Sunday.  12th.   Leftovers for dinner then Professor T 3.4.

Monday.  Slept okish I think. Felt all day that work was completely pointless. I keep getting called into meetings for one project that people have to do every couple of years, but instead of reusing previous years' work, they insist on redoing everything from scratch, which feels like the most massivest waste of time and money ever. Then I was waiting for other to people to help me with some stuff. Still waiting. Stu cooked up some goats cheese and caramelised onion ravioli with a creamy mushroom sauce which was very nice. Professor T 3.5.

Tuesday.  Slept okish I think. More pointlessness and waiting for people at work.

Went into town after work for the first Shine Dome talk of the year in the Bright Minds, Bold Voices series.  This time they had Professor Stephen Simpson from the Charles Perkins Centre and Vanessa Hudson the CEO of Qantas to talk about "Reimagining how we fly".  The format was a little different from previous years (although I missed most of last year's due to reasons so not sure what they did then) in that they just had the guest speakers sitting out the front and chatting about stuff rather than having formal talks.  They were talking about the collaboration they're doing between science and Qantas to optimise the long haul experience by the choices of lighting and food service to try and reduce the worst of jetlag.  This was going to be especially relevant for Qantas' Project Sunrise A350 flights which are aiming for 22 hour non-stop flights from east coast Australia to the UK.  Which is great and all, but I was still hung up on how little *space* you get in cattle class. Vanessa addressed this right at the very end with a quick comment about how economy will get 34 inches between seats instead of the usual 31-32.  pfffffft.  Sorry but I need more horizontal space as well so I don't feel like I'm pinned in (which leads to epic restless legs).

Professor Stephen Simpson, Vanessa Hudson, Lish Fejer

We saw this very purple mustang in the car park..

Then Tony and I went for a light dinner at Badger & Co (we split this on account of pigging out at the Shine Dome)

Wednesday.  Slept okish I think. I don't think I achieved anything useful today. I did get a ride to and from work with Chrissie though in her Tesla. OMFG there are so many DUMB things. Like the door handles for a start (to get in you have to press them in then you can pull them out, and to get out you can either find an awkward little handle in the arm rest area, or push a button). You have to change gears using a touchscreen WTF?? (Ray pointed out that how often do you *really* need to change gears in an automatic electric car?).  Yeah so if the touchscreen dies you can't drive your car. Hurray.  And blinkers are a button on the steering wheel. The torque on it is pretty impressive though. Like a rollercoaster.  Stu cooked up a fake satay chicken using some almond paste we wanted to get rid of out of the fridge, with some red curry paste, coconut cream, fish sauce, chilli powder, sugar and some veggies that needed using up out of the freezer. It was very yummy and tasted like satay.  Professor T 3.6 (end of season 3).

There's actually a bunch of rice under this!

Thursday.  Took forever to get to sleep - super restless. Then another day of not achieving much. Chrissie came to drinks which was kinda fun. Although I think Mike hates me. hrmm. Got Dominos again, but only because they sent us a $23 voucher for a free pizza during the week (something about the delivery taking longer than 24 minutes last time). These pizzas actually went back to almost being full sized. Almost. Yeah, still only 9.5 inches.  The thin and crispy pepperoni we got was just over 10 inches. Still pretty hopeless. Professor T 4.1.

Friday.  Broken sleep from 2am. At work mostly just fixing up logging on the new proxies. Kievs for dinner. Professor T 4.2.

Saturday.  Somewhat restless sleep. Got annoyed (listening to the news in the morning) that I was going to miss the airport open day. I knew it was coming up but they hadn't put tickets online yet before I went away for our holiday, then I forgot to keep an eye on it while we were away. Annoying too because they were going to have an A220 which I haven't seen before. #grunt. Went for a walk again in the morning.

Got back then went out birdwatching with the sweetie. Suddenly the day is half over. Whoops.

.

Quiet afternoon.  I may have done a jigsaw.

Fire out at Googong (hazard reduction)

The sweetie cooked up a heap of veggies for dinner (including a very nice cabbage (cauliflower I think) bake using a pack of goats cheese I got from Chris's that was already past its use-by date when I bought it before we went on holidays... she'll be right!)

Then watched Netflix's 2023 "Civil War" which was a bit.. bleak..

Sunday.  Slept mostly okish I think. Quiet morning, then in the afternoon went with Jo and Mel to see The Sound of Music at the NSFA .. singalong!!!!! OMFG it was so much fun. The sweetie just barely tolerates me singing along in movies, so this was a great opportunity to really have some fun. It was awesome! Thanks Jo for the invite!

Wow. So 2025. It sure was a year!

Travel

I went to Adelaide with Mum in late February to visit my Uncle Graham who was in hospital for three months being treated for a lymphoma. He was doing really well at the time (he'd really only just started treatment). Good news is he's done with treatment and is (so far) cancer free. We went down the coast to visit Kit and Pete in March for Pete's birthday and I went to the Milton Show with Kit. I didn't go to Europe with Mum, even after spending months planning it. At least David got to go instead. I did go up to Sydney the day before they left to go through everything I'd prepared with them. In November the sweetie and I took ten days off and headed down the coast, staying in Narooma and Kiama. Didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked in Narooma due to reasons, so we hope to go back again some time soon. Did a day trip to Sydney in December to see Back to the Future the Musical.

Work

At work I was the Naughty Email Intervention Layer (NEIL) a few times while Neil took leave. We're not sure what's going to happen to his position when he retires next year (after 50 years!!!!). I got to do a bunch of work on some of our management scripts to get them working in the new environment. Learnt a lot, which I've now completely forgotten. Did scripts to check on the quality of objects/rules, backup configs, look for orphaned objects, print out our rules in a friendly format, delete crap. I love those delete scripts whenever I use them - they save So. Much. Time..!! Used Copilot (and Google AI) to help me with regex and Powershell (the regex stuff was pretty cool - I gave it a problem and it found me a solution - that worked!). Did lots of decommission work in the first two thirds of the year, ran out of time with everything else going to do much in the last third of the year. I still think my job description is mostly "Sadie". Helped Neil build and cut over to some new mail servers (which took months to finally get to do after they were like, oh, yeah there's a bug, soz). Ray brought in his pizza oven in February for a team lunch which was quite fun. We farewelled HBZ in February which was a bit sad, also farewelled Julian and Bruce in March and Imaar in October. There were trivia nights in March (a bit trash), June (a lot of fun, and we actually won, but luckily didn't have to run the next one - they decided in advance that the last place getters would run it) and October (a bit trash). Had a small "anti ball" in April but it was a bit of a fizzer and I don't think I'd bother trying to organise another one. Used "New" Outlook for only a couple of days in April because it was trash. The dealbreaker was shared calendars which just wouldn't render properly. Did a massive cleanup of our main dev environment, which I've been wanting to do for literally seven years. It makes me so happy that it's *clean* now! Worked on policy for our new cloud proxies, but even though I've been using myself for months we're still not really any closer to getting it released to everyone. In November it suddenly became crunch time on our existing proxies - the old hardware (which we've been using for TEN YEARS) was going EOL and we didn't want to renew the licence and we weren't ready to cut over to our new proxies, so I spent a few days migrating the policy to other equivalent but newer hardware, doing all the paperwork, and prepping it all so Con/Ward could cut it over while I was on holidays. It went mostly smoothly which was epic awesome. Spent a heap of time looking at what talks to some legacy domain controllers so could replicate their rules to new ones. Broke something during a transition though sadly. It was fixed super quickly once they told me though. Had to rework our ticket dashboards when they upgraded versions and our originals were done so long ago they were "legacy" and didn't work properly. Had various Christmas parties in December, including my annual bbq at the lake attended by over 40 people.

Health

I had a bit of a sore throat in February. Spent two days in bed and pretty sure I beat it off because I didn't seem to get fully sick. Mainly I was paranoid about getting sick because if I did I wouldn't have been able to see Uncle Graham in Adelaide. Ongoing bouts of insomnia and thermoregulation issues throughout the year (thanks menopause). Oh, and the minor inconvenience of the C-word. Not that C-word. The other C-word.

Family and Friends

We started the year (almost) with some of the n-gang (we left at 11:30 and got home just before midnight). Mum and D/K/S came for the family Christmas lunch in early January for last year, and a week before Christmas for this year. I definitely like doing an early family Christmas. Went to see Lily for her 21st in January. Had EffanC over for dinner in February, and also my birthday, and went over to theirs for dinner in May. David came to visit in March to install a new light fitting in the kitchen. Because the old one died. It was only six years old. Hating on how crap everything is nowadays. Mum tripped over just inside her village entrance in March and was knocked out and broke her collar bone. She went to hospital and they did a bunch of scans because they didn't know if she'd passed out and then fell, or got knocked out from the fall. Passing out first would have been super worrying. Fortunately there was security camera footage and you can clearly see she just tripped (she was power walking and was just moving off the main path when she tripped on a raised bit of concrete). Had Jenn over for dinner in March. It had been two years since we saw her last. Whoops! Caught up with Luc for drinks/dinner in May and December. Fiona came over with a care package in May, and visited again July. Tony also dropped in a care package in May, and we went to the arboretum in July, as well as had a couple of movie nights. Had lunch at the Burns Club with the Chrises and Tony in June and the Chrises and Glenda and Neil in December. Kit came to visit in August for Ben and Sarah's baby shower (which I would have loved to have gone to, but, people). Went and saw Annie and the family in August. Had Friday afternoon drinks with T/J in October - we really must do that more often! David and Kellie came to stay in November when they went and saw Ricky Martin. Went to Rob and Fiona's in November for a deck warming. Had Mishi's 60th in December. Had a super quiet Christmas Day, but Stu did got to see his family (and we'll hopefully catch up with them on New Years').  New Years Eve Eve party at M&M's with some of the n-gang.

The Social Club

We went out in June for Ian and Chris's 10th wedding anniversary formal night which was lovely. I did our annual Christmas in July by remote control this year - the sweetie did all the shopping for me, I did as much prep work as I could either at home or in the van, then got the sweetie and helpers to cook it all on the night (with lots of printed out instructions!). Went out again in September - Stu for a committee meeting, and I did some priming of cabinetry. Went to the Halloween Spooktacular night in October which was fun. Went out again in early November for a committee meeting for Stu, and I continued priming cabinetry. Then there was R&F's Christmas party in late November.

Photos

Spent ages picking out photos for Mum's funeral (on account of she wants to see it and I want to get it done in advance should the worst happen and then it would be one less thing I would need to think about). Spent chunks of time here and there tagging people in Picasa. I figured out how to have different databases for different people groups and even wrote a startup script to make it easy to switch between them. Jumped in to finally getting my Europe 2016 photos online - spent ages and ages culling culling culling, then labelling them and getting them online. I still have to make panoramas and get them online. Also filed a lot of photos into directories with more descriptive folder names. Re-scanned all of Mum's slides at the highest resolution my scanner would go (the first time I did them very quickly at a medium resolution). Then rescanned the ones with fluff on them, sometimes over and over and over again. I've geotagged our south coast trip from November, but that's all I've done so far.

Fish and Stumpy

Stumpy's UV light died at the end of last year, but I couldn't find anywhere that sold a 48" 10% UV light, so had to make do with an incandescent bulb which does heat *and* UV in one. He'd been pretty lethargic at the beginning of the year, possibly because of the lack of UV light. He perked up again with the new light, and got really quite tanned over the course of the year. My AquaOne 620T tank leaked in February because the filter wool drifted over and blocked the outlet, backing everything up. Whoever thought using chipboard to make fish tank stands would be a good idea should be shot. Lost the sucking catfish in the two foot downstairs in February - it was happy then was dead. Towards the end of the year I thought I was losing the clown loaches - they both hid in a corner and wouldn't come out. But in the last week or two they've been behaving more normally.

Our current fish inventory:
* upstairs two foot - a whole heap of guppies at various ages
* four foot - nine congo tetras, one lone male guppy (I'll get him some friends when others in the other tanks get big enough), and an enormous fat loach
* Chrissie's tank - two clown loaches
* angel tank - a whole heap of guppies at various ages
* downstairs two foot - a whole heap of guppies at various ages

Lego

Spent ages of time (and money) on Vic's Lego. Bought a crazy number of loose pieces to complete some sets. I managed to complete all the Creator and City sets. I built and photographed the Creator sets and have been building the City sets. Still a long way to go though. The LEGO Group is taking over Bricklink more and more. This year they forced you to use your Lego account to sign into Bricklink and later in the year they gave two weeks notice they were going to suspend trading in a whole heap of countries (which they then pushed back til next year). I'm just waiting for them to enshittify it completely. The only set I built new was 31134 - Space Shuttle, which I got for my birthday, but haven't had a chance to build the other two sets I got for my birthday.

Jigsaws

A little bit quiet on the jigsaw front, especially at work. Bought two jigsaws with a voucher from my 50th birthday, but have only done one of them so far.

Other Hobbies

My favourite hobby at the moment is diamond painting. I find it super quieting for my brain (which always seems to be overstimulated). After the little Christmas tree I did on Christmas/Boxing Day last year, I've done Green Eyed Beauty, Pink Galah and Banksia, White Cockatoo and Waratahs, and started on Oh Christmas Tree (which Dave2 very kindly bought and posted to me, on account of not being able to find anywhere in Australia that still had it). I did an Anko miniblocks Owl in Tree that I got for Christmas from Kellie and David which was very cute. I also did a Nanoblocks Church I got from the Green Shed sorry Vinnies sorry Goodies Junction in March. It wasn't quite complete but it was mostly there and is very cute. And there was also a Petit Blocks fox I got at Daiso for at work. It's very cute. I bought a brand-new-second-hand saxophone from the Young Music School sale in February. Had it serviced and got it back in August. I've done a little bit of playing on it but not as much as I would have liked. I did find some easy Christmas music for it which was fun and have been on the hunt for other music for it.

Weather

We had hail in January, August, September, November and December. There were various rainbows throughout the year. In October/November it went from needing the heater, the cooler, the heater, the cooler, the heater (although didn't actually run it that time) in the space of two weeks. Had lots of storms in November and December. Had an overnight low of 0C on 2 December.

Toys / Purchases / Techie Stuff

I bought a new camera in January because my old one (Dad's old one) had some dead pixels and just isn't as good as newer cameras in low light. But I got super frustrated at the 24-105mm lens which didn't have the range of my old camera/lens. I also got frustrated at how dull and lifeless the photos are from it. Did a bunch of testing comparing the new camera, the old 600D, my G5X and my iPhone. Also played with user mode settings to increase saturation and contrast, which has made a difference. In July I got a 24-240mm lens, much happier with it than the 24-105mm. The 24-105mm is still great for people photos and low light, but the 24-240mm is my general usage lens. I'm totally hating on Windoze 11 which does utterly daft things. Like if I open a text document on one desktop, it'll open it IN ANOTHER DESKTOP!!! Even if just a moment ago I'd opened and closed another text file on the original desktop. Or that it NEVER remembers folder settings. There's a few folders that I have specific settings (sorting by reverse date order, details instead of large icons etc..) and it resets them every fricken time I use them. HATE. There were a couple of times this year it remembered the settings, but mostly it just reset them. Or that sometimes when I unlock in the morning, windows that I've had on the right screen (my main screen) will randomly be moved to my left screen (which I don't use all the time) and I have to turn on that screen and move them back. Or that notepad is so trash now. If you have a large text file it becomes unusable due to the lag of it trying to do spell checks or whatever. Or it'll literally just not enter keystrokes and just skip one or more letters that you've typed. Or that Windoze will reboot AGAINST YOUR WILL when it feels like it. Or that whenever I attach a USB device it takes a full minute for windoze to recognise it. Or that whenever I attach or remove a USB device, explorer collapses what directories I have open, so I have to re-navigate to them all to get back into folder context. Or that when I open a command prompt (which I have pinned to my task bar), the command prompt doesn't open where the pinned icon is, it opens all the way over on the right of whatever else I have open. I got a new desktop at work and it's doing the same thing. Yet the Azure ones didn't do this. Or it'll just randomly jump to the top of the explorer window and I have scroll back down to find where I was working. Or it changed how folders are displayed by date. My computer crashed earlier in the year and in October as well. Frustration with Apple. If you let it automatically set the time zone, it'll just change the time zone on you randomly. It stuffed up a bunch of photos in Adelaide with its nonsense. Apple also merges timelines from different numbers into one message thread. So you reply to a message in the thread, but it goes to the home number not the mobile number and is never received. Apple is so stoopid. I had to split out Mum's mobile number into a different contact to stop that happening. Google broke Chromecast because they didn't renew a certificate. Eventually after a week or so they fixed it. OneNote threatened to force me into an Office365 subscription, but didn't end up doing it. I finally got around to setting up my phone to use my own hosted SMTP service because Optus was getting super flaky for trying to send mail. Raged at Optus who now FORCE you into using $5/day roaming unless you pull the sim out of your phone. BOM updated their website in October and half the country screamed at them for ruining things. Pretty sure CloudLoop made some change to email headers in mid to late November which means that mails from some places aren't rendering properly. I downloaded (and paid a little) for Thunderbird to handle mail from the problematic senders. Might one day copy everything across, but for now the way of filtering mail is super annoying.

House stuff

I spent ages in the first part of the year trying to get the back yard under control. Our lemon tree dropped probably about a thousand lemons over summer. I'm not even exaggerating - a branch fell off that had 110 lemons on it, and that was just one branch out of the whole huge tree. I juiced most of them and was drinking homemade lemonade for months. I grew a bunch of mini capsicums which I could harvest in April. Such a lot of effort (and having to water every single day) for so little reward (but a nice reward!). We tried to turn the heater on in April but either the controller or the heater was having a spaz and kept rebooting. In May we managed to get it to work and didn't turn it off for literally two weeks straight. After that we managed to operate it normally for the rest of the winter. But in spring, after being off for a few days, it got the crazy behaviour again. Potted a chrysanthemum that I'd accidentally uprooted out the front and it's been thriving. I still need to find a permanent home for it. Frustration the Mirabella Genio lights and app, terrible user interface and annoying to try and get them to repair. Started picking strawberries from the weeds in the back yard at the beginning of November and continued through early December. Not nearly as many poppies this year, must have been too dry for them.

Restaurants

We had Quan's Kitchen delivery in January (because Dumpling Inn presumably wasn't open yet). We went to Bar 59 a few times in January for work drinks, and again in April. Dumpling Inn is a continuing favourite, with deliveries in January, June (x2), July, August, September, October and December. So is Chong Co, with deliveries in March, April, May (x2), June, August and October. McGriddles at Maccas finally arrived in Australia! I had one in July but my sense of taste was shot at the time so couldn't judge it. Have had a few more since October though. Went to Ikko again for a work farewell in October. Went to Stellas by the Lake for brunch in November with David and Kellie, nominally for his 50th. Tried out Bamiyan with Luc in December which was really good. Tried out Grease Monkey in the mall in December. Went out to Four Winds for pizza lunch with Tony in December for our annual lunch out there. Went to the Labor Club with Mum and Stu in December. And to the Old Canberra Inn for Tony's birthday.

Food / Cooking

Our first meal of the new year was cheesy hash browns cooked on New Years Day. We usually have pizzas every Thursday night, mostly made ourself, but occasionally a commercial one. We often have Ingham's chicken Kievs on Friday nights. And we often have a roast dinner on Sunday nights. Made lemon pepper dill chicken a few times (with all that lemon juice!) and creamy lemon dill sauce with either chicken or fish a few times. Luv-a-duck Peking duck is a favourite, had that a few times. Did a pork neck in the slow cooker in February which was *amazing* and again in April. Tried Microwave Pork Crackle in February which was actually pretty good! Had steak a few times earlier in the year (we never get steak at home because Stu is usually meh about it). Had NQN's butt sorry beef cheeks in May. Stu cooked a little bit in April/May when he was on leave. Made a potato, blue cheese, and rosemary pizza in July. I couldn't taste it at the time, need to do it again. Did slow cooker lamb shanks in August. Tried a cheats mac & cheese with just a bit of water and cheese (and a bit of milk in one version, cream in another). Made a couple of coconut cakes - once in the microwave and once in the oven in August. Did slow cooker beef brisket in August. Baked a plain cake and icing in August from the Women's Weekly Children's Birthday cake book to test the recipe. Officially started cooking cakes out of it in September (just one so far!). Made puff pastry scrolls a few times - vegemite or pizza flavoured. Cooked some crackling by itself in November which turned out pretty well. Made some gingerbread biscuits in December. Made a peppermint slice in December.

Theatre / Shows / Exhibitions

* Pompeii at the National Museum in January with Mum which was really good
* AI in Science talk in April with T/J, but missed the rest due to avoiding people and being busy
* Constellations at the NFSA in April with Tony which was amazing
* Back to the Future - The Musical with the sweetie in December which was a bit of fun

Movies (at the movies)

None. *gasp*

Movies (TV)

* Heaven is for Real
* Die Hard 3
* Darkest Hour
* Star Trek: Generations (after seeing the Duras sisters in DS9 1.3)
* Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
* Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
* Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
* Blackberry
* The Princess Bride
* Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
* Fantasia 2000
* Perfect Days
* Inglorious Basterds
* The Holdovers
* Jaws
* Flying High
* Rogue One
* Star Wars (A New Hope)
* The Empire Strikes Back
* Return of the Jedi
* The Post
* Cruella
* Forgetting Sarah Marshall
* Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
* Terms of Endearment
* Lego Batman Movie
* Lilo and Stitch (the original animated one, and the live action remake)
* The Green Mile
* Passengers
* The Last Emperor
* Back to the Future, I, II and III
* V for Vendetta
* The China Syndrome
* Die Hard and Die Hard 2
* Birdman
* The Neverending Story
* Love Actually
* Enola Holmes and Enola Holmes 2

TV

* Death in Paradise - seasons 11, 12, 13, 14
* Wednesday - seasons 1, 2
* Beyond Paradise - Death in Paradise but back in the UK
* Stranger Things - season 1 early in the year, then 2/3/4/5 later on
* Return to Paradise - a spinoff of Death in Paradise set on the south coast of NSW
* Meltdown: Three Mile Island
* Deep Space Nine - seasons 1-7
* Air Crash Investigations on Disney+
* Andor - season 2
* How to Change your Mind
* Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War
* Lego Grand Masters of the Galaxy
* Trainwreck: Poop Cruise
* Black Mirror - season 7
* Tokyo Trial
* Trainwreck: Storm Area 51
* The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem
* Futurama - season 13
* You Are What You Eat
* The Simpsons - bit of season 36
* Lost Melbourne documentary
* GameStop documentary
* Pirates: Behind the Legends - a couple of episodes

Books

None. Although I did get some way through The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Reading is just so *hard*.

Other Stuff

* Got frustrated at the lack of response from Access Canberra in January over the new MyWay+ issues
* Got some ok photos Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) in January
* Got our Queensland holiday from 2004 and Col and Sandra's wedding blogged. Only took 21 years to get online..
* Took some Cousin Itt photos in February
* Remembered 11 years since Dad carked it in February
* The Green Shed closed down booooo and was replaced by "Goodies Junction" run by Vinnies. Definitely preferred the Green Shed. Later in the year found out the owner of the Green Shed started a spinoff in Fyshwick.
* Did a keto diet for a few weeks in February to lose a few kilos. It was pretty effective! And mostly kept the weight off too.
* Neighbours moved to New Zealand in April
* Climbed Mt Rogers a bunch of times in April while I was trying to get a bit fitter for my holiday
* Did low carb again for a little while in April. Gave up when it became apparent I wasn't going overseas.
* Had a lovely drive around Canberra on our wedding anniversary in April
* Saw the Giant Crane in May
* Listened to the Classic 100 Piano in June
* Went to the Handmade Markets at EPIC in June
* Neighbours house was finally rented out in June
* Watched all of Jamie's Anti-Chef videos from the very beginning in order from August. Still only about two thirds of the way through them.
* A red-back spider took up residence in our letter box in August. She was spray-and-wiped.
* Crimson rosellas returned to chew on the beams supporting the roof
* Stu rage-retired in September. Then spent the better part of a month in agony from his back. Recovered from that only to have hearing problems and nausea.
* Saw comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN), but only barely
* Visited the new "Green" Shed (The Shed) in October
* Stu more or less took over some cooking and some basic housework in October or November
* Plucked a number out of the air to go for in the Melbourne Cup (my birthday), and that horse won!
* Got frustrated at MyWay+ which doesn't work properly. Got one free ride out of it, but then figured out a fix.
* Got some photos of the aurora in November, although I never actually saw it
* Made a beer advent calendar out of beers I missed from work drinks that Neil saved for me
* Found a 2011 10c coin!!
* Chipped one of my front teeth
* Neighbours got a new barky dog
* Reread the second half of the New Testament

So there we have it.  I guess a fairly quiet year in a lot of ways.  We're both hoping 2026 will be better, especially health-wise.

Happy New Year!!!

Sunday.  16th.  Stu cooked up a pasta bake and a cabbage bake to use up a bunch of things in the fridge that needed using up.  

Then some Stranger Things (I think).  

Monday.  Logged onto work to be NEIL for the morning and did a handover after lunch. Got paperwork done for the proxy cutover change that I'd prepped but would be leaving to Con/Ward to do.  

Tuesday.  Holidays!

Thursday.  27th.  Got home around lunch time.  Lost one potted strawberry plant due to the heat and epic WIND.  But look at the haul!!  

Thanks Tony for looking after all our plants and animals :)  Spent some time unpacking, downloading GPS and photos etc.  Later in the afternoon the sweetie dropped me off so I could get a blood test done, then I dropped into work drinks.  KFC for dinner then Stranger Things 4.3.

Friday.   Got to sleep briefly but then awake for a while because I was HOT. Was looking at Kiama temperatures before bed, so didn't realise it was actually going to get *cold* overnight, but it was lovely! Had a busy day just trying to get caught up with life, including taking last year's Christmas party cans for recycling (finally!!) and getting a bone density scan (which they could do *today* which was pretty impressive.. I thought I'd have to wait weeks).

Kievs and some garlic bread I made with bread from the last club function leftovers. Stranger Things 4.4.

Saturday.  Slept like crap. Took ages to get to sleep, then awake from 1 for ages then awake from 4 for ages. Sigh. Got ready and headed out to the club.

John had cut a Christmas tree which we setup and then I spent an hour or so decorating. Good fun and it looked super cool.

Then R&F turned up and I helped all afternoon with the cooking. The night went really well.

Sunday.  Slept okish (mostly ok til around 4:45 then awake for a while). Went up to the shed and spent an hour or so tidying up and washing up.

Had to evict this five-legged grasshopper first..

Then home. And spent much of the afternoon putting up our Christmas tree and decorations.

I saw this in the Green Shed, sorry Vinnies, sorry Goodies Junction a while back and snapped a photo of it - 101 Places to See Before You Die.  From the font on it I thought it might be pretty old - like maybe 80s or 90s, but the Millau Viaduct is on there and it didn't open til 2004.  

I went through the list recently (copied off here) and noted which ones I've actually been to/seen.  I also noted, for the ones I haven't, whether I want to see them, I'd be open to seeing them, or whether I don't really have an interest (or would be impossible with the current state of the world).

Here's my list!

Location	Status	Notes
Po Lin Monastery, Lantau Island	Yes	Went here with the sweetie in November 2013
St. Mark's Square, Venice	Yes	Went here with Mum in October 2022
Times Square, New York	Yes	I've been to New York twice - in November 2000 and again in December 2018/January 2019
Tulum Beach, Cancun	Shrug	No burning desire to go here
Sydney Opera House	Yes	I grew up in Sydney so I've seen this many times. I have some photos of the interior here
Grand Mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia	Shrug	No desire to go to Saudi Arabia. They don't like women there. Besides you probably need to be a muslim to get anywhere near the place.
Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt	Yes	Went here with the parents in May 2012
Horseshoe Bay, Bermuda	Shrug	Meh. Does Half Moon Cay Bahamas count?
Big Ben, London	Yes	I've been to London twice - with the sweetie in September 2010, and by myself in May 2012
Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, USA	Yes	Went here with the parents in May 2004. OMFG I was so sleep deprived that trip and it comes out in the writing!
CN Tower, Toronto, Canada	Bucket	I like towers, be good to get up this one if I ever get to Toronto
Shanghai, China	Yes	Went here twice on the same cruise in March/April 2017
Half Penny Bridge, Dublin, Ireland	Maybe	If we ever get to Ireland we'll likely see this
Bondi Beach, Australia	Yes	Only been there like twice, overrated and crowded beach.  Last time was with Kore in December 2011
Giant's Causeway, Ireland	Bucket	Definitely want to see this
Erg Chebbi, Merzouga, Tafilalet, Morocco	Shrug	Unlikely to ever get there
Great Wall of China	Bucket	I'd like to get here one day
Great Barrier Reef, Australia	Yes	We went here on a family holiday in June 1979. I'll get the photos online one day.
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe	Maybe	Would like to see this, but it'd probably be too hard unless part of some sort of African safari tour
Taj Mahal, India	Bucket	I'd like to see this, but I'd probably only ever do India on a tour
Ksar of Ait Ben Haddou, Ouarzazate, Morocco	Shrug	Unlikely to ever get there
Eiffel Tower, Paris	Yes	Went up this by myself in May 2012
Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Bucket	Mum went there in 2017. Kinda regret not going with her on that trip, would have been good
The Colosseum, Rome	Yes	Went with Mum in September 2022
Bora Bora, French Polynesia	Maybe	I mean it'd be nice and all, but complicated and expensive for a beach holiday
Moai Statues, Easter Island	Maybe	This would be cool but complicated and probably too much effort
Acropolis, Greece	Bucket	Sigh. Missed out on this earlier this year. One day.
Stonehenge, UK	Yes	Went with the sweetie in September 2010
Old City Jerusalem, Israel	Yes	Went here with the parents in April 2012
Machu Picchu, Peru	Bucket	Mum went there in 2017. As above, regretting not going with her
London Eye, London, UK	Yes	Dragged the sweetie on this in September 2010
Table Mountain, Cape Town	Maybe	South Africa is a maybe. The place is dangerous. Maybe as a gateway to an African safari tour
Edinburgh Castle, Scotland	Yes	We saw this in September 2010 but didn't go to it. We plan to go back to Edinburgh one day to do the place justice
Niagara Falls, Canada	Bucket	I've wanted to see this for a long time. Maybe post Trump. (Yes I know the best view is on the Canadian side but we'd probably end up in the US at some point)
The Northern Lights, Lapland	Bucket	Seeing the Northern Lights (or even southern ones) is high on my bucket list
Old Town, Havana, Cuba	Shrug	Not sure we're even allowed to go to Cuba
South Beach, Miami, USA	Shrug	Meh
Yoshino Mountain, Japan	Maybe	This would be nice if the opportunity came up
Angel Waterfalls, Venezuela	Maybe	This would be cool but won't be getting to Venezuela any time soon
Eglise de Notre Dame, Brugge, Belgium	Maybe	If I'm ever in Bruges then sure
St. Tropez, Cote D' Azur, France	Maybe	I mean sure this would be nice if I was ever around there. Maybe on a cruise.
Bixby Bridge, Route 1, Big Sur, California	Maybe	We would have driven over this in 1983, but the coast road was closed due to mudslides. American road trips are never out of the question. Maybe post Trump
Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab, India	Maybe	Another place in India. Only if on a tour
Gapstow Bridge, Central Park, New York	Yes	Saw this with the sweetie in January 2019
Bridge of Sighs, Venice	Yes	Went to it and across it with Mum in October 2022
Mount Fuji, Kyoto, Japan	Yes	I've seen Mt Fuji (best views in April 2009) but haven't been up it (Luc did the sunrise hike once)
Statue of Liberty, New York	Yes	Seen it a couple of times, went up in November 2000
Shinjuku District, Tokyo, Japan	Yes	Been here a couple of times, first in April 2009
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco	Yes	Been across it on two trips - on our family trip in May 1983 and with Pete in November 2000
Darwin's Arch, Galapagos Islands	Maybe	I don't think Mum saw this when she went in 2017. I can't find any photos of it. Did I mention I regret not going on that trip with her?
Grand Central Station, New York	Yes	Been here twice - in November 2000 and with the sweetie in December 2018
Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Spain	Maybe	If I ever get to Spain I'd probably see it
Venice Beach, California	Yes	I've not actually been to the beach as such, although I have flown past it
Shoal Bay, Anguilla, Caribbean	Shrug	Meh. Does Half Moon Cay Bahamas count?
Casa del Adivino, Yucatan, Mexico	Shrug	Mexico is not high on the priority list
Neuschwanstein, Germany	Yes	Been here twice - with the sweetie on our honeymoon in May 2008, and with Mum in September 2022
Fjords, Norway	Yes	Went here with Mum in May 2016. I'd like to go back with the sweetie some time, I think he'd like Norway
East Side Gallery, Remains of the Berlin Wall, Germany	Yes	Went here with the sweetie in May 2008
Sun Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel, Egypt	Yes	Had the place to ourselves in May 2012, amazing experience
Old Town, Copenhagen	Yes	I've been twice - by myself in May 2012, and with Mum in May 2016
Mount Everest, Himalayas	Maybe	Is there anywhere for non-hikers to go to be able see this?
The Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road, Australia	Yes	I've been here twice - once with the parents and Hao in December 1994, and again with the sweetie in February 2022
La Cite Carcassonne, Aude, Languedoc-Roussillon, France	Maybe	This would be cool.. would need to take some Carcassonne tiles to play Carcassonne in Carcassonne :)
Death Valley, Nevada, USA	Yes	We went here on a family holiday in May 1983
Old Town, Stockholm, Sweden	Yes	I went here with Mum in May 2016
Glitter Gulch, Las Vegas	Yes	We went here on a family holiday in May 1983
Auckland, New Zealand	Yes	Technically I've been here, but I was only 18 months old at the time. Would like to get back there one day.
Vagator Beach, Goa	Shrug	Meh
St. Sophia Mosque, Istanbul, Turkey	Yes	Went here with Mum in May 2014
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Iraq	Shrug	Er.. How?
Santorini, Greece	Bucket	Sigh. Would have been there earlier in the year, but, reasons. Mum and David have been. The sweetie wouldn't want to go. May never see it.
Hollywood Sign, Hollywood, California, USA	Yes	Saw this on our family holiday in May 1983
Cape Town, South Africa	Maybe	Why have Table Mountain as its own entry above if you're going to include this?
Tiananmen Square, China	Bucket	I'd like to get here one day
Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy	Yes	Went up this with Mum in September 2022
Dubai, United Arab Emirates	Yes	Technically I've been here, but haven't left the airport. Mum and David got to see it instead of me earlier this year. Sigh.
Millau Viaduct, France	Bucket	I've been wanting to see this for a long time. I thought this list was from the 80s, but this viaduct only opened in 2004
Persepolis, Iran	Shrug	Yeah won't be getting to Iran any time soon
Petra, Jordan	Yes	Went here with the parents in April 2012
Maldives, Indian Ocean	Shrug	It'd have to be before sea levels rise. It'd be nice but an awful long way to go for a beach holiday though.
Uluru/Ayers Rock, Australia	Yes	We went here on a family holiday in August 1985. I'll get the photos online one day.
Angkor Wat, Siem Reap, Cambodia	Shrug	Maybe one day
Mount Kilimanjaro, Kenya	Maybe	This would be cool but not sure it'll ever happen. Apparently it's been ruined by tourism.
Geysers, Arnessysla, Iceland	Bucket	I want to go to Iceland one day
Ipanema Beach, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil	Shrug	Meh, it's a beach. Mum went here in 2017.
Bagan, Burma	Shrug	Won't be getting to Myanmar any time soon
Soi Cowboy, Bangkok	Maybe	If I ever get to to Thailand I may see this
Verbier, Valais, Switzerland	Maybe	Looks pretty. I'd like to explore more of Switzerland (probably by train)
Ha Long Bay, Vietnam	Maybe	Ray went here recently and loved it. I might get to Vietnam one day but it's not super high on the priority list
Maharajas Palace, Mysore, India	Maybe	Last place in India, again I'd only do this on some sort of tour
Amsterdam, Holland	Yes	Went by myself in May 2012
Amalfi Coast, Italy	Bucket	I've been near here (Mt Vesuvius) in September 2022. Getting to the Amalfi Coast would be great but I couldn't handle driving it myself. I'd like to do it how Dave2 did it back in the day
French Quarter, New Orleans	Maybe	Not while Trump is in power, but maybe one day I'll get to New Orleans
Red Square, Moscow	Bucket	Not while Putin is in power, but maybe one day I'll get to Russia
Charles Bridge, Prague	Yes	Went with the sweetie in May 2008. Hated the place - over touristy
Grand Canyon, Arizona	Yes	Went on our family trip in May 1983
The Vatican, Vatican City	Yes	Went with Mum in September 2022
Wat Arun Temple, Bangkok, Thailand	Maybe	Another place in Bangkok. I guess if I ever went to Thailand I might try to see this
Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain	Shrug	Meh. Crazy tourist island.
Brasvell Glacier, Nordaustlandet, Norway	Shrug	Yeah not much chance of ever getting to see this
The Moon, Outer Space	Yes	Easy enough for anyone on Earth to *see* it, but only 12 people have ever actually been there :)  Here's some eclipse photos.

So from the 101 entries:
Seen 45
Bucket List 15
Maybe 23
Shrug 18

Not a bad effort :)

Sunday.  9th.  Got home from the coast and spent some time doing Dotz, then closing off browser tabs.  I really feel like I need to spend less time on the computer/internet/phone... hrmmmm.  Downloaded photos from the week and blogged the last two weeks and some of the coast weekend.  Leftover mince with cauliflower rice and cheese for dinner.  Death in Paradise 14.1.  Somehow managed to lose a BRAND NEW HAIR TIE!!!  Had a slight meltdown because I'd been out of sorts all day, and this just sent me over the edge.  

Monday.  Went to bed early (like 20:30) but woke up at 12:45 and stayed awake for HOURS.  Sigh.  So not transfunctionating during the day.  Mostly just did house stuff during the day, which all took a lot longer than normal because I wasn't transfunctionating.  Finally finally got a bit of rain around 18:00 (even the weeds are dying at the moment!!).  Need to bribe the little brother into visiting before daylight savings finishes so I can see what I'm cooking.  Had lamb chops from Chris's and cabbage for dinner.  I never used to like lamb chops growing up because they were just too damned fiddly with all the fat and bones.  After forty years (and almost never having eaten them in the meantime) I have to say my opinion hasn't changed much.  Sure they're tasty, but just too annoying.

Tried to watch Stranger Things but nothing would connect to the Chromecast, even after rebooting it, the wifi and Stu's phone.  Did a bit of a Google and found everyone on the internet complaining about it.  Enshittification much??  We ended up watching a bit of Hard Quiz.  I think I could answer ONE question - football, meat pies, <what> and Holden cars?

Tuesday.  Slightly early night.  Actually slept quite well.  Hurray.  NEIL at work, who was off getting bits of him chopped out.  Chromecast still down.  Turns out an intermediate certificate expired so stuff couldn't authenticate.  I wonder if Google are debating whether or not to fix it or let the generation 2 devices all just die and force people to buy new ones.  I imagine that would piss off enough people that they would refuse to buy anything Google again.  I also got my quarterly reminder at work to check for expiring certificates coming up in the next quarter.  If only Google had done that.

Wednesday.  The brother type person called me while I was at lunch.  He could come TONIGHT.  Except I didn't have a new light to install yet.  He suggested Bunnings.  I walked up to Project Lighting instead.  They had a record of what we bought last time and I got something similar.  Not the same of course.  No no no.  Maybe that's a good thing though because turns out Mercator Franklin lights are TRASH!!!  Seriously LED lights should last years and years and years.  Not SIX years!!  And it's not like you can just replace a bulb, now you have to REPLACE THE WHOLE DAMNED FITTING!!! #hate  Anyways, so David picked me up after work and installed the new light! Hurray!!  Bestest brother ever. 

Had a few drinks and chatted then he got a bee in his bonnet to setup the PS3 to be able to use Netflix and Amazon Prime.  Did I mention I have the bestest brother ever?? :)

Thursday.  Woke up around 2:45 for several hours.  Sigh.  Although surprisingly unzombielike. 

NEIL again for the day.  Julian's farewell at drinks which was nice (I called the Japanese whisky, but not Lego Himeji Castle :) ).  Pizza with blue cheese for dinner!

DS9 1.13.  Another dumb episode.

Friday.  Slept fairly well.  NEIL at work.  Brown Food Friday!!!

DS9 1.14 and Death in Paradise 14.2.

Saturday.  Went to bed at 21:30 but didn't get to sleep til after 00:30.  Sigh.  Then meh sleep.  So twice this week I've had crap sleep the night before a day off.  Sigh.  Zombie morning, mostly house stuff.  Did some Dotz and even did a jigsaw in the late afternoon - 500 pieces in an hour and a quarter flat!  I asked the sweetie what's for dinner?  His response:

Google fixed the Chromecast issue.  Haven't looked up what they did.  Watched DS9 1.14.  Another meh episode.  Does DS9 actually get any better?  Most of season 1 is lame.  Stranger Things 1.5.  They finally banded together after all attackings things separately.  Reminded me in one place of E.T.  :)  

Sunday.  Slept mostly ok.  Got a bee in my bonnet to write a script to swap out Picasa database directories.  And spent a chunk of the day tagging people in photos.  Whoops.  Also gave Neil a lift to the hospital for antibiotics (did you know "hospital at home" is a thing?  You stay home but have to pop into the hospital every day for treatment.  Advantages and disadvantages - nice that you can hang out in your own house but a pain to have to trek into the hospital every day). 

Also.  Why TF does windoze reset the sort order of my directories EVERY DAMNED TIME IT REBOOTS???  Far out it pisses me off.

Have had like three drops of rain this afternoon.  So much for showers.  

Friday. Finished up work a bit early on Friday and left around 17:45.  Had an ok run, although somewhat slow going down the Clyde due to a very slow Canberran not using the slow vehicle pullout bays and causing a very long bankup of cars behind them.  Saw the rocking horses this side of Nelligen in a few different places.  The Nelligen Pub was packed which was pretty cool.  It actually looked really nice with lights over the beer garden.  Bit of a tense drive up the highway once it got dark but made it without hitting anything.  Had a couple of drinks with Kit and Pete and chatted for a while which was nice.  Slightly late night but not too bad.

Saturday.  Slept relatively well.  It is So. Dark. there though.  I'm used to suburban light and our hallway nightlight flooding the house with light. 

Bit of a slow start waiting for everyone to get up and ready. Then had to decide on a plan of attack for the day.  In the end we decided to head up to Ulladulla for brunch.  Went to Ocean Vibes and I had a nice eggs benedict with bacon.

Then back to Kit and Pete's. 

Kit and I went off to the Milton Show, but I'll post that separately.

Got back and did animal stuff.

Kit still has a heap of guinea fowl and chickens, but no ducks or turkeys anymore.

Vicki is stubbornly refusing to die, but is definitely feeling her age.  They've still got Jasper the dachshund, and Biscuit and her two sons Oreo and Mr Floofy.

This is Toby, an old horse of Chloe's.  Kit still has Scout and Ricky as well.

Then had a quick shower and headed up to Mollymook to the Golf Club for dinner with Travis and Temika (no idea how to spell her name haha).

Kit and I shared some duck spring rolls (with barely a skerrick of duck) which were quite nice, and a Hawaiian schnitty which was pretty average.

Stu had some seafood by the sea

Then back to Kit and Pete's for a game of Kismet.  I actually got *two* Kismet's but could only count the first one of 3's, not the second one of 6's :)  Kit won in the end.

Sunday.  Hot and sweaty overnight.  Really need to bring a fan to their place in summer heh.

Biscuit in the middle with her two crumbs - Mr Floofy on the left and Oreo on the right

I waited for a while for everyone else to get up, and found some Lego to play with.  Didn't get time to build all three, just the chicken (or whatever it is), after pulling apart the unicorn. 

Also found there's three missing pieces.

Left around 10:00, via the Scottish Restaurant.

Got a photo of a couple of the Nelligen Rocking Horses

Then we listened to a very depressing talk that Cory Doctorow did recently on Enshittification.  Remember the Good Old Days when Google was actually GOOD??? Now it's been enshittified along with everything else on the internet (and even in the real world) and it makes me just want to be a hermit and get offline.

Also.  All. The. Teslas.  I started to look for them on the way back.  Must have passed literally dozens of the things...

Monday.  10th.  Backdated because I spent the time I should have been blogging on cooking instead.

Stormy overnight.  Woke up around 2, then 3, then 4, but managed to get back to sleep each time.  Not a terribly productive day at work - fighting all the crap.  Found out HBZ is leaving.  And I immediately started feeling a sense of impending doom.  So did Con.  Yummy dinner of slow cooked pork neck and all the veggies.  Beyond Paradise 1.4, then bed.

Tuesday.  Slept mostly ok I think.  The BS started as soon as I logged in - a product used by our security team needs direct internet access, *apparently* doesn't support a proxy (to be confirmed).  Seriously this is a SECURITY product???  Didn't get anywhere with the errors on the new mail servers.  Although we were able to do a restore of an old one to a new one and it's working ok.  Mince and cabbage for dinner.  Beyond Paradise 1.5.

Wednesday.  Slept mostly ok I think.  Was stretching just after I got up and felt a bit of a twang in my shoulder which hurts a bit.  Another unproductive day of dealing with crap and no word back from mail server vendor.  Nearly two weeks into keto and I'm already sick of food.  Sick of cooking.  Sick of having to think about what to eat.  Some retard used my Gmail address to book a hotel in South Carolina.  Very tempted to cancel the day before so he gets charged the first night fee and has nowhere to stay.  Stressed with travel agent who hasn't been communicating very well.  And finished Beyond Paradise, which had a nice crossover into Death in Paradise at the end of the 2023 season.  

Thursday.  Slept okish.  After emailing the mob in South Carolina last night that someone had booked the hotel using my email address, I got a thing back from them to say they'd cancelled the booking.  Lolz.  Another day of not getting much done due to all the crap.  Some of Con's grad cohort came to drinks which was a bit of fun.  Pizzas then started into Return to Paradise - a spinoff series set on the South Coast, with filming locations on the South Coast as well as Avalon.

Friday.  Had a bit of time for scripting in the afternoon.  But couldn't get a simple foreach to work.  Sigh.  Kievs for dinner, then Stranger Things 1.2, then the first two episodes of Meltdown: Three Mile Island.

Saturday.  Slept okish until about 4:30. hrmm. 

When you pack up the majority of the carbs in your pantry (I couldn't move in there).  Will slowly start going through this in a few weeks.

Stu found a keto muffin recipe that's actually quite good

Had a busy morning including house stuff, booking flights to Adelaide, taking my brand-new-second-hand saxophone for a service, going to Green Shed sorry Vinnies sorry Goodies Junction.  It's still got most of the vibes of the Green Shed in terms of range of stuff for sale.  But all the bits and pieces are arranged mostly by colour.  Odd.  It's also a bit expensive, like the cheapest stuff is still a dollar (sub dollar would be better for something small), cheap plastic glasses are still $2 which seems a bit high.  Jigsaws are somewhat variable but mostly $4 (Green Shed was $3 per jigsaw flat rate).  However, they retain the colour coded bargain weeks that Vinnies do, which means that that $4 jigsaw is only $1 or $2 depending on the coloured tag.  So I wasn't going to buy anything.  And then I did.  Whoops.  More house stuff in the afternoon.

Stu cooked creamy mushrooms and cauliflower rice for dinner - yum!

Return to Paradise 1.2, then finished the last two episodes of Meltdown: Three Mile Island.

Sunday.  Slept ok I think.  Another busy day of house stuff, but this time had a bit of time for hobbies.  Played some clarinet for possibly the first time this year.  hrmmm. 

Dropped into the reptile place at Gold Creek.  They *still* don't have a 48" 10% UV light, but they did suggest an edison screw heater with UV that I could try in the meantime.  But I'm a bit worried about giving Stumpy sunburn, he hasn't had any UV all summer.  The baby blueys are so cute though!!

Did you know you can buy garlic cloves by the kilo?  Only $12 too!  Bargain!!

Lots of cooking in the afternoon, so no time to blog. 

A big veggie bake, a heap of garlic, and one of Tony's eggplants with ham and cheese.  The eggplant went very slimy though

Lachie's breakfast lasagna

Watched Stranger Things 1.3.  Tried to start on Chernobyl, but, technology.  Turned on the NAS for the first time in months.  The thing booted which was nice, but the admin interface and sharing protocols are so old my computer wouldn't talk to it.  Had to fire up an ancient version of Firefox I had lying around to be able to connect to the admin interface.  Reenabled SMB 1 on my computer but will need to reboot to use it.

So in what seems like a ploy to confuse people between Bar 54 and themselves, Bar 59 recently opened in Belconnen.

Apparently the ACT Labor party held their election night party there.

On Thursday we went and tried it out.

It's a beautiful space

With a pretty spectacular view

There's only two beers on tap (schooners only) - currently Capital Coast Ale ($10) and Bentspoke Crankshaft ($11). 

Beer with a view!

XL ordered some fries to share, and they were amazing!  Some of the best fries I've ever had!!

So a little pricer than our normal Thursday night, but a lovely setting

Thursday.  Boxing Day.  Took a while to get to sleep but then slept mostly ok.  Weeding first up then planned out my todo list for the break.  Alternated between house stuff, Lego stuff, dotz and blog reading.  Pizza for dinner (from Dominos - eep!) then Death in Paradise 11.1.

Sole survivor mini capsicum

I did the Plonk beer advent calendar again this year which was a lot of fun.

Friday.  Slept mostly ok, except for the storm around 04:00.  It wasn't very big and it was very quick to pass over, but I did still get up and disconnect the computer.  Alternated between house stuff, Lego stuff, dotz and blog reading.  Leftover Christmas Eve feast for dinner.  Then watched a documentary on AlphaGo - the first computer program to be able to beat top level human players.  

Saturday.  Slept mostly ok.  Weeding before it got hot.  Then got a random Blue Screen of Death which was a bit upsetting.

Alternating All The Things, although didn't get very far through it before we headed out for a big pantry shop.  Brunch/shopping/lunch and three hours of my day just GONE. Sigh.  Luv-a-duck Peking duck for dinner.

Death in Paradise 11.2 then back into Amazing Race celebrity edition (v2).

Sunday.  Slept mostly ok.  Hit 15000 in Candy Crush (nearly 3000 levels this year, 5000 in the past 18 months).  I really want to stop because the ad experience is just so trash, but what else am I going to do when I wake up at 5:30am??  Probably should delete photos off my phone.  I have like 60000 photos and the thing is nearly full.  

Maccas at Emu Bank was super quiet in the morning and there were no kids in store.  Parking was easy everywhere around Belco.  Shops were (generally) uncrowded.  I guess everyone must be down the coast.  All The Things.  Leftover Christmas feast for dinner.  Death in Paradise 11.3.

Monday.  Slept ok, but awake 5:30.  Feeling the same Monday morning stress I feel every week.  Yes I didn't have to go to "work" but my todo list is a full time job and my break is too damned short to get it all done.  As of 9:15 I'd been at it two hours and hadn't had any "fun" yet.  Sigh.  All The Things.  I swear my todo list is only getting longer not shorter.  I've barely had any time for "fun" this break.  Having to file all the Lego and do my blog year in review certainly didn't help.  Lost another congo tetra.  Resealed the shower.  Over the past couple of months mould had been growing *behind* the sealant.  We're guessing water is seeping down from the grout further up.   So pulled all that off, exit-moulded it, cleaned/dried it, and resealed a lot further up the wall.  Even managed to use the existing tube of sealant.  Did I mention I've barely had any time for fun this break?  Leftover Christmas feast for dinner.  Death in Paradise 11.3, then the finale of The Amazing Race (celebrity edition v2).

Tuesday.  New Years Eve.  Took ages to get to sleep - restless legs.  Then awake early.

Can you see?

A full on RAT was under the daisies when I went on my daily easter egg hunt to gather lemons.

Morning was mostly housework.  And Oh The Humidity.  And then all the blogging.  Have I mentioned I've barely had time for fun this break?  I did finish filing the Bricklink order though.  We lost another line on the ExtendaLine this morning.  This time it jammed into position part way out.  But it won't let me extend all the way, so can only go half way now.  Won't go in *or* out.  Doesn't bode well for having to wash sheets.  Why is everything so crap these days?  #grunt.

Friday - 6.9.24

Out the door at 9am, but had to get some extra things for Jeff's "hamper". Then we needed to get breakfast. So it was after 10 by the time we got away from Canberra.

Lake George shining

Stu put on an audio book - The Easy Life in Kamusari.

At the Nattai River hill we were passed by a hoon. I was disappointed there wasn't police on the other side of the hill (there often is). When we got to the M7 turnoff in Sydney there was a bit of a traffic jam and we were in the wrong lane to turn onto it, so that was a bit stressful. We were finally able to merge in and when we got to the pyramid there were police cars and the same hoon pulled over and under arrest (literally saw him in handcuffs on the ground haha).

Stopped at Ourimbah for petrol and lunch.

New freeway and overpasses at Hexham

I'll miss the old bridge at Hexham

Then just drove on. Mostly finished the book.

Arrived in Port Macqaurie just before 6. Dumped our stuff then headed out again.

Went out to Potty's for drinks and pizzas. Most of the family was there so that was nice. The kids were very loud heh.

Saturday - 7.9.24

Didn't sleep very well - the pillow was too thick and the bed too soft. I did go and get my own pillow which helped, but kept getting a sore spine from the soft bed.

Got ready then went out for a good long walk around the beaches which was pretty nice.

Folly, on Windmill Hill

Butcherbird

Nobby Head

Oxley Beach

Flagstaff Lookout

Town Beach

Oxley Beach

Waves crashing off Oxley Beach

Town Beach

There was a small formation of vintage aircraft flying around

Port Macquarie Observatory

Gak gak birds!!

Then I tried to find coffee and breakfast. I'd already passed one busy cafe at Town Beach but wasn't ready to get stuff yet. I found one other cafe but they didn't have any nice pastries just a couple of cakes/banana bread type stuff. Looked for a few other cafes but they didn't look the sort to do takeaway coffee. So #fail. In the end got some snackages and coffee in a can from the Foodary.

Annie stopped by to drop off a dress (I don't own dresses lolz). It was a bit big but looked marginally ok. Stu thought I should wear it.

Then we headed up to SWR, and finished the book on the way. It was kinda funny. Nice story.

Kempsey Northern Gateway Sculpture

At Jeff and Ruth's we arrived in time for morning tea (everyone was already there, so that was a bit stressful), and they put on a slide show which was pretty cool.

Jeff about to go through the slide show

Then we headed off to lunch - The Old Bank in Gladstone. They'd setup a table outside under a big tree overlooking the river - absolutely lovely setting. Had a pretty awesome lunch there. And there were lots of speeches hehe. And there were two snakes. Or the same snake doing the rounds. I thought it was Sally's leash that was moving, and things weren't computing, and everyone thought I was having a seizure or something. But I hope I didn't step on it (I don't think I did). Left after 3.

Family photo

Ruth and Jeff

Arancini balls

Chicken sausage rolls

Prawn platter

Green tree snake (take 2 - the other one that I nearly trod on got away before I could get a photo)

Beef tenderloin I had for lunch

Annie reading her poem

Jeff's birthday cake

Happy birthday!!

The plan was to go back to Jeff and Ruth's to get changed to go for a swim. But then it was decided to drive around the beaches to see which one would be the best. But then it was decided which beach they were going to go to, but noone told us, and most of them didn't come back to Jeff's. This made it Too Hard, so I just stayed with the Stu's.

Then back to Port for dinner of snackages (still full from lunch). Watched some Big Bang Theory then to bed.

Sunday - 8.9.24

Still too soft a bed to sleep very well. Woke up at 5.

Got ready then headed out to Potty's for coffee. We were first there which was nice.

Had breakfast at The Scottish Restaurant then tried to get petrol. But if you're coming from the restaurant side it's incredibly confusing and we drove around a couple of times and in the end came in through the back cause they made it too damned hard.

Put on the next Kamusari book which we got most of the way through (Kamusari Tales Told at Night).

Hexham Bridge

Had lunch in Ourimbah, and got petrol in Marulan.

At Lake George (which is still very full) a wallaby on the side of the road started moving onto the road. Stu slowed down, gently, then rapidly, then to a hard stop. We were lucky we didn't hit the thing. The dude on the right didn't slow down at all and zoomed past us while we were stopped. If the wallaby had kept crossing the road it would have been hit. In the end it went back off to the left. So that was a bit rattling.

Home a bit before 6.

This view coming into Canberra never gets old!