Geekin' it up on the way to Wales. I'm sitting in our hire-car -- a little Vauxhall Corsa, or as we all know it, a beep-beep Barina (the car that can go-go-go!) -- writing a 'blog entry on Dee's netbook ("noodle") whilst connected to the 'net via a 3G mobile phone. Meanwhile, Dee is navigating with our new GPS unit (a Garmin Nuvi) and listening to MP3s. Ain't tech grand?

Seriously tho', we've wanted a GPS thingy for a while, and when I couldn't get a USB one for noodle we decided to hire one from the car-hire place ... but they didn't have any! Apparently they go missing, who'da thunk?! The car-hire man was kind enough to point us towards a Curry's Electrical outside the congestion zone (who wants to pay just to drive through London?) so we got ourselves there (just barely) and geared-up. (Actually, we didn't end up buying the ol' sat-nav from Curry's, as the staff were by all appearances apathetic morons to a man. We went next door to Halfords. It still took longer to part with our hard-earned cash than we liked, but at least they actually had stuff in stock.)

Anyway, I'm using this as a test -- can we post from the road with mobile Internet? Can we keep in touch with people when we have no fixed address? Can we connect with you guys from a hut in Thailand, a caravan-park in Western Australia?

Let's see if it actually posts, eh?

Shopping and Dad

Hi all,
Dad has been driving and walking so much improvement. On Friday we went into town and he drove. We visited the Marketplace, then decided to get our printer cartridges refilled at Cartridge World. They can't be done because they have a chip that so far can't be reset. Since by then we were inGolden Square, Dad suggested a visit to Lansell Plaza. We had a coffee and two donuts as a rest stop after we'd bought some fruit and veges , NQR goodies and checked out Sams. We called to see Nana on the way home. She was very pleased to see Dad so mobile since just last Tuesday he wasn't well enough to go to Probus and he didn't make it to the funeral on Wednesday. Today we walked down the street inEaglehawk, where we met Nana and then came back here for coffee. After looking at the labels, he also bought a ticket for tonight's Lotto draw. Uncle Ron called in on Wednesday and suggested a product he uses called Alpha Lifeline. he and Mary returned on Thursday with the tin that should last a month.Dad has had two doses of that now. It's supposed to be good for digestive health.It contains colostrum. If it works we'll be getting more and may try the capsule version since Dad isn't fond of the taste. It tasted fine to me.
Glad to hear Dayna has drawn an update for the header. I look forward to seeing it.
Do any of you want to play Wordscraper on Facebook? I play with Lisa, Damien and Val at the moment.

Oscar's day on the farm

Hi everyone!

Yesterday we took Oscar to the miniature farm barn for a friend's 2-years-old birthday party. We dressed Os in some cold weather gear and he met a lot of animals for the very first time. The first part of the party was a bit of a tour and feed then it was pony ride time. All of the kids were too scared! Apart from Oscar, who sat on one for a little while. They were really cute ponies (I know what I want for my birthday!) and if they could have held my weight I would have been up there in no time as well! ;) Some of the little girls ended up putting hair clips into the pony's mane and leading it around the yard. Next was farm equipment time. I think Os enjoyed the tractor ride the most :) Then all of the kids went inside for some morning tea and cake. Oscar had his milk and then sat next to his little friend while he played with a serviette. It was a very cute party and it tired the little guy out. He fell asleep on the way home, so instead of trying to get him into the house without waking him we drove to the local shopping centre and Damien and I took turns going in to get lunch and eating in the car while Oscar slept (sneaky! :) We took heaps of photos, of course :)

Today we've had a quieter day. We went to the shopping centre for lunch and spent the rest of the day at home. Not sure what we'll do tomorrow. Probably enjoy the public holiday indoors with the heater on :)

Nantes

Hello from France!

We arrived in Nantes at around lunch time on Tuesday and spent the afternoon wandering around the city - just to see what was where and to get our bearings a little. Wednesday we decided to head to Le Machine de l'Ile - The Island of Machines. It's on l'Ile de Nantes and has only been open since 2007. It's a workshop/gallery working towards a major interactive attraction - a carousel/merry-go-round with three levels and lots of creatures that visitors can interact with and 'run'.

We saw eight of the creatures. They're a strange combination of Leonardo Da Vinci's mechanical creations and Jules Verne's imagination - my favourite is the squid, but I think Bruce's favourite is the crab (because he got to control it for a bit). The combination of wood and metal looks really cool and there's so much articulation in the moving bits via pulleys and levers - what a good use of physics!

Thursday we headed over to the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne (The Castle of the Dukes of Britanny). We'd walked to it on Tuesday, but decided to use the Bicloo rental bicycles (pay £1 for the day and the first half-hour of each rental is free). There are docking stations all around the city centre, so it's easy to keep your trips under half-an-hour. The Castle was amazing - it's only recently been restored. The Nantes History Museum is housed in the Castle, so we spent the day discovering the history of the Mermaid city (with strong ties to the land and to its port). We also wandered through the special exhibition - I found some hammocks. Dad, I'll join your pirate ship if I get to sleep in a hammock! ;-)

Friday we headed away from town and went to the Planetarium. The show went for about an hour and the graphics were fantastic. It started as a simple night-sky - what stars you can see at night. They then took us on a journey to each of the planets. It was a very entertaining show and it would have been even better if I understood French.

After lunch (and watching some French guys play boules in the park) we headed to the Musee Jules Verne. It was cool to learn more about him and to see some of his old manuscripts and sketches. Although one of my favourite bits were the moon-related toys from all over the world. Wish I knew where to get the TinTin game! It looked fun.

The food while we were away was pretty tasty. The only problem was that there weren't a great many vege options. In fact, I think I had more cheese in this week than I have had since the start of the year! Crepes were my favourite, especially the ones made from black corn with potatoes gratin as filling. Yummo.

We headed back to England on Saturday morning and found the lovely weather was there too. We had a BBQ for lunch because the sunshine was so good. In fact, the good weather lasted until a couple of days ago (I got saturated walking to the bus from work yesterday). So it's back to grey Manchester weather but at least I had a week of fun and frivolity in France (photos here).

*big hugz* to all.

Ken's birthday pub hike

Last weekend was a long weekend, and also friend's birthday, so on Monday we high-tailed it onto the tube and down towards Hampstead Heath. His name is Ken, and (strangely!) he went to primary school with Dee. Now, I hope at this point you're thinking something like, "Wow, they stayed in touch for that long!", but the truth is much more serendipitous ( may have already told this story) -- Ken was a student at Swinburne when Mark, a Uni buddy of mine, was tutoring. Mark recently moved to London and "dossed" at Ken's for a while. So at Glenda's birthday -- Mark's girl -- both Ken and Dee knew fewer people than everyone, so started chatting. So. Very. Bizzare!

Anyhoo, it was his birthday last weekend so we headed out of our precious safety-zone ("the city") to a suburb. Turns out they've got sun, people,  cafes, greenery! So we arrived at the beer garden and met some of Ken's friends, then I supped a wee dram of uisge whilst Dee enjoyed the red wine. We chatted, ate little nibbly things (calamari, salmon fish-fingers, lamb koftas) and generally enjoyed the sun -- although as the afternoon wore on it threatened rain.

After lunch (and a delicious chocolate cake courtesy of Glenda --  thanks!) we all decided to walk off the meal in Hampstead Green, a nearby park -- although it's bigger than any park I've seen in Aus, just like Hyde Park in London central. We wandered across field and dell and came across a fair! Ferris-wheels, skill games, spinny-aroundy and upside-downy rides! Dee, Ken and I all tried the archery. None of us won a prize, but Dee did have the dubious achievement of almost hitting a "carny" (i.e. fair worker) with an arrow! Remember kids: wine and bow & arrows don't mix. (I kid, I kid, we wouldn't want to get rolling drunk on a school/work day/night -- really, the carny almost got himself shot by ducking out in front of us to retrieve some arrows from the targets. I mean, come on! He was asking for one in the behind!)

It was weird being in the middle of a green space and looking back towards the "urban jungle". It was also getting muggy -- the rain was on its way but taking its sweet time about it. We got to the edge of the park, grabbed some drinks from the supermarket and had an impromptu picnic in a field, while around us people threw frisbees and kicked soccer balls. Decided we'd come back another weekend and play tennis and/or lawn bowls! How sophisticated!

When the rain started, we bid adieu to Ken and company, boarded a bus and headed back home. As always, more photos here. (And I'm not if you need to be on Facebook, but Glenda put some photos up too.)

round 4

Hi all. Dad has now finished round 4 of the chemo. He's been feeling strange so they checked his blood pressure, which was a bit low and decided to skip the metawhatever that was meant to stimulate his appetite but which had wiped out what little appetite he had. Now we wait and see for the next week. It would be good if he didn't get diahorrea, an elevated temp and become dehydrated. I guess we're more ready to treat the symptoms if they happen than we were the first round. Only one more round to go and that's not for three weeks. Don't think we'll manage Adelaide this school holidays since that final round is the last week of term and I don't want to travel if Dad is feeling unwell. We'll see how he goes. He's started grumbling about my driving again so I think he'll be back behind the wheel by next week. If only he'd start eating more. He still has at least two cans of 2cal a day to keep up his nutrition.
Dayna looking forward to hearing about your holiday in France.
Glenn and D, thank you for the photos you left on our computer. We had a voucher for 25 prints in May and we haven't taken any since the last batch of developing. I used some of yours and some of Dayna's. I'll pick them up when I get to town next.
Thinking of you all.

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo...

It was a vaguely sunny Sunday, the middle of a long weekend - no better time to take a trip to the Zoo. Vicki, Steven, Bruce and I all jumped into Bruce's (mostly) shiny new car and off we went. About an hour later, we arrived and parked on the grass (?!) as directed.


It was fairly cold and windy for the first part of the day - but that didn't stop us enjoying watching the elephants! They were so funny! Initially they were messing about in a little pool. It had a small waterpipe and they were stepping on it to make the water spray everywhere (clever things). Next thing, two of the elephants ran into the pool by the waterfall. One moment they were there, the next they disappeared - they didn't teleport somewhere, it was just the pool was a LOT deeper than it looked! It was fantastic to watch them playing.


We didn't follow any particular plan - we just wandered around the zoo, watched random animals and took lots of photos. Well, I took photos until my batteries went flat. :-( My photoset is here. And since Vicki's batteries didn't go flat, her photoset is here. Sometimes it's sad to see animals in cages but it's obvious that Chester Zoo looks after the welfare of the animals - they have inside and outside spaces, there are toys to play with (even HUGE toys for the elephants) and at least some of the habitats are designed for the animals. It's been ages since I'd been to the zoo - think I might not wait so long until the next visit (probably to another zoo). :-)

We're going to the zoo zoo zoo
You can come too too too...

Leamington Spa at Easter time

Oops, forgot I hadn't linked to this -- our Easter weekend away in Leamington!

Update: Some photos from "Lem".



We also popped over to Coventry, since Dee's Dad was originally from there.

Samsung netbook is teh awesomeness

I am very impressed with Dee's new netbook (the Samsung N110) and Ubuntu 9.04 "Netbook Remix"! And for an old GNU/Linux otaku like me, it takes a lot to impress.

The netbook comes with Windows XP by default, and Dee played with it for a little while before installing the Ubuntu remix (UNR they call it) -- confusing, as XP can be, because each of the various hardware drivers seem to install their own versions of XP's built in functions: so there is the sound applet in XP, and an "Enhanced Audio" panel; XP's "normal" graphics settings and the "Intel Advanced Graphics" settings; built-in wifi and another whole menu of wifi tools.

She'd already decided to install Ubuntu, and I hardly twisted her arm! (Okay, I probably told her about all the good things that GNU/Linux can do these days ... and maybe cried a little.) Ostensibly, it was so she could a) have a terminal she understands (she's a UNIX-head) and b) install Apache Web-Server and do some web development for tracking our trip. So I think we were both happy when everything else -- graphics, camera, sound, wifi -- "just worked".

Installing was pretty easy: I downloaded an image and "burnt" it to a little USB key-drive thingy, then Dee set her BIOS to boot from it. A few screens of questions, mostly about where in the world you are and what time it is, then some waiting as it formatted the drive ('bye XP! 'bye Porpoise Spit!) and installed UNR. At the end, it asks you to remove the USB drive and reboot -- and when it reloads you have a nice shiny Ubuntu system!

Strangely for an operating system that is developed in a distributed way by people all over the world, Ubuntu feels much more integrated than XP did. Wifi connections are in the same place as wired ones, which is also where the "Mobile Broadband" connections are (which automatically popped up when we plugged in my mobile phone). The sound settings are in one place, although they're a little confusing with multiple "devices" (ALSA, OSS -- two competing sound architectures on Linux, which are both handled by the "umbrella" system called PulseAudio). The launch screen in place of a desktop is a bit weird but brilliant when you get used to it, and maximised apps share the little launch bar at the top of the screen for maximum screen "real estate".

(There are a few apps/screens which don't maximise and are too big for the 1024x600 pixel screen. That's annoying -- you have to ALT-click the window and drag it up to see the rest, including (usually) the "Close" button. Hope they fix that in an update soon!)

We also had to mess about with the wifi a little, as occasionally it wouldn't reconnect after closing the lid and "suspending" the netbook (i.e. going into low power mode). Turns out that removing and re-adding the kernel module fixes it, so Dee wrote two tiny shell scripts to do exactly that and dropped them into the suspend.d and resume.d directories ... UNIX/Linux is so ... logical! Sensible! Rational!

This morning she installed Skype, signed up for an account, and called Dayna and her brother with it. There was a little bit of messing about with the sound settings (to get the speakers to play, the microphone to work, and to limit any feedback) but the video camera just worked too. (Even our desktop computer required a bit of messin' to get the video to work and not crash Skype.)

The speakers and microphone on the netbook are good enough that we can Skype people without headphones, with clear sound and without any feedback. Skype were even nice enough to give her some free credit to call a "normal" telephone number (for a decent rate). We have our international calling solution!

So, now she is uploading photos to a new Flickr account to try that out. It's slow, but that's probably Flickr rather than the netbook itself. (I'll go back and add photos into our "speedboat down the Thames" post once it's done.)

The only way I'd be more impressed is if Samsung had shipped with the Ubuntu Netbook remix by default.

VISAs and netbooks

So my VISA extension application was sent off a week or so ago; yesterday I made the appointment for a biometric ID card which -- now -- all "foreign nationals" will be required to have (and carry? I might start carrying my passport -- once I get it back -- and ID card together in some kind of RFID-blocking wallet thing). It's pretty bad, really -- £465 for a 12 month extension, then when I rang up to book the appointment (which MUST be within 15 days) the only available slot was ... 15 days later! Talk about making things difficult! But I'll take the day off work and travel down south on the 'tube to wherever the Border Agency is.

We're still hoping to get it back before our next holiday, because I'd like to visit Marrakech. If we don't, it will be a week in Wales instead!

In the meantime we're keeping out of trouble. Last weekend we got up earlier than usual to bus down to the London Eye for a speed-boat tour out to the Thames Barriers.  Dee has always wanted to see them, and it was either than or a lunch tour -- and we both decided we always do foodie (or drinkie) things. Besides, "a lunch cruise on the Thames" sounds a little more ... mature ... than either of us are willing to act!  So it was a speed-boat, travelling up to 45 knots (which I think is around 40mph) in the cold morning weather. They gave us warm rain-jackets along with the life-jackets, and we were glad they did! Frozen fingers from holding on (you have to -- we jumped over a few small waves and rounded corners dramatically) but at least nobody fell in.

After the cruise we had breakfast nearby, then went looking in electronics shops -- Dee wants a netbook like Dayna's!

After a few hours walking around and bussing between shopping areas (like Oxford Street) we still hadn't found the "new" netbook, a Samsung NC110. It's the next version of the NC10, which was very popular (and therefore out of stock all over the place). I think the difference is the battery -- the NC110 is meant to get 9 hours battery life on a single charge, which is pretty amazing. But it's not in the shops anywhere (and Dee's been waiting for ages) so this week she ordered it online.

(It is meant to arrive today! She's very excited.)

After that we headed home for a nap. No kidding! We were on the speedboat at 9am, and had a long evening planned, so it was really just being practical. A couple of friends who have moved to London showed up at about 5pm (Martin -- he was in Jack The Ripper The Musical! with me; and Helen, his girl), so we headed in to China Town and had a delicious meal.  (I tried "crispy shredded beef", and it just tasted like batter and sauce ... some of the more interesting items on the the menu included squid, braised eel and (I was so tempted) pigeon. The only thing that stopped me is the state of pigeons in London!)

With dinner settling we took our leave of Martin and Helen and wandered towards Leicester Square and the Empire Cinema -- we had tickets for the new Star Trek movie!  Empire Cinema is great -- it's where they had the London premiere, apparently, with a bunch of famous actors and whatnot -- with extra comfy chairs and an incredible sound system. The Enterprise flew past and we rocked in our cushioned places; photon torpedoes exploded on the hull and we shuddered with the screeching metal. Very much fun!

I should probably upload some photos from the speedboat, huh?

Blue-eyed future Sword Saint ;)

Just a quick update from us.

Oscar has calmed down a lot - he's on Losec for his reflux - the Mylanta we had him on previously wasn't doing the trick. It does help, although sometimes it can still be difficult getting him to sleep.. but he's not awake every 45 minutes all day and night now, so it's a big plus. We're hoping once he reaches that 6 month point we wont need to give him the medication.. often that's when it settles down anyway.

Cheryl had her shopping day in Melbourne on Saturday (for our anniversary I got her a return ticket).. she spent most of her time (and money) at the DFO at Southern Cross Station, definitely worth a look if you're ever visiting the rainy city. I looked after Oscar for the day.. from 5am when Cheryl left until 9pm when she returned. Thankfully now he's got his medication he was much more relaxed and actually managed a few hours of sleep in there.

The other thing that helped keep me sane over the day was my new iPhone - Cheryl's anniversary present to me.. well, a combination of Cheryl and Kevin Rudd really. I was able to hold Oscar and still surf the net or play games I had downloaded. It was much better than my previous method of passing the time - staring into space :)

This morning we all headed to Goodwood for Iaido, because we had the Grading Certificate Presentations. I am now officially Ni-Dan, which makes me a sensei and also meant I got an art name - a name specific to the style to represent me. My name is "Go Seki".. the "Go" part is from Shihan's art name (Go Ho) and indicates that we have come from the Australian school.. and the "Seki" part means "stone" or "rock".. which was Shihan's (and the Grandmaster's) opinion of me I guess. I hope it's solid as a rock, and not rock-headed ;)

Oh, and finally there's a few more photos of Oscar up - http://www.flickr.com/photos/damienmason/3495448177/in/set-72157613379231082/ Cheryl took some fantastic shots, and I think it's pretty safe to say Oscar's eyes will be staying blue now :)

RACV and family updates

Just reading about the "incredible Museum of Science and Technology" in Manchester. Is that where you're working Dayna? The RACV suggest Manchester as a better starting point for a trip to England than London, especially with the preparation for Olympic games in 2012. Look out tourists from Australia will be flocking to Manchester.
We had a visit from the Hazelman's on Friday. They brought some dried fruit for Dad. Great to see them. Dad had a very ordinary weekend. He certainly wasn't up to going to a party on Saturday night. John and Julie did visit him last Tuesday so they probably didn't expect us.
Dad sees the dietician on Monday. I begin to think a spell in hospital with the feeding tube might be a good idea if it could get him eating again. Maybe all he has to do is wait for the pain to subside, but that is taking longer than he'd hoped. I know we would all give him some kilos if we could.
We have rain .......and wind........and more rain. Surely the storages are filling up. The washing is drying over the heater vents already. Only last week it was warm and sunny and now it's cold and windy. Damien and Cheryl had a rain experience they can write about.

Thank you Mum

My jumper arrived yesterday. Actually, it arrived Monday, but I was at work, so couldn't pick it up until yesterday morning. It's lovely. I really like the hat too - although I'm not sure I'll wear it as an ensemble.. we'll have to wait and see what next winter brings. :-) I'll definitely wear them as separates. *grin*

I'm not super-happy with this photo - and it's not cos I'm pulling a face (I meant that *grin*).. it's the extra kilos that are the problem. But I'm working on it.. spring feels like it's finally here and we've had days where it's been t-shirt weather (although no warmer than 20 degrees). It's amazing what a difference some sun can make.

Work seems to be going okay. I think I'll be able to do this job - there are a lot of different things to do. I'll need to get organised for much of it (like organising MOSI's contribution to the Manchester Science Festival) but the Learning team are great (they're not just learning to be a team..hehe) and I like challenges. *grin*

There are some more photos on Flickr of my current hair colour.. I'm not especially happy with it (I don't look good blonde.. not golden blonde anyway).. and I'll probably be putting a light-brown through it on the weekend.. I just have to leave it a while because all the bleach I needed to get rid of the black left my hair and scalp in need of TLC. I also have to wait until the weekend because Bruce wants to see it blonde. :-)

Dad, I hope you feel better soon. Apparently Aloe Vera juice is good for soothing the oesophagus. Unfortunately I read somewhere that chocolate isn't good for reflux.. so maybe leave the Easter Eggs for a little while. Although any food is better than none, so if you feel like chocky, go for it. *grin* *big gentle hugz* really, get better!

Hope everyone else is good - Lisa, some more photos of the kids please. *grin* Do you have a Flickr account?

*big hugz* to everyone

no emails

Hi to all. Somehow our mozilla thunderbird won't work. I can't check emails except by going to tpg and doing it through there. Any suggestions. I've reinstalled it but it still doesn't respond when i try to get mail.

Dad had his last radiation today. He's feeling dreadful but hopefully the problems will lessen with time and in a week or so he may be able to eat.

News from the Rowlands. Tamara is expecting again on James 1st birthday. They plan a caesarian on 30th August at this stage. Loved the tie Lisa had printed for Ray's 50th . We had a visit from them on Sunday afternoon.

Had a visit from John and Kerry Dunn on Saturday afternoon on their way to Shep. Very busy with family.

Nana and Auntie Denise are off to Maroochydore(Queensland)on Thursday for a weeks holiday. From the weather forecast they'll probably have more rain than we get.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everybody. I hope you all have had an enjoyable long weekend.

(more new photos over at flickr)

Oh, and big thanks to Auntie Dayna for the present, you can see him enjoying it here