skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Firstly, great to see you back online, Bec. Hope you're back to 110% health very soon. Your Sydney Symphony/Rocks market/Italian dinner/Walk through the Botanic Gardens outing sounded very special indeed. I'm glad it wasn't a date, or else Mel might be very jealous ("when was the last time YOU took me to the symphony!").
Today we managed another drive down to Cape Patterson. For the past couple of days, Mel had been threatening to spend Monday working from home, but at about 9:30 morning she gave in and agreed to a trip to the beach with Jessica & Jersey & I instead. We were able to get everything ready and packed in just over an hour (a new record!) and we took off to spend a few hours by the sea. Being a Monday, we pretty much had the beach to ourselves; hard to believe given the lovely day and the stunning scenery. Jessica had a fantastic time: amazing to think it was only her second time at the beach (and the second time this month - how extravagant!). She crawled for miles and would stop every little while to excavate, yell something, then move on again. This time around she wasn't so intent on eating the sand...just throwing handfuls of it into the air with great enthusiasm. She also crawled down to the waterline and enjoyed the tide lapping around her - without any fear whatsoever.
We had the cameras with us - of course - and I'll try to upload a short, unedited clip just to show you Jessica's excavation exploits. I may post another one of Jessica in the water, in the next few days...
For those of you who have been asking for an update, the results of the Ulead video contest were announced today. In short...no, we didn't win. We did take second place though, so that's something (unless you subscribe to the "first loser" philosophy, in which case it's not). If you're interested in seeing who we lost out to (that should probably be "to whom we lost out"), the winning video is here.
Take care,
Matt
We had a ball yesterday. Monday's my day off, but Mel had to work in the City, so Jessica & I decided to take Mel to work and then hit the town ourselves. After dropping Mel off at 9am for an 8:30 appointment (doh!), J & I parked at the Queen Victoria Gardens and set off to see the sights.
We first walked along the south side of the Yarra, past all the private school boathouses, watching all the school kids set out on their rowing classes. We walked through Southbank, across the walkbridge then down to the Melba Star where we sat and had our milk (OK...that was mainly Jessica). A group of old ladies - who were waiting for the Half-Tix counter to open - couldn't resist coming over and checking out Jessica. They thought she was just adorable, and then kept remarking that it was "just lovely to see the young fathers these days - they're just beautiful", adding (to me) and feigning total indignation, "Do you know that in your parents generation the fathers didn't lift a finger? I keep telling my husband 'you did nothin' - I did everything'. It's true! It's true! He didn't! Lazy so-and-so. I reckon you young dads are just soooo wonderful." Then they tottered off to see a show, giggling away as they went. Funny old ladies - I don't think they'd been drinking, either. Jessica loved the attention (which is obviously SO lacking otherwise!).
We then went along to Birrarung Marr, back up and along Flinders St to Federation Square, then up Swanston Street, across Collins, down Elizabeth (where we bought some rice crackers for Jessica and some Brunch bars for me!), then back along Flinders. Over the bridge to the Arts Centre we charmed an old lady who was busking operatically (again, it was mostly Jessica doing the charming, and I was just there to push m'lady's chariot). Past the Arts Centre and the Gallery, across to the Walker fountain and the Floral Clock, then up to King's Domain for some avocado, pear, cheese and apple (at least that's what Jessica had - it was the remaining Brunch bars for me). Then we walked to the Shrine of Remembrance, where Jessica fell asleep (I'll have a stern word with her about respect!), before we headed into the Botanical Gardens and sat on the lawns by the lake to have a post-sleep snack. A group of Japanese tourists who were passing by were admiring Jessica as she ate, and even asked to have a picture of the two of us (though I suspect they framed me out - unless of course they were doing more whale research). We then went back to the car and headed off to collect Mel.
From there we went down to St Kilda beach, where we walked along the pier, had a coffee and sandwich at the pier cafe, then walked back along the beach to Acland St. Luna Park was closed so we couldn't show that to Jessica, but we did give her a taste of our gelati from 7 Apples. Oddly, she didn't seem to love it (there's plenty of time to acquire that taste, and boundless opportunities to do so!). Headed back to the car and got home at about 7pm I think: a big day out (at least by our standards). Perhaps Bec & Vanessa did rub off on us with their recent visit? In any case, Jessica saw so much colour and movement and it was great fun for all of us, so we'll try to do something similar at least twice a month. I hope we can stick to that plan.
Here are a few snaps from our big day.
Matt
I don't have one specific topic to post about tonight but, as I'm quickly being left behind in the posting stakes by my brother-in-law and my Dad (the latter of whom has only started his blog this week - here), I'll make an effort to update mine. The content is likely to be incoherent and rambling, so it should fit in seamlessly with the preceding posts. Here are some random topics, in no particular order and without a unifying motif of any kind: We have a Family Christmas party at work (I've never been but I'm told it's great fun for kids - in fact we plan to attend this year) and as part of that, the social club provides a present for each of the children in an employee's family. There's a form to fill out, nominating the name, gender and age of each of your children, to ensure that the right number of gifts are provided, and that they're age and gender-appropriate (are you allowed to say gender-appropriate? Too bad, I already have). Anyway, I'm only explaining this so that the conversations I've overheard in the office this week have some context. In a couple of conversations, I've heard people proudly boast (der, what other type of boasting is there Matthew?) that they lie about their children's ages each year - adding a couple of years to the age of each child because...wait for it...they'll be given a more expensive present. Charming, eh? I've also heard comments from people who have listed imaginary children - in one case three of them - on their form to collect more presents. You'd be surprised - or maybe you wouldn't - by the number of people who openly say they do this every year. But the conversation that really struck me was one I overheard yesterday between two of the ladies in the office - one of whom is the HR Manager. It went something like: Admin Lady: "Are you going to the Christmas party this year?" HR Manager: "Nah, can't be bothered. But I'm sending a girlfriend to pick up my presents for me. You gotta make sure someone gets 'em for ya, or else some charity will get 'em." Ah, priceless. The spirit of Christmas wrapped up in one beautiful sentence: "...or else some charity will get 'em." Yeah, fancy THAT happening? Those pesky poor kids stealing OUR kid's unwanted, unclaimed and unnecessary presents. And at Christmas, too? Oh, the horror.
My sister and her friend Vanessa came down from Sydney last week. It was terrific to see Bec and lovely to meet Vanessa. We had dinner together a couple of times - including Thai! - and they were able to be entertained by Miss J (I'll try to attach a photo here of Bec with Jessica, but my strike rate with posting photos is not high). Bec & Vanessa spent most of the week painting the town red - going on train rides through the hills, touring Yarra Valley wineries, strutting along the St Kilda foreshore (I added the strutting part - it may or may not have occurred), eating Vicar's Follies at Miss Marples in Sassafras (it's a huge sundae, in a cozy tearoom which pays homage to the Agatha Christie character), and many other things that crazy young kids get upto these days. Terrible that out-of-towners can do more in your home state in one week than you've done in several years, but hopefully some of their enthusiasm will have rubbed off on me. I could certainly put away a Vicar's Folly.
We were invited to a dinner at Docklands (a newly developed restaurant/entertainment precinct in Melbourne) for a product launch, and listened to Max Walker delivering sporting anecdotes to the small audience (we were given signed copies of his new book, too). Even Sally the BrandPower lady was there, just smiling and signing photos of herself, while the 3-Minute Angels gave everyone 3-minute shoulder massages as we were served nibbles and drinks by 4 girls dressed as 4 different product variants (of course they were!). So that was a bit surreal, and not at all like our usual Saturday night on the couch. Except for the 4 girls dressed as product variants serving us drinks; that part is exactly like our usual Saturday night.
Did I tell you what I was given as a combined Father's Day & Birthday present? Well, despite assurances that a gift would not be given this year, my girls presented me with... a 60GB iPod Video! It's such a brilliant present, and I have it with me every day. I can now carry aroung hundreds of photos of Jessica & Mel, along with hours and hours of video, and of course weeks and weeks worth of music. But the aspect of this that I wasn't expecting to get so much enjoyment and value from is that of Podcasting. I've known that Podcasting exists, and I know what Podcasts are, but I didn't realise how useful, entertaining, educational and fun they could be. For the uninitiated (there must still be someone who knows less about this than me), Apple (the maker of iPod) provide a free software program called iTunes. In it's simplest role, it lets you manage your music library: you load all of your CD's onto your computer and iTunes takes care of the organisation of your collection by title, artist, genre, playlist etc - also providing the interface for playing these files on your PC or syncing them onto your iPod device (it also does the same for any photos or videos you want to manage or sync). That was a verrry long sentence. In a slightly-more advanced role, iTunes also lets you connect to the online iTunes Store, where you can buy songs or albums or videos or TV shows to put on your iPod (haven't done so yet). Here you can also subscribe to a multitude of audio and video podcasts from thousands of different people or organisations: a podcast is a free program delivered automatically to your PC on a regular (daily/weekly) basis. You find a podcast you're interested in, click on Subscribe, and every time a new update is uploaded by the author, it'll be downloaded to your PC (and by extension, onto your iPod). There's an enormous variety of podcasts available across every possible genre. I'm now subscribed to almost 20 different podcast 'channels': from the very funny (eg the "Ask A Ninja" advice-line, "The Chaser's War On Everything", and "The Ricky Gervais podcast"), through the very practical (eg. "43 Folders" - a personal productivity resource, "This Week In Media" - a discussion of digital creativity and new technology), through a series of short-film 'festivals' (eg. Australian Film Television & Radio School podcast). Most recently I've been receiving some really interesting/challenging lectures on society, philosophy and apologetics by Ravi Zacharias (a speaker who's strongly influenced by C.S. Lewis). I now very often listen to one of Ravi's talks on the way to work, or watch a short film when I'm waiting 15 minutes to pickup our Thai order, and Mel is now well accustomed to (though no less annoyed by) the inane-but-catchy "I am Ninja" jingle that I sing to her throughout the day. iTunes is free, and you don't need an iPod to use it, so if you have a reasonably fast internet connection and you're interested in watching something other than TV, or listening to something other than the radio, you may get a lot out of subsribing to a few of these podcasts. Not all of it's good - in fact some of it's lousy - but you get that with everything I guess (and at least you didn't have to pay anything for it). There, that's my public service announcement for the day.
On a mildly-related note, here's a funny video I came across on YouTube today: as a former Duty Manager myself, married to a George Lucas fan, I really enjoyed the concept. There're 4 episodes I think, but here's #2.
Jessica (I must stress again here that these paragraphs are NOT in order of priority!!) is now a completely competent and confident crawler, and has turned into quite a Jersey-seeking missile. She also loves opening the pantry and clearing out the bottom shelf (just like I remember Susanna doing 16 years ago!), and is also very confidently getting to a standing position and beginning to "cruise" along the furniture. She also has 7 teeth on show, with one more just about to break through. We keep asking ourselves where our little baby went, since we really seem to have ourselves a little girl already. We're even talking about what to do for Jessica's 1st Birthday (it sounds premature, I know, but if the next few months go as quickly as the last 9 did, we'll need all the time we can get!). Mel has posted some more photos of Jessica on her blog, here.
What else is news? I read recently that Mat Kearney will have two of his songs featured on two successive Gray's Anatomy episodes. I don't watch the show (from what I can tell from the occasional ads I see, it seems like a poor-man's Scrubs?) but I recognise that many, many, many people like it - so that's great news for him in terms of broadening his audience. One of the songs they'll be using - "All I Need" - is actually the very same song that I've asked permission to use for a 3 minute clip I'll be making later this year. The record company (Aware) were really, really nice and in addition to letting me use the song, they thanked me for having thought about Mat! Very nice indeed. I've been turned down flat by another record company in the past, so it was a lovely surprise to get such a positive response from Aware. It's a beautiful song, so I guess I'm willing to share it with Gray's Anatomy. Even though they totally stole my idea! (But I guess they're used to stealing great ideas on that show).
Speaking (the astute observer will recognise that I am actually writing) of videos, you may be wondering what happened with that ol' DVD Proposal? Well, the man in charge - the only one who could approve the project - resigned from the company a couple of weeks ago and left the building immediately. Yep, just like that! He had never managed to watch the DVD - despite my gentle prodding - so the proposal is once again in a state of limbo. The two lower-level managers who did see the DVD way back in May (both of whom liked it) have suggested that there's life in the dusty-old, moth-eaten proposal yet, but we'll just have to wait and see. I'm glad I have a day job, and I'm not counting on this project to put food on the table!
Well, I should probably call it a day. For not having had anything to say, I certainly used enough words to say it! I noticed today that the hit counter at the bottom of this page reads "555". Fancy 555 visits to read this long-winded drivel? To be honest, I'm probably responsible for 500 of those visits, but to the remaining group of visitors, thanks for dropping by! I'll even try to make it worth your while next time.
No promises, though.
Take care, (and remember: watch out for those sneaky Salvo's trying to steal your unwanted Christmas presents)
Matt
