My Blog-Fu is weak

Haven't fired out a post for a while, so I thought I'd throw some words together. After the flurry of activity that was Feb/March, things have slowed down to a more managable pace. Work has been pretty slow, and I'm still waiting to hear back about the job I went for back in March (which also happens to be the job I'm in at the moment) and the wait is certainly dragging on a bit. It has cast a bit of a pall over work generally, even though things are fairly interesting at the moment. But the less said about work the better.

On the house front, I haven't managed to get up to the site and take some good photo's since I last blogged, for a combination of reasons. These include builders working on the site (precluding a good ole fashioned fence jumping) and terrible weather when I've had time to visit. The end of daylight savings for the year has also made getting up to the site after work to take pictures difficult, as half the time it's already dark by then.

I miss daylight savings (and summer) already! Having made that slightly maudlin statement, the weather at the moment is pretty choice. Autumn and spring really are the best times of year in Canberra - usually lots of sun, but with a crispness to the air which I really enjoy.

Speaking of the nice weather, I've been trying to take advantage of it as much as possible recently, with several bike rides and some bush walking. I even managed to get Dana to ride her swanky bike all the way up to Gungahlin (around 11km from where we live at the moment) for breakfast the other day, which was a major achievement. I've also helped form a mixed netball team, which has been interesting and very confusing. We're called "Fonzy and the Shark Jumpers" which I've had to explain to many many people. Troglodytes.

To save me the trouble of explaining it again (and you, the reader, the embarrasment of asking) Wikipedia has all the answers and a you tube video of the original is below.

Waterskiing in a leather jacket?!? Will that crazy Fonzy ever learn?

And again!

I think maybe one of the reasons I've been caining the excercise recently (as well as the video games) is that I haven't really been enjoying alcohol that much of late. This may shock those that know me. It's also too expensive, and I'm saving pennies like nothing else to cover the stamp duty on the home, which is due in July, 12 months after we signed the contract. The stamp duty caught be a little off guard as well - I've had the deposit saved for ages, and in my mind the stamp duty was covered by the first home owners grant (and boost). Unfortunately, the timing of things means that this isn't really the case, because the stamp duty needs to be paid up front, before the completion of the house, and the grant/boost are paid as a rebate, straight to the bank, after settlement. This is not really a problem in terms of our ability to pay them, but it is frustrating. I had thought I had the majority of the scraping and saving sorted for the moment.

As a side note, I think the ACT is just about the only place in Australia where I would have to pay stamp duty; all the other states more generous exemptions for first time home buyers. However, the ACT have more limited sources of revenues than other states, so they're less generous with their exemptions.

But the Canberra property situation is for another post.

Anyway, what was supposed to be a quick post has now eaten through half of my lunch break, and I'm starving. I'm off to get some food and buy a dressing gown (the mornings are getting a chill to them). Hopefully should have posts on the house, bush walking, and netball soon, or at least when I can be bothered getting round to resizing pictures.

Rainy weekend

As mentioned in an earlier post, the weekend's plans had revolved around outdoor activities. The foremost of these was a bike ride. It was Dana's birthday this week, and I got her a new bike. It's a pretty sweet bike, in a retro style and a lavender colour. It's an Electra Amsterdam original 3i

Dana's is pretty much as you see here, but it now has a wicker basket on the front for additional "cuteness". It's quite a contrast to the road bike that I ride!

The design has a dew advantages apart from the retro look, or at least according it marketing mumbo-jumbo. These include an enclosed gear system that can't get clogged up and doesn't need servicing regularly (apparently most do, which was news to me). The other is a pretty much completely enclosed chain, which means it lasts longer and you can't get your trousers dirty on it. 

The slightly more questionable benefits are the upright riding position, the big comfy seat and the forward positioning of the pedals, which contribute to a very cruisey ride. I don't know if that will be a benefit on a longer ride, but you can't help but smile when you ride it.

Unfortunately the cycling plans were ruined by Canberra's crazy ass weather. The middle of summer, and what happens? Around 100 mm of rain! It's a massively good thing for Canberra, which is as dry as a nun's nasty dessicated coconut most of the time. 

This is a drainage channel near where we live (we live in Braddon, the channel is in O'Connor). I go running (or walking) on the pathway next to it every morning. It's about 2m deep by about 4 wide across at the top. In this picture it is a gushing torrent!

The drainage channel meets up with a few others, and eventually pours into Lake Burley Griffin eventually. The Lake is artificial, created by Scriviner Dam (not sure of the spelling). There was so much water flowing into the Lake that they had to open the overspill on the dam, which looked pretty awesome.

The picture above (and all the rained out shots) were taken by a friend of mine on the weekend. It's usually dry as a bone on this side of the dam.

The rain also made for some awesome scenery.

It probably seems a little strange how much I'm going on about some rain, but we really don't get much of it in Canberra, and it's been a great thing.

It did mess with our plans for the weekend though. We found an excellent alternative - Season 13 of ER. People may diss this, but I have a real thing for it. I've got pretty much all the seasons that have been released yet (1-13) on my shelf. It's a guilty pleasure that I've taken a bit of flack for, but I care not. It's excellent.

In this season, Weaver has an unexpected career change, and the sassy ambo joins the staff as a doctor. Kovac and Abby have a baby! Pratt's brother comes out of the closet. It's all happening!