hold it, and he did that as well. No wonder later on he commented that it was one of the best days he had ever had!

Ciao for Now, Snake Boy's Dad Angry Dad.

Waiting for Telstra

I've hit a funny point this evening in that my home phone connection, and therefore my home ADSL for Internet connection got cut off today. No, this wasn't from poor bill payment. Rather, it was because someone cut the line somewhere between the exchange and our house. I rang Telstra to find out what was going on, and they ran some tests and said the cut was 2km from my house. Suffice to say, I have to wait for them to fix it. All activities are now being done via mobile phone.

I had the day off today as Anth is indulging in her fantasy of going to see Robbie Williams. Why she had to spend the whole day preparing, I don't know, but she did. For a concert that didn't start until 8:00pm at night, she made a full day of it with all her friends, starting from 11:30am. I hope she doesn't pass out before she sees the show! She did send me an SMS to say she was right up the front.

So I've got the kids. We're going to go into the city and see the Christmas Windows at Myer. This should keep them occupied and keep me from strangling them. It should also keep them from strangling me. There is potentially a lot of "Why You Little..." at our house at the moment. I'm blathering because I'm trying to do this quickly!

Ciao for Now, Fast And Random Angry Dad.

The Weird Me

After being tagged by the Women Having It All and the Grim Reality Girl, I thought I better write some weird stuff about myself. Even though I don't normally play memes, after all, when you get tagged twice and you actually catch the tags, sometimes you just gotta play.

1) I liked the Spice Girls. Hell, I even like Britney. I'm really just a sucker for pop songs, and although neither of these two actually write much of their own stuff, as part of the machine, I don't mind them.

2) I go to gym, so that I'm fit enough to go back to the gym next time. I think there is meant to be some health aspect to this mentality, but basically that seems to be my premise for exercise. Sad really.

3) I have these long eye-brow hairs that grow to exorbitant lengths. It drives Anth crazy, and she's constantly at me to pluck them. And don't get her started on nose hair. Picking your boogers and eating them seems to help this particular hair growth though. Well, I haven't noticed the kids with nose hairs yet.

4) I appear to have a short fuse. Really what's happening is that the ball of anger and remorse is slowly fueling itself over the course of several hours until it builds up to a pent up frustration of angst. You know what they say. No Chocolate and No TV make Angry Dad go Crazy. Did you say Go Crazy? Don't mind if I do!!!

5) Writing weird stuff about yourself is kind of cathartic isn't it. That's weird.

6) Dogs are lucky because they can lick their own balls. I'm weird because I like to write shocking things when Anth walks in on me as I'm typing blog posts. Her response to this little gem. "Well, thank God you can't. You'd never do anything else."

Ciao for Now, Weirdo Angry Dad.

December at the Beach

Even though I felt like absolute crap yesterday, as mentioned last night, I did fail to mention that we did go to one of the local beaches yesterday. I happened to go along as Anth wasn't going to take Callum, but then he had a hissy fit, so she thought she had better. I then felt obliged to go along, even if I did stink like the black death. The good thing was that I was able to lie on the sand moaning but keeping an eye on Callum and Aidan. The bad thing was I managed to pass the bug on to Ethan, so he was off school today. However, this time it seems like this bug really only was a day one, so both he and I already feel better.

So back to yesterday, and as you can see, all three kids were quite happy to get out of the house and at the beach. Callum was very tentative at first, preferring to climb all over me and bury me in sand. Ethan dashed off to both swim and body surf, with Anth's watchful eye on him. We also teach our kids to swim between the flags, so the lifesavers get to watch as well! Once Callum discovered that he could wander off from me, he soon crawled off down the beach to find mum.

Aidan, on the other hand, was a social butterfly. Within minutes he was off to everyone within a 50 meter radius to have a chat and find out what they were doing at the beach. He holds no favourites, and anyone and everyone is fair game. The interesting thing is that people always look around to find out where this weird little boy came from. A friendly wave soon sorts them out, and then all you have to do is watch for their distressed look which says they've had enough. In the main, people do seem quite happy to have a chat. Yesterday, this suited me fine, as if I had have had to chase him, I probably would have thrown up!


Ciao for Now, Beached Whale Angry Dad.

Mutant Bug

Oh Man. The lovely strain of bug that I passed on to Anth yesterday has managed to mutate and get back in my body today. Suffice to say, all I've been able to hold down is two slices of toast and water. Anth just woke me up, and as I can't get back to sleep I pulled myself out of my death stench to write this. Yes, I also stink.

I've been tagged by a few people to write something weird about me. This is almost weird enough. I'll try more tomorrow.

Anth only had it for a day. Maybe I'll be lucky.

Ciao for Now, Mutant Z Angry Dad.

New Shoes

Today was an interesting day. Having thought we were going to get away with no one else getting bugs, what happens? Anth wakes up with a stomach upset, and Callum decides to throw up everything he eats, as well as have squirty poos. He didn't seem the slightest bit phased, but Anth quickly ran out of steam. Fortunately, she was well enough to let Ethan and I go and do our Taekwondo gradings. I think I've managed to grade, even after 2 weeks of not doing much training. I didn't get to see Ethan grade, as I was warming up, but I hope he passed as well. I did manage to get this picture of his back!

Other than that, most of the day was spent taking it easy. We did have an interesting time with Aidan. He has an old pair of thongs, that had pretty much given up the ghost. The sole was nearly falling off, so we told him he needed to where his new thongs. Aidan is very particular about things, so when we took his old shoes off him, we got a long running argument about how he needed them. He wouldn't go to the shops with me without his old shoes. Too bad I had thrown them in the bin. We decided to take the hardline approach.

Over the course of the rest of the day, we introduced things which Aidan loves to do, but that he couldn't do without his new shoes on. Did he want to go on a bike ride? Hell, Yes! Would he have to where his new shoes? Yep. Did he? Eventually, although he grizzled and moaned about it for most of the ride, even with lots of praise about wearing his new shoes. Later on it was off to the Wash the Car Shop. Did Aidan want to go? Yep! Did he have to where his new shoes to go? Yep! This time, he put them on himself. Lets hope this keeps up! I'm sure there are more battles to come.

Ciao for Now, Shoe on the other foot Angry Dad.

Maybe, Just Maybe....

Maybe, just maybe, we're all ok again. Aidan seems to have made a reasonable recovery, which is great. I felt better today than I had in a fortnight. And no one else seems to have picked up any of the bugs. So hopefully, touch wood, we aren't going to get any more illness in the run up to Christmas.

Things have been going on around me which I haven't recognised as well as I should have. Ethan had his swimming carnival yesterday. He did really well, winning the majority of his races. He even had a freestyle race where he had to swim a lap of the 25 metre pool. He normally wouldn't swim that far, and apart from swimming at school, he isn't getting swimming lessons. However, he did it without any problems, being only just beaten out at the finish by a kid who gets 3 lessons a week! Maybe we have the next superfish in the family!

Both Ethan and Aidan are about to come into their last week of school for the year. That means we're seeing most of their school work for the year as it comes home. This includes paintings, drawings, sculptures and school diaries. It is fantastic to see how each of them has progressed during the year. It is Anth who keeps a handle on the homework, and I know with her help the kids have definitely had an edge in their school work. All in all, great work by both of them.

Ciao for Now, Academically Proud Angry Dad.

I've passed it on

It was inevitable, I guess. Eventually one of the other members of the family was going to get sick. Unfortunately, its Aidan. From about 11:00pm last night, around every hour he was sick. I got up for the first two, but from then on it was Anth on her own. Aside from still feeling sick myself, I couldn't fathom having to look after someone else who was sick. Pathetic really. I don't know how Anth's eyes aren't lolling our of her head.

Aidan, little trooper that he is, really wanted to go to school today. The reason for this was because they had a school trip to see Santa. He actually had perked up in the morning, and even though both Anth and I thought we might get "the call" during the morning, nothing was forthcoming. Once we made it to lunch, we thought that maybe he just had an overnight bug, and nothing as serious as what I'd got.

But when he got back from seeing Santa, we found out that he had actually made it to Santa, but shortly after was sick. He recovered quickly and was ok enough to get home on the school bus, although for most of the rest of the afternoon he was curled up on the couch. Lucky Santa didn't get spewed on. Imagine trying to get that out of your nice white beard? I guess it happens.

Ciao for Now, Lets Share the Love Angry Dad.

What we did on the weekend

As the past day hasn't been that good to me, I thought I'd reflect on the weekend where things were a little better. On Sunday, our Taekwondo club had their Christmas party. This was very well organised, and they even went to the trouble of getting gifts for all the kids from each family, regardless of if they trained or not. This meant not only did Ethan get a gift, but Callum and Aidan did also. I'm really proud of how family oriented they are. Callum was pretty good, but tended to be a bit of a mummy's boy.

Ethan, on the other hand, was out and about with everybody. They had games on the field near where everyone set up their chairs and tables, as well as having a jumping castle. Even after getting an accidental smack in the mouth, he still kept on going back for more. It was quite warm on Sunday, so his only problem was making sure we kept him in fluids for the day!

Aidan was Aidan. He had great fun running around and hassling everyone. He has an incredible social gift, which suited us just fine. The good thing about Aidan is he will go and talk to anyone, and that can leave us free to just keep a long eye on him. The bad thing about Aidan is that he will go and talk to anyone, and that does freak some people out! In the main, most people were quite good. Aidan doesn't generally take rejection to heart, to him it just means "Next!".

Ciao for Now, Bring Back The Weekend Angry Dad.

No, No, Please No...

I can't believe it. I think I'm coming down with another bug. Aside from not having quite shaken off the remnants of the last one, as I still have stomach cramps, I think I may have picked up the other "flu" bug which is floating around. This is the one with the cold / hot sweats like the other one, except its followed up by coughing fits. I am not happy Jan. It's supposed to be Summer.

When I managed to zombie my way home tonight, I was fortunate enough to have all three boys behave themselves very well. Anth had her bookclub meeting, so she left me still upright with dinner. I did manage to dish it out, and get them all to eat. It was then back to the couch for a lie down. Fortunately, we had The Simpsons and Futurama on as a double, so it was quite easy to veg out.

So again I find myself at the keyboard, barely able to type, looking at the blurry type face on the screen and thinking "What the hell am I doing this for?" I hate that I feel guilty about potentially taking another day off work, damn this stupid Australian half assed work ethic. But against that, no one would want me going in there and passing on another set of germs to everyone. I'll see how I pull up in the morning.

Ciao for Now, Not Again Sickly Angry Dad.

Smashed Cups

Why can things go pear shaped in mere minutes? I got home this evening just in time for Anth to dash out with Ethan so that he could go to Taekwondo training. Anth said she'd just be a few minutes, and then she'd be back. All I had to do was look after Callum and Aidan. Simple task, surely. So I attempted to get changed, with both boys hanging around, and stripped down to just jocks and singlet. As it was hot, this was fine. Then I needed to go to the toilet. When I'm on the throne, I don't like to have children watch me, so I shoo'ed both the kids away and settled in.

Aidan went outside, and I could here him yelling to himself outside the bathroom window. This masked the noise which Callum was making in the kitchen, although I did hear a bang. I left the throne to investigate, and low and behold, there's Callum, covered in blood, with smashed cups all around him in the kitchen. I wish I knew where this latest fun habit came from. Leave him alone for a second, and he seems to open the cupboard, find glassware, and then delight in throwing it as hard as he can on the tiled floor.

So I rushed him to the bathroom. It would be alright, Anth would be home soon. I get covered in blood. We wash the glass off his feet, and try to find the source of the "leak". We wash his hands. We wash his face. We wash his bum. It was a finger. Just a small cut, but enough to have made him and I red in many places. I don't know how a baby can appear to bleed so much. So then, for the next half an hour, I had to try to keep Aidan out of the kitchen, Callum out of the kitchen, and then try to clean up the mess and not cut myself, all the time hoping Anth would be home soon to help me out of my misery. If I had just accepted that she was going to be away close to the hour, I probably could have coped better, but I lived in expectation, and it just ended in angst.

Ciao for Now, I Could Be Dracula Angry Dad.

My Favourite Albums

This evening, on the ABC, they had a show on Australia's Favourite Albums. Of course, this is influenced by people who watch the ABC, which isn't everyone in Australia, and the resulting number one was Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. A worthy choice, in my eyes, but not necessarily my favourite. Mine would have to go to the Album which came in at Number 5, which was The Beatle's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

That said, over the years, I've had a number of albums, which at that particular time in my life, I would play continuously. These, in a somewhat chronological order would be:

Sex Pistols. Never Mind The Bollocks. Here's the Sex Pistols.
I've always thought Punk wasn't dead.
The Police. Regatta De Blanc.
Contains close to my all time favourite single, "Message in a Bottle".
The Human League. Dare!
I was big into synthesisers when I was an angsty teenager, and this was the king of electronic pop albums.
George Michael. Faith.
Mainly because I was a horny teenager, and I thought "I want your Sex" would be good to root to.
Midnight Oil. 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1.
As I became politically rebellious at late hight school, and fell back into Australian Music.
Nirvana. Nevermind.
Grunge Ruled.
Jeff Buckley. Grace.
From a man who could sing like and angel and rock like the devil possessed.
You Am I. Hourly Daily.
I discovered this Australian Band just at their peak. A brilliant mix of eclectic Australian rock angst.
Silverchair. Diorama.
This band has a musician in Daniel Johns who I think is as genius as David Bowie was in his early years.
Jack Johnson. In Between Dreams.
As I got older, I just wanted to chill.

This represents more chronologically what I was into as the above album's came into my life as they were released. Of course, there were others like Thriller, or even Sgt Pepper's, which I discovered after the hype. Then there are musicians that I love generically, like The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, U2, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Beach Boys, or Elvis (who really is the king), but I couldn't single out one album. I haven't even begun on classical yet. And it could all change tomorrow as well!

Ciao for Now, Music Loving Angry Dad.

The Garage Sale

Whilst I'd spent most of the past week either on my sick bed or moping around, Anth had been preparing for a Garage Sale which was to be held this morning. She'd gotten together clothes, old toys, baby stuff, bits of the old pool filter system, computer bits and odds and sods of electrical equipment. Most of the stuff we were going to take to the tip, but there were some gems amongst all of that, particularly with the baby stuff.

So this morning, she got up and dawn's crack and headed to her friends house where the communal sale was going on. Their plan was to be there from 6:00am. They had done this before, and last time was quite successful. I minded the terrible trio, taking them to the shops for the weekly supermarket spend up. By the time I got home, Anth was back, and it was only 11:00am. Normally she would have been at it until well after lunch. She must have done well!

"So how much did you make?"
"Guess."
"$300? $400? $500???"
"You're dreaming aren't you."
"So how much did you make?"
"$19. I barely made enough to cover costs"

I'm not sure why today wasn't as successful as the past. I guess it is due to the lead up to Christmas and the many other markets on today. Also, the way Anth explained it, people who go to garage sales are looking for a bargain. I mean, if you're going to haggle over a buck for a piece of clothing, why bother. After this lack of success, I did have fun going and dropping off a load of unwanted stuff at the tip.

Ciao for Now, Garages Are For Cars Angry Dad.

Regression

Today was just one of those days where I again didn't feel to crash hot. I don't know if it was that yesterday I had tried to get myself back into the routine, and today it caught up with me, or whether I was just tired. Every time I tried to do something physical it just has really taken it out of me.

For example, I walked up the Queen Street Mall in the middle of Brisbane at lunchtime. Normally, this is a ten minute walk, but I couldn't go more than a very slow pace. The way back was worse. I'm sure the other guy I was with thought he'd be better paced with a snail. Although I'm back to reasonably normal eating habits, I'm still having times when my guts just seize up. I'm sure its all related, but I would really like to get some semblance of health stability back.

It wasn't helped any by coming home and finding that Wednesday, the dog, had soiled the garage floor several times. Apparently, even though she had the run of the outdoor area, she thought it was more appropriate to head back into the garage and leave little runny messages all over the floor. I am quite averse to having to clean it up, but as Anth had parked one of the cars in the garage with all the windows open, on entering the car which now held the most horrific stench, I knew I had to clean it up. So this evening was spent with paper, gloves, a bucket, detergent and brush cleaning up the floor. I get the good shit jobs.

Ciao for Now, Cleaning Angry Dad.