Dadness 2026

 I've definitely drifted away from the core theme of this blog. So I'll do an overdue family update.

Today, Michael is off on his first solo travel, to Japan. He'll spend three weeks travelling in the San’in region of Western Honshū, looking at castles and monasteries, climbing mountains and walking on beautiful mountain trails. He reads and speaks Japanese enough to get by. He's very interested in the history and philosophy of religions, so he'll spend time at Buddhist and Shinto sites.

Marcus is back at work in Hong Kong after a wonderful holiday travelling with Kie to Italy and Malta. He is now a very dedicated birder and is taking some wonderful photos with a new lens, eg this spotted pigeon and crested goshawk

The boys and I are playing an online game called Big Walk and I really recommend it. I am not a gamer but I read about it in the Guardian, and it just sounded like a relaxing and pleasant way to spend time with friends or family. I'll make another post about that. 

Elf is so, so busy. She works at four days a week; but it is intense every day in a way that I haven’t shared for about ten years. Her role as secretary of the local community group is also time-absorbing, especially due to the advanced age of many of the other office holders. 

Elf's mother Felicity died in March after four months in palliative care; so Elf made many visits to Canberra in that time and carried a heavy mental load. The will has not been straightforward, so the work and worry has not abated with Felicity's passing. 

I've had a busy year of freelance projects on top of full time time design work at Red Jelly. I have designed two books this year (I'll another make a post about that too) as well as a book cover for old pal James and a shopfront graphics for old pal Manuel's toys and collectables business Krankenwagen. All my clients are old pals to some extent.

I am still playing soccer on Sundays. But I'm conscious that at some age between now (58) and lets say, 70 – I will need to stop, so younger people (12-69) can just a good time and not worry about accidentally breaking someone's stick-thin legs.

And my other activity right now is puting thousands of images into my new Flickr account. I am leaving Instagram to post images somewhere less social; where I don't find myself watching videos of dance crazes and also copping Gaza /Sudan / Ukraine overload. I know about these problems and I am already doing all I can, thank you! I have set up seperate albums for

Family
Hobart Streets and Architecture
Typography
Art & Design
and our Pets

And that brings us somewhat up to date.