the howie

No Country for Old Men

Rambo

Alvin and the Chipmunks

Juno

Run Fat Boy Run

Vantage Point

Get Smart

Hancock

Dark Night

The Bank Job

Pineapple Express

Wall-E

Burn After Reading

Traitor

Quantum of Solace

Madagascar 2

A pretty poor efort really.

I thought I should write about the birthday. But haven’t really had time to sit in front of my puter and type it out. But now i have time, Oscar is asleep and Jenny is in Westfield.

It all began at 1am on tuesday morning last week. Jenny was starting of have some frequent contractions. At 9:45am we headed to the SAN for what was hopefuly the last appointment with the Doc. By this time the contractions where strong and regular. It turned out Jenny was in early labour and we where admitted into the hospital at 10am.

The next 11 hours where spent rubbing jenn’y back and holding her hand and passing her water. I found this easiset to do standing up. I had a can of coke and a few jatz biscuits throughout the time but thats all.

At about 11pm I started feeling really really hot and broke out into an intense sweat. My head was all whoozy. the doctor quickly got me over to the couch and put my feet up on the wall. The midwife ran off to get some orange juic, meanwhile Jenny was contracting away up on her bed.

While the midwife was off getting sugar for me the Doctor took my pulse and patted my head with a wet towel. I was very close to passing out. Diagnosed with exhaustionI spent the next 30 mins laying on the couch with my legs in the air.at 11:30pm it was time for Jenny to be wheeled off to the operating theatre as Oscar wasn’t engaging properly. They got me up and said “just follow jenny in the bed’. The man pushing jenn’y bed was some kind of olympic power walker and the thater seemed to be somewhere just outsideof Bourke. I got to the theatre and was close to passing out again. So on to the operating theatre floor I went, my fee up on an office chair. By this tage I was decked out in all the fance surgery clothes laying on the flor of an operating theatre with machinces and lights and jenny somewhere over there getting cut open.

I heard them pulling Oscar out of wife but due to my state visual contact was not made until one of the theatre hands pulled me to my feet to see my boy. She took a quick photo then it was straight back to the floor. Eventually a man with a wheelchair appeared in front of me to take me back to the room with the baby while they stapled jenny back together. The wheelchair man was cool he stopped off at some staff fridge and hooked me up with a lemonaide ice block.

So I didn’t get to see the birth, or be a supportive husband in the end. I have never almost fainted before, its a weird feeling.  I was told to go home and not come back for a while the next day and I was so exhausted, they suggested a 12 hour sleep. I went home and managed about an hour of sleep!

It’s quite funny really, at one point having more staff looking after me than the contracting mother to be.

It seems news spread around the staff of my antics because a few of them mentioned it in the last few days.

A good story to tell Oscar when he is Older.

It’s all a bit weird at the moment. After 16 hours of Jenny in labour I came home at about 2:30am on ummm whatever day it was and couldnt get to sleep until 8am then had a good hour sleep. Also had some quality IBS moments before 8. then eventualy headed to the hospital and stayed there until 10:30m I think, followed by about 6 hours sleep. Then another day at the hospital. Then last night I had a whole 8 hours sleep but IBS decided this was no day to feel refreshed.

I have no real concept of time at the moment. At the end of each day it feels like the longest day in the whole world but during the day everything happens so fast. I get to the Hospital around 10am and the next thing you know the 3pm visitors are arriving then it’s dinner and more visitors and then it’s 10pm.

I had lots of fun with Oscar today. He seems like a really placid kid, he cries when you unwrap him or try to put a new singlet on him but as soon as you pick him up and hold him close he stops screaming and just sits there looking around. The staff seem to really like him at the hospital too becasue he is so placid and friendly and doesnt cry much, I know it’s early days and he could turn into a screamer but so far he’s content, unless of course noob picks him up!!!

Being a Dad is hard work.

I thought once you become a dad life gets easier because all you have to do is sit on the couch watching the cricket and every now and then you take $20 out of your wallet and hand it to your kid.

It’s fun though, Oscar is one cute little guy, and he seems to like me, although he doesnt laugh at my jokes.

So there is word going around that i’m a father.

The word is true, Robert Oscar Howie, known as Oscar is now part of the Howie family.

Check out jenny’s blog for photos.

Jenny is doing well recovering in Hospital with all sorts of machines plugged in to her. Oscar is a friendly little chap who enjoys sucking, eating own hand and hucups.

I know everyone is waiting for baby news. no baby yet but thanks for all the sms’s and calls wondering if we are parents yet.

I thought I would take this oppertunity to let all our buddies know that we really don’t need any gifts for us or the baby. We have all we need and more thanks to many generous donations and super generous parentals. I know when these sort of evenst come along its default to go and buy a soft toy or some gift.

While to many people jenny and I seem poor and in need of charity, i guess compared to the ‘norm’ we are but we really have all we need. We are going to a great hospital with great staff. We will come home to our comfy house full of all we need. But millions of babies are not brought in to such conditions. If you feel you need to buy a gift maybe you could consider supplying a birth attendant or training locals in dveloping nations to deliver babies in safe clean conditions. There is no pressue but if you feel the need to part with your money to buy us a gift this would be high on our list of needs. ensuring the gift of life is a gift that not just rich westerners recieve.

We watched Madagascar 2 yesterday, it was a piece of crap. I was so bored. I wouldnt have been bored if I had never seen the Lion King. It was a mini version of the Lion King with inserts of madagascar 1.

2 / 7

In other news I just ordered an Ipod touch. I used some of my velocity points to get it. I had heaps of points and so it was time to use them. Although now i only have enough points to go to port macquarie instead of return to Tonga and it took me a few years to get those buggers.

I’m not sure how i’ll get the points back my flying is about to be quite rare. 2008 was a big year for flying working for 2 organisations who like to send me places plus weddings and a family holiday to the UK.

2009 So far i know i’m going to Melbourne some time in August. Shame I love flying.

Why does Christmas always bring out trumpeters who can’t play trumpet. Yesterday walking through hornsby mall there was no less than 5. I hate christmas carols enough, I don’t need some 14 year old boy destroying them even more on a trumpet he can’t play. It happens every year!

The whole year there is a trumpet drought on Sydney streets. then as soon as it hits mid December there is some mass explosion of trumpets and they are blowing on every street corner. Often with a bit of silver tinsel haning off the bottom as a symbol of christmas cheer.

I look forward to the new year when we can return to drunk men with 3 teeth singing country and western songs with their 4 string guitar. Real busking!

the only downside to having a mac is there are no good train sim’s for mac.

nerd

I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.

George W Bush

I’m sitting at my desk in the office while builders are doing stuff around the place. It’s noisy with nail guns and saws and all that going off.

Just then one of the builders came in and asked me to move away from my desk and pointed up. I looked up to see a man poking his head over the top of the wall holding a big piece of wood. So I stood up and moved away, then the man told me to grab my computer. So i did. It was then that he told me the man up the top of the ladder has a history of dropping things. I thought this was just some banter between the builders until the man on the ladder almost dropped the bit of wood and then asked for help becasue he was about to fall off the ladder.

Something tells me these blokes must have been cheap.

I know I have almost flogged my gift store to death but I feel the need to give it one more push. I’m going to put on my power suit and tell you the importance of giving money. But don’t worry it has nothing to do with a building fund for a new church centre with 6 million seats.

In terms of social justice issues and our response to those issues I think Advocacy is the most powerful thing we can do here in Australia, We live in a county where we hold the power and we have the right to hold our descision mkaers accountable to what we believe and think is the right use of our resources. So it is important the we exercise this power by writting letters, visiting pollies,  creating artworks that convey stories of the opressed for all to see. We also need to keep educating our peers on social justice issues ensuring we all know the truths so we can better respond and act.

Money is also important and lets face it, we have a lot of it. Even me a poor worker living off donations from old ladies and a 2 day a week paying job. I’m rich. You are rich!

We need to use our money wisely, I dont think we are goig to get struck down for buying a bottle of coke and a dvd. But it’s not right for us to hoard posessions and luxuries while 1 billion people struggle to get enough money for a once a day bowl of rice. I really belive the TEAR gift catalogue is an awesome alternative to buying usless gifts for people who dont need anything new. It’s quite a shift. Even me the well rounded amazing person that i am I still feel ripped off when i just get TEAR cards for christmas. It’s a hump we all need to get over, I need to get out my head of the space that makes it think it needs everything and that if i dont get a shiny present it’s a crap christmas. It’s all part of of our western over indulgent society.

Anyway this big ecenomic crisis is hitting everyone hard, you would think it wouldnt really affect poor people in the middle of Africa. Well it does. Most aid money is tied up in US dollars so as the exchange rate is pretty crap if we keep giving atthe current rate those who recive the benifits of our giving will recieve less. We need to up the giving a bit to compensate so that those who need aid are receiving it.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider your present list and drop by Howie’s Ye Olde Shoppe of Global Goodness

My goal was to raise $20,000. I know it’s a lot but boy oh boy it could make a difference.

Yesterday morning in an effort to save time and avoid the christmas rush at westifle dwe went to Asquith coles to do some shppping.

That was a mistake. Parking was easy but finding anything inside coles was a disaster. Hlaf the shelves seem to be empty, there is isles that make you end up ina  dead end. And stuff is all over the place. We found the biscuits a small selection next to the light bulbs and tissues (of course!). Then in the next Isle we found more biscuits. After what felt like a few hours we found more biscuits severel isles away. We never ended up finding fresh juice. The milk was in amoungst the bread. It was all crazy. wires hanging from the roof everywhere, the trolley was hard to push as every few metres it would dive into a pot hole becasue of missing floor tiles.

dumb.

I really hate glitter. It gets all over you and hard to get rid of.

People often ask us if it’s weird being a married couple and living with a single man. It’s not weird at the moment. but i think it will be next year. I’ll be off working hard each day and then i’ll come home to my wife, child and random hairy man who lives in the house. They will have spent the day going to the park together, play group at the church up the road and and daily watching of Oprah while the baby is napping. when the baby wakes the hairy man will go the fridge and strap on his synthetic boob to give jenny a rest from breast feeding. He’ll hear my baby’s first words. I’ll walk in the door and be handed my slippers from jenny and a kiss on the cheek from tom before my kid runs to the door and shouts “Uncle Howie is home!!!!”.

I hope Tom finds a job next year. A girlfriend would be nice too. (for tom).