Camping on the oval. Taking me back to my childhood, Mollie, Joel and I camped for a Saturday night on the school grounds. The kids had a ball, Dad got to have a few beers around the camp fire, then Dad didn't sleep at all - but it was good fun.

Mollie & Joel 'rock climbing'.

A few months ago now, but I was awake early and my first thoughts were that we had bush fires, instead it was a huge dust storm covering the whole of Sydney. It took most of the day to clear and created a lot of cleaning.

It's been a while but we have been busy with the house/degree/work etc... Anyway, I'm going to try to get back onto the pictures again.

So the global warming panic is over. Our storm water tank arrived and was installed in a rather large hole.
The tank which was a requirement from Dr. Evil (refer to earlier postings) holds enough water (10,000 litres) that even Noah can sleep easy in his bed. So bring on global warming, give us 29C winter days and if the seas rise two metres, then we'll have ocean views - everyone's a winner!

The scaffolding has been removed and you can see the house and what I've been painting for the past few weeks.

More delays with the house, but we are now moving onto the final finishes and we can start to see what we are going to be left with.
Our move in date looks to be moving back....

School holidays, so the kids got to catch up with their friends and do some fun stuff.

Stupidly, I've put my hand up for painting the house... both inside and out. At weekends I'm seen swinging from the scaffolding, like a performing chimp :)

We now have a tentative moving in date, well what really happened was that I've told the builder we are moving in on Friday 21st August, ready or not. I need to get a move on with my paint brush!

Joel has now moved from his wooden bike, lost the training wheels and now loose on his own.
Plus, he is growing at a rate that he now needs a new bike.

OK, so I'm now over this house building lark....

With the house build at the point of everything having to coordinate and come together, work going crazy (no signs of Oracle being in a recession), exams for my Masters and the usual interruptions of life in general, I'm going slightly mad.

The house is moving along, but at a slower pace. The bathroom items finally turned up from the UK, all in tact and so the pace can now pick up again.

And then there was a roof.

The house continues at quite a pace. The brickwork is almost complete and roof next.

I recently attempted my first Triathlon, ok nothing major in terms of distance or effort (1km swim, 12km cycle and 8km run) but I was just outside the first 100 (108th), with 5000 competitors.
All good fun and nobody got eaten by sharks in the harbour, which is always a bonus!

Everything you see on the news of late is nothing but bad. I saw this and had a smile for the rest of the day, so I thought I'd share it.
Enjoy.


Playing For Change | Song Around The World "Stand By Me" from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

The windows have gone in, so the shape of the house is starting to appear.

A sign of the times... Living in a global market.

Who would have thought that Somalian pirates could jeopardise a house build the other side of the world!

In a bid to save some coin, we are buying the bathrooms and kitchen appliances over the internet in the UK and shipping them.
The bathroom pieces are already on their way and will pass through the Gulf of Adan in the next week - fingers crossed our toilets will receive a US Naval escort :/

I am tracking the container ship via satellite and get a little nervous when it stops mid ocean...

Excluding finances, the build is going really well. We are actually two weeks ahead of schedule.
The builders are good fun and really know their stuff, which is actually making it a pleasure albeit lots of work.

Joel has started to play 'soccer' for the Seaforth Zebras.
The offside rules still needs some work as it's more like bees around a honey pot :)

And in their first game they beat the Manly Vale Sharks 11-1, with the 1 being one of our team getting mixed up as to which end to score in!! LOL