The kids are on school holidays now, so I don’t have to get up early to get them out the door. I switched off my morning alarm…

And awoke at 9.

I am so far behind schedule today.

I’m looking at ordering textbooks for the kids for next year, and the Campion ordering platform is a wonderful example of an awful user experience. Let’s start with the onboarding. You’re prompted to start with your child’s email address. Easy enough, except that when you … read more

Tonight I picked up my guitar for the first time time in a very long time to try to play some Taylor Swift with my daughter on her birthday. My fingers ache!

We’ve agreed our goal is to duet “Exile” by the end of the summer holidays.

Purgatory is just clothes shopping for your kids at Christmas time.

Daughter has her piano exam on today. A year of playing the same three songs is about to come to an end.

Had one of those weekends where I came away realising that my kids are both really awesome humans. Sometimes I forget in amongst all the teenage angst and attitude.

Not that long ago, my son would talk about how much money he would make in a year if he mowed our lawn every weekend.

Today, I gave up nagging him and tackled the grass jungle myself. He didn’t even look up.

Teenagers.

Daughter is away at school camp for the first time. Hope she’s having fun!

Daughter had her piano performance today and she smashed it. So very proud of her. And not just because she’s looking over my shoulder as I write this. 🤣🤣

My son’s tech assessment on Friday is cooking up a burger, so he had a practice run through cooking for the family tonight. It was really good!

Love having to explain what a vasectomy is to the kids after watching an episode of Malcolm in the Middle together…

How is it that teenagers know exactly what buttons to push? What should have been a fun night of Star Wars has descended into everyone being upset. Ugh.

Unbelievably, my baby girl is having her high school taster day today.

Where did the last decade go?

Now that the kids are back at school, I’ve been more focused on trying to work.

And now that I’m more focused on trying to work, I’m less focused on writing stuff here.

I need to consciously remember to write here.

What a great family day.

We took the kids bowling. It has been a long time since any of us has been bowling. We were all pretty terrible, but it didn’t matter. We had fun.

We had Yum Cha for lunch and burgers for dinner. We played air hockey and pool and ate Churros for dessert.

It was just a really nice, fun day.

Looking forward to the kids going back to school next week, though.

It’s still school holidays, and today my daughter has pulled out Disney Infinity.

I’ve watched her play through both the Inside Out game and the Star Wars Clone Wars missions.

She is having the time of her life.

I know the toys to life games were such a ridiculous money grab, but I still love the variety of Disney Infinity.

It was such a fantastic implementation of Disney’s many, many IPs. Not just from the characters themselves, but also the story-mission games they launched. Plus there were consolidated games, like the racer and the Marvel brawler game!

I’m still disappointed they cancelled it.

I can’t help but wonder what they could have introduced over the years since it was scrapped.

Combining all the Marvel characters to take on Thanos and the Infinity stones?

Rescuing Grogu as The Mandalorian?

Branching into all the Fox franchises? Imagine a Simpsons game! Even better, being able to play in the Toy Box with Homer and Luke Skywalker.

I guess I should still be thankful for the games we did get in the series.

But I can’t help but wonder what could have been…

Today I took the kids to Treetops out in Western Sydney. It was incredible. It’s rare I can find something that is active, outdoors and makes both the kids so happy. None of us were quite sure what to expect – I haven’t done a high ropes course since I was a teenager, and neither of the kids has … read more

Today my son and I raced up a hill. It was a decent hill; a dirt track with loose rocks, tufts of grass and scattered leaves.

We started together, and he immediately pulled ahead. I watched him accelerate as my body slowed. I pushed harder and made minuscule gains, before he stretched his legs and left me panting in his dust.

Hours later, I’m still feeling it. He hasn’t let me forget he beat me, either.

Challenged the kids to some handball today, and despite my increasing age, it’s good to know I can still show them their place — which is down in the Dunce square, looking up at their King.

I don’t know if it’s just the relief of getting through the school year and mentally switching off, but both the kids have been terrors today. Absolutely exhausting. I’m completely shattered from dealing with them.