Return to the Archive Box

I have two notes from the Archive Box that I have scanned today.  The first one is a travel postcard written to me in 1992 when a group of  ex MMBW employees had the audacity to form a computer company, hence the salutation  Dear Neil and MITites.  She compares New York to a jungle, a bit like Jethro Tull did in their song lyrics.  The other one is a thank you note from Carol Tamburro.  This is also dated 1992. She had a baby girl then who would be 28 now and maybe has had kids of her own. However I have lost track of that. It seems we also gave her some handme down clothes, probably from Laura, who was four at the time.  I bet handme down clothes would not be as welcome these days.  Elyse already has plenty of handme down clothes after baby number five and three girls in a row.

I never take stamps off postcards 

28 yar old baby Jessica

Asher says Potatoe

She  says a lot more than that. She will repeat everything you say in her own way, which is mostly a slower more deliberate pronunciation.  For instance when the pumpkin was being mashed by the blender and started to spit outside the pot. the expletive was changed to Shivers. Then across the room there is this little voice that pipes up Shivers. 

Mr Potatoe Head

Asher and the Chocolate Box

No Asher did not get into the chocolate box but I did. That is after I checked out two shoe boxes which had much duplication, eg pull out one envelope and it contains say up to 100 copies of the same stamp.  I tried a chocolate box next and this time there are individually wrapped stamps of significance. So a jackpot of sorts.  You never know what you are going to get.  

Two eyes sunset

The small box

A discard bin which I expect to overflow

Asher on Video

I have been emailing to and fro to the Database man that I bought the stamp database from.  It is stalling from time to time.  One tip I found is that Windows 10 has a default defrag of the C: drive scheduled every week.  This may or may not be the issue.  In between emails I have been unloading videos from the weekend.  This machine works perfectly rendering videos and other intensive processing but the database stalls. I have now upgraded The Office Access to 2010 to see if that makes a difference.

Asher Yard Queen

How does Winter know it is Winter? That today is the first of June and that a cold biting wind  should blow today or that the rain right now is soaking the clothes I put on the line.  At least it's a good stamp day and also a day for working on some video.  I have yet another Asher video of us not doing much.  She knew something was on the other side of my camera but it has the ability to flip the screen so that the subject of the video can see the action being filmed as well.

Asher on the Stand

We did the Melbourne circuit today. First of all to Burnside for Granma Granpa morning tea. Some early birthday presents came in including a mobile garden waste bin and a framed poem. It was then a short lunch with the other Nana timed just so, to be across at Asher's house for a 90 minute session before after noon sleep time and that could have applied to everyone present. It was mostly backyard activity like soccer, jumping, pretend sleeps on the slide, soccer, jumping, counting rocks and then some more jumping.  That was most of the 90 minutes.  Inside it was snack time on the Stand.

UpStanding

get your Rocks on

Jump

Where you hang your hat's your home

Asher takes Charge

I worked my way thru a backlog of video today as well as starting on the conversion of my CDs to streaming quality. The videos show Asher in her element as the secret garden is being constructed.  I also found some action footage of a flying car that went past our place last week. As for the CDs, there seems to be two types. The first type is fully recognised by the music player and can extract all the songs to files including all the associated data, like artist, title, album etc. The second type requires me to edit in those details before extraction. In both cases I can then add those files to my phone for streaming broadcast. 

Asher Crazy Dancer

We detoured to Nana's for a morning coffee break before moving on to the Asher session. Nana is looking much more spritely for an octogonal person. (An eighty something pesron?)  There is no end to the Asher energy burst.  She may have had a one hour sleep in the afternoon but the three hours before that were non stop and the three hours after it were even more energized.  Now I am ready for the nap but at 8:00pm I am not going to get one.

SunDown

Asher Bounces back

We stayed at the Mantra Tullamarine (2nd time in 10 days).  They have a possible airport parking option (United Parking) where you can park there and they will bus you to the airport and back. It is better undercover, guarded parking but at $330 it is not cheaper. We saw entire crews from Malaysian Airlines staying over, so the place must work.  We called into see Asher again before we headed back. She is almost rolling over but not quite, although the bouncy walking is letting her travel around the house.

Asher Attacks

We are having a long Asher adventure today due to the very long Harry Potter Show which I can't get my head around is a 6 hour show with a break for dinner at half time.  It would want to be a good show for that amount of time.  I went over to the Mantra to check in there and when I got back Asher was being lively and getting excited about Safron.  You can notice how aware she is now and using her hands to get anything into her mouth.

Asher at the Font

How rude to be woken up by having cold water pored all over your head.  A good day was had visiting the old haunts of Pascoe Vale.  After the church ceremony we wandered up to the school which has had a lot of rebuilding since when I left there in 1967.  The afternoon was spent in a leisurely fashion with sandwiches, sausage rolls and cake. 

Font

Old School

Threesome

Couch Malfunction

Nana

There is something about the sleeping baby that has that calming effect. Mind you we did not hear any part of last night's continual restlessness and throw in a worsening infection problem for mum but that's all part of it.  The 0000 size suit is a perfect fit but three weeks ago she was swimming in it.

Farting baby laughing Auntie

Feeding Nana Happy Baby

Changing baby happy Nana

We have babies here

Or one baby Asher that is. We even painted the house before she got here.  As well as QLD visitors and birthdays we wont know ourselves.

We have lemons

First Nurse

The Comfy Chair

Baby History

Have dug into the depth's of Daniel's Blue Album.  There are some stats in there and lots of early photos. There is not much written although it says the hospital stay was from Oct 6 to Oct 13. The facilities look to be a bit ancient.

Then

Now

Hyatt Nursery

Took our last visit to the Grand Hyatt Nursery this arvo.  More progress is being made on the feeding and sleeping.  We had a picture (hand painted original) framed from 34 yar ago which was given to us when James was born but for one reason or another never saw the light of day, as it sat in the  map drawers for all that time. So now it has been resurrected for the Asher room.

Vital Statistics

Yes there has been some bathing and measuring but we had to move over to the Grand Hyatt to get it done. They are too busy in the hospital.  There must be some money in baby birthing if you can take over a floor of the Grand Hyatt! In my day there were six babies in the same ward with you.  The breast feeding is a challenge but the progress is steady and only a 170g drop in weight.

Eyes on the World

23rd Floor

Expensive Doctors

Nana

Nurses who live in the Hyatt

Asher Update

Day started out on the bike machine in the gym, followed by some book reading which led to an early lunch as I wanted to walk into the city (Exhibition St) to find the Post Master Gallery which opened at 12 noon.  I needed to get back in time for the afternoon Frances Perry visit at 2:30. However I could not find this place. The web page said enter via La Trobe, all I could see was an Origin Energy building.  The afternoon visit went well.  There has been long encouragement sessions on the breast feeding. It seems when you are two weeks early you  are still more sleepy than hungry. I can also report that head phones are introduced to new babies on day two, so you have no hope of keeping them off electronic gear for the rest of their lives.

Hearing A OK

Many firsts

Asher Lily

I had a look at the population clock earlier, and today there were 340,000 babies born and we still have three hours to go but at 10:10 am Asher Lily was one of them.  She came quietly into the world via ceasarian section.  Daniel and Bianca are a little worn out but looking good.  This birthing business has had a few changes since I was in the game.  I was lucky to be allowed in the room let alone have a bed for me in the recovery.  Then you move into the queen bed suite and if you are good you go over to Frances Perry's maternity floor at the Grand Hyatt.  Then there is the specialised storing of the cord and contents for a rainy day.  So far a sleeping baby with good looks.

No measurements until the first bath tomorrow

I did this (with help)

Photo Project

I have put the stamps to one side for a while. The 23 yar of mint stamps have arrived and it will be a big effort to integrate them into the three database systems I have set up for the collection. The Image database, the Detail database and the Geographic database.  In the mean time the older photo albums have been unpacked from their removalist boxes. I have selected James Yellow Album. It is 33 yar old and some of the photos are indeed yellowed. On every page the clear covers have lost all form and not a single photo clings to the page anymore. Most of the photos themselves are in good condition.