A Formal Outing

A quick post again this afternoon.
I have just come home from work and I have to go out this evening. My other half has a formal opening of a new building at her workplace. As one of the executive team she has to be present at such events and it is expected she brings a partner.

That would be me.

It is a suit and tie affair which is ok, except I might wear a tie, let alone a suit a couple of times a year. My workplace has a neat casual dress-code, which usually means jeans and t-shirt level for most people. Even head office doesn’t usually go past a tie. Ah well, the things we do for those we love. I should look on it as practice for looking civilised.
Seriously though, I expect it will be a fun evening I have met many of Deb’s colleagues and they seem like a nice bunch.

It was my birthday on Friday and as partial consolation for edging closer to 50 I got a couple of gift vouchers for Borders and JB Hi-Fi.
With the Borders one I got a couple of books; no fiction, I was in a history mood apparently.
The first:

I have had my eye on Beevor’s D-Day since it came out. I loved his Stalingrad and Berlin. But D-Day has had mixed reviews so I have held off, at least until it wasn’t me paying for it. Maybe I’ll review it once I have a chance to get through it.

The second:
Troop leader by Bill Bellamy is of course looking at the same period. I haven’t read any reviews of it, but it grabbed my eye. Also as I said in a post a little while ago, I am researching bits and pieces for my second novel. This account isn’t directly related to that, but I find personal accounts like this can help me get into the mind space I need to write my characters.

I bought an odd mix of DVDs.



A graphic novel brought to the screen, a study of a famous interview and a twist on a classic romance.
Coupled with the books I bought, I guess it seems I must either be well rounded or suffer hopelessly eccentric tastes.

Until Next time (at least if I don't manage to accidentally hang myself with my tie.)

Of Humble Pie

We have developed a strange obsession with going out into the wide blue yonder what ever the weather. Today for example it is another cold damp day and blowing a gale. What do the household do? Curl up in front of the fire with a good book? Sit and watch the latest DVD? Do anything warm and cosy?
No, not a bit of it. Instead we head off for a picnic.

But the plot thickens and humble pie is called for.
At the insistence of our eldest, we again headed for Mount Donna Buang, in a quest for snow.
Now anyone who has been following my blog during its brief existence, will remember that just under two weeks ago, I wrote very disparagingly about the snow cover up on old Donna.

If a picture is worth a thousand words

As you can see same place but now definitely not the same story.
Admittedly only about six inches cover at the moment, but definitely snow.

My eldest is still girding her loins in preparation for her “wet-pracs”. She says she is feeling a bit more able to face the idea. But the poor thing is still very apprehensive about being physically ill come the day. What is keeping her going is the long term goal.

Given the title of this blog I had better say a little about my literary endeavours.
Basically they can be summed up as: word count - 0.
Too many early starts and late finishes just lately.
Writing and the day job don’t necessarily go together.
Truth be told I am probably spending too much time looking at other peoples blogs as well. But a boy has to have some fun from time to time.

Then again writing or researching are fun, but I find I need much more energy, more focus to work on the book. If I write tired, more often than not I just junk that material when I reread.
So speaking of tired, I ran breakfast at work this morning (we try to provide a service 365 days a year) which means a 5:30 am start. So without further ado goodnight and talk to you next time.

Death and Other Minor Problems

A long, long, day at work today. I had to start early at a breakfast program for homeless people, before going over to anther program that provides emergency relief for homeless and other marginalised people. I couldn’t leave there until I supervised the cleaning this evening.
I know I sound like a real whinger but that is the space I was in when I finally got home. No research tonight, no work on the book, an early night tonight for me.

Ructions at home tonight, our eldest daughter is studying for a degree in speech therapy at Latrobe University. She realised today that her first “wet-pracs” in anatomy are coming up shortly. In other words they will be dissecting and examining human bodies. The poor thing is really struggling with the idea, back in high school she could barely cope with dissections of rats in biology classes.

She is facing a real dilemma she wants to go on with this course, she sees herself making a positive contribution to people with speech difficulties, particularly kids, down the track. Yet, she just can’t see herself getting over her (natural) queasiness. I just hope she finds a way to go on with what she wants.

Also on the subject of death a photo from a lonely graveyard.

This these are graves in the Kiandra Cemetery in the Australian Alps. Started in the 1860’s about fifty burials were recorded here. No trace remains of most graves in the cemetery. And there is even less trace of the town. A goldfields town with a population of up to 7,000 people today it is gone, leaving almost no trace other than these lonely graves near the Snowy Mountain highway.

Just to finish on a brighter note a fiery sunset.

Apollo 11: Jumping on the bandwagon

I am still working on researching Red Army equipment. If I didn’t enjoy research nearly as much as writing I think it would have driven me mad by now. Anyway in the spirit of procrastination I am going to ramble about something totally different.

With so much being said about the 40th anniversary of the 1969 Moon landing I thought I should chip in with my two cents worth. In 1969 many of the signals beamed to earth from the Apollo 11 mission were received by a large dish antenna at the NASA facility at Honeysuckle Creek in NSW Australia. In the forty years since 1969 things have changed a bit.

At Honeysuckle Creek things have probably changed a bit more than in most places.
The American facility at Honeysuckle Creek was closed in 1981 and the Antenna moved to a facility not far away at Tidbinbilla.

All that remains of the US base is the road that leads up the mountain, a few concrete slabs, and a couple of small signs that act as a sort of memorial.
Honey Suckle Creek is now part of the Namadgi National Park and the bush is coming back.

I was up there in Spring last year, the current residents unlike many of the former staff do not usually wear a uniform. Here are a few.

This female Grey Kangaroo has a joey in her pouch.


This is a smaller relative of the Kangaroos, these fellows are Red-necked Wallabys.

I watched this female grazing for some time and then a little face popped out of her pouch she was a mother as well. If you look carefully at this second photo you can see a little face peering out.

There had been drought in the area for some time and with spring came some rain. So I think the locals were taking the opportunity to raise some young while they could.