Boring Life Of a Geek
Ten years ago today the mother and I left for a six week trip to Europe.
We did two organised tours - a Reformation Tour of Germany, France and Switzerland with Bruce Ballantine-Jones, and an Insight Vacations tour of Scandanavia; and we had a couple of days in Salzburg in between them.
It was a pretty great trip and we saw lots of cool things.
Last year I got my photos online finally.
So this is where we went last month (this month). Don't mind that little gap between Renmark and Balranalad, my external battery ran out and took out the GPS with it. Stu has promised to send me the track from his radio at some point.
Moving on.
Day one was Canberra to Melbourne, just a driving day. Had the weekend in Melbourne and went out to Cape Schanck.
Then to Warrnambool for a couple of nights.
Then to Mount Gambier for four nights.
Then to Victor Harbour for two nights
Then to Kangaroo Island!! That little bottleneck of Hog Bay Road we did up and down 12 times! (six each way)
Back to the mainland, we stayed in Goolwa for two nights to explore Lake Alexandrina and surrounds
Then onto Adelaide for a week
This is all of South Australia
On the way out of Adelaide Google Maps had a brain hemorrage and sent us all around Adelaide but not out of it. We started in Glenelg and *should* have just gone up the Anzac Highway and then north. But instead it sent us around the airport (ok) but then SOUTH when we wanted to go north. It was only when we stopped for petrol near Edwardstown that it finally got the hint and realised we wanted to go north.
So this is the route we took (starting in Glenelg)
Let's not even mention how it told us to turn RIGHT (south) here in peak hour.. it took us like five minutes to do this..
Apple Maps would have sent us up the Anzac Highway and then north. No idea why Google couldn't figure this out..
But we made it.. hurrah!!
I'm meant to be on a plane flying over Western Australia right at this very moment.
For reasons that I may make public one day, I am not.
I am PISSED.
That is all.
Sunday. 11th.
Dinner at EffanC's which was very nice - pumpkin soup and miso salmon
Monday. Slept okish I guess. Ok day at work, got some stuff done. Talked to Mum after work. Epic stress. Epic drama. Not to mention the STRESS that Mum and I are both feeling. Epic depressed about it all. The sweetie cooked some nice pork rissoles for dinner which was lovely of him.
DS9 3.14 which was pretty silly.
Tuesday. Took well over an hour to get to sleep. This is what happens when you *don't* drink. Somewhat restless sleep. Bits and pieces at work and even managed some programming in between interruptions. Europe photo culling, DS9 3.15.
I'm not sure which I prefer. Probably the phone photo - everything is in focus. The Canon's depth of field is so ridiculously shallow that you can't get everything in focus, and there's abberations. At least most of the crap on the window is blurred out.
Did I mention the shallow depth of field?
Also, rainbow
Stu cooked up some very nice bok choy with oyster sauce, and the rest of the rissoles
Wednesday. Took til like midnight to get to sleep. Sigh. This is what happens when you *don't* drink. Somewhat restless sleep. Rinse and repeat. Pretty good progress on a script I'm working on, although hit a roadblock doing something simple. Leftover butt cheeks and cabbage for dinner, DS9 3.16. More Europe photo culling. Holiday stuff for Mum.
Phone vs Canon again. Neither are super crisp up close.
Thursday. Slept kinda okish. Got a few bits and pieces done. Pizzas for dinner. DS9 3.17.
Friday. Woke up at dentist time and only got like 3/4 hour more sleep after that. Hurray. Frustrating day fighting with Powershell. I too dumb. Leftover lamb and veggies for dinner. DS9 3.18. Dumb episode.
Saturday. Woke up early I think. Mostly uneventful drive to Sydney. Followed a Murray's coach from the Barton Highway to Picton Road which was pretty cool. At one point a Tesla passed us which had a sticker to the effect of "I bought this before Elon went crazy". No rocks on Hanging Rock Road. Bumper to bumper traffic all the way from Yarrawarra to Mum's because of Heathcote Road closure. And the fact that Sydney traffic sucks all kinds of donkey balls. Got to Mum's and we spent most of the afternoon going through holiday stuff. Also checked out backup hard drives and I backed up her computer again. Had TV dinners for dinner. Went for a walk after dinner so Mum could get some milk and I could get a beer. It got very late very quickly.
Mum has these textas of mine that she used long after I stopped using them. I've had them since I was in primary school, so they're at least forty years old.
They still work.
Mind. Blown.
Sunday. Slept okish. Had to have the door open because it was like 22C in the room - way too hot! It got down to about 19 by morning - just barely tolerable! :) Did some copying of Dad's photos off an external hard drive (possibly the only copy she has of his photos). Also looked at a lot of photos. Went for a long walk around lunch time and picked up a bbq chooken for late lunch. Saw David briefly, went through holiday stuff, then everyone left in different directions. It was after 16:30 by the time I left, way way way too late, so was a pretty tense drive in the dark and the rain. Two wallabies jumped in front of my near Broughton Pass, but luckily didn't hit anything. Late dinner when I got home.
This little house is for sale. It's on a 1220sqm block. I guarantee it will be at the very least a duplex but more likely three or four townhouses the next time I see it...
Hotham House
Monday. Slept okish. Day of appointments and trying to keep on top of crap.
I've been a zombie today and have achieved very little. I have, however, blogged my recent trip to Adelaide.
Sunday. 2nd. Leftover beef and potato bake for dinner. So much for keto. Death in Paradise 2024 Christmas special with a new Detective Inspector. Early night.
Monday. Slept mostly ok although woke up at 5:30. House stuff for a bit, then a bottle and can run (mostly cans). Apparently I haven't been there since June. !! Got $29.70 and that's not with the Christmas party cans. Nice relaxing RDO of doing crap. Had a bit of "fun" but mostly just house stuff - like tidying up the garage, fish tank stuff, cooking up more veggies (yeah yeah I pick a stoopidly hot day to have the oven on). Wednesday 1.6.
Tuesday. Slept mostly ok but woke up early again. Cheese kransky for breakfast. So good but the sodium is going to kill me. Crap day of all the crap doing all the crap for all the people. Mum photo picking in the evening and Wednesday 1.7.
Wednesday. Slept mostly ok (I thought) but woken up by alarm just before 6:30. Super tired all day. Not fully transfunctionating. Stu put on a new series - Beyond Paradise, with Colin Frizzle (Kris Marshall) moved back to the UK.
Thursday. Um. All. The. Crap. No time for any of my own stuff, just doing all the crap for all the people. Busy first drinks, pizzas, finished Wednesday season 1. Really quite enjoyed it.
Friday.
Rinse and repeat at work.
Man you forget to water the plants *one morning* and they're doing this by the afternoon.
Might have done an oopsie.
Beyond Paradise 1.2.
Saturday. All. The. Crap. At home this time. Didn't get nearly enough done. Did have a bit of a look at holiday stuff. I was worried the PDF of the trip we were supposed to be booked on didn't have the sailing date we were supposed to be on. But I think the agent just printed out the wrong one for Mum. I found another very similar cruise that aligns with the description in the itinerary, and this does have our date on it. I emailed the tour company directly anyway just to confirm. Leftovers for dinner. Beyond Paradise 1.3. Then started into Stranger Things.
Sunday. Woke up maybe around 2. For like 3 hours. Sigh. Got some bits and pieces done, but not nearly enough. I have too many projects that I don't know where to start, so end up doing none of them. I did add a bunch of locations to a Google Map for our next trip though. And house crap.
Are these chives? They're growing as weeds in our pavers.
When you go looking in the pantry for something and decide to clear out all the carbs so you can find it. Will have to put these all in a tub for a few weeks.
Mini capsicum flower!
Something is eating the piths on our lemons - but not the fruit. I mean WTF? Surely the pith would be more bitter and less nutritious than the fruit??
In other news, keto is going well. Breakfasts are still the worst, and my morning routine is utterly stuffed up. I was going to cook up stuff to have as breakfasts this weekend. I didn't. But otherwise, doing well, and losing weight - like a kilo in a week. I was loading the dishwasher today and had to wipe out container after container of all the fat from them (from cream or cheese or whatever). Seems counterintuitive to be eating all the fat but losing weight.
"I'll upload my travelogue prolly tomorrow"
bwaahahaah
Nearly 21 years later...
My parents and I went up to Queensland in April 2004 for Uncle Colin's wedding with Sandra. We took two days to drive up, and two to drive back, with the wedding in the middle.
Today I finally posted blog entries for the holiday and the wedding.
Have posted pics from our Queensland trip. Enjoy!
Ten years (and one month) ago today my mother and I went to Queensland for an Outback Spirit tour of Queensland.
While it was a very well organised tour, it was STOOPIDLY expensive - like a thousand dollars a day for the two of us. This totally left a bad taste in my mouth for a lot of the trip.
I was going to post this link last month on the ten year anniversary, but Vodien broke my database (again) and it literally took weeks to sort out. So it's a month late.
It's also funny how much of the trip I'd forgotten. I was going through and choosing photos and labelling them and there were chunks I didn't remember at all, even when seeing the photos. Stoopid dementia brain.
With food/hotel photos still to come. And by hotels, I mean like campsites. Because a thousand dollars a day with Outback Spirit will get you picnic lunches and campsite accommodation. Hurray.
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!