Nato's Network News

Townsville Trek

2008-07-15T21:42:00.000-07:00

Pool Princess

Fun with 3rd Cousin Sarah in her home playground

Lydia & Sarah - best buddies

Kicking back on Nana Small's couch

Hugs with Nana Small

Townsville was good, but tiring.

As you can tell from the photos, Miss Lyddy

had a fantastic adventure, and is still settling

back into her normal weekly routine after all

the excitement.

21st School Reunion was an enjoyable night

(where were you Mr Parigi, Dr Clam & Lexifab?).

We got 45 out of 350 - not a bad strike rate for

21 years.

Drinks & nibbles by the Jupiters Pool, 8-11.

Those with leave passes from spouse & children

continued to kick up their heels until 4am.

Stories already abound of regressive behaviour

with people stuck back in 1987.

Mum, Lydia & I all stayed in a twinned toom at

Jupiters. Mum's deterioriated quite a bit.

She gets worn out after not many steps at all, needs

the walker to go everywhere, and really needs to

have the hip & knees done sooner rather than later.

She's shying away from flying to visit relatives

because they have steps, even when it's big family

celebrations (60th's, weddings)...

...and don't get me started on the house it badly

needs renovations, and is really showing it's age.

Hopefully 3 days with Lydia will provide enough

leverage to her drive to get surgery so she can

start to get some kind of bigger picture for life.

Took a lot of talking, but I got permission for

me, Sylvia and cousin Ellen to get working on

a plan for her to have the surgery & lots of

rehab in Sydney, with whatever additional care

she needs when back in Townsville.

Early 2009 is the plan - fingers crossed...

Life with Lydia

2008-06-16T19:13:00.000-07:00

Reading with Blossom Possum

Drawing in bed

Horziontal Swings!

Sitting on the Sandpit...

Having Scrambled Eggs for Breakfast

Domestic Princess

Red Red Rosey

Birthday at Taronga Zoo

Swimming at friend's 4th birthday

Ah, life at 3 is one big whirlwind....it's been nearly 12 months since I posted, and 18 since some photos have gone up, so thought it was time I got my act together.

Happy viewing....

Why am I in Boston, you ask?

2007-07-11T13:05:00.000-07:00

Our global parent company has an annual sales conference, and I convinced enough people at the Dept of Defence to do our training that I hit the required revenue target to qualify.

So a free trip to the US of A for 6 jam packed days is happening now.

First 2 days have been sightseeing, conference starts tomorrow afternoon.

Does that answer your question?

Boston Is History...

2007-07-11T13:02:00.001-07:00

...at least the East Coast version, that is.

The Freedom Trail & Harvard we great eye-openers to many of the core values that drive the US of A today.

Nice to visit the place that created the publishing house whose books I used to review regularly for various Australian business publications.

Must dash - it's 4pm here Tuesday 11th, and need to fit more stuff in before calling home (it's 6am Wed 12th there).

If I can figure out how to create a work-around to temporarily load my photos onto this hotel terminal, I may even throw in some photos...(yes, my work has not yet sprung for a laptop).

A Series of (Slightly) Dated Shots...

2006-12-17T17:16:00.000-08:00

...as Lydia (or Miss Lyddy, as we call her) barrels towards two.

The TT's have well and truly begun!

Cases in point:

1. Becoming fixated on liberating plastic dining untensils from playgroups and howling uncontrollably for up to 30 minutes in spite of numerous attempts to re-direct focus & attention;

2. Separation anxiety peaking with comfort needs firmly focussed on Daddy (i.e. 20 mins to calm down this morning after I left for work);

3. Vocabulary exploding at an exponential rate (multi-syllabic and multi-word sentences), with recognition of different types of the same object (e.g. cars, dogs, trees) in different media (e.g. books, TV & real life);

4. Strong drive to independence around an increasing number of activities (e.g. eating, stairs, car seats);

5. Persistence that beggars belief once her eye is set on something (think "will you take us to Mt Splashmore" on steroids).

I think of my friends who have recently grown their broods to 3 under 3 and 5 under 10 respectively, and my admiration grows exponentially for their capacity for unconditional love.

Yes, gentle reader, do not let the above pictures of calm and cuteness fool you - just beneath the surface lurks a dark side that has to be experienced first hand to be believed.

Yet even in the midst of poo-filled nappies and the 1,000th screening of Uncle Bernie's pirate multi episode Wiggles DVD are many moments of pure joy.

With only 4 working days to 2 weeks break and an uncertain full-time job future (hopefully clarity this week), I'm reduced to blogging in work time to fill the void between inevitable Ashes Victories (not my preferred use of my indentured hours, but baggygreen.com.au is a mine of quality and up to date information).

Back to the grindstone...

RPG Flashback....

2006-10-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

evil drclams influence continues to spread.... :-)

More Lyddy news v.soon (promise!)

It might as well rain...

2006-09-11T21:39:00.000-07:00

...and we've just had a week of it.

Some of it actually fell in the catchment area, so Sydney's water situation is mildly less dire.

So much for spring :-). Apparently it will be fine again from tomorrow.

Two months since we've moved, and the new routines are just about established.

Exercise is building, and weight is dropping steadily.

Haven't really explored that much of Sydney yet, other than what work and socialising requires.

We're going to see the Boy from Oz this Sunday for our 4th wedding anniversary.
Should be fun to see Hugh Jackman, Australia's man of the moment (not withstanding Steve Irwin or Peter Brock).

Victoria & Lydia are doing well. At 17.5 months, the words are now flowing very freely. Latest vocabulary:

1. A-mo (Elmo)
2. A-me (Amen)
3. Shuuus (Shoes)
4. Dad-dyia (Daddy + Lydia)
5. Nononononono..... (speaks for itself)
6. Up/Down
7. Gown (as in the dressing variety)
8. Awdun (All done - with food/drink/anything)
9. Mummy's heeer
10. oosh
11. ook (look)

The brain development side of things is just remarkable. When in Fremantle, I heard a presentation from a 70 year old Associate Professor & Practicing Paediatrician on early childhood brain development.

It was fascinating to see how all the longitudinal studies on health brain development showed how neurone interconnectivity and brain architecture for everything from motor skills and language development is largely in place by the age of one.

The human body's an amazing thing...

There is a season for everything...

2006-08-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

....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!).

The Shortest Month...

2006-04-22T11:43:00.000-07:00

...at least as far as work is concerned. Consider the evidence:

When Easter falls in April , it means we have 3 short weeks (Good Friday, Easter Monday & Anzac Day).

When Anzac Day falls on any day but a Wednesday Thursday, people will take 1 day of annual leave for a 4 day long weekend.

Throw in school holidays, and you begin to see the problem - or opportunity, as the land of the long weekend reaches its zenith.

Autumn has finally arrived. With daylight saving now banished for another 6 months and the equinox one month past, the days are much shorter. I now arrive at the office in semi-darkness. We had our first sub-10 degree night last night. The challenge now is how to have our gas heater operational when it is not child-proof.

Typing of kidlets, Lydia's first birthday was celebrated with an afternoon tea to which a small collective, including some family, came. Thankfully it wasn't too much of a toy fest. Some will need to wait until she's out of the 'shove everything in the mouth and use it for teeth development practice' phase (which seems to have gone on forever).

Mum's just got home after 3 weeks in NSW. She's only seen Lydia at three stages of life - first week, four months and 1 year - so our surprise visit for her 70th in a month should be a good thing (note to self - must get all invitations out this week, and book all travel). Mum had also won a digital camera, which she has given to us in her luddite state. Am slowly experimenting with photo taking, and just need to load the software onto our desktop so we can transfer shots from camera to computer. Ah, the myth that new tools make you more productive - I can feel a work cliche coming on :-).

While not yet walking, Lydia is blossoming in so many ways. She seems to share her Father's 'lark' biorhythm (i.e. awake before sunrise). She's not just taking things out of containers, but can play at putting them back in, so there's hope that she can go to bed being trained to clean up after herself. Appetite seems to know no bounds - drinking c. 500mls of fluids a day, culinary tastes are expanding. We know she needs to learn to spoon food - we're just holding off until we get a drop sheet big enough to cover the floor. The only time she's upset at the moment is due to teething (8 and counting) - something beyond all our control.

Yesterday we went out for lunch at the Engine Room - a great cafe on the Honeysuckle Precinct in the Newcastle CBD. Because I'm so rarely on the ground in Newcastle, this area appears to be powering ahead with developments now after 20 years of laying the groundwork. It's great to have a dining strip where everyone is less than 18 months old, and really setting the pace for the others to follow. Lydia was very well behaved in the high chair and admired by all.

My life/work balance continues to be stretching. If I was given the tools to run more remotely, and could be guaranteed a day a week (Friday) in the Hunter, then life would be much sweeter. My last quarterly review was fine - I'm no.1 for sales in NSW and set a new individual monthly sales record in March - the organisation is asset rich, cash-flow poor and paranoid about data security. While the products and programs are excellent, the business is seeking to re-grow itself after many years in the wilderness.

Anyhow, enough rambling. See you in the marvellous month of May....hopefully will have the camera up by then and can include birthday posts for both Lydia & Mum.

Round Two - The Mood Has Struck

2006-03-18T20:17:00.000-08:00

Life continues at its relentless pace...

WORK
Jan-Feb were lousy months for the entire business.
In contrast, March has been the biggest month in the history of our office.
I set a new record for individual monthly sales.
Managed to achieve my budget for the Jan-March quarter, which means a big Easter bonus Am still racking up c.1,000kms per week, c.15hrs in the car.
Work has offered some better hours, with remote technology hopefully to come by end of the financial year, which will ease the costs (financialy & personal) considerably.
The month thus far:
In Canberra March 9-10 for a workshop.
I manage my company relationship with Defence, ATO, CSIRO & numerous state government departments - keeps me pretty busy.
In Newcastle on Friday for a workshop only 5 minutes from home at the uni.
Great day - had 3 appointments and home by 5pm!
Made me pine more for Newcastle time.
Also in the region from lunchtime tomorrow and all Thursday for a workshop with the RAAF. (Indirectly helping their people keep their FA-18's in the sky).
May need to travel to Tumbarumba (90 mins drive from Wagga) early April for more Defence work. With Easter rapidly approaching, am looking forward to my first short break for the year.

LIFE
Lydia approaches 1 with gusto:
All crawl speeds discovered less than 2 weeks after Australia Day;
Achieves standing by pulling on anything that can hold her considerable heft;
Height: Over 75cms (off the scale) Weight c.11.5-12kg's (top %)
Hand-eye co-ordination improving daily - no hand favoured as yet
Loves bright colours, esp. Victoria's "Groovy Chick" apron, and TV Weather Reports
Very good natured and behaved.
Victoria now leaves her with one of her god parents fortnightly for 1/2 day.

Speaking of the wiff, Victoria is still settling in to her 10/hr week working from home role. Enjoying keeping her skills fresh, but finding the balance between that, mothering and having her own space a new challenge. "Walk the Line" was her first film since having Lydia, and she's having a weekend away at the end of this month to re-connect with some long neglected hobbies and self-space.

Still working through whether we take the property plunge in Newcastle or look closer to Sydney (e.g. Central Coast). Hope to have made a decision before the end of the financial year. Can't bear the thought of leaving here, but am wanting to spend more time with family & have energy for more of a social life (with V for Vendetta, X3 & Supes Return all imminent, it'd be nice to enjoy them rather than fight to stay awake). We're better at entertaining this year, but late nights are limited to 1 per weekend.

Enough blithering - until next time (before May's end, hopefully)

Over 1...

2006-01-25T02:06:00.000-08:00

...with the lowest posting annual average on record, I'm sure.

Weather cool but muggy with light drizzle - 21 degrees.

Lydia 9.6 months and counting. Mobility and dexterity continually increasing. Crawling imminent.

PC's CPU died just before Christmas, so lost a couple of weeks productive time (and lots of historical emails).

First Christmas for Lydia sets all time record for cardboard box recycling. Favourite toys are musical train, activity table and bizarre four wheeled contraption that can be both walked behind and ridden.

Ante-natal class gathering at our place tomorrow - a good network for young mums. Apart from bumping into one of the dads in Woolies, haven't seen any of the dads myself since the final class in 2004.

Did not make 2006 resolution to do more blogging. Will aim for shorter posts when the mood strikes. Must do on own PC to access Lydia photos (we now have our 2 old PC's and V's laptop all networked thru a router - V's wireless).

Anyhow, Australia Day tomorrow so taking chance to stay up a little later and watch Australian Open.

State of the Union

2005-07-16T06:20:00.000-07:00

It's customary for the media to chart the first 100 days of the US Presidency (although I still shake my head that Dubya is the 'leader' of the greediest nation on earth - at least until India then China's economies really start firing). It's also said the first 100 days in a new job hold the much of the keys to your long-term future there.

Today marks Lydia's first 'ton' - and while not as rapid as Adam Gilchrist's last lightning fast Pommy-bashing in the one-day final decider, she's certainly made a significant milestone. Some reflections:

Weaning proceeds well - and as soon as she's reached the stage where breast milk is no longer produced, we are then free to share her with our network of friends so we can briefly pretend that we're DINKS once more and perhaps see a movie in a cinema together again (the last one was Robots - I have seen Revenge of the Sith and Fantastic 4 with friends, but V's yet to do a girl film).

The power of a community of caring relationships is remarkable. We have been inundated with love and practical support - at times embarassingly so. For the first 5 weeks, we received three home cooked meals every Monday, Wednesday & Friday. While Lydia has more stuffed toys than we have names for, we also were given a cot (both fixed and portable), a pram, a play mat, multiple bunny rugs, nappies, car seat - clothing (most it brand new). Everything that anyone could think of that was a big ticket item, we often had a choice of which one we accepted.

Victoria's mum's craft capabilities having us almost drowning in many of the practical things like singlets, but with the loving touch of hand-sewn flowers. Patterns of fabric are being purchased in advance for the creation of future fashions.

All of this leads me to the conclusion that blood is truly thicker than water. While conventional wisdom would interpret blood as 'biological family', the reality of following Jesus means that your blood ties extend so much further. We're so grateful that Lydia has so many brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles and grandparents so willing to love and care for us all. I don't know how many of my peers who work similar or longer hours than I without a similar level of support actually do it. The sad fact is, many don't make it - or settle for a life that's a carbon-copy (either Friends, Desperate Housewives or Lost - take your pick).

I wonder about the number of people who the ABS tell us now live alone, or only have a network of peers for support. What kind of community does it create? One that's great in a crisis or celebration, maybe - but how about the everyday relationships? Whatever one thinks of Hilary Clinton, she was right when she said it takes a village to raise a child. Although Lydia is a combination of Victoria & I, without a broader community she'd be a very isolated little girl (and even if we have more, we'd be an isolated little family. The more I look at Lydia when she's sleeping, or gaze into her eyes while bottle-feeding, or give her things to grab on the playmat, the more I'm so glad we're not in this alone. I can't imagine what it would be like if she had any major health challenges and we didn't have the people we do in our lives.

All this ruminating comes in the midst of a season of great busyness. Work is really firing up - for the next 2 Fridays I'm in Orange then Melbourne. I had three days in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago for training at very short notice. Good to connect with the Vic team, stay in Hawthorn and experience Melbourne culture a bit. Outside paid work continues to flow in at a rate which mean that Victoria may not need to take on full-time work outside of home for a considerable period of time. It's nice to be paid to get a crash-course in cutting-edge Human Resource practices. All I need to to find writing gigs in Finance, IT and Management Strategy, and I'll have covered off on an MBA while earning the $50,000 it takes to study at a blue-chip business school.

Anyhow, Lyddy's due up in 15, and it's a big day - new suits to buy (first for 7 years!), dry-cleaning, V's chiropractor, the latest Harry Potter to pick up (although when I'll finish reading it is anyone's guess), marketing strategies to draft, and family bonding in the midst of it all.

Have a good one, whatever you're doing out there in blog-land :-).

Work/Life Balance?

2005-07-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

Does such a term exist, or is normal just a setting on your washing machine?

I'm working from Newcastle today (at this stage 1 day/week). The job is easily doable, but the travel is slowly draining (compounded by times when I arrive at the office at 7am and the server is down).

This is a quick entry before Lydia arises for her morning feed (I can hear her stirring now). At almost 14 weeks, she's just starting to sleep through (with some gentle encouragement). A couple of photos from 6-7 weeks ago for your viewing pleasure (I know, I know, we don't have a digital camera and our scanner isn't connected to the computer - it's a work in slow progress, like this blog).

On weekdays, I'm up by 4:30am to be on the road to the office & avoid traffic-jams.
Lydia seems to stir at that time too. On weekends, however, she sleeps through. Other vital statistics:

1. We're weaning. V wasn't producing enough milk for L to put on weight consistently, so rather than go back to compulsory 3 hour feeds and a jersy-cow production system (think Invasion of the Body Snatchers combined with the Matrix), we bit the bullet and moved to formula. Within a week, L has obviously stacked on weight - hopefully she won't follow in her parent's footsteps.

2. Lots of smiles and noises - a new noise each week, it seems. L's a very happy & contented little girl.

3. Hands are now grasping things well (although instinctive), fingers are being sucked, head is held up well during tummy time, and the half-roll is almost mastered.

Anyhow, L's getting annoyed at my lack of visible devotion (and is starving). Must dash...

Okay, every 2 months?

2005-05-15T07:20:00.000-07:00

My only excuse is that the combination of:

a) A 5.5 week old bundle of joy who must be watered+fed+grease/oil+stimulated+sleep every 3-3.5 hours;
b) Driving an average of 4.5 hours per day to & from work;
c) Saying yes to weekend speaking engagements (like this morning - once I know how to add Power Point links, they'll go up, I promise);
d) Helping Victoria write contract articles (a gig I had in my desperate contract worker {lame spin-off of Desperate Housewives} days but have since transferred to Victoria);
e) Still trying to do some housework so I can't be accused of being one of the male homo sapiens who doesn't carry my load of domestic duties;

Has caused me to truly join the ranks of the waking dead. Trust me, that glazed eye look new parents have ain't just joy - it's constant sleep deprivation that means you abandon all thought of 6.5-8 hrs of dreamless, battery recharging bliss ever again.

Thus blogging has been relegated to the world of "potentially creative (even enjoyable) activity, but as it only increases my square eyes syndrome (i.e. PC Face-Time), it's dropped down the priority list to be relatively equal to "buy a housepet" (hang on - we got one of those almost 6 weeks ago, didn't we?)

Quick Lydia Summary

1. Eyes are now working together, so tracking feature is engaged;
2. Neck muscles getting stronger by the day: when she's looking at me, I can twist her body and her head is stationary (note to self: complete online application for Baby Exorcist: the REAL beginning;
3. Now smiling big & gummy looks that melt ice-bergs;
4. Has discovered every way for waste products to beat the nappy barrier and require the washing of the complete cot ensemble at least twice a day.

Must dash - she's stirring, and Victoria's hopefully slept an extra hour. Live long & prosper...

17 and counting...

2005-03-19T07:22:00.000-08:00

Hard to believe in less than a month another body will inhabit our cosy world. One that requires round the clock attention and care, but one that I'm sure will be a source of tremendous joy.

I've spent the last month immeresed in work induction (first performance review passed with flying colours), working (generating some good early wins and slowly building the right kind of client base), and spending whatever down time I can around the house gradually improving my appalling handyman skills.

I'm now house-sitting a place in West Pennant Hills in Sydney during the week when I stay overnight. It's closer to work, handy to some key shops, and gives me my own space in the evenings.

The best thing about the job is that it doesn't take a lot of headspace for me to do well. Main drawback is that until a Newcastle presence is solidly established (6-12 months away) weekends are about recovery and I don't have a lot of energy for outside activities (although exercise is slowly picking up)

Autumn is definitely here now - a week's worth of cool, cloudy days with occasional rain has certainly knocked the edge off summer. Our church community funday is at risk tomorrow as a result - if it doesn't run, that'll be 3 of the last 4 cancelled.

Anyhow, a day of domestics awaits - how life has changed from movies, musicals, plays and restaurants to domesticity...not that it's a bad thing :-).

So much for weekly....

2005-02-07T13:30:00.000-08:00

...perhaps monthly will end up being the go!

Life has been so full since the new job was confirmed - between that, getting ready for the baby's imminent arrival (7 weeks and counting) and doing all the normal "life stuff", the thought of sitting down to type more stuff when I've spent most of the day in front of a computer screen has been less than appetizing.

Briefily, the highlights of January:

1. I finally got a full time job offer. Started work on Feb 2 as an account director with Priority Management - a training & education company (www.prioritymanagement.com.au) early days, but looks like it has the potential to move in a positive direction. Main challenge is that it's largely in Sydney, meaning separation from the family for most of the week. I'm staying with in-laws at Mt Colah, which means I'm only 90 minutes away from home - but it's going to be hard leaving the girls behind every day;

2. Spoke twice at church and then turned those 2 talks into 4 that were given at an in-service training for Lake Macquarie Christian College presented the week Australia Day fell;

3. Wrote 5 x 1,000 word articles on various human resource issues for client newsletters produced by a marketing consulting firm that specialises in the recruitment sector;

4. Attended 4 x 3hr ante natal classes to learn all there is to know about pregnancy, birth and immediately after having a baby (I wish). Classes were informative, but fatherhood looms large on the horizon and apart from a great love of children and lots of theory from devouring books, plus some practice on all my friends kids, I'm feeling ill-equipped to handle this 'new dad' thing. I guess all parents are!

V's parents were up last weekend to drop off a whole heap of baby clothes & other things from generous in-laws (e.g. travel cot). People have been so helpful and supportive - at least that's something I know I can count on to some degree when I'm not around.

V continues to blossom and is looking forward to finishing work in just under 3 weeks.

The lowlight was contracting some kind of throat bug that morphed into chesty cough that I've had for over 2 weeks now. In spite of gradually upping the ante from the pharmacist, it continues to hang on, so I've been to the doctor for the hard-core drugs. Hopefully they'll make an immediate difference - nothing like a scorched earth policy on your immune system to get results.

Anyhow, must dash - more articles, packing and drugs to partake of.

Nato's Network News

2005-01-06T22:37:00.000-08:00

10:38pm, when I should be putting out my interview clothes for tomorrow morning, and I've started a blog.....hmmm, this viral marketing thing is really catching on! Will add more in the future (don't despise the days of small things - pun absolutely intended) - must go & get enough sleep to cope with the 6 hours of driving and 2 interviews.

Sleep well, all (not that anyone's reading this yet....)