Author: goldsmithtim
What now?
So I dropped about 28 kilograms (almost 62lb for the Americans amongst us) since last December.
It hasn’t been the easiest thing on earth, but at the same time it wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be. The big question is where I go to from here? I’m expecting that maintenance might actually be trickier than loss, because you don’t have the victory to record every week as you go along. Can you keep as focussed when victory just means remaining stagnant?
We’ll have to see….
The little things
There are some little things that I know aren’t important, but they still drive me nuts.
I walk up two flights of stairs to get to my 1st floor room at the centre I’m staying at. Why, why do they have to have a different number of stairs in each flight?
To make matters worse, the split is 7 stairs, then 9! It’s like they split it up unevenly just to drive stair-counters like me crazy!
But that’s not the worst of it.
The final straw is that the staircase at the other end of the hall has a whole extra step! 8 steps, then 9! Are the stairs different heights? Is this floor on a slight tilt?
I know that posting this is only going to make me look odd, but its been driving me nuts. Am I the only one who gets others by things like this?
On retreat
One of the prerequisites of working in this diocese is having to go on retreat once a year.
I don’t like being away from the wife & kids for four nights in arrow, but I have to say, I do like the opportunity to have a week without a big agenda (apart from doing church 4!times a day…).
Time to think deeply about important things. Time to read books. I’d say that there is time to chat to your peers, but it’s a silent retreat, so there isn’t even dinner time conversation (incidentally, despite the expectation of many, I really enjoy silent retreats. Reading Stuart Coulton’s “Hitting thenHoly Road has been fitting, as he speaks of monasticism, and I feel like I’ve taken a vow of silence).
I’ve allowed myself just a little time to mention why I’ll be a bit quiet this week, then I might even have some time away from the Internet!
On Micro Machines
I owned Micro Machines when I was a kid. Those things were awesome.
This is pretty cool.
<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/64585891″>Micro Mayhem!</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user3543932″>Stoopid Buddy Stoodios</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
What to do with the movies and music?
As they get older, I want to open my kids to a broader range of music.
Also, as I get older, I find myself enjoying the reminiscence that comes with pulling out those CDs I bought when I was half the age I am now.
But I’m a different guy.
I still love old school rap, and it’s not all foul mouthed…. but a fair bit of it is. I don’t love the music because of the words, but that doesn’t change the fact that a fair few of them are dodgy.
Would I be happy for my kids to hear everything I own? Would I be happy if I heard them singing along to some of the stuff? If I decide that I’m going to throw out the music that is particularly rude (there goes Rage Against the Machine’s Killing in the name…) does this mean I also have to revisit my DVDs? I really like Pulp Fiction!
Or is it important to acknowledge that these elements that we don’t like are still part of the world that we live in, and that part of becoming a discerning individual is learning what to focus on, and what to ignore with our ears?
It looks like PE can step out of the cross hairs for the moment. No rash judgements…. but no promises either.
Weeeeeeeee
Another little triptych from the weekend (thanks to my wonderful wife for the photos). They’re just getting to the age where they’re a little more robust!
Firsts
Granny & Grandad came to visit on the weekend. While we were at the park, we thought we might have an icecream. It appears boss wasn’t happy when he didn’t get more…
The perfect gift
What do you give the guy who has always been obsessed with chocolate?
Chocolate? Well it’s not a bad start, but, let’s face it, I’ll probably buy myself some if you don’t get it for me.
Ahhh, how about the old “give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish” adage? Perfect!
And so, last year my wonderful wife gave me a hand tempering class from one of my favourite stores Coco Chocolate.
So I got dropped off at their Mosman cooking HQ, the family headed to the Zoo and I settled in for a 3 hour lesson in classical French chocolate tempering.
We had three things to make for the day. 4 kilos worth of chocolate to make bars of the dark choc, lime & coconut, and 8 kilos of milk chocolate for the fruit & nut shards, and freckles!
As Tara walked us through everything (I’m not going to share it all. Go do the course yourself!), she talked a lot about the history of chocolate, the different qualities and strengths, the science behind chocolate (why does it matter if it’s cheap or not?) and tempering, and even how chocolates with identical ingredients can have vastly different flavours (to even my slightly trained palate) depending on the region it is sourced & a couple of simple environmental factors.
Fascinating, informative…. and tasty! We got to eat as we went (maintaining appropriate hygiene at all times) and even take a goodie bag home with us! (if only we got to split all 12 kilos!).
Now the question is whether or not next birthday will get me some equipment to do my own chocolate at home?
Here are some (substandard… they were on my phone) pictures.
Pumpkin’s B’day
OK, so it took me a week, but I’ve made it.
Pumpkin has turned 4, and that meant a trip to the zoo, as we do with each birthday! You’d think it would get boring, but you’d be wrong. Being “Zoo Friends” has been awesome. It means we can go for as little or as much time as we’d like without feeling like we have to get our money’s worth out of the trip like we would if we paid what you have to for an individual visit to the zoo. Some times we see a lot of stuff, others we visit just a little. Having the twins with us at the moment, we tend to keep the visits fairly short.
Here’s a couple of pics from the day.
- goofing around in the sky train.
- We also got to enjoy some birthday celebrations a couple of days early with some cake & fun at home.
-
The week leading up to Pumpkin’s birthday contained special surprises, like this day’s breakfast in bed! 
You can have all kinds of great presents etc. and the favourite will be a $2 PEZ dispenser that was a last minute extra when you didn’t use it for something else. 
No one’s foolish enough to think I made that cake. (I have a very talented wife!) 
Getting rainbow crafty! 
The twinnies enjoyed the whole thing! So there you go.
We now have a four year old…. and thankfully 6 months before we have to worry about the next (nuclear) family birthday. But I can plan for two sibs in the next week!
Tim Goldsmith 