Untitled Document

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2007

Merry Christmas

Bravely or foolishly, we do one of these every year ..we figure if we can give our friends and family a good laugh at christmas...we're happy

Christmas day was a cruizy affair involving cold beer,a bottle of champas,prawns, salad, heaps of home made chrissy sweets (courtesy of Emmy) a spot of croquet and many laughs!!

Ty ready for take off "Nah Nah..it's cool. ...........................................................I know how to fly this thing ..promise!

Santa was exeptionally good to me with new skateboard bearings, santa cruz t-shirt, book of 400 Ansel Adams photgraphs, an amazingly inspirational Sigur Ros DVD and my very own 'living dinosaur' in the form of a Wollemi Pine ...needless to say I was a very happy little kid on christmas day..

Brotherly Love

November saw my brother, Murray, return for a visit from Western Australia...and put his unmistakeable stamp on family, friends and my parents house for a week (they were unfortunately...or maybe fortunately...holidaying in Tassie)

My brother is one of those free spiritied, positive, charming and adventurous people that is liked by everybody...I'm sure you all know one...the person can't do anything wrong..that always seem to land on their feet running and do it without a worry in the world.Don't get me wrong,,he has his moments, but at the end of the day thoughts of him bring a smile to my face. If I had to sum him up I think I'd use the phrase "annoyingly likeable".He was doing moves like this on the skate ramp and doing them like he had one in his back yard! I was made to feel even better when I was informed "hey dad uncle Muz is heaps better than you"

within a few hours of his return, we found ourselves in Bunnings, myself buying some gear for 'stage 4' skatey ramp renovations..while murray hunted around for some items he told me was for a 'beer bong' a device that "lets you scull a beer in 3 seconds".My initial reaction was that ,being an appreciator of the golden stuff, was that how much could you really appreciate a beer in 3 seconds?? His response "trust me".Anyway I didn't get to try it before his return so the jurys still out on that one..maybe one day.

The truth of the matter is that I can't help but love the little bugger and.... Muz... I,m gonna practise and practice till I can do one of these...

except twice as high!!!

Learning to Fly

November saw another watershed moment in Fin learning to surf and catching his first real wave.This was truly a highlight of the month for me..seeing that stoked grin in his face..doing something that is such an important thing in my life...and just absolutley loving it!! .We started going down before school, quite often Fin being the one to get up and drag me out of bed.That time of the morning is just magic. A mate and local surfboard shaper Ryan O'Connell (Nexus Surfboards) and two of his sons, Oscar and Jack(pictured above), are also well and truly bitten by the bug it seems ..

Seeing that pure enthusiasm just takes me back to a very happy and enlightening part of my childhood ..and it really makes me feel stoked seeing my son enjoying that same stoke...Like Ryan was telling me about his first real decent wave..unexpectedly finding himself upon open green face going at what would've seemed warp speed..then jumping through the wave because he didn't know what to do..I'd give anything to be at that stage again..oh well these little grommets have got something special to look forward to..

Analogue and Digital

(Jo Jo bubbles vs Microsoft bubbles)

One thing that really blows me out (if I get into the trap of thinkin' n about it too hard) is the rapid and expenential growth of digital technology...My dad can recount a computer that took up a whole room when he was at Uni in the 60s..that had the same computing power as a $2 calculator now. When I was 12 my dad proudly rocked home with a Dick Smith VZ 200.., complete with,wait for it, 64Kb expansion memory module! 20 years later and i'm zonig out watchin these little bubbles float around the computer screen by simply, it seems, combining a shit load of ones and zeros!...One thing but brothers..it's not the technology itself that's amazing..it's what you can do with it . We still live in an analogue world.. digitalism is only a medium for getting it from its origin back into our heads! This little rant has been my revelation for this month after seeing some Jo Jo bubbles at Willows preschool party.

This is Jo Jo..as well a spinning plates...she makes the bubbles on the left..and it was after watching a stiff southerly carry these little babies over the heads of smiling, laughing and jumping 4 year olds that I realised it's not that hard to keep it simple and keep it real! something that is even more poignant at this particular stage of the year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not totally anti digital..This reformed computer illiterate has a newly found respect after building this website from scratch..(with a fair degree of fumbling and help from friends along the way. Photographically, I'm currently saving for a Canon G9 or maybe even a Nikon D200..but at the same time setting up a new darkroom so I can develop the film I take with my Nikon F2.....just to keep it interesting..

That anticipation of actually waiting to get the film back from the mini lab...not knowing what little gems might be on there, or reeling out a dripping wet roll of black and white from a developing tank is something I think I will always make the point of doing every now and again.

Words of Wisdom by Willow

Emma just had a conversation with him that went something like this:

" Mum, do we have any mangoes?"....."no, but you can eat that apricot that's in your lunchbox"....."but it's got a bum" (me thinking he said 'bump')....."no, it's OK"....."are they born with bums?" (oh, now I know what he said)....."yes they are"......."well I don't want to eat it with a bum"..(actually taken from Ems Hazy Jane blog)

other amusing quotes form the little man include:

"daaad!...I'm gonna thirst to death if you dont get me drink!"

"Mum I love you forever and Trevor"

To his brother Fin.."Get your big head out of my attitude!"

Upon seeing a pigeon on a power wire "Dad..if that bird touches the pole with his tail..he will get electric shooted ..."

Random Images

Yo's christmas card (and yes he made the tree)