I spoke to Josh and Molly earlier in the week, and discovered that Josh has been out and bought his ticket. It was a lot more than he thought, but given the specific itinerary, not surprisingly. He's going to have an extremely tight budget, so it will be quite an experience of hardship methinks. Excluding transit countries, he's planning to travel (with his friend Emma) to, NZ, OZ, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Hong Kong. Blimey, I wish I could do that! 2 months on a beach in Thailand sounds too amazing to contemplate. Thailand looks stunning. There's a standing recommendation from the UK and Oz governments NOT to travel to Sri Lanka at the moment, so I wonder if he will... I don't think he's due to go there till May, so perhaps the situation may calm before that. Not sure how long they'll be here yet. Long enough to earn some loot with luck. They'll be staying in the playroom/office I reckon. They MAY take one of the cars and go up to the reef, depending on work and stuff like that. If they do, I'll have to get a motorbike...shame!
We got a HUGE parcel from Nick and Sarah this week. It was for Christmas, but had been retained by customs. (Took a long time eh?) It had tea bags, marmalade, chutney, mustard, chocolate, and kids stuff. Fantastic. More like a relief parcel - ha ha. Thanks chaps!
I read a book this week - 'The Disappearance of Childhood' by Neil Postman. Daile very cleverly pointed out that this is the same book that we got for Sarah Martin for Christmas. I hadn't made the connection, but had got the book because I'm worried about the effect that TV has on the kids, and for that matter on the adults. Did you read it yet Sarah? I've been reading a better one since called 'After the death of childhood - growing up in the age of electronic media' by David Buckingham ... which presents a much more balanced perspective.
No pain in the kidneys for almost a week. Hopefully that's that then.
We've all gone on the G.I. Diet... again in my case. We did this last Friday, so I weighed in today, and I've lost 8 lbs. Wayne has lost 4 lbs and the other two haven't declared. Daile at least reckons that she's into it for the health not for weight loss. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm into it for the health too...but already I can't believe how attractive I am!
The thing that I've noticed more recently actually, is that the skin is not so elastic as it used to be. I'm sort of adjusting to this fact, and instead I'm thinking about the fact that I'm nearly 50! To a person that INSIDE feels like a thirty year old, FIFTY just seems like there must be some mistake. But no, that's what the bar code says!
The trip to Moreton Hire and back (I start the new job tomorrow) is going to be a round 100km or so, via two motorways that both charge tolls.... The Ute is not the most economic vehicle that I've ever owned, so it's not going to be that cheap. In fact, the tolls per day will be around $8 and the fuel will be around $20 methinks. On this basis it would be worth shelling out for a motorbike purely on the savings from less fuel and half the tolls. I've filled the tank and I'm seeing how far it gets me. It cost $70 to fill, which is up on when I first got it. The fuel has gone up a fair bit in the last 3 months and it looks like its going to stay like that. It's now $7 a tank more. A strange thing about petrol prices here is that they fluctuate daily. I don't remember that ever being the case in the UK? The day to buy petrol is Tuesday. It was Tuesday when I filled up and the price was $1.26 per litre (57p), but by Friday it was 1.38...(63p). That's worth $10.80 (£5) for a tank full. By Tuesday it will have gone down to 1.26 or thereabouts... You could save $44 (£20) a month by filling on the cheap day.
Whilst I was just writing that stuff about relative prices, I was thinking that they didn't look right! However, the current rate offered at XE.com is only 2.19 dollars to 1 quid! Last April, when we bought the land, it was 2.36. That may not sound all that impressive, but the money that we originally spent on the land ( about £100k) would be worth circa £117k if we'd left it in an Australian bank, or £83k if we'd left it in a British bank, (relative to the other currency) just on currency change. If we'd stayed in the UK for another year, the land would have cost us more, the value of the house in London would potentially have fallen, and sterling would be worth less here.
We feel very lucky to have timed that as well as we have.
This week, Wayne bought a new 32" flat screen TV for their bedroom and a Sat Nav. As a result, justice has been meted out on him. Whilst he was cutting the grass yesterday the ants got him. Its good to know that GOD is watching over us all isn't it! (He tried to claim that it was for Bernadette....but GOD can see through him).
The next door neighbours came back this week, and were chaffing at the bit cos the girls were down the coast. As soon as the nippers came back there was kiddy bedlam. FANTASTIC! Did you know that the neighbours were Brits? I can't remember whether I told you that.... That's where they went for Christmas.
And finally, the Girls all went to Movie World, and Water World, yesterday....and had such a good time, that when I got home from a long and exhausting week last night to be greeted by Matilda, she said; 'Dad, are you working tomorrow?' I thought 'Ah, how sweet she's missing me and wants to hang out with her old Dad'.... then she says 'Cos Mum says that if you're working, we can go down to Water World again, but if you're not, we can't!....' NICE!
Oh...one more thing...talking of being 50 and feeling younger...here's a picture that Dad sent of Gill and I when we were...oh god knows, perhaps 13 and 14? Younger? Anyway, I've put a crop of me against the same pose now....HA HA.. What an old fart!
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