How Do I Blog?

Back to work! And what a week ahead, yesterday I had an all-afternoon meeting followed by a business dinner in the city, today is chock full of interviews for my assistant (mwahaha) and yet more meetings. Tomorrow is quiet, oh wait, there’s another half-day meeting and then I’m taking Friday off in lieu of the public holiday next Monday because I’ll be flying to bloody Perth for the week! Madness.

This is without mentioning I’ve just had a week off sick, which I’d thankfully recovered from to fully enjoy the long weekend. Played a bit of poker both live and online just for a bit of a change, cashed in both instances which is always a plus! Took Evie cycling in a local park which we found has been half sold off to some kind of development or construction so that was cut a bit short. Did some solid cooking on the weekend: slow-roasted lamb shanks in a rich tomato and red wine gravy and a carbonara rich with cream and carmelised onions. As if to compensate for this I then spent nearly 3 hours in the midday heat building a cross-trainer under the house for Clare - that may be the hardest workout I’ll do in the vicinity of it, but we’ll see. I’m keen to get my fitness back in the headlights.

Also attended a house-warming that ended in taking a detour to the local Germanic club where I, of course, sampled several of the House Schnapps. Quite delicious and powerful stuff, Sour Apple was great, Blackcurrent a little too sweet and one of them was a bit too much, Orange and Peppermint schnapps - apparently a cleansing drink (if you get my drift) - and I passed it to another who, after a sip, said: “Mmm… nice, do you mind?”.

I did not mind. He soon did however when he missed his face, poured it down his shirt (it was an unnatural shade of blue) and what little made it down his throat burned like the fires of Hades. First sips can be deceptive, ladies and gentlemen.

Speaking of first sips, I’ve come to a revelation that has forced me to revise an age-old stance of mine: tequila is not vile demon piss. The key seems to be to eschew every friendly looking tequila bottle out there, that means you Golds and Silvers can fuck right off, and anything with a plastic cap that’s been remoulded into the shape of a sombrero or has the remnants of any non-arthropod invertebrates lurking at the bottom.

I picked up a bottle of Anejo Tequila - gotta look up the brand when I get home - after having tried some in a margarita recipe at a friend’s which also contained Grand Marnier. I looked up recipes online and stumbled across the perfect margarita (also known as the Grand Margarita or the Cadillac Margarita). I took this recipe and padded it out a little with some simple syrup, which I think takes just enough of the edge off to make it addictively drinkable. Other tequila cocktails addicts feel free to throw in some reccs!

I tell you, it was such a bloody busy week that I somehow even managed to do some writing. In perhaps not a great move, I’ve started yet another script which means I currently have about four at several stages of development (all around the end of act 1 stage) but it was in my head and I just needed to get some of it out. This is the Weekend At Bernies meets Grosse Point Blank with a dash of Romancing the Stone thrown in there for good measure (… actually, not so sure if that’s good measure). I’ll try to keep the momentum on it and to aid in this I’ve bought a cheapo ex-work laptop to use that has no access to internet etc so I can just focus on the writing!

Anyway aside from all that, I watched a bunch of movies lately I thought I’d give some thoughts on:

Where The Wild Things Are: an insight into the mind of a child in the grip of their emotion. I’ve never read the book but I found everything about the film to be steeped in the mental imagery of a child’s sensations of the world around them. Everything was steeped in twilight or darkness, things could be simultaneously fascinating and terrifying, everything looks tangible and tactile. It sort of meandered as a narrative and I’m not sure what message a kid would take away from it, but as a parent more than anything else I found it an interesting movie.

The Squid and the Whale: this dramedy about the breakdown of a family in the wake of the parents divorce is a very watchable character study enriched by the lead performances of Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney, the writing packed full of brittle humour and quiet sadness regarding the acrimony that can ensue between former lovers.

Humpday: my first foray into the mumblecore genre was an extremely successful one. Two guys, a buttoned down married thirty something and his wandering vagabond buddy - who’s clearly trying to be Zach Galifianakis on Ritalin - get blasted at a sexually liberated hippy party and spawn the idea of creating an arthouse porn movie as part of a festival aimed at reclaiming the seedy industry for the artists. Their idea? Two straight guys fucking. Sounds ridiculous, but the grounded performances really make it work and the sense of these two buddies locked in a path they can’t turn away from for their own motivations made the story easily believable.

Zombieland: watchable but utterly forgettable action comedy, why it’s rated so highly on RT is beyond me. The funniest moment involved “zombie” Bill Murray and introducing some of the “rules” (an aspect they didn’t explore enough, in my opinion). It’s as though they started making a different parody take on the zombie genre than Shaun of the Dead then ran out of steam and just filled the rest of the running time with Woody mugging at the camera and lots of boring zombie fights.

No, this isn’t a post celebrating the news of Portal 2, though that will definitely be something to celebrate/enjoy in the future.
This is more just to say: Hello! I’m still alive!

And a lot has happened in 4 months. Yes, indeed.
A summary then:
- Sean was born on November 14th and integrated quickly into the family unit, he is a happy, healthy boy except for a recent bout of the sniffles which has unfortunately upset his otherwise very excellent sleep schedule.
- Evelyn has grown into the “best big sister ever” appellation pretty quickly, regularly swamping Sean with cuddles, attention and lots of love - she also continues to grow more each day, her development, talking and interaction progresses in leaps and bounds.
- Clare has been looking after them both during her maternity period and while we had no childcare, but that’s all been resolved now, she is a very capable mother.
- I’ve been continuing to work my ass off at work but with healthy rewards, I recently got a promotion to National Manager of Commercial Motor and a nice payrise. It’s more of a title change than responsibility change thankfully as I’ve already been doing the job for a fair while, it’s just more official.
- We had a relative over for 2 five week periods, once at Christmas and once through March, very nice to have babysitting and some family company, very nice to get the house back to ourselves at long last.
- We have had some little breaks here and there, Byron in Feb, Bargara in March, nothing planned for April, a work/family trip to Adelaide planned for May, I’ll also be in Perth, June will involve some more work-related travel and then a as-yet-not-totally-planned jaunt to Europe.
- Watched a fair bit of TV! Dexter season 4. Big Love season 4.
- Didn’t watch a whole lot of movies, but - thanks to this guy right here - I’ve been reading a lot of scripts. Gearing up towards putting fingers to keyboard again soon, but I’ll have to wait until I find some balance between work, family life and relaxation. Not to mention the absolute lack of exercise that I’ve been saying I’d do for nearly 2 years.
- What else…? It seems like between Christmas/New Year, Sean’s arrival, Evie’s birthday, relative visiting, promotions and work and socialising and relaxing, I’ve done very little - but then maybe that’s ok! I’ve done enough!

In terms of taking stock (as I am want to do around the New Year mark), I look back and actually find that despite how these things usually go, I achieved a lot of what I wanted in the last year:

Health
- Wake up earlier, get to bed earlier ✘ (big fat fail, all the usual reasons, mostly bad habits)
- Jog at least twice a week ✘ (hrrrr)
- Exercise with weights at least twice a week ✘ (double hrrrr)
- Swim as often as the weather allows ✓ (actually did this a fair bit all summer and kept the pool in order, it looks stunning just now, pity about the temperature)
- Moderate my alcohol consumption (rare blowouts excepted) ✓ (mostly, though the past few weeks have been pretty indulgent so I’m currently cutting back)
- Minimise fattier foodstuffs to twice a week ✓ (generally we’re doing this pretty well)

Family
- Minimise computer time at weekends ✓
- Family walk or outing at least once a weekend (chores permitting) ✓
- Find time for Clare and I to get out ✓ (ish, when the in-law is over, yes, when not, no, not really - this is something we seek to address through finding a semi-regular babysitter)
- Support my wife and child with a positive outlook and loving attitude ✓ (ish, I’m only human)
- Talk to Evelyn constantly ✓ (she’s coming along great)

Hobby
- Write two screenplays, first the Aussie one, then Cloverfield at Sea ✘ (survey says EEEEGH-UGGGH)
- Do a cooking class, preferably something French/Italian/Seafood-based ✘ (no opportunity really)
- Put in a good session at the casino once every two months (I’m making money at it, so why not?), never play online poker again ✘ (again, not much opportunity)
- Not through choice and spurred on by Clare’s cheeky xmas gift of Dummies guide to DIY, I’ll need to fashion myself as some kind of Mr Fix-It ✘ (LOL - this will NEVER happen)
- Keep my restaurant reviews up to date ✘ (I actually let this slide because I was intending on giving up, but a combo of things: renewed interest by readership, a near-miss radio interview

Professionally
- Develop myself into a role or find one that suits ✓ (still loving the job, despite the hours/stress/politics at times)
- Earn as close to the “ton” mark by the end of the year ✓ B)

So where to from here? Pretty clear that if I keep my focus on family and professional stuff I’ll do good there, but continue to fail somewhat in my hobbies and other aspirations.

For 2010, I want to:
- Maintain what I’m doing well at the moment, keep a healthy work-life balance and spend enough time with both my wife and my family
- EXERCISE (Just do it… irony)
- WRITE, YOU USELESS FAT F
- Stop swearing so much (seriously)
- Post more here, general and fun stuff, more restaurant reviews too
- Stop wasting time: facebook, random F5ing into oblivion, etc

Okay, over to you.

A lot has been going on to prepare me for the immediate birth of my second child, it seems.

We’ve had a fair share of midnight dramas recently, hospital related nonetheless to pre-empt our (likely late night) visit to the maternity ward. I had some issues with my heart a week ago that turned out to be minor palpitations caused by a bit of over-exertion on a few levels, so I’m trying to take it easy (stress-wise, booze-wise and so on). Then Evie came down with a bad turn of croup on Sunday night to make for another dash to the hospital, this time in an ambulance with her on the nebulizer for her breathing, but thankfully she quickly came right.

Now all that’s done, we’re ready to have the kid thanks!

Clare is winding down work this week and prepares for a six month stretch of … being a mother! Baby was due on Monday (revised due date) but still hasn’t arrived and tomorrow is the official (original) due date and we’re hoping this weekend will yield the eventual winning date. Evie finishes creche (as it is closing over the Christmas break for good!) and will spend a lot of time at home with mother and child, which will also be an interesting new development.

Work has finally slowed down a notch. It’s still hectic and full on, as it has been since the turn of the year, but it’s at least not providing me with as many late nights and stressy deadlines. That said, I’m busy procrastinating from my Board Report right now… so I’ll be back to stressing soon.

Evelyn has been developing a lot as of late, tons of talking and expressing herself - still difficulties in getting her to understand concepts at times and getting specific answers to specific questions, but she decided herself that she was too old for nappies, as well as a bunch of other stuff. She’s decided she’s excited about “babby brudda” so let’s hope that positive force continues once he arrives.

I’ve quit poker for a while since I won’t have any time for it and I’ve essentially bust my online roll. A dry spell that lasted about $1.5k worth of MTTs will do that. Variance is a bitch. I’m still considering a live tourney appearance at some point… not sure when though, I’m keeping that possibility saved up for a rainy day.

On the hobby front, not much to report, but I’m finally reading again:

Okay so far, nothing amazing… I’m only a few chapters in.

I’m going to try to get back into gaming again… I’ve picked up Fallout 3 once more, though I only played maybe 10 hours of it previously, it seemed like a fun and engrossing game. I’ve also got a bunch of levels to get through in Plants Vs Zombies, which is always good for a 10-15 minute play… I think I’m on level 4 of 5 so not too much to go.

I also played a demo of a game called Machinarium yesterday, beautiful and intriguing little game - hard to say whether the charm would hold up over the full duration of 30 or so levels, but I’m considering it once I get the current games out of the way.

We’ve also been watching Dexter season 3. I was skeptical about returning to it seeing as they really seemed to jump the shark with season 2’s finale and losing Doakes was a blow to the continuing cast, but it’s actually a lot of fun. They’re really playing fast and loose with tricky moral code issues this season through his less than savoury friendship he’s developed with an Assistant DA (played by the typically hammy Jimmy Smits) who shares his passion for less ethical forms of Justice. Some of the soap opera padding shit (like Debra and her CI, fuck that storyline seriously) is boring, but there’s never too much of it and some of it is very worthwhile to make a decent character beat (like the records-lady dying of lung cancer).

My mind has been wandering back to fictional tales as of late; snippets of script appear alive and playing out in my head, a one-liner here and there, a character twitch. I’ve started allowing myself to daydream in those worlds again as I used to. Taking a break from poker might afford me the luxury of playing in my own headspace for a while as opposed to concentrating getting into the minds of others.

That’s enough of an update for now! Next time will be a direction to facebook baby photos I suspect!