Today was our first expedition to the local Playgroup at the Bulimba Senior Citizen's Centre, an easy 5 minute bike ride from our place. I told Zoe we were going to Playgroup when Sarah dropped her around this morning, and she got very excited and jumped up and down. When Sarah asked her if she knew what Playgroup was, she said "no!" while continuing to jump up and down excitedly. We all laughed. I must have put this on my calendar when I was in Sydney last week, because I had it down for 8:30am, and we rocked up and there wasn't anyone there. A lady arrived to set up for a music class, and she said that the Playgroup didn't usually start until much later, so I figured I'd had a timezone fail and we went for a little bike ride around Bulimba while we waited. The lady who was running the Playgroup arrived at about 9:15am, and so we helped with the set up. Basically lots of toys, a couple of slides and some basic craft stuff. Heaps of the little IKEA round plastic stools. Parents (almost exclusively mothers) started trickling in from 9:30am. I've got a total name overload. We need name tags. Most of the girls seemed to be about 2 and a half, and a lot of the mothers had very young second children. Apparently a mother's group had joined en masse because they all had second children who were crawling, and so meeting in a park wasn't practical any more. Structurally, the first hour or so was just a free for all, and the last half an hour was some songs, a story and some playing under and on a parachute. All in all it was a good morning's activity, and at $20 for the term, nice and cheap. Apparently you're supposed to join Playgroup Queensland as well, for $40, but that takes care of liability insurance and whatnot. If only their website used SSL. Zoe mostly just wanted to play with me. We did a lot of role playing with some dolls, and she checked out the various toys. She loved that there was a stage, and took it upon herself to give an impromptu dance performance for a bit. We also did a little craft activity. She seemed more interested in helping flap the parachute than going under it, but enjoyed having a ride on it when the time came. I've just finished reading How Not to F*** Them Up by Oliver James. It was quite an interesting read, although not particularly applicable for my situation, as it more dealt with the first three years. It was interesting observing a whole bunch of different mothering techniques in action, both in dealing with their toddler children, and how they responded to their second infants. After Playgroup, we biked over to the local toy shop around the corner from home, and grabbed some birthday presents for the birthday party on Saturday and came home for lunch. Chicken quesadillas and some mango (I hadn't realised how much I've missed Queensland mangoes until we moved back, and I'm glad Zoe loves them as well). I got her down for a nap earlier today, and after she woke up, I asked Zoe if she wanted to write on the birthday cards we'd bought for the twins' birthday presents. She said she didn't know how to write her name (which isn't true) and wanted to paint them instead, so we compromised and used some sponge letters to stamp "Z O E" on the cards in paint. Zoe said that Eva's favourite colour was purple and Layla's was pink (or it may have been the other way around), so we stamped one with purple paint and mixed red and white to make something that looked more orange than pink and stamped the other one. Then Zoe wanted to glue the two paper plates together that we'd been using to hold the paint, so we did that, and then she wanted to "hand paint" a cardboard tube, which seemed to involve me directly squirting various colours into her hands and then her "painting" the tube with what was in her hands. The tube quickly ended up a brown/grey colour. All in all, it was a fabulous mess, and fortunately no walls or doors copped any paint on the way to the bathroom to clean up. After that, we cleaned up Zoe's room a bit, which resulted in her going off and playing with her Magna Doodle with Smudge for a bit, and then we played Doctor with her doctor set and then we did some baking. It was a good afternoon, and she only asked to watch TV once, when she first woke up from her nap, and we managed to successfully divert to other much more fun stuff.

Yesterday was the first day of my new routine, except I haven't really established the new routine yet. I think that's going to take a few weeks. It was, however, the first day of Zoe's new routine, she started Kindergarten. "Kindergarten" is a bit of an ambiguous term, even within Australia, it seems. Back when I went to school, there was "pre-school", which was, as best I can determine, what "Kindergarten" is now, except a year later. It was optional, half a week, and the year preceding the start of primary ("elementary") school. I think every other state was already doing an extra year of school (which I think they called "Kindergarten", "Kinder", or something starting with "K") so Queensland blew up "pre-school", created "Prep" and now that's the first year of primary school. Zoe will start "Prep" next year. Then the Queensland education boffins realised that kids were missing out on the stuff that "pre-school" used to offer, so they reintroduced it in the form of "Kindergarten" (by Queensland standards). It's supposed to be play-based, and isn't really "long day care". Zoe does Monday, Tuesday and every other Wednesday, from 8:30am until 2:20pm. I'd only heard about C&K from a friend after moving back to Brisbane, so we were very fortunate to secure a place without having camped out on a waiting list from birth. We got very lucky, and ended up getting multiple offers, but we're pretty thrilled with the one that Zoe got into. It's a relatively new facility, right next to a state school and some bushland. They take the kids on excursions into the bushland, and up to the state school where there's some chickens. The Kindergarten facility itself is really lovely. Anyway, yesterday was Zoe's first day. I biked there yesterday morning (without Zoe) and it took me about 11 minutes. It took me more like 15 minutes to pick her up with the bike trailer. It's uphill on the way there, but not too much of a slog. It's been really great that Zoe's BFF from day care, Megan, also scored a place in the same Kindergarten, as I think this will help the transition for both girls greatly. I was able to stay for an extended period of time to help settle Zoe in, and I was able to leave without her being particularly distressed. I then biked home, running a few errands along the way. I then got stuck into a woodworking project (I'm trying to make a little wooden clothesline for Zoe). It turns out trying to cut a halved joint with a hand saw and chisel is a lot of work. I've managed to aggravate an old rotator cuff injury and the two pieces are a tad too tight, so I'm thinking I'll redo it and cut the joint out with an electric router instead. I probably spent at least a couple of hours faffing around with that. So I banged away with a hammer and chisel for a bit, got a haircut, had a late lunch and next thing I knew it was 2pm and time to head back on the bike to pick up Zoe. She was still asleep on her stretcher when I arrived to pick her up, which wasn't that surprising, since she tends to sleep later and longer at day care. I got a good opportunity to chat with her teacher about her first day and then gently woke her up with a kiss, and we headed home. I introduced Zoe to one of our new neighbours, and after a snack, we drove into Fortitude Valley where I had to pick up some mail from my post office box. When we got back home, I started on dinner while Zoe watched a little bit of TV. I spontaneously invited my cousin over to join us for dinner, and we walked down to the Hawthorne Garage for a babyccino after dinner. It was a good day. I realised that I'm going to have to be super regimented with my time on the days Zoe is in Kindergarten, because 2pm is going to roll around very quickly. "Scarcity brings clarity", as Sergey says...

Today was the first weekday of me taking care of Zoe. We got things started more or less on the same routine that we used to do when she had day care, so we were dressed and ready to roll by about 8am. We baked a batch of mini cornbread muffins, and had them ready by the time my 9:30am chiropractic appointment rolled around, so we took a few with us for morning tea for my chiropractor and his receptionist. I've taken Zoe with me on a few occasions, and speak of her often to my chiropractor. He's a dad himself, and the first few times I brought her in, he juggled for her, so she thinks he's pretty cool. Last night, Zoe had expressed a desire to go to Southbank today. It was initially looking like it'd be too rainy, but by the time I was done with the chiropractor, it looked safe enough to venture out, so we went back home, and I prepared a picnic lunch for us, and we caught a bus over to Southbank. We had a bit of a splash around in the water and then ate lunch. Zoe had a great time alternating between feeding and chasing seagulls, crows, and an ibis. My girlfriend, who works in South Brisbane, walked over and joined us briefly and then we all walked back towards the bus and parted ways. Southbank mid-week is pretty nice. Not too busy. It was a slow walk home from the bus, but the reward of a My Little Pony biscuit was enough to get her racing ahead of me from the corner. After a biscuit and some quiet time, she fell asleep and I've had a couple of hours to read and write blog posts, as well as plan future activities. I'm hoping that we'll have enough time to go birthday present shopping for a 4th birthday party (for twins from Zoe's old day care) that we're going to on Saturday morning after swim class, before Sarah arrives to pick her up, but I'm dubious we'll get time. Zoe's still asleep as I write. There's always tomorrow. We might be best off just baking the second batch of cornbread muffins.

After 8 years, February 6 will be my last day with Google. The hardest pill to swallow with the end of my marriage was the reduction in my time with Zoe. It was one thing to lose my wife, but to lose 50% of my daughter as well has been, and will continue to be, a struggle for me. 2014 is the last year before Zoe starts in Prep (Queensland's school grade before "one"). This is my last opportunity to be able to have a big chunk of time with her before she gets swallowed up by the school system. It's ridiculous to be sticking her in full-time long day care if I have an alternative. And I do have an alternative. I'm in the fortunate financial position of not having a mortgage, or any debt to speak of, and a modest amount of savings. I shall be Daddy Day Care. It had always been my career goal in life to be a stay at home Dad. I'd wanted to have another child and be the one to stay at home and look after the kids, and allow Sarah to resume her career. Obviously none of that worked out, but there's no reason why I can't be a stay at home Dad for at least this year. Zoe's at a wonderful age now. We can have a lot of fun together this year. She's going to be in a 5 day a fortnight Kindergarten program (Monday, Tuesday and every other Wednesday) between 8:20am to 2:30pm, so I'm planning on using one of those days for Debian contributions, one of those days for exploring some of the crazy startup ideas I have rattling around in my head, and every second Wednesday to keep the home tidy. It's going to be a fun, different year for Zoe and I, and I'm so looking forward to it. I'm planning on doing lots of activities from Play at Home Mom, doing lots of baking and we'll be doing Science Friday's. If anyone knows where I can get a toddler-sized lab coat, drop me a line. I'm hoping I can make time to write up our activities for posterity as well.

I'm not a strong swimmer, and never have been. I was never confident in the water as a child. In my teenage years, I had some skin issues that I was very self-conscious about. Going to a boy's school where I was already bullied, I didn't want to add material, so I avoided swimming. To this day, I can barely swim 50 metres freestyle. To think I once had aspirations of getting into the police, which required a bronze medallion. As as result of my atrocious swimming abilities, it's been very important to me that Zoe be able to swim well. Purely for her own personal safety if nothing more. She's been doing "swim classes" of various sorts since she's been 6 months old. In the US, they were group parent/child water familiarisation classes. When we moved back to Australia and turned three, she was eligible to start doing small-group instructor-led classes with Hampton Swim School. It felt like such an milestone just to no longer have to be in the pool with Zoe. I was initially quite skeptical of Hampton's methods, compared with what I'd observed at the Betty Wright Swim School (which subsequently had to close due to aging facilities). Having seen how well Zoe's swimming has progressed in 3 quarters of classes is just amazing. The last few times I've taken Zoe to a public pool for some non-class swim time, her confidence in the water has been fantastic. I've bought some "sinkies", toys that sink to the bottom, and she'll happily dive down to the bottom to retrieve them (with assistance from me getting down there). Today, to escape the 40 plus degree heat, I took her to the Sleeman Sports Centre, because they have a really cool slide, and the whole thing's indoors. Zoe was confidently swimming between me and the side of the pool in water that was over her head, repeatedly. So to have her go from being fine in the water as long as she was being held, to actively asking me to go further back from the wall, in under a year has been really excellent progress. She's also "diving" in off the side (it's more like a bad belly flop, but she has brilliant form at the start, with her hands over her head). We got to the pool today around 10:30am, and it turned out the slide didn't open until 1pm, so we decided to stick around for lunch and wait until the slide opened. To kill time after lunch, we went to the 50 metre pool, where some other kids were taking turns to jump in off the starting blocks. Fearless Zoe wanted to have a go too. This was seriously deep water. It was really inspiring watching this tiny little girl climb up onto the starting blocks of the 1982 Commonwealth Games 50 metre pool and "dive" into the water, flounder over to me, who was furiously treading water in the middle of the lane, and then flounder over to the side, climb out unassisted and do it all over again. It was a seriously "proud father" moment, while I was trying not to drown myself in the middle of the lane. I wish I'd had someone there with a camera to capture the moment. I have great hopes for the future of her swimming, and I think she's ready to go up a level in her swim class.

Well, it's 2014. The annus horribilus of 2013 is behind me. I'm entering 2014 in a much better place (on multiple levels) than I did for 2013. I'm positively excited to see what 2014 brings me. I was very fortunate to have someone I looked up to reach out to help me when my marriage fell apart. One of the things he said to me was "A year from now, you won't recognise yourself". He was right. I am such a different person today than I was a year ago. I'm happier, fitter, more self-confident. I'm focusing on different things in my life. One thing that has been a casualty, has been my geeky pursuits. There were a few times last year where I questioned if I was still a geek. I am. I've just deprioritised it. Instead, I've been putting my own self-care and my daughter above all else, meaning that my running has probably been the one thing I'd call a "hobby" at the moment. I've got some stuff in the pipeline that I'm not quite ready to write about yet, but I'm expecting a rearrangement of my time that will hopefully allow for some more geeky endeavours in 2014. I'm also hoping I can regain some momentum on blogging. Here's what I'd say my goals are, going into 2014:

• Do P90X
• Run in the Gold Coast Half-Marathon
• Get involved with Debian again

plus some other stuff I'm not ready to talk about yet.

I think of Joshua often, and wonder how life might be different were he with us today. The long day of his delivery is one of the most poignant memories that I will carry with me forever. This year is the first year I've been back in Australia for Father's Day. Father's Day in the US is in June, so it's never really been the constant reminder that it will be back here (although I guess it'll vary year to year). The US Labor Day long weekend tended to be the trigger holiday for me. It's also the first year I've been separated, so this Father's Day was particularly difficult for me, but I found I enjoyed the day with Zoe all the more for it. Now that I'm no longer in the US, I miss seeing Eric and Katie's daughter, as she was my physical yardstick of how big Joshua would be today.

One of the goals I set for myself on returning to Brisbane was running in the Bridge to Brisbane. The City2South run ended up being a longer distance, sooner, so I only stuck with the Bridge to Brisbane so I could say I'd done it. The added variable was I had Zoe, and I was pushing her in a jogging stroller. I did a couple of practice runs up the bridge with Zoe in the weeks leading up to the run. Mostly to get her used to it, and for me to get a feel for what the incline was like. I found I had the stamina to easily do the bridge, but ran out of steam on the return leg. No big deal, I didn't need to do that for the real run. I did a poor job of publicising that I was doing the run, so I didn't end up raising a whole lot of money for my chosen charity, beyondblue, because I had the added variable of Zoe. I knew I had to get her up early to get to the start line in time, and I wasn't sure if she was going to be cooperative or not, or whether she'd have a tantrum half way through the run and I'd have to stop, so I didn't feel good about taking money from people for running a run that I wasn't sure I could complete. My main concern had been getting to the starting line in time. I wanted to take the train from Morningside to Murarrie and then walk to the start line (about 10 minutes) because that way I could take the train back to Morningside from the finish to collect the car and not have to worry about trying to get back to the start. That meant I'd have to get Zoe up before 5am to get to the station, and if she didn't cooperate, I'd miss the train, and it'd all be over. Fortunately, my cousin Renata offered to drop us off, and we did a complicated car switcharoo, which involved her leaving my car at Morningside station for me after dropping us off at Murarrie. Now that I've seen the road closure situation, I feel pretty confident that I could have just driven to Murarrie and ditched the car somewhere there. Interestingly, a train that was packed to the rafters with people was arriving at the station at the time we arrived to leave Renata's car there. I'm not sure if it was the 5:07am train running late, or if I'd mis-interpreted the timetable and there was a later train we could have more comfortably made without Renata's assistance. Anyway, we uneventfully got to Murarrie station by about 5:40am, and walked to the start. It was ridiculously packed. People as far as the eye could see. Apparently there were 29,479 entrants and 24,596 finishers in the 10km run, so that explains it. I was seeded in the "joggers" group, which was a fair way back from the start line, and as it was, technically had to walk around some massive barrier to get in with the runners, but I snuck in the side after the pack started moving. Zoe was really, really good for the whole run. I couldn't have asked for her to be better behaved, really. She was wanting a cuddle at the top of the bridge, and claimed she wanted to go to the toilet the first time she saw some portable toilets, but easily talked out of both. My strategy of having a broad array of snacks for her to eat during the run worked well to keep her happy, and the course was heavily packed the entire way, so she had plenty to look at. It was a nice father/daughter thing to do for Fathers Day. My official time was 57:28, which I'm extremely happy with, given the conditions I ran under. I was going to be happy with anything under an hour. My personal best for 10km (not that course) is 51:52 I'm very grateful to those people who did donate some money on short notice. I've managed to raise $180, which is better than nothing. Now that I've done the run, and seen how it works, I'm game to try it again next year, and I'm game to do more 10km runs with Zoe. My running overall has been going very well, and so I think it's time to step things up a bit and I've decided to set myself a goal of running the half-marathon in the Gold Coast Marathon next year.

Yesterday I ran in the City2South. It was a beautiful day for it, and I really enjoyed the run. Thanks to generous support of my donors, I raised $252 for the Heart Foundation. My official time was 1:20:41, which I'm really happy with. I'd only ever run 14km on the preceding Tuesday, and I ran that in 1:32:57, so to do this run 12 minutes faster, on a completely different course felt like quite the accomplishment. I also ran personal best times for 5K and 10K. It's hard to believe that the guy who came first ran it in 44 minutes. the course was really nice, except for running up Highgate Hill at kilometre 12. That was a bit harsh, but I managed to run all the way up it, nonetheless. It only hit me this afternoon when I was replaying the course in my mind just how far I ran. My normal 10K course doesn't feel all that long because it loops back on itself a lot, so it's deceptive how much ground I cover. From a technical perspective, the race was done very well. I liked that they had a Facebook app that in real time posted updates when I crossed the start, 5K, 10K and finish lines, and the official results were online by the time I got home. That said, as I write, the website is throwing all sorts of errors when I try to download my official finishing certificate, or see my photos and finish line video. All things considered, it was a pretty nice way to spend a Sunday morning. I was up at 5am to be on the 5:44am ferry from Hawthorne, and back home again by 10am. I'm very keen to try running a half marathon now, but my next run is the 10km Bridge to Brisbane in September. That one will be more interesting because presumably it involves running up the Gateway Bridge, and I'll be pushing Zoe in a jogging stroller. I'm not expecting any personal best times for that one.

So it's been about a year since I started running. In that time, I've gone from just being able to run 5K, to comfortably doing 10K in just under an hour. In that same time, my weight has gone from 77.5 kg to around 69 kg. The thing that started all of this off was the 5K Packard Summer Scamper, and next month I'm going to run in my first 14K fun run, the City2South. I thought I'd have a go at fund raising too, so if you'd like to make a donation, here's my page. I'm raising money for the Heart Foundation. I've constantly surprised myself with my progress. Just the last time I went for a run, I managed to set personal records on 1 km, 1 mile, 5 km and 10 km, which really blew me away. Once upon a time, I had this crazy idea to try and get into the Queensland Police Service, and one of the fitness requirements for applying was you had to be able to run 2.4 km in under 12 minutes, and I remember training away on the treadmill at the gym and only just scraping in under that time on a treadmill. Then I tried it on a running track, and I have these vague memories of it being a total slog. That was probably 10 years or more ago now. Now I could do that easily. I've got quite a nice 10 km running course in my local neighbourhood, so I'm thinking now that I'm comfortably running 10 km on this course, I should try and go for a half-marathon distance, so one of these weekends I'll just try running the same course twice plus a little bit more, just to see if I have it in me. Then maybe I'll consider entering a half-marathon, just for shits and giggles. I'll probably do it after I run 14 km, which will be the longest distance I've run to date. I only learned about the City2South run yesterday. The run that I've been planning on doing since returning to Brisbane is the Bridge to Brisbane. It looks like they've just opened up entries for it now, so I guess I should go sign up for it too.

The Maker Faire is one of the Bay Area things that I'll really miss. Zoe had a ball last year (for weeks afterwards every outing was "Maker Faire!" regardless of what or where it was) Last year I didn't really get to cover it very well, so I ended up doing a bit of a virtual tour via the exhibitor list on their website, and so this year I thought I'd be there in spirit by doing the same thing again. Here's my picks:

• BeatBots
• BioFlame: Biodigestion for Cooking Fuel
• BioLite
• Chef Sleeve
• Everlight: rethinking the lamp
• Fellow Robots
• Fred the Dalek
• Giant Soap Bubbles
• GlueMotor Plug & Play Servo Motor for Smartphone
• GoldieBox
• Google Glass, Hands On
• Grow Your Own Spirulina Superfood!
• HoverBolt
• iNet2DVR: Home Automation using a Security DVR
• Infrared Thermography and Projects for kids
• littleBits
• macetech LED Programmable Shutter Shades
• Make It Move
• Maker Kids Market
• Makey Makey
• ModBlox: Builders Wanted.
• Multi-functional Solar Tower System
• Ninja Blocks
• One Person Hovercraft
• Open Clock Project: Touchscreen Alarm Clock
• OpenSprinkler: An Open-Source Sprinkler Timer
• Paper Roller Coasters
• PlotterBot Arduino Drawing Robot
• Rad Rockets by Kiwi Crate
• Robots you make yourself in about an hour
• Roominate: The DIY Wired Dollhouse Building Kit
• Super Awesome Sylvia s WaterColorBot
• The Sense of Things
• Thymio Robot Projects
• TinkerTags
• Water balloon Making Device (W.B.M.D.)
• Wifi video surveillance robot powered by pcDuino
• Wii Interactive White boards

The differences between how one fuels one's car are quite pronounced, between California and Australia. Firstly, if you're paying with plastic, it's a given that you can pay at the pump. I could count on my hands the number of times I've had to walk into a gas station to pay for gas in the US. Having a small child, I was not looking forward to having to either leave her in the car so I could pay for my petrol, or having to deal with all of the rigmarole of getting her out of her car seat, just so she can accompany me inside the petrol station to make a brief transaction and then have to get her back into her car seat again. Not to mention how it drags out the whole process. Yesterday I had to wait for a pump while everyone leaves their car, queues inside to pay a single cashier, and then returns to their car and drives away. It'd be an interesting Productivity Commission report to see how much time is lost, just so people can be tempted by the high-margin items inside. Then there's pumping the petrol. California, being all hippy, requires all the fuel nozzles to have these fandangled "vapour recovery" things, which basically fit over the part of the pump that goes inside the fuel tank and does some sort of, well, vapour recovery. The upside, you're not sniffing fumes while you're pumping your petrol. The other fabulous thing about Californian fuel pumps is you can lock the handle down, so you don't have to stand there like a shag on a rock squeezing the handle while a $100 trickles into your car. You can get back in your car and listen to the radio. Or clean your windscreen. Or entertain your kid. I'd love to know why Australian pumps don't lock on any more. I have memories from my early childhood of them locking on. So yeah, I think Australians lose out quite badly when it comes to the petrol station experience. I was pleased to discover that the Woolworths branded Caltex petrol stations seem to have some sort of pay at the pump infrastructure, it just requires you to have their specific credit card or something. I need to do more research, because if I can pay at the pump, I will.

Finally, finally, I've got a car. I had this grand plan of using a friend of a friend who was a car buyer to source me a car and have it ready for me at the airport when I arrived. That didn't work out so well, so I resorted to carsales.com.au and found something very quickly. I could have bought it last Friday, if I'd wanted to forego the RACQ inspection, but I hate used cars at the best of times, and so I want to do what I can do avoid buying a lemon, so I had to wait until Monday for the inspection. I got the report in the early afternoon on Monday, and the only thing it highlighted was a bit of oil on the front differential housing. I contacted the dealer and he said he'd get it looked at. I got an SMS from him on Tuesday morning saying the car would be ready after 3pm, but by the time I could arrange with Kristy for a ride, we just missed the bank, so I couldn't get the bank cheque to pay for it, so we rescheduled for this morning. The shipping container was delivered to Sarah's place on Monday, and there's been a steady stream of boxes arriving at my place. It was good to be able to transport some of those myself today, and there'll be more to move tomorrow. I need to sort out storage options, because one thing I don't want is for there to be too much clutter in my home. I think there'll be another trip to IKEA in my near future. At least I can do that all on my own now. It's so great to have independent mobility again.

I'd decided ahead of time that I wanted to use Internode as my ISP, and had ordered a Naked DSL service from them and also decided to bundle my mobile phone with them as well. For reasons that only made sense to me 7 years ago, I've been paying Telstra to keep my mobile number going, but I've long since lost the SIM. My current phone has a micro-SIM anyway, so I needed a replacement SIM. My grand plan had been to order the SIM, order the number port from Telstra to Internode, and then, well, profit from the moment I stuck the SIM in my phone. Unfortunately the port didn't go through as planned, and I was left incommunicado for the better part of two and a half days. I felt like I had my hands tied behind my back not having a mobile data service. It was also mildly annoying not being able to call people or be contactable, given the amount of running around I was doing. But it got resolved and is fast becoming a distant memory. The DSL service required a Telstra technician to come out (I'm not actually sure why) and that was scheduled for Thursday. I happened to catch him while he was at my building's MDF, and had a bit of a chat with him. He was a Scotsman, and I didn't get all the details, but he was going on about how he was only there to operate on the exchange side of the MDF, and I'd have to get someone else to jumper it up to my apartment. This wasn't what I expected from an installation service, but sure enough when I finally got around to plugging the ADSL modem in on Saturday morning, there was no line sync to be had. A call to Internode confirmed that he'd only jumpered it up to exchange side of the MDF. What was even more annoying was I'm pretty sure I saw him yanking out jumper wires from the MDF when he was working on it. Jumper wires that connected the exchange side of the MDF to my apartment. I was not thrilled with the idea of waiting (and paying) for a cabling contractor to come out and hook up a couple of bits of jumper wire, so I put out a call on Facebook for a Krone tool and a tone generator, and Brent was able to come through for me. He dropped the gear around while I was out shopping with Kristy, and when we got back, I located the pair for my unit, and rejumpered the existing jumper wire that I'm pretty sure the Telstra technician had disconnected. Lo and behold, my ADSL started working. I felt pretty proud of myself. It's fun operating at Layer 1 every now and then. The FRITZ!Box Fon WLAN 7270 is quite the beast of a box. Not only is it an ADSL modem, it's a wireless router, DECT base station, VoIP thingy and an answering machine! I've managed to connect my Engin account up to it, so once I get a DECT handset, I'll be able to make VoIP calls through it. I don't need to run Asterisk any more.

I was really not doing well by yesterday, I had developed quite the runny nose. I've discovered that it's neigh on impossible (from my sample set of two pharmacies) to get pseudoephedrine over the counter in this country. In the US, you have to provide ID and they report all purchases to the government and if you start buying too much, they come and kick down the door of your meth lab. Here, you seem to need a prescription. One pharmacy told me that 1 in 10 pharmacies will sell it over the counter. I ended up with the Australian equivalent of Afrin, which I don't particularly like, but it at least dried up my nose. Discussions on Facebook suggest that I may have been dealing with second-rate pharmacies, and the "big ones" would be more useful. I was also advised to try begging and pleading for Claritin-D. The damn meth labs have ruined it for everybody. It's too bad they can't come up with an additive that is safe to ingest, but would fuck up the meth cooking process. Not content with only two marathon shopping days, Kristy came back for a third day of driving me all around town, as my quest for a sofa bed and a dining table continued. It turns out that one does not simply walk into a furniture store and walk out with a sofa bed (or a dining table, for that matter). These things all seem to be on boats from China, or at best interstate warehouses, and most places can sell you something they know is in transit at best, but they're loathe to sell floor stock (for obvious reasons), and they seem to not have anything in a Brisbane warehouse (plenty of stuff was in Sydney or Melbourne and they'd ship it up). Plushhad a chaise sofa bed that had a nice sprung mattress, and was due in late this month or early next, and they would lend me something in the meantime, so they got my business. I look forward to having something to sit on. We then had an epic time at Bunnings getting all sorts of random household stuff, with the obligatory sausage sizzle before and after. Oh, how I have missed proper sausages! It turns out I'm looking for something that doesn't seem to exist over here, Rubbermaid don't seem to make the plastic "shed" cupboards in Australia, so I'll have to look elsewhere (Clark Rubber seems to make something approximately like what I'm looking for). Then I picked up some towels from Westfield Chermside and resumed the search for a dining table. I was really liking the idea of at least one bench seat, and we finally found a matching table, a bench seat, some shelving and a coffee table that would work as an entertainment unit, at OZ Design Furniture. They had a 20% off sale that made it all fairly reasonable. The entertainment unit was available immediately, and the rest of the stuff should be delivered in a couple of weeks. That just leaves finding some dining chairs that will go with it. OZ Design Furniture had the most unusual delivery charging system. They charge by the flight of stairs. Living on the 2nd floor does have its disadvantages. At least I won't be moving out of here any time soon. By the end of the day, I was totally done, but very happy to have finally sorted out the elusive remaining bits of furniture. I had my first night sleeping in my new home.

The jet lag, the lack of sleep, and the general pace of the week has caught up with me. I'm feeling decidedly run down today. Leah volunteered to drive me around a bit today, and it was great to catch up with her. I decided to check out a white 2004 Forester that I'd found on carsales.com.au the night before. I took it for a test drive, and it seemed fine. I transferred my NRMA membership back to the RACQ and upped it to something decent, and arranged for them to do an inspection on Monday. Depending on when the inspection report gets to me, I'll head back there with a bank cheque and I'll have a car. I had another half-hearted look at furniture after lunch (I really wasn't feeling it) and then headed over to Woolloongabba to take a look at the condition of Sarah's apartment. The low light of the day was leaving my packet of car-related paperwork (including my temporary driver's licence) on the roof of her car as we left Woolloongabba. It should only be mildly inconvenient, but I was annoyed with myself for being so dumb. Tomorrow should be pretty quiet. I just have my bed getting delivered at 8:30am, then I'll stay in my apartment from then on. I think I'll just take it easy.

Not content with just one day of driving all over town, Kristy came back for another day of it. I decided that rather than specifically shopping, I needed to do some of the more bureaucratic stuff, so that I could ensure things like the electricity could get put on in my name. I determined that in order to get the electricity in my name, I'd need to provide either a driver's licence number or Medicare card number. Unfortunately I remember separating my expired ACT licence and Medicare cards from my other random cards while I was packing up my temporary apartment in the US, but I can't for the life of me recall what I did with them, so our first port of call was the Department of Transport in Zillmere to get a new licence. Talk about a painless experience. The most annoying thing was that on Wednesdays they open at 9:30am instead of 8:30am. We got there at 9:10am. I had Zoe with me, and Kristy had her daughter, and they happily played while we waited outside. I just had to fill out a fairly simple form, and I was called up promptly and there were no problems at all. In under 30 minutes of walking in the door, we were driving away with a temporary licence. Vastly different from my experience with the DMV. I'll get the genuine article in the mail in a few weeks. Then we headed over to Westfield Chermside to go to Medicare, Medibank Private, and as I was growing frustrated with how long my mobile phone number was taking to port from Telstra to Internode, a Telstra Shop to try and get a replacement Telstra SIM. This is where I ran into more of a bureaucratic brick wall. For Medicare, I wanted to get my own Medicare card (and number) again, instead of a shared one, and so I essentially had to re-apply. They wanted more than just a passport entry stamp and something with an address on it. They wanted specific documents with an address on it, and an offer letter to show I was employed, so I had to leave there empty handed. Medibank Private was even worse. In a "shut up and take my money!" kind of moment, they told me to prematurely unsuspend a suspended policy, I needed to request a document from the Department of Immigration that showed my international movements to confirm that I was indeed back in the country. I've always found this somewhat ironic, given I'm sitting in front of a Medibank Private employee when they're telling me this, and I'm trying to give them money. So I left there empty handed as well. I grabbed some cutlery and crockery from Big W. The Telstra Shop had a 45 minute wait, and as I didn't want to over-stretch Zoe, we headed back to my parents. I took the opportunity to open an electricity account with AGL, now that I had a driver's licence number. Zoe declined to take a nap, and was having a good time playing with Kristy's daughter, and they both wanted to stay at my parent's place, so we left them there and dashed over to Ikea to rectify the bed slat issue. While we were at Ikea, my number finally ported across and my phone started working, which was a huge relief. Being uncontactable during a period of many interactions with random people was highly frustrating for me. Not having mobile Internet access for a few days of extreme mobility showed how much my phone is an extension of my brain. I also picked up a bunch of other random stuff from Ikea, stools that hadn't been in stock the day before, drinking glasses, that sort of thing. We then dropped all that off at the apartment before heading back to my parents' place. So it was another busy day of running all over town, and again, I'm very grateful to Kristy for volunteering her time to make it happen. Most notable accomplishments: complete bed for Zoe, electricity, and a working mobile phone.

This was the first "normal" (i.e. not part of the Easter "long weekend") day. As it happened, Easter Monday was surprisingly retail-friendly anyway. My friend Kristy picked me up in the morning, and we dropped past the real estate agent for my apartment to see if the tenants had happened to drop the keys back yet (they hadn't) and then we went to Ikea and bought a bed for Zoe a bunch of other random stuff. I also bought a bed frame and mattress while we were at the neighbouring Logan MegaCentre (it's not a bad shopping centre) The bed frame is wooden and is taking 6-8 weeks to be made, so in the meantime, because I bought a mattress from them, they're lending me a mattress base. That's getting delivered on Saturday. We then headed over to Harvey Norman in Fortitude Valley. We'd just got started there when the real estate agent called to say the tenants had dropped the keys back, so we stopped and headed back over to meet the property manager at the apartment and get the keys. After that, we headed back to Harvey Norman and bought a fridge, TV, and a bunch of small appliances, and then headed back to the apartment to do some Ikea assembly. We'd just about finished putting Zoe's bed together when we discovered we'd gotten the wrong width slats for her bed. It turns out there are two widths of the "Sultan Lade" slats, and they're right next to each other in the warehouse. We'd picked up from the correct location, but I think the piles had become jumbled. Lesson learned: cross check the SKU as well as the pickup location. It was a long day, and I was enormously grateful to Kristy for driving me all over the place, and generally helping me shop. I think it ended up being a 15 hour day for her.

Today was spent at my apartment with Zoe. Harvey Norman were scheduled to deliver the fridge, washing machine and TV. Someone from Telstra was scheduled to come out and monkey with the MDF to get the naked ADSL happening, and my desk was scheduled to be delivered. My parents drove us over in the morning, with some of our suitcases. Zoe was very happy with her new room and bed. I was going to get a 1 hour advance warning of Harvey Norman coming, so we all went for a little walk around the neighbourhood to explore. It turns out there's a convenience store right next door, which is, well extremely convenient. I won't need to even hop in the car to get last minute bread or milk or anything like that. Very happy about that. There's also a really gorgeous little boutique deli/gourmet grocery that is easily within walking distance. The neighbourhood is indeed very nice. Mid-morning, Brent dropped around with his daughter to say hi. Zoe had a good time playing with her as well, and we went out for lunch at the Hawthorne Garage. At the end of lunch, Harvey Norman called to say they'd be an hour away, which was well timed. Zoe declined to nap again, so we just hung out waiting for the delivery. In the middle of them delivering, the desk delivery happened as well, and then as Brent was leaving, the Telstra guy turned up, so it all happened at once. I set up the TV and DVD player and Zoe happily christened it all by watching some Play School DVDs, and then my Dad came back and picked us up. So the apartment is now almost habitable. I just need my bed. That's scheduled for Saturday. I'm planning on sleeping there on Saturday night. In the furniture department, I'm still lacking a sofa, a dining table and something to put the TV on. Leah has volunteered to help me shop tomorrow, but I'm starting to think I should focus on resolving the lack of a car, then I can do any further shopping myself. Nick had set me up with a car wholesaler who was going to search for a used Subaru Forester for me, but so far he hasn't turned anything up, so I'm thinking I need to widen my net a little and use some other avenues as well. I'd really wanted for the car finding to be outsourced as much as possible so I could focus on other things, but it's not looking like that's going to be the case, and I really need mobility. I got a notification from Internode after I'd left today that the Internet should now be working, so I need to configure the ADSL router when I next get a chance and confirm that's the case, then I'm all sorted for being technologically able to work from home.

So one of the first things I need to do when I get my apartment today is get the electricity on. I've actually already ordered ADSL, which shows you what I think is more important, but without electricity, there is no Internet... It would appear that in 2007, Queensland opened up its electricity and gas markets to "full retail competition". According to Energex, they do the generation, distribution, and the retailer handles connections, disconnections, billing and green energy. I still need to deal directly with Energex for power outages, reporting faulty street lights, requesting a tree that's near power lines be trimmed, and so on. So if the retailers have no say in what price they're paying for the electricity that's being generated by Energex, I'm struggling to see what their point is. I guess they get to differentiate on customer service, but really, that's it? It was also really hard to find a canonical list of retailers to choose from. I would have thought that'd be linked off Energex's "Choosing your electricity retailer" page, but no, it's buried in the FAQ. Now it comes down to a case of doing a comparison between 11 retailers and trying to choose one. Or just going with the first one on the list. It's just electricity, people. It's a utility. I do not want to expend as much time on choosing an electricity retailer as I would my ISP (interestingly, it looks like Dodo has gotten in on the electricity retailing act). But one could say that an upside of having jet lag and being awake since 3am, is that one has time to comparison shop the 11 electricity retailers, except I won't. I'll just write this blog post instead. I have heard of one horror story, where a homeowner returned to living in his house, and had a nightmare time with one retailer because the previous occupants had an outstanding debt with that retailer, and he was trying to get a connection going with a different retailer, and lots of hilarity ensued. Except it wasn't hilarious. So I'll have to keep an eye on that. My current thought is to go with AGL, because

• there is brand recognition there from when I lived in Canberra and used ActewAGL
• it looks like I can sign up online without having to talk to anyone (as soon as my damn mobile phone number ports over to Internode and starts working)
• they're first on the list of electricity retailers

What's pretty crazy is that at no point from quickly skimming AGL's landing page for Queensland pricing is there any indication of kWh or an actual price for anything. There's lots of noise about discounts, and flexibility, and other nonsense, but it seems like the actual cost of energy is so buried, it's incredible. It seems to be all about locking in on a contract, which is somewhat amazing. This is just electricity, but they seem to have turned this into a mobile phone plan type of situation. Amazing. After more digging, it looks like I can pay 5.5 cents per kWh for 100% green energy. Maybe.