]]> Back in January I suddenly realised that we were not that far away from seeing both boys playing together in the same soccer team.

Matt had decided to play with Dan’s club, the Unley Rangers, in the Collegiate League, and, while Dan was well entrenched as the first team’s keeper and Matt was mostly likely to play division 3, it was not beyond the realm of possibilities that Matt may get his chance to play up a level while Dan filled in down a level for a game.

Of course that all turned to shit late in February when Matt injured the knee that he had been trying to bust for about 4 years. His reconstruction at the end of March meant that my dream would not come true in 2010.

That was spectacularly confirmed at about 4.40 pm yesterday when Dan broke his lower left leg! It was an innocent enough piece of play … Dan rushing out at a striker who thought he was going to get one past him … a clash of both players on the edge of the penalty box … and the save was made. I have probably seen almost 500 very similar saves from Dan.

This time though, instead of the cheers from the supporters all we heard was a blood-curdling scream of agony! To be honest I was pretty sure what it was as soon as I heard Dan, way too much noise for a knee or some other injury. One glance at his leg confirmed it.

After waiting on the cold ground for around 60 minutes he was transferred to Flinders and underwent an operation last night to insert a rod up his leg. He’ll be in for probably a day or two, followed by some time back at home with us.

If anything good has come of this it is the reminder once again of the team spirit at the Rangers. His team-mates, coaches and the supporters hung around for over an hour as it got colder and colder and bloody dark, cracking jokes when they were needed and helping out the ambos when they eventually arrived.

The club was also in contact many times during the evening checking on his condition and the visitors started rocking into hospital at around 10.30 this morning.

So the current score is … 2 sons … zero left legs that work properly!

But … back to my dream. The one good thing about sport is that “there’s always next year!”

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I just don’t seem to be able to find the time, or maybe the energy, lately. I guess what energy I might have for sitting in front of a laptop doing “webby” things at night has gone towards the boys’ soccer website over the last 12 months. You can see the fruits of those labours at the Unley Rangers website. Fortunately it has become a key communication strategy for the club and its players and supporters, and as a result I have found it a rewarding exercise.

Life goes on of course and there are a few things that deserve a mention I guess. These are in roughly time order.

One of the most disruptive, certainly for Matt at least, has been his knee reconstruction back at the end of March. The next couple of weeks were far from easy for him, all those school holidays spent basically sitting around doing nothing were pretty boring. He has had a couple of minor setbacks along the way, the most worrying was a stumble on the stairs at school which resulted in him being back on crutches for his year 12 formal late in April.

He is well and truly on the mend now. He is walking unaided with only the slightest of limps and is able to ride the exercise bike to try and start building up what is now a pretty thin left leg again. He can still only drive an automatic though.

This would have been a huge issue for us (we only have manual cars) were it not for the generosity of firstly his cousin Nicole, who loaned him her car for 3 weeks while she was away on holiday, and the Rodney and Karen who have let him use one of their loan cars for the following 5 weeks or so. Thanks heaps guys!

His soccer this year has of course been limited to admin roles, but he was a major organizer of the Rangers’ Ladies’ Day breast cancer fundraiser and has a team manager type role for the Div 1 team each Saturday.

At around the same time Hedy had a job shift, into a management role with a global consulting group. She is the SA Operations Manager and has, I think, around 12 staff reporting to her. I was not surprised to hear her say the other night that she is finding it enjoyable … I think it gives her a chance to still apply her technical skills while also giving her the influence needed to fix things that she feels need fixing. Her health remains good, although she is still easily tired out.

Jez and Laura’s wedding in mid-April was a wonderful evening, with the reception at Bird in Hand winery providing one of the more memorable “function” meals we have had. We had a great night, although I at least felt a little tired and emotional the next day when we journeyed back to Hahndorf for breakfast and to pick up the car we had left there the night before.

On Anzac Day Hedy and I tripped up to Mintaro again for the day to check the progress on the Payne country house. We, along with the Littles, had an enjoyable lunch with Andy and Seona on their verandah … each trip for us brings their vision into a bit more focus, the ruin is gradually becoming a livable house, very gradually!

I will have forgotten something for sure, but these are things that come rapidly to mind right now.

]]> Just a quick post to let you know that Matt’s knee problem turned out to be his ACL … he has had surgery today to reconstruct it.

He has quite an impressive looking brace arrangement attached now … and a bit of pain unfortunately. His biggest problem though is that it will be about 9 or 10 weeks before he can drive a manual car again … and all we have is manuals!

If anybody knows of an auto sitting around doing nothing … or if anybody would like to drive a manual Honda Civic in exchange for their auto for a few weeks … please let me know!

]]> Of no interest to anybody but me … but this is at least one way for me to record when this occured!

For the last few years this site has been running on an old Athlon 1800 PC. I have progressively added more disk to this box via external USB drives, primarily to handle our music, movies and music … all of which has, of course, been legally acquired by ripping our own media. Adelaide United were champions this season as well!

I think this must be about 6 years old now … basically if I had to get rid of it I would probably give it away, it’s worth nothing. With a bit of back pay coming my way this week as a result of the new public service pay agreement (not as much as the freakin’ teachers are going get though I might add) I figured I might invest in a new PC to act as a srver for us.

JB-HiFi had on special a HP machine with a E5300 Core Duo processor, 2Gb of RAM and a 500Gb hard drive, along with windows 7, for $570 … no screen of course but then the server machine runs headless here anyway. Basically I couldn’t leave it in the shop.

Last night I set it up and now you are viewing this site, along with Unley Rangers and Wittwer Motors from it.

]]> Long time readers may recall this post covering the first time Hedy and I visited the ruin that friends Andy and Seona had bought out at Mintaro on the eastern edge of the Clare Valley.

What better way to spend Valentine’s Day with another trip (with the Jans) to view the progress and to share brunch under the trees in what is really starting to become much more than a ruin.

From the front

Compare these photos with the one on the earlier post to see just how much work, and money, Andy and Seona have done up until now. I am finally starting to realise just how much vision they have had when purchasing this all that time ago.

We set oursleves up on a table under a huge gum and proceeded to demolish the bacon and eggs, before setting off for a walk around Mintaro. Then back to the house for a couple of glasses of wine, a visit from Karen and Rodney who were in the area celebrating their anniversary, and then back in the car for the drive home.

All in all, a great day!

]]> … or at least that’s what I was told just over 21 years ago, when little baby Jessica was born. Where on earth did those 21 years go!

Jess celebrated her 21st with a “gathering” … (“It’s not a party, I don’t want a party, just a get-together of family and friends”) … at home on 2 January. I guess around 60 of us were there to help her celebrate. Unfortunately I didn’t get many photos of the birthday girl herself, she seemed to move from group to group way too quick. I also missed the obligatory cake cutting photo as I was tasked with making the speech.

I tried to make the point that I think the most amazing thing about Jess is her courage to go out and explore the world, without losing touch with the importance of her family and friends. Not many kids are able to spend so much time overseas studying and then return and live in a small country town like Murray Bridge, and yet this was Jess’s preference. Good on her for following her heart I say!

So, Happy (belated) Birthday Jess!

(PS: Don’t be too offended that I posted about Fruchoc Icecreams before your birthday … Fruchocs and icecream are both very important things in life!)
(PPS: Sorry I mentioned the “fish” thing!)

]]> Of all the more minor happenings of late, one stands out in my mind. Hedy’s darling cousin Angela … (now forever my favourite) … introduced me to Golden North Fruchoc icecreams.

If you haven’t tried these (link to manufacturers page) do it NOW … our local Coles Supermarket has them. I don’t know how much they are … and don’t care!

]]> … it’s been a while hasn’t it? I have no good excuse for this incredible lack of posts, other than to say we have been busy, in a kind of “can’t be buggered doing anything other than watching TV when I am home” type of way.

Much has happened of course, and I can think of at least 3 things that deserve posts of their own which I’ll try to address over the next few days.

What does bring me back to posting then? Well, Hedy had another review with the breast surgeon yesterday, following a MRI late last week. Fortunately, both the MRI and yesterday’s mammogram were clear … thank goodness. Of course, it didn’t help that it took 2 hours to find this out, including a repeat mammogram, which caused a bit of alarm to Hedy. I was blissfully unaware as I was stuck out in the waiting room, although my concern level did start to rise after about 75 minutes I guess.

Her next check-up is in 6 months, and I guess each time around now is going to bring some stress along with it. Don’t let that put those of you who should be having such checks themselves off though … will you?

]]> and, to be honest, Hedy’s last year hasn’t been.

Nevertheless, today is her birthday, and, mainly as a result her own determination and courage, and with a good dose of luck thrown in, she enters this next year as she started the last … happy, positive, healthy and with a whole heap of family and friends that love her dearly.

And, as usual, Dan, Matt and I are on top of the heap!

Happy Birthday Hedy!

]]> At 8.32 this morning Matt turned 17. As a result he finally has the IPhone he has wanted for months, a kick-arse remote control helicopter that is about as big as Chloe and a new game for the Wii.

Happy Birthday buddy!