Jul 09
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
Max had his first Christmas yesterday and got to open his first chrissie presents wrapped with special silver crinkly paper! (My Mum knew he would like the paper more than the present 
)
Mum always throws a mid-winter Christmas dinner and Sunday was the night for this years event. She goes the whole hog with turkey, bread sauce, crackers – you name it. This year was a great success and we had to take a present along (not more than $2) and they got numbered and then randomly drawn. It’s amazing what you can buy for not much money!
All in all a great night and Mum’s digital camera was on hand for the photo’s
PS: As you can see from the Today in History entry it was exactly a year ago today that we told the world that we were going to be parents! How time flies.
Jul 04
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
It’s funny how the deaths of strangers affect me (or not) Princess Di died – so what. Katharine Hepburn leaves this mortal coil – big deal. I haven’t felt a single flicker of emotion over the death of anyone famous that I didn’t know.
Yesterday, however, came the news that one of Wellington’s homeless people had died. I’ve seen this guy on the streets of our city for as long as I can remember and have always known him as “The Bucket Man” due to his habit of carrying his possessions in a bucket. He was also well known for having a huge growth on his forehead. The paper gave up almost half of it’s front page to him yesterday – amazing respect for a homeless person and something that I doubt very much would happen in any other capital city in the world.
What really bought a lump to my throat was the first few paragraphs of this story:
Rob, the man with the growth on his forehead and bedroll under the arm, walked out of his bush hideaway with his birth certificate, bank statement and will, knelt down in the gutter and died.
Thorndon resident Bernadette Munn came across the familiar Wellingtonian, wet and cold, near his bush campsite close to the intersection of Grant and Park streets about 9am on Monday.
He had asked a woman parking her car to call an ambulance, accepted a blanket with a polite “thank you, thank you very much” and then died soon after an ambulance arrived, Ms Munn said.
“It was just so so sad, I could not believe that here was this human being kneeling in the gutter in the pouring rain.”
Why did his death affect me so much or at all for that matter? I have absolutely no idea – maybe it’s just age, maybe it’s the sad but politely dignified way that he went, maybe it’s the fact that Vic and I sat across from him in McDonald’s just a few weeks ago – I really don’t know.
All I can say is that I’m glad I now know his name.
RIP Robert Jones
Jul 01
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
Can’t talk – doing test the nation live.
Update: Who new – I tested in at an IQ of 135 which is in the top 2% of the population!
Jun 30
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
Haven’t updated for a couple of days – so what’s been happening in Cramerland?
? Friday night was my birthday dinner (37 if you must know 
) and it was a very relaxed affair with some friends around for pizza and chilling out. I had emails from friends in the UK and a call from my brother who is working in Cork, Ireland at the moment. All up a very pleasant day.
? It was up to Jay and Larry’s on Saturday night for dinner (some of it left-over pizza and birthday cake ) and to watch the All Black’s very unconvincing win over the French…….
? Today and it was up to Vic’s Mum’s place for dinner and to cut vegetables to last her the next few days. She’s still not supposed to do anything like that after her operation until her stitches are removed on Wednesday.
As you can see, a very exciting weekend.
A thought: We’ve been cleaning Max’s teeth ever since they came through and it really is good fun doing it We use a small muslin with a tiny bit of baby toothpaste on it. He dutifully opens his mouth so we can give the two tiny teeth a clean and then realises that the cold cloth feels good so bites it, grabs it and tries to jam the whole thing in his mouth! Great fun
Another thought: I’m up to chapter 18 in the new Harry Potter book. It took all of about a day to turn up in electronic format on the web and I’m reading it on my PDA (all 38 chapters and 255,000 words of it) The other four we own in paperback and we’ll buy the new one when it comes out in paperback in about 6 months. Pretty good so far………
Continue reading »
May 31
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
OK, I’ll admit it – I’m a bully…….
For the last week I’ve really been putting pressure on Vic to book some driving lessons and she has her first one this morning! She has her full license but hasn’t driven for about 10 years so we thought that some reminder lessons are probably a good idea before she takes Max anywhere After I get a job I really want her to be 100% mobile which is why I’ve been pressuring her – who knows when I’ll get a job (absolutely no movement on that yet though…… :()
The poor wee thing is so nervous…. I love you Vic – go out there and enjoy it xoxoxo
May 30
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
Our stuff that we sea-freighted from the UK has turned up 13 weeks down the track and I have my scanner, x-box and DVD player – oh happy days
The only problem is we have a very small flat and already pretty much have everything to make a house run. 14 tea-chests of stuff is not going to fit in here! I think that we’ll be going through the boxes and then putting most of it back into storage until we can buy a house.
It’ll be nice to have our stuff though. Vic and I weren’t really a couple when we moved to the UK so the last 10 weeks or so have been spent with my stuff and her stuff
Oh well, off to change plugs on all the electronics……….
May 26
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
Vic, Max and I drove up the coast today to visit my great aunt (Max’s great great aunt!) to wish her happy birthday. She turned 92 today and, to be honest, is losing the plot just a bit. One thing that she does know is that Max exists though I haven’t seen her for about 6 years and although I don’t think she quite new who I was the joy that she showed at seeing Max made me quite emotional. We also gave her a card that I’d made with the latest photo of Max (yes, that shot again!) on the front and as soon as I gave it to her she kissed his little face.
Here’s a couple of shots.
Me, Max and Aunt Bet
4 generations! My Dad, Me, Max and Aunt Bet
May 16
This post was written by Marc in the category(ies) News
Big night out for us tonight! First of all it’s off to the David Gray concert. We’re meeting loads of friends there so it should be great fun but it’ll feel weird going out somewhere together without Max though! Nana Jan is baby sitting and although we’ve tried almost every day to get Max to take a bottle he loves his mums milk too much and won’t have any part of this bottle lark. Good luck Janet!
After the concert Vic’s off home and I’m off to the first public screening in New Zealand of The Matrix Reloaded at 12:01am We have had to wait until the 16th whereas the rest of the world gets it on the 15th 🙁 but 12:01 on Friday 16th is the equivalent of 05:01 on Thursday 15th in LA so it’s not so bad I am so looking forward to this movie – I’ll let you all know what it’s like………