Friday 31 December 2010
2011... already!
Happy New Year to everyone who knows us... I hope it's a good one, and you all find fulfillment and happiness. :-)
Saturday 18 December 2010
And then it rains...literally and metaphorically...
Well, as Christmas rapidly approaches, I find myself falling into the usual feelings of complete pointlessness that seem to be so much more present and stark at this especially false time of year.
The shear monumental transparency of the occasion seems to make it so difficult for me to enter into the 'spirit' as we all know it in our consumer society. I know that I'm in a minority in expressing myself like this. Most others that I venture to offer this perspective to call me a 'humbug' or variations of that general concept. That it's considered by people to be bad form not to subscribe heartily to the gluttony, get pissed and shout a lot, perhaps have a damn good scrap, buy presents for people that don't need them, and get stuff you don't need in return, so that the retailers can make up for the fact that no one really wants most of their pointless wares for the rest of the year. It's almost incumbent on us to 'support' the retailers. It's UN Australian, or UN American or Un British to just do without these days, and how many of us would consider that a valid response to Christmas?
It truly bothers me though... and I find the process of shopping is almost repulsive at this time of year. The total absence of the very 'cheer' that we're supposed be revelling in amongst the great majority of shoppers is quite the most depressing thing to behold. I've long felt it difficult to understand why people don't acknowledge the cars that stop to let them cross on a zebra crossing, but the fact that they don't acknowledge that at this time of the year seems to be so much worse. So I go around in my small and insignificant way and try to spread the kind of cheer that I think should be spread. I smile at people. I hold doors open. I stop to let the unconscious cross the zebra crossings, I nod and smile as I hold open my rucksack for the shop employees to examine the contents to see if I've been shop lifting, and then, surprisingly, I snot all over my kids when I get home to find that they've been chucking their cute little messes all over the house... in the spirit of Christmas.
Then I have to come down here to the Garage (aka the cave) to contemplate what it is that's 'wrong' with me. (Thank goodness I have 'the cave' to escape myself to).
Last week, quite a lot happened. We had some very 'Queensland' typa weather for one thing. Our newest (and oldest) car - the Pajero, which is the ripe old age of 15, and which has survived in Queensland all that time without sustaining any hail damage, sustained some hail damage. Those of you who've never seen the hail storms here will not appreciate the nature of one so I'll just describe a little. Last week, there was an obvious storm front travelling across in front of my desk which happens to have a glorious vista (OK not a 'vista' but a panoramic view) of the valley behind the motorway at Loganholme. It was VERY dark and ominous. Then, seemingly unconnected bangs started. I wondered what they were and then the whole office, as one, suddenly realised what the noise was and we all sprinted for the exit, to get our cars out of the storm and under cover. Fortunately there's covered car parking in our area but no one normally uses it because it's around the bask and you have to get a lift up to the office as opposed to just walking in. Anyway, I just made it to cover and about 15 seconds later the hail came down in earnest... and about 10 seconds after that, another car made it to cover, but too late...its bonnet was like a bombed no mans land of craters. The hail is not like the kind we have in Britain, this is like golf balls or even as big as tennis balls! Back at home, the Pajero was in the drive... and Molly, although at home, was totally unprepared for the unfolding storm, having never seen one before... and even if she had, you have no way of knowing until it starts falling, what's about to happen. Once it starts, its pretty dangerous to go out in it, unless you have a very sturdy umbrella or a helmet...or ideally both. You'll imagine I'm sure that being hit be a piece of ice falling from the sky that's the size of a golf ball would be painful at best, and possibly fatal if you were unlucky. So the poor old Pajero sustained about 15 dents to the bonnet...and a handful to the roof, most of which was covered by the roof rack which has a board on it.
Bugger...
On the plus side (we hope) however, is the fact that we've put in a series of offers on a house in the local area that originally was on for about 55k more than we finally got it for. here The fly or the spice in the ointment (depending on how you look at it) is that we are contracting to rent the house before we buy it, subject to the sale of our land. We have 6 months to sell the land.
It's a bit stressful really because the house, although it has a fair bit of potential, has some fundamental flaws in the layout that we will need to fix once we have the ownership of it. The process is fairly onerous here, and to complicate it all, we have recently (a month ago) signed another years contract on the rental house we live in. We can get out of it (hopefully) within a short space of time, but the responsibility for ensuring the landlord gets his rent is ours until another tenant is found. We're being assured that this is likely to be quite quick, as we've picked the right time of year to be 'breaking our contract' but it's still a bit of a worry.
And in typical 'Chris Martin' style, I've booked a ticket to fly to the UK with Molly that means that I'm out of the country at the precise time that we would have been moving house, meaning that our Christmas break will be one of packing and storing and hopefully finding places with mates that we can store stuff, or arranging with the vendors to prevail on their generosity and let us put a shed on their property to store our stuff on until we move proper. AND... if THAT wasn't enough... Daile and the girls will be in Whangarei in NZ for 10 days from the 10th to the 20th of Jan! So we have three days when they get back before Moll and I go...! Woohoo! GOD we're good!
The shear monumental transparency of the occasion seems to make it so difficult for me to enter into the 'spirit' as we all know it in our consumer society. I know that I'm in a minority in expressing myself like this. Most others that I venture to offer this perspective to call me a 'humbug' or variations of that general concept. That it's considered by people to be bad form not to subscribe heartily to the gluttony, get pissed and shout a lot, perhaps have a damn good scrap, buy presents for people that don't need them, and get stuff you don't need in return, so that the retailers can make up for the fact that no one really wants most of their pointless wares for the rest of the year. It's almost incumbent on us to 'support' the retailers. It's UN Australian, or UN American or Un British to just do without these days, and how many of us would consider that a valid response to Christmas?
It truly bothers me though... and I find the process of shopping is almost repulsive at this time of year. The total absence of the very 'cheer' that we're supposed be revelling in amongst the great majority of shoppers is quite the most depressing thing to behold. I've long felt it difficult to understand why people don't acknowledge the cars that stop to let them cross on a zebra crossing, but the fact that they don't acknowledge that at this time of the year seems to be so much worse. So I go around in my small and insignificant way and try to spread the kind of cheer that I think should be spread. I smile at people. I hold doors open. I stop to let the unconscious cross the zebra crossings, I nod and smile as I hold open my rucksack for the shop employees to examine the contents to see if I've been shop lifting, and then, surprisingly, I snot all over my kids when I get home to find that they've been chucking their cute little messes all over the house... in the spirit of Christmas.
Then I have to come down here to the Garage (aka the cave) to contemplate what it is that's 'wrong' with me. (Thank goodness I have 'the cave' to escape myself to).
Last week, quite a lot happened. We had some very 'Queensland' typa weather for one thing. Our newest (and oldest) car - the Pajero, which is the ripe old age of 15, and which has survived in Queensland all that time without sustaining any hail damage, sustained some hail damage. Those of you who've never seen the hail storms here will not appreciate the nature of one so I'll just describe a little. Last week, there was an obvious storm front travelling across in front of my desk which happens to have a glorious vista (OK not a 'vista' but a panoramic view) of the valley behind the motorway at Loganholme. It was VERY dark and ominous. Then, seemingly unconnected bangs started. I wondered what they were and then the whole office, as one, suddenly realised what the noise was and we all sprinted for the exit, to get our cars out of the storm and under cover. Fortunately there's covered car parking in our area but no one normally uses it because it's around the bask and you have to get a lift up to the office as opposed to just walking in. Anyway, I just made it to cover and about 15 seconds later the hail came down in earnest... and about 10 seconds after that, another car made it to cover, but too late...its bonnet was like a bombed no mans land of craters. The hail is not like the kind we have in Britain, this is like golf balls or even as big as tennis balls! Back at home, the Pajero was in the drive... and Molly, although at home, was totally unprepared for the unfolding storm, having never seen one before... and even if she had, you have no way of knowing until it starts falling, what's about to happen. Once it starts, its pretty dangerous to go out in it, unless you have a very sturdy umbrella or a helmet...or ideally both. You'll imagine I'm sure that being hit be a piece of ice falling from the sky that's the size of a golf ball would be painful at best, and possibly fatal if you were unlucky. So the poor old Pajero sustained about 15 dents to the bonnet...and a handful to the roof, most of which was covered by the roof rack which has a board on it.
Bugger...
On the plus side (we hope) however, is the fact that we've put in a series of offers on a house in the local area that originally was on for about 55k more than we finally got it for. here The fly or the spice in the ointment (depending on how you look at it) is that we are contracting to rent the house before we buy it, subject to the sale of our land. We have 6 months to sell the land.
It's a bit stressful really because the house, although it has a fair bit of potential, has some fundamental flaws in the layout that we will need to fix once we have the ownership of it. The process is fairly onerous here, and to complicate it all, we have recently (a month ago) signed another years contract on the rental house we live in. We can get out of it (hopefully) within a short space of time, but the responsibility for ensuring the landlord gets his rent is ours until another tenant is found. We're being assured that this is likely to be quite quick, as we've picked the right time of year to be 'breaking our contract' but it's still a bit of a worry.
And in typical 'Chris Martin' style, I've booked a ticket to fly to the UK with Molly that means that I'm out of the country at the precise time that we would have been moving house, meaning that our Christmas break will be one of packing and storing and hopefully finding places with mates that we can store stuff, or arranging with the vendors to prevail on their generosity and let us put a shed on their property to store our stuff on until we move proper. AND... if THAT wasn't enough... Daile and the girls will be in Whangarei in NZ for 10 days from the 10th to the 20th of Jan! So we have three days when they get back before Moll and I go...! Woohoo! GOD we're good!
Tuesday 7 December 2010
What's in a name?
This picture WAS taken by 'Chris Martin', but not by this one. Good innit! Whoever thought of that name?
The ship has been taken by Pirates... (Somali ones)... wonder if they're into that sort of thing?
Friday 3 December 2010
Ooops!
I confess to a little embarrassment.
We received a mail a month or so ago saying that I'd been invited to the cast and crew screening of Narnia and that I could bring one other.
I wasn't all that bothered about going, thinking that it would be better to go all together as a family, but Daile pointed out that perhaps Molly would appreciate going, and when I asked, she said she'd really like to.
She had some thoughts (she openly declared) of perhaps meeting some of the stars that she'd grown up watching. I felt a bit short sighted not to have thought of that... so was chuffed to be able to take her.
Tonight as we were driving down to the cinema at Pacific Fair, a massive shopping centre on the Gold Coast that had been selected as the venue, and where the cinema has 10 theatres, 2 of which were to be taken in the entirety, I told her that since it's a year since the wrap party, there were likely to be several crew that I didn't remember the names of, and that she should be prepared to introduce herself. I spent some of the time on the way down, re familiarising myself mentally, with faces to names so that I didn't embarrass anyone.
We found the place in good time, and after a quick dive into the loos for a widdle, we ascended the escalator to the cinema level. Now I've been to several of these kinds of events now, and usually they're the same. You arrive to find crew and cast milling around outside the entrance catching up on what they've been doing with themselves for 20 mins or so before the show. We were about 10 mins early, so we were both a bit surprised to see that there wasn't a throng of people. In fact there were hardly any people milling at all! We got some Maltesers and a couple of small bottles of water to go and headed to the cinema. I imagined that everyone must have already gone in.
Turns out it was the day before! The ticket lady felt sorry for us and let us come in for nothing anyway... and so we went in with the proletariat. Worryingly, there were only about 10 other people in the cinema! I'd be pissed off if it had been MY $100m, dollars that had been invested!
So we sat in an almost exclusive show, and then left as soon as it ended... completely forgetting the need to see the credits role.
It WAS enjoyable though. … and Molly was STILL proud of me anyway! Bless!
Sunday 21 November 2010
Getting away
A couple of weekends ago, we went to the beach down at the Gold Coast to see if we could get some good pics... thinking of Molly doing some Karin Jurick type paintings in the style of these...
As it turned out, the sun was a bit 'challenged' that day. Never-the-less, she got some fairly interesting ones, of which these are a few: Note the little dog going for the ankles....!
and again here....!
The view down to 'Surfers Paradise'...
and the rear view of me watching the girls play in the surf... between the lifeguards flags of course....!
Later the following week, I made some Sari's for the little ones to dress up in for a cultural thing at school. They both won a prize of $10 book vouchers each... so that was good!
...and then Phoebe lost ANOTHER tooth. The pair of them did up a real spread for the tooth fairy including of all things... 'toothpaste buns'... which she apparently loved as she ate the lot!
We went to North Stradbroke Island last weekend. It was predicted to rain, much like it was predicted to rain when we went to Moreton Island.. and it didn't this time either. Daile came this time, and Molly, so it was get out the big tent time. We arrived in the dark and pitched it in the dark, which would have been bad enough without the additional complication that neither Daile or I could remember how it went together. It took us quite a while, and was actually quite amusing!
The next day the girls were out early tying knots in things and collecting shells off the beach which was right next to where we camped.
Going barefoot on the sand is a bit of a risk... here's a blue bottle jelly. If you step on one of these and you're sensitive to them, they can cause a very nasty reaction, and even shut down normal breathing.. not to mention being very painful. The girls like the sound they make if you stomp on them... they go 'pop'. Actually they're not one animal but four.. that all operate together to make up a functioning organism. They're called Zooids.
We like to go on the beach at night and look at the stars...
...and Matilda loves to build camp fires...
We found a little 'lake' of sea water at low tide. It has lots of little fish that are fun to try and catch.
... or you can just read a book.
...or stay in the shade.
Anyway, it was great to get away.
As it turned out, the sun was a bit 'challenged' that day. Never-the-less, she got some fairly interesting ones, of which these are a few: Note the little dog going for the ankles....!
and again here....!
The view down to 'Surfers Paradise'...
and the rear view of me watching the girls play in the surf... between the lifeguards flags of course....!
Later the following week, I made some Sari's for the little ones to dress up in for a cultural thing at school. They both won a prize of $10 book vouchers each... so that was good!
...and then Phoebe lost ANOTHER tooth. The pair of them did up a real spread for the tooth fairy including of all things... 'toothpaste buns'... which she apparently loved as she ate the lot!
We went to North Stradbroke Island last weekend. It was predicted to rain, much like it was predicted to rain when we went to Moreton Island.. and it didn't this time either. Daile came this time, and Molly, so it was get out the big tent time. We arrived in the dark and pitched it in the dark, which would have been bad enough without the additional complication that neither Daile or I could remember how it went together. It took us quite a while, and was actually quite amusing!
The next day the girls were out early tying knots in things and collecting shells off the beach which was right next to where we camped.
Going barefoot on the sand is a bit of a risk... here's a blue bottle jelly. If you step on one of these and you're sensitive to them, they can cause a very nasty reaction, and even shut down normal breathing.. not to mention being very painful. The girls like the sound they make if you stomp on them... they go 'pop'. Actually they're not one animal but four.. that all operate together to make up a functioning organism. They're called Zooids.
We like to go on the beach at night and look at the stars...
...and Matilda loves to build camp fires...
We found a little 'lake' of sea water at low tide. It has lots of little fish that are fun to try and catch.
... or you can just read a book.
...or stay in the shade.
Anyway, it was great to get away.
Friday 5 November 2010
Thoughts...when it's quiet at night...
When I was a younger man, I felt that life was going to be good to me. I expected that I would have wealth, that I would have luck, and that I would have good things. So it was. But the shape that these things came in was a surprise. My wealth is something that seems to come from within. I am rarely impoverished in spirit, and when I am it is a temporary thing…quickly overcome. Luck is a false trickery, because you make your own. I have not taken opportunities for acquisition of money, being too stupid or perhaps too wise to see them for what they are, but I have the best kind of luck with my children, all of whom are wonderful, kind and well balanced, and I was lucky enough to find a woman who has been a basis for building their concept of worth, and reinforcing mine. The day I met her was the best bit of luck I’d had in a long time, and I had the grace to recognise it as such. The good things are not what I really had in mind either…a smile from Phoebe, a glint in the eye from Matilda, a prod in the ribs from Molly, and a hug from Josh. Not much of worth to anyone else, but priceless to a father, and a teacher.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
That was the weekend...
When you look at art in a gallery, particularly abstracts, do you feel something inside you taking offence? I do. It seems so shallow and facile dosn't it. We went to the gallery on Sunday after the museum. It was Matilda and Luis and I, having a boys morning, and we did the whole nine yards there. Museums are SUCH an important thing to help us to understand our aetiology,
and this one is particulaly good because it has a very good cross section of stuff from the insects and stuffe animals to the dinosoar skeletons, to significant machines and cultural artifacts. In the basement they have the last remaining example of a German tank. Apparently they only made about 14 of them all up... which was a surprise.
We went to the art gallery cos someone had said that there was a picture there like the one I did of Josh...
We didn't find it, but we had a lot of fun not understanding what we were looking at. Here's a statue of a bloke with dog poo on his foot,
and here's one going 'pick me!, pick me!'. (Actually dear reader, I do like these)
So we went home... and found this fat little blue tongue in the back garden. Must have just eaten a mouse or something...
... and Matilda made some scary cookies for Halloween with the cookie cutters that Gannie had sent to us. (Thanks Gannie)
...while Feeb and I cut out the pumpkin.
and this one is particulaly good because it has a very good cross section of stuff from the insects and stuffe animals to the dinosoar skeletons, to significant machines and cultural artifacts. In the basement they have the last remaining example of a German tank. Apparently they only made about 14 of them all up... which was a surprise.
We went to the art gallery cos someone had said that there was a picture there like the one I did of Josh...
We didn't find it, but we had a lot of fun not understanding what we were looking at. Here's a statue of a bloke with dog poo on his foot,
and here's one going 'pick me!, pick me!'. (Actually dear reader, I do like these)
So we went home... and found this fat little blue tongue in the back garden. Must have just eaten a mouse or something...
... and Matilda made some scary cookies for Halloween with the cookie cutters that Gannie had sent to us. (Thanks Gannie)
...while Feeb and I cut out the pumpkin.
Monday 25 October 2010
Eddie
Sarah and Joe had their second baby last week, and he's called Eddie. Born about 6am about 11 hours after the waters broke... so pretty quick really! He was 9lb9oz and he looks in good health.
Makes me tired just looking at these! Ha ha. Well done you guys! Looking forward to meeting him early next year...
Makes me tired just looking at these! Ha ha. Well done you guys! Looking forward to meeting him early next year...
Monday 11 October 2010
Phoebe is 7!
What up? So this week we had the Feeb's birthday (last Friday) and here she is in receipt of a lovely wrap/scarf thingy from Gannie and Gramps.
...a card from Tild, and a homemade bracelet from Gannie that she loves.
Here's some buns, the start of the haul that was to be the party... nice aren't they! Daile and Molly's work.
At the weekend, we were revisited by the neighbours, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that between them the girls had worked the place over. This would have been Matilda's idea for sure! The gaggle were nowhere to be seen when I came across this... I think they'd gone for swim in their clothes at Tracy's pool...!
I usually retreat to my cave...which in my case is the garage. Here's an easel I made this weekend for my new bigger canvas aspirations:
...and Molly is turning into a forger! This is a copy of a drawing that I did when I was about 22 or 23... In many ways this is a very hard task, so quite impressive that it is so close eh!
... and lastly, I wanted to show you this... Gecko, that was hiding between the screen and the glass in the study window...
eying up this lass, which you can see from the mesh is about a couple of inches across! It's not often you get a look at what goes on underneath is it?
Weather's been dodgy. Springbrook, (near the aerial walkway a couple of blogs back) got 275mm of rain last night! My garage had a river running through it...!
...a card from Tild, and a homemade bracelet from Gannie that she loves.
Here's some buns, the start of the haul that was to be the party... nice aren't they! Daile and Molly's work.
At the weekend, we were revisited by the neighbours, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that between them the girls had worked the place over. This would have been Matilda's idea for sure! The gaggle were nowhere to be seen when I came across this... I think they'd gone for swim in their clothes at Tracy's pool...!
I usually retreat to my cave...which in my case is the garage. Here's an easel I made this weekend for my new bigger canvas aspirations:
...and Molly is turning into a forger! This is a copy of a drawing that I did when I was about 22 or 23... In many ways this is a very hard task, so quite impressive that it is so close eh!
... and lastly, I wanted to show you this... Gecko, that was hiding between the screen and the glass in the study window...
eying up this lass, which you can see from the mesh is about a couple of inches across! It's not often you get a look at what goes on underneath is it?
Weather's been dodgy. Springbrook, (near the aerial walkway a couple of blogs back) got 275mm of rain last night! My garage had a river running through it...!
Saturday 2 October 2010
M'Boy's gone!
Josh returned to the UK on Thosdee...and we're really missing him! Here he is eating one of the pancakes that the girls made him the day he left.
Phoebe has had an allergic reaction to something... here she is all blotchy..
...and here they are the day before, with the French tash's as is their custom when they cook...
Josh next to a painting I did of him...
all of the family (cept me) at the airport...
Today, I took the Josh pic down to the local art shop... cos I've been meaning to put a bit of art in their for a while... and they told me they'd like to do it. So in a way, Josh is still here... :-)
Phoebe has had an allergic reaction to something... here she is all blotchy..
...and here they are the day before, with the French tash's as is their custom when they cook...
Josh next to a painting I did of him...
all of the family (cept me) at the airport...
Today, I took the Josh pic down to the local art shop... cos I've been meaning to put a bit of art in their for a while... and they told me they'd like to do it. So in a way, Josh is still here... :-)
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