Tuckers Downunder

Another picture added at the bottom. Starting to see real progress.

Picture of the back of the house… Founds all done for the extension, builder’s bum on the left!

Picture of the front! Now, that is a lot of wood!

My three girls, just some cute pics, that’s all.

Just add tiny teddies, marshmallows and sultanas to your average babycino!

Once again we find ourselves in the emergency room, little Ivy and I! This time, although much like the last, was much less stressful given a) we were in Sydney rather than Hong Kong, b) the decline of Swine Flu has meant that masks are no longer a requirement, and c) no blood was to be found pouring down Ivy’s face!

In fact, given how familiar we now seem to be with the process of stitching up our middle child’s face, we called ahead to the hospital to confirm gas-and-air was on offer (for Ivy of course!) to avoid the extreme stress of applying sutures sans aesthetic as happened in HK!

With the promise of a short-ish queue and a paediatric unit we headed to North Shore Hospital, in my car as a distraction!

With triage being what it is, and there being no new blood to speak of, and Ivy behaving like the perfect little girl she is now and again, we waited, and waited… Case upon case were seen before us, until shortly before 11pm we were seen, ug.

Within 15 minutes were were done; some glue was applied but not a single tear was shed, my little Ivy now has scar number three to talk about when she grows up. Poor thing.

Nice weekend with the girls, some cute pics below from Kate Neale’s birthday party, and a worrying video of Ivy pretending to be a tiger, some weird martial arts doing, body popping big cat!

There is a basic assumption that a hot day is a good thing, well, not so.

Today in Sydney it reached 39c in the West of the City, it felt pretty warm for a spring day, in fact it felt pretty warm for any day, especially as it is now quarter to midnight and it is still around 30c! And that is the issue, warm days are bearable, even above 40c can be tollerated, but when it gets past 8pm it had better be below 30c!

Also, unlike heaters, no one wants to sit in the path of an airconditioner all evening, far less sleep next to one, but when it’s this balmy, you have no choice, it’s gross! The kids don’t sleep well either, and nor for that matter do I, which means that my wife doesn’t sleep well either! Worse still, the FBI released a report in 2004 corrolating hot weather with murder rates! http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_04/offenses_reported/violent_crime/murder.html

So don’t tell me that Hot Weather is good weather, just because it may be cold and windy where you are, Hot weather comes with its own problems too you know!

Scarlett using chopsticks and a PC 10 years before I did!

After four weeks of having builders on site we aren’t a whole lot further forward – complications around sewer encasement (a higely expensive process that ensures we never have to dig up the sewer again) and 150 metrics tons of excavation we hadn’t anticipated have pushed things back by a week or two.

 Fingers crossed we don’t face too many further delays – current course and speed it will be February or March before we finish, so more delays are far from welcome!

Updates to follow.