There has been a lot of stuff going on this week that I could blog about but I want to get it over quickly so here it is in point form.

1. We went and saw Tripod very funny, rendition of Radiohead's Paranoid Android was amazing.

2. Our tennant moved into our house, gave us a strange sense of closure,

3. Went to the dentist and had root canal, which was as much fun as, well, root canal

4. Had a great meal at the Greedy Goose, to see off our mate Vanessa who is now safely in Air Force boot camp.

5. Karen had her second baby shower, and again was showered with wonderful gifts.

The reason I have brushed over all of the above is so I could show you this.



That's our child! As seen in Karen's belly with a GE Voulson 730 4d ultra sound machine. Now maybe its just my combination of being a geek who is impressed by tech and a doting future dad coming in to play, but that is quite possibly the most bloody amazing thing I have ever seen. Just unbelievable.

Ok, now this baby thing is really started to gain some serious momentum. Wigglebum has been doing plenty of what she does best lately which is wiggle, reminding Karen that she wouldn't mind coming out of the confines of the belly soon. The feeling is mutual for Karen, she is starting to get sick of having her internal organs competing for space inside her abdomen with a baby.

A few notable events this week as well, my little sister turned 30 and had a bit of a bash, and Karen had the first of her two baby showers. Due to the large numbers, shit weather and our modest living room, she had to have it over two weeks with a 'relatives' one first and then a 'friends' one.

We received a great number of fantastic gifts and want to thank everyone, not the least of which was a baby seat from Naomi, but two I think deserve special mention.

First of all, the very talented Paula made this nappy cake.



The second gift worth mentioning is this bib. Bibs with funny slogans are always cute, and this one could apply to Floyd just as well as it could apply to Wigglebum.



But what's really notable about this one is the genuine 1970's label! How cool is that? Holy Moly, someone has been waiting a long time for Karen to get pregnant. I don't want to open it, it looks like it belongs on eBay. Perhaps that was where it came from?

The baby is coming in less than 7 weeks , and Karen finds herself tired, roundbellied, forgetful and emotional at the moment. Nothing strange really, these are all well documented symptoms of late pregnancy. She is down to 3 days a week at work now, and only a few weeks from giving up altogether for a year or so.

What is bloody strange though, is that my body seems to have gone into some bizzare sympathy mode. Despite the fact that I am still going to the gym, I find myself getting fatter by the week. Even my 'big pants' are a might smug right now. I am also bloody tired at the moment for some reason, as well as being alarmingly forgetful. Karen and I had lunch together yesterday, and we both forgot which street we parked the car in. The fact that my bladder has got me out of bed for the last 3 days only adds to my level of alarm that my life may have turned into the plot of a bad Arnold Schwarzanegger movie. (Ivan Reitman, vho I sink is a genius....)

What is great news however, is that we now have a tennant signed up to live in our Aldinga house now, who was a last minute candidate, and turned out to be by far the best. We now have a 12 month lease with a signature on it, and with that out of the way we have ordered our new car.

For those who don't know, its a Mitsubishi Pajero. Most people seem to know that the literal spanish translation of Pajero (pronounced pah-yhero) is "straw player", used in much the same way as we ockers use the word wanker. There is plenty of references to this on the net, but I wonder if it is an urban myth perpetuated out of control.

Because if Pajero does really mean wanker in Spanish, why does this website exist?

Well, here I am in sunny South West Queensland, and as promised here is the redux edition of the enormously popular "Postcards from Eromanga".

I write this as the town is all a chatter, because believe it or not, something exciting happened last night. If you were watching Today Tonight, the words would be something like "events that have rocked this tiny outback community"

It all started when a guy on parole, not to name him but his (rather appropriate) nickname is the same as the tall lanky guy on that famous 90's sitcom about nothing, turned up at the Eromanga Cafe/Motel/Caravan Park Megaplex having consumed more than his fair share of Bundaberg Rums. Apparently this guy is from "down south somewhere" and had been sent to the channel country for some bush air to straighten him out.

As it turns out, the guy who owns the Megaplex also owns the local earthmoving business, and his right hand man, a burly chap, happened to be in the cafe when our drunken friend stumbled in looking for trouble.

He found what he was looking for, and got the "clip under the ear that had been comin' to him" from the burly earthmoving guy. Obviously not built to fight back, the drunk promptly left, only to return later with a 22! The word over the bar is that it was considerate of him to only get such a small caliber rifle, but it was a gun nonetheless, and still made quite a noise as he fired it into the air Yosemite Sam style looking for revenge.

He was pretty drunk, so the local police officer didn't have too much trouble with him, so in the end it was no harm done. Except, of course to our mate with the wild hair who is now on his way back to jail. The locals will be spinning yarns about this for a long time coming I'm sure.

Onto the postcards, here are some snaps I managed to get at today's amazingly colorful dawn


freeform evaporation ponds



might get a bit of rain...

Wow, I can almost hear them whooshing by now , with a remarkably similar noise to deadlines at work that just keep whooshin by. Just blink, and there is another one gone.

Part of the reason that there is so much whooshing in our lives is because it is still go go go.

Popped out and caught that lovable (read: pervable) bunch of flexible Quebecois, Cirque du Soleil performing the very colourful Quidam. Bloody amazing let me tell you. Not wall to wall stuntwork like previous shows I have seen them perform, or their very cool television series but a great show with some hilarious clown acts and cunning stunts nonetheless. Further, they speak french, so you'd have to be a cunning linguist to communicate with them. But I digress.

I was also totally floored with the music, easily the better than Allegria and on par with Saltimbanco. Full of Zappaesque, self indulgent guitar and synth solos.

Oh, and we got backstage! Like they say, its not what you know...

But there's more. We have now abandoned the idea of trying to sell our Aldinga house and decided to enter the hardnose world of being landlords. We interviewed 3 potential candidates for tenants this weekend, which was and interesting experience I must say. A bit like job interviewing, much better to be the deciding side of the table.

Since a google search on "czornohalan" points to this site, I won't say too much more other than that there was pros and cons with all of them.

If you spotted that double entendre, well done, because I am not explaining it.

We have committed to make a decision by tomorrow anyway so hopefully we can stitch someone up this week and finally order our (cue Larry Emder Price is Right voice) new car!