Happy Birthday!

I miss my boy.

I had a chat with Josh just now, and as you may know, he's turned 20 today.

Yup...

20! I know it's hard to believe it isn't it. Seems like only.... 19 years ago! Ha ha.

He's doing well at University... and has got really good marks for the last couple of essays he tells me. I'm not surprised, he sent me them to look at, and I thought them really good. Much improved in fact from even last year. Nice one Josh.

I just wanted to mark the occasion here...



Happy Birthday Josh...!

Love ya. Dad. xxx

YeeeeeeeeeeHaaaaaaa!!!!!!

Got a job!

I finally managed to get something. It's work on the next Narnia movie down on the Gold Coast. I start on the Monday after next... as a senior model maker (in more ways than one eh?)

Phew!

So that buys us a reprieve for a little while. The movie starts shooting at the end of July, so it's likely that the work will last until then, and hopefully longer. I believe the wrap is scheduled for October. The guy I'm working for is a Pom that normally lives in Sydney. In fact quite a few of the senior crew seem to be from the UK and the systems they use are all familiar to me... so that's an advantage at least.

The things that I'm going to be making look really lovely too. I've got a fairly open remit it seems... and will be doing all sorts including leather work, sculpting, moulding, model making, light engineering etc. One thing that I've talked up is the idea that one set of props (vases and jugs that look like they're ancient Greek in origin) should be turned in plaster on a lathe. I've not made stuff like that since I was doing it in my ceramics course and they've not heard of the technique here..but are keen to see it. It's a really lovely way to make fine shapes like that... including the handles. I'm really looking forward to that especially.

So... anyway. Here's to what happens next!

The Feeb and the Moll

Update on the Feeb.

She was officially moved up into year 1 this week, which was good cos we thought they'd forgotten her. She got her grey shirt which was mostly what she was interested in...and then they proceeded to test her reading. In the reception class they don't really 'teach' them much, and reading books is really not something that they get to till next year.

There are 13 levels of difficulty in year 1, and the kids are expected to be able to read up to that level, or as close as they can by the end of the year.

Phoebe read right through 11 levels without any input from the teacher... and finally needed 'a bit' of help on level 12.

We were surprised... and the more so since she's had almost no input from either of us. Matilda has taught her quite a bit... but aside from that, she's done it all by herself. Its only taken her since January!

Daile said she was ripe for school... how right she was!

...and at the other end of the family... littel ol' Molly is just about to finish. She's got about a week to go! I can remember when she'd just started as if it was yesterday!



God I feel OLD!

As I was saying...

If you've ever browsed through the list of links down on the right of this page.... you may have looked at the very powerful 'Dove Onslaught' video. If you haven't, you should.

Then...

Take a look at this one.

There's ALWAYS another point of view.

Tee he(r)e

When you live in Oz, this advert makes SO much sense. We get the PG in boxes of 40 at a time. That's all they sell at the supermarket...and we count ourselves lucky! Ha ha. Watch this...

http://www.pgmoment.com/

...and NOTE (Wayne) that the milk goes in AFTER you pour the water in!

www.maeke.com.au

Well, I've finally managed to get the much mused over website online. Its still a week off having a functioning shop facility, since it takes them a week from when you're up to do all the paperwork.
You'll note that the 'Datasheets' bit is empty too...

All the products that you see are on the shelf. I need to get more, and from different suppliers, but right now its a bit tricky.

At least, now that its finally up (though still wobbly), I can chip away at all the stuff like that, and optimising it for search engines etc.

I now need to go through those that have no descriptions or recommendations and put stuff in there.

I'd appreciate any feedback, constructive or otherwise.

Go here... http://www.maeke.com.au

Logan's Zeros

I've been thinking about the lack of creative industries in Brisbane in general, and I can't remember whether I mentioned on this blog that I've been getting involved (along with an increasing number of people at higher levels)in trying to find a way to improve the ratio of creative industries companies to everyone else. In the UK, and in fact in lots of places across the globe right now, there seems to be a general consensus on the need to promote creativity and innovation.

Here, that notion hasn't gone any deeper than - a quick glance across the surface here and there. The Logan council have a website that deals with communicating their 'vision' for the future. I suppose its probably pretty much what you'd expect....

The Logan draft corporate plan 2009 sets out it's vision as:

'A city of opportunities for families, lifestyle and business.'

The difficulty, I think for Logan for the foreseeable future is that it is growing very quickly. As a result, it's focus is on development and planning infrastructure. The latest council forecasts suggest that we need to build circa 55,000 new dwellings over the next 20 years. That’s 52 houses a week, with all the attendant needs to build roads, public transport, drains and sewerage and waste management facilities, drinking water supplies, power, schools, libraries, hospitals, business parks, prisons, play areas, shops, swimming pools, meeting venues, churches, police stations, fire stations etc. Not to mention the increased congestion and emission problems.

To put this in perspective, Logan City Councils 'Quick facts' page:
http://www.logan.qld.gov.au/LCC/logan/profile/quickfacts.htm currently suggests that we have 96,000 rateable properties (including those that aren't dwellings I assume). The council anticipate Logan’s population in 2029 at 400,000 – or another 139,000 people, or 2.5 people per dwelling. Very roughly (using the council's figures) we'll need to build about 130km of water mains and about the same of sewers. About 20 or 30 schools, and imagine if all at once, 75,000 vehicles drove into Logan... what would happen to our ability to get about?

I can see that Logan will be a city of business, and I can see that there will be a lot of families in it, but I'm not seeing where the 'lifestyle' part of the vision is going to fit.

Letter from the front

Ride em' cowboy, but don't wear boxers!

Today, we went to Tangalooma on Moreton Island. If you look at this map, the 'n' of Wynnum, is next to a harbour called Manly, which is where we set off from.


View Larger Map



They have boat parking, as well as the conventional moorings. When you want to go out, you phone them up and they put your boat in the water with a forklift!



We were guests of Cindy and Hilton, and thrilled to be going along. They have a lovely aluminium boat with a smooth 115 hp Yamaha on it. The sun was shining, the sea was calm (ish) and everyone was in a good mood.







...its about 24kms to Tangalooma from Manly. Here's what it looks like from about 16kms off.



Once we got out into the open sea of the bay, (renowned for its chop) things became a little more 'dynamic' shall we say!





At the helm end of the boat, things felt bumpy right enough, but because you can see what's coming from there, you could be ready for them... where Cindy and Daile were sitting with the girls, was less smooth, as I found out on the way back.

It took about 45 mins to make the crossing at roughly 20 to 25 knots, (half power). The island is famous for its Dolphin sanctuary and for these sand hills that you can toboggan down...!





We anchored here to have a picnic....





Then we got back on and went to snorkel by the wrecks.
This is Logan..















There were LOADS of fish, and interesting things going on below the surface. While we were doing that, the boat dragged anchor and we had a pretty close thing catching it, fending it off the wrecks and regaining our composure. We re-anchored further down opposite the sand hill you can see on the photo above and did some tobogganing. It's a really fun thing to do. Needless to say, it seemed prudent to leave the camera on the boat because of the proximity of the sand.

Then it was almost time to go and the two lads had a last minute mad session...

Quentin... showing me his star jump.



and Logan...





The weather had picked up a bit while we were there, so we set off back a little earlier than planned. I took my turn sitting in the back seat with Phoebe, where you catch the waves going past... and get to experience what I can only describe as riding a bronco, where the boat leaps off a wave, and well... sort of disappears away from you, leaving you to fall back to the seat with a hell of a bump. It's not a comfortable way to travel... to say the very least. You have to hold yourself down to the boat to avoid crushed nuts! He he. OUCH! (in a high voice!)

But it was a FANTASTIC day. If you're going to be out of work... this is the place to be it!