MonashMob

Birthday Girl

2009-06-23T05:41:00.003+10:00

just a quick catch up on MLR's birthday - with cousins and later with G'ma and G'pa - and when the scanner is talking to the Mac, you will see those photos too.

Only in Canberra, you tell me?

2009-03-17T06:49:00.003+11:00

Did the lobotomy come before owning the car or did owning the car cause the lobotomy?

The other day a lot of soil was delivered to the car park I use at work. The soil was delivered to fill in the lumps and bumps. These mounds of soil took up a car space or two. That did not deter one driver.

Latest look for AJR

2009-03-16T08:20:00.002+11:00

Wedding Anniversary

2009-02-22T09:38:00.005+11:00

Gill Pool and Mike Carter

Married on 28 February 1959

Celebrating 50 Years

28 February 2009

Here are some facts about 1959 for your edification

Theatre and Films

Arsenic and old lace played at the Scunthorpe Hospital Players

Musical theatre – Pieces of eight

Expresso Bongo (Cliff Richard)

39 Steps

Look Back in Anger (Best British film 1959)

I’m alright Jack – Peter Sellers

(Best British Actor 1959)

Get Carter

The writer Ted Lewis, who lived in nearby Barton-upon-Humber, featured Scunthorpe in some of his novels about low-life 1960s gangster Jack Carter. The most famous of these books, Jack's Return Home saw the main character return from London to his home-town of Scunthorpe to avenge his brother's death. The story itself was based on the background to the real-life murder of Newcastle businessman Angus Sibbet in 1967, in what was known as the Fruit Machine Murder.

The film rights to this book where purchased by MGM who ironically transferred the setting from Scunthorpe to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and released the film in 1971 as the cult British crime thriller Get Carter, starring Michael Caine in the eponymous lead role.

POLITICS

Prime Minister of England was Harold MacMillan

Prime Minister of Australia was Robert Menzies

February 1959 MacMillan goes to Moscow to hold talks with Kruschev

June 3 Singapore becomes self-governing after 13 years as a British crown colony

August - MacMillan and Eisenhower (US President) hold a TV debate on the cold war and world peace (world first TV debate)

EVENTS OF 1959

3 January Alaska becomes the 49th state of the USA

17 February Turkish Airlines crashed at London Gatwick Airport

28 February Launch of Discoverer 1 – first polar orbit (and a wedding in Scunthorpe)

9 March Barbie doll debuted

24 May Empire Day renamed Commonwealth Day in England

21 August Hawaii becomes the 50th state of the USA

MUSIC

Jan 5^th Buddy Holly releases his last record "It Doesn't Matter”

Adam Faith – What do you want?

Johnny Kidd and the pirates – Please don’t touch

Vince Taylor and the Playboys – Brand new Cadillac

Cliff Richard (Harry Rodger Webb) – Living doll (biggest selling single of 1959)

STATISTICS on 1959

Population of England - 51 956 000
Male - 25 043 000
Female - 26 913 000

[1961 - Population of Scunthorpe - Total 743,596 / Males 369,386 / Females 374,210 ]

Average House Price £2,410

Austin 7 ( Mini ) £500

Average UK male annual salary £190

Yearly Inflation Rate UK 0.9%

Number of births in UK was 748,501

INVENTIONS 1959

Etch A Sketch, France, by Arthur Grandjean

Microchip, USA, by Jack Kilby

TELEVISION SHOWS 1959

Oh Boy

October 27 Anglia Television goes to air

Benny Hill

Hancock’s Half Hour

BIRTHS 1959

February 12 Sigrid Thornton, actress

February 16 John McEnroe, tennis player

April 15 Emma Thompson, actress

May 3 Ben Elton, writer and actor

June 11 Hugh Laurie

October 15 Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York

DEATHS 1959

February 3 Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper die in a plane crash

April 9 Frank Lloyd Wright

16 June George Reeves (AKA Superman)

July 17 Billie Holliday

September 28 Gerard Hoffnung Gerard Hoffnung was born in Berlin in 1925 and went to London in 1939 as a schoolboy refugee. Although he died at the early age of 34 years, he achieved in his short life enough to fill a whole series of lifetimes. Artist, teacher, cartoonist, caricaturist, musician and tuba player, broadcaster and raconteur, a much sought after speaker at the Oxford and Cambridge Unions and prison visitor, a Quaker - these were all facets of a creative personality. He was almost as gifted a musician as he was an artist, his true passion being for the brass instruments of the orchestra; this led him one day to purchase a bass tuba which, with serious dedication, he set about learning to play. He was 25 at the time and, after two or three years and many hours of practice, he found himself ensconced amidst the brass section of the Morley College Orchestra as their bass tuba player. From this vantage point at the rear of the orchestra his perceptive eye was free to focus, with affection and critical amusement, on the foibles and idiosyncrasies of his fellow performers. This new experience further stimulated his imagination and love of music and musicians and inspired the many hundreds of musical cartoons produced during the final years of his short life.

October 14 Errol Flynn

OTHER MARRIAGES 1959

Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor

TENNIS/MOTOR SPORT 1959

August – Australia beats US for Davis Cup

Rod Laver and Darlene Hard won Wimbledon’s mixed doubles, Rod Laver was runner up in the singles.

The 2.65 mile Grand Prix circuit at Brands Hatch was constructed in 1959

MISCELANEOUS 1959

The Mark I Mini: First sales August 1959
On December 15, 1959, Ackworth School was granted a coat of arms by the Kings of Arms. The school's coat of arms is made of the white rose of Yorkshire ("barbed and seeded"), acorns ("slipped" - which means "with a bit of stalk"), and the lamb, which is a device shown on the arms of the Foundling Hospital. It also features the school motto - "Non Sibi Sed Omnibus" ("Not for oneself but for all").
The Nikon F 35-mm. single-lens reflex camera is introduced by Nippon Kogaku K.K.
Direct Dial Payphones Introduced In The UK
Southend Pier Pavilion is destroyed by fire
QANTAS introduces the Boeing 707 on its Sydney-San Francisco route, the first transpacific service flown by jet.
One billionth can of Spam sold
Spalding Flower Parade is held in Lincolnshire in late spring every year. Colourful floats decorated with tulip heads compete for a cup. The tradition was started in 1959, and draws coach tours from across Britain.

Emigrating to Australia - 50th Anniversary Series

2009-02-08T22:27:00.016+11:00

In February 1972 the Carter Family Emigrated from England to Australia on the

P&O Liner, SS Canberra

Commissioned 1956

Maiden Voyage 1961:

1961-1973: 548 First class, 1,690 Tourist class, 960 officers and crew

1973-1997: 1,737 passengers, 795 officers and crew

Construction

Maiden voyage

Waving off on maiden voyage to Australia from Southampton 1961

First arrival in Sydney

1973

Military refurbishment for service in the Falklands

Final weeks

This is how the Carter family saw the SS Canberra as they left England for Australia in February 1972.

P&O commissioned the Canberra to operate the combined P&O-Orient Line service between the United Kingdom and Australia. The arrival of the jet airliner had already caused a drop in demand for this service; a reduction in emigration to Australia and wars forcing the closure of the Suez Canal saw the route become unprofitable. However a refit in 1974 saw the Canberra adapted to cruising. Unusually, this transition from an early life as a purpose-built ocean liner to a long and successful career in cruising, occurred without any major external alterations, and with only minimal internal and mechanical changes over the years.

Arguably the single most remarkable feature of Canberra's design was her turbo-electric propulsion system. Instead of being mechanically coupled to her propeller shafts, Canberra's steam turbines drove large electric alternators, which provided power to electric motors, which, in turn, drove the vessel's twin screws. They were the most powerful steam turbo-electric units ever installed in a passenger ship; at 42,500 hp (31,700 kW) per shaft, they surpassed SS Normandie's 40,000 hp (30,000 kW) on each of her 4 shafts. There are several operational and economical advantages to such electrical de-coupling of a ship's propulsion system, and it has become a standard element of cruise ship design during the 1990s, over 30 years after Canberra entered service. However diesel engine and gas turbine driven alternators are the primary power source for most modern electrically propelled ships.

After the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982, which initiated the Falklands War, the Ministry of Defence requisitioned the Canberra as use as a troopship. Nicknamed the Great White Whale, the Canberra proved vital in transporting the Parachute Regiment and Royal Marines to the islands more than 9,000 miles (14,000 km) from the UK. Whilst the Queen Elizabeth 2 was held to be too vulnerable to enter the war zone, Canberra was sent to the heart of the conflict.

Canberra anchored in San Carlos Water on 21 May as part of the landings by British forces to retake the islands. Although her size and white colour made her an unmissable target for the Argentine Air Force, the Canberra, if sunk, would not have been completely submerged in the shallow waters at San Carlos. However, the liner was not badly hit during the landings as the Argentine pilots tended to attack the Royal Navy frigates and destroyers instead of the supply and troop ships. After the war, Argentine pilots claimed they were told not to hit the Canberra, as they mistook her for a Hospital Ship.[1]

When the war ended, Canberra was used to repatriate the Argentine Army, before returning to Southampton to a rapturous welcome. After a lengthy refit, Canberra returned to civilian service as a cruise ship. Her role in the Falklands War made her very popular with the British public, and ticket sales after her return were elevated for many years as a result. Age and high running costs eventually caught up with her though, as she had much higher fuel consumption than most modern cruise ships. She was withdrawn from service in September 1997 and sold to ship breakers for scrapping, leaving for Gadani Beach, Pakistan the next month. The breakers paid $5,640,818 for the ship. She did not give up without a fight however; her deep draft meant that she could not be beached as far as most ships, and due to her solid construction the scrapping process took nearly a year instead of the estimated three months, and it is believed that the yard lost great deal of money trying to scrap her.

For more information on the SS Canberra try this website http://www.sscanberra.com/hist1constr.htm

(the photo’s of the SS Canberra mostly came from this website).

The Original Carter Immigrants (2002) Celebrating 30 Years in Australia

Crossing the Equator Certificate

All suited up for ship board life

Mementoes of the Trip on the SS Canberra

Bateman's Bay

2008-10-27T20:35:00.005+11:00

Here we are at Bateman's bay, wondering where we might have dinner

The light made for surreal photographs of the boats and the water

Milton Park

2008-09-29T07:36:00.008+10:00

At work we decided to have a team building exercise and we were bussed off to the Southern Highlands to Milton Park in Bowral. We left Tuesday morning and returned Wednesday evening. Milton Park is an amazing place, with a miriad of gardens, paths, additional buildings (such as the conference centre and spa).

spa entrance

side of conference centre

The house is built at the time of federation, and is beautiful with high ceilings and lots of space.
entrance to the Hotel from the garden
I had a room on the ground floor that opened up to the courtyard. I have never had so many pillows on my bed as I did on Tuesday night.

The food was spectactular, for instance the evening meal for me was venison followed by milk fed lamb from WA, a chocolate mud desert finished the meal.

The gardens are extensive, lots of paths winding around. Of course it is spring in the highlands and lots of the flowers and trees are bursting with new life.

Fairy walk

Helicopter pad

Lily pads

Another walk through the gardens

Beautiful bulbs down a meadow - very English

At the end of Tuesday we had some free time. Three of us went to an art gallery in Bowral, we also visited a cheese shop and a dress shop and Bed and Bath. Nothing like retail therapy, JR will be happy to know that the only thing I bought was coffee - although I was sorely tempted by lots of things.

When you really want to celebrate something special, a trip to Milton Park could be the place to go.

Mondo

Birthday boy

2008-09-27T20:28:00.004+10:00

AJR is a teenager, it is scary but true!!

He celebrated the actual day at Wombeyan Caves, near Goulburn on a year 7 school camp. He did not enjoy camp at all. They were in teams of four and sleeping in tents, which they had chosen as a team over cabins. Each member of the team had to contribute to the cooking, one person had to bring pots and pans and cutlery and crockery. In AJR's team, the guy bringing the pots and pans ended up being too sick to come, so they had to join another group for meals. The teachers cooked a meal on the second night for everyone, apart from that they cooked for themselves. From my point of view the whole camp was badly managed.

Lots of cooking happened on Friday night and Saturday, before the mob from Wentworth Falls arrived at 3pm on Saturday afternoon to celebrate AJR's birthday. In the evening Auntie J and Uncle P arrived for dinner.

Then on Sunday we were joined by G'ma and G'pa.

And we all had lunch together.

Bill Bailey

2008-09-25T07:36:00.004+10:00

On Saturday 13 September four of us went to see Tinselworm - Bill Bailey's one man show. JR and I met K and T at Dylan Moran's show a year ago - I remember seeing them in the distance at interval. We caught up with them to discover that we were all Black Books fans. In May this year, T rang me at 6pm one night to tell me that Bill was touring and how with a special code I could get advance tickets - after much discussion and hilarity, I managed to book us tickets, which I kept secret from JR until a couple of weeks before the show.

We went to an Indian restaurant in town for dinner before the show, and then walked back to the Royal Theatre for a drink before the show started.

Bill is a classically trained musician and was able to combine comedy with a range of music and musical instuments all of which he played well.

I have not belly laughed so much in a long time. If you get an opportunity to see him then, grab it with both hands.

Mondo

Velib's

2008-09-02T21:43:00.002+10:00

When next in Paris be sure to check out the Velibs (not just the girl)

Photograph courtesy of A Photographer in Paris

Article on Velibs

Wall-e and Friend

2008-09-01T21:22:00.000+10:00

Just to the left there is another person hiding behind the manga

Coffee anyone?

2008-08-31T19:47:00.005+10:00

Here is the cup of coffee I had at Freedom Home in Woden on Sunday. It was slow in coming and not nearly as good at the coffee I had at APK also in Woden earlier in the day.

Another Saturday in Sydney

2008-08-30T19:41:00.005+10:00

Last Saturday saw the family Rutherford in Sydney - in two different places.

We travelled together towards Sydney from Heathcote at about 9am to Erskinville an inner south suburb and the girls were dropped at the railway station. There is a coffee culture around the rail station and shops and it all looked very cosmopolitan. Meanwhile the boys - aided and abetted by their GPS - travelled on to the old train repair sheds at Enfield to the Australian Technology Centre. A two day Animania Festival (manga) convention was being held, and AJR was determined to see everything he could in one day. We could not attend on Sunday as JSR had an important engagement with his clubs at 1.00pm on Sunday.

Mushroom Heartless

(left to right:)
Toshiro Hitsugaya and Soi Fon, Alphonse Elric, Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha
Photographs by AJR

The girls went to Powerhouse Museum for a little culture. We had a talk on the Strasburg clock, which was built by Bartholomew Smith. The clock is based on on a model in Strasburg, France. Smith built it based on a postcard of the original. One part of the clock gives the times for each of the state capitals, I was surprised to find that Brisbane was 10 minutes ahead of Sydney, which was 10 minutes ahead of Melbourne!!!

Around lunchtime the girls met up with Unce R and Aunty T, plus girl child and boy child and had a lovely yum cha in China town followed by an exploration of Paddy's markets. Once our legs got tired enough we moved upstairs for a coffee. The boys picked the girls up about 4pm as they had seen enough at the Convention. As the GPS seemed to be blocked by all the tall buildings (a condition of most cities) we drove over to Bondi Junction on blind faith, a wish and luck. Once at Bondi Junction we checked out the Westfield shopping centre. Most shops did not close before 6pm, which we appreciated.

After Bondi Junction we drove to Sutherland and had a happy birthday dinner for G'ma with G'pa at a Thai restaurant.

All in all it was a lovely day.

Unusual Fruit

2008-08-29T19:18:00.000+10:00

While in Belconen the other day visiting my friend KR for lunch, I noticed a tree in her carpark with unusual fruit.

Bro assures me that it is a take on an episode of "My name is Earl", where similar fruit appear on the ariel of the building after successful conquests of the fairer sex - I tried to find this episode, however I failed!!!!

The tree

and on a lighter note you can see that spring is sprung (buds - the alternate fruit)

Indigenous Literacy Day

2008-08-21T16:15:00.000+10:00

Ok guys, mark your calendars for the 3 September and make sure you buy a book at one of the participating bookstores to support the work of the Fred Hollows foundation and the Booksellers of Australia.

10% of each book purchased goes to provide books and information to isolated Indigenous communities across Australia.

For more info, see below.
Indigenous Literacy Day

Terrible Tuesday

2008-08-20T08:39:00.005+10:00

Well it is official, I think Tuesdays are the worst day of the week.

Yesterday it went like this:

Drop off ironing early - good

Breakfast out with friends - good

In to work after 9am - bad

Off to speech therapy at 12.30 - drive to Kambah, then Holder, back to Kambah and back to work at 2.30pm - total kilometers = 58 - bad

Work is hectic - bad

Leave work just before 5pm - drive to Monash pick up dog and kids and then drive to Forrest to visit dog sitter, back to Monash drop off kids and dog, out of the drive to collect ironing - an additional 41.4 kilometers -

Home for the evening at 7pm

Tea (cooked by JSR) at 8pm

This is how I felt all day!

photo by Li Gao for more of these go here

An alternative to death by powerpoint...

2008-08-19T07:17:00.000+10:00

For a fast paced approach to information exchange, you might want to try this approach at your next presentation

Pecha Kucha

Japanese for "chatter"

And the winner is...

2008-08-18T07:10:00.000+10:00

Yes I asked a question the other day - where am I having coffee and I thought I should supply the regular readers with the answer which is "in a mug". Ok also having coffee at the Coffee Club. Please note that I would never be seen in a Starbucks, as I have issues with Starbucks.

Thank you to all those who gave an answer - next time I see you, I owe you a coffee.

Mondo.

Wordle

2008-08-17T07:05:00.001+10:00

I did threaten some of you with the arrival of my first wordle and here it is

This is a wordle of my blog. If you want to try it out, then go to this site

Wordle

Enjoy,

Mondo

Walking and wine

2008-08-16T07:38:00.001+10:00

The Sole Sistaz (you remember us) went out along the Federal Highway to Lerida Estate Winery. Well actually three Sistaz and an honourary Sista arrived at the rendezvous at 11.30 am last Saturday. The day was overcast and threatening rain and snow. The reason we drove an hour out of town to do this walk is that it is part of the Fireside Festival. This festival includes things like walks, listening to jazz or other music and lots of food and wine in different venues all over the region. The festival runs for the whole of August. We walked from Lerida Estate to Lake George Winery (next door). We had to cross a creek bed or two, open and close gates and walk through a pine forest. The walk took a slow hour. We retired to the Cafe at Lerida estate for an elegant repaste, before driving back home to hide inside for the rest of the weekend. The top temperature for Sunday was 7!

Learnings

2008-08-15T08:02:00.001+10:00

Overview of the last two weeks of learning - focussed on Knowledge Management/Information Management/Open Source Software

Articles/slide shares

User Centred Design for Web 2.0 and Beyond

Cory Banks – Knowledge Manager PB discusses the KM issues at PB
My first six months

James Robertson – Step Two Design - Collaboration is about people (not the one he gave at the conference, but I like it better as it is more people focussed). When the one from the conference is available I will add it to this document.

James Robertson writes 2-3 whitepapers a month on KM – these can be found at
Step Two

Karen Huffman – National Geographic – What’s all the buzz about social networking applications?

A discussion on web 3.0

BTnet – this will give you free access to many journal articles – I just found one on the difference between IM and KM.

Michael Sampson – we’re catching up

Michael Sampson – 7 pillars – I thought this was a good simple approach to working with distributed teams. This can be used to assess whether a product is going to do what you need it to do.

Max Weakly – gave a paper at Open publish 08 which I did not attend, when I can find it on slide share I will post it here – Web designer for the Australian Museum. Max also gave us the following quote “every tag is sacred” with apologies to Monty Python

Matt Moore – The truth about enterprise 2.0

Cool and useful sites to look at

Slideshare
Here you can share your slides, or get inspiration from others slides.

Step Two Design

Mindmeister – an online mid mapping tool
a place many people can collaborate at the same time

Shared Spaces – Michael Sampson’s site – has interesting articles that would be worth RSSing.

Icerocket
searches blogs, web, myspace, news, images

Summise
aggregates twitter tweets

Friendster
a social network site like Myspace or Facebook

Eric Schmidt - Founder of Google
responsible for making AJAX popular

Twine : Twine is a new service that helps you organize, share and discover information about your interests, with networks of like-minded people. You can use Twine alone, with friends, groups and communities, or even in your company.

Cool Tools
AJAX
first coined in 1998, made popular in 2005 by Google.

An fun explanation of code design by a rapper on Youtube (for all the techies)
Art is immortal

Useful things that I learnt

1. If you want to collaborate or effect change then your group needs to feel at least one of the following things before they will collaborate effectively or make the cultural or corporate change that you are looking for.
R = Responsible
A = Accountable
C = Consulted
I = Informed

2. Wiki’s will move into virtual intranets
3. Move to 720 degree feedback particularly for web producers (blogs, intra/inter net, online publishers etc) – that is 360 degree feedback from your work colleagues and 360 degree feedback from your online clients
4. QR coding (also known as Telstra Codes)
A company embeds a code in a poster on the wall and you point your mobile phone at it, you connect to the internet and you can then purchase what is being advertised on the poster – tickets, clothes whatever.
Here is a demo from Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDop0sqOR2E&feature=email
5. Within 5 years the majority of web usage world wide will be mobile – my interpretation of something Matt Moore talked of.
6. Information placed on the web will need to be device agnostic

Cool and Useful Blogs to watch

Technorati
This is a good place to start looking at what blogs are out there as it covers multitudes of blogs and enables the viewer to see what is happing in blog world.

Steve Rubel’s twitter site

Steve Rubel’s combined site – combines blog, twiter, flikr and friendfeed

Matt Moore - Engineers without fears blog. If you get a chance to hear this chap speak take it – he is excellent.

Beware there is more, only my brain hurts now...must lie down...arghhhh

Web 2.0

2008-08-14T11:02:00.000+10:00

Web 2.0 - this is why my head is so full - I am trying to get all this stuff inside it!

From: satyajeet_02, 1 year ago

Web 2.0

View SlideShare presentation (tags: satyajeet singh web2.0 web)

what you need to become web 2.0

SlideShare Link

Sydney

2008-08-14T07:43:00.001+10:00

I was in Sydney for an Open publish conference at the end of July. Apart from lots of time learning new things (my brain is definitely bursting at the moment) I did take some time out to do other things:

This is the view from the 63rd floor of a colleagues hotel room - the window is floor to ceiling and the window is on a part of the room that juts out from the rest of the room, which makes it look like you are able to fall off!

One evening I walked down George Street and caught the town hall in all its evening finery.

a little further on down George Street I found a familiar sight, kids corner at Kinokunia

and yes somehow a couple of Japanese books dolls leapt into my bag to come home with me

during the day I walked around World Square.

An interesting time was had on this little adventure.

Someone is hungry!

2008-08-13T07:21:00.000+10:00

Tuesday bloody Tuesday

2008-08-12T09:37:00.001+10:00

FAIRFAX NEWS LIMITEDTUESDAY, 12 AUGUST 2008

After running a thousand errands, working hours of overtime, and beingstuck in seemingly endless gridlock traffic commuting to and from theirjobs, millions of Australians were disheartened to learn that it was, infact, only Tuesday.

"Tuesday?" Canberra resident Doris Wagner said. "How in the hell is itstill Tuesday?"Tuesday's arrival stunned a nation still recovering from the nightmarishslog that was Monday, leaving some to wonder if the week was ever goingto end, and others to ask what was taking Saturday so damn long."Ugh," said Wagner, echoing a national sense of frustration over it noteven being Wednesday at the very least.

According to suddenly depressed sources, the feeling that this week mayin fact last forever was further compounded by the thought of all thework left to be done tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and, if Australians make it that far, possibly even Friday, for goodness sake. Fears that the week could actually be going backwards were alsoexpressed. "Not only do Australians have most of Tuesday morning to contend with,but all of Tuesday afternoon and then Tuesday night, " National LaborRelations Board spokesman David Prynn said. "If our calculations are correct, there is a chance we are in effect closer to last weekend than the one coming up."Added Prynn: "F**k."Reports that this all has to be some kind of sick joke could not beconfirmed as of press time.

Isolated attempts to make the day go faster, such as glancing at watchesor clocks every other minute, compulsively checking e-mail, hiding in the office bathroom, fidgeting, or reading a boring magazine while sitting in the waiting room, have also proven unsuccessful, sources report.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which oversees the official time of Australia, is flatly denying that it has slowed orotherwise tampered with Tuesday's progression. "The current Tuesday is keeping apace with past Tuesdays with no more than one ten-thousandth of a second's variation at the most, " NISTspokeswoman Dr. Geraldine Schach said. "However, I sympathise with the common consensus that this week has already been a colossal pain in the neck."Labor Secretary Elaine Chao released a statement addressing wide spread speculation that it might as well be Monday for all anyone cares."We understand this day has been tough on many of you, what with meetings mercilessly dragging on and an entire stack of files still left to organise," Chao's statement read in part. "Yet we urge Australians to show patience. The midweek hump is just around the corner, and we have strong reason to believe that Saturday will be here before you know it.""Go about your lives as best you can," the statement continued. "Do not, we repeat, do not take a sick day, as it'll make the rest of the week that much harder to endure."In the meantime, citizens are doing their best to cope with the interminable week, though Tuesday is still hours away from ending.

"The more I try to speed it along, the longer it almost seems to take,"said Dale Bouchard, a Sydney-based broker who has been waiting for today to be over since it first began earlier this morning. "Honestly, today could not have come at a worse time this week."In the meantime, the latest wristwatch consultations indicate that it issomehow still Tuesday, if that makes any sense at all.

Please note this is a pretend article that someone emailed me and I thought it described my Tuesdays (yes all of them) really well.
Mondo.

Guess where I am having coffee?

2008-08-07T07:10:00.000+10:00

Any chance of sponsorship?

August 6 celebrates

2008-08-06T08:26:00.004+10:00

today is:

Mum's birthday - have a great day!!!

Photo courtesy of TC

Parramatta Park celebrates 150 year anniversary in 2008
20th anniversary of the death of Andy Warhol - here is a short interview from 1974
63 years since the bombing of Hiroshima
1965 Beatles release "Help" album in UK

Cheers,

Mondo

Google Maps introduce Street View

2008-08-05T15:19:00.003+10:00

If you go to google maps, you can put in your address 123 something street, upper somewhere and it will return a map of the street, click on street view and it will give you a picture of your house. Most of Australia is done and most of the US and the UK - so go check out your house!!!

Check out this Youtube explanation from Google.

Coffee and Books

2008-08-04T21:29:00.001+10:00

MLR and I sharing time, books and coffee at Kinokunia Cafe

2008-08-03T21:23:00.002+10:00

For my printing and bibliophile friends - my dad put me on to this history of the Guttenberg Press by Stephen Fry.

This series of YouTube videos are of a BBC broadcast by Stephen Fry. The
piece is entitled "The Machine That Made Us" and chronicles a complete
recreation of the type, ink, paper and press that Gutenberg likely used to
print his famous 42 line Bible...a great historical piece and a fascinating
look at the whole process of early letterpress and its influence on the
world. Each part is approximately 10 minutes long..

Part 1/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwPvYZhe-yQ&NR=1

Part 2/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy1jVma9xX8&feature=related

Part 3/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDyuCqJCR1k&feature=related

Part 4/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1EtHIVeYUU&feature=related

Part 5/5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubSbVjO_FTg&feature=related

Enjoy!

I got nominated

2008-08-01T13:46:00.001+10:00

Well I was checking my flickr account today and found this message:

Hi Mondo,

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has been short-listed for inclusion in the fourth edition of our Schmap London Guide, to be published mid-January 2008.

www.schmap.com/shortlist/p=60958727N00/c=SF10011576

Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can:
i) See which of your photos has been short-listed.
ii) Submit or withdraw your photo from our final selection phase.
iii) Learn how we credit photos in our Schmap Guides.
iv) Browse online or download the second edition of our Schmap London Guide.

While we offer no payment for publication, many photographers are pleased to submit their photos, as Schmap Guides give their work recognition and wide exposure, and are free of charge to readers. Photos are published at a maximum width of 150 pixels, are clearly attributed, and link to high-resolution originals at Flickr.

Our submission deadline is Sunday, January 13. If you happen to be reading this message after this date, please still click on the link above (our Schmap Guides are updated frequently - photos submitted after this deadline will be considered for later releases).

Best regards,

Emma Williams,
Managing Editor, Schmap Guides

It has not been included, but it was nice to be nominated. You never know I might end up having the photo in a later release!

Adventures abroad

2008-07-30T08:33:00.003+10:00

Melbourne. I really love Melbourne.

I attended the KM Australia conference last week in rainy wintery conditions at the Melbourne Convention Centre. I stayed at the Medina Apartments as usual - very nice, reasonably priced and central. I really like apartments as you always have more room and more options to cater for yourself (not that I did that this trip).

View from the apartment window about 7am

The conference was good, I will talk about what I have learned in another post, however there were two highlights for me.

I caught up with Jo a friend from Uni days, who now lives in Lake Macquarie. We had a good chat and then went to dinner with her husband Peter who came to visit Melbourne.

The conference had a least 6 international speakers, which is too many in my opinion, and some were better than others. However one night we went out for dinner with three of the speakers, plus the convener and others from the Victorian KM Round Table group. We went to Longrain in Little Bourke Street. We had a banquet at the restaurant. The food was divine, many courses, even desert that I liked. I talked to Gene from Alberta, Canada who has a lot to say about social tagging - so much so that he has written a book on it. Jeff from New York, USA who gave a master class on web 2.0 on the last day and was an excellent teacher. I sat next to Thomas from Switzerland, who spoke excellent English and has nearly finished his PHD (September) then he plans to travel to the UK or the US for work - he specialises in social network analysis. He is torn between continuing to be an academic (more freedom to choose what he works on) and joining a research organisation (less choice about what he works on and when).

The theme for me recently has been learning learning and learning - which is great as I need this stimulation. With that in mind you might want to look at this blog that talks about how learning is changing Internet time

I really like this quote from the above blog - which explains why I like working where I do!!

Workers need to be able to assess new situations, learn in real time, and improvise solutions. That’s an entirely new learning agenda, for it means putting enough trust in workers to give them the wheel.

Half way through July

2008-07-19T08:54:00.002+10:00

Well July is challenge month for us Global Corporate Challenge walkers and I thought I should report our stats - although I am not sure that we are doing as well as we were in the begining. Also a quick look at where in the world I am now (no not Canberra).

My Steps on Friday =12,391
Sole Sistaz Team average steps = 11,021
My average steps = 10,572

this means that my average is increasing, but not really enough.

I am currently in Orebro in Sweeden, it is about 14 degrees - good for walking.
Orebro is a lovely little village that sits on the Swedish plains surrounded by vast forests. Surprisingly, for a village in central Sweden where temperatures can be 'less than tropical' the town has an open-air museum and Northern Europe's largest water fun park (competition may be a bit thin on the ground for this honour around these parts). However, the city park has been voted Sweden's most beautiful and considering how beautiful the rest of the country is, that's saying something.

Sweden is a country that sits somewhere between a capitalist country and a socialist state. The Swedes enjoy many tax funded benefits including; fully funded childcare, parental leave, a ceiling on health care costs, tax-funded education (all levels including university), retirement pensions and tax-funded dental care. Parents are also entitled to a total of 480 days partly paid leave between birth and a child's eighth birthday, with 60 days reserved specifically for each parent, in effect providing the father with two so-called "daddy-months.” On the other side of the coin Sweden is one of the highest taxed nations on earth (to pay for all the services) and is home to Ericsson, Electrolux, Husqvarna, IKEA, SAAB, Skandia, Tetra Pak and Volvo – companies who have often put the cap back into capitalism. So Sweden is beautiful, expensive, caring and known for quality companies...an interesting mix.

POPULATION
98,237

LOCAL DISHES
Meat-stuffed cabbage rolls, accompanied by cream and lingonberry preserves. Please note that you can get lingonberry preserves at IKEA in Sydney.

Now all I need is a translator - where is Sussie when I need her?

Sunday in Sydney

2008-07-18T23:03:00.009+10:00

On Saturday we went to Sydney to drop MLR off at Grandma and Grandpa’s – also known as G’ma and G’pa for a week as it is school holidays.

We had lunch at Bruno’s Truffles, a choclotier in Mawson, a suburb close by. We ran into someone I used to work in a library with, at Bruno's. Her children were with her in laws, there is a trend here. The food was delicious, however we prefer the Italian eatery next door. More about that some other time.

We hit the road and drove straight through to Sydney, getting to G’ma and G’pa’s in reasonable time. We had a lovely tea with honey bean beef and a spinach pie for the vegetarian.

On Sunday our family of four headed into the centre of Sydney – where World Youth Day/Week was already impacting on getting around. Traffic diversions and road closures made it more congested for some. We had no problems and easily parked in one of the multi storey car parks in Darling Harbour.

As we walked through to Darling Harbour we saw lots of pilgrims, some Nuns and other groups, some of them religious and some not.

More preparations for the expected influx

This is one of the statues at the entrance to the Chinese Gardens.

MLR in Darling Harbour, behind the fountain and with a snowman

Here is the Imax theatre with the black and yellow squares at Darling Harbour, I cannot work out what the other building in the foreground is? - I really like it because of the angles, however I could not find a name or company sign on the building.

We had lunch in Darling Harbour (this is an area of Sydney that has recently been rejuvenated and is now a great attraction for tourists and out of town people alike). The restaurant was called the Adria Ryebar and Grill, in Darling Harbour. It has a spectacular view over the harbour to a local hotel.

After lunch we caught the monorail to Paddy’s Market , which sells everything from clothes and toys to fruit and meat.

Here is the monorail approaching our stop. Across the streets of Sydney, suspended in the air.

Here is the monorail arriving at our station.
Once we had travelled across town on the monorail, we stomped towards Kinokuniya, a Japanese bookshop.

The store plan. Even though this store is only on one level, it is hard to work out where stuff is, and they have a surprising array of stuff that is not books or comics.

AJR loves this store because they have a lot of Manga and Anime – his favourite. This shop also stocks this sort of paperback cheaper than anything we can buy in Canberra. One of his all time favourite authors and film directors is Tim Burton who wrote the book that AJR is currently holding. AJR has been looking for this title for a long while.

After going to Kinokuniya, we walked on to the new Apple concept store – the first built in Australia.

The view from the road shows three levels of apple mania!! I was also pleased to see that the NAIDOC week flags were flying outside.

The latest iPhone was released last Friday and there is a lot of interest in everything Apple Mac. The first computer I used at work was an Apple, so I am a bit of a fan. The store in Sydney sells everything that Apple makes. Here are the kids testing out the Imac's.

Even though it was 4.45pm on a Sunday when we entered the store, there were serious crowds everywhere.

There were queues going out the front door, with people waiting to purchase or order iPhones. iPhones were released in Australia last Friday. People have been using iPhones in Australia for a while, but they were bought on the Internet and had to be hacked to work in Australia.

We started up the stairs to escape the crowds and find a little space – the stairs are glass and are a bit disconcerting.

AJR and MLR were able to find a table each and play Mac Games!!

MLR's Apple art

The store was well worth the visit, even though we did not buy anything there. As we left the Mac Store I became aware of the “Strand Arcade" and the “Centrepoint Tower”, which were across the road from the Mac Store and I could not resist these two pictures of the old and the new residing side by side.

Haigh's - now we do not need to go to either Adelaide (where Haigh's is based) or Melbourne to get my favourite chocolate.

After we finished in the City, we drove to a suburb near G'ma and G’pa, Sutherland and had Thai for tea. We arrived back at Heathcote at 8.30, where we watched Dr Who and chatted. It turned out that G’ma and G'pa had eaten in the Newtown branch of the same chain Thai restaurant for lunch.

On Monday we left MLR with her grandparents and set off home to Millie and work. I had Tuesday and Wednesday off and spent some quality time with AJR. We saw the animae movie of Batman together (except when I went to sleep) and we had a lovely Japanese lunch at Wagga mamma an Australian Japanese chain restaurant that we first ate at in London at Tower Bridge. Thursday I went to a one-day library conference and today I was back at work.

MLR comes home tomorrow with G’ma and G’pa and we are looking forward to a lovely tea. Sunday MLR has a birthday party to attend on the other side of town. I am off to Melbourne on Sunday evening for a few days of conferences, back on Wednesday evening for a work dinner to welcome the new board.

I really enjoyed my Sunday in Sydney.

Quatorze Juliet

2008-07-14T09:21:00.001+10:00

It should be noted that today is Quatorze Juliet, Bastille Day or July 14th - the French National Day - so I should really be in France not Ireland, however at least I am closer than usual by being in the northern hemisphere. This national day celebrates a time when the common people rose up against the monarchy to argue for a constitution - when discussions failed the people decided to storm the Bastille (a place where many prisoners had been held on the say so of the monarch without any right of appeal) on the 14th of July 1789, to demand a constitution.

On the 21 May 1880, Benjamin Raspail proposed a law to have "the Republic choose the 14 July as a yearly national holiday". The Assembly voted and approved, favouring 14 July against 4 August (honouring the end of the feudal system on 4 August 1789). The law was made official on 6 July 1880, and the Ministry of the Interior recommended to prefects that the day should be "celebrated with all the brilliance that the local resources allow". Indeed, the celebrations of the new holiday in 1880 were particularly magnificent.

Current day celebrations are held all over France, with the largest being in Paris on the Champs Elysee. The president used to give an interview to members of the press, discussing the situation of the country, recent events and projects for the future. Nicolas Sarkozy, elected president in 2007, has chosen not to give it. The President also holds a garden party at the Palais de l'Elysée.

Bastille Day falls during the Tour de France and is traditionally a day on which French riders try to take a stage victory for France, working harder than they might otherwise.

Article 17 of the Constitution of France gives the President the authority to pardon offenders, and since 1991 the President has pardoned many petty offenders (mainly traffic offences) on 14 July. In 2007, President Sarkozy declined to continue the practice.

Happy 8th birthday James.

Day 55

2008-07-14T08:35:00.002+10:00

You will be pleased to know that on day 55 of the Global Corporate Challenge I am now in Ireland. This is exciting for me as I have not been to Ireland since I was about 9. Currently we are in Ballinasloe in County Galway, located on the river Suck! The river Suck runs for nearly 80 kilometres and is the main tributary for the Shannon River.

The Ballinasloe Fair is one of the oldest horse fairs in Europe; bathed in history it dates back to the 1700's. Today the ever popular fair is still held, along with a festival that attracts up to 100,000 visitors from all over the world. The town also boasts a successful summer festival called An tSúca Fiain.

POPULATION: 6,614

LOCAL DISHES
Colcannon is a food made from mashed potatoes, kale or cabbage, butter, salt, and pepper. I can tell you that I have made this dish and I was not impressed with it - not sure if it is because I am not a big fan of cabbage or if it is that there are no onions and garlic.

WEATHER: is cloudy and 17 - perfect for walking. Monday I managed 10,094 steps. While this is low I am pleased with it as I was in a car or travelling for 4 hours.

Weekend Steps

2008-07-13T19:32:00.001+10:00

Steps at Heathcote

Steps for Saturday = 8355 - bit low as we were in the car for a large part of the day travelling.

Steps for Sunday = 14,140

Here are my current statistics:

Totals

Steps 564,096
Daily Average 10,643
Distance (KM's) 361
Daily Average 7

A poem by MLR

2008-07-12T10:44:00.001+10:00

Friday steps

2008-07-11T23:35:00.001+10:00

Steps = 10109

I am really pleased with this effort as I was not able to go for a walk today.

Update

2008-07-06T23:48:00.000+10:00

Global Corporate Challenge Statistics for the weekend

Saturday =17292
Sunday =8821

Ooops, must do better.

Coffee anyone

2008-07-05T10:23:00.007+10:00

PC and I walked to our favourite newsagent to invest in our retirement plans (lotto ticket) and then looked for somewhere for PC to have lunch - I had already eated my stuffed capsicum and had a cup of green tea, while watching the National Press Club presentation on the draft climate change review by Ross Garnaut.

We ended up at the round house, officially called Bible House in Garema Place, which once used to sell lots of Christian "stuff". I came here last week with DT for lunch, as I wanted to eat somewhere different from Cafe Essen.

As I have mentioned elsewhere the weather in Canberra is cold, and today it is unusually overcast and grey (no rain of course). We wanted to eat indoors - only the foolhardy and smokers sit outside at this time of year. Bible House is now a cafe called Bardeli's, with second hand books around the wall that you can purchase, to go with your coffee and food. The food is cheap and basic, but good. PC had a ham, cheese and tomato toastie with tea and I had a capuccino.

The waiters and waitresses appear to be learning their trade, so we wonder if it might be training place for either Christians or new immigrants.
Mondo.

Challenge for this week....

2008-07-04T08:38:00.002+10:00

I have decided that I need to have more than 10,000 steps each day from Thursday through to next wednesday.

Thursday's steps = 10,067

Phew just made it!

Ice ice baby

2008-07-03T20:02:00.005+10:00

As I left the house today at a very respectable 10.25 am (due to the fact that I was taking MLR to the doctors) I found this on my car!

Now do you believe that it is cold?

You will be pleased to know that MLR is ok - she has antibiotics and she has returned to school for party food and a disco (guess it is the second last day before the holidays).

Hello Winter

2008-07-02T20:10:00.004+10:00

Yes is seems that winter has really arrived in this neck of the woods - the wind chill factor is about -2 at the moment, so while the sun shines and the sky is bright blue, the wind just goes straight through most of my clothes, leaving me feeling just slightly warmer than a frozen icicle.

Today's steps = 14,237
Rode the bike for 5k

Today on my GCC travels I am in Milwaukee, the weather here is cooler than we have had for a while, they are predicting mid 20's tomorrow, so I am pretty happy. Whenever I think of Milwaukee I always think of Laverne and Shirley. At the start of each episode, Laverne and Shirley are seen skipping down the street, arm in arm, reciting a popular Yiddish chant: "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight! Schlemiel! Schlimazel! Hasenpfeffer Incorporated!" I am sure I have read somewhere that Penny Marshall (Laverne) sang this song as a child and suggested it for the opening credits. The show was a spin off from Happy Days.

Back to the present day Milwaukee.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin has two very big claims to fame. Firstly, it is known as a beer town. At one stage in its history, it was the largest beer-producing city in the world. Today it is still home to America's second largest beer producer - Miller.

Secondly Milwaukee is home to an icon that makes many drool, tremble or run for their lives (sometimes all three at once) – The Harley Davidson Motor Company. Harley's first bike was made in 1901 and they have always produced big, loud bikes with attitude. Which is probably why bike gangs love them so much (notably the Hell's Angels). It was Hollywood in the 50s, 60s and 70s who chose to make Harley's the bikes for bad guys and rebels (The Wild One, Easy Rider). This silver screen image attracted the bad boys to the brand and became a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can take a walk through the Harley Museum and pick yourself up a belt buckle, after all 5% of the company's revenue comes from licensing of merchandise of the image not the selling of bikes. I hope to visit the museum while I am here.

Sad farewell

2008-07-01T07:12:00.006+10:00

On Monday we farwelled five out of the seven staff in the Knowledge for Natural Resource Management team that I work in (commonly known as the K4NRM team). We went to a local cafe for a morning tea/finish up meeting.

Now it seems there are just piles of files on my desk and a huge workload!!!

Back to the Sole Sistaz efforts and in particular my stats. This is my end of financial year report:

Currently I am in Orem (I was in Salt Lake City yesterday), so in full mormon territory - one of Orem's claims to fame is that Marie Osmond lives here!

Mondo's stats;

Walked 411, 593 steps.
Daily average 10,290 steps
Distance 263 km
Daily average 7 km

In Land and Water Australia (LWA) Sole Sistaz Global Corporate Challenge (GCC) Team are leading the way with an average of just over 100 steps over the second placed LWA GCC team Hamba Mandla.
**Note to self, stop using acronyms and stop using the word "now".

Las Vegas

2008-06-30T06:55:00.004+10:00

Steps for Sunday were 8, 151 - a bit disappointing to be honest.

Monday is day 40 of the GCC walk and it started with a walk for Millie. Steps to the top of the street and back = 5253 and the walk took about 55 minutes.

More about Las Vegas. The name means "meadows" in Spanish as the town is an oasis in the Nevada dessert.

Population = 478,434

Yes, it is true, there is a drive through wedding chapel in Las Vegas. The Tunnel of Love Drive-Through Wedding Chapel was originally created to make it easier for individuals who have difficulty walking to get married but the idea took off as a novelty way to tie the knot. If you do here's hoping you have better success than the locals - Las Vegas has the highest percentage of divorced residents and the highest rate of suicides in the US.

There are more than 35 wedding chapels. In the first five months of 1995, there were 44,104 wedding licenses issued including 158 in Laughlin. In 1994, 99,310 wedding licenses were issued in the Las Vegas area, with 79 in Laughlin. $35 license fee; Marriage License Bureau hours are 8 a.m. (0800) to midnight (2400) Monday through Thursday; 8 a.m. (0800) Friday to midnight (2400) Sunday; 24 hours all legal holidays in Nevada. On Valentine's Day weekend in 1994, 2,353 marriage licenses were issued. A license can be purchased in Laughlin 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Justice Court Clerk's office in the Regional Government Center, 101 Civic Way.

Some of the local attractions that I could try while here are listed below - however my next destination is the Grand Canyon. Sad as it is I can remember when the Brady Bunch went to the Grand Canyon! This went to air in the US in September 1971, later in Aus. If you are excited by the connection (loose though it may be) there is an Encyclopaedia Brady.

MT. CHARLESTON -- 35 miles (56 km.) from Las Vegas, highest elevation 11,918 feet (3,615 meters), winter skiing, picnicking, hiking, horseback riding, tours available.
BONNIE SPRINGS OLD NEVADA -- An old western town in Red Rock Canyon 16 miles west of Las Vegas with a motel, shops, activities and western shootouts.

DEATH VALLEY -- 135 miles (216 km.) from Las Vegas, 40 minutes by plane, lowest elevation on North American Continent at 280 feet below sea level (84.93 meters), Zabiske Point, 20 Mule Canyon, Scotty's Castle, tours available.

ETHEL M CHOCOLATE FACTORY -- Self-guided tours available for factory and outside botanical garden and cactus display.

GRAND CANYON -- About 300 miles (480 km.) from Las Vegas, 1 1/2 hour flight by plane, tours available.

LAKE MEAD NATIONAL RECREATION AREA -- Closest point 25 miles (40 km.) from Las Vegas, more than 550 miles (880 km.) of shoreline, swimming, water skiing, camping, boating, fishing, six marinas, tours available.

HOOVER DAM -- 34 miles (54.4 km.) from Las Vegas, 726 feet high (220.00 meters) from bedrock, wonder of the modern world, tours of inside and outside of dam available; in July 1994, the 30 millionth visitor toured the dam since it opened. Visitors touring the dam totaled 279,205 in the first five months of 1995 and 712,130 in 1994. Black Canyon River Raft Tours available below dam.

RED ROCK CANYON -- 15 miles (24 km.) west of Las Vegas, 3,000- foot (910 meters) escarpment produced by thrust fault, Bureau of Land Management visitors center, scenic area of rock formations and desert.

VALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK -- 55 miles (88 km.) from Las Vegas, scenic landscapes of hidden canyons and unique rock formations, petroglyphs and remains of ancient Indian civilization, Nevada Park Service visitors center, tours available.

BIRTHDAY -- The city of Las Vegas celebrated its 100th birthday on May 15, 2005. The events celebrated the May 15, 1905 auction in which 110 acres of downtown Las Vegas laid the foundation for the city we know today. The celebration began on December 31, 2004, and lasted throughout 2005.

Gotta stop now, slice still to make - stats from Sole Sistaz tomorrow.

A quiet Sunday

2008-06-29T18:11:00.003+10:00

Mondo having coffee on a winters morning

Today has been much less "busy" than yesterday. Washing, cooking, shopping and cleaning have been the main activities.

Had lunch at Hogs Breath cafe in Woden.

Dinner is: Ratatouille (rat stew as I called it as a child) and scallops with a sauce that was invented by the chef(s) at Tetsuya's in Sydney. The scallops are JR's signature dish.

Will be making something for morning tea tomorrow to farewell colleagues. Thinking of making a slice, but really having trouble finding the energy.

Saturday activities

2008-06-28T20:03:00.003+10:00

Today I managed 15, 136 steps - not my record but a good effort.

I walked in Tidbinbilla National Park with two other Sole Sistaz. The first walk we did was the Birrigai Rocks walk, from the car park at the entrance.

This is the view back to the carpark and entrance from Birrigai rock shelter

The walk took us just on one hour and we enjoyed the sights of numerous kangaroos and the odd emu.

The walk is uphill and back, which is good for me - made me puff and sweat. There are lots of rocky outcrops in the park too.

Birrigai Aboriginal Shelter is one of the most significant Aboriginal locations in the area. The shelter is the oldest Aboriginal site known in the ACT region and is about 21, 000 years old.

Birrigai Rock Shelter

The second walk was supposed to be the Peppermint trail - a little shorter than the Birrigai walk, but interesting. However we got lost and ended up at the Sanctuary. This is a wonderful 30 hectares of wetland that is enclosed to protect the animals from foxes and other predators. It includes the vet hospital for the park, as well as great opportunities to see close up views of birds and lizards. The track is hard top and is therefore ideal for wheelchairs and prams.

In the afternoon I took both kids and Millie to a new dog park in Forde - about 30k on the other side of town. CJK and her kids and dogs joined in and kids dogs and adults all had a wonderful romp. The park has equipment for training dogs to jump and weave and so on. Millie was in heaven, and so were the kids as they liked the equipment just as much as the dogs (if not better).

Update on Walking stats

2008-06-27T21:25:00.004+10:00

I am currently in Los Vegas and it is about 36 degrees - way too hot for walking!!! However as I don't gamble and don't want to renew my wedding vows (on account of how JR's not here) I suspect I had better walk.

Today I have walked 12,794 steps. I started the day walking to town from work and sharing a coffee with Kathy. We then went shopping for our afternoon tea farewell - 5 out of 7 of the team finish up on Monday, my boss and I continue on - me for three months and then we will see. We then walked back to work. I carried the three bottles of champagne, so I figure I have done my weight lifting for the day as well.

Tomorrow I am off to the local national park to walk for a couple of hours with the Sole Sistaz. I will give you an update of all the stats as well as my thoughts on Los Vegas tomorrow. Perhaps I should look up the parents of my friend in Adelaide, they live in LV somewhere?

Happy walking.

Mondo.

Paddington Bear turns 50

2008-06-27T20:59:00.005+10:00

I have fond memories of a childhood far away in time and space (in England, in the 1960's) awaiting the next Puffin edition of the "Paddington Bear" book for a Christmas or birthday present. In those days they did not sell the endless paraphernalia that now seems obligatory to provide with the latest Ben Ten or Pikachou story, it was just the book, exciting in its own right. Of course now in the noughties we can purchase a myriad of Paddington items apart from the book. The first of the comercialisation of Paddington was in 1965 when Paddington appeared on the BBC radio show "Childrens Hour". On the 25th of June this year Paddington turned 50. If you are interested in Paddington Bear then check this out. Paddington is actually based on a real bear that lives in Peru (darkest or otherwise), known as a spectacled bear. David Attnborough had a show on these bears (as well as many others) last Monday night.

Paddington Bear was brought to life by author Michael Bond, but it was none other that Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson’s mother, Shirley, who would bring fame and fortune to the polite immigrant bear from Darkest Peru.

Shirley, 73, made her name as the founder of Gabrielle Designs, a tiny spare room business that started by selling tea cosies in Doncaster and grew into an international business shipping Paddington Bears all over the world.

What initially began with Shirley creating teddies (from the illustrations by Peggy Fortnum) for her children soon escalated into a million pound business. However, things didn’t always run smoothly for Shirley and husband Eddie.

Without being credited as the creator of Paddington, there was the small issue of copyright infringement. However, this which was easily resolved in a meeting with Michael Bond himself, as Shirley reveals: "Michael opened the proceedings by saying that he wanted to make it clear that he had no intention of stopping us making Paddington; it was indeed the finest bear he had ever seen, he loved the whole concept.”

Mondo

Cook from the Cupboard - Week 3

2008-06-26T18:28:00.001+10:00

From the cupboard:

vegeta vegetable stock (replaced)
last can tomatoes
last red onion (will replace)
another can of chickpeas
last of the basmati rice (will replace)
finished pkt of walnuts and pkt of pecans

From the fridge:

Finished satay sauce
fennel
baby spinach
philly cheese (still have another pkt)
baby bok choy
asparagus

From the freezer:

green beans (still plenty left)
chicken nuggets
light lemon fish

A walking joke

2008-06-25T18:13:00.000+10:00

You have to stay in shape. My grandmother started walking five miles a day when she was sixty. She's ninety seven today and we don't know where she is.

I should be far away now. I am currently in Santa Clara in Cuba. I will of course leave JR's phone GPS at home. Current temperature is 27C - still too hot for comfortable walking.

LOCAL DISHES: Typical Cuban main dishes are Arroz con Pollo (yellow-saffron rice with chicken), Carne con Papas (meat and potatoes), and Arroz con Bistec y Papas Fritas (white rice with beef steak and French fries). So, would you like Papas Fritas with that?

TRAVEL TIP: It is illegal to bring a GPS into Cuba with you so if you have one in your phone or a portable navigation device leave it behind. By the way, you also aren't allowed to bring in freezers, air conditioners, electric kitchens and furnaces, electric ovens, electric fryers, electric water heaters or toasters. It seems the Cubans are terrified you will overrun the country one kitchen at a time.

Today Cuba is finding its way back into the fold with a relaxing of communist principles, the discovery of oil and the increase in tourism and walking here is worry free and as you are in one of the safest, best-policed countries on earth.

For more information about Cuba click here:

Self Portrait - AJR

2008-06-24T16:21:00.004+10:00

I love it

Another day another walk

2008-06-20T07:39:00.003+10:00

Thursdays steps =9,484

Tact and diplomacy

2008-06-19T21:02:00.001+10:00

'fraid I don't have this problem

chorizo and chickpea or Thai Basil

2008-06-19T20:35:00.003+10:00

Well what a conundrum home cooking or restaurant food. This was what I was presented with on arriving home tonight - easily solved by going to Thai Basil. While the review here suggests that there is Italian in this restaurant, I have yet see any Italian (although I am sure that Italians eat here), I have not seen any pasta, pizza or rissotto in here. It is rated at 9.3 by reviewers and I think that is fair enough.

Menu for tonight for us:

Mixed entree for me and him, as well as Beef Larb and steamed rice,
Mixed entree and entree satay chicken for MLR
Vegetarian spring rolls and vegetarian Masuman curry for AJR

행복한 먹기
(Happy eating in Korean on account of how babelfish does not do Thai translations)
Mondo

Camminare

2008-06-19T07:02:00.002+10:00

Odierni punti = 14,414

Ciao
Mondo

Worrying trend

2008-06-18T10:40:00.002+10:00

Hi Everyone,

I read this article today, as a friend emailed it to me - it made me think. It is important to maintain the art of reading. Or am I showing signs of old age?

Mondo

Walking Walking Walking

2008-06-18T06:30:00.006+10:00

Yesterday I was in Port- au-Prince;

After the delights of the Caribbean islands that, although not without some issues, are relatively stable Port-au-Prince is a madhouse of poverty, crime and desperation (you never got to see this on The Love Boat – Episode 36 Captain Stubbing gets into a knife fight). So bad is the situation that the UN deployed troops here in 2004 after a military coup forced the president to flee. As far as walking goes, let’s rest up a bit here - gang massacres, kidnapping, shooting on the streets and large areas of slum neighbourhoods make a pretty compelling argument to stay indoors. The reason – 80% of the population live under the poverty line and 54% are in abject poverty. HIV AIDS infects and kills at incredibly high rates while deforestation from farming is leaving the surrounding region prone to floods and mudslides.

Today things have impoved (no doubt due to strenuous amounts of walking) and I am now in Hinche (nothing to do with Derryne), still in Haiti, but a much safer place to be. The temperature is 29, so it is a bit hot for me.

The local dish sounds interesting:
Rice and Beans… boring? Well not the way the locals make it, cup fresh parsley, 2 green onions chopped, 2 cloves garlic minced, pinch of thyme, tbsp salt, 2 tbsp oil, 1 cup rice, 2 cups cooked beans, 1 cups vegetable broth, 1 cup water. Using a mortar and pestle, mash the parsley, onions, garlic, thyme and salt into a thick paste. Heat this paste and the oil in a large pot, then add the rice. Stir to coat the rice with the oil, then add the broth, water and beans. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover, cooking until the water has been absorbed. Stir and serve hot. Anyone interested in dinner?

Language: French (official), Creole (official).

This map shows both Port-au-Prince and Hinche

Travel advice:
Malaria, dengue fever and filariasis are all transmitted by mosquitoes and all are common in Haiti throughout the year. Filariasis is a parasitic infectious tropical disease that (rather disturbingly) can find its way into your lymphatic system and cause Elephantiasis (no it doesn't give you a good memory it thickens the skin and underlying tissues in an "I am not an animal" sort of way. Nasty so keep covered, and wear insect repellent at all times.

Some background to Haiti:
Haiti has a historical past that is easy to read or hear but incredible in its courage and importance to grasp. Haiti was the world’s first independent black republic and the only nation to ever successfully form from a slave rebellion. In 1790 the black slaves owned by the French heard about the French Revolution and thought “Ha! Now why didn’t we think of that? Get the boys together we’re going to end this slave business right here, right now... Pete you still got that knife of yours?” (Historical note: I can’t confirm if this is exactly what was said verbatim). By November 1803 the French were defeated, despite Napoleon sending another invasion force, and independence was claimed. Yes, ongoing violence has made Haiti poor and underdeveloped and yes we need to be careful here, but the spirit, the food, the music and the incredible art, particularly painting, really is something to behold.

For more information on Hinche

Today's step count = 12,290

Coffee on Monday

2008-06-17T06:22:00.001+10:00

Steps for Monday = 9,296

Fuelled by this coffee from My Cafe

Photo finish to the weekend

2008-06-16T07:34:00.004+10:00

Steps for Saturday = 8,425
Steps for Sunday = 9,531

By far the best thing about the weekend is that I finally have a new camera - thanks to all those who gave advice.

I have a Canon IXUS 950 IS

I have photographed last nights dinner

Mondo

Wake up call

2008-06-14T18:02:00.001+10:00

On the up

2008-06-14T08:55:00.001+10:00

OK so the steps are still not great, but they are going in the right direction - so steps for Friday the 13th were 6,223.

Cook from the Cupboard - Week 1 and 2

2008-06-14T08:29:00.002+10:00

My aim with this cook from the cupboard challenge is to reduce the number of packaged/non used food items that seem to have accumulated in the various places around the kitchen, reduce the number of packaged foods that I buy and encourage us all to use what we have. This will make it easier to know what is needed and how much or little to buy.

Due to technical difficulties (read there is too much going on), this report covers week one and two. I will try to report on this weekly from now on.

Things eaten from the cupboard:

Spices - not so much eaten as thrown out - anything that was out of date (how does that creep up to quickly) - approximately 12 vials of herbs and spices out the door.
Three of the four cans of tomatos
Two out of three cans of chickpeas
Finished pine nuts
Finished crunchy nut cereal
Used but did not finish oats, golden syrup and rice bubbles (made a slice and some anzac biscuits)
300g white chocolate in a white brownie mix
Finished dried cranberries in the above brownie mix

Things eaten from the fridge:

Butter and copha - some odds and ends of butter and some elderly copha (who knows when they were out of date) again not eaten but thrown out of the butter keeper.
Several packages of cheese that were not edible were also disposed of, including some bococcini which I bought from the deli (its cheaper) had not got round to eating and found it had gone horrible (its a technical term), not a great saving in the end as had I bought my usual stuff (more expensive) it would have been happily sitting in brine and very usable.
Finished off the parmesan in a frittata along with the cream and the last three eggs - have replaced eggs and I still have block parmesan.
Used but did not finish the ghee.
Finished the bacon
Two fresh tomatos
Three fresh carrots
One and half bunches of corriander
Milk - replaced

Things eaten from the freezer:

Finished the frozen pies and sausage rolls
Finished the spinach and cheese triangles
Used a parcel of mince in a spag bol

Paraiso, Dominican Republic

2008-06-13T06:26:00.007+10:00

We are now in location 28 of our odyssey across the world and we have arrived in Paraiso, a fishing village in the Dominican Republic. The town of Paraiso has on either side the small towns of San Rafael and Los Patos, two of the most touristy places in the Dominican Republic. "Paraíso" in Spanish means Paradise.

Local food: Ti malice (hot sauce) is made using hot pepper, onion & green onions, garlic, lime juice and olive oil. Sounds delish, I must try some.

Travel tip: Check your travel insurance. Doctors and hospitals will require up-front cash payment before commencing treatment (so don't fall into a coma before you or someone else pays them). In the event of a serious illness or accident, medical evacuation (usually to Miami) would be required, costing in excess of $US 20,000. Reminder to self to check health insurance and try not to get sick regardless.

SS Steps

2008-06-12T23:03:00.000+10:00

Work means walking I have decided as today I was able to do 6,033 - not good but going in the right direction.

Raffles Steps courtesy of our trip in 2006

Will do better tomorrow.

Home today

2008-06-11T23:32:00.003+10:00

I have been home on Tuesday and Wednesday looking after MLR who has a cold and a cough - hence the walking has not been great.

Steps = 2734

Will have to go to work for the first time this week on Thursday - two day week is my sort of week.

Made Rice Bubble slice and Anzac biscuits (cooking out of the cupboard report soon)

Mondo

San Juan Day 21 GCC

2008-06-11T07:55:00.004+10:00

Today I am in San Juan, Peurto Rico and is a hot and humid 29 degrees. Location 26 in our walk across the world. Founded in 1521 makes it the second oldest city in the Americas and the oldest under a US flag so it prefers to eat shortbread and fall asleep in front of the television. San Juan is called 'La Ciudad Amurallada' – 'The Walled City'. During the early 16th century, San Juan was the point of departure for Spanish expeditions to charter or settle unknown parts of the New World. Its fortifications repulsed the English navigator Sir Francis Drake in 1595 (meaning it kept him out, not made him feel sick because of any sort of decorating clash of colours on the walls).

Puerto Rican culture is a mix of four cultures, African (from slaves), Taíno (Amerindians), Spanish (from... well, Spain actually), and more recently, North American (as you may have guessed... from the northern part of the Americas). This mix makes a culture that is all at once athletic, traditional, excitable and keen to make a buck.

Food: Asopao – Arguably Puerto Rico's most widely loved native dish, this hearty rice gumbo is made with chicken or shellfish. Every Puerto Rican family cherishes its own recipe for this classic comfort food.

Population: 343,374.
Photograph by Phil of Ottawa from Flickr

Catherine Tate and David Tennant

2008-06-10T21:38:00.001+10:00

I am not the biggest Catherine Tate fan, but this clip is sooo funny. If you click on the title of this, you will see a classroom scene with Catherine Tate and David Tennant.

We have been quoting bits of this all weekend. Quotes are taking over from the usual Little Britain quotes in this house.

Of course Catherine Tate is going to turn up soon in the latest series of Dr Who!!!

Cover courtesy of Kat Clarke from Flickr

Queens Birthday Long Weekend Day 3

2008-06-10T08:11:00.002+10:00

After all the efforts this week, between walking and cooking and cleaning I decided that Monday was the day to do nothing. Caught up on my taped tv shows, bought shoes for MLR as she was out at the toes and the heels were gone.

JAW visited with a choice article on camera's, so hopefully soon I will have a new camera. Dinner at Little Instanbul.

Steps today <2000

Bombay Movin' and Shakin'

2008-06-09T08:03:00.000+10:00

Steps for Sunday a disappointing 8,991. The main reason I was disappointed was I was on my feet all day in the kitchen, making four different curries, plus rice etc and I felt exhausted. Steps are not the only indicator of activity.

BTW the curries were all nice, a potato, chickpea, chicken and a beef. MR, CR, JR and I had a good time - JR put together some Indian music (mostly George Harrison stuff), we also burned some Indian incense. I am ready to do it all again.

Cunningham Muffins

2008-06-08T08:29:00.004+10:00

Andrew found this on Youtube and I think it is funny!

Queens Birthday Long Weekend Day 1

2008-06-08T08:11:00.004+10:00

Steps for Saturday 7,378
JR played golf and got over 15,000 steps - maybe I should take up golf, wait who would look after the children, maybe not!

AJR cleaned up his bedroom and it looks great - his three best friends came over for a couple of hours in the middle of the day, they all dressed up and made gooses of themselves - which was extremely funny, wish I had a camera! Then they all went to another friends house for another couple of hours.

MLR, her friend Micky and I went to Kid City in Mitchell, down the new GDE (Gungahlin Drive Extension) which means it only takes twenty five minutes and there are almost no traffic lights. This road was opened in late April after over a year of traffic disruptions and difficulties, particularly at the Glenloch Interchange. The new road was described by the media as Canberra's first LA style flyover road. Not sure why we were not compared to the ones in Sydney (LA sounds much more exciting I suspect). We met up with my friend CJK and her kids. Later we went to their new house in a new suburb called Forde, named after a Prime Minister not a car. After a tour and a long discussion about hot water heaters we travelled home watching the fireworks in other people's backyards.

Siparia, Trinidad and Tobago

2008-06-07T07:02:00.003+10:00

I have now walked to Siparia. Also called the Sand City. This is location 16 in my walk across the world.

Siparia is best known for its annual Easter Sunday pilgimage when hundreds of Hindus, Muslims, Roman Catholics, and other Christian groups gather at the Siparia La Divina Pastora Church to pay homage to Siparee Mai Ke Mala, the statue of La Divina Pastora. The statue, known as Siparee Mai by the Hindus, is believed to be a manifestation of Mother Kali the Hindu Goddess of destruction. Hindus believe that long ago Siparee Mai appeared at the La Divina Church, as a baby, to grant the wishes of East Indian forefathers who were subdued by the colonial regime. Believers say the baby, who appeared close to the altar, aged as the hours of the day trickled by. By evening, she turned into an old woman and disappeared as the sun went down. It is believed the statue bestows fertility to barren women, marital success to couples, healing to the sick, proper husbands for young girls, and blessings to the poor and needy. Children who are unable to walk or speak could be healed if offerings are made to the Goddess.

Population is 49,394
Official language is English, also speak Caribbean Hindi, French, Spanish and Chinese

The local dish is Buljol: Salted codfish shredded and seasoned with peppers, onions, tomatoes, and olive oil, often served in a coconut bake. Not sure I am going to try this dish, depends how much salt is in it.

This Sole Sista Rocks

2008-06-06T23:35:00.004+10:00

Nothing like a bit of self promotion, however I have to report that I walked 17,276 steps today - a PB for this challenge. I walked Millie in the morning (could that be a song?) and went a different way off Monash Hill, ended up taking the long way home, so I had completed just on 6,000 steps by breakfast.

At lunch K and I walked all over Civic checking out restaurants suitable for a work lunch. In couple of weeks we have a steering committee meeting for the team and we decided it would be nice to have a meal to wrap up the meeting. We walked for over 45 minutes and K sets a good pace (faster than my normal speed, but probably slower than K's normal speed). Once home I went shopping - that would be more walking!!!

Now to give you some more stats - you know you can't get enough! These are current up to and including Thursday.

Number of steps I have taken 177307
Daily Average 11082
Number of kilometers I have walked 113 (I can feel every one of them)
Daily Average 7 kilometers

Photograph courtesy of Moriza (Creative Commons, Flikr)

Ainslie on Tuesday

2008-06-05T12:32:00.005+10:00

I was asked what I had for lunch after the long walk to the Ainslie shops on Tuesday. We (the Sole Sistaz) dined at Edgars Inn (named after the street it is on). Christine and I shared a vegetarian foccacia with a side salad and no chips - I had a lemon lime and bitters and Christine had a coffee. We had a good turn out for this trip with 6 of the 7 Sole Sistaz making the journey, the missing member of the team had a good excuse, she was on a plane. The team had chicken burgers (x2), fish and chips and octopus salad. The chicken burgers had too much chicken and sauce in them and the fish looked ginormous!

Christine and I had just the right amount of food to fuel us for the hike back to the ~~grindstone~~work place.

There is a different special each day for the dinner menu - Thursdays special diner menu is vegetarian

Global Corporate Challenge day 14

2008-06-04T23:42:00.003+10:00

Steps for today 6,544 - better than nothing I guess!

Today's travels

2008-06-04T20:00:00.002+10:00

Tonight finds me in Ahuas.
Here is a little information about where I am, although I have no hotel advice, so I am possibly sleeping one of the locals canoes.

Population 368.

Check your shoes before you put them on. Not for wear and tear or any sort of comfort factor – make sure there are no jungle spiders or snakes snoozing in them.

The local dish is fish sandwiches, boring but nice.

A short canoe trip takes you into Tawahkas' jungle and amongst all the rainforest animals you would ever want to see (and perhaps more). You will see creatures like monkeys, macaws, tapirs and peccaries. Of course, once you have seen all the cute and amazing animals, there is every chance you'll get to eat one. Tawahkas eat all three species of Honduran monkey - the spider, the white-faced and the howler. This ability to hunt and cook monkeys is shared by Amazonian rain forest indians with whom the Tawahkas share many other similarities.

Until tomorrow,
Mondo.

Step update day 13

2008-06-03T17:47:00.002+10:00

Having walked to Ainslie for lunch and back, walked the dog in the rain before breakfast and having tried to be a bit more active I managed to clock up 15,404 steps today.

On my travels I am currently in Puerto Lempira in Hondourus - a small place (population 4,856) that is very poor. Hotel advice for this area is to choose a hotel with cinder blocks rather than wooden structures as it keeps the rats out better, also need to check if the hotel has electricity for more than the standard four hours from 5-9pm!

More stats for your edification!

Sole Sistaz team are currently 797 out of 7051 teams, and leading the LWA teams (there are 5)

There are 1049 companies competing in this years events

There are 49357 people competing

Step up for tomorrow,
Mondo

Bridgetown Conference Update

2008-06-03T16:43:00.003+10:00

My life is full of updates at the moment: In late March I travelled to Bridgetown in Western Australia to attend the WA Natural Resource Management Conference.

The report from the conference in Bridgetown has two pictures of me! Just a hint they are on pages 3 and 4.

That is my 15 minutes of fame dealt with.

Step update

2008-06-02T21:36:00.003+10:00

Today not a good day for steps - due to over indulgence in steps on the weekend (is that possible?) combined with hayfever induced by the huge intake of dust since Friday. Anyway tonights total is a meagre 6, 524.

Tomorrow will be better as I will walk the dog, not something I could contemplate today after all the activity over the weekend.

June Challenge

2008-06-02T07:16:00.007+10:00

For those of you following yesterday's story, I will report weekly on what I have sorted from what remains of the "stuff" in the garage.

Having been inspired by the feeling of accomplishment from finding the garage floor, I thought I need to continue the challenge. For the whole of June I am going to try to "cook from the cupboard" - that is I will only buy things that are not processed so that I am reducing the amount of food I seem to hoard in the cupboard. The guidelines for this are -

Allowed to buy fresh fruit, veg, bread and meat, milk, margarine, toilet paper and tampons when current stocks run out.
Not allowed to buy processed or convenience foods or convenience groceries (have to buy bread as there is no chance of me making it daily or even weekly).
Each non-food purchase will be evaluated in terms of need versus want as well as environmental effect.
I can still go out, just not indulge in convenience foods. So I can go to the movies but must take my own drink with me, for example.

The biggest challenge is going to be the snacks for the kids lunch boxes - no more instant snacks, so that is going to be tricky. I will need to do a lot of baking on the weekends and even during the week to make this work.

Also not sure how I will manage for wine. Is it cheating if I ask JR to buy it?

Also addicted to pasta, so not sure if we will survive without pasta in June (we only have three packets of pasta in the cupboard) - we will see.

I will report regularly about how I am managing this. Hang on to your hats it is going to be an interesting ride.

If you click on the link in the title you will see that I have "borrowed" this idea from Taph, thanks Taph.

Cheers,
Mondo

A poem

2008-06-01T05:41:00.003+10:00

without walking the dog got 14, 499 steps today

by working at cleaning up in the garage

lots of dust, sweat, sky a bit grey

out goes the rubbish, in goes one carriage

7 x 130 litre boxes of toys

3 x 130 litre boxes of paintings

lots of found memories, lots of little joys

3 cubic metres of stuff to the dump

much space in the garage in which to jump

both the skip and trash pack are full to the brim

there is still more to sort, more boxes to trim

but there is space in the garage for both storage and cars

for our next activity the mission is mars

Cleaning up

2008-05-31T09:30:00.001+10:00

Steps today = 14,419 - woohoo

Filling up the skip is easier than expected!

All my bits ache!

Dinner at Bronwyn and Andy's - yum

TGIF

2008-05-30T07:11:00.001+10:00

Finally Friday - it has been a long week!

Steps for today 10, 780 - so definitely better than yesterday.

Thai take away for tea - yum.

Thursday

2008-05-29T05:52:00.002+10:00

Bad day for walking today as I am tired and unmotivated! Just over 7,000 steps for the day, so will do better tomorrow by walking the dog - it also makes her day too. Sole Sistaz are leading the step race at LWA!!!

The restaurant on Tuesday night was Gurkas in Lygon Street.

It is Nepalese and the food is Indian in style without the heat. If you get to Melbourne then it is worth trying it. We tried goat, there was a chick pea dish that was delish. If you check the link we had the Tenzing Special banquet. Everything on it was lovely, and the company was excellent (would have been better if JR was there, but you cannot have everything). It was more than enough food, there was also plenty of red and white wine.

Cordelia and Organ Donation

2008-05-28T19:08:00.002+10:00

Here is the daughter of a friend of mine - she is just over one year old and desperately needs a liver transplant. Think of signing up for organ donation next time you renew your drivers licence or visit a medicare office!!!

Meet Cordelia here and here.

Travel

2008-05-27T14:28:00.004+10:00

Yesterday I climbed into a gleaming white ute and was driven to ~~drink~~ Yass. I went to visit the Murrumbidgee CMA to talk about information management - always happy to talk to people and to travel to places far and wide. Having said that I am off to Melbourne tonight for dinner and then an all day seminar on Knowledge Management at Melbourne Zoo. Hope I don't end up in the wrong cage!

I have to say, Tuesday is the worst day of the week for me and this week it was even worse than usual. I went walking late and was behind the eight ball for the rest of the morning. I packed and put lunches together for MLR and AJR, packed the ironing for Dale, packed my bag for Melbourne. AJR caught the bus to school on time, then the three of us piled into the car, as I did not want to take my car to work to sit in the carage for two days there. As I was getting into the car I then remembered my handbag, so got out and fetched it out of the house. Back in the car, I trapped my fingers in the closing window, ouch! 50 meters down the road I remembered that I had left my work mobile phone and personal mobile phone at home. As it was more important to get MLR to school on time, we did took her to school first. Returned home for the mobiles, dropped of the ironing at Dale's, off to work arriving just after 9.30am.

Some days I think it would be easier to just stay home.

Sole sistaz statistics

2008-05-26T17:00:00.004+10:00

Here are the results of the Sole Sistaz efforts for the first 5 days.

Number of Steps taken by me =62054
Number of Steps taken by the team = 186598

Daily Average Steps by me = 12410
Daily Average Steps by the team = 5331

Distance (KM's) by me = 40
Distance (KM's) by team = 119

Daily Average KM's by me = 8
Daily Average KM's by team = 3

Go team!!!

Day of rest

2008-05-25T21:39:00.005+10:00

Have walked approximately 9,700 steps today, which is not bad considering that the only exercise I took today was to buy groceries!!! Still in Lo Campo, LWA has sunk to a new record of 965, which just reflects the fact that most of the world is asleep and have yet to add their steps for today!!!!Really need to stop watching our global position.

Collected CH from the airport with LR and had a girls night out with a lovely meal at Thai Basil in Erindale - highly recommended.

Alpacas and The Wall

2008-05-24T20:16:00.003+10:00

The day started with a walk to the top of Monash hill with Millie and MLR. MLR thought it was too long a walk and sat down on the ground a couple of times. After cleaning the kitchen and the lounge room up a little I took MLR and went off to EPIC to see my friends Alpaca's. She runs Indigo Alpacas near Goulburn. My friend CJK and her kids J & J joined us at EPIC. CJK took some photo's and hopefully I will add them shortly. Afterwards CJK, I and the kids had coffee at Macca's.

In the evening JR, MR and CR and I went out to see Pink Floyd's "The Wall" at the Street Theatre in Town, an amateur production. We had tickets to dinner and the show. Dinner was in the Teatro Vivaldi, we had two courses before the show and then returned for desert in the intermission. The show was fantastic and we really enjoyed the acting, the singing and the light show which was spectacular. There were two problems with the seating, one was that it was unallocated and therefore first in best dressed, which is difficult when you are trying to get four seats together! This was further compounded by the fact that they did not open the doors until almost 8pm (rather than 7.45pm), which made for great stampede acts from people who had been waiting in line for 15-20 minutes. The other issue was that MV's seat in the theatre after dinner sank to the floor as she sat down. MV and JR had to move two rows back and sit where the roadies had sat before!!! Obviously the dinner portions were too generous.

Steps today = 1600 +

Arrival in Vina Del Mar

2008-05-23T18:09:00.002+10:00

Having entered my steps yesterday I could see that the company I work for was about 95 in the world, checked again at lunch time today we are 198. A little later this afternoon we were at 360 and seconds ago I checked where LWA are and we are going gangbusters to 565th in the world - I should have stopped yesterday:)

A little about Vina Del Mar, it is known as the vineyard by the sea - I hope I get to try some of the wine while I am here!!!! The classic food is Empanadas: pastry filled with meat, cheese or mussels, and its population is 275,982. The city is the birth place of Alberto Hurtado, the second Chilean Catholic saint and founder of the Hogar de Cristo (Home of Christ) foundation, writer Maria Luisa Bombal, the author of La Ultima Niebla (The Last Fog), former Chilean president Patricio Aylwin, tennis player Nicolás Massú and Slayer vocalist Tom Araya - what more could you want. One thing I know is that I knew about none of these people before the GCC, so as my girth recinds my knowledge expands!

Should you want to visit this area, then here is some useful information Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar
Steps today only 8.700 - still good considering I did not walk the Millie dog this morning!!!

Blue Mountains Daily Photo

2008-05-23T13:25:00.000+10:00

Bro has gone and got enthusiastic about this blogging thing and now has an additional blog called Blue Mountains Daily Photo - check it out!

Global Corporate Challenge

2008-05-22T19:43:00.002+10:00

As you know I love travel, and now I have found a way to travel and see the family every day and maybe get fit at the same time!!!

I and seven of my colleagues at work have formed a team called the "Sole Sistaz" and we have entered the "Global Corporate Challenge". This challenge is to walk 10,000 steps per day for the next 125 days!!! Today was day one and I personally walked approximately 14,000 steps according to my pedometer. The day started with a brisk walk (it is Canberra and cold) with Millie (4,000 steps), followed by a team walk at lunch (another 4,000). The team walk at lunch included all teams at my work, there are about five teams.

Check out the website and see which other companies are competing.

The idea behind this is that we walk across the world and today we started in South America, in Val Paraiso, and at the end of today we have travelled to Vina Del Mar. On the website it gives me information about where I am and what is interesting to see, what the local food is (very important to me) and local customs. I will let you know where and how I go over the next few days.

A photographer in Paris

2008-05-04T14:31:00.010+10:00

Hi there,

Having just read Smells like? I thought I should add a Photographer in Paris (if you click on the title you will be linked to her site), however the best part of her site is A photographer in Paris blog. She is a talented photographer who spends her time wandering the streets of Paris taking beautiful photographs of my favourite city. Looking at this is the next best thing to being in Paris.

Here are some of my favourite photo's from Paris 2006

Arriving in Paris June 2006

The courtyard from our apartment in Paris

In the lounge room of our apartment

From the Louvre our first day in Paris

Here is the Monoprix (Woolworths or Tesco of Paris) above and the local street market below,where we bought fresh pasta and sauces, cheese, bread and cherries. At one point I asked the non French speaking indian student in the fruit shop for 300g of cherries in my best school girl french and came home with 1kg! The best thing about it was eating cherries in July as I associate cherries with Christmas in Australia. We had no trouble eating all of them. Note that we went to Paris twice, in early June as part of the bus tour and then again in early July under our own steam.

Welcome home

2008-05-03T09:48:00.000+10:00

Here is the card that MLR made me when I returned from Melbourne

This gives you an idea of the size of the card

Birthdays and Berrima

2008-04-30T12:44:00.001+10:00

Here is the ice cream cake for MLR at home

April is birthday rama for this family, there is Neisha on the 4th, niece on the 14th, Grandpa on the 21st, MLR on the 25th and nephew on the 29th - what a party!

AC and TC in the park

A small gathering of three of the April birthday people gathered in the southern highlands at Berrima to celebrate with lunch at the oldest continuously licenced pub in NSW, followed by coffee and cake in the park. Lunch was held in the closed in veranda of the pub, on the corner. A light filled area with views to the gaol (we did not see anyone trying to escape). Most of us had fish and chips or chicken and chips, while some started and finished with desert. While the place was incredibly busy, we were all served quickly (apart from a slow delivery on the last fish and chips). The price was reasonable.

The cake is a ginger and cherry cake (two of Grandpa's favourite flavours)

The start of the birthday cake

How the cake finished up

TC brought chocolate cup cakes which were appreciated by all, but especially the children.

After some confusion about parks and playgrounds and who was following whom, we ended up in a nice park near the river.

How many people does it take to light a sparkler on a windy day?

Four cousins (between rounds of survivor)

Cockington Green

2008-04-29T12:43:00.002+10:00

Just before the school holidays, Grandma and Grandad Rutherford were down for a visit, and along with MLR and Me we went to Cockington Green for a visit - they had not seen the new international section. Here are some of the photo's that MLR took of the International Section.

Swiss ski resort

Piggies for Grandma Carter

From little things big things grow - reconciliation

2008-04-27T16:03:00.000+10:00

Autumn in Monash

2008-04-25T20:50:00.005+10:00

Here are some autumn colours from the street trees and flowers in our garden

Autumn is my favourite time of year.