Jeff O'Bree

Posted By on September 23, 2010

Jeff with Todd

Hi my name is Jeff O’Bree and this is my first attempt at blogging.  I intend just adding things about my family  Shirley and Todd, as they happen and things I’m interested in. My interests are wide ranging starting with my occupation as a lawyer. After 21 years in the profession I still enjoy it. Of course my family is my #1 interest and pastime and we spend as much quality time together as is possible. Keeping fit is important to me as it keeps my mind clear and gives me a sense of well being.  In winter the gym is a good place to go but when the weather is better you’ll find me out on my bike, or walking in the countryside.  I am also a keen gardener which is an activity we share as a family. Diet is also important to me and while I really enjoy my food I am careful to buy as much organic produce as I can and avoid processed products. Having a large garden area is perfect for us as we grow some of our own vegetables. There’s nothing like eating your own produce and the flavors are amazing. Sometimes when I have to have a business lunch with clients and I’m served a salad, the tomatoes are tasteless! Any wonder they add so much dressing these days!

Red wine is also a love of mine. I don’t drink a lot but really love to try different wines especially when I travel to other countries or regions. I have a cellar and collect wines I like. I store my wine based on it’s variety and the recommended drinking time. This way I can compare how the wine has aged. To remind myself I keep notes, nothing too elaborate just my impressions.  Overall my favorite style of wine is Shiraz, particularly Australian Shiraz from their Barossa Valley. It’s not easy to get a good Aussie red here but I have managed to find a supplier who ships to me when required.

Music is another passion. I’ve always got some music going when I’m at work, at home relaxing or in the garden. My iPod must be due for it’s million mile service! My taste is fairly broad but I do like Trad Jazz, especially New Orleans style. I was in New Orleans back in 1997 and had a fantastic time. I can listen to country music, the classics, 60′s rock and roll and some of the latest hits as long as it’s not rap or heavy metal!

Over the years I have done a lot of travel to all parts of the world. Most of it when I was single and had just left university. I have great memories of my times hitch-hiking through Europe, I guess it’s not done so much these days. Hitching seems to be discouraged and I suppose that’s fair enough. The worlds not as safe as it was 20 years ago. My favorite places are quite varied, as I guess it’s the people you meet that provide the experience and the memories. London was great fun and it was easy to meet fellow travelers. Of course Amsterdam was something so different from anything I’d come across before ! Another place with fond memories was Ireland. The O’Bree’s are Irish and I set off to find my ancestors, I’m not sure I did but I had a fantastic time with these most hospitable of people. I found several families with the same name and maybe we are related but we had no way of knowing! That didn’t bother them, they just took me in and introduced me around as their cousin from Canada! One day I’ll get around to doing some family history research the correct way!

One of my trips took me to Australia. Those guys, especially in the country towns love to drink beer. We’d spend days ‘boozing’ and then days recovering! The Aussies really know how to have fun. The place I was working had a river so we’d be swimming or water skiing at every chance. In the winter months, which were really very mild we’d go ‘bush bashing’ in our utes (A ute, short for utility, is a pick-up). My favorite Australian City is Melbourne. Most people in North America know of Sydney but for my money Melbourne is the best. It’s big yet feels small and relaxed. So many parks and gardens to walk in and if you like sports then it has it all. They get huge crowds to all types of sport, because Melbourne people are mad on sports!

Well that’ s me. I’m not sure anyone will ever read this but I guess it gives me an outlet to express a few things. I’ll keep updating as the urge grabs me and time permits.

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Posted By on December 19, 2011

All the bedrooms in our house have carpet. Luckily the main living area is tiled which can seem a little cold in winter but that’s preferable to having to be so careful with everything so you don’t stain the carpet ! Over the weekend  we had a mishap in our main bedroom. Todd was watching the TV in the living room so Shirl and I decided to have a quiet drink together in our bedroom. We picked out a good bottle of Heathcote Shiraz and decanted it into a carafe which I had just rinsed out. As I was carrying it into the bedroom it slipped out of my hand and smashed on the end of the bed. The wine went everywhere and of course created a large stain on the carpet. We quickly grabbed some soda water and patted it in. Unfortunately it didn’t come out completely. I was so annoyed with myself. What a waste of great wine! But not only that I was stupid to not dry the outside of the carafe properly!!

Anyway we waited until Monday morning and started looking for a carpet cleaner. We searched online and found a few that serviced our area. I’d never thought about it before but there are different types of carpet cleaning and I had no idea which is best. There’s ‘dry’ and of course ‘wet’. But which one? We decided to go with the dry cleaning as it seemed to make more sense to be able to walk on the carpet soon after it was cleaned. I searched for carpet cleaning Melbourne and soon found someone who could do the job that afternoon. Now our bedroom is back to normal, in fact better than normal! We actually decided to have all the bedrooms done as the guy explained that dust builds up and can be a health hazard. So now all our bedrooms are fresh and clean!

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Posted By on December 3, 2011

I never thought I would be able to get Todd interested in stamp collecting but he has taken to it like fish to water.  I used to be an avid collector of stamps from all over the world and my mom found it exasperating that I always had my face burrowed in my stamp albums.  I mentioned this in passing to Todd and he wanted to know everything.  He finds it very fascinating as he hasn’t see many stamps considering hardly anything comes by snail mail these days.  So I dug out my old albums and also taught him how to remove the stamps from the few envelopes that were lying around.  He is convinced that he will stumble upon a rare stamp sooner or later.  It feels like a return to my childhood days watching Todd organizing his stamp collection.  Shirley says she too dabbled in philately when she was in college and seeing Todd so interested brings back a lot of memories for both of us.

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Posted By on November 20, 2011

I had to sheepishly admit to Shirley that I had lost interest in pursuing my recently acquired hobby.  Remember the family tree I was so gung-ho about?  It wasn’t expanding as fast as I wanted it to so am a little disappointed.  I had emailed a whole bunch of my relatives back in Canada but after the initial spurt in interest, they seem to have dropped off the radar.  It is difficult to keep it going without any inputs.  Anyway, am hoping that there will be some interest from younger relatives who are more into the power of the internet.

To get my mind off my disappointment, I decided to clean up the garden and plant a few rose bushes.  When I read up on planting roses, I found so much of contradicting information that I decided to do it by instinct.  Time will show if that was a wise thing to do.  Shirley thinks I should have discussed it with my neighbours who have a lovely rose garden.  May be that would have been the best thing to do but so far so good the bushes are still standing!

Todd is doing great in school and Shirley’s project is coming along fine.   It looks like I’ve been doing nothing but indulging in my hobbies but that’s not the case.  Work has been predictable and nothing much to report so back to gardening I go…

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Posted By on November 10, 2011

I have been doing something really interesting in the last month that I completely forgot about this blog!  Anyway, nothing of significance has happened and life is cruising along quite comfortably.  The only thing of interest I’ve done is finally getting down to tracing my family tree.  I didn’t know I had so many relatives here in Australia!  I suddenly remembered my visit to Ireland trying to trace back my ancestry and vowing then to someday work on a family tree.  So here I am, after so many years, finally sitting down to it.

I found a website that allows you to add your relatives to an ‘e-tree’ and email them too so they can add their relatives etc.  In the process, I discovered that my great, great grandfather’s first marriage was to an Australian lady who died of tuberculosis.  It is amazing how fast a family can grow and spread all over the world.  I even have a distant relative sitting in the Congo and one in Zambia!

Shirley and Todd are very amused by my new hobby but am confident I will get Shirley hooked too.

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Posted By on October 14, 2011

It’s been a really hectic week at work and it looks like I might have to travel to Canada in the next couple of weeks.  I am not particularly looking forward to it as it would mean putting an additional burden on Shirley.  Her project has started and she hardly has any time to herself.

Todd and Caesar are getting along splendidly.  We find that Todd’s speech has improved dramatically as we hear him talking fluently to Caesar and he doesn’t seem to have any of the inhibitions that afflict him when he is with people.  Wonder why we didn’t do this earlier.

The house needs a complete cleaning too and the less said about the back and front yards the better!  We really haven’t had any time to attend to chores around the house.  Would be great if we had some household help but doesn’t look like we will be able to afford that in the near future!

There hasn’t been much happening with me and that’s the reason for the long silence.  My neighbours are moving house and watching them pack reminds me of the time Shirley and I packed to move to Australia.  Almost a year has gone by but  it feels like it was just yesterday!

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Posted By on October 2, 2011

With Shirley getting really busy with the eco-project, she gets home very late in the night and we invariably have to opt for pizza delivery!  Not that Todd and I are complaining!  Shirley isn’t ummm how do I put this without getting into trouble.. er .. let’s just say that cooking doesn’t come naturally to her and I sorely lack in that department!  We love ordering food or going out to eat.  The best of all, of course, is the pizza in South Yarra.  There is a pizza restaurant there that serves the yummiest pizzas we have ever eaten!

Oh and Todd named our dog Caesar.  The name does have an imperial ring to it, doesn’t it?  Ah .. there’s the doorbell, must be our pizza!

Caesar right now is drooling with his tongue hanging out, how on earth does he know that it’s the pizza man at the door?!  And, well, am drooling too   I’ll be back!

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Posted By on September 29, 2011

Todd got his way .. but not quite the way I had expected it would be.  We were out on a walk and there was this pup just sitting on the sidewalk.  As soon as he saw Todd, he ran up to him with his tiny tail wagging nineteen to the dozen.  He looked like he was looking for us and there we were!  We looked around everywhere but he didn’t look like he belonged to anybody.  Wherever Todd went, the puppy followed and well, to cut a long story short, he’s home with us.  Have left it to Todd to name the brat.  He is golden brown in colour and has these big, round, soulful eyes!

Shirley has started on the new project and there’s no way I can get her to stand still!

It’s been an uneventful week with everything going well.  I got a call from my client back in Canada that his case would be up for final hearing soon.  I am fairly certain it will be ruled in his favour.

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Posted By on September 24, 2011

Shirley has been put in charge of a brand new eco-friendly project!  This building  is to accommodate hundreds of offices and is set right in the heart of a very busy commercial area.   It will be quite challenging as she is planning gardens on each level and lots of windows to bring in sunshine to every single office.   They are bringing down an old structure and putting in this ultra-modern green building.    She has wanted this for so many years that she is in very high spirits!  It’s nice to see her plotting and planning and getting excited about the smallest details.  She wants it to be perfect.

Have I mentioned that the house we live in is also very eco-friendly?  Everything that can be recycled is being recycled and Shirley keeps innovating!

Todd is doing great and is pestering us to make those plans for a long weekend visiting friends in Deni.  And he won’t let up on getting a dog for him either.  Looks like we may have to give in sooner or later!

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Posted By on September 21, 2011

With so much happening around Todd as soon as we got back from Deni, I didn’t have any time to write about the wonderful time we had driving back via Albury.  It was a very scenic drive and we enjoyed the day we spent there before heading home.  Lake Hume is absolutely beautiful and I tried my hand at some fishing but zero luck there!  We also wanted to make a stop at the Wonga Wetlands but we were strapped for time so we decided to keep it for our next trip to Deni.

Todd is doing great with his speech therapist and we are finally settling back into our routine.

My old client from Canada called with some good news but looks like it will be a little more time before his case is finally decided.  Sometimes I miss my clients and the way things are done back home but we are having a pretty good life here so not complaining!

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Posted By on September 14, 2011

Todd had been slower than other children in learning to speak and to read or write.  We thought that it will become alright with time.   But now that he is 8 and having problems in school, we took him to a friend who is a child specialist.  Anna told us that Todd has dyslexia and recommended a good speech pathologist to help him with his learning difficulties.

It is such a relief to us that Todd is making excellent progress with just a few sessions with his speech pathologist.  He is now eager to go to school and is actually making friends. He used to keep to himself and rarely showed interest in other children his age.   Just to see him laugh and play like a normal child makes us wish we had sought professional help earlier.

Shirley and I have been as usual busy at work but are thinking of making a short trip to Deni to spend a weekend with friends.  Todd likes visiting them as he likes playing with their 4 dogs, we are thinking of getting him a dog too.

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