Happy Birthday

Big Happy Birthday wishes from Down Under for Sadie May. Today Sadie graduates into the 'Terrible Twos Club'. Best of luck Jenny and Tim :)

* the photo was taken on May 16th - 4 days before Nara was born

Never a dull moment!

There's never a dull moment at Chez O'Dowd Hill. While we were happily planning (last Thursday) what we'd do with our time for the weekend Diarmuid decided he'd change things up a bit. Obviously he was feeling a bit bored so the little brat goes off and gets sick!

God knows we tried to stop him from vomiting and Triona assured him that the ham was only a couple of days old - and sure the pain will literally 'pass' :)

Hmmm.... good job we decided to get some professional advice. Anyhow Diarmuid was admitted to Redcliffe Hospital on Thursday night with suspected appendicitis. The following morning Diarmuid was moved to St Andrews War Memorial Hospital in Brisbane (they thought he'd get surgery quicker there) and operated on Friday evening (by a Dr Lockie from Northern Ireland). Apparently Diarmuid's appendix was 'Nice and Juicy'.



The procedure was done by key hole and Diarmuid was discharged on Sunday morning. He was obviously very sore but he's mending quickly and already looking forward to going to a party at the weekend.



Of course Nara decided she wasn't going to be out done! While Diarmuid was in hospital she decided to cut her first tooth!

Triona spent the whole weekend in the hospital with Diarmuid which meant I was on full time Nara duty - the above photo just shows that baby's just can't dress themselves. God knows I was very patient. I drew her diagrams and held up the clothes for her but she just wouldn't play ball. I suspect that she didn't like the outfit I picked for her (she kept drooling on it). Eventually she did at least manage to get a pair of pants on her head. It's a start.

Redcliffe Seafood Festival - Day 2

So the first day of the Seafood festival was a wash out - of course after I posted about that last Sunday the sun shone with a vengeance so we decided to return to the festival for its last couple of hours and see what delights it had in store for us...


Crabs - not just any ordinary crabs though - these are racing crabs. Numbers painted on their backs and everything. From what I could gather they were left on the ground and people squirted them with water pistols - then one is chosen as the winner - a ticket is drawn and the lucky winner gets to A/ Keep/Eat the crab, or B/ donate the crab to the local lifeboats who will then sell it (min price $100). No option C I'm afraid. The life of a racing crab it seems is short.


Diarmuid decided he could take on the auld man with some competitive baloon pumping - you basically pump till it bursts. Showing there's life in the old dog yet I produced a masterful display of power pumping and bet the little pup with seconds to spare. An outstanding performance if I must say so.




Ah - then the highlight of the afternoon - Pig Racing. (Australians will race snot up a wall given half a chance). This was fun. These cute little critters are obviously addicted to a hard core narcotic (milk) then dressed in little colour slips and released en mass in a maze with their sole objective being to find their next fix. All hell breaks loose as they are released with the winner the one who finds the psychedelic bucket first - we, the punters get to bet on the outcome.

All very high brow stuff.

New York Times!

There's a lot of buzz on the Internet today about one of my little babies - PollDaddy. As some of you might be aware it was just acquired by Automattic (the makers of Wordpress).

PollDaddy started out as a marketing project in Infacta not so long ago but caught on in a big way. We decided to spin it out on it's own last year with me and Lenny providing the capital. Eoin - also from Infacta joined the project and together with Lenny they've driven it along at an incredible rate. This is a great deal for all concerned.

I got a real kick out of seeing my name mentioned on the New York Times today.

Rain!!

We've had rain most of the weekend!! The weather forecaster was pretty excited by the idea on Friday and told us to enjoy it while it lasts!

The Redcliffe Seafood Festival was on this weekend and unfortunately the rain ruined it. A lot of effort went into setting it up but it was a complete wash-out. Last weekend we had 30 degree heat -by contrast this weekend was like being back in Ireland! Triona and Nara above, pictured on our way home from the festival (and yes - we were very tempted to pop into the bottle shop and buy some hard liquor to lift our spirts).

Diarmuid had this first bit of rugby this weekend as well. The local senior club (Redcliffe Demons) are running a training academy during the off season for Under 16s/19s and he was invited to join that during the week. Unfortunately there won't be any competitive rugby until March but there is a tag league that he can join on Monday nights.

Diarmuid also had an interesting first few days at school. He was invited to a Halloween Party within minutes of starting his first day (proper invitation with his name on it and everything!).

Nobody it seems is able to pronounce his name. It's comical hearing him recall the many efforts. Even the Irish boy in his year calls him 'Dermot' - and he's convinced he's saying it correctly! Diarmuid's new approach is to now explain to people that it's like Pyramid but with a D. Which while not perfect is a damn sight better than being called Jeremy, DireMud or Gerrymaid :)

This morning we took a quick visit to the market at the local showgrounds. We got there a little late but did manage to buy a shed load of banana's for a dollar fifty and a nice little TV cabinet for $10.

On the topic of currency - the Australia Dollar is really weak at the moment (trading under 50cent Euro - it's dropped by 69cent since we got here!) so if any of you are thinking of coming out here now might be the time to get some dollars. I'm seriously considering buying a nice car (they are cheap here anyhow and I hate the car we have) and shipping it back to Ireland when we're ready to come home - for instance you can buy a brand new Land Rover Discovery 3 SE spec here for about 35K euro! The same car is over 70K at home!! If we own the car for over 6 months here we just have to pay VAT on it when we get home. Something to consider for sure.

Standing Tall

Nara (or Squawks at Dawn, her new Indian name) just loves using her legs.

Diarmuid's First Day

Hurray! Diarmuid finally started school! He's just gone into the last term of year 9 (last year of middle school) with just a few weeks to go before his summer holidays (again!).

Isn't he looking smart in his new uniform? We just love the socks!


Diarmuid was disgusted to find out he'd have to wear black shoes, with laces, that are polishable. He was happy with the ones we did eventually find - and I think his grand dad would be pleased with them as well (seeing as they are very similar to his favorite Echo's)

First Visitor

Tim's sister, Clare, paid us a lovely visit today - and she's officially our first visitor! Clare just started her holidays and was heading up north for a few days and we were delighted when she took the time to stop by and see us.

Clare brought Diarmuid a lovely gift as well - his school books from Ireland :) - which we had sent over in advance. He was ecstatic!

Yummy!

Nara having her first taste of solid food (organic baby rice). She's only tasting at the moment - the eating proper will start in a few weeks. She was a natural however - getting it all over her face and even tasting a little bit. She'll be getting to try all sorts of lovely things over the coming weeks. God help the carpet!

Scarborough

This is where we live beside now - you can see our apartment block between the tree's - it's the one in the middle. Nara gets a lovely walk by here most days.

It's quite extraordinary to walk along here at 10 in the morning and see people at the BBQ's and lying out on the beach - the day certainly starts early here!

The Bats!

We took a visit to the Redcliffe Botanic Gardens today - not exactly what we expected (think Victorian Glasshouses etc). It's pretty basic - but it did have one redeeming feature - Bats! feckin millions of flying foxes and they're huge! (well compared to anything we've seen before). We were there just before dusk and they were all starting to wake up and what a racket they made. I even managed to get shit on me (they were everywhere).


Triona and Diarmuid (with Nara who was obviously very interested) doing their bat impression. I think we'll have to bring Denise here when she comes over - knowing how much she loves mice she'll really love these little beasties ;)

Dream World

We went down to Dream World on Wednesday last - it's a theme park on the Gold Coast. We'd a bit of a boys day as Triona wasn't really into the rides (she did do one of them though).




Diarmy - hanging with his homie


Is there a likeness?


I wish.


Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth!

We'll be heading back to Dream World in a couple of weeks - we didn't get to do all the rides or see many of the other attractions on site yet and there's a water park attached so we'll give that a shot.

Diarmuid's new school

While he hasn't been formally enrolled yet (should happen early next week - the school has been closed the past fortnight for end of term holidays) this is where he'll be spending his school days while in Australia - Southern Cross Catholic College. It's very close to where we live and has a fabulous campus.

We went and visited all of the schools but this was the one he preferred - obviously after spending the last couple of years in a protestant grammar school he felt the need for some balance - that, or he's just being a good catholic for the sake of his granny :)

Diarmuid has already made friends with a number of kids who will be in his class - including one boy from Ireland who moved here two years ago and he's spent a couple of days hanging out with them (mostly girls from what we can tell).

When he gets his 'lovely' new uniform we'll post a few pics. It's very cute.

A few photos

Here's just a couple of camera phone photos of bits and pieces from the last few days...


Diarmuid, center, with man bag, watching as a looper (really strange character) with some spray paint produced works of art (not the usual moonscapes but proper pieces - very talented but very weird).


Diarmuid decided that Nara didn't deserve to be in this shot :) Us - on Queen St in Brisbane - Brisbane's equivalent of Grafton St - only much bigger.


Well you'd probably want to be if you're into getting 'punctured'


Denise gave Triona a few bob for her birthday for our first proper meal in Australia - well we certainly enjoyed it - Thanks Denise. Nara is a great little sleeper which means we can put her down at 7 in her buggy and head out to the many lovely restaurants in Redcliffe for a couple of hours while she snoozes away none the wiser - regardless of the racket going on around her.


We decided to buy a cot for Nara - her travel cot just didn't seem comfortable and it's very low to the ground. She loves being at bed level now and is eager to turn on her side and make sure you're still asleep :)


Sun block really does work!


Love this sign - thought they might make a little bit more effort with the wheelchair though - what could you do to a wheel chair to show that you needed a pee? Any thoughts?

Diarmy - the model!

Diarmy wanted to update his profile image on bebo so we took a couple of quick shots...