Second day at the Zoo since we arranged to book the "meet the giant tortoise" experience this morning.
We didn't plan to spend long there, but again enjoyed the Zoo and were there for quite a while.
The Tortoise was pretty cool though, and Grace enjoyed it.
Of course, Grace also had not forgotten about the face painting Lady, so we went back as she wanted a butterfly today.
After the Zoo we went to the Queen Vic markets, and walked down through the city to Myer, where Grace made a friend. The two girls spent about 30 minutes together, having a picnic on the floor of the toy department with all the Unicorns, ladybugs and just about any other stuffed toy that could be found.
And genuine Nasi Goreng for dinner, including the satay chicken skewers, and egg on top. All delivered straight to my bed. I love room service.
Huge day out at the zoo today.
We all had a great day, without doubt the best zoo I have been too, with great exhibits that as you can see got you VERY close to the animals.
Plenty for small kids too, such as Grace's awesome face painting that, believe it or not, only took the very talented lady about 3 minutes to do... or the incredibly stressful meerkat tunnels that Grace climbed/crawled into, and then had a choice of exits, none of which were where Leah was waiting for her!
And the giant tortoise shell for kids to climb in, that Grace even wanted to sleep in!
All up an excellent day, topped by an hour in the hotel pool before dinner...
So good in fact, we are going back tomorrow to meet the real giant tortoises, and Grace wants butterfly face paint this time.
I know it's only Melbourne, but I have never stayed here before, so I have really been looking forward to our Easter Holiday here.
A nice box of Lindt Easter Eggs in our room and I was impressed. Yep, I'm easily pleased.
Unlike my daughter, who as you can see was exiting every ride at the amusement arcade before I could get a photo, as she was never pleased apparently!!!!
She was very excited that we could see the aquarium from our room at the Casino though.
I'm afraid I not only have not taken a photo today, but I can't even think of anything to use to bluff my way through a blog.
So that's it. Nuffin from me today, just nuffin.
Tonight I think it's really time I cut my hair again.
I always leave it far too long, until it's thick and looks terrible (well worse than usual) and after I cut it I always say "it looks and feels so much better, I should cut it more often"...
Yep, every time without fail.
And I don't think I can get away with a traditional comb over, do you?
Last week I upgraded my phone firmware again to the latest and greatest Jellybean, without the Samsung add on software.
It does have a couple of bugs, but generally is faster and better.
One of the coolest features is the new camera with 'Photosphere'. This is essentially a panorama mode that takes a full 360° view and can then be viewed online or on the phone the same way as Google Street View. In fact, you can upload your Photospheres to Google maps so they appear in street view if you feel that way inclined... Which I don't.
Instead I uploaded to a photosphere website for viewing.
I used to use a great app to do similar things, but lately it doesn't work so well, and certainly doesn't stitch images as neatly.
This is my first Photosphere, along with a link to view it properly online. The only thing that didn't join properly was Leah's shoulder, because she was close to me. Cool to have two of the same guy in green as he was walking too!!!
An impromptu trip to the Snowy-Hydro Helicopter Open Day where we got to pay gold coin donations for all kinds of things that normally are free, plus no face painting for under 3's! But aside from ripping us off, the helicopters were pretty cool.
The rest of the photos are from Grace using the front camera on my phone.
She is such a poser when she sees herself in the camera, always pulling stupid faces.
Nothing like her dad at all... ;)
Grace got some glow in the dark skeleton pyjamas yesterday, and was pretty keen to try them on today.
So some time was spent in the walk in robe lighting up both her new pyjamas, and her glow in the dark Pteranodon Dinosaurs, Tiny, Shiny and Don.
Then this afternoon it seemed such a nice evening that we took Grace and Baxter to the park (still in the glow pyjamas of course) where were met Nathan and Maddie.
Well, not quite purple hair, but Grace loves thinking she has colored hair.
Leah bought a pack of multi color clip in thingys today, so Grace had to have the purple one in.
Trouble is, she doesn't always seem to trust us when we do things, and asked for photo evidence that it really was in her hair!
Tonight was my first proper exercise in a few years, now that we have our new treadmill and bike setup.
All I can say is WOW, I'm unfit....
Leah took this after only 30 minutes of jogging and walking (mostly walking if I'm honest). :)
Tonight we were particularly thirsty, and since we had not been shopping recently, this was the best option for something different to drink.....
I got our new iPad connected exercise bike out of the box tonight to discover it had cracked plastic covers...Grrrrr.
So time for yet another call to Fit zone to get it sorted.
I swear they must be sick of me by now.
Today, through the wonder of modern technology, I apparently became a stalker.
I was meeting Leah at the Zoo after work, but wasn't positive she and Grace were still there, so I checked her last known location from the GPS stamp on her message from about 10 minutes prior. I then used my Google Navigation to direct me there, just to see how well it worked.
I was impressed with how well it worked, and found it highly amusing that it was guiding me directly to Leah Morgan as my destination. Especially when it told me that "in 100 meters, turn left and you have reached Leah Morgan"
But when I showed Leah the screenshots, she was more of the feeling that it was just a little bit stalkery...
A bad night sleep for everyone meant a pretty quiet day at home today.
So quiet in fact, that at about 9pm Leah realised I was still only wearing the boxers and t shirt put on when I got out of bed! You know it's been a good Sunday when at bedtime you are still in your PJ's from the night before!
All Grace wanted to do was lay around and play, and she really wanted me to take a photo of her new Dancing Octopus Littlest Pet Shop.
Another Vanity Unit installed this morning, this time the main bathroom one.
I have to admit, I have been somewhat fortunate that the pipes have lined up absolutely perfectly with both vanities, despite me moving each of them a little from the original location of the old ones.
Its like the house was built for these new ones. Or not. That would be weird. Either way, I'm glad things lined up, and I'm really happy with the new vanities in both rooms. They are so much better than the ugly old ones we replaced.
We bought Grace a tube full of tiny puppies tonight while we were at the shops.
It did mean getting her to eat some dinner was difficult, as all she wanted to do was play with the puppies. She even had to use the straw for our drink as a bridge.
Tonight after dinner we had a quick look at Target, where as soon as she saw some other kids trying out the car seats, Grace had to sit in one, and then asked us to take her photo.
The only time we get a smile on camera is when Grace asks for her photo to be taken, it's just a shame it's such a silly, cheesy smile.
A new firmware update for my phone today, and I bit the bullet and went with the Non Samsung version.
I'm so impressed with it. Without the Samsung garbage on it, my phone is faster, smoother, battery is even better, camera works faster and has better settings, email is awesome, messaging is brilliant, and overall the while phone is just..... Well, better.
Leah has a thing about throwing out boxes. Her family mock her and joke about it. Regularly. I personally don't because, while I probably wouldn't keep them all myself, it has admittedly been handy sometimes when we have had to return things and still have the packaging.
Anyway, today Leah had a clean out and actually got rid of quite a few boxes that have been cluttering our cupboards for some time now.
It was quite a historical moment, and well worthy of a photo. I am very impressed.
On one trip to kmart some time ago, I swear I took a photo of a barcode and scanned the photo on my phone at a price check.
So much easier than carrying an item that you probably won't buy anyway. Except that it doesn't work....
I really thought I did it one time, but I guess I must have been dreaming...
A long day today as we drove to Sydney for a day trip to the aquarium, where we met the Merrys.
Considering everything you hear about Sydney traffic, I very impressed that we were able to drive straight through the CBD to find a carpark with cheap rates, within a 100m walk of Circular Quay. It certainly made the day trip easier.
The aquarium was not bad, though not nearly as good as I was expecting to be honest.
A quick monorail ride to Paddy's Market saw us deep in the middle of dodgy looking market stalls, selling all manner of dodgy looking crap.
Unfortunately, after 1 Aisle, it seemed to repeat over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. So we decided to head back to the car and the drive home.
We really should visit Sydney more often. It's such an easy drive that even a day trip is easy and fun.
A trip out this morning to buy our new home exercise stuff from Harvey Norman, and what a bargain. 20% off fitness equipment meant huge savings for us.
Grace loves checking out the couches and beds at the shops, so as a treat we also took her to Fantastic Furniture where she checked out all the bunk beds.
Then this afternoon I installed a new vanity unit in our ensuite, which went very smoothly, apart from needing a bit of extra plumbing pipe for the drain.
The new vanity looks awesome, I'm very impressed with it.
Funniest movie I have seen in a while... Hit and Run.
It seemed like it would be an ok comedy with a couple of ok actors in it, but boy was I wrong.
Tom Arnold as the Federal Marshall was hilarious, as was most of the rest of the movie.
And yes, I'm blogging it because it was the highlight of an otherwise very uneventful day.
MORNING
It's getting to Balloon festival time again, so I'm starting to see a few floating about each morning again. I couldn't imagine ever putting myself in a situation where the only thing stopping me from plummeting to the ground is a wicker basket and a tattooed man with a naked flame, but even so, I do find them pretty cool.
NOON
At lunchtime, Grace took a real liking to a hanging chair today at Homeart. She honestly didn't want to get back out and just kept asking to spin around.
NIGHT
Dinner at the Leagues Club minus the Merrys again tonight. Seems they have found a better date for Thursday nights these days!
Dinner was delicious as always, and with the last weeks of the warm evening weather, it's always a good chance to have a play before it ends, along with daylight savings.
While waiting for the bath to fill up tonight, Grace decided to show me how she plays the recorder and sings.
With her punk stripey hair, and the obvious closed eyes emotion she was putting into her performance, I think she may have some real musical talent.
She will have to work on improving the strained faces if she wants to make it big though. Nobody wants to see someone just sing without looking funny...
After living here just a little over 4 years, and having had our Woolworths Rewards Membership for nearly all of that time, I finally managed to get around to contacting Woolworths to get an additional card.
Today it arrived, and made me wonder why on earth I haven't done it sooner.
All those lost points from my purchases without a card....
An evening trip up to Masters hardware today to purchase two new vanity units.
I was a little surprised that they pack the units complete in a huge box, rather than a flat pack.
Took a while to arrange the 4 boxes in the ute so I could drive home considering how huge they are, but at least they made it in one piece.
Now for the fun part..... Installation.
This morning Grace and I went down to the riverside to feed the ducks. Which also meant searching for 'treasure' in the sand. Though exactly what sort if treasure we expect to find there I'm not sure.
And of course we had to take 'turtle' with us to have a drink in the water, and to play the mushroom drum.
Then this afternoon we had a look at Harvey Norman after an awesome lunch at the Mawson club.
Grace was keen on the iPad mini, though it looks like this game required some thought.
I just need to get her converted to Android now.
Maccas for brekky and what a show I got in drive thru.
The car in front was yelling abuse at the staff in the window, something about "every f@#king time we f@#king come here she gets said f@#king juice".....I admit I probably didn't quite recall the conversation quote for quote, as I'm sure there were at least a few more f@#kings in there!
I'm really not sure what the issue was, nor why I decided to start filming video on my phone... But I did.
And boy didn't it get interesting as the car started driving away, when a young guy jumped out of the back door to continue having a go. At which point Maccas closed the windows and called the police.
Certainly an interesting way to start the day.
Well it seems my self service trip to Bunnings last week didn't go as well as I had thought.
Tonight when attempting to finish the wardrobe, I discovered that I accidentally forgot to buy some of the most important parts.... The pre drilled uprights.
Ooooops. But I did but enough non pre drilled melamine to do the shelves, which is what I actually thought I had forgotten to get.
But, you cannot hang a shelf without the uprights....
Ooooops.
The biggest problem with technology has to be wanting the latest, most feature packed and awesome smartphone available.
Which I admit doesn't seem like a real problem until you realise that the best manufacturers of smart phones such as HTC and of course Samsung, release a new awesome model about every twelve months...which just doesn't fit in to the 24 month contracts that Telstra lock you in to.
Which means I may have the best smartphone of 2012, but once they release the new Galaxy S4 in two weeks, mine will feel old, outdated and downright useless in comparison... And it will stay that way for quite some time thanks to Telstra and their stupid plans.
