40 weeks - first flight

On Thursday last week we took Tim on his first flight. We flew to Frankfurt to visit Jack's uncle Bernhard and family for his birthday. Overall everything was very good and we actually had a very nice relaxing weekend. It was very nice to see Tim with his relies. He also got to sit in an antique highchair that was used first by Jack's auntie (you can see it on the second last photo). Tim flew without problems and even managed to sleep a little on the plane before the pilot decided it was a good idea to talk loudly about arrival times and service on board. Timmy only started to get grumpy when descending mainly I think because he had to be strapped in to me for the last 30 minutes and that's pretty damn boring. We took the fast train on the way back, which actually arrived on time - an amazing achievement for Deutsche Bahn, and that was fine, too. Again - towards the end of the journey Tim started to get grumpy, but that was very manageable. Now we're mentally preparing ourselves for our _somewhat_ longer flight to Melbourne next week.

Upon our arrival last night from Frankfurt Unix decided to show his disapproval for our travels by peeing into our half unpacked suitcase. Well we were pleased to inform him that during our Aus trip he'll be looked after by our lovely neighbours and hopefully won't be so lonely.

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago Tim was scheduled to go for his development check this morning. We were a little surprised when we arrived at the doctor's office, as the woman who greeted us wasn't our normal paediatrician. She was actually a development therapist and has her own little office out the back of the doctors clinic. There were matts on the floor and the whole thing probably took about 40 minutes. She was very thorough and checked a whole bunch of different things and all in all we're very happy to say that Tim is completely fine. Some things he can actually do now that he is not even supposed to... so needless to say that we were very very relieved and happy.

And speaking more about Tim's development - he now waves when people wave goodbye to him! :)

Some photos from last week (on the first picture Tim is wearing a knitted suit that was once mine)...

RIP Banjo Ash

Banjo Ash - our youngest cat had an accident while we were in hospital. The vet said there wasn't anything we could have done - even if we had been home. Sadly he's no longer with us.

All in all we'd rather not talk about it, and would rather people don't mention it - suffice to say that we're very sad that the little kitten is no longer with us.

Banjo Ash - 29 April 2009 - 3 May 2010
Small and grey,
Always a pest at play.
You were very soft and loved,
and will be sorely missed,
now that you've gone away.

Random stuff

I've been cleaning out my phone so here's some random photos from the past 18 months or so, enjoy.

Some handy tips on how to work the new family member just arrived - thanks Lads ;)

We went and spent a bit of cash recently, shiny new Canon EOS 50D, 50mm f1.4, 17-85mm f4.5-5.6 and 70-300mm f4.5-5.6. Just gotta work out what all the buttons do now ;-)

Banjo playing shadow puppets, he's convinced his shadow is another cat and keeps trying to reach it.

Do philosophers value function over form?

Who needs a fishing hook, just scoop - these fish seemed to be swimming through each other rather than through water:

Pearl Jam concert last summer - where Gomez was the support act - totally awesome. I have some videos to post when I get around to it too.

Random Berlin:

That's just wrong and so very wrong...

Honest I am neither breaking, nor entering. This is what happens when someone forgets the keys to a secure storage area, mental note - cages should go to the ceiling.

There's cool and then there's disco cool:

That's one dark beverage:

The different faces of Wifey:

Egypt, such a queer place ;-) we used the photo of the ATM keypad to decode the prices in the shops, the boat staff had fun with the towels too:

Azza and Bazza, we miss you guys (BBQ mauerpark, chicken at Henne and Christmas (super)market and in a "The Little Boat That Broke"):

Not staged:

France: small beer, small coffee, small minds?

Paul and Deb: we took him to a rockabilli concert, can you guess what he's looking at? Got bass luv?

Bed fail in a Bad town (travelling with Polina's folks in August)

Anya likes Berlin:

"Mensch ärger dich nicht" (translation Don't have a cow dude) a game in which you are destined to make A. no friends and B. have a cow. (L-R Axel (brother), Olaf (cousin), Emmi (mother), Polina (wife)):