Cup Day with a polar bear November 5, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Observations, Toby.Tags: cute, dog, groodle, house warming, lexie, melbourne cup, poodle, shih tzu, Toby
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Hi there, I hope your extended weekend has been kind to you. Did you win at the races?
My family – that’s myself, Michele, Toby and Baby (still getting used to saying that!) – went over to Sarah’s for a house warming-cum-Cup Day barbie at their beautiful home in Glenroy. I reckon they did very well for the size and amount of renovation needed. Michele would say the same herself.
Of course, that meant an arvo with Sarah’s groodle, Lexie. When she visited several months ago, I was able to manhandle her and pick her up. She was slightly larger than Toby and from far, the two playful dogs looked a lot like frolicking teddy bears.
Fast forward to November and what greeted me was a monster! A polar bear! A four-legged frosty teddy! A water-guzzling, bone-chewing, tail-nipping terror!
Well I’m glad I never have to deal with a dog this size! Toby feels the same way too, as he spent the entire arvo rejecting Lexie’s amorous advances! Which man would date someone bigger than himself, let alone six times his size!!?
A whole new world October 12, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Observations, Pregnancy, To Start Off With.Tags: Daddy, mommy, babies, Baby, parenthood, baby and kids market, coburg, croydon, parents, kokoda trail, new worlds
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Hello, I hope you are all well.
Michele and I spent the entire weekend being thoroughly brain-washed by baby products at the Baby & Kids Market. It’s a market that doesn’t have a permanent base; instead it goes to your local suburb on a particular weekend day and you are most likely to find it in your town hall or community centre.
So enthusiastic we were, we went to the Saturday (10th) market in Coburg and somehow made our way to Croydon (!) on Sunday (11th). Along the way, we spent a couple of hundred dollars and had a little chuckle to ourselves as we wondered how much we would have spent had we purchased the products first hand.
It’s an awesome concept that, unless you are about to become a parent yourself, will fly under your radar as it’s not something that one looks out for in the papers. I was surprised how massively popular this alternate universe is, as there were hundreds of parents besieging the fifty odd stalls on each day.
My first baby purchase October 7, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Observations, Pregnancy.Tags: Baby, baby seats, cots, cute, feet, pumpkin patch, socks, strollers, window shopping
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Hello everybody. I hope you have all been well.
I made my first baby purchase last week at Pumpkin Patch. It’s two pairs of little baby socks. They are the littlest thing ever and I can’t believe how small Baby’s feet will be. I bought it for $3 as it was on sale (from the usual $9). This will probably be a recurrent theme for the next few years.
I think I might be jumping ahead of myself. Baby isn’t due for another five months but the way Michele and I have been window shopping for strollers, cots and baby seats you would think I have twins!
The label says it’s 0 – 6 months. It’s really cute to think my fingers could slip into them and be kept warm. My Baby’s feet! They’re so small! And have I mentioned cute?
I’m still a little underwhelmed by the size.
Unwelcomed art September 28, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Observations.Tags: Centrelink, children, community, deface, defile, dickheads, dole bludge, ethnic, family, fence, government, graffiti, grandchildren, juvenile delinquents, minority, neighbour, success
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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.
Planz schmanz – Wedding plans revisited (the celebrant) September 2, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Observations, Wedding.Tags: carey walden, celebrant, lunchboxes, school, the quat quatta, Wedding, wedding album
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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.
Do you kiss your dog? June 13, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Michele, N95 pictures, Observations, Toby.Tags: advocate, cat, cattle, creek, dog, doody, face, faeces, frontal, full, jawbone, kiss, kissing your dog, lick, lip, metro, pee, revolution, saliva, salty, scent, sucking, Toby, tongue
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Nothing but a nice, cold kiss to soothe the fraying nerves of an anxious Toby
Hello. I hope you have all been well.
Do you kiss your dog? As in, full frontal-no reservations-lip on lip-sometimes tongue-saliva smothering-face sucking-kiss?
Okay I jest with some of the seat squirming antics. Personally, I restrict my kisses and sometimes loving kicks to Toby’s face to just his nose (it’s almost always cold and wet; that’s a good thing) and on days when I know he’s just been cleaned and hasn’t been grovelling his face into some other dogs’ faeces, I allow him to lick my mouth and face.
Working in a dog environment, I get to interact a lot with owners and our conversations range from the mundane (“what kind of diet is your dog on?”) to the nitty gritty (“is he on Advocate? I heard Revolution is better!”). Most times, the conversations degenerates from the serious into a public declaration of how much their dog is loved. And it degenerates even further when they ask me whether I have a furry friend at home myself. Me? Of course! I don’t just love him, I kiss him too!
Often, that line alone is enough to put some dog owners off. Regardless of the dog’s size or breed, they are curious chumps and the likelihood of them stuffing their face silly into a dead possum, chook or (bless me!) his own faeces is relatively common.
Blink and you’ll miss.
Dog owners often tell funny stories of their dogs getting up to mischief and putting God knows what into their mouths. The worst I’ve ever seen Toby clean his teeth with are the skeletal remains of a *insert animal* when we went walking along a creek. He had disappeared behind some bushes for awhile, and when I called out to him, he reappeared with half a jawbone of an animal that had obviously passed on at that same spot. I didn’t know whether to feel disgust or laugh at Toby’s antics. Afterall, what do you say to a dog who’s obviously happy to find a chew toy and was wagging his tail furiously to show off his trophy.
A pet’s friendship April 29, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Observations, Toby.Tags: advance, cute, dog, kennel cough, man's best friend, poodle, premium dog food, shih tzu, Toby, vet
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Toby trying his best to look cheery.
Hello. I hope everyone is well.
When your family pet falls sick, it is a testing time for everyone in the household. Not only is the family pet very much loved, he (or she) is also seen as a natural extension of the family, filling the void that some family lacks. Taking my family for instance. Toby is my son. Michele’s son. Our little baby. He’s also our best friend who gives us loyal and unconditional love.
Last Tuesday at four in the morning, I received a rather nervous and anxious-sounding call on my mobile from Michele. It’s a weekday, so Michele is up by around six, and out to work by seven. I was at work, and was very surprised to see ‘Boo Boo’ (my pet name for her) flashing incessantly on my mobile. For her to call me in the wee hours of the morning must suggest something of real importance.
Turned out Michele had been kept up by Toby, who had developed breathing difficulties. Not only was he wheezing, he was coughing and hacking and looked like a dog’s breath away from an asthma attack!
As she left for work in the morning, the usually excited and over-exuberant Toby would bark and be the biggest sook, putting on his biggest sad face. This time however, he was placid, wasn’t interested and was sufficiently lethargic.
Do all married men sleep early? April 17, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Michele, Observations, To Start Off With.Tags: bonsai, chores, computer, cooking, dishwashing, emasculation, fast cars, grid girls, grocery list, house, married men, mopping, Toby, vacuuming, videogame console, wedding speech
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Even Toby sleeps early. Then again, he sleeps anywhere, anytime.
This post came about at the behest of my constantly ticking mind. At the risk of sounding rather presumptuous, I shall attribute it to my unusual ability to talk about something from nothing.
So what prompted this unusual post? Curiouser and curiouser, I found myself enjoying mundane chores more since Michele and me purchased and moved into our humble abode last year. I’ve allowed myself the time to appreciate the nicer things in life that precludes a computer, a videogame console and sometimes (just sometimes), Toby.
Chores that used to irk me now seem to sing the sweetest song. The aberration that was house cleaning used to mean an uneventful and lacklustre hour of non-communication and wondering which last level boss I could have cleared if I wasn’t cleaning the house. Now, I (almost) look forward to the weekends, where vacuuming and mopping is the order of the day.
I’ve also began to enjoy arranging things. Like a fussy bonsai-lover I trim off stuff I do not enjoy looking at anymore, water and nourish the new spot with a good sanitizing wipe and re-pot my paraphernalia with much aplomb. Sometimes, I do it when Michele’s away at work, and I get a real kick telling her excitedly over the phone, how neat the house is and how much she’ll enjoy the new look I’ve created.
Dishwashing, a task that never ceases to bore me when I lived with my folks, has attained a higher status on my ‘evolutionary tree of tasks’. There’s nothing more empowering than rolling up your sleeves, hearing the swishing swirl of hot water into the basin and smelling the factory-grade liquid detergent doing its thang on the grimy and oily. I am doing the dishes. You can’t eat unless I wash them. Food cannot be served until this is done. Your hunger is at my discretion.
20km in two minutes – Death & Life February 13, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Michele, Observations, Wedding.Tags: catastrophic, celine dion, communities, david tree, death, destruction, disastrous, doomed, drag race, family, fire, firestorms, human interest stories, juxtapose, koala, life, marriage, melbourne, metropolitan, minutes, racing car, sam, survival, tear, victims, victorian
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The image that launched a worldwide bushfire appeal. I can imagine a mad rush of foreign tourists visiting Australia in the aftermath of the fire.
These last few nights, while plugging away at paperwork and singing Celine Dion as badly as I can, I’ve kept my eyes glued to the disastrous and catastrophic Victorian firestorms that has quickly become a horror story many magnitudes over.
Readers risk a whole gamut of emotions reading the human interest stories. I shed a few tears as I read the triumphant stories of life, felt nauseous as I visualized the last moments of a doomed family and turned pale as I thought how quickly those fires enveloped and engulfed entire communities.
Sadness turned to anger. A tragic loss of life, and nothing could be done to prevent it.
How can I, sitting here in the comfort of my own room in the comforts of metropolitan Melbourne, possibly grasp the scale of destruction and death?.
No, I can’t. The fires, in any direction, are over an hour away from most Melburnians. But you’d be a savage not to feel any emotions at all.
It’s truly frightening. Those fires travelled 20km in two minutes. Unless you’re in a drag race or fitted in a specially-built racing car, your chances of survival are zero.
Victims would not have saw or heard it coming. At that speed, I hope their torment was brief.
Acts of madness and the throbbing veins of fun might sound like a fun ride, but murder is what those arseholes have committed. If caught, they deserve to rot in jail forever.
Juxtapose the death and destruction with my impending marriage, and I can’t help but feel I’ve been taking the wedding – the planning bits at least – too seriously.
At the end of the day, it’s not how much money Michele and me have spent or how much effort we’ve put into making sure everything goes smoothly.
It’s all about having one another, being there for each other and realising life is short. Treasure what we have and what we have had. Good things don’t last forever as they can be taken from you as quickly as those fires.
I love you Michele, and I can’t wait to spend my life with you. The big day can’t come soon enough.
Image from The Age.
