Tripping Without Acid

I've discovered perhaps one of the finest psychotropic experiences ever:

• Sit down with a two-year old.
• Get a "Bananas in Pajamas" video.
• Hit play.
• Laugh at everything the kid laughs at.

After a few minutes, you'll find yourself on another plane of existence.

Trust me.

Whoa!

Has it really been 2 months since I've posted anything on here?

I guess it's a good thing - I really have been too busy to bother. Living my life has definitely taken precedence. This is huge stuff for a "reflect-on-everything-before-taking-a-step" kind of guy like me....

Very high-level summary: working hard...playing hard....3,000 km's on my new bike....playing with my daughter as much as possible....

Life is good. Hope yours is too :)

More later...

Single Parenting...for a few days....

We've been looking forward for months and months to attending the wedding of some very good friends on the beautiful central coast of New South Wales.

Unfortunately, since I have gone back to the wonderful world of contracting, if I don't work - I don't get paid. So while my lovely wife went back to Sydney a week early to spend some quality time with the friends & family, I had to stay back in Brisbane & work.

The good part is that I talked her into letting me hang with the kid, and catching up with her later. We have had the best time ever. We have been watching "A Shark's Tale" every night since Friday....we went to a local koala sanctuary and fed kangaroos and petted sheep....we went to the farmers' market & got heaps of good food....played at the park a dozen times....but mostly, have just hung out together and laughed and played games and cuddled....

I could never, in a million years, with anyone's vocabulary, express how much fun it is to hang with my little monkey. She's cute, too...

Been Busy

OK - just to recap the last few weeks:

I got head-hunted by an associate, quit my cushy government job, and have started a new role as a contractor. It's heaps more $, totally out of my comfort zone, and I'm still trying to get my head around what they expect me to do. At the moment, it seems like everyone at the new gig is a million times smarter than me, but I'm hoping it's just a phase that I'll quickly get through....that, or I'll be looking for another job soon....

It'll have to pay well, though, because immediately after my going-away morning tea on Friday, I stopped off & bought myself one of these:

I don't pick it up for a few weeks - it's going to be a looong wait....

Also - went to a wedding/ Yoyo was the cutest flower girl ever/ had friends in town for a long weekend/ my wife's auntie & cousin stayed with us for several days/ blah blah blah blah blah/ NEW HARLEY!

Hope you've been well :)

Adventure!

My lovely wife's best friend from their university days came up from Sydney for a surprise visit over the weekend. It was only a surprise for my wife - I'd been scheming with her friend for over a month (I can be very sneaky when required...). I had arranged for them to go to a day spa on Saturday morning, to get massaged and pampered and wrapped in seaweed (or whatever goes on in those places), to be followed by a nice lunch and some shopping, while I looked after our two year old daughter for the day.

The girls came back later that afternoon with piles of shopping bags, scrubbed clean, smelling nice, beaming smiles & very relaxed. I suspect they were also a little drunk. They'd had a fabulous day, they said, and were appropriately grateful and happy and excited about all the new crap they'd bought.

Meanwhile, Yoyo & I had gone on an "adventure". We were out the door two seconds after the girls had left; first stop: The Train. Yoyo is fascinated by the train. She's been on before, but only a few times, as we usually drive everywhere we can't walk. So when we got to the train station, I think she realised Daddy was serious about this being an "Adventure". We bought our ticket from the machine, and only waited a few minutes before the loudspeakers announced "The next train on platform 2 will arrive in two minutes...". I don't know if this happens to all 2-year-olds, but any time an announcement comes on over a loud speaker, Yoyo's eyes get huge, like God Himself is talking. It probably doesn't help that I look wildly around and ask her - "Who was THAT!?!?".

We walked through Brisbane Square, and Yoyo had to run around and touch every piece of sculpture, and chase every pigeon (yelling "Go Away!!"), we carefully navigated The Bridge and played in the huge kids area they have at the State Library, and walked though the Gallery of Modern Art (she warned everyone who passed by a big steel sculpture that it was "very, very dangerous"), and we had lunch, and chased more pigeons, and the little maniac passed out on the train ride back home (probably from sheer excitement).

My wife felt happy & special from her spa treatment - but I reckon mine was better.