It's Happening!

More planning for the ultimate brewery!

More parts are arriving tomorrow! YAY!

Mum-mum

Cami is just impressing us more and more everyday. Here are a collection of videos of her doing different stuff for your enjoyment!

Brutus is Born!

Ok, for those non-drinkers out there (a) you will have to be patient over the next couple of months and (b) I don't really like you anyway. I have officially started a project which will consume a lot of my time, thoughts, dreams, energy and money and I hope will give me great satisfaction over the coming years.

The project is to build a sem-automated, all-grain, stainless steel, gas-fired, safety-controlled, RIMS (look it up - highly interesting for beer geeks) brewing system. I have been spending an inordinate amount of time (much to Emma's annoyance) researching how I should go about this. There are quite a lot of different set ups that many fellow beer geeks have made over the years (why are a lot of home brewers engineers?) but one in particular which has been copied, modified and built on over the years is Lonnie Macs Brutus 10 system. I have been researching this system quite a lot, I bought his plans you can buy from Brew Your Own magazine and from reading forums (mostly Aussie Home Brewer and Home Brew Forum).

I have decided to create a system using the best of a number of systems. My main criteria for this system are to have it as stainless steel system where possible, capable of doing 2 batches at once (38L), an automatic temperature controlled system for the HLT and the MLT through use of digital temperature controllers and thermistors through thermowells, pilot lights for the automated gas burners with auto shutoff valves if pilots go out, plate chiller, robust magnetic drive food grade pumps for recirculation for the RIMS as well as for transferring between HLT to MLT to Boiling kettle as well as for the plate chiller for the cold break (more beer geek talk), and a sexy control box/panel/system!

So anyway, the project has started in earnest. I have been in contact with the brewmaster from the Stavanger brewery (Lervig Aktiebryggeri) who gave me some kind pointers as well as offering some kegs for free (unfortunately they were only 30L kegs in Stainless and 50L in aliminium), as well as the main boutique beer pub in town (Cardinal), but I finally got in touch with Ola Vaaland from Bryne ølutsalg (any beer lovers in Stavanger should go there - very impressive - even managed to find a slab of VB there!!!) and Ola found 3 stainless steel 50L kegs for me and put them aside for me. I am planning on converting these into the keggles (keg turned into kettles) which will form the basis for my starting HLT, MLT and boil kettle. I will likely invest in a 70L boil kettle down the track but at least this is a start point. Oh yeah, one of the kegs is about 1/3 full of Tou beer ... It's going straight down the drain!

Kegs picked up tonight waiting conversion to keggles

VB slab ... in Bryne?!?!

I have also been ordering lots of parts for my gas setup. 2x gas pilot safety valves, 2x thermocouples for the valves, 2x solenoid gas valves for automatic control of the gas to the burners, and a few fittings and things.

I plan on getting my stainless steel square hollow section from a fabricator I know through work. Other stuff I will get locally and may even manage to sneak some pumps and Mongolian jet burners in my luggage when coming back from Oz in January!

Anyway, I want to try and document my build as much as possible so will blog regularly about it. Any comments are obviously welcome and I am sure that Cami will have some special apprentice cameo's during the build as well. For now however, it is just getting a few of the bits and pieces together and when it comes to the build I will post a lot more. I will probably start most of the build after I get back from oz in Jan.

Pic of Cami to show I haven't gone completely brewing mad!

Wish me luck!!

Runny Noses and Lazy Weekends

On Friday night Em and I were free!! We had this annual BBQ event that was put on by one of the local welding companies (Hermes) and Em and I had a big night planned with a babysitter organized and everything. So off we went and had a lovely meal and were getting settled in when our phone rang from the babysitter. Turns out Cami had woken and couldn't be settled. Anyway we decided to call it a night and came home to sort out Cami. Turns out she had a bit of a cold and some teeth coming through (the first one is already poking out). Anyway, the best laid plans went to waste but we ended up having a lovely relaxing weekend and just looking after poor little Cami and her runny nose!

She also tried Vegimite for the first time today sharing some of her daddy's toast! She seemed to like the salty goodness!

Anyway, here are some pics of her eating pâté on bread as well as going for walks today and some from dinner on Saturday night at Ostehuset.

We have a lovely warm fire going tonight and a cozy evening planned. Time to crack open another bottle of red and relax.

Getting Chatty

It's like Cami woke up on Sunday morning after an overnight revelation that she had a voice she could use to make different sounds. She has been chatting away ever since! We took this video using the iPad forward facing camera so she is actually having a lovely little conversation with herself on the screen!

Cami the Crawling Tower Smasher!

Yes, she has cracked the code and is now busy hunting (food scraps on the floor) and gathering (Cooba hair) anything within crawling distance.

Enjoy some footage of Cami the Crawling Tower Smasher!

My WTF for the day!

Running home from work tonight I was bemused by a crowd of people just staring at the entrance to what is obviously some new shop.  The crowd just stood there whilst the shop workers stood in a big crowd at the front door without doing anything whilst the flames kept pouring into the sky and ridiculous "computer game style" tune was playing over loud speakers.  Certainly a weird enough shop opening.  But ... maybe I was just hallucinating again like last run with Kev!

Good Times

It has been a really cruisy few weeks with a nice daily routine for Cami and I. Joel has been busy and working hard but we have found time to enjoy life's little moments too. We were lucky to win the ballot for a weekend at Laerdal's cabin on a little island in the fjords called Randøy. We went down there with Ryan, Louise and Charles. It was a lot of fun with some kayaking (Joel bought a new sea kayak, apparently he doesn't have enough expensive hobbies!), fishing, walking and of course good food, wine and company. Here are some of out recent photos. We just also bought a new 'point and shoot' camera a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 with a Leica lens. We are really pleased with the results. Enjoy!

A good start to the weekend, J won 2 bottles in the work wine raffle

A beautiful rainbow and our view from the cabin

Joel enjoying his new kayak

Cooba minding the boat!

Cooba and Ryan on the tinny pulled up alongside the grocery shop

Such a beautiful spot

Our little treasure took to the cabin lifestyle! Sleeping soundly

Cuddles and playtime with Ryan

Giggles with Louise

Back home again, practicing sitting up, not quite there yet...!

Fashion parade, I picked up a ton of clothes at the twice yearly 2nd hand sale

Our two little darlings!

Cami sharing fruit with a sleepy Joel 3 weeks ago

My new job

In July this year, I changed employer and started work for Ocean Installer. It is a new exciting company with a lot of colleagues from a previous place of work and I am fortunate enough to be also working with some very good friends as well which is a bonus.

We just secured our first vessel which means there is no turning back and it is full steam ahead. Off we go then, to the deep!

Here is a picture of our new vessel we get to play with!

Cami the tower smasher!

Interesting run to work this morning!

Kev offered to run with me to work this morning ... which i found a little odd as Kev simply hates running. So my suspicions were already pricked, but I though why not, a run along a beautiful fjord with a mate in the morning can't be all that bad. Little did I know that it would be more dangerous than cycling every day.

The first obstacle was the deceptively stationary barriers at the entrance to the cycle path. This barrier jumped out of nowhere to smash into my left thigh and consequently catapult me into a double pike saulto with twist. After dusting (more like wiping as it was also drizzling) myself up off the ground, we continued along ... me with a dead-leg style running gait ... and all seemed ok. I have a suspicion that there might have been a little nudge just before the barrier from Kev but it all happened far too quickly and was quite comical really ... apart from the deep haematoma to my left thigh!

Then a couple of km's further along the track, Kev "apparently" had to move over to the side to let a cyclist through and this is where the intent appeared more obvious. It might have been the pain from the dead leg causing some mild hallucinations, but I clearly remember Kev pushing me directly into the path of another deceptively stationary object ... this time a fist sized rock. Anyway, after rolling my left ankle, and barely letting out a manly groan, I hobbled along for a while and managed to pick up the pace again later.

Once at work however my ankle started to severely seize up and here I am now lying on Cami's foam play mat, drugged up to the eyeballs on anti-inflammatories, pain killers, icing and elevating and cursing Kev for the offer of a friendly run this morning.

When I can walk again, I plan to offer Kev a bike ride to work ... I have a few tricks up my sleeve.

Disclaimer: Any allegations in this blog are purely allegations. No criminality can be proven until revenge is enacted.

Cami cuteness

This is a cute pic of Cami that couldn't help but post for all to see.
We love her lots and lots!!!!

How to pack for a business trip

It's been a while since I did one, but packing for a business trip is a skill I have honed over many trips over many years. Here are my top tips! I wrote this for my sister in law, Sam Cousins in case she might be able to use some of it for her new website, www.chevali.com.au, she is selling new and vintage clothes. Check it out!

Packing for a business trip is a skill which can be learnt with a bit of practise and some imagination. When travelling for work there are some key questions that should guide your preparation of what clothes to pack:

Where am I travelling to?

Think about the climate, terrain, city/country

What activities will I be involved in? Meetings, fancy dinners, conference, leisure time

When I pack for a short business trip (eg. 2-5 days) I always take a carry-on suitcase only. If you're travelling with colleagues and you're the only one with checked luggage you will hold up the whole group waiting at the luggage carousel! But most importantly losing your luggage when going on holidays is a hassle, on a business trip it can be disastrous. You often hit the ground running and go straight into work mode and doing this in your jeans that you were flying in is just not a good look. If you are going on a long trip and need a bigger suitcase always take an emergency outfit and underwear in your carry on, or travel in clothes you can get away with for your first day.

With only a carry on case to fill, you have to be smart. My number one tip is to choose a base colour palette and stick to it. For me its always black, but you might choose brown instead. For me black becomes my base colour and I only wear items that will coordinate with it. This allows you maximum flexibility to mix and match pieces to create new outfits. I will always pack a pair of black pants and a black skirt, black boots and/or heels, a black cardigan or jacket and a belt. You might have a great day-to-night black dress which travels well (more on that in a moment) which would be a great addition.

Shoes take up a lot of space and are heavy so try to take as few pairs as you can get away with. This is one of the greatest advantages for me in sticking with one colour (eg. black) you don't need multiple pairs of shoes to coordinate with different coloured outfits. I often wear my biggest/heaviest shoes on the plane (eg. Boots).

My work attire is almost always 'smart' but not 'suit', so obviously that guides my selections. Once you have
your basic black items you would add pieces to fill out your selection. I would choose tops in black, grey, navy, beige/camel. This might sound boring but you can add brighter colours with a scarf or jewellery which take up less space in your case. Darker tops are easier for me when travelling, especially when flying, there's
something about plane food – I always manage to spill it on myself! Dark colours are more forgiving. Black leggings or opaque tights can be very handy if it's a little cool, it allows you to layer your outfit but still be warm. If I'm travelling in winter I will always carry with me a smart warm jacket (eg. A trench or woollen jacket). Always pack an umbrella just in case. 

Regarding clothes that travel well, I never pack items that crumple or need ironing. You never know if you will have an iron in your hotel room so I just avoid the issue altogether. I love to travel with items in wool, wool mix, jersey, and other comfortable, high quality synthetic fabrics that will look fresh straight from the suitcase. Natural fabrics like wool are more forgiving if you need to wear something twice and will dry quickly if you need to hand wash it.

Another good idea is to leave a little space in your suitcase (or buy an expandable case) in case you have time to fit in some shopping. Checking in your luggage on the way home is much easier as consequences of loosing your luggage are not so drastic once you are home.

So to summarise my top tips are:

• Take carry on luggage only (ideally expandable)
• Choose a base colour (eg. Black) and only select items that coordinate to mix and match
• Take as few pairs of shoes as you can get away with, wear your biggest/heaviest pair on the plane
• Add colour and flair with scarves and jewellery
• Choose fabrics that travel well and won't crumple

Daddy Daughter Chats

Having chats with my daughter ... about life, love, football, and unicorns.

Cami aged 6.5 months

Family Resemblance?

I think there are some definite Ireland genes at work here...these are some pics of Eliza our niece (Zac and Fraze's daughter) and Cami at a similar age. Sometimes we feel we could be looking at photos of the same girl! If Cami had slightly chubbier cheeks.....

Eliza

Cami

Cami

Eliza

Eliza

Cami

Back to just us four

It has been a wonderful few months with visitors galore. My sister Sally was here for a month getting a behind he scenes look at life on maternity leave! A highlight of her visit was a Girls Week in Croatia. We stayed in the island of Hvar. It was beautiful, very relaxing and we had a great time. While it was sad to say goodbye at least it's only a few months until we see each other again in Melbourne. We are planning a visit around Christmas. Here are a few photo from Sally's trip!



Cami's 3rd flight, seasoned traveller!


The view from our balcony in Hvar



Taking in the sights and super yachts at Hvar harbor



Getting into the holiday mood!



Big eyes taking in the world



Beautiful Hvar



On a boat to one of the smaller islands. The baby carrier was a must - so many steps in Croatia = not pram friendly.




A happy morning girl, unlike her auntie Sally (at least until she's had her morning coffee!)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Summer Holiday in Fayence, South France

We returned a couple of weeks ago from a fantastic holiday - 2 weeks in the South of France. We were so lucky to be able to take Cooba with us - Joel drove our car down there and Cami and I flew down and met him and Cooba in Nice. It was such a wonderful holiday shared with two other families - Aud Trude, Kristian and Oliver, as well as Mari, Kev, Oscar and Elliot.

One thing I realised when compiling this album is we've become the typical first-time parents and taken 500,000,000 photos of Cami and hardly any of anyone or anything else! We will be sure to remedy this next time. Seasoned Campaigners Mari and Kev are clued onto this and have a much better set of pics showing the house we stayed in and lots of photos of the whole crew, the link to their blog is in the list of links in the top right so feel free to stop by there for some other photos. But boy do we have some cute photos of our little girl!

In other news, Sally arrives tomorrow, and I'm pumped!!

Double click on the photos to view the slideshow.

A Happy Little Girl

Well I blinked and already its May! Time flies when you're having fun, and I'm finding that so true. Our little girl is now 3 1/2 months old. I glanced back at some pregnancy photos and got a bit of a shock, I struggle to remember now how it felt to be pregnant, to have that huge baby bump and all the baby wriggles, awkward movement and how it felt to have a bladder capacity of an egg cup! I did love being pregnant, but it's fantastic to have my 'old' body back - more or less, be it a little battle scarred.

I really love being a stay at home mum. Its a dramatic change which happened literally overnight, but I feel I'm into the swing of things now. Cami is such a beautiful, happy little girl she makes each day a pleasure. I've been busy with all our wonderful guests (more on that in a minute), a weekly meet-up with a group of other mums who are all ex-pats whom we met through our birthing course, I just finished a 3 week baby massage course... the days fill up so easily and the weeks just fly past.

Cami is absolutely awesome. Seriously. She is amazing. There were times during the first 6 weeks of her life when Joel and I would look at each other and ask "is this what it's going to be like now? Did we get a dodgy one?" and we were only half joking. She is sleeping beautifully at night, and any parent will tell you that if you get a 'decent' amount of sleep at night then you can cope with most of what the day will throw at you. There's a reason sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture! We have a great night time routine with Cami now and she sleeps from 7pm until around 5.30am, with a wake up at around 2 or 3am for a quick feed. Joel usually brings her in to bed with us at 5.30am, and then after a feed he takes her downstairs with him while he gets ready for work while I get an extra 45mins or so of zzzz time (so precious). Then Cami and I usually snooze until around 8 if I'm lucky and depending on what mood she's in!

I know how lucky we are and that for many parents of a 3 month old that kind of sleep routine is just a pipe dream, so we're really appreciating our clever little sleeper! I think it has helped for us to create a definite ritual/routine which we do almost exactly the same way every night - bath at 6.30, swaddle her tightly in a wrap, top up feed (even if her last feed wasn't that long before), and down to sleep by 7. She may stir 2 or 3 times after that, but usually just plugging her dummy back in does the trick and her gorgeous little blue eyes roll back in her head and she's off to la la land again immediately. I also think moving her into her own room really helped, it makes the night feeds much more efficient and effective, rather than us both dozing off in bed mid-feed, this way although I have to get up for the feed I know she's getting enough milk, and I can sleep so much more comfortably when she's not in the bed! The rocking chair I upholstered is getting heaps of use for those night time feeds in Cami's room.

Cami is smiling all the time, in the last couple of weeks she has just started to grasp things and hold them, sometimes bringing them to her mouth. She is really interacting heaps with loads of eye contact and lots of adorable little noises and squeals. She isn't rolling yet, or laughing but I don't think those things will be far away. She's losing quite a lot of her newborn hair which was quite dark and she seems to be growing a new crop which is more blonde. I wonder if she might be a beautiful little strawberry blonde girl like her Auntie Sally. We'll see.

My parents came to see us for 2 weeks and just left early this week. It's still a little raw for me actually, I'm sure you can understand why. Seeing Mum and Dad with their first grandchild was so incredibly special and beautiful. Mum especially just adores babies and children and she slipped into 'Grandma' mode effortlessly and perfectly. She was wonderful with Cami, very hands-on and took every possible opportunity for cuddles and time with her. No nappy was too pooey, no grizzle too daunting. Dad loved his Cami cuddles and kisses, I absolutely loved seeing them together. Watching Mum and Dad say goodbye to Cami at the airport to fly out for the rest of their trip in Europe broke my heart a bit, and to be honest it hasn't quite mended yet. Cami is changing and growing so much, and she's such a special little girl, it weighs heavily on my heart that she is not able to see all her wonderful family all the time, and they can't drop by for cuddles. Thank goodness for Skype and our fantastic family who are going to so much effort to see us and stay in regular contact. We've been absolutley blown away by the generosity shown by everyone with sending their messages, cards and gifts. Cami is such a lucky little girl to be welcomed into the world with so much love and care. It makes Joel and I feel very humble indeed.

In the coming weeks and months we have loads to look forward to. Joel's sister Emma arrives next week to stay with us for a week. She's so excited to meet Cami it's wonderful of her to take a week out of her European trip to come and see us. Not long after that Joel, Cami, Cooba and I are off to the south of France for 2 weeks with some friends for a holiday. We're renting a villa in a little town called Fayence, about 20km inland, north of St Raphael/Cannes area. We're going with Mari, Kev, Oscar and Elliot, and Aud Trude, Kristian and Oliver. Can't wait! After that Sally is coming to visit. So lots on the agenda and an exciting few months ahead.

with Mum and Dad in Oslo (overnight trip to get Cami's Aussie Passport)



Beautiful smiley girl

First cuddles with Grandma and Grandad

9 weeks and counting!

Cami is now 9 weeks old and is just going from strength to strength. We continue to notice and appreciate the change in her since she turned 6 weeks old. Looking back on that time we think wow - that was tough. Our sister in law Fraze said that the 6 week mark was a milestone and things can improve quite a bit, and how right she was. Cami is now in her own bedroom and we’re able to settle her in the evening between about 7 and 8pm and she will sleep until around 2, or if we’re lucky she’ll even last a few hours longer than that. The two biggest improvements are that she’s happier during the days – whereas before she’d be always grizzling or crying during her awake time, now she is very content and smiling and can happily sit in her bouncinette. The other big change is settling her to sleep. It used to take aaaaaggggeeeesssss and you could only put her down in her cot once she was really truly dead asleep. Now after a cuddle we can put her down and more often than not she will drop off to sleep on her own. This is a huge improvement and it has given us back our evenings and also makes the night feeds much easier.

We’re really enjoying our little girl. She is growing more alert and interacting more all the time. Lots of eye contact, smiles, she is just so unbelievably cute! Joel and I are feeling a bit more in ‘control’ of our daily routine now and understand her signals much better – when is she tired/hungry etc. We’ve also picked up some tricks (or maybe she has gotten used to the things we do to calm her) so now when she’s crying and upset we can sooth her more easily. We find putting her upright cuddling against our shoulder/chest, shooshing and doing squats really helps. We saw a midwife do it in the hospital and it worked brilliantly so we’ve been doing it ever since. Not a bad leg/butt work out either for us!

Joel’s mum Bernadette is visiting us at the moment. It has been wonderful to see her with Cami, her third granddaughter. She adores her and I think the feeling is mutual. She has been a big help to us and Joel has taken holidays while she’s visiting so it has been great. My parents are due in a couple of weeks too, and to say my mum is excited to meet her first grandchild would be a bit of an understatement!

Off now to enjoy some beautiful easter sunshine. Enjoy the holiday everyone!