Movin' keep on movin'

Well we are now safely ensconced in our new “big tall house” as my son calls it, probably because there are stairs in it. E-chan has been OK with it so far – involving him in the move and the clean up of the old place seems to have helped him to understand what is happening. The removalists (apparently that isn’t a word but I keep using it anyway) came 2 hours late on Tuesday (over a week ago now), and they didn’t finish up until 7pm. They weren’t bad, and they talked almost their own language – referring to “peaks” and “rises” when describing to each other where a certain piece of furniture would fit in the truck. I bet their 3D puzzle-solving skills are superior.

As if moving isn’t enough – E-chan went and caught a timely cough and runny nose. Now we could really do with a few beers and a good night sleep, and some time to just wander around our new neck of the woods and lie down and rest in our new house. Oh, and for our new couches to arrive.

Highlights:
- more space!
- Winter sun through the bedroom windows (our old place had NO direct winter sun and full summer evening sun)
- Finding those miscellaneous things that go missing (including things last seen in E-chan’s chubby little hands), under and behind things.
- Getting rid of stuff you don’t need/wear
- E-chan handling the stairs like a champ, and even though we haven’t installed the safety gate yet, he waits for me to accompany him up or down when I ask him to
- A friendlier block of apartments and Units, with more owner occupiers who care about stuff that goes on/doesn’t work, and say “hello”

I’d cry, but I just don’t have the time:
- Leaving our home of 5 ½ years – oh the memories! From our DINKy days to pregnancy, having a newborn and now toddler.
- Having our poor sick child stumble about our old digs as we frantically tried to clean up on Wednesday (why oh why didn’t we get a cleaner in?? I think we just ran out of time to arrange one…)
- Being vomited on for the second time in as many weeks (luckily the carpet cleaner guy was due an hour later)
- Sitting in fold up chairs in lieu of lounges in the living room (all this and Dr Who is back on telly again)
- Not being able to remember which thing went into which box
- Unexpected things that don’t work or need fixing
- And now it is OUR RESPONSIBILITY to get it fixed (actually – move that comment to the Highlights section… no more relying on real estate agents to get maintenance done!)
- 5 day delay on phone connection and still waiting on internet. Felt really cut off!

Much of the stuff we use daily is unpacked, and now we are down to the stuff we don’t use as often, that you have to think harder when deciding where to give it a home. I suspect that some stuff is never going to make it out of boxes. I mean really - why do I keep this sample moisturiser or hand cream even though I know it doesn’t suit my skin? Am I EVER going to wear that slightly discoloured shirt again? Some stuff I probably should have put in the Vinnies bin, but just ran out of time to try them on and I packed it anyway. (And who says Vinnies wants it anyway?!)

And now we have to use our own 3D puzzle solving skills to do the last bit of furniture configuration in the lounge room and in the bedrooms. And buy a step ladder so we can put some things away high up in the “big tall” cupboards in our bedrooms…

Secret boy's club!

E-chan is supposed to be going to sleep around now. However, C-chan is still in his bedroom with him, and I can hear lots of giggling!

I wonder what's going on in there....

Got a bit of a shock yesterday. I saw one of E-chan’s little friends and his Mum and big brother – they live on the same street and go to same Child care centre. C-chan and I noticed we hadn’t seen their father around for a while, and thought he might have gone away for work or maybe they’d separated. Anyway, thought I should mention it just so I didn’t seem to be an uncaring neighbour and to see if they needed a hand. No one wants to be a busybody, but I also don’t want to be one of those people who notice something is wrong but pretend everything is normal.

Anyway, the mother said her husband had passed away a few months ago. This was not the answer I was expecting. She was OK with me asking and would rather it be out in the open. She said they are all right, which I assume means they are dealing with the grief, doing OK financially and have enough support around them. It was a real jolt to imagine what it would be like to be a single mother of 2 with the youngest less than 2 years old. But then, single parents have raised children on their own before, and it will happen again in the future. All through the conversation, 20-month-old was beaming at me and E-chan most charmingly, oblivious to the conversation that we adults were having. The father had been a pretty cool, friendly fellow, with no obvious signs of illness when I saw him last, which couldn't have been long before his death.

I gave C-chan a big hug when he got home last night.

Oil, energy decline - all that sort of stuff

Further to Seagreen’s interesting post on Monday 16 June 2008 and link to permaculture dude’s energy descent/climate change scenarios….

Does anyone else get the feeling the general view on oil availability is shifting? Many have been saying that we will run out of oil, but the message has been dismissed as alarmist, quashed, or ignored. Suddenly the past 6 months, all of the issues some of us have been concerned about for years (suburbs with no adequate public transport, building houses on prime market garden land on the fringes of the city, reliance on the motor car, lack of rail infrastructure, etc etc) are gradually becoming regularly discussed in mainstream media and by politicians, without counterpoints from the oil industry saying "we have plenty of oil there is nothing to worry about".

Last night there was an interesting interview on the 7:30 Report (ABC) with Richard Heinberg.
http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s2280200.htm (hopefully transcript is posted, but you might have to just click on the podcast on the RHS of the screen and watch it). Basically, he says get used to petrol costing what it does now, a lot of restructuring of industry, and expenditure on non-car/truck transport infrastructure.
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/business/items/200806/s2280264.htm Also on Lateline Business last night, Virgin Blue chief discussing the implications for the airline industry.

Definitely time to invest in a bike.

Whirlwind of a month!

Things have progressed with the home purchase - there has been lots to do of course, including making sure all the finances were ready to go for 3.30pm TODAY when we settle (eeek! had a few hiccups, but we got there in the end), and making sure the utilities and moving logistics are all in place. It's funny - an acquaintance said "don't you feel more grown up now you're buying a home?". My answer would have to be a firm "no, not really". Finances are only one part of life, of course - a tool. Owning a house gives you some sort of stability in where you will live if that's important to you, so long as you aren't over-stretched on your mortgage (which we aren't). Wanting to stay in the same area has only become important to us in the past year or so, but we have also rented in the same area in a few different places since 2000. It's only now that the rents are going crazy that we decided to think about buying seriously.


E-chan is sensing something is up, of course. We've told him we are moving, and he's seen the new place a few times plus photos, and the boxes with stuff in them are gradually accumulating in the house. But I'm not sure how much of the concept of moving house he understands. And to add to this, we decided recently on an impromptu and short trip to Canberra to see Turner-to-Monet, catch up with friends, and pick up my folks who visited there on the way up to see us. First night in our lovely friend's house, E-chan wakes up at 11:00, cries loudly, and when I picked him up to hug and pat his back, he vomited all over me, himself, and the carpet! The Horreur! Shower, full outfit change, buckets of soapy water, screaming and washing machines running in the middle of the cold Canberra night! E-chan was Mr Popular in the morning. Luckily, our hosts (said they) didn't hear the screaming marathon as we were up the other end of the house. The rest of the trip was fine - lovely company, sunny days (with chilly nights), interesting art exhibition (but strangely cluttered - they could have put in half the number of paintings). The picture is of E-chan running around the reconciliation walk.


E-chan was spoilt for attention when we got back to Sydney. Along with Grandma and Grandad, his Uncle and Nanna came over for his 2nd birthday celebrations (this was the family party - we'll have a party in our new place in a month or so). He got some really cool presents, including a play tea set and some bits for his train set. I think family withdrawal symptoms set in the day after everyone left, and we had a repeat middle of night screaming session the following night.


On top of all this, I've had two days off with with gastro - I usually kick these things within 24 hours, but this went for 4 days. They were days when I am usually at work, so at least E-chan could go to day-care. I was absolutely exhausted, and my feet ached!

But ech! We're there now! I'm excited about moving this weekend! We haven't moved house in 5 1/2 years, which is amazing! Am so looking forward to having more space....

OMG!!!

You'll never guess who I just saw on Playschool!!

Alex Papps!

Henderson Kids bad boy spunk, now co-hosting Playschool! (I might add that Justine Clark is now also a regular on Playschool, has her own album and DVD which most kiddies love, and is also touring with gigs at the Enmore!! The songs are durn catchy, I must say...)

What is the world coming to?

"Thankyou for your pleasant time and manner"

... is how a real estate agent we've been dealing with lately has started off each of her emails. I giggled every time and was tempted to write back "You mean 'Thank you for your time and pleasant manner'?" or "what do you mean by writing 'thankyou for your pleasant time...' to MY husband?!'". I shouldn't make fun as she was actually quite nice, with no other signs of mental incapacity. But then, I'm sure real estate agents are much nicer to you when you're thinking of buying a place rather than the standard scum treatment you get when renting.

Anyway, the big news is that we've bought a home. Our very first. Well, about half of it. Apart from the occasional open inspection over the past few years plus many internet searches, this was the first place we looked at. Rationale for buying was that we want to move to a larger place some time in the next 3 months, but rents in our area are skyrocketing. We expected to have to move out a few suburbs, but we will be roughly in the same neighbourhood - yay! We didn't expect it to happen so soon, nor have our offer accepted, so the past week and a half has been busy with engaging solicitors, getting approval for finance, and fretting about whether or not our offers were realistic, too low, or too high.

In the end, we managed to settle a day before it was due to auction, at a price that is affordable for us. We are close to a couple of parks, and within 10-15 mins walk from 3 cafe strip/shopping areas and a major arterial road with lots of buses. We'll have quite a lot more space, including a spare bedroom for folks from interstate or overseas :) and a store room and good built-ins, and maybe room for the piano at Mum and Dad's house, which they don't play and want to send over! Room to store bicycles also! Hooray! Drawbacks are the legacy of a purple "feature wall" left by the current owners, a wierd ad-hoc bath, hard-to-keep-warm open plan living area, and view of some golden arches from one of our windows.

But anyway, how exciting! Looking forward to having more space - a room to get away by myself, keep the sewing machine out for a few days at a time, potter about the kitchen without waking the whole house up, and store away the clutter.

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Yummy steamed date pudding

3/4 cup chopped dates

1/2 cup sugar

4 Oz marg/butter

1 tspn cinnamon

1 cup milk/water (1/2 and 1/2 or all milk)

1 cup plain flour

1 tspn bicarb soda

Mix all dry ingredients and fruit together, then gradually add milk/water, melted marg and soda. Makes a fairly moist dough.

Pour into a greased 1L capacity pudding basin, cover with baking paper loosened with a pleat and cover with calico tied around the rim. Place into a saucepan of boiling water so that water comes 3/4 of the way up the basin. Close lid, and weigh it down with an up-side-down bowl. Steam for around 2 hours. Serve with custard or icecream.

Serves 8

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This is an oldy but goody from the Woman's Weekly cookbook via my Auntie. It was so moist that we ate it plain (ie no custard etc). We had a double helping first time!

I'm beginning to think old fashioned english food might suit my constitution best. Just about every node of my family tree searched back several centuries (by my Dad) is Anglo Saxon, besides one Tasmanian aboriginal ancestor. Plain old English food is what I'm adapted for, and what I don't seem to have any bad reactions against*. Food like this pudding makes me not mind so much!

* but sadly this won't stop me eating thai, chinese, turkish, italian, japanese, vietnamese, indian from time to time...

Eco patent commons

Thought I'd share this site with you - the Eco Patent Commons was set up on January 2008, and is hosted on the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) website.

Interesting idea - the rationale is to create a way for companies (or IP owners) to share patents for usage to enable energy efficient and environmentally sustainable processes to be adopted widely and quickly. Also, companies in similar industries can share and improve on each other's processes.

Why not publish the invention and make it public domain and free for all? I suppose this is a way of allowing the company to still exploit their monopoly on the IP for other uses or if it starts to have large commercial potential in the future, yet still get the environmentally friendly applications out there and used quickly.

The legal side of this is a bit difficult to understand in parts - especially the idea of when the non assert clause can be revoked should a company sue you for something else unrelated to the usage of the eco-patent. I would have thought an easier way of doing this would be to give a royalty free license to other companies to use the patent for the stated purpose only, but there may be legal implications to this I just don't understand. I assume this also is based on the Creative Commons, which I know even less about - maybe the Eco Patent Commons is based on some tried and tested legal systems used there.

Anyway, have a surf around the site to see examples of which patents have been pledged to the commons so far (31, mostly from IBM) - the Q&A section is quite good at clarifying some bits.

(explanation of previous post title...)

So it seems you can get chicken pox even if you are immunised. Had to ask the Dr if she was sure E-chan had them, as the tiny red dots didn't seem like the pox I had as a kid, but she was sure. And sure enough, more appeared over the next few days. If you are immunised, and are one of the 20-30% who still gets chicken pox, the virus could be mistaken for a cold with a cough, as the pox symptoms are much milder....

But regardless, a week at home in quarantine is required. This of course coincided with C's Nanna dying, which requires him to take tomorrow off. So I'm off work first half of the week, and E should be clear to go back to childcare on Friday. It's hard explaining to him when he'll see his little friends again. It's also a bit of a challenge coming up with ideas to entertain when it's rainy outside, and hanging out with other kid is verboten, given we're trying to do the responsible thing and not give the pox to others. Oh and of course it's raining this week.

Anyone - who's had chicken pox - keen to come over for take away and knitting (or whatever) session this Wednesday night? I'll be on my own until C gets back from funeral, at about 9:30.

Contagion and cabin-fever

Stimulating conversation at a play dinner party...

Me: would you like some dinner?
E: !(nods enthusiastically)
Me: here you go then... (ladles out imaginary food into bowl for each of us, and pretends to eat)
E: Hot?
Me: Yes it might be a bit. (Blows on food) That's better!
E: Hot?
Me: No, warm now. (Keeps pretending to eat)
E: Hot?
Me: no, not any more - are you going to have some?
E: !(nods enthusiastically, pretends to eat)
Me: (makes pouring noise and pretends to pour drink in tea cups)
E: (Copies, smiles) Mummy!

Mixed metaphor of the month

"Like pulling hen's teeth".

I came up with this one yesterday - perhaps not deliberately - but insist it is valid: it is for usage when a) something is rare as hen's teeth AND b) is as unpleasant as having to pull teeth.

Highlights and thoughts from the past week

Hope the boring title hasn't put you off already. It really was the best I could come up with. Work is ticking along OK, life is manageable, E-chan is scarily approaching his 2nd birthday, sleeping beautifully and alternating weeks where he eats like a horse and picks like a sparrow. Right now he is practicing blowing his nose (I just had to confiscate the tissues for fear of the whole box being emptied)!

• Had a few days of angst, where I worried that I was insignificant to everyone except to my immediate family. But a beautifully social weekend cured me of that – chats with family, swimming with a friend, visiting a mum-friend who I never see because she works on days I don’t and vice-versa and seeing her little 22-month girl dazzle with special little dance routines and an amazing grasp of the alphabet, and a friend who I thought had dropped me from her xmas card list found me and “befriended” me on Facebook.
• BABYSITTING, people! We’ve seen the light! Had our first evening out together, going out to dinner with friends, while a work colleague of C-chan’s baby sat E-chan. E-chan didn’t wake up and was fine with someone else being there. Dinner was fun, and entrée and dessert were lovely.
• I had a video cam session with my nephew (and my brother and the rest of his family), where he wanted to talk trains with E-chan, but unfortunately he was napping, so I talked planes, trains and helicopters instead. After we had “hung up”, he rang me back on his own for no particular reason than to tell me that he was being cheeky!
• Finished sewing something! (a quilt cover for E-chan)
• The above was accomplished on a day I had all by myself when my boys went on a journey to visit C-chan’s Nanna, who is very sick. She had never met E-chan, and he is her only great-grandchild, so we thought it was time they went to visit. E-chan was a model child by all accounts – he greeted his great-grandparents by calling them “nanna” and “poppa” (without coaching), was friendly after a short period of shyness, and blew kisses goodbye. We are so proud of him – he seems to be a thoughtful child, who has some level of intuitiveness, as we certainly aren’t able to instruct his behaviour very much yet due to communication constraints. Apparently his grand-Nanna and grand-Poppa were happier than they have been seen in ages.
• While at the child care centre yesterday, I heard a father telling a story about how his youngest child calls his older brother “weetbix”.... (!)
• Discovered that “reasons you will hate me” is actually written by Marieke Hardy, whose book reviews I love to hear on First Tuesday Book Club
• Have gone for a lunch time swim two weeks in a row! Feeling very virtuous!
• And a final parting thought - it really has been too long since we’ve seen David Tennant on the television… must be months?

New job starts with no hitches...

...apart from some of the usual administrative work & behind the scenes signing of forms lagging behind my actual new job commencement date.

So far so good. I even organised a meeting - set agenda and all that other related stuff - for my second day on the job. It feels more challenging in more of the right ways than my last job, without the menial tasks I used to have to do, but not so "in the deep end" with a far-too-broad-job-description challenging as per a job I once did. Most of the challenges I actually know how to go about, I just need to work out the whos, whens and whys. The boffins I work with seem to work on interesting stuff, so it should keep me stimulated.

Some good points:
- my new office is closer to that of some of my friends
- increase in incidental exercise due to increased number of flights of stairs I have to climb several times daily
- closer to a pub
- closer to E-chan's day care
- closer to gym and pool (handy for lunch time swims and pre-work gym sessions)
- only share office with one other person
- exposure to cutting edge research
- view from desk includes ferny rock garden and can also see sky

Some bad points:
- increased number of flights of stairs I have to climb several times daily (4 flights to get to lunch and coffee room!)
- office near a workshop with engine noises and oily smells
- moderate spider population in my office (but have only seen Daddy Long Legs so far)
- old brown carpet on floor
- nearest green space is being landscaped and will take probably 6 months to be finished
- evil vending machine nearby with double mini toblerone packets selling for only $2.20...