3 months without drinking

Is it a lifestyle choice? No.
Is it to prepare for the City to Surf run? No.
Or is it because of my feet? Yes.....Erm, what!

Well due a nasty foot fungus over the last 18 months that refuses to go away especially in the nails, I've had to resort to the tablets which are the last course of action typically. Having gone through this lovely process about 15 years ago, I thought it would be a few weeks of tablets and then all good and aware there can be some side effects (hence the last approach).

But the doctor assured me these new ones are safer although best to do a longer course of 3 months and the only side effect may be a slight increase in the affects of UV sunlight (good job it's not summer at the moment). So I'm standing at the chemist (pharmacy) getting the prescription and the following conversation happens:

Pharmacist: "That will be $3 million for each prescription, Mr Duffy" (OK, bit of an exaggeration, but it is Perth...)
Me: "Oh, you must have given me a discount :)"
Pharmacist: "Here is your 1 month course of tablets"
Pharmacist: "You do know you can't drink any alcohol while on this medication?"
Me: "Umm, Well I do now!! - Do you mean NO alcohol at all?"
Pharmacist: "Yup, it can make you really drowsy and reduce the effectiveness of the medication"
Pharmacist: "Oh and I see you have 2 repeat prescriptions for the next 2 months (laughs to himself)"
Me: "Yes, well sucks to be me, but might save some money..."

And of course Janice just laughed, as she had not been drinking while preggo with frog-boy.

Saturday morning with dad

Sharing the porridge experience whilst sleeping...after distracting me to make it boil over and stinking the house out! We had to put a pot of coffee on quickly to avoid "the wrath" of the momma :)

Although that would entail her getting out of bed to catch us, and L and I are quick when we want to be!

3 mile reef

You gotta love the Ozzy way of saying it like it is. So we headed out to a couple of dive sites along the line of reef, out from the harbour at Hillarys.

It was an interesting start to the diving day due to the fact that I just heard about the latest white pointer attack as I was driving towards the harbour, so was naturally a little bit more nervous than usual. The sharks are always there of course, but 5 fatal attacks in 10 months does make you think and pay a bit more attention on a safety stop, hanging mid-water!

Besides that though, the dives were pretty good with a classic dive plan of "drop in off the boat and cruise around a bit" in a group. And I do forget sometimes that I've done a few dives, but when you see the new divers not knowing which way around to setup their gear and struggle to clear their ears in the water as they drop like a stone, you have to chuckle to yourself...while helping them of course.

So we set off in a group although with two of us doing a camera dive we were quickly left behind by some of the buddy pairs as they tore off through the water in search of everything :)

The first site was similar topography to most Perth based dives with the most interesting thing being a HUGE Cowrie shell. Huge being relative of course and it's hard to tell but it was about 20cm across, about 4 times the usual size.

Trust me, this was a big fellah

Then I had a quick in-between bounce dive as the anchor got stuck in some reef so I jumped back in to free it and float it out the way with a lift bag, was like the old days of working back on the boats in Cairns (without the bourbon).

Discovered an interesting piece of jetsam on the last dive, which was like the base of large traffic cone. So I freed that and towed it around with me on the dive, playing with it to create some fun photo ops with my fellow divers.

A gloved finger sneaking in the shot....

As ever, more photos on picasa. 

Who'd have thought eating could be so difficult

Well it obviously is when you're only 6 weeks old!

Little "frog boy" has had some fun and games feeding with the momma and when we thought the feeding was going alright, he wasn't actually getting enough! So now on top-ups with formula which is fattening him up slowly but surely and everyone a bit happier, especially the momma.

And now fully appreciate the tough times other people go through as we've had a few trips to PMH (Princess Margaret Hospital) and seeing the really sick kids there!

Chillin out on one the PMH trips

But what is really good now is the smiles that we get pretty often now, makes it all worthwhile :)

Frog boy and his new carriage

So we were not so thrilled to learn about Logan having not quite formed hip sockets (like his mum) so we have to have him in a "harness" for the next 6 weeks or so which should help them form properly (especially as it was caught when he is so young). Not a major trauma, but not pleasant for all of us.

So to accommodate his new "frog like" leg position and be carried around the house as well as "out and about" comfortably (which in turn helps keep Janice sane) we acquired a new sling. As he won't currently fit into his baby bjorn carrier this a great alternative.

And if we were concerned that he wouldn't be comfortable in the harness, he seems to have put that worry to rest by sleeping very well, including in his new sling!

My new "carriage"

And the only time we are officially allowed to take him out of the harness is for his bath, so luckily he does enjoy bath time and once he's out of the bath and dry, likes checking himself out in the mirror-like window (just like his Dad!).

What are you looking at?

And No, we don't actually bath him in the kitchen sink (after the first night he came home), we bath him in the kitchen to fill up his REAL baby bath and use the surface to dry him.

Hi Dad!

When Grandma came to visit

A good time was had by all when Louise visited, especially Logan who was very pleased to see Grandma and have her help (and get a break from his weird parents).

It was a more sedate visit than previous ones for the obvious reason of the little guy ruling the scheduling of the house nowadays, but we did get some good walks along the coast including our favourite coffee shop Yelo.

A good "Cap" at Yelo after a walk along the coast

Logans first visit to the sea!

Then we met up with Taylor clan one weekend at Whiteman Park, which is actually bigger than I thought as we found out when we missed the sign for the area to meet up. After finding ourselves out the other side of the park, we turned around and then did find them. Then a good play and BBQ then a wander round the park was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Scooter on the loose

As we hadn't had a photo of Janice, Logan and I (except about 2 minutes after he was born) we employed Glynn's photo services to take a few and got the odd good one when we were all paying attention.

Wow, I actually look tall

As it is winter and Louise had only ever been over in the scorching summer we decided to take her for a trip up to the Perth hills and headed for John Forrest national park. This has a series of paths, with the main one following the old train line which gives some great views back over the plain towards Perth with a couple of waterfalls on the way. Unfortunately the waterfalls are typically lacking in water and with us having some rain we hoped they would be running, but was a bit too early in the season it seems...

On the pathway

Look hard to see the water...

And as ever take a look at the picasa album for all the photos!

Winter is here

1.2 degrees this morning. A very unAustralian temperature so must mean winter has caught up with us and just in time to welcome Louise!

Is still sunny and 22 in the day, so can't complain.

Good job we've acquired another heater to help keep the house warm overnight for "the boy".

Speaking of whom, here he is for his first appearance on the blog

A morning in the life of Phil and Logan

We wake up hungry.
Drink some juice (or milk).
Then enjoy some breakfast (or milk), whilst reading the news on the iPad.
Then we have a little chat/stare at the lights
Then we're usually sick a bit...(oh wait, that's just Logan)
Then we go back and have another sleep (damn, that's only Logan too!)
Hey ho, I better go to work.

Summer is gone

We have been having some much overdue rain over the last week, so with summer seeming to be properly over I thought I'd share a few photos of the purple flower extravaganza we had a few weeks ago around the garden.

Especially with some of the shots being from the bush in the back that I hacked down a little bit - did you doubt it would return?

See what a good pruning can do

Thanks for the macro lens, Dad

And Janice's latest flower arrangement in the big blue pots grew very well this time!

Monster sized lamp shade

After many deliberations and failed attempts we've finally changed our 80`s style brass leaf chandelier (sounds good doesn't it) in the lounge.

We have a high sloping ceiling so didn't take the subtle approach.

And if you're thinking "is that a fuzzy fake leather pattern?" then you're correct. But it actually looks good...honest!

And yes I'm using the mobile blogging app on my phone again, hence the images on their side. Have to figure out a way to fix that :)