2023-early December

Charlie had some buddies over for his birthday up to the Central Coast. It's a thing that whenever we go up, there's a good chance we'll go to Mad Toppings Pizza at Hornsby. It's a great way to break up the trip. 

Good times on the train.

and singing happy birthday with the boys, Hola Lola Vonne and their Japanese friend who was on the way home.

Oli's graduation from the little senior school, before going to Blackwattle for year 11/12.

Hannah, Ondine's 1st birthday, and Luke. Too cute! At Petersham Park.

Colm and Maggie's for a random get together.

Me at Malabar.

Finally got the roof on the tank. One more job off the list! Thanks to Vince for all the roofing tips.
 

2023-Nov

 

My work, where the action happens... Danesh left, Nirmit in the fore ground, Mohammed and Poonam. The forehead of Kelvin, one of the bosses, is at the back facing the camera.

Parra is really coming along.. the old courthouse and the new square in the centre, near to the train station and my work.

We went to Chin Chin, had a nice meal. Me and Marie stayed at the Wyndham in town for a night. Good fun.

Local walk in Terminus St

Me and Jaime went to a local talk about liveable cities and some great ideas. I'd love to see them all be put into place. Everyone knows what we should do, not what gets done.

Me and the man himself.

Walk to Enmore Park.

Opera at the pub, good fun.

Louis cooked up stuffed potatoes. They were really perfect.

The ride to Parra. There is a new fantastic bridge with a beautiful view.

Oli my boyyyyyeee.

Putting a new roof over the water tank.

2024-Oct

 

Jaime gave a presentation about his work on the UN Sustainability goals. He is a great speaker. His job is the head of the dept of Public Medecine at Sydney Uni. Impressive dude. 

Tim, Marie, Christina, Connaugh, Jaimie and Alan from up the road, at Halloween amazingly enough.

The neighbours Christina and Connaugh, scaring the children.

Louis dressed up as.... not Bob the Builder, the idea was the engineer from TF2, a shoot em up that he plays at the moment. He made me play it a couple of times. It's not bad eh.

Trish visited us for the Chromefest.

Andy left then Tim and Trish came Sunday. Went back down for more car viewing. Did some gardening, caught bus to Gosford, then train bus replacement, then more epic train down the north shore from Hornsby. Worst trip ever. Manger to sit high on the bus coming out of Gosford - never had such a view of the steep escarpment over to the water, very spectacular, first time I've seen it, possibly the last. The coach was very high. 

Friday went to the Entrance on the train, met up with Andy and 2 of his kids. We ate at the pub and went home to play some cats"shit head" - 3 is reset, 10 is the bomb, a set of four is the bomb of you can't go higher, then you take all the cats being played. 

I organised for a weekend away with Andy. We told Sohi. She's got Rob's parents and some rels up here, so she popped to the beach with us, and dropped into the place. 

Me and Andy at Chrome Fest, good times.

Sat checked the cars at Chromefest, lazy afternoon. Kids ice skated. We met up with Sohi, v cool after about 5 years. 

Pizza dinner at Fonzirellis, not bad. Played Loot. Hamish said his heart was beating hard trying to conjure up a strategy... him and Sage won in general.  V fun.

Went cycling first thing Sat morn with Danesh and Johnny Stevendlson, from Rhudes again. This time we went along the Cooks River. Wanted to show them a important route. They got a train from Mascot and i rolled home from there. 

Johnny Stevenson, Danesh and me went for an early Saturday morning ride. This is near Rhodes. We rolled on in towards Mascot, where they trained it, and I just kept on going to get home. A nice idea.

Yves dropped in. He's in France at the moment with Meri and the 2 boys. She's got leave, and he's working at distance.

The man himself Yves. They all miss the Yum Cha it seems.

Marie went to the En trance with her sisters. They had a lovely time. Congrats to Scoot and Natalie on the birth of their beautiful daughter. Everyone got to have a look. Marie was away so me and the boys went to Bar Italia for dinner.

Me at Warriewood, hard at work. This is the kind of place I hang around these days.

School holidays? Jaime and Esteban came up to stay for a couple of days.

Sometime around here, this happened: A big long week of holidays! At the En trance, went to the dog beach many times. Has a session of 3d at the shops. Vonne came up, along with Holly and a buddy, while me and the boys went home. A nice holiday that seemed to last a long long time. 

Got back home for the weekend with the dog. Love seeing mumma cat. 

Us and Anna

This weekend, lazy Friday. Went cycling with Danesh first thing Saturday morning, along the Parramatta river. It is just so good for the soul to be up and amoung the nature, looking at the trees and water, rolling along slowly. My aim was to show him how to get to work. We did about 20kms. My legs are a bit smashed today, so I know I am very unfit thanks in part to S1s, and my own laziness/disorganisation. Hope his aren't bad. Saturday, went for a walk with the dog and boys.  

Anna and us.

Went to Bar Italia for dinner, ate easy too much.  Sunday, went to Jaime and Claudia's with Tim and Trish to see Juan and Luz, Claudia's parents. Pablo, a colleague and friend of Jaime's from his time working in London, came in. He is doing some teaching at Sydney University. He researches cardiological problems and public health. He is concentrating on diagnosis and treatments in resource restricted countries like Asia, Middle East and African ones. Juan and Luz are in good health. They fly to Peru in 8 days.

While John came to the Entrance, we went to see the Koori knock out League comp. John went up to many fullas to ask if anyone knew about a Forster team. Interesting to see how well he blends in after working at the Tobwabba Health Service in Forster.

2023-September

Friday night, went out with Justin in Crows Nest. Played some cards where you are applying for a job. Hilarious. Drank some delicious whiskey.

Rolled out of bed very slowly. We'd arranged to pick up a sofa bed at 9am. So we wrestled it out the door, gouging the Eden's floor (the girl offering the item). Had to tumble it vertically to get it out and down the stairs. Couldn't shut the tail gate. Rather than battle it into the house at Petersham, we drove up to the Central Coast to drop it off. Decided to try get another while up there. Really max'd our time there. An English couple had a newish looking one for $80, bargain, hope the kids use it a bit.

Saturday night at Jason and Christie's for her surprise 40th. Nice time for all. That's not a bonfire, sheesh.

Marie's away this week. I like her going off with her friends. But when I'm doing the single parent routine, you are not allowed to come home and complain about the state of the house, and the kids being behind on their homework.

Left: Lou, Max, Marie measure up Oli and Charlie.

Right: our neighbour Christian and Marie checking out the explosion of Jasmin at the front. With any luck soon, the cage will be covered!

Well the kids had an ok week I think. 4 mornings out of 5, I was out with work, so said they have to get their own breakfast, their own lunch, and get themselves to school. If they're late or not, too bad, up  to them! Have to admit, I didn't get to do any shopping, so we ran out of muesli bars and bread. No idea what they ate at school, except for Lou's regular Vietnamese pork roll on Friday. 

Friday night went to dinner with Chap and Riet at Chico's Mexican at Milson's Point, a nice place. Chap is nearing completion with the building of his home, should be ready for visitors by December. He'll be back November. His dad has dementia, and his mum is struggling to look after him. He hides tools from under the house around the home because he's worried about theft, then can't find them, and thinks they've been stolen. Riet is the diversity senior manager at her law firm, so seems it's going well. Really nice to see them after so long.

Saturday night me and Rie went to the Re bar - claiming to be sustainable with recycled bench tops, that kind of thing. Not sure how sustainable drinking spirits is, but anyway... The boys stayed with Vonne.

Sunday, had a nice sleep in, walked the dog to the library to return a book on Rutherford and Oliphant, two scientists who were buddies from Aust/NZ, and very much started the nuclear age- nuclear power, microwaves, radar and leading to the atomic bomb. Walked to Evonne's to get the boys and walked home. I think Goldie is tired, but always hungry now. She loves human food, and my cooking.

The year of the cat: Mumma seems appreciative on a level that humans can only hope to achieve one day.

I'm on S1s today! (12th) This means I can take a call 24 hours, and work up to 14 in one day. There are stand down rules for those who get exhausted. Fingers crossed the night thing doesn't happen this time!

So far so good. It's Friday as I write. Up at 6:20 this morning with one at Warriewood that resolved itself. Was right near Andy's place but sadly I only had his work number, so missed him while there. Got 2 hours through an audio book on environment and taking action. Now feeling guilty for doing incorrect stuff and not doing enough protest. 

Saturday, spent the afternoon and evening at Christina and Tony's. I'm sobre being on call. Lou came to hang with Oliver Sceats. Met Sean and Allee, good times, crazy stories. 

Sunday, had lunch at Vonnes with Tim and Suzie. Tim was an old house mate of theirs. Ate too much. Walked the dog home. 

Left: a photo of our newly resprayed bridge. After the buildup and a weekend, not sure if they did too much though. It is a historic bridge, iron, the oldest of its type still used in NSW apparently. Built in 1883, designed by George Cowdery. Rests on brick piers, steel trestles, refurbished in 1992. The riveted metal lattice work underneath is original. Currently getting a repaint using two tone heritage colours.

I'm on S1s today! (12th) This means I can take a call 24 hours, and work up to 14 in one day. There are stand down rules for those who get exhausted. Fingers crossed the night thing doesn't happen this time!

 

Right: me and Lou at the BBQ place in Burwood, while Marie and Oli had gone up the Coast already. Very genuine: not much English spoken. You cook your own stuff. 

So far so good with the S1 jobs. It's Friday as I write. Up at 6:20 this morning with one at Warriewood that resolved itself. Was right near Andy's place but sadly I only had his work number, so missed him while there. Got 2 hours through an audio book on environment and taking action. Now feeling guilty for doing incorrect stuff and not doing enough protest. 

Saturday, spent the afternoon and evening at Christina and Tony's. I'm sobre being on call. Lou came to hang with Oliver Sceats. Met Sean and Allee, good times, crazy stories. 

Sunday, had lunch at Vonnes with Tim and Suzie. Tim was an old house mate of theirs. Ate too much. Walked the dog home.

So far, so good, only Tuesday I had to roll out to North Head in the morning for a no responsive rack (just needed replacement comms module), but then got a panic call from Bondi, since server 2 had died (there is a redundant one, but if that goes, they lose control of the plant). Had to drive to Parra to collect a replacement, then drive to Bondi to swap it out, following the checklist. Managed to kill the plant for a few seconds, stopped server 2 replacement, then worked out I had one ipaddress wrong. Finished 9:30pm.

Friday we saw the Syd Uni med review - ChatGP with Jaime, Claudia, Marie and Tim. Some funny skits in there, for example the doctor who has a zombie wave of patients, like in a video game-it was well done.

Saturday clean up, walk dog to the shops, set up some stereo speakers in the kitchen, a bit of a disappointment with the average volume.

Saturday night, went to dinner with Julian's parents, Enno and Andrea. They are both PhD people. They met at UTS. He works for the ABC in complaints. She works for a prime minister's library - the Whitlam Institute at Parra, that I ride past on the way to work all the time, on the river, at UWS. 

Left: at North Head Sewerage works aka Wastewater Treatment Plant probs soon Water Resource Recovery blah.

Andrea did her PhD on cultural memory/history *something like that, and visited Mostar to see the divisions caused by the war, as an example, along with a couple of other cities.

Sunday, another call to Bondi - a switch port was off, so they thought the switch was throwing out problems. Turns out the mains supply power was a bung for a moment, throwing off several machines, including shutting off the one reported as a the switch port problem. It was 2pm to 6pm, so no drama sleep wise.

So finished the s1s on Tuesday morning. Dinner with Lou Tuesday night as per the photo above. Wednesday me and Lou finally went up to the Central Coast Wednesday. Worked two days while Trish, Tim and fam were up. Oli got Julian, Curtis and Felix up. Charli came for a day or two. 

  

Right: Fil in Belgium somewhere.

Ceal cocking a leg in Belgium. Good times.