chrissy 06

merry christmas from Coburg.
Been living here for over a year now & routines are becoming set.
I feel like I've dropped out of contact with far too many people lately. Whether or not this leads anywhere depends on me, i guess. New demands & new priorities have developed, anyway. Isn't that what life is all about?
We've managed to keep everything pretty simple here. Operating on one car has been fine. We missed one birthday dinner when the car was at the mechanic, otherwise it's been easy. Cath rides to work mostly, except when the extreme weather policy is enacted & the Sydney Road tram is called upon. She's 26 weeks pregnant now. 14 to go (or thereabouts).
I've been stay-at-home dad for the past 6 weeks or so. It's been mostly brilliant, with some tough bits & some (surprisingly) lonely bits thrown in. Stephanie is coming up to 14 months & is walking more confidently each day. She still chooses to crawl (rapidly) when there's a firm destination in mind - she puts her head down & races forwards, knees & hands slapping the floor, eyes fixed on the ground in front, only looking up to see if she's on the right bearing. Sounds of slapping palms and panting breaths fill the house when Steph is about these days. And singing and the musical grunt she produces to direct your attention to something she has/ wants/ would like to show you.
Never did get around to writing Christmas cards this year.
Something I typically like to do.
Particularly with my lack of general correpondence this year... Hope all is well & that you enjoy a break. Adios amigos.

saltwater

Salt water sampling at Dromana.
Ahhh - happiness is a warm beach.

I'm going (a little) stir-crazy at home.
Looking forward to engaging again in the world.
This full-time at-home gig is Tough.

from the south 12

G’DAY from Coburg.
November.
With only one more assignment to submit, the university year will soon be over & I will be qualified to teach maths & science in this State of ours. And I’ll be doing so at Brunswick Secondary College from 30 January next year. I’m very happy about this.
There are many reasons why this is the best school for me right now: I feel it is a terrific fit with me both personally & professionally - AND it’s a 15 minute bike ride away along the Upfield line track. The concrete path, sprinkled with broken glass in places, runs alongside the train track. My daily commute will take in the back of the Brunswick tram depot, the mayhem of Moreland Road junction, parkland at Moreland station, the confusing, narrow, dense pocket of life at Anstey station, the cyclone fencing & factories of underbelly Brunswick and the Brunswick City baths.

Rapt to be close to home, especially as Catherine is now coming up to 20 weeks pregnancy (half way). Stephanie had her first birthday recently (picture - introduction to chocolate cake) & now a little sibling is on the way. This household is already so full of life; I can’t imagine where will put any more…Looking forward to finding the room & living this life very much.

Stephanie is teaching herself balance. She has been cruising around on two legs, holding onto furniture, for a while now. And lately she has started to stand up in free space. Walking will be next. Watching & helping her learn is awesome.

Sometimes on my travels around Melbourne, it feels as though I’ve stepped into a timewarp. Riding around Brunswick & Carlton, especially, where I’ve left so much of myself over the years. Walking through Barkly Square, or past the Kent Hotel. Or riding alongside Princes Park. Remember jogging that path with Titta & trying to maintain enough breath to hold a conversation? Remember inventing soccer ball-golf there with Brent & Catherine? And sometimes the ghosts of the past materialise in front of me. Jess & Nicko standing there outside Safeway last Sunday, talking about trips & nights out. And my Coburg life of a dad and a house and all seems other-worldly.

How many different versions of ourselves are out there in the world, I wonder…? What is the Carlton-me doing this Saturday night? Is Brunswick-me involved in the election? Coburg-me will be walking down to Sydney Road later today to visit the library & to buy a block of Italian parmesan, wheeling the pusher that carries Stephanie.

And what of Fannie Bay-me? We had a visit from Top End mates earlier this week, who stopped in for 2 nights. That was not only a timewarp, but a spacewarp too. Walking with them the streets of Coburg was a strange sensory experience: my expectation was for stifling humidity & glimpses of pandanus; instead we had callistemon in flower, and a coolish wind. Great to meet their little boy. Babies appear in this story with some frequency these days.

Time warp conditions prevailed one hot Saturday recently, when I rummaged through the cupboard for my set of cricket whites; I was rolling out again. Had the emergency phone call on the Thursday night: “we’re short, can you play on Saturday?” Thankfully it was a 1-day match as my joints were seizing up after only 40 overs in the field. Sent down 8 probing, high pace, high quality overs (well, it was 8 overs, anyway) for 1/26. We lost. I couldn’t walk properly until the following Wednesday.

All is well here, water crisis & climate change notwithstanding.
Cheers to installing an energy efficient globe in your place today.
adios amigos, dave.

from the south 11

more sunlight than darkness each day now & a few very warm days already & the driest catchments many have known & reservoirs at single figure percentages of capacity & a bushfire in Sydney & it's only september & it's all pointing to a rough old summer ahead & a rough future if you think about it & perhaps we could all make a difference by making the right choices & by choosing to help ourselves & each other & our common future.
Avoid that car trip.
turn that light off.
live in a small house.
walk to the shop.
buy local.
not preaching, thinking.

Catherine is 13 weeks along the pregnancy journey & the little Munro Munchkin is making it's presence felt. Presently Stephanie is the centre of attention, but I guess that will soon change. Steph is crawling quickly & up steps & over to the couch & there she pulls herself up to standing & dances like Elvis Presley with pelvic thrusts & grins aplenty.

Just had a long weekend at Phillip Island renting out a house with other mates & playing Survivor games & kicking a footy & tasting wine & bowling a cricket ball at stumps & throwing balls into a bin & playing song title pictionary & trying some blindfolded antics in the name of competition. Great holiday.

I'll be on teaching rounds for the next 3 weeks at University High School - my final round of the Dip Ed - and i'll be qualified to teach shortly thereafter. Looking for a suitable position for next year.

Coburg life is brilliant. We've all been riding along the Merri Creek trail together - with Stephanie in a seat mounted on the back of my bike. That seat was my very first father's day present & it is sure to get a lot of use along the picturesque Merri Creek, among the acacias & eucalypts. When the magpies call, it feels like we're in the bush. Chopped down a pine tree in our backyard the other week - it turned out to be a tricky job, but it cam crashing down courtesy of one handsaw, one very long ladder & one axe. The southern sky has opened up to us & the feeling is good.

Had about 14 near-1-year-olds & their parents at our place for a combined first birthday party recently. So much life. So much dribble. And everywhere hopes & dreams & confusion & smiles. I'm writing this on the 26th September. One month from today Stephanie turns One. time flies. life happens. ciao!

south 10

Spending some good old time with music in the air & tokay in the glass. Hey I flicked through the Money section of The Age this morning (v.unusual) and guess what I read? There was a profile article on a fella who had made his fortune on setting up a futures market – forecasting the demand for a product blah blah. The article was a double page spread (successful guy) and ended with five snapshot questions: Biggest break, Best investment, etc. Question: “Biggest regret”. Answer: “I should have spent more time with my children when they were growing up and with my spouse (he is divorced).”
We’ve been neglecting the forecasts of futures markets in Coburg, I’m afraid. But tidied up the garden & recently cooked up two spanking great BBQ lunches with mates soaking up winter sun out the back. Cooked up the booty from my earlier win in the Montague Hotel Meat Tray Raffle – porterhouse, pork snags, lamb shanks, etc etc, for an outlay of $2 on ticket number 88. Et like carnivores at a fresh kill.
The strength of this winter sun is a bit weird. Good if you're into climate change, i guess. Uni life is setting a rollicking beat with assignments & work required seemingly every day. It’s reached a point where no learning is taking place, rather we’re all struggling to keep our heads above water. There’s a lesson there for future teachers, I’m sure. But when a pearl of wisdom nestles home, it’s a great feeling & I’m growing evermore confident about the teaching life.
Catherine is teaching, too. She’s taught Stephanie clapping & waving & turning the pages of books & sometimes Stephanie acts in a way that suggests she knows far more than she has been letting on.
The bad news is that it’s Thursday now and already I’m looking forward to a TV show that screens on Saturday night called RockWiz & we were saying last week that it wasn’t that long ago that we were going to the Evelyn/ Cornish Arms/ Retreat Hotels for a bit of Saturday night live music whereas now we switch over to the Espy from the comfort of tracky dax on the couch! Back in my day?! Crikey – the slide has begun.
Catherine is pregnant now so another little one is due to arrive here at the end of March. Stephanie will become a big sister. These here are amazing times. Ciao all.

from the south 9

So now Stephanie is playing & we’re playing & she’s not crawling but by golly she’s warming up on the starting blocks & we’re dancing in the kitchen under the light of the fluorescent energy saver globe to entertain Steph & we’re loading & listening to our CD collection on iTunes free software & the track right now says: “wake up lazy bones, I’ve been watching you & wondering & now the morning’s gone” & I stick it on random-mode & any one of 2302 songs will play next & we’re home from a Sunday BBQ lunch & we’ve been for a walk around the back streets Coburg & the lemons are all ripening & laden branches are draped over fences & lemons hang within plucking distance & for all it’s low low prices has anyone come across a more disorganized shop than Bi-Lo & the ducted heating coming into it’s own in the depths of the southern winter & memories of bright sun & humidity & whistling kites & pandanus spiralis now quite distant & other-worldly.
Walking along the Merri Creek among flowering Acacias & singing magpies (carna ‘pies) & tracking the curving path to CERES Environmental Park in Brunswick for a cuppa & cake alongside the chooks & walking home to Coburg with the northern winter sun in our faces & then our 9-month old girl contracting the Melbourne chest cold of July 2006 & barking her way through every night for at least a week & CJ celebrating a birthday & going to the movies for the first time post-Steph (Jindabyne) & the dawning realization that life in Melbourne 2006 is very very different to life in Melbourne 2004. Nights at the pub? Nil. Bands seen? Nil. Family days in the cool & grey & green & shade? Every day.
Second teaching placement of the Dip Ed now over & back to uni as a student next week & enjoying the placement & getting some terrific feedback from students & other teachers & very much looking forward to life as a teacher & CJ working 3 days/ week now.
Holidays in the Grampians as a family very cool & very freezing cold with overnight temperatures around minus 3 & the 270km road trip to Halls Gap taking all day with a grazing lunch stop in Ballarat & an afternoon pot in the Ararat front bar & thinking that on the Stuart Highway we would have covered that distance before brekky & loving the tranquil pace set by the demands of a little ‘un & frost & cockatoos & a burnt-out shell of a landscape around Halls Gap with charred Eucalypts as far as sight can see & regrowth sprouting defiant & bushy & green from the trunks at every turn & climbing Mt. Zero in the north with panoramic views of olive crops & climbing in the fog in the south & wheeling the pram to the summit of Mt William & there was no need to take half the gear we did. Slow cooking spaghetti in the cabin at night as the frost came down & Steph sleeping on the floor & all of us bunking in together for night after night in the quiet & the cold. Ahhh, the bush. Ahh, abbotsford Invalid Stout.

south 8 (& feelin it)

"If you think you loved a wild one,
Surely now you knew.." -tim rogers

june. winter in the south.
I feel well pooped and ready for a rest. The end of uni semester coincided with the climax of my job & all of it coincided with some extra teaching & through it all of course were (&are) fun times with Catherine & with Stephanie.

CJ & I dined out at Pearl, saw Lano & Woodley, CJ had a mother's day(!) & we've caught up with people & eaten too much (way too many chocolate biscuits). Winter appears to be the chocolate season. This clashes with my previous understanding that summer was the chocolate season. And more recently I believed that autumn was definitely the chocolate season. Now I know I was wrong both times.

We're re-discovering the Melbourne winter idea of cooking up a roast. knocking off some rosemary sprigs from the garden of a house around the corner & slow cooking a roast. yum. bottle of red. yum. Ah - to feel some cool weather once more...

Riding the bike around in the mornings is taking some psychological fortitude. Fog. Numb fingers. Icy wind in the eyes. Tears & dribble. Hmmm. Bracing.

I'm on a break from uni now for a few weeks. Next placement begins on 10 July. CJ works on for Melbourne Uni as a researcher, moving to 3 days/week soon. Steph will spend 2 days with CJ, 1-2 days with me and 1-2 days with Mum. She's over 7 months old now & sitting up & shoving everything she can into her mouth.

Stephanie's songs & gurgles & squeaks & laughs & cries & yelps & grunts & hysterical wailings & whimpers & whistles & clicks can fill the house. This morning she woke up singing.
Her gaze is intense & her interest in most things really obvious. Her face grows evermore expressive. Catherine & I are loving these days & their routines which involve feeds of yoghurt, feeds of vegies, dances around the loungeroom, baths, walks to the park & chasing the afternoon sun around the house.
We chopped the tops off 3 trees in the front yard last week, to catch some more of that afternoon sun. The winter gloom is more gloomy than I remember it being (back in winter '04).

Loving this winter. With the 'Woods in good form, red wine back on the agenda & a bit of afternoon sun, how good is that?
Hope all is well for you & yours.

from the south 7

G’day all,
It’s a strange time in Coburg. Winter arrived with its colds southerlies & icy rain & low skies & big dark overcoats & dark clothes & dark rooms in dark houses very suddenly here. Four weeks ago it was hot. But it seems autumn has been skipped this year.
Cold-weather footy is back. Went to watch Collingwood in Round 1. Collingwood Football Club was defeated by Adelaide Basketball Club. Chip-chip-chip. Keep possession. Kick sideways. Kick backwards. Chip-chip-chip. Utterly infuriating.
And I’ve experienced high school teaching now, with three weeks of Year 8 Maths, Science and Year 11 Maths. Placement was a great learning experience – so much happening in schools, and a very wide array of teaching styles consider. It was a tiring time for us all; Catherine & Stephanie carried a huge load during that time.
Steph will be 6 months old on Wednesday. Howabout that?!
It somehow makes all the recent meals (visits and visitors) with family & mates feel more special with the knowing of Steph’s little milestone. More & more I’m realizing that these shared experiences are the bricks of life. I think the mortar is probably the attitude or philosophy you bring to a situation. Maybe. I’ll think about it a bit more. Certainly, we have been lucky to make many shared bricks lately.
Listening to Tim Rogers here: “As the social climbers pack their four wheel drives out to the coast/Drag this load out to the bay & just let him float away” …and reading John Banville. Eclipse.
Work & daily life did, I’m afraid, consume a little too much of me lately. But very happy to have emerged from the Frantic Times & to be again writing stories & again strumming the 6-strings & again singing in the shower.
May your shower be full of songs today & tomorrow!
Salutations!
(And many thoughts to those in Darwin as Cyclone Monica tracks ever closer)
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDD65011.shtml

from the south 6

g'day -
this is the best time of year in Melbourne, I reckon. Cold mornings and bright sunnny days. Haven't seen any fog yet - that's probably still a month away. But
it's been my birthday. 31 now.
We ventured down to the Yarra River last week to check out this reported Games Fever gripping the city. Apart from visits from Mum in her volunteers uniform &
parking her Games car in the driveway, the whole thing had nearly slipped by without us noticing. Last week was the first time CJ or I had hung out in town in at
least 18 months & it has really changed a lot. The city square has again been redesigned. The general hatred & avoidance of Federation Square that I remember appears to have turned around 180degrees - the place was chockers. And someone put parks & gardens on the north side of the river. Good idea.
Melbourne scrubbed up well.
Steph seemed to have a good time visiting her city for the first time, but wasn't too thrilled with the loop section of the train ride. Life is on Fast Forward for the next week or so here, as CJ is working 2 days/week, I am still working for
Charles Darwin Uni & my first placement in a school begins on Monday 27th. I've been placed at Brunswick Secondary College for 3 weeks...
ciao all.

from the south 5

g'day,
I used to think that life flew by very quickly. With a new marker of time, Stephanie, life is roaring by like never before. She’s been with us nearly 4 months now & yes, since last time she has grown & grown & developed & grown a bit more. In the olden days, we gauged the passage of time through events/ places/ journeys. Nowadays it seems we gauge the passage of time through the growing of a person.

We don’t really get out & about much these days; one trip per day is about it. And a walk to the supermarket counts as a trip. These walks are little journeys of discovery & enlightenment such that we, like young European aristocrats, now know the virtues of a parasol on a sunny day. So we spend a lot of time in Coburg. Knowing other parents. Bumping into people at the shops. It’s happening. The feeling of community is at the tips of our fingers.

Meanwhile, the back porch is a happy place to be. Birds twitter and flap around in the aviary next door; the lemon tree we planted last year has established; and two acacia seedlings that we picked up from the CERES market in Brunswick are kicking on. Ruefully, however, I must report the recent death by cat attack of three birds in our very back yard. A ginger cat from 2 doors down appeared in our yard one morning, whose stealthy stalking was screened most effectively by some (admittedly) pretty long grass. And then POUNCE. Whammo. Dead bird. Three times. Terrible.

The big trip of recent times was a three night adventure I had in Darwin for work. Weird to be back there. Back walking the streets we’d inhabited for 12 months. Back in the land of monsoon and iced coffee and the NT News. But back without Catherine. Walking along the Fannie Bay cliff tops without her felt like walking without my shadow, or without my whole self. It felt a bit empty. A bit surreal. I wanted to tell stories & show things, but couldn’t. Touch down in Melbourne was brilliant but even better was being greeted by Catherine & Stephanie as I walked through the plane doors.

And so the days slip by.
Sometimes they glide by.
Sometimes they frazzle by; or perhaps we frazzle through them.
But mostly they pulse from one session of Steph-awake time to the next. These days she breaks into a huge smile when eye contact is made, her legs pump around like crazy, she gurgles & sings. Shed sucks on her own fist. And of course she screams the house down from time to time.
In between, in the quiet times, there are gardens to garden, washing to wash, cooking to cook, work to work & sleep to sleep.
A couple of biggish life changes, hitherto distant, are now almost on top of us. Next week I commence a Grad Dip in Secondary education, a one year fulltime course that will have me out & about in schools & contributing in a very immediate way. Seriously looking forward to this course. And CJ will soon be re-starting work, probably for a coupla days a week.
I hope this letter finds you well.
Happy days to you & yours.
yo.
dave & catherine & stephanie of Coburg.

from the south 4

"In the morning when from slumber you awake,
Find me sleeping like a baby by your side..."
I’ve been listening to a bit of Weddings, Parties, Anything lately.
And watching old episodes of Seachange on DVD, borrowed from the Coburg library.
And then, whammo, cut off from communications for a day or two, we opened last Friday’s paper to find the smiling face of Kristy on Page 4 and Catherine thought: “Wow, what has Kristy done to get into the paper?” before reading the headline and finding that her cousin had died in a bus crash in Egypt.

All of which points life in a certain direction…
Too much of a cliché?

The peak summer took us to Moe & Toora for Christmas day, back up to Heidelberg for Boxing Day, and to the big new stand at the MCG for the Test as Hussey rattled up the improbable ton. We sweated out a hot week leading to New Year with Justine & Ian & Ted & Katya sharing our house & sharing some time in the stifling humidity of the Coburg indoor pool.
New Year’s Eve (42.9°C for those afar, but who’s counting?) saw us attend the afternoon wedding of Seona & Peter, with half the assembled throng venturing from Ireland for the occasion. Black tie was causing a few overheating issues. Wonderful reception at the Grand Hyatt, for which Catherine & I left Stephanie in the hands of babysitters for the first time (my parents). ‘Twas difficult to leave her. So Happy New Year!

2006. We took our little girl camping last week with Jeff & Kirsten. Down to Cumberland River, just beyond Lorne, for a couple of nights under the stars. Steph lolled around & seemed to enjoy the outdoors, coming with us on a bushwalk up to Jebb’s Pool. Those baby-carriers are great. Our biggest concern was how noisy she would be overnight, but she was very quiet. A great fun trip, even though the wind sprung up and prevented an ocean swim. Maybe next time.

My application to study a 1-year Graduate Diploma of secondary teaching was accepted last week – so I’m off to uni (again) to become a High School teacher of science & geography. This fits very nicely into the Weddo’s/ Seachange/ Life philosophy. Teaching is something I enjoy & see as the most worthwhile thing I can do right now. Down the track, it will give me holidays concurrent with Stephanie & also, it is a very portable vocation. And the continual search for the next research contract & source of funding had become a cross too large to bear. That was no way to live.
Now I’m in the market for part time work and so is Catherine. The plan for 2006 is that, between us, we can earn one full time wage and have full time care of Steph, too. And to get some native plants into our yard. And to harvest from our vegie garden. And to plant a vegie garden… An exciting time ahead.

I hope, wherever this finds you, that all is well. Ciao from Coburg
"Some people pray for rain, some people pray for holidays
Some people pray for money without swelter
We just pray for two shifts at the same end of the day
And a life that is not quite so helter-skelter"
- WPA; Step in, step out