ChapsNet: Family

Sunday Arvo at New Farm Park

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:55:25 GMT

We decided to make the most of a fine day and went down to New Farm Park Playground so Em could climb trees and have lots of fun. She climbed up into the first level OK but needed some assistance to get to the higher branches. Then she had a go at the new rope towers that they have in place.

We had a great time mucking about and having fun in the great Brisbane weather... The place looks green again and was most enjoyable getting my bare feet out on some smooth blue couch grass again. One day i shall have that on my lawn, oh yes, some day....

Recap...

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 01:41:53 GMT

So i haven't posted in a while.. I had a nice weekend away celebrating my Wife's birthday.

We went up to Mum & Dad's on Friday night so we could go to the Yandina Markets in the morning... Yandina Markets are just fantastic. they are what the Eumundi markets used to be before they went all commercial. there are stacks of fruit stalls, Plant stalls and heaps of second-hand and new Tools. As Colleen says, you boys go and check out your rusty tools... we ended up with a bag full of 20 mandarins for $5 and a bag of 10 Navel Oranges for another $5

After lunch, I then took Colleen to her surprise destination, Novotel Twin Waters. We checked in the King-Sized room with Spa. The surprises didn't stop there though, as i had booked a Couples Massage room followed by a Spa with a plate of Strawberries and Marshmallows and accompanying Chocolate Fondue at the Lagoon Day Spa this was my first experience at a massage and "Helga" my German masseuse certainly got worked out all the kinks.

After such a relaxing afternoon, Dinner was soon on the cards. a few pre-dinner beers were ordered and we strolled over to Lily's on the lagoon, a Restaurant that is built out over the lagoon (surprisingly enough..). We feasted on fresh seafood and quaffed a wonderful bottle of wine, a Watershed Sauvignon Blanc Semillon from Margaret River. We had oysters, prawns, Barramundi and a whole Salt & Pepper Battered fish followed by some sumptuous desserts. We retired to the bar for a post-dinner cocktail and had a good laugh with the bar staff.

Our walk home around the lagoon was a little more unsteady and took some time longer.. We did have a good long look at the sun lounges and did think of stopping for a little bit of a rest on the way back but decided to push on through. On our return, i did slip in watching a bit of Footy while the spa filled for a nice soak (we did have all three Fox Sports Channels after all) but considering that i left the Golf Clubs at home in a resort with a Championship Course, I think I did well.

The next morning dawned and fortunately the rain mostly held off, not that we minded seeing as we have not had much rain for a long time. As Breakfast was part of the room, we set out to make it worthwhile. We both were completely irresponsible and completely stuffed ourselves at the buffet. in fact, we made many trips back. A brekky where you don't cook or clean up any of it is to be savoured. We had also scored a table overlooking the pool and onto the lagoon as well so we took our time. the only thing missing were the papers... Alas, it was time to check out and return back to Mum & dad's to pick up Emily than on to my brother Bruce's place to catch up with them... of course, we got chatting and ended up in the slow crawl that is the Sunday arvo Bruce Highway run from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane - 2 hours to do a 45 minute trip. Nothing could bring us down though... Happy Birthday Colleen.

End of an Era....

Tue, 01 May 2007 06:35:13 GMT

For as long as I can remember, every weekday morning, I have been doing a "Magic Trick" with Emily to put toothpaste on her toothbrush for her to brush her teeth.

"Abra-cadabra alakazam

Put toothpaste on Emily's toothbrush

psscccht..."

Well, now she has finally worked it out and begged to tell me how it was done.. Seeing that she is near on 8 and a half, it was time. Of course now that she knows, the magic is gone and alas we can do it no more...

It may seem silly but just another sign that my girl is growing up and something else that is lost forever along the way..

Catch-up - Family...

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 05:43:12 GMT

well so much time has pased so little posting... What are all the things i would ( nay, should) have posted about in the last few months....

Easter Break

Both Colleen and I took the week off after Easter so i could spend the School Holidays with Em and Colleen. We were busy yet relaxed at the same time, it was overdue and definitley required

Dreamworld

We took Em to Dreamworld on Easter Monday care of two free Adult tickets. We had a whale of a time.

Dodg'Em cars - Em was big and Brave and rode on a Dodgem car (bumper car for the seppoes) all by herself for the first time. previously she had been a driver with daddy being the passenger. Not this time and her cackles of delight echoed throughout the track. She loved it so much that this also became the designated last thing to do
Rollercoaster - Em had her first ride on the Rollercoaster as well.. This was a little more scary and required a little more convincing. However, she stepped up when the time came like a brave soldier. She was a bit shaky when she got off but that soon translated into excitement as the adrenalin surged.
Widlife area - they have added a great area with Forest, Desert, Reptile,Avairy and Nocturnal zones with all the animals. this was fantastic with being able to pet the Grey Kangaroos as they lounged around in the shade. We had our pic taken with Colleen holding a koala as well...

Australia Zoo

We also visited Australia Zoon on the following Friday so Em could see Bindi and the Crocmen

Bindi and the Crocmen - She puts on a great performance. Seeing it in person reduces the concern of driving her too hard too early. Terri and Wes and all the Autralia Zoon family watch on with great pride
The Croc Show - First they start of with the birds that are trained to fly around the crocoseum as aprt of the show and then they bring out the snakes and then the biggest reptile of all. it is amazing how they cannot be tamed yet by knowing their responses to certain situations, Terri and Wes are able to put on a great show. Nothing was funnier than seeing Wes let loose with a "S**t" before correcting himself to "Crikey". The Danger is always there
Feeding - we fed the elephants first, that was amazing and then we went to the Kangaroo enclosure and fed the big Red kangaroos this time.. fantastic.
The rest of the time we spent seeing all the other animals, the Wombats which were all moving about and waiting... yes waiting for their afternoon walk around the zoo.. usually you just see their ass where they have buried themselves under a log or into a burroe.

Relaxing

Spent the rest of the time up at Montville, relaxing at our Family house up there.. mmm so quiet, so high and sooooo relaxing... (and no water restrictions as we are on 2 massive water tanks...). There are no phones, no internet, i can relax off the grid (except for electricity and the TV - which we try to keep off as much as we can...)

I love that house and hope it stays in the family for generations... To think that people laughed when Dad paid some AUD$6000 for that block in the mid 70's.. hahahaha. it is only one of four houseblocks near the town that is on the eastern (coastal) side and is protected from the Westerly winds (where the storms and damaging winds generally come from).

It was sure tough to come back to work....

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful person I know...

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 03:27:27 GMT

today is my wife, Colleen's birthday. The day hasn't gotten of to the most auspicious of starts but I am hoping to finish with a flourish. I don't know what I would do without her wit, her wise counsel and her companionship.

Just knowing that she has my back in all that we do together not only makes me a better person but makes me want to be a better person. I look forward to many more wonderful years together as we grow together and experience all the wonder and magic of this world together....

Happy Birthday, my love

Brett...

Grid Kids at the V8 Supercars

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 01:16:57 GMT

Thanks to the vagaries of a Lucky Draw, Emily got to be one of the Grid Kids for Team Betta this weekend at the Queensland 300 at Queensland Raceway yesterday. for those that don't know, most teams have the Grid Girls at the start of the race which hold the Team flags and generally show the team colours at the start of the race.

Team Betta is trialling a new concept of the Grid Kids so instead of four scantily clad models, they are using the Frid Kids to hold the Team Flags. This is the second time they have done it so we are yet to see if it will become a more permanent fixture.

Anyway, we left early in the morning to make the trek up to the Queensland Raceway. Knowing from previous experience (of others) we knew we had to leave early as traffic gets so terrible that the CunnungHam Highway gets completely gridlocked. We only had delays for the last 10 kilometres. Once we grabbed a parking spot, we walked for about 20mins to get to the track.

After watching the races for a while, we then went and got Emilys Team Shirt and Cap that she was to wear. We then had three hours to try and keep her clean. Trust me, in a dustbowl that the Raceway is, that is harder than it sounds. We watched more races, wandered around the pits and then reported to the Truck to meet up with the others.

Emily got to be in front of Craig Lowndes' car which was Fourth on the grid. alas, the TV coverage didn't really seem to cover it but there was plenty of photography going on... and that was just the parents

Then it was back off the track to see the start of the Race. We watched for about half the race and then made the long trek back to the care. We decided not to wait until the end because the traffic would have been even worse.

A great time was had by all. Em was sooo excited after she came off the track, she was bounding around and waving her flag and carrying in. She crashed not long after that and had a bit of a nap while we watched the race.

Thanks to Betta Stores Ltd and Team Betta for the opportunity to do this, it is something that will be remembered for a long time. Check out the Pics in the Photos section of this site.

Office Renovation Pt II

Mon, 26 Jun 2006 00:32:20 GMT

Momentum lost, Collingwood Vs Swans were on..... plus Austalia Vs Ireland.

Office Renovation

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 07:39:52 GMT

Oh no… time for the big Home office cleanout. We went to IKEA the other day ( oh I so can’t wait until it is in the new premises – but that’s a whole other story..) and I picked up a Computer disk that will be able to store the 3 Servers, Monitor, KVM and all the attendant cabling, Hubs, Wireless Router and Cable Modem. Not only that it was in the Bargain centre for around half-price because it was marked. It was nothing a Pencil eraser couldn’t remove.

So out come all the existing hodge-podge of desks and then it will be the shuffle and try and fit the jigsaw in. one day we’ll do it all properly and make the desks for the space. But until then it is whatever we can beg, borrow and buy cheaply. I counted the Hardware and it came to 11 PC’s and 4 Servers. It is somewhat over the top for the 3 of us but some of these have already been marked for sale/giveaway/removal. It’ll be culled back to more acceptable levels. I still have my old Pentium 90 that first introduced me to Voodoo 3D cards, Windows 95 and the Doom/Quake delights, forever hooking me on First-person shooters forever.

Anyway, must get the vacuum out and clean up the considerable dust that has piled up and continue before I lose momentum….

Blatant cross promotion

Tue, 06 Jun 2006 14:26:00 GMT

Need some web-hosting? or some development work done for you? I happen to know a developer with international experience who is apretty good bloke. he is trustworthy although he might of knocked off some of my lego...

Yup, he's my brother (one of two - all of us in IT, who'd have thought??) and he is good at what he does... Check out his site here... and he is gonna start blogging (if the surf is flat..)

New Addition to the household

Fri, 19 May 2006 05:53:56 GMT

After years of using the old janitor-style backpack vacuum cleaner, i have finally decided to upgrade... of course, along came a staff promotion that took our new purchase out of the realms of the impossible fantasy and brought it within reach of mere mortals...

That's right.. we have jumped on the trend and now own a Dyson. A DC-15 Ball to be precise.. They way that this works is just fabulous and a tribute to thinking outside the square. it does under all the cupboards in the kitchen because it can just lay right over and slide along.

The scary part is that we did our lounge room that consists of a Tile floor with a single carpet runner and a Lounge room rug that sits under the coffee table in the middle.. and well, you can see the results. it had only been a week since the last vacuum with the old cleaner and this has cleaned it's clock (so to speak).

Anzac day remembered

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 03:08:03 GMT

Well another Anzac Day has come and gone.... unfortunately i was too ill to be able to go to the Parade this year. Colleen and Em went instead with our Anzac Pins and our homemade "Thank You" sign. It never ceases to amaze me the appreciation that the diggers show for the simple act of turning up to the parade and holding a sgn saying thankyou. of course, it means much more than that to boththem and to us.

last year, i was overcome with emotions at the reaction of the soldiers after most of them threw a meaningful nod, a wink or a wave our way. Of course it was no different this year with Colleen holding the sign. She said that it was all the dust from the marching and the jeeps but i know better....

So i say thankyou to all those who laid everything on the line to defend our way of life and to those who paid the ultimate sacrifice...

Lest we Forget...

Colleen's School reunion

Tue, 18 Apr 2006 02:07:15 GMT

we attended the School Reunion of Colleen's School ( well, one of them), the Paradise Christian Academy. This school was actually started by her parents and began in a garage in their home and later moved to the site in Carrara which is now the home of Emmanuel College.

We had a great time, Colleen got to re-connect with a lot of old friends, many who now live within 10-20 minutes of us. I got to see a whole new aspect of Colleen's past of which i knew little. It was a difficult time for her ( the pictures of the shy,awkward teenager are testament to that ) but it was amazing to see the transformation of that teenager to the wonderful wife i have now is noting short of amazing and re-affirms my belief in her inner strength and determination. How lucky i am to have such a wonderful woman as my wife...

Golfing

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 05:17:26 GMT

Played 9 holes at the Keperra Country Club on Saturday... Some improvements on the shot-making but i keep having to re-adjust now that i can hit the ball better. One drive stopped centimtres short of the water and another iron shot went wa-a-ay too far...

Now that Dad and Russell have hosted, it muct be my turn to host at Virginia next time... might check out Nudgee as well... anything that is $20 or under for 9 holes.

Crook as a dog

Tue, 07 Feb 2006 07:47:40 GMT

I'm crook as a dog today.. took the day of, took some cold and flu tablets and promptly slept through until 3:30pm... still feeling a bit dodgy but glad of the sleep...

Em's Birthday Shots

Mon, 23 Jan 2006 02:38:05 GMT

While i am updating photos, i have added a few shots of Em's Birthday in the Albums

I've found my computer again....

Sun, 08 Jan 2006 02:32:28 GMT

Well, so ends a hectic Christmas Season.... What with renovations, hosting Christmas Lunch and 18 conse4cutive days of temperatures over 30 degrees Centigrade, it is good to be back at work....

Of course this weekend has featured Thuderstorms and torrential rain so it makes a nice change... kinda.

I have some pics of all the celebrations and stuff plus all the stuff that has happened since old lazybones last posted... these includes Emily's 7th Birthday and Colleen's car. It still remains for me to get all of this together as, like my desk, my computer is an absolute mess with stuff all over the place....