Theme parked out

Krysti, MJ and Jessica have gone back home to Canberra after visiting for a week. I think they will need a bit of a break when they get home to get over their busy holiday up here.

On Wednesday last week Lani took James, Jasmine, MJ and Jessica to Seaworld while Krysti did a bit of shopping.

On Thursday Krysti, Lani and the kids went to MovieWorld.

On Friday Krysti did some more shopping and the kids had a swim in our pool.

On Saturday we all went to DreamWorld for the day.

On Sunday we all went to the beach for a few hours. I took James and Jasmine's surf mats with us but unfortunately they both have an air leak and went flat soon after blowing them up. Fortunately Lani's surf mat was OK and James and Jasmine had some good fun catching waves. They are usually not too keen on going to be beach but hopefully after having a good time they will be a little more motivated next time I suggest we go to the beach. James and I also played some beach cricket. MJ and Jessica splashed around in the shallow water and played in the sand.

On Monday Lani, Krysti, MJ and Jessica went to MovieWorld again, while James and Jasmine went to school. I followed my usual Monday to Friday robotic routine herded into the city on a one hour long 'cattle' train commute with 100s of other strangers to my workplace where I try to work around the office politics and argy-bargy for 8 or so hours then get herded back into a train to return home. I think I just need a bit of a break and look forward to some time off over Christmas.

On Tuesday Lani, Krysti and the kids went to DreamWorld again. James and Jasmine had another day off school. We really aren't bad parents. They do go to school most of the time and are both doing quite well academically.

On Wednesday morning Lani, Krysti, MJ and Jessica went to MovieWorld before Lani dropped them off at Brisbane airport for their flight him.

Plasma...Tooth...Sea...Videos

On Saturday we finally moved forward with technology and bought ourselves a 42" plasma TV. What a massive difference it makes compared to our 68cm analogue TV. The digital reception is also far superior to the analogue reception received via some dodgy wiring to the roof aerial done by the previous house owner. We thought a 42" TV would be plenty big enough in our small living area but Lani and I both agree that we will have to go bigger next time we upgrade.

On Saturday night Jasmine managed to pull a loose top front tooth out. It was good to see the tooth come out because it was going all wonky on its way out and Lani was calling her 'Gargamel' (from the Smurfs). The other top front tooth is also loose, so hopefully it won't be too long before it also comes out. The 2 new teeth are both just breaking through. The tooth fairy also remembered to drop in and pick up the tooth, leaving some cash behind.

On Sunday Lani, James and Jasmine went to SeaWorld for the day with Jodie (Lani's friend) and her daughter Adina. They spent most of the day swimming in the pool and going down some of the water slides. I tried to go surfing on my wave ski but the surf was a bit too rough, so I did some body surfing for a couple of hours instead.

We are now looking forward to the arrival of Krysti, MJ and Jessica who are coming up late tomorrow afternoon for a one week stay.

I have posted some old family videos onto YouTube including Power Ranger - PowV. Just search for Australyons to see what I have posted.

New bikes...climbing high...church

Last weekend was another wet one here which restricted the activities we could do. On Saturday we went to the outdoor store Anaconda to check out some new bikes I was thinking of buying for the kids. They happened to be 25% off so we decided to buy them. We bought kids size mountain bikes (24 inch wheels) with alloy frame/parts, front shocks and 21 speed Shimano gears. Jasmine is only just big enough to ride her bike but at the rate both James and Jasmine are growing it won't be long before she fits the bike better. I also decided to buy a new bike for myself since my old bike had all sorts of problems with badly worn out gear levers, chain and rear wheel cluster. It was better value to get a new bike rather than repair the old one.

While at Anaconda the kids had a lot of fun climbing the cylindrical shaped rock wall they have in the store. James made it to the top at different parts of the wall and Jazz got about half way up. I had never tried rock wall climbing so I decided to give it a bit of a go myself. I was surprised how challenging it was. My poor flexibility hampered me a bit and I was relying too much on pulling myself up with my arms rather than using my legs. The ropes are setup with a mechanical belay system. When I was half way up I was suddenly hit by fear, realising how high I was and that I would be relying on some kind of mechanical system to lower me back down again. I had no choice but to continue to the top since the kids were watching and I didn't want to wimp out. Once at the top, letting go was a real challenge but the belay system worked a treat and lowered me down with ease.

Later on Saturday afternoon Jasmine went to her friend Jessica's ten pin bowling birthday party. I saw some of the kids bowl when I came to pick her up and it looked like a difficult task for the kids to get the down the aisle. They were running a bit overtime possibly due to the time is took for each of their bowls to travel down and bump some pins over.

On Sunday Jasmine and I went for a ride on our new bikes. At first Jasmine was quite nervous about riding the bike since it was such a massive step up from her little 16 inch kiddies bike which she was really way to big for. We just rode around on the school multi-purpose courts so she could get used to riding and changing the gears on a nice flat surface without anything to crash into. Thankfully we didn't have any stacks and it was a positive experience for her. She is still a little nervous handling the new bike but her confidence and skills are building and she enjoys riding it.

While Jasmine and I were riding our bikes Lani and James went to church to witness Nathaniel Tang getting ordained. James has expressed an interest in going to church from time to time in the past and after attending church has again expressed an interest in the idea. James does like to read, I might borrow him a book from the library on world religions to help broaden his knowledge on the subject. On Sunday night we went to Mark Tang's house for dinner with his family including his parents Bill and Meg who were visiting.

Damage...Debacle...Laps

The weekend before last I decided to go out for a bit of a fish in our boat. Things didn't start out too well when I accidentally reversed the car into the boat trailer cup link and punched about a 5cm gash into the rear bumper. The ground in the side yard where the boat is now located was a bit soft after we had a lot of rain, which made it difficult to manually push the boat around. Getting the boat in and out through the gate is also a little tricky and I needed to move the car into a better alignment to tow the boat out. Being on a slight incline I wanted to make sure the car didn't go backwards into the trailer when I took my foot off the brake, so I quickly applied some power once I released the brake. Unfortunately I had somehow decided to put the car into Reverse instead of Drive. Within a blink of an eye the damage was done. Lani was near the rear of the car at the time and I am so glad I didn't knock her over in the process. I still went out for a bit of a fish. I was intending to go outside but there were small waves breaking at the Seaway due to a very low and strong run out tide. I tried fishing some of the Broadwater but there was also a strong wind blowing making things a little unpleasant. So a took the boat for a run and explore up to the top of South Stradbroke island.

We continue to have some dramas with our furniture. We received another set of 6 chairs to replace the mismatched set we initially received. When Lani opened the boxes she discovered it was yet again another mismatched set. On Saturday morning we assembled 3 of the chairs and went back to the store and tried to manually select another 3 same and undamaged chairs to complete the set of 6 from the warehouse. We managed to get one more chair and they have put 2 chairs on order. What a debacle!

For the rest of the weekend we didn't really do anything exciting. Saturday afternoon Lani and I mowed and edged the lawn while the kids rode around on their bikes. Afterwards we all had a swim and play in the pool to cool down. Then while Lani prepared the dinner I played some cricket on the driveway with James and Jasmine until it was getting too dark and the mozzies were biting.

On Sunday Lani and the kids went to Sea World. I was hoping to go for a paddle on my wave ski at the beach near Sea World but it was too windy, so I went for a ride on my bike for some exercise.

Yesterday in an effort to get the kids doing some more physical activity after school Lani asked the kids to do 10 laps in the pool. They ended up both doing just over 100 laps each doing a mixture of freestyle, swimming with a noodle or whatever.

Dudded...Celebration

Some of the furniture that we purchased last weekend was delivered on Thursday. The lounge looks good in our living area but unfortunately we were dudded on the dining suite. The chairs came in two boxes (3 per box) and one of the boxes had obviously been previously opened and the contents repacked in. On further inspection all three chairs in the box had some minor damage in the same spot. It would appear that someone may have returned the damaged chairs and the furniture store has decided to attempt to palm the damaged goods off onto some unsuspecting customer. In addition to the damaged chairs, when Lani checked the other box of chairs she noted that although they were the same design, they were obviously from a different batch and had some slight differences in the final finish of the chair. The furniture company has agreed to replace the whole dining suite with a 'new' suite which should be delivered in a few days, meaning further hassle and waiting for delivery. What could have been a positive transaction has unfortunately turned ugly.

Lani also celebrated her birthday on Thursday. The kids and I gave her an Ipod Nano and some nice sterling silver bangles which she picked herself. Lani spent her special day cleaning the house and getting very angry with the furniture company for sending dud furniture and not calling in the morning to give some kind of indication of when the furniture would be delivered, which ended up being in the afternoon. I'm planning to cook her a late birthday roast dinner on Sunday.

Award...Sold...Birthday...Parks...Furniture

Jasmine received an assembly award last week for doing a Rabbit Tangram. Apparently she was the only one in her class to make the tangram pieces resemble something recognisable. We have a tradition in our house, when the kids receive an award or do something positive the rewards follow. For Jasmine it was a dinner of her choice, so we made a visit to KFC. She loves the skin!

On Friday night we sold our old boat for $3000. I was so glad we sold the boat without too much hassle. The guy who bought it gave the boat a good look over and then agreed to buy it without wanting to take the boat for a run on the water or even hear the outboard motor start. I insisted that we at least hook up a water hose to the motor and kick the motor over just for my own peace of mind since it was the main selling feature of the boat. The motor started cold with only 3 pulls of the starter cord and the buyer was impressed. He then hooked the boat up to his car to go and we checked the trailer tail lights only to find it completely dead. I couldn't believe it. I had only tested the lights the week before and they were OK. On further investigation we discovered that his car trailer plug was the cause of the problem and he decided to just drove the boat home without the trailer lights working.

On Saturday Jasmine had her birthday party with 15 friends (11 girls and 4 boys) at McDonald's. The kids appeared to enjoy themselves. They chased each other around the play equipment and the screaming from a few of the girls was intensely high pitched. After the party Jasmine had a sleep over at her friend Chloes'house. Chloe's Mum told us that When it came to sleep time Jasmine claimed she was scared. The kids were in a single bed sleeping at either end and Chloe's mum who is quite small also had to sleep in the bed to get the kids to sleep. Somehow they all managed to sleep through most of the night.

When Lani and I came to pick up Jasmine on Sunday afternoon she told me of a funny experience she had that day. Apparently while she was mucking around with Chloe in the back yard, she was on her knees and Chloe's Maltese Terrier jumped on her back and started "sexing" Jasmine's back. That is how Jasmine described it.

James had a busy weekend. He went to Sea World on Saturday with his mate Josh and his family. Then on Sunday they went to Wet n Wild with another mate Callum.

Lani and I also had a busy weekend. On Saturday morning before the party and all day Sunday we went furniture shopping. We have purchased a new lounge suite, dining table with 6 chairs, lamp table, buffet unit and TV unit. Both of us didn't really enjoy the shopping around, particularly when we visited Ikea. We actually weren't interested in buying any furniture at Ikea, we just wanted to buy a couple of shelves. Problem is that you can't just walk in and out of Ikea. You have to walk through the a whole maze of areas to make it to the checkouts.

Camp...Holidays...Birthday...Boat

James survived his 3 day school camp. It didn't quite meet his expectation but he had an OK time. He said the food tasted pretty good but they didn't provide enough. The kids were only able to get seconds, but there were no thirds, fourths, etc. James may have a small frame but he can eat like a horse. It is a little scary to think of how much he might eat going through the adolescent years. As for the activities at the camp, most seemed to not be physically or mentally challenging enough for him.

The kids have returned to school after having 2 weeks school holidays. Lani and the kids went for a guided nature walk through the Coombabah wetlands near where we live which Lani and Jasmine enjoyed but James wasn't too excited about it. My sister Julie and her kids visited for 5 days. Jasmine gets on really well with her cousin Rebecca and enjoyed her being here. They all went to Movie World on one day and then spent several days going to Sea World after buying yearly passes.

Jasmine turned 8 years old during the holidays and we had a small party while Julie and the kids were here but she will be having a McDonalds birthday party with her friends on the 20 Oct. She is inviting over 20 friends! Thanks to everyone who bought her a gift and phoned her. Jasmine really loved people calling to specifically talk to her.

Last week we bought a bigger boat, 5 metre aluminium runabout with a 60hp Mercury. A few months ago I asked my Uncle Ken, who is a seriously keen fisherman living on the NSW mid north coast, to keep an eye out for any bargain boat deals. We weren't planning to upgrade our boat for a couple of years but if something good came along we would grab it. He stumbled upon the boat when he saw his wealthy neighbour pull it out of his garage, where it had pretty much been in storage for the past 8 years. The guy wanted a quick sale with no hassles, so he was giving it away for $6000. The boat package is easily worth at least $10,000. My uncle took the boat for a run and had his marine mechanic mate inspect the boat, trailer and motor. The trailer needed some minor rust repairs but everything else was in very good condition. My uncle emailed some photos to us and the deal was done.

The boat trailer was out of registration and we had a lot of hassle getting it registered in Queensland so I could go down and drive it back up, but we eventually sorted out all the paperwork. I drove down to South West Rocks on Saturday and returned back home again on the same day. On Sunday I took Lani and the kids out for a ride. I was a little too keen at first to show them the power of the boat and Lani and James nearly fell out as I accelerated and turned around a channel marker. All I need now is a GPS to find some reefs off the coast and (hopefully) catch some big fish.