Sydney return

So I did something that I thought was decadent, extravagant but turned out to be quite normal...

On Wednesday morning:

I caught the 5.06 am train from Monty to Southern Cross/Spencer Street.

I caught the 5.45 am Skybus from Southern Cross/Spencer Street to Melbourne airport.

I caught the 6.45 Tiger flight from Melbourne to Sydney.

I caught the 7.15 pm Tiger flight from Sydney to Melbourne.

I caught the 9.40 pm Skybus from Melbourne airport to Southern Cross/Spencer Street.

I caught the 10.10 pm from Southern Cross/Spencer Street to Monty.

Why?

Why not?

I got $30 each way airfares and arranged to meet a good friend in Sydney for lunch.

Whilst $60 for airfares & $51 for skybus/airtrain added an extra $110 to the lunch bill it was definitely worth it.

Surprisingly I was not the only person on the plane doing Sydney return in the one day (and I don't mean just business types either)

The elderly couple seated next to me on both flights - they went to Sydney to go to an exhibition. (humorously it turns out I went to primary school with their daughter)

The family sitting behind us went to Sydney for a day's shopping. There was at least a dozen other people on both flights that didn't seem to be travelling for business.

It was a fun day, a long day, and a tiring day. I think i'll do it again one day.

October show and tell - the test drive

Having been unable to put a positive spin on September! I've decided to have a go at the October Show and tell digital storytelling project.

This is my test run....

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Sidderknee day 1

For some reason i had booked a ridiculously early flight and checked with metlink as to which train i needed to catch to connect with the skybus to the airport.

As always they gave me 3 options. The first had me catching the last train LAST NIGHT, the 2nd had me catching the first train this morning (5.07) or the 2nd train this morning (5.22).

So i decided to take the middle option & catch the 5.07.

So far so good. Only the 5.07 was delayed 20 minutes, & the 5.22 was delayed 10 minutes. Still i made it to the airport in time for my flight & that was the main thing.

Due to an uber crappy last couple of hours at work yesterday i was too upset to sleep last night so it was a tired & emotional little vegemite who dumped her suitcase at the hotel & headed to guylian for coffee, chocolate, & chocolate.

After that it was a pass thru the opera house to a shady, sunny, spot in the botanic gardens where i alternately tried to read (Common lawyer by Mark Giminez) or doze.

Dumplings for tea (of course) and i think an early night will be in order.

I can haz a fipad (or an ipatch)

For the past few months I've been convincing myself that I don't need an ipad.

*ebooks - I already have a sony ereader (that I love)

*lightweight carry anywhere internet machine - I already have an eeepc (that I love)

*music, games & pretty much everything else - I have a itouch which I use constantly

So yesterday I went to JB to spend a $15 gift card that expires on August 30. I also had another $85 dollars in gift cards and was intending to buy an ipod dock/clockradio thing (& some dvds)

Instead I walked out with an ipad.

I spent last night renaming it the FIPAD & downloading apps to the fipad.

I rang my brother to tell him I was with ipad, almost 5 year old nephew answered - he wasn't interested so I told my sister-in-law. She called the news out to my brother 'Hey Fi's got an ipad'

Next thing I know Master 3 is on the phone chatting excitedly with me about my ipatch - he doesn't care that it is really a sort of computer he just thinks I'm cool pirate aunty.

Will do a full fipad review when I've played with it more thoroughly.

I'm taking it to sidderknee with me tomorrow so that will give it quite the workout I suspect.

I now have more internet capable gadgets than I have rooms in the flat.

Arrr Captain Feathersword.

Melbourne Aquarium

So I took messrs 3 & 4.5 to the aquarium.

Mr 3 staged a sit in in the foyer of the aquarium - he just sat in the middle of the floor while I organised the tix.

First stop was the cafe as mr 4.5 was starving and wanted a croissant for lunch. Luckily the aquarium cafe sells croissants so disaster averted there.

Mr 3 wanted to skip lunch and headed over to the large aquarium in the cafe - he was more than happy to wander the aquarium on his own - and was quite disgruntled when I insisted he stay with us.

After eating we wandered the aquarium. The boys loved the 'tunnels' (their word) where the fish swim over the ceilings.

But the big hits were the penguins.

The boys loved them. Mr 4.5 adopted one penguin and followed him round the enclosure. Mr 3 darted from glass pane to glass pane watching the penguins swimming, playing or just standing there.

After an ice cream break mr 3 wanted to go back to see the penguins (which we did) and he would still be there now if mr 4.5 hadn't wanted to go home.

Day 31

Yesterday would have been my dad's 74th birthday so last night most of the family went out to dinner.

We dined at the Manningham Club - formerly the Victorian home of the Brisbane Lions (it used to have a lot of the Fitzroy Football Club's memorabilia displayed - hence dad used to enjoy dining there)

In attendance were my mum, myself, my sister, two of my brothers,one of my sisters-in-law, and my three nephews (12, 4.5, practically 3), and my dads brother & sister-in-law.

Missing were my other brother (he lives in England so Bulleen is a bit of a commute), my niece (holidaying in Yinnar) and a sister-in-law (prior engagement)

On Wednesday nights there is a guy called Andy (Andy's antics) hired to entertain the kids so while the adults sat & chatted & caught up the littlest nephews were playing poison ball, having car races, seeing magic tricks etc.

Funny moment was when practically 3yr old showed us how he could pull a 50 cent piece from his ear.

It was a good evening - it was great to catch up with my aunt & uncle; the food was good and the company superb.

Dad would have enjoyed it.

Day 30

So I made it.

30 days.

30 blogposts.

I've learnt a lot while taking part in this challenge.

I've had to be disciplined - it would have been easy to skip a day or two.

I've had to think - of things to blog about, of memes to meme about, of items of interest in the library world

My rss feeds have gone through the roof - as I follow my fellow #blogeverydayofjune bloggers and get links to other bloggers from them.

I've felt at various times - inspired, amused, envious, part of a community, befriended, and a thousand and one other emotions.

It's 'fleshed' out some of the people I follow on twitter - I've learnt more about them and their jobs and their lives than I knew from their tweets.

I've got ideas and thoughts to follow up on - things for my job, things for a job I don't have yet, things for a job I want.

I've learnt a lot - there are a lot of 'thinkers' in the group - my mind is buzzing, my To Do list is full of websites to visit, software to investigate, and information to ponder, read & inwardly digest.

But most of all it's been fun.

Will I keep blogging?

Yes - perhaps not every day, but I am setting myself the target of updating each of my blogs on a weekly basis, which, if I include work blogs, will probably average out to one blog post a day but at least I know I can do it.

The End (or The Beginning)