thadfad

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Found this unfinished draft of notes to self to remind me of this we did aroudn Oct - Nov 2008.

D, T and I went to the Peninsula as I was doing my Advanced course. As I did my dives, T and D looked for accomodation and found a great place called White Hall. It's an original Victorian house that was refurbished to be a small hostel. We were pretty lucky to get accomodation cause it was Schoolies week. John joined us after his harrowing experience of being stranded at Frankston cause the bus broke down. While I was diving and such, Don, Thad and John explored Mornington Peninsula, initially wanting to go fishing, but decided it was too expensive to hire rods and buy bait. They decided to go cockle dancing instead. A method of finding and collecting molluscs by digging one's foot into the sand and twisting it around deeper and deeper till it finds the hard shell of a e.g. cockle. They worked hard but couldn't find anything. Don was obsessed about it for a period and even invested in a bloody cockle pump and bucket and we would go very frequenty to try to get cockles that way. We haven't caught anything till now, more than half a year later.

The next day, we had a scrumptious lunch of fish and prawns and bangers barbie at Rye pier, where we met a few schoolies kids who we donated food to. Deja vous. I remember going around Pasir Ris chalet asking people for food for fun when i was silly, carefree and young too. Thad played in the playground as we ate and decided to spin around and around till he felt "funny" and continued to feel "funny" when we got home an hour later. I unfortunately got a seeding ticket for driving at 102km / h in a 100 km / h road.

Nxt wk: Mornington Pen - Sorrento Natl Park Rock Pool, Peninsula Hot Spirngs

Seeing that we loved our time at White Hall (must have been the free breakkie) and Mornington so much, we decided to head down again the next week. D and T took me to the Sorrento National Park rock pool that they explored the last time around. It was a quiet enclave, hidden away and thus, very private. We climbed over rocks and explored all the sea creatures in the fantastatically clear, refreshing knee deep water.

We indulged at Peninsula Hot Springs and Thad had a blast immersing himself 12 times in the outdoor freezing water whilst I languidly sat in the warmest.

Thad got a certificate of success from Mrs Hamilton. He hasn't got one this year (grade 2). It's now called "You can Do It Student Achievement Award".

Some time last year, I decided to try Russian Food after my Russian colleague, Anna, recommended this restaurant. Grace, Seok Ming, D, T and I went to this place in Elsternwick. Can't remember what it's called but we tried to go there once before and couldn't find it cause the entrance is a small, unobtrusive black gate. Anyhow, a Russian Jews for Chirst type group was having a function there as well and there was lots of Russian singing and dancing (don't know if this is a regular thing or part of the function) and lots and lots of food. IT WAS A FEAST! Everything was great! Thad and I danced and we were deliriously happy.

Thaddeus would like to proclaim:

Thaddeus has mastered Rasengan, Chidori, Vermillion Rasengan and Chidori Lament.

We have erected a Christmas Tree, adorned with a Rubber Lizard, Stuffed toy Gorilla, Paper Dragon, a paper letter E, Mr Clumsy Mr Men, foam bullet, felt Lion mask, Thaddeus' Christmas Star and other decorations.

Will post pics when I find the usb camera card reader / putter-upper of photos onto the Internet thingymajig.

Donald had his Interview for his Masters in Psychology today at Monash Uni. He looked great in his $3 Op-shop blazer (Dandenong Savers rawks!), tight black jeans and $2 op-shop bag. Mod-king. No one deserves this more than him. Hope he gets in.

Thaddeus has pointed out that rawks is splet ronglee. tank yew.

On the point of linguistics, Thad had German day at school on Wednesday. Don helped out last year with the Bratwurst grilling but was tied up with ME! on a date to watch the new James Bond this year. It was great!!!! I'm a huge James Bond fan, opting to indulge in Bond-ing of the Martini-drinking version than the chemical variety during my O Levels. Purist that I am, I hadn't watched the 1st Daniel Craig Bond and really didn't want to watch Quantum Solace. I almost ran out of the theatre when the opening theme wasn't the original enigmatic sleuth theme but a Jack Black popish song. Luckily I stayed. Rougishly charming Daniel Craig was great in portraying Bond's early days and the plot does alot to explain his psyche.

We're going to Elsternwick to check out Russian food.

We went to a video game convention on Saturday. It was great! Would have liked to dress up, though... even more so at the Comic Con last week where Don went crazy like a sugar-high kid given Willy Wonka's secret stash and we played laser tag.

Donald is officially a geek.

He won 1st place in a knockout xbox 360 Pro Evolution Soccer competition against 20 or so other pot-bellied, unshaven, fashion faux pas men, who obviously had not ventured outdoors in a long time. He won a Best Prize Bag Ever! Snot.

Today, we went to Dingley Village Adventure Golf. Great family fun! Two 18-hole minigolf courses, one indoor, the other outside, with nifty slides, pulleys, tubes, tunnels and other contraptions that carry the golfball in mathematically determined spots. Thaddeus scored 62 swings above par, which happened to be the lucky score and won a free game certificate.

Donald and I are ecstatic! He's got a confirmed position for Masters of Counselling at Monash '09 and an interview for Masters of Psychology coming up. Yay!!!!!

Grrrrrr... This is a snippet of Thaddeus and our daily life.

Don / Mel: How was school?
Thad: Good.
Don / Mel: What did you do today?
Thad: I forgot.

The "I forgot"s, "Are we there yet"s, "I'm bored"s and most irritating to Donald, "Whatever..." (which he probably mirrors me) alternating with the ignoring you completely. Ahhh... childhood.

#Thaddeus' 2008 School Performance, "Twisted Tales", singing It's a Hard Knock Life.

#Thaddeus' Halloween Dress Up Day - he had a rather phallic hat with a vanguard sheet and surgical caps. He wanted to be a haunted chef. He used a hospital robe and I painted "Want Some Blood?" in red fabric pain on the back. I dressed up in a surgical jumpsuit stuffed with 2 pillows and drew a mostauche, as a fat plumber. His outfit was so special (and obviously homemade) that they interviewed him. Donald declined to dress up.

#Thaddeus is skinny.

Thaddeus is sitting over my shoulder, moderating. Should have named him Alek, Smart. Or Mr Noel Eat All.

Talking about eating, Thaddeus had a moral epiphany last month. It was a usual Spring day, filled with my watering nose, itchy eyes on fire and throat with a bee buzzing in it. We decided to go to a nearby Vietnamese restaurant, MyMy for dinner. Thad ordered a pork and prawn dish and crispy chicken. They were really good and we were enjoying ourselves immeasurably... until Thad, out of the blue, asked, "Mommy, do you prefer live Chicken or Dead Chooks? I prefer live ones cause it's cruel to kill animals." Then, unusual disquiet for 2 minutes. Then he started wailing! He had decided that it was far too cruel to kill animals and had decided to become vegetarian. Don and I, the world's largest carnivores, have persuaded him to compromise and eat 3 serves of meat a week, but how does a 6 (and a half - as Thaddeus points out) year old boy make his moral judgement? Peer pressure? TV? Pop culture? In any case, I was secretly proud of my potential PETA champion. And, as Don points out, so was Don.

Thad lost a tooth!!!!! His 1st baby tooth!!!!! And he's got another one shaky, hopefully just in time for Chithmuth, tho we can take goofy picthures with a gap in hith mouth. He was ecstatic... pregnant with anticipation about the tooth fairy visiting him for the first time. He wrote a letter to the fairy-persun that for his 1st tooth, he'd like a Bakugan toy. He woke up at 12Am that morning bawling, cause he looked under the pillow and his tooth and letter were gone, but the toy was no where in sight!!!!!! Turns out, the tooth fairy hid the toy under his school clothes (in preparation for school) cause the tooth fairy reckoned that putting a 20cm box under a child's pillow would make for one uncomfortable night's sleep. He finally went back to bed after much cuddles and assurances, only to wake again at 4AM, crying again cause he missed his tooth. Twas a sleepless night afterall. He thought that for his 2nd tooth, he would write to the tooth fairy to ask that he keep his tooth instead of money, but decided against it, cause "the tooth fairy needs to help the other people that need teeth".

And, Thaddeus' 2 cents: Thaddeus is writing 2 books. I have almost finished one. That's all.

I'm taking my Advanced Open Water Course in 2 weeks. So exciting!