16 years, 2 weeks and 1 day

In what sometimes seems like another lifetime, I lived for about 18 months in Edinburgh, staying at a youth hostel. While the population at a youth hostel is mostly transient, there’s more often than not a group of people who are using it as a base to live, while they save some money to fund the next portion of the trip. And through some weird timing mechanism, this population seems to move on in groups, so as one set of people leave, another group arrives.

I turned up right in the middle of one of the transitions, and built a group of friends aka drinking buddies. I scored a series of crap jobs that funded trips to the pub and food, which was basically what life consisted of. Naturally, if you put a group of under 25 year olds in the same building for any length of time (eg more than one hour) relationships start to form fairly quickly, and with a level of fluidity.

After I had been at the hostel for a few months, I noticed a girl who had returned to the hostel after travelling around Europe (who it turns out, left the hostel the day after I arrived, and who’s going away party I had been invited to, but declined). I was going on a quick trip to Paris, as you do, so I didn’t pay a massive amount of attention, but my interest was definitely piqued. In any case, I returned from Paris, and over the next few months we got to know each other fairly well, but only in a good friends sort of way.

One day I, against all previous history, entered a radio competition to see Crowded House in a special show being put on by Radio Forth. I scored two tickets, so I asked this girl if she wanted to go along. She’d never really heard of the band, but a free ticket is a free ticket, so she came along. We went to the show, which turned out to be in a tiny little pub, and there was only about 50 people in the room. The band had played a show in Glasgow earlier that night, and were driving to Edinburgh to play this special show.

Side Note: while we didn’t know it at the time, but as far as I can work out the Glasgow show was the last show that Tim Finn played with the band as a regular member, leaving the band that night, so they travelled to Edinburgh as a three piece again!

In any case, they put on a typically wonderous show that night for more reasons than one. With the magic ingredient of music, it turned out to be my first date with Caren, who I have since married and had two wonderful children with.

And on Friday night, 16 years, 2 weeks and 1 day after that first date, we saw Crowded House for the second time.

Dancing Evelyn

More N95 action. I was testing out the video, and Evelyn insisted on being the subject. Cute dancing.

Cottesloe

Give It Up

Sunset
Originally uploaded by Jordan Brock.

Just got back from a magnificently relaxing weekend on Rottnest Island

An internet free weekend, which is not such a bad thing every now and then. Had lots of fun with Evelyn and Caren. I even managed to get Caren to ride a bike (something that has only happened 4 times in the 14 years we’ve been together!)

We stayed in Longreach Bay, and one night I wandered over to Geordie Bay, just in time to watch the sun do this. The only thing that detracted from a wonderful experience was that people on the boat on the left were playing KC and the Sunshine Band’s Greatest Hits at an extraordinarily loud volume.

Age

So, I have to wear glasses now. Only for reading and working on the computer mind you, but still. My aging old body.

When I went to have my eyes tested (you know, the usual … sore eyes, headaches, unable to concentrate) I asked if using computers non-stop would have caused any damage. “No, it’s your parents’ fault!” Good to know that it’s genetics.

I’m not sure what the prescription is, but it’s nothing traumatic. And a good thing to know that I don’t have glaucoma.

Next, the cane.

Moved

So, some relatively major changes have been going on of late. The most significant being that we have finally got around to buying a house! It only took about 10 years of procrastinating and avoiding the whole issue, but we’ve got there.

It’s a decent enough brick and tile house on a battleaxe block in Bayswater. Not the best area, but certainly decent enough.

Obviously the majority of our time of late has been taken up with trying to get things sorted out in the house. Putting stuff in cupboards, moving it all when we realise that it’s in the wrong spot; drilling countless holes to hang shelves and hooks; organising a never ending stream of tradespeople to come and install airconditioning or rewire the house, or cut down trees or any number of things. Quite exhausting really.

And all of this while I’m trying to get enough work done that we can afford to go away on our trip to the US in a couple of weeks. Which in itself is going to be an ordeal … I mean, do you want to spend 20 odd hours in an airplane with a 15 month old toddler? Regardless of how much you love her?

Three steps and she's away

I was sitting down with Evelyn this morning, more in an attempt to prevent her from climbing all over the entertainment system shelving than anything else, and while she was holding several pieces of cardboard in her hand, she looked up at me and promptly took three steps. Just like that. Attempts to repeat the feat resulted in one or two steps here and there.

Caren and I thought she took one step yesterday morning, but you don’t know whether its a real step or just stopping herself from falling. But today’s were legitmate steps. Unfortunately Caren wasn’t around to see it, but that just means we have plenty of practice to do this afternoon!

One Year

So, as of yesterday, we have been parents for 1 year. And I’m sure it’s been said many times before, but wow, what a year. It’s all been pretty much fantastic, and we have a wonderful little girl.

It’s so cool to watch her grow and develop. Looking back through the photos from her monthly birthdays it’s amazing to see the development that you don’t notice on a day to day basis.

What we have noticed day to day recently is a real burst in mini milestones. In the last month she has:

• Gone from waking up 3-4 times a night, to sleeping just about the whole way through,
• Started drinking out of her cup,
• Started eating on her own
• Free standing

All very exciting.

We’re off to Rottnest tomorrow with Caren’s work. Should be interesting. Hopefully we can obtain healthy supplies of alcohol.

Oh, I found out today that Dee is in hospital … nothing too serious from all accounts … just some bed rest. Paul must be working her too hard.

“Get mah dinner woman!”

11 Months Old

Pose
Originally uploaded by JordanBrock.

It’s just astonishing how quickly this has happened, but our little girl is almost 1 year old! No doubt we will soon be saying “I can’t believe she’s leaving high school!” and “Wow, she’s leaving home. Sigh!”

Things we have learned

In the last 24 hours, Caren and I have learned:

• Eating Chilli Squid with Tamarind Sauce while breastfeeding is less than optimal.
• Sleep, however fleeting, is nice.
• All of the ideals we had discussed about raising our child go out the window on the first night.

Hey! She's Here!

Evelyn Jane Brock
Originally uploaded by Jordan Brock.

Caren is recovering well, but you know, it takes a lot out of you. More news at 11.

You're coming out, ready or not.

Right.

We’re off to have a baby. It didn’t want to come out on it’s own accord, so we’re off to force the issue. It’s a birth canal showdown at the ok corral (or Mercy Hospital, whichever has the best facilities.)

Next time we speak, I’ll be a responsible father!

Oh Bubbaliscious, Where Art Thou?

Still no freaking baby!

Which, considering the due date was yesterday, wouldn’t normally be too much of a problem. Except for the fact that at our ob/gyn appointment last week Dr Smith (his real name, not some name I made up to protect his medical identity for unknown reasons) said that he thought it would be out within a couple of days. So naturally Caren and I got really excited about the prospect of everything appearing in time for the weekend!

No dice.

Anyway, it’s not really a problem. Caren is getting sick of having some feet in her lungs and being short of breath even while lying in bed, but there’s not really a great deal that can be done. If the wriggler doesn’t appear by next tuesday it will be induced. So, we’ll be knee deep in screams and babyshit within a week.

Joy!

Highway to the Delivery Zone

And so it comes down to this. Inevitable I suppose.

1.5 weeks to go, which basically means that it’s due to arrive any damn time it wants to. Caren has packed, the mini nursery (the corner of the bedroom) is almost ready to receive it’s cargo. Prams are bought. Car seats purchased. Toys are on standby. Nappies are beckoning to be spoiled. The dogs are wondering why we’re both home all the time. Phones are primed with numbers of relatives. Bills are paid, ready for the long lean times ahead.

The peanut, which obviously no longer resembles a peanut so much as a sack of kittens within Caren’s torso, is all set to go. The head’s in the right spot. The doctor assures us it’s going to be a normal birth. All limbs are present and accounted for, pushing gently against organs. Just waiting.

I suppose we are both anxious, pretty much the same as all soon to be new parents. Not sure what’s going to happen or how we are going to cope. Obviously everything is going to be fine, but still. It’s just all so new and unknown.

More news at 11.

What We Came Here For

So the day has finally arrived. We didn’t have any activities planned, other than the wedding itself, so it was a pretty quiet day until a quick flurry of activity towards the end.

We went for a walk across the river in the morning, and watched the swedish army doing parachute practice onto the frozen river. Not quite what you see everyday, so it was pretty interesting. After dropping four lots of chutists, the plane did a very low fly by over the lake (about 10 metres or so), before flying off to pick up another bunch of human drop bunnies.

It was quite “warm” today .. just 0C. Walking around in the overalls that the hotel supplies was actually quite a hot activity, and the temptation is there to take half of the gear off. Until of course you realise that it’s 0C, and that just ain’t anything other than cold.

So, eventually it was time to start getting ready. After a bit of a nervous wait, the photographer turned up to have a quick chat before he went and set up. Then the priest, who doesn’t speak a word of english, arrived at our chalet to say hello. He left, and we followed off to the ice church a few minutes later.

As we walked to the church, there were lots of people stopping and staring at us, taking photos, with one couple even asking if they could watch the ceremony. We told them they could, but they would have to wait until the very end until they left … something they weren’t too keen on.

We got to the church, and from then on it was pretty much a normal wedding. Apart from the fact it was in a church made entirely of ice, it was -9C and that the ceremony was in Swedish. We did attempt to sing the hymn in Swedish, but of course, not knowing the melody and not knowing how to pronounce any of the words it was a little difficult.

We had a translator for the ceremony, which was good, because otherwise we wouldn’t have had a clue what was going on. And it was also handy having another person there to help with the singing.

The ceremony lasted for about 15 minutes, after which we had about an hour with the photographer, taking shots in the church, under the ice chandelier, and in the Absolut Ice Bar. We had a couple of “colourful” drinks for some photos, and then it was all over. We came back to the chalet to warm up a bit before dinner at the restaurant.

I had been nursing a flu all day, and it was about now that it decided to hit with a vengeance. It could have had something to do with the fact that I was wearing a thin summer suit in sub zero temperatures but I just don’t know. And Caren, being Caren, was pretty tired. So neither of us really felt too up to going to the restaurant. But we did.

It was pretty good, however, the pricing is just ridiculous. I know I harp on about it a bit, but I paid about $50 for a small bit of reindeer (which was very nice, but still) and Caren had a $40 piece of salmon. We’ve worked out that if you want to have a really good holiday in Sweden, you’d need about $1000 a day for food and accommodation. Unfortunately, our budget doesn’t run quite that high.

Due to the aforementioned flu and tiredness, we had a quick main, and then it was off to bed. Husky rides tomorrow!