In which we attempt a family Christmas

So we had a Xmas day plan. Arrive @ Elsternwick brother's at 12.30 for canapes, presents, entrees, presents, main course, presents, dessert, presents. (I should point out that the many rounds of presents would be for the kids - the adults were having their first ever Kris Kringle and/or Secret Santa)

9 am - Xmas morning. Discover Elsternwick 4 yr old had been up all night with gastro & was now sleeping it off. Elsternwick 2 yr old was the energiser bunny & Elsternwick bro& s.i.l were exhausted from being up all night with mr 4.

We offered to postpone/move lunch. No say bro he's been marinating lamb & creating canapes etc.

We warn Viewbank bro & family that there has been illness in Elsternwick.

11am. Viewbank s.i.l. persuades Elsternwick bro to have xmas lunch at Viewbank. By now Elsternwick s.i.l is feeling sick.

11.45 am. Elsternwick s.i.l. is throwing up and fainting (together & separately) so new plan is hatched.

Tapping Betty will drive me to Elst. where she & mum will pick up food etc., and I will pick up car (with car seats) and messrs 2 & 4 to take to Viewbank.

Despite the hasty rearrangement (& the missing ham glaze) we had a great day.

Master 4 was a little bit sad that mummy & daddy weren't there; we don't think Master 2 even noticed - there was a trampoline to jump on, a puppy to play with, birds to annoy and big cousins to hang around with (and chocolate)

All the sickies are feeling better today and (touch wood) looks like everyone else has avoided catching whatever it was.

Day 5 Wellington

TappingBetty was due in this afternoon so in the morning I headed into Wellington. I wanted to get a closer look at the Central Baptist church on Boulcott Street (I'd only glimpsed it from the airport bus).

After checking out the church I was heading for the General practitioner (gastro pub) when I spied a chocolate cafe.

Now Ali hadn't been able to recommend any choc cafes in Wellington to me so i headed for this one (Butlers). Had a white hot chocolate - uber yum - probably the best white hot chocolate I'v ever had. (See here for a more detailed review)

I then headed toward the manners mall where I stumbled across Arty Bee Books. What a fantastic 2nd hand book shop. Came away with a Lillian O'Donnell, a Jonnie jacobs & 2 Medora Sale's. They also had 3 first edition Drina's (severely tempted though I managed to restrain myself)

Lunch at Mr. Buns as I did a quick fly through of Te Papa beforeheading back to Thornden to meet TappingBetty.

Day 4. Auckland to Wellington

This morning portion of this post could be titled - reasons not to watch breakfast tv.

So I'm faffing around the hotel room watching tv (to get a weather forecast) when I saee on the news that a massive power blackout has blacked out much of Auckland City & surrounds.

Now I'm on the 10th floor (and we appear to have power) but I don't know about the airport. I decide to revise my morning plans & head for the airport a bit earlier.

No sign of power problems at the airport tho' my (north of) Auckland tweeps were tweeting about not going to work.

Arrived at Wellington airport & caught the shuttlebus into the city.

They have free wifi on the shuttle bus. So out comes the ipod & I happily fb'd & email'd my way to the hotel. Wellington has an iphone app (which I'd downloaded before I left home) so I checked that for tourism ideas.

Discovered that the international cast of Mamma Mia is playing at the TSB Arena so head for the arena to see if I can get tix (as a surprise for TappingBetty).

Auckland Day 3

Had the crappiest night's sleep ever ( was still awake at 4 am) so was less than amused to be woken by housekeeping at 9.30 am. Eventually got myself going and headed for Queen Street & a bus to Auckland museum.

Well that was the plan.

As I walked down Queen Street (having already stopped at Mrs Higgins for the worlds best chewy caramel cookies – just in case) I glanced into the MidCity Arcade where my eyes spied 'The sweetest little chocolate shop'.

So in I went and tasted the kiwi chocolate. And had what the owner called 'Aucklands best hot chocolate'. (we'll see)

On the way to the museum (sort of ) the Link bus went through Ponsonby & I spotted a sign for Murder Burger I was intrigued (their logo has a kitten on it) so I de-bussed and decided to partake of luncheon there.

For some reason I was expecting it to be vegetarian? but it isn't - they do beef burgers, chicken fillet burgers, roo, ostrich & I forget what else. (I had the gourmet beef mushroom burger cos I like mushrooms)

Despite being distracted by kittens & burgers I made it to the museum in time for the Maori cultural performance - absolutely excellent. The performance highlighted aspects of Maori culture and dance - it was brilliant, I could have easily sat through it again (and probably again). They finished with a haka & then mingled with the audience for a chat and/or photo opportunity.

The performers were all from the Ngati Whatua O Orakei, the home tribe (Mana Whenua) of Auckland — (Tamaki Harenga Waka).

The performer I was talking to mentioned that she was about to lead a tour of the Maori Gallery so I joined that which made me realise how little I knew about Maori (& NZ) history which led to a lightening of the wallet in the bookshop...

In the evening I toddled up the road to Sky City and watched the opening preview performance of Auckland Theatre Company's production of Oliver. Also excellent.

Off to Wellington tomorrow - suppose I should pack...

Auckland Day 2.

It looked like being a glorious day so when I eventually dragged myself out of bed I decided to catch the ferry to Devonport.

Devonport is lovely (I decided I wanted to live there) – there is Devonport Chocolate shoppe – very delicious but very expensive. A couple of excellent 2ndhand bookshops.

I also checked out the library (small but quite innovative in its way) – I got 'outed' as a visiting librarian -they had this really interesting display & I asked if I could take a photo of it – busted!

Ate lunch on the beach (a trifle windy) before catching the ferry back to Auckland. Caught the Link bus to Parnell (was going to go to the museum but decided to save it for tomorrow when it's supposed to be raining). Instead had afternoon tea at Chocolate Boutique Parnell. Delish Cookies n cream smoothie. Parnelll Village has free wireless so sat in the Domain and took advantage of the wifi on the ipod.

After that it was back to Auckland wih a stop at Borders (a very creative Borders may I say) and a visit to Auckland Central Library to check out the free wifi there - & the library itself).

Tried a nearby Greek restaurant for tea (yum).

Note to self (write a bog post abt Auckland City wifi, parnell wifi for tech blog)

Auckland day 1.

TappingBetty picked me up at 5.15 (in the am) and after some interesting route choices had me at the airport shortly after 6.

After I walked thru x ray I got checked for explosives & patted down. (It appears they they thought I was TappingBetty)

Dallied in duty free - resisted the siren call of an iphone (did succumb to the call of the new Michael Connelly tho)

The flight was uneventful and got me to Auckland about 10 minutes late and I was lucky enough to jump straight on an airport bus and was at the hotel by 3.

It may well have been earlier but the hotel is up the steepest street in Auckland – or that's how it seemed as I lugged my case up Wyndham St.

My room is on the 10^th floor with a view between buildings through to Auckland Harbour. It was a lovely sunny afternoon so I headed off to do some exploring.

After checking out Whitcoulls (I'd finished the Connelly & wanted some NZ crimefic to tide me over)

An aside - I feel booksellers have mised an golden opportunity here. It's NZ book month (October) yet I could buy the new Patricia Cornwell, the new Michael Connelly, Robert Jordan, Stieg Larssen on special but would have had to pay full price for the NZ books. Why not a NZ book month special – buy one get the 2^nd 20% off, or 10% off all NZ authors (they'd have had me for sure.)

I wandered towards the harbour (taking photos of Hannah's & Munn's) - getting my bearings & basically checking bus stops & ferry timetables.

Afternoon coffee from 1 Queen Street - reputed to have the best coffee in Auckland (will need to do more tests to see if this is true or not) - gotta say it was pretty good.

Dinner at hotel.

Tasmania - Day the last

The only thing we absolutely had to do today was be at Hobart airport by 6pm for our flight to Melbourne.

So we left Bicheno at a reasonable hour, having stopped for a very good coffee on the way out of town, and meandered our way back to Hobart.

We stopped for great scenery, morning tea, great scenery, lunch, great scenery, and a visit to Hobart's Botanic gardens. Our stroll round the gardens was curtailed by the rain so we had a lingering, leisurely afternoon tea in the cafe (watching the rain fall) then returned our rental car & headed to the airport.

Bye Tassie hope to be back in less than 30 years.

Tasmania - Day 7 (Wineglass Bay)

After last night's thunderbolts and lightning we woke early to glorious sunshine and headed quickly to Freycinet National Park and Wineglass Bay.

We did a couple of the shorter walks - beautiful scenery (some glorious views from the walk to the lighthouse.)

Then it was off to Elephants Pass for a highly recommended late afternoon tea (high tea perhaps?) of Pancakes & Hot Caramel Fudge drink @ Mount Elephant pancakes.

Major yum factor.

Then back to Bicheno for the night.

Tasmania - Day 6 (Launceston)

It's raining again.

As I left the motel I slipped & fell - no major damage - just a slight calf muscle strain (imho). Hurts a bit to walk - not enough to limp just enough to be a niggle really.

So we head for Launceston to check out the city. (Gourlays sweet shop & the Chocolate studio). Had awesome morning hot chocolate & cookies n cream cheesecake @ the studio by which time the rain had stopped so we headed for Cataract Gorge.

It's amazing - it's only a couple of minutes from the city centre yet you could be in the middle of the wilderness.

Although the sun was out the steady rain had made it wet & muddy underfoot.

The water in the First Basin was way up - almost to the swimming pool.

There were peacocks everywhere - wandering up to the tables to (try and) join you for coffee, wandering along the tourist paths, strolling out of the public toilets ...

After Cataract Gorge we headed towards Exeter - we visited a lavender farm, sat in the car & looked at the Batman Bridge while we waited for the hail to stop, and had a hot chocolate at Grindelwald.

Hmm Grindelwald. It was built 30 years ago by a dutch guy who'd visited Switzerland & fallen in love with the architecture & so re-created a little piece of Switzerland not far from Launceston.

We went into the chocolate shop (of course) and asked for scones & jam& cream and hot chocolate. The woman looked at us like we were mad (fair call) and told us that we'd have to pay extra if we wanted hot choc instead of tea with our devonshire tea - fine with is. We then asked for mugs of hot chocolate - once again 'that' look and a 'well that will cost you extra'.

Anyway we had a pleasant devonshire tea with an ok hot chocolate - it was made from ordinary drinking chocolate so nothing special despite being a chocolate shop.

Tasmania - Day 5 (Cradle Mountain)

Despite the rains best efforts - it had rained steadily overnight - we set off for Cradle Mountain. The weather was alternately bad, very bad, not so bad, ok, for the whole 3 hour journey.

At Dove Lake there was the occasional snow flake (but apparently it had snowed yesterday) but it was mainly rain, slush, & mud.

There were a few people braving the walks (we were not of their number) instead we admired the scenery (the rain stopped briefly) and watched a couple of international tourists trying to negotiate the paths in high heels.

The rain & mist gave the scenery a shades of grey look so we headed back to Launceston earlier than we had planned.

On the way back we stopped in Sheffield & had Devonshire Tea at the Scottish Scone Shop. It's an old fashioned tea shop with resident bagpipe player and walls festooned with kilts, tartan remnants and scots bits n pieces.

Did I mention that before we left this morning there were bunny rabbits gambolling on the lawn next to our unit?

Tasmania - Day 4

After our final cooked breakfast @ Rydges it was off to the Salamanca markets bright & early.

The market lived up to the hype - some interesting new crafts interspersed with some 'Rocks market' style crafts and a few tacky stalls thrown in for good measure.

After a lightening of the wallet - it was off along the Heritage Hwy to Launceston.

First stop was intended to be Kempton - a heritage listed town where we'd planned to have a Devonshire tea. However everything was closed (on a saturday morning) not even any cafes open.

Next stop was supposd to be Jericho (mud brick prison wall). We took the turn off for Jericho but somehow ended up in Little Marshes! (Jericho it seems is only metres off the hwy but not signposted)

Next up was Oatlands - finally a heritage town with the requisite heritage buildings and eateries. We decided to devonshire tea at 'The Stables' only they'd run out of scones! so, fading from hunger, we had an earlyish lunch before heading for Ross.

LIke Oatlands Rosswas very much what we expected - the Ross Bridge, a sandstone bridge built in 1836 by convict labour, is well known for the intricate carvings on both sides.

The river here was quite high lending credence to the wettest tasmanian winter on record claim. The main street is almost all old & (original) buildings and as the rain had let up it was a pleasant stroll before heading back to the car to continue our journey to Launceston.

The closer we got to Launceston the heavier the rain - on the outskirts of Cleveland we came across the St. Andrews Inn - we nearly didn't stop (cos it was raining quite heavily by now) but we did and scored the Devonshire tea we'd been craving and possibly the best scones anywhere.

Unfortunately the inn is up for sale so who knows if supreme scone maker will still be there on our next devonshire tea visit.

By the time we arrived in Launceston the rain was well and truly here to stay so we settled into our motel and watched the lights of Launceston through a curtain of mist.

Tasmania - Day 3 (Cadbury)

We woke to the sound and sight of steady rain so decided that indoor pursuits would be high on today's agenda.

First off we headed to Claremont and the Cadbury Chocolate Factory. They no longer do tours of the factory, instead you watch a dvd on the history of Cadbury before being turned loose in the shop.

There are actually 2 shops - one is Cadbury branded merchandise - (t shirts, caps, mugs etc.); the other is the seconds chocolate shop.

There was a school group (primary age) ahead of us in the shop - pretty much every kid was buying a 5kg box of assorted factory seconds chocolate ($40).

The seconds shop was great value and you could get your purchases posted back ( so I'm told :>))

Morning tea at the Cadbury cafe (white flake hot chocolate - yum)

After Cadbury (and with the rain still bucketing down) we headed for Cascade Brewery. After sampling the brew we decided, despite the rain, to drive up Mt Wellington to see what we could see. The rain had cleared slightly (sometimes) but even so the cloud was sitting quite low so there was little or no visibility beyond 'The Springs'.

The Cascade Female Factory was rained out so it was back into the city to check out the Cat & Fiddle Arcade.

In a bookshop I found that Marcus Clarke's 'For the term of his natural life' is one of the $9.95 popular penguins so I bought it - I'd almost bought a copy at Port Arthur (not the Penguin ed.) but hadn't cos I thought I might have a copy at the Mont Albert branch. But for $9.95 It didn't matter if I already had a copy as I really wanted to read it again after the visit to Port Arthur.

Tasmania - Day 2 continued

After Port Arthur we headed touristically back towards Hobart - stopping quickly at pretty much every scenic lookout we could find:

Palmers Lookout
Remarkable caves
Devils kitchen
Tasman Arch
Blowhole
Tesselated pavements
Federation Chocolate Factory (not so much a scenic lookout but a must-see certainly)

It was a couple of tired little teddy bears who grabbed takeaway on New Town and headed back to the hotel to put our feet up.

Tasmania - Day 2 (Port Arthur)

An earlyish start today as we wanted to take advantage of the good weather and visit Port Arthur.

First though we headed for the (included) buffet breakfast and fuelled up for the strenuous days sightseeing ahead - toast, bacon, eggs, hash browns, and fruit salad (yes really - I had fruit salad for breakfast) before hitting the tourist trail to Port Arthur.

Brief stops at Richmond (historic bridge)& the Abel Tasman monument arriving at Port Arthur in time for morning tea.

Having been to Port Arthur some 30 years I'd forgotten how powerfully atmospheric it is - it has changed quite a bit - after the 1996 massacre parts of the visitors centre & cafe complex were pulled down and/or rebuilt.

The entry fee includes a 20 minute harbour cruise - it's interesting to see the site from the water - and unlimited wandering arond the site (some 40 hectares iirc) .

It's difficult to explain how cold and eerie the (former) penitentiary can feel on a bright, sunny winters day - sketches and photos explain what & how the various rooms rooms were used.

There is such a lot to take in.

The memorial for the victims of the 1996 massacre is a simple, but extremely moving, garden (with reflecting pool) on the former site of the Broken Arrow cafe (where many of the victims were murdered).

It is a lovely tribute and quite overwhelming in its simplicity.

I think Port Arthur is one of those places that you need to visit more than once.

There is just so much to take in...

Tasmania

After spending most of July and a fair bit of August being sick - think bad head cold that never left- I finally recovered enough to have a holiday.

Sometime ago Jetstar had $30 each way fares Melbourne/Hobart (including luggage) and I persuaded TappingBetty to accompany me.

She had never been to Tassie.

I had been to Tassie once; ** years ago on a school trip.

We arrived in Hobart shortly after 8am, picked up our rental car - a (Hyundai Getz)

and headed for North Hobart and our Hobart base - Rydges North Hobart.

On the subject of rental cars - most (if not all) guidebooks recommend that you don't make it obvious to to would be thieves that you're driving a rental car. Kind of difficult with a large Hertz sticker on the back window, Hertz label on the number plate casing, smallish hertz sticker on windscreen, hertz sticker on dashboard.

Anyway back to Hobart - Day 1.

After checking in (and discovering that TappingBetty's camera had failed somewhere between dinner last night and Hobart this morning) we left the car to coffeehouse with another Hertz rental at Rydges and, for some crazy reason, walked into Hobart City Centre.

Our first stop, armed with tourist brochures, was a coffee shop for breakfast and a brochure perusal.

The weather was sunny (and windy) so we opted to start the day by exploring Hobart. Our first stop was a camera shop where the demise of TB's camera was confirmed and she replaced it with a bright pink 10 mp model.

Next up we meandered in the general direction of the Visitor Information Centre and after a stop there for more brochure perusal & maps we headed, mini cupcakes in hand, for the waterfront and a gentle stroll (more an amble really) in the direction of Salamanca Square and Battery Point.

After wandering around Battery Point we descended to sea level and bought fish n chips which we ate watching the docks.

Off to check out Parliament House then a lazy amble back to the hotel to check in. Our room was excellent - a twin suite overlooking North Hobart football ground which meant some good scenery watching the teams train.

We decided we'd done enought walking for the day so we picked up the car & drove to Rosny point lookout, then down to Sandy Bay to see the casino. Afternoon tea was at Smith Street cafe and then, eventually, dinner at a local restaurant.

And the cure is...Sydney

I was a bit under the weather last week.

In a world in which swine flu was slowly encroaching I was stricken suddenly with a head cold.

Saturday - mild throat tickle (and matinee performance of Sydney Dance Co's 360 degrees.
Sunday - full on head cold
Monday - full on head cold

Also Monday went to doctor - she prescribed 48 hours of bed rest followed by 4 days in Sydney.

Well who am I to argue!

Tuesday - cold receding - not quite as rapidly as it had arrived but at least voice back, ears almost better etc.

Wednesday (Cold a bit better still worried about ears) - fly to Sydney to recuperate. (Suffer the dreaded 'ear squeeze for the first time in a long time - not even earplugs help). Visit Lindt chocolate shop (Cockle Bay Wharf) to buy cookies n cream lindt balls for hannah (only reason of course). Forced down a Lindt chocolate milkshake for health reasons. Went to casino to win money to pay for hot chocolates etc. (won $150), went to theatre - Chicago - Millerchip & O'Connor = awesome. Rohan - what a 6 pack.

Thursday - (Cold still on the improve - ears a bit better) Rain most of day. Sydney Writers Festival at various times throughout the day. Hot chocolate at Lindt Cafe (Martin Place) -medicinal purposes only of course!, State Library of NSW for World Press Photos exhibition and Darwin exhibition, and also because I'm a library nerd. Visit cupcake shop and buy cupcakes - use them to drown my sorrows after receiving disappointing email. Find Jeff de Bruges chocolate shop - lovely, but expensive belgian chocolates made to a french recipe. Delish.

Friday - (Cold getting better - ears good). Persistent rain seemed to make a Chocolate & banana milkshake at Guylian shop a good idea. Ferry to Homebush, tour Olympic Stadium (the faux engineer in me fascinated by how they change the stadium from oval - for cricket & AFL, to rectangular for rugby & soccer). Dinner @ City Extra, Circular Quay (Very good hot chocolate for a non hot chocolate specialist shop - very chocolatty & creamy)

Saturday. (Ears seem ok, still sniffling a bit) Rocks market - didn't buy anything, not even any fudge. Hot chocolate at Guylian Cafe underneath the 'toast rack'. Opera House for a wander, Sydney Museum for tramways exhibition, out to the airport to hang out in the business class lounge before flying back to Melb (business class).

Sunday. Cold practically gone. Headed out to the wilds of Clayton for Cloc's production of Miss Saigon - absolutely brilliant, superbly done, even the helicopter, just superb - giggled when realise BL borrower playing little boy and I'm sitting next to his mum, dad & big brother (big brother is 10 and one of our 'after school play games on the internet until mum comes & gets me' gang). freaked him out a little when I called him by name I think.

Monday - back to work. Cold is mysteriously worse again...

What does the 'out of order' sign mean?

This morning the public internet server decided to cark it (technical term that) meaning that for the first three opening hours there was no public internet.

I put bright yellow 'out of order' signs on all the computers while we waited for Adam to resuscitate the server.

NB: The bright yellow 'out of order' signs are clearly not that useful.

Questions/Statements from public:

1. What does the out of order sign mean?
2. The internets won't login
3. Hotmail isn't working
4. Are the internets out of order?
5. Why won't the internets log in?
6. Hawthorn's internets are working
7. How do I log on to the internet
8. Someone's turned the computer off
9. I found this sign on internet #3 (hands me out of order sign) is this why it isn't working?
10. The sign says the internet is out of order but can I use the pc to check my email instead?

This doesn't take into account the number of 'when will the internets be working again' questions and variations thereof.

If it had been my last day I'd have been tempted to be creative with my answers to the above questions...

How would you like to have answered these questions?

Light bulb moments

So the other day one of the light globes in the loungeroom blew.

In the light globe cupboard* I had spare screw-top globes but no bayonet globes. So I headed for my local foodworks - my light globe supplier of choice for nigh on ten years - but, world in crisis, they only only had screw-top globes.

I plugged in a spare floor lamp and used that to illuminate the front half of the lounge room.

Then I found myself at BigW - I've bought clothes, groceries, whitegoods and a computer there - surely a frosted bayonet light globe would be attainable?

BigW had shelves upon shelves of light globes: Did I want flood or spot (& what angle of flood or spot); 27w = 40w (how can that be); halogen (wasn't halogen gas banned?).

What about shape - the only 'uncle fester' shaped ones were red - no thank you; but I could choose from intestine shaped; mushroom shaped; glu-stick shaped etc.

Price - what happened to $1 per light globe? The cheapest were $6 each and did nothing other than light the room - the more expensive ones would save the environment; reduce my carbon footprint, brew coffee, and bring about world peace - if they vacuumed as well I'd have bought them.

Safeway had 'old fashioned' globes but only in clear - I want frosted (pearl).

So the floor lamp will do for now - (Just means I can't use/charge the eee whilst watching dvds at night)

P.S. My peeps at Foodworks have 'special ordered' me some pearl bayonet cap light globes. Should be in Tuesday.

*******
* When I say light globe cupboard, it's not a cupboard just for light globes - there are lots of other things in there as well!

This Boots was made for walkin'

We had a family lunch at my mum's in Pakenham today. The day started with an easter egg hunt for the under 12's. Unfortunately the 4 - 11 age group were late arriving which gave the under 3s a clear advantage in the egg hunting (close to the ground) section.

After a delicious lunch the various family members scattered themselves around the unit. Young (20 month old) Boots left the Brum-watching contingent and headed into the backyard with daddy. Daddy & Uncle rowrow then left to take the trestle tables back to the craft room and daddy swears he saw Boots re-enter the unit.

About 30 minutes later daddy rejoined the brum contingent and was asked where Boots was.

It then transpired that Boots (who could wander for his country) was nowhere to be found. He had somehow evaded the attention of doting grandma, aunts, uncles, & cousins and wandered off.

My mother lives in a retirement village (gated community) but Boots had wandered some 800 metres and into a different drive from hers.

Luckily a neighbour in the next block along from mum had seen Boots wander into her garden - she went out and spoke to him and was leading a very unconcerned Boots back the way he had come when we caught up with them.

We still don't know how he got out - there were adults near the front door, and in the back garden so someone should have seen him, but no-one did.

After a fifteen minute power nap Boots was up and ready to wander some more - luckily now everyone was keeping a much closer eye on him.

A week in the life

In which Fiona has a week off work.

Monday - stuffed around and did nothing.

Tuesday - looked after youngest nephews (the 3 yr old is teaching me spanish)

Wednesday - Melb. International Food & Wine Festival revisited. This time lunch at Bottega with CF & PJ. I had the parsley, chive & green olive risotto followed by the tiramisu. As with last week the venue was superb, the food delicioso, the company great.

After lunch, and on a whim as I was walking past Her Maj., I decided to grab one of the $50 Billy Elliot tickets. The lead was Josh Denyer - I hadn't seen him perform before - so it seemed opportune. So I spent a lovely afternoon at the theatre (missing the earthquake cos it hit during the loud, tap dancing finale of the show).

Thursday - Up early for day trip to Canberra. Arrived in Canberra at 8.30 and headed for the gallery to see the Degas exhibition. Long queues to get in, but we were at the front...

The exhibition was great although I would have liked to have seen more of Degas' dance works displayed. I did ponder twittering from the exhibition but couldn't be bothered.

After Degas it was off to the new Portrait Gallery for morning tea and a leisurely look around.

A wander round (new) Parliament House was followed by lunch in the cafe (with a superb view thru to the War Memorial) and then it was back to lake side and a visit to the National Library (via the national archives). Afternoon tea and wireless internet @ NLA thena stroll around the lake and eventually over to city centre for more wandering (civic library) and tea before back to airport for flight home.

Our flight home was at 8pm so at 7.20 ish we wandered up to the departure gate thinking we'd get a coffee there - ONLY they don't serve hot beverages after 7pm! (we could have bought alcohol but hot chocolate was a no-no). Couldn't buy anything after 7.30 and our flight was late.

But still it was a great, if tiring day, and I see that Tiger have cheap airfares again...

Friday (today) - relaxing, maybe some housework, more relaxing, perhaps some shopping

All is right in my world.

A day in the life

So I worked the long weekend (well the saturday/sunday part of it) and spent the holiday monday (a) recovering from it and (b) taking my littlest nephews to the beach.

Tuesday was devoted to housework(yes really) and spending way too much time on the 'puter.

Today was play day. Started day with darcy & brekky @ crown (won $200 - yay) then it was off to meet a couple of friends (and former colleagues) for lunch at Punch Lane.

As part of the Melbourne International Food & Wine Festival a number of restaurants are offering 'express lunches' - 2 courses, a glass of wine, tea/coffee for $35.

Punch Lane's express menu consisted of two starters, two mains & two desserts - strangely enough our table skipped the starters and went for the mains/dessert combo.

I had the chicken confit (extremely delish) and the chocolate mousse with brandy soaked plums (could've done without the plums but hey!)

The roasted ocean trout was also highly recommended by our table as was the torta something- or-other for dessert.

The service was excellent - friendly & attentive without being intrusive.

Punch lane is in Little Bourke Street - pretty much halfway between two of my main city haunts - The Princess & Her Majesty's theatres.

Looks like Spag Tree may lose our pre- theatre custom...

After lunch I wandered round town - bought some un-needed but gorgeous paper clips @ Kikki K, some books at Dymocks, and some 2ndhand books @ Kill City.

Also played with some 'smart' phones (I'm about ready for a new phone y'see).

Tomorrow it's back to work - have a booktalk to prepare for and lots of other stuff to do before I go on hols next week.

Busy, busy, busy

In which my hovercraft is full of eels.

Hanner Cymraes practically did the online equivalent of taking off her gloves and slapping me across the face with them (and challenging me to the welsh language at 25 paces).

I responded with that most useful of welsh phrases - my hovercraft is full of eels (do you know how many times I've needed to say that in Wales?)

I think HC may have mis-translated slightly - she didn't realise I had a helicopter (my helicopter is full of eels - that just doesn't make sense!)

We have now exhausted my welsh knowledge of above-surface transport (and, for that matter, eels) so we will move on to 'what is the welsh for I almost locked a child in the library last night?'

At 5.55 pm I wandered (strode purposefully) round the library warning people that we were closing in 5 minutes, and did they need any help (before I picked them up and threw them out the front door). Young AC (annoying child) was playing games on pc 4.

At 6 pm I once again strode purposefully round the library reminding people that we were now closed. AC was no longer at the internets and the last couple of people were heading out the door. I made sure everyone was out, locked all the doors, and started on the post closing library rituals.

At 6.10 pm I heard watson say loudly 'the library is closed' I looked up and there was AC heading for the internets. Now I'm not sure where he'd been hiding when I made the 'make sure everybody is out of the library' tour - I did try to ask him but he just looked at me.

The sad thing is I suspect he would have been perfectly happy to be locked in the library all night so long as the internet was working.

From now on I think I shall escort him out the door at closing to make sure he actually leaves.

One of our (older) borrowers came into the library this morning. The terrible fires raging in Victoria had reminded him of a childhood memory and he'd decided to get back in touch with some cousins that he hadn't seen, or heard from, in almost 70 years.

In January 1939 he was staying with his cousins, on their property on the outskirts of Melbourne as the Black Friday fires raged around them. He was little more than a baby and the cousins wrapped him in wet blankets and kept him in the bathtub until the last possible moment. When they were forced to evacuate they put him, still wrapped in the wet blankets, in a culvert on the side of the road.

The fire destroyed the house and property but the family were unharmed. They decided not to rebuild and moved to Tasmania.

Our borrower hadn't had any contact with them since.

It was so long ago, and he was so young, that although he remembered their surname he wasn't sure how to spell it.

Luckily they'd moved to a smallish settlement in Tas, and luckily the surname wasn't that common, so using whitepages.com.au we were able to get a phone number. He was rapt and headed off home to ring them and renew old acquaintances.

He has attended a couple of our internet demos and uses google to look up the answers to the Age crossword that stump him. He didn't realise that he could look up a phone number online.

Calling all word nerds

Bibliophile Bullpen tipped me off to what is quickly becoming my favourite website.

Save the words.

Sponsored by Oxford University Press this site is dedicated to saving underused English words and keeping them in the dictionary (the OED).

The way coolest bit is after you've registered for the site you can adopt underused words - and they email you a certificate of adoption.

Just click on the word you're thinking of adopting and a window pops up telling you the word, the part of speech (noun, verb, adj. etc) and it's use in a sentence.

And once you've adopted the word - well you'll just have to try it yourself...

So far I've adopted 2 words -

Tortiloquy - a noun meaning dishonest or immoral speech.

Sam the mosquito was already a blood sucking parasite. All he needed was a well-rehearsed tortiloquy to begin his legal career.

Ingordigious - adjective meaning greedy.

His ingordigious girlfriend wasn't satisified with the 7 carat engagement ring, so he's back working nightshift for another year.

This is so much fun...

Wanders off to adopt more words...

I've been tagged...

Dieter @ the bfh blog has tagged me with a meme - name the seven blogs that inspire you most.

Egad - that's a toughie - I'm following 471 blogs - most of which inspire me at some point or another.

Hmmm so here goes: (divided into subjects)

Crime fiction blogs:

Eurocrime

Mysteries in Paradise

The Rap Sheet

Shotsmag

Scandinavian crime fiction

Poe's deadly daughters

Crime always pays

Next up Library related blogs...

In Noise

I have gone and bought a pair of cordless headphones so I can actually hear the tv without disturbing the extremely sharp eared neighbour from below.

They are taking a bit of getting used to (the headphones that is) and are not that comfy in this extrememly hot weather.

Still we do what we must to maintain the peace.

In Library and/or in Work

My boss has been on leave for the past week so I have been 'acting up' (as in higher duties, not as in doing evil).

This has meant that I have been busy (yessssss) and, because I have had plenty to do, my brain has been working and I have been thinking.(uh oh)

I now have a blog dashboard full of draft 'idea' posts about things I could be doing, about things my library could be doing, about things I'd like to investigate doing, and so on and so forth.

Most of you will be able to guess what the most challenging thing will be (or what will be the biggest obstacle for me to overcome!)

With the exception of Wednesday (I received an email that upset my equilibrium somewhat) I have been thriving on the challenge of lots to do.

I have seldom been so organised, so productive (Polyxena - ignore this sentence!) - my flat has never been so tidy - it's great.

So what happens next?

Hopefully I can maintain the enthusiasm and the drive and enjoy the challenges.

Whatever happens I should point out that I have started watercolour painting lessons - and I am absolutely crap. It's fun and I'm enjoying it but it's fairly obvious to everyone that I won't be giving up my day job to become a painter.

Libraries & the Community

Last week I had an epiphany (or a nightmare) - I woke up in the middle of the night and decided I wanted to learn watercolour painting. (I should point out that I have the artistic talent of an old boot). I let the thought sit there for a few days -reminding myself I failed painting by numbers - before addressing it once again. Yes I am still keen.

Next step was to finds somewhere to take lesons. I, of course, first turned to 'expanding your horizons' a six monthly guide to what's on at the local neighbourhood houses, put out by the City of Boroondara.

As I was reading through the course offerings I came across one, at the Canterbury Neighbourhood Centre:

"Calling all bookworms.
A friendly group that meets the first Tuesday of the month, 2 pm - 3.30 pm. Books supplied by the local library when possible. No cost." (Emphasis is mine).

Now I suspect I work at their 'local library' and I know nothing about them. If indeed they do get their books from us (informally obviously) then it seems to me that there's a community partnership waiting to happen.

A simple phone call from us -along the lines of - we've heard about the book group, how can we help?

I'm not envisaging or intending that we take over the group or anything like that. I'm thinking more along the lines of helping suggest books that we have multiple copies of, or maybe even go so far as to set up a 'bookclub in a bag program' with them.

I think this is a great community opportunity and (sticking my neck out here) I'd be prepared to take it on.

What do others think?

P.S. I've narrowed the watercolour classes down to either Balwyn Community Centre or Camberwell Community Centre.

New Years Resolutions

"New Year's Day - Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual."

Mark Twain (via the quote on my literary calendar for Jan 1.)


I will be making NYR's - I won't be blogging about them!