Ya big ol' 30

I'm gettin on a bit...
Well, I hit the big THREE-OH this month, and I guess I'm feeling things slip away a little. Though there's a lot I wanna do before I hit something like FIVE-OH, I can't say that life so far has been at all boring.

My birthday was a regular work day, but it all turned out much more special than I'd hoped.

I was first out of bed, cos being a Monday, I was the only one that had to be somewhere. School holidays had started and Nene and Clayton have every Monday off. So I got myself ready and Eli was the first one up. He was very cuddly and made me feel like a special dad.

Later when I was ready to goto work, I went into my bedroom and the kids and Nene gave me presents. Now that I'm 30, practical gifts are much more enjoyable, so I wasn't disappointed when I got a pair of good quality safety glasses.

But a man of 30 also needs leisure time, and lately I've been doing a lot more reading that I have for the past 15 years. Janene bought me the Narnia Chronicles in a boxed book set (seven books). I had already read the first two, and now that I have my new set, I find it easier to hold a thin book, rather than the billion page all-in-one Chronicle that I borrowed from Cpt. Neroli. Now I'm half way through book 3 (The Boy and His Horse).

The last present I got before heading to work was another practical book from Janene, which speaks to the Dad side of me. This book is entitled "Preparing Your Son for Every Man's Battle". Now, for all us blokes, we know what "every man's battle" is... right?

Eli followed me around everywhere that morning, and as I jumped in the car, he opened the gate for me. As I was about to drive off, he signaled for me to stop. I wound down my window, and with a smirk and in a grown up manner he said "Ya big ol' 30!". He smiled at me like a dad proud of a son, and waved me off to work.

So anyway, my day at work was equally warming. I honestly thought I'd get an unimaginative $2.50 mud cake from Woolies - assuming anyone remembered. Well good old Donna, the mother of the office, surprised me alright. She made a donut mountain -- literally... It was 44 iced and cinamon donuts, complete with icing sugar mortar, built into a huge mountain probably a foot high.

Needless to say, by lunch time I wasn't even tempted to use my FREE LARGE TAKEAWAY at Jimmy's kitchen! Yeah... cool present from the Panscott mob :D I used it the following day.

And lastly, to remind me what friends are, Lynton displayed his mateship by giving me a $40 voucher at Mitre 10. I'm carefully writing a list of items to spend it on.

So... with the help of loved ones and good friends/workmates, I eased out of my 20s and into my 30s focusing on things more important than age.

Online traineeship!

FINALLY, a positive outcome to my months of email-sending all over the earth.

On Monday morning I opened up my email to find a reply to an earlier email I sent out. It came from Johnny Paul's instrument repair shop, and it was his wife (Jeanan), basically offering to teach me everything they know via email, pictures etc.

This is excellent news and I'm really happy :D

So far, we've already exchanged two lengthy emails regarding what I'll need to get started and what kind of things are best to start working on.

Because I have the tools needed, Jeanan Paul (the wife of the guy) is going to have me learn how to soft solder with 60/40 solder. I've got a little checklist of extra tools and stuff I need to outfit my workshop to the point where I can start doin some real work.

Jeanan also suggests I get a stack of old clarinets to start practicing on. I'll have to keep my eye out for some on ebay.

Well, I'm keeping a folder of all her instructions, so I can quickly reference them later. And now, it's time to start cleaning up my workshop!

Three down!

Yesterday both Janene, Eli and I both ended up at home with a stomach bug. It started Monday night with Eli throwing up all night, and then both Nene and I feeling rather crap early in the morning.

By the afternoon we were mostly OK, but still way tired from being up all night.

Sarah Radburn looked after us by taking Clayton to and from Little Learners.

Today I'm feelin tons better... good enough to be grabbin some Jimmy's Kitchen for lunch! What better way to sort my sort out my internal imbalance!?

My debut with the band

First playout
One blue polo - $14.98
Grey dress pants - $49.95
20 mins using the quick-unpik to remove the logo on the polo...

NOW I'm set.

So Sunday afternoon I made my debut with the Dubbo & District Brass Band, and I had a great time. I know I'm not as good as the rest of the band, but I'm a lot more confident now, and my sight-reading has really improved due to the level of difficulty of the stuff we play. Odd timings, fast tempos, key changes and so on.

We played at the Delroy Gardens park, next to the water. Most songs we played were carols, but we did a few other pieces like Teddy Bear's Picnic and Broadway Lullaby.

Janene, Eli and Clayton came along for a while, but the boys got a little crazy and I could tell Janene was frustrated, so I suggested she could take em home and she did.

Linda and Lindsay Foggon rocked up later and heard the last few songs.

A nice day overall! Next playout is on Saturday at the Orana Mall.