The 28th of April saw the commencement of Michael’s 14th year on the planet and as has become the norm, I thought I’d share a couple of thoughts on the milestone.
At 14, Michael is still transitioning from boy to young adult. I wouldn’t say that he’s an early bloomer, but he’s certainly maturing. As with most teenagers I suppose, he flicks between the states of responsible and regressive. He flicks from being happy to help out with chores (when requested) to utter outrage over some minor infraction of inconvenience. I guess its one of the true markers of this part of his life as hormones tear around inside with little regard for the rational.
Michael continues to do well at school, though is perhaps a little scarily like me in that he does well at the things that he’s good at, whilst not perhaps maintaining the focus in those things that are seen as peripheral to his immediate interests. He continues to devour books rather than simply reading them and all I can say is at least Sam, Caroline and I all read them as well so that we get value for money when we destroy the Australian publishing industry by shopping online!
Something new this year and somewhat unexpected is that Michael is now the current reigning school Junior Chess Champion. It was something of a surprise to us given that we didn’t even know that he’d entered. Apparently one of his friends was entering and as that reduced his options for something to do at lunch time he decided to have a go as well and went through undefeated! Nerdvana?
Overall there’s a lot to be proud of with where Michael’s headed. So far, he even continues to appreciate my humour, something that surely cannot last, but which I will enjoy for as long as it does. Although he’s a thinker, he still enjoys getting outside and playing sport, even though cricket was probably a disappointment for him this year (something about not being up with the growth spurt rate of his peers and having had 3 years off the game in Canada I think). The soccer season is coming and I think that he’ll get a lot more enjoyment from that, so we shall wait and see, cheering from the sidelines.
Happy Birthday Michael.
Apr 28, 2011
Apr 24, 2011
A Very Special Vintage
We’d been drinking the night before and I had left what I thought was an empty bottle of white wine in Jason and Bel’s annex. As I’d thought it empty, I was somewhat surprised when Bel brought it back in with about a glass of wine left.
Not thinking anymore of it at the time and being busy with the dishes, I put it next to the sink and forgot about it. Later in the day Caroline said something about the fact that it should probably be in the fridge, but neither of us bothered to act at the time.
It was about 4:30 in the afternoon when Jason came in and asked to have a quiet word. As I was in the middle of getting changed, I wasn’t in a position to leave the caravan and asked him what he needed. He quietly asked if I had the bottle of wine that Bel had given back to me earlier in the day. I did and showed him at which there was something of a relieved look before he started laughing and explained that he’d been up in the middle of the night and didn’t want to face the walk down to the amenities block, so had picked up the empty wine bottle and quietly relieved himself.
He’d then gone fishing with Caroline early in the morning with neither Bel nor I any the wiser.
Thank all that’s holy that I hadn’t tossed it in the fridge and opted for a quiet glass at lunch time!
Not thinking anymore of it at the time and being busy with the dishes, I put it next to the sink and forgot about it. Later in the day Caroline said something about the fact that it should probably be in the fridge, but neither of us bothered to act at the time.
It was about 4:30 in the afternoon when Jason came in and asked to have a quiet word. As I was in the middle of getting changed, I wasn’t in a position to leave the caravan and asked him what he needed. He quietly asked if I had the bottle of wine that Bel had given back to me earlier in the day. I did and showed him at which there was something of a relieved look before he started laughing and explained that he’d been up in the middle of the night and didn’t want to face the walk down to the amenities block, so had picked up the empty wine bottle and quietly relieved himself.
He’d then gone fishing with Caroline early in the morning with neither Bel nor I any the wiser.
Thank all that’s holy that I hadn’t tossed it in the fridge and opted for a quiet glass at lunch time!
Apr 20, 2011
Another Easter holiday
After the spectacular trip that we took last Easter, taking in the Grand Canyon, some rather tall trees and the like, it might be considered a little mundane to be towing the caravan off to Pt Hughes, but in reality, there was probably more excitement amongst the family this year than last.
That excitement translated to an off and on again decision as to when we should depart – Tuesday night after work or Wednesday morning? Three out of four children decided that Tuesday night would be the better time to go and so it was to be.
Now anytime you think that you’re going to leave for a trip straight after work, you hope that everything is going to be packed and ready other than all those really awkward and heavy things that become the job of the family pack horse to get into the caravan. With a 2 hour drive to reach our destination, I’d secretly hoped that we might have been able to get away before 6:30pm, but of course am a little more realistic than that given our history with departures. At 7pm I was still comfortable, but by the time we actually left at 7:40pm, tempers were starting to fray (well mine was).
At least we were underway. It was on Main North Road that things got a little sticky. We were cruising along quite happily when an apparently juiced up cat decided to streak from the side of the road and play chicken. Given the weight that we had behind us, swerving and stopping were equally undesirable in the sort of time frame that could have made any difference.
Feeling three solid hits as the cat used up nine lives in very quick succession, I felt pretty terrible, but was in something of a quandary as to what to do. There was no way in hell the poor little bugger survived and we were in the middle lane, so I couldn’t exactly stop without having a massive impact on traffic anyway. Not to mention that had I stopped there would have been all sorts of questions as to why it was that we were stopping.
I really didn’t want to have to tell Emily that we were stopping so that I could scrape the pancaked remains of some poor family’s pet cat from the road. I felt bad enough without adding that to the occasion. So we continued on a somewhat less merry way at least as far as a dinner stop, where I made the mistake of crossing the road. Only when I went to come out again did I realise that you couldn’t turn right to get back to where we were headed. Hence, a scenic detour ensued, through the back streets of North Adelaide, weaving the caravan through bloody annoying speed restriction devices.
We did get here though. It was late and it was windy, but we managed to eventually get to a point where we could sleep in the van, ready to tackle the full set up in less windy and daylight. We at least got the daylight part of the equation right!
That excitement translated to an off and on again decision as to when we should depart – Tuesday night after work or Wednesday morning? Three out of four children decided that Tuesday night would be the better time to go and so it was to be.
Now anytime you think that you’re going to leave for a trip straight after work, you hope that everything is going to be packed and ready other than all those really awkward and heavy things that become the job of the family pack horse to get into the caravan. With a 2 hour drive to reach our destination, I’d secretly hoped that we might have been able to get away before 6:30pm, but of course am a little more realistic than that given our history with departures. At 7pm I was still comfortable, but by the time we actually left at 7:40pm, tempers were starting to fray (well mine was).
At least we were underway. It was on Main North Road that things got a little sticky. We were cruising along quite happily when an apparently juiced up cat decided to streak from the side of the road and play chicken. Given the weight that we had behind us, swerving and stopping were equally undesirable in the sort of time frame that could have made any difference.
Feeling three solid hits as the cat used up nine lives in very quick succession, I felt pretty terrible, but was in something of a quandary as to what to do. There was no way in hell the poor little bugger survived and we were in the middle lane, so I couldn’t exactly stop without having a massive impact on traffic anyway. Not to mention that had I stopped there would have been all sorts of questions as to why it was that we were stopping.
I really didn’t want to have to tell Emily that we were stopping so that I could scrape the pancaked remains of some poor family’s pet cat from the road. I felt bad enough without adding that to the occasion. So we continued on a somewhat less merry way at least as far as a dinner stop, where I made the mistake of crossing the road. Only when I went to come out again did I realise that you couldn’t turn right to get back to where we were headed. Hence, a scenic detour ensued, through the back streets of North Adelaide, weaving the caravan through bloody annoying speed restriction devices.
We did get here though. It was late and it was windy, but we managed to eventually get to a point where we could sleep in the van, ready to tackle the full set up in less windy and daylight. We at least got the daylight part of the equation right!
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