Selling the apartment

Well we are one day closer to getting it ready.

Removed a whole lot more junk out to mums.

Also cleaned one lot of windows which was interesting trying to get the outside done from the inside, since there is no balcony on that level. We got our room done, little peanuts tomorrow and some more cleaning.

On another note, what do these Aussie cricketers doing or more correctly what are the selectors doin. Some of the selections are a wonder, particularly Cameron White, he is a pie chucker and how batsmen at this level cannot do anything to Botha's bowling I don't lnow. He couldn't turn a ball in a cyclone.

Getting the Apartment ready

Back again, it has been a couple of weeks, but we have busy getting the apartment ready for sale. So that we can go to Queensland.
Over the last week or so we have painted a feature wall in the Lounge are an all of our bedroom. I have also learnt how to do grouting. We have redone the grouting in the kitchen and it has brought up the tiles nice enough to improve the kitchen.

We have also packed up all the souvenir glasses from out travels, as well as several boxes of books and DVD's. We still have lots more to pack and move out to make it presentable for sale. We will be packing up heaps of stuff this weekend. My brother-in-law is hopefully going to help us with moving some of the stuff out, by getting his trailer licensed and then bringing it aroung to load up.

The cleaning has also commenced all the kitchen is done.

We hope this will work and get us the price we are looking for, it will make our arrival in Queensland heaps easier.

Se you soon.

First Weekend of the Year

Not that big a weekend.

On Friday we had dinner with Theos, a friend over from Melbourne, at the Brisbane Hotel, very nice pizza. Then since Peanut's routine requires her to be in bed by about 8pm or she gets reallynarky, we went home and had a few beers watching 'They're a Weird Mob' DVD. I always love watching that movie, especially with my dads ways.

The next morning we watched the cricket and for a while there it looked like more of the same as the first 2 tests. Then this morning Mitchell Johnson and Michael Clarke seemed to actually take back some control from South Africa in the series and our innings finished a lot better than it was looking.

Late in the evening we deciced to change the curtins in our and Peanut's room. Looks better, but still have more jobs to do if we are going to sell the place before moving to Qld.

Back soon.

New Years Day

Well it is now 2009 but it doesn't seem like I will be 40 in 3 months.

We had a quiet night with a couple of friends over for a bbq, but their little one was getting a bit tired so they left early to get her home and to bed.

2008 was a good year for us, after all we did get Ciara on 15th of July and although there was some late nights in the first few weeks, that is all sorted and she is in bed by about 8pm and has been sleeping through the night since 10 weeks old. Ciara has now been commando crawling on her tummy since before she was 5 months old and first rolled over by 7 weeks. Solid foods have also been started at about 4 and a half months. So there seems to be progression pretty quickly.

We also renovted our bathroom though it wasn't cheap, it really adds alot to the place and will hopefully make it easier to sell the apartment. We are both very happy with how it turned out, with colours neutral enough not to put anyone off.

We also had a couple of trips to the eastern states as well, I went to Qld once and to NSW once, though Ang went Qld 3 times and NSW once. We also have another trip to Qld coming up in February which should be good and a precursor to moving over in April.

Back to Ciara
Ciara is already taking over our life and dictating what we can and can't do and when we can do it. Since she needs regular naps and is tired by 8pm and in bed we pretty much have to home by then. There is also the matter of regular feeding about 6 or 7 times a day, which is more of a chore for Ang than it is for me, but it means we have to carry enough food and supplies (nappies) for longer than we anticpate being out, in case we are delayed or I get talked into another beer :). It does seem to be a bit of work, but each day it is all worthwhile, Especially in the morning when I go get her from her cott and she has a huge smile just me or the same smile i get from making stupid noises for her, or even just getting in the front door after work.

Today we will be going to my mums'house for dinner, usual thursday outing, and Ciara will get a bath instead of her nightly showers with me, since our apartment only a double size shower and no bath.

Will be back in soon.

Christmas

Well, Christmas is over for another year, but this one was special, it was our first with Ciara. At just over 5 months she wouldn't have known what was going on but she did like all the paper to tear up. We did get some nice gifts for her, mostly developmental stuff that are toys as well.

We did the usual things for christmas at my mums, but since we are on our way to QLD, if the apartment sells, it will be at my in-laws next year, so I'm not sure what to expect. I have only had christmas with my family or been thousands of miles away and been by myself.

We ended up staying an extra night at my mums' place, so we didn't have to cook when we got home, and then didn't really want anything for christmas dinner anyway as we were still full from lunch.

I am not taking any extra time off this christmas other than the public holidays, so I am at work this week mostly. Why take holidays when it is not busy? It allows me to slacken off a bit as there aren't many calls, so I have started back on Citrix study, which I hope goes well, glad it is a free course though. I spent today onsite at one of our clients, the office was nearly empty, which allowed me to get 3 laptops mostly built, ready for the users next week.

First Blog

Hello this is my first attempt at a blog, so I hope there is some interesting stuff here for people to read.

To start with a little about me:
I am 39 years old and have been married for 16 months to Angela, and we have a 5 month old daughter, Ciara Rose. She is the most beautiful daughter going around but then every parent says that.
I work in IT with a small to medium company in Perth, but this will only be for the next 4 months and then we are off on a driving adventure to Queensland to live for at least 2 years. I am starting to look forward to moving to Brisbane as I have been back in Perth for 2 years after living in London for nearly 5 years and I am keen for a change again. This was part of the deal after we got married as I am from Perth and Angie is from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland so the only fair way to do it is 2 years in each place and see which one we like the best.
At the moment we live in an inner city 2 bedroom apartment which will be going up for sale soon, in readiness for our long drive. We are going to stretch the drive into about 3 weeks to visit friends in Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra and Sydney along the way, as well as surrounding places.
This trip will be very interesting as we will have a 9 month old when we leave and she is lively enough as a 5 month old so this could be interesting.
I currently work as a desktop engineer, though for nearly all of the 5 years I was in the UK I was an infrastructure deployment team leader, so it does seem a step back. The company I work for is the same one I worked for before I left for the UK and they offered me a job when I got back, but doing the same as when I left. So I'm a bit down on that. I think I could have done better, it was just too easy to go back to where I new the people and I needed to find something as it had been 2 and a half months since my contract in London had finished and was as good a place as any to start and move on, but I stayed where I am, oh well. I do need to get back into some study that I started towards the end of my wife's pregnancy, but with the little one time passes so quickly.

This seems quite easy to write after all.