countdown begins!

I've passed the ovulation test! Both the blood-test yesterday, and the poas-test today!

So, we're implanting Francoise (embryo #1) on Saturday. And, this also means I won't need another blood-test on Friday YAY!, so I'll be able to try out the new class at the gym YAY! Much to be happy about today!

Oh... yeah...

Also, I haven't recorded here yet that I've:

a) got a job
b) bought a house
c) made the move to go live outside of Melbourne for the first time in my life.

I really should get around to doing that one day :-)

New shoes

It was one of my goals when we invented this website with Zuz that, one day, I'd be able to write

NEW SHOES NEW SHOES NEW SHOES!!!

I'm now the proud owner of a pair (actually quite expensive) New Balance tennis shoes so that I can play tennis up here in Cohuna.

Next stop: restring or replace my racquet which has been used 3 times in the last 8 years.

Happy happy news!!

Last night, in a quiet moment after a BBQ:

Son: Dad, do you believe in God?
Me: (pause) No I don't.
Son: Me neither. I don't believe in things you can't see.

............................... HOORAY!!!!

I swear to - goodness - that I never once put him up to it!

Success!! Rational parenting win!!

We had a brief chat about how we wouldn't say things like that Gran, because it's not very polite, and my wife was listening so I couldn't fall to my knees and say "Oh, thankyou thankyou thankyou." I think I handled it very neutrally.

I wish I had a camera in my eyes...

...so that when I put on goggles and swim under the water I could forever capture the image of seeing my son swimming without floaties for the first time under the water to pick things up off the bottom of the pool.

I substituted by saying 'click' to myself and trying to etch it into my visual memory forever.

Ella also learnt to kick today, so she can now make her way around through the water. Every time I take them swimming they get new skills without even seeming to try.

Happy and hungover on the eighteenth of october...

Well, I managed to get pretty swimmingly drunk on my trip to the Faroes. I'm going through my receipts (it was a work trip), and I seem to have still been buying rounds at 3:45am, which is soooo not me. I remember singing eurovision songs with some surprisingly drunk Icelanders, and talking five kinds of garble with (very drunk) Faroese people, aaaand I remember having a D&M in an underground bomb-shelter-like thing outside the toilets. The amazing part here is, while I quite naturally enjoyed every second of the night as it was unfolding, I also enjoyed the hangover the next day, and, most astoundingly of all, the D&M isn't embarrassing me! Now I count THAT as a win for t!

I did it.

Am now incredibly tired, but satisfied to say that on top of (and despite) everything that's been going on in the last couple of months I've now done the 210km Around The Bay In A Day for a second time.

Highlights include being the last over the bridge - WOOHOO, the amazing weather (14-16 and a bit overcast the entire day) and not having to do THAT again for another 12 months.

I was three kinds of knackered when we rolled into Alexandra Gardens, but you better believe there was a sprint finish!!

I did it.

And that can't be undone.

Afternoon mini-vacation

My team leader said that since I've been exceeding my hours recently and am meeting all my targets and stuff, I can have an afternoon off next week. Yea!

Any suggestions for an afternoon mini-vacation?

Ever wondered just how many posters are on those poster poles in the city?

How very cool!

nooooooob...

Mwahahah! Look out world, I am officially the new script kiddie on the block! Look at just part of the script that I wrote to fix my mucked up experiment:

%s/\([a-ö][a-ö]*\) c /\1 - /g

Luce taught me how to make the file, but I made this evil-looking substitution all on my own! I even had to make a special other script to test this particular bit. :D (Cos, getting instructions off some guy's webpage counts as doing in on my own, doesn't it?)

It's been a while since I've had good news worthy of reporting, but I got some the other day. My car insurance renewal came!

Normally this isn't good news, but this year I turn 30 and that means it costs $300 less this year. Sweet. In related good news, I saw an ad for a place called sakenet which ships Japanese booze in Australia for not-too-bad prices. What better way to spend my hard-earned $300?

Rain!!!!! hooray hooray hooray!!!

Riding to pick up tali from primary school in the driving rain. All the mums and me watching Ella jump in puddles while waiting for him to come out. Riding through puddles with Tali to get home. Rushing about to change into dry clothes to go back out and race paper boats in the gutter.

Love it!! :-D :-D

(oh - and am reading It right now, so you can appreciate that it took a certain amount of rational courage to take my children out and play with paper boats in the rain...)

- taking this opportunity to warm my cockles with red wine :-D

House Husband

Successful day of having a little friend over to play for Ella this morning for the first time.

I picked up Emily from Tali's school this morning and we all rode home. Then they _vanished_ out into the cubby house all morning. I only heard from them when they arrived in the kitchen with demands for fairy bread and strawberries.

My little girl.

Not a baby any more.

Ella demon scooterer

I would like to report that, while I snarl and complain almost the entire time (because we're usually running late, my fault), it is one of the unexpected joys of my life right now that Ella insists of riding her little scooter down to Tali's school. It's a 1km ride, actually quite a distance for a little girl, and the sight of her barreling along with her oversized helmet and little legs pumping on those little pedals make me laugh out loud. She yells out "What Dad?! What are you laughing at?" and I say "You're adorable" but she can't hear me because she's already zooming off. We ride past the high school and I hear the big kids say to each other "OMG, do you see that little girl? That is so cute!!"

Tali continues to become faster and faster on the bike, and I am ready to upgrade him to the next size bike as soon as the opportunity presents itself. He's just discovered skids. Actually I had to teach him how to do it. Although I did have to say to him, "Tali, now that I've shown you how to skid I really should tell you to stop it, you're ruining the tyre."

I love that I'm able to be here for these times - I love watching my babies be such capable and energetic people - I love that I'm able to give them the opportunity to be developing these skills and confidence - but most of all I love seeing Ella going hell for leather down the pavement with her little legs going EE-ee-EE-ee-EE-ee and her wild blond curls flying out behind her.

Very quickly am in fantastic mood today because after many many many weeks of radio silence in the job dept I am interviewing with two companies (that you will have heard of - Willow Ware [they make tupperware and stuff] and Britax [they make all the prams and car seats at Target and Kmart. Our pram was a Britax {Steelcraft} pram]) in the space of 24 hours.

Beth continues to rock hard with the emergency teaching.

wish us luck - am heading out with lucien on maiden ATB training ride for the year in new knicks and new wind vest.

having not dropped below 12 degrees for weeks and weeks it's currently 3.3 degrees. woohoo!! is bright beautiful sunny day. this is going to be so much fun!

I did bench presses today. Maybe 15kg, so not breaking any land speed records yet - but... you know... first time in 14 months that I've done it without fear of my wrist snapping right off.

Rock-climbing scheduled for yesterday - but called off because of cousin's parents' reluctance to let her avoid meeting them - feeling confident that I can do it.

turns out some parts of England are very nice indeed

"camp life suits me very well. The hard ground, a morning bathe, the absence of flesh food, and no chairs don't make one nearly so ill as one would suppose." Maynard Keynes, of the Grantchester Group. I could say of conferencing that IT suits ME very well - the strange beds, the morning runs, the absence of family and the constant linguistics don't make one nearly so ill as one would suppose. LFG09 here in Cambridge has been awesome!!

tania comes homes in one week's time.

My dad - the TV star!

Everyone saw my dad on The New Inventors last night, didn't they? He was awesome! Don't forget to vote for the People's Choice Awards: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s2570802.htm.

If you just so happened to be washing your hair when he was on, you can download the episode or watch it on iView http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/program/372000

Hooray for atheism!

I am pleased to announce that I have (possibly without success) argued the case of atheism with a non-Christian. In fact, I think Josh might not even be a religionist, so much as a divinitist. I think he's on drugs actually, but I do remember him from high school as being a very very nice person.

Hooray! It's not just Chrisitianity that I disagree with! It's all sorts of other nonsense as well!

Joshua thinks it's funny - the entire universe is not explained at all, but then people want something within it to be inexplicable for them to believe in anything mystical, divine, or transcendent! Otherwise they won't have a bar of it! There's no evidence!


Brent at 11:19am May 17
the universe is inexplicable on its own special level that requires no further inexplicability. The extent of the lack of explanability of why and how reality is does not suggest that anything more mystical or divine happens. The universe is unclear, but it is real.


Joshua at 6:15pm May 17
What? Is there not a universe? Do you know its source? Can there be in your reckoning anything that *could* suggest mystical or divine happening? I say the entire thing is that! You say it is what? "real" what does that mean? Did the universe say to you in the morning "I am real"? No, you call it that, thus the basis for its so called reality is in... Read More you not the universe. Without this ascription you give it "this is real" "this is reality", it has no more to say for itself than does a dream or a film, both of which can be believed on their "own special level". You dislike the concepts "mystical", "divine", fine - then what are we to say of this reality? What vantage point do you hold to say ("the universe"'s) "own special level"? It implies awareness of levels other than the universe does it not? Such awareness has gone under names like the "mystical", "divine", "transcendent", I don't see why any of them shouldn't be permitted. They are no more questionable than "Being", "reality".


Joshua at 6:43pm May 17
I mean by "no more questionable", they are no more "brimming with wonder" to me anyway. And yet the latter are regarded as commonplace and "scientific" expressions, like "truth". I would suggest Religion and Science (or Materialism/ so called "Rationalism") are two forms of worship, one explicit the other implicit, but what the ultimate difference ... Read Moreis I don't know. Both are founded upon ignorance, yet they are to be commended if it is by wonder that they attract their disciples for at least this means awareness of ignorance, as Socrates said, he was only wiser than his fellow men in that he *knew* he did not know. This wonder points toward our nature which is not bound by the universe, or the 'known', or 'appearing' thing.


Brent at 11:14pm May 17
i didn't say not permitted. I said not required. And yes. The universe does tell me that it's real. Look. *tap* *tap*. You can bang it. It's there.

Religion is founded upon a certain level of ignorance and making up the rest. Sciencee is founded uopn a certain level of ignorance and a desire to uncover the rest.

I dislike terms like divine and mystical because if those levels of reality are really really like, say, this table *tap* *tap* is really real, then they function on such a ridiculously inconsequential way as to be meaningless. It adds nothing to the universe that there may or may not be some level of hocus pocus floating around out there obvserving, eternally fascinated by the spinning of atoms like a high undergrad transfixed by the lights...... Read More

People put too much weight onto nonsense like "You can only know that you dono't know anything" because look, *tap* *tap*, this really exists. This.


Joshua at 10:47pm May 18
You can't bang it when you're not there!

And speaking of "hocus pocus", what do you think about the "dark energy" and "dark matter" they say is, "floating around out there", making up the vast bulk of the universe? Does it wield no "consequential" or "meaningful" power over the remaining 'known' universe? Does this dark stuff have nothing to do ... Read Morewith your table? I reckon saying that 96% of the universe you observe is made of "dark energy" and "dark matter" is a massively *uncertain* level of ignorance making Alice's Adventures in Wonderland look worthy of reviewer-remarks like: 'naively sober', 'much much too common-sensical', and 'it's so dry, I fell asleep'. As for the "desire to uncover the rest", well one starts to wonder if it isn't perhaps a bit ambitious from the vertex employed til now!

96% dark energy and dark matter makes the remaining 4% that we "know about" (ha ha) sound almost like it must "function in such a ridiculously inconsequential way as to be meaningless"(!)


Joshua at 7:46am May 19
It was actually "Alice's experiences in Wonderland" that I wanted to say above, but the eventual structure of the sentence didn't suit that formulation, at least not without some confusion as "reviewer-remarks" would imply the book. I mention it because the word "experiences" better holds the terrain I am trying to address.

When I say "from the ... Read Morevertex employed til now", I am indicating then a potential change in vertex which may be beneficial to science but perhaps, to which it has been blind, or in which it has trodden very uncertainly namely the nature of experience involved in scientific judgments, which in a background, or more general sense, we may call consciousness. It may seem like a philosopher's trick to say "You can't bang it if you're not there", but it contains a scientifically significant truth - and it's not different to those things going on in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass which might seem like play but are also serious.


Brent at 10:23am May 19
1) Parentheses much? What feature of unknown material implies divinity?

2) "You can't bang it if you're not there" is not a truth, it's an axiom. Which I don't agree to accept. I agree to the axiom Cogito Ergo Sum. I'm here: I insist that I do. I'm from the same substance as that which I hit, and I have the sensations of doing so, so the things I ... Read Morebang are there too.

Science is doing just fine. Any system of rational thought which replaced science would have to be have so many features of science that it would really BE science, which is, really the central feature of science, that it evolves.


Joshua at 12:01pm May 19
"What feature of unknown material implies divinity?" is no different, essentially, to asking "What feature of known material implies divinity?", to which I would answer beauty. And yet one suspects that the calling of the material "known" is highly dubious given the acknowledged 96% backdrop of "unknown"; if, for instance, I was familiar with but 4... Read More% of the alphabet it would be outrageous to even call this familiarity "knowledge" of the alphabet without serious qualification, for it would amount to "knowing" but 1 letter. Is it knowing? Is analysis of the letter Q, analysis of the alphabet, or even of the letter Q *as* a letter?

In the mystical tradition of science (say, Pythagoras, Plato; and more recent time Newton, and I think to some degree Einstein) there is no anomally between the beauty of creation and its scientifically appreciated order - the two are one. And the latter proceeds in direct correspondence with awareness of the former.


Joshua at 12:12pm May 19
Anyway I can't force divinity down anyone's throat, I am just saying that there is a fine tradition of science which doesn't neglect or treat hostilely this level, on the contrary, it is animated by it and doesn't see the wonder of science as at all in tension therewith but as a natural emanation of it - it is a wonder, first of all, that there should even be an order that is intelligble, but partially, to man. Without wonder science cannot begin.


Brent at 12:18pm May 19
"Without wonder science cannot begin." This is completely correct.

I also accept that there are fundamental things about the universe that We haven't even begun to understand.

Einstein wasn't into the mystical side of science, people always make that mistake.... Read More

For me beauty is appreciating what IS, that this beauty exists inside what I understand as being this universe.
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twilight and twilight fans

Okay, so the more I read about the Twilight series, the more I realise I'm so not alone in being obsessed by it - the books, the movies, the audiobooks, edward, rob, jacob, bella, alice... I even read comments about the actors. But seriously, it seems like people with all levels of education are totally into Twilight - I laughed out loud at one fan's defense of the actors, about how they're real people with real lives, and about how we should stop expecting them to actually be like their characters, and all the celeb palaver, etc.

"People need to stop putting actors on pedal stools".

HA HA HA HA! ROTFL! Is that like some kind of shroom that makes you rush intead of hallucinate? Or like a racing rocking chair? AbsolUTEly LMAO!!!

Big boy now

In cycling news - I made it, although barely, around the 100km Ballarat ride on the weekend. Lucien is a machine finishing 2 hours before us, and Daniel made it through on pure boyish energy.

Also in cycling news - Tali's off his training wheels and loving it.

Good Friday, I'm miles away and missing you already...

I tell you guys what, I just had a MASSIVE Good Friday - I don't think I stopped smiling all day! It all started early, had to finish making the 2 batches of hot cross buns - one wheat and sugar free. Guests (Björn the Kraut from Icelandic class, Karl the Yank from salsa/beach going, and Linda, Auður and Björk who are Ási's family and my best friends, ALL of them :D) started arriving at 10am (yes, my god, I did a 'brunch'!). The hot cross buns went down a treat, special dietary needs and everything :D Woo-hoo, I entertained ALL on my own! And breakfast too, no less!

Björn, Auður, Björk and I then went to the beach (Linda went for a run), and it was blue skaaaies and sunshaaaine the whole time. 10 degrees! (That's HOT.) And 5 degree water! (That's NOT ICE-COLD.) Even with the first day of summer still 2 weeks away!!

Then Linda, Auður, Björk and I went and had a lovely lunch (roast lamb, which the Ási's had had for dinner the night before, with me and Linda's uncle as guests, so I guess my Easter holiday started early). Me, Auður and Björk had to drive to FOUR shops before we found one open to buy bread, tomato and sláttur. It was very small-town, but also a nice little adventure :) (cos it had a happy ending you know).

Then the four of us ladies went and played some basketball (although we only found an open petrol station to pump up the ball at the SEVENTH place we checked, another adventure!), which was really, really nice. Me and Björk vs Auður and Linda. I was pretty impressed with all of them, and the mini-rings was a good idea for Björk. It's really cool the way kids learn - I could actually put Björk's hands in the right positions for her to shoot, and she had a very nice shot when I did this.

Then the four of us watched Twilight together. Linda and I sighed together at Edward (he is SO lovely. and weird still. but still...), while Björk looked at us all funny throughout most of it, and Auður kept asking 'what's going on?' in every suspenseful bit, and checking how much time was left. (Björk is 10 and Auður is 14!)

Then Linda and I rushed out to Selja Church to see Bach's St Matthew's Passion or something, some Good Friday tradition. Of course we got lost on the way, even stopping in at the wrong church (there's no such thing as a Melways in Reykjavík, so everyone just points themselves in the general direction of the suburb and hopes - it does lead to a lot of driving in circles, but at least we had an excuse for being late to Karl's choir, that meant we didn't have to mention Twilight...). Karl the Yank was actually outside the church having a coffee when we arrived, we waited for a break between pieces, then went and listened to some really lovely music. One of the singers was Ási's cousin, naturally. At interval I met up with a lady from one of my Icelandic classes, a very happy, easy-to-laugh Dane, and we've arranged to go hiking.

So, that was my massive Good Friday. Just received an email from Tolli asking if I want to come over tonight, should be fun :) I'm going for a run in a bit, and I'm reading my Icelandic book at the moment. Tomorrow is chocolate day, I've bought an easter egg for myself from Luce, at 11am another one of Karl's choirs is singing in Hallgríms Church, and we saw last night that there still appears to be snow at Bláfjall :D

I don't think I stopped smiling all day yesterday, I had SUCH a lovely time. And it wasn't a so-insane-I'm-going-to-explode/i'm-feeling-bipolar kind of happy, I just had a really nice, balanced, SATISFIED kind of day. Luce is in Adelaide, with people I really like, and I know he'll be having a really lovely time too (assuming they didn't bring any viruses with them!), and that is also making me very satisfied and content. Only 8 weeks til I see Luce, it hardly seems like anything, a mere blip.

Woo-hoo, we should have sunny holidays with our friends more often!

(PS, we had a bit of a 'religion' discussion, which I think prompted every paragraph starting with 'And theeeeen...' Sorry!)

Oh My Freaking Gawd you should have seen the length of the splinter that came out of my toe just now.

I thought it was just the very end of the spike visible, but it was fully 7mm long, going IN to my big toe. It just *bloop* popped out when I squeezed.

I know this isn't necessarily 'good' news, but it HAS been in there for 2 weeks now... (I'm ready to get the rest of them out now...) but it allows me to...

...rewind back to the first part of the heatwave - I'd taken a couple of extra days of vacation after the Prom trip. We'd gotten home on the Monday, then spent the Tuesday parking arse and watching the tennis and just getting nothing done because it was so darn hot. On Wednesday we got up early and put on sunscreen.

I just love that 'going to the beach today' feeling. It's like having new shoes, a secret and a quest all at once. I just love that my kids are now learning about this stuff - about sand, waves and buckets - about being deeply excited about adventure - about laughing in the surf until you literally drop - about saying the magic magic words "Mum I caught one all the way".

We'd gone to Williamstown beach and got there just before it got really hot. Put the umbrella up. Kids went down to the water with Beth while I pumped up the little boat. We went for a swim amongst the multitudes, the kids floating in the boat, I swam out until it was quiet, we threw the ball.

Eventually me and Tali went exploring over the breakwater and looked down the other side. The water was like glass - you could see every rock on the bottom 3 metres away. We went and got Beth and Ella, and the kids floated out into the deep water with me in their floaties. There was a flat rock that we could sit on in the sea water up to our necks and the water was so still that it really honestly didn't move you back and forwards. No waves.

Diving from the rocks.

Swimming out in the coolness of the ocean and looking back at Melbourne searing.

Finding the nicest little spot in all of Melbourne's urban beaches for a quiet moment with just my family.

So after that we had to pack up and drive all the way home to get changed, have some lunch, then zoom out to Tullamarine to see Tania off at the airport. It was still above 40 degrees after dinner, so we all looked at each other and...

... went back to the beach.

Buckets. Boats. Balls.

Ella makes pies by digging a hole for an oven. She can spend 7 hours making pies at the beach.

It was still 40 degrees at 10pm when we headed for home. I remember thinking that this would most likely be a lasting memory for the kids - swimming at the beach in the hot air hours past bed time amongst the multitudes of bathers - being pulled out past the breakwater in the little boat to see the sun setting over Geelong - running full pelt up and down the beach in the darkness to bring water up to the 'kitchen'.

(Amongst all this I managed to kick a couple of sea-urchins, sending about 14 spines into my right foot, 5 of which I got out cleanly.)

From 2009 02 02 Michelles wedding and Talis first day And Prom Trip

• Seeing Tania again
• Christmas time
• Road trip to Warnambool
• Prom trip
• Getting new Tevas in Mansfield
• ...seeing Waifs tonight - woohoo!