30 January - Fun at the Shops

A quick trip to Westfield this afternoon to have a look at a couple of things, and Grace loved it.

She spent ages in the fake flowers, and then literally ran squealing when she saw the Peppa Pig car.

28 January - Clean Up part II

The clean up continues.

We are now living in two bedrooms as we have the fans still running to dry out the floors.

My poor melamine wardrobe, built not that long ago, thankfully came apart very quickly, and I've managed to salvage nearly all of the wood.

29 January - Back to Work

First day back at work after an 'eventful' 5 day weekend.

Nothing interesting at work, but it's nice to get home to Grace wanting to cuddle and take photos together because I haven't been there all day.

27 January - Clean Up

After the storm and minor flooding we suffered last night, today was spent rearranging furniture and rooms so we can live without Graces bedroom, our walk in robe, or half our bedroom, as the carpets are now lifted, underlay removed and industrial dryers running to dry everything out.

And tonight I finally ventured out to examine the backyard.

26 January - An Australia Day to Remember

Australia Day, means celebrations all over Canberra, and for us that meant the morning celebrations of Peppa Pig live on stage.

Grace was pretty impressed to see Peppa, but I think she was far more impressed with the reptile display there where she got to pat lizards, turtles and a snake!

She was also pretty fond of her hat.

And then tonight I finally got the swimming pool I have been wanting! We had a massive thunderstorm that caused some instant flooding through our yard. I went to check on the cats in the laundry to discover the entire side path under a few inches of water and to then notice the carpet in Graces bedroom ess wet! Eeek!

Which led to quite a bit of digging and barricade making in the rain to stop any further flooding.

Poor Grace had to stay up while we emptied her wet bedroom and made her cot up in a different room.  She almost made it, but eventually passed out on the couch.

24 January - Mello Yello

And to follow on from yesterday's theme, I also saw a carton of cans of Mello Yello.

God I used to love Mello Yello when I was younger...and yes, again, I'm talking a LOT younger.

It was almost as delicious as TAB Cola was.

25 January - How To Test an Iron

Tonight when turning the iron on, it just didn't heat up. Or at least Leah told me it wasn't heating.

So, trusting Leahs judgement, I checked.

Happy to say I don't have an iron shaped blister on my cheek.

Quick, late night trip to Kmart and problem solved!

23 January- Who Needs Redbull?

Seriously, who needs Redbull? It doesn't taste good, and all it does its gives you wings.
I don't want wings, I just want a delicious taste, and maybe some extra energy.

I used to drink Lucozade all the time when I was younger. Back in the days when you could buy it at the local takeaway with your $1 chips and 6 dim sims for $2...Ok, so I'm talking when I was a LOT younger.

But still today, Lucozade is delicious, refreshing and maybe gives me a little more energy?

Mind you, any energy you gain gets lost before you even start drinking since the lids are always so damn tight!

22 January - Moon

Since my new interest in space and the International Space Station, and after seeing a blog last night that had a photo of the ISS, I decided to learn how to use our DSLR properly to get some decent photos using a tripod.

That was a dismal fail, as I was still sitting outside in the middle of the lawn trying to work out how to use the camera, when I looked up and saw the ISS. Unfortunately, one of the clearer and brighter passes too!

But I did eventually learn how to take night photos, and by using the camera in full manual mode and adjusting all the settings myself, I was able to get a pretty decent shot of the moon, without even needing the tripod!!

I even managed to get a little of the color in it, and love how you can actually see some of the craters.

Can't wait for the next full moon.

21 January - Solo Shopping

Solo shopping tonight in two ways:

1) Leah and Grace are in Hobart, so I'm on my own; and

2) Everybody left in Queanbeyan appears to be at home watching the tennis (at least I had the common sense to watch Serena dominate a little blond grunty Russian before I went to the shops), since Kmart was completely empty tonight

And I mean COMPLETELY empty. Apart from staff I was literally the only person in the store.

I have to say, it felt a little strange.

20 January - Steak & Veg

Tonight I was craving steak with pepper sauce.

I considered going to the Leagues Club...but couldn't be bothered.

I considered steak from the Central Cafe...but couldn't bring myself to pay so much.

So instead I went to Woolworths, bought a steak, some fresh microwave steam veggies, and a packet of microwave pepper sauce.

Who would have thought that a steak on the bbq, and some microwave veggies could be so delicious. But they were. And a packet pepper sauce? Awesome.

And it only cost me about $13.  I even got some fresh chocolate eclairs for dessert for the price.

Nice.

19 January - SCAR

This morning I took Baxter to one of the many off lead areas for dogs, called the SCAR. I'm sure that's some snazzy acronym that a boffin hired by the council came up with.

Super Cool Activity & Recreation?
Snazzy Cutout Above Road?
Some Council Acres Ruined?
Some Canine Animals Restricted (that was a good one eh?)
Stupid C_nts 'Av Rottweilers (there were two this morning running wild, while their owners ignored them harassing the other dogs)

...anyway, I digress...

Baxter loved running around there, and I was impressed to see they had tunnels and jumps for the dogs, as well as drink containers and water.

Baxter was so impressed, he kept whining at the garage door until I took him again this afternoon!

18 January - Cloudy, with a chance of Heatstroke

Hottest day in Canberras history today, peaking at 42 this afternoon. But it was also windy, so felt like 52 I think. It was still 38 after 8pm.

I took a photo of the clouds because I thought they looked really cool, but unfortunately, in the pic they look a little bit shit.

Oh well, I tried being artistic. Tomorrow, normal, boring photo service will resume.

17 January - In The Air

So I'm a geek. I admit it. And I always have been a geek. Especially when it comes to space. It always intrigued me as a kid, but I haven't really thought too much about it as an adult...until now.

Recently I started following Commander Chris Hadfield on Twitter, who is the current Commander on the International Space Station.

To be honest, I knew there was a space station, but I did not realise it was permanently manned, nor how unbelievably awesome it is.

Commander Hadfield constantly posts the most amazing photos and videos of earth from space, plus videos of everything on-board the space station.

I have to say, I wish I were an astronaut. It's just so cool.

It's geeked me up so much that I have installed the ISS android app to track the location of the space station, and it even gives me a map, alarms to alert me of when I can see the ISS at night, and more.

Thanks to my app I saw the ISS last night for about a minute, and tonight it's scheduled for about two minutes. And I'm excited again.

Before that I'm watching a 50 minute video of a guided tour of the ISS on YouTube. It's amazing!

But closer to earth I love planes as well. And one thing I do love about Canberra is the number of aircraft that I see on a daily basis.

These two were taken in the space of less than 5 minutes from the road. I love how close they are to the roads as they come in to land.

Yep, I truly am a geek.

16 January - Mawson Club

Dinner at the Mawson club tonight, to try out their $10 schnitzel night.

The snitty itself was ok, veg and chips were delicious. But without a doubt the best part of the Mawson club is the kids playground just off the side of the dining area.

Grace and Maddie just love it there. Tonight was pretty crazy with a LOT of kids there, but everything still went ok, no serious injuries sustained.

15 January - Fascinated

Imagine my surprise when I saw Grace after work today, and she was wearing this on her head!

She told me she had a birdy on her head, and judging from the photos Leah had taken throughout the day, Grace was definitely not planning on removing it.

It just looked so huge on her little head.

14 January - Addicted

My name is Simon, and I'm an addict.

They say admitting you have a problem is the hardest part. I disagree. I freely admit to my addiction.

Since I discovered Raspberry yoghurt, no other flavor will suffice.

I'm not sure I'm addicted enough to do the wrong thing to get it though.

I wouldn't break into someone's house, steal their iPad, sell it to a dodgy guy I met at the pub for a tenner (so I could buy 2 six packs) and then go into a downward spiral of theft and depression - lose my wife, my kid, my job and anything else that means anything to me...

But I would consider it.

Oh, and I made 61 origami hearts today as well (no it's not addiction therapy).

13 January - Other People's misfortune

We were in Civic today, and when we got back to our car, we noticed this very tidy Ford Territory parked beside us.

Well it was tidy apart from the newly trashed front where they had driven into the railing at the front of the car parking space.

I do feel a little mean blogging about someone else's misfortune, but I was actually amazed at how they must have known they hit and damaged their car, but didn't bother to move it back.

12 January - Preparing for the worst

Very sad day for us. Though not unexpected, it didn't feel nice to get the call when it came.

Aside from the inevitable, Grace and I painted our toenails, and I thought the sun looked pretty cool tonight when I went to Kmart, which was closed anyway, despite the website saying they were open until midnight. Bastards.

11 January - Golf Club or Roos Club

Tonight we had dinner at the golf club, though you could be forgiven if you thought we were at the roos club!

Food was ok, but the kids had a good time running around looking at the wildlife, and playing outside at Claire and Matthews place afterwards, since they live basically in the middle of the course.

10 January - Author? Not Quite

Lately with book reading, and talk of Kindles and ebook readers, I was reminded of the two books I had completed and published back in 2007.

Seems so long ago now, I had forgotten half of the short stories completely.

And looking on my computer, I realised I have written another 15 or more stories than were published back then.

Maybe it's time for "Ten Minutes More" a volume 2 of the short stories....

9 January - Minty

I love the post Christmas sales for two reasons:

1 - It means Christmas is over
2 - You can get some real bargains...although admittedly, it's usually all just Christmas shit that I don't want anyway.

But this year we did find some amazing Mints in a tin for a bargain basement price of $4.

So it seems, just a little over 4 months after it started, Christmas has given me something to be thankful for.

8 January - Wild Weather

37 again today, with wild wind all day and then some storm clouds in the afternoon. It was the highest fire danger throughout NSW in history apparently, and spot fires were popping up all over Canberra and Queanbeyan.

Combined with the huge fire near the NSW coast, and the devastating fires that are still raging throughout Tasmania, it really does make you wonder what the hell is going on these days.

Maybe the Mayans were right, and just had their dates a bit out. Maybe they didn't account for the 1 extra day every 4th year, since leap years weren't invented back then.

Either way, this wild weather isn't nice, and I hope it all ends soon with everybody safe and well.

7 January - Cat Caged

While cleaning up outside in the cattery tonight, Grace decided she must come and help. Except her idea of help was to climb inside the cats cages and hide from us.

Strange child.

6 January - Princess in a Digger

Grace has started to take an interest in princesses, fairies and ballerinas, which results in her, most days, wearing some kind of frilly dress.

So today when she was already dressed in all the gear to go to the shops, and then saw a crown at Target, it was clear she was going to be a princess.

Of course, a frilly dress and crown doesn't stop her wanting a ride on the Bob the Builder Digger at the Plaza.

5 January - For Christmas we Decided....

For Christmas we decided to buy Grace a Balance Bike...

But every time we took her to a bike shop to look at them she would refuse to try any, say she didn't like them, and proceed to look at scooters instead.

So...

For Christmas, we decided to buy Grace a Scooter.

But then, after Christmas (and the aforementioned scooter Grace got) we saw this wooden balance Bike for sale online and it was too cheap to pass on.

So today Grace and I assembled it, and to my surprise, she actually got on and wanted to ride it.

Will be interesting to see if that ever happens again!

4 January - Two Confessions

Ok, so I have two confessions to make...

1 - These photos are actually from yesterday
2 - I know Christmas is over (yay!)

During the entire 4 month Christmas season (don't argue with me, you know it's true. Christmas crap started to appear in September) we just couldn't get Grace to happily wear a Santa hat.

Apparently, that's because we never tried a pink Disney princess one. Yesterday she found one at the shop, put it on herself, wore it around for a while, and then screamed all the way home when she didn't have it (which incidentally was NOT our fault - she put it back on the shelf before we went through the checkout and told us she didn't want it).

So I'm putting it down to either:

1 - Grace really loves pink hats

Or

2 - Grace is just grinchy and funny enough to not want Christmas crap when it happens, but to then make fun of it once it's finally over...

Either way, I guess she is a lot like me  ;-)

3 January - Freebies

Anyone that knows me knows that I love free stuff. It doesn't matter if it's useful to me, worth much, or decent quality.

If it's free, I'm happy.

So imagine how happy I was to return to work and find two freebies on my desk.

Admittedly, the Qnap USB drive I won on Facebook and knew was coming, but the NIWA (that's the New Zealand Institute for Water and the Atmosphere) calendar was a true surprise.

As I said, not that useful, not worth much, but gosh I am impressed.

2 January - Wot Wot Wot

Thanks to Cass buying Grace the awesome Wot Wot play dough set, Grace entertains herself with play dough now, which is brilliant.

I was pretty impressed to see how well she did making some characters with it by herself today!

1 January - Here we go Again

Well, here it is.

Another year, another blog.

Hopefully this year, I can be a little more interesting than the drivel I spouted in 2012!

First day back in Canberra after a Tassie break, and we had to do the shopping.

Grace seemed pretty happy to be back at Kmart though.