Bubs on the way

So as of this moment, I am, at the very most 10 days from fatherhood.

I've been busting my brain about all those questionnaires that turn up... "How many children do you have?".. thinking, well right at this minute, I don't have any, my wife has them all. But by the time you get this application, I most definitely will have a child.

Other things are changing too, already the car is full with a baby seat and all the belts, bolts and nuts associated with having a childproof / child friendly car.
There are baby toys around the house, and I cannot help but look at more when wondering into the shops.
There are sleepless nights because bun just refuses to settle.
There are beds to be made, things to be sterilized, little tiny clothes to be washed.

Pre-baby seems to be alot like Post-baby, just it smells a bit better, and at least one of us gets a full nights sleep.

Purely hypothetical situation - resolved

So, after ironing out the last post.. it appears that there was a job to be had.
Ah.. crossed wires and an over active imagination, sometimes not the best combo.

So in celebration of that, here's an interesting video for you.

Purely hypothetical situation - I wish.

So you've been at your new job for close to two years. You have a friendly but not too cosy relationship with your immediate boss aka "Section lead". Some of your projects have gone well, others have had their ups and downs. Generally you consider things to be going well.

So would you be upset if the following, purely hypothetical, situation arose.
Your boss lets you know in a whisper that he will leave for another department within the month.
None of your department heads mention that your boss may have plans.
The monthly HR e-mails listing upcoming positions for employment has no mention of your bosses position.
Then you find out from a source, that the interviews for that position already took place this morning, despite members of the department not being notified...

I think I would be upset.. what about you?

Another milestone

So we've reached another milestone in the Australia chapter.
I've been asked by the immigration department to supply supporting documentation to my application for a partner visa. I now have 60 days to regather all documents showing what I've done for nearly every day of the last 10 years.
I thank my lucky stars that I remained a relatively upstanding member of the community over the last 10 years. So I have no convictions. I'm also healthy, so I might not have to have another medical. K and I are now married and expecting, so it shouldn't be to difficult to prove an ongoing relationship. And, we have only left the Australia once since I made the initial application, so I don't have to list every little village and backyard that I've been through since my last application.

Time to put pen to paper and get some forms filled out then... including this doosey, the notorious form 80.

Should be a breeze!

Holidays

Hi folks,

K decided I was working too hard. So she organised a weekend away for us.
I'm not one to contradict her.

So anyway it was an awesome weekend, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

This is the view from the cottage.

And apparently this is the whitest sand in Australia. (Bring your sunglasses)
See that speck in the distance? That's the neighbors.

Howzat for luxury?

Sugar & Spice

There are some things that were made to go together.

My batch of Dunkel beer from the Beer Factory is ready this friday...

Now I wish I'd thought about planting some edamame to go with it!

Stealing somebodies newspaper.

I have this persistent feeling that it's getting harder to find interesting stuff on the internet. As more normal people get online, the information gets dumbed down and the presentation gets shinier. In the early days of the internet, there was a similar phenomenon called "The AOL Effect". When the internet provider AOL, gave it's users access to "Newsgroups" the forerunner of the current discussion forums, the quality of the posts dropped dramatically, as the quantity of posts increased.

So in these days where search engines send you to the site that pays the most, as opposed to the one which has the most accurate information...
It's nice to take a shortcut, and instead of finding the good spots of the web yourself.. just steal suggestions from someone else.

Google asked some journalists, foodies, and tech bloggers, "What do you read"?

Itsy bitsy spider.

For those of you who haven't met one of these yet.

This is a huntsman. Mostly harmless, unless it gets your hair while you drive and causes you to swerve off the road. (Happened to a friend!)

K pointed out that there's no reference point for the scale of this monster spider...
So to put it in perspective, here's a picture of the empire state building. IT WAS THAT BIG, HONESTLY!

Trying too hard?

In a follow up to yesterdays post, I found out this today...




Yes, the Australian Prime Minister get's his news from Twitter.

Either he's trying very hard to be with the in crowd, or social media has come of age.

Shouts out to mumbrella for the scoop.

new media

Here's a neat perspective on why it IS worth your time to learn how to use new technology and social media.

Always be prepared

[Edit: Sorry had to remove pics and link instead after I saw the Copyright on the source page!]
If you're going to do
this...
Jump off this,

Or get around this..


Then for god sake, don't do it in road slicks!!

If only I'd taken the time to put on some knobbly tires, my trousers might not have been so full when I got to the end of the course.

As you can see, it's a bit hilly.


50km/h, over rocks, sand, and hairpin bends, is enough to give me nightmares.

I can't wait to do it again! (With real tires!)

Settle an arguement

Okay, so I'm going to watch the Bledisloe Cup, for the uninitiated, that means Australia is playing New Zealand. Aka, The Wallabies vs The All Blacks. Probably the biggest match of the year. And since it's happening 3km down the road at the ANZ Stadium formerly the Telstra Stadium and before that the Stadium Australia, I'd be mad to miss it!

View Larger Map

Now as to the argument...

If today is Thursday, how many days until next weekend.

Today, I said 2 days until the weekend but I got this one wrong. Now that I think about it, 9 days also makes sense.
A work colleague told me that the cup was being played next weekend, so I booked tickets expecting it to be on Saturday the 15th. Now I know that it's actually on Saturday the 22nd.

So did I get confused because the Australians use next weekend to mean the next weekend after this week, whereas I consider next weekend to be the next upcoming weekend. Did I get confused because the Germans have infected my English language with their incredibly useful and precise word "overnextweekend" (Uebernaechstewochenende) meaning the weekend after this next weekend, the logical conclusion being that if you remove the Ueber, then it becomes next weekend (Naechstewochenende) and that would be the upcoming weekend.
Or.. am I just being daft, And next weekend always meant the weekend after this weekend?

Personally, I'm of the opinion that I sometimes just take this stuff to literally, and I'm a bit daft.

As long as I turn up for the Rugby on Saturday the 22nd of August, then all's well with the world!

So what happened while I was on holiday.

Yesterday I got back from one of the best holidays in my life!

Today I had to go to work.. katherine made me go, and wiped the tears out of my eyes so I could see the road.

And when I arrived at my desk, this is what was waiting for me.



Thanks lads, it's good to know you were busy while I was away. :-)

RIP Michael Jackson

What child of the 80's doesn't owe a huge debt to this man, for his music and world influence!



Reports seem to be conclusive...
http://news.bbc.co.uk
La Times

I feel like I did the day Kurt Cobain shot himself. Which is strange, Mj was never my idol, and I didn't really listen to his musik like I did nirvana, but still he was a huge part of my youth.. the coca cola of his day.

Alternative Transport

El Cheapo Skateboard - $40
Model Airplane motor - $200

The result - Priceless!
How Awesome is this.

Propeller Powered Skateboard - Test Day! from Crazy Builders on Vimeo.

The toaster is out to get us!

I think our toaster is out to get us...
It's trying to communicate through the medium of blinky lights!

We wanted a high tech toaster that could toast toast properly.
We got a HAL2000 complete with schizophrenia and a nasty charcoal fetish!



Actually now I've watched the video, i'm dissapointed, it doesn't make the hair on the back of my neck stand up quite as much as in real life.

Ungebildet?

Aber bei der Prufung trotzdem bekomme ich eine Eins!



"Sie haben 45 von 49 Punkten.

Chapeau, für dieses Ergebnis bekommen Sie eine glatte Eins. Falls Sie es nicht schon sind, können Sie Deutschlehrer werden - oder sich zumindest auf Ihren sprachlichen Lorbeeren ausruhen"

Ich muss's zugeben, das ich ein oder zweimal das Frage wiederholt habe...

If you're in a rush.

For those of you who are in a rush, here's a quick summary of the big day.

The big day

On the big day I woke to a house buzzing with... snoring, In fact I was one of the first up. I guess everyone thinks that it must have been nerves, but 7 hours of sleep is more than I would get on a normal night. So I had a casual breakfast, followed by two runs out to the hall with best man in tow to make sure all the last minute preparations were ready. Tap the kegs, sample the beer, provide enough ice to open an Ice rink in the bush, and have a quick peek at the cake, erm cupcake cake, that Bev was putting together.



Then it was back to Mandelsons H.Q. to get changed for the big event. At this stage I had heard nothing from the other party and so I assumed all was well and was able to crack the first beer at about 12. Of course things weren't all plain sailing. Groomsman C_ had been absent most of the morning, and It was at this point I was informed that he was showing the ozzies just how to drive the porcelain truck! A stomach bug, apparently. After a VB and a sausauge roll, the C_ put on his Suit and a brave face, and was quickly on the road to recovery if not sobriety.



Soon enough the bus was there and it was time to jump on with the rest of the Guests. Only retreating briefly to secure some more VB stubbies for the bus ride out to Bungonia. We arrived at the Church at 2.30, plenty of time.. for T_ to show me how that button hole flower (Boutonnière) should be attached, apparently not as the name suggests, through the buttonhole.



Everyone took their seat in the church while I chatted with Fr S_. At five minutes to 3pm I took my place at the front of the church and waited for my bride to arrive while my best man and Groomsman made jokes at my expense, and baby Charlee blew kisses from over her grandma's shoulder.




At 3.30 my bride arrived, obviously she couldn't resist making me sweat a little, but by then I'd managed to convince myself we were meant to be starting at 3.30 anyway!
The ceremony couldn't have gone better... as you can see in the pictures.
There were a few moments where we all had to laugh, when R__ forgot that he was giving a reading, and when R___ decided he wanted to stand at the front with K and I. There were tears too when we exchanged vows. After Fr. S told me I could kiss the bride K retorted asking if she could kiss the groom too. Katherine couldn't help herself and let out a Yippee at the end.




After the ceremony we all streamed out of the church and had a few moments for a few words with a each of the guests. The photographer grabbed some of the family members for some of those photo's that will garnish mantelpieces for years to come.




We wanted to walk the few hundred metres through Bungonia proper to the reception hall, so K grabbed my arm and instructed me to take her to the Party.




After we led the exodus to the hall, the photographer took some more great snaps against the ruins of the old bakehouse building in the dying light of the evening.




Once all the photo's were complete, and the light was gone, we both concurred, it was time for a drink.





So the party was a hit, the food was good, there was more than enough drink, and plenty of craic. The speeches were only very embarrassing. The dancing was awesome, the kids leading the way, followed by their parents.




The lumpy underdaks got the place thumping, with an Extreme version of Wild Thing by K's brother M_ which they probably heard in the northern hemisphere.



At the end everyone had to go home. So it was onto the bus and off to Goulburn.
Well one of the trips, the bus broke down, but after that everyone got home.

And don't worry, there'll be some more photo's up soon!

Nearly the big day

We traveled down to Goulburn on the Thursday, with a mid-size SUV packed to the roof with drink and decorations. I spent that day up a ladder putting the lights up in the hall.
Friday morning, it was out to the hall again, with K's extended family there to help put out the Hired goods, dress tables, stock bars, label ginger beer, clean toilets, make cups of tea, and admire a job well done.



By Friday evening, the hoard had arrived. Most of the relatives and wedding party had checked into their accomodation, and we all had a slap up meal in The Fireside Inn. We enjoyed ourselves mightily, and as is standard with the McCoy clan, we were the last people to leave! Even the staff left before us, with only the owner staying long enough to lock up after us. I journeyed the few hundred metres back to Mandelsons Guesthouse with the McCoys, while my bride to be spent her last night as a single back at her mum's house.