Skeleton Coast by Clive Cussler

This is number 4 in the Oregon Chronicles series.

I'm not finished reading this so I may just change my mind about it after I've got to the end. I am having to read this for one of my book groups and if it weren't for that I would have abandoned it after Chapter 1. As far as I am concerned it's full of nonsense, toys for the boys, macho claptrap.

One of the more ridiculous bit was where one of the main characters, Juan, who has an artificial leg, has parachuted in to the desert. When things go wrong during the jump he ends up separated from the rest of his party and tries to join a convoy of Zimbawean (?sp) rebels. He uses some plastic explosives which he had stuffed in the artificial leg, to weld said leg to a round something and used the parachute to parasnowboard along the sand to catch up with the convoy. Oh please!

Ian's Christmas 2007

Ian got some books from Santa, Tools of War: the weapons that changed the world by Jeremy Black and Richard Hammond's Car Confidential.
He also wants to do a motorbike cornering course (??) so is investigating that.

Oh yes, but we can't show it because there might be children watching, he also got a banana guard!!!

Heidi's Christmas 2007

I put in my order for a Bushranger Firefighter helmet. Although we get issued with a free helmet, I wanted this one because it has a pull down visor which means I might not need to wear goggles with it - I can't get the regulation goggles to stay on my face no matter how tight I pull them. I think I might have to do my firefighting in swimming goggles otherwise!

Ian also managed to get a sticker with my name to go on the back. I just have to make sure I put it on straight now.

I also bought for myself a copy of a new picture book, Puff the Magic Dragon. It's a beautifully illustrated picutre book and comes with a CD of the song and a few others by Peter Yarrow.

I remember fairly well having Puff played on BFBS radio for my 5th birthday so it's very special to me.

Jamie's Christmas 2007

Jamie also got the same backpack and will get Japanese Yen for his trip to Japan on 8th January. He also got a copy of Matthew Reilly's latest novel - signed by the author. Jamie has been on the library reserve list for this title for ages so I thought I'd get it for him for Christmas. When I went to the bookshop in Penrith last Thursday there was a huge queue wending its way through the shop. Turned out Matthew Reilly was coming to do a book signing. I stood in line for about 3/4 hr and got it signed. Jamie was rapt.

Rob's Christmas 2007

Robbie requested and got a new backpack and a tent. The tent is a one man one, only about 50cm tall at its highest point, 2m or so long and very claustrophobic looking. He put it up in the living room - the cat thought it was marvellous.

Ishbel's Christmas 2007

Ishbel got books (cute Jack Russell Dog Detective - we also have a few on talking book in the library so I'll get her some of those too) and a pink unicorn (from the social club at Council). Named Sparkle, the unicorn is her favourite toy of the moment.

Christmas Day 2007

We had a really nice Christmas day yesterday.

Had a chat on Christmas Eve with Mum and Dad and Fiona via Skype. Spent a lot of the time we were online trying to fiddle with getting the webcam to work (without success) and then with the NORAD Santa tracker on Google Earth. Sorry I wasn't very chatty. It's not easy skyping when the kids are trying to watch something on TV as they were at the time.

I had been worried we hadn't very much for the children. I had been unable to bring myself to buy anything for Ishbel when out shopping the other night; she has so much junk in her bedroom, none of which gets kept tidily and I couldn't bring myself to add to that junk. As always, however, as I wrapped up the bits and pieces I realized we had plenty.
Christmas morning came (not too early thank goodness) and everyone happy with their presents.

I will do posts for each of the family with their favourite Christmas thing separately, youngest to oldest.

We headed down towards Roey and Pete's place just after 11am. There we had the full traditional Christmas dinner, not usually bearable in December but this year the weather was cool and we were in jumpers most of the day. There were oysters, prawns and various dips and cheeses to start followed by roast turkey, ham, tatties, salad etc. and later, quite a while later an icecream Christmas pudding and a 'normal' Christmas pudding. We tried hard to get the brandy to flame but just succeeded in blackening the spoon and wasting lots of matches and gave up in disgust.

During the late afternoon we went for a walk round the bay. Pete's mum Pat was with us. She's in her 80s and not used to walking much because its not flat round where she lives, but she managed the walk really well. We walked round to some rock carvings done by some of the early white sailors to Sydney - the ships would be dragged up in one of the bays near where Roey and Pete live to be shaved of barnacles etc and while there the sailors carved messages on the rocks.

We discovered it was almost 8pm by the time we got back to the house! Had no idea it was that late, the day passed very quickly. A last beer for Ian and we were on the road home by 8:30 and home by 9:30pm.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Set in 12th century England, this is the story, told from numerous points of view, of the building of a cathedral in the fictional city of Kingsbridge.

Follett is better known as a thriller writer but tells us in the foreward that he became fascinated by cathedrals after a visit to Peterborough Cathedral which 'enraptured' him. The writing of this book took over a decade, during which time Follett continued to publish in his usual genre.
I only got to the end of Chapter 1 (p. 84) before giving up on this book. It's a shame, history is my thing and I was looking forward to settling in with a nice big tome for the Christmas holidays but I found the writing dull. The main character of that first chapter is Tom, a stonemason who, like Follett, is enraptured with cathedrals and longs to be the master mason in charge of building one. However, when the story opens, despite his skills, he is out of work with two children and a pregnant wife to get through the winter. The little family is robbed of a pig as they travel through a forest and Tom's daughter is knocked unconscious by the thief. A mysterious outlaw, Ellen, comes to their aid. Despite his wife, Agnes supposedly being his soulmate, Tom is attracted to Ellen. When Ellen reappears later, with Agnes dead only a short time after giving birth to a baby boy, Tom makes love to Ellen who declares she loved Tom from the moment she first clapped eyes on him. Tom gets over the death of his soulmate very quickly and I got over this absurd story.
In the introduction Follett writes, "Clowns should not try to play Hamlet; pop stars should not write symphonies. I should not have risked my reputation by writing something out of character and overambitious." How true.

Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer attempts to rehabilitate Ann Hathaway/Shakespeare who has not been treated sympathetically by the bulk of Shakespearean commentators.Little is known of the life of Shakespeare and even less is known about his wife, but people are willing to speculate and fill in the vast gaps and Ann Shakespeare has not come well out of the speculation. Her advanced years at the time of their marriage (she was in her late 20s, he in his late teens) has led the commentators to assume Ann tricked her husband into marriage and that he later left her for many years to bring up their family alone in Stratford while he persued and acting and playwriting career in London not only for ambition's sake. His bequest in his will of the second best bed has been interpreted as evidence that William Shakespeare hated his wife.Germaine Greer, who gained a PhD from Cambridge University with a thesis on Shakespeare's early comedies, looks at the scant documentation regarding William and Ann Shakespeare and, with a good measure of social history to put their lives in a 16th Century and not 20th or 21st Century context, gives her opinion that William and Ann Shakespeare's marriage was not hate-filled and presents Ann Shakespeare as probably a shrewd housekeeper respected in her community, in her family and esteemed by her husband.
An interesting read although her detractors may argue that Greer vehemently defends Ann Shakespeare's reputation on as scant evidence as Ann's detractors do. Most of the book is fairly accessible, although I found myself skipping bits.
I do love the cover.

I'm a Stranger Here Myself by Bill Bryson

In the late 1990s Bill Bryson returned to his native America after 20 years in Britain. Bryson was asked by a colleague to document his thoughts about America for a British newspaper. This book contains those column pieces in which Bryson holds a mirror up to American culture and wittily exposes its absurdities.COMMENTS : Do not attempt to read this book on public transport unless you want your fellow passengers to arrange for the men in white coats to greet you at your destination. This is laugh-out-loud, lose-your-breath, tears-streaming-down-your-face funny.

Bad Hair Days by Pamela Bone

In 2004 former Melbourne Age journalist Pamela Bone was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, an incurable cancer of the bone marrow. Her prognosis was poor, with an estimated life expectancy of between 1 and 8 years. Bad Hair Days is best described by the author herself: 'This book is an account of a journey with cancer: two years of my life in which the state of the world at times seemed to be reflecting the state of my health, or - to be less solipsistic - my state of health seemed to be in a similar condition to the world's. It is not an autobiography, though there are elements of that in it. It is not a textbook for cancer sufferers, although there are descriptions of cancer treatments and the various philosophies involved in treating cancer. It is about cancer, war, journalism, chocolate cake and a few other things.'
A very moving read. As she writes above, there is stuff about her cancer, which she so aptly describes as a 'sniper' picking off one in four people at random, but also about many other things. There is no self-pity here, Bone does not rail "why me?". There is a lot of humour and a lot of hope, Bone comes back time again to the theme of the inherent kindness of strangers. We are exhorted at the end of the book to take pleasure in the here and now, not to seek for happiness somewhere else and to live life to the full.

How fire fighters amuse themselves when things are slow . . .

End of year reports

All three kids are home with their end of year reports and all have done well. James in particular; he got first in class for English and Science. I was trying to scan the certificates just now but there is something amiss with our printer/scanner so I might have to add things later.
The end of the academic year is on Friday. Then the kids are on holiday until the 29th January 2008.
Ian is off over between Christmas and New Year and the first week of January. I am working between Christmas and New Year and have a few days off during that first week, but not all - the library stats have to be attended to. We are both back at work in the second week in January then I have another 2 weeks leave until they go back to school.
Jamie is off to Japan on a school trip on about the 9th January for 10 days.

Ishbel's diary

Ishbel has been keeping a diary. I said I'd transcribe it for her so here it is - as is:

Sunday 9.12.07
Today I am going to my friend Rubys house for the day. Ruby has a dog called Nellson. He looks like my dog Bella. The first game we played was crack the egg. The second game we played was schools in the cuby and then me and Ruby watched a movie called Sleep-over when the movie was over we went next door to play with the kids there names were Bridget and Liam after they left we went to Springwood pool for a little play but we stayed for three hours and I was with them for seven hours me, Ruby and Oscer all got chips with tomato sauce but Ruby didn't have sauce but we all had solt then we went back in the water to play.
When we where in the water we went in the werlpool and Oscer ws after us. We were swimming away from him. Then we had to go so me and Ruby hid after a wile we went out of the water and went home when I got home I had a souer and the I got dressed Then I played with my builda bear then I went on the computer and I went on my website and played Mixy's cubby house. I had fun that Sunday. For dinner we had paster The next day I went to school and at lunch I played with Kate, Elki and Ruby and at recese I played with the same people pm Thursday Ruby came my house for a play we had fun.

Liaising with the SES

Last Sunday a thunderstorm ripped through Blacktown in the western suburbs of Sydney. Lots of damaged houses, cars, etc. and a state of emergency was declared.
The agency that deals with this kind of thing is the State Emergency Service (SES) who put up tarpaulins, cut down trees and so on. Such was the extent of the storm, however, they needed help and the RFS was called in too.
A crew went from Valley Heights on Friday and at 6:45 on Sunday morning I joined Bert, Pete and Matt from our brigade at the station. We then met up with another 11 crews from across the Blue Mountains at Glenbrook and, after a bit of a briefing, we all went down to Blacktown in convoy.
We gathered at Homebase, Blacktown where the SES, in similar numbers, were also gathered. While we waited for our deployment orders, we were able to get free food and drink from McDonalds.
We were assigned one-on-one to an SES team. Our team was from Bungendore near Canberra. Our job was to provide support but we were told we weren't allowed to climb on roofs; we haven't been trained to do so.
We were given addresses of households that had reported problems we should see to. We were told not to door-knock to ask if anyone else needed help - apparently some people had been door-knocked three times and were getting a little bit tetchy about it.
The first place we were sent, we had to crawl round half a dozen streets - hardly any evidence of storm damage and even then, six days on, most had either been sorted already by some other SES crew, or had sorted themselves out. The only evidence of the storm was brought to us on a plate by one man who had three cricket ball sized hailstones in his freezer. He said they'd been burying themselves 50mm into the ground.
We then had to sit in the truck while the SES crew radioed in for our next deployment. After a 15-20 minute wait, we were sent back to Homebase for more coffee.
Then we were sent to another street which had been quite badly hit but, as I said before, six days on, most had either been sorted already by some other SES crew, or had sorted themselves out.
Another 15-20 min wait for redeployment.
The next house we went to, the old lady did need help but, because hers was a fibro roof (and might contain asbestos) the SES refused to touch it and she would have to wait for the NSW Fire Brigade Hazmat team to deal with it. She'd been seen by an SES team earlier in the week but someone obviously hadn't taken her off the list.
The next house I actually got to help - I took a ladder off the SES truck. There there were 3 little holes in the roof which the SES were going to fill in with silicon (gives you an idea of the minute size holes we were dealing with!) but couldn't get to them through the roof space, nor would their ladder reach onto the roof. The SES lady assessed them from outside and reckoned that they wouldn't leak water anyway. Then the householder had her climbing up a tree to check on the contents of an icecream bucket he'd nailed there for birds!!!!
Our Deputy Captain, Bert, was NOT impressed.
Well after that strenous activity it was time for lunch - free at an RSL club. Said goodbye to Bungendore SES who were heading home.
Then we had to go to SES HQ to await redeployment. And we waited and waited and played cricket and rescued the ball from a drain and got a chocky from Santa and waited and waited some more.
At 3:40pm we were stood down and could return home.
Bert, already in trouble from his wife for going out so close to Christmas, was trying to work out what to tell her about the day . . . it wasn't looking pretty!

Name change?

As you can imagine, we get all sorts of spellings and pronunciations of our surname. I thought we'd heard it all . . . until we got a Christmas card from our local pest inspection company addressed to Mr and Mrs Coltmuttoun - that was completely out of left field.

Lunch with Karen

I was up in Katoomba yesterday for work. We are getting a new internet PC booking system installed. We bought the program years ago but managed to buy it without the installation (the only people in the whole country ever to do so). My predecessor was fiddling with it but never got it done, IT have been fiddling for over a year. It wasn't until Gillian and I went to the meeting in Canberra that we found out it was easy to get the installation done for us by the company.
Not that things have gone smoothly since we decided to stump up for the installation to be done. Someone was supposed to put in a purchase order before he went on leave a month ago and didn't. Our library admin officer had to chase around to find out what was happening several times over the last month. Meanwhile the company had pencilled us in for Tuesday and Wednesday this week. On Monday they rang to say they still hadn't got the purchase order and we had until midday or Geoff the installation guy couldn't get on the plane from Adelaide. At 12:10 they rang again, giving us 10 mins to get the PO done, or send an email promising to pay. I quickly got the authorization to send the email and all was OK'd as the taxi arrived at the Adelaide end.
ANYWAY . . . as I drove in to Katoomba yesterday morning, I saw Karen's work and thought I could go and see if she could have lunch with me. So, before going to the library I popped in and we made a date.
Had fish and chips and a lovely chat. I hadn't seen Karen or Dan for a while.
She took a pic of a big Christmas tree sculpture that's up outside the Carrington Hotel for me. I'll post the pic when she sends it. The title of the sculpture really tickled me - Peas on Earth.

Righting the truck

Just a few pics of the truck being righted.

You can see a slide show of all pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11895723@N05/sets/72157603379154328/show/

Overturned truck on Victoria Pass 2

Back down at the overturned truck we were put to work moving the gear out of the truck into another truck which was not even half the size of the overturned one. Much 'you've gotta be kidding" and expletives when we saw what we had to try to do. We got a line going, ferrying stuff from one truck to the other. Most of the stuff being moved was not in good condition, even before it went head over heels, it looked like it was more ready for the tip than relocating in a new house. I suspect the poor owner of the stuff would not have insurance to cover the damage.

Luckily it was Saturday and the traffic wasn't as heavy as it would be tomorrow when people who've been away for the weekend returning to Sydney. We were able to keep a two way flow going, only stopping the traffic entirely for 20 mins or so while the truck was righted and attached to the back of the tow truck.

Overturned truck on Victoria Pass

So Steve and I jumped in the truck and headed up to the overturned truck on Victoria Pass and found ourselves helping out.

The truck was full of stuff from a family moving house. The driver had borrowed the truck from a brother-in-law and the breaks had failed going down the very steep hill. He was very lucky that no one was seriously hurt (his young son and another adult were also in the truck when the accident happened), that he didn't encounter any other vehicles coming up the other way because he ended up on the wrong side of the road, and that he didn't go careering over the guard rail and into the 90 metre drop.

But before we dealt with the truck there was another vehicle in distress on the pass. A ute had broken down - this one had a Santa's sleigh on the back and was towing a horse box. In the horse box were 3 live reindeer!! We hooked them up and towed them up to the top of the pass to the nearest petrol station.

Rob's Bushfire Assessment Day

Robbie had his BF assessment today. His mate, Nick, was also being assessed and Nick's dad, Graham and I went as a helpers/assessors. We had a busy day in wet, dreich Katoomba. Following completing the multiple choice questions, the teams had to deal with a small fire scenario, a property protection scenario and a large fire scenario.
Graham and I had a bit of trouble keeping a fire going in some drums - even the liberal use of the drip torches couldn't keep the straw burning well in the rain. The first team we dealt with got a reasonable blaze to tackle but subsequent fires were rather laughable.

Rob's team was held up for a little while after one of the team complained of chest pains. The ambulance was called but it seems he was having a severe anxiety attack and the ambos went off to attend a motor vehicle accident (MVA).

During lunch a couple of teams were quickly put together to attend the MVA also - a truck had overturned going down Victoria Pass. Graham raced off to help while we finished off the assessment with the boys.

We couldn't go home without Graham so had a bit of hanging about to do. The assessment day was held at Firecom at Katoomba. I've been there several times as Council use the building for training but hadn't been in the communications room. One of our brigade, Helen, was working there so she gave me a quick overview of what they do.


After hanging about for some time, Steve decided he and I would go up to the MVA and have a look. We had to leave Robbie and Nick because they are not yet certified to attend incidents and they are still too young to do so even if they were.

Wet weekend

I had an email last week from Margaret, a friend I made while at the Stirling Royal Infirmary. She wrote saying "You will all be enjoying your summer weather now. I will be thinking of you all ,while i look out of our conservatory windows at grey skies and pouring rain."
How ironic to be writing back "it sounds like the views from our windows are the same as yours".
It's been raining for most of the past week which hopefully is getting into the water catchment areas and filling up the dams. A huge percentage of NSW is drought declared but I haven't heard much about the farmers out west getting rain. The last time they got rain out west they all rushed to put crops in the ground thinking the drought had broken but the rain didn't last and the crops died. Our local baker has a sign saying the price of flour has gone up 45% because of the drought.
As I write though, there is a gentle drizzle, it is cold and we are all wearing jumpers. The newly washed dog has just been for a walk with Ian and stinks of eau de wet chien.
The other night there was another thunderstorm with one huge, loud clap of thunder that rumbled and shook the house. It went on so long we began to wonder whether it hadn't been a bomb.
Our boys are out in all this weather on a Scout camp. It's a water-based camp this time and they are having to build a raft and sleep on it all night. We aren't sure they have taken much in the way of wet weather gear and almost expect them to ring to be rescued.
Clive has just rung to say the Bush Fire Brigade Christmas picnic has been cancelled.
We are going up to Katoomba for dinner this evening for to celebrate Stephen's birthday. The restaurant is called Swiss Cottage (http://www.swisscottage.com.au/). There are escargots on the menu - think we can get Ishbel to eat any? We had a French French teacher at school (Mrs Macnamara of course) who brought escargots in once. Even under threat of getting an order mark I couldn’t bring myself to eat them.
It’s voting day today and as voting is compulsory in Australia we have had to trot along to our local polling place and make our mark.

Joey visit to the zoo

on sunday i went to the zoo and i got to feed and pat a possum i made a frog pond and a lizard lounge and i also caught a tadpole.

Picture: Ishbel and Joanna Kibble

Long Service Award

Yesterday Blue Mountains City Council had a Long Service Award ceremony. There hasn't been one for several years so mine for 10 years was a bit overdue (I started as a casual early 2006).
We were given to understand that attendance was compulsory so a gaggle of us library types organised to meet for lunch in Katoomba beforehand.
After a disappointing lunch (Mountain Memories will be remembered for its rubbish and expensive Caesar salads) we made our way to the Civic Centre for the presentations.
Felicity (Bella's old 'grandma", I'll post a picture when I can) and I were among 6 or so library staff who had 10 years under their belts, one had 15 years and two had 20 years.
Our names were called, 10 year people going first. Of course, Colquhoun was mispronounced 'Calhoun'. I told the guy the right pronounciation and he announced me . . . as Heidi Calhoun - eeek. Shake hands with the General Manager and Councillor Hamilton, get framed certificate and cross stage for hand shake from Dave, or division manager (who likes my hair by the way!). Sit through everyone else getting their certificates. Those with 15 years + of service also got a money voucher.
One of the men from the Springwood Office, Phil, was there getting his 35 year award. His manager had dug back in his personnel file and gave a speech about his time in council. Another man was getting a 40 year award!
I first met Phil when I was working down in Springwood during my chemo treatment. I thought his name was Dave and said "Good morning, Dave" every day. He never said a word about it. It was only just before Christmas last year that I found out his name is Phil and had to apologise. Now I call him anything but Phil - Oscar, Gordon, Basil - yesterday it was Humphrey - and he calls me Betty, Edith, Alice . . .
As the ceremony finished and we were getting up to leave, we were told there was a late entrant. One of my colleagues, Sue, had arrived late and now it was her turn to go up on the stage all by herself. Redface! She'll never arrive late for anything ever again.
As we were tucking in to an afternoon tea, the heavens opened. A great torrent of rain hurled itself down accompanied by thunder, lightning and marble-sized hail. The lights went out and soon the roof was leaking and we had to stand under the awning outside while the half-dome light shades filled with water.
Debbie, the branch librarian at Katoomba, raced off to fetch a broom - the veranda under the awning slopes towards the library door and it floods the library in heavy rain. When I was acting branch librarian there a few years ago we had to shut for several days after the whole foyer ended up under water.
Sadly the GM had left so he didn't see the extent of the problem but one of the senior managers was helping Debbie sweep the water away from the door so perhaps someone will listen when problems are reported in future.
The storm only lasted 20 minutes or so, but left Katoomba and a fair way down the hill to Bullaburra without power (15, 000 homes Ian said was reported on ABC radio).
At home the storm was threatening so we got ourselves prepared by looking out the candles and camping lamp. There was some lightning but we didn't get the heavy rain, hail stones or wind that the upper mountains did.
The boys went out to Venturers last night, driven there by Fiona Kibble who told us that a flash of sheet lightning hit the road in front of the car, blinding her for a good 30 seconds.

This whirlwind week

We've hardly seen each other this week, Ian and I, with one of those lots-of-meetings-and-stuff weeks.
Monday: Me, James and Robert in, Ian and Ishbel out at Joeys.
Ishbel had stopped going to Joeys but went a couple of weeks ago when the Melbourne Cup was on and they were making racing silks (out of crepe paper) and doing horsey races round the hut. There is an activity on today (more about that to follow) and I told her that, if she wanted to do the thing today, she'd have to keep going, not just cherry pick the more interesting days. After this there will be Christmas parties, etc. to keep going for.
Tuesday: Ian and the kids in, me at a Tanderra (Ishbel's after school care centre) meeting.
Wednesday: Me and Ishbel in, Robert and James at Venturers, Ian ferrying boys back and forth. This week the Venturers went to Glenbrook pool for fun and games there.
Thursday: Ian and the kids in, me at Joanne's. It was Joanne's first day of chemotherapy and she wanted someone to "babysit' her because she didn't know how she was going to be feeling. She had a long day as she also had a port inserted - a little device that goes under the skin with a tube fed into a vein - the next time she goes the chemo line is clipped into the port. Her chemo is fed in over 2 days so it means her arm isn't strapped up with a drip in it and she can be a lot more mobile. Unfortunately there was a bit of trouble getting the port in and she was feeling pretty bruised and sore.
Friday: Ian, James and Ishbel in, Robbie at work and me out at Bushfire Brigade training. this time we did Pre-incident planning in the shed then went out doing some Local area familiarisation (very important that we know trails, waterholes, hazards, etc in our area) which involved some bush bashing and the removal of a tree from the track by pulling it out of the ground - we aren't allowed to use chain saws after the sun goes down.
Saturday: Ian and Ishbel in, Robbie at Lee's, Jamie to Kirsty's birthday party and me working at the Timelines Local History conference. Ishbel had her friend, Zanny over to play. Robbie is away overnight. Jamie was back shortly after 9pm having enjoyed his pool party. The conference went smoothly although there weren't enough attendees for the library to even break even so it's doubtful that it will continue in coming years. My colleagues Jenny, Gillian and I were there to register delegates and sort out the catering while our supervisor Robyn and John the local studies librarian ran the conference. Most of our day was fairly boring, waiting for the next meal break. Unlike last year when we spent lots of time preparing morning and afternoon tea, this year the catering was all done for us (the Leisure Centres have a catering service called Aquafresh which is very good). I came home with a big plate of sandwiches, a cheese platter and lots of cake thinking the boys would soon polish it off, forgetting they were both out. desperate calls to Karen and Dan, Sharon and Janet and Steven to come and help us finish them proved useless. Luckily Zanny's dad agreed to take sandwiches for the cricket team today but an awful lot of food went into the bin.
Sunday: Everyone out. I'm off to Katoomba for book group in half an hour or so. We've been reading Alice in Wonderland this month. I've enjoyed it. I started to read it to Ishbel when we lost Harry Potter but gave up when Harry turned up again so I'll try again later. Robbie is still at Lee's. He'll be back later then out again, I see he has to work again this evening. Ian, Jamie and Ishbel have gone with the Scouts (Joeys, Cubs and Scouts) down to Sydney to the zoo. Jamie wasn't keen and went off kicking and screaming and grumbling but I wasn't going to have him doing nothing all day, especially with everyone else being out. I know going to the zoo is quick and easy for you Edinburgh types but it's a big deal trip for us. Ishbel was excited and keen to see her favourite - the Tasmanian Devil.

Ishbel's award

Ishbel got a Core Values award this Friday in assembly. She crosses her fingers and hopes for one every Friday and has had a few. She's been aiming to get at least one of each of the Core Values this year and has finally done it.

Her school, Faulconbridge Public School (http://www.faulconbri-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/) has four Core Values:

1. Positive Relationships - valuing all members of the school community as individuals


2. Healthy Environments - maintaining a clean and safe school


3. Learning - providing effective learning paths for all


4. Personal Growth - sharing and developing ideas, skills and opinions.

As you see, this one is for Learning.

Renovations hit the first hurdle

Got a phone call from Rod the house designer guy - what we'd been talking about last Friday will be way over our budget. He said he'd come over sometime and discuss options but we're feeling a bit down at the moment.

Interior desecrations : hideous homes from the horrible '70s by James Lileks, ISBN: 0307238725

Continuing on the home renovations theme. Anxious to find inspiration for our 'new home' when it eventually gets done I reached for this little gem.

Bad taste in home decoration reached a peak, or nadir, in the 1970s, "a breathtakingly ugly period" as James Lileks demonstrates in this book. Interior desecrations show us the worst of the unlovely, unattractive, unlivable and unforgivable homes of the 1970s.

Room by room Lileks shows us hideous examples of 1970s interior design all accompanied by witty comment. I laughed till I cried over some of the pictures and their accompanying commentry. It's the perfect antidote to Country Style and Australian Home Beautiful.

Also by this author (and I'm reaching now for a couple of the library's Request for Purchase forms) : The gallery of regrettable food : highlights from classic American recipe books and Mommy knows worst : highlights from the golden age of bad parenting advice.

Trying again with the renovations lark

In April this year we had a house design/stuctural engineer guy come to talk with us about extensions to the house. He was recommended to us by a builder used by friends. He seemed nice enough for us to send him $1000 to make a start on the promise of a further $1000 on completion of the work.
The first time we made an appointment though he didn't turn up, didn't ring and say he was running late, or unable to make it, had some lame excuse. Long story short, that happened each time we made appointments. He was supposed to send us final drawings weeks ago and hasn't. Meanwhile, we have been becoming more and more uncomfortable, firstly with the design he'd come up with, and secondly with his knowledge of local building regulations and decided we'd perhaps be better to start again with somebody new.
Sharon used to work with a woman, Marie, whose partner is a house designer. Marie was also head of maths at Robbie's school for a while. It turns out that her partner, Rod, works with a builder that had been recommended to me by a man down the road who is a bricklayer, Nudge. Nudge has taken a little fibro ugly duckling cottage like ours and turned it into a beautiful swan (http://www.harveycarr.com.au/index.php?action=listingview&listingID=166). Thinking he'd done such a good job on his place he probably appreciates good workmanship, I asked him who he'd recommend. He gave me three names including the builder that this Rod guy is in partnership with, Michael Edwards. (http://www.michaeledwards.com.au/).
So we've had a chat with Rod and he's going off to do some preliminary drawings. We're talking having a room built out the back where the deck currently is and a master bedroom with ensuite and walk-in wardrobe upstairs.
Fingers crossed we get somewhere this time . . .

To practise your mouse skills . . .

When you are in need of a mindless break give this a try: http://www.sharkbreak.com/

Take the cursor up and down and watch it swim up and down. You can change the fish by clicking on the pictures down the left side and the background by clicking the top pictures.

Just catching up

We're having a bit of a quiet weekend - well, kind of. Nothing earth shattering to report, but lots of stuff going on as usual.
Ian is doing a First Aid course for Scouts this weekend. He came back about 4pm today, earlier than I'd expected. He had a deep red mark along the bottom of his lip - like he'd been in the wind licking his lips all day. Said it came from doing the mouth-to-mouth thing with the dummy wrongly!!! Then had the cheek to contradict me when we were discussing the breathe/chest compression ratios later on when Iain Hosking turned up. He's to go back tomorrow too.
Jamie is away tomorrow with the Venturer Scouts. They are going to be building a raft.
Robbie meanwhile is going to Bushfire Brigade training. His BF assessment day is the first Saturday in December and he has to get 20 hrs or so training under his belt before then.
I'll be at home with Ishbel. I've got a copy of The Railway Children on DVD from the library so perhaps we'll get around to watching that. There are markets on down at Richmond which I fancy having a look at but we'll have to be back about midday to get Robbie after training.
We've had rain all week but it's been clearer today (cloudy but no rain) and tomorrow is supposed to improve further so I'm hoping to get some washing out on the line. I don't know how I can stand the excitement!
I was at RFB training last weekend. The boys preferred a lie-in. It started out cloudy but fined up to a beautiful blue sky which was just as well given what happened later in the morning. We went down to the National Park at Glenbrook to a little dam (pond) there and practised drafting water into the truck. As the truck was already full however, we also had to get the hoses out and let some water out. It got a bit boring and was too much for Bec who started a water fight. Great fun! I could hardly breath for laughing and wincing at the cold water at the same time. The sunshine dried us out relatively quickly though as we got the generator going, boiled the kettle and made a cuppa.

Exit Music by Ian Rankin

As he is trying to tie up all loose ends before retiring, John Rebus is called to his last case. A Russian poet has been killed in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. To muddy the waters a high level delegation of Russian entrepreneurs, Scottish MPs and Rebus' nemesis Big Ger Cafferty seem to be involved somehow. Things go from bad to worse when Rebus himself becomes a murder suspect. Has Rebus gone too far in his zeal to nail Big Ger?

The last in the Inspector John Rebus series. Classic Rebus shambling about Edinburgh being belligerant. Several plotlines to keep you busy.

At the moment Rebus is on TV on a Friday night and we are very much enjoying it. Ken Stott is a much better Rebus than John Hannah, much as I like him.

Bella's 1st Birthday

Today, according to the paperwork we have, is Bella's
1st birthday. Ishbel had been banging on about having a birthday party and inviting some people with dogs so we rang Auntie Karen and Uncle Dan and invited them and their dogs, Sasha and Mishka for a little tea party.
Ishbel also insisted we got Bella a birthday present so here she is with a tyre on a rope. To Ishbel's intense disappointment, Bella initially wouldn't have anything to do with her new toy but later she got right into it and she's had a ball, throwing it up and wrestling with it.
When Karen, Dan and the girls arrived this evening Bella was out in the back garden, barking. When let into the house she went tearing along the hallway then saw the two big dogs and stopped in her tracks - at least she tried to stop but with our polished floors she skidded about 4 feet before she could turn back, hackles in a ridge from neck to tail. A very funny sight.
We made a birthday cake this morning before going out to school - how's that for organisation! And this afternoon we made a doggy birthday cake with chicken, doggy biscuits and gelatine.
We put a candle on the doggy birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday.
All three dogs seemed to enjoy their cake and Sasha and Mishka went home with doggy bags of extra cake, a paw-shaped doggy biscuit and a Smacko snack!

Ishbel has her wish come true

She's nagged and nagged and nagged about doing this for ages. She wanted to do this for her birthday party. We have resisted as long as we could.

Here you see Ishbel with her new friend, Angel. Angel is a Build-a-Bear toy - you go to the shop, choose the casing and stuff it yourself. You even get a little heart to put inside. Apparently Ian had to kiss the heart before it went in. Angel was also kitted out in a top, jeans and shoes and Ishbel is already planning to purchase pyjamas for her too.

. . . and the worst of times

About 12 yesterday I got a call from a friend saying she wanted me to go round to see her. I said fine but I had to leave to go to book group at 1pm.
I ended up staying all afternoon until after 4pm.
I've known this friend since first coming up to the mountains as she was in the same new Mum's group as me, although she and I didn't see each other a lot, it was nice to bump in to each other every so often.
She rang while I was down in Canberra. She was in hospital having had a bowel cancer removed and wanted to speak to someone who had experienced chemo, etc so Ishbel and I went down during the holidays to say hello. She was then doing well, the surgeon had not had to remove as much bowel as he'd thought and she was expecting to have the chemo and then make a good recovery.
I saw her again on Thursday morning while doing an errand at work and wished her luck as she was due at the Cancer Care Centre for the first time that afternoon.
What she told me yesterday is that, at that appointment, rather than discuss the chemo, she was told that the biopsies had shown that, although the surgeon removed the main tumour OK, there are lots of little microscopic cancers all over the peritoneum (abdominal covering) and that the chemo will be life-prolonging rather than curative. She was told she probably has another two years to live.
She is a few years older than me. She has four children who range in age from the oldest daughter who is the same age as Jamie and Robbie down to a 9/10 year old. She has a drop-kick of an ex-husband who is currently a bit of an unknown quantity in the support department. She is from New Zealand and that's where her family lives. One sister is here just now but goes home on Friday. The other sister comes then for a few weeks and then her brother, but in the long term, support will have to come with friends.

The best of times . . .

Busy weekend with the boys and I up and at 'em early on Saturday morning to join in the Valley Heights Rural Fire Service annual doorknock appeal. Round the streets of our area we trudged, knocking on doors asking for donations (sausages and beer money). Because I had my full gear with me I was assigned to the tanker so that if anything happened (and it was a hot, dry day) and we were called out we were ready for action. Jamie and Robbie were teamed up with adult members of the brigade and went with them.
Our first stop was the local retirement village. I caught most of the oldies in their pyjamas, apologising that they weren't ready they'd been away - there had been a DAY trip to Victoria the day before (that's like going to London from Edinburgh for the day!!) Then we hit some of the streets around the station before going back to the station to count up the loot and have some lunch.
One of the houses I went to did not look promising, all overgrown and unkempt looking. I assumed the ihabitant would be a cranky old hermit who hated to be bothered and had "issues with you people" as one man had already told me! How wrong, the lovely lady with the north American accent had me wait while she rootled around for yesterdays clothing, she'd got money out for us specially (there had been a letter drop during the week letting people know the door knock would be on). When she handed me a $50 note I offered her change, not only did she refuse, she gave me a second $50 note. When I stammered my thanks for her generosity, she was astounded that everyone else wasn't as generous and scandalised that $5 was the norm (I didn't tell her about Mr Issues!)
Not only did I collect around $670, I also scored a Bible - the only one in the Brigade to do so.
After lunch we hit the streets again. Not such a good haul this time. In a couple of hours I made $47.70!! There were an awful lot of houses with cars in the driveway, front doors and windows open, but no-one home!! After losing my partner, Nige, and a couple of hours of trudging in rising temperatures I was bored and ready to go home.
We got home about 4:30 and after a shower I was right back out again to have dinner at Jackies. Her boys were camping for the night so she had Gabi and I round for dinner and games.

Fiddling

Last night we went to Fiddler on the Roof put on by the Blue Mountains Musical Society. It was a special preview showing for volunteer organisations which we got alerted to via the RFS. Sadly for the musical society, there weren't many people there so hopefully the official opening tonight will be better patronised.

It's a long show and it was after 11pm before we got home, a long stretch from 8pm for the early to bed types like Ishbel and I but it was pretty good. A big improvement on the performance I remember going to with the school in Ayr. We all got into trouble from Miss Higgs for laughing when the snow scene dumped all the snow in about two seconds.

The man in the lead role was especially good.

Philip Island, motoGP

Over the last weekend Dad, Robbie, Jono and I were at the MotoGP on Philip Island. We saw Casy Stoner win the big race by 6 seconds. he had a lead of 8 seconds at one point but was told to slow down by his pit crew just incase he broke some thing on the bike. It was pretty amazing as the day before he came off over the handle bars around the corner we happend to be sitting at.
this photo is Casy Stoner coming round the corner we were sitting at, the same corner he came off the day before. Stoners team mate Loris Capirossi came second while seven time world champ Valentino Rossi came third. Nicky Haden, last years wold champion was coming second right behind Stoner but he droped out with technical problems. The winner pf the 250cc race was Jorge Lorenzo who will be Rossi's team mate next year. he thrashed the other 250cc riders by 19.6 seconds it was fantastic and to selebrate he planted his "Lorenzo Land" flag in the sand trap near us.
All in all it was a great copple of days
Jamie

A thousand splendid suns by Khaled Hosseini : ISBN 9780747582977

Mariam is 15 and lives with her mother in a village outside Herat, Afghanistan. Her father visits weekly and she idolises him and yearns to be accepted by his legitimate family. When her mother dies, rather than be looked after by her father, she is quickly married off to the much older Rasheed and goes to live hundreds of miles away in Kabul.
Many childless years later she is joined by a second 15 year old wife, Laila. Initially hostile to Laila, the two women find comfort and support in each other.
All this time trouble and strife is raging in Afghanistan with mujahadeen, Russians and the Taliban all wreaking their own kinds of havoc. Life is a struggle, Rasheed is brutal and the women suffer much before reaching breaking point.
A wonderful story. I highly recommend it, as well as the first book Hosseini wrote, The kite runner.

Jono's visit

The boys are away at the Motorbike Grand Prix. Jamie, Ishbel and I collected Jono from the airport on Wednesday morning. We spent the afternoon at Roey and Pete's having a long lunch before heading home and dinner with Karen and Dan.

Robbie didn't come with us to the airport because he was starting his first job. He's got casual work for Eagle Boys Pizza (great job for him - pizza is Robbie's favourite!). He only did a couple of hours (we worried he'd been fired already when he called to get a lift home) but was quite happy. His uniform is a treat - bright pink! Will post photo as soon as I can get someone to help me nail him down to have it taken!

The fellas left for Victoria at 4 on Thursday morning. Ishbel and I didn't get up to see them off!!

She's not a Derek

We've got a wussy dog. Curled up on my lap in the evenings, Ian has to take her for a drag round the block. Not a Derek as I said the other night. Him we couldn't even mention the word 'walk' but he'd be at the door, bouncing around, itching to be out.

Here she is, snuggling up with Robbie.

RFS

With regard to the previous blog i would like to point out that the green tree snake is NON-VENOMOUS and wasn't actually reared up so there was no actual threat. also while we were sitting at the bottom of martins lookout Rob pointed and said "Holy c@#$ look another one" and scared the begebus out of Mum to the amusment of the rest of the guys at the exercise.

The first in 20 years!

Jamie, Robbie and I went to RFS training on Sunday. We out to Martin's Lookout and did some trail cutting along the tracks there. Lots of hard yakka going down the hill clearing leaves and stones off the paths. Robbie was in my team, Jamie went in the opposite direction with his team. Robbie had fun wielding the brush hook, hacking away at the undergrowth. We were acting out a scenario in which a fire was making its way up the hill and we were clearing a break round the edge in preparation for lighting a backburn. Then they told us the wind had picked up and the fire was racing up the hill and we had to head for safety down in the creek at the foot of the gully. Down, down, down we went. Tramping along the bottom, me in front, I suddenly spied a snake, green, facing my way, in strike pose. I've rarely run so fast. I let out an expletive and raced back up a rock!

It was identified by one of the team as a green tree snake, one of only two tree snakes found in Australia. Agile and slender, this non-venomous snake can grow up to 2m but is usually a little over 1m. Its colour ranges from green to yellowish-green, brownish-green, black - even blue in a rare form. Under threat, the snake raises itself, revealing splashes of blue between its scales.

At a clearing at the bottom we met up with Jamie's team and had a bit of a rest before heading out - up, up, up, up, up , up, up , up, up , up, up , up, up and more , up, up - it was quite arduous. What with that and the snake I am considering joining one of the plains RFS teams way out in Dubbo or somewhere!!

Homeward bound

At last it was time to pack up and come home. After our experience with the hotel restaurant last night we decided to get breakfast in Manuka before heading back for a quick look at Parliament House. It didn't take us long to take ourselves round and we could head out of town - the only time we were on the right road the whole way!


Stopped off at the Scottish Shop at Sutton Forrest where I got a Colquhoun mug for Ian. I told the lady I was bringing my sassanach friend for a look (Gillian) but she hadn't a clue what I was talking about. We also stopped in the historic town of Berrima for a wander and a bite of something light for lunch before going straight home.

Canberra CODA Conference Friday 5 October Part 2

Not finding a way round the lake, we headed back to the main road where all the traffic had been earlier. It was much lighter now and we got across the lake to Commonwealth Park - too late for Floriade.
We had only just missed it - we asked for the location of the nearest toilets from the man locking the gates. He sent us off over the hill. After asking a man in an anorak for directions to the toilet (to Gillian's great embarrassment), we found the toilets which I used. Gillian then decided she'd use them too. I said I was going to go back up the hill to take a photo of Floriade from the top of the children's play equipment. She persuaded me to stay and wait. Good job too - next minute she's calling me - she was stuck in the toilets!!
Had a little walk alongside the lake before deciding to go to the Telstra tower on Black Mountain for views of the city as the sun went down.
Gillian doesn't like heights so I went up the tower quickly on my own. At that height (over 800m above sea level) the wind was so strong it was hard to catch my breath. I took a few photos and came back to the hotel for dinner.
Had a buffet meal that was just the same as we'd had at lunch today and yesterday and were horrified to find we'd been charged $107 for two meals and two glasses of wine! Dunno what we're going to tell the boss!

Canberra CODA Conference Friday 5 October

There I was, lying in bed, thinking it was 5:45am and that I could watch a bit of TV before getting up. There was a company sponsored breakfast that started at 7am and I'd told Gillian I'd be there at 7 while she was aiming for 7:30.
Put the TV on just in time for the person to announce it was 7am. I leapt out of bed and was showered, dressed and downstairs before I'd woken up. Still, Gillian had beat me down.
Listened to more STUFF. Worked out that there were a couple of sessions after lunch where we'd either heard it before, or they were about products we don't and won't use so we decided to play hookey for a few hours and went to visit Old Parliament House (OPH).
It being school holidays, it was very busy at OPH and very noisy in the foyer where there was a bushman type doing a song and dance routine. We didn't have the time to wait for the guided tour so pottered about by ourselves using a brochure to work out where we were. Thoroughly enjoyed it and am keen to come back and do a tour properly.
Back to the conference for more boring bits then at the end we decided to head out and do something active. We'd been talking for weeks about hiring a bike and riding round the lake but when I rang to make enquiries we were too late and it was rather expensive anyway. I also wanted to go again to Parliament House but by the time we'd had a cuppa and changed our shoes it was getting late.
We headed out in the car to see if we could find Floriade - the spring flower festival. Couldn't believe the traffic. For the past three days we've been marvelling at how little traffic there is in Canberra and how few people we'd seen walking about. Now here they were - the ENTIRE population of Canberra it seemed on our road.
As we'd originally thought we'd ride round the lake, we thought we could drive round instead so abandoned the Floriade idea for the time being and took off left past the British High Commission and the Chinese Embassy.

We drove ourselves down a dead end where we could see hundreds of white posts in the park. We discovered it was a memorial to the hundreds of men, women and children who died when the Siev X, a refugee boat, sank (http://www.sievxmemorial.com/sievxmemor

ial.com/). Very sad, very shameful and I had to leave; the poles covered such a large area and each one had the name, age and gender of a person on it.

Canberra CODA Conference Thursday 4 October Part 2

Just back from the conference dinner which was held at the Australian War Memorial. Couldn't find it on the map but thought I knew where it was so headed off, amazed that it wasn't well-signposted only to discover we were on the wrong route and we had to stop, consult the map again and double back (see what I mean about a pattern emerging?)
The museum is a wonderful sight, day and night, but is beautifully lit at night and in a lovely line of sight all the way down from the new Parliament house. We had to go round the back, couldn't work out where to park and where to get in and had to ask the conference bus drivers who were quite taken by our undercover car!
Dinner in quite a dramatic setting in the middle of the exhibit of the Japanese mini sub that entered Sydney Harbour on 31 May 1942 (see here for a 360 degree view of the venue: http://www.awm.gov.au/virtualtour/javap/vr.asp?area=2).
As we arrived an audio-visual presentation about WW2 pilots was just finishing and the Japanese sub on began.
We had a pleasant dinner with some of the Sydney HUGS users we knew and some others we'd never clapped eyes on. Offered Elisabeth and Iveta a lift back in the car but they declined which was good because we did the same scenic drive thing, going back to the hotel via Black Mountain!

Canberra CODA Conference Thursday 4 October

Didn't sleep well last night - dreaming about Gillian and dentures ???????!
Breakfast kinda set the tone for the day with Danish pastries and muffins for breakfast - where's the cereal?
Spent a mostly dull day in a small room where the seats were squashed close and which got very stuffy listening to people warble on about some deadly stuff. Only about two speakers, both in the afternoon, were interesting.
Had lunch with Moira, my former supervisor at HealthLink Directories/Westmead Hospital. She's now working at a theological library in Parramatta and it was nice to catch up with her.
Am currently writing this (in diary at the time) in a couple of hours hiatus before we go to the War Memorial for dinner.

Canberra CODA Conference Wednesday 3 October

Today is the 1st anniversary in the job of Support Services Officer.

Set off early for Canberra. Took Ishbel to Tanderra - she pronounce the Prius officially cool - and then headed to Blaxland to collect Gillian. When I got there realised I'd left my suit at home and we had to go back up to Springwood again - a bitty scenic tour to start the day (watch/read carefully and you will see a pattern emerge).

Enjoyed driving the Prius for a while before Gillian took her turn. I tried to teach her how to use the cruise control but she couldn't get the hang of it and after a while of 'take your foot off the accelerator', 'flick that stick up' and 'flick it down now' she gave up and concentrated on keeping the car on the road as it was buffetted by very strong winds.

We arrived in Canberra just before 1pm and had a little bit of lunch and a visit to the Tourist Information Office. Look at what we saw in the car park.

We arrived at the hotel just in time to join a library tour organised for the conference goers. We hadn't time to empty the car or check in or anything, we just jumped into the bus. Libraries to be visited included the Parliamentary Library in the new Parliament House, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Canberra Institute of Technology and Civic Library (public library in the Canberra suburb of Civic).

We thought the Parliamentary Library would be very interesting but was in the end very disappointing. They'd run short of time because it'd taken a while to get us issued with security passes. Instead of showing us the library though, we were hurried down lots of corridors (past the man playing Solitaire on his computer - so THAT's where our taxes go!) and into a darkened room where we were spoken at for 10-15 mins. then back down more corridors (not past Solitaire man) and out and on to the bus again.

When we got to the library at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the librarian was in awe of us having visited the Parliamentary library. Her favourite place she said. Had we seen . . .?, No. Had we seen . . .? No. Had we seen . . . ? No.

The highlight of the tour, after having suffered another dull talk, was the AIATSIS library. We walked into a beautiful two storey room with lovely windows giving on to Lake Burley Griffin. Bags I the office with the window.

We had a short break before we headed off to the National Library for a welcome reception. It took us a while to find our way - the girl at the hotel reception had circled the National Gallery, not the National Library and it took lots of driving back and forth to work it out. Luckily Canberra is built with lots of roundabouts so if you go wrong you can just drive to the next roundabout and turn back. Another plus is that there are hardly any cars on the roads so you can dither without upsetting anyone.

Neither Gillian nor I eat meat so we'd ordered veggie meals for the conference. The reception was serving finger food but not a lot of options were vegetarian so we were pretty hungry. We stayed long enough for politeness the headed back to the hotel where a sticky date pudding and hot chocolate dealt with my hunger pangs and off we went to bed.

Canberra CODA Conference Preparations Tuesday 2 October

Had to change the password on my work PC this (Tuesday) morning and ran into trouble shortly thereafter. Long story short, my password used for several library applications and one was spitting my new password out and I had to try again. However, after getting the password working in one bit I found I was locked out of my council account, unable to access the internet, save files or otherwise do my work which included making sure the monthly and quarterly statistics were done before I went off to the conference next day. And we had to collect a car from the depot in Katoomba.

Contacting our IT department, I found they were at the Katoomba depot which I'd been trying to ring since getting in that morning so we could arrange to collect the car. Shane sounded rather harrassed and would get back to us later he said. So, not being able to do anything else without my computer working, Gillian and I headed up to Katoomba to see if we could get the car.

On arrival at the depot we found it was like the Marie Celeste - it took us quite a while to find a person from Stores who could help us. He wasn't having a good morning either; not only was their phone and computer system out of order, someone had put a padlock over their padlock so they couldn't get into their yard, making accepting deliveries a problem.

Then the guy couldn't find the key for the office where the keys for the fleet cars are kept and had to call on someone else to help. Gillian and I are getting a little hysterical about all the time we are wasting by now.

The car we've been assigned is a Toyota Prius, a hybrid car and it has a few differences from normal petrol cars which the fellow tried running us through. He ran into difficulties showing us how to reverse the car - it owuldn't go. He muttered something about how it'd played up when they'd taken it down to Canberra (also our destination). Gillian and I were begging him to give us another car. Please!

Finally he worked out the car wasn't working because he had the door open. Worked fine once he'd closed it.

As you can see from the picture, we're not going to this conference anonymously.

















Anyway, we got back to Springwood without incident and, computer problems meanwhile having been resolved, I was able to complete all my work by close of business.

The zookeeper's war by Steven Conte - ISBN: 9780732285166

Berlin during WW2 and Australian Vera is married to German Axel who is also the director of the Berlin zoo. The story tells of their struggle to save the zoo animals following the bombings, their struggle to survive themselves with friends embroiled in the attempt to assassinate Hitler and a neighbour only too happy to dob Vera in as a foreigner. An affair and a real twist at the end made this an unputdownable read.

Walk to Faulconbridge Point

Today we went for a walk with Karen and Ben and Ishbel’s little pal, Zanny, to Faulconbridge Point. It was a warm, very windy day (first official day of the fire season and several fires around the state already) and it was hold onto your hats as we went and we had to abandon our hats as we ate our picnic lunch at the end of the 6 km approx. track. And then back again . . . Robbie striding out in front with Ben and Jamie in his wake, Karen raced up to the front leaving Ian and I to try and hurry up the stragglers – with very little effect!

Anyhow, we got some nice photos.

The motoGP

For a few weeks now dad and jono have been planing to go down to Philip Island for the motoGP. For those who don't know the motoGP are the 800cc motorbike races and this year Australian Casey Stoner has won the world championship. Any way they were going to ride down and thus Robbie and I would be unable to attend, but today we found out that Jono would be unable to ride down so we had to take the car letting Robbie and I come too. Hip-hip Hooray.
So hopefuly we will be able to witness an other victory for Stoner and possibly a good crash.

Jamie

here is the official website for the motoGP
http://www.motogp.com/en/motogp/index.htm

Canberra here we come!

Next week I have to go to Canberra with my colleague, Gillian, to attend a conference for customers of a particular library management systems vendor.
We are leaving the mountains about 8am on Wednesday and are hoping to be down in Canberra for about 1pm in time to join a library tour - one of the libraries to be visited is the Parliamentary library. We will be there for the rest of the week, starting back home on Saturday morning. Moira, my supervisor from when I worked at HealthLink will be there too so I'll try to catch up with her and her husband, Roland.
Gillian and I have spent a lot of time this week arranging things, including over an hour this afternoon 'doing' our CSTARS for next week before we go - the online clocking on and off thing we have at work. With dinners and breakfast meetings and being away on Saturday, we have worked out we have racked up almost 2 days time in lieu. We've also been confirming hotel bookings and making sure it can all go on the company credit card, arranging a car - we'll have a fleet car which we have to pick up on Tuesday sometime and generally fiddling. I certainly didn't get through the pile of cataloguing I'd set myself.

Google Earth shot of our house

Google Earth shot of our neighbourhood

year 12s 2nd last day at school

year twelves 2nd last day is generally the "muck up" day. On this day it is almost traditional that the year 12s throw eggs and water bombs etc. Today wasn't different. As i was arriving at school today, at the round about in front of the school, 3 year 12 boys had set up a table with 2 seats . The table had a white table cloth and 2 of the boys sat at the table while one was the waiter. There was a 5-pronged candle stick in the middle of the table and the table was set as if in a fancy resturaunt.
The year 12s also set up a bunch of garden gnomes all over the school like on top of the walk ways and on top of the canteen and ledges around the blocks. Unfortunatley a group of mentally challenged people, the "lads" who are actually a bunch of idiots who think they're "fully hardcore bro" took it upon themselves to steal and then smash these gnomes for no particular reason. How does smashing a ceramic gnome prove that there cool or tough???

Anyways thats my little rant
Rob