There is a season for everything...

....even posting.

Sincere apologies for not doing anything the last almost 4 months.

My only explanation is that I have changed jobs and cities.

Yes, we now live in the big smoke of Sydney.

Too long a story to go into here, but it's much better pay, better conditions, better career direction and only 25-45 minutes max from home.

That means a LOT more energy during the week & on weekends, along with spending time with Lydia in both the morning and evening.

The job is located in Burwood, and I realised how WASP Newcastle still is (university notwithstanding) when I went to get my driver's licence renewed and caucasians were less than 10% the customers.

We're living in Oatlands, just north of Parramatta (the geographic centre of Sydney).

V's folks are now just over an hour away, so it's good to have babysitting a little more on tap (and they absolutely love it).

I'm still in training, but now e-learning - everything from custom content development to software infrastructure to professional services (consultancy, hosting, training etc).

Huge learning curve, but it's a sales role, so they want you up to speed ASAP, and I'm enjoying getting out on the cutting edge :-).

I've already done a small amount of travel (to Wagga & back in 1 day), and am off to Fremantle next week to speak at a conference.

We're about 90% unpacked - only have the spare bedroom and study / craft area to fully unpack and decide on where things go.

Lydia was a bit out of sorts for a few days either side, but is now back to her sunny self.

16 months today, the words are starting to flow thick & fast and motor skills advance seemingly every 2 hours.

The experience of having your child run to your arms when arrive home is a special, indescribable feeling.

Our digital camera is proving a frustrating experience. Batteries appear to last about 90 seconds, so we're not sure what's wrong.

We downloaded one lot of photos to the home PC, so will post them once the desk emerges out from under its piles of papers (this weekend is the deadline).

We're slowly re-connecting with our existing network of friends here, while we look for new ones. With a fully dedicated spare room, we are now much more able to be hospitable to the many visitors who will no doubt crowd our doors.

Anyhoo, my lunch hour is just about up - need to get a shot of caffeine to push me thru the rest of the day.

It's nice to begin to feel I've got a life back...there's lots of exercise to be done (not to mention more frequent posting - I'll try to get it back to once/month!).