Fullagar Family Summit for Imp's 50th

We recently had a wonderful week with the whole Fullagar family in town to celebrate Imp's 50th birthday. Felicity stayed with us, Fred stayed with Imp and Ed, and Chonk, Irma, Bea and Eric [the Swiss] stayed just down the hill at an Airbnb backing onto the rivulet.

Elf took the whole week off, while I took 2 days midweek which turned out to be perfect. We gathered most days at some stage either at our place or at Imp and Ed's at Kingston, and just ate and drank and talked. The Swiss went off and did some tourism at times, and Fred tinkered with things at Kingston and at our place too. He got the Wimshurst Machine back in working order [I have just realised the WM has not been mentioned here before so I will need to put that right soon and I'll add a link here).

Fred is Felicity's carer at home in Canberra so part of this week was separating those two to give him a break. Elf stepped in as frontline carer and cheerleader; trying to get her mum to be more active in finding solutions to her own health problems. Chiefly her feet; they are very sore and swollen and so she is unable to exercise much. Felicity won't take pills, which is a shame as some pills are very good. She thought she wouldn't come down for Imp's birthday, but all her kids her talked into it and she was extremely glad she did, by the end of the trip. As Marcus is off back to Hong Kong in March (I'll write more about this soon), this may have been the last opportunity to see her six grandkids together for a while.

Felicity asked for someone to organise a set of photos for her so she could pull them out to show friends. So I got these for her (I'm sending her prints) and reproduce them here as a time capsule; this is what we all look like in August 2022.

Before coming to Hobart, the Swiss had a week in far north Queensland, including a look around Townsville. Bea is very keen on studying marine biology and has her heart set on Townsville as the place to do it. Eric loves fishing and was lobbying hard for the whole family to move from Switzerland to Queensland.

Marcus and Michael always get on very easily and well with their cousins here, Karri and Miah, and it was just a love-in when all six of them were together. All lovely kids. 

The party went off really well. Imp booked the Kingston Community Hall which turned out to have a no-alcohol policy. This was quite funny as she had requested a gift of a large quantity of gin from Michael and Marcus which was to be shared out with guests at the party. We surreptitiously sipped some from paper cups and all in all, it added to the Jazz Age theme.

The boys present Imp with the gin

It was well-recieved

I put together the label, based on a previous birthday dress-up effort

Siblings assemble

I was able to go along to see all the visitors off at the airport in one go which was handy. We had one last big Fullagar scrum at Gate 3 then a smaller one at Gate 4. The Swiss flew off first and Felicity, who was in high spirits, got more exercise than in the rest of the trip combined with a lot of very hearty two-arms waving. Then Fred pushed Felicity in an airport wheelchair out to their plane and she waved the whole way, even while facing out into the open fields. It was a lovely note to end the visit, she was really delighted to have come and been at the centre of the family for a while.

To the ACT (Australian Christmas Territory) - Part 2

We arrived on Christmas Eve, and quickly settled into a routine of cups of tea and Nescafe,  and Fred's home brew with whisky nightcaps. We all took it in turns to cook.

I didn't take any photos of Christmas Day and my recollections are vague, so thanks to Chonk and particularly Fred for the photos below. The kids opened their stockings before I got up – when I did there seemed to be gifts everywhere. There's a lot more juicy main-event stuff going into the stocking than used to be the case, it seems.

We all put on nice clothes and convoyed over to All Saints for the Christmas service. The nice thing about All Saints which I have probably mentioned before, is that it used to be a railway station! It was built as the receiving station for trains to Rookwood Cemetery, the main Sydney cemetery.

The sermon was odd and quite un-Christmassy. I sat next to Eric who was an unwilling participant in worship. He disappeared after a while, possibly impounded by the Christmas Police for the duration.

Chonk, Ed, Elf, Michael, me, Felicity, Karri, Imp, Marcus,
Miah, Bea, Fred (with Eric tucked in front of him) and Irma

After a wonderful lunch we had a flaming Christmas pudding. Eric had disobeyed instructions and left the table. When the pudding arrived he was was called back, to no avail. So we all started yelling "Quick Eric! Food on fire! Food on fire!'" He came barrelling down the hall calling "It's not my fault!".

Marcus tries to get to grip with pentatonic triads, or something.

A lot of man-hours went into jigsaws over the week in Canberra.

Someone received the famous game Twister for Christmas and kids, Imp and Irma spent a lot of time contorting themselves. The kids all enjoyed each other's company a lot.

Marcus and I spent a bit of time playing soccer with Eric, and one time Chonk, Eric and I were roped into an 8-a-side game with some a group of neighbourhood teens and another group of smaller kids and dads. It was quite fun and we all represented the family well.

One day we all went to Jamieson Water Park and the kids and fitter grown-ups spent the day plummeting down chutes. I was seized with the idea that all around us the diplomatic corps were enjoying the sun, the slides, the chips.

[Here comes the Chilean agriculture secretary down the corkscrew! The Uruguayan defence attaché is making a towel screen while the ambassador changes back into his underpants, wobbling on one leg. The Egyptian 3rd trade attaché (clearly a spy) is demanding to know what is in a Chiko roll.]

Felicity revealed that she is in the running for selection in the Australian Marmalade Squad to compete at the World Marmalade Festival in the England in March.

Her kitchen is a bit of a time capsule. Like many people in their seventies, she is happy to offer a good home to condiments and tinned food with use-by dates that go back several prime-ministers.

A lot of child-hours went into fiddling with the vapouriser attachment on the fan. A LOT.

The thug lyfe

The hug lyfe

I brought with me to Canberra a 2018 vacuum-packed Richmond members scarf to give Chonk,
who used to be a Tiger. (And surely will be again). He responded by fetching from his old bedroom
a 1983 scarf and beanie for me.

Our 3D printer

Thanks to the generosity and hard work of Uncle Fred we now have a fully functioning 3D printer at home! Fred bought it in kit form, as a Christmas present for us and the Applins together. It took a lot of setting up. The provided instructions were vague and incomplete, but Fred and the boys persisted and used their ingenuity and resourcefulness to fill the gaps. Below are some pictures of things the boys have printed.

These have been designed and drawn up as CAD files by someone somewhere, and uploaded for free use. The printer's "ink" is a spool of plastic filament that is melted and laid down by the roaming printer head, controlled by the three robot arms. It's all incredible really.

Travel travails

Happy New Year everybody. Like most Australians, we flung ourselves across the country for Christmas. It's a jolly national tradition to stuff a car to bursting, then drive for 11 hours in punishing heat. Alternatively, you can be the "guest" of an airline and enjoy their announcements, cute little surcharges and fun inflight catalogues of tat. We did both.

Before I seek out catharsis by writing about our travel pain, I'll mention some great moments in our mad five days on the mainland. We arrived in Canberra on Christmas Day and were met by Elf's parents Bill and Felicity and brother Fred. We did the gifts, demolished a turkey and then Skyped with Elf's other brother Chonk and his family in Switzerland. I am new to Skype so it's something of a miracle still to me. We were all Christmassed-out and ready for bed while they were just getting ready to have lunch.

Our boys spent a lot of time down in the garage which doubles as Fred's lab. Occasionally they would pop up for meals and mention the oscilloscope, or the 240 volt generator, or something about glass tubing. They really adore Fred, and Elf and I were able to loaf about quite a bit while he did the heavy work.

While in Canberra my Uncle Pete and Auntie Chrissie dropped by for a cup of tea - I hadn't seen them in years, and they happened to be in town. It was really good to see them and reconnect. They had never met Elf or the boys, and we've been married ten years. We are always hoping they will make a visit to Tasmania. Maybe now they have seen my lovely family they will bravely make the leap across Bass Strait.

In Melbourne we spent some time with Elf's cousin Ash, who is Marcus's godfather, and also a big hit with the boys. He lent us his swanky car - Elf and I had separate "climate zones". We visited Elf's 95-year-old grandma Marki who lives with her daughter Buddy. They were both in good form. Marki is amazing - she loves to talk and her long-term memory is marvellous. However she does ask the same question a number of times; the short-term memory is starting to drift a little.

The next day we went to lunch with Marki's younger sister, 92-year-old Auntie Val. She is a cracker - still lives independently, has a wicked sense of humour and an eye for the young men. She's a joy to talk to. I think a good measure of how with-it someone is, is whether or not you can pull their leg.

Now for the bad stuff. We had a complicated travel plan to try to save money - of course this meant more things could go wrong. We flew to Canberra with no trouble. To get to Melbourne we booked with VLine a combo ticket - bus to Albury on the Victoria/NSW border and then train. At the Canberra bus station we arrived nice and early, and were told

• our bus had not arrived yet
• our bus would be labelled ALBURY
• our bus would have VLine on the side.

Sadly, none of this was true. After the departure time came and went, I phoned VLine to ask when this 'late' bus would appear, to be told it had already gone. It's true the other 26 people managed to catch it, and I can only suppose they asked more or different questions than I did. It was a Doyle's bus, had been there when we arrived, and was labelled CANBERRA. In Felicity's car we briefly tried pursuing the bus in the hope of catching it at Yass but it was hopeless. We went back to their house
 in despair.

After some discussions about our options, Fred offered to come with us in the family car, share the driving down and bring the car back the next day. This was incredibly generous of him, as it's an 8-hour drive each way, and two days out of his Christmas break. We accepted, and that's what we did.

A couple of days later after meeting all our family commitments, we were in the shuttle on our way to the airport to fly home, when we realised we had confused our departure and arrival times. It was about 2.50pm and our flight actually left at 3.00pm, and there was no way to make it. I called and asked about rebooking. I was told it would cost us about $1200 to get the next flight. We were shattered - for the rest of the bus ride was I was grimly thinking of all we would need to go without over the next few months.

The happy ending was that when we spoke to a lady named Eva at the Virgin Australia desk at Tullamarine, she put us on the next flight for just $50 more per person - although I am pretty sure that technically we should have been up for $1200. With all the faffing around we missed out on a 3.45pm flight, but for only $200 we were very happy to wait four hours for the next one.

Considering we were only gone five days, our delight at getting home was off the charts.

More FebuChristmas

I have just got home with the boys, on Wednesday after school. For the last few weeks a friend with kids at the school has been dropping in each Wednesday and hanging out, more or less until sundown. Which is fine and all, but ... not really. They may all arrive any second, so I will knuckle down and type.

I am definitely finding blogging harder since getting sucked into the Twitter/Facebook vortex. I might think or hear of of an odd semi-notable thing, but then make it a 140-character Tweet and forget about it, rather than ruminating on it and getting a whole blog post from it.

For instance, I haven't got around to mentioning here that Michael told me the correct name for a 2-pronged fork is a bident.

Also I have to say a bit more about FebuChristmas

Last Saturday we had a big lunch to wrap it up, before everyone returned to Melbourne, Canberra and Switzerland. They were all booked on the ferry for that evening, so we were expecting lunch would wrap up at about three.

Irma took on the job of making bolognaise and salad for fifteen, and it was delicious. Elf made her peppermint ice cream with choc buds. In my opinion the choc buds freeze too hard like little chocrocks - if we can just fix that the world will beat a path to our door.

Over the duration of the visit, the little Swiss cousins Bea (3) and Eric (nearly 2) mastered being friends with Winston. To begin with they were quite nervous of him, but by Saturday they were following him around. Irma, Chonk, Bea and Eric stayed down at Imp and Ed's to avoid Chonk's cat hair issues. (He likes to collect it and fashion it into little furry grey-brown bow ties, which is embarrassing for everyone*). Bill and Felicity stayed at the pub, and we only played actual bedtime host to Fred. My Mum and Dad were also in town but stayed outside the Fullagar Cordon mostly, to avoid obstructing essential services. Sorry, got a bit Christchurch there for a second.

After lunch on Saturday everyone was doing the usual Christmas read/snooze/desultory chitchat, except Irma who was parboiling enough carrots to get all the way home to Switzerland. Someone asked, in a tone of voice that suggested this was the first time it had come up, "What time does the boat sail tonight?" The boat that was still four hours drive away that is.

So turns out it was chuffing off ninety minutes earlier than anticipated. Everyone disappeared out the door with a puff of dust and practically-still-raw carrot. It was amazing.

Chonk and Irma are stalwart readers of the blog, which I really appreciate. It was great that they came all the way from their mountain republic to visit Tasmania for a week. I was able to pin them down and recite lists of made up things in person, which was really refreshing. And Elf enjoyed having all her siblings together for the first time in ages, and getting them to do what she told them in that big sister way that comes so naturally to big sisters.

*Actually just a boring allergy

FebuChristmas™

Yesterday we had the postponed Fullagar Family Christmas. Chonk and Irma had originally planned to be here from Switzerland for conventional December Christmas. Elf suggested they delay until February, for various complicated family reasons, but with the bonus of cheaper airfares and accommodation.

So we have them and their beautiful kids Bea and Eric here in Tasmania for a week. They are staying down at Imp and Ed's a) because we had them last time and b) Chonk is allergic to Hattie. Also the little Swiss are a bit nervous about dogs, but they seemed to make great strides with Winston over the last two days.

Bill and Felicity and Uncle Fred are here as well, and everyone piled in around the two tables for a big lunch yesterday, preceded by a Kris Kringle-style present exchange. I received coffee beans and cheeses. which of course I used as an excuse to make dadjokes about the infant Cheeses in a manger etc. Michael was given some fantastic giant stuffed hand-gloves. They have a little pocket in them for a battery-operated movement-sensitive noise-maker. The idea is that you punch on with them and the noise-maker goes thwack, pow, kerrang followed by some ogre-style growls. Michael initially wasn't too thrilled with this, but once we took out the noise-maker, he seemed quite pleased with the now-silent gloves and the now-free noise-maker. This afternoon he was quietly and happily reading a book while tapping his noisemaker on the floor, generating all the sound and fury of a classic ogre v. werewolf battle to the death.

Karri and Miah received bright blue and cerise velour jumpsuits with hooded tops, from Felicity. Immediately the girls pulled the hoods over their heads and said "Look - we're Dementers!!" Those of us not au-fait with Harry Potter asked the obvious question. "They're evil black soul-suckers!!"

We had fifteen at the table for FebuChristmas lunch, which I think is a sit-down-meal record. Ed picked up a couple of hot chickens from the shops to make the whole thing easier, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We finished off with one of Felicity's amazingly decorated fruitcakes, and Imp's pavlova. Splendid. I highly recommend choosing a weekend at random (preferably sometime in summer), and calling that Christmas. Shopping is easier and cheaper, food is not so hard to come by, and people can fly in from wherever at half the price.

Bill and Felicity however, tend not to fly. They like to have their car with them, so they drive 8 hours from Canberra to Melbourne, cross Bass Strait on the ferry, then drive 5 hours to Hobart. Very often these trips (and others they undertake across the continent) are for a birthday, Christmas or a wedding, and Felicity has a large cake for the occasion. I was nearly going to ask yesterday what is the longest trip they have made in the car without a cake, but I thought that might sound rude.

Recycled oregon table tennis table

The dinner table is now the scene of more vicious smashing, backhanders, deceit and spin than ever before. I have defeated the visiting Victorian champion, Fred, and am now prepared for all comers. The holes in the table are becoming part of my strategy - if you look for them you can certainly find them.

Winston hangs around the net, shifting his weight from side to side as the rally progresses. He does go after the loose ball, but in a slow, dutiful way, as though he thinks it's expected of him. If he gets there first he just holds the ball in his immense jowls, like a kid sucking a jaffa.

Whereas outside when we are playing cricket, Winston lurks at short midwicket, and pounces on a loose ball with unbelievable acceleration. The cricket (actually tennis) ball gets a good chew and soaks up many fl. oz. of drool. We are much more likely to get a deck splinter or ankle-knack from trying to get the ball first, than from diving to take a catch.

Room swap

Fred is here, our first guest since Elf and I relocated to the former guest room at the front of the house. It's the nicest room really, but the computer desk and my drawing board are still in there so it's a little squeezy.

Fred's room is carpeted and has less traffic noise. Unfortunately it does have quite a bit of dog-romping-on-the-deck-at-dawn-with-a-plastic-milk-bottle noise. So the hound and I have just returned from a 1 hour walk around the hills. It is now 6.40am.

Our usual walk is up to the park behind the house, home to many rabbits. We started and finished up there this morning, and saw more than usual, due to the early hour. Winston's relationship with the rabbits is cordial. He takes a long time to notice them. They notice him and don't feel the need to act. If he is off the lead, he might swerve towards them a bit as he trots around, whereupon they skippity hop down a hole in a leisurely way. I imagine they'll exchange cards at Christmas.

Yesterday I had my weekly Economic Downturn Day at home. Just after everyone had left for school and work, as I was setting up Fred's room, I suddenly heard my boss Steve's voice. They were interviewing him on the radio about his plan for a new Tasmanian film/screen media body. It was quite strange. I half expected him to say "we have to get rid of the funding bottlenecks that have resulted in my staff spending one day a week at home tidying up their spare rooms".

This morning Michael is going to come along to Little Athletics to compete for the first time. That's the plan, anyway. Since his escapade we are trying to make sure he gets more exercise, and engages more with other kids. Elf has been taking Marcus and Michael to tae kwon do, and they are both getting into it. So far they have learned to block. They come home on Monday afternoons, blocking the house down.

POSTSCRIPT: Michael got cold feet once we arrived at Little Aths, but we made a deal that he would choose one event from the four and just do that, for starters. He chose the 100 metre dash, lined up happily when the time came, took it casually at about three-quarter pace and just missed out on first place by a nose. (21.2 sec for the record) He was delighted and did a lot of victorious arm waving. Hopefully next week I can negotiate two events.

Fred builds a doorbell

I haven't been blogging very regularly of late, so I will try to recall what we have been up to that bears retelling.

Fred arrived the day before Good Friday, and we have been noodling around with him all Easter. He is extremely scientific, interested in the world around to him to an astonishing degree. If something is broken he is compelled to fix it, whereas I am compelled to lie down. When Fred is in town we have an amazing burst of experiments. He made us a beautiful doorbell yesterday from wire, meccano and an alarm clock. Or perhaps it was a bomb. He said it was a doorbell.


Today he made a radio transmitter, out of the doorbell. And so on. Marcus loves the end result, but is too busy out climbing trees or reading to sit in for the process. Michael loyally sits through the process talking nonstop and making ingenious but impractical suggestions. Fred has the patience of a saint, and listens to all this without putting Michael in a sleeper hold (which is what I want to do when I am busy and he won't shut up).


Today we drove to Snug and went for a walk to the falls there. Snug of course is a funny name for a place, and it has certainly not gone to waste. There is the Snug River, Snug Falls, Snug Beach, Snug Primary School, Snug Tavern and of course the Snug Butchery. The walk in was mostly downhill, through fragrant bush - quite peppery. We are not sure what "mountain pepper" is but possibly this is it. There were a few parked toddler strollers on the way in - the track was much too rocky and rooty for them. We passed the family carrying their littlies out. There was not a lot of water in the falls but it was a very pretty spot. Popular too - we had to wait a few minutes for a parking spot to open up. Marcus and Fred went off to explore the lower reaches of the river with strict warnings and threats of direness if Marcus got his feet wet. When they returned he had fallen in a puddle but heroically got only his shirt, hair and the top of his pants wet. On the way out we passed the family with the toddlers again, still struggling upwards.


Yesterday we also went for a walk, around the Risdon Brook Dam. We went over that way to check the puppy situation at the Dogs Home - once again, no suitable pups in residence. We are always promised that there is a puppy tsunami just around the corner. Sigh. So we went for a nice long walk around the dam - it's about and hour and a half I think. Very pleasant when you have nothing particular else to do. By the end I was very hungry and wished I was the resourceful type who had packed sandwiches.

I have been nibbling away at the front deck railing, sanding a bit and painting a bit each day. We suspect the builders used an interior wood finish, as the more exposed parts have weathered down to a cracked and blistered mess in two years. When I started the job I was listening to cricket while I worked; now it is football. I hope to finish it before we are back to cricket again.

Taking Fred for a walk

Fred came over from Melbourne to spend the weekend with us. We did a lot of Boxing-Day-style flopping around and eating, with Imp and Ed and the girls as well. The kids adore Fred, and he takes his role as science guru to the under-9s very seriously.


Yesterday we broke out of the endless rounds of coffee and sandwiches to go for a short walk on the mountain. It has been snowing on and off for a week, but not until yesterday did the clouds part. The road was closed at The Springs, but as often happens, the snow had receded to a long walk up from there.

We contented ourselves with a stroll to Sphinx Rock. The view up to the pinnacle from there is superb, and we can look directly down on our house as well (if you can find the tiny arrow on the picture, that's it)

My brother-in-law is a brainiac

This is a quote from Fred's CV, regarding his current (third) post-doctorate in Sweden.

"Research involving terawatt femtosecond laser systems in Europe in a structural chemical X-ray context. Design and construction of a novel user-friendly sub-picosecond bremsstrahlung X-ray source was initiated and completed with extensive source and detector characterisation. EXAFS was selected as the initial technique. Several known spectrometer topologies were investigated and new topologies devised to direct the new source to in-house ultrafast optical pump, X-ray probe chemical structure studies..." It goes on in a similar vein.

Whereas, yesterday I videoed my hand opening and closing and today I am animating a lot of stuff flying out as I open it, as if in zero gravity. For some ad or other.