Ms Moo

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As I’ve said many times before, two posts is my usual run on stickfly.com (old or new) before I take my hiatus… so here goes. Post two.

We are lucky enough to live in a house backing on to a large paddock with four cows in it. For those of you who missed Ben’s earlier snap of Ms Moo, here goes –

Every day or so Ms Moo or one of her mates will stick their heads over the fence to say g’day … or “moo” as it is usually, and munch on our banana trees.

Ted is doing his best to confuse the poor cows as, to him, everything with four legs is “doggie”. But I don’t think Ms Moo minds…

The Breakfast Club

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It was only last year that I finally watched the movie – “The Breakfast Club“. As it turns out, it really has nothing to do with breakfast and can only be enjoyed by those who saw it when it came out. In short, it’s got nothing to do with Terminators or Arnold so go put it back on the shelf if you thought otherwise.

I can only assume that the Thomases and Johnsens have not seen the movie either, as if they had, rather than enjoying delicious morning dishes and the best coffee this side of Chinook St. we’d be having our semi-regular breakfast catchups crammed under school room tidy trays serving out detention.

The Thomas family hosted today’s event, transforming their kitchen into an omelette station, with chef Kristy making our delicious parcels to order. Of course, I had cheese, capsicum, ham, shallots and the pièce de résistance – hot chilli.

It was lovely to catch up with the Johnsens and more lovely that I finally got to meet little baby Abigail.

A gem

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Five years ago today we were in our flat in Chiswick, London mourning the sudden and desperately tragic loss of our dear friend Cath. We were completely lost, mindlessly opening a bottle of bubbly in our fridge to numb the pain and stop the thoughts. A weird thing to do, but hey, that’s what we did. Today, we share a glass while we reflect on a the way-too-short life of a gem who lit up our lives. We won’t ever forget you.

Saint Helen

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We were lucky enough to spend an evening with our Scottish friend Helen when she had a few hours in Brisbane last Tuesday. Along with our friends Andrew and Louise, we started the evening at That Thai on Racecourse Rd and reminisced about the many good times we all shared together in London. I always love listening to Helen when she talks, she makes me feel at ease and I love her wicked laugh.

As Andrew and Louise are Racecourse road locals they took us down to Milany, the gelato place owned by Tatiana Grigorieva – the pole vaulter – and her husband. It was absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend popping along their for a cold treat next time you’re in the vicinity.

Sadly the evening ended way to early and we said goodbye to Helen not knowing the next time we’ll see her again.

2011 – Year In Review

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I came flying into 2011 on a high. Life was great both at home and professionally and opportunities were aplenty. Some missteps early in the year humbled me and I spent the rest of the year learning to assess, understand and overcome some shortcomings. But when it comes to our life, you can never find any reason to seriously complain. We are so lucky.

The following lists the important events close to our hearts for 2011:-

Lovers:-

There have been many joyous occasions this year with the coming together of loved ones through marriage or engagement.

  • April – Nathan and Kelly Rolfe were married at Werribee Mansion (just outside of Melbourne).
  • May – Ray and Maree celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.
  • August- John (musipom) and Tina got engaged.
  • November – Ben and Melanie Ellis were married in Brisbane.

Destinations:-

  • January – We hired a three bedroom apartment in Golden Beach and spent a week away as a family.
  • February – When friends offer to have you stay with them in an apartment down the beach you don’t say no – we had a great time hanging with the Thomases down at Miami in their parent’s Grande Florida apartment.
  • April – When you get married, you and your mates go do stuff that in your right mind you would never do. A wonderful weekend spent down the Goldie for Nathan Rolfe’s bucks weekend.
  • April – A wedding in a bona fide English style mansion is the perfect excuse to relax and enjoy a few days leisure down in Melbourne. It was a truly special day for Nathan and Kelly and the Thriebe’s really enjoyed the few days they had with the Briggs’ in Melbourne.
  • May – Our first overseas trip with Ted was to Fiji with the Thomas and Dahl families. We had a great holiday, only I was violently ill the entire time.
  • June – A short trip down to Sydney with Rob and Gerrod for the annual Australian Remix web developer conference.
  • August – With the stresses of work consuming my every thought, Michelle organized a weekend trip down to Coolangatta as a short reprieve.
  • October – After six months or so of dedicated, long days working on the SmartClinics project, we celebrated a kid-free night away at the Sofitel in Brisbane. It was great fun to just relax a little and not have to worry about waking when our babies did the next morning.
  • November – I’ve always threatened to visit members of my family who live outside of Brisbane and after only ten years or so I finally made good. We took a week off work and went on a road trip down to Newcastle to visit my brother and his girlfriend.

Visitors:-

Having the opportunity to have friends is a privilege but to have friends who travel great distance and find the time to catch up is a true honour. This year we were fortunate enough to catch up with:

  • Stacey and Wes Bramley
  • Kirstin Bettiol
  • John and Tina
  • Dave Chappell and Piero
  • Matt and Emily Puusari
  • Karl, Sybille, Anton, Ferdinand Hoeft
  • Karin, Brendan and Isla Miles
  • Jim-bob-ity – Jimmity Jim James – Jaimessarino – the top half of the Walne family.

How we earnt money:-

Both Michelle and I have continued working in the same jobs we had last year. That makes it three years and counting. The longest position I’ve ever had.

This year saw my company Dingu Blue come of age – we separated from our owning company to become fully independent. We took on several new clients and have enjoyed many fresh challenges. It was particularly exciting getting to work with Steven Dahl on the SmartClinics project. Dingu were and still are responsible for all their software systems.

Michelle returned from maternity leave in August to a promotion and the challenges of getting five days worth of work done in three.

Where we lived:-

It was the end of 2010 that we signed on with Watt Reality to sell our Aspley home. I loved our house but with Ted and the probability of more sprouts on the way we were going to outgrow that place sooner rather than later. It was time to move on to greener and bigger pastures. It didn’t take long before we had several offers and had sold the place. After many weekends of open homes, we finally found a wonderful house in Bridgeman Downs that we just love. We moved in last April and I am still extremely happy with our home. I love it.

New babies:-

Funny thing about having friends in their thirties – they all seem to be wanting babies. This year the world was introduced to:

  • September 18th – Abigail Linda Johnsen – Cathy and Grant’s third child.
  • August 1st – Jessica Rose Steel – Michalie and Joe’s first child.
  • August 28th – Nina Jean Bramley – Stacey and Wes’ first child.
  • December 29th – Isabella Grace Carlise – Ben and Mel’s first child.

Musicals/Concerts/Entertainment:-

The older I get the less I seem to spend splashing about in the arts & culture scene. With a young child we are lucky to get to the cinemas once every six months.
I don’t think I’ll be able to keep this category alive next year.

That said, I did get to see Eddie Vedder perform solo in March, and thanks to Louisa we were lucky enough to see Naturally 7 in April, they are a talented vocal group that will blow you away with their mastery of the human voice.

Ted Highlights:-

  • Feb – Ted learns to crawl
  • August – Ted grows up and turns numero uno.
  • September – Ted tires of crawling and rises to the challenge of walking.
  • September – Ted learns that walking is fun but running is where the real action is at.
  • December – sure all this exploring of the house is fun, but I’m a water baby now.

Other highlights:-

  • Who could forget the Brisbane floods?
  • The launch of the first SmartClinics store in Chermside.
  • My obsession with smart phones and other gadgets. I’m addicted to technology and love playing with the latest and greatest.
  • If you have known me for a couple of years, you would know that after spending nine months of the year putting on weight, the last three months would be devoted to losing it. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you put your mind to it – I dropped nine kilograms just by being diligent with what I ate.
  • I decided to rework my on-line identity and get the presses rolling again.
  • stickfly.com passed the one thousand article mark!
  • I racked up another vice. My name is Ben and I’m ‘Hanging with Friends’ addict.
  • The BBQ incident will be forever re-told every New Year’s Eve.

Words to live by:-

It’s better to be happy, than to be right!

If you want to feel sad, live in the past. If you want to feel anxious, live in the future. If you want to feel at peace, live in the now.

My apologies if I’ve left off an important event, occasion, or story or got one of the dates wrong. It’s just a genuine mistake, that will be rectified if you could let me know.

Happy 2012 everyone!