The Bowling Shanes Prem. Def. 20 d New Individuals 4

The New Individuals are mostly greenhorns. They were skipped by Maureen. One of the jobs of a skip is to wave their arms, lean over until they nearly topple, waggle their heads and grimace to get the bowl coming towards them to curl, stop or keep going. Maureen kindly did all this for our shots as well as their theirs, and you can see from the scoreboard our bowls were more responsive to body language.

We got 7 on the second end, which pretty much put our stamp on things. Shanes A shaded us again, winning 21-2. The Dancing Simones also came out on top, so it was a terrific night for TBSLBC.

Nah, yeah, just got in from the... coast.

I've got my sunnies pushed back carelessly on my head, traces of yesterday's zinc cream on my nose and a bit of sand in my rope-soled boat shoes. No, not really, although that's the image I will be carefully cultivating now that we live in a Beach House.

Moving was very exhausting and isn't complete yet, but all that's left is little bits of of stuff that needs to be shoved in boxes. We have a garage at the Beach House, which in retrospect should have been an essential criterion of the places we looked at. I now realise that if we'd been accepted for either of the two in Sandy Bay we would be in big trouble now, trying to find homes for all this junk. The garage sale is not far away - there is no way we are taking this all back to the New House.

Cultural note on Kingston - one of the aisles at Coles is labelled Brans.

Here are a few pics of the move so far.

Jimmy Greaves Makes Friends With a Dog

Probably for lovers of soccer and dogs only.

The ute - its kind of like a pickup truck

I rang Hertz last night about 8.30 to book a ute to help us move. After 6.00 it seems that calls are transferred to the USA. Apart from her accent, I could tell by the echo that we were talking internationally. I asked for a Hilux Flat-tray.

Hertz [reading off her screen] Flat-Tray Utility. Is a utility a van?
Me No, it's a ute. It's, aah, like a small truck. You're not actually in Australia are you?
Hertz Yes sir. It's a pick-up truck?
Me [Sigh] Yeah, a pick-up truck.
Hertz I'll put in a request, there'll be a two day wait on confirmation of that. What number can we call you on?

I rang the local office this morning to change the booking to a truck. They had a record of my request, and that it had been denied (no-one had called me). I changed the booking to a truck, which is all OK.

Just now my mobile rang and it was the same woman calling from the USA, to tell me my request has been denied, and what else can she do for me?

Darts kicks on in Iran with full support of Muhammad

Iran's three-times national champion Sahar Zohouri, 20, made it to the final of the [Asia-Pacific] women's singles.
"I started the game professionally about two years ago but we had a dart board at home long before that," she said.
"I think that this is a very good sport for women since there are no restrictions and limitations about height and weight.
"Even the hijab does not affect you in any way."

Blue food

We were driving. Marcus had been silent for quite a while. "Is there any food we eat that is blue?" The only naturally true blue food I could think of was blue swimmer crabs.

The Bowling Shanes Prem. Def. 17 d Sisters of Sincerity 6

This game against the old foe was uncannily similar to last week. We are becoming Dusk Specialists. A tight beginning with some generally poor bowling in warm but blustery conditions. Ends went either way as the score snudged along to 6-6. Hunter elected not to smoke this week while skipping. He has learned the basics of skipcraft from Dean, and true to form, was often busy on the phone when needed for some wise counsel.

Eventually as the sun slipped behind the smoothly robust Plaister Stand, and dusk fell, we came into our own. Or the Sisters lost the plot, more like it. Somehow we piled on 11 unanswered points and the score blew out. Sally skipped the Sisters well, but perhaps needs to remove her sunnies after nightfall in future. Our best was probably Hunter, who has started Mo-vember early with a beautiful Chopper Read lookalike mo.

At one stage the Sisters' lead suggested they needed to go man-on-man. If can each beat our direct opponent, he said, we should come out on top. While I am always glad to see footy tactics utilised on the green, I believe bowls is not quite like that. A team's performance is more than the sum of its parts. We did not bowl that much better than them, but we cleaned them up.

We have a permit!

We have our building permit! This is very exciting, as we have been working towards it for about eighteen months. We also have a house to move into, at Kingston Beach. We sign the lease tomorrow and start moving on the weekend. Only five or six more sleeps in the old house. I'm a soup of different emotions.

For anyone who knows Kingston, our Beach House is here - photos and contact details to follow.

Starfish hands

The boys have been generally great about getting their conjunctivitis drops. Occasionally they arc up. Last night Elf and I were giving them their drops in the car before we drove home from Citrus Moon, as we thought they would both fall asleep on the way. As I put in the drops Marcus started carrying on, saying it was stinging.

Elf started flicking her fingers, saying "Come on Marcus, starfish hands, starfish hands, take your mind off it". Marcus was crying and blubbing, but manfully tried to flick his fingers like Elf. I too was carried along by her enthusiasm, saying "Yeah, c'mon, starfish hands" as I gave him the last eyedrop. I figured it was a distraction routine Elf had worked out for giving them their drops while I was at work.

Today I found out that she made it up on the spot. Somehow she thought of saying "Starfish hands!" right there in the moment. I can only admire her quick thinking, and wonder at the strangeness of her mind.

Oh goody, robots

Beautiful, beautiful robots, made by a man named Gordon Bennett.

Rentland

We are on the border of Rentland, negotiating for permission to enter. There is still the assumption of guilt on the part of anyone applying to rent, that I remember from pre-home-ownership days. You are (or are applying to be) a tenant, therefore you are likely to be a criminal and a credit risk.

As part of our application for one agent, we have been asked for five references EACH (including one from our parents/guardians - we are both over 35). Also 100 points of ID proof. Also - all applicants are asked to present at the Tasmanian Collection Service office, pay $13 each, and obtain a statement of their credit report.

We are hoping to reason with them, on the basis that we own our own home outright, and we have lived in the one spot for five years, and we have lovely smiles. I have no intention of paying for a blank credit report, and I will provide three references but five is crazy.

We saw two nice enough houses in Sandy Bay today. We will apply for both. We saw one at Mt Nelson that might be kind of OK, but I couldn't concentrate on it. The current tenant, who was asked to be, and appeared to be absent, suddenly came halfway down the stairs while we were all standing in his kitchen. We only saw his socks and heard his half-asleep confused and heavily accented ramblings. We had a look around the gorund floor at least. One unused bedroom had a bag full of Do You Really Know Jesus DVDs spilling across the floor.

Conjunctivitis

Both boys have got a bout of conjunctivitis. Michael caught it first, from Friends daycare we think. He seemed to be over it, then Marcus caught it in one eye, now Michael's is making a comeback. They both dislike the eyedrops, but Marcus is particularly hopeless. There is no reasoning with him. He completely goes to pieces and has to be sat on and restrained. Worse still the eyedrops that we have been giving him haven't been working as they are anti-bacterial, when his infection is viral. Or maybe vice-versa. We have new drops now. Elf is doing the heavy lifting on the conjunctivitis as she always does when the boys are sick. I am thinking of minting her a medal.

Jive talk

I was getting Marcus to read me the prices from an electrical catalogue. "Three hundred and ninety five dollars. Six hundred and ninety dollars. One hundred and thirty nine dollars. Dad, why don't you 'freak me out' and ask me one with four numbers". He actually said it with the quotes, as though it was a bit of new 'jive talk' he was just trying out.

Michael picked up my address book, and happily carried it around for hours, and now has it in bed with him. He was saying "this colouring-in book has no pictures", over and over, and each time with the same surprised tone of voice. Elf pointed out later it was because he was copying a bit of Wiggles dialogue, where Greg is doing magic tricks. On one circuit of the sunroom/bedroom/dining-room loop, he was saying to himself "a goose and a moose, Dr Seuss, as loose as a goose...", then on the next he muttered confidentially "this isn't really a colouring-in book".

Fraught at the Big Pool

Elf volunteered me to take Marcus and Lana-from-next-door to the pool. They get on well so I was happy to give it a go. I was looking forward to having two kids with the same swimming ability - with Michael and Marcus I have to sit in the baby pool with Michael, trying to keep an eye on Marcus while he zooms around through the crowd.

I was only slightly apprehensive about the change rooms situation. My friend Rob takes his daughter into the blokes changing room, for now. I didn't really want to take Lana in, especially as with Marcus too it wouldn't necessarily be a straightforward in/change/out. Taking friends' kids to the pool is quite fraught, unless you are able to pick them up and deliver them back in some kind of supersize, extra-thirsty towel that doesn't get the car seat all wet. It's the undressing and dressing that makes me nervous in this day and age.

At the Big Pool there is a door marked Family Changeroom, which I always thought must lead to a corridor with a number of family changerooms. Surely there would be too much demand for them to have just one? Well, we had a pretty good time in the water, and when we got out found there there is only one family changeroom, and it was free. We had several knocks on the door while we were in there, so it seems to be in high demand. We managed the whole process without me having a panic attack or breaking any laws - although I am not an expert in this field.

What the lads are up to

I haven't written much about the boys lately, it seems.

Marcus (at 4 years and eight months) is drawing beautifully. He is writing well when he concentrates. The latest thing is to make up puzzles and mazes. Yesterday he drew a man, with stripes of colours here and there, and letters in and around him. Outside the man were a list of letters and swatches of colour to find in the puzzle. The "d" was drawn around the man's eye. It was all pretty ingenious. This morning he drew a patient and a doctor (above). The doctor is trying to give an injection but according to Marcus "the patient is grabbing it to turn it around and stick into the doctor's neck", which smacks of a boy who has been read a lot of Roald Dahl. He was very keen to get all the right instruments on the doctor's shelves.

He seems to have no trouble making friends. He's socially less switched on than some of the other kids, but they are mostly a little older, which can make a big difference when you're 4.

Our main difficulty with Marcus is over-excitement. He gets revved up very easily, and then its hard to deal with him sensibly. He pushes his lower jaw forward, talks in a super-macho grunt, titters with a grating fake laugh and generally gets right up our noses.

He's mad about chess. He was having a little grizzle yesterday about not winning more often. In the course of pointing out that he was doing very well for his age, I asked rhetorically "Well - you have won 2 games so far, how many have we played?" I wasn't expecting an answer but he said matter-of-factly "Twenty eight or twenty-nine."

Michael, on the other hand (at 2 years and nine months), is sweetness and light mostly. He is mind-bendingly cute. He says please and thank you, and when you thank him he says "you're welcome". He has fabulous parroting skills. He remembers, word-for-word, long snatches of Wiggles dialogue. He did his first (I think) deliberate drawing OF something yesterday (initially an insect, he changed his mind before adding any legs and made it a snake). He wrote a few Ms the other day. He dances. He sings. He may have a future on the stage. He still walks about sawing his arm back and forth like Captain Feathersword.

Michael can read something like 30 words. He doesn't have any close friends of his own yet, but he likes palling around with the kids next door, and with a few of Marcus's other friends. He plays outside with Marcus at Friends, and also goes to visit Marcus' Pre-Kinder room quite often. The kids there accept him and he obviously feels at home in their company. I love to hear him yell "See you later guys!!" when we leave Friends. As I write the boys are in bed together, nearly an hour after lights out, laughing their heads off.

Michael is eating a lot better now, and he is looking very healthy. Unfortunately my Mum hurt her back picking him up the other day, when he was distressed that we were leaving. He has packed on the weight since she last lifted him I think.

2nd hand name dropping

A friend of mine who sometimes checks here (hi Jeff) recently went to his annual reunion of footy kickin' mates in Melbourne, which they call Superkick. It's like kick-to-kick Olympics, with various events. Jeff is a bit of name dropper and he revealed that famous singer-songwriter and national icon Paul Kelly is one of his footy pals.

One event was "Freeform"- I will quote Jeffrey's stream of consciousness style

in the freeform event one is aloud to do what ever they want "drop kick to a running man is Kelly's favourite mine is "the coach has been sleeping with my wife and although I have been able to block it out and play I have a flash back while trying to control a dribbling ball, I pause, deliberate, but stoically push on to collect the ball and bang it through the goals on my alternative foot. i missed but still scored close to maximum

Bark/Bark

Michael and I talked a bit about how "bark" falls from gum trees, and is also the sound dogs make. He thought it was interesting, and mulled it over for a while, talking quietly to himself. We were at the park, sitting with some leaves and bark and bits of cardboard we had found, which he started to arrange on the table. He said "I am making a dog from bark". Making a Dog from Bark sounds like an event at the Surrealist Olympics.

Bird Calls

Yellow-tailed black cockatoo plaintive plee-erk
Latham's snipe loud keow
Long-toed stint soft chrrup-chrrup-chrrup
Whimbrel tittering ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti-ti
White-cheeked honeyeater chip choo chippy choo
White-eared honeyeater loud chock
White-fronted honeyeater musical tsooeee
White-gaped honeyeater ch ch ch-aweya or chock
White-lined honeyeater wheee wheee whee-oo
White-naped honeyeater sibilant sherp sherp
White-plumed honeyeater chee uck oo weee
White-streaked honeyeater troop drid-out drid-out drid-out
White-throated honeyeater rather peevish tserp tserp
Carpentarian grasswren ssst, ssstz, seeze-ooo chrr chreee, trrr trrrr, chrrrp chrrrp chuck, chrrrp chrrrp chick will

From Slater's Australian Birds. Coming soon - Bird's Australian Slaters

Our growing boy

Having children is weird. One minute your wife says "I'm going to have a baby" and then five years later its playing chess, and its trying to suck you into an exchange of queens. Marcus actually checkmated me yesterday, and is still crowing about it. (Its true I had been coddling him along a bit, but it was awful shock when it happened). At one stage I noted he had not moved either of his knights yet. He said (direct quote) "I have not found them to be very useful".

Besides playing chess and talking like a PhD student he can also reach stuff on the mantelpiece now.

The Bowling Shanes Prem. Def. 16 d Spice Girls 6

The score above does not do justice to a cracker of a match. The Girls (skipped by a Steve) were in fine form, and had us on our toes right from the first end. When we bowled well, they bowled better. When they were a bit slack, we were worse. The score crept along to 2-3, with neither side able to capitalise on some promising work by the leads. Both skips sent down fabulous saves to pull back looming disasters from the brink. We conceded a couple, picked up one, then dropped another to be in some trouble at 3-6. It was a seven-ciggie match for Hunter. Nerves were taut.

Somehow we turned things around. At times there was an uncanny magnetic attraction to the centreline - everyone was finding the line beautifully, but having a bit more trouble with the length. We sneaked back on terms. Dean deserves a mention for his brave and precise drive that reversed a losing end. We then scooted away with a four and a three in successive ends. The brave Spice Girls tilt was over. The Shanes A completed a beautiful quadrella with a thumping win on the next rink. (We just missed the trifecta as the Dancing Simones lost by a point to the Bay City Bowlers). Merv suggested all Shanes will have to bowl left-handed next week.

Its been a good start to the season and the smell of Wilgrip, beer and sausages is mighty fine.