Tayto - the feckers

Gavin was kind enough to bring a swag of Tayto and purple Snacks from Ireland when he arrived here on Sunday. I say 'kind enough', but we all know that he would have been on the first plane back to Carlow if he hadn't.

I do like Tayto Cheese n Onion, easily the best chip in the world. No arguments will be brooked. So I immediately grabbed a packet, casually looking at the ingredient list, a habit ingrained though bitter experience.

Tayto have changed their recipe, the feckers. They have added cheese powder. CHEESE POWDER. They have tampered with perfection. Its like the Louvre colouring in the Mona Lisa's lips or adding Mickey Mouse cartoons to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, cos the kids would go for it.

Tayto was always just potaotes, sunflower oil and honest to goodness artifical flavours and preservatives. Now its got cheese powder.

I will no longer eat this alien product.

Daddy brain

Yesterday I travelled to Milson's Pointto take part in the MS 8km Fun Run. Its one of my favourite runs, low key, fun, scenic but a tough hilly runners course.
As the train cleared the Harbour Bridge I glanced on to the road where the start is held and noticed that there were surprisingly few people there.
In fact thre was noone.
Which wasn't all that surprising when I remembered that the race is next Sunday.
So back home and off to Centennial Park for a run in the beautiful late Autumn weather.

I like it LOUD

Action
Originally uploaded by Anthony's World

Cillian has really and truly found the volume control over the past week or so. He is a non stop chatterbox and its all LOUD. Its great fun. On Friday we visited the library for storytime. He played with some Duplo blocks, listened to the story, watched the bigger kids and sang along with great gusto to the songs, even when nonone else was actually singing a song.

What's over there?

What's over there?
Originally uploaded by Anthony's World

Today we tried another play group, recommended by one of the mums I met yesterday. It was from 10 - 12 in St. George's Anglican Church, a pretty red brick building snuggled in the heart of Five Ways. The group is not affiliated to the church, but just rents our the space.
There is a small outdoor area, and a large indoor playspace, the opposite of Holdsworth Street.
There weren't many babies there, like Holdsworth, its mainly toddlers and I was the only man.
Cillian had fun and after we left we visited the library, where our little hero turned on the charm for the librarian.
Not having slept much in the morning, he had a big snooze in the afternoon. In fact we had to wake him for his dinner.
Thankfully, he seems to be sleeping well tonight.

Playtime

Today we visited the Holdsworth Street Community Centre. Its a drop in centre for parents with young children, as well as senior citizens. Little ones barelled around the yard, playing on swings or with various toys. We played in the baby room and Cillian enjoyed the toys and the other bubs and tots.
We made some friends and we will be back there soon.
We also visited Lesley McKay's bookshop, a lovely bookstore in Woollahra vilage. I bough two books for Cillian, who was fast asleep in his pushchair. One was 'Goodnight Gorilla' and although mainly just pictures, is one of the funniest books I've read. The other is called 'Choo Choo' about a train journey.

Shave and a haircut...

Since we had a bit of a lie in this morning, Cillian was not amenable to his 10:30 nap. Instead we strolled down to East Sydney to see Joe the barber to have my wild mane tamed. Joe is a Glaswegian who has not returned to Scotland in 40 years, since he doesn't like to fly. He's a lovely man and charges the princely sum of $AU8. Still, I am not really testing his skills as its number 2 all over please. Cyclone Cillian slept for a bit, waking up in the barber shop but was good as gold.
After finishing with Joe and seeing that Cillian was in good form, we visited the State Library to see the World Press Photo exhibition. The standard of work on display was superb, focusing mainly on the many conflicts that are spread across the world, but also including nature and sport.

Sitting pretty

Sitting pretty
Originally uploaded by Anthony's World

Cillian has been quite resistant to the idea of sitting. He'd much prefer to be lying down on his back or preferably his tummy, where his is relatively mobile. Still, we have gently encouraged him to sit and today the idea took hold and he sat quite happily playing with his toys. Every five minutes or so he would keel over and a backwards tumble and a thump to the back of his head signalled the end of tonights sitting fun. He did enjoy himself though.

Temporary loss of running mojo

Leastways I hope its temporary.
Last Wednesday night I ran a good 3km on the track. Today I ran a 5km time trial in Centennial Park, starting at the corner of Dickens and Parkes in the centre near the water bubbler, then up onto the grand drive for a lap, then returned to the centre the same way I ran out.
Its a 5km run that CoolRunning do, but its a bit long at just over 5.1, possibly 5.2.
I had a solid run but never got to grips with it and even with a time adjusted for 5.1 I was 45s off my target finish time, a lot over 5km.
Still it was a run, which is always a good thing.
1/2 marathon next weekend and the 8km MS Fun Run the Sunday after. I like racing, its fun and the best way to sharpen up.

Happy birthday Sorcha

Happy birthday little princess. We hope you like your pressie.

Watch out Grant Hackett

Cillian had his second swim today and he really enjoyed himself. He was quite happy to float on his tummy or play bouncy in the water and fairly ok with being on his back. We were ages in the water, firstly in the leisure pool, then in the warmer hydrotherapy pool
We went with Magda and Jan. Jan is a very much a water baby and loves his trips to the pool.
School holidays are over and there was not the crowd of excited kids dashing and splashing about that we had on our last trip, which was good for our little hero.
We made friends with 10 month old Ethan and his mum Skye. Ethan loves the water and will hold onto mums back as she goes for a little swim.
We also made friends with the aqua aerobics instructor and his class of an elderly man and woman. As I was holding both the boys at the time, they wondered if they were twins.

I enjoy being a dad, but holding the two boys in my arm was special. It made me a Dad, someone who will look after not just his own, but all kids.
At Easter we visited with Liz and Rhett down at Gerringong. There was a constant stream of kids wandering through the house to play with our friends' children, not all of whom were known by our hosts. They were never the less welcomed and invited to sit and eat with us and play in the garden.

That's the way it should be.

Shady characters

Its not all fun and games being a stay at home dad you know. There's, well, no wait, it is pretty much all fun and games.

This morning we met Rex and his mum for a walk in Centennial Park. The boys very cleverly coordinated their crying so that when one stopped the other started. A quick pit stop was called for and after a feed two happy little boys played together in that 'are you looking at me?' way of babies.

We are having beautiful Autumn weather.

The sooner my Oakleys come back from the repair shop the better.

Sweet little spider

This is a golden orb weaver that I photographed in Centennial Park. Isn't she a sweetie? There's a very pretty one in our back yard. Her abdomen is quite swollen now as its almost time to lay her eggs. Sadly she will then die. Body length of this type of spider is up to 4cm for the female, although this lady looked bigger. They build fabulously huge webs, of the creepy old mansion variety. The males are tiny, about 1/10th the size of the female.

This year, because we've had such a wet summer and autumn, the spiders have delayed their mating and egg laying and over the last month or so there has been a web building frenzy. A very pretty spider and one of my favourites.

And no, they are not poisonous to humans, indeed are quite reluctant to bite.

Down to Double Bay

We walked to Double Bay, the little man sleeping until we got to the relative stillness of the library. We chose a quieter road home, the main route was by now clogged with peak hour traffic.

This is a little beach in Double Bay, not too far from where we live. Its usually quiet, just a few people strolling between the village and their homes, or stepping off the ferry from work. Its not a swimming beach, its too small, has no surf and has too many boats moored just offshore. A 5 minute walk away there is a lovely swimming spot called Redleaf. But still, it was nice to spend a few moments there.

Cillian's world

Cillian is almost seven months old now and his world expands daily.

In the evenings, we stand outside our house and look through the leaves of the jacarandas, black beans and weeping elms for a glimpse of the chattering lorikeets as they zip home to roost in the palms on Alma Street. Cillian tries to grab the leaves of the little frangipani that overhangs from our garden to the street. He tries to grab everything now.

Our cat causes great excitement, little dances of delight whenever he is spotted. Spuddy is considerably less enthusiastic about the sight of Cillian.

His musical butterfly is no longer just for clambering across, but he wholeheartedly thumps its keys to get more sounds and if I haven't turned on his musical mirror, he will soon let me know.
Nor is his play confined to the carpet we have laid down for him on the wooden floor of the living room. He cannot yet crawl, not through lack of effort, but can roll and turn through 360 degrees and do a little caterpillar motion that gets him where he wants to go to more or less. Usually this means his toy box, though yesterday he faced the tv unit, too high for him to reach thankfully and chuckled at the lights of the machines there. I can no longer leave a cup of tea on the floor.

He has always been a people person with smiles for all and sundry, particularly the ladies. Small children he loves and from an early age watched them like a hawk. But now he engages with other babies in a most animated fashion.

Almost seven months and his world expands.

I have to go now, my shoes are coming in for some slobbery attention.