the quiet revolution

Melbourne is trying her very best to seduce me.

A perfect blue-sky day, impossibly warm for this little Tasmaniac still shaking off the winter. Lying on green grass in the sunshine, shooting the breeze, drinking far too much coffee in funky cafes, spending time with my Melbourne peeps and the physical expression of joy that is taiko.

Today was a half-day of drumming and dance workshops with Wadaiko Rindo (and Corch & Leah). Tonight is a taiko concert. Tomorrow is catching up with more lovely friends, with nothing more pressing to do than enjoy myself.

Monday brings work in the Melbourne office, and a frantic 3 days it will be, but Monday night there is more drumming goodness with the Kodo & TaikOz concernt. Hooray! Then home again, home again on Wednesday night to my sweet little city curled around the Mountain.

Melbourne, you'd have a chance of stealing my heart if it wasn't already spoken for.

The fire's lit, the kettle's on.

My belly is full of cauliflower and kale masala made with veggies from my very weedy garden.

I've unpacked, done the laundry and made a small dent in the weeds.

There was a sprinkling of snow on the mountain this morning.

I'm home.

So, this week work took me to Flinders Island. It was the last major deadline leading up to my holiday and the point where I finally started to relax, knowing I'd done everything I really needed to and had plenty of time left to pack.

The trip went really well and Flinders Island is truly beautiful: I'd like to go back for a few days to explore and to climb Mt. Strzelecki. It was, however, a long trip, with the drive to Launceston Tuesday night then up early for a dawn flight to the island and a dusk return to Launnie, followed by the 2 drive back to Hobart. The plane was a little twin-prop 18-seater, which was much fun to fly in.

Unfortunately on the return flight I was sat in front of a cougher. There's a horrid respiratory infection that's been doing the rounds in Tas that I'd thus far avoided. No longer. I am sick. Flinders Island Flu.

Do not pass Go, do no collect $200, SICK. I'm running a fever and want to do nothing more than collapse in bed for a few days. It's not to be, however, as tomorrow I fly to Sydney, then Monday morning I'm off to Santiago. Today, instead of sleeping, I'm dragging myself through the packing process (it's going exceedingly slowly) and doing my best to keep moving. I've jumped on antibiotics and am filling myself with garlic, lemon, ginger, chilli and honey. All I can do now is hope I feel a little better in the morning.

Meanwhile, here's a little Flinders Island magic from my flying visit. I'll catch you all when I'm back in August.

xoxo

Melbourne
Catching up with wonderful Melbourne folk, no fixed plans as yet.
Arrive: Friday, February 10th @ 22:20
Depart: Monday, February 13th @ 08:40

Brisbane / Gold Coast
Visiting the family, because I didn't go home for Christmas.
Arrive: Friday, April 6th @ 13:25
Depart: Monday, April 9th @ 07:00

South America!
Chile, Peru & Bolivia with the amazing katmeow!
Arrive: Monday, July 9th @ 10:05
Depart: Wednesday, August 1st @ 13:35

A-wandering we will go!

Blah, the change to Summer Time always throws my routine out. The clocks go forward but my body clock does not budge and I find myself unable to sleep before midnight.

I have been doing some pen & paper writing, so my poor journal is getting a little neglected. My apologies. I haven't been doing anything particularly exciting though. A very quiet weekend at home was had, catching up on much-needed sleep. Saturday was wintery, with snow up on the mountain. I stayed inside in my thermals all day. Sunday brought the promise of summer and I sat outside in the bright sunshine for three hours, reading a book.

I haven't been for a proper walk in the forest in far too long. Five weeks since I've been on the mountain. I'll make an effort to get out this weekend; hopefully the weather will cooperate (I was going to be poisoning gorse on an island in the Franklin River, but that's been cancelled now, so I'm a free agent yet again).



I really should write a post or three about my Victorian adventures. I've been back for 5 weeks now and am still yet to write anything. Let's see...

* Saturday August 20th - flew to Melbourne, recovering from the 'flu. Lovely dinner out with K, wonderloey, trissemeister, wilso & AJ

* Sunday 21st - Hello larangytis. Day 1 of 6 with no/limited voice. Slept, lazed around and generally did very little until I lost it and cleaned K & WL's kitchen

* Monday 22nd - K and I drove down the Mornington Peninsular, exploring Portsea, Sorrento & the old quarantine station & army base right out at the end of the peninsular. In the rain. Lost voice entirely on the way home, enjoying the experience of a proper Melbourne traffic jam (not moving anywhere for a good hour)



* Tuesday 23rd - off to Daylesford with K and nurseysarah for a totally mute day of pottering about in 2nd hand-bookshops, crafty shops and foody places with a lovely stroll around the lake. Lots of driving and a very late night, capped off by a personal relevation, clearing an emotional blockage. Benfits of laringytis: nobody can hear you cry.



* Wednesday 24th - sleeping in and running errands in Melbourne city. Caught up with L and talked/mimed through a recent misunderstanding that looked like costing us our friendship. Investigated interesting-looking places and bought a hiking backpack to take my camera gear as well as some decent-sized memory cards. Failed to buy a set of Cokin filters due to no customer service and insufficient knowledge of what I was looking at.

* Thursday 25th - K and I set off to explore Gippsland. Meandering drive down to Inverloch, exploring the coast road, a walk along the inlet and sunset at Cape Liptrap lighthouse. An evening of wine, port & local cheeses, cozy in our hired cabin.



* Friday 26th - up and on the road by day-break, headed to Winsons Promontory National Park. Arrived to find most of the park still inaccessible following summer floods, but made the most of the parts we could get to. Lovely walk up Vereker Outlook. Very long drive home via Dumbalk & Mirboo North, thinking I could make a life somewhere like that. Exhausting day, voice returning.



* Saturday 27th - up before the sun again to take K & WL out for their surprise: a sunrise hot-air balloon flight over the Yarra Valley. At least that was the plan. Due to morning fog it was past 10 am when we finally got into the air after several hours of waiting around. The operation was run by cowboys but fun was had (although it turns out balooning is a little too sedate for me). Home for an afternoon of doing laundry and packing.



* Sunday 28th - home again, home again and realising how glad I was to be so. There's nothing like leaving to make you realise what you've got. Utterly exhausted, back aching and off to work again in the morning.



Boo to not being able to access the mosaic maker I've been using from werk. You'll have to deal with odd-sized photos instead (if I wait until I get home this post will never happen).

Right, on with the day then. There is much work to do and many new adventures to plot. Well, just as soon an I finally catch up on sleep...

So, I am in Melbourne, having a holiday. Except I am still recovering from the 'flu, so am doing very little other than sitting around wasting time on the internet, which I could do just as well at home, so seems like a waste of my holidays. Tomorrow, however, things shall improve, as my friend Kelv and I are heading down the Morning Peninsular for a day of exploring.

This is not the holiday I was planning. Originally I was booked on a freaking awesome tour across South Australia, including a scenic flight over a flooded Lake Eyre, with a weekend in Melbourne tacked onto the end. I was ridiculously excited about that trip: Going to lots of places I'd never been before, seeing the desert, seeing Lake Eyre, meeting new people. But it was not meant to be: the tour was over-booked and 3 days after booking I discovered I wouldn't be going after all, and due to other commitments I couldn't reschedule the week off until October, when the lake will be drying and the wildlife dying. That didn't sound like so much fun, so plans were changed and here I am in Melbourne, having a nice time, but not quite the experience I was after. Perhaps it's just as well though, seeing as I'm still a little sick.



Today I'm resting up, tomorrow we're off to Mornington, and Tuesday we're heading to Daylesford with the lovely nurseysarah. Wednesday I'm taking a day to myself to wander about Melbourne city and perhaps make some camera-related purchases, then Thursday-Friday the plan is to head down to Wilson's Promontory National Park for an over-night adventure (that reminds me - must look into accommodation options). There are spare seats in the car, should anyone else fancy tagging along.

Saturday morning I have a surprise in store for my lovely hosts, but the evening is free for social things, then Sunday I fly home again, ready to start another working week and no doubt very pleased to be back in my own bed.

Next holiday though, I'm definitely doing the tour someplace I've never been thing.

Another weekend, and not as much accomplished as intended. Still, the shopping got done, along with four loads of washing and I managed to bake some more goodies (choc-pistachio cookies and banana muffins, along with another batch of raspberry sauce). Plenty of time taken for indulgences too, with a Friday night treat (and surprise for Alex) of a grazing feast of smoked salmon, good ham, two types of cheese, fancy olives, pate, crackers and a very nice bottle of sparkling. The only good side of thyroid hyperactivity is the ability to eat like this and not gain weight. ;-)

I spent far too much time on Saturday traipsing around pet shops and lighting shops trying to get a replacement bulb for my fish tank light, only to find those types of lights do not exist in Tasmania. Neither could I get my hands on any of the other things I need to make my tank plants grow big and strong and healthy. In desperation I've had to add bi-carb and dilute fertilizer to the tank to stop the plants from melting away to nothing. It seems to be helping so far. Stupid soft water makes it all hard enough down here, but not being able to buy the stuff I need is irritating indeed. Now I'm going to have to make a dash to the most awesome aquarium shop in Brisbane when I'm up there in a couple of weeks for a wedding.

Speaking of my wonderful Brisbane, the boy and I have booked tickets for a trip home over Christmas. We'll have fifteen days, split between Brisbane, the Gold Coast and both sets of parents. The heat is going to kill us, but I don't care. So very much looking forward to spending time with the wonderful people we left back home. I suspect we'll also rather enjoy a bit of culture and ethnic diversity while we're at it...

Not much else is happening. I'm still sick but am largely on the mend, and back at work to boot. It rained and rained and snowed and rained all last week. We finally got some sun this weekend, but alas I didn't make it out for a photo mission. Too tired and too many things that needed to be done. So I played with my kit, and using the aquarium light for photos now that it's dying and isn't so bright. It's a slightly blue light though, which does odd things to colours. Still, I had fun. Now I just need to find some photogenic Tasmanians to play model for me, after all you can't frame the shot properly if you're in front of the lens! Still, I need the practise, and now I can share the delightful orange of my kitchen.

Hi folks,

Consider this my last LJ entry for a while - I'm about to pull the plug and pack the computer..

In a couple of hours' time the packing will be finished and we'll start dissembling furniture. The removalist turns up tomorrow morning and everything gets shoved into a shipping container then we wave goodbye.

Sunday night we'll stay in Goondiwindi, then it's on to Dubbo and Western Plains Zoo, then on down to the Riverina via a detour to see the Dish. Once we cross the once-mighty Murray it's straight down the highway to Melbourne on Wednesday night.

Thursday and Friday are our Melbourne days - dinner & drinks Thursday night with major thanks to the wonderful Amanda for organising. At some point I want to try to buy a suit and a satchel.

Then Friday afternoon we head to the port and make our way aboard the Spirit of Tasmania. Friday night will pass us by as we slip over the Bass Straight to Davenport. We'll be in Hobart by lunch time on Saturday. A day to find our feet, then I start the new job Monday morning.

This is it. Goodbye Brisbane! xoxo

Dear life,

Could you please slow down a little bit? It's all a bit crazy at the moment.

Kind regards,
T.

Of course, life's not going to listen, so please bear with me for the next 5 weeks or so until we get things back under control. Work has gone utterly mental: I've got 3 trips away to deliver workshops and a shed-load of work to do before and after each of them, plus a progress report due and another project that's been languishing needs to be wrapped up and delivered to the editors, all by the end of May. As Gordon Ramsey would say, fuck me!



Weekends are also epically busy. Last weekend we went down to Hobart on family business (congratulations to both Rui and Amanda who recognised my view of Dusk over the Derwent estuary, taken from Mt. Wellington, Hobart, Tasmania - you win my everlasting esteem), and this weekend coming I'm photographing a very good friend's wedding. Needing to say I'm shitting myself over that one just a little.



The weekend after that we'll be belatedly celebrating our 2nd wedding anniversary. The original plan was a romantic get-away of camping and hiking down at Mt. Barney, though since I get back from Mackay at 9pm on Friday night it's most likely to be an exhausted weekend of catching up on sleep and re-aquainting myself with the couch! We'll see how we do though - hopefully I"ll manage at least a day trip and a bit of a bush walk.



Speaking of bushwalks, here are a few more photos from sunset atop the rather scenic, if somewhat freezing, Mt. Wellington. No we didn't walk up - we didn't have the 5.5 hours it would have taken to get up and down again - but we did go for a shorter bushwalk down at Fern Tree before we drove up. No doubt I'll get around to putting up those photos sooner or later. In the meantime, please enjoy the ( view )