Shopping for toys

I met my brother in JB HiFi after Heath's soccer presentation today, because he was helping me in the search for some more tools to use next week.  I've come away with something that I hope will work well with the stallions.  And I also came away with a little something just for us to play music on inside.  We have a portable CD player with an iPod dock, but it's not great quality and doesn't go very loud.  The unit he helped me buy has Bluetooth, which is pretty clever, as well it has an updated iPhone5 or iPad4 or later connector thingy if we choose to use the dock, and a radio.  I'm playing some music now on it.  It sounds good, and music makes my mind tick away, and gives me ideas, so I'm enjoying that.  The old unit can go in a bedroom I guess.

I bought the kids a couple of new DVDs, and I got a couple myself.  I nearly bought Quartet, but decided against it.  I saw it back in the January about a week or so after getting back from the Gold Coast with my friend.  It's a great film, but I'm just not sure about watching it again at present.   So I settled on Lincoln, which I'd wanted to see at the time. 

I saw briefly the replay of the races today.  I wasn't able to travel to either Sydney or Melbourne today.  Atlantic Jewel looks to be clearly something special and won as easily as expected.  I find myself hoping that her trainer will not back her up in the Underwood, because I will be in the Hunter Valley with My Boys.  It would be nice to think that she will run in either the Turnbull or the Caulfield Stakes before the Cox Plate.

My neighbour Paddy came and had a glass of wine with me, while we sat with Maxie on the front steps after our shopping late this afternoon, and then they invited the kids and me back for dinner.  That was nice. 

And now that we are back home, with Maxie curled on my lap, and the kids almost ready for bed, I find myself reviewing what progress I made today.  I did some culling and that felt good, it is stuff the kids haven't played with for ages, but I still had to make sure it was out of the house before they returned, to avoid the usual cries of 'nooooooooooooooooooooooooo'.....  

This preparing to move makes me start thinking, as we prepare for the process of no longer calling this little house home, of what I will miss and what I won't.  I won't miss the kitchen, it's so tiny.. And I long for the day I can go into our bathroom and be able to use the mirrors and drawers without feeling like I have to close the door to fit in.  It is also tiny.  As for the quirky 3 way design to the bathroom, with the tiny little shower?  Well it's true to say that I find myself looking enviously at both the kitchens and bathrooms of the houses on offer.  

I don't want to sound ungrateful, because it's been a nice, safe little house, with very good landlords (alright, it is excruciatingly hot in summer, I always said "only one full summer!!!!"), but I long to move into slightly more comfortable and spacious surrounds.  Some of the houses I have been looking at could accommodate a studio, which is a nice thought.

The kids are excited about their new school, and our new life.  And I'm excited about the prospects it will bring me, both professionally and personally, in a brand new environment.  Having only ever lived here, it's an exciting, if somewhat daunting, time.