Friday night I asked Adelle to marry me, and she said yes!
Parents:
My parents knew I would be asking her in time, it was discussed when I visited them in Winter. Last week I formally asked her Father, John. We had just finished dinner, and Adelle had just left. I called him to the room where Sue was napping in front of the Television. "John, I would like to ask your permission to marry Adelle." "Well, I'm a bit taken aback, it's the first time I've been asked that, well um, yes, ahh... Isn't this where I say that I'll think about it for a few days?" "Respectfully, I'll be proceeding either way." " Very good, as it should be" And then I swore them both to secrecy for a while.
Friday night:
Adelle told me that she had leave on Friday night, so I drove up to Canberra from Wodonga, and we met at Koko Black which was the site of our first proper date. We had chili hot chocolates each and shared a brownie. I waited for a natural break in the conversation, but one was not forthcoming, so I palmed the ring. I then took the spoon from her hands. In one motion I went to one knee, slipped the ring on her finger and asked "Will you marry me". She said yes.
Ring:
The ring is gold with an Australian dark blue sapphire and two flanking smaller Australian blue sapphires to either side. Between the sapphires are a sprinkling of diamonds. A photo will be forthcoming.
Wedding?:
Yes :)
I would like a full suit style wedding, so it will likely be in a colder part of the year. We do not have a date, or even a city yet. Canberra for Adelle's family? Brisbane for mine and the boys? Wodonga to make everyone else have to travel? Prague just because?
Any more questions and I'll answer them in the comments.
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Nerfageddon Christmas
New format Christmas was a lot of fun, helped along as the dominant present this year was - Nerf!
To let the junior members retain their anonymity a touch, they will be identified by their Nerf weapons :) After a fine present opening ceremony at Dad &Step-ma, it was time to test the loot. Youngling wielded the mighty Vulcan Teenager had a Stampede, while Uncle got a Raider. Adelle, Aunt, Grandad and I shared around my Recon, and a box of six single shot blasters.
I took up a comfortable position in the shade, with my single shot pistols and a crate of darts. Aunt, Uncle and teenager ran around the garden taking potshots, and bringing the pew-pew. Then, after much re-loading, Youngling would stand atop the trampoline and open up with the mighty Vulcan. There would be much yelping and squealing as everyone sought cover, the ammo belts would be empty and everyone would seek vengeance. After this barrage, youngling would get off the trampoline, gather his darts, return to his emplacement and resume loading.
Running around gave everyone a healthy appetite, and we all loved the food and especially the cooling ice-cream.
To let the junior members retain their anonymity a touch, they will be identified by their Nerf weapons :) After a fine present opening ceremony at Dad &Step-ma, it was time to test the loot. Youngling wielded the mighty Vulcan Teenager had a Stampede, while Uncle got a Raider. Adelle, Aunt, Grandad and I shared around my Recon, and a box of six single shot blasters.
I took up a comfortable position in the shade, with my single shot pistols and a crate of darts. Aunt, Uncle and teenager ran around the garden taking potshots, and bringing the pew-pew. Then, after much re-loading, Youngling would stand atop the trampoline and open up with the mighty Vulcan. There would be much yelping and squealing as everyone sought cover, the ammo belts would be empty and everyone would seek vengeance. After this barrage, youngling would get off the trampoline, gather his darts, return to his emplacement and resume loading.
Running around gave everyone a healthy appetite, and we all loved the food and especially the cooling ice-cream.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Go Blarkon!
Over in Birmo's Brisbane Times column:
"Winning" at Democracy is about the highly effective organization of idiots. Religion is the ultimate idiot organizational tool. It forms them into relatively coherent groups that are easily led by those that are clever enough to be in on the joke. The religious get pandered to by politicians because pandering to the religious is a proven electoral strategy.
Impressively sharp comment from Blarkon.
I do not believe that religious people are all idiots. My father is religious, and one of the smartest people you would meet. I do believe that this is how many of the parties see religious parties, as toys to manipulate and bribe. And manipulating this group is one of the key ways to get elected. I wish more people could think independently.
"Winning" at Democracy is about the highly effective organization of idiots. Religion is the ultimate idiot organizational tool. It forms them into relatively coherent groups that are easily led by those that are clever enough to be in on the joke. The religious get pandered to by politicians because pandering to the religious is a proven electoral strategy.
Impressively sharp comment from Blarkon.
I do not believe that religious people are all idiots. My father is religious, and one of the smartest people you would meet. I do believe that this is how many of the parties see religious parties, as toys to manipulate and bribe. And manipulating this group is one of the key ways to get elected. I wish more people could think independently.
Monday, May 24, 2010
I'm dating a soccer Mom, and it's hot.
My new relationship is going well, and living with a 14 year old and nine year old is cool. They get on with their thing mostly, and we cross in interests with indoor stuff like Warhammer, Computer games etc. But this is about outside.
J. is a rugby league and rugby union player. With my busted neck I never got to play those, so J. is left to his devices. I don't know the games well enough to suggest coaching techniques, and he seems QUITE on top of it himself, doing very well at the matches I have watched.
L. played previously, but A. didn't like the team so much. L.'s best friend T. is a soccer player, and talked L. into playing a year up with him for Belnorth. And they seem to be having fun, and I'm helping out with the driving, and the coaching. The attitude is great - encourage the good stuff, and move them towards better skills. They are just emerging from 'we all follow the ball around in a blob' and are moving toward positional play. Crosses occasionally happen, rather than random booting in a roughly forwards direction.
It's an interesting process to watch. My instinct has been to pull it all back to basic skills, in order to have a foundation. I see a lot of people trying to advise on complicated tactics - stuff so complicated that they could not even execute the plans on the pith themselves.
A., L. & I played "The old one - two" Two forwards charge down a goalie. The forward has to be ready to decide - shoot or pass? The goalie has too much room to defend, so he has to charge down the forward with the ball. The receiving forward has to think about space as well. They have to be far enough away from the other forward to a) react to the pass b) trap the pass and c) still have time to shoot before the goalie responds.
It was good sweaty fun, with each of us getting each role in turn. Little mobs fail to get the angles. Good positional play turns it into a win. The plan is obvious - but it needs a good grounding in a dozen skills to make it work. Little steps, and keep it fun.
J. is a rugby league and rugby union player. With my busted neck I never got to play those, so J. is left to his devices. I don't know the games well enough to suggest coaching techniques, and he seems QUITE on top of it himself, doing very well at the matches I have watched.
L. played previously, but A. didn't like the team so much. L.'s best friend T. is a soccer player, and talked L. into playing a year up with him for Belnorth. And they seem to be having fun, and I'm helping out with the driving, and the coaching. The attitude is great - encourage the good stuff, and move them towards better skills. They are just emerging from 'we all follow the ball around in a blob' and are moving toward positional play. Crosses occasionally happen, rather than random booting in a roughly forwards direction.
It's an interesting process to watch. My instinct has been to pull it all back to basic skills, in order to have a foundation. I see a lot of people trying to advise on complicated tactics - stuff so complicated that they could not even execute the plans on the pith themselves.
A., L. & I played "The old one - two" Two forwards charge down a goalie. The forward has to be ready to decide - shoot or pass? The goalie has too much room to defend, so he has to charge down the forward with the ball. The receiving forward has to think about space as well. They have to be far enough away from the other forward to a) react to the pass b) trap the pass and c) still have time to shoot before the goalie responds.
It was good sweaty fun, with each of us getting each role in turn. Little mobs fail to get the angles. Good positional play turns it into a win. The plan is obvious - but it needs a good grounding in a dozen skills to make it work. Little steps, and keep it fun.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Brisvegas shines on like a crazy diamond
We parked in the new half built car park. Caught our flights on Virgin Blue. Caught the Airtrain in the Valley.
Grabbed a super bright long sleeved shirt from a goth botique on Brunswick street before heading up to Mana Bar. Manabar was heaps of fun, with about 20 friends all jammed in having fun. SCA, Burgers (Cheeseburger gothic blog fans) and gamer friends represented. Medway's awesome gurning unleashed a thousand photochop memes. We even achieved the internet fame of a Mana bar advert!
Went to dinner at the Tibetan place next to the Arts Theatre. 13 fine people did the banquet. It was nice, basic stuff, breads, dip and curries. Once they knew we needed to be done by the show, they got their shuffle on and we made it comfortably. There was plenty to eat, and some small amount was left behind - impressive with that ravaging horde. Burgers and my mates are good at maths - we were $1.50 over on the bill :)
Meeting up with the crew went smoothly, and tickets were distributed. Two friends who were just winging it managed to get in - Simon generously gave one of his comp tickets to Greg, and Toni managed to get in on the standby list.
They play was good fun. A couple of roles were compressed, but the right cuts were made. The jokes from the book all hit home despite knowing they were coming, and the latest jokes slipped in perfectly as well, with the added bonus of shock of the new. There were a couple of themed return reference jokes that were played perfectly, especially the musical numbers with Beyonce's "Put a ring on it" and "The Teddy Bear's picnic"
Nat's blog did a great job of outlining last night shennanigans.
Abe's ten bucks was returned in a very Birmo way - taped onto the commemorative urinal. If you want your ten bucks that bad, Mr Frellman...
Birmo popped a reference to the evening, with better Burger lists than I can recall in the comment.
I picked up some merch, a couple of stubbie coolers and a "Team York Street" t-shirt.
Grabbed a super bright long sleeved shirt from a goth botique on Brunswick street before heading up to Mana Bar. Manabar was heaps of fun, with about 20 friends all jammed in having fun. SCA, Burgers (Cheeseburger gothic blog fans) and gamer friends represented. Medway's awesome gurning unleashed a thousand photochop memes. We even achieved the internet fame of a Mana bar advert!
Went to dinner at the Tibetan place next to the Arts Theatre. 13 fine people did the banquet. It was nice, basic stuff, breads, dip and curries. Once they knew we needed to be done by the show, they got their shuffle on and we made it comfortably. There was plenty to eat, and some small amount was left behind - impressive with that ravaging horde. Burgers and my mates are good at maths - we were $1.50 over on the bill :)
Meeting up with the crew went smoothly, and tickets were distributed. Two friends who were just winging it managed to get in - Simon generously gave one of his comp tickets to Greg, and Toni managed to get in on the standby list.
They play was good fun. A couple of roles were compressed, but the right cuts were made. The jokes from the book all hit home despite knowing they were coming, and the latest jokes slipped in perfectly as well, with the added bonus of shock of the new. There were a couple of themed return reference jokes that were played perfectly, especially the musical numbers with Beyonce's "Put a ring on it" and "The Teddy Bear's picnic"
Nat's blog did a great job of outlining last night shennanigans.
Abe's ten bucks was returned in a very Birmo way - taped onto the commemorative urinal. If you want your ten bucks that bad, Mr Frellman...
Birmo popped a reference to the evening, with better Burger lists than I can recall in the comment.
I picked up some merch, a couple of stubbie coolers and a "Team York Street" t-shirt.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Brisbane Weekend
Saturday - Fly in to Brisbane. Meet people at Mana around 14.30. Rig dinner somehow with people at Manabar. Go To Tasmanian Babes Fiasco closing night. Figure out something cool to do Saturday evening. Get back to Parents late Saturday/ Early Sunday. Sleep the sleep of the just. Introduce Adelle to the family, and meet my nieces for the first time. Sunday night - fly back to CNB.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Sports Development - The team player
Inspired by Birmo's piece about sporting development:
From my first sporting development memories, there were lots of kids around playing backyard games. There were the ’straight’ backyard/ street games, like red rover, force-em-backs, scorpion, brandy etc. Also we would play ‘backyard’ modified versions of real sports like cricket, all the football, the Olympics, the winter Olympics, everything. Modified? Heavily modified. There is not a lot of snow in Oz, so luge would be done careening down the street or storm drains on a skateboard, on your back.
Formalised sport was Cricket in summer, and soccer in winter. I played cricket from age 6, and at 39 have missed some season, but played winter cricket enough seasons to say I am into my 32 season of cricket. Cricket started at under 10’s, so I played under 10’s for three years. Soccer didn’t last long, as some of the rules very demanding of the parents. We were in the championship thingy, and it had to be decided. We ended up playing this other team FOUR times. Also, the team culture was vicious. They were training us to slide tackle to maim our opponents - at six years old.
So cricket was summer, but we wandered through a few winter sports. Mum, as a nurse, had violent objections to rugby and the neck injury possibilities, and I already had a neck injury. I remember “Little Athletics” quite fondly, but they most amazing skills leap came from gymnastics. They had us tumble and balance and leap, throw sommersaults etc. I don’t remember it being difficult. I do CLEARLY remember that is where my team sports skills just took off. From the unskilled ruckus of backyard muck-arounds, once I had the physical skills of gymnastics added to my drills, I was in a class above. In cricket, diving, tumbling catches were easy. In athletics, the Frosby flop etc were just modified leaps.
In schoolyard fights, the kids who never did the other sports were like they were standing still. It’s only a step to the side and throw, but I never did any martial arts - these skills just made sense. Don’t be there. Adjust your weight. One of the things you also learn - explaining this is crap. It won’t work. You can’t book read and cheat physical skills. You have to do them. Some people have to do them less times, some people have to practice them for years - but you need to practice.
So I am at the ‘very very’ side of gregarious, and this was done by the exact opposite methods Birmo described. I was doing team sports from age 6, and I ran with mobs of kids to learn the team skills. I also had the fantastic help of gymnastics. I cannot recommend gymnastics enough to anyone, let alone anyone with kids.
From my first sporting development memories, there were lots of kids around playing backyard games. There were the ’straight’ backyard/ street games, like red rover, force-em-backs, scorpion, brandy etc. Also we would play ‘backyard’ modified versions of real sports like cricket, all the football, the Olympics, the winter Olympics, everything. Modified? Heavily modified. There is not a lot of snow in Oz, so luge would be done careening down the street or storm drains on a skateboard, on your back.
Formalised sport was Cricket in summer, and soccer in winter. I played cricket from age 6, and at 39 have missed some season, but played winter cricket enough seasons to say I am into my 32 season of cricket. Cricket started at under 10’s, so I played under 10’s for three years. Soccer didn’t last long, as some of the rules very demanding of the parents. We were in the championship thingy, and it had to be decided. We ended up playing this other team FOUR times. Also, the team culture was vicious. They were training us to slide tackle to maim our opponents - at six years old.
So cricket was summer, but we wandered through a few winter sports. Mum, as a nurse, had violent objections to rugby and the neck injury possibilities, and I already had a neck injury. I remember “Little Athletics” quite fondly, but they most amazing skills leap came from gymnastics. They had us tumble and balance and leap, throw sommersaults etc. I don’t remember it being difficult. I do CLEARLY remember that is where my team sports skills just took off. From the unskilled ruckus of backyard muck-arounds, once I had the physical skills of gymnastics added to my drills, I was in a class above. In cricket, diving, tumbling catches were easy. In athletics, the Frosby flop etc were just modified leaps.
In schoolyard fights, the kids who never did the other sports were like they were standing still. It’s only a step to the side and throw, but I never did any martial arts - these skills just made sense. Don’t be there. Adjust your weight. One of the things you also learn - explaining this is crap. It won’t work. You can’t book read and cheat physical skills. You have to do them. Some people have to do them less times, some people have to practice them for years - but you need to practice.
So I am at the ‘very very’ side of gregarious, and this was done by the exact opposite methods Birmo described. I was doing team sports from age 6, and I ran with mobs of kids to learn the team skills. I also had the fantastic help of gymnastics. I cannot recommend gymnastics enough to anyone, let alone anyone with kids.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Hannah & Abbey-Rose
For 35 years, my mum complained that she was the one girl, surrounded by four boys. 2008, the score was clawed back to 2-4 with the addition of Matthew's wife, Dianne. Over the weekend was the equalizer. I'm an Uncle to two tiny twin girls.
I'll be heading up to see the newly enlarged family after Easter.
Mr Flinthart has requested photos, so here we go. When I said tiny, I meant Tiny - they were born week 31. The doctors have advised that there should be no developmental issues. Dianne is a small lass - I guess they just wanted more room.
I'll be heading up to see the newly enlarged family after Easter.
Mr Flinthart has requested photos, so here we go. When I said tiny, I meant Tiny - they were born week 31. The doctors have advised that there should be no developmental issues. Dianne is a small lass - I guess they just wanted more room.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
My Bro in Town
Fly down Tuesday,
Arrive Canberra go to wedding
Friend Wedding 29th July
Last Wednesday of the month.
Arrive Canberra ??? Late Wed or Mid Thursday.
Suggests Thursday 30th & Friday 31st July off.
Flight Back Sat morning ???
Compulsories: Dickson Noodle House, War memorial, Touristy stuff.
Options: Drinkies or 40k Apocalypse game?
Arrive Canberra go to wedding
Friend Wedding 29th July
Last Wednesday of the month.
Arrive Canberra ??? Late Wed or Mid Thursday.
Suggests Thursday 30th & Friday 31st July off.
Flight Back Sat morning ???
Compulsories: Dickson Noodle House, War memorial, Touristy stuff.
Options: Drinkies or 40k Apocalypse game?
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