All Good

Things are going well here.

Milord likes his new job, and I am settling into mine.

The kids are at daycare twice a week and are loving it.

Mom is enjoying being primary carer and housekeeper during the week.

Now we just need payday to roll around and we will start climbing out of our financial hole!

Halloween!

So, Halloween was awesome!

I walked in the door at 6pm to be met with a cry of "Are you ready, Mummy?!".

I dressed Princess in her princess dress and crown, popped a cowboy hat on King and we were off trick-or-treating down our street. Milord stayed home to hand out candy to the kids who came to our house.

Those of you in the Northern hemisphere, try to imagine a lovely warm and sunny Halloween evening (our sun sets around 8pm at the moment).

My street is about 10 houses long (on each side), and most of them were ready for the swarm of little kids in costumes. We gathered a heap of lolly loot and were home just before 7pm. We let the kids eat a few things, and then scrubbed teeth extra well and tucked them into bed with green glowsticks.

Princess stayed up until 8:30pm and King was still playing at 9pm but finally the sugar wore off and they conked out.

This morning I left Princess and King eating Halloween candy in their pyjamas, and brought all our leftover handout sweets to work.

Sadly last night was such a rush that we didn't take any photos, but it is a memory I will certainly cherish. Our first trick-or-treat. Fun!

Canberra Cultural: Kids, Creatures and 100 Harlequins Festival

Last Saturday I took Princess to the Canberra "Kids, Creatures and 100 Harlequins" festival, in a park about as central as you can get in the city. It was awesome!

We got there about an hour after things began and the place was heaving. I let Princess set the pace and she:

• Went on the jumping castle twice. It was a lovely big castle, with a lady managing the kids and sending them all off every 5 minutes so that other kids could get on.
• Went into a huge dark tent for an Aboriginal "Creation Story" play/puppet show/something. Princess found it too dark, loud, slow and creepy though, so we left after 15 minutes.
• Went into another tent where they were doing a sort of panto play about water and a frog (you had to be there) which Princess enjoyed.
• Watched a Punch and Judy show.
• Had her face painted.
• Got made a balloon poodle.
• Had her first slushie and shared a cheeseburger and chips with me.
• Watched a brilliant circus act about the Very Hungry Caterpillar.
• Joined in a drumming circle.
• Danced to a band.
• Decorated a money box
• Goggled at clowns, walking flower people and a talking tree.

There were more story tellers and craft tents and performers that we didn't quite get to, and a rather odd monster-giving-birth-to-monsters final interactive scene which we didn't understand but that looked like fun.

We stayed until the very end, and Princess' only meltdown came when I couldn't quite remember how to get back to the car and she was hungry and tired. Finally a nice man pointed me in the right direction, we bought a huge chocolate cookie, and I carried Princess and her cookie the final 200 feet to the carpark and she watched Peppa Pig all the way home in time for dinner.

What a day! She had a blast and I enjoyed spending the day with her. 4 is a lovely age.

Almost Halloween!

2 weeks until Milord starts his new job. 5 weeks until his first paycheck...

It will be Halloween in a few days. Until now it hasn't really featured on my radar except to make sure I have a bag of sweets handy for any trick-or-treaters who might come by.

But, now Princess is 4 and she is old enough to "get it". She is very excited and counting the sleeps until she can go trick-or-treating dressed as a fairy princess.

Yesterday I made my first Halloween pumpkin ever! It was quite tricky - the pumpkin was much harder to cut than I expected. Mom and Princess watched me scoop the innards out with my fingers and declined to have a go. "Go on - it's cool and wet and slimy!"

I cut a friendly face on one side and a scarey face on the other.

I managed to find LED candles at the bargain shop, so Princess and King were able to play with the pumpkin and the candles safely. Princess insisted on having the pumpkin in her room going to sleep - although we made sure the friendly face was facing outward!

I am very chuffed with myself!

StepMom's Visit

A week or so ago my StepMom came to us for a week for a visit. She had been in Australia for a couple of months visiting an old friend, and made a huge effort to come and see us too! She is now back home in South Africa loving her own space again...

StepMom bonded brilliantly with the kids and Milord. She is an awesome Granny ;-)

I couldn't take any leave but StepMom managed to come to us over a long weekend so I was able to spend 3 days with her. While I was working she and Milord took the kids out to see the sights and to walk around the lake. On the weekend we all went to nearby lake with a "beach" where you can feed the ducks and paddle.

My kids are so lucky to have 2 brilliant Grannies!

Milord has a Job!

It is going to be a very good weekend ;-)

Canberra Cultural: Floriade

Floriade is an annual spring flower celebration in a very central Canberra park. We went along for a couple of hours on Saturday and it was very pleasant. There is also a small funfair and a petting zoo and lakes and lawns for the kids, who have had enough of flowers after about 5 minutes!

New Jobs

A new job is a tricky beast. No matter where I've started anew it has always been a learning curve of code, systems and workplace culture.

I've been really struggling with this new job. The code is awful, systems non-existent, and workplace culture a bit uncaring and critical. It got to the point where I couldn't sleep at night and Milord was encouraging me to look for something else.

I work for a bit of a cowboy outfit. The deadlines are completely unrealistic to the point where you almost can't be bothered trying to meet them. There are no team leaders or project managers and therefore no support and no reporting processes. And then, when I need a couple of hours off for a medical test, I get treated like some sort of Gen Y slacker trying to take the piss.

...and it pays badly.

The big boss sat me down for a chat a week ago though and we worked through a few of my issues. I think I've just been spoiled in my last few roles and I am struggling to degrade my expectations and performance to fall in line with the comany's needs.

So I will write nasty uncommented and undocumented get-it-done code to meet my deadlines. I will write my own status reports. I will work without specifications. And I will get the hell out of here after a couple of years before all these bad habits stick.

*sigh*

In other news Mom has been off travelling for almost 2 weeks in her little campervan. She hasn't been able to go too far in case Milord lands a job interview (none yet) but there is lots of coast and mountains not many hours away. Mom has been to the Snowy Mountains and seen snow, and to the coast for a mix of sunshine and wild weather.

Milord has been housedad properly for the first time since I started work. The first week drove him crazy but he seems to be settling into it. He is very much looking forward to Mom coming home and helping him though!

The kids are fine, although Princess counts down to the weekends when I am home all day.

This weekend we hope to get to Floriade, an annual celebration of spring flowers in Canberra. And then I shall send the kids home with Mom and take my man down the pub for a well-deserved piss-up!

Canberra Cultural: Dinosaur Museum

They say Canberra is the most cultural and kid-friendly city in the country. We are going to test that hypothesis...

This weekend we went to the Dinosaur Museum just down the road. Both kids loved it, and the grownups thought it was pretty great too.

Birthday Bash!

We held the kid's birthday party before we left Sydney. I have finally caught up with the photos!

It was very informal we invited everyone we knew with kids and supplied junk food and a pinata.

We had 22 kids turn up with as many adults. Amazing what you can squeeze into our old place! It was a blast and I don't want to see another pinata again for a long time...