Rum & Dal

With Deeyan happily sleeping through the night after 10months and with me still on maternity, we decided it was time to take him to visit the family back home in the UK. So having read rave reviews for the services provided by Emirates when flying with babies, I booked flights in no time. As any mother, travelling on a long flight for the first time would do,  I called the airline prior to departure asking about baby foods, formula and bassinet to make the 24hour flight as less stressful as possible.  To my relief, I was told all Emirates flights have microwaves so I could premix baby formula and it would be heated as and when required.  I was informed that the bassinet would be available but I would have to arrive at the airport three hours prior to boarding so that they could check the size of the infant. “OK”, I thought, “Whats the big deal? At least I get a bassinet.”

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So yeah, I have searched Google to get some help with babies and jet lag.  There really isn’t much out there so the following is our experience and of course, every baby is different. Deeyan has always had trouble settling, it was only at 10 months did he sleep through the night with a fantastic controlled crying method I was taught through a good friend. (If you’re lucky I will get her to write a blog on it).

Anyway, jet lag! We travelled from Australia to the UK, stopping in Dubai, with a total travel time of 24hours. On the way there, Deeyan was fantastic. No jet lag what so ever.  He stayed up the whole day and slept through the night with a little controlled crying.The only issues he gave us for sleep were adjusting to new environments.

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I’ve had my Dell Inspiron 1520 for about 2.5 years now and I thought it was time for a little “pimping” As you know its pretty difficult to upgrade a laptop due to many integrated parts, so what can you do to make a differance? Upgrade the RAM, hard drive and OS?  Originally my Dell spec was Windows Vista 32bit (Home Premium) 3GB RAM and 250GB Hard drive (5400rpm)

I ended up replacing the conventional spinning hard drive with a 30Gb solid state drive with windows 7 home premium 64bit

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The folks have been and gone and we had a fantastic time with them.  They livened the house up, did a grand job on the garden (with a little supervision) and kept us entertained with their stories of home.  I was so worried about them at the airport thinking they would be bringing at least one of them out on a wheelchair.  I was so wrong though, they were the last to come out but they came bouncing out! If anything Rum and I looked terrible, as it was almost 1 in the morning.

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It’s been a while since I completed my 40Km bike ride around Melbourne City so i’ve decided to team up with a few guys from work and attempt a 100Km ride.

I haven’t really been back on the bike due to the weather and lack of motivation but this will do the trick.  I have until the 18th October to get into shape and learn to ride on the busy roads.  It will be a beautiful and scenic ride as the full 100Km will be along side the Bay, lets hope the weather is good and not windy.  If anyone has any helpful tips please pass them on.

Feel free to check out the route I think i will get some road tyres for my bike just to get less friction on the road.  “Every little helps”  You’ll see that i’m not acutually doing the full ride, 250Km is more than what i can endure; maybe next year for that.

This is a yearly event to raise money this year we will be raising money for the Smith Family who help disadvantaged Aussie kids.  Feel free to sponsor me

Say hello to the Australian Red Back Spider.  This little guy isn’t very big but his bite is real nasty.  We have had three of these in the garage since we first moved in, but after boarding up the gaps we haven’t seen one since.  Fingers crossed we don’t! There was one on Rum’s tool box and he almost grabbed it went he reached for his tools but pulled back just in time.  You can’t be too careful in an Australian garage.  So we took a trip to Safeway to get some insect spray and there was a whole section on the stuff! You can buy sprays to kill just about anything with more than 2 legs! You even get surface sprays that will kill for up to 6months (so they say).

We are yet to see a White-tailed or a Huntsman.  My friend, Mere, tells me, “You will know when you see a Huntsman!” After reading Wikipedia, I think I can wait forever to see one of them! They are so big that I would be too scared to even step on one.  Not even sure it would get sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.

We’ve also been introduced to cockroaches out here.  Only really seen one type so far, not too big but too many legs and those antennae… shudder! The worst thing is it will climb anything and anywhere and on top of that the little sh** jumps! Again though, these can be controlled with sprays, so luckily I only see dead ones.

Moths here are on another level altogether. They are so damned big and they flutter noisely.  We went to sleep one night and all of a sudden we heard something around our heads.  I got up like a shot as I knew what it was.  Good thing about moths is they are pretty dumb. I put the light on in the hallway, it went out, I shut the door and left it there till the morning.  Haven’t seen one since, don’t know how it snuck in.

I know In the UK we see one spider a year, a moth or two but never a cockroach.  Well they do take getting used to but they leave you alone and you do get used to them. Never thought I would say it, but as I have seen so many now they are getting boring.  I’ll find out when theres a Huntsman in my bed! Oh and I am not dettering anyone from visiting… you will be safe in the house I promise