Can you say "mecchano"?

Well, it's official. He's having a second childhood. Or preparing for a first child, anyway (and no, I'm not pregnant yet, thanks for asking!).

Yes, with all the talk around here of making babies and future plans, Charles has started to lament the fact that he sold off his Mecchano back in 2003. So, what's a man to do? Rummage through the wonder of eBay of course! He's currently bought 4 sets in varying degrees of completion and has spent this evening building (for those of you who know him, this will come as no surprise) a tractor. That's right folks, he's got his battery pack and gear boxes in place and, ok I admit it, I made the steering mechanism :D

I present the latest addition to the collection:

AND
The Tractor!


He's been driving it around the living room but unfortunately our digital camera is too old to do videos or I'd post one of them too :D However, I do have a classic photo of one of the cats' reaction to the interloper:

I might add that nothing much phases this one!

Charles also has a never-used secondhand steam engine on it's way from the UK. Just because he could (although I have to admit, it's pretty cool stuff).

In other news, my holiday is nearly over as uni starts again on Monday. I had 10 days off for the mid semester break (because I usually have Thursdays and Fridays off anyway, so that lengthened it for me) and there's only a few weeks to go until the exam period. We shall see how that all pans out.

Charles is off to Canada on October 15 for a week with his work because they want him to learn how to setup a software application so that he can teach other people at his work here how to use it. It's a Canadian application, which is why he is off. I asked him to bring me back a moose, but I think it might tip him over the limit for excess baggage! I bet moose fluff would be cool to spin though, but there could be issues getting it through customs . . . It will be the longest we've been apart since we met pretty much, so that could be interesting. But at least they don't want to send him off the week before because we intend to go the the MotoGP at Phillip Island for our anniversary on October 12-14. He was ready to make heads roll if the boss wanted to send him os for our anniversary! Can you see why I love this man? He's all about family.

We had a lovely dinner with Annie and Kris last night, so they were well fortified for their day of house hunting today. With Melbourne's housing shortage the way it's going I think Kris will have his work cut out for him, but I hope it all goes well. I guess the worst case scenario is that we could move to Glen Waverley earlier than expected and Kris could move in here, although I think Annie would want to join him in that case!

Oh, and for those of you overseas who haven't seen or heard the news yet, Geelong won the Grand Final for the first time in 44 years by a record margin of 100-and-something points. Despite this it was an interesting game to watch because of the Cats' skill display, although Port Adelaide seemed to go home at the end of the first quarter when they were 30-something points down. They didn't kick a goal beyond the first quarter, I don't think! But I'm sure if you care that much, you can read about it in the Age or somewhere. That's all I have to say about it.

So much for regular updates . . .

I know, I promised. But it seems as though life is all about Uni at the moment and nothing interesting has happened. But I bet I could think of some stuff.

Like I bought a new spinning wheel. I realise that this isn't the most interesting of topics for the majority of you, and that you'll have no idea of the significance of buying it because it's got a double treadle mechanism. But I can mention it, right? Darn tootin'. It's my blog :D Anyway, the reason I bought it is because it's got a double treadle mechanism, which means that you use both feet (each on its own treadle) to make the wheel go around. This is good because it stops me getting a sore hip on one side (bad when you're only in your mid 20s, trust me!) and means that I can stop and start treadling with a lot more ease, so I don't unravel my spinning. The only problem that I could see with the wheel was that it only came with one bobbin, but I bought a coupld more for it (although I'm not sure if they fit or not yet). It's a horizontal Ashford Traditional wheel, for those of you who might be interested, so it's easy to get parts for and I'm thinking of investing in a jumbo flyer so that I can spin thick yarn as well. My other wheel (a Tara double drive, upright single treadle) is great for lace yarns, but neither, at the moment, will do super bulky stuff.

Also, we have just invested some money in a new shmotorbike! It's beautiful and we picked it up today. Essentially its for me, but I'll let Charles ride it too, because I think he quite openly covets it over his bike! Not that his is bad or anything, its just mine is bigger and a little newer and SHWEEEEEET! And yes, I backed it into a post in the carpark at uni today. On the first day I owned it. In my defence, I a) currently have a cricked neck and can't turn my head as far as usual so I didn't see the post and b) this Eliminator is about a foot longer than my Suzy was and a LOT lower (being a cruiser as opposed to an old school upright type bike), so the brakelight cover was just at the right height to crack open. So yes, we picked it up today, and I made it unroadworthy within a couple of hours of owning it. So my mission for tomorrow is to find a new brakelight cover and get a cosy for it. Here's some photos of "The Beast" (even if it is only a 250 still!):





The damage isn't too bad, all the pieces sort of popped into the brakelight cover, so if the worse happens and I can't get a new cover tomorrow in the city, we can tape the pieces back together so that Charles can go riding sometime on the weekend. We had thought about not getting a new bike for me as it's only 10 months until we'll be able to get bigger bikes, but we wanted to go to the Grand Prix in October (it's our wedding anniversary, we're going to camp all weekend!) and we needed two bikes to go to that because you can't go to see Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi in the car, it just doesn't work. Although we are grateful to our friend Paul who is taking his car (and our stuff so we don't have to ride with a tent etc on the back!).

What else? We chopped down the old plum tree in the backyard and now there's a lot more light coming into the lounge which is good. We even managed to do it (ourselves) without any bits of tree landing on Charles' head, which was a bonus. I planted a vegie garden and I think things have started to grow in it which were specifically planted there! It's very exciting because it's generally believed that I have a black thumb. Oh, and we bought an olive tree, a Manzanillo called "Manny", which we hope will be the first of many. We're still thinking about purchasing some land and starting an olive grove sometime in the future, but we're waiting to see whether any good land comes on the market in our preferred area (up around Mansfield) now that the interest rates have gone up. We're not in any hurry, let's put it that way.

So that's about it really. Uni ticks along and hopefully I'm passing everything. I guess I'll know soon enough. I can't wait for the mid-semester break, which will be in two weeks time, 3/4 of the way through semester. Go figure. It's either too early in 1st semester (due to Easter) or too late in 2nd semester. Still at least it's on the way. It will be nice to have some time off and I'd love to go away for a bit, but I suspect I'll be madly trying to do assignments *sigh*

Speaking of going away, we managed to head up to Sydney for the weekend back in mid July to catch up with our crazy English mate, Tom. He'd been back in Australia on a work contract for a while, but was about to head back to the UK, so we decided on the spur of the moment to head up to see him before he left. We figured it was a lot easier to get to Sydney than to Milton Keynes for a weekend! And probably a lot more interesting too . . . ;)

It seems like a large proportion of our friends are heading off on their "Grand Tours" this year as well. Hayley left for the UK in Feb (and I believe she's due back at some point fairly soon), Scot and Sarah left last week for the UK via Thailand, Europe and Mexico for 12 months and Sam is about to jet off next week for an undisclosed period of time in the UK as well. I would love to go and live overseas again, but I don't think it's in our near future as Charles is very happily settled at his work, I'm still studying and mum has kittens at the thought of us moving interstate, let alone internationally! Although I'm trying to encourage Charles to think about going to visit Thane and Emma in China next year before they return to Australia as well. I'd love the chance to practice my (incredibly) rusty Mandarin.

Taking a study break

So, I'm 2/5 exams down and I'm taking a break from studying for Micro (which is tomorrow). I was checking my emails and came across this one sent from my good friend Alice. It didn't say anything, but it had the following pictures attached to it. I think they're awesome, so I'm sharing them. I don't know where they came from originally, but if I did I'd give credit where credit is due because, well, you'll see what I mean.





I thought this one was real butterflies on the paper when I first saw it!
I love the water in this one.

These two are just so intricate, it's amazing!
This is one of my favourites, because the cut outs from the page in no way look like the 3-D image that's been produced. I can't imagine how much time and fiddly cutting these would have taken!


Note the change in the shape of the footprints . . . ? :D

Just WOW . . . (my second favourite)





This is my third favourite. Again, because of the intricate cutwork.

End of assignments relief

Hello, hello! I finally have a little time to update on what's been going on now that I have completed all of my uni assignments! The last one was handed in today, so now all I have to do is get through 2 weeks of swat vac, 5 exams (yes, that's right, I'm doing four subjects this semester . . . :D) and I can have a couple of days off before I go back to work! I will be undertaking enrolment jobs in the Humanities Faculty again this year, but in the middle of the year because they've decided that mid-year intake is good and they need more staff to cope with it. But hey, it pays well :D

Got news last night that my step-cousin and his fiancee have just had a baby but I don't know the flavour yet. My aunt is due to have her first any time now and my friends Stu and Eb just had their first as well on May 24th (just found out today). Congratulations to everyone! Something tells me that there was baby dust in the air back in August . . . too bad it wasn't headed our way *sigh* I'm being the wife from hell (according to Charlie ;D) and encouraging him to quit smoking to see if that will help our babymaking efforts. So far he was off the cigs for three days and was so horrible that we decided he would go back on them! It's not going to be as easy as we suspected. At least I'm finished smoking (having Charlie quit for even a few days made it easier for me) and I've got to say, I'm not sorry to not be standing out in the cold and RAIN (yes, you read that right!) in order to get a fix.

Been checking in on Craftster to take study breaks and came across a blog called Mason-Dixon Knitting. How did I not know about this before?! Was scrolling through the links on the sidebar there and came across the wonders of YouTube in the form of this Mum, Thane, you'll love it to bits :D I just can't believe that someone would go to that much trouble! Mind you, it IS the Bayeux Tapestry . . .

Well, I'm off to hunter/gatherer some dinner for the cats and us as Charlie will be home from work soon. Well, in another hour or so. But I don't know what we're having, so I'd better go and look. Then I will be veging out this weekend in preparation for studying next week! And the week after! And then doing my exams! You get the idea.

However, I just have to mention that part of the veging out involves going to see Pirates of the Carribean III on Sunday with Tim and his ex wife and their boys because we haven't seen Tim for ages and taking his boys made it acceptable for Charles and I to see a kid's film and now its ended up that we get to meet his ex wife too . . . I'm not quite sure how that happened, but I get to experience Gold Class cinema for the first time! Sad, I know. How long has it been available? Let's not go there, OK? :)

Right, dinner. Before Cujo chews my leg off . . .

It's RAINING, it's pouring . . .

And yes, the old man's been snoring. After having been laid up all week so far with a NASTY stomach bug, I think he deserves some serious rest too. It all started on Thursday apparently. Charlie caught PT to work and had a normal day. Started feeling crook on Friday, was tired on Saturday but well enough to cook for Leo and Joanna who came for dinner (they and I are all fine, by the way). Sunday he did some more knees up running around activities and Monday he looked like death warmed up so he stayed home from work. Tuesday he was worse, and managed to drag himself to the doctor (luckily it's only a few blocks from our house, I wouldn't have wanted him driving too far in his condition!). Turns out he's practically dead with a blood pressure of 106/50 . . . So he sent me a message asking me to come straight home from uni (after my Biochem prac) and when I got there, I promptly turned around and went to fill his prescription! Four tactical nukes in the form of some very serious antibiotics later and he seems to almost be himself again. But Wednesday and today have been spent asleep on the couch. We'll see how he pulls up tomorrow.

So yeah, it's been raining cats and dogs today. It would be the day I didn't take my brolly to uni (because it was clear and sunny when I left this morning!). Luckily I drove today as I wouldn't have wanted to be waiting on the bus stop, in the rain, wearing a white shirt :s No jumper 'coz of the nice weather, see? :D

I took some photos as proof!
If you look closely, you can see the raindrops on the washing line. Guess who had washing out?! The ladder is up because Cujo is all in favour of climbing onto the roof to sun herself and not being able to get down. She doesn't much like the rain though!

One of the three plants that are actually growing in our backyard. I don't count the plum or casurinas because they're well established . . .

Another of our plants that are actually growing. The fence is there to keep the chooks off as "Milton the Monsterior" is the only truly green thing they can get at in the yard.

We may actually get some lemons this year! Although I think I'll have to attack it with the steel knife (when I have a steel knife!) to encourage it to grow some more first.

In other news, our oldest cat, Lottie, passed away last Saturday. She was about 23 and had outlived 3 owners! She's been off colour for a couple of days, and we went out shopping in the morning, came back in the afternoon and she was dead under the Jag. She'd had a good run though.


RIP Lottie
1984 ~ 2007

Yes, we're still alive out here

Man, I really need to do more regular updates on here, or I'll forget what's been happening!

So, uni has been MAD as we come towards the business end of semester. I had a Biochem test the other week and passed, so that's a bonus. I'm finding it interesting, there's just SO MUCH STUFF we have to know. But I've upped the study roster to include more hours, so I think I'll cope OK.

For Entomology, we had to make a bug collection with 15 orders and 25 specimens in it. I managed, only by buying a stick insect (order Phasmatodea) from the petshop and killing it. I felt really bad about that, he was kinda cute. Here's some photos of the (almost) finished product (before the stick insect went in):







Major thanks to Mum and Charlie for helping with the bug collection! And getting excited about the project when I just couldn't :D

I've also had prac write-ups for various subjects coming out of my ears, so I'll be knuckling down over the weekend to knock those off. I had a couple of days off this week with a dodgy ear infection, so I managed to cover a couple of them and get a little crafting time in too. I made something for a swap I'm involved in on the Crafster forums but I've given my partner the link to my blog in case she wants to find out a bit more about me, so I can't post pictures until after she receives it.

Chuck started a new job back at the beginning of April and is having a ball! He's working for a company that he used to work for back in about 2000, and is now getting to do al sorts of interesting management and ideas and infrastructure stuff. He tells me there's no sitting around the office being bored like his last job! I'm not entirely sure of everything he does around the place, but I'm happy that he's happy.

Our 2 year anniversary was back a couple of weeks as well, so we went out for dinner, but the real treat that I'd organised didn't happen until last weekend. We went to see Cirque du Soleil's Varakai which was awesome! Although they try to make the show have something of a storyline, and I couldn't follow this one as well as I could their "Quidam" which was on telly a few weeks ago as well. I think this one had something to do with Icarus and A Midsummer Night's Dream and Under the Sea - it was odd, but good. We went to the matinee which was a nice change too.

That's about all for now, I have to go to uni and do another prac at 10am, so I'd best get going!

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we finally laid Lucy to rest yesterday as well. She's now lying peacefully next to Umberto at the Kew Cemetery, so it was a bit of an emotional afternoon here. We're doing ok and I suspect things will get back to normal fairly quickly now.

And now for the real update on what's been happening!

So, here's the latest update from our part of the world . . .

After hosting what can only be termed a successful Christmas, we had a very quiet New Year's Eve with some close friends. We stood on the local train station fence to view the fireworks in the city (and it was a pretty good view too!) and were treated to our own "private" show as one of the people a bit further down the road let off some Roman Candles in the street. I'd never been that close to a firework before, so it was interesting.

January came and went. My birthday was celebrated with some re-acquaintences of Charles' at the Manga Exhibition at the NGV which was great. I forget the artist's name, but he's the guy who created Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion (amongst others). Would have liked to get more information about the artist from our guide, who was inclined to merely summarise the picture(s), which we could have done for ourselves. Then we had lunch at Borsch, Vodka and Tears, a gorgeous little vodka bar on Chapel St that serves 147 different types of extremely good Polish Vodka. The food is also exquisite (this assessment having been made PRIOR to sampling the "liquids of divers residue and thickness". The Pancake Parlour is also a great place according to Charles and I. Also easily located next to the movie theatre ;)

Since November last year (when my exams concluded) I have been working at Uni and this continued throughout January as well. The silly season was upon us as we selected and enrolled the larger part of 1700 students who will be entering the University this year. I was looking forward to the week's leave that Charles and I had planned for our honeymoon trip to Tasmania. I got the week off, but we didn't spend it all in Tassie as planned . . .

We had "organised" (in a very lax and disorganised way) a 9-day motorbike tour of Tasmania where we were intending to go to some of the major cities and find somewhere to stay, then do day trips in order not to have to lug our rucksacks around with us. I swear the trip was doomed from the start! But for a doomed trip, we had an awesome time, go figure . . . The trouble began when we had to push-start my motorbike so we could get down to Station Pier in Port Melbourne. I just thought it was a flat battery and that the ride to the pier would charge it sufficiently to get us on board the ferry. Unfortunately this was not the case. We were bulk early on our arrival at the pier, so we parked the bikes and watched the goings-on for a while. A formidable group of serious biker scum rocked up on their Harley's and we let them board before us (it's a seniority thing). When we went to start my bike again, it wouldn't even turn over. Not only that, it wouldn't push-start either. This is after running the damn thing around the road divider twice with Charles pushing. Needless to say, we were both unimpressed, but him moreso than I!

We ended up pushing the bike onto the frieght level of the ferry (for those of you who've been on the boat and can picture the ramp that most other vehicles go up to park will know why I was extremely grateful to the staff at this point!) which meant that we didn't have to line up with all the other voyagers. A huge thank you must go to the staff of the Spirit of Tasmania at this point, and the Port Authority staff too, who sorted out our predicament. I'm sure they had a good giggle at our expense too!

The trip over was fairly uneventful, despite my being seasick once due to not having been on a boat of that size since I was about 10. The cabin was very comfortable and the food was great (what little I ate of it!). Charles certainly enjoyed his dinner as well as mine . . .

We were woken by the PA system at about 5.45am announcing that we would be arriving soon so after a hurried shower and dressing, we went to see the Tourism Tasmania guy on board about where we could get my motorbike looked at in Devonport. He didn't know, but suggested that we call the RACV, which we hadn't thought of, but decided it was a good idea. After finding out my membership had lapsed and rejoining over the phone, we arranged for someone to come and meet the boat for us. We went down to the garage deck where the bikes were parked and tried push-starting mine again, but due to the fact that it was pouring rain and so the gangplank was wet and slippery (and I locked the back wheel) it didn't work. So we waited under the shelter of the off ramp that everyone else was using for the RACT guy to appear. He managed to jump start the bike and gave us directions to the only motorbike shop in Devonport. Luckily it wasn't too hard to find. Unluckily, since the ferry gets in so early, it was only 7.30am and the shop didn't open until 9am!

We parked the bikes out the front of the shop and wandered up the road to have a much needed and very warming coffee and breakfast. It was still raining and we were soaked! Still, at least we got practice at riding in the wet; something we hadn't really done in Melbourne of late! We returned to the shop just as it was opening, then had to wait for one of the mechanics to arrive to see if they had a battery of the right size. They didn't. The mechanic jump started my bike again after having given us directions to a specific battery shop. We arrived there and they were open and they guy was very helpful although he too was dubious as to whether or not he'd have a battery of the right size. He removed the battery from my bike at this point and realised that it was completely dry, which is why it wasn't working. Charles and I both felt like nuffies, but mind you, this was something that neither the RACT or the motorbike mechanic had checked . . .

That little issue solved, we proceeded to begin the big adventure. Well, the travelling part of it anyway! We rode into a strong head wind all the way to Launceston, so we made several detours along the way. The first was to a chocolate factory where we sampled the wares, watched the staff making chocolates and wandered around the gardens (because we were already soaked to the skin, so walking in the rain didn't phase us!). Our second stop was to the Ashgrove Cheese Factory where we were able to read about the cheese-making process and see the factory and aging room but there was no activity there on that day as it was a Saturday. Again, we sampled the wares and I was most impressed with the cheese that contained "bush dust" which as far as I could tell was the same stuff as "bull dust", that extremely fine red soil grit from the Northern Territory. It tasted REALLY good! In the end we settled for buying some Wasabi cheese - an unbeatable combination.

After there, we continued to the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm where we stopped in for morning tea/lunch of Devonshire Tea. YUM! Homemade raspberry jam on homemade scones with fresh cream! I was in heaven! And especially as it was out of the wind although the rain had stopped by that time. We succumbed to the lure of the raspberries in dark chocolate too and popped them in Charles' saddlebag for later.

By the time we arrived in Launceston at the Tourist Information Centre, it was only about 12.30pm but we were bushed from fighting the head wind the whole way. We found a promising-looking backpacker's hostel and rang to see if they had any vacancies. They did and they also had a lock-up garage for the bikes, so everyone was comfortably accommodated. We had a bit of trouble finding the place as I think we were both a bit directionally challenged (couldn't find North!) but eventually we got there, checked in and kipped out!

On the Sunday, we got organised and rode to Georgetown for a look around. We went to the old Watchhouse (now a museum with a model of Georgetown as it was when founded, very interesting) and poked around, then on to the Bass and Flinder's Centre where they have a full scale replica of the boat that B&F circumnavigated Tasmania in to prove it was an island. It looks like a bathtub! But the boat is most impressive. You can go aboard and into the cabins and galley and there's information about Bass and Flinder's and various other boats in the centre too. There is also a boat (that may or may not be a replica as well, I can't recall) that is (or was based on) the boat the Flinder's sailed from Sydney to Westernport Bay (near Melbourne!) in! It's about 16 feet long and has no "below decks", it was truly amazing. They don't build 'em like they used to (men or boats)!

We continued on from Georgetown to Low Head where there is a historical Pilot's Station that is also now a museum and guest house. That provided a most enjoyable afternoon's browsing as they had all sorts of exhibits about what exactly a pilot does (navigates the ships into harbour) and explanations of the Plimsoll Line (marking how much cargo can be loaded into a vessel in different kinds of water/weather) and various "things" that divers had found at the wreck of the John Eton (I think?) that was wrecked at Low Head in 1906. It was fascinating!

We returned to Launceston for some hardcore nappage at this point as the winds had again been fairly vigorous during our ride. We then spent some time exploring Launceston a little and went out for tea at the pub across the road from the one we were staying at (the hostel didn't do bar meals). We retired early, but were awoken at about 2.30am by a phonecall to say that Charles' mother, Lucy, had passed away. We both had a weird sense of dejavu here because you may know that when we went to visit Dad in the UK for Christmas in 2005, we had a nasty phonecall saying that Charles' father had passed away. I think that also came in the middle of the night.

However, it's much easier to return from interstate than intenation, so we caught the boat back on the Monday night and spent Tuesday and Wednesday organising funeral arrangements. The funeral was yesterday (Friday) at Fawkner and was well attended by various colleagues of Lucy's, as well as Charles' cousins (which was nice to see this time as they did not attend 'Burt's funeral last year). So I finally got to meet some of Charles' family although not, it must be said, under the best of circumstances.

All in all, what we learned from that trip is that the weather in Tassie is much nicer than Melbourne at present. Who decided we would be a tropical city anyway?! I never voted for it! But uni and work keeps us here at present. I think we'd both like to move to Tassie at some point, but we shall see what we shall see. Mum has decided she doesn't want us to go, but she's also decided that we aren't allowed to go on any more holidays in case she follows in the way of Burt and Lucy! :D

Internet nuffies . . .

OK, so I'm refering to me here.

I had to restart this blog because I went to post in the old one and it didn't allow me to log in. I know I got the password and username right because I saved them on my computer in case of ever forgetting them. Not so smart, but hey, it's only a blog. Hardly national security? You will note that I have endeavoured to keep the format and name and so forth the same, but I did have to change the web address. You're here, so I guess you found it! Previous posts ('coz there's SO many of them! :s ) are located here.