The modern life and times of Juthan

So long Pa...

2005-04-14T15:55:00.000+10:00

The worst April Fools Day joke ever. That's what I was hoping Dad's phone call was on the evening of April 1st when he called me to say that his own father had suddenly died. Even though I knew from the pain in his voice that it was anything but a joke.

Pa Wigg died in Sydney on the evening of April 1st, 2005 of an aortic aneurism. In effect, his aorta had been ballooning and steadily weakening for some time, and it eventually disintegrated causing massive internal hemorrhaging. In other words, the aorta pretty much went away and the heart was pumping blood straight into his body cavity. Nan was by his side and the end came mercifully quick according to her.

The following account may be innaccurate, however this is how the events were explained to me...

Apparently Greg (the husband of my Aunt Angela who is Dad's youngest sister) had been on the phone to Pa earlier in the day. Greg noted that Pa seemed to be a bit vague on the phone and he asked Pa if he was OK. "No, not really" was the response and Pa noted that he had pain across his chest. Pa called his doctor who recommended an ambulance be called straight away. When the ambulance arrived, Pa was able to walk out to it on his own, but upon arriving at the hospital he suffered the first of several heart attacks. At this point, even if staff had been able to correctly diagnose the problem, there was little that surgeons could do. The aorta was quickly giving way. A second attack hit Pa later in the evening, although doctors apparently were struggling to ascertain the nature of the problem and even indicated to the family that things were going to be OK. A third attack struck Pa at around 11pm and killed him.

The first thing my poor Dad knew was at around 10:30 on the Friday night when his older sister (Maxeme) called him to say that Pa was in hospital with heart problems, but that things were apparently OK. Now, that would obviously be a shock and a cause of great concern especially when you're 2,000km away. (Mum and Dad live in Hobart.) Imagine the anguish when Maxeme called back about 20 minutes later to say that Pa was not OK afterall, and in fact he had died.

I think the greatest cause of pain for me personally was not Pa's passing - afterall he is gone and no longer suffering any pain. Nor was it the grief and worry I felt for Nan who is now left on her own without the man she loved so deeply and did nothing without. For me the greatest pain was hearing the pure heartbreak in Dad's voice when we talked on the phone. Dad is not a "bloke" by any means, nor does he repress emotion or appear stoic no matter the situation, but he does not often cry. To hear him weeping over a long distance line was awful. There is something about a father's appearance to his child that almost conveys immortality, or at least it does to this child. Mums are loved above all else of course, and a bond between a mother and her child is something sacred in my opinion. Yet the father is different. Perhaps it is part hunter gatherer, part warrior/protector, part "knower of all things". I don't know how to express it, but a comment from a friend rang true a couple of months ago. Her own father was dying of cancer and has since passed away when he said "I'm sorry I can't be your Superman anymore". I think that sums it up pretty well. Dads are like Superman to their kids. It was a strange sensation to watch my father grieve over his fallen Superman while still trying to be mine. Perhaps it is the three generational link between grandfather, father and son - I'm not sure. But it was certainly a vastly different experience for me compared to when Mum's parents died. Maybe Sarah (my sister) felt the same way when Nan Lockley died and Sarah watched Mum grieving over her mother.

When Mum's parents each died they were both very unwell. It's not that we were looking forward to it, but we were certainly expecting their departure when it came for each. Pa's came out of nowhere. That sudden loss is almost too much to take when there are things left undone and words left unsaid. Thankfully, Nan and Pa had called in to our house about 6 weeks ago on their way back from Tasmania. (I even mentioned it here in a post.) Dad had also spoken to Pa at length the night before Pa died as well, so there was some sense of "goodbye" there for Dad I guess.

I have always looked at the "spread" of our family across 4 states (we're in Tasmania, Victoria, ACT and New South Wales) as a healthy sign of independence. On that night it was the worst source of anguish as we were all seperated from each other at a time when we most needed contact.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to express this clearly, but Nan and Pa Wigg were the grandparents I always felt a more natural bond with due to the fact that I grew up in Sydney and they were the grandparents that I saw regularly. My maternal grandparents in Hobart were also very dear to me of course, but as I'd only see Nan and Pa Lockley once a year when we'd holiday in Tasmania over the summer they were always a bit more special. Just as loving of course, but kind of like the special treat that was brought out on rare occasions, whereas Nan and Pa Wigg were the good ol' Nan and Pa that we saw all the time. (I was right. I can't express that clearly.)

Nan and Pa Wigg were obviously aging, but Pa's general health always seemed pretty good to me. Perhaps it was just me not being observant, but I always thought that if there was anyone in the family who would make it to 100, it would be him. It wasn't to be.

Anyway, we all flew up to Sydney on the Tuesday (5th) for Pa's funeral and cremation. It was great to finally get to Dad and Nan and the rest of the family and give them all a big hug. Pa's funeral was quite a nice simple affair held at a funeral home in North Ryde. Pa was quite involved in the IOOF and Lodge societies who both helped organise the service and helped the family a lot I think. (The IOOF have actually declared a 3-month period of official mourning which is apparently quite a big deal. Usually if they declare a mourning period at all it is just for one day.)

We all flew back on Thursday evening and it was really hard to leave Nan behind. I was worried about how she was going to cope once everyone else had gone. While the entire family was there she was being propped up (whether that's good or bad), but once Maxeme returned to Canberra, we returned to Melbourne, Dad returned to Hobart etc that only left Ian and Angela to help her through. Both of them work full time so there's only so much that they can do. Linda - in her truly caring fashion and being the angel she is - offered to stay behind with Chelsea and Kristen to keep Nan company. Turns out that Nan already had a friend coming to stay who was also a recent widow, but I was amazed by Linda's offer. She's a true gem.

Anyway, Pa is gone. Still can't really accept it due to the suddenness of the whole thing. I think the best compliment he was given was from Nan who said all her Wigg boys are good and decent men, and they all inherited that trait from Pa. That's about as high a compliment as I'd hope for when my time comes. Pa must have been proud of his achievements - a self-taught man who raised a happy and successful family and lived a full and eventful life after his retirement as a company accountant at Ampol (now part of ChevronTexaco). He and Nan certainly did not put their feet up in retirement and had only recently returned from driving trips to South Australia and outback New South Wales. I think my most fond memory of Pa will be the day that Dad, Pa and I went up to Mum and Dad's property in Swansea to do some electrical work. Dad had to return to the hardware store for some more supplies and Pa and I were charged with looking after the lunch that was already on the BBQ. Anyway, we naturally got distracted with other things and before we knew it Dad had returned and our lunch now consisted of six strips of charred material that were originally English-style beef sausages. The two of each getting in trouble together was probably the closest we'd been! :-) I'll also miss his instantaneous map references whenever I mentioned the name of some place. He would have the relevant map out within seconds... :-)

I'm going to add a verse below and I hope these more learned words can better express the emotions I felt last week...

I cannot say; and I will not say
That he is dead. He is just away!
With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand,
He has wandered into an unknown land.
And left us dreaming how very fair
It needs must be, since he lingers there.
And you--oh you, who the wildest yearn,
For the old-time step and the glad return
Think of him faring on, as dear
In the love of There as the love of Here...
Think of him still as the same, I say;
He is not dead, he is just - away!
- James Whitcomb Riley

Bye for now...

Who you gonna call?

2005-03-23T12:33:00.000+11:00

I wonder if the age of the home phone line is over?

Linda and I are seriously thinking about ditching our land line. Why? Because we never use it. We are both on capped mobile phone plans that allow for up to $500 of calls/SMS etc for $79 per month. Once you've used more than $79 worth of stuff - which we always do - you might as well go for the full $500 worth, which is what we've been doing. (We've never gotten close to $500 on a monthly bill by the way. It's my on-going challenge!) So, given that scenario, we never make calls on the home phone. Similarly, no one ever calls us on our home phone. So why pay $20 a month to Telstra for a line rental that we never use?

Problem is that others will probably get funny about having to call us on a mobile instead of a land line. Still, it's all about me so who cares what they think? :-)

Perhaps we'll ditch our current crapola dial-up internet connection and switch to broadband with all that money we save from dumping the land line. TPG have a pretty good broadband deal at the moment it seems - a 20GB monthly limit at 1.5MB/256 speeds for just $49.95 per month. Sounds like a good price. I wonder if it's a bit too good to be true...

Other stuff - not much to report apart from the fact that Kristen apparently laughed this morning for the first time. Linda and Chelsea were giving her a zubber [*] on her tummy and she chuckled. Guess the challenge is for me to be able to repeat it tonight!

[*] zubber = that thing where you blow a raspberry on someone's skin. I don't know where I got the word zubber from - I thought that was the common phrase but apparently I'm all alone. A Google search on zubber returns nothing on the subject at hand. What do other people call it?

Sorrento, Rocky Balboa and ... DEATH!

2005-03-21T11:19:00.000+11:00

Hi Blog. Long time, no post...

First off, the good news - we had an absolutely awesome weekend down at Sorrento staying at the weekender home of some friends. Really nice weather, Chelsea and I spent most of Saturday at the beach digging holes in the shallow sand banks just of shore. (They were her "baths" that she was making...) After a baby-chino or two (and one of the best vanilla slices on the planet) it was back down to the beach for more bath-making.

On Saturday night we had some of the best tasting fish & chips I've ever come across - but we were sure paying Sorrento prices when it came to $62 for a few pieces of fish, calamari rings and chips! I nearly fainted...

Anyway, the bad news is that Chelsea was bitten by some insect down there when in bed on Saturday night and has had some kind of allergic reaction to the bite. Her right eye is totally swollen to the point that she can't open it. She really does look like Sylvester Stallone in "Rocky" but without the blood. She's been to the doctor and there's nothing to worry about, but it looks shocking. When she went to school this morning everyone was freaking out. It was quite funny - all the other kids were running up to take a look. I was tempted to start the "roll up, roll up one and all - come and see the incredible freak with only one eye!" act...

Had a mild heart attack when I heard on the news that there was a bombing in Qatar at a theatre popular with "westerners" yesterday. Qatar just happens to be where Nick is these days, and when I heard that the "British school" next door was also hit then I really started to worry. (Nick teaches at a British school where they even have to teach the British national curriculum. Not sure how many Qatari six year olds are going to remember the order of the Tudor monarchs.) Anyway, got an e-mail from Nick last night who assured me that all was fine. Good news...

Listening to John Mayer's "Heavier Things" album at the moment. (Hey, better late than never.) Great songs - wish I could write like that.

By the way - the phrase of the decade was uttered by Linda the other night. The dog of the friend we were staying with had to be put down a year ago when (out of the blue apparently) it savaged a cow at the family farm. Linda's follow-up question was - "Oh my God! Did it kill it to death?" No Linda, it just killed it a little bit and it recovered soon after. :-) Needless to say she copped a pretty strong ribbing for the rest of the night.

Today's dictionary.com Word of the day: spoonerism \SPOO-nuh-riz-uhm\, noun:The transposition of usually initial sounds in a pair of words.

J

Uncomfortably Close

2005-03-08T14:23:00.000+11:00

Linda just called to tell me that there are 4 police helicopters hovering almost directly over our house. Then I find these:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Security-guard-shot-dead/2005/03/08/1110160803661.html?oneclick=true

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200503/s1318502.htm

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12479231%255E661,00.html

Poor man...

This is at the shopping centre just behind our house! The REALLY freaky thing is that it happened @ 12:45 which is when Kristen was scheduled to have a check up at the Maternity Clinic. That is right next door to the Commonwealth Bank. Scary stuff...

Linda has locked the doors!

February 4th, and all's well!

2005-02-04T15:15:00.000+11:00

My dearest Bloggaz,

Not much to report today. Mum and Dad are coming over for the weekend which will be nice. First time they'll have met Kristen etc...

Birthday was fun - dinner @ Piccolino's was followed by an awesome chokkie mudcake at our house from a really upmarket cake shop - I think it's called "Coles". :-) Lots of pressies too which was lovely (and unexpected!). At last I have a couple of new books to read - I was almost going to pick up Lord of the Rings for the fourth time in 3 years. Thankfully Zen gave me Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" which preceded his "Da Vinci Code" bestseller. Woowyams also gave me the "Great Aussie Bathroom Reader" - good on ya Woowyams! Lots of fascinating trivia in there. (For example, did you know that the ABC's address of "GPO Box 9994 in your capital city" is a tribute to Don Bradman's batting average of 99.94?)

Mum and Dad gave some nice dollars too - I'm tempted to grab the "Live Aid 20" DVD set. Andreas tells me it's gold. (I must go see him - I've been back since July and still haven't caught up. Shocker...)

Work issue: When in a team-lead position, how do you manage a resource who is constantly going off on wild tangents and wasting project time and money? In a perfect situation I could introduce a new development methodology like Agile (although Agile somewhat leans towards "micro-management" IMHO) to better manage resource time. However, I have nowhere near enough clout for that. So, when you have a resource who is meant to be documenting some future strategies, and you can see that they are actually repeatedly reviewing past-project code that they just can't "let go", what do you do? Do I have to stomp this guy, or even worse send him back to the bench? Or is there some way that I can re-focus his attentions on the here and now? Perhaps the tenth attempt at the latter will work... >:-( (Perhaps I actually DO have to send him back to the bench.)

Other things: Nothing to report apart from the fact that I'm about to start up a new gym membership. Having now cracked the 110kg mark (OH MY GOD!) and been formally placed into the "fat bastard" bucket, I have been motivated enough to join Aqualink Nunawading's gym. A thoroughly humiliating fitness assessment will be first up, followed by a fitness program that I will no doubt completely ignore. As long as I can get married in Fiji and go swimming at the beach there without massive fat rolls hanging over the edge of my shorts, I'll be happy! :-)

Melbourne has been swamped by some truly zany weather. Tuesday was 36 degrees at lunch time and had plummeted to about 13 by 6pm. Wednesday was a top of 14 before the heavens opened up and it didn't stop for 31 hours! The Yarra nearly burst its banks, and the river actually rose up so high that it was lapping over the lower footpath at Southgate. A mate who is contracting @ Crown told me that jellyfish were washing up on the footpath. Anyway, 120mm of rain in a single day is apparently the all-time record here. Crazy stuff. I was waiting for Dennis Quaid to burst through the door and rescue us all! :-) (See here if that last comment lost you.)

Today's Dictionary.com Word of the Day: discursive \dis-KUR-siv\, adjective:1. Passing from one topic to another; ranging over a wide field; digressive; rambling.2. Utilizing, marked by, or based on analytical reasoning -- contrasted with intuitive.

The first entry somewhat sums up this blog, don't you think?

Justin

Happy birthday to me...

2005-01-31T15:54:00.000+11:00

Hip hip! Hoo-ray!

Awesome, another year older. Great, just GREAT! How is it possible that I am 34 already? I thought I was young and cool but it seems that I've become an old bastard without even realising. I guess that's what happens to us all. I also have to share the day with Linda (fiance) who was rude enough to also be born on January 31st. Despite me frequent protests she is refusing to reschedule her birthday. Unacceptable! I WAS HERE FIRST DAMMIT! :-)

Anyway, what's doing? Well, something that I forgot to mention in the last post is that Linda and I have decided to get married in Fiji in March 2006. Hopefully some friends and family can make it along with us - but Linda and I are conscious that we're asking a lot of some people to fork out over a grand to come see us get married. Still, that's 7 night in Fiji, baby! YEAH! :-) Official invites should be going out soon...

Now on to other matters. Had a lengthy talk to Paul Barrs the other night - a REALLY old mate from my days in Sydney (I was born in Melbourne, but grew up in Sydney until 14) and acting with Shopfront Theatre. We were both in a play that the whole cast wrote along with Errol Bray and performed for a while in Sydney, Vancouver, New York (@ the United Nations General Assembly no less!), New Jersey, LA, London etc etc. (I didn't make the London leg as my parents decided we'd move to Tassie after I returned from North America.) Anyway, that was all back in 1985 so it's been a while since we saw each other. Bizarre thing - I couldn't get over how I was completely mis-remembering things about our journeys. Paul fished out an old diary he had kept while we were in North America and it turns out things that I am sure I can remember as clear as day are actually a total mis-mash of different events. Weird how the memory works - or more to the point DOESN'T work! Ah, 1985. What a year. I was 14, living large in Sydney, touring internationally with an acclaimed theatre company with others who have gone on to fame and fortune, and then came Tasmania. Hey Justin, forget all this stuff, we're going to live in Hobart! It'll be great. Freezing cold nine months of the year, no beaches, no theatre stuff at all to speak of, about one twentieth the population of Sydney, no more friends, no more going to Cronulla Beach for school sports afternoon every Tuesday. Thanks Mum and Dad. No, really. Thanks. :-) (I'm still a little upset if you couldn't tell! Actually, I'm not really. I'm just recalling my anger at the time. I grew to love Hobart and now that I'm back in Melbourne I quite miss it. Besides, life has been good - REAL good - so who knows where I would have been if we'd stayed in Sydney...)

Baby news now, and Kristen is firmly in the land of smiles. It's great to get some kind of reaction when you're talking to your child. She's been a great baby so far. I was quietly nervous as so many people I know that have had second children have said that their first was an angel, and the second was the devil incarnate. Just look at my sister. Hi Sarah! :-) But, Kristen is just wonderful. She's such a happy baby, always smiling and gurgling to herself. Must be that she's happy her Dad is such a cool dude even though he is officially an old bastard. :-) She's always happy to go along with whatever's happening, or to be held by whoever wants a cuddle. Here's a good example - on Saturday night we took her to a Karoake/buffet dinner place thing (that was totally lame, but that's another story) to celebrate our birthday with the gang. It was a pretty loud place once the music started up, but she never even cried. (Chelsea stayed at Maddie's house for the night, but Kristen was too young to be sat for that length of time while Linda's still breastfeeding, so she had to come!) Anyway, I rocked the house with a smashing version of Stevie Wonder's Superstition and everyone fell on their knees to praise the glory that is Jay Dubya. :-)

Funny thing happened while I was filming Kristen in Chelsea's lap last night too. Kristen was looking up at Chelsea and smiling away, the kind of thing that has a huge "Awwwwww" factor and you just HAVE to get on camera. As I'm filming Kristen's face suddenly went from smile to a very determined push and the we heard the raspberry-style sound of a nappy being instantly filled with semi-solid matter. Kristen immediately returned to beaming smiles, but Chelsea was suddenly looking VERY worried. I asked Chelsea what had just happened, and she said that "Kristen did a poo!". Despite Linda and my constant reassurance that Kristen was wearing a nappy and therefore Chelsea was safe, all she could say was "Mummy, take her away now." You've got to see the video to get the effect, but believe me it's one of the great video moments...

Pissed off that Lleyton Hewitt lost the Oz Open last night. In fact it proved my point that if I get too involved with something, the result is bad. I'm serious! I missed the first set because of some stuff I had to take care of, and Lleyton won the first set 6-1. I finally sat down in front of the telly in the middle of the second set and Lleyton lost that set 6-3. Then I had to get up and do some other stuff and Lleyton is winning the third set 4-1 until I sit down again, when he immediately drops his next 2 service games and loses the third set 6-4. I watch the fourth set in its entirety and Lleyton again loses the set (and the championship) 6-4. Then I immediately switch over to the cricket in time to see Australia squander a nice run-ratio and lose to Pakistan by three wickets in the WACA one-dayer. BALLS!

Still, I'm actually happy for Marat Safin. He seems like a genuinely nice guy when appearing in an interview etc with a really good sense of humour. Given that he had lost 2 Australian Open finals before (to Federer in 2004 and Thomas Johansson in 2002), it was probably his turn. Lleyton can get them next year. Anyway, Lleyton apparently proposed to Bec Cartwright last night who is certainly not ugly, so I'm sure he had a pretty good night anyway... >:-)

Well, I'd better trot off now. Apparently we're off to Piccolino's for dinner tonight with Linda's family - yum! That'll be great. Always up for Piccolino's! Mum and Dad are coming over on Saturday for a few days too which is going to be fantastic. Can't wait for them to meet the little piggie.

OK blog - goodbye and good luck!

J

Kristen, meet the world. World, this is Kristen...

2005-01-19T00:45:00.000+11:00

It's all happening here Richie! Births, deaths, and lots of nappies!

2005-01-18T10:25:00.000+11:00

Hello blog-world!

My apologies for the terrible slackness in getting a new entry to you. However with a new baby, and the whole Christmas & New Year period, it's been terribly difficult to find any time for such things. Plus, I think this is going to be a LONG entry. There is much to tell!

So first things first, I hope you had a great Christmas and New Year. I don't think Boxing Day will ever be the same after the tsunami disaster - it's hard to imagine the scope of that tragedy. Over 175,000 people dead. It's like lining up the entire population of Hobart and killing them all. Incredible - and horrific. And while it is fantastic the way the world has come together to help the devastated regions financially, can you recall a similar effort for the Great Tangshan Earthquake in China in 1976 where an estimated 400,000 died? How about the Bhola cyclone that killed over half a million in Bangladesh in 1970? Given the scale of this disaster, it's hard to image the devastation that must have occurred in the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake that killed 830,000 or the 3,700,000 that died in the flood of the Huang He river in 1931. Apparently there was a early outbreak of the bubonic plague around 550 that was known as the "Justinian Plague" that killed 100,000,000. How depressing this whole thing is - let's change the subject!

Now, I'd like to introduce Kristen Elizabeth Wigg to the world. (Photos coming soon.) She finally decided to stop messing around and make a definite appearance on December 20th, 2004 at 6:06am. (Monday's child is fair of face!) She weighed in at 3.685kg (8lb2oz in the old measurements) and 53.5cm in length (around 21 inches). She made quite a dramatic entrance too - but I'll start back at the beginning.

If you've read the earlier posts, you'll be aware that Linda had had several false labours. The mother of all false labours was on Saturday the 18th. The bloody thing was going all day and as usual, Linda was saying that this time it was "definitely the real thing". The fact that she wasn't being incapacitated during the contractions as she had been with Chelsea made me think otherwise, and as usual I was right. (God it hurts to be this good.) At around 4:30pm everything shut down and we had a normal Saturday night of going down to the local mall, drinking cask wine from a plain bladder and starting fights with the Ringwood bogans. Then Sunday was completely uneventful. We went to bed reasonably late on the Sunday night - around midnight. I was just finishing "The Da Vinci Code" novel and was still reading at 1:00am when I looked aver to Linda who had her eyes half open even though I could tell she was still asleep. (If you've ever seen a picture of a dead person with their eyes open, you'll know the look I'm talking about. Looks freaky.) So I sort of woke Linda up by asking her if she was OK, and even though she hadn't had a contraction yet, she calmly looked at me and stated "the baby's coming". Weird. But sure enough, within 60 seconds the first contraction hit. This time it was for real as Linda was reacting the same way she had with Chelsea. So phone calls were made to Linda's mum who was on Chelsea-sitting duty and we got ready to leave for the hospital.

We got to Birralee at around 2:30am and went straight in to the delivery suite. Pretty nice deal - big double bed, bath, shower etc etc. Even though you're not allowed to video the birth in case of a malpractice suit, I hid the camera under some clothes. Linda hopped into the shower as the hot water helps with the pain.

Now, something about deliveries - most women who have had more than one child will say that the second is better as the delivery takes less time. What they don't appear to tell you is that the same amount of pain is packed into that shorter time frame and therefore the whole thing is more intense. Because it was the middle of the night and Linda was so tired, she wasn't coping well. To make matters worse, the water still hadn't broken, so the whole thing was trying to come down a dry pathway. Ouch. So I was doing the usual helpless male thing and rubbing Linda's lower back and trotting around getting Linda drinks of water etc.

By 6am there was still very little happening. The head was still about 7 or 8cm up the birth canal and the doctor manually broke the water. Linda had been lying in the traditional position on her back and the poor woman had completely run out of steam. She was trying to push but just had no energy left at all. Her constant pleas of "someone help me please!" were really starting to get to me and I just felt so completely helpless.

Anyway, the midwife brought in something called a commode which is like a toilet seat on a wheelchair. It's not meant to be used as a toilet, but is something that can help in difficult deliveries as sitting upright lets gravity do some of the work as well. So Linda hops on the commode and I'm facing her while sitting on the edge of the bed and holding her arms. Suddenly she lets out this almighty push and as I look down between her legs (excuse the graphic imagery) I see the mountain of material gush out. It was just a huge WHOOSH. I had no idea what had just happened - in fact (if you'll excuse the grossness of this statement) I thought she had crapped her innards out. That's what it looked like. So I'm freaking out, and the midwife has this stunned look on her face and suddenly yells at me to run and press the emergency button. I tell you I was like Carl Lewis at the '84 LA Olympics as I ran over and slammed that button as hard as I could.

Then I heard a sound that floored me. A baby's cry. I assumed that what I had seen was the membrane breaking and all the liquid gushing out. It turned out that the entire membrane and Kristen had all come out in one push. Incredible. However there was now a real danger. Linda was panicking and was trying to stand up as the baby was still half in the little bowl very closely underneath the seat. (The midwife had half caught Kristen as she gushed out.) The problem was that Kristen was still attached to the umbilical cord, and the umbilical cord was still attached to the placenta which was still inside Linda's uterus. So if Linda (who was very uneasy on her feet) fell over the baby would be reefed out through the commode seat and over with Linda, possibly slamming to the floor. So Linda continued to stand as still as she could as the midwife quickly passed poor little Kristen back between Linda's legs and onto the bed.

I told you it was a dramatic entrance! I never even had a chance to switch the video camera on!

Now both our kids kept us up all night while being born. All those people out there who crap on about being born at a "reasonable" hour in the early morning - YOU SUCK! You kept your poor parents up all night you bastards! :-)

Now, on to other things. Christmas was great. The tree looked good and there was lots of prezzies underneath. Santa gave Chelsea a complete wooden kitchen setup - oven, benchtop, sink, microwave, fridge etc etc. She loves it. Kristen, all of 5 days old, was given some new born stuff - musical mobile, play mat thing etc etc. Daddy was lucky enough to get the "Return of the King" special edition DVD (completing the series), some new shoes and other things. And Santa gave Linda a new watch, and some new clothes now that her body size was rapidly shrinking. Lunch was at Linda's parents house and Sarah (my sister) came as well which was really nice. Linda's parents were reasonably civil towards eachother (they're currently divorcing and have just put their house on the market).

The gang gave Chelsea and Kristen a backyard swing set which was just fantastic. Chelsea loves it, and I'm sure Kristen will give it a shot in the distant future. Funny thing happened the day after we set it up - Chelsea was swinging and a bird crap landed on the seat right next to her. SPLAT! (The seats are quite wide.) She had no idea what it was and was convinced it was ice cream. It took some pretty rapid intervention from Daddy to stop a taste-bud catastrophe from occurring.

New Year's was a Michael and Kylie's house in Narre Warren (WAY out in the sticks but is a really nice big house that was only built a few months ago) and was a good night for all. Michael, Crabs [*] and I were stupid enough to jump over to the other fence, and then moon the girls by jumping back up and sitting on the fence with our backs turned. In our slightly alcohol-modified state, we never considered that a wooden paling fence is a good candidate for a splinter generator, and my poor bottom suffered for a couple of days. The Halo 2 contest that was held the next morning helped us forget our pain though...

Not much else has happened in my holidays. We took off to Lakes Entrance for a few days last week. It was quite funny - the first time we've had a real family trip in the car and it was a sufferable experience - just. The Buchan caves were a highlight as well as the swim @ 90 Mile Beach. Great surf. If only I'd had my board I could have been carving it up in the green room and dropping in on the local grommets. (Sh!t I'm cool!)

Some sad news the other day - Miriam Hyde, renowned Australian composer, family friend and my first piano teacher, died of cancer. (Can you imagine sitting your AMEB piano exam and playing a syllabus composition written by your own teacher?) She was 91 which is a great innings, but she was one of those people who just seemed like they would keep on rolling on. It's sad to see her go. Farewell Miriam.

Back at work yesterday (Jan 17th). Currently suffering the same cold and cough as Linda, Chelsea and Kristen. Yep - the WHOLE HOUSE is sick at the moment. We're fun to be around I'm guessing.

So blog, that's about it. Now that I'm a bit less tired and a bit more on-line I'm sure I'll have lots more exciting installments for you.

Today's Dictionary.com word of the day is one for my fellow space geeks: apogee \AP-uh-jee\, noun:1. The point in the orbit of the moon or of an artificial satellite that is at the greatest distance from the center of the earth.

Talk soon...

J

[*] "Crabs" is actually Craig Tyers who had the unfortunate luck to be labelled "Crabs" by a 1 year old Chelsea who couldn't pronounce his name properly. I understand that his own parents are starting to address him as Crabs now...

The problem is that we're stuck in Australia

2004-12-14T10:30:00.000+11:00

(If you don't know what I'm talking about, you have to click on the subject heading you dope.) This must be some of the best ever satirical writing concerning Australia - with the possible exception of the "Axil of Evil" parody in which Canada, Mexico and Australia form the "Axis of Nations That Are Actually Quite Nice But Secretly Have Nasty Thoughts About America".

In other news, there is no news. Although I brilliantly dominated the ring-throwing exercise at Alinta's "health morning" today, totally kicked arse in the vision test and ran like a fugitive from the fat test. (I know I'm overweight - I don't need some smarmy gym-freak to tell me that.)

Chelsea's school Christmas concert is on tonight. Should be funny. Apparently her class are going to be dancing the Nutbush. (Does this complete the circle after laughing at all those bogans over the years who were dancing the Nutbush while trying to pick up some trailer-trash? OH MY GOD! ARE THEY TRAINING MY DAUGHTER TO BE A BOGAN?)

We went to look at the Myer Christmas windows with Woowyams on Saturday night. Fought for a car park for 30 minutes, stood in the queue for another 50, and the windows were all over in about 4.5 minutes. Anyway, you've gotta do it. Chelsea loved it. (It was about the "Polar Express" this year...)

Went to Dean's (family) 18th on Friday night. Pretty good night although as it was the family-only side of the celebration it was pretty tame. I burned some CDs for him as he wanted me to arrange the music, and in doing so I inadvertantly added a few songs with the F-bomb in them. Grandma Kimitsis was not impressed. Oh well, I should have gone the whole hog and added 2Pac's "Hit 'Em Up" or something...

Cracked it with Linda last night - after doing all the pre-housework chores and putting Chelsea to bed I was told off for taking too long while reading the book and being away from Linda for too long. When I say I cracked it, what I mean is that I acted like a kid and took myself to bed! Oh well, guess we'd both had enough for that day. (After falling asleep the next thing I knew, Linda was brushing me with Lolly's tail at 11:30pm. One of those situations where she was laughing, and I was laughing inside, but not being very good at waking up, all I could manage was a 3dB grunt.)

Anyway, looking forward to having this bloody kid. We're sick of waiting, which is stupid as it's not due until Friday. This is what happens when the whole bloody family gets keyed up for it to come early because they're excited about it. So now it feels like the baby is late, even though it's still early. Oh well, looks like I was right again when I said that it won't come early. (Man, it's so boring to be right all the time!)

Today's (very appropriate) Dictionary.com word of the day: aborning \uh-BOR-ning\, adverb:While being produced or born.

J

2004-12-12T23:32:00.000+11:00

CC @ SmallFry Agency. Future Olympic gold medallist swimmer, worldwide supermodel and general international all-round superstar. Let the millions roll in... :-)

Nothing to see here, move along

2004-12-10T10:35:00.000+11:00

Well Mr. Blog, what a disappointing week this has been. No baby action at all (although Linda is well over this whole thing) after the excitement of last week.

The first shots from Chelsea's first modelling portfolio have come through. (I'll attach it once I have got some image hosting sorted - in the meantime look here) Apparently she did well at swimming on Wednesday morning and dove to the bottom of the pool to get the toy elephant all by herself. (Personally I think that's pathetic - I can easily get an elephant from the bottom too. When will they teach her how to win Olympic gold medals so I can bloody retire to manage her massive endorsement earnings?) For more on this sentiment, click here.

Mum and Dad have started sending over the first Christmas presents already - blimey! There was a bit of false advertising too - the first box that arrived was for Linda and I from Peter's of Kensington and was HUGE! After opening the box to place the wrapped present under the tree, the actual thing inside the box was taking up about 10% of the volume. Talk about getting my hopes up! :-) Chelsea's Christmas present this year (from Santa) is some kitchen stuff - toy fridge, oven, sink etc. Such a gender-specific gift, but she loves that stuff along with make-up. There's no doubt that she's a girl...

Work is dull as crap - when they know that you're about to go on holidays in the next week or so you suddenly get all the crap jobs.

So, given the complete lack of anything interesting to talk about, I'll add some gratuitous lists:

Cool new songs I like:

Sunday Mornings - Maroon 5
Welcome To My Life - A Simple Plan
What You Waiting For? - Gwen Stefani

Today's Dictionary.com word of the day: solecism \SOL-uh-siz-uhm\, noun:1. A nonstandard usage or grammatical construction; also, a minor blunder in speech.2. A breach of good manners or etiquette.

Have a day!

J

Hoax, n. [Prob. contr. fr. hocus, in hocus-pocus.] A deception for mockery or mischief

2004-12-03T16:37:00.000+11:00

Well, what a drama yesterday turned out to be! Whatever ever your name turns out to be little one, you're obviously destined to be a little drama queen!

It all began at 1:30am when Linda woke with what seemed to be the beginnings of labour. Like I said in the previous post, the onset of labour is like a bomb threat. Even if you're sure that it's a hoax, you've gotta take it seriously. Linda isn't due until December 17, but any time after three weeks prior to the due date is considered full-term and not a problem. So anyway, 1:30am and the contractions kick in. No breaking water, but that often doesn't occur at the outset anyway. Linda was attempting (in vain) to get me to properly wake up, but I was lying in bed listening to all this happening and offering an infrequent supportive grunt. After Linda become seriously nauseous (listening to someone trying to vomit is a lovely experience) and then finally settled down again, it seemed that there was a bit of a lull in the proceedings. However Linda couldn't get back to sleep again and had a whopping 45 minutes sleep last night. I had a few hours and felt like a train wreck, so I can't imagine how she must have been. Then in the morning it all started to crank up again. We had nowhere to send CC, so we were a bit concerned as to what to do. I obviously took the morning off work and awaited developments. Some calls to Mum and Dad got the whole family machinery into full swing.

The problem was that there didn't appear to be any kind of pattern to anything. Contractions would come in rapid succession and then there would be nothing for an hour. They would be really intense, humourously reducing Linda to a blithering idiot, and then the next series would be barely noticeable. Jen (Linda's Mum who is a naturopath) came over and was certain that labour was upon us. (I had my doubts but was ready to believe.) I took off for a couple of hours to finalise some things at work in case this was the real deal and returned home at 2:30pm to find Linda finally sound asleep in bed and Chelsea and Jen watching Toy Story 2 for the second consecutive time. When Linda got up again there was nothing happening and when we went into the hospital for our regular Thursday night checkup the midwife assured us that while this wasn't labour per se, the real thing would likely be upon us with 24 to 48 hours. Dean and Erin (Linda's younger brother and his girlfriend) stayed overnight in case something happened and we needed a babysitter for CC. Armed with that comforting knowledge Linda and I both got a good night's sleep last night and when we awoke this morning there was absolutely nothing happening.

So little one, what was all THAT about? Causing Mum and Dad a whole lot of stress for nothing! That's it - you're grounded for a week.

Chelsea has gone on a day care excursion today to the RSPCA, the local fire brigade, and Amber's Playhouse (a kid's play centre). I think it's her first excursion. Cute. Speaking of Chelsea, Linda and I uncovered the cause of something that has been causing Linda some distress: Chelsea has been calling her "lover" when she says goodnight. I had no idea that she was doing this (it has been happening for weeks apparently) and only became aware when Linda told me the other night. It didn't occur to me that I was the cause and the penny only dropped last night when Chelsea and I went through the usual pre-bedtime ritual. After we've put on her PJs and brushed her teeth etc, I always tell her to "go say goodnight and tell Mummy you love her" but I usually do it in a silly Aussie accent (imagine Steve Irwin saying it) so that it sounds like "go tell ah yoo love ah". CC took this as meaning "go and call Mummy 'love-ah'" which she dutifully did every night. :-) Funny kid. (Not as bad as the time she announced in front of a supermarket audience that she had a sore "wee-wee" and that I should "kiss it better". Supremely embarrassing, and no doubt my flustered response was highly amusing to all around.)

Anyway, in summary it looks like kid 2 could be coming any day. I realise that I say this constantly, but this time it could be for real. (My actual prediction is that she will be born on December 15 but everyone else seems so desperate for her to be born now that I think I'll have to go along with it.)

Oh, for posterity's sake here are the names we're considering:

Kristen
Phoebe
others that I can't recall and will add later.

Sunday (December 5) is Linda's baby shower at Wooliams' house too (if the baby hasn't come yet), so Sunday afternoon is looking good for some serious Halo 2 time. Yeah baby!

Today's dictionary.com Word of the day: empyrean - The highest reaches of heaven, in ancient belief usually thought to be a realm of pure fire or light.

See you soon!

J

The origins of Juthan

2004-11-29T16:22:00.000+11:00

I'm referring to origins of the name here, not the person. I should add up front that the pronunciation is not Joo-thahn, but the shorter "Juth-in" so that it roughly sounds similar to "muffin". So how is it that someone who has never had a nickname other than "Wiggy" (or "Toup" for "Toupee" for a short period) came to be known almost permanently as "Juthan"? The originator of this new name is Linda who is apparently completely incapable of referring to anyone by their actual name. She strongly denies this accusation, but as proof to this charge I offer the following instances:

Me - Juthan/Juntheanian
Chelsea - CC
Chris - Uggs
Dean - Baked Bean/Bean Bag
Jen - Zen
Kylie - Woowyams
Kylie - Placey
Michael - Klog/Schmick
Julia - Jules/Hoolio
Gary - Ranger Gaz
Craig - Crabs
Sarah - Devvo

So, several years ago, armed with her inbuilt desire to call me anything but "Justin", she followed a long and winding road that led to the birth of Juthan. At the time I had a cat (sadly killed by a car a couple of years ago) known as "Winston". Winston was a big dude - over 8kg for most of his life - and had the rather odd trait of walking around most of the time with the tip of his tongue hanging out. Linda and I were laughing about this one night and she commented that he must have a lisp [*] in the same style as Sylvester Cat if his tongue hung out, and therefore his name should not be "Winston" but "Winthon". She immediately seized on this concept and promptly began calling everyone by their "lisp" name and of course "Justin" became "Juthan". And there it is! The birth of a nickname...

Now, on to other things. The baby did not come last Friday. We thought that the baby might arrive last night after a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions, but it was all for nothing. The problem with BH contractions is that once they get really full-on in the late stages of pregnancy you can never really be sure if they are BH or the real deal. Of course the real deal result in a baby whereas BH do not, but you don't find out the result until it's all over. So BH contractions are a bit like a bomb-threat in my opinion. You have to take them seriously even if you're pretty sure that it's all just an elaborate hoax. Chelsea is still dealing with the concept of "donating" her dummies to the baby. It's our latest attempt to get her to give it up. She was happy with the idea of giving her dummy to the baby, until she realised that Linda and I meant all her dummies. She's been trying to worm her way out of that for weeks now. Chelsea and I are reading the "Whose Tail" and "Whose Feet" books at bedtime at the moment. (Hairy McClarey and "How Does a Dinosaur Say Goodnight" are having a rest.) She loves them but has some funny attempts at pronouncing animal names. Actually, she gets them all right except for "giraffe" which always comes out a "bijaffe" somehow.

We were all set for a trip to the hospital to take the guided tour of the delivery suites, when my paternal grandfather rang to announce that they were driving from Sydney to Hobart, and were in Melbourne ready to board the Spirit of Tasmania. (Nan and Pa spend each summer in Tassie looking after my Great-Grandmother. It's pretty cool - I have a photo at home of all 5 generations together: Chelsea, me, my Dad, his Mum and her Mum!) Naturally Nan and Pa popped around for a couple of cuppas, and dutifully arrived with a huge bag of jubes for Chelsea. (Did they REALLY do the same for me when I was 3?) Nan and Pa both looked well which is always a great thing, although Pa had one helluva bruise on the inside of his right arm. He'd taken a fall putting out the washing or something - anyway it looked hideous, all blackened etc, but it didn't seem to be bothering him. Makes for some quiet concern when you realise that they are now old enough to have such a bad fall when doing something as innocent as hanging the washing. I hope I can be as content with life as they seem to be when I'm their age though. They seem to be truly loving life now - driving around the country from Queensland to New South Wales to South Australia to Victoria to Tasmania! Impressive number of kilometers on the Avalon already I think...

Regarding work, things have really slacked off now. The building block for Project Remittance has been delivered for UAT so I can wash my hands of the whole thing!

Bit of a scorcher in Melbourne over the weekend - above 35 degrees for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (Not as bad as Adelaide where it was over 40 during the second test against NZ - where I might add Australia made 575 and NZ could only manage 251. Bizarrely, Australia did not make them follow on...) Anyway the portable aircon had a good workout and seems to be working well. 29 today which is a bit more bearable for Linda. Had a BBQ at the house on Saturday night with all the gang there. Nice evening...

The 3 phone seems to be working well. Incredible number of features in it - it's an LG U8120. MP3 player as well which is nice for the bus journeys in the morning.

So that'll do for today. Talk soon blog. Take care now...

[*] How you ever wondered what bastard invented the word "lisp"? Think about it - a word containing an 'S' for a condition where people cannot correctly pronounce the letter 'S'. Nice work...

29 days and all is well...

2004-11-26T14:37:00.000+11:00

Well, the most frustrating experience I've yet had with an organisation has finally been completed. 29 days after walking into a 3 Mobile store, I have finally been connected to their network. 29 days! Their excuse was that they've had a systems upgrade go horribly wrong and my records were lost during data conversion. (As a professional IT consultant who has managed data conversion projects before that have gone flawlessly, I can REALLY feel indignant. ;-)) Anyway, everything's sorted now but I have had my first experience with an Indian call centre. I don't wish that experience on anyone. I guess it comes down to a cultural clash - perhaps being born into a society where you share your country with over a billion other people causes you to be a bit more abrasive than other societies. Based on prior experiences, I used to think that Indians were a reasonably relaxed and good-natured people. I'm beginning to re-address that view-point. Or, perhaps I was just dealing with a natural hostility from people being exploited for minimal wage in a third-world country by yet another foreign organisation. I would have told them where to shove their antagonism, but India has the bomb so I thought in my own country's best interests I should practice some diplomatic restraint.

Now, onto other things. It's 1:45pm and Linda just called to tell me that she thinks she might be having contractions. She's just 37 weeks today, so let's hope that this is just an attack of Braxton-Hicks contractions. We had a check-up last night and the latest doctor followed the apparent trend and completely contradicted everything that her predecessors have said. No, the baby is not overly large. No, Linda shouldn't consider having an epiesiotomy (or however you spell that). Yes, the baby could come early, in fact she might arrive any day now. (Previous doctors have said that it will definitely run full term.) Given the medical profession's usual tendency to not say anything unless they're ABSOLUTELY sure of something, I find this interesting. Anyway, I'm bordering on a whinge now, so I'll stop.

After a quick check of the cricket, Australia are 0/86 at lunch against New Zealand on the first day of the second (and last) test in Adelaide. Pretty slow going really. Still, after the complete capitulation of NZ in the first test I don't expect there will be any problems for the Aussies.

We found out something weird regarding Chelsea last night - green cordial gives her a skin rash! What a funny little kid she is. Had her first commercial photo shoot with Small Fry on Tuesday. Linda's heading for true stage mother syndrome I fear. Oh well, hopefully CC will make millions and I can retire to become her over-bearingly protective father-manager. :-) Damir Dokic anyone?

Now what else shall I spew on about endlessly? How about one of my new-found interests: Wikipedia. What an exciting concept this is. Open source is really making in-roads to popular culture now. Good to see. So, what is Wikipedia? Well, it like an on-line encyclopedia that is completely open to anyone to add to, edit, or even remove articles. There are now over a million articles available and I have proudly written about four of them! :-) The article on the suicide of Adolf Hitler is probably the most major article I've written so far. (As noteworthy an actor as he is, my bio on Bill Hunter probably does not cover quite as important a historical figure.) Anyway, sign-up and start adding your own knowledge to the Wikipedia at http://www.wikipedia.org.

By the way, the Eagles were fantastic. Not the best concert I've ever seen but quite possibly the best band I've ever seen live. Seeing musicians of their caliber is really mind-blowing to me. Just TOTALLY in control of their instruments. Awesome. I know what I'm talking about too - I'm an ex-professional musician who among other things has opened for Van Halen, so I'm pretty hard to impress. Anyway, take a bow Eagles - you rocked.

Music I'm listening to:

U Talkin' 2 Me? - Disco Montego
Push Up - Freestylers
Someday, Someday - Thirsty Merc
Enigma Variations - Elgar

Friends finished on TV this week as well. Weirdest thing - I've only ever watched about 3 episodes of Friends in my life, and yet I felt a real feeling of sadness when I watched the final episode. Hard to explain - perhaps it was because it was a show that was really meant to target my own demographic and I can plot my own evolution roughly to that of the characters on Friends. Maybe the end of the show is tied to the end of my own youth? I wonder. Anyway, let's not get too deep...

So, the next time you hear from me I might already be a Dad again! Let's hope not just yet...

All not-so quiet on the baby front

2004-11-17T16:32:00.000+11:00

Some people refer to the womb as some kind of magical place where existence is idyllic for a growing foetus. I beg to differ. I think a woman's uterus must be just about the most uncomfortable existence imaginable. Not only would you be squashed, contorted, crushed and thumped throughout what little-understanding-of-a-day-you-would-have, but you would be inside someone else's body a forced to listen to their growling stomach, their cavernous lungs, their glooping intestines, their constant blabbing and occasional pokes and prods from infrequently interested fiancé, big sister and various other relatives. I experienced my poor foetal-daughter's desperate attempts to escape this prison last night when it seems she was trying to kick her way out of Linda's belly. Poor kid. What a horrific way to spend the first 9 months of life.

And after all this uterine serenity, what happens? You're squelched kicking and screaming into the outside world where the ambient temperature is about 15 degrees Celcius lower than anything you've ever known and you have to get rid of all that liquid in your lungs and instead, start breathing a gaseous Oxygen and Nitrogen mixture!

No wonder babies cry for their first couple of weeks. I would too.

Now, onto other baby related things. (It's understandably the focus of life at the moment.) Linda had a check-up yesterday and was helpfully informed by the hospital doctor/nurse/staff that the baby is going to be big. To say we already knew that is an understatement. Linda is, well, how can I say this knowing that she will read it, um, she's bigger than she was with Chelsea. In fact, she would probably admit that she's bigger now than she was the day Chelsea was born, and we still have 5 weeks to go! I'm worried that the baby is going to be too big to be born naturally. We will have to ask the midwife/whoever how they will know if the baby is too big before the birth begins. (Surely you can do that.)

Chelsea has started truly asserting herself. She needs to be reminded of her true social status sometimes. The other day Linda was telling her to hurry up while at the supermarket. Chelsea's response: "OK Mummy! RELAX!" What kind of 3 year old tells their Mum to chill out like that? One that has a rude shock coming in a month or so when they find that they now have a sibling and the world no longer rotates around themselves.

Going to see The Eagles at Rod Laver Arena tonight. Should be good I guess. Linda's father has shouted us all tickets, so I have nothing to lose. I wonder if there will be tragic Eagles-losers everywhere? I'll let you know.

What else is happening? Um, I'm still waiting for my new mobile phone to be connected to the 3 network after 21 days of waiting. What a joke. The telecommunications industry ombudsman is looking into the matter.

Those scumbags in Iraq have executed Margaret Hussan - the CARE director in Iraq. What can you say about militants who execute someone who has done nothing but try to help citizens of a country for 30 years? Even Abu Musab al-Zarqawi called for her release. Poor woman. Iraq is a true basket-case now I think. Is this how Vietnam seemed in 1974? 30 years on and just the name of the country is different. Then again, Vietnam didn't have any oil reserves worth fighting for, so I wonder shat Uncle Sam was doing there? Oh yes, putting a stop to that evil domino theory.

OK, gotta stop ranting. Perhaps I'll go and memorise the lyrics to "Hotel California". Might be nice to be familiar with at least one song tonight...

J

The first post - but will it all last?

2004-11-15T10:19:00.000+11:00

Hi Interweb!

So, here is another attempt by me to start a blog. This is the third time after starting a different one at LiveJournal.com and trying to keep another one in Microsoft Word. (Well, that's not a blog, but never mind that.)

Now, who am I? Name is Justin (aka Juthan - it's a long story). 33 years old. Living in suburban Melbourne with pregnant fiancé Linda and 3 year old daughter Chelsea. Professional software consultant (database design and development is the current focus) and ex-musician. The latter career will provide some stories to be published here I'm sure.

OK, so what's doing? Getting ready for kid number 2. We're sure it's a girl - the doc said it was anyway. But then again they only get 80% of predictions right. That means 1 in 5 kids are a different sex. Can you image buying hundreds of dollars of gender-specific clothes, or decorating a nursery room, or only thinking about names for a specific gender, only to get the shock of your life when junior pops out? You would have to laugh about it later I'm sure.

Anyway, we're sure it will indeed turn out to be a girl, and have (tentatively) chosen the name Kristen. I'd like her to have the middle name of Elisabeth after my maternal grandmother, but I don't think Linda likes it. Oh well, we can fight about that later.

Linda's struggling with the pregnancy - this one's a big one. Poor girl. It's good to be male! She's hardly sleeping, and I think the sheer weight of her tummy is pulling her whole body to bits, but she soldiers on...

Speaking of which - CC had a temperature of over 40 last night. Poor kid was burning up.

What's happening in the world? Let's see; the Middle East is tearing itself apart with US help; Yasser Arafat and Johnny Warren passed away; John Howard and George Dubya have both been re-elected which clearly shows that the world (or at least Australia and the US) are full of morons; Customs just seized about 200 million dollars worth of Ecstacy; Australian Idol 2 is about to be decided; and Halo 2 was released last week.

Nick is still over in Qatar - I wonder what it's like over there? Check out his blog here.

Think that'll have to do for a first session. See you soon!

My original post to LiveJournal.com

2004-03-12T16:47:00.000+11:00

In the interest if trying to keep all kinds of entries centralised under one location, I'm going to re-post an entry that I originally published on LiveJournal. I never had time or energy to republish there, so I might just add some details as to what happened between this post and the first post here @ Blogger:

I never did go to the Lord of the Rings marathon (I just went to see The Return of the King instead).
Linda came back to Perth on March 30th and immediately fell pregnant
Mum and Dad came over to visit for a week in April and just happened to be there when we found out
The basic meter reading extract process did turn out to be a f*cking nightmare as I predicted. However, after much redesign, Michael Waller, the DBAs and I got the process down from taking 3 months to execute to 55 minutes!
FRC go live we consistently delayed by a week per delay, and I finally left Perth to return to Melbourne on July 19th.
Linda, Chelsea and I went to Sydney for a week where I finally popped the question. (Linda surprisingly said yes...
Linda's Mum successfully opened her store in Camberwell - "Sacred Nature" - and is struggling like every other new venture.

Anyway, without further blurb, here's the original post. (The first couple of sentences might sound familiar!)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, here's another attempt at keeping some kind of journal. I've tried once before but it didn't last. Wonder how this attempt will turn out...

So Juthan, what doing? Lets' look around and see what's happening. I'm 33, living temporarily in Perth while on a contract with Alinta, and am currently quasi-single as Linda and Chelsea have gone home to Melbourne to help Linda's Mum (Jen) set up her new shop in Camberwell. Lovely.

So what's really going on? I'm definitely a happy guy at the moment. Looking around other journals here it appears that so many other journal writers are busy wallowing in their misery and self pity. This journal will be nothing of the sort!

Life in general is great. Money is still a hassle, but we're nearly out of the woods. Loans are nearly paid off - we've just got to attack the credit cards now! Work is fine - not necessarily inspiring, but it's acceptable. Still not really sure if I'm happy in IT or not. I know I'm good at it, but it's not what I love. I'm probably still clinging to the dream of being a musician until I die, but it was never going to happen. I should have given it a real shot when I was younger, but still I did do a lot more than others could ever dream of doing.

Chelsea is now nearly 3 years old and is such a pretty and happy little girl. Despite the fact that this is a pretty self-congratulatory thing to say, Linda and I are really good parents in my opinion. The fact that CC is such a little Daddy's girl also helps! :-) While we've been in Perth she has gotten right into dancing lessons (every Tuesday) and swimming lessons (every Friday). She's much happier in the water now and doesn't fly into a panic when she's submerged. At a BBQ @ Jon Ockwell's place a few weeks ago she wore floaties for the first time in their pool and she happily floated around on her own - until she felt that you had gotten too far away and she cracked it at you! She's a funny kid. Here's some of the funny sayings that she comes out with at the moment:

"What doing?"
"Not happy Daddy!" (With a serious scowl included which is mixed with a half-smile...)
"Daddy go back-a-work now?" (When I get home - she's checking that I'm not heading back again...)

Lion King and Finding Nemo are getting a right thrashing in the DVD player at the moment, but that's fine with me, I love them!

So, let's talk about Linda (aka Leenda). She's far away in Melbourne at the moment and I miss her badly. It makes me feel like crap when she's gone because I always realise that I take her for granted when she's with me. I'm such a dumb-ass. She's the best thing that's happened to me, not including CC of course but that's different, and I must try to find ways of showing her that. Poor girl - gets very little from me too often. Looking forward to getting these finances straightened out though so that I can finally buy her the ring she deserves. Can't wait for that day...

Anyway, she's gone off to Melbourne to help Jen get her shop sorted. God only knows what's happening with Chris and Jen. They're fighting, they're not fighting, he wants on "open" relationship, they're back together again... I don't know how they got like this, but neither of them are happy. Still, they always stick it out so I presume that there's still love there which must be nice for Christopher, Dean and Linda to know. I wonder if Linda and I would survive that kind of test? I'm lucky that Mum and Dad have never been through that kind of strain in a way that was evident to me except for that split in the early 80s. (WTF was that about?) Probably the biggest reason that I'm the stable (boring?) person that I am today...

So what am I up to? Alinta is fine at the moment, but the basic meter read extract is going to be a fucking nightmare to get together. FRC go live has pushed back to June 28th so I'll probably be here in Perth for a while longer. Gonna have to break that to Linda gently. I have kinda dropped the whole space obsession for WW2 obsession at the moment. Devouring books on Hitler, Churchill and the war itself. Why do I get so locked into something and flog it to death like this? Who knows - I've always been like it...

Well, I'm going to bugger off now. It's the weekend and I'm going to eat some crap food, watch some crap TV and get ready to watch 10 hours of LOTR movies tomorrow at Innaloo Megaplex. Planning to drive to Muchea this weekend as well to check out the old Mercury tracking station, but might delay a week so that I can pick up some plans from another dude in Perth...

Bye Journal! Hope I get off my lazy ass and write another entry into you one day!
Justin