2010 Wrap Up

In less than an hour we'll be saying goodbye 2010. I'm not going to write much as we just returned from a trip down to Melbourne.

It's been a strange year. A lot has happened and very little. In February we moved out of our old house and into the new. I'm still less than happy at the new place, though ask anyone else and they'll tell you that it's a wonderful house. I did enjoy floating around the pool this evening.

Alex started childcare.He seems to like it, though he also develops faster when on holidays with us. He has to travel in the train with us for over three hours a day and my daily commute is now up to five hours. Unfortunately, he still doesn't sleep through the night most nights. In other ways, especially language, he has shot ahead.

Talking about holidays (see Travelling Allrite) we had three major trips: Shanghai, Hong Kong and Japan in June, Singapore in October and Melbourne this past week.

Technology wise, I'm still waiting for the solar panels to be successfully connected to the grid. I also joined the ranks of smart phone users with an HTC Desire Android phone. It proved very useful on our recent trip.

What will 2011 bring? I don't know yet because life has been too busy to stop and consider the future.

Here's hoping for a peaceful (ie quiet) start to the new year.

Christmas 2010

Christmas is almost over for another year. Exhausting! Alex threw up in the middle of last night then took two hours to return to sleep, but seemed okay this morning and actually slept in. Relatives-in-law descended upon the house so there was almost no quiet time, but at least Alex, Kita and I got a swim in the pool.

Continuing with the Doctor Who theme I set the various recorders to copy Doctor Who at the Proms and the Christmas Special, both on ABC1 tomorrow. Woohoo!

I can't wait to read my Christmas present "Amberjack" by my favourite author, Terry Dowling. It's a signed copy, too!

Off to Melbourne to show Alex my city of birth.

Train 'em up young

Everybody has a right to be an individual. Does the world really need another me? Probably not! But I can't help but want to share some of the twisted way that I grew up with my son. Think it as a way of connecting. And it looks like I am succeeding via the medium of music and television.

To ensure that Alex could share some of the experiences that I did when I was young I purchased a number of DVD's for our collection. The boxed set of all Monkey episodes and a number of Goodies episodes (and they are currently screening the series on ABC TV!).

So far the Monkey has mostly stayed in its box, but the Goodies has already had an effect. Alex sings out "Goodies! Goody goody yum yum!" and asks to watch them. I even taught him about lighthouses and rockets using a couple of episodes.

Occasionally Alex will also see a bit of the Thunderbirds on Saturday mornings. I used to set my alarm to wake up to watch them when I was a wittle boy.

This Wednesday I had another success. After playing the four CDs that comprise the Series 4 Specials and Series 5 soundtracks, then screening half of the first episode of Series 5 Alex suddenly started asking about "Doctor Who".

I may have to rearrange the couch so that he can hide behind it.

A desire to post

Sorry for the lack of updates. There has been much to write about but little time to do so. Most of the action bar been over at travelling allrite and on Twitter.

Anyway, maybe that will change now that I have joined the ranks of smartphone users thanks to my new HTC Desire Android mobile phone.

I decided that I really needed a better device to allow me to access the web while on the move. The Sony Ericsson w705's browser just couldn't cope with things like work's webmail. Pity, because it was otherwise a great phone.

Pity that typing on a virtual keyboard is so error ridden in comparison to a physical pad. Next time I'll be looking for one with a keyboard, having had quite a lot of experience typing with small keys.

The future of Star Wars

Let me gaze into my crystal ball to the year 2020...

Marking the 100 year anniversary of Charlie Chaplin's silent movie, The Tramp, 2015 has seen a digitally remastered re-release of the movie in cinemas. With its new soundtrack recorded by a popular, but talentless, teen group the film is a critical and commercial success among an audience jaded by poor 3D movies.

Seeking to replicate The Tramp's success between 2016 and 2020 George Lucas rereleases all six Star Wars movies without dialogue and with the characters restored to their original colours (they were all turned blue for the Avatar inspired 3D rerelease a few years previously). Critics have rated the silent rerelease the best yet.

"Jar Jar Binks is actually watchable and Yoda is intelligible," says one critic, "but I missed R2-D2's beeps".

Swims, sizzles and slides

Had a fantastic day yesterday. For the second time Alex swam by himself. Initially he was too scared to swim, but gently pointing his bum downwards in the water with a couple of fingers set him off kicking and splashing his arms. Then, when the instructor brought out the foam mat and bent it to become a "tunnel" Alex couldn't wait to go through, and did so all by himself. 

Sizzler might seem a bit of a daggy place to eat now, but B and I have happy memories of it from our uni days. After Alex slept off his morning exertions we drove to the Sizzler in Kogarah for lunch. It was so much fun! Alex had a blast feeding himself lots of different foods brought back from the salad bar and even managed to poach a few Smarties from our bowls of dessert. For once a restaurant meal wasn't all about chopping up our own dishes and feeding him at his pace. Instead we could give him his own bowl of suitable stuff and enjoy our own meals. 

It was a beautiful warm sunny day outside, so we continued on to Kyeemagh and let Alex loose on a playground while I caught glimpses the aircraft take off across Botany Bay. He had great fun on the swings, slides and tunnels, while reading the numbers off a clock display in the playground.

More fun today when we brought Alex and Kita to Miranda Park and let them run on the greens. It's so nice to watch KIta run, while Alex had a huge grin on his face.

Off to Canberra for a Communicators meeting tomorrow. I'll be missing Alex and B and no doubt be left with a big headache at the end of the day.

Father's day 2010

Alex actually slept in the cot throughout last night, despite the ferocious winds outside. Then, when he woke up early this morning I carried him to our bed where he promptly slept again until 8am. What a magnificent father's day gift!

I can't believe that he is already reading numbers now. He is really so much fun to be with, such a lovely, fun personality, despite him trying to rip my face off when I wouldn't let him down on the bird poo covered walkway  to chase seagulls and jump into Darling Harbour today.