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

The Song Before It Is Sung : a novel - Justin Cartwright - ISBN: 9781596912687

In July 1944, a serious attempt was made on Adolf Hitler's life. That event acts as the basis for a fictionalized depiction of one man's participation in the conspiracy, Axel von Gottberg, a Prussian count. The group members who attempted to take the Fuhrer's life were tried and executed in a horrible fashion. Axel had been educated at Oxford in the 1930s and there became the close friend of Elya Mendel, an English Jew who eventually became a distinguished professor. However, a letter Axel writes drives a wedge between the two men and they do not see each other again after the war begins. In the present day, Mendel leaves his collection of letters from Axel to a student, Conrad Senior, whose charge is to organize the papers. Conrad then embarks on finding out what happened to Axel and to explain the rift between the two men.

The World According to Bertie - Alexander McCall-Smith ; illustrated by Iain McIntosh - ISBN: 9781846970177

For those of you who don't know, which began with 44 Scotland Street, the series is about the people who live and work in a tenement building in the Edinburgh New Town. It was originally begun as installments in The Scotsman.

The Bertie of the title is a precocious 6 year old with a very pushy mother who steers Bertie away from playing with other little boys and fills his time with Italian lessons, yoga, music and psychotherapy.

Other characters include Angus the artist and his dog, Cyril who in this book is under threat of being put to sleep for biting someone; Domenica the anthropologist, just back from studying pirates in the Malacca Straits (they turned out to be pirating videos, not ships); Pat the student who works in Matthew's art gallery - does she love Matthew or not?; Big Lou who runs a coffee shop in the basement and is rubbish at choosing men - the latest one is a modern day Jacobite.

This is the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series, nice easy reading you can dip in and out of because it's short stories and I love it because it takes me back to a city I love and was very happy in.

44 Scotland Street series :

1. 44 Scotland Street (2005)

2. Espresso Tales (2005)

3. Love Over Scotland (2006)

4. The World According to Bertie (2007)

The Two of Us - Sheila Hancock - ISBN: 978-0747590132

This is a dual biography - of actors Sheila Hancock and John Thaw.

Sheila was 9 years older than John and the book starts with her early life, then moves to John Thaw's early life and so on through drama school, marriages for both of them - ending in divorce for John and in the death of her first husband for Sheila.

Interspersed with the past are excerpts from Sheila's diary, starting a while before John is diagnosed with throat cancer, through his treatment, decline and death.

This is a beautiful love story with a sad, sad ending. Lots of tears as I read it - good job the family was out so I could really enjoy myself.

Books I have read

I've decided to make entries about books I read as I finish them. Some I choose to read because I've read a review, others take my fancy as they come across my desk as I catalogue and others are required reading for one or other of my book groups.
I'll start with a few I read just last week.

Next week - school holidays

Friday is the last day of term 3 for our kids then they have 2 weeks holidays.
I am away at a conference in Canberra from Wednesday 3rd to Saturday 6th October. Good timing!! Ishbel will be at Tanderra all that first week and the boys will no doubt be XBoxing themselves silly. We are trying to encourage them to find gainful employment. Unfortunately, neither my workplace nor Ian's have work they can do. Robbie has applied for a job in a pizza place in Springwood - his favourite takeaway!
I am taking Monday to Wednesday off during the second week so we'll try and do something nice. There is an exhibition of Princess Diana's clothing on at the Powerhouse Museum in town but it might be quite expensive . . . and I'm sure only Ishbel would have any interest at all.