A proud papa !

We went to Ballarat today to watch Wes umpire a TAC match. Can we say ... sooooooo proud! I don't know how Wes felt to have his own personal papparrazzi but I think I took over 100 photographs. Hmmm, the only thing with goal umpiring photographs is that most are from the back or at the very least the side. Oh well.

Such a nice day. I was fearing the worst and got out the thermal underwear! You know Ballarat, cold and wet. But it was a lovely crisp day with a blue sky. Sure, still needed the scarf and coat, but it was just lovely.

Before the match Wes met with an AFL goal umpire who was giving him some tips and who watched throughout the match and spoke to him again at half time and at the end with some observations. Advice like that is pure gold to Wes and he'll take everything on board and run with it.

Here's one of the photos I took near the end, can someone say ... a proud dad?

Mike really did need to be educated in the art of watching a local football match though. Best place to park around the ground, etc. This is how I grew up, following dad around umpiring the local matches. Every single Saturday we'd be parked at some ground around Geelong and the coast, watching dad, eating our pie out of a paper bag, mum with a thermos of hot chocolate in the car, horns blazing when a goal was kicked. The look of shock that Mike gave me when I started tooting the horn at one stage. Yep, the poor man really needed to be educated.

Speeding towards the weekend

Light speed really, hasn't it been? Is time going so fast for everyone and not just for us here? I think we're in warp speed heading towards Christmas. I actually got my Christmas list out the other night working out a few things to look out for in the coming months. Ridiculous? I think not.

We watched a great TV show tonight on Channel 2, the start of a series I believe. Judith Lucy's Spiritual Journey. Absolutely loved it. Humour, the questions that the average Joe Blow might like to ask, a bit naughty and intriguing. A description of the series from the website:

Australian comedian Judith Lucy grew up so heavily
Catholic that she wanted to become a nun.By the time she left school, she was a
committed atheist. Now she's convinced there must be something in between those
two extremes ... she just doesn't have a clue what it
is.

Join Judith Lucy on her quest to discover something to
believe in, when Judith Lucy's Spiritual Journey starts Wednesday 27th July at
9.30pm on ABC1.

It really was a good watch. Roll on next Wednesday!

Out internet connection is going waaaaaay slow tonight, it's painful, so I do believe this blog post will end here for fear I will never be able to save it.

Shall finish this post off with a page I did recently on a seaside theme. A fantastic photograph I have of my grandma and grandpa either when they were courting or perhaps just after they were married. Photos like these really make you wistful that you didn't ask more questions while they were alive. I want to know everything about it, where were they? what time of their lives were they in? what was happening with them? why were they there? So now I just have to wonder. Not fair.

Credits Designer Digitals.


I'm so seriously behind on my blog reading as it's just been way too cold to sit for any great length of time up this end of the house. I am sooooo over this winter weather. So with that time to fill the hot water bottle and I'm off to dreamland! :-)

Forgive me blog

Forgive me blog for I have sinned, I have not made a blog post since the start of the month ... oh the shame.

So get ready for a round up.

Mike's friend came, went and came back again getting prepared for his father's funeral, such a sad time for him and I'm so glad we were able to be there for him. But just quietly the man is a creature of habit. He always showered before bed time, no matter what. One night he stayed up talking with Mike until after 1am. Mike came to bed which woke me up, and then the next thing we hear the shower door bang and the shower come on. At 1.15 in the morning! Each to their own.

Then Tristan came to stay for a weekend which was so nice to have him here. Although we already had plans for the Saturday night so he came along. Errr ... much to his horror!

We had seen in the newspaper about a Buddhist Monk teacher who was coming to Warrnambool and you could go along to hear his words. We had thought this might be something quite different to do and were interested to hear. So poor Tristan came along too.

First faux pas...

We walked in, signed the visitor's book, spotted three chairs and promptly walked over to it and sat down. Looked around. Everyone had their shoes off. Oh dear, they were taking them off at the door and we just strode right through the room with them on. We quickly slipped them off and popped them under our chairs.

Second faux pas...

Mike had a honking big hole in the toe of his socks and while sitting there with his legs crossed, delighted in poking his toe through and wiggling it around to my horror! He thought no one could see except for me. Then the Lama caught a look through the gap in the chairs. He looked right at Mike's toe. Oh the shame!

Third faux pas...

Tristan fell asleep. He kept getting lower and lower in his chair and I swear he was going to slip right off it. He says he was meditating. I know better!

It was really interesting though. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but everything he said made so much sense. Although he didn't speak English and had a translator, also a Buddhist Monk. His name was Geshe Doga and he has lead quite an amazing life. Have a read. It's quite an incredible journey he has made through his life.

Other than that it's just been day in and day out. We're both completely over our illnesses so that's good in itself. We had a bit of a scare with Molly weekend before last. She was off her food, she was listless, she just lay in the front yard all day, not interested in anything. Broke my heart. Even Lucky stayed a cool distance from her. Mike keeps telling me I have to start preparing myself, our old Molly is quite a geriatric now. But I can't, not yet.

That was the Saturday and then the Sunday she was back to normal, running around, chasing Lucky, eating up a storm. I went from distressed to elated in the span of 24 hours. I had taken a photo and you know the only way to get through a crisis like that is to scrap about it, so I did. Doesn't that face just break your heart? She couldn't even look at me.

Credits Designer Digitals.


Time for bed, I have a big day tomorrow, which I'll come back and write about then. Until then, good night!

What we women do ...

Cook.

In a time of crisis.

I'm right aren't I? One of Mike's oldest friends is staying with us at the moment, his 90 year old father had a stroke and a fall and has been in hospital last week. Friday night we were still all up talking and the phone rang very late and as soon as I heard B answer it I knew. His father had passed away. So incredibly sad.

So today while B was out with his siblings who had come to town during the week to organise the funeral and care for his mother in a nursing home over in the next town, I did what any woman would do at a time like this.

I baked.

It's a nurturing thing isn't it? You give the condolences, you try to make things easier for the person, you understand, and you feed them. And you keep on feeding them.

Project 52

Ahhh yes remember that? I started it and then promptly fell off the bandwagon with a thud. Well I've dusted myself off, gone back through my photographs and jumped back on that bandwagon with a fanfare. Well okay, consider a fanfare from an out of tune dusty old trumpet if you will, but I'm getting there.

Here's weeks 5 and 6 for your viewing pleasure. Who can resist this darling face, I ask you? He's learnt when the camera comes out, posing wins treats!

And who can resist a man that will go the extra mile when I need a subject? I was doing an exercise in "panning" and you may remember the story here. It really HAD to be my photo of the week, didn't it?

Credits Designer Digitals.


Hoping for no rain tomorrow, even though it is forecast. Pleeeeeaase (looks up above).