Cape Capers

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...



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Uleaderboard...

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

City to Surf

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

Blogtoberfest

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

Maiden's Voyage

We managed to get out to the beach at Cape Patterson for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon. It was Jessica's first time at the beach and she seemed to really love it. (In fact, we had to try very hard to keep her from shovelling fistfuls of sand into her mouth). It was a bit of a hurried visit - we didn't get there until after 3pm - but we were still able to get a few lovely photos before the sun went down. I've been trying to post 9 of those pictures to celebrate Jessica's 9 month mini-birthday...but it looks like I'm only being allowed to post 5 at a time. Enjoy!

The Adventures of Jessica...

I decided to put an entry together for an online Video Editing competition. The basic premise was that the video had to be original, funny, less than 2 minutes in length, and be made entirely with Ulead VideoStudio. It was fun to put this together - especially the stealing of the keys - and I'm glad I gave it a go. No, I'm not expecting to win any of the 12 prizes on offer, but it was great to have had to come up with something. Hopefully Jessica will like it when she gets to see it (it's 1:00am, and it was only finished a little over an hour ago). Here it is for your "entertainment". Please ignore the clumsiness in parts - I was on a tight deadline! Doesn't J look great though??

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It's my little sister's 29th birthday today: Happy Birthday, Bucket! (aka "Bec" for some strange reason). Hope you like your present (and no, it's neither a C64 nor a colourful wooly jumper - sorry). Here's a happy snap to help celebrate the occasion.

Matt

Celebr8!!!!!!!!

That's a pretty dodgy title, I know, n im sry 4 dgnr8n n2 txt 4m. But rehashing "Jessica's Sweet 1/6th" as "Jessica's Sweet 0.66666666666667th" didn't really work either.

Anyway, today is indeed another special one because...(drumroll please)...Jessica is 8 months old tonight!! She's currently celebrating (celebr-8-ing?) that milestone in a most subdued and solitary manner: she retired to bed about 30 minutes ago. Yes, it's a disappointing social performance on Jessica's part, especially considering her past form as quite the late-night socialite: at 6 months she could stay up partying until at least 11pm; at 4months she was often up until 1 A.M.; and from birth to 2 months she would routinely be up with us until 4 in the morning! A sad deterioration, but I guess that's the trouble with getting older.

At 8 months, Jessica is doing beautifully. She is really vocal now, and will sing/scream/yodel/cluck/giggle away very excitedly for ages. She has a little monkey-piano plaything (one of a growing number) that plays a jamaican-inspired version of 'heads and shoulders, knees and toes" (complete with steel drum) over and over and over. It lets you add extra riffs of guitar by sliding the little guitar lever, or add a jazzy piano if you smash the little piano keys, and Jessica just loooooves bashing away and singing very very loudly over the top of it all:

• Jamaican music centre with possessed circus-monkey perched atop it (did I mention a little monkey spins around and kicks in time with the music?): $26
• Nutritious but high-energy meal of apple, pear & avocado: $1
• Witnessing 8 month old, fructose-fuelled, popstar bashing away at the keys and guitar while screaming a very enthusiastic melody and shrieking at the rude monkey when he turns his back to her for a second: Priceless.

I could go on and on about how much she has changed in the last month or so, but I won't. Suffice to say she is just wonderful, and becoming a little more so each day.

In fact, as it is Fathers Day here tomorrow, Jessica (with some help from Mel I think) painted me a Fathers Day card. It's on our new fridge at the moment (the last fridge became an oven last week after at least 15 years of faithful, rusty service) but I will go and take a snapshot and try to post it (the snapshot - not the fridge) tonight.

Come to think of it, with all my jabbing about how well Jessica is doing generally, I neglected to say that she has actually been terribly sick this week. We all have, actually, but it's been heartbreaking to see Jessica crying and exhausted and unable to breath freely and therefore unable to drink properly and therefore unable to sleep and therefore exhausted and...etcetera. She is definitely getting much better, as am I (I had to have yesterday off work), but Mel has either fought it off well or is yet to get the full brunt of it. Hopefully, and quite probably, it's the former: she's a tough little cookie that wife o'mine! We inherited this bug from a family visit last Saturday, and I apologise profusely to anyone we may have unwittingly given it to this week. If it makes you feel better, you can smack me in the face when you next see me: I think that really does help sometimes.

Well, since we don't have Jessica up with us to have a 2/3 birthday party, and I need to mark the 8 month occasion in some way, heres some useless trivia involving the number 8 (it's only from wikipedia, though, so don't go quoting any of it in a school assignment).

• it's the number of legs on an arachnid
• It's the atomic number of oxygen
• it's the number of teams in the AFL finals series
• it's the most significant ball in snooker
• it's figure represents infinity, when shown horizontally
• it's the number of pawns, per side, in a game of chess
• it is (or at least, was) represented in slang terms as "one fat lady"
• October was originally the eighth month of the Roman calendar
• it represents "T", "U" and "V" on most phone handsets, but "B" and "N" on a BlackBerry handset
• it's the number of notes in an octave, the number of sides in an octagon, the number of faces on an octahedron, the number of days of Hannukah, and the number of children in an octuplet (and the first, recorded octuplets to have survived are apparently the Louis-Chukwu Octuplets, born in 199?....yes...8).
• there are 8 fluid ounces in a cup, 8 pints in a gallon, 8 tablespoons in a gill, 8 bits in a byte, 8 vegetables in V8, 8 apparitions in "Macbeth", 8 pinches in a teaspoon, and 8 furlongs in a mile

Did you remember all that? There will be a test.

it's now getting late, and much like Jessica, I'm becoming a bit of a piker. I'm afraid that'll have to do for tonight, and the posting of Jessica's Father's Day finger painting will have to wait until tomorrow (which is, after all, Father's Day). As much as it's a nice idea, Father's Day seems to me to be the most redundant 'day' of all: an unnecessary garnish atop an already extraordinary feast. Eleven and a half years ago I was given the most wonderful partner in Melissa, and just eight months ago we were heaped with the extraordinary blessing of Jessica. I have the privelege of sharing everyday with these beautiful people, and I know that I am blessed and loved. What need do I have for Father's Day?

Still, as quickly as I've written this, I realise that my situation is probably quite uncommon, and that many Fathers and their Children will have long ago drifted apart. It's pretty selfish of me to dismiss Father's Day so flippantly, just because I happen to have a wonderful family around me every day. I simply can't imagine what it would be like to be cut-off from Jessica or Mel, or God-forbid, both. To the fathers for whom estrangement is a source of anxiety, regret and longing, I pray you'll have a suprisingly wonderful Fathers Day this year.

Goodnight.

Matt

Whine, cooler.

Oh Hi.

I started writing a post last night - primarily about work - but it started getting very negative and gloomy and...well...just plain "whiney". Mel told me to give it a rest and go to bed instead. I did, and looking at what I wrote 24 hours ago, she was right. I'm a little more relaxed about things today, not quite so negative, and the post looks much too serious in the cooler light of day. Here's what I mean (it's the start of what I wrote last night):

I've said before that I have a reasonably good job - especially in comparison to a lot of the difficult jobs that others find themselves in - and generally that is true. But I have to admit I'm more than a little hesitant about heading back in there this week. Last week felt like a very negative, nasty week, and I can't see that changing this week either (unless my boss has taken his pills). It's possible that I'm just overly-sensitive, and blowing it all out of proportion, so I'll rattle off a few of the odd events of last week, and you can be the judge. Am I just overreacting?:

Exhibit A: On Tuesday morning, I was involved in a weekly phone link with my boss and the rest of the team in Sydney. As I'm the only team member working remotely (not from home, but 1000kms away from my boss), there has always been a level of autonomy and trust: I haven't needed to be 'managed', let alone 'micro-managed', and there has never been a question about my capability or commitment to work professionally without 'being watched'. Anyway, as part of the phone hookup, the issue of housekeeping came up, and my boss noted that he had observed some paperwork and empty coffee cups left on the Sydney team's desks overnight. He reminded the team that he wanted papers locked away and cups tossed in the bin before people went home of a night. Simple enough (more than a little "OCD", but simple enough I guess). THEN he said, "Matt, you're not immune from this - how does your desk look?". "Yep, I keep it very clean - pretty much just my phone, laptop and a picture of Jessica." "Well, I'd appreciate it if you would take a digital photo of your desk as it looks at the moment, and email that through to me." Sorry?? I'm almost 32. I've been married for 11 years, I have a daughter, and I've been working since I was 15. I discuss Big People Things with Big People, and most people consider me an adult. So it's somewhat disconcerting to be asked to take a photo of your workspace for a housekeeping inspection. Despite my internal protestations, I did take a photo, and I did send it through, and it did meet the standards. Maybe that's not an unreasonable request - and perhaps I was wrong to feel so slighted by it. I'll move on.

Exhibit B: The very next day, I was emailled a softcopy of the bill for my work mobile. A terse note was attached suggesting that I needed to address the "excessive" and "unreasonable" costs I had been incurring. When I replied that I did not think $17.24 (58 cents per day!) was necessarily excessive in a business environment which requires a great deal of off-site communication, I was publicly (via CC to the rest of the team) chastised for my impertinence. The whole rest of the team were then asked to scrutinise their bill also, and prepare a detailed action plan for cost reductions, as a penalty for my temerity. It seemed quite unusual, but again, maybe my expectations are unrealistic. I'll move on.

Exhibit C: My Sydney counterparts had received a particular training session earlier this year, which myself and one other Melbourne based employee would have benefitted from. My boss asked the trainer to include us when he was next in Melbourne. The trainer responded that he gets to Melbourne infrequently, and would organise a session directly with us when he was next in town. My boss then sent a note last week, asking me if I had received the training yet. I replied that I hadn't, and also CC-ed him on an email to the trainer, asking when he might next be in town. The trainer replied that he had not yet made it to Melbourne, but would still include us in the program. My boss then replied, to me, that it was MY fault that the training had not been conducted, and that 'had you followed this up personally, the failure would not have occurred.". Riiight. At this point, I had to start wondering if I'd done something to upset him: a pattern certainly seemed to be emerging.

There's an Exhibit D, E, F & G aswell, but I won't elaborate (difficult to do so without discussing where I work, which would be indelicate of me). Suffice to say, every day of last week there was another example of pettiness and belittlement. Not sure why it all happened last week, and there is absolutely no avenue for recourse should it continue. So it's dampening my enthusiasm for heading back in there tomorrow!

I probably sound pretty feeble with all of this petty whining (if this is the extent of your problems at work, Matt, try working in a mine, or a casualty ward, or a sweatshop, or as a peacekeeper, or a single-mum, or just about anything else. Yeah Matt, you've got it realllly tough!).

Based on that self-absorbed drivel, I don't think I should write about Work anymore! Unless it's a light-hearted discussion of the similarities between where I work and the BBC series of The Office (a brilliant series, which I have watched from beginning to end probably 10 times, and which should not be confused with the dreary, unfunny, American version which yesterday inexplicably won the Emmy award for best comedy - beating Scrubs and Arrested Development in the process). The extent of my future work comments might just have to be random quotes from David Brent and the rest of the team at Wernham Hogg.

Anyway, moving - swiftly - away from Work and onto nicer topics....What else has been happening? For one thing, some of the family have started up their own blogs in the last couple of weeks - you can follow links to the right of this message. There also seems to have been a lot of birthdays since I last posted (Happy Birthday Cordy, Anthony, Noah, Matty & Rachel - and Happy Birthday in advance Sammy & Eliza). On a related topic, I got onto Google Calendar and have started filling in everyones birthdays and anniversaries, which I'm then able to share online with family & friends if anyone else wants to link in. Pretty groovy idea, and it's great to receive an email notification of upcoming birthdays, and a 4:30am email each day, listing Matt Lowe's itinerary. It's a little bit sad that most of the time it says "You have no events scheduled for today"! Perhaps I need to link in with the Google Calendar of some interesting people, and live vicariously through their itineraries?

Look at that - it's 11:30 and I need to be up early for an appointment, so I'll have to leave it there. Once again, I wrote too much about nothing and ran out of time to write something interesting. I'll try to do better next time.

Good night for now.

Keep those desks clean.

Matt