What a Father’s Day present!

After an attempted exit on Friday afternoon, we had to wait three long days at the Royal and Women’s Brisbane Hospital awaiting our second son to show himself.

Lewis eventually arrived Sunday night 07/09/2008 just before 8pm, becoming an unbeatable Father’s Day present.

It was around 30 food-deprived hours after the first discussed plans for my wife’s caesarean, but you can’t knock Queensland Health and the fine people who work for them.

And yes, someone has already coined the potential nickname for Lewis, in “Wally”. We saw that one coming Myles (or “1.6 km”) away.

Our latest little guy’s quite big, coming in at 4.105 kg (just over 9 lbs). So Mum is thankful in some ways avoiding delivery the natural way. Mum and he are doing extremely well. In fact Lewis had his happy, inquisitive-looking eyes open at the first sign of light. And perhaps a testament to his happiness, he weed – with quite an impressive gush – all over the poor lady trying to clean him up.

It’s been a very different experience having a slightly over-term baby, compared to Myles who arrived at around 33 weeks. For one, he has those fantastically wrinkly hands and feet (Exhibit A) that look like they’ve come from an extremely tiny 90 year old. And he’s also ready for action. He was searching for milk less than 30 minutes post escape. And he’s been drinking impressively ever since. I should add, “ever since” here means a little over 24 hours.

My first son was at my parents’ for the birth. He met his little brother this morning, which was just beautiful. As he arrived he was straight to the point. He asked to cuddle and hold Lewis, and if he could see where they cut Mummy.

Newborn ETA very soon

The Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital

RBWH

My wife and I have spent most of the last two days at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.  Yesterday afternoon she started getting the first signs that our baby’s coming.  So off we went.

After a wait in one room, then another room where a few traces could be performed she was admitted to the ward.  The labour was not forthcoming, so they thought it was a better venue than our place for playing the waiting game. Unfortunately this didn’t turn out to be entirely correct.  Amongst the three others who share the same ward, two are very loud and constantly talking about their issues with what appears to be their utter moron partners or relatives; and the other snores EXTREMELY LOUD, all night. 

Hopefully the prescribed sleeping tablets will do the trick tonight, as tomorrow morning is showtime!  My wife’s name has been added to the emergency board to get a caesarisan section at the first opening – between 9 & 10:30am.  It almost sounded like a tradie’s timeframe when the young doctor said it to us, except that she was so articulate and educated.

Unfortunately this timing means this will be the first time my son and I will miss participating in the Bridge to Brisbane fun run.  It will be the first time we’ll miss it since he was delivered in the same way (caesarian) at the same hospital in the same month, just shy of four years ago.  In fact, this ward bed is probably 10 metres from the last one.

While the hospital is a beautiful place where babies are brought into this world, there is a lot of things to get you down. For one, as you enter there is always a mass of carcinogens from patients that felt the need to have another cancer stick.  The ugliest thing in the world is certainly a heavily pregnant mother smoking. It’s not nice seeing anybody smoke, but knowing that an innocent baby is stuck in there getting the same poisons going into their blood makes me sick just thinking about it.  Let alone having to navigate your way around them to get into the hospital. 

And in an unfortunate irony, it’s hard to miss seeing at least one amputee in the resulting unfresh air puffing away. I can’t help but wonder if smoking may have caused the loss of their limb.

It’s also not nice to see and experience the tremendous, and nearly unsatisfied demands on the health system.  We probably spent 90% of our time in the hospital waiting for people just to get back to us.  There was more than one example where staff said they were trying to get back to us but they were swamped. I know it’s not their fault, they’re trying their best.  The nature of the industry means there will always be some times when they’re flat-out. And unfortunately the current situation in the South East of Queensland is that the demand is increasing at a rate that exceeds our capabilities at satisfying it.

At least the extended waiting time allowed me to read the 100s of pages which made up two of our major weekend papers.  I rarely get enough time on the weekend to finish the sections I put aside to read – let alone the whole thing. So that part has been good.

And mum and baby are doing well, so tomorrow morning we’ll get to meet the latest Brinkworth – who we’d call “Boody Gum Gum” if my first son had his way.

Suncorp Stadium given ARL honor

Suncorp Stadium, or the new Lang Park, was today provided with an Australian Rugby League plaque to signify its importance to the game of rugby league.

I have no issues with this at all.  The ground at Milton is one of my favourite sporting venues. I’ve experienced some great sporting moments sitting in this amazing stadium. There’s also been some not so great games, such as the 20 to 4 qualifying final loss to St. George on the 9th of September 2006.  I bring up that Saturday night, cause my disappointment made it to the television coverage when the daft camera man focused in on me looking dejected with my head in my hands.  Who cares, the season ended well.

What strikes me as odd though with the plaque going to Suncorp Stadium is that it is one of around 180 plaques being given out around the country.

Why so many?

It’s deserving for each significant home ground for each notable, or feeder rugby league club, but surely 180 is going beyond this measure.

I wonder if they’ve branched out from home grounds, and installed ARL plaques into the likes of the Dubbo hotel room of Julian O’Neill’s infamous poo in the shoe incident?

Riverfire – 30 August 2008

This week Brisbane held its Riverfestival.  It’s an annual event where the River City celebrates its river.  There are always a host of events, some of them obviously more entertaining than others.

The highlight for most is Riverfire, which is the city’s largest fireworks display and double F1-11 dump ‘n burn.

This year my son and I set off to view it from around Wilson’s Outlook at New Farm.  I think we’ve found our vantage point for all future Riverfires.  While there was a large crowd, it wasn’t overflowing, and you could easily see the whole thing without people in front obscuring your view.


View Larger Map

I didn’t take our camera.  Included below is a great slow exposure by Kane Gledhill (published to FlickR) which shows the first F1-11 dump ‘n burn through to the following fireworks.
Riverfire 2008 picture by Kane
Riverfire 2008 picture by Kane

Any large bridge adds a lot of dazzle and opportunities for a fireworks display.  While predictable, the sequential shooting of fireworks from one side to the other looks extremely impressive. And we picked up that the rainfall from the bridge looked amazing too when the crowd in front of us let out some “ooohs” and “aaaaaghs” while there was a bright aura beaming up to us yet no fireworks above.

It was a great night, and always worth the effort of going in.

Way to ruin a Friday night

With an impending child arriving early next week, today was most likely my last day of work before I take three weeks off. It was a great trip home on the bus thinking of the timely break from the job.

Our Friday night schedule is getting fish ‘n chips then going home to watch the Friday night football (NRL of course).  A schedule I love a lot, and really look forward to.  Unfortunately events outside of my control ruined the simple joy of this, tonight at least.

After we placed our order at the fish ‘n chips shop we walked the short distance to the supermarket to get just a few things. At the checkout, it appeared like there was some sort of scene developing between what I thought was the supermarket checkout supervisors, and a 20-something girl and a guy maybe in his 30s.

Once I had paid for our groceries, I walked through to my wife who was sitting at the entrance and quietly asked what was happening.  She had a good vantage point from her seat, but she said she didn’t know except that the girl walked straight up and asked the supermarket girls to call the police.  Oh dear.

I walked us out of there, past the guy and the girl arguing. As I pass them, trying to become invisible, I noticed that she had two children with her. One was maybe 2 or 3, the other 10 or so.  My wife, son and me walked on while the arguing was intensifying. I couldn’t comprehend what was being said, except that there was plenty of swearing, and it was mostly him. One of the only things I recall the girl saying was that the security cameras within the shop would have recorded him.  This is not good I thought to myself.

With all the arguing, when we were a safe 20 or so metres away from them I decided to not walk any further and keep an eye on what was happening.  As I look back I notice that the guy was starting to look very aggressive toward her.  Right then he threw an almighty punch that connected with the side of the girl’s face. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but straight away I knew I had to do something. I handed the bag of shopping to the wife and rushed toward the guy, still thinking this can’t be happening .

I figured I reached him pretty quick.  He was setting himself to get her again when I caught him side on and shoved him from her.  I had expected right there that this would then just become a fight with me.  Despite the guy not being too small, my push managed to knock him to his knees with his back more or less towards me.  I was a bit surprised, but certainly glad of the result.  I grabbed the back of his jacket and forced him to the ground flat. Within seconds I had another guy jump on board like Steve Irwin taking to a rogue crocodile.  I noticed the guy helping me was saying actual words to the guy about him hitting her.  Straight away I’m appreciative there’s some confirmation of what had actually happened, and that my fellow arresting citizen was equally peeved at what had occurred.

The two of us have the low life pinned around the shoulder area, when a couple more quickly joined in.  One keeping the man’s legs down, and the other holding his arms down in front of him.  We’re certainly in control of the guy, but that didn’t stop him trying to escape, or unhook an arm to force us off.

He continued to struggle, only to stop now and then to tell us to get the f___ off him, or that he’s going to remember all of our faces, or that he’s going to cut us all up real good.  He also let fly with individual insults about each of us within his view.  Actually before the whole posse got involved the guy had tried reasoning with me. Allegedly the girl was trying to take his kids away – I wondered to myself if he really believed that was justification for belting a girl half your size.  I didn’t say what I really wanted to say, but I made it clear I wasn’t moving. He’d have to sort it out when the police arrive.

Unfortunately the police took more than half an hour to arrive from the moment the flood of 000 phone calls were received from people at the scene.  In fact one of our sheriffs had to leave during the ordeal due to the delay.  As it was taking so long, we started to take turns at different regions to allow small rests.  It turned out the police had come from another hairy situation which required them all. 

They handcuffed the guy, and asked around who had been involved to take our details and brief statements. When the cop was told I was first on the scene he came to me and said, ‘Talk to me – what happened?’ I told him the honest answer, that guy ruined my Friday night footy – which got a slight smile. 

Fortunately we managed to get home before the footy started, and with time for me to have a shower to try and wash off the foulness I felt that the situation spread over me.

The whole spectacle was disappointing on a number of levels.  My three year old son witnessed the guy hit the girl, then me having to get involved, then the guy on the ground bleeding, swearing and threatening all of us. But just as disappointing was some of the comments people walking by had made to us. I think at its peak, the crowd would have been 20 – 30 or so people.  But it seemed everyone that walked by needed an explanation.

The majority of comments were to leave the guy alone cause he could sue us.  The worst comment though had come from an older lady who came up to me very early in the piece and said – very seriously – the girl was a drug addict anyway.  My goodness that made me mad.

I heard later that the girl involved in the attack just ran off once I had dropped the guy.  On the way she sweared at my wife for trying to help her with the pram.  While that wasn’t very nice, I feel for her.

I really hope she’s OK, and she never has anything to do with that piece of trash oxygen thief again.  Hopefully she presses charges and he gets what he deserves.  But I’ve heard that’s not the common pattern with these sorts of things ..

The weekend has to get better from here. The police officer suggested I write down my version of events while I remember which often helps getting things clearer.  They could be in touch for a more detailed statement.

But then I’d like to strike it from my memory, but I know I’ll be unable to.

Whale of a comment

Sadly, a lost baby whale dubbed Colin has been found swimming alone north of Sydney at Pittwater. It’s been trying to nuzzle moored sailing boats, hoping that one of them will be its lost mother.

It seems like a tragic case. The authorities and experts have indicated that the whale will not survive long without its mother. They have all but given up hopes of finding the mother, or another lactating female to give little Colin the necessary support.

Apparently questioning my heavily pregnant wife whether she was lactating yet was out of line.

 

Addendum: I looked this up after some time.  And sadly Colin was euthanased after authorities found what’s likely to be the mother dead in nearby waters, https://www.news.com.au/news/have-sharks-eaten-colins-mum/news-story/4a34ddbb324d4225e7ddae95018dddfe, accessed 20 Aug 2018.

Messiah Vampires

We like to make the most of the weekends with my son, particularly doing or seeing things I know he’s interested in.  So when the world’s oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship called the MV Doulos was docked at Portside for the public to view and visit, I thought we were onto a winner.  Unfortunately, our attendance was under false pretences.

We heard about the event from the Our Brisbane portal, which just described the MV Doulos briefly and had a link to another site which had more of an account of the boat’s history.

We had a big day in the city, then caught a citycat out to Hamilton to check the ship out.  The ship was definitely a classic.

Once we were aboard the roped off route took us to the boat’s end (or the stern for those in the know). Here they had a massive bookshop.  I thumbed through a few books which seemed to be for kids, and bought a nice colouring-in and activity book about the MV Doulos which the three year old liked.

It was around lunch time when we were aboard, so we also had a hot dog.

One thing I noticed was just how nice all the crew were.  In fact, they seemed almost super nice. They were also from a huge range of different countries, which I thought was interesting.

Once we had seen all we could see, we followed the winding route around the ship towards the exit. And just before we were about to make our way down the ladder back to terra firma, yet another super nice crewmate  greeted us. She has an armful of books, and she gave one to my son, and a different one to me.

I could make out the front page of the kids book which alarmingly put our trip and all those super nice people into context.  The cartoon book was called “The greatest story of all”, and if the title wasn’t enough to give it away, even the graphics on the front page had the tell-tale style about it.

It turns out the MV Doulos is a boat of devout Christian missionaries. In fact, I was totally oblivious to it but a large part of the boat’s mission is its impressive Christian bookshop which it takes to those who haven’t experienced God.

Looking at the Google results now, it’s plainly obvious what the boat was all about.  However the web sites I visited all just said, great old boat on its last trip to Australia.  It was no real skin off our nose, it was still nice to be aboard.  However there was just a slight feeling of being robbed as the boat was here for one reason and I was there for something very different.

I went there wondering what the MV stood for, whether it be merchant or military vessel, etc.  When I first realised what the ship was all about I thought perhaps it may have been Messiah Vampires.

I downgraded our score for the trip to a 5 out of 10 for false-advertising.

Broncos vs St. George – 15 August 2008

A few of us decided to catch this Friday night game at Suncorp Stadium.

It’s always good to watch us play St. George.  And at the moment there’s an extra level of interest due to ex-Bronco Wendell Sailor now playing for them after a period of retirement from active sport by playing internation rugby union.  And, also our founding and long-standing coach Waybe Bennett has decided to leave at the end of the season for the Dragons.

The game started well for the Broncos with two opening converted tries.  My mate and I thought it was the start of an easy victory for us.  Unfortunately the Broncos appeared to think the same thing and relaxed – not a good thing to do in any professional sport.

We still led at half time 12 – 6, but to cut a frustrating story short, in the end the Dragons rolled us 24 – 20.  We scored the final points which made the result appear closer than it was. Unfortunately we had massive defensive holes, and again we failed to score or provide at least a satisfactory attacking play when needed.

Another unfortunate part to the night was a minor clash with the people sitting behind us.  They were St. George supporters which wasn’t the problem.  The problem was they had a supporter’s flag which continued to be waved across my mate’s sister’s face. When she turned around to make them aware of this, the guy apparently called her a grumpy slag or words to the effect.  When my mate questioned him about it, he denied everything and couldn’t offer any construction explanation .. The guy was in his 50s, yet acted like a 10 year old wanting to start a school yard “did not, did too” debate. I’m glad we rose above it, and quickly moved our focus back to the game.

As we left, the guy behind built-up his vocabularly to sarcastically say it was nice to meet us.  Perhaps it was his version of the school yard “nyah nyah”.  We didn’t let it spoil the night, but they certainly changed the mood which certainly wasn’t needed.

Barack who?

My three year old son was interested in the weekend newspaper I was reading this afternoon.  He usually focuses on the cartoons which means I have the difficult task of describing what’s happening, who the people are, and why it could be considered funny by people. Regardless my obvious failing at this, he kindly laughs anyway.

But today there were a few stories on the US election, and specifically Barack Obama. The three year old was quite interested.  He asked who was in the picture, so I told him it’s Barack Obama and as my boy is a big fan of our prime minister – heaven knows why – I mentioned that Barack Obama is trying to get the same job that Kevin Rudd has – but in America.  My boy giggled, and said “bummer”. 

Puerile, but quite funny at the time.

Broncos vs Cronulla – 25 July 2008

I managed to get a free ticket to see the Broncos play the Cronulla Sharks Friday night at home.  The weather wasn’t great throughout the day. But that was of no real concern as the seats were undercover of the Eastern stand.  It hardly rained during the match, but the ground appeared a bit wet.

The Broncos were boosted by the return of a few players. The team won pretty comfortably in the end, enabling me to leave before the finish only to sit on the first train out of Milton for twenty minutes. Despite it being a good finish for us, the commentary between my friend and I referred to an arm wrestle for most of the match.  Contrary to others’ reports, I felt the Broncos were quite flimsy in defense a few times. They only just managed to do enough to prevent several tries through broken play.

Man of the match for mine was Greg Eastwood. He did loads in defense, and as per normal he also attacked strongly.  In fact, against all odds he supplied a pin-point kick to the corner for a much needed try, then he followed-up with the match winning try.  “Slammy” Thaiday also had a blinder getting over the line, and keeping the Sharks forwards on the backfoot.

Paul Gallen had further evidence of getting priority treatment from the referees.  They certainly seem to target him.  Almost every time he was a wanker, the referee penalised him. The pinnacle was a high shot on David Stagg that made Stagg see stars, and hopefully sees Gallen get a week or two in suspension.  Poor old Gallen. Quite a drop after his man of the match performance in State of Origin 2008, almost single-handedly providing the Maroons (his opposition) that series.