Family Matters

Yeah fine, family pics have been a little scarce. Family sanity has been a little scarce too! Erin is gradually getting used to us, and conversely I seem to be enjoying slightly warmer relations these days. The hours and hours of agonising, ear-splitting and merriment-destroying screaming are almost a thing of the past, and as we approach the 6-week mark this Wednesday, I’ve caught myself doing coochi-coos and googli-goos in an (often covert) attempt to evoke those subtle little “what the hell are you up to?” smiles.

However, as I said, the sanity is still a rarity, as we’re now adjusting to our adjusting boy. No longer content to be the “big-boy”, he’s showing the anticipated regressive behaviour trying to maintain our attention. While I feel terribly sad that he’s feeling so nose-out-of-joint, the fact is that it’s hugely draining!

Anyway, all in a day’s work for the Captain Awesome family, and we’ve been popping out a little more recently. We spent Heritage day in Rocklands at an MBC “why emigration is not a silver bullet” day, then shot out for some walks on Friday. Saturday saw us visiting a neighbourhood fete, and on Sunday Jamie and I planted flowers/seeds in the glorious weather. 10% is my very wishful survival-estimate after the “help” that I received from my sidekick (often involving the exhumation of some of my more careful efforts), but I think that if even 10% of the flowers take, we’ll still be approaching a Garden-of-Eden volume of flora. More on that in the future.

My take on the Singapore GP? I thought it was well deserving of all the hype it received, although I couldn’t help feel that I was watching a computer game or something – the lights on the cars were quite surreal. I had to laugh at some or other blog which referred to Alonso as the newly crowned Prince of Darkness. Very good. Bernie might just be onto something with his night races, and thumbs up to the East for accomodating his timezone with such aplomb. Of course… the notion that F1 is trying to go green is hilarious at best when around 1600 2kw lights are required for 1 race. I wonder for how many decades they’ll need to run mielie fuel to reclaim their carbon-footprint? Ah well. Bygones!

Noisy Boy’s Toys

Let’s hope this post improves on that title! Well, I’ve joked before that I changed jobs for the window seat: My view is directly across town towards Ratanga Junction, and consequently Ysterplaat. Last week, with the help of my binoculars, I had a rather delightful time watching the far-distant rumblings of the AAD Expo 2008, knowing that I was going to enjoy closer viewing on Saturday. Capitalising on the absolutely flawless weather, we headed off around 10, and enjoyed most of the day’s program from an excellent position on the runway.

We could have used a navy landing craft to negotiate the swampy conditions, and my packed lunch could probably have been surpassed with some of the Spur-Goodness which was fragrancing the day, but all things considered – show included – it was an awesome day. It was more of a defence show than an airshow, and the extra action really made for an exciting day.

I mean. Of course we don’t reaallly need 28 Gripen fighters, 40+ helicopters, submarines and the rest of it, but let’s just ignore World Peace and cuddly bunnies for the meantime – military stuff is cool. Speaking of which, be sure to check out the USS Theodore Roosevelt arriving this Friday. I hear it’ll lurk 5 miles off the coast, but I’m sure it’ll still be within the capable clutches of my binocular-assisted vision!

Bucking the trend

For those of you familiar with the goings-on of Janet’s family, you’ll be well aware that Linda and Wade have had a rather long time of it. For eons and eons, we’ve been anticipating the engagement ring – so much so that Jan and I had made a card in 2005 which we’d just stashed away in a cupboard.

Until Sunday that was. While our country fell out of love with it’s leaders, and the bad news started to dominate the weekend, The (one day to be) Battesons bucked the trend and quantified their obvious and long-term devotion. Ring on finger, we’re holding thumbs that the engagement takes substantially less than the almost 8 years of courting!

An awful admission

Me again. Since Damo and Rach have both commented on the last post, I hope the new (modified) banner is noticed! Yes. It looks less than spectacular, but I’m measuring everything in micro-steps now, so that little piece of progress is magnificent!

So. The admission: At this stage of Jamie’s life (the 3 week mark), I had racked up about 500 photos and probably at least 3 hours of video. At this equivalent stage of Erin’s life, I have taken no photos since Day 5, and no video since Day 3. Not sure if that makes me a terrible father, or a prudent photographer? I think in honesty it’s a defence-mechanism against the terrible burden of having to trawl/edit all the media in later months!

I suspect I’ll need to compromise sometime before her 21st or I’m in for some fairly awkward moments…

What else to report? Things have improved somewhat – colic is a leeeetle more managable. Still keeping us up late. Work has been pretty exhausting too, so the homefront is really just about eating and sleeping. Jamie’s adapting really well I think, still fascinated and affectionate, so a major positive there. Jan is doing ok, aside from sleep. Still a few numb spots since the surgery, but nothing to worry about we’re told.
Last news: we’ll be visiting the Opthalmologist again next Tuesday to investigate the next steps regarding Jamie’s glasses/eyes. Will post what I know when I know.

Appreciate everyone’s interest here, and thanks to all those who’re leaving comments – always nice having feedback.