At the bottom of the Garden

Arius Von Barius has been driving his father and I right up the wall, across the ceiling and down around the bend for the past couple of weeks. Like fools, we could not figure out why... I finally figured it out this morning... In the past three weeks, he's moved house, fractured his arm, fallen in love with his cousin who lives in Denmark (and who went home and did not take him with her!), and had a visit from his grandad, who he usually only sees maybe once or twice a year.


That's a whole lot of excitement for a six year old who is prone to spin off axis over an unexpected sports day at school.

His teachers have (gently) complained about him being extremely distracted in class, not being able to focus on a task for more than a couple of minutes at a time, or sit still for any length of time. At the same time, they say he's been yawning and almost dropping off in class. There were some rather strong suggestions we try to get him to bed a bit earlier (Earlier than 5.30pm? …

Yesterday, I participate in a really fun birthday celebration for the partner of a friend of mine. My friend organised for his partner's friends to meet up in the city, where they would be divided into teams and given clues to find destinations and to perform tasks, all leading to the final destination where they would received free unlimited drinks and food for two hours!

My friend and I did a dry run (ahem, walk) for the trail last Monday, in total it was approximately 7 kilometres back and forth around the CBD of Melbourne. Yesterday, I participated as one of the stop points, checking the teams had completed their challenges properly and them giving them an enforced break before sending them off with a new clue.

Everyone had lots of fun!

The review notes from my very first peer reviewed paper came in on Wednesday. I had been expecting them last Friday, so was a bit worried they hadn't turned up yet. I needn't have worried! As is often the case, the two reviewers didn't agree on everything. In fact, they only agreed 100% on one aspect of my paper, which was it's originality. But hey, I'll take that! The reviews were, none the less, very positive, which was such a thrill for me! 
The guideline for the paper was that if the submitter had not submitted a paper before, they should not submit a paper for peer review (category X), however, I was advised to ignore this directive (ha!). So, I was quite nervous to be 'playing with the big kids', so to speak. However, I didn't shame myself, so it's all good, right? I now have until December 12 to make revisions and resubmit the paper for publication - SO EXCITING! Reviewer One...


Reviewer Two...

I have no idea who reviewed these people (it…

Wouldn't it be lovely to be in control?

I think so!

Hey there, long time, no see! A lot has been happening around here in the past four weeks, and by 'here' I mean somewhere quite different from where we were four weeks ago. You see, we moved house.

We didn't move far, only about two kilometres from our previous house. We are still renting. We weren't willing movers, but it had to be done. It became clear that MIL was simply not ready to pack up her house, and yet, we knew we couldn't stay in our previous rental (and utterly perfect as it was) because it is due to be razed to the ground in February.

The thought of moving in the middle of the school holidays, in the heat, with a deadline on us was too much for me, so I told The Grumpy Old Man we needed to bite the bullet and move before I went to Wellington at the end of November. That way we could enjoy Christmas without a move hanging over our heads. We had to find a house that MIL could also stay in once her …