2023-August

Weekend  Saturday big sleep in, went for walk to Marrickville library with the boys as a buddy of Lou's is moving there, then to Mcabe's but noone was home. Charlie asked them over as he had friends coming and Tone and Vonne were both away. Marie was up the coast with her and the girls. Boys decided to prank them at 3am. 

Went to resto with Jaime Claudia Tim Trish Marie, see resto review. It was fantastic. At 3am Marie drove the boys to Charlie's house. Not sure what the prank plan was except they were trying to pretend they were there the whole time. Sunday went for bay walk with Duls and Andy. Duls father in law died. Andy's kids have struggles. Andy's oldest is acing some IT course at UTS with Ds and HDs.

The growth chart on our wall at home. Oli is in the lead, I'm shrinking and Lou is catching up! Marie is now coming last in the height race.

Saturday morning, went to the knife show with Oli, Steve and Tim (pictured here). All kinds of knives, swords, even pikes and some medieval armour. Bought a round Japanese wood rasp, and a two sided Japanese wood saw of all things, no knives for me. 

It being Oli's birthday the tomorrow, he wanted a sword, but I talked him into getting some throwing knives instead. Good parenting eh. Not sure when throwing knives become a responsible possession. Anyway we had a bit of a throw in the back yard. We'll have to take them to John's property or some such to try them out more. 

Sunday we went to lunch, then tried to get to a movie, but seems that Burwood was closed, so we went back and saw the Dungeons and Dragons movie on the big TV. It wasn't bad at all. Happy birthday to one of the most beautiful things in the world , my Oli.

Friday, Marie visited Baka, then had to come home to get the dog, so got delayed, so we all went up the coast in the car. Stopped at Mad Toppings pizza at Hornsby. Raced in, but Marie wasn't happy as the dog was pulling like mental on the lead.

Saturday, spent time sifting rocks out of the compost dirt, then grouted a couple of joins/one hole/holes next to the shower floor, in the laundry. Zdenka and Tim arrived at about 3pm. Tried to watch the World Cup Women's soccer finals, Aust v England, but the internet was terrible, so went to the Mingarra club. Nat and Scott rolled up.

Sunday was Natalie's baby shower. We walked in to see a half swept floor with Twiggy sticks. In the weekend heat, it stunk. The kitchen was also a mess, and the fridge totally full of food. We hauled the BBQ, presentation platters, boxes of soft drink, beer, used glasses etc outside, and the contents of the fridge got piled up in a storage room inside. Everyone got busy to clean the mess, take out the rubbish, sweep the floor. I wiped out the fridge. We cut up stuff for a nibbles board.

After phone calls, the happy couple turned up - it was their engagement party, and were profusely apologetic. They thought noone would be there.

Sat with Vince for a few hours during the event and resolved a few world issues, like where to put nuclear waste, or quarried rock from tunnelling for the massive roads projects. Then went back to eat ice cream cake left over from the other people, and run around with Harley, Maddie and my two boys. 

Marie and Vonne dropped us at the train, as they are staying up there for Monday, then drove off, car beeped as I had the car key in my pocket. Vonne ran, got that. Then we stepped onto a train that rolled up as soon as we got on the platform. I was in strong pain for the last half hour trying to hang onto my bladder. Bolted for the can at the end, and got there ok, phew!

Saturday, went to Skein Sisters to get darning needles and thread. This is part of "mending with a purpose". We save the socks from going in the bin, by running some repair thread across the thin and holy parts. And it looks pretty.

In the arvo, popped into the Petersham Bowling Club Medieval fair. 

There was a forge, with a guy doing steelwork on the anvil, very pretty. Plenty of swords, leatherwork, fighting, wrestling displays, and a couple of beers. Jaime came later, then we had everyone over to our place for takeaway pizza. Big news is that Trish is getting her hip replacement done on Monday. She wondered if Jaime had anything to do with it. He said he didn't, but that he asked a director if that was his area, and about Trish's job, and voila she got a call in shortly after, so seems he really did.

Sunday I went for a beautiful bike ride in the Western Sydney parklands, via the City Farm and Parx Cafe. The train we were on had all its stops cancelled, then we got on the next one to Liverpool, which went via the wrong line. So we got off at Cabramatta, and rather than go back to Guildford and get on the pipeline path, we went from there and came back with the group. Met Ishan at Lidcombe, and rode with him out to Parx Cafe Abbotsbury, and Lizard Log. A very nice day. Went to the shops with the boys to get some books and groceries.

...Here are some random photos from things I've been following on the internet.

Above is a photo of an American baseball field surrounded by acres of car parking, not nice.

To the right, can you believe it, was the old Commodore Hotel, a perfectly beautiful building. And the next shot below, is the building they replaced it with. 

Nice work developers. I always thought the Commodore was a characterless dump, and now this explains the architectural hit job, and subsequent architypal ugly building crime of the 1960s.

This is a screenshot from an excellent presentation from John Pucher, Professor of Planning,  and Peter Norton, author of Fighting Traffic. American cities (and Australian ones) all had excellent tram networks, and heaps of bike riders. It's sad that the machines have taken over our cities.