… in which MacK goes fishing, and has his first third birthday!

My workplace is pretty good on the family front, and they try to include activities for families when they can. One of those is a family fishing day. There is a small lake at work in which they release a whole lot of fish (this year it was 250 rainbow trout) for families to have a crack at. MacK, Jane and I went over with great aspirations. Jane wasn't prepared to have a cast, as she has apparently retired from fishing.

She has fished twice, caught a fish each time, and has now retired with a 100% strike rate. My strike rate is also 100% - but I have never landed a fish. This expedition was no different. I caught a fish (with witnesses to prove it), but it slipped the hook just as I was about to land it.

They say that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, and if you teach him to fish you feed him for life. I like the analogy, but for me if you teach me to fish, I end up vegetarian! MacK and I thought our pace was better suited to the canoes.

Yesterday Jane and I went to see the ADF sponsored play "The Long Way Home", about our current generation of returned veterans and the struggles they have adjusting back into life in Australia. The play is extremely confronting, and every vignette in the play is based on real time experiences. There is a cast of 17, of which 13 are serving soldiers. This is an incredibly raw piece of live theatre, and I would urge you to see it if you possibly can. At the time of writing, there are only performances scheduled for Adelaide and Perth. I sincerely hope that there is a future plan for this production, as its theme is far too important to just let go.

MacK turns three on Wednesday, so our plan was to have a morning tea this morning for a few local people, before heading to Canberra next weekend for his party proper. Our plans were scuppered when MacK woke us a little after two this morning with a bed full of vomit. When Jane called the other families to cancel, they were all also in a bad way. We have had a quiet day indoors (not hard as the weather hasn't let up all day), and MacK enjoyed his cake with a very quiet morning tea! We will have to make sure he has a good day next Saturday.

The first of this year's cakes was a penguin - Nailed it, I reckon!!!