The Chambers

What we get up to….

Photo taken while staying at the wonderful Sausage Tree Camp, Zambia. Here we are fishing on the banks of the Zambezi, one eye on the River on the lookout for Alligators, another on the lookout for Hippos, another on the lookout for Lions, another on the lookout for Elephants :)

Monthly Archives: October 2008

web sites gadgets and other stuff

People are probably sick of hearing about our holiday and we havent even gone ON it yet!!! (too bad!)

I am going to take the computer again this trip and use it to keep updated with the goings on on our holiday. This trip around though I will also be taking a few other gadgets with me to help keep updated. I’m looking forward to this and playing with some new sites and gadgets and toys to keep everyone updated. I write it off to professional involvement in the online travel industry and having to understand the technology and sites…

Laptop.

The laptop will be used to type up blog updates from the road. We’re away for 6 weeks, so I’m reckoning I will probably post a couple of posts a week, so probably will do about a dozen blog posts here to this blog while we’re away. The hotels we’re at will have wifi / net connection (of course!) so this will give me something to do when I wake up early in the morning before everyone else.

I’ll also use the laptop to back up our photos that we take along the way. I learned a lesson on the the last trip which was that the laptop tried to sync some of the folders and that cause some of our photos to get wiped. I wont get stung by that again!

iPhone

I love my new iPhone (thanks Kylie and Jackson!) and I’ll be able to use it a fair bit to keep in touch.

The iPhone can post updates, through applications or web access, to email, twitter and facebook.

I can also use it to take photos and post them to facebook, through AirMe. AirMe is a cool application that takes photos and tags the photo with keywords which let people know where you are and what the weather was like when the photo was taken.

Websites

I’ll use a few websites when we’re away

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=603703031
Twitter – short form message updates (like the “status” on facebook), I can post to this from my mobile or the web. My profile on twitter: http://twitter.com/ckjchambers
TripIt – one of my favourite new sites, great for organising itineraries http://www.tripit.com

Technology & Gadgets

I’ve mentioned the laptop and the iPhone. But we’ll also have;
the PSP for Jackson (mostly),
an iPod touch for Kylie / Jackson,
an iPod video for backing up photos,
our Sony HondyCam for video’ing and pictures,
the little digital camera for pictures,
a US / AU electricty converter and a 4 plug electricty board
a range of spare batteries and chargers

I pack all these into the spare camera bag and label the chords with who their owning appliance is so it it easier to pack and unpack as we move around the place.

So, I’m looking forward to keeping a good record of our holiday!

cc

Jackson and St Olivers

We’re nearly down to three weeks until our holidays. Earlier in the week I wasnt feeling so stressed about that, but now I see the mountain of work to pile through before we are on the road and the butterflies are in the stomach now. Ah well, once we get on that flight we’ll be very relaxed.

Jackson had his orientation day at prep yesterday. He did so well, I was very proud of him. It’s true, it starts to hit you how quickly they morph from someone who isnt able to do a lot except poo and cry to an amazing critter who has the capacity to bend your will to do almost anything for them! Jackson is going to be going to “Ollie’s” – St Oliver PLumkett’s, which is Catholic School at Cannon Hill. The same school Kylie went too.

We got to the school at 830am or so and all the parents and kids went into a room there. Jackson was excited to see some of his friends from Kindy there, including Jack B, Molly, Amy, Noah and a couple of others. His favourite friends Jack Silver, Ziggy and Brandon are not going to the school but he was very happy to see his other friends, it helped him settle in. After about 1/2 an hour the kids were to go off with the other kids and teachers. Jackson was a bit reluctant to go and he did give me a few “I want to stay here with you’s”, but I walked him up the front and to the other kids and he was a real trooper and off he went with the kids. Brave boy!

There was a lot of information downloaded on us from a few different people in the school support group, the Deakin, the “minister” (I need to get up on the lingo now), the canteen lady, the P&F (no eye contact there), the board representative and so on and so on.

After an hour and a half or so the kids all came back and re-joined the parents. Of course Jackson had had a great time!

There was some type of name badge the current prep kids had made the incoming group and Jackson didnt get his for some reason (probably too shy to go up and get it when his name was called). So, we wanted to get that for him. I talked to one of the teachers and she said it was the room with the Yellow door and asked Jackson if he remembered where it was. He said yes….. but I dont think he ever knew. I went with him while Kylie bought the books, we got a little lost, but I did get a little tour of the school and we got there eventually.

Had some morning tea (jackson loved the bun with the sultanas and pink icing, he had 4 pieces, so I assume he liked it), Kylie bought his books (while I was on my magical mystery tour) and then they took me to work and they got to hang out together (BOO!, while I worked, Boo!)

I was very proud of our “little” boy, he did so well and was very brave. I’m sure he is going to love prep!

over and out,

chris, kylie and jackson

experiment nearing completion

In the end it was not even close. As expected during the course of today we heard many, MANY, mummy’s, daddy’s and “I just wondered if”‘s.

The end tally was:

Mummy’s 89
Daddy’s 52
I Just Wondered If 31

The main burst of activity happened over a stunning one hour period in which Kylie was barraged with Mummy’s as Jackson pleaded to go for a swim.

Jackson will be going to sleep in about 30 minutes. I am not writing off any chance of there being over 100 “Mummy’s” as Jackson tries to talk us into letting him stay up longer.

over and out

experiment underway

Today I have kicked off an experiment which I have been wanting to do for a while. Jackson says “mummy” or “daddy” (or variations of) A LOT! He also says “I just wondered if….” a fair bit when he wants to as something he knows we’re likely to say no to.

So, I’ve started a tally of how many times Jackson says “mummy”, “daddy” and “I just wondered if” through the day.

At 801 local the tally was

“I just wondered if” (shortened to “IJWI”) 14
“Daddy” = 24
“Mummy” = 17

I’ve taken an early lead as Jackson was playing his PSP earlier and needed my help on some hard bits. Kylie should still be considered the favourite to win the tally.

Updates will be posted to twitter: http://twitter.com/ckjchambers

captains log, star date 191008

Everyone loves a list. Right? So, the other day I was cleaning up the garage and came across some old photos and it prompted me to think of some of the cool things I’ve done in my life. I love stats and spreadsheets, so it made sense to start some lists! Lists of memories….. I have no idea of how often I will post these, or when I will post the first one, but they’re coming soon.

Our trip to the US of A is coming up quickly, thankfully! We’re so looking forward to it. Our plans are mostly locked away and thankfully we’d paid for a large portion of our accommodation, flights and tours before the AU dollar dropped from 98 to 65 US cents.

Today we’re off to the Gumdale State School Fete, Jackson has been looking forward to it all week. Each day he’d ask if we were going to the fete today, but when the answer was no, he’d get upset. Thankfully, today when he asked me if we were going to the fete today – I could say YES! big smiles.

Work wise everything is going well. Tourism Queensland launched a facebook profile for Queensland during the week – http://www.facebook.com/pages/Queensland-Australia/26225930097, it features current campaign and competition activity, holiday packages, events, free downloads and discussion boards. It looks good (I think, though I am a touch bias).

That’s about all for now, over and out.