Stars n tripping
Back into the grind after our lightning trip south. Spent three days in the Hunter Valley with the in-laws, then three days in Sydney with Koh and Rooz, then three days in far-east Gippsland at Mums, then three days (more importantly, three nights) near Goulburn at the Magellan Observatory, then a night in the Hunter on the way back to the Northern Rivers. About 3500km all up with fuel between 120 and 130 c/l, and getting about 7km/l average in the XL-7... Sydney was cool - spent a relaxing time with Rooz and Phoogs, and went out to see the V8s at Oran Park, where the Fords cleaned up nicely and we didn't get too sunburnt. Down to the farms into during that week to catch Ant's 46th b'day and watch Reuben well and truely shed his 'Captain Crash' reputation (allegedly acquired on FS2004) with a brilliant display of RC flying on five different planes. Had a fun bonfire with Poppie, cooking 'stick damper' in the cold, followed by a savage frost in the morning.
Then onto the observatory to battle the full moon. Zane gave us a neat sky tour with the 18 inch newt, and got up at 0400 to give Roozie and I a peek at Orion and Mars, not to mention being able to argue about the realative beauty of 47 Tuc vs Omega Centauri... One clear night out of three wasn't so bad, and certainly gave us the motivation to return next year (but not in winter, and not during the full moon...). On the morning we left if started to snow quite heavily which was novel for us. Overall fun, but rushed.
Day Trip
Went on a trip to the Royal Brisbane Children's Hospital last week to get Genna followed up after her botox treatment. Seeing the other kids there with far more serious problems than hers makes one thankful for our blessings. We escaped out of Brisbane towards the west, and visited a childhood farm near Gatton (you can never really go back - nor would you want to!) and then onto Toowoomba.
A very pretty city, holding only vague eleven year old memories (from the late 70s) and a few buried hangups. Snacked at Macca's and then headed down to Warwick, before turning off down to Kyogle via Killarney. Missed the last hour and a half of scenery as the sun went down on us, but had Venus and Jupiter riding with us brightly in the western sky. A long day for the twins, but they didn't complain and the winding roads didn't result in any shouts for huey. Getting to know Hairy Macleary really well now...
Dog tails
Found the dog on the twin's bed last night chewing on anything it could get to. Whacked him on the nose and he bolted (as dogs do) so I ordered him into his crate, and got bitten when I tried to enforce the order with a reaching naked hand. So who's a stupid twit then? Not Mr Pip
Picked said dog up by back of neck (to avoid being bitten again) and carried him to his crate. Ended up with wife leaping out of the bath yelling, and eldest daughter screaming in horror, as I got to the crate, put him (gently, withdrawing hand quickly) in front of it, and let him walk in. This concluded the exercise, and satisfied the damaged ego (which being only 92kg larger than Pip) caused by the unobeyed order. Not that the dog actually understands english, except maybe on chocolate wrappers. So, apparently the family was in terror of me actually causing harm to the poor red puppy - I sulked over that for 24hrs at least.
I tried to cheer myself up by writing a short play about six people I have known since high school - they were the hero, the fool, the ghost, the benchmark, the harlot, and the stranger. I was only ever in love with one of them... Followed an hour of live Iron Maiden at window shaking volume, with an hour of Beethoven's ninth at milder power settings. Did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen only because they all went out to avoid my grumpyness - I'd cheer up a bit if I'd had a couple of call-backs by now. Not that I enjoy visiting the hospital that much, but my mobile phone is on the blink and I'm housebound whilst on-call without it. Definitely fixing it this week. They have all just arrived home again - time to put my grumpy face back on... :-)
The fiends have all been to the beach and are very happy, so I gave up being grumpy after all...
Gripes
Have finally got through what turned out to be the ultrasound week from hell. Broke my record for most scans done between 9 and 5 - eighteen. Would be easy if they were all walk in, walk out patients rather than being the opposite. Got Jimmy back after his ten week break following an AMI - seems to be his old self again, wouldn't have got through the work without him. We need another machine, and another operator to work in tandem. The boss seems fixated on the new department due to be built in 2010, and won't give me an answer on our current need now. Us three sonographers will have to be more millitant or something. The lack of response may be largely my fault as I tend to speed up to compensate for the increasing load, skipping lunch and other breaks in order to get out on time - but I'm not willing to lose family time to make the point... half the fingers on my right hand are permantley numb by the fortnights end - I think Al has the right idea after all - you must look after yourself.
Dean Martin had it right. Stale bumper stickers are catching my eye alot lately, like 'johnny is a liar' and 'no war' etc. The sentiments may be OK, but it's all too late. The wars in Iraq and Afganistan are WRONG, and johny may be a bit liberal with the truth but it's over. the 'don't throw your vote overboard' stickers will probably fade eventually, but they won't be removed from the back windows until another five elections have passed. Either way, I won't vote for the dancing goddess party. There was a time where it took me until mid feburary to take down my 'bah humbug' posters...
Am going to try a month of faster broadband (up to 1500 from 512 d/l speed) to see if it improves messanger webcaming with roo and koh. Chatted to dad tonight over said system - would work better without the five sec delay and the 30 frames/min video...
A rest day
After another short night, managed to drag myself of to church -felt chipped and flat most of the day. Visited Lach's SS and was surprised at the pop type music - rather different to my day. L also played three pieces on the piano in church before the main song service which was nice. Glen spoke on literal creationism and it's link to doctrine.
Met up with the Nagasaki's at Ballina beach after lunch and nearly got blown away by a northerly. We all retired to a little park in Alstonville called Bulwinkle and kicked some balls about whilst avoiding bindies and mossies. Lots of fun. There is a concreted series of shallow dams on the creek through the park and we wondered if they once constituted a local swimming hole in the days before the swimming centre.
Veges
Resurrected the vege garden the other week after a hiatus of at least three years. Put in two rows of corn, eight tomatoes, eight brochili, eight spinach, a chili, a black capsicum, and four rockmellons. There was already well established patches of mint and parsley. A week later everything was flourishing except the rockmellons which had curled up and died. Very mysterious as little bear would say.
So another trip to the nursery yeilded six cabbages, a russian black tomato, a yellow tomato, and an eggplant - also another sixteen corn, thus doubling them. We'll see if I can keep up the weeding effort. The twins enjoy the concept of weeding, but at age three are yet to distinguish between weeds and desirables...
Chris and Lorna and Dean are coming up sunday for a week - must be school holidays again. I'm not sure if the tigress is giving the older two a home schooling break, or keeping their noses to the grindstone. We utilised a home delivery ice cream truck last friday to partially fill the freezer with budget frozen delectables only to find upon consumption that they tasted rather, umm, budgetish. There is an old fashioned truism, 'you pay for what you get'. Just under three weeks until Grandad arrives - have accrued enough reading material to keep him happy I hope - all twenty-one Cadfael's from Ellis Peters, and a smattering of others like Anne Perry and Dick Francis.
Virii
The predator has contracted a lurgi bug. She spent sunday in the ER treating multiple infants with similar symptoms, and the incubation period matches. It's been about five years since being laid low by occupationally acquired nasties which closely matches my own flu patterns. I took the day off work to help with the twins, but with the lower abdo cramps becoming evident tonight, I may take tommorrow off also. Well, Fernando Alonso won the F1 title, and Rossi has done it again in MotoGP.
Looking at the MotoGP points table, it is so close from second through seventh - it would be a real exciting championship if Rossi wasn't there. Still, it's not really that annoying that he either wins or falls off (he doesn't fall off very often) if somewhat monotonous for non italians. We noted at the French GP we attended two years ago that nearly half the spectators were barracking for him. I also remember that when Mick Doohen was winning nearly everthing for years in the late 90s, none of us aussies were complaining of boredom... But having Schummy not winning the F1 title has improved that sport for us! Made two tofu/vege pies and two pumpkin pies to celebrate...
Amor est vitae essentia
Sick day. Slept alot, snacked sparingly on yesterday's cooking. Caught up on a few emails I had been meaning to write for most of the year. Heard back from two very special people, Michael and Linda. As the title says: Love (and friendship) are the essence of life. I'm really chuffed about David and Sue coming back to Brisbane after more than a decade away in New Guinea, Perth, and Canada. Their friendship is also very special to me. Sent small notes off to Darryl in DC, and Fraser in BNE, and also to Sharon down in Gosford. Lyndonius is back from abroad and about to put his travel pics up for all to see.
The cats away again, so I'm anoying the neighbours with metal, and scoffing jam rolls. I've lost seven kg since early august and am obviously trying to find them again. It's the no cheese, chips, chocolate, champagne, and cavier diet. The last two aren't a real hassle seeing as I'm vegetarian who has kicked the ethanol. The chips are not a problem except when we're at hungry jacks and chocolate is a no go area (along with orange juice) since I had a severe migraine a couple of months back. Just looking at a choc bar or an OJ gives me occipito-parietal pain... Cheese is another story - it's hard to cook without it when you've got into the habit. But I managed to be nearly all vegan since early august - just the one pavlova, and the occasional egg in a pumpkin pie. Taff is annoyed that fondues are out! BTW, soya cheese sucks.
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