Linkin’ Links vs Lincoln Burrows

Rather than begin this completely overdue entry all apologetic and begging forgiveness, I’m going to start by saying I rock. I rock for even finding time to THINK about updating the blog. And I rock even more than that for actually writing 7 entries this weekend, when I could have been watching a bunch of numpty inmates dragging their Prison Break out – disc after disc after disc. Argh!

Now that’s off my chest, what have we been up to. They’re in reverse order…(oldest first)

1. Jamie’s Birthday Weekend
2. Easter
3. Llllllups and Psspsswsw
4. T’was the week after Easter…
5. Easy come, not so easy go
6. Familial Milestones
7. The New Business Card

And no. That doesn’t completely cover it of course. Life is busy, but so good – so blessed. And just trying to recall these entries by excavating my way through the trigger-happy troves of photos, I yet again realised how much my life rocks too.

Sincere thanks for keeping an eye on it.

The New Business Card

(Yes. That’s correct. Card, not Car. I’ll blog ON the day if I get a business car!)

Just by means of an update, I’m now nearing the half-way point of my radical job-transition (some days GSC, some days WWW, spread over 4 months). It’s been harder than expected, mentally and dare-I-say-it emotio— nah… I’ll let you guess. Seems my impressive physique and mind-boggling stamina agrees with my summation of things, as my body gave in to the dark side during last week. So recovering from what started as Laryngitis and hasn’t ended yet, I guess I’ll admit that perhaps I was a little ambitious. (before suspecting I’m weak, just throw in the fact that we’re buying, selling and expecting…!)

But not one to regret, I think there are still many merits to the transition. I’m gaining traction at White Wall Web, having met many of the folk and gotten stuck into some tangible projects. I can’t really get my teeth into the real work yet though, which is frustrating.

Similarly, my becoming-ex-job is hard because I’ve effectively handed over the bulk of my responsibilities, which leaves me a little short on work. Short of satisfying work perhaps? Short of direction perhaps? Not sure perhaps?

Anyway. I believe this will work out to everyone’s best – otherwise I don’t think it would have been brokered to start with. As for the new job – it’s great. Very happy. I have a nice shiny business card, my own office, and a view of the harbour. I also feel like I have purpose and potential again, which tingles a little. Bring it on.

Familial Milestones

Here’s just to point out that the little missus is still officially a little missus. Her host – my wife – is now about 21 weeks, and looking very pretty in her preggie garb. We had the 23 week Foetal Assessment session slightly early to allow for special investigation of the heart, but all indications show that the foetus is perfect. Cute little face already.

Speaking of hearts, we also whizzed past the anniversary of Jamie’s heart surgery. Hard to believe – seems like yesterday but also ages ago. We also visited the cardiologist for a now-becoming-annual checkup, and his opinion is that Jamie is in exceptional condition. I guess I’d probably chosen to ignore the future, but we were warned that there is already a measurable impediment to forward flow through the reconstructed valve. Currently no problem, but since his growth is unpredictable, it may become a factor as he grows – obviously resulting in a need for further valve surgery (ie. the whole bang-shoot, again)
God knows the future, we don’t. I pray it’s not holding any more scalpels.

Easy come, not so easy go

Having just completed a marathon spritz of our house, now’s as good a time as any to mention that it’s On Show. Huh? Herewith a formalized mention that we are planning on moving. This wasn’t a carefully formulated, long-term plan, but has come about quite abruptly. Abridged story as follows:

New child. Need new room. Build? Plans. Quote. Crazy expensive! Let’s look around. OHGEEWOW! Can we afford it? Yikes – they accepted?!! Gulp!!

So now we sit, one foot (no, make that 5 feet) out the door, and one left in our current abode. Make no mistake, we’re not in any way happy to be leaving our very happy home, but realise that at this stage the upgrade will satisfy several goals – notably that of play-space for our hyperactive, never-sit-still boychild, and a new room for the little-missus. It also gets us within a road of Kirstenhof schools, and despite being in virtually mint condition and completely move-in-able, has growth potential for the unquenchable, irrepressible DIY in me.

Our house is now on show for the second week. No-one needs to remind us that from a sellers point-of-view, the property market is limping along like roadkill. Nevertheless, we are optimistic/fatalistic that if this is meant to be, we’ll sell our place as necessary. Also feels quite sad being on the verge of leaving our little home – many. many memories and I’m a terribly sentimental chap…

No pictures of the new domicile as I’d hate you to count chickens I’ve already counted, but watch this space. (Or simpler – just RSS to it)

T’was the week after Easter…

Petersfield, Citrusdal. Very nice place to go. Probably would’ve been nicer had the young ‘un avoided the Tonsillitis that kicked him (and consequently his parents) into touch. Don’t think we slept more than about 2 hours a night, so despite extracting some enjoyment from the days, we were generally too stuffed to fully appreciate the setting. And yes. Said setting was in The-Middle-Of-Nowhere.

However, that being the case, we still carted ourselves off to the dam to swim (er… before we knew he was sick!), added a few swims at the house, climbed some outcrops, initiated my Bocce set, perfected paraffin lamp-lighting and rescued a sand-trapped Honda. Aside from the Honda, Mike and Jan had brought the hounds, which added to the party, and Wade and Lin bolstered the fun with their getting married/not-yet getting married married-singles vibe! The fact that there was no electricity in Nowhere, meant that I’d not brought any R/C toys whatsoever. So it was reeeaal simple like.

Any questions about the burnt house? Well, I can assure you that we were in a different house. And no, we didn’t burn another party’s house down while holidaying either. Apparently an arson investigation is pending though. Sad to see something which was obviously awesome gutted like that. Kinda like our Northern Neighbours?

Oh. Happened to notice a nice little housie in the Property Times…

Lllllluuups and Psspsswsws

Wasn’t quite sure how to spell those really. But they are Jamie’s linguistically genius way of avoiding talking at yet another juncture: That of toilet training.

As he’s consistently done in the past, he tackled this milestone remarkably and abrubtly. One day he pulled off his nappy, indicated towards the bathroom, and – when seated – promptly got on with it. Jan, quite unprepared for this scenario, just put a pair of undies on him, and waited for the spills.

But none came. Sure enough, this was to be the new modus operandi – and reliably so too! Over the course of about five weeks, we’ve almost completely cut nappies out, and he’s even waking in the night to avoid using the night nappy. So yeah. Not sure we’re thrilled about the night-thing, but we’re suitably impressed at the way he’s made this a non-issue.

Nevertheless, his cunning avoidance of words means we need to be razorsharp to pick up his ‘sounds’. The fact that he uses Psswspsss as his ‘secret’ word, and Psspsswsw to indicate an imminent leak hold the potential for some awkward whisper-in-your-ear moments!

Easter 2008

It came to pass that we decorated eggs with friends. In a blinding flash of genius, the artful and motorised decoration of eggs was perfected. Apparatus included a Black & Decker, kebab-sticks, food colouring, a hairdryer and a selection of drillbits – not forgetting requisite white candy eggs of course (and a plethora of tools for Jamie’s ‘consulting’). Satisfactory results were obtained, and this technique is destined for perfection.

Later that evening, my sidekick got hold of red food colouring, and after helping me spin some more eggs, proceeded to pioneer Dracula Eggs. I’m not sure they were all that popular.

In the end, Easter was a family affair – a nice one at that. Luckily I’m very strong willed and didn’t succumb to the temptation of the kilograms of chocolate stashed away in every recess of the house. Not immediately at least…

Jamie’s Birthday Weekend

Well. First there was the cake. In a TV-chef sort of way, he was there, helping the process along, licking spoons and such as and such as. Thereafter, at Jan’s discretion, it was time for the big guns to get stuck in. Instead of a Thomas cake (which might have rivaled Simon’s fancy car cake), he was to get a garden cake. I was sceptical. Very sceptical, but as things turned out it wasn’t a half bad idea.

Oh. And the vehicle. Those were bits and pieces before being assembled, painted and stuck. And it has a motor and 4×4 drivetrain. Just what every 2 year old needs.

Sadly we had to make a sanity-call and tone down the attendance to those with children, cutting out a large number of our friends – all missed. Despite the reduction, we still had a busy house – very enjoyable and exciting for Jamie. When the dust started to settle, a lazy afternoon was enjoyed in what we’d recently discovered was a leaking pool. More on that in the future…

Anyway. I guess the important thing is that, as of today, the lad is two years old. What a tremendous blessing his life is to us – he is a work of art and all praise to his Awesome Creator, God. Not a day goes by that we don’t recognise how fortunate we are.

SUNDAY: Just to compound matters, the next day was the Cape Argus. We set off to Fort Oosthuizen to enjoy a champagne breakfast in celebration of not having to ride. The day got hot, long and relaxed, however our pool was evidently not ‘just’ evaporating anymore. Neither was Jamie being subtle about it being his cake.