Professional schmeshional....

Today we've been out to a party that was being thrown by Ice-works, the company that I did the landscape model for. We were late, largely because we went to find Daile some new glasses. She went to the optician a while back and they've recommended that she consider getting some. She's been struggling a bit with her eyes since she started this new psychology course (she needs another qualification to able to work as a psychologist here), so we went down to choose some. She looks very professional in them actually. They're just glasses, by which I mean that they're not apologising for that fact, unlike some of the so called 'designer' glasses that are in fact a way for D&G, or Armani or whoever to get you to pay for the privilege of having their name splattered all over your specs. I think that she looks pretty cool in them. It goes with her emerging grey streak. She's growing into her age nicely.

Just as we arrived at the party, the heavens opened. The rain was 'Queensland style' - sort of like someone pouring a bucket of water on you, rather than standing under a shower which is what even quite heavy rain in the UK is like. This is so thick that visibility drops to about 10 feet! There were waiters scooting around the gardens with food in one hand - or more precisely up one arm how they do, and large brolly in the other. We had some nice food, a few chats, and then the kids and I went swimming in the rain, along with quite a few who were fully clothed! (We'd brought togs). Matilda is SO funny sometimes. She was running up to the edge of the pool, hands tucked under their respective wrists like a preying mantis, and leaping like a feral child into the pool, expecting me to catch her, and then throw her across the pool further, so that she could swim the last few feet and call it a width. She pulls the most amusing contortions across her face as she runs up...its hilarious.

She lost another tooth yesterday. Lower right 2nd. Last night Phoebe had a nightmare, which is a very rare thing for her, and she ended up snuggling with Daile in our bed. So I went to sleep in her bed - opposite Matilda. Imagine how I felt when Tilda woke up...said good morning, discussed Phoebe's mare, which Matilda had tried to comfort her over, and then her face lit up as she remembered about the tooth fairy....only to find that she'd not come!!!! Its a parents worst nightmare this sort of failure. I told her that when I was a kid, the tooth fairy was too busy one time, but that she'd come the next night and left me twice as much! (Not true I know Mum...but I was being creative in a corner!) So (hopefully) she'll have been tonight!



After the party we went to the land to meet with a prospective architect. She's Indonesian and we liked her quite a bit. We're meeting another one tomorrow, but not at the land. I think that meeting at the land is a really good idea because it helps them to appreciate the place, and the sort of house that would work there. I've spoken to, and had an approximation of cost from another architect last week, who as it happens won an award for being the best architect in Brisbane for some category ....I think domestic building. Needless to say his prices were EXTORTION!!! He bullshitted me on the phone, rubbished the fact that i've done a lot of preparatory work myself, and then sent through a price breakdown, which when you add it all back up again, comes to circa $40k!! I'm not expecting anything like that from today's one. She's new (ish), she's keen, and she's much more friendly. Altogether less up herself.

I'm not a fan of the professions. They all seem to be trying to rip you off, whether they be doctors, solicitors or, it would seem, architects!

Do you remember that I made that wedding ring for Bill that was the wrong size cos he'd measured the diameter of his finger, rather than the circumference. Well after all these years I've found a finger for it! It's now Ian's wedding ring! He's well chuffed....as am I! Its been kicking around in my tool box for over 10 (?) years!