hi,
just a quick post to let u know that it's my birthday today! mayday ...

needless to say, i'm not goin to work today! ;-D

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hi, thanx again to those of u who posted further thoughts/advice/encouragement re. our possible move to dublin. i'll come back to this topic again in more detail (it is of course a major possibility, topic or "thing" in our lives right now), but for now let me just say that it is gradually looking more & more likely to happen! ... but probably not until about end of this year .... ?



anyhow, i bought a new tie last friday! it looks like this:

i don't wear ties very often - well, maybe once every month or two or so ... and i don't think i've bought a new one for about two and a half years. the main inspiration to buy this one was so that i could wear it to the wedding of a very good friend of my wife & i, which happened last saturday. there were so many different ties to choose from, some of them too expesnive in my opinion; but i'm happy with my choice ... what do u think?

the wedding was great - alot of fun: good friends, venue, food & music (live jazz band), great craic! and of course, no shortage of beverages .... and, predicatbly, i did over-indulge a little - but luckily not quite too much! perhaps in hindsight i could have survived without the last 6-7 drinks or so; but gee i thought i really needed them at the time! i'll blame those last few drinks on all those silly sentimental hugs & raspberry kisses on the cheek i was dishing out at the ned there ... ;-D

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hi, thanx to all those of u who posted enthgusiastic comments & recommendations in response to my last post - i appreciate all these!

there is a lost of thinking going on here in fergal's head ... some nay things to weigh up ..... but overall i must say that the possible move to dublin is looking pretty good for a few reasons, and if i had to put odds on it at present i'd say there's a greater than 50% chance that we'll go! ;-D

there are still a number of details to figure out, particularly money & time - two titles of songs off the "dark side of the moon" album, by the way; and always pretty important commodities to consdier it seems (for better or worse).

like i said - one thing is for sure: i need a change, i need a change, i need a change .... and this opportunity just seems to be the one to go for. it would also be a BIG challenege in numerous ways - but i think this potential move seems to be right at this point in our lives - as right as it'll ever be, perhaps!

and anyhow - although there seem to be other POSSIBLE options floating around, none of them presently are certain, and none of them would be quite as 'big & exciting' (nor challenging) as the dublin thing, but more variations of the current theme.

if given a choice we'd rather not do it til about jnuary 2008 - but we'll soon see what our options are re. timing.

i'm sure it'd ultimately be a great experience for our kids - i just hope it (and then the likely return to australia 2-3 years later) wouldn't be too much of a stressful upheaval in addition to that (?).

any further thoughts, anyone?

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hi

it seems i am being offered a job in dublin, ireland!

so we may move there ... ? for 2 years or so ... ?

i don't know - it's a big upheaval, as much for the kids as anyone .... and the weather there is often bleak ...

but on the other hand it's kinda exciting - a new challenge, for sure!!! and it's clear that i do need a change in one way or the other ...

we'll see; but we're certainly giving it some serious thought right now. what would u do?

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hi.
i had a good, relaxing break over the easter long weekend - hope u all did too. (in australia good friday & easter monday are public holidays.)

we were gonna go to the beach again for the long weekend, staying in friends' beach-house ... but in recent times we've been busy, been there & been visiting elsewhere; and that recent camping/raining/sickness experience (see 2 posts back - which was capped off by a bout of head-lice by the way!) lead us to decide to stay home, which i was more than happy to do.
when else do i get a chance to hang out at home for 4 days? hardly ever!

i finished reading that excellent novel (by haruki murakami) i recently mentioned, did some work around the yard, visited a landscaping supplies place & got some ideas for home, drank some beer, gin & tonic & red wine, played soccer, watched cartoons with my son & played with he & my daughter, talked & watched some movies with my wife.

today i don't feel so bad about being back at work - that's gotta be a good sign! i've got something quite big to finish this week, and a couple of interesting possible future opportunities to think about .....

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hi, my follow-on story from my last post will have to wait til later; i've got another experience to share with u now which relates to easter.

11 years ago i was working in sydney in the travel industry, and i got a free ticket to l.a. from an airline. having previously been to the u.s. & mexico and having heard good things about guatemala, i decided to go there. plus my visit coincided with easter & i heard this was highly celebrated in guatemala, in towns like antigua.

i had a 14-hour flight then a 12-hour transit in l.a. i decided not to get a hotel room but take a trip to venice beach (bad option). late that night i caught a 6-hour flight to guatemala city, arrived early morning & took a 1-hour minibus drive to the colonial town of antigua. i found the small, family-run hotel where i'd pre-booked a room. needless to say i was tired & jet-lagged! plus antigua is in the mountains so the altitude also contributed to my fatigue. i slept most of that day, woke up late afternoon and took a walk around the cobbled streets where lots of locals were busy making amazing, detailed "carpet murals" using coloured sawdust. here's an example from a pic i pinched off flickr:

there was a lot of activity & excitement in the air. i walked around town then got some dinner and went back to bed, still tired. next morning, good friday, i woke before dawn and went out onto the streets to catch the first of the town's amazing big easter ("semana santa" / holy week) parades. huge processions of people, brass bands, lots of people dressed in purple robes, some carrying huge floats depicting stations of the cross, complete with statues of an african-looking jesus! incredible stuff.

and what's more, all the carpet murals got completely trampled and ruined! but this was always how it was planned to be, and the people who make them know that will be the case. then the next day/night they make more (sometimes stayuing up all night to do so), all for the next parade to trample those! it's a lot like those tibetan buddhist monks who make those amazing, intricate coloured sand mandalas then destroy them, as a metaphor for life. this making of murals and parades trampling them went on for several days in antigua. i've never experienced anything quite like it, before or since.

i spent a little over two weeks in guatemala (took me nearly a week to get my sleep patterns in synch), visiting a big mountain lake, climbing a dormant volcano, catching old crowded buses, going to markets and mayan villages; but those are other stories ...

anyhow, that's my little easter story for now. for me personally, it's as much a celebration of a change in season & opportuntiy for more time with my family, as anything. have a good one! ;-D

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I’ve been away for a few days.
We went camping, at a nice coastal tent park about 2-5 hours’ drive south of Brisbane. Been there several times, including last year with the family of school friend of mine, and they came with us again this time. Our elder sons are the same age and they play together. Had a good time for a couple of days – except …..

After our first night we awoke to find out that my friend had been up with vomiting & diarrhoea. He was out of action for most of the day, feeling nauseous & weak, and more vomiting. Poor guy. The next day he was ok apart from some stomach cramps. I spent the whole two days hoping none of our family would catch it. But we then had a nice day without anybody being sick. That night my wife got up a couple of times to go to the toilet. When we awoke in the morning - you guessed it – she was not well! She’d had diarrhoea and then vomited in then morning, and felt nauseous and without energy. Oh no! And this was the day we had to pack up and go home, with our two kids. I knew then that it would be a long journey to make it home.

My friend & his family left earlier than us (which I was not happy about - long story, which I may or may not go into later [depending on whether or not u want to hear me bitch about my friend’s wife!]), and it started to rain soon after that. Basically for the next 1.5 hours it rained on & off, we were in & out of the tent, then sitting outside or in the car, while I packed up the stuff and the tent. Oh yes, and my poor wife vomited once more! Plus our son said he was feeling unwell. I took down half of our 2-room tent while my wife rested in the other half. Then my wife sat with our daughter in a chair under a tree while I took down the rest of the tent as a little more rain started. I knew we’d have to take the tent out again at home to dry, so I just quickly folded it and bundled & squeezed it & the final things into the back of the car and closed & locked the hatch before anything fell out! The kids were in the crowded car and my wife made on final trip to the toilet before leaving. I went to start the car for the drive home, thinking a big part of the hard work out of the way; then I turned the key and NOTHING: the car battery was dead!! FUC#!!! - that’s all we needed!

Fortunately another camper had jumper leads and we were able to start our car off his battery. So then we just had to drive home for about 2.5 hours, hoping nobody else got diarrhoea or had to vomit on the way and that we didn’t need to stop the engine along the way without risking the car not starting again. Luckily our daughter slept, and my son and wife rested without needing to throw up as we drove mostly in the rain.

After an hour or more of driving we were on a busy road at the Gold Coast when my son said he felt like he wanted to throw up! I pulled over onto a patch of grass, but he couldn’t throw up. We went a little further before stopping at a service station so our daughter could be fed. I took my son for a walk & to get some food. After a half-hour stop we got back on the highway. There was more rain but fortunately nobody needed to be sick or get out of the car again, and we and the car eventually made it home ok and in one piece. What an odyssey!

My wife went to bed and I stayed up with the kids and got some of the car unpacked. Late in the afternoon, our son felt ill again & soon had a large vomit followed by some diarrhoea, and then some more vomiting after a bath. He went to bed early but continued to fell bad and occasionally vomit, or dry-reach (his stomach being virtually empty) throughout the night. Fortunately he seems to be ok today, as does my wife – not 100% of course but no more vomiting. I have been thinking it’s inevitable that I get it … but not yet – hope it stays that way; likewise for our daughter!

Phew … what a day! We had a great time prior to that, and fortunately we got through it & home ok in the end. I tell ya – these things make u appreciate home!

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