Bespectacled

I've been getting headaches for a couple of months, more so in the last few weeks. Someone suggested I go and get my eyes checked. So on Tuesday I did.

And on Wednesday I picked up my new specs for reading and computer work. I do a lot of reading at home and work and a lot of computer work... I'll be wearing these a lot.

Picture taken with my computer at work - sorry for the blurriness. Or perhaps that's just my eyes??

How do I feel about this?

I'm in two minds about it. When I was a kid I always wished I had glasses. They looked cool. I liked the "smart librarian" sort of image. I had a pair of my brother's old frames (with no lenses) which I put on sometimes, just to see how it looked. (It looked extremely daggy - they were not a very nice pair of specs.)

But on the other hand, I was glad that I didn't need them. Two brothers with glasses and two parents with glasses... I was the one with perfect 20/20 vision. There was none of the inconvenience of glasses or the painful fiddling with contact lenses.

So now, I don't mind "the look"... there've been a few compliments. That's been nice. But they are a concrete sign that I'm not getting any younger, as they say. That age is catching up with me. Or maybe it's just the bad lighting in my office and too much time in front of the computer screen. I was told that eyes don't dramatically change until one is 40 and I've still got 5-ish years before then!

Oh well. I can't complain. At least the headaches have gone!

A colourful wedding

Our dear friends Red Bec (as opposed to "Auntie Bec") and Joel got married on the Easter long weekend. A much more informal affair than my sister-in-law's the week before but no less enjoyable and happy!


Things I loved about this wedding:

• It was a late afternoon event, not too late for the kids (and boy there were a lot of young kids)!


• The bride wore a bright green dress and no shoes, and the groom had an equally bright red shirt. Love the colours.


• At the ring-exchanging part of the ceremony the celebrant asked, "Does the best man have the pen?"... The couple drew a bow around each others' fingers instead!


• There was not just one wedding cake. Instead the couple had asked some friends and family to bring a cake so there were many to choose from for dessert.


• The kids were well thought of. A "Kids' play area" was set up with a drawing station and playdough and and other toys.

Thanks so much, Bec and Joel! It was a wonderful afternoon/evening. More pics in my flickr set.

School holidays again... already!

It seems like the kids had only just started school when holidays suddenly came upon us again. For the last two weeks-ish the boys have been home except for a couple of days at vacation care activities.

Thankfully Dan has been looking after them most of the time. He's got more leave than this part-timer.

We've managed to fit quite a few excursions and events in during the time, though. Hopefully I'll write more about them soon... but in summary, a wedding, a birthday party, a picnic, a movie, a visit, a grand Adventure (really, just a trip into the city and on a ferry), a trip to the Powerhouse Museum and numerous trips to the shops.

Tiring, no?

New life starting

Here be the window sill of my "hand washing room". (As Captain Feathersword would say. And the kids.)


On the right is my African Violet plant.


I've had one there since we moved into this house. My mother-in-law bought the first. It died last year. Then we bought a bunch of plants as gifts for the carers at child care. A couple of big leaves broke off one of them and it didn't look gift-worthy any more, so we kept it.

So pretty.


Here's one of the broken-off leaves. My mother told me to stick it in a pot and water it to keep it alive.


And three months later, more than three months later, something has finally started to happen. The start of a shoot appeared just at the base of the leaf. Can you see it?


I don't know if I'm more amazed at this growth from virtually nothing, or the fact that I was able to keep the leaf alive long enough for it to sprout. I'm very proud, in any case.