New Year

Now that Christmas and New Years is over and done with hopefully things can get back to some semblance of order and routine.
Not that I didn't have a good time during Christmas or anything but working two (retail) jobs sort of sucked all the fun out of it. I was looking forward to and dreading Christmas. On one hand it was going to be my first day off in a month (and it was CHRISTMAS) and on the other it meant the next day was Boxing Day which is pretty much the most dreaded day if you work in retail.

Anyway, we had a good day even though we were dead tired by the end of it. One of the highlights (comedy wise) was throwing Glen's 13 year old nephew into the pool because he was being cheeky and didn't think we'd actually do it haha

On the 27th we went to the MCG to watch day 2 of the Ashes in Melbourne (The Ashes is a cricket game between Australia and England). Australia did pretty bad but it was still fun - and it was my first time going to the cricket.

We had a pretty low-key New Years. We went to a BBQ at one of Glen's co-worker's and then came home around 11:30 and watched the fireworks on TV then went to bed. I know the whole point of going somewhere on New Years is to actually still be out at midnight but they were all driving 45 minutes down the road to the beach and we didn't want to be out driving that late.
It was also incredibly hot yesterday (+41) so that pretty much sucked the life out of me and I was asleep right after the fireworks finished.

It was pretty warm again today so we decided to take a drive down to the beach where it was MUCH cooler than it was in the city. We still managed to take a dip in the water though! (I told Glen we need to make 2011 the year of getting to the beach!).

Lets hope we all have a great 2011!!

Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 8:45pm

Views from my sewing machine

The spare room is slowly coming together. I finally have a table to set up my sewing machine and other crafty things, a few bookshelves have been put together and I've actually done a little sewing.

(These hydrangea bushes run all the way down our side of the building so we have a great view of them from every room)

Nothing finished yet but I'm making some progress on a few Christmas presents.


I haven't felt up to blogging lately because I've got a pretty busy work schedule at the moment. I'm working my regular 5 days a week and I volunteered to fill in two days a week (my days off) at Glen's work through the holidays. I started my epic run the last week of November and my first day off won't be until Christmas day (and then I only have the 25th off since boxing day is a big day in retail).



Temperature: +23C
Sunrise: 5:51am
Sunset: 8:32pm

Dragons, Pottery and Gold!

Glen and I finally had a weekend off together last week. It'll likely be our last days off together until Christmas day and even then, we won't have the day to ourselves.
We took advantage of the freedom and spent the day in Bendigo. The drive was quick and easy - basically we get on the freeway near the house and keep driving and it takes us straight there (no turns or anything!). One thing to keep in mind is that Bendigo basically closes on a Sunday. The streets were very quiet and a lot of shops were closed. Thankfully some of the touristy things were open.

Random shot of our rainy drive home.

We started off at the Chinese Museum and the Chinese Gardens (essentially a koi pond - not something I'd pay to see separately but admission was free when you buy a museum ticket).

We got to see the longest imperial dragon and the oldest imperial dragon.

The longest imperial dragon in the world - Sun Loong

Random other dragons (one is a guardian lion I think)

We walked through some gardens and saw a whole heap of bats (silver headed flying foxes).

We picked up a free tourist guide at the museum and we flipped through it to look for other things to do. The pottery place and the gold mine happened to be open so we decided to take a drive out to the pottery place first. The pottery place was AWESOME. I thought it might be some fancy-schmancy-arty pottery place but most of the pieces were utilitarian type things - sugar/flour/tea canisters, mugs, plates, bowls etc. We bought a few Christmas presents for family and picked up a sugar container for us. I'd love to go back and get their flour and tea bag container.
After that we drove over to the Central-Deborah Gold Mine and took a 75minute underground tour. That was awesome too. I thought I might be a little freaked out by taking the elevator and being 20 storeys underground but I was fine. Part of what made the mine tour great was our tour guide and there were only four people in our group (us and an older couple). They have an even longer tour available (you go further underground!) and I'd definitely consider doing that one as well (and it's definitely on our list of things to do when people come to visit).

We did a little bit of driving around Bendigo and happened upon this great sight:

Unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to take a trip up again.


We're in the process of planning an even more exciting trip for around March but I'm sure we'll get in a day trip or two before then! (more details when we have a few things confirmed!)



Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 5:56am
Sunset: 8:16pm

Soggy Spring

We have a had a cold and wet spring. Everyone has been complaining - especially about how cold it is. I just kind of shrugged because I remember when I first came last year I was SO cold in the house and it took me a while to adjust to the cooler temperatures coming from summer in Canada (and in Montreal no less).

Well, I may be converted to thinking that we actually are suffering with colder weather. I just went to look at some pictures from this time last year - and posts so I try to repeat myself as little as possible (since I was thinking about talking about the Melbourne Cup) and this time last year we were at Wilsons Prom soaking up the sun on the beach.

The plus side to all this cool wet weather is that our dams are at 50% which is a first in many years (I've read varying reports from first since 2006 to first in 30 years... Either way it's a big deal).

Anyway, the first Tuesday in November is Melbourne Cup day - the major race in a spring horse racing carnival. It's the race that "stops the nation" and everyone at 3:10pm stops to see who wins. We thankfully had the day off though we were surprised at the amount of stores that actually opened.
Glen and I put a small bet on a horse each and spent the day at his sister's house with the rest of the family. We all picked two horses out of a hat and put $1 in just as fun (convenient in a family of 12 to have 24 horses running).
If you don't go to the actual races, having a BBQ and having family over is a pretty typical way to celebrate.

I spent the day yesterday getting the spare room into better shape. We inherited a great old (large) shelf from Glen's grandpa so I wanted to start unpacking some boxes to get the room in working order and then I'll be able to suss out what other furniture I'll need for in there (looks like a few short bookcases like we have in the living room and a table as well as storage bins).
Here's a picture of the shelf with tonnes of stuff piled on it (it's a great shelf made of real wood - it's solid and heavy - a real quality piece of furniture - there's two doors on the bottom that open up to small shelves).

I managed to empty 7 boxes yesterday (or condense a few anyway). I think I have around 10 more to empty before we're completely box free.



Temperature: +21C
Sunrise: 6:07am
Sunset: 8:01pm

Pumpkins Found!

Remember how I was lamenting over the lack of proper pumpkins over here? Turns out they DO exist and they're mainly marketed as carving only pumpkins not eating pumpkins (or at least on the ads I've seen they're talking about carving them). Which I guess is the case at home too but people do still make homemade pies with them. I have a feeling they're also a one week only/blink and you'll miss them type of thing especially when Halloween is NOT a popular event.

Anyway, I saw an ad on TV for big orange pumpkins and so when we went grocery shopping this week I picked one up. I can't remember how much they are at home - especially since a lot of my pumpkin buying was done in Inuvik where things like that are notoriously expensive. These pumpkins were $26/ea which is not too bad since I'm actually going to be cooking it not carving it/throwing it away (even though I wanted to carve it SO bad when I was cutting it! It felt weird to cut it in half instead of cutting the top bit off to scoop the insides out that way).

So my plan for today is to roast up this pumpkin (it's bigger than it looks in the picture - half of one cut in threes barely fits on our cookie sheet), blend it and freeze it in 1 or 2 cup portions to save for pies and other yummy things.

Another bonus in finally finding a pumpkin?

The seeds! yum! (I might have to go buy another pumpkin this week before they disappear again!)


Temperature: +12C
Sunrise: 6:24am
Sunset: 7:46pm

New Phone! yay!

I managed to snag myself an iPhone this week after a bit of drama with the phone company (basically I couldn't sign up in my name so Glen did it in his and because of that, I couldn't keep my old phone number). Besides having a new phone I'm really excited about the camera portion of the iPhone and downloaded a few cool camera aps. I'm hoping to do something similar to project365 but with my phone - my camera is just too big to lug around everywhere every day and there are some seriously cool photography aps out there.

So because I've gotten a new phone I'm getting a case for it. I bought one for the time being because there's no way this phone is going to go without a case (I put a case AND screen protector on it before I did anything else) and I want to order a custom case for it. I found a site that will let you upload a photo or artwork and it turns it into phone case. I picked 16 of my favourite pictures and I can't decide which one to choose!
I thought I'd open it up for public opinion to get some help.


In no particular order:

Berries & Grevillea 1


Grevillea 2 & 3


Bird & Crocus


Rainbow Lorikeet & Koala 1


Koala 2 & Inuvik


Crocus 2 & Fireweed 2


Fireweed 3 & 4


Fireweed 5 & Rainbow Lorikeet 2

In other news we've been getting brief snippets of warmer weather. It was +29C yesterday and now it's back to rainy and cold. We had a bit of wild weather a week or so ago but there doesn't seem to be as much damage as when we had those storms last November.


Temperature: +13C
Sunrise: 6:25am
Sunset: 7:45pm

Back to work

So here I was getting into a semi-regular posting routine and then I got a full time job and that's pretty much sucked away all my spare time.
I can't complain about getting a job because well, I needed one and it's nice to have the cash. It just sucks that I don't have an endless expanse of free time in front of me (not like I really think I spent it wisely anyway).

On Friday we went to see Paul Dempsey who is the lead singer of the band Something for Kate. We went and saw Paul about a year ago when he played up in Castlemaine (he's put out a solo album and is playing acoustic shows). It was the first time I'd seen him live and was completely blown away. Not every musician sounds good live but Paul does and he is really great onstage/interacting with the audience.

So, after work on Friday Glen and I drove into the city to see him play again. Parking was a nightmare but we managed to cram the car into a spot a few blocks away.

As awesome as the venue is, after a day of standing at work, it sucks to stand for 4+ hours in a giant group of people (especially when a few are drunk and dancing in that giant group).

If anyone is interested, I'd suggest you check out some of his music (and Something for Kate - SFK is a group that Glen introduced me to back in 2004 and instantly loved them). He's played a few shows in the US and is headed back there and is even playing one show in Canada next month.

I definitely wish I would've brought my big camera with me (we were so close!). I was too tired to lug it around and happened to have our point and shoot camera in my bag.

In other news, it's warming up a bit here and we've set the clocks forward an hour. I have all the windows in the apartment open and there's definitely a warm breeze blowing through. Nice!
It's also mango season! yay!


Temperature: +22C
Sunrise: 6:43am
Sunset: 7:32pm