Third Quarter Jigsaws

I borrowed this from the common area, and I actually dismantled it so I knew it was complete.  And guess what.  They lost pieces from it.  Probably down the gap between the bench and the wall.  Pretty grunty about it actually.

Lofoten Islands jigsaw

A Green Shed one of Toronto we did at work.

Toronto jigsaw

We did this one earlier in the year, and we spent ages colouring it in.  I want to have another go at doing it with colour.

Mandala jigsaw coloured

Lord of the Rings jigsaw I borrowed from the common area.  I actually did another copy of this ten years ago.

Lord of the Rings jigsaw

S brought in these next two, assuring us there were probably pieces missing.  

The first one of St Thomas (been there!!) had three missing pieces.

St Thomas jigsaw

The 3D tiger only had one missing piece, which she was pretty impressed with.

3D tiger jigsaw

Second Quarter Jigsaws

Before I went to Tasmania I pulled this out for the guys to do while I was going to be literally right there.  It was a Green Shed jigsaw but I'm pretty sure it was actually new (I seem to remember opening the packet for it).  So I was a bit grunty that they lost a piece.

Cradle Mountain jigsaw

This is my photo taken in the same spot

Cradle Mountain jigsaw location

A few of Rosina's

Rosina jigsaw

Rosina jigsaw

And one of New York by night that we did at work, also a Green Shed one I think.

New York jigsaw

Man I miss the Green Shed.  Will have to see what the Goodies Junction crap is like.

Weather Pixie

Back in the early days of blogging there all sorts of widgets you could post on your blog.

My favourite was the Weather Pixie.  I didn't think her clothing choices were all that practical, as she was wearing pretty skimpy outfits when it was quite cold.

Blonde Pixies

Here were some examples that were on my blog.

40c.png 41c.png Hailing pixie Hot and Dry

Because I'm a weirdly obsessive person, for a while I was compiling a spreadsheet showing which outfit she was in for a given combination of temperature and humidity.  I found it recently while filing crap in my in tray.  It was mostly in Sydney but in Canberra for a while as well.

Weather Pixie chart

(humidity x axis and temperature y axis)

I miss the Weather Pixie.  Maybe I should learn how to code pngs and read weather apis and make my own...  yeah.. in my copious free time..

Mint, Canberra

28.9.24

Probably my third visit, the first being 30.12.2002, and the second bing 13.2.2016.

Royal Australian Mint

Royal Australian Mint

Coin pillar

The coin pillar

Coin pillar

Coins in the coin pillar

Coins in the coin pillar

Foyer in the Mint

This interactive animation was pretty cool

Stories of Change

Coins in The Mint

Coins in The Mint

Coins in The Mint

Stuart Devlin's plaster casts of our coins
Stuart Devlin's plaster casts

1c and 2c pieces were made into bronze medals for the Sydney 2000 Olympics
1c and 2c pieces were made into Sydney Olympics bronze medals

Gold medal for the Sydney 2000 Olympics
Sydney Olympics gold medal

Proof room
Proof room in The Mint

Circulation coin room

Circulation coin room

Coin press machines
Coin press machines

Titan
Titan

1930 penny
1930 penny

Mint, Sydney

17.5.24

I think I visited the Mint when I was in school, but I hadn't been since, so dragged the mother type person along to go see it.

The Mint, Sydney

Grounds of The Mint

Corridor in The Mint

Model of The Mint

Model of The Mint

Original column of The Mint

Interior of The Mint

Stair case in The Mint

Room in The Mint

Pretty window in The Mint

Coins made in The Mint

Ramp in The Mint where they used to roll down bullion trolleys

Grounds of The Mint

Old building in The Mint

The Modern Plumber and Sanitary Engineer volumes

There's not really all that much there, so it's nice that it's free entry.

16.5.24

When I saw the Freshwater class ferries were running again in Sydney I had to go on one!

So dragged the mother type person along with me :)

Queenscliff ferry

Sydney and Circular Quay
Sydney and Circular Quay

Carnival Splendor
Carnival Splendor in Sydney

Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House

Sydney from the ferry
Sydney from the ferry

HMAS Brisbane (DDG 41)
HMAS Brisbane (DDG 41)

Sydney from the ferry

HMAS Canberra (L02)
HMAS Canberra (L02)

I wandered around the ferry to photograph it

Queenscliff ferry

Queenscliff ferry

Queenscliff ferry

Queenscliff ferry

Queenscliff ferry

Western Channel Pile Light
Western Channel Pile Light

South Head
South Head

North Head Quarantine Station
North Head Quarantine Station

Queenscliff at Manly
Queenscliff at Manly

St Matthews, Manly

St Matthew's Manly

Obligatory walk along The Corso

The Corso

bwhahaha budgy smugglers!
Budgy smugglers!!

The Corso

Sculpture in The Corso

Manly Beach
Manly Beach

The Steyne - beer o'clock!!
The Steyne Hotel

Me in my happy place

Before we left the ferry wharf when we arrived in Manly I looked at the timetable, so we could time our trip back to catch a Freshwater class ferry back.  And it was the Freshwater!

Freshwater approaching Manly

Sydney skies

Sydney skies

Bow wake

Sydney

Sydney skies

Sydney skies

Fort Denison.  I've still never been there!
Fort Denison

Opera House and Queenscliff
Queenscliff ferry and Sydney Opera House

Freshwater at Circular Quay

Quite a lovely afternoon!

Rachel and Hayden

18.5.24

Back in May was Rachel and Hayden's wedding.  Not really sure why we were invited, we've barely seen them in the past 17 years.  Rachel was just a little kid when I left Sydney and I've really only seen them a few times since then.  But we were, so off we went.

It was scheduled for 11:00.  So we got there at 10:30, so we'd have plenty of time to find parking.  We ended up all the way down the street.

They were late.  So the cermony started at 12:00.

!!

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

It was a lovely service.

After the service was morning tea.  Even though it was 13:00 by now.  And it was raining.  And I was stressing about so many people.  And it was a dry wedding.  I did end up going and talking to a couple of my old friends.  But felt pretty uncomfortable.  And the sweetie just avoided everyone heh.

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

They tried to get a photo of everyone outside.  In the rain.  Yeah that didn't work.

And there was lunch.  Talked to more of my friends.  Did I mention it was a dry wedding?

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

There were various family/friends photo shots throughout the afternoon.

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

And there were speeches.

With bubbles.

Of cider.

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Alan wrote a limerick!

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

And there was cake cutting

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

Photo shoots carried on

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

When we finally had a chance to leave Marylon said we should sign the guest book, but you were meant to do a photo booth thing and keep a copy and stick the other one in the book.  But there were lots of people and we didn't know what to do with the machine and it was all very stressful.

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

And then of course I couldn't think of anything useful to say in the book.  Oh well.

Rachel and Hayden's wedding

We finally left at nearly 16:30.  Six hours after we got there.  On the way out we saw the MASSIVE car park under the church.  Yeah that would have been nice to know about in advance.

It was a lovely day, but we were both utterly exhausted by the end of it, with a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to get home.  I spent the next day or so *cringing* over the crap I said because I was so anxious.  This is why I don't socialise sober, people!!  But I think Rachel and Hayden had a wonderful day, so that's really all that matters!

Sunday.  22nd.  Finished Wonka.  Cool been-there's of St Paul's and Oxford.  

Monday.  Slept ok I guess.  Busy day.  On the phone from 16:00 to 18:00 blah.  Cooked a red curry with some of the leftover beef.  And spent the evening writing up my dramas with Vodien.

Purple poppy

This bit of geranium has been out of the ground since January.  !!!
Invincible geranium

Tuesday.  Slept ok I guess.  Not quite as crazy busy day.  Biggest set of migrations done, with cutover later in the week.  Smaller batches to go.  All evening battling mail on CloudLoop.

Wednesday.  Um.  Planning migrations I think.  Drinks after work with Neil and some other peeps.  Watched some Amazing Race, talked to Kit for a bit.

Climbing roses

Thursday.  Awake from like 2 to 4 or something.  Setup johnson.id.au on CloudLoop and changed the nameservers over.  Cutover of some management stuff.  Broke a proxy.  Good drinks.  Pizzas for dinner.  Early night.

Friday.  Awake from maybe like 2 or 2:30 and never got back to sleep.  Sigh.  Dealing with the failed proxy.  Wardie restarted it last night which fixed it.  Seems the cutover we did confused it.  Sadness.  Went to Herbert's at lunch with the Chrises which was nice.  Kiev balls!  Back at work, contractor broke stuff.  I'm getting a reputation for failed changes.  Sigh.  Proper chicken kievs for dinner.  Bed 19:30.

Pink freesias

I totally need to get the recipe for these things!!
Herbert's kiev balls

Four of these 17 kegs are TRBC beers.  They're planning a tribute night soon with them.
17 kegs

Purple poppy

Pink daisies

Kievs

Brown food Fridays

Saturday.  Early night but woke up at 3:40 and never got back to sleep.  Sigh.  Breakfast at Beess & Co.  Had a very nice eggs benedict (although salty AF, I was *thirsty* later).

Beess Benny

Wandered around Yarralumla while waiting for the mint to open, then went in there.

Stopped at Scrivener Dam on the way home.

This looked like a roomba lawn mower..
Roomba mower

Scrivener Dam

Wrote up a todo list for the day.  I think it'll take a couple of weeks to get through.  I had to fix up all the Canon photos I'd taken this year - they were all still on summer time :(  I got some stuff at Chris's the other day to make up a lasagna to use up the white sauce that's been in the fridge for months.  Turns out it really didn't freeze very well and was quite disgusting once it was defrosted.  Sigh.  So I had to make my own white sauce (using Lana's recipe).  But the flour I used was from a container I'd dug up that needed using from forever ago.. I think it may have come from Mum's.. and I think it was a little.. off..  So I was worried it'd be a disaster.  But it wasn't!!  Hurray!!  It was a little dry, which I attribute to not adding enough liquid to offset the dry sheets I got from Chris's.  Lana summed it up perfectly:

"Fresh lasagne sheets. I really can't recommend using anything other than these. If you do feel the need to use dry sheets, then slap yourself make sure you add extra liquid to the meat sauce, as they will suck it up. Nothing worse than dry lasagne."

Lasagna

In the evening we watched Grave of the Fireflies.  Yeah it was pretty sad. 

Sunday.  Slept mostly ok for a change.  Another busy day of doing all the things.  Finally uploaded my Tassie hotel photos.  Also did some food shopping.  

Five-leaf clover

Sunday.  15th.  Actually blogging on time for a change.  Overdone roast beef for dinner.

Overdone beef

Monday.  16th.  Slept okish I think. More migrations at work. Working on blog after dinner.

Freesia weed

Tuesday.  Slept okish. Rinse and repeat really. Mash had Patrick Swayze! Updating holiday blogs with new styles and fixing everything.

Wednesday.  I dunno.  Much the same really.  Work and fixing my blog.

First purple poppy!!!

First purple poppy

Thursday.  Rinse and repeat really.   Decent drinks (thought it was going to be just us but another group came up as well).  Watched the first episode of Amazing Race Season ..? 6..? I dunno but it's another "Celebrity Edition" race, with mostly peeps I've never heard of.

Pizza

Friday.  Woke up at 4am never got back to sleep hurrah. Another busy day.  Fake kievs for dinner (still Inghams, but not the proper sort, Coles didn't have them).  Into season 10 of Mash.  Pretty sure I watched a movie but can't remember what.  Maybe it'll come back to me.

Fake kievs

Saturday. Logged onto work to start a big batch of migrations, that will likely take all weekend. Finished fixing up my Australian Holiday blogs. Then it was onto my main blog.  I asked the sweetie if he'd cook dinner.  So we had Dumpling Inn delivered.  Then watched South Solitary.  Been there!  Well, to Cape Otway Lighthouse where they filmed the interiors anyway.

Bougainvillea

Freesia weeds

Red freesias

Freesia weeds

Climbing rose flowers

Cider

Dumpling Inn delivery

Sunday. Bit of a restless nights' sleep but mostly ok. Did some tidying up on my blog, but have some other things I want to tidy up too. Read through all of John Heald's Smoke on the Water series on the Carnival Splendor fire. Really just procrastinating doing the hard work of blogging the past month.  Notepad in Windoze 11 is trash. I'll be editing a large file, go to another window, come back to notepad, and it dumps me right at the bottom of the file, not where i had the cursor.  Stoopid.  Then most of the afternoon after food shopping doing catchup blogging.  Including having to redo last week's because I accidentally hit control-v instead of control-c while it was publishing.  Watched Wonka (2023).  It had hints of music from the 70s movie.  With Rowan Atkinson (one scene) and Hugh Grant (haven't seen him yet).  Slugworth, Fickelgruber and Prodnose.  Sounds like something out of Fantastic Mr Fox.  Anyone would think it was by the same author or something heh.  OMFG Hugh Grant as the Oompa Loompa.  And he sings a variant of the song!! hahahaha.  That'll do for now.

Purple poppy

Purple poppy