Damp grey Sunday

I can make a black explosion with just this ray, this OTHER ray, and this explosion stick!! - Michael, just now. So - this will be one of those Sunday catch-up blogs.

We just had a really great evening with our buddies from Launceston, Scott and Lynn, and their kids Isobel and Tom. We only see them every year or two, but the four kids just light up when they get together. It is one of the things that gives new life to old friendships - when you each have kids and they hit it off on their own terms, without too much enforcement.

Lynn and I met at high school. Isobel will be starting high school next year, and has been having a look at one or two of the local schools to check out the vibe. Her first question to Lynn was "where does everybody play?" This made Lynn and I feel really, really old.

Due to some allergy issues we offered them an unstuffed chicken roast dinner. Just meat and veg with fruit instead of cheese and biscuits, and more fruit for dessert. Terrific people and a lovely evening - we have been very lucky to have a few of those lately.

Elf watched the whole Royal Wedding. I am a republican but still interested enough to watch the bits before and after I had to go out. I think Prince Harry's braid-fest uniform and Princess Beatrice’s Klingon hat made the whole thing worthwhile. As far as I know, the rest of us in the Commonwealth don't put a cent into the Royals, although we still get to enjoy the soap opera. I think if I was British and actually contributed to the Queen's £8 million per annum, I might be more fired up about a British republic than I am about Australia’s.

For some reason, the bit of the wedding that appealed to me the most was Kate's brother's reading, which I believe is from Romans chapter 12. "Do not lag in zeal" - doesn't even sound like English. But I can’t stop saying it. I would like a bumper sticker. I like to think it means "Fill a pillowcase with apricots" in Afrikaans, and "Bring me a hat made of cheese" in Norwegian.

I missed a chunk of the wedding playing indoor soccer. Our team has been promoted again to the upper division, and wins will be few and Farby Tween. This week we were down 7-1 at halftime, but improved a bit to go down 16-5. We only had 4 players and no other strikers, so I played all but about 2 minutes out on the field. 

And now I have just remembered why its best to blog lightly but frequently. Recalling stuff is just too hard.

Dateline: hammock

This is the first post I have ever written in a hammock. And so far it's going fine, d'you reckon?

I am supervising neighbour children in the pool. It's been one of those days where someone runs past you and asks for a vegemite sandwich, and you have to ask them their name. Imp and Ed came over with the girls, and brought with them some tiny yet troublesome blonde girls. Now there are two boys in the pool and two more lying on our small trampoline, with Winston. Marcus is well over visitors, and is downstairs having his weekly dose of internet games.

Our kids are big fans of Powdergame, which I think i've mentioned before. For Michael the computer is just a machine on which to play Powdergame. He will make a "cannon" out of "rock", fill it with "C4 explosive", "oil" and "fireworks", and then splash in some "magma". Kablooie.

Now everyone's out of the pool. Both of mine are down with the computer, and a bunch of visitors are playing a full-contact soccer match on our small deck. [...]  Since the last sentence they have almost broken a window, I relocated them off the premises, I joined in a game of 3 v 2 in a tropical downpour, then we wrapped it up when lightning started zagging in our neighbourhood. Soon after we got home there was almighty flash and the biggest clap of thunder I have ever heard in Hobart. They were about 2 seconds apart. The hound was a bit alarmed but he got over it very quickly, and there hasn't been any more.

Situation report: its very wet and very green

That's Super-Duper

Here is a list of various good things, to balance out my somewhat whingey list from the other day.
1.    Marcus is officially Australia's 12th ranked under 8 chess player. He is practically unbeatable at school now.
2.    Today I bought the Assassination Vacation audiobook with my iTunes voucher from my birthday in March (thanks Sal and Matt). It is John Wilkes Booth-tastic.
3.    In related news, the World Book encyclopedia (1979 edition) calls confederate general Stonewall Jackson "the bible-quoting lemon-sucking infantry genius". How much work do I need to do before I die, to earn a description like that? Lots.
4.    I like the quiet moment when you drive under a bridge in a rainstorm. A hiatus.
5.    There She Goes by The Las - perfect pop song from 1988
6.    The Devil With the Green Eyes by Matthew Sweet - perfect pop song from 1993
(I have tried and failed to embed little samples of these tracks - I'll try again when I am not doing it over dial-up).
7.    Hattie is a very predictable miaow-er. If she hasn't seen you for a while, you get a miaow. Pat her on the head - another miaow. Pat her again - another miaow. This goes on for about another 4-6 pats, with diminishing returns. Lately I have been taking advantage of her predictability, and dueting with her on Downtown by Petula Clark.

8.    I like the fact that "cyborg" sounds a lot like "sideboard". I can see a day when I have a long, low cyborg, maybe with beautiful walnut veneer. When someone asks 'where are the salad servers?' I will say "top drawer in the cyborg there" - and they probably won't notice a thing until the cyborg's drawer opens automatically, and it maybe does a bit of a dance.

Wet Saturday (no.1 non-exciting headline of all time)

Elf gave permission for the boys to wear pyjamas all day. The cricket is on TV, the puzzle books are out. I'm going to do a little bit of sewing.

Lake Pedder - day 2

In the morning after breakfast we went straight down to the Gordon Dam. FUN FACT: It holds back as much water as 25 Sydney Harbours. Lake Gordon abuts (word of the day) Lake Pedder and is connected by a sort of channel/spillway thing. Its a spectacular Hoover Dam style construction, unlike the others we saw later that day which were a bit dull to look at. The boys and I went down about 20 flights of metal stairs to walk along the top, while Elf watched and took photos from above.



It curves side-to-side and also top-to-bottom. It felt really amazing to stand on top of it. I can't deny that it's an incredible feat of engineering, but it's hard not to look down at the dry side of the wall and then imagine a similar ecosystem drowned under squillilitres of water on the other side. One or two species are thought to have gone extinct in the process. Worm species, but still, eh?

Climbing back up (in a relatively light shower) was pretty hard work. I was onto day 7 of a heavy head cold, and also I am very, very old. Our plan for the rest of the day was to drive around the lake to look at Scotts Peak Dam and Lake Edgar Dam. This involved heading back towards Hobart for about 45 minutes and then something like another 45 on a potholed dirt road. It's not true to say I went into every pothole, I certainly missed some. The dams? Average. Quite a view from this lookout but probably not a must see. As we left we "Goodbye Scotts Peak Dam - goodbye for ever".


From there the main excitement was to see if we could get back to the Chalet before they finished serving lunch as it was the only hot buffet available in the entire south-western quarter of Tasmania. We made it. The boys were understandably getting fractious with all the time in the car and no rain-free exercise, but they were generally pretty good. This range is called The Sentinels.


After lunch there want much else to do but try out the recreation centre (with heated pool). We splooped around in that for a while, then we filled half an hour in the empty games room. Elf and Marcus explored variations on badminton while Michael and I tried a new combination of cricket and indoor lawn bowls, that has no chance whatever of catching on. By this stage the rain had almost stopped and we walked to dinner unhurriedly. The wallabies were out and also the smaller ones which we have decided to call pademelons though they may be bettongs.

I can't talk about the rest of the evening as it involved a Richmond game on TV.

Squiglets, nice clean desk, rain

As you can see I am spending a bit of time roaming through Wikipedia at work at the moment. Work is a bit slow - the project I am working on is a bit rudderless. It's a DVD promoting a primary school exercise program. Initially I thought it would be really fun, with little bits of video for me to embellish with colour treatments, animated squiglets, do-funnies and so on. It turns out it is all shot in High Definition, the files are massive, there are heaps of them, and there is no way my little Mac can cope. So I am supplying a range of transparent squiglets to the film editor, who will lay them in where she sees fit. She is very nice, and I'm sure she will take suggestions on board. But it's not going to be that much fun. Also the client has been a bit disappointing, and told me my colour choices were "trashy". -Sigh-

At home - well, I have spent a few evenings clearing my desk to make way for a burst of creativity. The big drawing of our house is pretty much where I left it. Tonight I might try a little still life drawing or something to ease back in to that world. STOP PRESS - did a reasonable sketch of a wallaby skull.

We have had a rainy week, which has been great. When rain isn't followed up by more you know that what you've just received is getting burnt off by sun and wind. Things are greening up, just as the deciduous things are starting to deciduate. The overcast skies have made for some very dark mornings, and we are having to haul the kids out of bed at times, which is unusual. Summer time will end soon and we'll get that hour in the morning back again.