August 11, 2005
Birthdayarama
Caleb's Birthday today - the big Double-Digit one where you renounce your allegiance to Fisher Price, to be inducted into the great church of Sony (Nike Reformed).
This year, Pokemon continues its reign at the top of the list, with Digimon a close second. How do those toy marketers do it for so long? Caleb's grown up on these things.
As for me, who turned thirtysomething last week - I was nicely surprised by a bunch of stuff to keep me warm - jackets, shirts, bedsocks, chocolate, and a Sudoku puzzle anthology.
A real winter birthday. I guess I'm resigned to the fact I won't be getting beach towels as birthday gifts, unless I happen to move to the northern hemisphere at some point.
Posted by bonwag at 12:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 03, 2005
Dancing With The Stars
Today was 'Medals Day' at Dancepower, the ballroom dance studios Caleb and Allanah have been attending this year. It's the day that the kids go before The Judges to qualify for their awards. This year, Ainslie and I were amazed at the progress our kids had made. Even Charli got game.
It's only been a year since we noticed that the kids were having a great time with the more traditional steps we hauled out at The Ball. Ainslie found a ballroom dancing school near us, and now it's a rare occasion for me to pick up Caleb and Allanah on a Saturday morning without some sort of minor award for their application in practice.
But this is where it really counts.
After putting in some very polished performances, Allanah scored Honours (95% up) in 'Composite' (Cha Cha, Slow Rhythm and Evening 3 Step), and Caleb also scored Honours for his Modern (Waltz, Slow Rhythm and Quickstep). Charli scored a mug and egg as a prize for her Macarena skills.
Caleb scooped the pool, though, with the 'Most Outstanding Candidate' award for the entire day. He'd been getting many compliments throughout the afternoon for his efforts, and it seems he's being groomed - by the Powers That Be - for competition dance, if he wants it.
We're all pretty proud. This could be the start of something big. And dripping with sequins.
Posted by bonwag at 08:15 PM | Comments (0)
March 19, 2005
Questions. Queries. Posers.
I think we're getting the hang of these Quiz Night things. Ainslie and I might also be getting a reputation.
It's a phenomenon I only discovered after moving to Western Australia - Quiz Nights aren't that big in the Eastern States, or at least, they weren't in the circles I used to frequent. The idea of sitting down for 2 or 3 hours of answering trivia questions might be too much for the hectic, head-kicking lifestyle of the Sydney-sider.
We've been to a few nights with our friends Rod and Pauline in the past, but this time, we got to get the two families together. The good thing was, the quiz tested everyone, including the kids.
Well done to Carey Baptist for organising the night, in support of missionary work in Africa.
Our table, literally bursting with TV and music expertise, finished in second place. We're not Quiz night junkies, by any stretch, but our tables have managed to finish in the top 3 of the last few we've been to. Maybe we just have smart friends.
....Naaaah.
Actually, Ainslie reckons she won it by getting a set of pillows in the auction for well below what Laura Ashley would charge.
Posted by bonwag at 11:23 PM | Comments (1)
March 07, 2005
Department of Just Us
It's one year to the day since Ainslie and I celebrated 10 years of marriage with a big, important formal ball with all our friends and family.
Yesterday, we went for a drive to York. Today, we're going to the Home Show. Just us.
Posted by bonwag at 09:56 AM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2005
Edith and the Yuppies
Ainslie and I have been living large on the Perth International Arts Festival scene this week, albeit in a lowbrow sort of way. I've saved up my Christmas and Valetine's Day presents of theatre tickets, which both happened in this same week.
HG Nelson was in town for his 'On The Lurk' one-man show, which was really one half of the radio show he does with Roy Slaven, with a little more preparation, and 100% more visual content. The premise of the show was 'The Lurk', which is the practise of standing around with nothing to do, but looking very busy about it. There are some brilliant bits (The Call of the 2004 Grand final in under 5 minutes), some off-colour bits (Art Of The Stool) and some bits that just didn't work, but overall, a great night of ranting from one of the masters of talking rubbish for hours at a stretch.
The moment I saw the advertising for 'The Pleasure Of Their Company', I knew I had to be there, two of my favourite Australian performers - Glynn Nicholas and Shaun Micallef - were doing a two man show. With Nicholas' mastery of physical comedy and mime, and Micallef's turn of phrase and slightly less-controlled slapstick style, I was expecting brilliance.
They almost got there. The show is a series of sketches, much like Micallef's 'Pogram' (sic) on the ABC (his best work). Some worked, some fell flat, and others were (literally) magic. With a little more savage editing, this partnership might work well on TV. I'd like to see more of a story bringing these two geniuses together - they'd make such a great 'odd couple' partnership. Their failed individual sitcoms ('The Glynn Nicholas Show' (which they both wrote) and 'Welcher and Welcher') shows that they can write clever stuff, and understand comic timing, but they just need a better editor)
I'm not sure that qualifies as real, high-brow theatre-going, but I had a great time. I'm glad I have a wife who understands my sense of humour and is willing to accompany me to strange shows like this.
Posted by bonwag at 10:07 PM | Comments (0)
February 01, 2005
Kickin' It New School
Caleb's had his long-awaited first day at Aquinas today. Looks like a whole new world for him.
Posted by bonwag at 09:47 PM | Comments (0)
December 26, 2004
A Slithy Tove Did Gimble Me In The Wabe
There's nothing like a bite from a big, unidentified spider to get your imagination running wild.
Seems I was inconveniencing one of our arachnid friends in the backyard today by using the garden chair he'd chosen as his own. I felt something on the back of my leg and went to brush it off, but there was nothing there. After a bit of investigation, I found I'd been resting my calf over the opening to the web of a fairly large black spider, which was cowering at the back of his web. I saw that there was a little discoloration at the back of my leg, which I hadn't noticed before.
Now, at this point, things started to slow down, so I could carefully, and in great care and detail, imagine a number of different absolute worst outcomes of this situation. We live in a place frequented by a number of quite poisonous spiders, the most serious of these being the redback, which we've dug out of various crevices already in the last few years. It was important to retrieve this bugger and ask for his ID so we could figure out what was going to happen from here.
I stopped short of emptying the entire can of bug spray into the web.
Ainslie is having an afternoon nap at this point. Do I wait and see if I'm affected? Would it be too late for me to act if I did wait any longer? Are these pains I'm getting now something I'm imagining, or are they caused by the bite? I can feel a few numb aches in my right leg, and I think I'm getting a bit dizzy. I'd better wake her up.
Waking Ainslie up with the phrase 'I've been bitten by a spider and I might need your help' is pretty effective. (Far more effective than simply "it's morning, sweetheart".) She jumps up and we go in search of our fanged friend, who has limped off to a corner of the outdoor area. I gather him up in a cup while Ainslie dials Poison Information.
According to the experts at the other end, It seems that if your spider doesn't have a red stripe, you're pretty safe, in WA at least. Ours doesn't. It's a big, black mean-looking one, which I later identify as a Black House Spider. Nothing too nasty, but you can get in a bit of pain if he gets a good bite. I'm not hurting too badly, but we sort out the area to make sure it's not going to get infected.
Looks like the emergency is over, without me having to rush to hospital for redback anti-veneme. It's only meant a little discomfort in that leg, and a few aches. Still, I was a little worried there for a while. It's amazing to think such a tiny beast has the ability of so subtly and covertly making you so seriously ill.
EPILOGUE: It's time to nuke the chars with some surface spray, I think. In cleaning out the other spider webs underneath the other garden chairs today, I do find a juvenile redback.
The little choices in your day, like where you choose to sit, can have a big consequence.
Posted by bonwag at 03:26 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack