The boys have moved out!

My experience of being dad to Marcus and Michael has just had its biggest ever change, as they have both left home within a few weeks of each other. Which is mostly coincidence, it's not a mutiny because we're mean parents.

Michael is just down the road from us at Jane Franklin Hall. For his 2nd year at uni we wanted him to have a richer and more human experience than he had last year, which was very online and isolated. So far the move has been great for him. He’s met a lot of people, and he seems a bit more focused on his work. He organised a small expedition to the tip shop for about 6 or 8  people, which is a big social undertaking by his standards.

From Jane Franklin it's 20 minutes walk to our house or to the uni in the other direction, and Michael's good friend June is 2 minutes away. This is the view from Michael's room. 

Marcus had gone a little further; to Hong Kong. At the end of his 3-month internship there he was offered a full time job. He started a week ago and it's going very well, getting a little better every day, he says. The financial firm he is working for is called Jane Street, so the boys are both at Janes which is a little confusing. 

Marcus found himself an apartment online before leaving Hobart, and he chose well. It's a good fit for him and about seven minutes walk from the office, in an area called Central. 

Here are some photos he posted to Instagram of his neighbourhood. Around his office all the skyscrapers have luxury stores on the street, like Armani, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton etc.

And this is his building, the grubby light grey one – he walks up 3 flights of stairs and the stairwells are pretty ordinary. But his apartment is clean, new appliances and so on. It's taking him a little time to work out things like where garbage goes, why the washing machine won’t give back his clothes etc.

We have had a few video chats and have been exchanging messages most evenings. It's amazing how nearby he feels at times. He and I watched the footy together a few days after he left, and we will through the winter when we can.

I have to admit I felt pretty down after Marcus left and there was just Elf and I in the house. A lot of people have said to us words to the effect of 'wooo now the party starts right??'. But it just doesn't seem like that to us. 21 years ago we started parenting… and we had only been together less than 2 and a half years. So our time establishing "us" was pretty short and it is now buried pretty deep under years of being mum and dad, co-owners of pets and co-mortgagees. I say well done to anyone who has a clear idea of what they are going to do once the kids are out of their hair.

Meanwhile we see Michael most Sundays for lunch with my mum and dad; and he walks Winston every Thursday. He bought me lunch during the week last week – it's good to see him and he's looking really well.And we had a driving lesson on the weekend too. So life goes on.

Fullagar Family Summit for Imp's 50th

We recently had a wonderful week with the whole Fullagar family in town to celebrate Imp's 50th birthday. Felicity stayed with us, Fred stayed with Imp and Ed, and Chonk, Irma, Bea and Eric [the Swiss] stayed just down the hill at an Airbnb backing onto the rivulet.

Elf took the whole week off, while I took 2 days midweek which turned out to be perfect. We gathered most days at some stage either at our place or at Imp and Ed's at Kingston, and just ate and drank and talked. The Swiss went off and did some tourism at times, and Fred tinkered with things at Kingston and at our place too. He got the Wimshurst Machine back in working order [I have just realised the WM has not been mentioned here before so I will need to put that right soon and I'll add a link here).

Fred is Felicity's carer at home in Canberra so part of this week was separating those two to give him a break. Elf stepped in as frontline carer and cheerleader; trying to get her mum to be more active in finding solutions to her own health problems. Chiefly her feet; they are very sore and swollen and so she is unable to exercise much. Felicity won't take pills, which is a shame as some pills are very good. She thought she wouldn't come down for Imp's birthday, but all her kids her talked into it and she was extremely glad she did, by the end of the trip. As Marcus is off back to Hong Kong in March (I'll write more about this soon), this may have been the last opportunity to see her six grandkids together for a while.

Felicity asked for someone to organise a set of photos for her so she could pull them out to show friends. So I got these for her (I'm sending her prints) and reproduce them here as a time capsule; this is what we all look like in August 2022.

Before coming to Hobart, the Swiss had a week in far north Queensland, including a look around Townsville. Bea is very keen on studying marine biology and has her heart set on Townsville as the place to do it. Eric loves fishing and was lobbying hard for the whole family to move from Switzerland to Queensland.

Marcus and Michael always get on very easily and well with their cousins here, Karri and Miah, and it was just a love-in when all six of them were together. All lovely kids. 

The party went off really well. Imp booked the Kingston Community Hall which turned out to have a no-alcohol policy. This was quite funny as she had requested a gift of a large quantity of gin from Michael and Marcus which was to be shared out with guests at the party. We surreptitiously sipped some from paper cups and all in all, it added to the Jazz Age theme.

The boys present Imp with the gin

It was well-recieved

I put together the label, based on a previous birthday dress-up effort

Siblings assemble

I was able to go along to see all the visitors off at the airport in one go which was handy. We had one last big Fullagar scrum at Gate 3 then a smaller one at Gate 4. The Swiss flew off first and Felicity, who was in high spirits, got more exercise than in the rest of the trip combined with a lot of very hearty two-arms waving. Then Fred pushed Felicity in an airport wheelchair out to their plane and she waved the whole way, even while facing out into the open fields. It was a lovely note to end the visit, she was really delighted to have come and been at the centre of the family for a while.

A big move

Three weeks ago I experienced the biggest change in Dadness since Michael was born. Marcus moved out with his long-term girlfriend Miranda [who readers may remember from 2006].

They are, as the crow flies, 310 metres away. Our friend Steve has given them his studio on a short lease, at a reasonable mate's rate.

Marcus is living over on the dark side of the valley. He misses Winston a lot.

They are getting by on Marcus' tutoring income and Miranda's government Jobkeeper payment, which covers her part-time job while her employer is closed for Covid 19.

They are managing pretty well. Marcus says he was very under-prepared to begin with, but has learnt a lot. He thinks they are ready now to move out long term.

We have all been missing each other but after three weeks we are now into a new routine over here. Cooking for 3, often cooking for 2. We see them from time to time, which is nice. Little by little I am getting used to a new state of Dadness.

A day in Melbs with the boys

Marcus goes in every maths competition that crosses his path. A month ago he received an invitation to an award ceremony in Melbourne for one of them. He had Achieved Outstanding-ly, without winning the lucrative first or second prize. He was keen to just fly over and back in a day on his own to get his certificate, but we were not ready to give him quite that much freedom.

Michael and I accompanied him and made a (long) day of it.

 I let the boys have the iPad on the plane ( I was sitting separately) and they went selfie-mad.

As an experiment, on the way into the city in the morning we caught a local bus (901 to Frankston) as far as Broadmeadows Station, and trained in from there. On Saturday that costs $6 ea and that is your public transport paid for for the day. [On the way back to the airport (when I am more nervous about being late) we just caught a cab.]

The train station is really just an annexe to the Kebab House.

Our first stop in the city was the National Gallery of Victoria and the first thing we did the was - eat chips. Elf wanted me to take the boys. After an hour of art I was keen take them through the CBD but they both enjoyed the gallery and wanted to keep looking at things.

Marcus loves the collection of 1960s moderne furniture.

This is at the venue at Melb Uni where Marcus was getting his maths prize.
The carpet is patterned with numbers

Marcus is in the background - prize recipients sat in the middle and family at the sides.

Various profs shake his hand. He was one of 18 getting $50 for 'outstanding achievement' - first prize was about $600.

Next door we explored the School of Medical Science, which is where they have preserved these carved desks or benches, which are mounted on a wall. There are also richly decorated pharmacists' jars like the one below.

Celebratory dumplings and chilli prawns at Shanghai Village in Chinatown [112 Little Bourke for future reference]

We walked down a lot of alleys and lanes working our way down to Flinders St.

 … and arcades. We were lucky to be here just when Gog and Magog donged their bells.
Gog's went 'clang' and Magog's went 'clunk'.

We were too late for; and will return to [notes to self] ; Wunderkammer at 439 Lonsdale St, The Watch Gallery at 337 Little Collins St, the old High Court where Elf's grandad presided at 455 Little Bourke St, and the Immigration Museum at 400 Flinders St.

At Flinders St Station we passed under the clocks, hopped in a cab (spending our savings from earlier) and got to the airport to find our flight was delayed and we had over-abundant time to flop around.

A good day, everyone had fun and Marcus is better off by a $50 voucher.

2017 Chess Nationals, Melbourne

In September, Marcus came third at the Tasmanian state finals in the secondary section, a terrific result. He was then specially invited to the nationals - his Taroona High team were well outside the top 5 teams that qualified.

So at the end of November he and I went off to Melbourne for two nights. We stayed at the competition venue, Queens College. It's one of Melbourne Uni's residential colleges.

He had a great first day, winning 3 of his four games which put him in equal 6th. The next day was much tougher, and he won one of his three games, to finish equal 16th. He has two more years in this age group.

He has definitely come home determined to play more chess and study to improve his skills.

Here are some pics from in and around the college, the university, Carlton and Parkville.

The senior kids are mostly private school.
Marcus always stands out at these things in his red Taroona gear.

On day two while Marcus played I strolled through the nearby Melbourne Cemetery's Jewish section.

At the airport someone had left this impressive leather helmet atop a bin near departures.