Long time no type

Yet again it’s over a month between entries – oh well – what can I say? Busy, not much to report, etc?

Same ol’ same ol’ here – employed by EDS as a Project Manager and working on a Telstra project (yeah, back at Hellstra :(

Kitt and I both have tax debts to clear plus Nykolai had to have a specialist eye check and now needs glasses. He has a 1-1.5mm congenital cataract in his right eye – not worth operating on at this point but the eye is actually far sighted (behaves like it’s short sighted) so we have to get glasses for that eye and a patch for him to wear at home.

I’m booked in to attend another of Rob Thomsett’s project management courses (his Masterclass course). It’s here in Melbourne in late November so I’m really looking forward to it.

Thanks to all this though I’ve not had enough funds spare to go flying, so once again I’m grounded for a while. Not happy but at least I can use the time to study (and gnash my teeth as I look up at the clear, blue skies filled with aircraft *sigh*)

That’s about it for now – I’ll try to let you know more about what’s happening as it comes along :)

One very busy day

Last week Kitt’s mother’s partner Geoff passed away and the funeral was today (Monday) up in Tweed Heads. Kitt flew up on Saturday and will come back tomorrow night. I flew up first thing this morning for the funeral and then a bit of the wake before flying back in the evening, getting home around 9pm. Very sad and but a nice ceremony with the wake becoming a full on party (which went well past midnight apparently :)

Nykolai McPotter Meanwhile, Nykolai’s school was hosting a Harry Potter celebration with a camera team from Channel 9 coming to film the kids. The first cut-over was at 06:30am which was about when I was getting on the plane to Tweed Heads so we had a bit of a logistical problem.

Fortunately Nykolai was able to stay with a friend and they all went early to the school. I’d picked up a Harry Potter outfit and he looked quite the little wizard. He wound up being one of the first kids on TV and won a copy of the new book so he was VERY happy with it all.

It was a shame I couldn’t be there – I couldn’t even find a Channel 9 TV at the airport. At least he had fun.


Nykolai McPotter and friend

Happy Feet is a boring movie

Finally got around to seeing the movie Happy Feet today – well – most of it. I got up a few times to do other things and didn’t bother getting Kitt & Nykolai to pause it.

Nykolai’s seen it before and was only watching it ‘cos he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to leave his beanbag. I think that’s the only reason why Kitt stuck it out to the end as well – she wasn’t feeling well either.

Suffice to say, this movie is lucky to reach a 4/10 on my scale. Sure, it’s got some funny bits and Robyn Williams does a good job in it (but no where near as good as he did in Robots). Sadly, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a flop. The feeling I got was that the director was trying to be a new Baz Luhrmann for animation but, you know what, Moulin Rouge wasn’t that great either (although Kitt was OK with that one, she found that Happy Feet just wound up pissing her off).

So, all up, a movie to avoid unless you’re desperate for something new to see. There are far better animated movies out there.

Power reading

This evening Nykolai completed his 50th book under the Victorian Premier’s Reading Challenge. The challenge runs from 31st January to 31st August and kids Nykolai’s age have to read 15 books from a given list within that time. Well, Nykolai blew through the 15 books in the first month and just hit 50 today. He wants to push on and try to read 100 by August 31st.

We had a deal running that if he reached 50 books, I’d get him a copy of the Kirby Canvas Curse game for his Nintendo DS. When he reached 40 books, I went an hunted it down (it’s out of production – I wound up having to go to Ebay to find one :)

Now we’re putting together a reward plan for the next 60, 70, 80, 90 & 100 books, each point earning a different gift.

Go Nykolai! (yes, we’re very proud of him :)

Filtering the telemarketers :)

Don’t you just hate it when those dreaded telemarketers call your house, usually about the time you’re preparing or eating dinner? Fortunately for Kitt and I, Nykolai has become a most excellent filter of such calls.

Here at home, we’ll be busy in the kitchen preparing dinner and the phone rings. Nykolai drops what he’s doing and heads to the phone, answering it with a polite “Hello.” Some days its friends or family, but usually it’s a telemarketer.

Most of them just give up when they hear the young voice, but some push on, asking to speak to “mom or dad” – hah! His first question is usually “Are you selling something?” – most of the callers drop out at this point, realising that they’ve been beaten. A few try to push on, but again, he asks what they’re selling. Those who make it past this are either friends he hasn’t recognised or people seeking donations.

Kitt and I are so very very happy with Nykolai’s filtering capabilities – we figure that if he keeps this up, our number will be dropped from lists faster than if we answered the phone “Hello, telemarketers will be charged for our time taking this call at a rate of $500 per hour in minimum 5 minute blocks – your clock starts now…”

Gotta love kids :)

The Return of the Terra-Saurus

Nykolai’s home again at last – two months in Argentina visiting family in Buenos Aires and going to school there. He had a great time but was missing us very much (so I’m told). Arrived back today after a long flight in – fortunately some friends of the family were flight attendants on the aircraft from Buenos Aires to Auckland, so they got bumped to business class (lucky buggers). Had to wait a few hours in Auckland ‘cos their QANTAS aircraft was delayed, but they got here eventually.

So good to have him back :)

General Update

Still here, still ticking along. The work as crew chief with Balloon Sunrise is going well and I’m working my way towards a commercial balloon pilot license. I’m no longer with the AWU but am still doing some tech support for Crumpler.

I had applied to become an Air Traffic Controller and made it right through to the end. After a number of all-day exam sessions, I wound up getting rejected due to not having the right personality match for the position. Basically, they figured I’d not be comfortable being shoved into their mould and would get bored and want to leave. It was a bit of a shame but well worth doing. I’ve logged the experience and am in the process of revamping my Fly Me Friendly section so it’ll show up there eventually.

Nykolai is with his mom in Buenos Aires (Argentina) visiting family for a month. Kinda wierd not having him around.

The car is running well after a recent tune up – still got lots to go on it – new exhaust, new suspension, probably new brakes then fix up the body work. Slowly getting there with it as funds permit.

There’s something fishy here…

I’ve just had my friend Michelle from the USA stay here on her way home after two weeks in Tasmania. Given that she’s a marine biologist, we figured it might be fun to take Nykolai to the Melbourne Aquarium. Well, it wasn’t a bad time and Nykolai managed to have fun, but I have to say it could have been better. At AUS$23 per adult (AUS$13 per child) I found it over priced – half that price would have been more realistic.

The main tank with the sharks and other marine animals was great – walking through a pair of clear-roofed tunnels into rooms with enormous viewing windows provided a wonderful way to see everything. It is possible to go diving in the tank as well which helps the rest of us get an idea of how big everything is in there. Of course, there’s a price to pay for that, ranging from AUS$130 to AUS$270 depending on your experience and equipment.

Most of the exhibits are interesting and there’s some education going on, but we found ourselves left rather flat by it all. A special exhibit was a giant squid recently caught near New Zealand – it’s about 7 metres long and appears to be encased in some sort of kinda-clear material so it’s preserved. From the promotions for the exhibit, you get the feeling it’s going to be bigger. Also, the eye looked rather false.

It may be indicative of the whole place that Nykolai’s favourite part was “The Ride” at the end – basically a simulator that moves around and attempts to give you the sensation of movement. Where the ride could have been related to the ocean (eg: a hair-raising run in a submarine or something), it’s basically a sled ride through a series of ice caverns. Not bad, but how it relates to an aquarium, who knows…

Michelle noted how many eating areas there were in the aquarium, ranging from cafes to a restaurant. She asked if this was an aquarium or a restaurant with funky decor. And what’s on the menu? Fish! :)

So, all up, not a bad time but not worth the full price of entry – perhaps half the price instead?

Flying over the valley

There were a couple of spare spaces on Rob’s flight in the Yarra Valley this morning so, seeing as we weren’t flying in Melbourne (nasty weather), I took Nykolai with me for a flight

It was great except that Nykolai spent the last 20 minutes trying to hold back an urgent need to go to the toilet. Bit hard when you’re in a basket at 4,000 feet. When we landed, we tossed him out of the basket, at which point he let me know that he really needed to do slightly more than just a quick pee….

Ooops…

I took him over to some bushes and he had a pee, but decided that here was not the place to do a quick squat. Fortunately he managed to hold on until we made it back to the winery for breakfast – there he broke a few speed records as he sprinted from the truck to the toilets :)

All good in the end – he’s saying he enjoyed the flight and is happy to go up again. Guess next time he’ll be careful to really try to go to the toilet before we fly…

It’s all gone to the birds

Had a very crazy time this afternoon – we went to help Andrew and JC select a few birds for their new house – it’s got an enormous aviary near the pool and JC suggested that Nykolai might like to come and help them. We arrived and checked out the place then headed off to Vic Markets where we fought through the ambling crowds to get some great food for lunch and then went to a pet store to seek out birds.

While Nykolai was busy chatting up the staff, I checked out the mice but, sadly, there were no females available. Hopefully we can find some new ones soon as our current pair are coming up on 1.5 years (life expectancy is usually 1.5 to 2 years).

They did have some *very* cute female rats and one of the staff had an enormous cream male draped over her shoulders (he was hiding in her long hair). Guess we can think about upgrading to rats in another couple of years.

JC and Nykolai had decided that a pair of lovebirds and a pair of quails. Staff took a while to eventually isolate a pair of lovebirds, moving birds from cage to cage until a pair was eventually located. Once all four birds were in boxes, we returned to the house to start the next part of the epic adventure – preparing the aviary.

The aviary appeared to have been used previously to house large birds, like Cockatoos or Parrots. This meant there were holes, gaps and overlaps that lovebirds, apparently being veritable escape artists, would exploit to leave the area.

A bunch of us descended on the house and began work within the aviary, leading to many calls of “See the wildlife within the cages” and “Ugly looking beasts, aren’t they!” After a number of hours of fiddling, cursing, nailing, cable-tying and self-destruction via tiny bits of sharp, annoying wire, we had managed to seal off a section of the aviary and the new occupants were released, with much squarking, confusion and racing about the place. They eventually settled down and began to get on with life.

After a refreshing beer, we took our leave. As far as I know, the birds are all fine and enjoying their new space.