First things first

Welcome to the world my 3rd nephew - Conor, born March 4th. All are fit and healthy after a relatively quick delivery. So, little sis Sinead and Ferg have 2 boys on their hands. A nice balance with our 2 girls and Marian's mix of 2 girls and a boy. Clearly no male/female dominance in the Foley genes.

As for ours, well Aibhe has taken to her new Kindy like she has lived there all here life. Mind you, it's an absolutely wonderful little place, so no surprise she loves it so much. I've been crazy enough to volunteer myself as Treasurer for the place for the year, time to give something back I say. Emma is finally getting some words out - increasing by the day, and a gentle 'No' is still her favourite, but am sure that soon we'll be asking her stay quiet after months of encouraging her to speak.

We're moving.

Bought a block of land about 7 minutes away from current abode, on a sloping acre. Happened relatively quickly, but then we have been watching out for over a year and this was always going to happen. We're now in the throws of our own house being on the market and it's relatively slow going and a pain in the butt. We have signed contracts in place now, but a couple of conditions awaiting. We'll be out in 3 weeks if all goes to plan. Now to get a rental (another painful task) for a year and get started on building - Geoff of course will be our master designer and architect. I reckon that will then be our lot for quite a few years to come - touch wood.

Before I move on, a little follow-up on the shaving question posed some time back. I've had a series of months to go through all the options, weigh up the pros and cons of the various (well, essentially 2) methods. Conclusion. Big Gav - you were right, this shaving oil stuff is the job. The perfect shave is actually some oil, then shaving foam on top and a nice brand new Schtick 4 blade razor. The key is the confident strokes really isn't it? If you're in any way tentative, it just doesn't cut it. The electric still comes in handy when in a rush and ye have to do it on the way to work, or the airport at 4am in the morning.

So last week I was away in Sydney, well about 2 hours south of Sydney in Kangaroo Valley. It was the company's SLB (Senior Leadership Board) annual event. One would think it might involve presentations or some strategic thinking around a table. Not so. Team building is our CEO's big thing. So...... here's a brief summary.

• Lunchtime Wednesday, arrive at meeting point
• Meet up with Navy guys running the show - combined IQ's of a small fencepost, but all built like brick sh&thouses
• Issued with basic 24 hour army ration packs and told how to eat for the next day. I won't say any more about what was in these, but perhaps if one was dropped in a jungle and walked through enemy territory for hours upon hours with little or no respite, some of the sh&t in the might have tasted acceptable. The M&Ms were OK.

• Get into 'wet' gear and pair off into kayaks and into the river we go.
• A dissapointingly few rapids and 9km later, we abandon our plastic rafts to trek up to the compound we were staying at.
• "UP" is the key word. A 500m climb, 1 in 2 gradient, carrying a barrel ...... and I was in one of the relatively fit groups. Lets just say there were tears in some parts (females - no male succumbed to such a level of pussiness)
• After a brief break to cool down and check that all limbs were still working, it was off the get the "hutchies" set up for our night of camping. No tents. Hutchies. These are literally canvas sheets which you combine to create 'shelter'.
• Then we all ate something out of the ration packs. Something. I actually made one of the other packets up - it was dried potatoe and onion, and for the first time in years, I dry retched when I tasted it.
• An evening around a "survivor"tribunal like campfire with a few beers and then "bed" - I mean sleeping bag under the hutchie.
• 5am - yes, 5am the hooter went off. Now, while I wasn't snoozing in the lap of luxury, I would happily have tried another hour in my sleeping bag. It was f&cking freezing.
• Most people avoided breakfast - the prospects of more vile food wasn't appealing.
• By 6am, hike back down the hill and back into the kayaks. We capsized as we got in (I'll take responsibility) - so to boot, we were frozen and saturated as we set off
• For about an hour we were surrounded by mist coming off the river, so it was all very cool.
• However, 13km later, having paddled for 3 and a half hours, we got out swearing and cursing the CEO that had just put us through it all. If there was a half decent current in the river, wouldn't have been so bad, but it was lake like, so all movement was muscle driven.

Thankfully, that was the end of our ration pack diet, and a steak sandwich firmly put the memory behind us. And that afternoon was a little more fun with absailing, rope climbing, flying fox stuff and trapeze jumping. Dinner was also far more acceptable, and while bunk beds with 3 others in the room was not perfect, it was 5 star by comparison to the previous night. I had cunningly bought earplugs just prior to getting on the bus to go, and boy was I a popular man. Some guys have very serious snoring issues.

So, all in all, an interesting experience. Am due to go to Bali in a couple of weeks time for a few days - a reward for the top 30 performers in the company over the prior year - and this one is a junket, through and through. No ration packs thanks. I believe there will be elephants.

Oh of course. The rain. The fricken rain. From chronic drought in late 2007, to being awash with water. Our dams are almost at 100%. They were 17% just over 2 years back. So thats enough for now thanks very - we're good for a few years, everything is green and we can have longer showers without a pang of guilt. Flooding has been quite widespread, and smaller towns in western Queensland have been absolutely smashed. And then just a couple of days ago, the Melbourne city area was absolutely hammered with a thunderstorm and "hail the size of lemons" (that's a direct quote).

Nature. It's a wonderful thing.