Saturday, January 26, 2008
HOLIDAYS!!!!!
Officially on holidays !!!!!
Just pulling into port aboard the fair ferry Spirit Of Tasmania II.
Crap night's sleep really, methinks not enough amber fluid was consumed at the bar last night.
I do prefer the sea travel as opposed to the imediacy of aeroplane flight and arrival, it's a much nicer way to adjust to the idea of your destination.
Anyway, after the last two weeks of my ring trailing out behind me as got everything ready I can finally relax.
Sort of.
Have a few bushwalks ahead, we'll see how the post op legs go.
Eleanor has received some loving too so she should be behaving herself on this sojourn.
Yay fer holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just pulling into port aboard the fair ferry Spirit Of Tasmania II.
Crap night's sleep really, methinks not enough amber fluid was consumed at the bar last night.
I do prefer the sea travel as opposed to the imediacy of aeroplane flight and arrival, it's a much nicer way to adjust to the idea of your destination.
Anyway, after the last two weeks of my ring trailing out behind me as got everything ready I can finally relax.
Sort of.
Have a few bushwalks ahead, we'll see how the post op legs go.
Eleanor has received some loving too so she should be behaving herself on this sojourn.
Yay fer holidays!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
WEDDINGS AND STUFF II........
So, Christmas Eve was spent at my sister’s with her housemate and good friend Charlotte, Mum and Snorkmaiden.
It was the traditional Polish affair with all the typical foods reserved for that time of year.
The good thing about celebrating Christmas the European way is that one is allowed to open one’s pressies a day before everyone else!
After making the little ‘ears ’ ( little pierogi style stuffed pastries in the shape of pigs ears ) to go into the barszcz ( beetroot soup ) we tucked into the lovely culinary combination.
I was placed in charge of the fish.
From memory it was some sort of lemony creation with fresh herbs from my sister’s garden cooked on the barbeque.
Came out rather well I was told.
I was stoked to receive a T shirt with Moomintroll on the front from Snorkmaiden, as well as a gas cooker.
The latter went well with the gas lamp and pole from my sis.
The next day Snorkmaiden and I drove the 3 hours to her folk’s farm for their Christmas dinner.
Joining us there were her brother Anthony and a couple of the friends of the family.
Snorky’s mum cooked up a storm which included yabbies ( fresh water crayfish from the local farm dams ).
We spent a couple of nights there before making our way back to Melbourne
It was rather nice to be out of the city in the quiet countryside, does wonders for the soul.
Back in Melbourne I went on the hunt for a suitable tent for the upcoming holiday, which will see me cover something in the order of 8,000km.
The criteria were: one that would be fairly weather proof ( in case of inclement weather ), big enough to cook and eat in ( in case of inclement weather ) and quick to set up and pull down.
After some deliberation and research I found one for sale second hand in the local rag.
Having bought it I figured we should give it a shakedown trip so Snorky and I took of for four days into the high country.
We picked the last days of 2007 and it was darn good choice as the temperatures in Melbourne soared above 40 degrees!
She was a stinker!!!
I figured we lost about 10 degrees due to altitude, but that still put us above 30 degrees.
Good thing we were next to a mountain river as we spent a lot of time cooling off in the fast flowing waters.
The tent also allowed us to eat in relative peace due to its ability to keep the blow and march flies outside.
I can’t remember the last time I was bothered by that many of the annoying and biting insects.
One morning Snorky went for a dip and I watched a swarm of march flies surrounding and trailing behind her as she ran to the sanctuary of the river, not unlike some character from a Warner Brothers cartoon.
Even there they tried to bite her head, so from then on we wore bucket hats when swimming, that seemed to do the trick.
We explored some of the high country near Jamieson tracks in the Subaru.
I kept wanting to go and check more tracks and all Snorky wanted to do was go swimming, can’t blame her really, it WAS pretty hot.
New year’s eve was spent drinking by a fire next to the river with two couples also camping nearby.
One couple was around our age and the other markedly older, but both were pleasant company and we were more than happy to see the year out in this fashion.
On the return trip Snorkmaiden lived up to her threats of car sickness and we had to pause once we’d come off the mountain so she could expel breakfast.
Makes me wonder how she’ll cope in Tasmania as there are not too many straight roads down there.
One week ago we went to her sister’s wedding.
Pretty good as far as weddings go and a near disaster was avoided when the lead bridal car came very close to colliding with a motorcyclist who found himself on the wrong side of the road exiting a bend.
This happened about 5 minutes from the wedding location so bride and mum were a little frazzled.
Not they showed it.
The happy couple are on their honeymoon in Tasmania, which is where Snorky and I will be heading in 8 days.
We’ll spend 2 weeks there, camping, bushwalking and catching up with some of my old mates.
After that I’m off for 3 weeks on a trip to Townsville via the coast and back to Melbourne through outback Queensland and South Australia.
Should be epic.
That’s if my arm heals up ok, as it seems to have picked up an infection in the last few days.
The doctor has prescribed a course of antibiotics which should do the trick.
Knees are still very sore and the walking in Tasmania will be a bit of a test as well a form of physiotherapy.
I'll be taking my anti-inflammatory pills as well the morphine ones just in case.
Currently I’m going through some last minute preparations for said trips with just a few things left to do.
So far so good.
.
It was the traditional Polish affair with all the typical foods reserved for that time of year.
The good thing about celebrating Christmas the European way is that one is allowed to open one’s pressies a day before everyone else!
After making the little ‘ears ’ ( little pierogi style stuffed pastries in the shape of pigs ears ) to go into the barszcz ( beetroot soup ) we tucked into the lovely culinary combination.
I was placed in charge of the fish.
From memory it was some sort of lemony creation with fresh herbs from my sister’s garden cooked on the barbeque.
Came out rather well I was told.
I was stoked to receive a T shirt with Moomintroll on the front from Snorkmaiden, as well as a gas cooker.
The latter went well with the gas lamp and pole from my sis.
The next day Snorkmaiden and I drove the 3 hours to her folk’s farm for their Christmas dinner.
Joining us there were her brother Anthony and a couple of the friends of the family.
Snorky’s mum cooked up a storm which included yabbies ( fresh water crayfish from the local farm dams ).
We spent a couple of nights there before making our way back to Melbourne
It was rather nice to be out of the city in the quiet countryside, does wonders for the soul.
Back in Melbourne I went on the hunt for a suitable tent for the upcoming holiday, which will see me cover something in the order of 8,000km.
The criteria were: one that would be fairly weather proof ( in case of inclement weather ), big enough to cook and eat in ( in case of inclement weather ) and quick to set up and pull down.
After some deliberation and research I found one for sale second hand in the local rag.
Having bought it I figured we should give it a shakedown trip so Snorky and I took of for four days into the high country.
We picked the last days of 2007 and it was darn good choice as the temperatures in Melbourne soared above 40 degrees!
She was a stinker!!!
I figured we lost about 10 degrees due to altitude, but that still put us above 30 degrees.
Good thing we were next to a mountain river as we spent a lot of time cooling off in the fast flowing waters.
The tent also allowed us to eat in relative peace due to its ability to keep the blow and march flies outside.
I can’t remember the last time I was bothered by that many of the annoying and biting insects.
One morning Snorky went for a dip and I watched a swarm of march flies surrounding and trailing behind her as she ran to the sanctuary of the river, not unlike some character from a Warner Brothers cartoon.
Even there they tried to bite her head, so from then on we wore bucket hats when swimming, that seemed to do the trick.
We explored some of the high country near Jamieson tracks in the Subaru.
I kept wanting to go and check more tracks and all Snorky wanted to do was go swimming, can’t blame her really, it WAS pretty hot.
New year’s eve was spent drinking by a fire next to the river with two couples also camping nearby.
One couple was around our age and the other markedly older, but both were pleasant company and we were more than happy to see the year out in this fashion.
On the return trip Snorkmaiden lived up to her threats of car sickness and we had to pause once we’d come off the mountain so she could expel breakfast.
Makes me wonder how she’ll cope in Tasmania as there are not too many straight roads down there.
One week ago we went to her sister’s wedding.
Pretty good as far as weddings go and a near disaster was avoided when the lead bridal car came very close to colliding with a motorcyclist who found himself on the wrong side of the road exiting a bend.
This happened about 5 minutes from the wedding location so bride and mum were a little frazzled.
Not they showed it.
The happy couple are on their honeymoon in Tasmania, which is where Snorky and I will be heading in 8 days.
We’ll spend 2 weeks there, camping, bushwalking and catching up with some of my old mates.
After that I’m off for 3 weeks on a trip to Townsville via the coast and back to Melbourne through outback Queensland and South Australia.
Should be epic.
That’s if my arm heals up ok, as it seems to have picked up an infection in the last few days.
The doctor has prescribed a course of antibiotics which should do the trick.
Knees are still very sore and the walking in Tasmania will be a bit of a test as well a form of physiotherapy.
I'll be taking my anti-inflammatory pills as well the morphine ones just in case.
Currently I’m going through some last minute preparations for said trips with just a few things left to do.
So far so good.
.
Monday, January 14, 2008
BUSY BEE MONTH.....
The last few weeks have been rather busy.
There was Christmas, New Year’s, two weddings and a camping trip.
Somewhere along the line I’ve been also managing to fit recovery into my busy schedule, returning to work and planning my holiday which starts in two weeks time.
Wedding No. 1 was that of my mate David and Joyce.
They’d been seeing each other for less than a year when David was hit by an oncoming car as he was travelling home on his motorbike.
According to the car driver, it was raining very hard and he was behind a semitrailer.
Because of the spray off the semi he decided to overtake as he couldn’t see where he was going, straight into the David’s path.
Work that out, you can’t see the road so you overtake, hmmmm…..
Combined speed of the two vehicles was 200km/h.
I think it says a lot about Joyce and their relationship that she chose to stick with him after he lost his arm.
His medical recovery is still going on with more surgery planned in the near future.
When he asked me to be his best man I was naturally honoured and wasn’t going to miss that because of some surgery!
I drove up to Lake Boga with Mick Dabbs riding shotgun.
It was he who originally asked me if I would go and speak to David when he was in intensive care.
The trip was not uneventful with the biggest downpour I can remember making driving nigh on impossible at one point, and turning overhead passes into waterfalls.
It was coming down so hard that even with my wipers on full speed all I could do to stay on the road was to fight my way through aquaplaning and follow the vague blur of grey of the highway in front of me, which was challenging enough as the sky itself was as dark as dog’s guts.
Having made it through the deluge I attracted the attention of a copper in Kerang, who booked me for travelling at 82km/h in a 60 zone.
The entrance into the town was marked with firstly an 80 sign, then 60, then a road works sign, then end of road works, then 80 and finally a 60 sign, all within a few hundred metres.
It was the last 60 sign which I failed to register.
Why I don’t know, but it was dark by then and we were nearing the end of a 3 hour trip and I thought I was doing pretty well considering I’d just had surgery two weeks prior, so maybe my concentration was lapsing by that stage.
The plod reckoned I was sitting on 82 all the way according to his radar.
Of course I was as that is what I thought the speed limit!!!!
I tried to explain to him that this was the first time I’d ever been to his little town in the middle of butt fuck nowhere and that the signage was pretty confusing and that I was actually on my way to a wedding of a mate I met in road trauma rehab, but this scrooge was determined to throw the book at me.
In the end I thanked him for the $220 / 3 demerit points fine and wished him a Merry Christmas.
Arsehole…..
Anyway, the wedding was fantastic.
Very informal with Joyce wearing a band new pink and white set of motorbike leathers.
Joyce, her father and the bridesmaids all turned up on motorbikes and David on a trike.
The bits of the vows to do with ‘in sickness and in health, till death, etc, were especially poignant and the two of them couldn’t help but giggle their way through it as they’d already done all that.
Another chap present was Damien, one of my old cellmates from rehab.
He had a head on with a semitrailer and like David and myself, is still recovering.
Good to see him and his wife Angela as they live in the country and I haven’t seen him since he was in town last to have some surgery.
It was also really great to meet some of David and Joyce’s relatives and friends, the people who have supported them in the last year.
David, Joyce and the kids are hoping to buy a new property in Bendigo, with horse agistments to rent out and to buy a taxi licence as a source of income.
I’m sure their new life together will be less trying than it has been lately.
Photos coming soon....
There was Christmas, New Year’s, two weddings and a camping trip.
Somewhere along the line I’ve been also managing to fit recovery into my busy schedule, returning to work and planning my holiday which starts in two weeks time.
Wedding No. 1 was that of my mate David and Joyce.
They’d been seeing each other for less than a year when David was hit by an oncoming car as he was travelling home on his motorbike.
According to the car driver, it was raining very hard and he was behind a semitrailer.
Because of the spray off the semi he decided to overtake as he couldn’t see where he was going, straight into the David’s path.
Work that out, you can’t see the road so you overtake, hmmmm…..
Combined speed of the two vehicles was 200km/h.
I think it says a lot about Joyce and their relationship that she chose to stick with him after he lost his arm.
His medical recovery is still going on with more surgery planned in the near future.
When he asked me to be his best man I was naturally honoured and wasn’t going to miss that because of some surgery!
I drove up to Lake Boga with Mick Dabbs riding shotgun.
It was he who originally asked me if I would go and speak to David when he was in intensive care.
The trip was not uneventful with the biggest downpour I can remember making driving nigh on impossible at one point, and turning overhead passes into waterfalls.
It was coming down so hard that even with my wipers on full speed all I could do to stay on the road was to fight my way through aquaplaning and follow the vague blur of grey of the highway in front of me, which was challenging enough as the sky itself was as dark as dog’s guts.
Having made it through the deluge I attracted the attention of a copper in Kerang, who booked me for travelling at 82km/h in a 60 zone.
The entrance into the town was marked with firstly an 80 sign, then 60, then a road works sign, then end of road works, then 80 and finally a 60 sign, all within a few hundred metres.
It was the last 60 sign which I failed to register.
Why I don’t know, but it was dark by then and we were nearing the end of a 3 hour trip and I thought I was doing pretty well considering I’d just had surgery two weeks prior, so maybe my concentration was lapsing by that stage.
The plod reckoned I was sitting on 82 all the way according to his radar.
Of course I was as that is what I thought the speed limit!!!!
I tried to explain to him that this was the first time I’d ever been to his little town in the middle of butt fuck nowhere and that the signage was pretty confusing and that I was actually on my way to a wedding of a mate I met in road trauma rehab, but this scrooge was determined to throw the book at me.
In the end I thanked him for the $220 / 3 demerit points fine and wished him a Merry Christmas.
Arsehole…..
Anyway, the wedding was fantastic.
Very informal with Joyce wearing a band new pink and white set of motorbike leathers.
Joyce, her father and the bridesmaids all turned up on motorbikes and David on a trike.
The bits of the vows to do with ‘in sickness and in health, till death, etc, were especially poignant and the two of them couldn’t help but giggle their way through it as they’d already done all that.
Another chap present was Damien, one of my old cellmates from rehab.
He had a head on with a semitrailer and like David and myself, is still recovering.
Good to see him and his wife Angela as they live in the country and I haven’t seen him since he was in town last to have some surgery.
It was also really great to meet some of David and Joyce’s relatives and friends, the people who have supported them in the last year.
David, Joyce and the kids are hoping to buy a new property in Bendigo, with horse agistments to rent out and to buy a taxi licence as a source of income.
I’m sure their new life together will be less trying than it has been lately.
Photos coming soon....
