Seattle, Maddi and I went camping. Kim just dropped us off in the wild and we did fend for ourselves. It was really, fucken, cool. We went fishing and for bush walks and wrote a song and drew pictures and got firewood and whittled sticks (WHITTLED! Ha ha ha) and made fire and cooked food on it and a guy gave us the finger and we slept in tents and we did all the things you do out in the wild. Except for killing things. Which we probably would have done if we had been half decent fisher people. It was supercoolrad. I am going to do it more often. Things are, tender for me at the moment. I am trying to be good and settled and practical and stuff, but things get hard to deal with and my first instinct is to go ahead and get messed up. I am resisting it, as I know that it will only bring more heartache. I have, as I may have said, recorded a couple of new tracks. They arent really for general consumption, in their current forms, but they are a start towards a new recorded album. I have some new artwork to work on and a bunch of cool things to do with the kids. At the momment, we are in the process of recording a song we wrote on camp. It is about this little fish that other fish keep trying to eat. The main lyric is "Splish Splash, I'm getting the bash", its really funny. Also, it contains the word "Ass" (their idea, not mine) so that makes it hell cute too. I have made this cool kinda drum n bass backing music and will fill it all up with samples and stuff after the vocals are done. The Bay is really dull and I, for one, cant wait to get the hell out of here. We have been talking about Wellington. OR, maybe even Melbourne. But its all academic untill Kim finishes her degree. AND, she might decide to do honours or masters yet... I can wait. We have been a  pretty creative little household lately and I think that that makes us the richest people in the world. I often feel dumb that I am not a workaholic dad, whos only main concern is money. I think that the kind of time that I put in with the children makes me worth a thousand grey, drab, aloof working dads. AND I guess the value of the artistic output of this household remains to be seen huh? I am looking for a pocket knife for seattle. My grandpa gave me one at about his age and I would like to continue the tradition. He was walking around in the bush with my knife, safely in its sheath, on his belt and he just felt and looked so confident and happy. Lydia is having some kinda trouble lately, I dunno. I try so hard with that kid and it seems to get me no-where. I love her to bits tho, and when she is sweet to me, its the best feeling in the world. I love it when my kids are around, because she automatically starts calling me "dad", ha ha ha, it breaks my heart, in nice ways. Well, I better get on back to beddy byes with young vader and see if I can smuggle a cuddle. Good Night, sweet dreams.

M