Confessions of a fairy killer

When I arrived home from work on Friday James greeted me wearing one of Jasmine's school skirts and had a pair of his shorts on his head made up like some kind of hat. It was very weird to see him in a skirt but I could see what he was trying to achieve. He was dressing up as Link from Legend of Zelda and was doing his best with the clothes available. Lani bought him a cheap adult t-shirt on the weekend and restitched it up to fit him. He now looks much better in his outfit and plans on having a fancy dress birthday party.

It appears that the Tooth Fairy may not be real. Jasmine left her tooth out on Friday night for the Tooth Fairy to collect and both Lani and I completely forgot about it until a teary eyed Jasmine came into our room early next morning. Lani pulled Jasmine into the bed to console her and I made a stealth like exit out to replace the tooth with $5. I then set up my alibi by going outside and worked in the garden for about an hour. Unfortunately, being 8 years old Jasmine saw through our hasty cover up and knew it was me who did the swap. I think James learnt the Tooth Fairy wasn't real in similar circumstances. I think Jasmine still believes in fairies but not the Tooth Fairy.

Jasmine went to dancing again on Saturday and had her friend Chanelle over in the afternoon for a play. On Saturday night she had a sleep over at Chanelles. She enjoys the sleep overs but she gets all grumpy and emotional the next day as a result of reduced sleep.

On Sunday afternoon we took the boat out to do some fishing on the Broadwater. We went to a sand flat near the boat ramp and pumped up some nippers, which Jasmine enjoys. The sand flat was alive with thousands of little soldier crabs. I decided it was probably a good place and time to teach the kids how to cast with a fishing rod. I showed Jasmine what to do and her first cast was quite good. After giving her a few more tips I let her practise while I took James aside to teach him also. I went to show James how to do it and he said “No, no Dad. I know how to do it. I've done it on the Wii (Nintendo)”. I let him have a go but stopped him just before he tried to cast without clicking the spool latch over. You just can't beat real experience. To his credit, James kept practising his casting and by the end of our afternoon was doing quite well. We went to another spot where we had more of a chance of catching fish but the tide and time really wasn't right. At the new spot there were a lot of shells washed in along the shoreline which Lani and Jasmine collected to make some crafty stuff.

Jasmine has lost her first tooth!

After some encouragement Jasmine plucked up the courage tonight to pull her tooth out that was still barely attached to her gum. If you look close enough at the picture you can see where the bottom tooth has come out and the replacement is well and truly coming up. There will be no tooth fairy tonight. Jasmine has show and tell tomorrow and plans to present her tooth. On Friday night we will find out if the tooth fairy is real or not. Stay tuned.

I do believe in fairies...and stuff

Jasmine went to her regular 2 hour dancing lesson on Saturday. She is enjoying the new place much more than her previous dance school.

I spent the weekend tidying up around the garden and putting pavers back down around the water tank, while Lani took care of the inside of the house and the grocery shopping.

Late Sunday afternoon we went down to the Broadwater for a swim and walked along the water edge looking for crabs, prawns and things. It was a nice way to wind down the weekend.

James bought some games online for the Wii, Sonic the Hedgehog and Link to the Past (a Zelda game). They are old Sega Mega drive and Super Nintendo games. I asked if he was sure he wanted to buy Sonic the Hedgehog and his response was “Dad!...It's a classic”. Either I'm getting old faster than I thought or 'classics' aren't as old as they used to be.

Jasmine has had a loose tooth for a few months which is barely attached now but still refuses to come out. She has not lost any teeth yet and is desperate for one to fall out. She told Lani and I that when the tooth finally comes out don't put any money under her pillow because she wants to find out if the tooth fairy is real or not. What do you do? She does believe in fairies.

Lani has changed to working 16 hours a week now since her company has employed a person in Brisbane. We are happy with the change because it means the kids will only have to go to after hours school care occasionally.

We had some rain and small hail yesterday so our water tank now has about 10cm of water in it. I need to do some tweaking of the guttering and downpipes to ensure that we get a greater amount of water going into the tank in future.

15th wedding anniversary...the family returns

Today Lani and I celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary! I'm looking forward to many, many more years with the love of my life.

Tonight I'm going to pick up Lani and the kids from the airport. It will be good to have them all back home again. Not sure why but I have felt quite unsettled and uneasy this time while they have been away. It has only been 10 days but I have had trouble sleeping and felt an emptiness without them around.

Clean surf, not so clean fish

Yesterday I did a few chores around the house and then went for a surf at Coolangatta. I drove the Honda Jazz down to the beach with my 2.4 metre wave ski and paddle inside it! Quite unbelievably versatile the Jazz. Where some would say “no way”, the Jazz says “no worries”. The weather was reasonable and the surf pretty OK. I managed to catch some nice waves and as usual got smashed by one but the water wasn't rough so I recovered OK. There had been some talk a few days earlier about a lot of bait fish being in the water attracting some sharks in close. Apparently a 3 metre shark was caught on a drum line not too far from where I was surfing but I didn't see any.

I also cleaned the fish tank last night. What a pain that tank is becoming. I like to have the fish but it would be nice if they kept the tank clean themselves. The tank and 5 gold fish were offered to us by some friends who didn't want it anymore. Lani told me not to take it but I have always wanted a fish tank. Only problem is I wanted one that stayed clean without too much effort.

Tanked

Our water tank arrived on Wednesday. Thankfully I wasn't required to take time off work to be there for the delivery. I spoke to the delivery truck driver on the phone and gave him instructions on where to put the tank and he took care of it. Fortunately he was able to use the truck crane arm to lift the tank over our fence, otherwise I was going to have to dig out a fence post and disassemble part of the fence to get the tank into the back yard.

I was shocked when I first saw the tank. I knew the dimensions but actually seeing it in our back yard it looked so huge. I tried to pull it down onto its side to roll it into position but my weight wasn't heavy enough to pull the 150kg tank over. So I called Matthew, a friend of ours who lives locally, and he came straight over and kindly helped me move the tank into its position.

On Wednesday night I went to Bunnings to buy all the plumbing bits and pieces needed to connect the tank up. At the checkout counter I had two 3 metre lengths of 90mm stormwater pipe standing on end against the trolley. They seemed quite stable but when I was signing the receipt for the credit card transaction one of them started to fall. The pipe just hit the hand basket of the woman behind me and nearly got her on the head but I managed to catch it in time. Then the other one fell in another direction, which I also managed to grab before it caused any damage or injury. All of a sudden I had 3 Bunnings employees trying to help and sort out the situation. I apologised to the woman who was unharmed. One of the Bunnings employees joked and said there were better ways of introducing yourself to the lady. I gave a definite “No, no, no” to indicate I had absolutely no interest, but in hindsight my denial might have been more offensive to her than the pipe falling on her. In all the commotion I just wanted to defuse the situation and get out of there. On the positive side a lesson can be learnt from the experience. Finding a Bunnings employee for service can sometimes be quite difficult. Next time you need assistance, just make something fall and you will magically have more help suddenly appear than you need.

Today I connected up the water tank to a down pipe. Now I just need lots of rain. Hopefully it won't take too much effort to hook up the electric pump to the tank and put the pavers back down around it.

Lani and the kids appear to be having a good time staying at Krysti and John's house in Canberra. I miss having them around, I don't particularly like the bachelor life.

Long and busy Easter Weekend

We have had a busy long weekend. On Friday we all went for a bike ride around part of the Broadwater starting at Southport Park riding to Peter's Fish Markets for some fish and chips. The conditions weren't the best for riding, it was a bit windy and we had a couple of very brief showers but Lani and I were determined to get the kids out of the house. On returning to the Southport Park the kids had a bit of a play and enjoyed a new swing but they didn't get too much of a go because it was quite busy due to the public holiday.

On Saturday we went to the beach at Greenmount (Coolangatta) but unfortunately the weather was against us again with windy conditions and some light rain. Despite the unfavourable conditions, the water temperature was a fantastic 24 degrees and the surf was quite clean, with some nice waves. It was the first time back on my wave ski since my Appendectomy and I really enjoyed it. Felt a little sore afterwards but I'm certainly looking forward to going back there again next weekend. With the cleaner surf conditions Jasmine and even Lani ventured into the water for a swim. James wasn't feeling too well and sat up on the beach. When we got home from the beach James managed to beat the final big bosses of the Wii game Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess. He was pretty happy with his efforts.

On Saturday night Lani and the kids flew to Canberra and are staying with Krysti and John for 10 days. They have been enjoying themselves catching up with Lani's family and today had a picnic at Black Mountain.

As for me, it is a bit quiet and lonely at home on my own but I have plenty of jobs to keep me busy. Over the past 2 days I have been making preparations for the delivery of our 7200 litre water tank coming this Wednesday. On Sunday I dug out a hole for the base including breaking up some concrete. Today I took the dirt and rock from the hole to the dump and put in a 10cm deep mix of crusher dust and cement, leveled it, then compacted it by doing a lot of stomping all over it.