After yesterday's rant, I took some time today to step back and take stock on what I've got. It's pretty awesome.

Things to be grateful for: I have a really supportive family, a warm and dry house, a fun and challenging job, and we live in a friendly, slighty quirky, fun little community at the end of the Earth. Most people here share our views, and the more Conservative ones at least don't force thier views onto us. Except for the ones preaching in the main town mall, but they're easy to walk past.

This past weekend was a quiet one with the family. We stayed at home and played games (video and board games). I worked with my youngest boy Owen on sew and glow (a little stitch-together badge kit with electronics and a conductive thread). He won it as a prize in a birthday party game last week, what a great idea. Anyway we had a good time putting together a badge for his school bag, but didn't quite finish it this weekend.

I cooked a baked salmon dinner with rice and stir-fried vegetables — tomatoes, mushroom, spring onions, brocolini, boc choi … all of which the kids don't eat, oops. But they did eat the peas and corn I fried up for them.

Tonight while I was cooking on the barbeque on the front deck my phone chimed to alert me of a coming International Space Station fly-over. So I stuck my head in the front door to ask who wanted to come see it. My middle boy Ryan did. We counted down until the phone said the station would be over the SW horizon, but didn't see it for a few minutes. I had to turn some food over, but Ryan kept watching the skies, and then I heard a sharp intake of breath: "There it is! At first I thought it was a shooting star, but that's a space ship!", then we watched it fly to the NE for a couple of minutes and dissapear into the twilight gloom. After that he ran inside to tell his mum.

Lovely moment to spend with my 8-year-old.

My life's great, I feel better for reconnecting to it. I'm going to stop this and go watch a Buffy re-run with Jenny.