Day 5+6+7, 2017

Had a few drafts I didn't get the chance to finish off as we'd been away so pulling em all into one.  On a side note, I'm dreading going back to work tomorrow. Not for the work factor, more so the daughter factor. It's been an awesome few weeks with her full time. Now it's back to an hour or so a day during the week, plus weekends. I wish there was another way.

On Thursday we decided to jump in the car and drive to Ballarat, ended up staying the night at an awesome family park. Great place with decent play activities and a pool split into 5 sections (foam, spa, heated kids, swimming and a water play sections). Turtle had a ball!! We had Pancake Parlour for dinner and burnt off the sugar at the Inclusive Play Park before heading back to our cabin. Wifey and I chilled with a few drinks and watched a movie.

We started the next day with donuts and fruit for brekky, a swim in the pool, a play at the playground/jumping pillow and then headed out to the local paleo cafe. Turtle enjoyed it probably because FOOD and she even chose what cake she wanted! Proud moment, she chose the best one too. Had another crack at the Inclusive Park, but ended in frustration & anxiety for all. Drive home, no sleep for Turdle.

She did eventually go to sleep in the arvo which game me time to head to Bunnings and grab what I needed to finish off the sandpit. Stopped in at Woodgrove to grab a few other things and then back home to get to work in the back yard. Come up a treat I say, but it was a bit hot to play outside for too long.

Another stinking hot day on Saturday spent mostly indoors. Quality time with the kid and then off to Woodgrove for some indoor aircon play and snacks. Turtle did something new. At K-Mart, She actually picked a toy that she wanted! Never happened before! So proud! She even played with them from time to time over the next day. Anyway, after that, we dropped Turtle off at her grandparents for a sleepover so wifey & I could have a bit of a date night. Good times, great steak & burgers then played VR at home over a few beers.

Well it's the end of day 8 now. But I'll do a separate update tomorrow. Need to sleep and go to work in 6 hours :)

Day 4, 2017 - "No Sleep + Zoo = Bleh!"

So the day started badly due to a small amount of sleep on Turdle's account (she was awake from about 1am to 5am). But that didn't stop us sticking to our plan of hitting up the Werribee Open Range Zoo. In hindsight, it should have!

Beforehand, watched Arsenal fight back from a 3-0 deficit in the last 20 mins to draw with Bournemouth. Shocking first half, but awesome last 30-odd minutes.

To the zoo.. basically spent 3 hours walking around giving Turdle food and trying to get her to sleep. It was painful. Probably only enjoyed about 25 mins of the whole trip. She did like the emus out in the field though. 

In the end, she didn't sleep all day, too hypo, I couldn't either. Wifey got a little sleep while we played outside on the trampoline & in the sprinkler. Enjoyed a shower and then put herself to bed. Always a good sign!

Wifey went to the movies, I watched a few eps of Jessica Jones and then BF1 til bed time.

Looks like I didn't take any pics today, but found this gem on Imgur.

Day 3, 2017

Up early today (Turtle had me up from about 4:30am) and needed to get out of the house so we headed to the play centre. Wasn't too bad, played on a few of the jumping castles and had heaps of fun in the cubby house. She loves those things. We need to buy her a new one for home, she's outgrown her little one.  Had a look online and found a few awesome ones that she'll love, but will need to put away a little bit of cashola for the perfect one.

Nothing much else exciting for the day.  Had an early night.

Day 2, 2017 - "I'll Never Forget You, Gran"

Started off the day as per usual, letting Turtle play with her iPad.  I'd cast my phone screen to the TV but she refused to look at it.  Too tied up in her YouTube; again, nothing new!  All in all, a quiet day, however, it was definitely a significant one.  

Gran would have turned 90 today.  It's the first Birthday without her.  The first year I didn't receive a Birthday card or have a nice chat with her one way or another.  A huge gap left.

I spent a good part of the day having neat little flashbacks.  It's hard to write about it right now.  All I can say is that I miss her and think about her a lot.  I'll always be grateful for the time and effort she gave me & how much she made me feel like an important part of the world.  Wish there was somewhere for me to go and talk to her.

Day 1, 2017 - "Yep, I'm Old Now"

Yep, I'm old now.

Every year I spend most of my Birthday with a pretty decent hangover.  Today was no exception! :) I'm going to go ahead and blame the rum.  Enjoyed my fave beer (Hoegaarden) for most of the night and switched to my fave rum (Kraken) around 11pm.  Think I may have made them a little stronger than usual, whoops!  Because, before midnight I was more than a little tipsy haha. Oh well.

Moving right along, was spoiled by my 2 lovely ladies, then had a visit from my Mum, sister and a few of the kids, then had a BBQ dinner with a few friends & the in-laws.  It was a nice, chilled-out relaxing day.

At the end of the night, managed to piece together the new VR setup.  Pretty awesome I must say.  Not sure if it was the remnants of the hangover or the VR motions but I went to bed feeling pretty crook, which carried through to the next morning.  Either way, it was all worth it :)

Here we go again... :)

I'm a lucky guy and not a day goes by that I'm not thankful for what I have.. A beautiful loving daughter who looks up to me with her naughty/cheeky face and wins me over in a moment... and a stunner of a wife who takes great care of our little unit of a family. Together they give me all the purpose I need in life to be the best I can be.

2016 saw some pretty extreme highs and lows for me. Got married, had a few kickarse holidays, bought our first house. Also said goodbye to both of my Grandparents within a few months of each other. I had a number of huge eye-opening moments during a few workshops - all of which have changed the way I interact with people, but more importantly, how I view myself & remain present in the moment.

As for 2017, I have a pretty good feeling about this one. I'm not a superstitious guy but I take notice of numbers for some reason. I've always been a fan of 1's and 7's and various combinations of them. Being that I was born 01/01/77 has everything to do with it I suppose! Example: I picked the winner of 2016 Melbourne Cup because it was horse #17 running from gate #17 and to squeeze a little extra out of it, rounding up my winnings to $170. Haha. Anyway, this year kicks off today, 01/01/17. Nice!

I'll keep this whole thing short & sweet... I'm super thankful for last year's learnings & I'm keen to dive into 2017's challenges. And I'm not one to lock in resolutions each year, but now that I'm "over the hill" I'm going to ramp up extra attention to my health, and keep on giving my best, specifically, to my family.

Til next time. 😄

Day 365, 2016

Well here we are, back at the start again. 2017 aye. Could be alright. Only one way to find out.. and with a memory like mine, it's by documenting it. 

I had the same plan for last year but things got a little distracting & I totally lost momentum. So this time, the plan is to remember the point to it all..

I want to be able to look back at the year and see what was achieved, progressed and learned.. with good focus on my family life. I won't talk too much about work unless it's something significant.

So here goes.. farewell 2016. From what I can remember, you've been alright. Cheers. 