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February 1999

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IN THE SWIM
Sunday, 28 February 1999

Well, my goodness: two journal entries in two days! Actually, I just couldn't bear the thought of yesterdays entry being all there is for February!

Anyway, here we are. Today began early - very early!

Thomas, the light sleeper that he is at the moment, decided that 5:30am was a suitable time to refuse to be settled for more sleep, so it was my turn to get up with him. And what do we do on such mornings? Easy... sit and chat, me on-line, and Thomas in my arms gurgling and burping away. It was a lot of fun, until Kathryn decided she wanted to ring Nanna, and dropped the phone line out.

The rest of the day was fairly lazy; coffee at Basil's on Hannan, a short swim at the YMCA pool, and home again to vegetate.

Thomas really likes the pool. It was his second "swim", clinging close to Dads arms of course. A week or so ago when we first took him to the pool, he copped a mouth full of chlorinated water. At least he's learned quickly to keep his mouth closed when the water level goes above chin-level!

Another funny thing this afternoon. I was laying on the bed with Thomas on my lap leaning agains my knees. I was listening to some music (Mike Oldfields' Amarok) on the headphones, and getting rather carried away (as one does) "conducting" with my hands. For some reason Thomas was highly amused by my "dancing fingers". At least it kept him entertained for a half hour or so. Its amazing watching him notice the world around him. But I do sometimes wonder what goes through his mind.

FLAT OUT IN FAST FEBRUARY
Saturday, 27 February 1999

OK, OK, I know February is a short month anyway, but its really no excuse for leaving this long a gap in writing here. The only thing I can offer in my defence is that *I do have a life* away from here, and February is THAT time of year (OK, so there are other months that qualify for that tag too).

At this time of year, the first semester at work begins. This year it was compounded by the move as a result of last years merger of the Computing Department and the Business Department into the School of Commerce. It meant that our teaching laboratories and classrooms , and eventually, our offices, moved to a new location on campus.

The first week of class is normally somewhat chaotic. This year it was even more so. The new location, and a larger that normal enrolment (in itself a good sign for the rest of the year) added to the initial confusion, trying to get classes settled into a regular location. It took a bit of juggling and more than one clash of double booking of rooms before by now we are somewhat settled.

This semester I am teaching Monday mornings (Intro Systems Analysis), as well as evening classes (Access Databases, Excel Spreadsheets) and all day Thursday (Graphics, Intro Computing and Graphics again).

It was hectic the first couple of weeks gettingt he right hardware in the right lab - I need a scanner for the Graphics classes - first they had to be relacted from the old labs, then they couldn't find drivers for the scanner for Windows NT. For one week I even had to resort to bringing in my own computer and scanner from home - just so I would have *A* scanner to demonstrate on.

The second week saw me able to move offices, and at least be in the same building as where the classes are. I now have to share an office, for the moment with a Communications lecturer named Cyril, and later with a Business lecturer, Greg.

So much for work. It hasn't been any better on the domestic side of things this month either.

Thomas is starting to grow - he is now two months old, and noticably bigger in weight and length. I think its quite amazing how fast babies can grow. He is actually quite "chubby" now - that will stay that way until he starts crawling and / or walking whan the fat will drop off. He is still not sleeping for long at night, necessitating regular awakenings to feed, change and amuse him at odd hours. The broken sleep is starting to catch up on me - I'm just glad that this weekend there is nothing major on, and that Monday is a holiday. One funny thing is whenever I feed him he often has bad wind (I don't think its me - I just happen to notice it when I'm feeding him). It comes from either end, so he now has the nickname Mr. Burpinfarten.

For sleepless nights, last night was particularly bad, but that was probably more to do with the fact that he had his first immunisation shots yesterday and he was rather grumpy and sore from that - the slight fever babies often get in reaction to the injections doesn't help either. I'm glad to report he appears to be over the worst of that as I type and is his "normal" self, out on the lounge chair with his sister watching TV.

Kathryn is in Year 2 at her school this year and loving it. Last weekend there was a parents busy bee to lay some instant lawn on part of the school playground. For many years there had been a gravel area of the playground - result, many abrasions and cut legs and arms. So, up early last Saturday, we did our bit raking, leveling the ground and removing stones, and laying the instant roll-on lawn. At one stage we looked like slaves working away under the direction of the Deputy Principal, but we were well catered for with a cooked breakfast and morning tea and cakes. As we worked, leonie had a lucky find. Scraping through the dirt, she found a 1945 penny. I imagined some child long ago running around the playground and dropping his lunch money, then getting into trouble for losing his money. Maybe...

And now the month is nearly over. Oh well, at least I got one entry in. *grin*