What the heckden - Movin' to the Country

I’m not a very prolific blogger these days, I don’t think about it, I’m easily side tracked by daily life, kids, house life, work and transit don’t leave much down time. Something needs to change, work needs to change, so over my work, need something different as I’m just plotting along doing what’s needed to keeps my work duties under control. Maybe it’s time to stop working for the man and become the man, the big question is what should I be doing. I’m a bit too old for lollies tester plus I don’t think my body could handle of the damn sugar. I don’t have the time or patience to be a gamer anymore, plus the kids would make it had to concentrate, my backs too dodgy to be a bed tester even know I like sleeping when I have the time. I think I want to buy the farm, flee the city and just mosey around on the land, toil the soil and watch the greens grow, maybe some reds and oranges too, what the heck or as my boy says ‘what the heck then’ or maybe it’s just ‘what the heckden’, lets watch all the colours grow except eggplant, I just don’t get eggplant, lovely colours they grow but the taste is just wrong, celery is just nasty too but okay when hidden in soups and stews, bring on winter so we can eat soups and stews again. When we were living in Singapore, also known as the land of endless summer I would ramp-up the air-con so it was cold enough to eat stews without sweating. Heart-warming winter food, you gotta love them.

Working to Make More Work

Do we create job for the sake of creating job, or to give people a chance to work? Why do most of us seem to work in offices, what happened to our outside working lives, we still have farmers, builders, miners etc but there are just so many damn office workers theses days. I work in an office supporting effectively other office workers, and some of those workers are also supporting more office workers in a strange bad cycle. So workers creating work for others but not really producing anything, when I think about it the organisation I work for doesn’t really produce anything, well other then prolonging people’s lives and bring new lives into the world, so actually making the need for more work to be created for all the new and healthy people, so in fact my organisation doesn’t produce anything other then the need to create more jobs for the masses it helps to increase. That’s enough of the ranting of a mad man wishing he was in a blue box.

Happy 2nd Birthday Possum - Back but not in Black

First of all Happy 2nd Birthday to our little possum, wow how much you have grown this past twelve months, running and mostly keeping up with the siblings, talking and talking, following in your mother's mouth steps, but ever so polite about it, when asked if she would like to go to bed, she responds, ‘No thank you’, she has the cute factor going and knows how to sucker us in with a ‘I Love You Daddy’. As Isabella is at school and Lucas at preschool five days a week Kayla is sucking up all the solo mummy time, but I think she also misses her playmates.

Both Isabella and Lucas seem to be loving school, Lucas took to the five day routine without any trouble, actually I think he loved it from day one, when I think back when Bella went there we had to drag Lucas out every day as he was keen to stay and play, now it’s Kayla’s turn to be dragged out, another two years before she can stay all day.

I guess my blogging is a little slack again, being it’s a year to the day since my last lashing, I’m not blogging because it’s Kayla’s birthday, I just happen to look at the blog yesterday and realised it’s been a full year and thought I should have a short rant to keep the blog alive, need to put more mental effort into keeping it alive, the kids are growing so quickly and are always coming out with funny stories I could be passing on to my one friend who reads this blog, are you still out there buddy? I guess I should spend some time updating the website with some more pictures too, but at the moment I would rather spend my free time sleeping, mmmm if only I could sleep at work, I wonder if Sleep City are hiring bed testers.

Happy Birthday to my Baby Girl

One year ago today and in another country my little family welcomed our newest addition. Miss Kayla, also known as Kaylee Boo and possum among other weird and wonderful names. Over the year she’s grown and learnt much, except how to sleep through the night! She is starting to walk on her own, climb stairs then fall back down them, eat and disperse food all around without assistance, she can unroll a full toilet roll or empty a full jumbo tissue box in less than 37 seconds, and she loves her baths, especially when she can splash like a wild beast drenching both of her older siblings sending them scamping out of the bath for safety, the splashing habit might be my fault, well the result my training her to survive a Greek Orthodox christening, which she did without too much drama. Hopefully the next year will see her communication skills change to quiet talking, walking without the crashes, she's already working out how to safely descend the stairs, usually by standing at the top and calling ‘mumma mumma’ and waiting to be carried down the stairs, sometimes her older brother or sister help or sideswipe her usually resulting in her falling down and tears, thankfully our staircases are only two and three stairs each.

Feeding Myself 'Kayla' Style (Some food even makes it into my mouth)

The Marginal Seat

Where I live its state election time, where we get to choose who will help lead our state, sadly my seat is a marginal seat so the two leading groups are flogging us with their dribble, and the real bad thing is our main choices are Dumb, dumber,  who and what! Let say ‘Dumb’ is our incumbent member for Labor or ‘Keep Verity’ as she is campaigning and her biggest challenger ‘Dumber’ in the Green corner Jamie “Snake Oil Salesman” Parker, but let not forget the dark sheep of this marginal seat sitting in the Blue corner falling in the ‘Who’ category is James “Why Bother Campaigning’ Falk and the ‘What’ category is for all the leftovers who kindly put up the hand that usually only make up a couple of percent of the total votes, god bless them, gotta love the little guys. Anyhow Labour, the Greens and even the little independents are dumping loads of printed material into our letterbox and guarding the entrance to all our local transport stops so you can’t go anywhere without being accosted, I'm tempted to vote for the Liberal guy just because he hasn’t been attacking my letter box or trying to waylay me on my way to work, good way to save our taxpayer dollar by not printing promotional lies, oops campaign material or slowing my daily commute. Thankfully the election will be over in a few weeks and then it will only be a year or so before all their promotional material and signs have been cleared away, I always love seeing my tax dollars wasted, maybe it time we stop the waste and get rid of state politics altogether.

NEWS FLASH - Blog Name Change

NEWS FLASH . . . We have renamed our blog, no longer is it ‘Notes from a Tiny Island (Nation)’ its now ‘Notes from a Big Brown Land’. And No, the Tiny Island Nation has not had a Big Brown Dump taken on it, we have moved from Singapore back to Australia, and no I don’t believe anyone has taken a big brown dump on Australia either, it’s just that Australia is damn big and usually rather dry, thus usually rather brown.

You Say What's FTP, Okay I'll Update to the New Format

Well over a year has passed and I've finally got around to changing my blog to the 'new' required upload format, thus I can post blogs again and boy is there alot I can yak about, but I can't be bottered tonight, Good Night.

Fall Down, Go Crack

Our sweet little girl fell off a climbing toy at pre-school yesterday and managed to fracture her left arm, so we spent the evening at two different hospitals, seeing several doctors, taking a few x-rays, and calling in a specialist to put her arm in a half cast. We have to see him next week for a full cast, woohoo she’s going to like that., NOT! She doing okay, a little tender as expected and some things are just too much to handle. Lucas is trying to give her hugs and of course the cast on the arm is just too inviting not to be attacked, so we are trying to keep Lucas entertained and the cast arm hidden from his view, its working, some of the time but Lucas is just an inquisitive little guy and just wants to know what is hidden inside that magical cast, what goodie is big sister Isabella keeping hidden from him.

I'm not wired, I should have been in bed three hours ago

No, No, Don’t Buy a Car in Singapore

After nearly four years living in Singapore without a car, we have succumbed. I guess I just got sick of dragging the kids around in the rain and it does rain rather regularly in here, I guess that’s just part of the joy of living in the tropics with 30 degree temperature day in night out.

Anyhow back to the car, if you want to remain sane and not spend extremely too much for a car, don’t even consider buying a car in Singapore. I’ve been looking off and on over the past six months for a car, even checking out the auctions and let me tell you, car auctions here are not the place to pick up a car cheaply. I even saw some fool buy a year old car for more the he could have purchased a new one, way to do your research buddy! Mmmm maybe there were drugs or something stashed inside that made him go the extra dollars, or maybe it was just too many hits to the head. To get an idea of the price of cars here, at minimum you’ll be spending double what it would cost you in Australia, and sometimes as much as four times the price. This is partly due to the government controlling measures using taxes, more taxes and varying registration tax (the COE that goes up and down with demand as limited number are available each period). The other factor appears to be greedy car dealers. Based on costs and taxes, I figure on some cars the dealers are making upwards of 50% profit. For example the Mazda 3 2L Hatchback, in Oz the retail for A$25,000, in Singapore they retail for S$89,500 (A$74,000). So I’m guessing after importing costs and taxes and COE (registration) the car’s wholesale costing is no more then S$65,000 so that’s roughly S$25,000 profit of which they have to pay wages etc which can’t add up to very much for each car sold. In other words they are roughly making in profit what the car sells for in Oz, so I’m thinking greedy little buggers. Are car salespeople like real estate agents just dodgy the world over, willing to lie and cheat to get a sale.

Okay I know it’s another rant, I guess I’m just disgusted at the way car salespeople operate here, and in general the whole car industry here, maybe I’m just bitter and twisted as it is costing so much more than it should.

The Boy Is A Walker

Little Lukie has been walking for a while now, but up until yesterday he had still favoured crawling, not so far to fall I guess! But yesterday and today he has mostly been walking everywhere, even for short trips like a few steps to pick up another toy. Isabella and Lucas were very different in their starting to walk days, Isabella started around 14 months, it was like she decided she wanted to walk and that was that, one evening she just stood-up and walked around the house, none of the building-up a few steps here a few steps there it was just a whole bunch of steps all around the house and she didn’t look back, good bye crawling I’m a walker now! Lucas on the other hand was a few steps here and a few more steps there, and more and more steps walking around the house but he would keep reverting back to crawling. He been walking / crawling like this for nearly two months now, however as I said the past two days now he has been mostly walking so I’m hoping the crawling faze has finished, crawling is so nasty on his clothes, then again Lucas in general is nasty to his clothes, why put food straight into your mouth when you can first squish it through your nice clean shirt, it works just like a sieve. Funny how kids can be very very different but at the same time nearly identical.

Look 200 Posts, Say Good Bye To Laconic Man

Well maybe don't say goodbye to Laconic man!

Money, What Money?

Isabella came walking out of her room today with a coin wallet in her hands, she walks up to me and asks for her money, my surprised response was,

‘Money! What money, do you have money somewhere?’

To which she replied,

‘Yes, up there on the shelf in daddy wallet’.

So just what are they teaching my little girl at preschool?

Things of no Reason

One day I was walking down the road and saw a man, a man I don’t know, a man I had never met or even seen before and a man I will most likely never see again, so I just kept on striding without a second consideration.

The End

Did You Forget Something?

Did you forget something, what about that piece of string around your little finger, oh yes now you remember, it’s my birthday today and I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for your gifts to arrive, okay maybe not, how about a card? Okay maybe a phone call, what not even a lousy SMS? So now I know where I stand in our friendship! You realise you’re turning me into a bitter, delusional, hobbit! Okay maybe I’m a little tall to be a hobbit and I’m not really bitter, but as for delusional I just can’t refute that!

Tiananmen Square Massacre – 1989 (aka June 4th or 6-4)

It’s been twenty years since the student / citizens protests in China, cumulating the in Tiananmen Square Massacre, in Singapore the media refer to it as the Tiananmen Incident, from what I’ve been reading lately in China its just not referred to at all, sounds like anyone that wants to make an issue of it there has to endure ‘re-education’ or relocation. It’s hard to believe that this would still happen in 2009. I guess I’ve just had a relative lucky and free upbringing. I’m starting to believe the old adage ‘Truth will prevail’ is a load of crock, the truth about the events leading up, during and after the 4th June 1989 will most likely never see the light of day, tit bits and disjointed information is all the world has to go on, well the world other the China. The Chinese people have next to no information regarding the ‘incident’, as for the government, who knows what they know, maybe nothing now, maybe the magic eraser has been waved. I guess because I’ve mentioned ‘Tiananmen’ & “Massacre” in the same space the Chinese Internet Police, suggested to number between 30,000 and 40,000 people have already blocked my blog from reaching their shores. This may be a dream job for some, spending all day surfing the net under the guise of working. There I go again, distracted the by pretty flashing lights and forgetting about my rant.

Back to it, I’ve read much over the past few weeks, conflicting information too. Some suggest the ‘massacre’ didn’t happen in the Square but on the roadways leading to the Square, from some of the images and footage I’ve seen this is partly true, that is shooting and the tanks rolling on over did happen outside the Square but by the looks of other images and footage it also happened in the Square, and it must be a damn big square to make all those tanks look so small. Speaking of tanks, it was the ‘Tank Man’ that started me on my little rummage around for information. Tank Man for those who don’t know is the one of the names given to the guy that blocked the passage of a line of tanks travelling alone Chang'an Avenue (the Avenue of Eternal Peace) on the day after the ‘incident’, see picture below. The tanks tried to go around him but he again moved into their way, at one stage he even climbed onto the tank and appeared to be talking to the solders. Eventually he was taken away by either concerned civilians or as some suggest by the secret police. Either way he has never been (publicly) heard from again, executed or in hiding the mystery goes on. He may even be alive and not know that he is famous as images and footage of these events are usually stoped from reaching China. As for the images and footage of this guy, none ever captured his face adding to the mystery.

Tank Man - lone citizen vs. PLA tanks, Tiananmen Square, 1989

(Jeff Widener - Associated Press)

It is sad to read that many people shot where actually inside their homes at the time, apparently as the APC (tanks) rolled towards the Square there was indiscriminate shooting into the surrounding, which happened to include people homes / apartments, there is even footage of and ambulance going to the aid of the injured when it too is shot up and crashes. In the end the official death toll for the ‘Incident’ was 241, the Chinese Red Cross initially reported there were at least 2600 dead, but I understand the government encouraged them to reassess this figure. Non-official sources indicated the death toll range was from about 1000 to 7000 and as many as 30,000 injured. Our history, even our relatively recent history has unfortunately provided the world with many massacres, last years I was reading with disbelieve about some of the massacres, mass killing and ethic cleansing that have happened in Africa, principally I was reading about Rwanda and Darfur (Sudan), how can people hate others so much, even when they don’t know them personally just because they are from a different clan or religion or on the wrong side of the government!

For those interested, this is a good but long video report of the Tiananmen Square Incident, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2300254722104314948 (running time, 52 minute, produced by SBS).

Here is another site for videos on this incident.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/.

For those interested in reading some more about the whole ‘incident’ try this link.

http://asianhistory.about.com/od/china/a/TiananmenSquare.htm

Photo's from Lucas' Birthday

Wrapping Paper, Give Me More

Ha Haa, More Wrapping Paper

Mmmm, Cake, I Like It!

Is That Cake For Me?

Hello I'm Bob the Builder

Lucas is One Today

The Spudsters turns one today, our little rolly polly boy isn’t so rolly any more, he’s actually slimmed down over the past six months but he still weights in around 11 kilograms, about the same weight he was at eight months old. He’s more active these days, even walking some, nice change to the barrel roll he mastered before he could crawl, speaking of crawling he’s decided his favourite style is commando crawl and he is surprising quick at time. He’s getting rather tall, standing in now at about 81 centimetres. He is also sporting four teeth; all four are front and centre, two up and two down, perfect for biting things like my big toe and his highchair armrest.

Lucas’ Grandma and Grandad (also know as my parents) came to visit and celebrate his first birthday along with my cousin and her family, and yes the two relatively quiet three years olds went berserk just like at Isabella’s birthday. Spud seemed to have fun for his birthday, he’s thinking cake might be worth trying again and he loved playing with his new toys and making noise. Our kids have way too many toys; we could have a room just for toys. Better still maybe we can find a charity that could put them to good use.

P.S. Ours kids don’t need any more toys at the moment, or any stuffed animals, teddy’s etc. All they need is the love of their family and friends and maybe some sugary goodness!

Disgusting Habits No 1 - Chewing Gum

My parents arrived for a week’s visit yesterday so I decided to catch the MRT (train) to the airport to meet them, and a saw the strangest and rather revolting thing on the train. Some guy was chewing gum, and he was chewing it like the typical image many have of Americans chewing gum. I had this barely controllable urge to reach out and slap him and make him spit it out. It just seemed revolting to see, I keep trying to change my line of vision so he wasn’t in it, thankfully somebody ending up standing between us blocking my view. You just don’t see people chewing gum in Singapore, mostly because it illegal to have here unless it is for medical reasons (I assume this means anti-smoking gum is okay). Don’t get me wrong I see chewing gum can be good for you mouth and breath, but why oh why do people insist on chewing like a cow, cows need to chew the cud, unless your gum tastes like grass, don’t chew like a cow!

Isabella's Birthday Photo's

Isabella & Lochie Playing Around

I Love Sticker Books

Woohoo Pens & Colouring Books

Isabella’s Third Birthday

Our little girl turns three today, they seem to grow so very quickly compared to us of the taller stature. She speaks rather well, with better English dictation then I with the likes of ‘may I please have a (insert sugary goodness item here)’ but other time its just ‘I want, I want (sugary goodness)’. Yes I know for a three year old, sugary goodness is there food lifeline. Isabella had a nice time playing with her friend Lochie and her cousin Holly who is also three, and boy oh boy two relatively quiet three year old girls can become noisy monster very quickly, which had something to do with the above mentioned sugary goodness!

For those interested Isabella is weights nearly 13 kilograms and is 95 centimetres tall!