Anthony Eaton's Blog: Musings from an Outer-Spiral-Arm , page 16

Relegated to Parent Class

Got back from a few days in beautiful New Zealand on Tuesday. This was a holiday that Imogen won during her maternity leave, when she took to entering lots of competitions. We took Toby and my sister-in-law, Kate, who is both an awesome 13 year old, and an awesome baby sitter.

Which led to some interesting new experiences.

Mainly, watching people try and work out how our 'family' fitted together, given that Min is a bit younger than me. This was amusing. Especially when people started asking th...

A Walk by Sydney Harbour

Last friday, I travelled up to Sydney for a meeting, and took the opportunity for a rare walk beside the sea. (well, harbour.) Like all good tourists, I took a few photos...

Standing amid the bustle of Circular Quay is one of my favourite places in the city. The business of the ferry terminal, the underscore of restless water, the rumbles, groans and growls of the ferries, the mutter of indifferent traffic on the Cahill expressway all bring this little corner of Sydney to life.

As you walk...

And, in Review...

I had an exchange of opinions on Goodreads recently, over a review of my friend Karen Brooks' new book Tallow - and it's got me thinking.

Firstly, I'm not at all proud of my initial response to the review. Partly because I've always tried to maintain a strict policy on not commenting on books I've been involved in, and also because the reply I posted was snarky, pompous and more than a little unjustified. And the reviewer in question was nothing but gracious in reply, which she certainly didn'...

It's 11 in the Morning, The end of Movember *

So, final day of Movember, today. Tomorrow, I can shave this thing off my face.

And thank God for that, I say. It's incredibly irritating.

But, it's also been kinda fun. And for a really good cause, so all worthwhile. I didn't get it long enough to wax the tips up, but I always thought that was a little ambitious.

And the good news (from my perspective, at least) is that while the donations hit a very healthy $490 (as of this morning), they didn't get to the magic $1000 mark, so I don't have to ...

One year down...

In a few hours, Toby's first birthday party starts. It won't be a huge affair - just family and a few friends around for a BBQ and a couple of beers. Actually, the party's as much for us as it is for him - celebrating the fact that we've survived our first 12 months of parenthood. 
During the last year, the mantle of parenthood has settled on us like a heavy cloak; sweeping, swamping, and covering every moment of our lives. Every waking moment, every thing we do or think about, Toby is there i...

Update Schmupdate...

Just so anyone following my blog via goodreads knows, for some reason the automatic RSS feed doesn't seem to have updated it for about a week.

If you want to catch up, then you'll want to go to Musings at Blogspot for a read.

Cheers
t

A Future Caffeine addict.

Since the day he was old enough to crawl, Toby has been oddly obsessed with our coffee machine. Largely, I suspect, because it's shiny, has lots of lights and buttons, and makes loud hissing noises.
This morning, I made him his first babycino - (Pure milk foam, for the uninitiated)
It went well...
 

Half a Tree...

... is a really odd looking thing. Imagine how strange I'll look with half a moustache.

Then donate to my Movember campaign, here.

Remember: $1000 by the end of November is what it'll take to make me look like a total goose for 24 hours. Current total: $300, which is a good start, but not enough to purchase my dignity.

Black Mountain Peninsula, 9.23am, Thursday

Photograph taken on Sony Ericsson Videophone, using panorama mode

Today it will be 37 degrees. Already Canberra is tinderbox-dry; the rich greens of spring have given way to unrelenting yellows and browns. The grasses wilt and wither, the clay is baked hard beneath your feet. On mornings like this, there is restlessness in the air. The lake, mirror calm, reflects a hazy sky; On Black Mountain, the tower gestures towards the sun and on Parliament house the flag hangs limp and listless.

On mornin...

Ever wanted to humiliate a writer for a Good Cause?

All right then -

Here's the thing. I'm doing (as most of you already know) Movember. For anyone not in the loop, this is a facial hair festival which raises funds to support prostate cancer and men's health research. At the moment, I'm going on three weeks in, and have (if I do say so myself) a very respectable little Mo going on.

And I've got a few donations, which is great. Just passed the $150.00 mark today, which is fantastic. Even if one of the donors is my wife (How's that for supportive?...