What is Scotty.com.au? - A personal web site that we use to keep distant family and friends up to date. There are thousands of photos to view, but to do this you will need a password.
One week ago today started off like a usual Saturday morning. It was too hot to do any more building on the front fence so instead we lazed around the pool. Early in the day Belinda complained of some unusual pains, with our first child due to be born in a matter of days these pains were very suspicious. Despite this coincidence, Belinda was in denial insisting that she had just strained her back. Belinda's mum, Helen and I were very aware of the fact that this 'back strain' was very regularly getting worse for a minute or so every ten minutes. It wasn't until much later at 5.40pm when Belinda's waters broke that she came to agree that today was the big day.
During the course of the day Helen and I had made certain that we had packed everything that we needed so it was a fairly quick exercise to load the car and start that very nervous drive to the hospital. We arrived at the Mater only to find that our obstetrician was away for the weekend, this was very disheartening as we had met with him from very early on and had never met or heard of his stand in. The new obstetrician was Dr Stephen Cattanach and as it turned out he was really good and we will use him again if the need ever arises. I won't go through the intricacies of the labour, those that have been through it before will know just how ineffectual the partner feels. Labour progressed well all night, Belinda was very courageous and showed me strength that I never knew she had. At around 6am our midwives started rushing around and paying an uncomfortable amount of attention to our daughters heart rate monitor. Luckily our obstetrician had just finished delivering a baby in the room next door. He came straight in and Belinda was rushed into an operating room for an emergency caesarian because the baby was becoming distressed. I was surprised at how they managed to get twelve people organised in such a short amount of time.
Although the caesarian all went incredibly smoothly it was the very urgent nature of it that made it a very traumatic experience for both Belinda and myself. At 6.38am on December 7 we heard the incredible sound of our little girl, Isabella Amali Ayres, crying for the first time. She was rushed off to be examined, she was quickly given a clean bill of health and passed back to a very relieved mum and dad. She weighted in at 3.01 kilograms and was 50 centimetres long. We stayed at the Mater Hospital for the next five days and were really happy with the friendly and helpful nurses and other staff on the Level 10 maternity ward. Thank you to all the friends and family that sent presents and flowers.
Since bringing Isabella home she has been a perfect little angel. She wakes for a quick feed at about 3am each night and is fed, changed and back to a very contented sleep within half an hour. We just hope that she stays in such a good sleep pattern. After arriving home my mother, Joan, came to stay with us as well, with two Nanna's at hand she has been cuddled and fussed over endlessly.
Grizzly, our new puppy has adjusted well to the change. We suspected that he knew what was happening before she was born, as towards the end of the pregnancy he became very protective of Belinda's growing belly. He would often dive between me and her bump as I bent down to talk to Isabella before she was born. We were worried that this behaviour might have evolved into jealousy, but when we bought Isabella home he had a quick look and sniff, showed no interest at all and then just went about being his usual self. To ensure that he doesn't build up any negative sentiments towards her I have been taking him jogging every morning, then for a swim and then he gets a fresh bone to keep him occupied.
The biggest news in the past few months (in fact, probably the last decade) is our impending parenthood. Belinda is currently 16 weeks pregnant, the estimated due date is 9th December. She has been suffering quite bad morning sickness, but that thankfully seems to be easing up a bit. We have bought the mandatory pregnancy books that have taught me a lot of things I wish I could forget. We are planning to find out the gender at the next scan, a lot of people like the surprise, personally we couldn't handle the suspense.
Sadly our wonderful dog of the last eight years, Illy, succumbed to Lymphoma recently. She had been on several different chemo regimes since the start of the year, unfortunately she didn't stay in remission. It was very sad for us both coming home and not having Illy run to greet us with her tail wagging. After much deliberation we decided it was time to get another puppy. We chose a black Labrador x Newfoundland. He is currently about 11 weeks old, and a very quick learner. We named him Grizzly B. Ayres after a sleepless night caused by his crying.
A few months ago an opportunity arose to work for Macquarie Bank, this is a company that I had always wanted to work for, so it was a very easy decision to leave Citi. Belinda has recently completed a wedding celebrant course that will allow her to start marrying people soon. She is really looking forward to performing her first wedding.
At last I have made the time to update the website with news from rainy Queensland. Last weekend the weather bureau reported that we had 200mm of rain in one day in our suburb, I wasn't surprised as when I woke up that morning an empty 10L bucket I had left outside the night before was almost completely full. We still have level 6 water restrictions that they are not yet talking about lifting, at least everything is nice and green again. Belinda and I have been kept very busy over the last few months working on the new house. 
A lot of the time has been spent in the garden, the first afternoon we moved in we went for a walk around the neighbouring streets having a look at the gardens, when we arrived back at our house we were shocked to realise that we had the worst looking garden in the area. Luckily we both enjoy gardening so it seemed more exciting than daunting. The front yard was full of some pretty large trees, some of which were only a metre or so from the house, we had these removed which left us with only a couple of struggling plants left in the front garden. Numerous trips to the nursery and many many days of hard work the front garden is now starting to look a bit respectable. We are lucky that plants up here grow about 3 times faster than what we are used to in Tassie. We have started work on the inside of the house as well, painting and replacing fixtures and fittings. Still a lot of work to do though.
Sadly our wonderful dog of the last seven years Illy was diagnosed with Lymphoma recently, which came as a terrible shock. She is not suffering any pain and is such an important part of the family that she is undergoing a six month course of chemotherapy. It is only early days yet, but fortunately she seems to be responding well.
We went to Cairns for the Australia Day long weekend, we hired a car this time and saw much of the surrounding area. Port Douglas was not as nice as we had imagined, but nearby Palm Cove was really nice and had a lovely tropical feel. I think that is where we will stay next time, it seems a lot nicer than Cairns. On the beach at Palm Cove we found a couple of coconuts that had washed up and started to sprout, we bought two of them back to Brisbane with us in our suitcases. We have been told that this far south they will grow well but they will not form nuts. Not sure how accurate this is as when we were house hunting we looked at a house that had a full grown coconut 
tree, with nuts, growing in the yard. I wanted to buy that house just for the tree. Not that it matters anyway as it will probably not bear fruit for another decade or so, and I doubt we will still be living in the house then.
In January my sister Meagan and her fiance Shane had their first baby, a girl called Torah. I am looking forward to making a trip back to Tassie soon to see my first niece. Belinda and I were back in Tassie for a fortnight over Christmas, we had a good time catching up with family and friends. I spent a bit of time fishing with Dad in Swansea. While I was down there one of the cages in a salmon farm broke open and tens of thousands of mature salmon escaped. While fishing with a friend out of Cremorne we were lucky enough to catch one.
Belinda and I celebrated our birthdays while in Tassie, it was my 30th birthday and Belinda's 28th. We spent New Years Eve celebrating at a Mexican restaurant which was lots of fun.
We have been very busy over the last few months, every weekend has been spent driving from suburb to suburb trying to find a new home. House hunting was fun at first but quickly became a nightmare as all the houses were so expensive and the quality so poor. We had no idea there are still so many houses with shag pile carpet and 1970s style floral wallpaper. We never thought we'd find anything we liked that was within our price range and when we did we had to act pretty quickly.
We finally bought a house about 12km out of the city centre. It's a bit further out than we had originally been looking but the house won us over. It is a four bedroom lowset brick and tile house with a nice inground pool which will be great for summer. The main bedroom is really nice it has an ensuite, two walk in wardrobes and a sliding door out to the pool area.
We move into our new home in mid September after a 60 day settlement, it seems to be going very slowly. It has given us time to prepare our 'hit list', the garden is in need of a lot of tlc, we really want to plant some tropical fruit and palm trees. Later on we would like to renovate the main bathroom as it looking a bit tired (and needs a spa). Will upload some photos soon after we move in.
Belinda and I spent last week in Phuket, Thailand. It was a fantastic holiday, there was so much we enjoyed it is hard to know where to start. Our accommodation, the Novotel Resort in Patong, was great. It was close enough to be able to walk to the busiest parts of Patong and also far enough away to be nice and quiet. I took the photo below from the deck that we ate breakfast on every morning.
We went on a number of day trips while we were away. My favourite was the "James Bond" canoeing adventure. We went to an island where we had to paddle through a bat filled cave to reach the lagoon in the centre of the island. The lagoon was enclosed by steep walls at least a 100 feet high, it was a very picturesque place. To make it even better a troupe of monkeys came down to greet us and we were able to feed them the bananas we had brought. Another day we traveled into the hills to go on an elephant safari, the actual riding was a bit bumpy but incredibly fun, it was a very scenic location. My favourite part was feeding the elephants before and after the ride.
Eating and shopping around Patong was quite an experience. I found it amazing to watch them go about their everyday lives, it was common to see mopeds with three or more people riding them, no helmets of course. I saw one bike with two adults and three children all crammed on to a postman size bike. The mopeds are also used to transport a lot of freight, they weld a sidecar like platform to the side of the bike and then pile it dangerously high with goods. I saw one of these hurtling along the highway at over 100 km's with a passenger sitting on a plastic outdoor chair that was just sitting on the motorbikes side platform, no helmet of course. I've been to bbq's where a good joke has been enough to send one of those chairs toppling let alone any sudden swerving or braking. The taxi's over there are great, they have tuk tuk's, which are tiny trucks converted to carry up to six passengers. They don't have meters so it is necessary to haggle with them before getting in. Of course there are no seatbelts. In fact the whole time we were there I only saw one seatbelt, and it looked like it hadn't been used before.
The shopping was fun, the best thing we bought can only be described as a combination between an electric bug zapper and a fly swatter, it is the size and shape of a tennis racquet. Unfortunately we discovered that Customs Officials also thought they were fantastic and decided to keep them. I spent hours, perhaps days, being dragged around countless counterfeit handbag shops, needless to say Belinda stocked up. When walking in Patong you are harassed every few metres by someone trying to sell you something, usually a tailor made suit. I was a little skeptical about the quality so I just had four shirts made by the tailor at the resort. So far they seem really good, especially at A$30 for a 100% cotton shirt that fits perfectly. Silk ties are also really cheap, a bought about a dozen ties that seem to be the same quality as the ties that I pay ten times as much for in Australia. We had been told that as tourists the merchants would try and get us to pay too much, so we decided to dress as locals, see the photo on the right.
We had some fantastic food while we were away, I was lucky and ordered nothing but delicious meals. My favourite's were Baan Rim Pa, a fabulous Thai restaurant on the waters edge that I liked for the great view and excellent service. The best food was at the Savoy Restaurant in the heart Patong. I ordered a massive plate of chili mussels and a stir fry, it was absolutely delicious and about twice as much as I could eat. The best atmosphere was when we ate at a local footpath restaurant, as well as being ridiculously cheap it was also fun as our meal was constantly being interrupted by street vendors trying to sell us pens with built in laser pointers, wooden frogs and of course the excellent electric fly swatters. There are heaps more photos to see here, you will need to know your username and password, if your not sure what it is give me a call, text or email.
