December Updates

December has been going well.

My car is unreal (well it's my first car). Needs a wash though as it looks like a panther with yellow spots.

Work managed to renew the contract with the government. So I am still employed.

Christmas was good. All of my family were together, a bi-annual event. My brother and his two girls are down from NSW. Can't believe how tall my oldest niece is, she is 13 and is calling me old! Youngest niece is growing too, but is still a little girl. They both got Ripsticks and Nintendo DSi for Christmas and that is all. I like that approach to presents, two big things, one from each parent (they are divorced) instead of lots of little things.

Christmas dinner itself was at my other brothers (who still lives in Melbourne) wifes parents house. That was a bit awkward with our mob invading their house but it all went pretty well.

Boxing day I spent hanging out with my brothers and 8 year old nephew while my brothers wife and three nieces all went shopping. Mum and brothers in laws came to brothers for BBQ that night.

Yesterday I went with brothers and nephew to the cricket at the MCG. I have never been to a cricket game before, and I thought it would be pretty boring. Wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Nephew was hanging over the fence for autographs, got two, Siddel and someone else. Ended up taking nephew for a walk when he began to get really bored towards the end. I made him walk all the way to the top of the Southern Stand and the Ponsford Stand and back down again to tire him out. Again all the girls went out together, apparently they had Max Brenner at QV and then went up the Eureka tower. Nephew ended up at our place to sleep the night, while the three nieces had a girly sleepover at my brothers place. We played some Mario Kart on the Wii before nephew crashed last night.

Today I woke up at 7:15 to turn the Wii on for the nephew, then went back to sleep for a few hours. After I got up, showered and dressed we played some more Wii, then went out for a game of cricket in the driveway. Brother and sister in law finally turned up at 3pm to get nephew. After recovering I finally got the chance to do some shopping for myself. I decided to go to Westfield Plenty Valley rather than Greensborough or Doncaster. Good move as it wasn't very busy at all. What I really needed was some shorts to replace the pair that got ripped in the washing machine the other week. I wasn't happy about that. In the end I got a pair of shorts from Colorado for half price and a shirt from Target as well.

All in all things are pretty good at the moment.

Weekend Adventures

First on the agenda on Saturday morning was watching my niece and nephew at Little Athletics. I only stayed for about an hour and a half but managed to see each of the kids run in a race. They were both lucky enough to get medals, a silver and a bronze, for their efforts. The theme for Saturday was relays, so all the races were relays,but there was also some discus throwing going on as well. A well aimed discus nearly took out a video camera that a parent had set up on a tripod, but the parent was able to deflect it.

In all the Little athletics looked a lot of fun, it made me wish I had been inclined to take part when I was a kid. Forget the olympics, little athletics is where it is all happening. My mum offered to take me once or twice, but I was never interested in such things. I wish she had pushed me a bit more maybe.

Saturday afternoon I was off with Mike to a friends barbecue in Little River. The birthday girl, J and her husband M built the house last year and it was the first time I had been there, so that was interesting. They have a lot of land, a large house and a big shed to go with it. Did I mention that the house was big? I think it's a 4 bedroom house (or 3 bedroom + study), but every room is very large. They even have room for 2 fridges in the kitchen. They still need to build the verandah though.

As for the party, J hired a jumping castle and even mowed a cricket pitch for the obligatory game of cricket. I had a go of the jumping castle but it seemed a lot more difficult than I remember. I did something to my arms and they've been aching ever since, so I've decided that jumping castles are more trouble than they are worth, or for kids only.

Mike and myself ended up staying the night (Mike didn't feel up to driving), I got the last spare bed while Mike got the couch, a fair deal I think. In the morning we drove back to Melbourne.

For the rest of Sunday I watched some TV, did a bit on the computer, and caught up on some much needed sleep.