This blog almost faces neglect these days. Though I did get through Semester 1 of uni in the end. It was a bit of an effort with the house moving, etc. I got two disctinctions and a credit. Took 3-4 weeks for ADSL2+ to be connected properly (and pretty painful to endure dialup for all that time but such is life when dealing with Telstra). Back at uni full time this semester.
Well we have just moved from the house that I’ve been living in for the last five and half years (since dad died), which is also the house that I grew up in. Though five and a half years is nothing; Mum had been living there for over thirty-three years!
Needless to say it has been a mammoth effort, with over a week of shuffling backwards and forwards. Emptying of the old house being only completed today. So goodbye to my childhood home and the house that I’ve spent almost twenty years of my life living in.
While now I endure the pain of dialup, as I wait to have broadband reconnected. So far ‘rejected’ by Telstra, though ‘correctable’. Also, many boxes remain unpacked. Though we have moved to an area that is greener and possibly more prestigious, it appears to lack the life that the old area had. Let alone, the selection of take away food and restaurants we had.
Was sitting inside at around 4pm today enjoying our lovely evaporative cooling and suddenly the sound of air pouring out of the vents just stopped. I thought it was odd because evaporative cooling doesn’t usually turn off like that, so I looked around the room and sure enough all appliances had gone off. Not to mention it’s strange when you’re using a laptop and the power goes as the computer just continues running on battery and web pages stop loading before the wireless network drops out.
Thought I’d be smart and drive down to the supermarket to do some shopping that needed to be done. Though along the way, not a single set of traffic lights were working and Safeway too was without power. Fortunately I managed to get in there while the building was still cool and they were running the store on emergency lighting and minimal power for the cash registers (without the conveyor belts or any of the displays). Though the checkout guy said they’d be closing it as soon as it gets hot. Went home still no power, so went over to Chadstone which still had power. Came back home to cook dinner and fortunately the power came on not long after.
Thought it may have been caused by the load placed on the electricity system from refrigerative cooling systems (as opposed to more energy efficient evaporative coolers), though as it turns out it was caused by bushfires taking out a main transmission line. In total, we lost two gigawatts of power out of the state total of nine gigawatts. Radio reports were saying that over a thousand sets of traffic lights were out, so needless to say, police were very scarce and the roads were chaotic.
Well I’m glad we have our power back!
I’m once again delayed in keeping this journal/blog updated. Christmas this year was practically an icy one here in Melbourne. We had rain, hail and the coldest Christmas in 70 years, just no snow. Though there was snow in Victoria, up in the alps. These are the same alps that had been burning fiercely for weeks in the lead up to Christmas, so fiercely that Melbourne had been blanketed in smoke on at least several different days. Though the fires continue, the cooler weather brought much relief.
It was a quiet new years eve for this year, pretty much just spent in front of the telly. Though it was made up for by going down to Mornington on new years day with my brother Ben, his girlfriend Pip and my sister Catherine to catch up with mum and her boyfriend Darryl for lunch.
Will hopefully get away for a holiday or two this January and keep up much of the cycling.
Melbourne in smoke:
Yesterday morning I awoke to find tradies left, right and centre working on stuff in the house. A dust storm was brewing in the kitchen, the smell of paint was wafting through from the back room and plants that had been freshly planted on the weekend were being squashed as a brick retaining wall in the front yard was being bagged. Breakfast at home was not an option and while maccas breaky was over (yeah a slept in a little), fortunately I was able to get a bacon and egg focaccia from a local café (beats a maccas breaky anyway). So I ended up having take away breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Today was a little better, as I had devised a plan to have breaky at home this morning by having everything ready the night before. Although they were still doing work on the kitchen benches, they weren’t using the electric belt sanders anymore. A heap of other work was still being done, such as painting of the front door and some work on the front of the house. I decided not to hang around in it for another day and rode my bike into TAFE despite the 30 degree heat. Yes, despite the 20km in each direction, it was a good excuse to fit in a bike ride and get away from other menial tasks that need to be done around the house. Only because I was going to TAFE. That’s about the only reason I would cycle commute, to get somewhere and to fit in a bike ride at the same time. It’s the second time I’ve ridden into TAFE too, and quite a nice ride as a good portion of Box Hill to Brunswick can be done on bike paths. Being in at TAFE, I ended up having take away lunch again and the kitchen *still* wasn’t finished today so take away dinner as well. Hopefully it’ll be done by tomorrow.
In other news, I have been keeping the riding up. Did another trip out to the Dandenongs about two weeks ago, riding from Box Hill to Ringwood (because the train line was closed), train to Boronia, then we rode to Olinda via The Basin then down to Emerald via Monbulk before riding back to Belgrave. Then finally had to ride the stint from Ringwood to Box Hill again, bringing the total to almost 70km of riding for that day. Also did 55km of riding from Daniel’s place last weekend, from Montmorency - Plenty - Diamond Creek - Research - Warrandyte then back to Montmorency. A few photos (though not many) have been uploaded to gallery and flickr.
It seems to be Blue Tongue season as well. The other day while riding through Fairfield Park, only 5km (crows flight) from the city, I spotted what I had at first thought was a rather large lizard. I soon realised it might may have been a Blue Tongue, and after waiting around for a few minutes I was able to confirm that it was indeed. Unfortunately I didn’t have the camera on me that time.
Well it must be spring. Not least because the weather has been getting warmer, though the daffodils have been out (and have mostly died off already), birds have been swooping my head while I’ve been out cycling, while some birds have also been nesting right outside our kitchen window (though I think that may have been the mother bird that flew into the kitchen window at great impact and died today).
Today I didn’t make it to TAFE and it was a nice 21˚C so I ended up out riding my bike instead. Had the bike paths to myself just about, while I cruised along at an average speed of 20km/hr for 28km. Not bad after a winter of practically no riding.
On Thursday morning I got up at the earliest time as I have in a long time. The only time I can remember getting on a train any earlier was when I left for Sydney earlier this year. Only that time it was daylight, where as this time it was pitch black when I got up at 6:40am. As I walked out the door twenty minutes later, it was still quite dark though there was a glimmer of daylight.
It was a cold chilly walk to the station and the air has a crisp feel to it. The street lights were still on and a few cars went past with their headlights beaming. It wasn’t until I got on the tram at Elizabeth Street in the city that the sun made its first appearance as just a glimmer of light on the city buildings. Yet as I rode the tram up Royal Parade a possum could be seen still lurking in one of the elm trees. Finally as I was approaching Brunswick, sunlight was making its appearance in the tree tops.
It’s a strange and almost eerie feeling to be out so early, yet almost an amazing feeling at the same time to see the world awaken. Though possibly only because I don’t do it that often.
The reason was that I had to go into TAFE to finish off some work that I should have done last year. Yeah I’ve been slack, well at least in this instance I have an excuse since I was sick when the module was on originally. The only classes being run were for some Prepress apprentices from 8am to 4:30pm. These apprentices must be brave and fearless people to be getting there so early and in fact they do it for two weeks at a time.
On Friday I didn’t quite get up as early and it was already magnitudes quieter when I left, however, on both days it was still quite dark when I left and dark when I got home too. Well now I’m glad it’s the weekend and glad that I don’t have classes next week.
Yes I’ve been slack with updating this. It’s almost been three weeks since it was my birthday. I am yet another year older.
As a last minute effort I decided to invite a bunch of people down to a local pub for some drinks on the Friday night after. The turnout was quite good considering the short notice that I gave (less than a week!). Had friends from all over the place that came along. Though for those who didn’t show up, sorry that you missed out on a good time! 
Not a great deal else has happened lately, except perhaps going out for brunch today to have pancakes and sitting around watching some old Chaser episodes/highlights.
I’m probably the person you’d least expect to take an interest in the Commonwealth Games. Hell, I hardly even took any interest at all until they were nearly here and to many extents, sold out. Still it turned out to be a somewhat interesting ten days.
Probably the first thing I noticed was that off-peak public transport was far more crowded than usual. Standing room only when ever I got on at Box Hill, only to become packed like sardines beyond Camberwell. Some of this can probably be attributed to school holidays alone, though not usually beyond the level that you wouldn’t be able to get a seat. Though I also took some time to watch the opening ceremony on TV. It wasn’t as flash as the Olympics, though there were a few impressive moments, such as the tram with whings (where did they get all the conductors from these days?).
On the first weekend of the games, I stayed the night at my brothers place and had a bit of an enjoyable time watching the games on TV, including various things as gymnastics, swimming, etc. The next morning I couldn’t pull myself away from the television as Kerryn McCann was about to win the Marathon. None the less, after that I didn’t watch any more on TV, I did turn the TV on for a moment though unlike at my brothers house, there just wasn’t the choice to watch whatever I preferred of four different events. So after that again, it was back to the crowded public transport being the only thing reminding me that the games were on.
However, on Friday night I went with some friends to an event at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl. It was the combined Army, Airforce and Navy bands and although there are many great events held in the music bowl every summer, this was part of a range of events put on during the Commonwealth Games. Perhaps not so ‘gamesish’ though the additional crowds around town and the improved public transport services were something to note.
Though the highlight the Games for me would have to have been going to the Cycling Road Race on Sunday. As spectators it involved plenty of walking as we wanted to check out the course from various locations, so needless to say with this and the 31˚C heat (not to mention the poor buggers out racing in it) we were buggered by the end of the day. Oh yes and I did grab some photos before the camera batteries went flat, they are availble in my gallery and on flickr. Still there was nothing like the sense of exhilaration as we watched Matt Hayman finish the race, winning gold.
Well that’s my wrap up of the Commonwealth Games.
The year is finally coming to an end. A week and a half ago I finally had my last class for tafe, though in the days after I had fun finishing off some of the work that I hadn’t completed in time. I had even more fun trying to track down the teacher, two phone calls, a few emails and then finally I went in on Tuesday and there was no one around. The place was completely dead though eventually someone from ITS let me into a lab so I could print my final work. I left all the work except for the final task which I wasn’t sure how to do, so hopefully they either won’t notice or they’ll let me finish it next year!
Yesterday I went to the fourth Christmas function this year. Fortunately I don’t have anything else planned for the silly season, except for family stuff on Christmas day of course. I haven’t done any Christmas shopping but fortunately I haven’t got a lot to do and who knows, the elves may do it for me again this year.
Today I cleaned up my room. For the first time in 3+ years I don’t have piles of junk and bits of paper staggered around on the floor. Though it was this time last year when I rediscovered carpet for the first time in roughly 2 years, possibly more. While earlier this year I was cleaning out the top drawer of my desk, to find notices dating back from 5 years when I was at high school. Among them was a notice about starting year 11 in early 2001 which is so long ago, it seems like an eternity. I’ve pretty much got through all the mess, though could do with cleaning out some of the large drawers and getting rid of some of the ancient computer gear lying around.
Among other things, went to see The Lion King broadway musical during the week. Mum wanted to take us and it was quite an amazing production.