Author: Eikon Theou

Washed up, grateful for tender mercies from above

Images then and now


Images of my room sittin atop the offices of the property agent – LJ Hooker – comes to mind. Images of that desk flanked by a bookshelf on the one side and a bed on the other, in particular. I’d sit on that desk, and try to think of Tress’ face as she sat at her desk in her room. She had gone back to Malaysia, and I was still in Sydney. I was trying to see her in my mind. I missed her. That was 22 years ago, I think.

Images of another room come to mind now. That room in Burton & Garran Hall looked so small. I am trying to see her in my mind. It was less than a week ago.

From the rising of the sun…


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This was at Batehaven, just a little after 6.30 in the morning. It was taken by Tress from the balcony of the lounge in the cottage we stayedin but we get the same view from the bedroom, too. Really nice.

Elections please, Gillard


We’re sort of on holidays now. We left kiddo at Canberra yesterday and came to Batemans Bay.

The news have focused a lot on Gillard’s mortifying appearance at the Four Corners program. Given her pathological lying tendencies and Rudd’s fatuousness, Australians should just demand elections to come sooner rather than later. Bring on the elections please. Now.

Road Ahead Beckons


It has been a slightly busier last couple of days at work for me. Renovation works scheduled for next week were brought forward and things got a bit messy. I was in early the past couple of days and today – my last day at work before taking a week off for Canberra et al – I’m kind of hoping to have a “POETS” day (Piss off early, tomorrow’s Saturday – pardon the Aussie pleasantries).

Tress has been busy too so I hope today would be better than yesterday.

English: Mallacoota Top Lake, 2011
One Chapter Closes
Batemans Bay
Another one opens

In any case we’re both looking forward to a mini break of sorts. We plan to push off early tomorrow so all the packing for kiddo and other road trip preps must be done tonight. We hope to be at the doors of Burton and Garran Hall by about 2pm, which would allow us a few hours to attend to whatever that needs to be attended to. Tress and I leave the PhB student on Tuesday and will make our way back to Melbourne but via the NSW coast. First stop is Batemans Bay, then down past Bega Valley towards Mallacoota and then down past the Lakes Entrance and towards Wilson’s Prom where Port Albert would be our last stop. We arrive back in Melbourne on Sunday. The Little Black Jedi will be coming along for the ride.

When all that driving’s over and we’re b

ack in Melbourne, life will be somewhat different for us. Life really is a box of chocolates.

Batemans Bay at twilight, looking towards the ...
What lies ahead...
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Backpack from North Melbourne


Kiddo wanted a backpack for uni and was looking up some online sites for it a couple of nights ago. She settled on an STM model – STM Convoy laptop backpack – which is olive in colour, holds the MacBook pretty well, has loads of compartments and great features like a waterproof bonnet, and looks well made.

So yesterday morning I did some digging around and found one in North Melbourne – under Maxfixit site. The person on the email was responsive so I drove over to their site to pick it up during lunch. The transaction went okay but dealing with the staff was something else.

When I walked into the office, a young lady was typing away on a computer and barely looked up, face grim and all. A young man from another corner of the room walked across towards me and I mentioned the email exchange earlier. That young girl muttered something about the bag being at the back of the room somewhere and did not greet or look at me. The young man just went and took the bag, took down some details and processed my payment. This all took a quick 10-15 minutes but it all happened without the slightest occurrence of pleasantries.

I got back to the office just a bit after lunch, and emailed kiddo that I got the bag. So the transaction went ok in that we got the bag pretty quickly and at a reasonably ok price. If you don’t mind the sour puss personnel it would be a perfectly good place to get your Mac stuff but if you want a bit of friendly exchange, look around online and wait for the parcel to be delivered FedEx or something like that. Avoid the Maxfixit North Melbourne office.

Kiddo got her backpack and I think she’s happy with that.

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Grateful again


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Filip please?


Let’s see.

Israel may send a few planes up Iran’s way and release a few bombs and then start a war. If it doesn’t, Iran may get their nuclear toy and point it at Israel, amongst others.

Meanwhile Russia is giving Hilary Clinton (who is looking aged) some stick back for suggesting it and China are not playing ball to the detriment of Syrians. While Russia and China play spoilers to Hilary and company, the Syrian town of Homs gets bombed.

The Greeks are having a go at lenders while meeting with IMF and ECB big wigs. The Eurozone looks like it will fester for a while yet. America cant help because it’s in pretty deep too – about 15 trillion dollars, and Mitt Romney is suggesting he can fix it better than Obama. China wont help because it is smart with money. Europe looks like a bottomless pit as its people demand high wages and Grade A lifestyle despite not being able to afford it.

Closer to home, the PM is drowning and her foreign minister is pouring in more water and hard-to-like individuals like Rob Oakeshott has his day in the sun again, much to the chagrin of many. Bob Brown meanwhile continues to look stupid on finance matters.

As all these merry news make their way around the globe, Kiddo is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s for her new life in Canberra. Last night she had some friends over. They were playing cards and Tress and I came home and fixed them dinner. I got a variety of snags and some fish to throw on the barbie and Tress made a salad. They played till about 10.30pm. It’s great she’s able to spend time with close friends before leaving, and doing stuff at home tops it off.

Some folks in church asked me how I felt with Kiddo’s impending new adventure. I honestly don’t know. I just feel tired. Physically, emotionally and mentally I feel tired. Not in the exhausted sense but in the flat, low energy and almost lethargic sense. I don’t know if it is because I haven’t had a decent break since our trip to Shanghai and Suzhou in September 2010. We have had a few mini getaways – to Echuca and Canberra amongst others but those trips were fillers. They should count as breaks nevertheless I guess, but for one reason or another I just feel like some refreshing in one form or another is badly needed. I need a fillip of sorts.

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One chapter closes…


Kiddo, Tress and I spent the whole of Saturday doing stuff together. We went to the Dandenongs in the morning and did the Kokoda Memorial Track (“1,000 steps”). Kiddo has been really fit and was the first one up. I was next and a surprisingly fresh looking Tress was in tow, a few minutes later. We took a longer but more gradual route down and when it was all done, we felt good and had a good brunch at Olinda. We did the unpardonable and had pies at Pies in the Sky. A bit of warning – the pies appear to have lost some of their attraction. They don’t taste as yummy as they used to and the “floater” (in pea and ham soup and a scoop of mash on top) certainly wasn’t the extra $9 or so – it was very dry and bland.

After leaving the Dandenongs we went to get some dried foods for Kiddo to survive on in the next few weeks when crouching in the trenches that are the tiny rooms in the halls of residence in the ANU, as well as some storage containers and packing boxes from Bunnings in Vermont. We got back just after 1.30pm, I took a short snooze before cleaning the house for the dinner party in our home on Sunday night.

Tress did some cooking, as well as the usual rounds of laundry and Kiddo went about packing and placing all her stuff in the spare bedroom to help us all gauge how much space she needed in the car. Kiddo did as much of the packing as possible and we all have a much better idea now, of the stuff we would be carting up this weekend.

That night Kiddo went for an 18th birthday party in Bulleen – that of Sammy her best mate. We took her to the dinner and went to Box Hill ourselves.

Church yesterday was in really hot and windy conditions and the cell leaders meeting in the arvo was a bit testing for that reason. I got home around 3 and got ready for the dinner party at home for Kiddo’s church friends. We had a Sri Lankan lady do the catering and we picked up the food (from church). It was a longish night but I think Kiddo enjoyed the time with her friends from church, that she has made in the last 8 years here in Melbourne.

It was the last weekend of this chapter in Kiddo’s life. Next weekend a new chapter begins.

Kiddo at 3 (as we contemplate a milestone)


Elysia as she appeared in The Star at 3.
Elysia in The Star

I smacked my child


I remember smacking kiddo. I regretted some of the incidents of smacking – those which resulted from angry reactions to her behaviour. I am very grateful I didn’t have to do it too often and I think I didn’t have to do it after she was past the age of 3 or 4.

If I were a parent again, I would smack my child again. I would try my hardest to ensure I didn’t do it as an angry and reactive response, but I would do it.

It is different to using force against an adult. This is where I think I cannot agree with Professor Frank Oberklaid of the Royal Children Hospital’s Centre for Community Child Health.  With an adult, I would not (probably never) use force because I expect the adult to understand where the boundaries of acceptable behaviour lies and that adult is responsible for his own actions. The parent (or guardian) bears that responsibility in relation to that child. The parent is responsible for ensuring that child grows up to be an adult who understands acceptable and responsible behaviour and that there are consequences for breaching those boundaries. As a child I don’t think reasoning and discussing always works. A smack says it all and the child never forgets or need to figure anything out. He understands straight away, clearly and indelibly, that the prohibited behaviour is a no go zone.

So I think Professor Frank Oberklaid and Dr Gervase Chaney a president of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians Paediatric and Child Health Division, are both wrong to suggest we should ban smacking. That is the purview of the parent, subject only to existing laws.

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