Angry Dad - 2006

Happy New Year, and That's All Folks!

2006-12-31T22:04:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-30T20:48:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-29T20:48:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-28T22:28:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-27T22:25:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-26T21:21:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-25T22:48:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-24T22:19:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-23T21:18:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-22T22:10:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-21T22:05:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-20T22:27:00.000+10:00

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...

2006-12-19T21:14:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-18T22:41:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-17T22:18:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-16T22:03:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-15T21:26:00.000+10:00

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!

2006-12-14T22:45:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-13T19:36:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-12T20:49:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-11T21:52:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-10T22:36:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-09T21:44:00.000+10:00

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....

2006-12-08T22:27:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-07T21:20:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-06T20:41:00.000+10:00

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...

2006-12-05T21:26:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-04T22:30:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-03T21:10:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-02T22:23:00.000+10:00

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

2006-12-01T22:35:00.000+10:00

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.

Stomach Versus Brain

2006-11-30T22:40:00.000+10:00

Today was my first day back at work, and in terms of family life, it was kind of back to normal for everyone. No longer did I get poked and prodded in the morning with cries of "Daddy Go Work?". No longer did I lay comatose on the stink bed whilst life went on around me. No longer did my hunger abatement continue.

When you've starved yourself for five days, yummy treats look specifically delicious. Imagine my horror when my brain, which associates morning tea time with some variant of a muffin, had to face off against my still sore stomach. Normally it would be stomach calling the shots.

Stomach: What shall we have today brain, a nice Raspberry and White Chocolate, or the Triple Choc.
Brain: We had Triple Choc yesterday, let's vary it today
Stomach: I concur. Oh how wise you are.
Together: MMMMmmmmm Muffins.

Today it was more like.

Brain: I'm hungry. Can't we have a muffin or six?
Stomach: Are you frickin' crazy? After what I've been through?
Brain: But I'm Soooooo Hungry.
Stomach: Stop your whining. Give me a good reason?
Brain: It's chocolately delicious.
Stomach: You make a compelling argument. Maybe just one.
Later
Stomach: OOOowwwwwwwooowowowowwwwooooooooo......

Ciao for Now, Brain One Stomach Zero Angry Dad.

Feeling significantly better with a baby

2006-11-29T20:58:00.000+10:00

I've finally started to feel somewhat normal again, although I'm not regular at the moment. Actually, I took something to bind me up on Monday morning and it sure as hell worked because I haven't had to go since then and it's now Wednesday night. There is a lot to fill up. I still had today off, which worked a little to Anth's advantage. She had Celebration Day at Ethan's school in the morning, where the teacher's celebrated it only being two weeks to the end of the school year. She then had a working bee at Aidan's school, and went back again after lunch to do help with new parents who will be sending their kids to the Special school next year.

As much as she's a saint, her saintly husband had to put up with the baby who sticks to you all day as a result. It was deemed that I should now be over being virulent, so hopefully he wouldn't pick anything up. So I spent the day still relatively lethargic, but with a baby who is cheeky and gets up to mischief at the drop of the hat. Fortunately, he did manage to run out of steam three times today rather than the normal twice, so I got in some rest whilst he did as well.

That still didn't stop the naughty behaviours. We have a lounge that we don't encourage the kids to jump on. Of course we don't. It's not for the kids, its for the baby. We love that he eats his lunch and then goes and jumps on it, blurting his face on the window trying to get the attention of the dog. We love how no matter how much you yell "Get off the couch" from your own couch, he won't get off. I think I need a poking stick. Maybe 5 meters long. When I'm sick, I could use it to poke everyone.

Ciao for Now, I'm Back Baby Angry Dad.

Why is there so much crap on TV?

2006-11-28T21:18:00.000+10:00

One thing about being sick with gastro is that you barely have any energy to do anything remotely practical, so you turn on TV. Homer would say "Don't you ever, Ever, EVER say anything bad about TV...", but I can't help it, it really is pathetic at the moment. Daytime TV is almost useless. There are re-runs of Scrubs on just before lunch, but that's the bare minimum. My god, they're even repeating Son's and Daughters, an Australian show which was crap in the 80's and is even more crap now. Intermixed within this is drivel shopping/morning shows, more soaps, and American talk shows. Oh Dr Phil, what have they done to you? At least Oprah maintains some modicum of decency.

In the afternoons I might get to watch some new variant of Teletubbies with Callum which whilst your sick is at least a little psychedelic. But don't start me on evening TV. We're just about to move out of ratings, but why the hell have we been served up with 20 to 1, Big Questions, and the multitude of shows claiming to be Current Affairs. No wonder the Internet has taken off in such a big way. Channel Nine in particular has some serious navel gazing to do. Remember, in Australia, we really only have 5 free channels to choose from, so the choice is pretty limited, and I'm too tight to pay for cable (for the whole extra 10 channels of anything viewable...)

Fortunately, my easy solution has been just to turn it off and crawl back to bed. If I could only concentrate enough to be able to read and hold a book open, whole new worlds of adventure, and something which might actually be brain stimulating instead of stupefying could await. Or I could just wait for Ethan to get home and load up the DVD player for me. Anth stopped responded to me ringing the bell for assistance.

Ciao for Now, There Really Is No Bell Angry Dad.

Slowly Getting Better, But Still Missing Out

2006-11-27T21:37:00.000+10:00

Last night really blew. Literally. Out both ends. Don't you hate it when the toilet isn't near the sink, and the sink isn't near the toilet? I chose the toilet, which meant after I'd recovered from passing out I had to clean up spew. What fun. Too much information? Anth, who has chosen not to sleep in the cess pit of our bedroom whilst I'm sick, was fortunate enough not to be able to hear my screams of personal torture. I did manage to wake Ethan up though. He thought it was his own nightmare.

Suffice to say, I didn't go to work today, but I did finally make it to the doctor, who unfortunately confirmed the obvious. Gastro. Drink lots of fluids, and rest. I haven't had much choice. I can't eat anything, and I've barely had the energy most of the day to go more than an hour before needing to lie down. This really sux.

What made it suck the most was I missed Aidan's Award's Night tonight. His special school had their annual awards night. Aidan won an award for independent dressing, which is good. I guess most of us take it for granted that we can dress ourselves, or our kids can dress themselves once they reach a certain age. The Award's Night also includes songs from the kids. Aidan's class sang Rock Around The Clock. He sure looks like he was having a great time, and Anth said all the kids were really excited. I wish I could have been there.

Ciao for Now, Slowly Getting Better Angry Dad.

I'm just not well

2006-11-26T20:37:00.000+10:00

This will be a quick post. I feel like crap. I'm currently bathed in sweat.

The only reason I'm even attempting to post anything is to keep up the daily average. I feel like I've been dragged behind a stagecoach in the Wild West. And then the horse kicked me. And then the coach ran over me. And then I got held up for a good ol' fashioned hangin'. And then they cut me down and said, suffer with that.

So as you can imagine I'm a whole bundle of joy. Not.

Ciao for Now, Still Just Not Well Angry Dad.

So Very Sick

2006-11-25T20:58:00.000+10:00

I went to bed last night not feeling very well. It stayed with me all frickin' night. All up I had about 15 minutes sleep, tossing and turning, annoying Anth and generally calling to anyone to "Please help me". My stomach was churning, and around 3:00am, 5:00am and 6:00am it came out. And I'm talking in such a way that for all of today I've barely been able to stand up.

To top it off, all day today I've had to spend in bed. Towards the second half of the day the dire rear set in. Oh what a joy I've been to live with. I did manage to get some sleep by drugging myself up, but it hasn't taken away much of the pain. I don't really know where it came from. I though food poisoning, but no one else got it. I think it might be the onset of a bug which has been floating around work. Typical. Pick it up during the week so it wipes you out on the weekend.

So I managed to ruin our plans for today. We were meant to be going up the coast for a weekend away. Instead, Anth has had to put up with single handedly dealing with all three kids indoors for most of the day. She did take them out later in the afternoon to the local beach, but it would have been nice if I could have participated. It wasn't to be.

Ciao for Now, So Very Sick Angry Dad.

Why do they cry when she washes her feet?

2006-11-24T21:38:00.000+10:00

This afternoon when I got home Anth was outside doing a cleanup of the back yard. All three boys were outside. Aidan was on a tri-cycle. Ethan was in the pool. Callum was "helping" by redistributing any swept up dirt and leaves back onto the path. I joined her, and together we finished things off, as well as clearing out some of the big palm fronds which fall from our palm trees at regular intervals.

After she finished, we all headed back inside. Then she disappeared. Callum also had disappeared. Ethan was watching TV. Aidan was in his room. I started cooking dinner. Still no Anth. Then I heard it. She called me into the bathroom to get Callum. There she was, feet firmly entrenched in a foot spa she had set up in the bath. Callum was trying to get into the bath for his own devious means. So I took him away.

For the next half an hour, whilst Anth soaked her feet, I had to put up with Callum lying on top of me, not quite going to sleep, crying. It went from soft sobs to full scale howling, all because he wasn't allowed to wash his feet with mum. I tried to run his back. I tried to rub his feet. It would settle him for about thirty seconds and then he started up again. Of course, once Anth came back out the little bugger dashed over to her, jumped into her arms, and was quiet for the rest of the evening.

Ciao for Now, I want to wash my feet and cry Angry Dad.

Did He Just Steal That Car?

2006-11-23T22:20:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, as I pulled in and parked my car, I noticed this guy on the other side of the road casually walking up to another car parked on the other side. It was a well used Nissan Pulsar, probably 20 years old. The guy walked up to the passenger side door, pulled something out of his pockets, and slotted it down the passenger window. With two goes, and in about 10 seconds he had the door open. He lent in to the car, reached across the other side and unlocked the driver side door.

He then got out of the car, looked around, not noticing me sitting in my car, and walked quickly around to the driver side. I swear it took him about 5 seconds to get in the car, fiddle around, and get the car started. This makes me doubt that he could have really been stealing it. The way he drove off suggested maybe he did. He floored it, doing a U-Turn and speeding off down the street and around the corner.

Did he really steal it? It had all the classic "Look How Fast This Thief Can Steal This Car" symptoms. All up, maybe 45 seconds. It was so quick, and I was so engrossed watching I didn't take down any details of the car at all. He was also non-descript, but he looked kind of dodgy. I thought about going to the police, but then I thought, what if it was his car, and that was just the way he had to open it? I still don't know. What do you think?

Ciao for Now, It was all so quick Angry Dad.

Kentucky Remorse, Watermelon and Jogging

2006-11-22T22:31:00.000+10:00

"Buyer's Remorse". Wikipedia defines it as the emotional condition whereby a person feels remorse or regret after the purchase of an item. I have it tonight, although in my rephrasing it is called "Kentucky Remorse", or for the new age "KFC Remorse." You see, this evening we had our two monthly odd take-away dinner from Kentucky Fried Chicken. I always feel a huge desire to eat Kentucky if I haven't had it for a while. I always feel remorse afterwards.

After I had managed to eat 3 pieces, Aidan decided that he would like a drumstick. As he started, he decided he didn't like the skin. What? That's the best part. He spent the next few minutes peeling it off, and passing it to me. Waste Not, Want Not. After about 10-15 minutes of the so called meal, Anth decided to get out some watermelon for the kids. At least this way they would have a smidgen of health with their meal. Callum certainly liked it, and I woofed down a few slices to try to smother the delicious fatty goodness that is KFC.

Perhaps half an hour after that the real remorse started to kick in. That's when I usually drink a good 2 litres of water. I also decided that I should go out for a run. Half an hour's jogging should at least work off the skin Aidan gave me. So I ran. About 15 minutes in I started to cramp up. The fatty colagulate had made it into my bloodstream so everything slowed up. About this time the regret part of Kentucky Remorse kicked in. I managed to lumber home, but now I don't feel so good.

Ciao for Now, Ohhh My Tummy Hurts Angry Dad.

"I'll See you in Hell!"

2006-11-21T20:56:00.000+10:00

Where do kids come up with certain sayings? Whenever Ethan now jumps in the swimming pool he yells out "I'll See You In Hell!". He doesn't know, or won't admit, where he got it from. I don't know what movie he's seen where this line would come up. It's in Unforgiven. It's in The Empire Strike's Back. Hell, it's even in Buckaroo Banzai, but I haven't gotten around to getting that on DVD yet.

Maybe it was from TV, or from the school yard. I know all the kids run around and jump off things and chase each other. Ethan tells me that its one of the things the kids say in the playground, usually followed by imitated gun sounds. What rubbish are other parents teaching their kids. I'd never let my kid watch violent shows. Gee, even if I did come home and find him watching Terminator II this evening. C'mon, it's Arnie. That's not real violence is it?

Even Anth now gets in on the act. She swears that she has conversations which go along these lines.

Ethan: Where have you been?
Anth: Hell.
Ethan: What did you do there?
Anth: Nothing.
Ethan: I'll see you later.
Anth: No, I'll see you in Hell!

Maybe that's where it came from.

Ciao for Now, Not Quite That Ungodly Angry Dad.

The Technique That Works

2006-11-20T23:05:00.000+10:00

I've been trying to utilise the good old "naughty room" or quiet room technique which has been going around for a millennium in dealing with children. I guess you could call it the naughty chair, or the quiet step, or the "frick it, I'm going out of my mind, so get out of my face" area. And if you persevere, it does work. I've been trying it on, particularly with Aidan.

Our problem (and it is our problem) with Aidan is that he gets an idea in his head about a certain behaviour and it just sticks. Because we've done a bike ride for two evenings in a row, this evening, he wanted to go out again. As both Ethan and I had Taekwondo, there was no easy way of fitting it into the schedule. Aidan on a bike need constant supervision. So we told him "No." He didn't understand, and went to great lengths to convince us that he indeed was going riding, including attempting to get into the garage to get his bike, and running around with his socks to put on his shoes.

When "No" just wouldn't work anymore, I took him aside, told him sternly that his behaviour wasn't asseptable, and took him to his room. The first few times he screamed, he yelled, he did his Tourette's like tricks. But over 25 minutes he got the idea that he needed to calm down, and that perhaps if when he came out he changed his behaviour, he'd get a better result. It sucks that it takes so much time to get a result, but ultimately that calming down gives you more hours of peace than if you just leave him to annoy you all night.

Ciao for Now, Not Asseptable Angry Dad.

The Park, take Two

2006-11-19T22:27:00.000+10:00

We enjoyed the trip to the park yesterday so much we decided to do it again. Actually, it wasn't so much as decided, it was more that Aidan had a renewed interest in nagging us about going out on a bike ride. Ethan also wanted to again go and kick the footy. Anth wanted to go to the beach, but she was outvoted. I just really needed to get out of the house. In the morning I had cleaned the base of our shower of around 5 years of muck. You don't clean it when you think you're going to replace it. We never got around to replacing it. I think I was overcome by detoxification fumes.

Again, it was all of us who made the journey. This time around to speed up proceedings Callum was ferried down to the park in his stroller. This allowed us to take more stuff with us, including drinks, books, football and camera. As you can see, not everyone was happy to be there all the time. At this point, Ethan had felt I'd kicked the football at him one too many times. Notice how Aidan isn't to be seen in either of these upcoming shots. He'd ridden off to the playground to harass other unexpecting parents and children. We let him go.

Anth tried to read, but did have to keep a watchful eye on what Aidan was doing. She also had to ensure that Callum didn't get up to too much mischief. The kid is already a little Bamm Bamm. How do you tell a baby that has picked up a 2 meter long stick NOT to smack you with it? He also has a habit of finding any beer, soft drink or milk carton which someone has left behind, and trying to drink the dregs from it. He squeals each time it they're taken off him. This was subdued with a mummy approved drink, and the return trip home.

Ciao for Now, Destination Revisited Angry Dad.

Everyone down to the Park!

2006-11-18T23:36:00.000+10:00

For the first time in what seems like ages, all of us went down to the local park late this afternoon. When I mean all of us, that means Me, Aidan, Ethan, Callum, Anth and Wednesday (the dog). Normally, it is a selective group, so that at least one of the adults can have some child free time. With Wednesday, due to her age and her increasing lack of hearing, it is getting harder and harder to take her out and let her off her lead. She tends to wander off, and as she can't hear, she won't come back when you call.

Callum, Anth, Wednesday and I walked on the footpath whilst Aidan and Ethan respectively rode their bike and scooter. Although its only about a kilometer to the park, as we progressed, we each spread out. As Callum dawdles, he was down the back with Anth keeping a check on him. Ethan was way out in front, with Aidan not that far behind as it was mostly a downhill coast for him on his bike. I kept as close as I could to them whilst encouraging Wednesday not to stop and smell, poo and wee at every tree.

But we made it. It took a while, but we did. Who would think that what should essentially be a 5-10 minute trip there, tends to take at least half an hour. We kicked around a footy for a while, tried not to have a heart-attack with our lack of fitness, utilised some muscles we didn't know we had, and then had to endure the journey back. Another half an hour and our adventure was done.

Ciao for Now, Its the Journey not the Destination Angry Dad.

Fish and Chips and Pirates

2006-11-17T22:26:00.000+10:00

As Friday nights are generally take-away nights, this evening we went and got Fish and Chips. Well, there were fish and chips and sea scallops and potato cakes and calamari rings. All up, a nice little feast, which we took down to Shorncliffe. Shorncliffe is a suburb of Brisbane which faces both Moreton Bay and The Cabbage Tree Creek. The Creek runs out into the bay, so we were somewhat sheltered, however there was still a stiff breeze coming off the water.

We set up at a table, and proceeded to have the wind blow our drinks over. It wasn't too much drama as we all huddled in together, ripped small holes in the paper wrapping up the fish and chips, and ate our meal together. It may have been a little cold, but the hot food soon warmed us up. As the sun set, we walked along the path by the creek.

The surprise for the night was that today I bought the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest on DVD. Both Ethan and Anth hadn't seen it, so when we got home we all sat down to watch it. Aidan preferred to watch The Simpsons in his room, and Callum spent about an hour climbing all over us before he got tuckered out. We did get to see the second half without too much interruption. So there you have it, a Friday Night at the Angry Dad household!

Ciao for Now, Arrr Me Hearties Angry Dad.

Clone Me

2006-11-16T22:09:00.000+10:00

In the Simpson's Treehouse of Horror Episode XIII, Homer manages to clone himself by using a magic hammock. As much as I'd love this to be a blog post about hammocks, you'll have to go to the Hammock District to find out more about them. In the episode, in one of the stories Homer creates many clones of himself to help him with all the mundane jobs he has to do.

There are days when I'd love a magic hammock to clone myself. Not only could I get a nice kip in, I could send off the clones to do all the things I should do, but don't get around to. One could clean the pool, another could do the finances, another could go out for a run, whilst a fourth could cook dinner. Each of the kids could have one to look out for them. Anth could have two, one for back rubs and the other for foot massages.

Of course, just like Homer, this could come to a terrible end once the Angry Dad clones started to think for themselves. Or like in Multiplicity, the clones would end up with their own personalities. It would be just my luck that one of the foot massaging or back rubbing clones would actually be a sane, smart, nice Angry Dad, and then I'd be shunted out to oblivion. Then again, if they did like they did in the Simpsons to kill off all the Homer clones, I'd be the first one chasing the donuts over the cliff!

Ciao for Now, MMMmmm Cloned Donuts Angry Dad.

You forgot and I scared you

2006-11-15T21:47:00.000+10:00

Ever have those moments where you forget something important, but carry on regardless without thought for what you may have forgotten. I came across someone doing that this morning on my way to work. I scared the shit out of him. Imagine, if you will, that you're sitting in your car, you start the engine, and you carefully pull out from the curb. Out of the corner of your eye you catch movement, and you turn to see this particular head at your window, with the arms of this person gesticulating wildly. Wouldn't you jump out of your seat and drive forward, trying to lock your car door as you drove away?

The reason I was waving wildly was that I'd seen a our poor car hero casually getting into his car after he'd been out for a bike ride. He'd obviously just put his expensive cycle onto the roof racks of his car, but in his haste, he'd forgotten that the front wheel of his bike had been left resting against the front of his car. He was all dressed up in the full cycling gear. The bike looked expensive, as did the wheel. When I realised he was getting into his car, and then that he was going to pull out, I thought "Shit No! The Wheel!", so I tried to get his attention.

Of course, me trying to get his attention meant that he drove over the top of his bike wheel. Fortunately, he didn't drive onto the wheel, more over it and once he'd stopped and realised that maybe I wanted to tell him something, he opened his door and that's when I said "You've run over your bike wheel mate, but I don't think you crushed it." He got out of his car, checked it was ok, then thanked me profusely. I was just sorry I scared him so much!

Ciao for Now, Scary Angry Dad.

A Change of Routine

2006-11-14T22:04:00.000+10:00

When you have a child with Special Needs, they like to have set routines. Yesterday, Aidan was perhaps the best he has been in a long time when getting ready for school. He showered. He had his clothes ready for school. Anth dressed him without complaint, and he even put on his shoes with his orthotic without any drama whatsoever. Today's effort was markedly different.

Yesterday, a change to his routine was introduced. He has had the same bus driver and on-bus carer for a number of months now. Unfortunately, the on-bus carer is away sick this week. This means a new carer is on board, and the bus ran late both yesterday and today. To top this off, Aidan has had to adjust to the new and different carer.

Perhaps this was reflective of why this morning he was a total pain in the arse. He screamed whilst getting ready for his shower. He pulled out all his annoying habits, including shouting phrases he knows we do not like. He wouldn't get dressed. He wouldn't put on his shoes. He sat out in the backyard yelling. He tried to run to the bus before it had arrived. Perhaps I was more sensitive to it because it isn't part of my normal routine, as I normally would have left for work. But as it started earlier, I felt like I had to help deal with it. Anth assures me she could have dealt with it, and I'm sure she could, but I felt I had to change my routine to at least show some semblance of help. Sometimes I wish I could understand more what goes on in Aidan's head.

Ciao for Now, Routinely Yours Angry Dad.

The Ghost Who Walks (with little steps)

2006-11-13T22:14:00.000+10:00

The Phantom is known as The Ghost Who Walks. We have our own little phantom at our place. He doesn't quite get around in the skin tight purple suit, and also doesn't have a mask, but his ghost can be seen passing like a silvery blur at the most inopportune times.

Take having a shower for example. In our ensuite, we have a shower and toilet. The toilet has a toilet roll holder. The toilet roll holder houses the toilet paper. Whilst showering, you sometimes see the Ghost Who Walks With Little Steps shimmer past the frosted glass of the shower screen. You then see him disappear, a white flowing cape following on behind him. It seems to go on for miles. Or perhaps just for 500 odd sheets. Having to clean it up gives me the sheets.

That's not the only ghostly apparition Callum leaves behind. There's always the mystery of who upturned the clothes basket? Who left the fridge open to make the milk go a beautiful stench of green? Who keeps the sliding doors open to outside to let in the flies? and Who keeps tipping the outside potted plants on their end, and leaving muddy footprints everywhere? If only the skull mark was left on the culprit.

Ciao for Now, Help Us Mr Walker Angry Dad.

The First Swim of the Season

2006-11-12T22:07:00.000+10:00

Summer's coming. It's already starting to get hot. Today Ethan had his Soccer team's Christmas party. It was at the Chermside Pool. This was fun because they have a large tower with three water slides, and a lot of theming around the pool area. Ethan and his soccer friends spent most of the time running around, on the slides, or swimming. Four hours of fun in the sun. I've got a sunburnt neck.

I did manage to go in for a swim there. I also went on the water slides, although a man of my austere dimensions sometimes finds it difficult on the slides. I get stuck. Its so stupid. If I don't push myself fast enough on take-off, I get about 5 metres down the slide and stop. Then there's the furious push off again, to ensure that I don't get some teenager ramming me in the back. I've tried sitting up, laying down, aqua-planing my back and somehow its just not right. Yes, I know, losing about 15kg would probably help.

By 3:00pm I'd had enough, and Aidan was at home waiting to swim in our pool. We left, and got home to find Aidan in his swimmers, but he didn't want to go in. He got thrown in anyway. Even Callum got to have a nekid baby swim. It was a little brisker in our home pool, but he didn't seem to mind too much. So other than Anth, we've all now had our first swim of the season!

Ciao for Now, Swimming Boy Angry Dad.

Armistice Day and God

2006-11-11T20:16:00.000+10:00

Ethan brought up two interesting conversations today, both of which he had learnt from Primary School. I can't recall being so active intellectually when I was a kid, but he seems to have all sorts of things going on. The first of these relates to Remembrance Day, or what I learnt as Armistice Day. On the 11th November each year, we remember those who fought in the two World Wars primarily, and all those who have served their country in the defence force. Today, Ethan new this was important to remember, although he didn't quite know why.

I've written about my feelings on war before, and still stick to the motto of Anzac Day and Remembrance Day of Lest We Forget. We reminded Ethan that today we remembered all those people who had died when they fought in the Wars, and how nasty War was. His response was that God would look after them.

God must have been on his mind when we went to Bunnings. Whereas I was thinking "God, how much am I going to have to pay for this decking oil?", Ethan came out with "You're the father, so you must be God." Where do kids come up from this stuff? I figured it must have been part of him thinking about the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Being diplomatic, I responded that I wasn't God, but that God was all around us. He wisely responded that "God was in All of Us". Even as an Agnostic, how do you argue with that?

Ciao for Now, Too Much Philosophy for a Saturday Angry Dad.

Being Hypnotised

2006-11-10T23:59:00.000+10:00

Hypnosis is a state of mind in which a person's conscious critical thinking mind is bypassed and communication with the subconscious mind is established.

That's the Wikipedia Definition of Hypnosis. Tonight, as part of the Christmas Party activities for our Taekwondo club, we had an evening with a Hypnotist Show. The show was Mark Anthony's Hypnaughty Show, which was more focused on adult entertainment. Don't get me wrong, there was no stripping or nudity, but the people who did get up and have a go did things which would have made their mother's blush!

We went with friends, and although Anth tried to convince me to get up I chickened out. Not so Graham, who dashed up there ready to go at it! And go at it he did. All up, about 12 people got hypnotised. They did things like dance like ballerina's, give birth, and lots of sexual innuendo. They had a lot of fun, and we had a lot of fun watching them do it. I knew about half of the people who got up and did things, so it was funny to see them behave not quite as you expected them to!

Afterwards we tried to get Graham to tell us what it was like. He said he could see and hear everything, and even when he was "asleep" he could hear what was going on. The thing he recounted was that although he could see and hear, there were things he just couldn't do. When told to sleep, his hands and feet felt numb, and he couldn't lift his head up or open his eyes. When doing things, it was like he knew what he was doing, but didn't really care. When watching the others, he really wanted to laugh and knew it was funny, but couldn't. He said he felt pretty tired afterwards, and the hypnotist told him he'd sleep well. I'm glad it was him and not me!

Ciao for Now, Chicken and Not Hypnotised Angry Dad.

The Hiccup Burp

2006-11-09T21:57:00.000+10:00

Kids love it when you're gross. I'm gross. I have picked up a particularly disgusting habit in my older years in that when I get the hiccups, I can't help but burp after each one. Hence, the Hiccup Burp. Wikipedia tells me that the Hiccup is caused by an involuntary spasm of the diaphragm, generally caused by specific situations such as eating too quickly. The Burp is caused by the release of gas from the digestive tract through the mouth. If it goes the other way, its a fart! (queue your own fart joke here!) Burping is typically caused by eating or drinking too fast.

Tonight we went out for dinner at a local restaurant. We arrived with what we thought was time to spare before 7:00pm, knowing that we had to have left before 8:00pm so that Anth could go to Netball. We ordered, sat down, and waited. Normally service takes about 15-20 minutes. After half an hour, we still hadn't been served. This meant the calling of the waitress to determine where the meals were. A few minutes later, they arrived, followed by the scoffing and scarfing of said food so we could leave on time! (Here is another example of gross in the Adventures of Angry Dad)

Because we ate so fast, I got the Hiccup Burps. They hit whilst in the car as we went to pick up Aidan from his carer. "Hiccup, Buuuurrrrrp" came out about every 30 seconds. "Ewwww, Dad" was the response from Ethan. At first he thought it was hilarious. After a few more minutes, he was telling me how to get rid of them by holding my breath. They only stopped when I stopped the car and got out. Then I farted.

Ciao for Now, Gross Out Angry Dad.

Melbourne Cup Day (A Day Late)

2006-11-08T21:18:00.000+10:00

Yesterday the race that stops the nation, the Melbourne Cup, was run. I had other things on my mind, so didn't post about it. Today, on reflection, and after seeing Aidan's photo's from his Cup day, I thought I'd write a few words.

The Melbourne Cup is a thoroughbred horse race. But it isn't just any horse race. Its run over close to two miles, and is the richest race in the country. The first place winner gets $3 million Aussie dollars, which is worth about the equivalent of a case of beer and a pizza in other countries. All up we Aussies gamble close to $120 million just on that one race. Nearly everyone bets on it. It is an international event, with horses from other countries competing, and this year two Japanese horses came in first and second. I, of course, bet, and even managed a winner, but still lost more than I won!

At Aidan's school, he had a special Cup day set of activities. Those that could got toy horses, and a specially laid out track was set up for the kids to run around. All the teachers cheered the kids on as they giddy up'd all over the place! Aidan was very proud to show us all his "news" after the event, with the pictures of him and his horse, and his special Cup Day crowns for being a winner. All the kids got them!

Ciao for Now, Giddy Up Angry Dad.

The Tank Man of Tiananmen Square

2006-11-07T21:51:00.000+10:00

Image Copyright: Jeff Widener (The Associated Press)

On June 5, 1989, one day after Chinese troops expelled thousands of demonstrators from Tiananmen Square in Beijing, a solitary and unarmed protester stood his ground before a column of tanks advancing down the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured by Western photographers watching nearby, this confrontation became an icon of the fight for freedom around the world.

This evening, on SBS television, I watched a Cutting Edge documentary on the Tank Man of Tianamen Square. It was confronting, and I must admit that although I knew the image, I didn't know the background of the uprising. This was a people's uprising against the then government of China over oppression and civil rights. It is the actions of governments such as these which make me Angry.

I am fortunate enough to live in one of the greatest countries in the world. In Australia we enjoy vast freedoms, which many of us have no idea how lucky we truly are. We accept it as part of our mandate for being here. We have a huge multi-cultural community, and yet we still have a true sense of ourselves as a nation. Apart from our indigenous aboriginals, to whom we should be sorry, we have never been an oppressed or discouraged people.

I'm proud to be Australian, and I hope that we can be passionate about calling out for justice around the world. I'm far from perfect, yet I hope that for my kid's sake, that if pushed I could stand up to a tank in an act of defiance against a considerably greater force for what I believed in. Little remains known of Tank Man's identity, however, as a symbol of an individual's power to halt government and force a change in direction it cannot be denied.

Ciao for Now, Saluting the Tank Man Angry Dad.

Don't Pull Hair!

2006-11-06T22:56:00.000+10:00

We bit the bullet last week with the failing parts of our pool, ordering a new pump, filter, chlorinator and kreepy krawly. The pool boy came today and set it all up, much to Anth's delight. No, not that kind of delight. Well, at least I don't think so! When I rang her during the day and found out they were there, all I could hear in the background was Aidan helling yelling "Pool Man is my Friend!" If that was the case, then he wouldn't have had any time to do anything other than placate Aidan and fix the pool.

When I got home, Anth and I went out to survey the left over mess, and the nice new system which replaced it. Both Callum and Aidan were left behind the pool fence whilst we reviewed all the new bits. The equipment is down one end of the pool area, where we couldn't see the back door where the kids were. Callum started crying, however, we just assumed this was because he wasn't in with us. We ignored him until his screaming got so loud we had to go and see what was going on.

Unfortunately, it wasn't because he missed us. When I got to him, his hair was standing on end straight up. The Eldest Boy bolted off, the remnants of hair mixed with chocolate biscuit still in his hot little hands. Aidan has a terrible habit of pulling Callum's hair, because he knows it will make Callum cry, which will also get him attention. Pity its all bad attention. "Don't Pull Hair" is a constant cry in our place. Tonight he was locked in his room, with the threat he wouldn't be able to go to his Awards Night coming up. Half an hour later he was very, very apologetic.

Ciao for Now, Hopefully the Hair Pulling Will Stop Angry Dad.

Three Kids in a Park

2006-11-05T21:24:00.000+10:00

Anth got to go and have a morning at the shops which left me with the three children. What to do, what to do? I know, I'll take them to the park! This turned out to be a reasonable idea. What sane adult wouldn't want to take 3 kids, including a newly walking baby, to a seaside park. We got on our thongs, changed out of our pyjamas and jumped in the car to head to the beach. After the standard fights of "who is going to sit in the front?" we were finally on our way.

The journey there was relatively uneventful, excepting that Aidan had in his head a particular park he wanted to go to. Ethan wanted to go somewhere else, which came up first. Ethan's criteria was that he wanted somewhere where he could kick a footy and throw his toy helicopter in the air. This meant lots of open spaces. Fortunately for me, Aidan kicked up a stink, because he wanted a different park. Thankfully, we got to move on to a park with a fence. Fenced in with children is good.

We ended up at Sutton's Beach in Redcliffe. This is a good area as it has lots of open lawn, the beach facing the bay, and a fenced Pirate Themed park to play in. Ethan dashed off to play on the ship and slides, Aidan dashed off to annoy other parents, and Callum and I went into the shaded area so he could wander around to his heart's content. Aside from Aidan trying to chat up other kid's mums, and me trying to ignore he was my kid, everything ran quite smoothly. Callum even got to go down the slides.

The only difficult part is removing three kids from a fun park. Aidan had to be dragged by the wrist, much to the disdain of chatted up mothers. Callum did the back arch and scream when I lifted him from the slide to leave. Ethan came along reasonably, but at a 10 metre distance as he didn't want to be associated with the crazy man with the screaming kids. I'm surprised the police didn't stop me and demand to know if these really were my children. "Of course not officer" would be the only response.

Ciao for Now, Arrest Me Now Angry Dad.

Jelly Baby

2006-11-04T20:16:00.000+10:00

We have had several times where when we go shopping Ethan has requested Jelly. In the past what has happened is that as we go down the shopping aisle, he makes a big song and dance about how much he loves it, and how he needs it, and how he is going to eat it all up. We get home, make up a batch, and as we're making it he starts going "ewwwwww." By the time it sets and is ready to eat, he makes vomit sounds, and there's no way you're going to get any of that puppy down his throat.

So we came today, and Ethan hadn't been to the supermarket with me for a while. I made the daring journey of taking all three boys with me. We got to the Jelly Aisle, and Hey Presto! there was the request from Ethan for Jelly. He wanted Red. Aidan wanted Green. Callum was happy to sit in the trolley and pull Aidan's hair (revenge is sweet). As Jelly is cheap compared to bananas, I succumbed and bought one each.

After lunch we made up a batch of the Red Strawberry Flavoured jelly. Ethan did all the mixing, and we delicately put it in the fridge. He spent the rest of the afternoon checking on it. After dinner, for desert we got out the Jelly and Ice Cream. No Vomit, not even a throat tickle. He mushed it up and ate it all down. Even Callum got in on the act, and that was so cute it deserved a photo. All through the serving and eating process Anth and Ethan sang a new Jelly song I hadn't heard.

Wiggle Wobble, Wiggle Wobble.
Jelly on a plate.

Ciao for Now, Jelly Belly Angry Dad.

Happy Little Vegemite

2006-11-03T21:59:00.000+10:00

This evening Ethan had his school concert. It was an Australian Made Variety Concert. With his class, all of the kids got dressed up like Vegemite and sang the Happy Little Vegemite song. It was good, because it was early on in the show, so I got to see him, and then I could go.

"Why did you have to go?" I hear you ask. Well, having an intellectually disabled boy and a baby can lead to interesting consequences when you go out to school functions. It can either work, or it can't. Tonight, Aidan got it in his head that we should have been going to his Annual concert. From the minute I got home, through dinner, in the car trip, and for most of the show we got repeated every 30 seconds. "Can I go to my Awards Night soon?" I don't know about you, but after an hour and a half of the same thing being said to you, it starts to wear a bit thin. On top of that, as I had to have him sit on my lap, he managed to pee on me before telling me he needed to go to the toilet.

After that, I did the swap with Callum for Aidan. He was great through one song, watching the kids, whilst Anth had to hold on to Aidan. Then Callum decided he wanted Mummy. The he decided to start crying. Loudly. During a sax-a-ma-phone solo some kid was playing. So we had to go outside. With all the stinky smokers, who can't stay inside watching their kids, because they have to get their cancer stick fix. By then I'd pretty much had enough. I was glad I did get to see Ethan, and get one decent photo of him! And I'm glad Anth got to enjoy the majority of the concert.

Ciao for Now, Not So Happy Little Vegemite Angry Dad.

A Run in the Cool Night

2006-11-02T22:36:00.000+10:00

This afternoon I participated in the Cool Night Classic run. This is a corporate run organised by Price Waterhouse in aid of different charities each year. It is nice and short at only 5km, and it is run late in the afternoon when the temperature has cooled down enough to not make it unbearable. I managed to do it in 31:16, which means I was doing just over 6 minute kilometers. For an old hack like me I didn't think that was too bad.

There were over 4,600 participants, and we ran from the Botanic Gardens in the City, across the Goodwill Bridge and along the Brisbane River. From there, it was up and over the Story Bridge, and back along the other side of the river into the city again. As you can imagine, with so many people all trying to run/jog/walk the path, it was quite a stretch to get any real pace up, which suited me fine.

The whole family has had an active week this week which is good. Aidan recently did his own fun run. Ethan has been doing AusKick and Taekwondo. Anth is playing Netball. Even Callum is coming out to the park with us to do his own stuntwork. The only one who isn't really getting out and about is Wednesday, but that's mainly because of arthritis kicking in. Maybe this fitness thing can make a difference. If only the dreamy donuts didn't call. *sigh*

Ciao for Now, MMMMMmmmmm Donuts Angry Dad.

Auskick!

2006-11-01T21:43:00.000+10:00

Ethan has taken up Auskick. Auskick is the Australian Rules Football program for learning the basics of Aussie Rules. I'm wrapped that he is doing it, as its my favourite game. Having been brought up in Victoria, I was brought up on a diet of football, with my favourite team being Carlton. Unfortunately, in Queensland, Rugby is the game of choice, so it is difficult to get a lot of Aussie Rules information, even though they do have an AFL club here.

This afternoon after I got home from work Ethan, Callum and I went down the local park to kick the footy around. As you can see from these two action shots, Ethan is starting to get the hang of it. When he kicks it, he calls it a bomb. My main concern was that he didn't kick it onto the roof of the scout hall which was nearby. Note also how in Queensland, you don't walk around with shoes on. You have to make sure that you play footy in your thongs, and it is important that when you go for a kick that you flick off your thong from the kicking foot, but leave it on the other one. It just looks better.

Callum also had a lot of fun. Our little stuntman waddled around Ethan and I as we kicked the footy. Just minutes before this photo was taken he managed to dive head first onto the grass. If he only had of taken a mark of the footy it would have been that much more spectacular. Unfortunately, it was more the point that he just decided to dive forward onto the grass. Hence the look of the red nose, and windswept hair. But as the T-Shirt says, he does his own stunts.

Ciao for Now, Kick it to me Angry Dad.

A New One

2006-10-31T22:18:00.000+10:00

Last night Anth and I had a brief discussion, which Aidan overheard, about getting a second hand computer for the kids to play with. My work occasionally does an auction sale of their old equipment, which means that you usually can pick up a computer cheaply. I'd noticed them doing a cleanout the other day, which I mentioned to Anth. She jumped on the idea, saying I had to make sure I got one.

Aidan, little treasure that he is, also jumped on the idea. At the time he was still in his school uniform. He bolted off to his room, and the next thing I know he's standing in our room with a clean set of clothes all ready to go out and buy himself a new computer. He thought that since we'd mentioned "Computer" and "Aidan" within the same sentence, that immediately meant he was getting one.

It hasn't stopped since. When he woke up this morning, his first words were "New One?" When I picked him up from after school care, he greeted me with "New One?" "New One What?" I responded, having briefly forgotten the morning kerfuffle. "New Computer!" "Oh That, Not Yet Aidy..." Wrong response, as it was followed by tears. I sure hope they have that auction soon!

Ciao for Now, I want a new one too Angry Dad.

The Dawdler and the Dawdlebug

2006-10-30T23:06:00.000+10:00

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to take your middle child to school, on time. You have one hour.

In my case, this truly is a Mission Impossible. I have embedded in my middle child one of my own more generous traits. It is the trait of the dawdle. Given a certain amount of time to undertake a task, I will, or nay Must, utilise all of the given time to explore all the alternatives and cross-paths which are designed to ensure that I utilise all of the given time, and then some.

So it was this morning, when my sole task was to get Ethan to school on time. Anth had a dentist appointment. She left at 7:50AM, after Aidan was sent off to school. Callum, the baby, was already up and fed. All I had to do was feed myself, do a triple S (shit, shower and shave), and get Ethan ready and delivered to school at 8:50AM. Should have been easy peasy.

It wasn't. Ethan dawdled getting into the shower. Then he dawdled putting his shoes on. I dawdled having a shave. I had to wait for Ethan to have his shower before I could have mine. We both got distracted in where the lunchbox with lunch in it was. Callum needed a nappy change. I couldn't get the pram upright. There was an earthquake. There was a terrible flood. I got a flat tire. You believe me baby, don't ya. Ya Gotta Believe Me...

Anyways, we rocked up to school, as the bell rang. Ethan thought that was fine, because he could still see girl's skipping in the courtyard, and he thought it was the first bell. It wasn't. The girls skipping were part of a class. We were definitely late. I could just imagine the label the teacher would put on us. "Dawdler." "Dawdlebug".

Ciao for Now, Late as always Angry Dad.

In The Round

2006-10-29T20:32:00.000+10:00

If you want a way to truly freak your children out, do singing in the Round with them. Do it in the car. Of course, the classic in the round song is Row, Row, Row your boat. For us Aussies, Kookaburra Sits In the Old Gum Tree works just as well. I guess if you were French you could sing Frère Jacques.

The whole point is to have one of the adults (who act like children) start singing, and then after the first line has been sung, the other adult starts singing from the start. This forms a nice vocal counterpoint. It also has the effect of the children in the back of the car screaming "No, No, No! That's not right. Stop It. STOP IT MUM and DAD! Waaaaah". Maybe its just my sensitive children who freak out in this manner.

The way to do it is like Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo did it as Clark and Ellen Griswold in National Lampoon's Vacation. They sang the variant of Hush Little Baby known as Mockingbird, and although not strictly in the round, it was enough to make both of their kids put their walkman headphones on. Oh that's right, we're in the Noughties now, so I should say IPod instead of Walkman shouldn't I.

Ciao for Now, Everybody - have you heard - Angry Dad's Gonna Buy You a Mockingbird.

If I had 5 kids...

2006-10-28T20:50:00.000+10:00

Today I had a glimpse into what it would be like to have 5 kids. Anth's best friend Paula from High School came to visit with her family. She has 2 boys. We have 3. We spent the day up at one of the Bay Beaches, and then returned to our house in the late afternoon. That's when Anth said she wanted to go and have some "time alone" with Paula to catch up in quiet.

What does that mean? Well, that means that David and I had to look after all the boys. I'm not saying that we're bad father's, but lets face it, both Paula and Anth are the main care-givers in our respective families. We had a 1 year old, a 20 month old, a 4 year old, a 7 year old, and a 10 year old. I don't know how people with more than 3 kids do it.

In the main, all the kids as a whole were pretty good. Its those individual whiney moments that get you. I mean, when I started whining, David just got this look on his face of "Will you just shut the hell up." But I couldn't help it. I had Callum screaming for a bottle, Ethan crying because he'd stubbed his toe or got a paper cut, and Aidan running around saying "Where's Mummy. Where's Mummy?" His kids were angels. I think it was the shock of the new that kept them well behaved. Phew, how relieved was I when Anth got back from getting her coffee.

Ciao for Now, Prophylactics from now on Angry Dad.

1+1+1 is 3

2006-10-27T21:10:00.000+10:00

I swear that as a child I never had to do the level of homework that our kids seem to get. Every morning, at the kitchen table, Ethan does his homework. Often, I've already headed off to work, but today I was running a bit late, so I got to see Ethan doing math. He is quite good with all of his work, although I think the he has a bit more of a preference for counting.

This morning there was a whole section on balloons. There were balloons in boxes, and individual balloons and balloons that were blown up. The questions were along the lines of "Mary wants to take away 8 balloons, show how to count these from the boxes and write how many are left." At least I know that if he doesn't get a job as an accountant, he can always get a job at a restaurant making balloon animals.

A common car conversation always is: "Dad. What is 1999 + 1999?" If you don't know already, its 3998. It seems that this is one of the highest numbers he can get a grasp of. Its always met with a gasp of awe when I give the answer straight away. He must be imagining how many fingers and toes I've counted up to get to the answer. I don't know why he never asks me to count the kids, but if he does I have the answer. 1+1+1 is 3.

Ciao for Now, Counting Angry Dad.

Just Not Fit.

2006-10-26T21:59:00.000+10:00

Whilst I was away in the U.S. I tried to exercise. Honest. I worked out in the hotel gyms. I even went out for a run one time. Just because I only went at a snail's pace, and blew up a calf before I got back, I still went for a run. It was cold, I tells ya! So all up, in two weeks I did around 6 sessions, so it wasn't too far off what I do at home.

But today I paid for being out of fitness. One of my colleagues and I went for a lunchtime run. I made it just over 20 minutes in before my body just started to give out. I had to stop and walk, feeling quite lightheaded. It took another 10 minutes to recover enough where I could do a slow jog back to work. It took another hour after that before I felt somewhat normal again. My whole body felt like a dead weight for most of the run.

Then tonight, I had Taekwondo. Most of the session involved sparring. This is when you fight one on one with other participants. Its all non contact, well, its supposed to be. I still managed to get kicked in the arm, which was protecting my face, which meant I smacked myself in the head. This was all due to being so unfit I couldn't protect myself properly after about 3 minutes! I only felt better when I got home and opened a box of chocolate chip cookies.

Ciao for Now, These Cookies Taste Good Angry Dad.

Look at that Walking Boy go!

2006-10-25T21:56:00.000+10:00

Callum has really started to take off now that he's walking. He has this funny little robot like walk, which looks like a cross between Gigantor and a Sumo Wrestler. He has a tendency to walk up close to you then do a wide berth turn and walk away. Which of course then followed by another wide berth turn, to do the return run!

He also is a little adventurer. He has a ride on car which can both be ridden on and pushed around. Callum has found that if he pushes it, rather than rides on it, he can use it as a battering ram to push his way through various obstacles. This includes his mother's legs, his father's legs, the back door, the dog, the dog's bowl, and various plants and flowers. He's quick! Damn quick!

This isn't to say that he's forgotten how to crawl. For convenience, he uses his power crawl to get up and down stairs. This is followed by the rapid escape crawl followed by the launch into the sumo walk. When he does this, he's out of the house and away very quickly. He also likes to have a flat out lay down every now and again, which for whatever reason he thinks is hilarious. He throws himself forward, puts his head on the floor, the laughs hysterically. I wish I was a kid again!

Ciao for Now, Watching him walk Angry Dad.

Excitable Aidan

2006-10-24T21:29:00.000+10:00

Aidan continues to learn new words. His current favourite is the word "Sure".

"Aidan, can you make sure you close the back door behind you when you got outside?"
"Sure, Mummy. Sure!"

He might say it, but it doesn't mean that he'll do it.

He is also getting very excitable about activities which are going on around him. He has another Fun Run this week, and a lot of his talk centres around having money to go and do it. When I picked him up this evening from his after school care, he rushed at me with his hand out.

"I need money for Fun Run. Money. Fun Run."
"But you don't need the money now?"
"Yeah-ah-esss. Money. Fun Run. Sure!"

We also got pictures of Aidan using the new playground equipment that the Art Auction helped support. The teachers wrote up a whole spiel about using the playground, and how enthusiastic and excited the kids were. I knew our boy would be excited. We know he loves going to school!

Ciao for Now, Excitable Angry Dad.

Teeth and Pupil Free Days

2006-10-23T21:55:00.000+10:00

Today Anthea had a morning dentist appointment. As it was also a Pupil Free Day at both the kid's schools, I decided to take the day off. Anth had had a sore tooth whilst I was away, but with no one to easily look after Callum, she decided to wait until I got back. She now needs a root canal. Ouch.

It was good to have a day off after all the travel. We ended up having a very busy day. We went and looked at the new extension to the local large shopping centre, where another 100 odd shops have been added. We then went to the local coffee shop, where I managed to slam Ethan's hand into the car door. He recovered, but that wasn't to be his first injury of the day. We also fixed our insinkerator, cleaned up the pool, and took Ethan to AFL AusKick.

It was also to be my first session back for Taekwondo, which means I'm going to be stiff tomorrow. Ethan's second injury came here, where he slipped over as he went to kick a floor, and fell on his backside. I heard his howl, and had to rush over and make sure he was alright. He again recovered, but tomorrow I know he's going to have a bruised hand, and a bruised behind.

Ciao for Now, Full Day and Tuckered Angry Dad.

First Class

2006-10-22T20:22:00.000+10:00

Hey, it's good, to be back home again. John Denver got it right sometimes. It was so nice to land in Brisbane, get off the plane, get a taxi home, and be greeted at the front door by Aidan and Ethan, with Callum walking (yes, walking) up to me! Anth even got up and gave me a kiss! Although it was a reasonably early flight in, apparently Aidan had gotten most of the family up at 5:30am in expectation that I'd be home with his Blue's Clues video.

Gifts were dispersed. Anth got her nice two bottles of Baileys. Ethan got a plane set, Aidan got his Blue's Clues and all the boys got some more Novelty T-Shirts. You can't beat "My Dad went to L.A. and all he got me was this crappy T-Shirt..." can you! We spent most of the day just relaxing and catching up, with a nice side trip out to the shops and to one of the Forest Parks just outside the city. I spent most of the day also trying to stay awake, but I did get in some Nana Naps.

One good thing on the flight home, was that I managed to get an upgrade to First Class. It reminded me of The Airport episode of Seinfeld where Jerry got his upgrade, and Elaine got stuck down in cattle class. It was great. The seats lie flat into beds. You get waited on for whatever you want. I was in seat 2, at the real pointy end of the plane. Sometimes it pays to be nice rather than Angry. Maybe I should change my moniker.

Ciao for Now, Then Again Maybe I won't change my moniker Angry Dad.

Going Home Tonight!

2006-10-21T04:26:00.000+10:00

We leave this evening. We fly out of St Louis via Los Angeles for the the long haul back down to Brisbane, Australia. I've enjoyed my time here, but I can't wait to get home. Its funny, as we've had a few discussions amongst the fellow travelers who have referred to the Hotel we've been staying at as home. There are comments going around like "After we go to the pub, we'll go back home." Home to me isn't the hotel.

Home is where my family is. As cliched as it sounds, home is where the heart is. Yeah, I know I sound like a sentimental wanker, but when I travel I know its what I believe. I can't wait to see them all, although we get in around 6:00am in the morning, so I'll be sneaking into the house after getting a taxi from the airport. I bet Anth's gonna get a shock when I throw all my crap into the bedroom and wake her up. I have to remember not to wake the kids up before their normal wake up time!

Work is work. A hotel is a hotel. Home is family. Period.

Ciao for Now, Travellin' Home Angry Dad.

Philly in a Day

2006-10-20T14:37:00.000+10:00

We had meetings in Philadelphia today, which meant a 4:00am start to get to the airport by 5:00am for a flight at 6:00am. With the time zone change, and the 2 hour flight, we got there by 9:00am. I don't really know that much more about Philly than I knew yesterday. I think the Liberty Bell is there because I saw a picture of it in the airport. It was a mad rush for most of the day, until ending up back at the airport for a half hour wait through security before getting back on a plane for St Louis.

The only problem, we didn't get on a direct flight. We had to go via Cleveland. Cleveland, Ohio. That led to many renditions of The Drew Carey Show theme where they sang Cleveland Rocks. I again don't really know how much it rocks, because we flew in around 8:30pm and flew out at 9:00pm. I saw some big paper planes there, but that was pretty much it.

And then it was back to St Louis, where we arrived back at 10:00pm. As it was the last game of the National League baseball championships which St Louis were playing in, the pilots kept giving us updates. We got back in to see the cliff hanger 9th innings, and hear the cheers when the Cardinals won. Everyone here is happy. I'm just tired and want to go to bed!

Ciao for Now, One Day Too Many Angry Dad.

No Scars

2006-10-19T13:54:00.000+10:00

Ever since I got here in the U.S. I have constant terrible reminders of Ethan and how I attempted to terrify him at a theme park. I can be sitting in a meeting, and in my head I can hear his shrill cry for "Mummy" and it sends shivers up my spine. I think I might be having more nightmares about it than he did.

So this evening, when I rang Anth up, I had to make sure he was alright. Anth assures me that he is, and that he hasn't had any nightmares. As a matter of fact, other than for a few days after it happened, it would seem he's barely thought about it again. And here I am thinking I'd scarred him for life, and knowing that I did a terrible thing by taking him on the ride, but he's fine.

The funny thing is, Anth knows how scary the ride he went on was. She was in the school yard when Ethan was explaining it to some of the other kids, telling them how scary it was. Their comebacks were along the lines of "Oh, I went on the flume ride, and that was really scary." or "I went on the dodgems, and got so scared when someone bumped me." She felt like going up to them and saying, "Listen Buddies, you DON'T know scared. Ethan KNOWS scared!"

Ciao for Now, Still Guilty Angry Dad.

It's a bit like Melbourne

2006-10-18T15:45:00.000+10:00

St Louis is a bit like Melbourne, Australia. The days here are still long enough to get the sun coming up before we go off to work, and then have a bit of daylight when we get back. It's Autumn, so all the greenery is starting to change, and there is a lot of it about. Its relatively flat. There's a river (actually in St Louis there's two). They love their sport. And it rains.

God how it rains. We seem to have hit the week when the rain really managed to come down. By some reports, St Louis got more rain yesterday than they have had in one day for years. Something like 3 inches worth. So it was wet yesterday, and it was grey and overcast today. We've had days where it has been so windy you get windchill. And days where the sun has shone for most of the day, but its still cold. It reminds me of Melbourne.

The Sport analogy is also a good one. St Louis people love Baseball. Melbourne People love AFL. I guess the main difference is that in St Louis they are supporting just the one team. Melbourne supports many. The fact that its wet, its autumn, and its green, with a multitude of coloured hues as the trees change their foliage means that the sports season is well upon us. Its the same in Melbourne. Autumn always meant that the hard sports were well underway, and the cricket would have been finishing up. Here the Baseball is finishing up, and the NFL is underway. It reminds me of Melbourne.

Ciao for Now, Melbourne Town Reminiscing Angry Dad.

The Nana Nap

2006-10-17T14:15:00.000+10:00

I decided today that I was going to attempt have a junk free day. This meant no chocolate, no chocolate cake, no chocolate mousse, no coke, and an attempt to drink far more water than I have. I didn't sleep too well last night, and woke up feeling a bit seedy, hence the decision on the health route. I actually did it as well, having a healthy oat breakfast with fruit, a turkey and salad sandwich for lunch, and steak and vegies for dinner. Not a french fry in sight!

That was probably part of the reason that towards the middle of the day, I got a headache, and by late afternoon before we were about to leave work my stomach was churning. It was calling out for all of the delicious treats that seem to be part of the American way of life. Well, the part of life for those who live out of a suitcase in a hotel! In the hotel, we saw two people carrying 40 ounce (almost 2 litre) travel "cups" of Sprite. What is up with that? Do you really need to drink 2 litres of Coke or Sprite or Soda over the course of the day? Do you really need to carry it with you?! That didn't make me feel any better.

So back to the hotel room, and I undertook the traveller's support activity, the Nana Nap. This reflects the activity that Grandma's, or Nana's do, at the drop of a hat when they get old. It basically means nodding off for a refreshing kip in a quick time. I laid down in the hotel bed, and tried to watch television, but went out like a light. I got a reminder call half an hour later to get up, but I promptly fell back to sleep for an hour. I feel much better for it!

Ciao for Now, God Bless You Nana Angry Dad.

Touring St Louis

2006-10-16T14:47:00.000+10:00

What do you do when you haven't been to St Louis (much) before? You go up the Arch. We travelled down into the city today, at the same time that there was an football game on. It would have been good to see an NFL game, but we didn't have tickets. So instead we went to the Arch!

This was quite cool. We were waiting for another colleague to meet up with us, so we walked around the base of the park, as well as seeing squirrels. The novelty of the squirrel never wears off for me. So what if they're rabid little gerbils, they're still cool! The thing about the Arch is that you can get a different perspective of it from so many places. It is also visible from a fair way out of the city, and I would imagine it changes its look depending on the weather as well.

Once inside, we walked around the Lewis and Clark Museum, the explorers most notably associated with St Louis. I love that there is a Simpson's moment for everything - in that my memory was sparked by Sacagawea, which was referenced in Margical History Tour. Lisa played Sacagawea, the Indian woman who travelled on the exploratory journey. We also took the tram tour up to the top of the arch. Although it wasn't a Six Flag's Rollercoaster, it was claustrophobic, and the view from the top was amazing!

Ciao for Now, Archie Angry Dad.

Hotel Rooms

2006-10-15T05:13:00.000+10:00

The Hotel we are staying at is a business oriented hotel during the week, but on weekends it turns into a haven for families and wedding services. As I've wandered around today I've seen a wealth of families and people all dressed up. I've never seen so many shiny shoes and garish pink dresses! I guess the fall in St Louis must be a good time to squeeze in a wedding before it gets too cold.

It's funny seeing kids running around. I've yet to come across a kid who does lift bingo, but I'm sure they're doing it. The lifts are open glass, which face out into the large atrium of the hotel. You can stand on the balcony facing into the atrium and watch groups of kids moving up and down the lifts from one floor to another. I managed to sleep in a little this morning, so I avoided the mad rush for breakfast. They have a big traffic light chart which warns against going down to the breakfast area between 9:00 - 10:30am due to the 1 hour wait time.

I'm sure my kids would like it here. They could run around everywhere. There are lots of other kids to interact with. There's a swimming pool, and enough open spaces around that they wouldn't get too much in our hair. On top of that, I'd have a good reason to go down to Six Flags and ride around in the theme park with them. I can't seem to convince the grown ups I'm with to go there. They prefer adult theme parks of smoky bars!

Ciao for Now, Hotel Boy Angry Dad.

The Party Bus

2006-10-14T18:27:00.000+10:00

Tonight, being Friday night, meant that the boys wanted to go out and have a big night. As we have to work over the weekend, this was considered "the big night" on the party bus. The party bus was effectively me driving around in the crappy Jeep that we hired, but that's a whole nother story!

The night started at a chain hot wings bar and restaurant out in the suburbs. It was pretty cool, as we got to sit, eat, drink and watch the Cardinals win against the Mets in game two of the series. The baseball returns to St Louis this weekend, and I must admit, that although I'm not a big fan of baseball the game tonight was pretty good. We didn't finish up until close to midnight, but somehow the party bus continued.

We ended up going into Downtown St Louis to a piano bar called The Big Bang Bar. This was great, as the concept is that there are two pianos on stage, and obviously two pianists! The pianists play off against each other, playing songs requested from the audience. They seem to have a huge repetoire, and the audience really gets into it, even at 2:00am in the morning! I managed to drag the others out of there at 2:30pm, and we even sang a rendition of "I Still Call Australia Home" to a bunch of Americans on the footpath.

Ciao for Now, I'm With The Drunks Angry Dad.

Baseball

2006-10-13T14:45:00.000+10:00

Whilst in St Louis, the Baseball National League Championship playoffs are on. This is between the St Louis Cardinals and the New York Mets. Of course, because the St Louis team is in, there is a fair amount of activity going on around supporting the team. The guys I am with are keen to go out each evening, and tonight was another night at a bar, where the benefit is we did get to watch the game.

To me, Baseball is like Cricket. If you watch it whilst you drink beer, then it's considered the best game in the world. If there's no beer, it's boring as all get up. Its slow. The scores are low. There's this whole tactical element you need to understand, and it involves blokes running up and down or around a pitch. I know there's a lot of people out there who love it, but it doesn't really do it for me unless it's close.

I don't think our kids are likely to play baseball regularly in Australia. Although it does get played, I'm probably happier that they are playing soccer and doing Taekwondo. That doesn't mean they won't play Baseball, or Cricket, during their school years. When I was at school we got to play everything! I'm sure, however, that they'll get to watch it. Hopefully not in stinky, smoke filled bars, but possibly when they're much older, with golden amber!

Ciao for Now, Stinky Smoky Angry Dad.

Late Nights

2006-10-12T16:02:00.000+10:00

Part of the interesting fun about being in the U.S. for work is that you can work all day at a site, and then find yourself having to do work for your regular job back in Australia at night. On top of that, you have to find time to socialise with the people that you're working with. I don't drink. But that doesn't mean I don't get dragged along to smokey bars where I have to sit in and listen up to lots of tall stories. This can be fun, but isn't so much fun when you have e-mails and telecons back at the hotel to attend to.

Tonight was one of those nights where we sat in a bar for a number of hours, took phone calls from home and had to go and stand out in the cold, ate crap bar food, and then had to rush back to the hotel for another few hours of work. It's now 1:00am and I'm shagged and want to go to bed, but in true blogging style, I thought I had to get a post in.

Of course, being tired and not knowing what I was going to post about brought me to the aforementioned topic. I know it sounds like I'm having a bit of a moan, and god damn right, I'm having a bit of a bitch and a moan! Sometimes I'd like to just pass out in the hotel bed and get a decent nights sleep. Many would argue I bring it upon myself. Many would be right!

Ciao for Now, Ranting Angry Dad.

Kid's sense of justice

2006-10-11T14:47:00.000+10:00

I was reflecting on the flight from L.A. to St Louis, that kids have an inbuilt sense of justice. Last week, I was cooking in the kitchen and had both Callum and Aidan running around my feet. I couldn't keep my eye on both of them, so I was trusting that Aidan wasn't annoying Callum too much, and that Callum was not overtly attacking Aidan.

At the time, I thought that Aidan was trying to pull at Callum's hair. This is one of his tactics to get attention. Callum had gotten into the kids drink bottle cupboard, and had pulled out the Simpsons drinking bottle. Aidan, who thinks that anything which is branded is his, promptly tried to take it off him. Callum cried, and then Aidan gave it back. I watched this as I stood cutting vegetables at the bench. When I turned away, Callum started crying. I turned back to see him standing there, Aidan next to him, and the bottle on the floor. I scolded Aidan, who looked deeply hurt, and picked up the bottle and gave it back to Aidan.

I went back to cutting vegetables, and then Callum started crying again. Again, Aidan was next to him, and the bottle was on the floor. I then told Aidan off, and told him to "Get out of the kitchen!" He protested, but as he can't communicate that well, all he did was his chicken arms, flapping them around as though he wasn't responsible. I picked up the bottle, and gave it again to Callum. This time, he flung it onto the floor, and started crying again. Aidan hadn't done anything. I was wrong, and he was right. When I apologised, he looked at me as if to say "I told you so."

Ciao for Now, I Should Be More Tolerant Angry Dad.

Happy Birthday Ethan!

2006-10-10T16:19:00.000+10:00

It is Ethan's 7th Birthday today. Unfortunately, I'm not there to sing Happy Birthday to him, although I recorded my voice and sent him an e-mail with me singing it to him! Hopefully that's a little bit of a substitute for not being around. I was going through some of my photo's of the family I keep on my computer, and this one tickled my fancy, so I thought I'd add it here as well.

I rang Ethan earlier to see how his day had been going. He'd been at school for the day, but he was full of excitement. As one of his presents, he had gotten a "watch it grow Alien". The basic premise is that you throw it in water, and over a 12 hour period an Alien gets hatched and grows into, well, an Alien! He had opened it up with Anth just before I rang, so he really didn't want to talk to me!!

He got a number of other toys, and was even excited that Grandma had sent both he and Aidan presents. He did manage to also tell me that he got some Lego, and some Star Wars transformers, and that he had soooo many awesome presents. Then he hung up on me in his haste to get back to the Alien! I rang back, and spoke to Anth for a while, but there was a lot of activity going on there so I only got a quick phone call in the end. I'm glad I still got to talk to and hear all of them!

Ciao for Now, Wishing He Was There Angry Dad.

I'm in L.A!

2006-10-09T13:39:00.000+10:00

We flew into Los Angeles this morning at 6:50am, and have spent most of the day trying to keep ourselves awake. There are 3 of us on this current trip, with a 4th set to join us next week. As it is the weekend today's activities have centered largely around the tourist areas of LA. We are staying down in Long Beach, so we drove down to our hotel early. Unfortunately, not all the rooms were ready to check in at 8:00am, but we did get one to store all our stuff.

So we got in the car and drove down to Long Beach. Then we drove up to Hollywood. We walked Hollywood Boulevard, and then again jumped in the car to Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. If only a had a few million to spend on diamonds! After that, we continued to Santa Monica Boulevard to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It was then that I got the chance to ring Anth and tell her we made it ok, and check up how she was going. We had a nice lunch, and kicked each other to stay awake.

That meant that some physical activity was on the cards. We drove down to Venice Beach and spent a good 3 hours wandering around looking at all the interesting sites. Muscle Beach definitely isn't what it used to be. It was a nice day, despite the smog, and a lot of people were out and about. From there, it was back to the hotel for dinner. Our target was to make it to 8:00pm, and I've just reached that now. So off to bed I go.

Ciao for Now, Jetlagged Angry Dad.

Traveling Day

2006-10-08T06:56:00.000+10:00

Today I get on a plane and do the long haul across the pond from Brisbane to Los Angeles. To say that the lead up to this day has been stressful for me would be an understatement. As I ate breakfast this morning, I read an article about To Do lists. I don't know about you, humble reader, but when I have to go off and do something not in my normal scheme of things, then I make up a number of to do lists to help me remember what not to forget!

At the moment, I have both a travel and a clothes list sitting in front of me. The travel has the obvious things like passport and tickets, whilst the clothes one reminds me I have to take jocks and socks. No doubt I'll still forget things. I'll run around like a blue-arse fly trying to get it right when I'm supposed to be walking out the door.

The interesting thing about the article was that it suggested that most things people put on multiple to do lists are actually never going to happen. You really only have one, which is the reactive one that you respond to in due course. You can talk all you want about planning and pre-conception of ideas, but even then you'll do your to do's as reactive to those plannings, and they still need to fit in with the what is most important framework. That framework is highly personal! I'll struggle on regardless. Obviously my need to get in my daily blog hasn't been stopped. God help me if it's number one on my to do's each day!

Ciao for Now, Traveling Angry Dad.

Dreamworld, or how to terrify your child.

2006-10-07T22:32:00.000+10:00

For Ethan's birthday we took him to Dreamworld. Me, Anth, Aidan and Ethan all went together, whilst Callum was looked after by my Saint of a mother. If Mum hadn't come down and looked after him it would have made it very difficult, and sometimes I don't fully appreciate how much she does for us. She even cooked us dinner tonight. So even though Aidan can be somewhat difficult, he still allowed us all to go on most of the rides together. We went on the old time cars, the log flume ride and got soaked, and walked around the park before we went into the Nickelodeon area so Ethan could go on the Runaway Reptar Roller Coaster.

Whilst Ethan and Anth lined up for that, Aidan decided he wanted to go to Wiggles World. One thing which frustrates me about Dreamworld is that although they have a lot of good rides, their line management is atrocious. It took nearly 15 minutes to get through a queue of about 40 people. It should have taken 3 minutes! To top it off, when we finally got on the Big Red Car ride, about 2 minutes in the ride stopped and all the power went out. After being stuck in there for about 20 minutes, they finally let us out. It may have been a good ride if we got all the way through, and I still have "Beep Beep Chugga Chugga" going through my head.

It was mid afternoon when Ethan decided he wanted to go on some of the scarier rides. The queue for WipeOut looked short, so I asked him if he wanted to go on it. It is one of the park's Big 4 Thrill Rides. In short, it twists and turns you up, down, sideways and upside down whilst your held in via an overhead and chest bracing harness. Not for the faint hearted. But he assured me he'd be fine, and didn't want to not go on it once he committed.

Big mistake. From the moment the harness went down he was petrified. Once the ride started he started screaming "I want Mummy!" which continued until the ride stopped. I spent most of my ride trying to tell him it would be all right over his and everyone else's screaming. When we got off and stopped crying, he said "I'm not going on that again until I'm 16." We went and looked at the ride photo and Anth almost broke into tears at the picture of our terrified child. He doesn't seem to have suffered any ill effects though, and is now soundly fast asleep after a big day.

Ciao for Now, No More Thrill Rides for Ethan Angry Dad.

NB: Blogger is playing up with Photo's, so the pictures from today can't be loaded just yet.

Travel... yes, and Dreamworld

2006-10-06T22:14:00.000+10:00

Ok, well I am traveling now. On Sunday I head of to the U.S. for just under 2 weeks. While I'm away I miss Ethan's 7th birthday, so tomorrow, to make up for it we are going to take him to Dreamworld. I'm so glad that he's taken on my sense of adventure and fun in that respect. I LOVE theme parks, and particularly the rollercoaster rides.

Although it's Ethan's birthday treat, and we are getting Grandma to come down and babysit Callum, I'm hoping that Ethan will consent to having Aidan come along with us. Once Aidan got wind that we were going to Dreamworld, he's been nagging me ever since that "Aidan go to Dreamworld too?" Aidan loves all the rides, particularly anything which has water, like the flume rides. I think Ethan's coming around to the idea that Aidan will be able to come along.

The reason Ethan (and Anth and I) are a little hesitant in taking Aidan is that he can be somewhat intense. If he decides that he is going to go up to everyone and ask them how their day is, or what they're doing "tomorrow", or freaks out because of a queue, it can make the whole day unbearable. We have both agreed that Ethan needs the opportunity to be his own kid, and there are some times when he doesn't need to be encumbered by having a brother who's special needs. Don't get me wrong, Ethan doesn't resent Aidan, but he does have a definite added responsibility for him through the way we as parents act and behave. He has to have his own spaces and time. Whatever he decides, its going to be fun!

Ciao for Now, Dreamin' of Dreamworld Angry Dad.

Travel... maybe

2006-10-05T22:34:00.000+10:00

I may or may not be traveling to the U.S. in the near future. The near future is this Sunday. There is still some planning issues in relation to this which are unclear. Rather than dwell on that, I'd rather consider the impact that this has on the family. The nature of my work is such that travel is involved, so I try to plan it as best as possible.

As I've been more busy at work in the lead up to the travel, Anth has had to deal with all 3 kids being off school for the past 2 weeks with School Holidays. Travel, especially when you have young children, puts a burden on your family. It is doubled when you have a child with special needs. I feel like my saving grace with this trip is that the kids will be back at school, so Anth will only have Callum the majority of the day. This doesn't make it any easier. Thankfully, my Mum is also able to come down and help out.

Sometimes I feel like a right bastard by having to go off and do this. I know Anth doesn't want to hear me talk about it. I know its hard, but I have the double edge sword of it being part of my work life. If I try to put myself in Anth's shoes, she has it really difficult, and I can sense how much she doesn't like it when I'm about to leave. Her saving grace seems to be that she gets the kids into really good routines whilst I'm away (only to have me break them when I get back!) It doesn't help when other people think you're off on a "jolly" because its O/S.

Ciao for Now, Tomorrow I'll Know Angry Dad.

Walking Boy!

2006-10-04T22:48:00.000+10:00

It didn't really take him that long. Now Callum's taking his first tentative steps. This evening when I got home and went to get changed, Ethan rushed in to tell me Callum is walking. This was a bit of an overstatement. However, when he came crawling in, Anth followed him, and showed me how he is now taking those initial steps.

We laid pillows out on the floor. One of Callum's favourite things is to dive headfirst into them, and then turn his head back to us and laugh! So Anth got him to stand up near her, and then turned him around towards the pillows. First one step, then a second, then a third, and then a shallow swan dive into the pillows, followed by mass hilarity. I think he got excited that we were showing him so much attention. We were excited because these are quite literally his first steps. How exciting.

It has taken him just over a year to get to this point. Ethan achieved this by his first birthday, but given it took Aidan nearly 4 years before he was walking, it seems a rapid accomplishment now. I'm sure by the weekend he'll be almost sprinting, and that baby phase will be one more step closer to being gone.

Ciao for Now, He's Walking Angry Dad.

Standing Boy

2006-10-03T22:16:00.000+10:00

Callum is now moving into the realm of standing by himself. It can only be a short time until he's walking and then running around. We've been catching him all of this week momentarily finding his feet. This evening, as I sat on the floor, he was standing and holding on to me and then something would take his interest and he would pivot to see what the next exciting adventure held. However, instead of squatting back down and crawling into a new position, he would remain standing and slowly move his feet around. Often, he'd let go of me and use his own balance.

Once I realised what he was doing, I went and grabbed the camera. Then it was a matter of waiting until the appropriate moment to get him as he tried to walk over to me. He did! Although it looks like someone might be holding his hand, I can assure you that I wasn't. Rather, he was trying to grab a hold of me and took a brief step to do it before he fell over.

There is some danger in this new found adventure. This evening the time spent not trying to stand up was spent picking up all manner of toys and trying to hit either me or Ethan with them... in the head. I don't know where this behaviour has come from. Tonight I got hit with two of his puzzle piece toys, a matchbox car, and the kitchen favourite - the frying pan. Fortunately for me (and Ethan) its a toy frying pan. It still hurts when you get smacked in the head with it.

Ciao for Now, Head Ringing Angry Dad.

Still wasted after all these years

2006-10-02T22:38:00.000+10:00

I'm still trying to overcome the effects of a long drive, a long day at work, and two exercise training sessions where I was pushed pretty hard. When I was younger it wouldn't have been a big deal. As I'm getting older, it feels like I've been run over by a freight train. At least these days I don't get into the grog to have the "drinker's hangover" like I used to!

When it was half time during the Grand Final, we all went outside to the block next door and kicked around the footy for 15 minutes. You've never heard as many whinging adults, me included, about how much pain they were in or how they'd have to go and get physio for their crook back or sore legs! When we were younger we could have played a whole match and not really complained.

I think as adults in this day and age, you have to have a level of fitness to keep up. That doesn't mean that you have to be stick thin, as I have friends who are well over their "recommended" body weight who remain very active. The main reason for this is kids. If you've got babies or toddlers, you're forever chasing them around. Once the kids hit school, then there are a raft of school and after school activities they want to get involved in. I know even with my absenteeism parenting, that there is a lot going on. Anth's forearms are like Popeyes because of all the carrying and running around she does. Now, if only I didn't have donuts for dinner, I'd probably lose these extra pounds from the exercise!

Ciao for Now, Donut Loving Angry Dad.

Trip Pictures

2006-10-01T21:30:00.000+10:00

I'm pretty shagged from 3 days of Boy's Weekend, and having driven a collective 20 hours and almost 2,000km (1,200 miles) in that time. This is a picture of the place we stayed in Millfield. It is a converted church hall. I'm not going to write much today, as I only got home an hour ago, and I still can't think straight!

This is the view of the hall from the back. It has been extensively renovated so that the inside is now a livable house space, with huge ceilings and polished floorboards, and all the necessary modern conveniences. The deck was added out the back to make use of the views. They even got a woodfired oven built into the design, so we had home made pizzas one evening!

And this is part of the view they have each morning. This is just one "pane" of the full vista. The hall is ringed by the hills surrounding the Hunter Valley. Magnificent!

Ciao for Now, Totally Shagged Angry Dad.

A Long Day's Drive

2006-09-30T10:35:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I spent the bulk of the day on the road. What I thought would be a leisurely 6 hour drive down the coast road, ended up being a 10 hour slugfest of sitting on my fat arse in a car, cursing roadworks and caravan drivers who hog the road and sit below the speed limit. I did the last 5 hour stint with about 2 five minute breaks, with the main intent just to "get there."

"There" is Millfield in New South Wales. One of my mates, Erv, has taken his family on a slight sabatical from regular city life. He and his wife have converted an old church hall into an open living space. They have magnificent views out the back of the hall to the surrounding valley and hillside. They've been living there as their main place of residence over the course of this year. Country living at its finest.

There are 12 blokes here, including myself. Last night was the first time we've all been together this year so most of the evening was spent reminiscing and talking crap from 20 years ago. One of the guys also had DVD's of our exploits from our youth, so we spent a good hour reviewing what we did back in the mid 80's. Today is the AFL Grand Final. Although I thought it would be a day of feasting and drinking, 8 of the 12 got up and went for a run this morning. Maybe 40 is the sign of a health change!

Ciao for Now, Yes I Was A Runner Angry Dad.

Boy's Weekend

2006-09-29T01:00:00.000+10:00

This weekend is the AFL Grand Final weekend. As is tradition, most of my mates from high school try to get together to watch the game. This year, we're doing it in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. It is a major exercise, with a number of people coming in from Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Singapore. We have all been friends for over 20 years now, although we're pretty dispersed at the moment.

I've made the mistake of deciding to drive down to meet everyone. That means that today's activities will include a 9 hour drive down the coast road from Brisbane. This will be repeated on the return journey on Sunday. And at the moment, I'm stupidly staying up late as I had some work e-mails to catch up on. As it has run into Friday, I figured I could get my "next day" post in late at night!

Trust me, I know. For 3 days out with the boys I owe Anth Big Time.

Ciao for Now, the man with no hand Angry Dad.

Joey Jumper

2006-09-28T23:09:00.000+10:00

While I was away last week, I got the opportunity to take this photo of a kangaroo with a Joey in its pouch. You can just make it out, with the little paws sticking out between the mother kangaroo's legs. The kangaroos around the resort are still wild, and won't let you pat them, but they are somewhat acclimatised to humans now due to the decline of their natural habitat in the area.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because Ethan has a stuffed toy Kangaroo called Joey Jumper. He came as part of a set, with mother, and joey together. Obviously, the joey fits in the mother's pouch as well. Once he got set free, he became Joey Jumper. Joey Jumper goes with Ethan to most places. He went with Ethan up to Grandma's for his stay there over the last few days. When I went to get him today, he got quite distraught that we might have left Joey Jumper behind until Grandma assured him he was safely tucked away in his bag.

I think Ethan must have gotten his love of stuffed animals from his mother, who has quite a large collection. He does have other favourites aside from Joey Jumper. These also include "Cosi" the stuffed Tiger and "Batty" the stuffed vampire bat. Although he has teddy bears, they aren't quite in the same league as these others.

Ciao for Now, Stuff Me Angry Dad.

The inspirational Terri Irwin

2006-09-27T22:57:00.000+10:00

We all learnt of the unfortunate passing of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, just over two weeks ago. This evening, Steve's wife Terri Irwin spoke about his life and his passing. This was done in an emotional interview with Ray Martin held on Australian television. I understand she had a similar interview with Barbara Walters for American TV.

Both Anth and I sat on the couch and bawled through most of it. I had to get up half way through and go and do the dishes. I think that in having kids yourself, it strikes a chord when someone else speaks about losing their loved ones. If I lost Anth, I don't know how I'd cope myself, let alone wondering about how I'd look after the kids - and having to be strong for them. I'm also not that naive to know that you do have to be strong, and as you get older, and that miniscule bit wiser, you realise that death is an unfortunate part of life.

The heartening thing about Terri was that she was real. She held Steve's legacy high. She showed the emotion of all that had occurred over the past month, wearing her heart on her sleeve and baring it all for us to see. But I didn't feel like a voyeur. I just wanted to reach out and help her, and I know that she will have a world of support behind her. Australia Zoo will be greater for the unfortunate loss, and the legacy will live on. We can all be wildlife warriors too.

Ciao for Now, Still Sad Angry Dad.

Don't feed the baby raw potato

2006-09-26T23:00:00.000+10:00

This evening I did a bit of a fry up. We had chicken schnitzel for dinner, so I fried that up, and I also thought I'd chop up some potatoes and make french fries. We did also have salad mixed in with the delivery to give the meal a semblance of health. I learnt a valuable lesson tonight. Don't feed your baby raw potato. Baby's can't swallow raw potato. It gets stuck in their throat and they choke. And when they choke, they eventually spit out the potato, and most of what else they've eaten over the course of the day.

It amazes me what Callum will shove down his throat, given a chance. He always wants to go outside when we're feeding Wednesday which is bad on two fronts. Firstly, Wednesday doesn't like the kids touching her dog bowl when she's eating, which is fair enough. I don't like the kids touching my plate when I'm eating. We're both territorial. Secondly, I don't want him to eat her dog food and get dog food breath. Who wants to hold a baby with dog food breath? Its bad enough the dog has dog food breath and we still have to pat her!

We've tried to ensure that all the small pieces of kids toys are out of the way. That doesn't stop Callum find new and wondrous things to put in his gob. Last night, one of the ends of a curtain rail was on the floor. I have no idea how he got up the curtains to pull that off (probably one of the older kids did it!). Apparently, he was sticking it on the end of his finger and laughing hysterically about it. Then he put it in his mouth. Fortunately, it still doesn't quite fit. Not like raw potato.

Ciao for Now, Soft Foods Only Angry Dad.

Flatulence and Burping

2006-09-25T22:40:00.000+10:00

Is there ever an appropriate time to expel the gas from your stomach, either out your mouth or to let you arse go loose? Aidan has a habit of burping, particularly after drinking soft drinks like Diet Coke, and then saying very loudly "Excuse Me!" This seems to be the cue that everything is alright. He's not alone. All of us, even Callum, open our mouths and let the earth move with our loud expulsions.

It doesn't stop there. Sometimes, after we change Callum's nappy, due to the hustle and bustle of having to do it in a hurry, or having something else take your attention, a nappy may get left behind instead of being taken out to the bin. The other night, I walked into the hallway to go into Aidan's room, and sure enough there was the Pheee-ewwww smell. I yelled to Anth, asking whether she'd left a nappy behind, when Ethan piped up. "No, it was me. I did a stinky." Yeah, thanks for that.

But the worst one's have to be when your close in. Callum still occasionally does it after a bottle. He has it, then gets bottle eyes. Anyone with kids will know this is the delirium babies get when that milk kicks in. Then when they're finished, if you sit them up just right, they'll burp all over you. The trick is in not turning the burp into a spew. Similarly, if you're doing rough house play with your kids, never, ever, let their behinds get close to your head. That always ends up in a horrid smell, and giggles from everyone as you lie there choking.

Ciao for Now, All Stunk Out Angry Dad.

One more day of drinking and feasting

2006-09-24T21:43:00.000+10:00

You'd think that a first birthday party wouldn't run over four days, but it has. Today we did the run up to Noosa. Again we had a day of feasting at Grandma's expense. We were joined by my brother and his family. We had a full on barbecue with salads, chicken, lamb chops and sausages. This was of course followed on with a home made chocolate cake, strawberries and ice-cream.

By mid afternoon, Anth and I, feeling slightly bloated, still decided that we should go out and get some exercise. Leaving the kids in Grandma's care, we took off down to the Noosa Hill National Park and did the beach walk for about 6km. The scenery is just magnificent, with rainforest on one side and the ocean on the other. We tried to keep up an active pace so that we could counter the effects of food gorging!

So back we went to Grandmas, proud that we'd exercised at least some of the calories from lunch. Was it to no avail? Probably. We stayed on for dinner, which was basically the leftovers from lunch. More meat. More salads. More cake. I'm such a sucker for chocolate cake. Does it get any better than this? Four days of cake and ice-cream in a row! Maybe we should have another kid!!!

Ciao for Now, Fat and Bloated Angry Dad.

The Punch

2006-09-23T22:52:00.000+10:00

Have you ever scared someone by surprise? That kind of surprise where they definitely weren't expecting it? Anth took the kids to a McDonalds party this morning. The kids left one of the party blowers on the front seat. I don't know if that's the right term for them. I think in the party industry they're known as blowouts. Suffice to say, when you blow on them they make a loud honking sound.

All three kids were in the back of the car. Anth had gone back in the house to get Ethan's thongs. I picked up the blower just as she opened the car door. I blew on it as she went to sit down. Loudly. She jumped and said

"What the hell did you do that for? You scared the shit out of me!"

The only thing was that as she said it, her arm swung up and around, and she smacked me at the based of the shoulder in a full on punch. No mucking around. No how's your father. A straight up belting!

Ethan sat in the back seat crying, yelping "I'm scared. I'm scared." I don't know if it was me that frightened him, or the powerful might of his mother. Anth assured me it was because I'd frightened him as well. At least I know that if Anth ever was attempted to be mugged, she's sure as hell be able to fight off whoever was stupid enough to attempt it.

Ciao for Now, Ouchy Angry Dad.