Appy Bothdee R Dad!

Eeeee th's nowt s'queer as fork, an th's ne'r sen out as queer as this'n rart nuf. S' rare thin nar diz t' see a fella mek it t' rairp 'l aerg eh airty, and sor tis an onneh t' seh 'appy bothdee t'meh dearest Dad.
Appy bothdee Dad! From all under 'ear. xxxx

I found this in the gutter...

Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot his whole life, which
created an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little,
which made him frail, and with his odd diet, he suffered from very bad
breath.

This made him....a super-callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

Feeling 'peck'ish

Yesterday Matilda came running in excitedly telling us to come out and see what she'd found. I was busy. Daile went and came back saying that I probably would be interested, so I went out to have a look. This was what she'd found:





Now you're probably thinking that it's just another one of our spiders that I've featured here from time to time. What I didn't manage to show you is the scale of this thing. It was huge, (as big as your hand) and its web had a golden colour which made it the more weird.

I mentioned it to a couple of lads I was working with today and they told me that it was probably a Golden Orb spider. I researched it and found that they were right. There are apparently two basic versions, this kind, and one that is less round in the body. They both get to about 2 inches in body length. The one Matilda found was about an inch and a half I guess.

The interesting thing about these spiders is that they make webs that are up to a metre in diameter, and the thread is strong enough to catch birds. These are not 'bird eating spiders' as such, in as much as they are not 'out to get' spider. However, if one should happen to stray into the web.... well it'd be rude not to indulge!



Our spider was just a smidgen smaller than this. Ha ha Good eh? One of the lads I was speaking to had one land on him. It bit him and he said it hurt... a lot! They are not apparently lethal, unless you have a heart attack from the shock that is!

8th Birthday.....

It was ( as you know) Matilda's 8th birthday on Sunday, and she had a fantastic day. Having had virtually no sleep she still managed to carry herself with dignity for the whole day. Thank you all for the gifts, she really did appreciate them all. Can't believe she's 8.

The day before, feeling sorry for her making do on the tiny little bike that she fits... I set about trying to make her new bike usable. Both of them got new bikes at Christmas, and neither of them use them because we bought bikes that were too big. We thought, in our defence, that they (the bikes) were the next size up, and we did buy them without the kids in tow, but Matilda couldn't even touch the floor. She really isn't all that big... Luis, her cousin is also 8, and is big enough to ride a quad bike! I tried to offset the seat back over the wheel and angle the handlebars back, but it still wasn't low enough. So I got a bit more radical and cut the bike in half, took out 90mm of the cross bar, and welded it back together, effectively lowering the centre of the bike by 75mm. (Leaving 75mm pedal clearance.... just enough). This threw the steering column back at another 15 degrees, so I had to set the seat back too, and it now fits between the seat column and the wheel. She was chuffed to bits... and has been on it non stop. (Apart from when she's been playing with all the stuff you guys got her of course!) Here they are squeezing in a quick play before school:



The tube has a funny angle in it.... but hey!



Phoebe is still working on the balance thing... and then she'll progress to the little bike... and then we may have to do it again. Note the cat is out there playing with them too....



... and he seems to always be wherever you want to be.... Look carefully at this picture!



Finally, here's a sketch of Phoebe... I started it from life, but she couldn't sit still, so I took a picture and finished it after.

Ants

We have an ongoing problem with ants at this house. They are constantly finding ways to get into the house, and I'm constantly stopping them. We've had several times where we've arrived home to find that they've taken over.
We also have some Gecko's that live in the house - and this is good because they eat flys AND spiders. The ants eat fly maggots if there ever are any, and we have to be quite scrupulous about not leaving bins for too long in the kitchen, or we end up with loads of these loathsome things (maggots that is). It took us by surprise the first time, now we're savvy to it.
There's an ant colony on the boat...actually there isn't now, but there was - there was two in fact. One lived inside the rubber buffer strip around the outside of the boat, and the other lot (bigger ants)lived in the hollow tubes that form the Bimini. They are tenacious, and the bigger ones REALLY hurt when they bite.

We all know ants are clever...and that they can carry four times their own weight etc...

but I found this video tonight that is really amazing. Its from a film called 'Ants'.

We've had several mails from people concerned about whether we've been affected by the fires. We haven't been. Queensland is not affected by fire at all at the moment. Temperatures here are in the mid thirties, and everything here in Brisbane is normal.
The fires are in Victoria, and as you will have no doubt seen, are the worst the nation has experienced for a very long time. The temperatures day to day have been some of the highest on record, with a death toll of over 40 people the last time I looked from the heat. They've been getting temperatures in excess of 45 degrees for over 9 days. Everything is dried out and primed to burn.

There seems to be some evidence to suggest that some of the fires have been set by arsonists! Hard to imagine it.

Meanwhile in North Queensland, there has been severe flooding...*^%$!!!??? There was a story about a trucker that is marooned in Ingham, having driven up through areas of Victoria that were so hot that the tarmac was splashing up onto his truck. He then finds out that his neighbour's house in on fire from bush fire and his wife is going out of control with panic. What would you do?


image ABC news


Video Telegraph UK

...So how's the SNOW in the UK?

Josh and Molly

I was on the blower to Josh earlier in the week, and he's going good down in Falmouth (fol-moth) - even getting into singing down the local pub. (Ah yes, it hurts, but I can almost remember that myself...) Study wise, he's finding the going a little tougher this term than last, but is still getting lots out of the whole experience.

Whilst we were on, he sent me a few pics of himself and Molly - so I thought I'd post them here. You have to admit that I really do do good lookin' kids don't I?





If you look carefully, you can just see the nose stud.

Molly is going to have an interview in Falmouth on the 17th. It's a really nice Art College too. I hope she gets in there...

Piz-za....can-I-ava-lick?

When we put together our new bunk beds from Ebay...[yeah that's right, the kids have decided that they would prefer to sleep in the same room even if they sometimes rip each other's arms off]...and whilst we were doing it, I put the mattresses from the bunks, and the mattresses that we'd previously bought.. [they'll come in honest] on top of each other to make a pile.

Then I put a toy pizza (not having a toy pea to hand) under one end. I told the girls to come and try the bed, and set them a challenge of telling me which end had the pea [za] under it. They both knew straight away! Now it wasn't obvious at all! No REALLY!

SO that means that they're DEFINITELY Princesses! The following picture is the moment where Phoebe was contemplating what that actually meant to her, and even Matilda didn't seem to mind!



I had a successful telephone interview this week for Bunnings, but still have to go for another one before I'll know if I have a job offer. The job isn't a very high up one, and the money isn't really enough for us... but it's better than nothing, and it might lead to a more senior role, a question I'd need to ask at the next interview.

Aside from that, it's pretty quiet. Daile is on the look out too now that Phoebe is at school, so hopefully things will pan out.

I went to pick up the kids today, and decided to take the cat for some inexplicable reason. He was a big hit at the school and must have been stroked by at least 40 kids... He was so KOOL!
...even by MY standards!

So he did his walk when he got out of the car when we got back home. Daile calls it his 'John Wayne' walk. It's sort of a slow swagger, a bit odd looking, like his boots are too tight, or his knackers. (Actually he had those cut off on Wednesday, so that might be something he stops doing soon...) Matilda is in the habit (when we've been recently supplied) of getting ice pops out of the downstairs freezer, and she has got a soft spot for giving Jack the last bit. It's hilarious.

Daile said 'God...even the flippin' cat's got a sweet tooth!!!' I think she feels a bit alienated. She keeps trying to sell us the benefits of 'Wheet-bix' over the sugary cereals. No dice sister!

Jack you'd'a'man!

Little Gecko

I mentioned in the previous blog about Matilda's 'Gecko nose'... well here's one that Phoebe found and caught. It's a much sharper picture... click on it to zoom in. (Then click on the image...hold down your ctrl key, and roll your mouse wheel forward...if you're on a PC that is...not sure about Mac's Gilly)



Actually, some of you I know have difficulty with the images if you click on them. If you do the thing I mention above, you can reduce them too... So if they open too big to see all of an image, just roll the mouse the other way.

Local death

During the early hours of last night, an unknown Prince was killed near the forest outside our house. Sadly, passers by carried on their business today, without realising the import of the situation.

The Prince appears to have been trying to get across the road to his true love, in order that he could be released from his lifelong curse.

A sad day indeed.

Here are a couple of pictures of the tragic event;





Earlier yesterday, Matilda found another lizard. She seems to be able to smell them out! I had walked past this one, it was motionless of course.