(Click on any image to go to the relevant gallery for a full sized picture.)
How have things been since our return from Blighty, you may ask? Well “Fucking hot” is the first thing that leaps to mind, but more on that later.
To be honest, after the fab time we had in Blighty, and seeing all my old mates, my family even, and being in places I love, I was on a downer for the first few weeks. Not depressed, just thoroughly cheesed off. But; “forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit”* as they say. Compounding my melancholy was the fact that I didn’t have use of my camera for the first four weeks we were home, as it had to go away for repairs. Remember I bent a pin on my card reader? Well it cost four weeks and 400 buck s to put right. Bugger.
Still Xmas came around soon enough, just to add to our woes.
As you may know, Bethy started working earlier this year. Just a temporary job, to build up funds for Uni, (which she starts at in March) She’s working partly in the catering dept, and partly with the nutritionist department, of the local hospital. (She likes her job so much she may keep doing it and attend Uni part time.) Bethy was given her Xmas roster; starting 22nd. December, she was down work a shift each and every day through to 8th. January, including all the holiday days, Xmas, Boxing day, New Years day. To be fair, she accepted that with equanimity.
Welcome to the world of work our kid!
On Xmas Day Bethy “dressed up” a bit to cheer up her patients.
I wonder if the rate of heart attacks went up that day?
So we planned a very quiet Christmas, just the family. The family now includes Brandon, but very nearly didn’t. Brandon’s folks wanted him to come down the coast with them for Xmas, which set Bethy off into a set of histrionics worthy of Rita Hayworth. After much bartering and negotiation, we agreed that if he went down the coast with them for a few days before Xmas, on Xmas morning I’d drive down the coast and pick him up so he could come back and spend the rest of Xmas with us.
Three bloody hour’s drive. Each way.
That buggered up my Xmas boozing plan I can tell you. Still it’s a lovely drive, and Brandon has great taste in music, (i.e. similar to mine,) so it wasn’t too hard work. Oh, and I used his car too, which is faster and better than mine. He did look a trifle scared on the way back, but there was a bottle of good Scotch at home with my name on it, so I wasn’t hanging about.
Glenn, Bethy’s dad, joined us for Xmas lunch.
Presents!! Oh my god, I’m almost embarrassed to tell you what perfect presents Lee-Anne got me. Not only did she source for me some “Penderyn Sherrywood Single Malt”, which is as rare as rocking horse shit in Wales, let alone in Aus. Not only that but she also put in an order from “The Smelly Cheese Shop” in Adelaide for some great British Cheese; Classic Cheshire, Cheddar Gorge Cheddar, and Stilton from Stilton. So much of it did she order, that, as of writing this drivel at the end of January, there’s still some left! I was awed, touched and chuffed, (and a bit embarrassed I’d only got her some new chefs knives, and new wine glasses, and a whole bunch of silly shit, like a carrot sharpener.)
Bethy and Brandon were bemused by the things I got them. from me Bethy got a duck with a plate on its head, and Brandon a toy Godzilla. They both got decorative plates, Bethy’s had a newly dead Zombie couple on it, Brandon’s had a shark in a suit. But there again, WTF do you buy 18 year olds for Xmas?
Mary completed the madness by buying Lee-Anne a statue of Tony Abbot in his (in)famous red speedos.
Our taste in presents is a little suspect
As you can imagine, Lee-Anne spend most of Xmas day in the kitchen, and produced the best Xmas dinner I’ve ever had.
Entrees
Shots of scallop cerviche with ginger, lime chilli and corn..
Avocado and tomato wontons.
Mains
Beef or fish individual wellingtons, Beaujolais sauce and candied onions
Ham with blackberry and balsamic vinegar glaze.
Crispy Xmas potatoes with garlic and rosemary.
Baked tumble of Mediterranean vegetables, (sweet potato, zucchini, tomatoes, spinach and olives.)
Salad of leaves and onions.
Desert
Figgy pudding (Heston Blumenthal.)
Hidden secrets accompanied by either cream, ice-cream, or custard or all three.
Cheese plate, special.
Oh, I was very pleased to be able to get the particular knife set I had got Lee-Anne. They are “Pure Komatchi” knives, we’d bought one and used it while in the UK. It was surgically accurate and sharp as a razor, so, great for taking the tops off your fingers, (as I found out in Tavistock.) Of course, ten minutes after ordering a set of them, (from the USA, in a blind panic not knowing if they’d be here on time,) I asked Bethy; “What are you getting your mother for Xmas?” She replied, “I’ve seen a nice knife set I was thinking of getting her.” Sorry our kid, I should have asked first!
New Year just didn’t happen, never does for us anymore. We were both in bed before 10.00 pm, knackered. Missed the fireworks and everything. Mind you, we got off a bit better than my friend Jane in the UK ,who spent the New Year in hospital with pneumonia!
But Mary, the mother in law can even top that!
Mary recently went off to one of her “Veterans Olympics” events. It was being held in Bendigo, which is a good 6 ½ hours drive from Canberra, (9 ½ at the speeds Mary drives.) Four of them went down in Mary’s car, sharing the driving. Mary, despite being 80 years young this year, still throws discus, hammer and javelin at national level. Throws them further than I can in fact.
She normally comes back from these things with a couple of medals, or a new “Veteran’s record.”
This year she came back with a leg broken in two places. Apparently she fell out of the throwing circle, tripped over the lip while throwing the discuss, and ended up in Bendigo hospital. Not all in one go though.
So Lee-Anne’s been living at Mary’s place, and looking after her. Mary is staring to get about on two crutches.
Oh while I’m on the subject of illnesses, (I’m starting to sound like my bloody mother,) spare a thought for my old mate Andrew, who, despite being two years younger than me has had a heart attack.
For my birthday, me and Lee-Anne went up to Sydney to see some of the final Ashes farce test. We spent three days in a serviced apartment there. Luckily it was a lovely spacious apartment, well furnished and very well equipped. We got a huge bed, which was very comfortable. The staff were obliging and friendly. Yes, very lucky to have all that luxury, as the cricket was bloody woeful. Honestly its bloody embarrassing being a Pom here at the moment!
The apartment was dead convenient for the SCG cricket for us, a lovely 15 minute stroll through mainly park land got us to the ground. However, there were downsides, the nearest tube station was a slog, therefore wasn’t great for seeing Sydney, or for getting anywhere really. So we didn’t. When not at the cricket we blissed out back at the apartment, and used the online meals service to order in curries. How frigging decadent is that!!
The location of the place was also dire, as the apartment block is located in one of the most soulless, dire, faceless, suburbs it’s ever been my displeasure to stay in. No shops, no bars, no people. There is a shopping centre opening sometime in the future there, which may humanise the area a little, if that’s your cuppa. The whole place felt like an incitement to suicide.
The only fun part of the cricket was the fact that we were sat in the stands directly above the indefatigable Barmy Army, how those guys keep it up I don’t know. Mainly by not watching the cricket one suspects.
SCG, not photographer friendly
(no long lenses allowed, image taken of my phone!)
Oh, another bloody pitfall of the cricket was that some mug forgot to put sunscreen on his mush, and ended up , as Bethy put it, “Looking like the reptile man”. Dear god, I thought they were going to send me home from work to save scaring our patients.
For my birthday I also got some classic Sherlock Holmes posters! Fab, must get them mounted. Mary gave me a bottle of Tasmanian Whisky, which is supposed to have a great reputation, but tasted as odd as it sounds. Bloody odd.
We also went to see the PM’s XI vs England, as it’s a local match. That started as a farce too. Way back, when they first came out, I bought three tickets, one each for me, Mary and Lee-Anne. As you’ll know, Lee-Anne got promotion just before we got back from the UK, so she told me to offer her ticket to anyone who wasn’t snowed under at work as she now was. So I hawked it about my mates at work, Dave said he’d come with us.
Of course, a week before the mach Mary goes and breaks her leg, so she cannot go. So I ask Brandon if he’d fancy going. He said yes. So the team was now me, Dave and Brandon. Two days before the match Brandon asks if I can give his ticket to someone else, as his mates were going and they had a spare ticket. They were all going in fancy dress, and he’d rather be with them than smelly old people. So we still had a ticket spare.
In the end we figured out that Lee-Anne, by coming to the ground straight from work, would only miss 20 or so overs, as it was a day/night match. So we ended up me, Dave, and Lee-Anne going.
On my arrival there a very pretty little totty promotions girl, who was promoting some shite, asked me if I’d like my photo taken with the cricket world cup. Well why not?
It must have been my kilt which made her home in on me.
We were sat in the Bradman Stand, six rows in front of our prime minister, the loathsome Tony Abbot. I got close enough to hit him, but refrained.
Believe it or not, when Tony Abbot was the opposition deputy PM, the opposition treasurer was Peter Costello. Which gave the cartoonists and satirists plenty of ammo. I’ll begrudgingly be fair to the man, he did circulate amongst the fans in the stand shaking hands and having his photo took. I was stood shoulder to shoulder with him at one point, and could see he had he had little or no security presence around him.
An entertaining game of cricket, great to see Brett Lee bowl again, he was captaining the PM’s XI. I took a photo of Alistair Cook at the wicket, I thought the novelty value of an image of him actually being there may make me some cash. Though for once England actually won, probably the only tour match they will win.
Another positive from the match was this. I’ve been banging on about wanting a new telephoto lens for a year now. Believe it or not Lee-Anne had no objections to this, but I did. (Bear with me.) The problem was that I couldn’t justify the expense, as the one I wanted cost, well “fucking lots” is all you are going to get out of me. But then I had a brainwave! Why not hire one for the day, to see if they are worth the expense? A lad in Canberra hires out his kit as a way of paying for more toys, a smart idea. I rented a 200mm lens off him as it was from the same model group as the 300mm I wanted to buy, (he didn’t have the 300mm model for hire.)
I took it off for a days shooting at the local lake, and at the cricket. The results convinced me it was well worth the cost!
So I’ve ordered one. I’m now waiting with bated breath for it to arrive.
Talking of photography, I was dead chuffed when some of my UK trip piccies got voted 5 out of five stars on the UK climbing photography site!
Oh, and for those of you of a masochistic streak who indulge my photography, I’ve redone some of the UK images, using a new sharpening technique in Photoshop, one wot I learned off the net.
The first week in Feb me and Lee-Anne are taking our two little bastards, (Digby and Ginger, not Bethy and Brandon,) down to the coast, for their first ever seaside trip. We’re staying here. I’m hoping the lens will be here by then, so that I’ll, hopefully, get some shots of weird and wonderful birds/creatures/Aussie people to share with you in the next blog.
Taking Ginger anywhere is a bit fraught though. He thinks nothing of savaging any other dog that approaches us, Alsatians being his speciality. His latest trick when down at the lake, is to dive into the lake to retrieve sticks. Sticks which have been thrown in for other dogs usually. The Wolfie we meet down there regularly is getting a bit pissed off with a dog 1/8 of his size stealing his stick out of his mouth.
We found our first rat corpse in the back garden the other day, mangled to shreds it was. Jack Russell’s are fierce fuckers. Though Bethy found that poor little Digby had a big fat lump on his abdomen. We took him to the vets and they cut it out of him. ($$$$$) Luckily his big fat lump turned out to be just that, a bit of infected fat, and not cancerous. (We were quietly shitting ourselves, but didn’t mention the “C” word in front of him.)
You want to know how boring things can get here? This was an article in our local press;
As Canberra sweltered through its hottest day since January on Sunday, Dunja Cvjeticanin’s unique summer break project appeared to take on even more importance.
Just days after graduating from Australian National University with a combined arts/law degree, the 24-year-old is preparing for full-time work in a Canberra law firm next year. In the meantime, she is getting her feet wet and blogging about all of Canberra’s suburban swimming spots. It could make for popular summer reading, if the temperature gets near the 38.1 degrees it hit just after 3.30pm on Sunday. Thankfully the day is not set to be repeated this week, with moderate temperatures leading up to a mostly sunny Christmas Day with a top of 28 degrees. Describing local swimming pools as ”sanctuaries of awesomeness and temples of purity”, Ms Cvjeticanin will rank each one on cost of entry, water quality and ambience, the availability of tanning space and the price of ice creams.
”Looking around on the internet for something similar, I realised that it didn’t really exist yet so I thought I would give it a try,” she said.
Read more: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-new … z2oFSiIuho
Some bird goers swimming and writes about it? That’s news in the capital fucking city? Bugger me pink! As was this
Brett McNamara, Manager of Regional Operations, National Parks and Catchments, today announced that Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve has recently welcomed another six new koalas from the Otway Ranges in Victoria. “Three female koalas and their three joeys (two females and one male) have joined the eight koalas that were released into Tidbinbilla’s Eucalypt Forest in November 2013,” Mr McNamara said. “The three mums walked out of their carry crates and quickly scanned the environment before climbing up the closest tree with their young on back to take in the beautiful views and explore the selection of eucalypts on offer. “At the moment the koalas are making themselves comfortable in their new home, and if they settle in as well as the previous new arrivals we will be very happy.
What? Koalas? Here in Australia? whatever next!
Here’s an amusing little quiz; “How Welsh are you?”
Brandon, he’s a fine lad, and has as I say, been living with us since Xmas. He has similar tastes in music and movies to me, (unlike Bethy and Lee-Anne,) so we’re getting along just swell. But last week he approached me, and asked; “Are you going to be doing anymore home brew? I’d like to be involved if you are, me and my mate are thinking of taking it up.”
Well now, what a fine thing, what a masculine endeavor, what a noble way into full manhood.I of course decided there and then to get a batch going. So we went together to our local brew shop and met Colin the brewmaster, I introduced Brandon to him as “my apprentice”. Colin sold us a new kit and some gear I needed , and Brandon and I went home and started the brew.
While at the shop, we noticed a poster saying that on the next day Colin was doing a demonstration of the arcane arts of beer making. We went along, I learned loads, Brandon was entranced. To say Brandon has become somewhat obsessed with it since then is and understatement. So yesterday, he became a man, when we went to the shop, and he bought his own brewing barrel. After we came home we bottled up our first batch together….
Next week we will be making honey wheat beer.
Ok, so now onto the important bits, the bloody weather. Suffice to say it’s been hot, 40c+ (or 98f if you are an American,) for days on end. Roads have melted, people have fried eggs on shovels, and of course the inevitable and tragic bushfires have been burning.
Warnings have been issued.
ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Paul Kelly and ACT Ambulance Service Chief Officer Mr David Foot today alerted Canberrans to the Bureau of Meteorology’s forecast of extreme heat conditions occurring in the Territory from next week. “It is very important for people to be aware of the cumulative health impacts that heatwaves can have on individuals, their families and their neighbours and to plan for measures that can mitigate the adverse health impacts of extreme heat,” Dr Kelly said. “The elderly, young children and babies are most at risk during extreme heat events. “People with illness and chronic conditions may also need extra monitoring and care in these conditions. “It’s important to prepare for hot conditions by staying well hydrated and keeping out of the heat in the hottest parts of the day. If you can’t avoid going outdoors, do it for limited periods and wear a loose fitting long-sleeved shirt, a hat and apply plenty of sunscreen. Check regularly on vulnerable family members, friends and neighbours,” Dr Kelly concluded.
We had this “interesting” weather forecast the other day;
Summary
Max 40
Hot. Chance of a storm.
Chance of any rain: 20%
Rainfall amount: 0 to 0.2 mm
Canberra area
Hot. Sunny morning. The chance of thunderstorms from afternoon with little or no rainfall. Light winds becoming northwesterly 20 to 30 km/h in the morning then shifting easterly 15 to 20 km/h in the evening.
Virga is a form of precipitation that evaporates before it hits the ground. Low humidity and high temperatures can cause rain to evaporate completely shortly after its release from a cloud. Desert areas often have clouds showing virga. In fact, the precipitation often starts out in the form of ice crystals and never reaches the ground. A cloud that produces thunder, lightning, and rain are common in the western United States, but these clouds often do not have measurable ground-level precipitation. These dry thunderstorms are often culprits in creating massive wildfires as lightning ignites a dry fuel source on the ground during fire weather season (Usually in the hot summer months.
And they were right, all the fun of a thunderstorm, with no rain, (so no fun at all then!) I did get some nice snaps out of it.
Most nights I’ve been “sleeping” bollocks naked, no sheet nor doona, with a fan blowing over me (don’t bother, too obvious,) and I’m still too hot to sleep.
Well that’s it for this episode my friends, please stay in touch.
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