One of those moments

This morning during church I had an experience which was just priceless.

I had been holding Chloe during part of the music; she was getting a little heavy, so I passed her over to Jo who was sitting next to me.

All of a sudden I felt a tiny hand grab onto mine. I looked down & little Chloe had grabbed my hand, & held onto it for about 5 minutes.

Now, whether or not she had deliberately reached out for my hand I don't know, as she is only just 5 months old, but I still one of those moments to remember.



Technorati Tags: Babies

Geelong - AFL premiers 2007

The 2007 AFL season has now officially finished. Congratulation to the Geelong football club who won their first premiership in 44 year, by a record breaking 119 points over Port Adelaide.

It's just a shame that I won't be around in 2008 to see the next season; oh well at least I can keep up with the West Coast Eagles online.






Technorati Tags: AFL - Geelong - Premiership

Boring Occupations

What is the most boring job you've had, or could think of doing??

I'm in Perth city every weekday doing my courier run. Now I go to the same places & see the same people every day, & while some people may consider that boring, I actually quite enjoy it.

There are however, 2 types of jobs that I see every day throughout the city centre & I think how can these people do all day every day.

The first is standing on street corners selling magazines. Standing or sitting for hours on end holding up a magazine waiting for a passer by er to stop & exchange a magazine for a few gold coins. One young man I was chatting to said he had been sitting at the same spot for 4 hours & had sold ten magazines.

The second boring job I see is the construction worker who stands in the middle of the road holding one of those signs that stops traffic to allow for the thoroughfare of construction vehicles. In the heat of the afternoon or on a rainy day, that would really annoy me just standing there for so long. From what I understand they are paid very well; they'd have to be.

As for me, the most boring job I've had, was doing a traffic survey & writing down number plates of vehicles as they drove past on a busy highway. Thankfully that was a once off & only lasted a week.

What about you? What's your idea of a boring job?





Technorati Tags: Occupations - Boredom

Kate leaves home

It's been a sad day for Aussie drama Home and Away fans all over Australia. Kate Ritchie, who has played Sally Fletcher since the soap started 20 years ago, has announced her departure from the show at the end of this year.

Kate appeared on channel 7's Sunrise programme this morning, & according to the video clip below, she says that after 20 years it's time to move on.

Kate landed the role of Sally Fletcher at the young age of 9 years old, & to date is one of only 2 original cast members. She will be surely missed.

You can view her big announcement by clicking the video clip below.





Technorati Tags: Kate Ritchie - Sally Fletcher - Home and Away

The Power or the Cats??

It has all come down to this; Two teams, one game, ONE winner.

After 22 rounds of AFL football, & a four week final series, it all comes down to a final showdown between Port Adelaide & Geelong. Personally I hope Geelong are the winners.

Of course my team, the West Coast Eagles got knocked out last week by Collingwood, but once your team is out of the competition, naturally you start cheering on one of the other remaining teams.

So why go for Geelong? Well, they've been brilliant all year & I think they deserve the premiership. Of course next year it'll be West Coast again.




Technorati Tags: AFL - Geelong - Port Adealaide - West Coast Eagles

30 million... no thanks

I heard this news story on the news this morning & I was thinking What the....!!

A seventy year old somewhere overseas won 30 million dollars in the lottery, but doesn't want the money. When questioned about it, he said that his wife had died years ago & his parents were long gone & he had no kids. What would he do with 30 million at his age?

So why was he buying lotto tickets for? It was something he and his late wife had always done, never won anything, but hadn't stopped buying them.

Well sir, if you're reading this blog, why not send some of the prize money my way.




Technorati Tags: Lottery - Money

What fequency am I on??

There's something about CB radio's that makes life both simpler & entertaining.

Since I started working at Network Couriers back in March this year, I've been using my mobile phone as the main source of communication between myself & the office. When they have a job for me to pick up, they just call me on the phone & give me the details & if I need to contact them then the same deal applies.

Yesterday the boss finally installed a 2 way radio into the company car I use for my run. The last couple of days, we have been testing it out a little bit, & although there has not been as much communication as there normally would be, it's still been fun using the new toy.

The interesting thing is that there are a couple of other drivers using company vehicles & they also have 2 way radio's, and can hear all conversations, so rather than being a 2 way conversation, anyone can jump in & add their two cents worth, often with humour & sarcasm.

One thing is for certain; I won't be using up as much of my mobile phone credit.




Technorati Tags: Network Couriers - CB Radio - Communication

Now we can go

A couple of weeks back I posted about the news of us having made the decision to move to New Zealand. While we are not ready to go just yet & have not set a date, there was one issue stopping from leaving Australia; Chloe had no passport.

We picked up a child's passport application from the post shop, filled it in, had Chloe's photo taken, found a witness to sign for us & submitted the application.

During this past week, we received a flyer in the post informing us that there was an item of registered post awaiting collection for Chloe Parker.

Jo went to the post shop the next day & picked up the parcel, which was of course Chloe's new passport.

There is a cute little photo of Chloe on the second page with all her official details. I wish I could post a copy of it, but as it is illegal to copy an official document you'll just have to take my word for it.

So now we can legally leave the country, but it does seem a bit weird that our daughter has her own passport, and it also makes the whole deal of us moving country seem more real & closer.



Technorati Tags: Chloe Parker - New Zealand

5 things

Sarah from This is what Sed said, has tagged me, so here's my attempt.

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?
I was 18 years old, in my home town of Blenheim, New Zealand, doing a Polytechnic (TAFE) course in the outdoors, & getting over the death of my father.

2. What were you doing 1 year ago?
My wife Jo & I had just found out were were going to have a baby (now 4 months old), thinking about changing churches, & jobs (which both happened, wow what a year).

3. What are 5 snacks you enjoy?
-Smiths Crisps
-Chocolate
-MnM's
-A bowl of brekky cereal for afternoon tea every now and then.
-Tim Tam's or whatever other bicky's are in the cupboard at the time.

4. What are 5 songs you know the lyrics to?
-Shania Twain, From this moment on
- Phil Collins, (many)
- Gwen Steffani, The Sweet Escape
-Elton John (many)
-REM, Everybody hurts

5. 5 things you would do if you were a millionaire?
- Pay off debts
-Buy a house
-Take on a few more sponsor children
-Invest in a ministry
-Give some to family

6. 5 bad habits?
-Nail biting
-Procrastinating
-Going to bed too late
-Not being able to say NO
-I'm sure there are others, but those are the main ones.

7. 5 things you like to do?
-Being a husband & father
-driving
-blogging
-watching tv & movies
-Learing about God & how to serve Him

8. 5 favourite toys?
-my computer
-digital camera
-tv, vcr & DVD player (ok there's 5)

9. 5 things you would never wear?
-Singlets
-Beanie or cap
-Jewelry (other than my wedding ring)
-Ankle socks
-Womens clothing (I couldn't think of anything else)

10. 5 things you hate to do?
-Talk on the phone to someone I don't know
-Get up in the morning for work (once I'm there I'm fine)
-Tax
-That'll do

I don't know alot of bloggers to tag yet, so just 2 people; Gaz from Saint Gaz Strikes Back and Tracey from Gwelva Kernewek. Anyone one else who wants to have a go, feel free. Just add pop a link to your blog in the comments section below.



Technorati Tags: Questionaires - Meme's

Bird talk

Have you seen the movie Dr Dolittle? Well this is the real thing. Very funny, just click on the video clip below to view it.






Technorati Tags: video

My personality

A couple of weeks ago while reading two of my regular blogs, This is what Sed said, and Middo's World, they had both posted a personality test they had done at mypersonality.info, so I tought I'd do the same. I finally got around to doing the test. You can see my results below.

Why not take the test for yourself, it's quite fun & you might learn something about yourself.




Technorati Tags: Personality Test

Tax time again

I thought I would get in early this year to avoid the October rush.

Jo & I went to see the taxman this morning to submit our tax return. This is something that I really hate doing.

Over the last 18 months, with my former job at Skippers Transport, I was paying GST as well as income tax. Due to my lack of knowledge of the tax system & trying to do it myself, I found myself in a hole & ended stuffing the whole thing up & owing more to the tax office. So I started to take my quarterly activity statements to an accountant to make sure it was done properly.

I was really nervous about seeing the accountant this time, for fear that he was going to tell me that I owed more money; something I really did not want to hear after the events of the last 12 months.

So after going through all my paper work from the past financial year, the new was very good this time. The ATO actually owes us money this time, YAY. So all that money I have slowly been feeding into the mouth of the taxman because of my own stuff up, I will be getting some back.

My current job with Network Couriers is much easier, even though I do have to pay my own tax, I no longer have worry about GST or any other expenses.

So take my advise, either have a job where they pay all you tax for you or get the experts to do it. The heartache is really not worth it.



Technorati Tags: Australian Taxation Office - Network Couriers - Skippers Transport

Four months today

It seems so much longer than that. It was the 5th May this year that little Chloe was born. She seems to be growing up so fast.

I was looking at some earlier photo's of her & compared to now, she was tiny. The photo above was taken a couple of weeks ago. I would've liked to show you a more recent photo, but I haven't installed the software for the new camera onto the computer yet.

Chloe is singing a bit now, & she is even starting to laugh a little bit when tickled. I don't think she'll be too far off crawling, as she has already discovered how to push herself backward with her legs while lying on her back. Very funny when you're trying to change her nappy.

If you haven't seen the latest photo's, click here to view our online album, and stay tuned more more soon.



Technorati Tags: Babies - Photo's

Happy fathers day

A big happy fathers day to all you dads out there.

For me, it's my first time celebrating as a dad. Actually it's my first time in many years when I've deliberately thought about fathers day. My own dad died on the 18th March 1995 under tragic circumstances, and so since then Fathers day has just come & gone as a normal day for me.

This morning I received a beautiful card from my wife & 4 month old daughter Chloe. It was quite emotional for me as the last fathers day card I saw, as the one I gave to my dad all those years ago, plus it was very weird receiving a card with DAD on the front.

At church, they had a special honouring men day; they had, among other stuff free food at the end of the service, massage etc. I'm not really into massage, but the food was nice; hot dogs & chips.

After lunch we went out for coffee & cake at a cafe in Leederville, very nice.

I brought myself a new digital camera yesterday; It wasn't really a fathers day gift, as I would've bought it anyway because our other one is old & in need of repair. The old story; it was cheaper to replace it.

So that was my fathers day; what about you, did you get spoiled?? Can you remember your very first fathers day?? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.



Technorati Tags: Fathers Day

Mind, mood, mouth & attitude

I've been listening to some teaching from Joyce Meyer this week off the Internet. She has been speaking about how we have to control our thoughts on a daily basis.

Often we can think negative thoughts about people or situations, but we can actually control what we think about & train our minds in thinking and acting according to what is Biblical.

I don't know about you, but often I find myself in situations where I am getting frustrated with people or the situation I am in, my mind will then take over & I start thinking things that normally I wouldn't.

Over the last couple of days I have really been conscience about controlling my thoughts & not letting them get the better of me. It has helped, but it is a daily struggle.

The world we live in is full of negativity & if all just stopped for a few seconds to think about what we are saying & doing, we could all learn to get along with one another better & extinguish the fire rather than fueling it.



Technorati Tags: Joyce Meyer

From a negative to a positive

It's been a tough week at work this week. For some reason things just haven't really been going right. Do you ever have those weeks where you just push through & see the week out as well as you can??

Friday's are always my favorite day of the week, because we always have a BBQ for lunch, & then it's the weekend.

Today was extra special because I had the privilege of having my wife Jo & little daughter Chloe come down & join me for lunch. Jo called in to show Chloe to all my colleagues, who all thought she was just beautiful.

I have to say that having Jo & Chloe there today for an hour really lifted my spirits after what has been a difficult week. So for the remainder of the day I was walking around with my head held high ready to take on the world.

Isn't it amazing how when you have been in a negative situation, a loved one can quickly change the atmosphere to a positive one, & give you that boost to get through.