New additions and new feelings!

1st, I want to congratulate Jordan and Leen Macvay on the arrival of Alisdair at 11.23pm on September 1st! Well done to both of you, and I hope you can get some much-needed rest after an obviously long and tiring day! Welcome to parenthood guys..!

2nd, Happy Father's day to my Dad in New Zealand! Our Father's Day is on the 1st Sunday of September, and I hope he's having a good one. Have a cold beer for me Dad!

In other news, our new house is coming along slowly but surely, and will hopefully be ready before Christmas, which would allow us to see in the new year in a new house! Building with concrete instead of wood takes much longer, and is a painstakingly slow process, but the house looks great.

Kaitlyn is a little 'Miss'. I love her to bits, but she has sooo many of my bad traits that I now understand my wife's frustrations! We are both easily distracted, short attention span, annoying habit of talking incessantly, and never listen to others! I am now determined to cease and desist my annoyances to others! I'll update this blog with my progress...

On another subject, my studies have begun, albeit slowly. I will finish 3 of 18 modules by the end of November, which will give me a great start to my Optical Dispensing Certificate. I SHOULD finish the course in about 24 months - that's the target. I don't want to spend too much time completing a Certificate...

Caleb, my son, is sure to be a sports star one day. At least I hope so... His natural skills are already evident at just 19 months of age. Everyone comments about his abilities when they see him kicking his ball around - his timing, skill and focus are amazing! I have hardly had to teach him anything - he has a natural liking for sport. I am needless to say pleased about this! Everyone knows how sports-mad kiwi's are! He's also the cheekiest little bastard I've ever met! He's very intelligent, like my daughter, and uses it to make people swoon!

My only gripe this time, is the lack of entertainment in Sitiawan. Diana's parents are in NZ, and we're here running 3 businesses, making sure the house building is going smooth, and dealing with all of life's little drama's. That in itself isn't so bad. What gets to us is that there isn't ANYTHING to do apart from work. It's driving a wedge between us. We get stressed and take it out on each other. I guess people here just aren't interested in spending time and money on entertainment... Sitiawan isn't a small town - there are over 100,000 people in the district. Perhaps to an Asian, that IS small, but to a Kiwi, that's the size of one of our cities! Where we'd have cinema's, malls, cafe's (the real one's), art galleries, sports fields and stadiums, parks, bars and pubs, restaurants of various culture's and all the other amenities, Sitiawan has almost ZILCH of these. I mean ZILCH. I suppose westerner's are 'richer', and spend more on life's luxuries, but come on, a small art gallery or park with a safe playground can't be TOO much to ask for? People's priorities here are on making money. That seems to be all. Surely there's more to life than money? There are TONNES of New Zealander's who are MUCH poorer than many of the people here, yet somehow have a higher standard of living... I should know - I'm one of them. I earn so little compared to many people here, and yet my life has more variation - as much as I can afford - because to me, relaxation and fun are not 'children's stuff'...
I will put up with it because I can't change it. But, I will also do all I can to have a FULL life here.

Once again, congratulations to Jordan and Leen, and we'll see you as soon as the time is right.