Documental

Random Book Cover

2009-02-25T14:24:00.004+11:00

I couldn't help but take the Random Album Cover idea to the book realm. I love books as reading material, but I also love them as objects, so I love a good cover. I wrote up a plan slightly different to the Random Album Cover idea (Good idea to whoever invented it). Here it is.

To Do This...

1 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days” or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Choose any photo from the first three.

2- Generate a fake name for your author using
http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/

3 - Go to http://math.furman.edu/cgi-bin/randquote.pl
The last two to five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your book.

4 - Go to http://randomquotes.org/
The first or last sentence of the first quote of the 5 random quotes is the tagline for your book.

5 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Here are two I did today...

This was a beautiful photo so I tried not to mess with it too much. The only change bar the type, the white line and the cross hairs, was to give the greyscale photo some coloured sky.

This pic was actually of three birds sitting on a cactus, but it wasn't working for me. This was much better.

Random Album Cover

2009-02-23T15:47:00.002+11:00

Ooh, I could do a gazillion of these. Here are two.

To Do This...

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit "random" or click
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The first random wikipedia
article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations" or click
http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3 The last four or five words of
the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days Third picture, no matter
what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Subscription

2008-12-22T15:32:00.003+11:00

The blog is now a feed, so you can subscribe to it to get updated content as it comes in. This is just for me to play with at the moment, but someone might use it somewhere down the track.

I suppose an update is in order

2008-12-22T14:40:00.005+11:00

Well, in the last year lot has happened: I returned to work a couple of days a week, Shawn got his Permanent Residency Visa and the family moved to the Upper North Shore of Sydney to be closer to family and to find some affordable childcare, but the major event is that Ivy was born on the 25th January, 2008. I was 17 days overdue (not a typo). I spent three days in pre-labour, no sleep and had ten hours hard-core syntocynon induced labour. My temperature rose as my body worked overtime and Ivy's heart rate started showing a few blips in response to the physical pressure I was under. So the pregnancy ended in an emergency c-section, but resulted in a smart, strong, well-adjusted, beautiful girl that I love more than I knew I could.

Christmas Illustration

2008-12-22T14:32:00.002+11:00

The good thing about my job is that I can spend my in between times working on skills. Thus this little Christmas Landscape was born. It's also a product of my new home which is a little closer to nature... and it's fire season at this time of year. Although I have to say that I've only smelled bush fires the once so far. Let's hope it stays that way.

Back

2008-12-22T14:20:00.004+11:00

... although I'm quite sure no one is tuning in anymore. I keep trying to remember this or that thing that happened and can't remember (Extended baby-brain or the early onset of senility?) or want to have somewhere to post scribbles. I've been starting to feel a little more creatively inclined of late as well, so maybe that will factor in. Now that I'm a mother I'm finding there are a lot of questions I'd like to ask my mum if she was still around. I'm think that Ivy might have questions when she's older too, things that I'll have long forgotten or won't be there to answer, so this might be good for that.

Big

2007-11-08T14:00:00.000+11:00

I'm really quite big now and am not entirely fond of the idea that I still have another two months of expansion ahead. How much room does a baby need... really? We should evolve to lay eggs instead.... small ones. Then maybe tying shoe laces or getting a decent night's sleep wouldn't be so hard. I really need to buy a body pillow or something very soon.

On the upside, I really enjoy Shawn's reaction when he feels her moving around and I like feeling her moving around... mostly... when she's not being aggressive about it.

p.s. Today is my birthday.

7 Months

2007-11-06T15:54:00.000+11:00

I have exactly ZERO photos of my pregnant self. Due to my first five to six months of shocking morning sickness, I don't think anyone would have dared come near me with a camera. Now I don't get nauseous unless I'm really sleep deprived. I should make sure I get at least one before this time is over.

I quite like having a big belly since for the first part of the pregnancy you tend to just look fatter, not pregnant. At 7 months there's not much mistaking that you are actually pregnant, except for people on public transport, as they have a particular blindness to these things. It also makes it far more real. Many weeks have passed without us thinking about the reality of it too much so that now, all of a sudden, you can't not pay attention. The funniest thing that I'm prone to doing at the moment is going to close the wardrobe door and it being blocked by my belly. All of a sudden it's really out there. Neither of us can quite grasp that there's any more room in there, but I still have another two months of expansion.

I was telling Shawn that when I feel her moving around or kicking, I want to take her out, cuddle her, play with her for a bit, then put her back in again... except without all the blood and surgery that would involve. We imagine opening a little hatch on my belly and lifting her out of a snug, red velvet lined pod.

Road Trip

2007-10-10T13:32:00.000+10:00

It's been a week and a half since Shawn and I got back from our little road trip. It went something like this.

On Saturday we drove to Canberra and stayed for two nights. I haven't been there since I was 12 so it was kind of all new (again). First impressions: very quiet, very leafy, very suburban. Dinner on our first night was at Alto, the restaurant at the revolving Black Mountain Tower. Yummy. Dessert was my favourite. A type of chocolate pudding with a mandarin salad that was warm and spicy. Really good. Next time we'll go for lunch so we can actually see the city design a little better.

We managed to wander around Floriade at Commonwealth Park for a while, but I probably wouldn't bother again. The highlight was seeing varieties of strange-shaped tulips I hadn't seen before. The lowlights were all the people and the rather boring displays. The park itself was far more pleasant to me.

From Floriade we walked down to Lake Burley Griffin and got a half hour boat ride, which at $5 each was worth well worth it. It gave my pregnant self a chance to rest while taking a look at a lot of different landmarks and getting a commentary on them.

We also took a guided tour at the War Memorial. Guided tours in general are great. You hear a lot of interesting stories that aren't always written on the little white cards next to exhibits and tend to take in a lot more as a result. Some stories are best not heard when you have pregnancy emotions though.

We were going to drive on to Wagga to see family, but we had a call from my Aunt saying the farm was pretty much under lock-down due to Equine Influenza. Another time.

So from Canberra we drove on to Melbourne, arriving at Narelle's place, where we stayed for three nights before staying at a serviced apartment in the city for a week.

It was weird being back in Melbourne after being away so long. If Melbourne could be relocated to Sydney, I'd be very happy. I really love Melbourne, but I think the weather is better up here and it's closer to family.

Melbourne activities included:
- spending an inordinate amount of money at The Chocolate Shop
- catching up with friends (sad that I have more friends in Melbourne than in Sydney)
- a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria to see the Guggenheim exhibition
- eating great pub food in Brunswick
- driving around old neighbourhoods
- making very good use of our weekly tram tickets
- visiting the Botanical Gardens
- buying treats from the cake shops on Acland Street in St Kilda
- pointing out The Esplanade Hotel to Shawn so he could see where RocKwiz is made
- Visiting Queen Victoria Markets and buying a new wallet in a great shade of green
- Melbourne zoo
- walked along the Yarra for a bit

We did one day trip out of Melbourne to Phillip Island to see the Little Penguins. We booked a ranger talk beforehand as well. It was cold and wet, but it was very cool to see them all hurrying to their burrows in the sand. Extremely cute.

It was sad leaving Melbourne, we'd almost convinced ourselves that we lived in the apartment.

(Crappy pic, but it was a challenge getting a good shot from the car.)

We drove back up the Princes Highway. A lot prettier than the Hume. Lots of green hills, Canola fields and happy looking cows (a very different experience to seeing how cows are kept in the US).

We stopped in Merimbula overnight and by a total accident, looking for food, we happened upon the Zanzibar Cafe, just when we were thinking we'd be stuck with fish and chips. This worked out perfectly because we'd planned to have at least two high quality dinners on our trip, but after Alto in Canberra, we just didn't seem to get around to it, then we hit this place. Given a 14/20 by The 2007 Good Food Guide. We have a tendency to agree with them.

On our last day of travel we stopped at Bateman's Bay for Lunch. Fairly uneventful, except for the high winds and my fear that the poor little echo was going to end up with something punctured by the branches and twigs strewn all over the road... Did I say uneventful?

It was, right up until we hit the highway that is. We rounded a bend, to see a tree laying across the road. It must have only just come down because we were the first car on our side to come across and people coming from the other direction had just gotten out of their cars. Thankfully, one of them had one of those fluorescent road workers vests and started running past our car waving it around so no one ran up the back of us. Lots of nearby men shoved fruitlessly at the tree (which I could have told them was not going anywhere in one piece), while the slightly more practical started trying to get through to SES or the RTA. After a very short time (with the arrival of the sixth car back) a man drove up and got out of his car with a chainsaw!

What luck!.. or do a lot of people around there carrying a chainsaw with them? So the tree was dismantled and the pieces pushed off the road in no time. Interesting experience.

During all our driving we stopped approximately every two hours so I could stretch and I have to say that on the way back it was definitely needed. My growing uterus is now pushing up against my ribs causing me a lot of discomfort. By the time we got to Nowra my ribs were killing me so we stopped at this park. We happened to have some bread in the car so we spent some time sprawled on the grass and feeding ducks.

We arrived home and enjoyed a 3 day weekend before work again on Monday. I was even relatively chipper on my first day back at work... weird.

21 weeks

2007-08-28T10:20:00.000+10:00

And I still have morning sickness. Mostly I just feel sick, but I'm still throwing up on the odd occasion as well. Hurrah.

A few days ago I felt the baby's kick with my hand on my belly, not just from the inside as usual.

Today is supposed to reach 27c. Which is a shock. I think it's time to go buy a maternity skirt or something. Actually, it's time to buy some maternity clothes regardless. I need a belly band to extend my t-shirts and hide the belly belts that have been extending my jeans and trousers.

Kicking

2007-08-24T09:28:00.000+10:00

When a doctor or ultrasonographer tells me that the movement I feel would only be like "butterflies" at this stage, I now know I'm not insane to disagree. Last night, for the first time, Shawn was able to feel the baby kick too, which was pretty exciting.

At this stage I don't mind the kicks and find it reassuring, I'm thinking that further down the track I'll be happy if the baby is a little less active.

Work Has Moved

2007-08-21T15:42:00.000+10:00

My first day at the new location was pretty bad. So many things went wrong that I don't want to relive them by listing them here... okay, just a few. It's FREEZING here. Why is aircon so hard to get right?! I left the house without my glasses and had to go back, my monitor died, but was forced to use it to shop for new monitor and I felt like I was going to faint or throw up during travel to and from work. The lack of somewhere to sit when waiting for public transport isn't good when you're pregnant and then trying to get a seat is another matter, especially if you don't look pregnant (but are still suffering from nausea, fatigue, etc)... although I'm not entirely sure how much that'd help these days. People can be appalling, especially on public transport. I guess I'll see how true this is when I get closer to my due date and start sticking out a lot more.

I should also say that the office space is very swish. We have windows we can see out and the transition was made a little easier by the fact that work hired a chef to cook us breakfast on our first day. So not all gloom.

Second day has been a little less eventful, thankfully.

Centennial Park

2007-08-14T09:14:00.000+10:00

On Saturday, Shawn and I went to Centennial Park for a picnic. It couldn't have been a better day for it. Sunny and nice and warm. A little respite from winter. I think the key to a really good picnic is going well prepared. We had a picnic blanket, two pillows, lots to eat and drink and a book. Just being outside was really nice, watching the different birds flying around together, chasing each other away from their nests and hopping down to chirp at us and see if we'd feed them. I think the best thing about this day, other than just getting out, was the fact that I got to eat a sandwich. I don't get to do this a lot these days. Being pregnant, I can't eat cold deli meat or salads that haven't been freshly washed. This rules out most places that serve sandwiches. So for this day we bought a cob loaf and stuffed it with cooked chicken, Swiss cheese, semi dried tomatoes, artichokes and various other salad bits and pieces. I loved it. So nice to eat just a simple sandwich again!

19 Week Ultrasound

2007-08-14T09:00:00.000+10:00

Yesterday, I had my 19 week ultrasound. They took a look at all the organs and did lots of measurements. Everything is going fine and best of all (although they say "No guarantees") we found out the sex. It looks like we're having a girl. Both Shawn and I were positively giddy about finding out. Now we just have to warn people against buying overly pink, frilly stuff for her. Not sure how successful that'll be. I really enjoy going for ultrasounds, actually seeing the baby moving around, looking at it's little feet, but I think this is the last one, unless they decide they didn't get a good shot of something or something needs to be checked further down the track.

To celebrate the ongoing well-being of the little one, we went out to Newton's Cocina for dinner. The food was fresh, cooked well and in good (large) portions, but sadly very bland. Great for someone who hasn't been well or has morning sickness and can only eat bland foods, but not great if you're after great Mexican food. Also? A little expensive. We'll give it a miss in the future I think. Baja Cantina tastes better and is cheaper.

I Take it Back

2007-08-08T15:37:00.000+10:00

I threw up on Saturday. Since I've been feeling better I guess I've been a little over-confident with what I think I can get away with. Apparently getting into bed after 10pm is not something I can get away with. I might have made it if I could've slept longer in the morning, but a headache and a strong desire to go to the bathroom killed that.

I Still Keep Ginger Nut Biscuits With Me

2007-08-03T10:57:00.000+10:00

But I haven't thrown up for 17 days, which is great. To replace this I have headaches every day instead. I still feel off colour every morning, I'm still required to fight off waves of nausea at regular intervals as well and often go off food, but, as mentioned previously, it's so much better than uncontrollable vomiting.

The cafe across from work have been concerned that I don't drink their coffee any more. I've explained that it's not them, it's me. I could probably stomach a full cup now, but it tastes very bitter to me now.

I think I can safely say that chocolate now tastes amazing to me again.

Financial News

2007-08-02T14:36:00.000+10:00

The stock market has taken a downturn, which means it probably won't be a good year for my superannuation, however, today I can't seem to care as I've just paid off a very persistent debt.

6 Days and no throwing up!

2007-07-23T15:22:00.000+10:00

The five day run has been broken! This doesn't mean that all of a sudden I feel great, I still feel pretty bleh and have to fight off waves of nausea every morning, sometimes all day, but these kinds of days are no where near as bad as throwing up days. I also mentioned to Shawn that I've been craving chocolate more often lately, whereas previously I'd gone off almost everything. I'm hoping this is the morning sickness easing and that it's not just a freak event.

Things I miss and don't miss

2007-07-23T10:35:00.000+10:00

I miss going for long walks with Shawn. The foot with the torn ligaments is healing gradually, but is not 100% yet. Aside from that, I feel exhausted and lethargic all the time. A big grocery shop is a challenge for me at the moment.

I miss being able to function on eight hours sleep. I can get away with nine and a half (sometimes), but feel much better after ten and a half, and those occasions where I get eleven or twelve hours sleep are heavenly.

I miss being able to eat what I want. Sushi is what I'm missing most at the moment.

I miss not feeling sick every morning and lying there before I get out of bed wondering if getting up will make me throw up.

I miss being headache free. (headaches caused by pregnancy hormones)

I don't miss worrying about putting on too much weight and not being able to get back into better shape. Being pregnant it would actually be good to put on some weight about now!

I don't miss my hair! I had a hair cut on Saturday. What once trailed down my back to reach my waist, now only just grazes my shoulder and it feels liberating! Now that the crispy ends are gone, it's so soft! Today will be it's first post-cut wash so I'm interested to see what it'll do once it's not in it's hairdresser-perfect-straightened state. It'll be so much quicker to wash and dry!

Baja Cantina

2007-07-20T14:20:00.000+10:00

Last night I took Shawn to Baja Cantina in Glebe. He has been missing Mexican food big time, my favourite Mexican place had closed down (Why? Why?! Hot Salsa Mexican Kitchen, you were so good!) and I wasn't really motivated to take him to a mexican place that just wasn't to his Californian-Mexican standards. Since we were going to be over that way I decided I should bite the bullet and suggest we go to Baja Cantina. So glad we did this. Shawn loved it. Not in a: "This is good for Australian Mexican" way, but in a "This is some of the best Mexican food I've ever had" way. I've always thought comments like "Oh, we only have crap Mexican food in Australia" were misguided, ok just plain wrong. I've had Mexican food in several places in California and several places in Sydney and I really think that we rate pretty well. I mean, I guess they could be more "authentic" (in both places), but then I'm just not that big on offal. It should also be said that I've had what I consider to be bad Mexican food in California. They aren't immune!

It lingers

2007-07-19T11:22:00.000+10:00

The morning sickness I mean. I've lost a few kilos because of it. I can't seem to break the five day run. I'm still feeling crappy on those five days, but I can go without throwing up for that amount of time... if I'm really lucky... okay, I've only gone that long twice, but it's better than nothing. Tuesday was my worst day yet and I had to take the day off work. I did force myself out to get to a tax appointment in the afternoon. It was quite the challenge, but I'm glad I did it. I can't wait to get my return back to see if I still have any student loan left. I'll be glad to see the back of that.

Yesterday I had my 'booking in' appointment at the birth centre at the RPA. I was reassured that I was doing fine and that the morning sickness isn't making the baby suffer, just me. The size of my uterus is fine for 15 weeks.

The midwife (Sarah, I think, caribbean accent) said she'd only look for a heartbeat with the doppler if I wouldn't worry if she didn't find one. Since there was no ultrasound to tell her where to point the thing I said I wouldn't worry. She did find it though. It was pretty cool to listen to. It's funny. I don't really worry about the pregnancy or how the baby is doing or think a huge amount about these appointments until after I go and then I feel pretty excited and happy about things going well and seeing or hearing some physical evidence that the baby is, in fact, there and is doing fine. I think it has something to do with the fact that I'm not showing yet so I don't see that I'm pregnant. I hear this is common for first pregnancies since our stomach muscles have never been stretched out and are keeping everything nicely tucked away... although I know this won't last long.

Morning Sickness

2007-06-28T09:13:00.000+10:00

My most heartfelt sympathy goes out to anyone who has to go through this. It makes me wonder how, as a race, we continue to procreate. I haven't thrown up for 5 days now, so I'm hoping it's on it's way out.

12 weeks and 2 days

2007-06-28T09:01:00.000+10:00

Pregnant that is.

We had an ultrasound on Monday and it was waving it's arms around like crazy.
Sonographer: "There's a party going on in there."
Shawn: "What've you been eating?!"

I don't think tomato and cheese on toast with a little oregano warrants arm waving, but what do I know. It's very reassuring that it seems healthy though.

What I Love to Hear from a Client

2007-06-14T14:55:00.000+10:00

"love it! love it! love it! you are brilliant. I think it's perfect!
I am so happy."

It's not that my ego needs vigorous stroking, it's just that it's nice to have someone say that you did a good job. It also makes up for the clients who are absolutely hideous.

I also like it when they realise that they might not know everything this is to know about my profession:
"... not sure if its possible and if not please tell me to get with the program..."

Some clients are just great.

I Don't Like Renting

2007-06-12T15:51:00.001+10:00

I have a lot to be thankful for. My health, great husband and a pretty decent job to name a few. One thing I'm not thankful for is our landlord. We've been without water since Sunday morning. He said he'd see me this afternoon at 4.30 to fix it, however, he is notoriously unreliable, so I called him at 3.30pm to confirm this. He informed me that the plumber had already been around and fixed it at around midday. This is incredibly displeasing to me for two reasons. One is that I was home for lunch after 12 so I know it wasn't done. The other thing is that he organised to send someone to our place without our knowledge. I don't take well to strangers (or agents or landlords) in my house, without informing me and without me being present. Forget about the fact that I find it incredibly rude, what if I came home and found a strange man in my house? Is he trying to give me a heart attack?

Impending Work Move

2007-06-06T11:12:00.001+10:00

At the end of July/beginning of August, my workplace will be moving. I'm not particularly enthused about this. It means that instead of a 15 minute drive to work, I will have about 50 minutes on public transport. I do feel like I've been quite lucky having a parking space at the current place so I'll get over it. At least most of winter will be over before the move.

The other thing is that we're all being given these small kidney shaped desks. What this means to me is that I will not have enough space for my printer, scanner, phone, computer and CRT monitor. Despite the fact that I have more equipment, I will not be allowed a different desk. Apparently this will ruin the "harmony" of the space. I am unsure as to how harmonious it could possible be when most of us hate these desks. I'm also wondering where I'm expected to put everything. Maybe they were able to get me a slightly larger one? Or one with a seamless add-on. I live in hope.

I have also been asked what I would like for a new LCD monitor, since my old CRT won't fit. I declined the first two options since they weren't, in my opinion, fit for graphic design. I seem to remember the GM saying I could have a nice big cinema display, but my boss tells me that the budget is apparently no where near accommodating this. Promises, promises. I've chosen another as a backup if I can't keep my CRT. It also isn't ideal, but I'm sure it won't be the end of all things good.

Or will it. This means I can't really duck home for lunch either.

And now to list the pros of this move for me... Oh wait, there are none.

Sunday, 29th April 2007

2007-05-01T10:19:00.000+10:00

Our first wedding anniversary was on Sunday. Yay us! Everything is good and it just doesn't feel like a year. We're both much happier people to each have the other in our lives.

To celebrate we went to The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay for lunch. Yum. I love that place. Perfect seafood, great views and to top it off, it was a beautiful, sunny day. I had steamed John Dory with Yabbie Bourride, Potato and Saffron. It was amazing. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Then I tasted Shawn's Snapper Pie... Wow. We shared a large side salad of Rocket, Pear and Pecorino Salad with truffle dressing. Also, fantastic. For dessert we shared a Hot Chocolate Pudding with Strawberries and Chantilly Cream. LORD it was good. They served up the snapper pie and the dessert with some flare also. I was contented beyond belief.

We then ran up to Janny's Cakes in Chinatown and got some dumplings to steam for dinner so we weren't doing much of the domestic on our first anniversary.

Our gifts to each other for our first anniversary were the dinner, and also to finally get a nice dry mount photo album for our wedding photos. I've started putting the album together, starting with our wedding certificate (the one from the celebrant, not the extra-official one from Births, Deaths, Marriages) and a few things from the table settings at the wedding: the menu, name tags, the order of service. I should make up an invite and put it in as well. Next is to get the photos developed.

Five Days Off

2007-05-01T10:16:00.000+10:00

Last week I took Thursday and Friday off using annual leave. I just really felt like some time off and Since Anzac Day was on the Wednesday, it made sense to make the most of it. A full 5 days away from work was fantastic. I spent time colour correcting wedding photos, being domestic, making an amazing stew with parsley dumplings, enjoying not being at work and listening to the Lorikeets in the Bottlebrush outside, being very cheeky and noisy.

Anzac Day 2007

2007-05-01T10:15:00.000+10:00

I made Anzac Biscuits for the first time ever. Wanted to introduce Shawn to a bit of Australian history.

A relaxing day spent eating and watching dvds... ok, fine, they were Stark Trek: Next "Gen. episodes. Nerdy enough?

Learning Japanese

2007-04-20T13:34:00.000+10:00

On Monday, Shawn and I had our first Japanese class. It's great to be doing this with him because we can practice together. He's very quick to pick it up and has no problem with pronounciation. I'm finding it so, so, so much easier than Mandarin. No tones to remember! Yay! I'm sure it helps that I went to Japan in 2004, albeit for only 6 or 7 days. I taught myself a few phrases before I left and actually used most of them... probably badly, but at least they could understand me even if I couldn't understand much of what was said back to me. I'm very interested to see how I'll feel by the end of the course and I'm really looking forward to being able to go back to Japan, this time with Shawn, and use what we've learned on native speakers. There is no planned trip or anything and we're busy trying to save money at the moment, but one day, I'm definitely going back.

Earth Hour: Saturday 7.30-8.30pm

2007-03-29T10:03:00.000+10:00

I signed on at Earth Hour. This basically means I agreed to turn all my lights and any unused appliances off for an hour on Saturday night. I was quite keen to go for a walk up the street to look over the city to see if there is much visible difference between lights on and lights off. Of course, then I remembered that we're going up to my sister's this weekend. Erg. Still, I sent a comment to the organisers saying I think it'd be a great idea to post during and after pics. I guess I'll find out if they agree.

Cable Ties are the Best Things Ever

2007-03-18T11:51:00.000+11:00

On Friday came across this article on Life Hacker. It instantly fired me up to fix the state of our computer desk, mainly the cable mess.

I didn't tackle it exactly the same way that Adam did on Life Hacker, but I'm still very pleased. He used a cable basket screwed to the back of his desk. I have a beautiful desk, custom-made to my design by my brother-in-law and I wasn't about to screw anything into the back of it, especially since one day it may not always be our computer desk. In the future it might be a hall table or something.

So I bought some cable tie mounts and cable ties (zip ties) at an electronics store and went to work. I also cleaned up stuff that didn't need to be there, moved the lamp into the bedroom, etc. but still! Just compare the cable chaos alone! So much easier to slide the chair in the use the computer now.

BEFORE

AFTER

We could still use some more storage so we have homes for all the blank cds and dvds... have to work on that.

Energy

2007-03-12T09:35:00.000+11:00

Not the kind that allows me to get up in the morning and go for a walk, but the kind that powers my house, etc. I've been thinking a lot about cleaner energy lately and I've taken a couple more steps towards being less wasteful.

I've been using 100% Green Power for almost two years. I signed up with Jackgreen then found out that they were using already established hydro power and weren't actually contributing to establishing new renewable sources of energy. Not what you want to hear when you just signed up for a three year contract. I recently discovered that they now use mostly wind turbines for their electricity, but still use some hydro as backup. Good news.

I'm not against mining coal because we need it for producing steel and cement. As for the production of electricity. Do we really need coal for that? Can't we build more sun and wind farms and create (or at least replace) jobs in the process?

The problem for Australians is that coal is our largest export and the economy would collapse without it. When is this clean coal production supposed to get here? How clean is it anyway? If only we could not use it at power stations or sell thermal coal. If we could sell fuel cells containing solar generated power instead... how awesome would that be?

I suppose I should mention nuclear too. I can't get my head around the fact that everyone, all of a sudden thinks it's great again! We'd be moving from one finite resource to another. It is a far more dangerous option than renewable resources, for those who work with it and those who live near the reactor, where it's being transported through and where it's being buried. It produces radioactive waste and we still haven't figured out how we fix emissions from coal! I don't think that burying radioactive waste in the ground and hoping it isn't disturbed for a long time is a very good solution. Also, how do you replace parts at a nuclear reactor? Parts become contaminated over time. Do we bury all that as well? At what time do we run out of low-seismic ground to bury everything in. What if that ground does eventually become active? Erg. I don't like it.

In nicer news.. On the weekend we changed all our incandescent bulbs to compact flourescent bulbs. Just on replacement value they end up being cheaper than incandescents. I don't know why I didn't do this sooner given that it costs less to use these. I'm also very interested to see how it effects the energy bill.

I did an energy comparison between my little car and a Toyota Prius. The Prius uses 4.4 L/100km and my car uses approx. 6.5 L/100km. That's not that bad. I'm not super motivated to go for a hybrid car just yet because my car doesn't guzzle a lot of fuel, I'm not ready to buy a new car anytime soon, hybrid's are so expensive, the batteries only last eight years (Honda only guarantee their batteries for 5) and cost approx 3k to replace. How does the rest of the car go after ten years? I'd probably sell a car after owing it for ten years, but this will effect resale value. I'll revisit the issue when I'm thinking about buying a new car.

How is it March already?

2007-03-01T10:39:00.000+11:00

Really... weren't we half way through February just a few days ago?

Haven't felt theres much to report. Really there's not. Having said that...

I've started getting up before work to go for a walk most days of the week. I feel better for it and I'd like to do more of it, but as the mornings get darker, the waking up is getting harder!

Even though the interest is only inflation for that year, I've started attacking my old student loan more aggressively. I'll be glad to get rid of it.

We went for a drive to the northern beaches on Sunday for the sake of getting out of the house and so Shawn could see another part of Sydney. It was raining so there really weren't any photo opportunities, but it was a nice drive regardless. I like the feeling that summer is on the way out.

Valentine's Day

2007-02-16T14:52:00.000+11:00

(Yes, yes, I know this is a little late.)

I've not been that big on celebrating Valentine's Day, but I think that when you're in a great relationship, it's worth celebrating that. People say that this day was originally started by greeting card companies to make money. I would suggest not buying cards if it makes you feel better. These days I think it's worthwhile celebrating whatever love you have for someone. It's too easy for all days to be the same and to not take some time to actually think about, celebrate and appreciate love.

So on Wednesday night we went to Elio for dinner. I had roasted veal rolled with buffalo mozzarella, spinach and pancetta on balsamic button mushrooms and Shawn had venison with an au jus and pumpkin souffle. Really, the best dining in Leichhardt. So we ate, chatted about our days, celebrated this being the second Valentine's Day that Shawn has been in Australia and sampled some boutique beers. So a really nice night was had by all... except the couple we saw on the street, arguing and having a struggle over a bunch of roses... but that's another story and someone elses to tell, I'm sure. Glad it wasn't us though!

Lazy

2007-02-16T14:44:00.000+11:00

I've become a very lazy blogger. I'd like to try and remedy that because I'd actually like to have a rough idea of what I've done over the years. I was talking to someone who had recently given up smoking. This made me realise that I don't actually remember how many years ago I gave up! Five? Maybe...

Permanent Position

2007-02-09T09:20:00.000+11:00

A couple of weeks ago, Shawn was offered a permanent position at his current job. Nice that he actually gets paid for sick days and holidays now. It also seems like a good environment to work in.

Hat and Boots

2007-02-07T09:09:00.000+11:00

Friends of Shawn's had a baby about three weeks ago and I've made them these hat and boots. Hopefully they'll like them. I love them: a little bit funky, a little bit vintage and very cute.

The yarn is Paton's Powder Puff. The pattern for the booties is from CraftBits. I wanted it to be a little less frooey so I decided to forgoe the shiny ribbon. I'll be interested to see if they stay on without it.

The hat is just a rectangle of garter stitch sewn together. I was really guessing with size for this, so I hope it fits.

I'd like to try making a jacket to go with these at some point.

TV brain won

2007-01-15T10:21:00.000+11:00

The TV centric part of my brain won the debate, so I now own a shiny new TV that fixes a lot of the problems we had earlier. Our old TV really was very small. The HD tuner cleans up the signal coming through our "bunny ears" antenna so well. The new TV has an energy saving mode where it can be dimmed slightly and you save on electricity. If you watch most of your TV at night like I do, then this is perfect, during the day you may want to use it on standard so it can compete with natural light. As an LCD it doesn't generate as much heat as plasmas do and is cheaper to run (Oh yes, I did my research. This is one reason I went with LCD). I can now see DVDs a lot better. The PS2 can be plugged in permanently. No more having to swap between PS2 and DVD cables and less mess now that everything has it's place. The screen has a matt finish so reflection is reduced. The sound is in stereo. It's very nice.

Having said all this, I'm suffering from consumer guilt. I really don't like the idea of spending largish amounts of money on something like this, even though I really did get it at the cheapest possible price. I look at this way though: It did fix a lot of problems and I won't be needing to buy a TV for a very, very, very... very long time.

Work Review

2007-01-11T11:47:00.000+11:00

I had my yearly work review yesterday. They still love me. The imp in me had the urge to say: "Woo! So I'll be expecting a raise then! Thanks!" I refrained. It was nice to hear good things about me. It helped to lift my mood.

Having said that, I am hoping for a simliar bonus to last year. When thinking about the best use of this bonus, my brain tells me two things: "This money would be better off used in my online savings account, accruing interest, or knocking some of that old student loan out with", but it also says:"You've had this TV for 6 or 7 years now. It wouldn't be so frivolous to upgrade it now. Every time you watch dvds, the 16:9 content is scaled down to fit your 4:3 screen and it makes the content annoyingly small. If you set it to crop the content, you miss vital detail and nobody wants that... You should buy an LCD TV with that bonus." It puts forward a very logical and persuasive argument. Don't you think?

CD Afternoon

2007-01-10T09:35:00.000+11:00

I arrived home from work yesterday to a little package from a friend. This friend and I haven't conversed via mail for ....oooh 15 years? Upon seeing her handwriting, I experienced a personal zeitgeist, since we used to write letters to each other all the time. It was a most welcome feeling. She'd been thinking about me and about how I must be doing of late and decided to send me a couple of CDs. My favourite was from Mew. Their harmonies remind her a little of Ride and their soundscape approach to guitars reminds me of My Bloody Valentine. So I forgot all about the things that needed doing and just let myself lie there for a good couple of hours listening to music. I think it was a good idea to spend some time just being still, rather than trying to distract and busy myself.

Kimba ?/09/1991 to 29/12/2006

2007-01-08T09:17:00.000+11:00

Kimba was put to sleep on Friday evening, the 29th of December 2006.

Initially we were trying to stop an infection with antibiotics. It turns out that the infection she had was due to a rupture in her gut which was caused by either a tumor or an abcess. In either event it was inoperable for several reasons, not the least of which was that she was so anaemic and unfit that she wouldn't have survived an operation.

So, given the above info and that she was weak, not enjoying life, no longer had an interest in food, which had to be force fed daily via a syringe (those who knew Kimba will know how telling this is), and no interest in water, which was being administered via subcutaneous injection daily, the vet and I came to the conclusion that it was time to let her go.

She was quite a unique cat: very vocal, never wandered outside our fence line unless she was chasing off another cat, and for a lot of her life she took to following me around like a dog might. She was very affectionate and was far more interested in getting pats and time on my lap than chasing toys. Often, when I'd try to entice her to play, she'd look at me as if to say: "You must be joking". Those times when she was inspired to play, it'd often end with her pausing as she realised I was watching, then trying to make it look like she was just cleaning her paws, or just stretching, or that she was engaged in some other sensible pursuit.

Kimba was friendly to other cats when she was a kitten and as young cat, but a after a few bad experiences she would readily attack any other cat (or dog) who came onto our property. She was still tolerant of animals that she had seen me accept, but that didn't mean she had to like it. She suffered family dog Chan, a little Shih Tzu that loved her dearly and wanted to play with her all the time, and never hurt Ebony, a sensitive domestic shorthair cat that belonged to my sister.

At this stage I don't know if I could own another cat. No time soon at least. People say that getting another cat helps you to get over it. I think that getting another cat would be unfair to the other cat given that I'd only be wishing for Kimba back.

Visits

2006-12-18T10:37:00.000+11:00

This last weekend we drove up to Newcastle. We had lunch with Dad and Donna, then went to a friends house for dinner. It was really nice to see everyone.

Both Dad and friends plied us with DVDs to watch this Christmas. This is great, we love nothing better than to sit around watching DVDs, but I also want to get out of the house and take Shawn some places he hasn't been yet. We aren't going away anywhere so it'd be nice if we could inject some holiday feel to our Christmas break. We could go to a museum, to the aquarium, the new city zoo, or perhaps catch a ferry to Manly.

Shawn and I made some chocolate orange triangles to take to our friends place for dessert.

FRIEND: "Is this a specialty of yours?"
ME: "Ah sure... in that it only consists of store-bought puff pastry, cooking chocolate and orange zest, is really uncomplicated, but tastes great and so I make it when I cook for other people because it can be made ahead of time so I can socialise or transport it to other places for dinner, then it just needs 15-20 minutes in the oven... Life is too short to make your own puff pastry."

Really, these things are very yummy and I recommend them to all and sundry.

Improvement

2006-12-18T10:25:00.000+11:00

The xrays, scans etc. tell us that I have three herniated and bulged discs, as well as a torn tendon in my shoulder. Lovely. Having said that, it's all been improving, I'm virtually pain free at the moment and I know from experience that it can be much worse. I really need to take this cue and strengthen my back and stomach to protect my spine a little better.

Xrays, bloods, an ultrsound and a CT scan later

2006-12-07T11:05:00.000+11:00

I think I know what's wrong with me, I'm getting old. My older sisters roll their eyes when I say that, but at the moment I can't sit or stand pain free, I can't lie down with my hands behind my head without my rotator cuff behaving badly and one of my nails is trying to escape the tyranny of it's finger (the nail is lifting away from the nail bed, not a nail infection, a little freaky looking though). I wish at least the blood could've been taken in winter, then people might stop staring at my bruised arm before eyeing me suspiciously.

I pick up my xrays, printouts and reports today and go see my doctor tomorrow. I'm thinking that my doctor will check I'm eating right (mostly), that I'm taking vitamins and that she'll send me to physio for the back and shoulder. We'll see tomorrow I guess.

I won some books

2006-11-24T19:07:00.000+11:00

At yesterday's book frenzy I put my invite into a draw for a door prize and won six books. One I've read and the others I wouldn't have picked for myself. Maybe it'll broaden my horizons or something... or maybe they're just getting old stock off their hands. Can't really complain about free books though can I?!

Thanksgiving? Kinda

2006-11-24T18:53:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. I don't celebrate it. Being an Australian, why would I? Well, Shawn is American so I like to observe it in some way. So he doesn't miss all his treats from home we'll have a Christmas dinner seperate from my family and I'll add a pumpkin pie to the equation. I made it for him last year as well. It tasted alright, but it took an ungodly amount of time to actually cook, so if anyone has a simple, failsafe recipe they have tested for this then please post it in the comments or email it to me.

Aside from that I also had a members invite to a book store so we had hors d'oeuvres and wine while we shopped for books we were going to get 20% off (go ahead and picture me sighing happily). We followed this up with Japanese for dinner. It's not exactly Thanksgiving with all the extras, but it wasn't a bad substitute.

Old Friend and her Idyll

2006-11-24T09:30:00.001+11:00

Catching up with an old, dear friend feels really good. I was very happy to see her life going well. It was really nice to spend time with her and interesting to see how she's changed and how she's stayed the same. To see where she lives, her very cute little daughter, her little idyll with a real backyard, complete with a rainwater tank, a vegetable patch and chickens was actually quite eye opening for me. For so many years I've lived in Sydney and for so many of those years it's been impossible to have a backyard that I can stretch out in due to the price of rent. At the moment I have a courtyard with room for outdoor dining, herbs and one tomato plant. I'm very nesty by nature and have often pined for the things I had growing up (such as the aforementioned chickens and veggie patch). Life is not all bliss I'm sure, but I am sure that she possesses the calm, good grace and the reserves to lead a happy life.

I go to Newcastle often to visit family, but it was strange to be reminded of all the others I knew in Newcastle. It was a little like hearing about a past life because it has been a very long time since I have lived there. It made me wonder how they are all doing, what their life is like now and what stories have they picked up over the years. Maybe I'll get to hear some of those stories at some point.

Birthday 2006

2006-11-09T17:25:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was my birthday. I had a really good day.

Work organised a cake which was very tasty and very filling.

Shawn organised a picnic at home by buying all my favourite stuff from Relish. Relish is my favourite healthy takeaway place... although I suspect the potato salad is laced with some sort of class A drug, because it tastes so good! He also ordered this amazing and gorgeous little triple chocolate torte from Mezzapica. So good. The choux pastry, of the profiteroles that were on top of the cake, was ultra fresh. So impressed.

This was all very well, but the weirdest thing about my day is that I got a phone call from the person who became my best friend at my second high school. Unfortunately, I hadn't seen her for ten years though, so this was a complete shock, but a most welcome surprise. When someone who you haven't seen for ten years says "So, what've you been up to?", it's just plain funny. Neither of us had any problems deciding where to start though. It was great to talk to her and I'm looking forward to catching up with her in person next week.

A Year Ago Yesterday

2006-11-07T15:52:00.000+11:00

Shawn arrived in Sydney to live (not just visit).

Melbourne Cup

2006-11-07T14:30:00.000+11:00

To my knowledge, Australia is the only country that stops everything to watch a horse race. The Melbourne Cup is otherwise know as The Race That Stops a Nation. It's a little silly really given that for the rest of the year most people don't go near a form guide, but in early November, most people are either a) all of sudden terribly knowledgable or b) very excited about horses. Having said that, I do enjoy office traditions that involve free champagne.

We used to do it quite well, usually starting with a late lunch of prawns and other tasty morsels and a few glasses of the aforementioned champagne. Sometimes we would go back to work after that, but not always. This year the sweep is only two dollars so winning wouldn't be very exciting. I think this year we go upstairs for half an hour and 'nibbleys' will be provided. This is what happens when a company gets larger. We have less party budget to go round. I still feel fortunate to have had the work experiences that I have, besides, surely there's at least bottle or two of champagne upstairs right?

Early Birthday

2006-11-04T12:08:00.000+11:00

Due to my birthday falling during the middle of next week, today we're driving up to Newcastle to celebrate my birthday with family a little early.

Yay presents! Booo getting older!

Apple Macintosh owners: Listen up

2006-11-03T08:15:00.000+11:00

Don't go and get parts from an Apple reseller, Apple Store etc. It's a complete waste of money. In the past you had to use Apple parts, but now, you can replace almost everything with PC parts. This is preferable because Apple charge a premium for buying it from them. Let me give you an example. I needed a new cd/dvd drive. It cost me $115 from Next Byte (an Apple store). I bought the same drive, from the same manufacturer, from a PC store and it cost me $47. Ridiculous. Buying your dvd drives and memory from an Apple store? Pearls after swine I tell you! Just buy it from a PC place.

Now you're wondering "Why did you buy two drives?" I'm glad you asked. The first drive purchased from Next Byte, died within 5 minutes of installation. When I put the first disk in it told me to "insert acceptable media", but this was acceptable media. I thought perhaps that the disk might be damaged and tried another disk. The drive then started to make ticking and whirring sounds. I ejected this disk and tried another. The third disk was then simply ejected by the drive. Apparently looking at disks was too hard. I took the drive back to Next Byte.

NB: "You were told to bring in your computer"

Me: "Actually I described the problem with the drive and was told to 'Bring it in'. I assumed the 'it' was the drive we were talking about."

NB: "Well you'll have to bring your whole computer in."

Me: "Would it be possible to just plug this into another machine so we can eliminate the possibility that the problem is with the drive itself?"

NB: "No. We don't have any machines to test it on."

How does a service centre not have any machines to test something on. Oh wait, they do. They're just evil!

I blink slowly at the service centre guy realising that it doesn't matter what I say, he will not test the drive and I will have to bring in my whole computer.

Me: "How long does this normally take?"

NB: "Four to six days for a diagnosis."

Good Lord.

They didn't get back to me. I had to call them. They then offered the pearl of wisdom that my drive wasn't working. Well, no, it wasn't. This is why I brought it in. I told them that they should check the cables and the motherboard just in case. Why do i have to make these suggestions? They then tested that it had nothing to do with the computer and that it was the drive and with that, they said they'd send it back to their supplier and get a new one for me. The problem here is that the supplier says that it looked like it had been dropped and that there was something rattling around inside. They will not wear the cost of that so they can't get a new drive for me. I assured them that the drive was not dropped by me, so they've now sent a report from the supplier, along with an email from Next Byte to the manufacturer. None of this has anything to do with me, I have been a customer of theirs for years and I am not a serial item returner, so I don't expect to be called a liar and I expect them to give me a new drive.

So, since it wasn't my machine at fault I got that back, went to a PC parts place, paid $47 for the same drive (same manufacturer, same model!), installed it and got back to work. I have a new drive, but I still expect Next Byte to make amends. I don't mind having a spare drive.

I assume that Next Byte hope I'll just give up. Oh contrare! I will keep calling them, at least until they hear back from the manufacturer. If they still won't reimburse me, I'll write them a letter stating that myself and the company I work for will not be purchasing any products from them again, we expect for our details to be erased from their customer database, never to darken our door... etc.

Working from work

2006-11-02T11:53:00.000+11:00

I'm no longer working from home. How sad. Oh well. It was nice to have nearly two weeks working from home. I found that when I ran out of work to do I got cabin fever and when I had something to do I was fine. It's the same when I'm at work really. With work to do, working from home is much nicer than being at work. It's very relaxed, I don't get interrupted as often, there is real air as opposed to air conditioned air, there is no constant hum from all the other computers and there is natural light. I'd love to work from home and just drop in to work for meetings so I don't miss out on some sort of exchange with other human beings during the day.

More work

2006-11-02T09:13:00.000+11:00

Shawn has been offered an extension on his contract. Yay for second incomes. Having work over Christmas, when this is the time of year that work often dies down and there are more expenses, is nice.

AGNSW

2006-10-29T11:29:00.000+11:00

Yesterday Shawn and I went to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. On this occasion we didn't actually go so much for the art as for the food. We don't normally choose somewhere quite so swish for lunch, but we have been married for six months now and felt that although it wasn't a yearly anniversary, we still felt it to be a milestone. So the Art Gallery Restaurant is where we chose to celebrate. The views over the Domain and Wooloomooloo where great, but the food was better. We had barrumundi on lentils with a mild curry sauce with a glass of semillion sauvignon blanc, followed by a mango custard with sliced mango and lime. The wine is not expensive, but it did not, I repeat, did not cause an adverse reaction on my skin. So I had a great lunch.

We followed this with a walk through the 2006 Dobell Drawing Prize exhibition. This exhibition kind of makes me want to draw again.

Working from home

2006-10-24T09:25:00.000+10:00

Since Thursday, I have been working from home. My computer at work is at a service centre having a problem diagnosed. I love getting to work from home, but I suffer from cabin fever so I wouldn't want this as a permanent arrangement. For now it suits me. I love having the extra time that's not taken up by travel. I've been walking a lot more as a result as well. Always a good thing.

Walk diversion

2006-10-24T09:18:00.000+10:00

We diverted from our usual weekend walk routine. This time we walked around Bicenntenial park, followed the waterway away from the bay to see how far the parkland stretched, found the "wetlands" I saw on a map (Not worth seeking out), walked to Jubilee Park, then around the waters edge, along Glebe Point, to The Boathouse restaurant at Blackwattle Bay. We sat around and enjoyed the view before walking back. I think we were gone for a good two hours. My hat doesn't really cover my neck and I got a little burned as a result. Not a good thing for my skin. We were tired for the rest of the day.

Weekend Walks

2006-10-08T08:34:00.000+10:00

I'm very lucky to live in an area that is in the city, but also has lots of parks and green strips down behind all the houses.

This area could be a very unattractive strip along a stormwater drain, but the council has down a lot to make the old creek area very nice to be in. There's one particular part that's like a mini-bush-walk, with all native plants.

They are all in flower at the moment.

There is also a pond that is home to a lot of fish, lots of frogs (i think they are banjo frogs). Ducks also visit sometimes.

Yum Cha

2006-10-07T11:31:00.000+10:00

Last long weekend was much appreciated. So glad to have the extra day off. Shawn hasn't been on the Light Rail here so we caught that to Chinatown to buy some Yum Cha (Xiao Cha for those from Beijing. It's morning tea/brunch for them. Dim Sum for Americans and possibly for those in the south of China who speak Cantonese).

I will share a secret. If the massive weekend queues for Yum Cha put you off, go buy prawn dumplings from Janny's Cakes in the market place in Chinatown and take them home and steam them. So good. Oh, and for dessert, get some of the custard buns. *purr*

Courage Under Fire

2006-09-26T08:35:00.000+10:00

So, yesterday I got a work email titled "Staff Presentation". I really like being able to come into work in jeans and a t-shirt when I don't have a meeting lined up with a client. "Oh no, we're all going to get told we're dressing too casually for work", I thought. Then I realised that this was a calendar event scheduled for that afternoon. Phew. Next thought was that someone was giving a presentation on something. I then remembered that we'd all been getting a fair amount of praise for various things and that this was probably to present certain members of staff with a little reward. I thought about a few things that I'd been doing well that had received a good response and thought I might be up for something. Of course, it'll probably be a bottle of red, which I don't drink anymore, so I'll pass it on to someone else.

The presentation came around and I was the first one called up. "Suzanne. For Courage Under Fire on the _client_name_ project." "No kidding!" I laughed. This was one of those projects fraught with inexperience and political issues on the client side and language and cultural barriers between us. I was then handed a nice, new, shiny, black iPod Nano. Wow. I was completely shocked, given that during the entire seven years I've been with the company, it has only ever handed out wine. They also had it engraved with my name, the company logo and the year, which was an extra bother they didn't have to go to, so it was nice.

So I'm not in fear of losing my job anytime soon.

Hello... Summer?

2006-09-19T09:04:00.000+10:00

How amazing is this weather? I feel positively human again. I went for a walk to the growers market on Saturday for my usual Banana and Chocolate Gozleme. How I miss bananas! Since two cyclones went through our banana growing areas up north, the price of bananas has quadrupled so I just don't buy them now. I can't wait for the market to recover.

Shawn got a chorizo roll, from the South American food stand, that was incredible. He also picked up some Empanadas for us to share later on in the day.

We used to go for a long (ish) walk every Sunday morning and now that the weather is far more conducive to this we went for a walk through the neighbourhood, our local parks and down to the local creek. The birds were going insane. It's breeding season and they're all looking for new homes and territories. This means we witnessed a lot of smaller birds chasing off bigger birds. One particularly brave soul was a little Willy Wagtail dive-bombing a very patient Kookaburra, who was more interested in the people wandering around the park. We sat down and watched him for a while. After we got up and walked off he followed us for a few blocks. Not an uncommon thing for a Kookaburra to do. I've been followed by a group of three through state forest near Robyn's house.

The weather has also brought me into the backyard more often. This means Kimba gets out for a while too.

She loves it so much I hate bringing her back in again, but she isn't allowed to get sunburned and I can't have the neighbourhood cats realising she's alone and taking the opportunity to pounce on her.

Different Weekend

2006-09-11T09:13:00.000+10:00

Could this weekend have been any more different to last weekend? So much rain and so much colder. Spring is such a tease. I can't wait until the grasping hands of winter are really gone. Winter used to be my favourite season, but I feel the cold a lot more now, so I'm very grateful when Spring starts to take over.

On the upside, Saturday was filled with dvds and junk food, mostly chocolate. We didn't eat one healthy thing on Saturday. It was fun, but I don't think I'll be doing it to the same extent next Saturday.

Sunday was more of the same. Too much rain to do much else. I also got a call from a dear friend in New Zealand. This always makes a weekend better.

Sunday Garden

2006-09-04T11:02:00.000+10:00

On Saturday night we stayed at Robyn's house. On Sunday morning I woke up to the most amazing, warm day and took a walk around the garden to enjoy it.

Everything is in flower.

It's that time of year when all the fruit trees are flowering and only just starting to get leaves and all the flowers on bare wood look phenomenal.

I could have sat in their backyard all day, but we had to get home at some point.

Kimba's New Bed

2006-09-04T10:57:00.000+10:00

Really it's a blanket with edges, but she really loves it. If I want to encourage her to go to a certain spot, I put her blanket there and she goes to it. It's pretty amazing. The texture is a little like fur. I suspect this is why she loves it so much.

Art Critique

2006-08-22T08:54:00.000+10:00

An email from a fellow creative type has prompted the following thoughts. I wish that when people are giving feedback to someone on their art or design, that they would keep something in mind: You are not doing anyone a service if your feedback is destructive. Don't try to mold people into your vision of what is good, especially if you know full well you have specific narrow definitions of what is good (or what is art or what is SO last year in design ). There is a world of creativity that exists beyond you. You can have your particular likes and dislikes. This makes us the individuals we are, but that doesn't mean that your view is gospel. You may personally dislike something. It just might not be your thing. I can tell you that so much work falls into the "Meh" category for me, but when offering a critique, try to be charitable! Look at what the view of the artist or designer is, then see if you can offer something that will help them. Become part of the process! It's great to have a dialog with someone about their work if you are providing them with things to think about that may result in productivity. If what you say is just going to put them down or make them feel like crap, then don't say it, because it serves no purpose. If you can offer words that will inform their process and help them grow professionally, artistically or personally, then I think that's great, but if it's being destructive, then you haven't achieved anything for either of you.

Biscuits or cookies...

2006-08-20T08:31:00.000+10:00

depending on where you're from.

Yesterday I baked some chocolate biscuits from a recipe book that my sister Robyn gave me. So good.

Many didn't make it to the filling stage and were eaten straight off the cooling rack.

Despite our most valiant efforts to eat all of them, we couldn't manage it, so some will have to wait until next weekend to be filled, because today I'm going to make some wholemeal apple muffins.

Yoga, Walks and Wing Chun

2006-08-17T10:25:00.000+10:00

Now that Shawn is working, I miss not seeing him at lunch time and straight after work. I have to say that the house is lot cleaner though. I find it easier if I keep myself busy, so this usually means cleaning. Not a bad thing since we have a nice space to be in when it's done.

Yesterday afternoon I made myself do some yoga as well. I've been stacking on weight this winter and not getting much exercise, so I'm feeling very unfit and not altogether right. Although not exactly a fat blasting cardio workout and I was bored during most of it, my whole body felt a lot better afterwards and today I'm sitting up straighter. What I would really like to do, is work on my flexibility and balance with Yoga, strength with weights, and cardio with walking (and a little running). Walking around my neighbourhood is quite nice because off the main streets are lots of parks and down by an old creek they've put in a pond with little fishes and frogs.

My ideal exercise combo would be Yoga, Walks and Wing Chun. If I ever get back to a decent level of fitness I would love, finances permitting, to start taking Wing Chun at the International Wing Chung Academy. This style of martial arts appeals to me greatly because it was developed by a woman. This means my gender, height, strength etc. aren't a huge disadvantage when learning this. Also, who doesn't want to learn the one inch punch?! I think it would help a lot with focus, self-discipline and relaxation. The reason I'd want to get to a reasonable level of fitness before starting is that I think the warm-ups/downs alone would be pretty hard, lots of sit-ups, push ups, jogging, kicking/punching bags. Yeah... we'll see how that goes.

Hail Almighty

2006-08-15T17:25:00.000+10:00

I just drove home from work in THIS. It was not fun, in the least. The hail was only the size of green peas, but there was a hell of a lot of it. The car was slipping and I thought for sure I'd have hail damage, but I didn't see any. Good car.

Mmm TVeee

2006-08-15T09:25:00.000+10:00

We went up to Dad and Donna's for lunch this weekend. Very tasty.

While we were there Dad gave us a spare DVD/VCR combo. Life saver. I've been looking for a multi-region one everywhere since our vcr died and the dvd started being crappy... ok crappier. Now I don't have to fight sleep to stay up and watch TV. I can TAPE things now. *purr* Cheap entertainment.

On the topic on cheap entertainment, if we want to see a movie at the cinema we go on cheap nights. We're going to see The Libertine tonight.

Knitting

2006-08-10T14:24:00.000+10:00

On the odd occassion I get the urge to knit something. This urge only comes about once every couple of years, just long enough for me to forget most of what I learnt last time I did any knitting. So, after some jogging of the memory, I've been knitting a cat blanket/bed for Kimba. Good starter project. The pattern is mostly from Stitch 'n' Bitch and also from my mind because they didn't specify yarn ply only brand name. How annoying. Also, I can't be bothered counting rows so I've been winging it a little with this. It's working out well.

This one I've knitted with "eyelash" type yarn, for the fluffy effect, together with 4 ply on 6.5mm needles. This makes for a very soft blanket which will be good for sticking on the bed when Kimba insists she needs to be on it (which ususally happens on a weekend morning and we're sleeping in). I really don't want her sleeping directly on the bed because it wouldn't be good for Shawn's asthma, no matter how much he thinks Kimba should be allowed on the bed. This way, any fur will be on the blanket which can be removed when we get out of bed.

I should probably also mention that if you're knitting something like this for a pet, go buy the yarn at somewhere like Spotlight. You don't need to spend big on really nice yarn for the cat, she won't know the difference, I promise. A cheap baby 4 ply and way cheap eyelash yarn does it for this.

Next knitting project will be something for a friend's baby.

Tax Time!

2006-08-03T14:31:00.000+10:00

Recently I was perusing Aimee's blog and reading about all her efforts to lose debt. This made me think about taking a closer look at my finances and not take so many things for granted. First thing I did was go get my tax done for the year. Good plan! They estimate nice fat return, all of which will go straight onto my credit card. It won't completely kill off wedding, honeymoon and US trip expenses, but I'm very close! Then I just have an old, but quite large, student loan to pay off. At least the only interest that get's added to it is whatever inflation was for that year. Yay?

Another thing we're doing is getting dvd's out from the local library instead of renting them from a video store. They don't stock a lot of pure entertainment (not that I'm interested in anyway), but they have stuff we want to watch regardless: cooking shows, music documentaries, etc. I'm sure we'll make our way through what interests us pretty quickly, but it's still saving us money in the meantime.

Long Lunch

2006-08-01T14:16:00.000+10:00

What nice up-turn my day has had. I met Shawn in the CBD for lunch after he went to see his employment agent. I decided we should eat somewhere a little nicer than the average sandwich shop for once, so I took him to Chinta Ria Temple of Love. I love that place. It aways feels like summer inside, even when it's winter. Shawn then tells me that he got a three month contract. So we definitely had cause to have something nicer than a sandwich. The food was delicious, the colour inside made me happy and the massive, smiling stone Buddah that greets you when you enter is awesome. I challenge anyone to eat at that place and feel cranky. I wish I'd brought my camera!

On my way to work...

2006-08-01T08:51:00.000+10:00

This morning I watched a beautiful German Shorthaired Pointer get hit by a car. I watched it get hit, get rolled over, but it jumped out from under the side and started running down the street! Incredible. Although I fully expect that the poor animal had broken bones and was just running on adrenalin. I was looking for how I could turn my car around to go see if I could help it because the car that hit it kept going for a while. Thankfully it looked like it was just looking for somewhere to stop.

There are a couple of things I don't like about this whole thing, other than it's just awful to see a a living thing getting hit by a car only two meters away from you. I can imagine how the driver who actually hit the dog felt about this. The other things I don't like are that the driver who hit it should have had full visibility of the animal from where he was, although I know how easy it is to be a tad vague when you've just woken up and generally your eye looks out for other cars and things that are actually taller than the bonnet of your car. The other thing I don't like is that a dog was roaming the streets unattended, although I know that GSPs require a lot of exercise and if they aren't getting it, they'll break out and run around themselves. Pets deserve better protection. If you have a dog like that, you need a tall fence! I'll give him this though, he was crossing at the lights!

Letter From DIMIA

2006-07-28T20:56:00.000+10:00

We received a letter from the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs yesterday. Shawn was granted his Partner Visa (temporary). Very exciting and so quick! We only gave all requested information to them a couple of weeks ago. This visa goes for two years and then he gets the permanent partner visa. We were battening down the hatches in preparation for interviews, requests for more information, general interrogation and discomfort. Whilst I don't exclude these things from future enquiries, it's good to know we got to this stage without them. So happy.

While Asleep

2006-07-27T09:52:00.000+10:00

Last night, while sleeping, I was very active. Shawn woke me up with hugs because I was having nightmares, or so he thought. I was actually having annoying-mares. The first one: I was going over something that happened at work. I had to make a fix to some game backgrounds ( a lot of my work is fixing other peoples work), but each background was slightly different in areas where it was supposed to be identical, so I had to fix that too. Waking up while making a deep, slightly Marge Simpson sounding, disgruntled "Mmmmm." is an odd sensation.

Coding Again

2006-07-27T08:57:00.000+10:00

I've been enjoying coding for Anguish again. I have one small project (one room and one object) in the approval queue and I'm working on a larger project at the moment: 11 npc (Non-Player Characters) files, 40 object files and 40 room files. Most of it is finished, except for the hard stuff. There is quite a lot of hard stuff, so I haven't been too inspired to work on it, thinking that what's left is going to be a struggle. This is, probably, mostly true, but I've found that after a long break from coding, I can see how to code some things instantly. I have no idea how this works. It may be that coming back to it with fresh eyes, I see it old problems in a new light, or that I've had time to soak up certain concepts and add new code knowledge to my brain in the meantime. Probably all of the above.

Although not a visual pursuit, I think it's good for me to be getting into creative projects outside of work.

Backyard Visit

2006-07-24T09:11:00.000+10:00

This beautiful red cyclamen grows between the pavers and a brick wall in our backyard. If I have to have weeds, this one rates pretty highly with me. If only it'd grow in place of all the other weeds in our courtyard.

I let Kimba join me since, sadly, she's only allowed in the backyard when accompanied. If we let her out by herself, she tends to get set upon by some cats that live two doors down. This has at least twice resulted in visits to the vet. Physically, she isn't the tough young thing she used to be, but she still won't be run out of her own backyard (and fair enough). There are pros and cons about Kimba staying indoors most of the time. One pro is that the vet told me she probably shouldn't sit outside in the sun any more due to being all white and having some sun damage on her nose (which thankfully went away after a winter indoors). Pro #2: other cats can't attack her while she's inside. Pro #3: no unnecessary vet bills! Con: she loves it out there and doesn't get all the same catty stimuli inside. As the weather starts to improve we'll spend more time out there with her.

I haven't been out into the backyard for weeks. Too cold at this time of year to spend any great deal of time out there, but I noticed the cyclamen flowering and had to get a better look. I took a look around at how all the plants were going while I was there. The Parsley was going nuts, as was the Lemon Thyme so I used both in a massive Shepherds Pie I made last night. Looking forward to the weather getting warmer and doing some general gardening, as well as repotting some bonsai and giving them some love and much needed attention.

Free E-mail Account Security

2006-07-18T09:08:00.000+10:00

A comment prompted this one. I think my response is too big to put in a comment. This is my understanding of the subject.

Do free email account providers collect your personal information? Yes. When you sign up they ask for your real name, postcode and country. Actually, they ask for more than that, but that's the only personal info you have to give (at least with yahoo. I'd assume they are all pretty generic).

Do they sell your personal information. No.

Do they collect information about what sites you navigate to on the net. Yes. They set cookies and check what they cookies has collected later on. Can you prevent this? Yes. Go into your prowsers security preferences and delete any cookies you don't want.

Are there any cookies you would want? Yes. These email providers set cookies to provide a timeout for you email account so that if you forget to log off no one can wander up and go through your email.

Do they collect information about what ads you click on from your email page. Yes. Then they know what products and services you are interested in and will show you ads for similar services next time. They will also make this information available to their marketing department so they can more effectively sell advertising space. So they would say something like "Oh yeah, there's a huge market for pink, knitted dog coats. We've had 327,486 click-throughs on that in the last week!"

Do they capture your IP? Yep, but then anyone can do that. _I_ can do that. Most sites want to have a vague idea of where their traffic is coming from.

Do they read your email. I highly doubt it. This would contravene privacy laws in any developed country, but like our phone conversations, these can be acquired by a subpoena.

Do they capture keywords from email subject fields. Yes. This is good and bad. Good because they use this tool to keep spam out of my in box. Bad because it's something they are allowed to read and most people think all communications are private. Solution: Just don't put anything personal in your subject lines. If you don't want your subject lines used for market research, don't stick product names in there.

My Conclusion: It depends on how gung-ho you want to be about it. I figure that I get massive amounts of storage, an email service I can use anywhere in the world, they don't get as much browser info from me as they would probably like and I don't pay for it. Outside of the net you expose information about yourself all the time. I signed up for a booklover card with a bookstore. I noticed that they spelled my name incorrectly and weirdly. Amazingly I started receiving junk snail mail with the same weird spelling. When people in the street ask you to answer a few questions for research. Do you acquiesce? Lastly, your name, address and phone number are in the phonebook.

Four Things List...

2006-07-15T15:43:00.000+10:00

A friend asked me to fill in the four things list, might as well add it to the blog as well.

Things you may not have known about me ...

(A) Four jobs I have had in my life... (other than graphic design stuff. Everyone knows that already):
1. Kitchenhand
2. Data entry clerk
3. Artist
4. Volunteer sales person for a charity

(B) Four movies I would watch over and over
1. Blade Runner
2. Labyrinth (14 times baby)
3. Lord of the Rings
4. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

(C) Four places I have lived
1. Newcastle (2 different places)
2. Melbourne (3 different places)
3. Sydney (6 different places... i think)
4. Sydney... again (see above)

(D) TV shows I love to watch:
1. Gardening Australia
2. Dr. Who
3. My name is Earl
4. Farscape (missed it on tv. watching it on dvd now)

(E) Four places I have been on vacation:
1. Death Valley, USA
2. Kyoto, Japan
3. London, England
4. Wagga Wagga, Australia (school holidays at my Aunt's farm)

(F) Websites visited daily:
1. loobylu.com
2. mail.yahoo.com
3. shayley.blogspot.com
4. somethingpositive.net

(G) Four of my favourite foods:
1. Chocolate
2. Nutella with strawberries
3. Chicken and basil risotto
4. Hickory smoked lemon chicken

(H) Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Somewhere warm, nice beach, warm water.
2. Blue Mountains, in front of fireplace, looking out onto Megalong Valley.
3. Beach cottage, again in front of fire, uninterrupted view of the rain over the ocean.
4. In a house that I own.

Visa procession

2006-07-13T15:15:00.000+10:00

First came the Fiance Visa, then the Bridging visa, next will be the Spouse visa, followed by the Permanent Resident Visa. We've been piecing together lots of bits of paper to send to immigration. So we're all about photocopying, tracking down a Justice of the Peace who is not out of the office, getting statutory declarations from family, getting things signed, printed and continuing the serial that is Relationship History Statement. Next is passport sized photos. It's all very tedious and expensive. At least after the Spouse visa we get a break for two years until the permanent resident visa comes up.

A friend is moving...

2006-07-13T15:03:00.000+10:00

away from Sydney. I get it. It's hard to maintain lifestyle in Sydney because it's so expensive to live here, but it doesn't make it any easier to see them go.

Left work in time...

2006-07-07T21:34:00.000+10:00

to see a burnt orange horizon.

Settings Changes

2006-07-06T15:25:00.000+10:00

I've made some changes to the settings for my blog. You no longer need to be a registered user to comment, but you do need to do a word verification (simply type the word they display into a text field). This prevents me from getting bot generated spam in my comments.

Suit, Superman and Sleep

2006-07-05T10:26:00.000+10:00

Yesterday was kind of busy. After work, I went and picked up Shawn to go shopping for a suit for him. He's lost so much weight (35 lbs!!!) that his old suit just doesn't fit properly and looks a little off. We decided he could get away with wearing it, but that should get another one. When he tried it on the visual difference really struck me. He looks so good in the new suit. Whilst the finances would rather we didn't buy it (it was on sale though!), he needs it for interviews now that all the travel and wedding stuff is over. He's actually in at a temp agency right now and has an interview on Friday as well. You can do it, baby.

So, after the suit shopping we stopped for a coffee. That is to say that we both stopped so I could have coffee. Shawn just fights off the sleeping sickness (jetlag) au naturalle and doesn't want me pushing me filthy, filthy habit on him. We then wandered down to the cinema on George Street to see Superman Returns. This is not something I would go and see of my own volition, but Shawn is a comic fanboy and I'm happy to do things that make him go: "Eeeee!" like a small child with a sugar rush.

After fighting off the very strong desire to sleep towards the end of the movie, we went home. I slept deeply. Instead of waking up at 5am or earlier, I woke to my alarm and could've kept sleeping. I'm hoping that staying up so much later last night will mean an end to the jetlag.

Katamari Damacy

2006-07-03T20:35:00.002+10:00

What's that you say? It's a PS2 game that has reinvigorated my interest in video games. Shawn bought it while we were in the US. It is the strangest game I've ever played. Strange, fun, original and addictive. Let me give you an idea. The King of the Cosmos got drunk one night and broke all the stars in the sky. How irresponsible. He's not a very good parent and as such he's making you, the prince, his son, do all the work at fixing the problem so the night sky can be all shiny again. How do you do this? The King gives you a small sticky ball (a katamari) and you have to roll it around on earth and collect lots of objects, making each Katamari big enough to make a star out of, to replace all the stars that were broken. You start off by collecting small things such as push pins and stamps, then work your way up through sushi, shoes, cats, people, to cars, houses, larger buildings, etc. Don't expect the King to be very supportive either. At the end of your efforts he may respond by telling you to get out or by saying how disappointing your katamari is.

The other thing about this game is the music. The theme song by itself is extremely infectious and it often finds it's way into my head during unrelated activities, but aside from that, you'll find that with each katamari you'll get one of several different songs. It might be cute Casio-like techno, or swing, or jazz. It's also worth mentioning that when the King speaks, the sound that comes out is vinyl record scratching. I love this game. I try not to play it too often though. I need my eyes for other things.

I still have jet lag...

2006-07-01T21:57:00.000+10:00

but at least Shawn has it with me. We woke up early, but continued to laze around in bed for a while. I made myself some coffee, returned to bed with it and Shawn read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince to me. I would've had this book finished a long time ago, but my eyes don't like having to stare at a computer screen all day, then have to focus on printed text. They give me an ultimatum: read and get eye pain and headaches, or don't. This is very annoying given that I love to read.

After that, we walked to our local growers market, ate bacon and egg rolls for breakfast while we watched kids getting pony rides, then returned home with dessert of a chocolate crepe to share.

The rest of the day has been filled with watching old Angel and Farscape episodes. Good day.

Good riddance Vegas, byebye US, hello Sydney

2006-06-30T15:31:00.000+10:00

Shawn and I have decided to never go back to Vegas. Everyone drives like a crazy person, all the main casinos and hotels have near zero available parking, we missed the service part of the wedding that we went there for in the first place, we seemed to have a lot of trouble meeting up with friends who were there with us and I came down with an unholy combination of alcohol poisoning, heatstroke, dehydration and emotional exhaustion. Basically we had a whole bunch of things go wrong and it's really put us off. It did have it's moments though. I got to spend some more time getting to know some of Shawn's friends better and there's really not too much opportunity for that while we live in Australia. In addition to that, the night before we left, I remember looking down onto all the cars and lights over the edge of the upstairs, outdoor bar at Margaritaville at the Flamingo and thinking how visually awesome it was. Of course I was drunk at the time, but nonetheless, the visual spectacle that is Vegas can not be denied.

Although we both feel as if we were being given the hint to go home by unkown forces, it was sad leaving the US. Knowing what a great bunch of friends Shawn has, makes it hard. I don't like seeing them being separated.

We arrived home just after 10pm on Wednesday Night. Bed never felt so good. I love you bed.

Family welcome and trees

2006-06-23T16:01:00.000+10:00

I can't believe it's Thursday already.

On Saturday, we went to a second celebration of our wedding. This was held by Shawn's Mum and Tía (this is Spanish for Aunt). I was introduced to a lot of Shawn's family that I hadn't met before, ate some amazing cake, received some lovely wishes for our life together and was made to feel very welcome as a new addition to the family.

On Sunday we went to San Diego to catch up with friends.

Wednesday, we did a day trip to Sequoia National Park.

It should probably be mentioned that this is not really a day trip from LA, or at least, should not really be done as a day trip. We're strapped for time, love road trips and wanted to get out and see some of the natural beauty of this part of the world before we left, so that's our reasoning.

Part of this trip involves driving along a large portion of the Kern River. We were teased by glimses and decided to get out and have a look.

Very pretty area. We only stayed for only a little while then headed back down to the car.

Our real destination was the Sequoias. I really wanted to see these huge and beautiful redwoods I'd been hearing about. I had seen photos of these before and thought they looked pretty amazing, but it really was beyond imagining for me. Just as the photos I'd seen did them no justice, neither does this one, but it might give you a vague idea of the scale involved.

We only had time enough to make it to the Trail of 100 Giants, we didn't make it to the main national park further north. Not complaining though. What I saw was enough to keep me going until next time.

Today we dropped off some books for Shawn's Dad and picked up a huge tray of Shawn's Mum's enchiladas. I haven't tried them yet, but I hear they're great. Looking forward to that.

In the U.S.

2006-06-17T14:09:00.001+10:00

I arrived in the US yesterday. I didn't get any sleep on the plane (Robyn, a quarter of a Restavit does not work... not on planes anyway). This is surprising since I'm usually capable of at least five hours sleep between Australia and the US whether I have chemical assistance or not. After this I feared that jetlag would hit me pretty hard, since it usually does anyway. Surprisingly, I've felt really good. I napped for about four hours that afternoon, was awake until 3 am, then slept for seven hours. I could've slept longer, but I didn't want to over-compensate. So I think the sleeping pattern will be okay with minimal assistance... even though coffee seemed to taste extra good this morning.

Our second day in the US was good. I'd forgotten how cheap food and clothes were here. We went out for lunch and did some clothes shopping for basics that would've cost a lot more in Sydney.

Here is a t-shirt I bought:

Here is a skirt I bought:

My Eyes Hurt

2006-06-14T18:54:00.001+10:00

Work has been a little insane over the last couple of days. Always the way just before I go on holidays. Glad it's all done with.

Tomorrow, Shawn and I fly to the US. I wish I had a little more time before flying. I dislike not having any time to wind out of work mode before I go somewhere. I'd also like to have more time to give my cat guilt pats. I hate putting her in a cattery when I go away. I try to not do it at all unless it's unavoidable.

So I've been off to the supermarket to buy some neccessary last minute trip things: big bottles of water, eye drops, small packet of Lavazza ground coffee. Despite the fact that I've wound my coffee intake down to only one (1) a day, I still can't travel without a small coffee press and some decent coffee. It's like a security blanket almost. I don't feel comfortable unless I know I can get coffee when I and wherever I need it. This is especially true of a trip that will result in jetlag. I used to try to deal with jetlag naturally, you know, getting right into the new timezone by eating, sleeping and staying awake in the new time, but it just doesn't work as well as caffeine and sleeping tablets (although not at the same time).

Hoping I can post updates while I'm away.

Away

2006-06-11T15:02:00.001+10:00

Yesterday we drove up to my Sister's place at Port Stephens. Shawn did the driving so my eyes could have a rest. This meant I got to take a few photos. I also got to have a good look at the things around me whereas I'm normally in driver-mode.

The F1 was very wet, sometimes misty and always hard to see the turns of the road.

We were very happy to get out of the car and inside to a wood fire and welcoming family.

Today, after a sleep in and coffee, we picked some fruit from their mandarin tree and were sent on our merry way after being fed some pizza. I was just in the mood for pesto and cherry tomatoes too.

Happy...

2006-06-10T12:53:00.001+10:00

Birthday to Narelle. Happy thoughts to you today.

Today I had a sleep in after staying up late to work on some code (C) for Ancient Anguish. For those who don't know, this is a text based RPG (Role Playing Game) that I program on. Sleeping in is great, at least right up until the impending caffeine headache.

This morning I went to our local growers market with Shawn. It was raining so we both just dropped in to buy tasty turkish Gozlemes. These are a dough filled with either organic honey, bananas and chocolate, mince and spinach and various other things. All very tasty with some lemon.

Rain Much?

2006-06-09T18:28:00.000+10:00

I woke up this morning to the sound of heavy rain. It's been like that in Sydney for over a week now. I've been kind enjoying the winteryness of it, but getting out of a warm bed when you'd rather lie there and listen to rain, isn't really ideal. Thankfully I get to drive to work, so I feel far better off than everyone I see trudging through wind and rain to get to work.

Inaugural Post

2006-06-08T21:41:00.000+10:00

For years and years I toyed with the idea of starting a blog and documenting events, creative stuff and experiences. I miss sharing daily life with friends who have moved away from Sydney or who live in other cities, so I have that extra bit of motivation now. Future posts will include photos too.