Oh fuck. It has just occurred to me that I might have grown up...

By all rights I should have hated today, spent the majority of it like a bear with a sore head and now, instead of blogging, be cursing Dry July for stopping me having the beer I so richly deserve. (I do of course realise that Dry July is merely two words and it is my own determination to have a dry July (small D, I am not "doing" Dry July) after a wetter than usual June that finds me eating chocolate and chocolate covered Hob Nobs and salted peanuts because that is so much better than a couple of Guinness. I digress early; back to today.)

Today started typically early with H's 04:20 call of "daddy I want milk." I got up, she had milk and went back to sleep and I spent the next hour logged in to work fixing stuff. With stuff fixed I went back to bed and failed to fall back to sleep, convinced that H would be waking up again any minute, so what's the point? I did get up to her again and managed to convince her it was too early to get up, scoring maybe 30minutes of light shut-eye before the whole house woke up in pretty much reverse chronological order.

The epic fail of the Virgin Australia computer network on Friday night meant Sal was at home and not in Queensland. She was rebooked on a 10am-ish flight which meant a delayed start to my near-5-days-solo-parenting. When Sal is away Rowlf has a dramatically reduced exercise regime so I took the opportunity presented by the 90mins before Sal left for the airport to get the big lump down to and in the Harbour for a swim.

It is a shame that the happier the big lump is the more he can piss me off. In winter he knows a walk in the hours of daylight will almost certainly involve in a swim. When we head from my coffee stop towards the water he launches harbourwards with a shoulder dislocating pace that would probably pull most people off their feet; I have learnt to lean back a bit, bend my knees and hope he doesn't hospitalise me. If only that were poetic license and not gospel truth. He does calm, a bit, but never really walks to heel. He can. He does sometimes. But when he is off for a swim there is no heeling.

I got a couple of OK pictures of him swimming and was back home by 8 to deal with the brief our-world-is-coming-to-an-end tears and tantrums that can sometimes accompany Sal's departure for a pilates course, let along 4 days away. But armed with a new video of Rowlf swimming I employed distraction and things calmed down. I hung out with the girls and we packed lunches and changes of clothes and at 10 headed to the pool for their swimming lessons.

Their official lessons are an hour apart, H first and I go in with her. I was hoping AJ could slot into a lesson at the same time as H, but in case not we packed a book and her camera so she could remain occupied and hopefully where I could see her.

I had a bit of luck and AJ got a lesson at 10:30, same time as H. It really is not much fun swimming with H in her lesson. If I go in alone with her she will happily and fearlessly hurl herself from the side, hang on to my shoulders and kick her legs, laugh when I dunk her and generally have a great old time. In the lesson she screams her arse off and insists "I'm done, I'm finished!"Lesson ends and she is fine again. Ah well, she'll get there. While it was good to not have to worry about AJ it was a shame I could not watch her continued morphing into a fish; she is going great guns in her lessons.

Swim done we had some lunch at the kiosk by the pool. I had my second coffee of the day and would have loved to share the hot chips I bought the little ladies to go with their packed lunches, but on my 5:2 regime I was not allowed to eat until 3pm. The girls destroyed their food, I finished my coffee and then paid for their continued lessons, a little over $200 dollars each. Money well spent on AJ and a step nearer me needing hearing aids and therapy where H is concerned.

There is never an issue with getting the girls down for their lunchtime snooze on a swim day as they're usually knackered. As soon as they were both asleep I grabbed my old Nikon D70S and 300mm lens to take a picture of our ocean view. Yes, I need a 300mm lens, and yes I get the view from the roof, or rather the scaffold, but I don't care; we have an ocean view. I needed to patch up some of my poorer painting efforts from Wednesday while the kids slept, but as I went to start a reasonably heavy shower, that had not been forecast, arrived. Annoyed that I might not get to paint I was half pleased that I may get a catch up nap of my own. So the weather cleared and I painted.

Once the girls were both awake we all got changed and headed for the supermarket to do the grocery shopping. This would, for sure, be the moment my levelheadedness would evaporate and I would revert to type. But no. I had a great time.

You can read that again or I'll simply type it again. I had a great time.

The girls were probably still a bit tired from the swim so not their utterly mental selves, just a bit mad. I plonked H in the trolley and armed AJ with the shopping list. H was on put-stuff-in-the-trolly detail and AJ was finding the things we needed and crossing them off the list. Lots of spelling and counting and, thanks to the short checkout lines of a Saturday afternoon, I escaped unscathed. Handy hint here; ChupaChups. Buy them last and pay for them first, hand one to each child when at the checkout. It's like a mute button.

Home and I took the girls inside then ferried the groceries in past Rowlf who, despite my food-filled bags, seemed to care little about our return, probably still tired from his swim. I packed the groceries away and cooked dinner. That's right, cooked dinner. Our Salmon pasta is no Masterchef challenge but the kids love it, so first course went down easily. Dessert was custard; I was not facing a challenge getting that eaten. Pretty soon after dinner we hit mental o clock; I called Sal but the girls were too busy running up and down with a small tent on their heads to care much about speaking to mum. As far as I could tell Sal, at her folks along with her two sisters, was in the middle of a heated political discussion of Australia's recent Aboriginal rights and wrongs by successive governments. It was, I was assured, going very, very badly.

So AJ had an early night and all was quiet in the house. I started cooking.

Yes, that's right, I started cooking. This is unheard of. Almost certainly a first. Another of Sal's signature dishes is her "zucchini slice" which the girls love and is packed full of veggies. I'll happily throw fish and chips down them tomorrow night at the local club, but the slice means Monday and Tuesday will be veggie-packed dinners.

And that took me to a little after 8pm. A day of running around and chores, a day doing things I rarely do and have convinced myself I like even less. A day without a run, without getting in the water, without time to myself. Until now, and this blog.

I think I'll go and watch some cricket and eat some more peanuts and Hob Nobs. I've already done the washing up.

Oh fuck. It has just occurred to me that I might have grown up...

Before I forget, I have to mention Sal's contribution to today's parenting duties. While I walked Rowlf she took the girls out to the local bakery to get some bread and breakfast croissants. I asked AJ how H had traveled, walking or in the pram to which she said "no, mum drove." Distance to bakery from home - 400m. Just saying...!

Harrie in hospital

Tube time, a photo by Auswomble on Flickr.

Harrie has had a cold for a few days but we expect that of a daycare full-timer. What we didn't expect was for her to spend monday night in hospital after being sent home from daycare.

Monday morning and she was still snotty and had a cough but no temperature and she didn't seem any worse than she had on Friday. So I dropped her and AJ at daycare and went to work. I was back at daycare picking HM up at about 12:30 and then after she'd had a nap I took her to the doc.

Her breathing was laboured and running about twice as quickly as it should be. Her little stomach was working hard as was that little dip where the neck meets the top of the chest. With minimal humming and ahing the doc suggested taking her to emergency to let them check her out. It made sense as the alternative was head home - further away from the hospital - and then possibly have to go there if things got worse.

I gave Sal a call and headed to Royal North Shore's paediatric emergency. She was given the once over with little waiting time. Sal turned up - fortunately for us the in-laws are staying and they picked up AJ. The high breathing rate and lowish oxygen saturation meant she was given ventolin, prednisone and put on oxygen. They also gave her a chest x-ray - I wish I'd got a picture of the huge grin on her face as she sat there with Sal, lead-smocked, holding her arms out of the way.

It was then a matter of waiting to see how she fared. Harrie would be staying at least one night for observation so Sal took the car and headed back home to get some stuff for me; with no sick leave available to Sal and because I can sleep pretty much anywhere it was a no-brainer that I would stay with HM.

Sal bought back Thai food a change of clothes. The change of clothes was patch-pocket shorts and a check shirt which could exactly replace the patch-pocket shorts and check shirt I was wearing. I had been thinking a t-shirt and a jumper might arrive, possibly even a change of undies.

Sal then left again while I waited around, watched some disturbing footage of torture in Syria and then some surprisingly impressive moments from senator Bill Shorten on Q&A. He seems to know his shit. Our room up on level 5 was then ready, we relocated and got our heads down for the night, me on a chair-bed-thing and Harrie with a tube up her nose and a clip on her foot.

She woke up a few times in the night but did OK. Sal came back in the morning for a couple of hours giving me the opportunity to pick up some supplies and get some fresh air. Then I pitched in for as-long-as-it-would take.

Harrie had progressively less oxygen as the day wore on and then no ventolin. By early afternoon the breathing was back to near enough normal and her O2 saturation likewise. Another doctor checked her out and said we could check out, which was nice. Great for her and fortunate for me as I'd run out three mobile phone batteries by browsing news sites. I had been offered a newspaper, but as it was the Telegraph (not really a newspaper, more a comic) I had declined. I know what daytime TV is like, so my only TV time was to switch it off when Sal left.

Although the test for Bronchiolitis - tube up the nose thing - had come back negative the doctors all seemed to think that was the most likely culprit. Inflamed airways on the bronchioles leading to difficulty breathing, or respiratory distress. With some ventolin to takeaway in case the wheezing started again we left for home at about 4, roughly 24hours after we'd got to the hospital.

Last night HappyBurp had a reasonable sleep and her breathing rate has remained normal, around 36 per minute and down from the 18 in 15 seconds the doctor had counted. She'd taken it all in her stride. I had remained relatively calm throughout and Sal had been fret-lite but fret nonetheless. My biggest challenge came early on in the piece with trying to stop her ripping the tube from under her nose and then later trying to convince her that toys were better to play with than tubes and wires.

So there you have it. Recorded for posterity while HM sleeps and I should be doing likewise or cleaning walls or working or some such. Back to work tomorrow when Sal works form home and I hand over the baby baton. Might get to hang with my little lady on Friday, let's see how the week pans out. For now, other than having a cold, she is pretty much her normal self.

Quite a dry post this one, sorry about that.

a day worth blogging

beautiful at the Bower, a photo by Auswomble on Flickr.

I am a bit crap when it comes to blogging about the kids and their awesomeness and a lot of stuff in general and for that I do not apologise. If I'm a bit crap then I'm a bit crap - so there. For the record the kids are awesome. Both Sal and I find ourselves locked in a battle of wills with number 1 while number 2 refuses get to her knees and now drags herself commando style all over the house in search of things to upend over herself. They are awesome in the correct sense of the word and awe is inspired every day. Which is not to say I will blog any more about them than I presently do.

So to today. I woke up a little grumpy despite having been gifted a 15minutes lay in and not getting woken until 4:45. This, I suspect was evening the score for Friday's 4:15 start. Anyway, I got up and kept the kids quiet until approaching 7am when I could take out my grumpiness on Sal. I suspect the grumpiness was a hangover from a Saturday spent filling a 3m3 skip with bricks, concrete and wet sand.

Anyway, a proper row was narrowly avoided and we went out for some breakfast at Splat in Queenscliff. I've been there a couple of times before and like the view from the deck - all along Manly beach - the pictures on the wall - especially the one of the shark and swimmer at the Bower - and the guy who runs the place - who seems like a decent bloke. It was a far more relaxed breakfast this morning on account of me not having cycled there and arrived a stinking, sweating wreck or got there with a mental dog in tow.

So we had breakfast and it was pleasant and the girls behaved and we drove home and the grandparents, who have taken up residence, took AJ out while Sal headed out bag shopping with Harrie and I was a free man.

I have been longing to get back in the water since Fiji - in November. So I grabbed a backpack, faffed around a lot deciding what gear to take (deciding to ditch the weight belt and wetsuit in favour of a rash vest), grabbed the pushbike and headed to the Bower to see if I could swim with the sharks.

Manly was busy with crowds in town for the final day of the Australian Open of Surfing that looked like it was going to take place without waves. Bad for them, great for me. I got to the Bower to find it looking pretty nice - just like the picture. I chained my bike up, left the key to the chain in the backpack that I hung from the handlebars and went down the steps to the water.

Australia is having a La Nina year. That means a lot of rain and cool temperatures with warm seas. Today we didn't have the cool temperatures or rain but we did have the warm seas. Perfect. I headed out and saw my first shark, a small Dusky Whaler, after about 30seconds. It had already been a good outing.

I got out over the sand and found a huge school of Yellowtail heading north. I duck-dived down to join them swimming over the weed and between the boulders. Clearish warming water, loads of fish, a shark. Happy days! After a while I turned to head south as that is where I have seen more sharks in previous years. And after a while I spotted another whaler. My breath hold was getting a bit better - but not outstanding - and I was pretty comfortable swimming around at about 5m. As it was low tide that was deep enough. Any deeper would need a shovel.

I turned back towards the rocks, passing a lone, juvenile Kingfish and another Whaler. Then I found a small Wobbegong sitting on top of a rock. I started to beat myself up for not having a camera with me (always take the camera!) as I did a few dives to get a good look at the little carpet shark and another that was wedged under a rock about 8ft from the first.

I saw a few scuba divers approaching so swam over to them and let them know there were sharks about. I do like hanging out with scuba divers while I'm on breath-hold :-) A quick trip to the surface and I went back down to point out the Wobbie on the rock. I should have pointed out both as one of the divers damn near stood on the second one. On the surface I had a chat with another snorkeler about the sharks before heading on my way south.

I saw no more sharks but enough fish to keep me happy as I started to get a little chilly. I got out after around 40mins, very pleased with myself. I grabbed a coffee and sat on the wall by the steps to watch the world go by and take this picture. Then it was time to head home.

I decided to first ride along the beach to check out the crowds at the surf comp. So I put my sandals on, packed or strapped to the rucksack everything else and headed along the beach. With my bike helmet clipped to the backpack and my t-shirt knotted on my head (I'd forgotten to pack a cap) I felt very much as if I lived "on the beaches." It was a nice feeling.

Along the beach and then back to the main road. I stopped to correctly fit the t-shirt and bike helmet and then cycled home. I was a little surprised to find that I'd been gone under 2hours. I really must do this more often.

Sal was cooking a roast for dinner and with only Harrie to look after I got another free pass. Rowlf hadn't had his long walk so I took him down to the Spit so he could have a swim in the Harbour. He was his usual mental self, I was back by the water and all was well in the world.

OK, I need to go to bed, so that's the lot. A good day; overlooking the ocean with my ladies, in the ocean with the sharks and paddling in the shallows with my dog. Three out of three.