Yesterday we needed to go pick up Stu's car from Civic, so went for a walk around some of the lake while we were there.
Results matching “Flying”
So a few weeks ago Dave talked me into going on a balloon ride this balloon fiesta. Well it didn't actually take much talking - I've been wanting to do this forever and even tried to organise something last year but it was all too hard and never ended up going.
As we were heading for Black Mountain the clouds closed in
Yesterday morning we were meant to be at Questacon at 5:45am, so I dutifully set my alarm. Except I set it for 5:51am instead of 4:51am! Thank heavens Dave called me at 5:19 otherwise I'd have missed out completely. So instead of a leisurely getting ready time, I was ready in three minutes flat, and had to do my hair in the car, and no shower. Blah.
We went with Balloon Aloft, and it was all very organised. They took us out to Kingston so that we could see the rest of the balloons from a distance rather than being right in the middle of them.
There's sixteen to a balloon - four to each of four compartments. When it was time to get in, we hopped in, but a group of four tried to get in with us. They'd gotten three in before the operators said you can't do that, and of course we had to get out and move. Which was fair enough, but it turned out a bit bad in terms of positioning on the ride. We ended up at the "back" of the basket rather than the front, which meant we were facing the wrong direction for the rest of the balloons, the wrong direction for Civic, the wrong direction for Black Mountain and the wrong direction for Belconnen :(:(:( And if it had been sunny we would have had the sun in our faces the entire trip - luckily it was cloudy then! Was really really frustrated that I couldn't get photos of some of the things I wanted to :( The final insult was them wanting to charge $15 for a photo of us on the balloon. For the price we paid ($360 each) I think they could have thrown this in! So wasn't too happy about that. But anyways.
Otherwise the ride was pretty awesome. Took 672 photos!
So we landed and came back for breakfast cooked by Neil and then went home and attempted to get more sleep (I failed!)
Inflation
We were on the Questacon balloon! Which was way cool, cause I have a picture of that balloon on my desktop that I took from our back window one morning..
We spun around at the beginning so had a view of the other balloons
Apparently it was the maiden voyage of this balloon
Rowers
Kingston
The carillon
Parliament House
Flagpole
Old Parliament House
Two balloons, two Parliament Houses
A magpie came to visit
High court
Parliament Houses
Questacon
National Museum
Over a carpark
National Museum
Lake Burley Griffin
Civic
Woden
The burners
As we were heading for Black Mountain the clouds closed in
Gap in photos as we passed by Black Mountain Tower (on the wrong side of course)
Belconnen and Lake Ginninderra
Balloon flying low over Aranda
Deflation. The pilot said he'd been in a balloon once where someone opened that vent at the top at 3000 feet - he said "it wasn't a good feeling"
Rolling up the balloon
All packed away!
This is where I took all the photos on the day - marked out by my photoMate GPS
Here's some of the rest of the photos that need blogging this year...
These were some shots I took of the new lights in the Canberra Centre when I first got my camera. Again, still in auto mode, so focus was very hard to control (it kept focussing on odd places).
I really like this picture of tapes. Looks like a city scape canyon..
And some birds flying over Scrivener Dam
Have had a good new years eve so far. Original thoughts of a Singstar night fell through, so have invited some peoples over for a small party. Nothing quite like that for motivating you to clean the house!
Thursday morning (1st July) we had a bit of a sleep in. An hour before we had to leave I thought I'd better pack heh. Left on time and arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare.
We had an Embraer E190 which is one of the smallest commercial jets flying. Two seats each side of the aisle. And surrounded by screaming kids. Yay. So a very noisy trip. And no music to listen to either - no headphone sockets. There was cloud cover over Eastern Australia so didn't have much of a view so ended up just reading the Virgin Blue magazine which kept me occupied the whole trip.
Our Embraer E-190
This sticky tape on the wing tip was a little disturbing
Canberra
Interior of the E-190
Brisbane
Brisbane Air Traffic Control Tower
Arrived just before 2pm and went and picked up our hire care. Took the scenic route through Brisbane so we could drive past Stu's old flat. There's so many new bridges and tunnels here now it was a little bit freaky!
New overpass being built near the airport
Stu's old flat
Go Between Bridge - opening the next Monday
Got to Chay and David's around 3pm and then we chatted for ages before going on a booze run. Had beer and ordered pizza and ended up watching V for Vendetta. Then the others went to bed and David and I stayed up til a bit after 1am Singstarring.
Friday had a huge sleep in (10:30!!) and got to up to find we'd kept everyone awake :( Decided to go out for coffee and shopping. Went down to the lake for coffee and other drinks. Then went to the Orion shopping centre. I got a couple of Singstars for $20 each. One of these days we'll have to get a Playstation... Had a look in BigW at Lego prices and wandered round looking at other things too. Had a sushi snack. Looked in the Reject Shop. Then did some food shopping in Woollies. Got home at 15:45 oops :)
Boats being raced on the lake
Kailyn on a mall ride
Feeding the guinea pigs
So David and Daemon cooked a roast chicken for dinner which was highly nom. Started watching The Backup Plan but lost interest in that and ended up just playing Mario Kart and then some Singstar til midnight.
Miss Mog
Saturday had another reasonable sleep in. Went out with Chay to a few garage sales so she could look for books, but they were all pretty crap. Mostly clothes.
Feeding the guinea pigs again
Played through the 50cc Mario Kart cups to unlock all the locked ones for them then played a few rounds with the kids.
Chay made a fantastic lasagna for dinner - better than any of the lasagnas I've ever made.
Then we went out and saw Toy Story 3 which was pretty awesome but a bit dark for a G rating I thought. Came back then played some Buzz. First the general one which I was an epic loser at, then the music one which I was still a bit crap at but at least the scores were a lot closer. Then the others went to bed and David and I stayed up and did a couple of ten-course Mario Kart cups.
Sunday we got up at a more normal time, dropped Kailyn off at a friend's place and the four of us grown-ups went to breakfast at Ascot Provisions (Stu got random breath tested on the way which was a bit.. random). I tried the "breakfast pizza" because its toppings of cheese kransky, hashbrowns, cheese, egg and onion relish intrigued me. It was pretty good actually :)
Clem 7 Tunnel
Breakfast pizza at Ascot provisions
Next we headed to South Bank. Went on a bit if a scenic tour if Brisbane cause we didn't have a real GPS but even if we did, so much has changed recently it probably wouldn't have worked anyway. So we got there and managed to find parking in one of the parking stations. Unfortunately it's a flat rate $15 which is a bit rude if you only plan to be there for a couple of hours :(
Victoria Bridge, Brisbane
Brisvegas!
Anyway, wandered our way past a Scottish festival and up to the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) to see the Ron Mueck exhibition. It was pretty awesome, I'll post pics in a separate post.
Kurilpa Bridge
Scottish Festival
We were all pretty tired and peopled out at this point so headed for home (via a short detour past The Jazzy Cat Cafe where I first met Stu five years ago but it wasn't there anymore!)
David and I went and picked up Kailyn and then to Coles for supplies. Came back and reheated the leftover lasagne with some pan bread and we made up a salad too. Watched Merlin and then Waynes World (party time, excellent) which the kids didn't appreciate nearly enough ;) Played some Mario Kart then some Singstar Eighties.
We dressed up Wallace in Kailyn's clothes
Monday morning Chay cooked up a pretty awesome breakfast of bacon, tomatoes and cheese, spaghetti and toast. Then we played a little Mario Kart before packing up our stuff and saying goodbye.
Gateway Bridge(s) (didn't realise a second one had opened earlier this year)
Returned the rental car to the airport then caught the first of two planes of the afternoon. Was a bit bummed that our seats were over the wing (I couldn't get anything further back - looks like a young sporting team had already booked out most of the back of the plane). Then someone from my old job said "Karen" and then just stared at me. Most awkward. I of course was a bit thrown, and she wasn't any help reminding me who she was. Hrmmmmm. People. They suck sometimes.
Qantas 767
View of a wing, and the Brisbane River
Gold Coast
Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney CBD
Had a snack in the Qantas Lounge in Sydney but the creamy sauce I put on my salad was actually really really hot horseradish. Hurt my mouth :( Sigh.
Last plane home was a 737 and we were right near the back, but it was too dark for photos. And the flight was so short that they'd only just come round with snacks/drinks before we had to put up our tray tables. Oops. In the end I brought the little bottle of wine home unopened.
These beetroot chips were cool, but they make your poo purple - which is pretty darned freaky!
So had a really nice trip. It was very relaxing and *warm*!! Winter is definitely the time to visit Brisbane! Really not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow though.. The stress is a little bit ridiculous at the moment....
Two years ago today we had a little bit of an explore of Heidelberg before heading back to Frankfurt and spending two days flying home. Would have been nice to spend a bit more time in Heidelberg as we didn't get to explore the castle at all.
Overall the honeymoon was pretty darned good. I just wish I'd planned it better. Because I spent so long planning the wedding, I hardly did any honeymoon planning at all. We basically chose what cities we'd be going to and for how long, the first two places accommodation, and that was it. We did most of our planning once we arrived in places, and booked the next accommodation from the previous place. So there were things we missed because we just didn't know about them. And some bad weather in the alps didn't help much either heh.
A bit over a month ago I noticed the last entry of the honeymoon blog that said:
Hopefully it won't take two years to do like my USA photos did... ;)
Yeah. So I'm actually a long way behind even that, because all I managed to do was pick photos for the blog. Nothing has been labelled or geotagged. Oops.
Anyways.
See the entire honeymoon blog on one page (temporarily anyway).
So it seems fitting that two years after the last day of our honeymoon, I booked our next holiday!! To Japan and the UK later this year :)
Today in between crapfullness to deal with for work, I finished assembling all my Toy Story Lego ..
Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!!
*I* am your father!
This isn't flying, this is falling with style!
To inifinity and beyond!
A good soldier never leaves a man behind!
Woody's Roundup!
Toy Story Lego!
Two years ago today we left Vienna and headed for Salzburg, wandering around the old town and exploring the fortress, was a great day :)
Had dinner at Libby's place tonight.. lots of Stu's work colleagues there.
Except I spent the first hour and a half dealing with *crap* and basically had a couple of meltdowns.
After that I was all "screw this" and had some dinner and a decent amount of wine.
I've decided it should be my mission in life to get a job that doesn't have on call. Dunno how since sysadmin is what I *do* ..
Epic *sigh*
PS .. did see the ISS flying over, and then disappearing into the Earth's shadow .. waved at @Astro_Soichi .. was very cool ..
Sunday arvo, Nat and Andrew picked me up and we toddled off to the Canberra Show. I've never been before (and in fact haven't been to the Sydney Easter Show since it was last at Paddington in 1997).
Had a good time just wandering around and looking at things. Barely spent any money. I did buy five daffodil bulbs. And a Moove (the mobile Moove man kinda convinced me). And a hot dog and fairy floss for dinner. Quite annoyed that you can't buy fresh fairy floss anymore, you have to buy it in a plastic bag :(
Took 383 photos.. here's just a few of them :)
Ferris Wheel and tower from the car park. The walk back to the car felt like a lot lot longer than the walk from the car!
Working steam engine
These guys look a bit like our next door neighbour's goat
Goat closeup
Goats have really freaky eyes..!
Sheepdog goat!
Donkey trial
Alpaca
Ducklings!
This was one massive pig! The area smelt like pork (before roasting) .. can't imagine why!
Bubbles!!
Orange juice stand (this girl had her butt out whenever we went past)
Wall of bubble machines
Kazza the dwarf...
Mobile Moove man (Nat getting a drink)
Catching a wave
Ferris Wheel (would have been nice to go up - maybe next time)
Rides
Kitty with a moustache. We were trying to take pictures through the bars and the dude came along and opened the cage for us :)
I so want one of these! This thing (apart from the way cool little house around it) has a tv and dvd/cd player built in!! Andrew said all we need is water-proof wii-motes for spa-wii-ing :)
I always like the cake decorating. This ship was my favorite
Icing flowers are amazing!
This was straight out of the Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book..! Lame!! Especially since it won a prize
Flowers
Flowers
Woolworths fruit/veggie display
Onions in the veggie display
Chocolate fountain
Back to the pigs. Noticed this time that all the piglets' tails were docked :(
Camel race
They race to a bucket of food at the end of the track
This kid looked as if she owned the place. She was in everyone's way of the view, so we couldn't help but laugh when she later fell off trying to get on or off.
They were running about 45 minutes late and we had to go, but the Hiluxes started up as we were half way round the track)
Flying Hilux!
Yesterday very early my alarm went off and I had to try and remember why I'd set it for such an outrageous hour (7am). Then I remembered I was planning to go to church - on the complete other side of the city (about 70km away). So trundled off and made it in about an hour and five minutes, which was a pretty good run all things considered. Church was actually quite good, and the minister they have at my parents' church is enthusiastic. Thinking we should probably go more regularly in Canberra :/
Dad and I wandered up the computer fair, but it was very small, maybe 1/4 - 1/3 the size of the one in Epic (although Dad did say it's usually a bit bigger, but even so there wasn't much there). I would have bought another usb hub, except after being screwed over last time by the place in epic (I paid $12 for it but it basically doesn't work) I decided I'll get an actual name brand one instead of a dodgy brothers no-name special. I did get a toy though which I hope will work.
Had lunch at the parents' and we watched the rivers episode of Planet Earth on blu-ray. Very pretty!
Next headed off to Luc and Lizzi's for "afternoon tea" (if a small glass of oj counts as that) and had a look at their back yard, which is now a back yard again after having been a rubble pile for so long. And they have the most spectacular sunflowers - the heads of the things are probably 40cm across, and the trunks maybe 7-8cm thick! /me wanna grow sunflowers at home, although I've probably left it a little late for this season. Really need to get rainwater tanks installed too....
Left there and went and drove past my old house, then went to the airport to watch the planes for a while. On the way there I noticed a Singapore Airlines A380 at the terminal and wondered how long it would be til it left. Well there were actually a bunch of plane spotters there (with scanners and everything), and they said not that long. So waited and sure enough, off it went!! So this time got to document the fact that I'd seen an A380 flying! :) Very excitement-making :)
Then headed off to Alan and Marylon's for dinner, drank some wine and had a very nice time. James drove my car back here afterwards.
And so ended Sunday..
Was watching the finale of the Amazing Race tonight and started
squealing with been-theres.. This time the Bridge of the Gods in
Oregon. Teams had to find the bridge then go up and jump off it with a
flying fox - insanely cool. Had to get Stu to pause it so I could show
him my pics (vs Google Maps).. :)
