The Wu Family expands... again...

Welcome to the world,

Elisha Timothy Wu

If you have a look at the photo below, the biggest news in the Wu family this year is the arrival of the smallest member of our family.

He has great lungs, and cries loud, which is necessary to be heard over the din and racket produced by his five siblings!

He's also the baby to distinctly NOT look a lot like Ben when he was born! We'll see how he turns out!

Memories...

I was cleaning out the family file server (yes, we are a nerd family, we store everything on the server and it's my job to back it up... probably now would be good. It's been a while). It recently ran low on disk space, so like any good storage administrator, I'm bravely staving off the need to implement a file system archiving solution (which is really a bigger server setting next to the current one so we can keep using that and have our data moved automagically to the bigger server and back when we need it - why we don't just migrate to the bigger server I'll never understand)... anyway I digress...

I was digging back through our old video clips captured on our camera to see if I could delete any bloopers when I came across this...

Yes, Keon, who at that time couldn't walk or talk, could play the drums... I wonder what that says about drummers :)

It's a long way to the conference centre if you want to walk

This place is huge! It takes me (a reasonably fast walker) 10 minutes just to get from my room to the conference centre!

So a quick visit to the pool (next to conference centre) would take:
0) walk back to room to change 10mins
1) prep time 2 mins (pull on my togs, etc)
2) walk 10 mins
3) find which pool I'm meant to use 5 mins
4) jump in for a 30 min swim
5) get out dry off 1 min
6) walk 10 min
7) have a shower, get changed 5min
8) walk back to conference centre for next session 10min

That's 83 minutes just to have a half-hour swim!



You can live the experience vicariously by watching my super-scintillating video!

Come on in, the water's great!

On my way from my room to the conference centre, I go past the entrance to the massive open courtyard where there are three or four pools, and they are all reasonably big.

I was going to go for a swim this morning at 6AM before the day got too hot, but circumstances prevailed.

I stepped outside at lunch time to get a breath of fresh air. The outside temperature actually wasn't too bad, considering I'm in trousers and a long sleeve collared business shirt, but no tie or jacket. I'm wearing what is termed "business casual." If it were a haircut, it would be a mullet: business on top, casual on the back. See these examples of mullets below.


Here is one of the pools:

So inviting on a hot day such as this....

I reckon putting on one of the training courses *in* the pool would result in 100% attendance! 50 computer nerds in the pool, Blackberrys in hand, listening to a guy talk about 32 and 64-bit linear address spaces and logical block addressing extensions. Now *that* would be a total nerd alert!

I see a Sea Blue!

Inside the Hotel/Casino I am staying at, there is a restaurant called Sea Blue. I don't know if I will get to try it, but if there is one thing they do well here, it's theming and presentation!

Sea Blue caught my eye because it is a seafood restaurant (duh, Ben!) and the theme is so, well, Sea Blue!

There are six video screens on the front that show under-sea images of tropical fish swimming around. Ironic, considering that we are in the middle of a massive desert!

Unfortunately, the pictures do not do the place justice.

Happy Anniversary to us!

Hi all, it's our 14th Anniversary today, and we're 10,000 miles apart! Awww...

I'll have to sing that song '500 miles' 10 times to get back to Sydney. I think I would be killed by someone for doing so before I made it home.

Looking back now, I feel like Sharon's been stuck in a space shuttle and launched to near light speed around the sun and she's come back to me 14 years later after only ageing 2 or 3 days... I'm glad it's me and not her who is old and gray now!

(In case you were interested, here's the story: The Twin Paradox - Sandra Ku, this is for you!!!)

To my darling, one and only, lovely wife, Sharon (did I say patient, long-suffering, tolerant to a point, clever, resourceful, inventive and spicy too)... and mother of our 5.5 rambunctious but lovable children...

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY I LOOOOOVE YOU!

... and I miss you!


God Bless you and keep you (sane) until I return, my love.

Your hubby, Ben.

Cough cough hack hack aggggghhh....

In Australia, smoking is not permitted in public venues except in specially designated, segregated areas. The air conditioning systems are usually separated to prevent cross-contamination.

Over here in Vegas, you are allowed to smoke inside the Casino and hotel. It seems that the air conditioning system has the job of not clearing the air, but evenly distributing the smoke particles through the whole building.

It is very smokey here, even in the non-smoking wing. I think it has to do with the air conditioning system. The awful smell of stale smoke clings to everything and the room is a matching dull yellow colour.

I am coughing all the time, and having to blow my nose and clear my throat often. My eyes are always itchy and I feel terrible.

I have one Zirtec antihistamine tablet left.... do I take it now, or do I wait until the itching and coughing becomes unbearable? Decisions, decisions.

Over Las Vegas. Or at least the culture.

I'm over Las Vegas. Not the interesting stuff ,as I haven't seen the other hotels, which I'm assured are pretty cool, with fountains out the front and other amazing displays. I'm over the culture they sell and promote here.

Last night, we had the opening reception for the training conference that I'm here for. The first part of the conversation usually involved a lament on how hard it is to find good-looking and smart IT girls. The final part of the conversation involved a decision to go and find an establishment that provides satiation for the lusts of the flesh in as many different ways as possible. I will leave it to your imagination to fill in the rest. There was little interest in discussing anything else.

Oh, there was some business talk sprinkled in between, and some polite acknowledgement that since two of the chatting group were professing Christians (Dave and me) that we were free not to participate. I hadn't realised it was compulsory (...of course I am being sarcastic).

Dave and I go back a long way in IT. I had always suspected that he was a Christian, but I only got confirmation last night. Funny how we're always so up-front about our profession, our hobbys and our homes, but we're not so upfront about our faith when there is peer pressure and the possibility of ridicule and not being taken seriously.

Then there was the bar where the barmaid was dressed in a short skirt (it is 40 degrees remember) and she got up and danced on the bar itself. She was a good dancer. I could tell from watching the shadow of her on the wall. Most of our group went around to take photos, and came back like they were little kids who had found a valley full of chocolates and lollies, making comments that clearly showed that they were not seeing her as another person to respect, but an object to be coveted and lusted over. Seriously, is this how grown men with significant social and professonal responsibilities should behave? Dave and I gently reminded the other guys that she is a person too, not just an object of their lust, but I think they were too drunk to register.

The thing that got to me is that these guys did not see anything wrong with this. It was seen as good fun and 'naughty,' as in cheeky but not really wrong. What they don't seem to grasp is that there is a huge difference between admiring and lusting, between proper enjoyment and gluttony or debauchery. The difference is in the heart attitude, and the outcome is in what action one decides to take.

Dave and I talked to the guys about finding a woman they could get to know and respect, and making a life-long commitment to the relationship as equals. I think the other guys were not willing to give up their ways just yet, but they were jealous because they could see in our faces that the commitment to one woman pays off. You don't know how many times Dave and I looked a each other, sighed, and said "no, sorry, we're one-woman men." One guy (a good friend of mine) did say at one stage "I wish I could find a woman who is like your wives. I'm not getting any younger, but I find it hard to meet someone like that." Perhaps most girls are conditioned by the media, society and their peers nowadays to look for the wrong things in men.

In reflection, the phrase "beauty is skin-deep, but ugly goes to the bone" is so right in many ways here... and true inner beauty comes from God, because all people are made in his image.

After that event, we were then approached by someone who was either an undercover cop or a drug dealer or pimp. He boldly asked us what we wanted in the way of substance abuse and other things which I have already mentioned. He said he could get us anything. The men in our group couldn't seem to say no, so he gave our group his card. "Free limo ride to anything you desire" he said. Yeah, right, sure.

After that, our group said it was decision time, did we want to go with them to a strip club or not? Dave and I declined and went to our rooms to sleep. The other guys headed off to find their 'experience' for the evening.

These guys are lost. They can sense that the way they are going isn't right, but they don't know exactly how to get it right. God still loves all the lost, and we are His messengers of hope. Dave and I will keep trying to share the Gospel with these guys, since we are sprinkled with plenty of opportunity.. we are hanging out with these guys for 3 days straight from 7AM-11PM!

I won't say that I wasn't tempted. The Devil will stick temptations right up to your face. God is testing our faithfulness in these situations, and it would be impossible to resist without the help of the Holy Spirit.

So in the midst of this jaded, stale, smokey environment, surrounded by all this stuff, I also thank God that He has given Dave and me each other as brothers in Christ at the conference. "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst" is the promise that Jesus Christ gave us. That is so true. Dave and I needed each other as moral standards back-up last night.

As Christians, we need to boldly proclaim God's kingdom and message, and actively seek out other Christians in our workplaces to be able to support each other better.

Epilogue:

The next morning, to no surprise, the same men, all suited up in their presentation gear, looked so serious and professional delivering their training presentations. We all can be such chameleons.

That was "Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA)." Two and half solid hours of the most scintillating training on earth, if your rely on SFHA to keep your job!

Viva Las Vegas!

As part of my work, I'm in Vegas for a Symantec Technical Conference for a few days.

Getting off the plane, there is a 'Welcome to Las Vegas' sign, which is nice:
Just out of view is a set of signs that say "Vegas is a tourist destination and tips are not included in basic prices that you purchase." Then it shows you a list of suitable tips and categories which is about a US Letter size piece of laminated paper, and has about 20 categories of tips, thresholds and how to caluclate them. Of course "Tipping is entirely optional" (but necessary if you want to not be frowned upon)

It's between 35 and 42°C in the day, and about 25-33°C in the evenings. I think I'll stay inside during the day.

Here's the gold MGM lion in the main lobby of the hotel. It's big! and shiny!

That's how they fund the hotel and facilities. Those are poker machines. At least they don't collect taxes from the people. Actually, they do, but not through the tax system. These machines are so tempting: bright, colourful, and making noises to attract people. It is obviously easy to start (with small coins) and quickly graduate to much larger amounts, backed by one's credit card (which ends up very depleted when one loses).

Here's my room! It's decorated in 80's style beigy brown with no overhead lighting. It's all mood lighting with lamps. The bathroom (not shown) is lots of black and white marble with gold fixtures. I'm on a non-smoking floor, but it's hopeless. The strong waft of cigarette smoke is stinging my eyes and making me cough.

The view from the room is nice, though, with blue skies, some mountain in the background and lots of tall buildings.

I have to go and register for the conference now!

A date with my daughter

Tonight I am having a date with my daughter Mikaela. In a world where the term 'dating' has all sorts of implications, Sharon and I felt it would be a good thing to demonstrate that dating is about having good clean fun and getting to know someone with no strings attached.

I am playing some board games and other games with Mikaela and having a good old chat and just chillin' out...

Mikaela's favourite game is Crazy Machines 2. You should try it sometime, because the Crazy in the name means it drives the player crazy!!!!

The more the merrier

We had our nieces Talia and Shannae stay over last night. It was a fun-filled little adventure. Our dear Shannae certainly likes to lock horns with cranky old Uncle Ben. In the end, there was a truce... Shannae and Uncle Ben are fine now, so much so that when he went over to their house to drop off their bedding, he got a massive smile and a 'come and read me a story' plea. The outcome of the horn-locking is now a family secret that will be kept forever (until someone's 21st, engagement party or wedding reception - Shannae, watch out, Uncle Ben has an elephant's memory)...

Let's go Bowling for Zac's 7th birthday!

Zac turns seven soon! wow! Who would have thought he would turn out to be the family socialite (although he is facing competition from Keon)?

First an afternoon tea and cake with family and best friends...

...then a game of bowling with Isobell, Ethan & David

Here is Zac letting it roll!

They don't call him Zac 'Twinkle Toes' for nothing!

Vivid 09 - It was vivid, all right!

We went to the city for Vivd Sydney '09

Vivid Sydney is an annual event in Sydney, where artists light up famous landmarks in Sydney with special lighting and create light sculptures. There was meant to be light and music, but we didn't hear any music of significance... maybe it was masked by the sound of children playing...

First we watched a symbolic re-enactment of the Three Bees catching fire, exploding and sinking...

Drummer's delight

Some of you may know our son Jayden is learning the drums...

What you may not know is that he is learning from Steve Smith!

"Who?" I hear you say... THIS Steve Smith...

Actually, Jayden's learning from Steve's videos... not Steve himself...

This is Jayden... at the tender age of 8!

He might even surpass Steve Smith... when he's 12! Maybe...

Vomitous Hippopotamus

Here is a typical conversation between Zac (6.5) and Calvin (4.5):

Z: "Hey, let's play Hungry Hippos!"

C: "OK, let's!"

"Oh cool, I'm winning..."

"No, I'm winning..."

"No, *I'm* winning, because your hippo keeps dropping its balls"

"No, *IIIIIIII'm* winning, because your hippo keeps vomiting its balls"

"You know, when hippos vomit, there's a lot of vomit"

"Yeah, and it's really stinky"

"How do you know?"

"I know, because it stinks"

"Well, your hippo is vomiting now too"

"I wiiiiin"

"No, I win"

"NO, I WIN"

"NO, *IIIIIIIIIII* WIN"

"Grrrrr....."

"Yaaaarggggghhh!!!!......"

From sublime to degenerate in three easy steps...

What I want to know is where they learned their Hippo biology. I certainly did not teach them about Hippo vomit!

Creativity abounds!

Our boys are very, very creative!

They wanted to custom-make the invitations to their birthday parties. Without reading the captions, can you guess what these three images represent?

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Exhibit C

Answers are below... scroll down!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Answers:

A: Laser Skirmish

B: Ten Pin Bowling

C: Ten Pin Bowling

At the Car Wash

Calvin always loves to help me do stuff. He is such a good helper (when he's not in Eeyore mode)!

Calvin is a window polishing specialist. Look at how reflective the windows are on the car. But that wasn't good enough for Calvin. He had to go one more time just to make sure they were like a mirror. "Is it like a mirror yet, dad? Oh, look, there's a water drop on that one, I'd better do them all again..."

SWAG Family Day at Olympic Park

I took the three older kids Mikaela, Jayden and Zachary to the SWAG family day on Saturday at Olympic Park, right next to Silverwater Prison... er I mean 'Correctional Centre.'

The weather held out and we had a delish BBQ lunch cooked up by the one and only SWAG leader Andrew Mills. Then we went bike riding. Of course, Jayden took the lead, followed closely by Mikeala and Zac. After going by the Archery Centre, where Jayden almost had an apoplexy because the minimum age is 10 and he's 9.5, the kids went off with Andrew to the 'hidden playground,' which is like a park set in bushland with some weird eco-friendly urban art.

I rode my bike back to get the car and had Scamper (our dog) in tow. Scamper and I eyeballed each other at the starting line, then we were off! Neither wanted to give ground... He lead most of the way, until I got into 5th gear... then we were neck and neck. His little legs were pumping so hard I could only see the cartoon-like blur under his body of his four limbs...

... then... he saw... the other dog!

I heard a yelp and saw Scamper's bottom up in the air as his hindquarters tried to overtake his shoulders...

Poor Scamper... nobody can tell a 1.5 year old dog that gentle braking is the way to get from 60km/h to zero without using one's face as an airbag for one's head... Apparently Scamper's thinking went: "run run run, oooh another dog, stop and bark... whoops!"

So Scamper had a bit of an embarrassing moment with the other dog's owner commenting "hehehehehe..."

In the meantime, this is what my calm, sedate children were up to...

Here, Doggy ( ...or welcome Scamper ) !

We havea new family member... the dog!

Sharon's aunt died, and we ended up adopting him as our rabbit had died a few months before and the kids were pet-less...

His name is Scamper, and he's a Bible believing dog! Well, at least he believed those Bibles tasted good until he ate one!


Apart from the occasional toilet indiscretion when he's confused or excited (like when Sharon's mum pops over for a visit), he's very very good.

Happy Birthday

We celebrated Sharon's birthday today!

It was a total blast... we ate Sri Lankan Curry Crab and boy it was gooood!

All kids love fire! Especially if there's chocolate cake to go with it

My SAHM sister-in-law, thinking about something... or Eddy!

Zac "tuff MC" with his cuzz Shannae...
thats "tuff" except for the bowlfringe hair...

Keon obviously enjoyed his food!

After all the fun, this family is tiiiired...

The more the merrier

Last night, our kid's cousins' cousin (YOU figure that out!) Isobelle had a sleepover at our house, because her little brother was in hospital with jaundice. He should be OK today.

Of course, having Izza over is a pleasure, but it also means that our boys go slightly nutty. So the whole household volume went up 3dB (which is to say twice as loud!)

And trying to stay focussed on the family routine was a challenge!

Keon, of course, turned up HIS volume in compensation for the lack of attention.... another 3dB.

I reckon that if you could harness sound energy, we could put power back ON to the power grid!

Oh, well...

Ben Babysitting

"Ben, I need to duck out for a minute!"

"No problem, " he says, "just leave him with me!"

Do we waste time in this house?

Why feel left out even if you are not yet one year old?
Daddy can do his email and teach an instrument!

I'm not the littlest anymore!

Shannae (cousin of 2yrs old) was the youngest for ever so long. Now she is big enough to push Keon in the pram, feed him in the highchair and ...
take the lead ...

Sports Acrobatics

Bankstown had a Sport Recreation Day. The YMCA gymnastics did a few displays. Mikaela and Jayden took part in the Sports Acrobatics display.

We made good use of the free rides on the big slide!

Take you riding in my car, car...

Saturday Morning

You know how it feels ... you pull the doona over your head and pretend to be asleep ... well, this time, no one appeared for my charade. Annoyed by my own curiosity, I climb out of bed to check out what mischief they must surely be up to ...

Baby sleeping ...

Mikaela ignoring the world ...

The Boys ...

Keon can stand by himself

Keon can stand if he focuses on something else
... like clapping or (yet again) eating an iceblock

Practice, Perseverence, Pandemonium

A standard morning at our house starts with everyone being dressed and packed by 6:30am. We have breakfast and devotions together (as Daddy does not always make it home for dinner). We brush teeth, comb hair and then it is 7am ... practice time.

A little fine scheduling is required to fit in trumpet, flute, guiter, drums and 3 lots of piano within and hour and twenty minutes. While we do have doors, they are definitely not sound proof. Visitors oscillate between finding it overwhelming and funny...

Learning to Practice = Learning Perseverence ... "two steps forward, one step back"

Our family verse is Philippians 2:14-15
"Do everything without complaining and arguing, that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe."

Our favourite time is family band ... where we all play together, one day we will post a video of that!

I'm such a bad mother!

It was a scorcher of a weekend with temperatures going well above 40°C.

We enjoyed a swim on Saturday morning. Regretting the decision to not buy the cow, we stopped at the shop to pick up our 12 litres of milk (that lasts half a week). The volunteers to duck into the 'AIR CONDITIONED' shop were numerous... and well practiced in the art of spotting specials of more than $1 off.

The hot mother, in her weakened state, bought two packs of four Cornettos... apparently 'saving' $4! Let's do the math, 8 Cornettos, 7 in the family... oh, well, the baby gets one too!

Pre-School Pandemonium

Calvin got a lift with dad to pre-school today.

He knows when it's time to go because Sesame Street is finishing up. If we get late, dad gets told "Come on Dad, hurry up, we have to get to preschool you know"

This morning we got there on time, and we started painting. We painted a tropical scene with anatomically correct colours for the coconut palm (green), beach (yellow), sea (blue), seagulls (white with contaminants), but when it came to the coconuts themselves, when asked what colour, the confident kid answered "RED!" and proceeded to paint red coconuts on the tree... oh, well...

Then cousin Talia turned up for her first real day at pre-school. Poor baby, not even the presence of big cousin Calvin and Uncle Ben could completely restore her confidence.

You can read about her experiences here:
http://the-ku-family.blogspot.com/2009/02/pre-school-part-1.html

Calvin said at the end of the day "I looked after Talia. Then Dylan (her cousin from the other side of the family) came and he looked after her too. Then she was OK." I don't doubt the veracity of the report, but there seems to be some discrepancy with Talia's report...

Australia Day - Jayden's birthday

Jayden was so excited to be going into the city for fireworks on his birthday ... and not even a bit of rain was going to put a damper on that! Calvin wasn't so sure. Our little Eeyore kept asking, " It's still raining ... can we go home yet?"

More drumming!

This time 8-month old Keon gets into the drums - big time!

You can tell we're NOT the quietest family around...