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Timberrrrrrrr! September 30, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, To Start Off With, Toby.
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Even Toby didn't know what to make of it.

Even Toby didn't know what to make of it.

Our house is falling apart, literally.

Over the weekend the big old tree in my backyard decided to do a split after watching one too many gymnasts on the telly. I was in my room when I heard a rip-roaring sound that went like “rrrrrrrkkkkkk-kkkkkcccccchhhhhh-rkkkkhhhhh” which was accompanied by the shaking of the ground. For a moment I thought the house was falling like a deck of cards.

I have attributed this unwanted disaster to the wild weather. High winds and wild rain – you could interchange both adjectives and the meaning would still be the same – must have become too much for the tree.

I’ve always wanted to remove the tree as it posed as a safety hazard but put it off due to the tightening of the purses. I guess there’s no way to put it off now!

Toby couldn’t be more pleased when I have the tree (and spare parts) removed. He hasn’t been able to do his usual laps around the yard and has too much energy at the end of the day. Which means more throwing of toys or balls for him to fetch. And Michele and I hate that.

Wonder how much arborists charge to remove a tree. We could do without more expenses.

Oh well, life goes on.

Unwelcomed art September 28, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Observations.
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Hello. I hope you are all well.

I got home today from work to find some unsavoury pieces of art on our fence. Some juvenile delinquents have sprayed random stuff on on it, defacing it in the process.

It’s not what the graffiti symbolized or represented – they don’t mean anything to me, but probably do to those in the graffiti or uneducated community – but for me it’s a slight on my lovely home and this beautiful family I’ve tried so hard to establish from scratch.

It wasn’t just our home that had our property defiled. Our neighbour’s home across the street copped it as well. They didn’t have some very explicit words on it though.

Back in May I talked about maintaining the security and upholding the harmony of your family and loved ones with necessary protection after a pretty scary incident with a would-be robber. Since then we have had security doors, grilles and roller shutters installed at our home. It set us back many thousands of dollars, but at least we feel better knowing our home is well looked after.

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Working from home September 26, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, To Start Off With.
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Hello all. I hope you have been well.

Has Life has been kind to you? It certainly has for me, at least in the last week or so.

Last week I was approached by the Editor of South East Asia’s largest parenting website, TheAsianParent to contribute story ideas and more importantly, articles. I was previously on the editorial team for the Singapore edition of TheAsianParent in 2008, but the recession took its toll on our team and I was kindly asked to stop writing temporarily until things picked up.

Of course, here’s the $64,000 question. What on earth do I know about being a parent in 2008?! As it is now, Michele’s only 14 weeks pregnant!

I had asked the Editor the same question as well, and I was quickly shepherded into a corner and told to write about amusing observations on parenting instead. I remember thinking:

“How queer. Parenting, non-parenting style.”

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Eat, sleep, drink, vomit, crack it. Rinse and repeat. September 21, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Life At Home, Michele, Pregnancy.
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Hello everybody. I hope you are all well.

Michele is well and truly into her second trimester this month. 14 weeks and one day, to be precise.

This morning, she roused me from my wonderful sleep at 6AM with her Nokia alarm and said to me:

“Babe, could you iron my uniform for me?”

Silence.

Now when a man doesn’t answer his wife’s demands, it either means No, No or No. It’s just a man’s way of saying ‘No’. ‘No’, I don’t want to do it. ‘No’, it’s annoying when you ask me at odd times of the day and ‘No’ I won’t take the rubbish out either.

Rice crackers, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies...it's a pantry, not a bedside table!

Rice crackers, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies...it's a pantry, not a bedside table!

Truth is Michele hates ironing, and I won’t turn to ironing any sooner than watching Australian Football, but hey if your pregnant wife wants something, she had better get it or she’ll crack it. As many married men would say, a happy wife is a happy life!

Since the joyful discovery of our impending parenthood, Michele and I have learnt to cope with physical and emotional changes that seem to plague all new parents. So many new feelings, hopes, fears and questions.

Is that going to be safe to eat? Would she be getting enough nutrients? How are we going to cope with our finances next year? You look ill, are you ill? Do you want to rest? Have you taken your folic acid? You just threw up again, have you taken more fluids?

Then there’s the changes in our lifestyle.

Apart from a belly that’s already beginning to show, Michele doesn’t look any bigger at all. Still my same, sexy babe :O However I find myself having to slow my walking pace to a crawl to accommodate her. With an additional six kilogrammes of weight and a little bubba sucking her life force out of her, Michele’s often out of breath and gets tired easily. And until we get ourselves a car (we’re probably the only Aussie family without a car, ever.), we’re resigned to travelling by foot or public transport. And that means more walking.

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“We’re having a Baby!” – the discovery September 14, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Car, Life At Home, Michele, Pregnancy.
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The magic P word that changed our lives forever.

The magic P word that changed our lives forever.

Hello all. I hope you have been well.

It has been an incredible rush of happy emotions for Michele and I since we proudly announced our impending parenthood to all friends and family. Previously, only our immediate family was privy to the information and it cut us to no end every time we had to keep a straight face telling a white lie when we were asked if Michele is pregnant.

We have been flooded with messages and phone calls these few days and feel really blessed to have people who genuinely take interest in or care about us. In each and everyone of you, we trust and we thank. You guys are inextricably bounded to us and we hope to share every moment of our beautiful journey with everyone of you.

I thought I’ll reveal a little about the day we discovered the little bundle of joy.

It was on a cold, winter morning on July 22nd and a clearly frustrated Michele was peeing onto another pregnancy test kit. I say another we have been trying for a kid since right off the bat. Weeks turned into months and we began to fear the worst – Michele can’t conceive!

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“We’re having a Baby!” – first ultrasound September 9, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Michele, Pregnancy.
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Baby Marching Jester!

Baby Marching Jester!

We’re having a baby!

Just short of our six months wedding anniversary, Michele and I are very happy to announce this wonderful news to all our friends and family.

We just got home from our first ultrasound earlier today to look at Baby. Mostly to check if Baby’s up and running, but mostly to see what the hell is causing Michele so much pain in the last seven weeks.

Of course, I’ve known of Michele’s pregnancy for awhile now. A convenient pregnancy kit was peed upon in the early morning of July 22 and it came out positive. We went down to our local clinic for a blood test, and it was good news all around.

But, it wouldn’t have made sense to talk about Baby without an ultrasound image. I was just glad to tell my family and in-laws that yes, it was a lot of hard work trying to conceive (serious!) and no, we probably timed it wrongly the first few months.

Baby is 12 weeks 3 days old today.

A new chapter of my life begins.

This is an Internode-only home. Bye bye Telstra. September 7, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home.
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Hello everybody. I hope you have all been well.

At precisely 1PM today I received a text message from Internode. The message indicated my Internode Nodeline phone service is ready for use, and to call them should I require any support.

The text message plastered a massive smile on my face. A face that was already struggling with the strain of smiling too much since I got my Ps earlier in the morning. Two wonderful news in one day, surely it cannot get any better!

Kicking Telstra's ass, one satisfied customer at a time.

Kicking Telstra's ass, one satisfied customer at a time.

I smiled because my broadband and telephone services are finally with a company that genuinely cares about her customers. Besides having a healthy and active relationship with people like me, Internode is also constantly evolving and progressing, aggressively introducing new plans to suit Australia’s ever-growing broadband and telephone needs to the mainly 18-40 technologically-minded clientele. Openly distasteful for all things Telstra, Internode is the de rigeur broadband choice for geeks and computer purists alike. Unless you’re with iiNet. But that’s another story altogether.

I also smiled because this meant the end of a disastrous relationship with Telstra going back since 2004, when our account was set up. As I was new to Australia back then, I didn’t know of the competitive ISP landscape. Coming from a country where only three ISPs dominate the landscape, imagine my astonishment when I realized there are over 200 ISPs registered in Australia.

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I got my Ps! September 7, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Car, To Start Off With.
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Ugly mugshot of Asian gangster.

Ugly mugshot of Asian gangster.

This is a special moment to savour. After being teased at and constantly being chauffeured around by mates and families for decades, I finally got my Ps.

At the grand old age of 30, I’m possibly the oldest new driver in circle of friends. Actually, let’s make that the oldest.

The tester was a good guy, definitely younger than me (who isn’t?!) and didn’t make me do cartwheels, perform a bunny hop or fire my rocket missile. As much as I really wanted to press the LAUNCH button, I kept my nerves and passed with no worries.

My instructor, who has been very patient with me all these months and taught me only good things, gave me a firm congratulatory handshake and said I can finally start looking for a car. Which is what I’m definitely looking at into this week. Of course, no prizes for guessing who I’m not buying from.

It’s all a little surreal at the moment. My peers have all been driving for many years, some even for over a decade. I know I still have a lot to learn, as driving is all about experience. That counts.

I’m just going to take it all in, change out of my jeans, pop myself in front of the telly and get on my PS3.

How not to sell a car September 6, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Car, Observations.
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Dear Ms Wilson,

this is The Marching Jester.

You might remember me as the silent accomplice of my good mate Sandeep, who bought the Ebony Black 1.5L 5dr Manual Hyundai Getz SX from you last week.

$14,000 is a lot of money. Assuming you take home 5% of the sale price, that’s a princely $700.

Before I continue, congratulations for sealing the deal. In the current economic climate, you don’t get many people walking in and purchasing a brand new car within three days of test driving it. People vote with their wallets, and you must have done something right.

Yes, let’s talk about what you did right. Wait, let’s not. Rather than putting you on a pedestal, I’m just going to tell you as it is. It’s painful enough falling from where you are. You don’t want to climb any higher. I apologize if I’ve killed your lofty aspirations.

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Planz schmanz – Wedding plans revisited (the celebrant) September 2, 2009

Posted by themarchingjester in Observations, Wedding.
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Hi there,

May I know which celebrant you use and how much did you pay for it? I am planning for my wedding and the ones that I have seen are either too enthusiastic or too expensive.

Thanks
Mel

That’s Mel, a casual reader who found my blog through WordPress tags. We corresponded a little and I gave her details of our wonderful celebrant Carey Walden, who just so happens to be a dear friend of mine.

I just got off the phone with Carey and she told me Mel had hired her services for her wedding, and what do you know, also decided to get married in our reception venue this November.

I definitely didn’t plan on marketing The Quat Quatta. I’m only blogging to record a bit of history; after all this is my family and time flies when you’re married. Before I know it I’ll be packing my kids’ lunchboxes to school!

I’m just glad somebody enjoyed reading my enthusiastic posts (pre-wedding, that is) and found Carey to be such a wonderful person. Speaking of pre-wedding, Michele and I have been really busy post-wedding with the wedding photo album. As I speak, the album is almost ready and we both can’t wait to see how it looks.

Watch this space.

And congratulations Mel. I hope your wedding is every bit as beautiful and memorable as ours.