He's just this guy, you know.

09:10 pm - A lazy day at home ...
So, back to work tomorrow. Today was a lazy day at home ... so I've helped

rwrylsin take down the Christmas decorations, done a bunch of pruning in the front yard (a pittosporum was starting to take over - more pruning required, but at least we can see the eucalypt next to it now), installed an archway for a rose bush to climb over (see photos below), hung a birdhouse up in one of the cypress trees out the back, lifted 150 pavers from the patio (about 80 more to move, that can be tomorrow's task), done dishes, and taken out the rubbish and recycling.
Suddenly it doesn't seem like such a lazy day after all ...

( The tale of the rose bush and the archway, with photos )

ETA:

rwrylsin has also posted about the roses and the state of the garden.
Current Mood:

calm

January 2nd, 2010

12:21 pm - Puppy !
Here, have a puppy :

(his name is Charlie, he belongs to

rwrylsin's parents)
Current Mood:

happy

January 1st, 2010

04:25 pm - Summing up 2009 ...
I'm not going to do the full 2009 meme thing, I'll just pick out a few random highlights of the year.
Overall, 2009 was pretty good for us. For a start ... House ! We have one, and it is all ours ... well, we own roughly all of the letterbox, the rest belongs to the bank at the moment. I really like this house, it's very liveable. The garden is amazing, too, there's always something blossoming or appearing to surprise us (we have Stealth Rose Bushes, every time we look closely at some part of the garden another one appears). We still have work to do, there are plans afoot to put in double-glazed windows, and revamp the kitchen, and re-lay the paving in the patio, and then there's the painting ... but we intend to be here for a good number of years, so it'll all get done in time.

2009 was also a good year for cycling - the bike I bought at the beginning of December 2008 has now done 5346km - roughly 5100km for the year, then. I'm certainly fitter than at this time last year, and seem to be pretty healthy. At some point I need to get some weights so my upper body doesn't get too neglected again, but apart from that, things are generally well in the physical realm. Even my knees are behaving themselves - not sure if that's because I've been fencing less, or because I took some glucosamine supplements for a few months, or because I've been cycling a lot, but it's nice whatever the reason.

I read about 20 books in 2009 - which feels somewhat pathetic compared to the people reporting 50, 100, 120 or more books for the year, but I usually choose to spend time at home doing other things, and most of my reading time is commuting time - which went down quite a bit when I started regularly cycling to work. I'll be happy if I get through 25-30 books this year.

So, plans for 2010. Cycle to work regularly, of course - tricky at the moment, because I don't have a locker in or near the changerooms (I'm 15th on the waiting list, apparently), so I have to take all of my work clothes in and back every time I ride in. And the changerooms aren't great - they're small, there are only three showers, and the room is poorly ventilated and gets steamed up very quickly. I'll be lobbying for improvements pretty soon, I think.
I'm planning to ride more often on weekends, too, because I'm going to enter the 210km version of Around the Bay in a Day this year - some training required !
(My longest ride ever, even when I was a competitive road cyclist, was 150km, and that was about 20 years ago ... )

I'm not sure yet what my fencing plans are, although we do have a shiny new fencing centre to play with.

At some point, I want to see if I can remember how to play the flute. Step 1 - get a flute !

And of course there's Brickvention and Continuum, and some other little convention coming up in September ...
Current Mood:

relaxed

(5 touches | En garde !)

03:48 pm - Starting the year ...
Happy New Year !

So, it must be time for a summary of what I've been up to recently. We headed down to

rwrylsin's parents' place in Foster on Christmas Eve, and had Christmas lunch with all of her immediate family (plus two dogs!). On Saturday,

rwrylsin and I went for a ride - together we rode to Toora and back, then I continued by myself for a bit, riding up a couple of the local hills (for ... errr, fun ? Or because they were there).
On Sunday we went out to Bairnsdale for a BBQ lunch and general catch-up with my biological father and his family (and we met his brother and father for the first time too). On Monday, much lazing around, then a trip to Waratah Bay for a swim. Must do that again sometime, it was good fun! And finally, back to Melbourne on Tuesday, and we didn't do much after that because it was quite warm.

rwrylsin's mum came up on Wednesday to go shopping with her, and I mostly lazed around home, but I did get the temperature and wind sensors installed for my new weather station (Christmas present from

rwrylsin), which involved going up and down ladders and some clambering around on the roof. Yesterday,

rwrylsin went out shopping with her mum again, and I tried to stay cool (the weather station says we reached 39.9°C here), mostly hanging around on the computer playing games. We had a quiet New Year's Eve, ate pizza, watched 9, and listened to the storm outside (22mm of rain, the weather station says). Midnight rolled around, we watched some of Sydney's fireworks on TV, and then headed off to bed not too much later.
Today has been quiet too, did a spot of gardening, poked at the Internets, and at some point the house is going to need a big tidy-up. Also, I have photos to post ... I guess tidying can wait :-)
Current Mood:

relaxed

December 22nd, 2009

10:10 pm - This will be quick ...
There's that "how many places have you stayed away from home this year" meme going around.
This year, my list is very short :
Adelaide
Foster*

(* means I've visited more than once ... )

This does mean it's been more than 12 months since I last stepped into an airport.
...
You know, I really like the sound of that phrase, I must say it more often :-)

I can sum up my year of cinema-going very briefly too :
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Avatar (3D)

... maybe we need to get out a bit more ?
Current Mood:

calm

December 20th, 2009

04:43 pm - A little ride ...
So, on one of the cycling forums I read, a little message popped up, referring to this tweet from Cadel Evans, proposing a little group ride from Hurstbridge to Kinglake (with a loop out around Arthur's Creek and Strathewen).

( The story of the ride ... )And here's a view over the Kinglake area on the way down - in the middle distance, you might be able to see some cyclists on their way down (may need to click through to the larger version of the photo to make them out, though) :

Current Mood:

relaxed

Tags: photos

(5 touches | En garde !)

December 10th, 2009

08:39 pm - Random stuff ...
So, Melbourne people - what type of tree is it that is currently in blossom with lots of lilac/light purple-ish flowers around the place ?
While I'm at it, what's the tree with all the violet flowers ?

Meanwhile, we have a Christmas tree :

( Through to two more - Christmas tree lit up, and Nunawading station works ... )
Current Mood:

calm

(4 touches | En garde !)

December 7th, 2009

09:01 pm
On Saturday,

rwrylsin and I went to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. I liked it ! But I was expecting it to be weirder than it was - it was neat, but not quite waaaay out there (or maybe I've just been exposed to too much strange stuff on the Internets).

Anyway, that was the first time we've been to a cinema since we got back to Australia (so, over a year), and I can't remember when the last time was before that or what we saw. It was probably in Glasgow, probably the Cineworld or whatever it's called these days, and it was probably a cold night (because that's the most common kind in Glasgow :-) ).

Meanwhile, I've had my bike for just over a year now, and today's commute took it just over 5000km. That means I've accomplished my goal at the start of the year of doing 4200km this year - obviously I'll have to be more ambitious in 2010 !

In other news, our office is being moved in to the CBD, and in a couple of weeks, our nearest train station is closing so they can demolish it and finish the new shinier version[1], so I may be riding to work 4 or 5 days a week for a while, getting a good start on whatever my goal is for the year. And I think I'm going to have a go at the 210km Around the Bay in a Day next October.

[1] Yes, the irony is not lost on us, after living next to the Partick redevelopment for three years and not seeing it finished, they're going to get Nunawading done in about six months.
Current Mood:

calm

November 24th, 2009

01:30 pm - More Things ...
Short Shameful Confession time : I've barely been using Linux at home for the last six months. Most of the time, I'm on Windows XP.

The main problem is that I've never managed to get any video driver other than the standard vesa one to work on my laptop. I've run through every FAQ and Howto I can find, using packages, Envy, manual install, lots of different versions of the nvidia drivers - but in all cases, I can get the driver installed, and when X comes up, the display is "all messed up" - i.e. part of the screen overlapping the rest, lines across the screen, flickering, etc. Not usable in any way.
Seems to be something incompatible with my particular combination of hardware (and being a laptop, I don't really get to start swapping things around to fix it).

That wasn't so much of a problem before, because I could still use the vesa driver and get a decent resolution display, as the cost of no 3D acceleration. But then I wanted to hook up an external monitor, and guess what else the default driver doesn't support ?

Sadly, It Just Works in Windows. I set the external monitor as the primary display, and everything I've tried so far displays correctly on it.

So ... I'm starting to think about buying a separate Linux machine, or maybe a Mac mini. Something quiet which doesn't require too much power. Oh look, Christmas is just around the corner :-)
Current Mood:

quixotic

09:25 am - Things ...
Today's earworm while I was cycling to work was the Red Dwarf theme tune - all 40 minutes of it.
Ooof.

Meanwhile, I've (finally) started "ripping" my old cassettes - four down, about 300 to go. First priority is the stuff which can't be found anywhere else - e.g. my recordings from the Womadelaide 93 and 95 events (mainly Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan), various DJ mixes from Dreaming Daisies/The China Syndrome days, etc.
Current Mood:

calm
Current Music: Red Dwarf !

November 19th, 2009

10:49 pm - AKICILJ ...
So, once upon a time I used to have (among my "load every day" bookmark folder) a weather site, which summarised the world's weather for the previous day. It also listed the extremes of the day, e.g. hottest/coldest places, highest rainfall, etc, and was a very interesting site.

Of course, time passed, and so, apparently, did my bookmarks, and I can't find the site again.
Any idea what it was, and if it still exists ?
Current Mood:

curious

(1 touche | En garde !)

November 10th, 2009

10:45 pm - Time passes ...
A year ago ~~today~~ ~~a few days ...~~ ... ummm, about a year ago,

rwrylsin and I arrived back in Australia. The past year has featured a car, bicycles, jobs, a house, and a bunch of weather. It's good to be back !

(but we do miss Scotland still :-) )
Current Mood:

thoughtful

November 5th, 2009

04:55 pm - Boxes !
Anyone (Melbourne-based) planning to move soon ? We still have a lot of moving boxes left over, and we don't intend to move again for a long time. Comment (LJ or DW) or get in touch in some way and let me know if you want some !
Current Mood:

calm

October 22nd, 2009

10:05 pm - Belated report of Reasonable day of Triumph ...
So, last Sunday was Around the Bay in a Day, at which I rode the 100km Sorrento to Melbourne leg. The ride went well - my original plan was to take it easy, take a break at every rest stop (every 25km or so) and generally cruise along.

That plan met my competitive streak, even though it was Not A Race, so I found myself zooming along with various small groups of riders, and only made one brief stop to remove my rain jacket. Ended up doing 98km at an average of 30.8km/h, which is quite reasonable indeed.

It's probably been 15 years since I've cycled that far with no rest breaks, and that's probably the fastest I've gone on a ride of that length since some time in the very early 90s, when I was still competing in cycle racing of various sorts. Goes to show what riding to work about three days a week since June has been doing for me.
It's still possible to sponsor me (proceeds to The Smith Family, helping disadvantaged children) here.

And ... I think I'm going to enter the 210km event next year, to "celebrate" turning 40. Or something. That could be a whole new challenge, I was pretty confident that I could do 100km, but I've never done more than 150km in a day before. Some training may be required :-)
Current Mood:

calm

October 20th, 2009

09:24 pm
Whew. We have Internets again !

(on Friday evening, the power went out for about an hour; this was apparently too much for the power supply for the cable modem, which shuffled off the mortal coil at that point. The replacement (new cable modem/wifi-router unit!) arrived at work today ... )
Current Mood:

relieved

(1 touche | En garde !)

October 9th, 2009

12:03 am - Around the Bay in a Day !
On Sunday the 18th (eek, less than 10 days !), I'll be doing the 100km ride of Around The Bay In A Day (maybe next year I'll build up to the 210 or 250km versions). One of the aims of the ride is to raise funds for The Smith Family, providing education and learning opportunities for disadvantaged Aussie kids. You can sponsor me here !
Current Mood:

awake

October 7th, 2009

11:05 pm - 'tis the season for ... fencing !
Apparently this is exactly the right time of year to hold a fencing tournament. Over the past week or so, there's been the Australian Under-20 Championships, Australian University Games (which has fencing!), World Veterans Championships in Moscow, World Championships in Antalya, and finally, the Highland Open in Inverness. I haven't been at any of them, though - not young enough, not student enough, not old enough, not good enough, and not near enough, respectively :-)

(unfortunately, no Australian triumphs from the two World-level events - congratulations to Amber on her L64 at Worlds, though !)
Current Mood:

calm