Laying back and kicking

My younger two sons, SJ (aged 11, left) and Ix (aged 9), at Mt Panorama last Saturday. There's some more pics here.



We laughed (a lot!), told funny stories and generally caught-up - and that was just the car trip into town last Saturday. No effort required. At all. Twas looking and feeling good already.

We hit the local pool, and hung-out swimming and having a great time for about three hours. And we talked and laughed the whole time. Oh, these guys really know how to refresh my exhausted spirit, they really do. I mean, I can literally sit and talk to SJ and Ix, either together or on their own, and just talk and hang out and we all feel totally happy and relaxed and share all sorts of stuff that's going on in their lives. It's really wonderful.

Being a divorced dad means that because you're not part of their lives 24/7, you miss out on a huge lot of all that. Days like this really enable us to touch base and reconnect in a really major way. Mind you, it happens every time we get together, but last Saturday was a really special time especially for me.

Mind you... at one point I was looking at SJ, and he was the splitting image of his elder brother (JD, who's aged 15 and was working in the paddocks planting veggies that day. Good on him!) at the same age. Twas a bit of a headspin, to be sure to be sure.

Then there were the small instances where I caught almost12-yo SJ checking out the girls in passing, out of a sly glance from the corner of his eye! Very cute!

Then we hit Maccas (their choice! lol), and SJ, whos' eating patterns would starve a sparrow, wanted even MORE to eat! I guess all that swimming built-up his appetite! Excellent!

Then we went for a drive upto "The Mount", to check out the remains of the carnage after the week-befores' car racing. There were skid marks all over the track and the walls... they scavenged around looking for bits of wreckage. All they found in the end were bits of broken perspex at various crash sites. Oh, they know every inch of this track intimately, believe me! Practically every incident that happened during the race the week before they were able to point out the exact spot and the racing lines and angles and all that. That's pretty cool.

People who haven't been here seem to think that the race track is like out of town and a totally-separate entity. Well - it's not! It's nowdays right on the edge of town (right beside the Uni) , and is a normal local road, complete with residents and driveways and everything... it just happens to have the whole pits complex and concrete race barriers always set-up! heh heh.

We parked at Skyline, and they wanted to walk down past the Dipper to Forest Elbow to survey the 'damage'... a good walk, but downhill all the way... It was a pretty darn warm Spring day, and by the time we got past the Esses and the Dipper, they were practically dying to go back to the car. Only problem was - it's uphill all the way! Not a worry... let's just say they got their exercise that day! lol. Mind you, the sweat was pouring out of me as well...

We headed down to the bottom of The Mount to the Motor Racing Museum, so they could see the recently-unveiled Peter Brock Memorial Statue. We took a few quick happy-snaps of them standing in front of it, but even then there was practically a line-up of tourists wanting to get their photos taken in front of it as well. Popular bloke, huh? Fair enough - while I'm not 'into' motor sport, he was a great driver, and more importantly a really nice bloke.

By then tho, our main reason for stopping there was to get a drink! We felt like we were dying of thirst! I've never known a icy cold can of Fanta to go down so well!

We were happily tired by the time I dropped them home again afterwards. We spent the whole day just chatting happily away.

I know I've only just skimmed the bare bones of the day I spent with my boys last Saturday, but seriously - it was such a great day for all of us. Oh, they always are (and I don't really get to spend as much time with them as I'd really like to, but that's a whole mixture of different reasons for that), but for me it was like quenching a spiritual/soul thirst within me.

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This is the view overlooking Bathurst from atop Mt Panorama.



They don't call it "Skyline" for nothing, you know.

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I was rather surprised when I received a 'Thank You' letter from the Real Estate agents, after my recent housing inspection...

"It is pleasing to be able to report to the landlord that you are looking after the property as if it were your own. I am sure they appreciate your efforts."

I was rather... pleased?

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My first rose has popped-up (seemingly overnight), thanks to all the recent rains we've had in the region. Not bad, considering all I've done to it is cut the heck out of the bush at the start of winter each year for the past five years - and that's it!

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There's a few new band photos as well.

Julian has twisted his ankle, so we won't be having a full rehearsal this weekend. Matt and I will still get together and keep writing some original songs. Perhaps I'll show him how easy it is to record 'overdubs' as well, using the demos we've recently completed. He's never done anything like that before, and it might be a good opportunity to introduce him to the technique, especially when it comes to recording stuff for our album over the next few months. We'll be doing lots of overdubs... it's just part of the music recording process. well, it will be for us, anyways.

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Oh, I've finally joined the local Pool as a regular, getting a special pass. I've gotta get some exercise in, and swimming is perfect for that. The new pool complex is brilliant, so I might as well use it as we've got it here. Bought myself some new goggles (I haven't worn goggles since like those big facemask ones you had as a kid!) and a pair of flippers... laying on my back, slowly kicking away doing a few laps... sit in the whirlpool... walk in the water... a few more laps... nothing too strenuous, but really refreshingly relaxing.

Gawd alone knows why I haven't got myself a Pass ages ago!

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Sailing starts again this weekend... Sailability will be held out at Carcoar this Sunday. I'm really looking forward to it. I dropped out to our local dam for a quick peek just the other day, and it's about one foot below the spillway, almost ready to overflow. I thought I heard someone say it's been about five years (?) since the spillway had water cascading down it - so it's all good. Carcoar Dam, tho, is the opposite... still struggling at a miserable 13%, but just enough to take the little specialist "Access" dinghies out for a spin with some visitors. While the water will still be on the 'chilly' side, in these type of boats, you don't even begin to get wet! Sunday's forecast is for glorious sunshine, so we should have a good roll-up. Yay!

Peas be with ewe

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