Learning to fly

I put the baby birds outside on the balcony table to get some air and afternoon sun (as they have been locked away in their cage in the garage with minimal light their whole lives). When I wasn't watching the two oldest ones ...flew. Not that well but pretty well for a first go, with Dad working with them. The oldest one was definitely much better and finally flew to the top of a tree where I had to ultimately climb up to retrieve it just before it got dark. Silly bird.
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Swell 07

We dropped by to see the sculptures on display at Swell an annual outdoor sculpture exhibition along Currumbin Beach.
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Toddler

This week Tia has finally found her feet and has now been working on her balance with marked improvement day by day.

Classic Performance

We were invited to see The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra in Brisbane last night by our friend who used to be a member of the orchestra. The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra is an Australian period instrument orchestra specialising in the performance of baroque and classical music.

The musicians play from original edition scores on restored or reproduced instruments of the eighteenth century. The orchestra name pays tribute to the Brandenburg concertos of Bach, who was central to the baroque and classical periods.

With a special guest Japanese 1st violinist and only half the orchestra - mainly the string section (which is fine by me) - playing violin concertos by Vivaldi, Handel and Zavateri, it was really good. Some brooding darker pieces followed by gay jovial Major chord stuff which was rightly suited. All good.

Unfortunately due to the short notice we couldn't organise baby sitting for Tia so Ayako opted to miss out which was pity.

Speed Weekend

The 6th annual Speed on Tweed (website by us) classic car event in Murwillumbah was on again this weekend. We went to see the Saturday night street performance and to the race track on Sunday. There is always lots of impressive cars to see.

The Saturday night Venetian Carnival Mystique was a masquerade street party. Holding Tia, I approched a group of friends all wearing masks who turned and made a fuss simulatinously which absolutely freaked Tia out. She must have thought she was in a bad dream or something and needed a few minutes consoling after that ...but enjoyed the show of acrobats and opera.

Two little lovebirds sitting on a fence

Today both Bird1 & Bird2 went outside together, the final test and they passed — being that they were relaxed and playful and also took a journey away from the house and returned without concern. Now the doors are open for them to come and go as they wish.
Congratulations guys ...you are free.
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A Little Pro Hart

I came into the room to find Ayako and Tia getting paint everywhere - worthy of a few photos. Hope that paint is actually non-toxic as the label claims.

Kirra Lines

Kirra and Cooly had some solid, difficult (due to the max. 10 sweep) surf for a week. This is one of the not very good days during the swell.

Free Love[Bird]

I took Bird1 outside for his first free flight in the big wide world.

He flew back in the house no problem, I had to then keep taking him back out. Then I just left the doors open for a while and left him thinking he'll be fine. He went back out then I think got a bit lost as to where the door was to get back in. He flew around the front of the house and we had to get bird2 to call him back. It was interesting to see both birds communicating from a few houses away.

Anyway he made it back and is ok. Check it out. He looks pretty cool in the tree. Better than the cage I think.
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LittleBirds A, B, C & D

Well just like "The Cat in the Hat" book we now have LittleBirds A, B, C & D. All four eggs have hatched. The final one this afternoon. I cleaned the cage about 3pm with one egg left. On inspection at about 6pm it had hatched. Mumma bird looks a bit ruffled due to her dedicated sitting, with Dad feeding her to then pass onto the chicks. It's quite funny, they are growing so fast all the birds are in sequential sizes as to hatching order. LittleBird A is more than twice the size of LittleBird D. They remind me of the Russian Dolls that are all the same with different sizes.

Anyway not bad, 100% success so far, which I was not expecting. I'll remove them to be hand fed in a two weeks.

First Steps

Tia took her first steps today. She had a paradigm shift in her head and just started walking. Pretty exciting for us all. She spent the couple of hours before bed practicing and looked so thrilled with herself.

LittleBird A

Today we noticed one of the Lovebird eggs has hatched. The miniature bird looks to be healthy and strong. It is even flapping its little wings. In the picture it is probably only about 8 hours old. It even has a small belly button hole from the umbilical cord. It's pretty cute. Surprisingly there was almost no trace of the shell left, one of the birds must have crushed it up or something. The rest of the eggs are expected to hatch in two day intervals, as they were laid and in the same order.

We have named it LittleBird A (like Little Cat's A B C & D ect from the Dr. Seuss book the "Cat In The Hat Comes Back" which Tia and I have been reading recently).
- you can click the image to enlarge -

On ya bike

This is Tia and I setting off for a ride together on our new bike. She doesn't look too enthusiastic but is happy once we get going. This time we rode down the beach on the sand.

Top Shot

We just downloaded a few months worth of photo's Ayako has been taking on her mobile phone. There are some really nice candid moments. This is the beauty of the mobile phone used as a camera, many of the photo's are taken without expectations which can lead to unexpectedly good results.

I think this is a beautiful photo. Tia in her pram behind a plastic rain shield.
see more pics from the mobile phone >>

Tia's Birthday Party

Tia turned 1 today on the 4th Aug 2007. A group of our/her friends came to celebrate. Tia says "thanks for all my presents".
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4eggs

Bird2 has been sitting on four eggs now for a week so we think that is all there will be this time. We'll see if they all hatch in a couple of weeks.

Bird Egg

Recently our 2 little lovebirds have been living up to the name "lovebirds", if you know what I mean. Its quite a remarkable sight to see. Anyway the birds and the bees aside we now have our first Peachfaced lovebird egg. I'm not sure that we really need more birds but the process will be interesting. Apparently the hatch strike rate is not too high so this one may not even get there, but we are also expecting about another 5 eggs.

I'll keep you posted when they hatch.

Astro Boy [girl]

Everyone loves a crazy shampoo hair-do.

Tubes

Caba Point not as good as it looks. I didn't get around to photographing anything during a week of really good waves last week so this is the leftovers... 6ft, strong sweep, bit of overnight sou.east in the wind direction.

The Musician

And introducing DJ Yoshi on the keyboard. This is her first time to have a go at this. It's running through Reason3.0 on the computer which means we have an almost endless selection of instruments and sounds to play with.
see some movies here >>

3ofus

Today is our 2 year wedding anniversary. Time rushes by.
Enjoy this wacky family portrait.

Yuko in Oz

Yuko, Ayako's good friend from Japan has come to stay with us. It is her first time in Australia. She has been enjoying the pace of life at Cabarita from that of downtown Tokyo. Beach walks, big sky sunsets and no traffic lights. Apparently she hasn't swam in the ocean for 20 years or something, a bit of salt behind the ears will have to do her well along with some sunshine.

Thanks for hanging out with Tia. Hopefully her Nihongo has improved with it being spoken to her a bit more this week, mine hasn't ; )

Slayer

Yep thats right kids, SLAYER! the original masters of metal. These guys half invented the shit. I have been listening to them forever and had never seen them live before. Surprisingly they were to play at the River Stage in the Brisbane botanic gardens... too good to pass up. This venue is really one of the best places to see a band (good weather permitting). Being an open air amphitheatre it is comfortable and spacious but doesn't seem to detract from the sound quality. It was fun to see it packed with die hard metal heads.

Mastodon played first and cranked it. Next Slayer opened with the catchy little tune "God Hates Us All" - funny, you would have been able to clearly hear Araya yelling this from anywhere in the Brisbane CBD. Bloody brilliant ; ) - then into the classic "War Ensemble" so good to hear this live. South of Heaven Dead Skin Mask Angel of Death Manditory Suicide. They ripped through 'em all, clean fast loud and hard. Fucking legends.

Lovebirds

Well today was my birthday and Ayako, Tia and Yuko surprised me with their gift. Two beautiful little Peach Faced Lovebirds which are small parrots (bread in Aust) originating from south west Africa. They are called lovebirds because of the bond they form (with other birds and people) and generally are sold as a pair.
I've given it some thought, and named them Bird1 and Bird2 (aka. shmupples and derik respectively). I'm now training them to be good obedient little birds.
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Sydney Easter

Well we were back in Sydney this Easter to see a few friends.
- Matt and Reve were in town with they're new little baby Tamsin and the rest of the Warren's.
- Desmo and Vicky where back in town from their expat home of London so we enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time with them. (We just went for a leisurely stroll to the MCA and NSWArtGallery. A memorable moment on the way back was being attacked by a flock of frenzied Cockatoo's in the botanic gardens. Serves me right for encouraging them with no food).
- Gavin and Mariko's new baby Victoria.
- Dan White was looking dashing as expected, also back from the mother England.

Our stay was only short and sweet, sorry if we missed you this time.
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House on fire

Ayako looks out the window and says, "what is that smoke?" I say "that looks like a house on fire, quick lets go!"

Two blocks away this house was a full crackling inferno when we got there. A lady owner of the house arrived after us. She was totally hysterical. It was quite intense to be standing next to her as she became overwhelmed with emotion while helplessly watching the fire rip through her house.

The fire brigade had already been called and arrived a couple of minutes later and got straight into action. This was no little fire here. They first looked to save the surrounding houses from catching alight, which they did. Apparently there was no one inside or in immediate danger.

It only took about 20 minutes for the house to go from being on fire, to a full scale internal fireball, to the roof collapsing, to basically an empty smoldering shell. There looked to be nothing left inside at all. No floors or internal walls. The car out the front actually melted. It was amazing to see how quickly the fire annihilated the whole house and somebodies worldly possessions.

Ayako ran back home to turn our oven off. There was no real danger as it was but, "see how easy it can be to forget the stove or something!" It was also sobering to note that if someone was trapped inside the rescue team would have been too late to save them.
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V Festival

We just got back from the Virgin Music Festival (V Festival) Gold Coast. Surprisingly it was held in the beautiful grounds of Avica Weddings Resort (who are a good client of Umaku and kindly threw a couple of tickets our way). Knowing Tia is a bit of a music buff we decided to take her with us. I'm not sure if it is to be proud of or not but she was officially the youngest person at the event, so said the entrance staff and were cool to let her through after clearing her for dangerous weapons and illicit drugs. After we picked up some ear plugs and band aids from the RaveSafe tent and strapped them into Tia's ears we were set. It was a safe and friendly vibe and we all had a nice time. Band lineup was Pet Shop Boys, The Pixies, Beck, Groove Armada, New York Dolls, Jarvis Cocker, Gnarles Barkley, The Rapture etc etc. Tia got a bit of attention from a few of the girls and some very happy party people who were stoked to see her there. Unfortunately it started raining just as the Pet Shop Boys and The Pixies hit their stages so it was time for us hit the road.

All in all a very successful operation and Tia stayed happy and interested the whole time, god love her.
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Mirror madness

Green Machine

Amazingly this 350kph F1 racing car is claiming pole position in the race to save the world.

The marketing angle on this is, by making a donation to the myearthdream trust will result in your name and pledge eventually appearing on the bodywork of the Honda Formula 1 racing car, there are 600,000 pixels per car. Ok, the non-logo car with a globe wrapping the entire bodywork makes a nice change from the archetypal Formula 1 car and thats pretty much it! What this evident marketing stunt can’t hide is the fact that it also drinks a litre every 2 kilometres and pumps out 138 tonnes of carbon a year.

"Tell 'em they're my earth dreamin'!" and the car should go straight to the pool room.

Wollumbin Leg Burner

I ran up Mt Warning (now officially also known as just Wollumbin) again this afternoon. Record time for me. 48mins up from the car park to viewing platform - 33 down. Again it was a beautiful day with a stunning view of everything from the top.

Going up is a no brainer. It's merely a thigh and lung burn. The challenge being to push on as hard as possible. Coming down is a different challenge.

I rolled my ankle during a momentary lapse of concentration about half way down but kept going as fast as I could favouring the good leg, the twisted one's a bit swollen now. I like to run down fast letting gravity do most of the work. Its a zen activity requiring total attention to every step because of the stones and tree roots and general irregularity of the track. When the mind wonders from the immediate present moment - the next foot placement - an ankle injury is more than likely, or worse still tripping over at full momentum.

Near the end I was startled by a loud crunching crashing sound. Just off the track I watched a big dead palm branch fall to the ground. First thought was, "good thing it wasn't on my head", then all I could think was that was the answer to the question... If a tree fell in the forest I'd bloody hear it alright.

Epic Surf Session

I just got back from a 3.5hr surf at Cudgen Reef a new spot for me that I surfed for the first time last week. This place is gold. I reckon its the best spot on the Gold Coast if you aren't here for the point breaks.

Last week we had some good swell and this day it was clean and about 5 foot. I paddled out not really knowing where the take of spot was or the reef for that matter. It sits about 150 metres off the beach. This is a real deal reef setup with heavy dredging perfect tubes growing out of deep water. I was there for no more that 15 mins when 8 bodyboarders and 3 photographers turned up. Still with that many guys I got more than my share. One other surfer came out who had the drop wired and got the best barrel I'd seen for a while. The boogers where taking off really late drop knee and busting some big airs. That was last week.

So with another good south swell running and nice conditions I went up there again this morning. 3 guys out one being WCT pro Troy Brooks (with a photographer). He went in about half hour later. So it was pretty good with only 3 of us for about an hour with perfect conditions and some amazing waves coming through. One of the guys was an Italian guy who reckons the surf in Italy is underrated. A big pod of 20 or so dolphins were fishing and swimming around us. At one point a few metres away a bunch of bait fish breached the surface followed by some metre long Tuna flying through the air. Pretty full on. I've never seen something like that. It was a live marine wildlife show out there (no I didn't see any man eating fish which was ok with me).

Then out of nowhere world no. 3 Joel Parkinson, Acher Pacey some hawaiians and a few others show up including the guy that got the barrel of the day last week. Then the jetski with the camera crew.
Well I must say the conditions were right, the tide dropping out making it really shallow and hollow. I witnessed the most critical late drop behind the peak heaving deep ass tube riding I had seen for, well probably ever. Inspiring. The break was somewhat shifty so there was the odd wide ones that I could grab and watch the pros on the paddle back out. Acher got the wave of the session, super late free fall drop and sooo far back in the the tube. Joel and I were poised on the shoulder screaming. When he paddle back out, Parko was clapping claiming "that was a 10". Frankly all those dudes were tube masters. I seriously have a new appreciation for how critical a wave can be surfed.

I finally snapped my leg rope and had to swim back to the beach. I was pretty over it anyway. I'd been out for ages and was getting sun burned and thirsty. This was the best surf session I'd lucked into for years.

Ok back on the blog

Well. We have been slack with updating our blog for the past few months haven't we.

It feels like quite a lot has happened. Especially Tia's growth. She is now mobile. Crawling and swimming and eating.
Christmas at our place. Sydney over Australia Day weekend. Ayako driving a car. All time surf more than once in the past few months. QuiksilverPro at Snapper had awesome waves. New job contracts. Run up Mount Warning in under 1hr. Tool.

That's it in a nut shell.

Make sure you check out and book mark our new picture gallery http://picasaweb.google.com/ayakojordan

See ya
Jord

TOOL

TOOL at the syd ent centre cranked. Good 'ol fashioned power rock at its finest. The sound was amazing from straight front and centre (I had to go check it). It lost a little bit of its beautiful clarity on the high frequencies, as to be expected from where we were seated right around the side of the stage. But Bass is not so bad. The show was pretty long (over 2 hours) playing favs from their repertoire and a good chunk of the new album. No encore. No over showmanship. Just perfectly played solid heavy slab riffing.