AFL

Man, a busy week again!
Eli had is first game of AFL (Australian Rules Football - www.afl.com.au) on Saturday. We had been hoping to get him in to soccer, but there does not seem to be a big following for anything other than AFL in Melbourne, so AFL it was.
It's not too bad really. The coaches are really energetic, and they had a couple of players at hand from the parent club, the Hawthorn Hawks. The first part of the time is spent practising ball skills, kicking, passing etc and Eli surprised us with his ability to kick the ball correctly, especially since this was the first time he had played with an oval ball.
After some different games it was time to split all the kids in to two teams for a quick game. That was good to watch - some of the kids were really good with one boy in particular able to kick the ball quite a distance.

Next week is Kids v's Parents, so Shells and I had better swat up on the rules!

Possum

Eli took this photo of a Possum in our front yard. It's quite unusual to
A) get so close to one with out getting hissed at or your arm ripped of. and
B) to see them during the day. But apparently this one has taken a liking to sunbathing on our garden shed. When we found him he was happy sitting in one of our trees.
Normally they just make boots upset at night by running up and down our roof.

Another Day, Another Dollar

Quite day today - an unexpected delay from a customer has meant that I have lots of time on my hands lately. This meant that for the first time in ages I was able to get home in time to have dinner with the rest of the family - no microwaved salad for tea tonight! The short weeks really are great when your not so busy. Normally I would have to work twice as hard to make up for the days off.
I also got to beat Eli at Monolopy for the first time! We brought him the game in the weekend, along with a few others, and spent most of Anzac day playing Monopoly - which he managed to beat me at every time. But tonight my luck changed and it was I who had all the houses on the board.

Caffene Free

Today is the end of my first week of being caffene free! Other than a constant headache since day one, it hasn't been too bad. Shelley and I went out for our usual Saturday morning breakfast, but we both had decaf flat whites today (Usually I 'have' to have real coffee with my poached eggs).
So I'm pretty confident that I can pull this off this time. I tried it once before when I was in Singapore, but it was too hard to resist "Kopi" time in the afternoons.
This time I've got it sussed. We've always had decaf at home (since last time I tried to quit), now I've got decaf at work and lots of herbal teas at home.
Got to admit I'm a lot more tired this week. It's only 7:40 and I'm already getting ready for bed, usually I wouldn't be tired till after 11. But I have been sleeping a lot better - so it's got to be worth it!

Water

We got our first water bill today for the year. We use an average of 376 litres of water a day! How can that be? Eli and I are away for most of it. It's bloody near impossible to get him into the bath, and he never flushes the toilet after him. Were not drinking that much. I'd be lucky to get my 6 glasses of water a day.
So where does all this water go? According to the nice chart that comes with the bill, we're slightly higher than the efficient 3 person family, and less than the typical 3 person family (at 458 litres per day) That assuming that we don't water the garden, which we do on occasion, and the dog gets a good hose down too.

Easter Bunny

Well Easter has gone now, but there is still a heap of chocolate in the fridge. Eli managed to catch the easter bunny in the process of dropping a few easter eggs on Sunday.

The Little E

This is the first blog on this site dedicated to my son, Eli.
Over the last few years since Eli was born, Shelley, Eli and I have moved from New Zealand to Singapore, and now we are in Melbourne, Australia. Who knows how long we will be here. I like Melbourne a lot, but we've only been here for less than a year now.
Eli has seen a lot in his short life so far. Ever since he was a small baby he has been bundled in to airplaines, hung off mountians in the Southern Alps of New Zealand and ridden on elephants in Indonesia and Thailand. Now that he is getting ready for school, things have slowed down a bit, but I'm sure that there will still be plenty of adventures to come.

About Us

After spending 7 years travelling around the world, I met Shelley on the way back from Scotland. She had just returned to New Zealand from the UK. It was love at first site, well for me anyway. She took a bit more convincing. A year later we were planning our wedding. I stayed at home long enough for Eli to be born, and then the travel bug hit again, Shelley was itchy first, then a job offer came up that sounded too good to be true so we sold the house and said goodbye to NZ.
The problem with things that sound too good to be true is that they usually are. After 3 years of consant travel around Asia, we headed back to the Pacific, this time on separte countries (for a short while) so Shelley could work on her degree while I worked 18 hour days.
After 6 months of 2 hour phone calls at weekends, and the occasional long weekend in NZ we were all back together in yet another country - this time Australia.