Holiday Blog Post

Been a rather hectic 2 1/2 days of leave so far...

Spent Wednesday driving around getting the kids too and from school,
Kate had an orthodontic appointment and then there was dancing for
Brooke in the afternoon. Yesterday was more of the same with kids
ferrying but Niki and I were able to have a nice morning with coffee at
one of the local café's. I spent the afternoon out in the garden giving
the lawns a dose of "Weed & Feed" and also trimmed some of the hedges.

Then last night was Kate's Big Variety Night at Glenbrook Public
School. It was an open entry from all the kids in the school and she
tried out and got selected. It was a brave thing to do because she did
a self-choreographed routine with pom-poms to Kenny Loggins' Footloose.
She got up there on her own and did her stuff in front of a few hundred
parents and teachers and school mates. She made us very proud and every
kid got a certificate and she was wrapped. We celebrated a little last
night with pizza which was her choice.

Today I am home now, but was up early to drop my car in to get a tyre
puncture repaired at Bob Jane which ended up with a whole set of new
tyres as a) the repair was unable to be done and b) 1 other tyre was
un-roadworthy and the other 2 were well on their way to being out.
Given we're planning on selling the Ford soon, I said "whats the
cheapest" and I bought some dodgy brand for $149 a tyre which added up
to $680 with balancing & alignment and the various enviro levies.

Did my tax return as well though while I waited and we've managed a nice
return which will be handy...

Last Day

Huzzah!

Last work day for 2 weeks.  Unfortunately it could be a long one as I am still trying to get things done so that I can leave the office for 2 weeks and not have a care in the world.  Easier said than done.  The holidays are sketchy at the moment in regards to activities, but we intend to go to the beach at least once if not twice, probably take the kids to the movies and Springwood Pools will also get a working over I am sure.

I am looking at selling one or both of the cars.  The Ford is nearly due on its lease and I am thinking I may see what’s out there, the Barina is now out of warranty but has only done 30,000kms and we’re not sure whether we need a second car anymore.  Its just a thought…

Also, would like to get my suit pants re-tailored to take into account that I’ve lost a few kg’s and I walk around the office at the moment like I have pyjamas on.  Odd jobs around the house include a de-weeding of the lawns, maybe scrape some cash together to buy some new plants for the front yard and I want to fix some taps again – this time the ensuite vanity and the main bathroom bath.  The latter has a drip and the former has a cold tap that wont budge.  Also, there’s odd job lights to fix and I am sure a few other things I haven’t realised.

I also have a games day at Tommy’s next Wednesday (see forum for details) and will continue to run and play Diplomacy, Blood Bowl, XpertEleven and Battrick.

Posts here will be more sporadic, but we will have the camera on outings and I do intend to go on the odd bushwalk around the place so some pics will be posted here I am sure.

Games Day Review

As I mentioned in the previous post, Sunday was Games Day at my place.  Playing was Tommy “ozjesting” Dean, Richard “Virral” Andrew, Fernando “FLo” Lopez and Stuart “Smegish” Lynton and yours truly.

Formula De
Had a go at this and have been keen to play it.  Basically it’s a car racing game around a track and each player needs to select gears and go around corners in a manner that forces you to down shift gears.  The higher the gear, the greater the number of squares you move, but if you take a corner too fast you need to use a limited supply of brakes and fuel and when you run out of those items, your car can konk out or spin.  In addition, overtaking opposing cars means you can collide and take body damage and too much body damage equals failure to finish.  The very simple game system though means the game was easy to pick up and we played a two lap game around the Monaco circuit.  FLo had poll and basically led from start to finish despite a late push by Smegish (who span on the last corner) and yours truly came well and truly last when I ran out of brakes and tyres so I had to nurse the car in the last corners.  Great fun.

Fury of Dracula
A good game that was hindered by the fact that we Vampire Hunters got off to a great start.  Tommy was playing Dracula and the board was a map of Europe with a lot cities joined by roads and railway lines.  Essentially Dracula was hidden from view from us and we Hunters had to travel around Europe searching fro Dracula who left encounters for us to deal with as he passed through cities.  However straight from the get go, we worked out by luck that Dracula was in Prague and we descended upon him.  A merry chase across Eastern Europe forced Dracula to set sail across the Mediterranean and Smegish was lucky (downright arsey) to simultaneously land in Genoa when Dracula did.  Dracula met his match and given Smegish also had the good fortune to meet up with Dracula in the daytime where his powers were weak and he was slain.  Good game, I liked the dynamic and the game play (card based system for Dracula’s movement and combat) but the game was stymied by great luck for the goodies.

Betrayal on the House on the Hill
A game we have played before and was made even weirder because at this stage the house had lost power, but we had two very quick games of this as both hauntings were fairly easy to defeat.  In haunt one, Tommy’s character (Professor Longfellow) went insane and sacrificed himself to allow vampire bats into the haunted house who then were seeking the rest of us.  To defeat them, we had to find the organ in the organ room, fire it up, play the right chords which would cause all flapping bats to flee and then slay any vampires that remained attached to any of the remaining heroes.  Unfortunately for the game, FLo’s character was in the Organ room and quickly started her up and all the bats which were still flapping flew away.  Only one had started feeding on Smegish and it was quickly dispatched.

Given the very quick finish, we went again and this time it was Virral’s character who was the traitor and had evil house servants in his employ and we had to survive till dawn (10 turns) whilst we ran around the house trying to hide from Virral and his servants.  Virral quickly killed Tommy’s character and then Smegish’s character was slain soon after whilst FLo and I hid upstairs.  I had a spear and decided to defend myself whilst FLo ran away to avoid the servants and I held them at bay for the last 2 – 3 turns.  A win for the goodies!

All up, a great day thanks for the guys who came up and thanks for Niki who fed us and looked after the kids.  The next Games Day is on 2 October, details in the Forum.

Weekend Blues

Had a great weekend this weekend with a big work night our Friday with cricket and then the NRL Final on Saturday night followed by a Games Day at our place yesterday.

The only issue was however that a) I got a golden duck opening the batting on Saturday.  First ball of the innings and I failed to move my feet (was it lingering effects of the big night Friday?) and bang, off stump gone.  Greystanes 1/0.  We batted OK to recover, but failed at the death and were all out for 128 and Pendle Hill are 2/54 in reply.

Then I went to the NRL and saw Saints not play badly, but didn’t play well enough to win and we got steam rolled 24-10.  Noyz (who’s a Parra fan) went with me and was good enough to sit with me with the Dragon Army and despite it being a high class game of football, there is little consolation in that and once again Saints fail at the Prelim Final.  Bugger.

Then Sunday, lucky we were playing board games, because we lost power at about 1:30pm and the lights didn’t come back on until 9ish.  Niki, the girls and I had left over salad and sausages for dinner by candle light and the girls basically went to sleep around 7.  I fell asleep too on the lounge and woke up at about 8:30 thinking of going to bed but I went for a drive to see where the outages were.  Heaps of trees on the roads but some sections of Glenbrook had power and some were dark and even my own estate was 50-50.  The people around the corner and up the hill a bit had power.  So I went back home and Niki and I chatted instead of going to bed and sure enough the lights came on soon after.  Every clock is out, and I had to fix up the computer and then print Kate’s homework assignment and coupled with the nap I had earlier in the evening, I was wide awake at midnight.  Bugger.

Two days at work though, then its holidays :-)

Early Start - Late Finish

Am on the 6:22am train this morning as I have a teleconference with Los Angeles and because the poor Americans don’t like to work late, we start early.  8:00am Sydney is 3:00pm yesterday in LA and I don’t know why we cant move it forward an hour…

Then tonight my department is going out for dinner.  There’s about 8 or 9 of us and we’re going to a Teppanyaki style restaurant and a few bevies.  It will be a trip home courtesy of Mr CabCharge tonight.  In between the early start and dinner, I am flat out at work as I try and clear the decks before I go on leave.  Seems odd at the time you really need a break and bite the bullet and take one you work 3 times as hard in the build up,.. I am already counting down the hours to next Tuesday evening!

And for the record, Niki has asked me to tell you all that by moving the cat scratch pole to a more central part of the living room, he’s now using it instead of the lounge.

Holidays and Antics

Well I have had my annual leave approved.  I will be off work from 27 Sept to 10 Oct.  Am so much looking forward to 2 weeks of doing not much at all.  For most of that time, the girls will be on school holidays and we will do some day trips to the beach etc but other than that there are no solid plans.  I want to get in and do things like getting the lawn back into shape and we should plant some more plants in the garden.  I am keen to go bushwalking as well – take the kids on some expeditions and also do some long distance walking myself.  Also have to consider getting the car(s) ready to sell and may take some time to visit some dealers (yech!).

In addition, social times with friends, a game day or two, and hopefully watching St George win the NRL Grand Final.  It all sounds like a loose plan!

Speaking of St George, I will be heading out to the Grand Final qualifier with my mate Noyz on Saturday night against the evil that is the Melbourne Storm.  I am quietly confident and as Coach Brown has been dictating – we’re all very relaxed!  Its funny though because each season I get excited about Saints’ prospects and the so called “best roster on paper” and every season I get terribly excited and stressed and when the defeat comes its devastating.  This season however, its more back of mind for me, more of something that I am not overly thinking about and hence if Saints were to lose on Saturday night it will be disappointing, but in my mind not unexpected (Melbourne were clear Minor Premiers for a reason).  So, we’ll see where we are come Sunday morning…

Which will be my Games Day!  On Sunday, I am hosting about 5-6 people for a games day and Tommy will be bringing his kit bag of various board games.  I want to have another crack at Betrayal on the House on the Hill, plus I think I will play Settlers of Catan for the first time…. There will be about half a dozen games to choose from and maybe some split sessions.  Some of the guys will be coming up on the train and it should be good fun.  Details are in the Lime Kettles Forum (which now is correctly linked).

Catz Jackers

Well the Diplomacy Game is well underway and I am very happy to report that all players have been chatty via email and all players seem to know what they’re doing and are enthusiasts for the game.  Playing Russia I seem to have attracted correspondence from every player and all of it has been extremely well written tactical advice and propositions.  I am glad that the turn-around time for move submission is 2 weeks and not 1 as I am used to normally.

I am the only Aussie in the game with one American (based in Oklahoma) and the rest being Brits but one of those is living in Japan.  The GM is Dutch so it really has a global feel to the game.  Every time I log into my email acct, I seem to have new messages!  All very interesting.

In other news around the place, my little kitten which is now as big as an adult cat, is going into the vets today for the big snip.  Charlie the Cat has been terrorising the house and jumping out at the girls and has been going a bit stir crazy.  In addition, he has developed the biggest set of Nads I have ever seen on a cat.  He’s like a rogue bull and its been pretty funny.  The vet has said to keep him inside until he recovers from the snip, but once done I hope his “primitive urges” will subside and he’ll become a bit more placid.  He is maturing though in other ways and does have his moments when he’ll sit quietly in the lounge room or snuggle up to the girls while they sleep, but generally he is scrambling around the house looking like he’s on a big game hunt.  Also, the scratching pole and sleeping platform that we bought for him – dead set useless.  Our lounge has borne the brunt of his claws.  My advice for those who get a new kitten… save your money on scratch poles and keep it to pay for re-upholstering.