Forty years ago today we started the day in Glen Davis before heading through Gulgong to Dubbo.  Full entry of that day is here.  Sadly we couldn't get to Glen Davis shale works last month because it was closed off for filming a movie.  I might have had a meltdown.

Here's some shots of the mountains instead.

Glen Davis - 1981

Glen Davis - 2021

On the way out I was originally planning to go back to Capertee and then north, but David thought this mountain was in a different place, so we ended up on the wrong road north and could only see it from afar.  That's ok I need to go back to Glen Davis anyway...

Crown Mountain - 1981

Crown Mountain - 2021

We arrived in Gulgong last month around the same time as we did forty years ago so the photos are very similar.

Gulgong Pioneers' Museum - 1981

Gulgong Pioneers' Museum - 2021

Ten Dollar Town Motel - 1981

Ten Dollar Town Motel - 2021

Forty years ago today the family started a family holiday to Dubbo, via Newnes, Glen Davis and Gulgong, and home via Wollar and Sandy Hollow.

So for our wedding anniversary I had the idea to take a couple of days off and reproduce as much of the trip as I could.  Day 2 was a bit of a disaster because Glen Davis had been shut off for filming of a movie, but I did reproduce many of the photos.  Here's some of them!

On this day forty years ago we went to Newnes and walked to the Glow Worm Tunnel.  Full entry of the old trip is here.

Cliffs at Wolgan Valley Lookout - 1981

Cliffs at Wolgan Valley Lookout - 2021

Old railway platform at Newnes - 1981

Old railway platform at Newnes - 2021

Lower entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel - 1981

Lower entrance of the Glow Worm Tunnel - 2021

Sunday.  Blogged on time for once!!  Leftover lemon chicken for dinner.  Lego Masters in the evening.  Think the new neighbours might be knocking out another wall - lots of banging today and tonight.

Monday.  Ok day, mostly cleaning, although very slow progress with it.  Leftover pasta for dinner.  Labelled 232 photos, some while watching Lego Masters.  *Finally* got some rain, with added storm.

Tuesday.  Vicki was in town this week, so I took it as golden opportunity to work from home all week so she could have the same desk every day, and I wouldn't have to deal with being in people's meetings.  Tried to clean stuff but too many people wanting stuff.  We're into season 10 of The Simpsons.  Then Lego Masters.

Wednesday.  Much the same as Tuesday really.  Didn't get quite caught up with photo labelling from last week, but at least didn't get any further behind.  

Most of the leaves fell off the cherry tree in just a few days!

Thursday.  Worked from home again, although did go in for drinks.  Started watching a Netflix documentary on Mercury 13, a story I'd never heard before.

Friday.  More cleaning.  Renamed over eight hundred objects on the CLI and deleted a few hundred unused objects as well.  Stu came home then we headed out - to Chong Co for dinner, then food shopping (had to wave to the seven peeps up in the space station as it flew over Jamo).

Saturday.  Cooked dinner (honey mustard chicken and rice) then we picked up CRD and headed out to the club.  Chatted for a bit and had some lunch, then I got stuck into priming more cabinets.  Had drinks and snackages by the fire and an early night.

Excuse the primer on my fingers!

Sunday.  Slept reasonably well (I thought) but felt pretty tired all day. 

Stopped via Chemist Warehouse on the way home.  I'd already put an order through the app for my script refill, probably half an hour before I got there, but they still said it was going to be "ten minutes".  We waited a full half hour but still no sms, so went in again, and they're like, oh we were busy so some of the app orders were missed.  Fricken hopeless.  Next time I should put the order in a couple of hours in advance.  So didn't get home til after lunch time (although didn't actually have any lunch, because we had bacon and eggs for breakfast).  Didn't really feel like doing anything useful, so thought I'd do something a bit fun - play with the Lego house model I started one day when I was off sick in November 2016!  Sadly Lego have pulled support for Lego Digital Designer, which is a shame, because it's actually a really good program. I got the floors sorted and some more interior details added, but there's still a lot of detail (and all the furniture!) still to go.  This is just the main floor so far.  Then I have start on downstairs.  And the yard.  ;)

Roast pork for dinner (all the crackling!) and Lego Masters.  And blogging.

Last weekend we had a five day long weekend and went to Bathurst, Lithgow, Newnes, Glen Davis, Gulgong and Dubbo.  When I've chosen some photos I'll get it up on the holiday blog.  We arrived home Tuesday afternoon maybe a bit before 4pm.  The neighbourhood dogs were yapping.. non stop.. til well after 6pm :(  Very upsetting.  Spent quite a while downloading and processing photos from the trip.  At 5pm I went to cook dinner, but by the time we'd eaten and cleaned up it was after 7pm :(  I put on Sunday's Lego Masters and started writing up the holiday blog entry text.

Wednesday.  Slept fairly well.  Didn't try to do any slide scan fixing, just too stressful, so just finished writing up the holiday blog text, finished unpacking, and tidied the house.  Felt a whole lot more in control.  At lunch I had another look in Kmart for jeans.  They had a whole new stock, and actually managed to find some that sort of fitted.  Apparently the fashion trend at the moment is for "high rise" or "extra high rise" which is utterly ridiculous.  So found some that were "mid rise" which are still a lot higher than they should be but look only somewhat ridiculous.  They have pockets that will hold my phone, but only just, and if I don't get it jammed all the way in it's likely to fall out.  Sigh.  In the evening I didn't try and do any photo labelling - just caught up on blogging from two weeks ago while watching Monday's Lego Masters.  Was hoping to have last week's blogging done too but that was not to be.

Thursday.  Caught up on last week's blogging in the morning.  Going into the office is pretty miserable at the moment.  Another team have decided to move themselves into our area, but they're super noisy (Thursday they talked literally non stop about mostly non-work stuff for the first full half hour I was in), and they're always in meetings, which means I'm in their meetings, which makes me *super* uncomfortable.  *Hating* going into the office at the moment.  Drinks was good though, and we made more Mexican pizzas for dinner.

Friday.  The sweet relief of not having to *go* to work.  My mornings are so much more relaxed, and I had time to put on my washing and hang it out and do some slide fixing before work.  Did a heap more cleaning in the afternoon.  In the evening Stu put on a new anime series - A Place Further than the Universe - which was a bit silly but ok.  

Saturday.  May Day.  How'd we get to be a third of the way through the year already?  A day of All The Things. 

We ordered a frame online for my paint by numbers.  It was all quite nice except they'd mounted the mounting bracket off-centre.  Idiots.  So it doesn't hang straight, I'll probably need to get some rubber feet or something to stop it moving.

I also dismantled the Titanic model, and got to look at the innards that David mostly did. 

I pulled it apart in sections to make it easier to do next time.  There was no way it was all going back in the box though!

Late in the afternoon I'd had enough so put on Playing Beatie Bow, which I saw a long long long time ago (we read the book in school), which someone had put on YouTube. 

In the evening we went over to Rob and Fiona's for Rob's 51st (we couldn't do a 50th last year because covid).  A lovely evening but a couple of hours past my bed time..

Another back dated entry for last week.

Monday.  19th.  My change got approved to do a bunch of cleaning in the prod network, so spent a couple of days on that.  Labelled 208 photos, some while waching the new season of Lego Masters.

I found this skink while I was weeding on Monday evening.  I haven't seen such a small skink since I left Sydney!  So cute!

Tuesday.  Couldn't get to sleep for ages.  Then woke up at 4am for ages.  Cleaning for most of the day.  Late home.  Lamb leftovers for dinner, then Lego Masters.  Managed to label 48 photos during Lego Masters.

David B noted that KSK is now doing ramen, so tried it on Tuesday.  Not bad, and at $12.50 a lot cheaper than Ramen O.

Wednesday.  Literally rinse and repeat of Tuesday - asleep late, awake early for ages, cleaning.  Got through the first pass of cleaning, with just those other more complicated apps to clean up.  Then did up a complicated ruleset which took *hours* to document and implement.  Super late home.  Had leftover feta pasta for dinner and watched Lego Masters, although spent the whole time trying to find accommodation in Dubbo, so no labelling or even doing the rest of the planning for the trip.

Thursday.  Pretty quiet morning because most of the cleaning work I wanted to do was done already.  And I didn't really feel like starting anything new, given I was about to be off for five days..  At lunch it was a lunch to celebrate the shutdown of the old network.  Some of us may have stayed all afternoon.  But it was great to catch up with some people I haven't seen in ages. 

In the evening I made Mexican style pizzas with some leftover salsa and torilla bases from the club night.

There's pepperoni, pulled pork and corn, halapeno and mushroom and corn, mushroom and corn.  The sweetie wanted more so I made another two.

Monday.  12th.  Wow over two weeks ago (backdating).  Took ages to get to sleep because I was *cold* !!  Four of my birds came to see me at lunch.  Powered off a bunch of old hardware from our old network which was pretty cool.  Filled the green bin after work.  Had leftovers for dinner.  Labelled 392 photos so somewhat caught up with last week.

Tuesday.  Took *hours* to get to sleep - freezing cold :(  Thinking I might need an electric blankie.  Did a heap of work cleaning out bits of the old network.  Had an irritated eye which lasted ages :(  Did some photo labelling in the evening.  I really don't have time to go to work - too much life to do.

Wednesday.  This time I woke up hot, and with an irritated nostril (just one, so not sick, and oddly on the other side to my sore eye from yesterday), so I was a bit of a zombie for the day.  And it meant I had a runny nose all day which was super annoying.  Had an ok day I guess, trying to plan the next round of cleaning.  Leftovers for dinner, then labelled a few hundred photos, now up to only a hundred behind..

Thursday.  Slept pretty well for a change.  

Our azaleas are pretty confused - flowering in autumn instead of spring.

Never go the mall during school holidays.  I had to wait fifteen minutes at Subway :(

More cleaning planning during the day.  Finished Laid Back Camp season 2.  Then watched New York Minute, had to laugh at Danny Tanner peering after the twins.  One of their last movies.  

Friday.  Slept ok. Had lunch with Tony at Herbert's which was nice.  Shared a few different starters.

Can't remember what flavour the skewers were - they were on the specials board, I think maybe Thai curry or something.  And the spring rolls were cheeseburger!  Which were pretty cool.

And corn and zucchini fritters

They were throwing this rose out because it was drooping, so I brought it home and it's been smelling lovely ever since.

Did a heap of cleaning in the test network in the afternoon, although didn't finish what I wanted to get done - a couple of big apps just need a bunch more work.  X Files in the evening.

Saturday.  Had brunch with Annie at The District. Good catchup, haven't seen her in months.

Then an afternoon doing All The Things.  Alternating between fun stuff, house work stuff and photo work.  Got caught up with Eurasia photo labelling finally.  Watched High Fidelity in the evening which I didn't remember having seen, but turns out the sweetie and I watched it together in 2006, and some of it did seem vaguely familiar.  Hurrah for dementia.

Sunday.  Continued All The Things, again alternating between different sorts of tasks.  For dinner I made the oven baked feta pasta doing the rounds.  It wasn't too bad.  Simpsons and X Files in the evening.  I was also set to blog this, had my photos downloaded and processed and everything, but just ran out of time.  So here we are two weeks later backdating...

Twister !?

Epic mushroom cluster

Monday.  I already covered this in the last post, but here's some pictures of the disgusting looking black goop that is @notquitenigella's Asian Beef Cheeks.  Served with rice and cabbage it's soooo good!

Tuesday.  Woke up cranky that I was so far behind in *everything*.  Mainly photo processing and labelling.  And that I had to go to work when I just have so much to *do* at home.  I was so cranky that I didn't even feel like singing along to the Hallelujah Chorus when it came on the radio :(  Had an ok day at work though - planning for a new server build.  Super late home though.  Leftovers for dinner, then blogged two blog entries and labelled a hundred and fifty photos or so, so all is not lost (at least not any further behind than I am already).  

Wednesday.  Ok day.  Jim organised a bunch of us to go to Belco Kebabs.  I split one with XL which ended up with a sane amount of food for the two of us, and they do Monday-Wednesday $10 kebabs at lunch, so it only cost us $5 each!  Amazing value.  

Home late.  Sorted photos from the past week and selected some for the blog.  Only 57 photos labelled though, now a full week behind.  Finally finished the lemon cheesecake for dessert.

Thursday. School holidays at the mall.  Kill me now.

Drinks was pretty good, got to try some of the wines I missed out on last week because I didn't go in.

Friday.  Still pretty quiet due to peeps not being able to deploy new servers, so time to find things to do.  Played with getting trusted certs installed on an admin interface, and planning a bunch of cleaning.  Three of my birds came to see me at lunch.  Did twenty minutes of periwinkle hacking (ten minutes at lunch and ten after work).  

Our chrysanthemums come out a little early for Mother's Day..

Watched some tv with the sweetie in the evening, then I watched The Color Purple.  Most of it was pretty darned depressing.  Got a bit better at the end.  Found out that Netflix will now give you a few weeks notice if something is planning to be cut.  This was one of them - last day to watch April 30.  Fine, except you'll have to regularly check your Watchlist to keep an eye on things, because it only notifies you about things ending soon.  And I'll be pissed if they pull tv shows we're in the middle of watching before we get a chance to watch through them.

Saturday.  All. The. Things.  !!  Got through a massive long todo list of stuff, mostly houseworky type stuff. 

Making slow but steady progress hacking my way through the periwinkle

Also lunch out and some food shopping.  In the afternoon I finished watching Challenger: The Final Flight documentary on Netflix.  I still tear up watching that footage.  Go figure.  

In the evening Rob and Fiona came over for epic roast lamb, great conversation and sackbut playing!

This beer was very interesting - a Belgian beer matured in red wine barrels!

Sunday.  Today.  Cooked potato and zucchini cheesy hashbrowns for brunch

I used two potatoes and an old zucchini that needed using up, which was a heap of food, so didn't actually need any lunch!  I think I had a bit of cheese on a cracker, and a carrot.

Other than that, a pretty quiet day, really not getting much done other than a whole bunch of blogging - some recent entries, as well as some This Day in History posts.  Some of those won't show up in an RSS feed because they're backdated, so when I'm caught up I'll give you a link.  

Stu prepped Japanese hotpot, which promises to be yummy!  (this isn't everything, there's still meat to be prepped)

Edit: added more pics of the hotpot later:

At least I'm not backdating for a change ;)

Good Friday.  Still wasn't really sure if I had a sore throat or not, but warned Mum anyway just in case.  Spent the morning tidying up the house.  Mum arrived just in time for lunch (of hot cross buns and leftover chicken and plum sauce). 

She made good use of the shelves I got for David :)

Spent most of the afternoon going through about fifty boxes of Dad's slides so she could fill in any details and memories.  Mum brought down Five Crowns card game, so we had a game of that.  I started off well, but Stu won.  Had salmon and salad for dinner.  After dinner we went for a drive around Canberra to show Mum some stuffs, and then we went up Mt Ainslie to have a bit of a looksee.

I also might have taken some photos of stars

Saturday morning we got ready then Mum and I headed north to go west.  We stopped in Jugiong for a pitstop and thought we'd go for a walk down to the river.  There was heaps of campers and horse floats about, as it turned out there was a Polo Cross tournament that weekend!  We went down to the river, and watched some of the guys practising.

On the way back to the car I found a wallet just sitting on the ground.  There was a medicare card, but no licence that I could see.  Not that we looked very hard, we felt a bit odd going through someone's wallet.  We did find one slip of paper with some possible phone numbers on it, but none of them worked.  Maybe there was some contact info in there somewhere, but it certainly wasn't obvious.  Pro tip: always leave an easy to find contact information card in your wallet in the case of loss!!  I asked some of the people camping nearby if they knew the people, but they didn't, but did agree to hold onto it for us and sort it out, since they were planning on being there all weekend.  The lady tried messaging them on Facebook, but they didn't answer while we were there.  Anyways, she called me back later in the afternoon to let me know that their daughter had heard someone asking about the wallet, so it was returned to the owners!

We drove past Stu's dream home in the country

We stopped in Cootamundra to have a wander around the station and look at the rail yards.

Then onto Junee in time for lunch - of noodles :)  Had a look through David's photos of the RAAF Air Show (just some random selections throughout the five thousand or so of them that he took ;) ).  David was supposed to have a sleep and Mum thought she would too, so I went and found a jigsaw to do.  But it was more like a model made of cardboard - of the Titanic!  So David stayed up and we did it together.  Took a couple of hours.  And Mum ended up coming out but having a bit of a snooze on the lounge.  

Then we helped David do some DVD sorting.  Then we got ready and walked down to the Junee Hotel for dinner.  Mum and I split a "rump and ribs" which was very sensible - just the right amount of food, and the ribs were lovely!

Went back to David's and watched most of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, followed by the new Storm Boy in an attempt to stay up a bit later to try and sleep in a bit with the end of daylight savings.  I enjoyed the remake, as I seem to remember the original being fairly slow and bleak.  

Sunday.  Slept quite well, and because of the late night I slept in a bit - which meant I woke up exactly on time for my normal routine :)  The problem was David was at work and didn't know what time he'd be home, so we just hung around the house bored.  I did a few logic puzzles which was a good distraction.  He ended up getting home at nearly lunch time, by which time was a bit frustrated that I hadn't achieved anything useful all day.  David organised (in the space of ten minutes!!) for a bunch of peeps to meet up at the Junee Hotel for lunch for roast lamb - Peter, Nick, Ben, and Ben's sister and kids who were down visiting. 

So quite a nice lunch.  But it was pretty big, and we didn't finish eating til nearly 2pm, so decided I'd call off doing the lamb roast I'd planned for Sunday night.  After lunch Mum and I headed back to Canberra. 

Didn't get home til about 17:40.  And not at all hungry.  Put on a documentary about Machu Picchu, then had a game of Five Crowns, which I won, over pepperoni and cheese that I had for dinner.

Kings were wild this hand, and look what I got dealt!

Monday.  Slept well, and woke up exactly on time for the new time.  Mum got ready and went home.  I tried to catch up on everything I'm behind in.  I failed.  Abysmally.  Stu wanted to go out at lunch to see the new works they're doing at Lake Burley Griffin.  I just have this feeling like they're further ruining the circular shape of the area that was in the original design...   Still, it was a lovely day and nice spending time with the sweetie.

Came home and put on some Asian Style Beef Cheeks, and watched some tv in the evening.

Twenty years ago today I went and saw the USS Constellation which was moored at Garden Island. Very cool!

On the way back through the Domain I took these photos of the clouds over the city - one normal and one through my sunglasses.

Monday.  29th.  Slept okish I think.  Got the first of the day's boxes of Dad's slides fixed pretty quickly, so tried for a second, but that took a lot longer, which pushed out my getting ready for work, and I still needed to patch and reboot the computer.  So I was a bit late starting for the day.  Hardly any tickets so did paperwork for another round of cleaning.  Went for a walk at lunch and saw all my birds, including the old one who is happy to eat out of my hand.  Hacked some periwinkle in the evening.  Had leftover enchiladas from the weekend for dinner - so good!  Labelled three hundred photos.  Although hard to label places like Masada if you want to try and label things accurately.  Finished watching Becoming.

Tuesday.  Messaged David about the air show, so he came up.  Pizza for dinner but no labelling.

Wednesday.  Went to the RAAF 100th Anniversary air show in the morning which was pretty awesome.  Later in the afternoon I had that feeling where your immune system is having a good serious crack at fighting something.  Did a mini food shop, backed up my computer, but not much else and no photo labelling.

Thursday.  Not really sure if I was sick.  Decided to stay home, and if I did start feeling sick or tired I could go rest.  But I actually felt fine all day, so I guess I must have fought it off.  Had Dr Octopus pizzas, then Simpsons (into season 9), Laid Back Camp, then watched The Lake House.  Plot holes you could drive trucks through and various inconsistencies of course, but a bit of fun.  And fun to see some of the things I picked up on in the IMDB goofs page as well.  

That'll do for tonight.