Busy as...

Bees have nothing on me!
I've been so busy - we all have! Amidst the turmoil of a household that is turned upside down by renovations, Janene and I have been very busy planning for the Easter Awakening Festival, the Regional Rally, Sunday School, the Nursing home visit and other Easter activities.

I'm not complaining... just fishing for sympathy. Anyone?

Dubbo, AWAKEN!
The Easter Awakening was this Saturday - a combined churches event in the park where tons of activities and entertainment is put on by volunteers for the sake of the unchurched kids of Dubbo. The idea is brilliant and each year the event seems to grow a little. This year Janene was the leader of the craft and she exhausted herself to make sure everything worked out fine.

It paid off! She ran an excellent "tent" and they had over a hundred kids through, making all kids of craft items with strong Easter messages. They made pin-wheels, concentration cards with bible verses and pics, memory cards, wooden crosses, jewellery and lotsa other stuff.

A lot of churches were involved, and a lot of time and prayer went into the event. Now there needs to be a lot of prayer for the seeds that were sown.

RF & CC are away...
Finally we've produced another Rural Flyer and Country Catalogue and sent them off to the printer. So for the next week or so it'll be a little easier going. But there are plans to start selling and designing a "Business Flyer" in the same vein as the Rural Flyer, but aimed at the small business market.

I trust Bob's judgement that this is a potential gold product.

About Bob...
Speaking of Bob, just by spending half an hour with him at a Agrigrain, and a few weeks later with the management of Martel Accounting, I have developed a strong respect for his marketing talent. He really knows his stuff.

The Kids...
Eli is doing a little better at school, though he still manages to get sent to the door at least once a day. He really has ants in his pants! Well.. not REALLY really, but fairly really. You know?

Just about everything he does is a game or a drama. He acts things out wherever he is and whatever he's doing. He is so dramatic in his expression and dialogue that I'm sure he's going to have to be an actor or somebody famous... otherwise WHAT are we going through this for?

Clayton is just too cute. He has the ability to make anyone and everyone smile with his cuteness. Now he's saying a lot more words and getting into a lot more mischief. He copies his older brother too much, and even now is starting the acting game.

He can fake a good cry, and this morning I watched him enact a scene between his spoon and a piece of nutrigrain (breakfast cereal). So inanimate objects come to life in his world too now.

Music...
There is a lot happening with the music, but with the lifestyle we've had over the past couple of weeks, it's been impossible to find quality practice time. I'd practice 10 hours every day if I had no responsibilities. I just love playing music... I wish it was my career!

I've found a very cool Yahoo Group run by a fellow who has introduced himself to me and made every effort to help me with my band. He's been extremely generous and genuinely interested... something I really need right now, and something I've not had before.

The group: http://photos.groups.yahoo.com/group/bandmusic/

Any other salvationists involved in music should join that list... c'mon!

Sis is home!
Juanita, Andrew, Caleb and Mitchell arrived on a flight from Perth via Sydney today. They're home to stay and they've signed a lease for a home in Narromine. I'm hoping Andrew will have a desire to hang with his uncle (me) a bit and get involved in some things like Indoor Cricket and hopefully music.

Their dog Elly and cat Tippy were supposed to be on the same flight with them, but as often happens, they ended up as lost luggage in Sydney. After a few phonecalls the staff located them and they came on the next flight to Dubbo, which was about 3 hours later.

That's enough catching up for now, I'll try and keep this blog more up to date with interesting info!

Head achers and Acres

Eli's fairyland...
All my high expectations have amounted to naught so far. I thought my son is probably going to be too smart for Kindergarten and everybody will think he's amazing and wonder "Wow, who are the parents of this genius?".

Back to reality!

Eli has been causing trouble at school, true to the male Phillips tradition. It started with being sent to the door five times on day two of kindergarten, and has progressed from there until he's been sent to the office and been excluded from his first on-stage performance with the rest of the class at assembly.

Janene met with Miss Parker to discuss what measures are needed to steer Eli towards a mature outlook on his schooling. Looks like it's gonna be a hard road... but we love him anyway.

If Eli doesn't make us famous with his bizarre imagination and acting ability, then I'll be very disappointed. Somehow I think we have another Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, Mr Bean or Adam Sandler in the making.

We can't talk straight to Eli without him pretending he's somebody else... "Now Eli I want to talk to you seriously now..."
"I'm not Eli, call me Sonic."

*sigh*

---

Large chunk of Australia up for grabs...
I saw this ad in the local paper, and I've decided this is the chance of a lifetime. I've been frantically sorting out in my head whether we can possibly afford to consider buying this chunk of Aussie bush. One thing is for sure, if we buy this property, it's gonna take a lot more generous PayPal donations before we'll be living comfortably again. Heck, ONE donation would be encouraging! *hint hint*

I've rung the agent about this property and next Tuesday we're going to have a look to find out more. I've also been talking to our financial adviser, Peter Smith about how realistic it would be to get finance.

I need try and remain focused on renovations for now though. As much as it'd be nice living in isolation (50km from Dubbo), we have other matters to attend, and lots of other bills.

No change...

Life goes on...
Lots has happened, but as far as the state of the house goes, and life in general, it's still as hectic as ever.

We have discovered that the extent of termite damage to our house goes beyond the section of wall that we first thought. Now we risk a budget blowout fixing the entire eastern wall (and maybe more?). We won't know the true amount of damage until we rip off all the weatherboard and see the wooden studs underneath, but already the builder has had to replace one section of the plate (the timber that all the wall studs stand on) underneath the kitchen window.

NOO LAUNDRY...
At least we can be the proud owners of a new laundry. Well the walls aren't yet finished and painted, but we have all our walls, taps, powerpoints and a new laundry tub (with a funky ROUND bowl). Perhaps the highlight of the new room is the new doorway that leads out to the eastern side of the house. Now our little home as 3 entries! That gives our burglars more options and will perhaps confuse the dumb ones.

Music class...
There is great progress in our Leaner Band. We have a new member, Craig Radburn. He has been to class for 3 weeks now and is already showing some early progress on the cornet.

In last Friday's lesson we learnt how to play Oh When the Saints, and believe it or not it ROCKED! It almost sounds like a band that's been practicing together for a long while - NOT just a learner band.

Don is coming along really quickly. He has a natural ear for music, which I detected when he first started coming along. This is exactly the kind of thing I think is going to be beneficial to Don.

Linda and Ros are going good too, but both struggle with their own problems. Ros has trouble playing up high, and Linda is finding the lower notes hard to hit. But overall they're going great guns!

Bathurst and Back...
Today we took a half-day trip to Bathurst to get Eli's gromets checked. It was his one month checkup. All is fine and the checkup too about 1 minute, then we had to drive all the way back again (total of about 5 hours driving for that 1 minute checkup).

GET OUT OF TOWN!
There are any number of good reasons that we would pack up and get out of this place - at least temporarily! So we decided we would. We went out to Mum and Dad's farm yesterday and cleaned out their flat, ready for us to crash there for a couple of weeks. We'll feel like pioneer settlers for a few days, but I think the experience will be enlightening.

We had a horrible night on Saturday night with our IDIOT neighbour and his music playing from about 1:30am til 5am. Then we were less than excited when we saw one of his mates moving his furniture and boxes INTO the house. This was that proverbial straw on the camel's back...

Salvos kick Canals...
In our semi-final clash, we downed the same team that beat us just two weeks ago. It was a sweet victory, but I kinda knew we could do it. We'd defeated these guys in all our other encouters, but it just didn't happen two weeks ago.

So we knew we had to smarten up to win, but were sure it could be done... and we did!

It seemed a little shakey from time to time, but in the end we came home strong and have booked ourselves a Final clash with Sleep City. These guys have managed to beat us every time we've played or I think we've beat them maybe once in the past. In any case, we'll have to be pretty sharp on the night to roll these guys. Most of them play outdoor cricket in the higher grades (A and B), so they're pretty snazzy in the field. We CAN DO IT though...

The game is Tuesday 6:30, and I'll feature a summary report for the benefit of those who bother to read this.

Ik ga nu naar bed! Tot ziens dan...
Time for bed now, I'll catch up later on anything else of importance that I've neglected to mention. Goedenacht!

Woh, that's quite a gap!

So it's been AGES! (well, in blogging terms)

With the house in pieces and our lives under constant demand, I've had very little time to write in this thing.

BUT let me recap some important events over the past week or so:

Nene's holiday
Janene went to Collaroy on Friday for the Women's Bible Convention. The ladies all went in one car. They listened to Chick Yuill's message (6 cds!!) from the Men's Bible Convention last year (which rocked!).

Work
Rural Flyer is back from the printers. It looks GREAT and I'm very happy indeed.

Country Catalogue, March edition is finally out as of today. The lead up to this was mildly hectic and I ended up working until late/early in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights.

Building
Our home renovation project is well underway... the builder, John Parker, had another job postponed, so he has been able to spare an extra week here. John is a nice guy, but probably a bit lonely. His kids are all grown and left home, and he's not with his wife anymore ("estranged" as he described her).

We invited John for dinner one night, and I think he appreciated that. I probably saved him one more lonely night eating a TV dinner.

The kitchen is kinda finished... the worst wall is replaced. We now also have a door exiting the laundry to outside. We have to have a small landing and stairs built there so we don't fall out on our faces.

There are a heap of wasp nests under the eaves of the roof which are proving difficult to get rid of. I've sprayed em a few times and made a dash for it while they got angry and looked for someone to sting.

Kids
Eli has been enjoying school. He still manages to smuggle a toy car in his pocket or somewhere. We've tried to stop him, but now he's convinced us he only wants to take one to play with under the "Peppers" (it's an area where the kindergarten and year 1 kids play - probably under some peppercorn trees).

Clayton is also enjoying his time at daycare. His current habit is putting rocks in his mouth. If you see him with a bulgey mouth, you know he's sucking on a stone.

I can't say much else interesting has happened. Life is really hectic while we're living in half a house - one half in pieces, the other covered in dust.

Intresting stuff will be posted as it happens!

Croup again

Eli woke up with croup
Eli has had croup for a couple of days running now, and this morning he had it back. So I stayed home with Eli and Clayton while Janene went to church. We stayed home and lazed around, watched some Veggie Tales, Fantasia and I played some music on clarinet and cornet.

I sat outside in the warm morning sun and chose a heap of songs ready to try out for the upcoming trip to the Dubbo Nursing Home at Easter. I hope we can have a brass ensemble ready for that.

After church, Janene went to a craft thing of some sort with Linda O'Brien, so Eli and I watched Big Fish. Turns out he has already seen it, so he let me know stuff before it happened... THANKS ELI!.

When Janene came home later in the afternoon we had yummy honey-soy chicken bits with salad wrapped in lebanese bread for dinner. Janene is a clever cook. Then we all went out into the garden and went crazy. I fixed the gate, trimmed back the wisteria to a single, long twisted, branch and Janene did some weeding and cleaning up in the front gardens and trimmed the jasmine.

Clayton and Eli played in the sand, and generally got in the way.

Another good day with good progress! It was the first day in years where I had messy bed-hair the whole day long. It's nice to be able to do that every now and then.

Back to work tomorrow, and the building starts.

Hidden treasure

Saturday morning, let's do some damage!
Before we could start tearing into the walls, we needed a sleep in. So we did that and were up n at 'em by 9:30. We went and borrowed some tools and a trolley thing for moving heavy items from Capt Chris Radburn.

We moved everything out of the way and started hacking the lining off our wall on the kitchen and laundry side. There was a bit of damage in there from previous termite damage, but nothing as terrible as we imagined.

Turns out that the top half of the walls are made of asbestos fibre cement sheeting, so we avoided ripping into that. We just removed the bottom half which is primarily oregon timber. I also removed all the tiles from the laundry wall, and took out the laundry tub.

While I was hoping to find a rare penny or gold watch, I did find 10 cents. So... I guess that can go straight back off the loan :D

After we finished removing all this stuff, we decided to keep going and remove the lino from the kitchen floor, which was laid on top of masonite sheeting, which was on top of the original floor boards. The floorboards underneath were not looking that great. They're probably not worth the effort trying to restore, since there are some weak areas and also a few splits and missing chunks.

Evidently there was some old newspaper on top of the floorboards at some stage. Although it was gone now, you could still see a ghosted stencil of the pages on the floorboard. One page I could make out had a Christmas feature headed "Gay ways to wrap your gifts". I found the corner of an old newspaper which was from the early 60's, so the above headline is just another example of how certain "things" have perverted our society and taken ownership over some old words. Dare I say any more, even in my own journal?

We did a lot today, then went to Narromine to pick up the boys and stayed the evening. We had chinese for dinner (again!) and watched some investigation shows about murders on mum and dad's pay tv. Sad and scarey stories!

It was a long, but FRUITFUL day! Can't wait til things get rolling on Monday.

* *

Home alone

This evening Eli and Clayton were palmed off to Grandma and Pa. They left before Janene came to pick me up at work.

After leaving work, we went to music group, which was our first group lesson in the new year. It was attended by myself, Janene, Linda and Don. For a first week back after a long holiday, I say we played surprisingly well!

Following the group lesson, I stayed back as usual for my private lesson. It's amazing what the most minute adjustments to my embouchure can make to the quality of the sound made with my cornet! Chris Harrison (my teacher) is remarkable the way he can hear my sound and tell me exactly what I need to do to make it much cleaner.

---

So Janene and I were alone for the evening and planned to get stuck into the demolition task at hand as soon as we could. But before we could do that, we had to savour the moment of temporary childlessness. We hired 2 videos - Around the World in 80 Days (Jackie Chan) and Big Fish.

We went and bought some chinese food from Jimmy's Kitchen, cos he rocks. We went home and pigged out while watching the Jackie movie. I was surprised to find it was a cool movie, and very funny. I kinda expected the worst and got something pretty close to the best.

Apart from that time with Janene, that's about as romantic as we could get, considering how tired we were. So we went to sleep ready for a big day tomorrow.

*

Less walls, more money

Tear down the walls!
Janene got a call the other day from John Parker (the builder), who informed us he has a spare week next week. He will attempt to make as much progress as possible on the kitchen walls so that they are prepared, ready to go for the new kitchen.

To save money, John told us we can rip off all the wall panels in the kitchen and laundry so that he doesn't have to do it. There is asbestos in the wall, so we'll do as much as we're comfortable with.

Salary sweetner...
After sending an email to Tim the other day expressing my frustration with my salary, and the fact that it hasn't been reviewed since I start work for Panscott 20'ish months ago, he replied by calling me to a meeting today.

In our private meeting, Tim was apologetic for being forgetful about reviewing my pay, and subsequently bumped my pay up to $40k, which is going to ease the burden of our current financial situation.

Somehow, I spent the rest of the day on a bit of a high, and already feel a renewal of my original love for my job! Yippeeee :-) It's not the extra money, but the recognition of my worth that makes me feel good about things again.

What a nice day

Plenty achieved...
It was the kinda day you can look back and and be satisfied it wasn't wasted. Thanks to the kids, we were awake around 7am (earlier for Janene, who went back to bed after I took over).

Mum and Dad came into town and Tim Newby came over and we helped dad go and load a huge bird avairy onto the back of Dad's ute. It was heavy, and apparently it took 5 people to move it last time. Well, us three strapping lads moved it about 20 meters and up and onto the ute without needing further assistance. We did it all in our stride without pulling a single muscle :-)

After that, we had lunch while Mum, Janene and Clayton went out and bought stuff down the street. They came back and Clayton fell asleep on his feet and nearly fell over and donked his head... but I caught him.

So I put Clayton to bed and the girls went out again. Dad and I checked the boxing on my cementing project, then I cleaned the gutters on the roof while Tim and Eli played cricket.

After our lunches and after mum and dad went home, we all jumped in the car and went out to Tim's house (out of town) and enjoyed a cuppa. We checked out their self-built extension on the house. They've done a very good job and only needed one professional tradesman in the whole process (the wall plasterer).

That trip encouraged me to have a go of things a bit more, even if it's not a spic job, it'll be good experience.

So I got home and I finished the cementing of my garden edges, and I used the leftover cement to patch up some gaps in Eli and Clayton's cubbyhouse-to-be.

They played in the sand for a while longer and Janene cooked a lovely dinner, then we all sat together and enjoyed it :-)

The day wasn't complete without a practice on my cornet! And somehow, I even managed to fit that in... a good day all in all.

Eli's ear-opening experience

Early morning voyage...
We had to get up at 4:30am this morning in order to get Eli to Bathurst for his ear operation. We jumped in the car and got the heater going. Eli and Clayton snuggled up under Eli's Thomas the Tank Engine doonah and we hit the road just before 5am after a little prayer together.

Eli was totally unphased by the prospect of having an operation. Then again, he's never had one, so he wouldn't know what to expect. We weren't about to tell him it involved a big needle either.

It was a long drive when you're feeling like you should be in bed, so it was a relief to get there in one piece and on time.

Eli was weighed etc and taken into the waiting ward thing by a lovely lady with a strong Irish or Scottish accent... There he laid down on a bed to wait his turn. The proceedure only takes about 10 mins, so they churn em out pretty quick.

There was a little girl in the bed next to Eli, and she went in before him.

They allow one person in when they child goes under the anaesthetic, so Janene went in, and they both had to wear the ridiculous hats and gowns (pic to come!).

While the op happened, Clayton and I went and sat in the back of the station wagon eating chips and having a rest. Then later we went for a drive and got some bacon & egg McMuffins from McDonalds.

Eli went under anaesthetic at 9:30 and was done and fully recovered/awake by 10:10am, so we were allowed to leave soon after that.

Janene said that Eli mumbled some funny things while recovering from the anaesthetic in the recovery room. One that she remembers was that while he was sitting in the chair the nurse came to clean the bed that he came out on. She whipped the sheets off, wiped over the matress and flipped it over... and Eli (still sitting rather still, and mumbling as though in deep thought) said "If I was still on that bed, I'd be dead now".

tehehehe

Well after eating some lunch (again at McDonalds), we headed home. As if the trip there wasn't tough enough, now we really struggled! I was so tired even before leaving, and Janene was the same. I got as far as Lucknow (which is even before Orange) and had to pull over for a break and buy something to eat. I let Janene drive from there, but she only lasted until Molong (on the other side of Orange).

We spent 20 mins or so there, just resting and then walking around a bit. I took over driving again and was fine from there til Dubbo.

In Molong we saw a used car lot, and on the side they had some buses, so we stopped to have a look and asked the man there for some prices. We wrote them down and will pass them onto Capt. Chris Radburn. We still hope that at some point our church can afford a bus that I can drive around picking up the kids and adults for sunday school and church. Keep praying!

And was it worth it?
Eli's hearing seems to have improved already. He's still a rowdy kid and plays loudly when he gets excited, but now we don't have to yell at him to get heard.

We've done a few tests where he turns around and we whisper obscure sentences like "you have a banana sandwich on your butt" and he's been remarkable in relaying what he heard.

So yes, I think it was worth it.

Oh whatta night

FIRSTLY & MOST IMPORTANTLY!
8 Years! Janene and I have been married that long! Sucked in to the divorce statistics :D I'm proud to be in one of the very few surviving marriages... and I think back to my critics who told me I was too young to get engaged those many years ago (nearly 10 years ago).

Janene and I have been together since 11-11-1993 (i.e. 11 long years!)

My midnight dash...
At around 12:30pm, while lightning flashed crazily around our skies and thunder followed in roaring support, I was awoken by the sounds of hail on our tin roof.

Now we love our car so much that we fill our shed with useless junk and leave the car in the driveway. So I sprang out of bed, Janene too, and she hands me one of the spare doonas and I rush outside in the pouring rain and still-light hail to cover the car. The theory was that the hail wouldn't damage the car so bad if we had something big and soft on it.

So I finally get the doona spread out evenly on the car, and it's already soaked through, just like me. Then I realise the hail has ceased, and looking at the ground I see maybe a dozen pea-sized hail stones. WOW! So I laugh to myself and go back inside, change my clothes and go back to bed.

It was a really crazy lightning show though! Lots of very bright lightning in a constant fashion, with the odd bolt striking somewhere nearby.

Bradsta's in a (toe) jam...
Brad stayed home today. Mostly because of his toe, but I bet if we were still doing DCN he'd have soldiered into work to complete the task at hand. However, the workload we have at this stage doesn't call for much in the way of heroics. Though we're starting to see a few ads come in now.

Eli a typical Phillips...
Need to snap him out of it fast, but Eli is already getting sent to stand against the wall and out the door, according to his teacher. I think it might be a case of over-excitement, and I'm sure a lot of other kids are finding it the same. We'll keep an eye on this and make sure he settles in soon.

Superman stays over...
Tonight Eli was Superman. He was wearing his red cape and consistently refered to us by name (Janene and Brett). He told us that he was in Dubbo to save people, and that he lives in Africa. He asked could he sleep over at our place because Africa was a long way away.

We let him stay.

Meanwhile, it's a cold night following last night's storms. We're rugged up in winter pyjamas and will sleep under the blankets tonight. This tonight, where the last few nights we've been so hot that the fans have been going and we're sleeping on top of our doona with minimal clothing. Strange weather. I love it!

Thunder threatens blog entry!

Lightning fast typing...
As I type, there are white flashes pouring through the gaps in my office curtains. These are the thunderstorms that the local news reporter warned about. We haven't had much more than a few specks of rain though at this stage.

The day itself...
Today started with a rush to get ready and get both Clayton and Eli to their respective destinations, and then Janene and I getting ourselves to work.

As we were getting into the car, I noticed Eli's shirt wasn't tucked in. I said "Eli, you have to tuck your shirt in for school you know!?", to which he replied "No! The girls don't!!" Smiling, I informed him that "The girls wear dresses mate, not shirts."

Then at work we had a fairly quiet sort of day, though we did get the chance to do a few ads. We're finally talking about uniforms too. Let's hope we all have fair input so that everybody's opinion is heard, and ultimately they all agree with ME! I'm thinking a light orange/brown (or "camel") shirt with v.dark green pants.

THE PLATE SELLS!
The auction for the commemorative plate closed today, and I was extremely nervous leading up to the close, as there was still only the one opening bid of $175. I thought that was all I'd get. Even 5 mins before close I hit refresh and still nothing more.

So I had left it at that, and went and played some more Cricket 2004. When I came back, it turns out some very keen antiques dealer snipered the lone bidder with a big maximum bid that out-did the other guy. So the winning bid and final selling price was $256! YIPPEEE.

COME ON DOWN! Time to sign off, and as I do so the rain has finally started to fall, and it smells BEAUTIFUL! Thanks Lord, I love the simple things you do :D

1 Day down, 13 years to go!

Eli starts his training for life...
Well kinda; he started school today! Unlike the images you see on the TV news with kids sobbing as their parents leave them at the gate on their first day, Eli was very enthusiastic and ran ahead of us as we walked into the school yard.

He's very proud of his uniform; particularly of his shiney black shoes, which tend to make a mighty clangor on the floorboards in our house in the morning.

The whole process of starting class was over in a matter of minutes. He got a badge, put his bag down and was escorted into the classroom by a senior school member.

Of course, I took plenty of photos, and here's my favourite one below:


C'mon Dad... can we just go?

After school, I rang him up at home to ask how it was. He was in a very animated mood, and very expressive in everything he told me... and when I asked if Miss Parker was nice, he answered "Yes! She's lovelier than a rose!"

Ready for tomorrow? You bet!

It's craft Saturday!

$101...
This morning I took our gear to the Foggon's garage sale, set it up, then went home to get Janene. We were there from about 8:30 til 10am and by that time we'd sold the change table and car seat. Then Janene had to goto her Craft Group (where they made some very nifty coffee coasters out of old CDs).

The boys and I hung around at home playing the computer, watching TV and just staying indoors away from the heat. Clayton was so tired he fell asleep in his chair while eating his lunch :-) I tried to have a nap, but all I could hear was Eli's exclamations of excitement as he played his Hot Wheels racing car game.

We went back to the garage sale after Craft Group, which finally ended at about 4pm, and it looked like the Foggons had sold a lot of stuff. They made about $900 all up, and we made $101. The only thing we didn't sell was the cot and the little bag of baby Tupperware stuff. We'll try to sell those using the Country Catalogue classifieds next issue.

Ebay biddings...
I got tired of not being able to play games that support only nVidia type graphics cards, so I bought a card on ebay for $39. Good bargain actually! 64mb geforce card... good enough for Cricket 2004 :-)

I also found a very cool auction trader on ebay called "AuctionBrokersAustralia". They have thousands of products listed and sell for ridiculously low prices. Don't ask me how... I might not want to know. Anyway, I bid on a remote control car in hope that I can win it for Eli's birthday-even though it's almost a year away... haha. My highest bid is $4.50, but even better if I can get it for less. :-) Maybe I'll just give it to him as a gift for being a good boy.

Well I'm off to bed. Nene is still sitting up and making more coffee coasters. I'm too tired to hang around here in this heat! Goodnight.

Wonky Friday

Sleeplessnessness...
After another night of very little sleep, I went to work feeling fairly horrible. My legs, back and head were throbbing and panadol seemed to do very little. It felt like I was gonna black out.

Actually, later I realised that the blackout feeling was similar to when I am going to slip into a cataleptic state, which is scarey. Imagine doing that while you're standing! I don't know if I'd freeze on the spot like a statue in the White Witch's courtyard, or if I'd crash to the ground in an awkward blob.

Pizza Party...
Janene's sister Teena and kids (Ben and Melanie) came over tonight to eat pizza with us and watch a movie. Jeff was in Nyngan driving somebody's horse in the harness racing, which he managed a photo-finish 2nd place.

We watched Treasure Planet.

Off to bed...
I'm nervous about going to bed. Even though in the past I've gone into and always managed to come out of a cataleptic state, it's a scarey feeling. It's like being dumped over a bridge into the river bound and gagged, and even though you're know somebody's coming to untie you in time, you struggle desperately anyway. (Wait a minute, that's never happened to me...)

I know that this catalepsy thing can usually only happen to me when I'm lying on my back, so I'll be sleeping on my belly or side tonight! I feel vulnerable.

Catalogue letdown

First Country Catalogue since DCN demise...
Our efforts put towards the new Country Catalogue were visible in the flesh today, with the pallets of catalogues arriving on the truck. We opted to try out a new printer - The Northern Star in Lismore. Tim's decision was again a money decision, which I accept and understand.

However, they quality was very disappointing for me. There was a LOT of colour casts, colour overload, set-off and more. Then there was the mis-registration. It probably wasn't quite as bad as the Mailbox Shopper usually is, but it's sad that we've headed a step closer towards it.

Tim defended the printers, saying that in the end it's a free paper we're producing and the saving we're making on printing is enough to forgive the printers for a less-than-impressive job.

I'm afraid I can't agree on that... It might be a free paper to the readers, but it's certainly not free to our valuable advertisers. I don't think we can afford to tempt them into having to make a choice between us and the Shopper - the comparison SHOULD be chalk and cheese like it has been in the past.

Tight ship...
With the loss of DCN and a lot of staff, and the very lax atmosphere in the building, I've been mindful that we're getting a little slack - perhaps complacent or even lazy. I've decided to try and keep the design department honest in what we do each day, and professional in how we do it.

For this reason I emailed to Brad some rules about things we both need to be mindful of, and things we're to avoid. That included excessive use of chat programs like MSN (which we both use) and IRC (which Brad uses).

I also stressed the need to be punctual, regardless of the workload, and to keep a professional appearance in dress standards. (Now I'm tucking in my shirt!)

Unfortunately, Brad reacted defensively and even recklessly (declaring he didn't care about some of the things I mentioned). I was disappointed, as it wasn't the mature response that I'd expected, since over the last few months he'd appeared to be maturing quickly.

In any case, I assured him it wasn't a personal attack, but a call for us both to smarten up for the benefit of the company. Let's hope he can start to see it that way.

Going to watch Marat Safin v Rodger Federer now. Not sure who I'm going for!

Claytie shrinks

Clayton looked a whole lot smaller tonight! We had planned to give him his new big bed for his 2nd birthday in April, but when we heard the Foggon's were having a garage sale, we took the opportunity to bags our spot on their lawn. So we're selling his cot, change table, pram, car seat etc.

Tonight he went to bed in his new BIG bed, and he looks so tiny - but so cute :D

He was very excited about it all, and once I'd finished putting it together, he spent the first 20 minutes bouncing on it like a trampoline.

Sis heads home

It's Australia Day!

Gone, for now...
My sis and the boys headed home on the bus this morning. They will travel to Sydney where they'll catch a plane to Perth. The plan is that they try and sell their house over the next month or so and move back home to Dubbo or Narromine.

Personally, I think it'll take a lot longer than they're anticipating to get themselves organised (if it happens at all!).

Juanita and boys stopped by here this morning to say goodbye, which was great cos it saved me getting showered and dressed to go see them off at 9am! Poor little Mitch suddenly hurled up his breakfast on the floor when he was here. He showed no signs of sickness before that, so I hope their trip to Sydney isn't marred by regular vomiting (urk!).

BBQ in the park...
We met with the Foggons (minus Lindsay) in the park on the other side of the river at 4pm. It was an excellent afternoon just eating food, kicking a soft pseudo-soccerball, and then followed by a very long walk along the Tracker Riley walking track all the way to Hungry Jacks to get some icecream!

Much to my amazement, Clayton walked around 50% of the way there and back! He also ate a lot of icecream. He's such a tough little nipper.

Salvos' Ebay haul...
Matt has been auctioning some Warhammer models/figures that were donated to the Family Store. Much to all our amazement, they're selling at prices you wouldn't believe! The first lot to close went for an attractive $167.50, and another case is already at $222.50 with 4 days remaining :O What the...?

These items would have otherwise been bundled together and sold for around $4. The good news is that it will be used to help pay the learner band's tuition fees at the local Conservatorium. Woohoo!

Meanwhile, the commemorative plate still has no bids, but it's being "watched" by 7 (hopefully-keen) bidders!

Pheeling like a Pharaoh

Where's my mummy?
Not a lot to write about today except that I have been playing a demo of a new game "Immortal Cities: Children of the Nile". Unfortunately it's quite addictive and I found myself playing it for around 3 hours tonight!

I guess it's very Sims-ish, but a lot different too. You have the task of raising an egyptian civilisation up from the humble nomads from the banks of the Nile. You're a pharaoh and have the say in who does what in the uprising of your civilisation.

Check it out: http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/

---

Also...
Tomorrow is a public holiday - AUSTRALIA DAY! Happy birthday Australian civilisation!
Quite fitting then that I'm auctioning this commemorative plate on Ebay!

Time for bed, goodnight!

Staring at the monitor

Why am I here?
I'm sitting in front of my PC tonight and thinking "Hmmm... what should I do... Maybe check my email? No, I did that 9 seconds ago. Perhaps check to see if I got another 5 cents from Google Ads since my last check 12 minutes ago. Or maybe somebody bid on my plate on Ebay in the last hour?"

Life's a bit like that at the moment. I'm finding less and less reason and desire to use the Internet. I get enough of computers at work, and by the time I get home and do other stuff, there's little reason to use this PC, except maybe to blog.

Even television has lost my attention. It's a pity it's so hot outside, or I'd do something useful with myself.

Otherwise, a few things did happen today worth mentioning.

Kath's outta here...
Panscott's receptionist/photographer Kath Bruce has decided to make the move to Newcastle with her boyfriend, who starts uni this year. She's leaving Panscott Media and has a couple of interviews at The Herald (big NC newspaper). Good luck to her...

In light of Panscott's new coasty workload, there's no immediate plans to replace Kath. Though we'll soon see how long we can cope with that decision.

Gimme money!
We're going through the daunting process of refinancing our mortgage and getting a few (or should I say HEAPS OF) extra dollars to pay for some extensive renovations. We have a pile of contracts to read, sign and post back in a short amount of time.

I'm thinking there's about the equivalent of one Indonesian rainforest tree in that pile of paper. Poor monkeys!

Salvos' wrestle with pizza...
We had an early game this week. Tonight at 6:30pm against Eagle Boys Pizza. Unluckily for us there were only two of us there on time, the other guys arrived around 6:45, which made the opposition a little mad, since it meant we had to bat first regardless of them winning the toss and electing to bat.

But they got their revenge in the end, taking one skin and the game (3 points). It's called a "Win" for them, even though we won the other three skins, which also gives us a total of 3 points. So in points, it was a draw.

Eli came along to watch tonight and made a new friend (a kid of one of the opposition players). He behaved rather well and had a good time. I'm still really looking forward to the day we can play in the same team :-)

And sadly, it was my cousin Joe Daly's last game for the Salvos. I gave him some Todd Agnew music to take with him, in the hope it'll keep him in touch with things of the Faith.