I return to full time work next week.
For a little while anyway.
It's not teaching and I am so, so honoured to have this opportunity.
Because of the FOUR non disclosure and confidentiality agreements I signed before I started I am not sure how much I can say about the work right now.
Suffice to say, it's pretty important stuff, and that alone makes it exciting.
But lets rewind to the end of 2006.
I had been working in what initially seemed to be the perfect teaching post. Great students, some great colleagues and a beautiful work environment.
I left in pieces.
There is a BRILLIANT line in The West Wing (one of my all time favourite TV series) where the President elect Matt Santos says to a Church congregation: "We are all broken."
Well I was.
I have always been anti bullying and I look back almost in bewilderment at the person I became because of a certain colleague. The old saying "sticks and stones" etc etc
Yeah, whatever.
And constant belittlement.
That's great too.
I decided to resign the day I realised the beta blockers I was taking for stress weren't working anymore. No job, none, is worth that.
And why the hell was I taking them in the first place?
So I quit,
stayed home,
made a delicious chubby baby to add to my crew
and became a domestic goddess
(one who can't cook all that well)
and I worked from home a little too.
And now I am going back to work.
And I'm scared,
because I'm pretty sure I'm still a little broken.
Keep me in your thoughts,
I hope I've papered over the cracks enough to do a GREAT job,
because I really, really want to do this.
And most pressingly of all,
what does a girl wear to work these days?
Shoulderpads are out of fashion still, right?
This is what is known in the trade as a Battered Badger.
Muffin nearly killed me last night. I was on my way to bed and Muffin decided to race me down the stairs – by going between my feet.
The result was that I went head first down the flight of stairs and did a fair amount of damage. Muffin beat me to the bottom – but only just – and my arrival was much less dignified,
I hope you have noticed that I have Blogged on the last two Sundays so that you poor sods who apparently look at my Blog first thing every day do not suffer from blog deprivation on the first working day of the week.
The fact that someone would look at my blog first thing each day is a bit scary but hell – whatever turns you on. Me – I just need a cup of Caruso to get me going.
I think that the photo on yesterday’s Blog was quite the best photo that has ever been taken on my camera.
Unfortunately I didn’t take it – it was taken by the incomparable Mehmet.
The light and shadow is good – and he got birds as well (and possibly an aeroplane in the top left hand corner). An astonishing performance really and much better than I could do.
I did get a reasonable shot of a Bee in the garden at Topkapi and will let you see this in due course.
Cate of course got testy with me ‘It’s a Bee – why are you photographing a Bee?’
Indeed – and why do I photograph railings and carpets?
It is because I am looking for the shot that will be on the front cover of National Geographic. (Although I admit that Bees are a long shot – particularly as I don’t work for National Geographic).
Cate has now become an avid photographer. Apparently taking 10,000 pictures of the same elephants in Zambia has whetted her appetite and I now have to fight her for the camera everywhere we go.
Fair enough I suppose. She wants to do palaces and castles and I want to do Bees and railings so she is certainly going to have a wider audience.
However, in eons to come there will be 10 billion pictures of Topkapi in existence and very few (possibly only one) of the Bees in the Topkapi garden. By then I will be famous and in publications they will say things like.
‘This photograph (‘Bee in motion in Topkapi’) was at the beginning of Badger’s Bee period when he was just beginning to understand the essential essence and post-modern connection of Bees with the fundamental nature of mother earth. His later picture of Bees are more melancholy and reflect the decline of Beedom as we now understand it in the context of the new macho-deconstruct renaissance and the de-Beeing of most of the Earth – which of course is why we are now all dead’.
I note that in the middle of my Bee period Merisi is very much into cups of coffee and I ask you – which is more exciting and evocative – a living Bee or a static cup of coffee.
(We will leave aside the issue that Merisi is a duck eating photographer of some skill and I am not – well yes alright I ate one duck – but I am not a serial duck muncher).
Yes – I thought so – the Bees lose.
I actually think that for the first time ever some of my photos in Istanbul are bearable. I am reading the ‘Complete Book of Digital Photography’ and have learned a few things and will keep practicing assiduously.
Cate now wants ‘a proper camera’ which she somehow thinks is a big camera. Well actually most ‘proper’ cameras are about the same size but apparently one of the troops in Zambia had a colossal telephoto lens and Cate has become fixated on this.
Well – we do need another camera now because Cate rarely lets me have the one we have got so I will get another and make sure it has a lens through which you can see the craters on the moon.
Cate can have this one – and all I need is one with a Bee lens.
But seriously – I am really worried about the Bees – and the Molluscs – no one can tell me about Bees and Molluscs and why they are dying.
Quite frankly, this success of this year's Kakapo breeding season has blown me away completely. A new Kakapo Ranger Diary from Phil reveals that 28 chicks have successfully hatched, with another 9 close to full-term. That brings us up to 119 Kakapos, with the chance of making it to 128. Extrordinary! Fabulous! How cool is THAT?
Cyndy, Heather, Wendy, Zephyr, Hoki and Ruth are currently rearing 2 chicks each and Margeret-Maree, Ellie, Jean, Bella and Alice are rearing 1 chick each. Over the next few days Fuchsia, Lisa and Sarah will hopefully hatch 2 chicks each.
[...]
The next few weeks will give us more of an idea of how the season will develop. The best that we can now hope for is a grand total of 37 chicks!
Shhhh
it's today.
You know.
My "ahem"day.
I've been spoilt and loved. And I am so grateful.
Each year as it ticks over means reflecting and goal setting.
At least it does for me.
DH and I met a family late last year. There was an instant rapport between us. In fact I'm thinking of setting up a mutual adoration society.
Anyway,
today during the school run, I felt very, very tired. It's easy to get weighed down by everything that happens to us and those around us. (Not helped by my youngest deciding to start my "celebrations" early, and by early I mean 4.30 am)
So I was thinking: "I can't do this," the "this" was the running training for our City to Surf. It just seemed like another thing to fit in. Another thing to add to my commitments. I' m starting full time work next week for a while and to say I'm feeling overwhelmed by it is an understatement.
I dropped the kids off and was was greeted with a warm hug and gorgeous gift by our friends. Then they told me how they are going to NEW YORK with three kids in tow to celebrate their upcoming 40ths by running the marathon there!
And on my drive home I thought about this.
Sometimes, when I am so tired that even breathing is an effort, that's all I need.
To be inspired.
Because then I aspire to do and be better.
So I'll be kicking ass in August.
Because if my friends can look beyond the obstacles facing them and do something as incredible as that.
Then 12km?
not a problem!
And for some gratuitous gift admiration, here are some pics of my delightful gifts including delicious cupcakes, some handmade cards, the most exquisite scented candle EVER, loving cards from my kids and the little blue box.....
ETA and my parents just came by and made another wish come true! My photos are going to get a whole lot better! Well they will once I charge the battery, read the manual and work out how to use it!
Thanks to the ever dependable Dave Haddock for pointing out that Radio New Zealand has a couple of Kakapo Parrot related episodes of "Our Changing World" available to download as MP3 podcasts through their RSS feed.
OCW 2009-03-12: Kakapo Rediscovery and Frozen Sperm Bank
A kakapo is rediscovered after being missing for 21 years, and the Sperm Team create a frozen sperm bank25 Kakapo Chicks have hatched with more to come!
OCW 2009-03-26: Science and Kakapo
Science plays an integral role in the Kakapo Recovery Programme, and evolutionary theory has proved a reality on the groundThe first of these programmes refers to the chance re-discovery of Ranji after 21 years. He's pictured on the programme main page here being fitted with a radio transmitter by Alison Ballance, Daryl Eason (centre) and discoverer Chris Birmingham.
Hi, Jessie Becker here, VP of Marketing, with a message for our members who have added Blu-ray access to their accounts. This message does not apply to you if you have not added Blu-ray access to your account.
The number of titles available for us to purchase on Blu-ray has increased significantly. Our Blu-ray selection has grown more than 60% in just 6 months to over 1,300 titles, and is continuing to expand quickly. Blu-ray adoption among our members has also grown – it’s now close to 10%. As we buy more, you are able to choose from a rapidly expanding selection of Blu-ray titles. And as you’ve probably heard, Blu-ray discs are substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs – often as much as 30% more.
We’re committed to providing a high quality Blu-ray experience for our members who choose to add Blu-ray access, and in order to do that we need to adjust Blu-ray pricing. As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for most plans and will now vary by plan.
If you have added Blu-ray access to your account, this change will take effect on your next billing date on or after April 27, 2009. You will also receive an email from us letting you know the monthly charge for your plan. (Members who do not have Blu-ray access today and add it to their account in the future will see the new prices as of today.)
To avoid any confusion, here are the charges for each of the plans.
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If you don’t want to pay the additional charge for monthly access to Blu-ray, simply remove Blu-ray access on your account before April 27, 2009. Thanks.
Jessie
(Yes I know – most of you Europeans have already been there but it is a long way from Australia).
It certainly knocked my socks off.
Our driver was Mehmet. This is the name of a great number of men in Istanbul – all of whom own or have connections with carpet shops.
Mehmet was the driver for Cate and Larry during their week in Istanbul so Cate and I decided to let our heads go and take him on for a day and a half so that we could see as much as possible. Cate was buoyed by the potential saving of $600 on the $46,000 carpet so was feeling pretty good.
I told her that I thought that once you left the store the rules were that you had to start again so this knocked her about a bit and made her ears bleed again but I said that, If we ever went into a carpet shop again, I would do the first 10 hours of negotiations and she cheered up immensely.
Mehmet was an outstanding guide and was very solicitous of us. (It was his avowed intention to get us to buy a rug and he was not about to let anyone else rob us until he had his go).
So anytime we tried to spend anything at all he would berate the merchant, or store owner, or potential guide and make them give us a discount.
His crowing achievement was when I bought a Simit (circular bread with Sesame seeds) for Cate. This cost 1 Turkish Lira (about 1/2 of a Euro) and Mehmet made the poor blighter give me a 25% discount.
I wanted to give this back to the man but Mehmet was watching me like a hawk.
(It would have been better if he had been watching my camera bag. Someone made off with this and I lost a telephoto lens and other bits and pieces).
He was very solicitous of us – particularly me – and always helped me in and out of the car. He stood in the road and stopped the traffic when we wanted to cross. He moved people out of the way when we wanted to take photos and he made some poor sod in a tram move so that Cate would have a pole to lean against.
He apparently knows everyone in Istanbul. Anytime we wanted to go anywhere or park anywhere at all he knew the man who was running the place and exchanged secret handshakes - and was always allowed to do what he wanted to do.
And he took us everywhere we wanted to go – all over the place. We took 600 photos and you will see a small selection of these.
He would consider the trip a failure because we did not buy a carpet from any of his his uncles or cousins – but we were really happy.
On Saturday he sent in reinforcements. He asked if we wanted a guide for Topkapi and when we said yes he made a phone call and a young lady appeared to show us the Palace – and yes – talk about carpets.
We left her at the end of the tour but she reappeared later and took us to the Basilica Cistern. I think she was supposed to talk about carpets – and conducted a number of animated phone calls – but did not push us at all.
She said that she is supposed to get people to carpet shops but doesn’t really try very hard. If they say no she just stops asking.
Well – you are never going to make it in Istanbul with an attitude like that and I imagine that she is now receiving remedial training.
On Friday night we went to a very trendy restaurant called Vogue which was on level 14 of an office block. Astonishingly good food and we had our first bottle of Turkish white wine – which was also quite delightful.
On Saturday we went to Naz, the traditional Turkish restaurant attached to the hotel. The food was just amazing and – all things considered – not too expensive at all. We had two more bottles of Turkish white wine – and – not content with that – went back to listen to Larry singing in Les Ambassadeurs Bar.
He was delighted to see me and said that things were improving in Zimbabwe since they started paying the Public Servants in US Dollars.
He also sang ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ and ‘Pennies from Heaven’ for me.
Cate had to work on Sunday so I crept around the hotel taking pictures of carpets and railings (which I won’t bother showing you).
There are, as far as I can see, no ducks in Istanbul – but Merisi may have been there before me.
I must confess – I ate a duck – or part of one – on Friday night and it was terrific (sorry guys). I will not tell the troops in Stadtpark about this traitorous act.
I am able to tell you with some degree of confidence that arguably the most incompetent and assuredly the most unhappy shop assistant in Turkey works in Gloria Jeans in Istanbul airport. He is worthwhile checking out if you are there (his name is probably Mehmet) – and his unhappiness may be because there are no opportunities to sell carpets in Gloria Jeans.
I was very lucky to escape from him without receiving a good thrashing but as punishment for my cheek he provided us with two unspeakably bad cups of coffee and a very, very old and stale cookie.
Cate is off the Prague today but I may not be able to join her on Thursday as she may have to come back early.
I will put a bunch of Istanbul photos on the blog soon and the rest of the 600 will be on Flickr.
Bandit is rather battered but is on the mend. The vet is so pleased with his handiwork that after he gets paid he is retiring to the South of France.
Our hotel in Istanbul was magnificent. It had a view overlooking the Bosphorus. The room was somewhat larger than my room in Paris. In fact the bathroom there was larger than my room in Paris.
I keep forgetting how important and powerful Cate is. I think I will travel with her more often.
Rozalin arranged for a car to pick me up at the airport in Istanbul and take me to the hotel. While I still of course have to pay for this – she thought it would be nice for me to get to the end of the trip and have a man waiting for me with my name on a sign.
It has been a long time since this happened as it is many years now since I was a Very Important Banker (when this type of thing was a regular occurrence).
Cate rang early in the morning and said ‘You will have to get a taxi at the airport’
‘No, no’ I said ‘I have a car picking me up’
‘No you don’t’ she said ‘Larry (Cate’s boss) and I need it’
‘Oh Gosh – it must be important’ I said
Of course I was thinking (what else) that Giant Sea Monsters had devoured all the hire cars in Istanbul except mine and Cate and Larry needed to pick up the Chairman of Ducky Pharma from the airport – fair enough – can’t argue with that – could hardly ask the Chairman to share a car with me.
‘It is’ says Cate ‘We have to go the Grand Bazaar’
Excuse me?
Well I guess you can’t carry a Turkish Rug back to the hotel in a Taxi.
It is apparently a regulation in Turkey that every foreigner who goes there must end up in a shop that sells Turkish rugs. There are probably 100,000 of these in Istanbul. You will be manoeuvred there by someone - a driver, tour guide, hotel employee.
You can be certain that someone has been assigned to get you there!
Suffice to say that Cate ended up after the Grand Bazaar in a shop that sells Turkish Rugs. The asking price for the rug she really liked was US Dollars 46,000. Upon hearing this price her brain exploded and blood came out of her ears and she had to be brought round with many glasses of Turkish Tea.
After strenuous negotiations over three hours she had got the price down to $45,400 but had to suspend negotiations to do some more work. There was still a fair gap between the asking price and her maximim spend of €2,000.
With the benefit of hindsight – peak hour is not the best time to arrive in Istanbul. The roads seem to have been planned by the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority – and have been carpet bombed extensively by someone during the last few months.
The Taxi Driver asked me either (I simply could not understand his accent)Do you want to see the abandoned abattoir on the way into the city, or
Do you want me to take the beach road or the highway.
I am not sure which it was but I told him to take me where I was going as quickly as possible, that people knew I was coming, that I had already sent his taxi number to Cate by SMS and that if he killed and ate me he could expect swift and sure retribution.
Although I am not sure – it may the same as in Vienna where people who kill and eat tourists have their own float in the Harvest Festival (behind the float with the serial kidnappers and cellar dwellers).
At the end of a very, very long journey, the average speed of which was probably no more than 15 KPH, he relieved me of an extraordinary number of Turkish Woggles and went on his merry way – probably to a slap up dinner with his family.
And by the way, I am never, ever driving in Istanbul – unless I have a guarantee that my taxi driver is out of town.
People do funny things. They have the weird system in Turkey where everyone who comes in from most anywhere has to have a Visa – which most of them can get on arrival.
So the first thing you do is to line up to get your Visa. This is a very quick process as the person issuing the Visa does not look at your passport except to open it at a blank page and put a stamp in it (like a large postage stamp) – and collect (in my case) 15 Euros.
So it is purely a revenue raising exercise – so why not just increase the airport departure tax? Why create a separate bureaucracy to make people line up to cough up 15 Euros? Perhaps the Minister in charge of airports has some children who are not intellectually gifted and needed something to do – so he bought them the Visa concession.
Before I left Vienna I went into the book shop and bought a Lonely Planet guide to Istanbul. It cost me Euros 27.50. Suffering Succotash – I can get one of Cate’s frocks dry cleaned for that sort of money. Serves me right for not buying it from Amazon months ago.
Advice follows: If you enter a hotel room in Istanbul and see an open tin of mixed nuts do not assume that they are SHELLED mixed nuts and down a handful. Some of them may be unshelled Pistachio nuts – which in the dim light of a hotel room at dusk look surprisingly like shelled nuts.
This advice is so that you do initially think that you have broken every tooth in your mouth and then do not spend an inordinate amount of time removing very small and sharp pieces of Pistachio nut shells from your mouth, teeth and gums.
We had a wonderful dinner on Thursday night in a restaurant called Topaz which overlooks the Bosphorus and a very large mosque. It is a spectacular sight indeed.
Larry hosted this and we swapped near death experiences stories about climbing mountains (Larry) and diving (us). His story about the Argentinian soccer team eating each other in the Andes was a real ripper and kept us entertained all the way through the main course.
We had the Ottoman menu which was typically Turkish food – and was wonderful.
After this Cate and Larry went back to work and I cruised round all the bars in the hotel – moving on as each one closed – until Cate finally appeared at 2.00 AM and took the remains back to the room.
It’s a pity because a Robert Mugabe lookalike was singing in one of the bars and between sets I had long conversations with him about the global recession and economic conditions in Zimbabwe. I was just about to tackle him about his human rights record when Cate took me away.
His name is Larry O'Neill and it is worth going to Istanbul just to sit in the bar an hear him sing. He does a wicked version of ‘Pennies from Heaven’.
The country that my brother played football for is Papua New Guinea.
We named the Rhinoceros Malcolm. If it had been a Dinosaur it would have been John.
Audio
LD – Traumatic times – Hyperdub
Dub Terror – Stormloop lightning (interlude) - Universal Egg mp3
Pendle Coven - Unit_6 – Modern Love
Hilde Marie Kjersem - Mary full of grace – Rune Grammofon
Little Joy – Don’t watch me dancing – Rough Trade
Moondog – A duet with Queen Elizabeth whistle and bamboo pipe – Honest Jons
Onra – Clap clap – Favorite
Raymond Scott - Cyclic bit – Basta
Animal Hospital – Nostalgia – Barge
Moondog – Oboe round – Honest Jons
Justin Hinds & the Dominoes – Once a man – Attack
Mr. Bojangles – Ten Dread Commandments – Well Dread
Sensational Happy Travellers - March theme – Mississippi Records
Kelly Joe Phelps – Little family – Black Hen Music
Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics – Blue nile – Strut
Mamane Barka – Kiota – Introducing/World Music Network
Tosca – Mrs.Bongo - !K7 Records
MLZ - Untitled - Mean 09
Bovill - QSG2 - Mean 017 (Released Spring)
Ultramarine - Hooter (Carl Craig) Beatless Outake
Move D + BouillaBass - Sweet Heni - Phil E 2007
Seth Troxer - Love Never Sleeps (Original Mix) - crosstown Rebels
Rob Hood - Slightly - Peacefrog
Deadbeat - Abu Graib (tension dub) - Scape
Mikkel Metal - Untitled (Bus Rmx) - Echochord
Claro Intellecto - Beautiful Death - Modern Love
Remote - Tundra - Permafrost
Murmer - Veld - Undertone
Dub Tractor - Hum Pt 2 - Hobby Industries
Isobel Shepherd-Smith has a nice article on The Times website about the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation and how it has been working to bring back native creatures from the brink of extinction. The article ticks many of the Last Chance To See boxes with mentions of Carl Jones, Dodos, Mauritius Kestrels, Pink Pigeons, Echo Parakeets, Gerald Durrell, Round Island, and Rodrigues.
In the Seventies the kestrel, the only raptor on the island, was one of the rarest birds in the world – only four lived in the wild. Today there are more than 800.
In 1980 the number of pink pigeons barely made double figures; 27 years later there were 380. In the 1980s the emerald green echo parakeet numbered little more than a dozen; now there are well over 300.
[...]
“At the start of this conservation work in the 1970s the future of the endemic species in Mauritius and Rodrigues seemed bleak and many thought that few could be saved from extinction. Thirty years later the long-term conservation of all the Mascarene [Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues] endemics is within our grasp.”
Mon - 7 miles on the mill.
Tues - 8 miles easy on Horestooth trails (1,650 feet). Super slow due to nasty cold.
Weds - 9 miles at Horsetooth (1,200 feet). Really fatigued/sick on this run. Probably should have just stayed in bed.
Thurs - 8 miles on the mill. Felt much better, although anything in the sixes was still very labored.
Fri - 8 miles. 0:56. On the bike paths in town. Able to run a few faster miles.
Sat - 21 miles (1,300 feet) on the road. 2:44. Down to JJs, then north on Taft to Mulberry, west to Overland and back south to the stadium, up over the dam back to 38E and home.
Felt much better on this run. Bumped into Corey H as I was cresting the dam on the way home and we ran together for a bit. He had already been out for four hours when I saw him, with one more hour to get home. He's all paid up to do Leadman this year (Leadville 100 (bike and run), marathon, 10k, and Silver Rush 50) and looks to be depositing some serious training into the bank. Hopefully he'll have enough withdrawals available this summer to get him through. Thirty minutes later, on my final climb home, I bumped into Bryan G. Funny to see both these trail guys on the roads after having seen nothing of them on the trails all winter.
Sun - 14 road miles (700 feet). 1:46. Met a group from the Fort Collins Trail Runners at Maxwell. Ran the first eight miles of the Horsetooth Half Marathon course, looping back around on Overland to Maxwell for 14 miles with 700-800 feet of climbing through the opening couple of hills, and on Bingham. I'm always blown away by the views up on the northeast side of the reservoir. Today it was crystal clear out, the sun was blazing and the foothills looked beautiful blanketed in snow. Legs felt good from Saturday, so pushed a bit up the hills and in places elsewhere. Paced with Victoria F up the hills and on much of the flats. She's training for the half in three weeks and the Fort Collins Marathon in early May. I'd say she has a decent shot at winning one or both races. She was in the middle of a 20 miler and running strong.
Total: 75 miles (4,850 feet of vertical)
Although the weather and my health were conspiring against me this week, I still managed to get decent mileage in. For the same reasons, I didn't do much climbing, which is probably a good thing as I was able to up the pace a bit with road and treadmill runs. Beginning to feel like I am getting some leg speed back. The treadmill remains a chore, but it felt good to run roads and be able to open up a bit.
Running through a nasty cold is not a whole lot of fun, but on balance I would say it was worth it, especially in terms of building mental and intestinal fortitude. Sometimes the most rewarding runs are those that you get done despite major internal protest.
Hi, this is Todd Yellin, Director of Product Management at Netflix. We are rolling out several features to delight our members with a more personalized website that puts an emphasis on movie discovery. Some of you have already enjoyed the new experience; we expect all members to have it within the next week.
As we do with all new features, we will rapidly iterate and improve on what we launch—particularly on the ability to mix and match categories to improve on the personalized genres we offer. Any feedback you have is appreciated as we strive to perfect and expand these features.
The features include:
Taste Preferences: The ability to set taste preferences across a variety of moods (e.g. feel-good, dark, goofy, gritty, etc.); storylines (e.g. courtroom, dinosaurs, mid-life crisis, etc.); qualities (e.g. critically-acclaimed, visually-striking, etc.); and other category types, on a new, easier, three button system.
Some of the rows will be based on what the member explicitly sets. Others will be based on a member’s recent activity.
Please comment on what you find helpful and suggest possible areas of improvement so we can continue to take personalized movie discovery to the next level for you.
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Bandit (thinking). Jeez that was unexpected. I thought he was just sniffing my bottom but he was just sizing me up to eat me.
Well I am never going to let anyone sniff my bottom again – hmmm – that may be an overreaction – well they can sniff my bottom but I am going to watch them very closely – not sure how I will do that – perhaps I can put my head between my legs - will have to think about it.
Anyway if it had been a fair fight I would have given that bruiser what for and could have certainly badly mauled his right paw while he was eating me - as long as he ate my head last of course.
And what was that guy in the white coat doing sticking things up my bum – what is his problem.
Green and Pink - I cannot believe they have kitted me out in Green and Pink. Are these people colour blind or do they just lack all sense of light and colour.
And the smiley faces - oh sure that makes me feel a whole lot better.
Jeez I feel terrible – I am so crook I don’t think I will piss on the lounge tonight – well maybe I will feel better later – or just let go here – dad loves it when I piss on his leg -or vomit - I may vomit - where is the rug.
Mind you – given the size of Bandit – Muffin could give him a good thrashing without any trouble at all.
He has been at death’s door and we are hoping that he will pull through. To encourage Bandit through this difficult time I have put another picture of him on the Blog. I am waiting to hear from David and will let you know immediately there is any news.
We live such busy lives (well – one of us does) that we have had to buy a planner to hang on the wall in my study.
On this I am starting to put Cate’s trips (12 planned this years but there will be others as we go along and catastrophes occur in far flung places in Cate's empire), my trips and our visitors – who are mainly towards the end of the year.
If there is anyone out there who hasn’t booked their accommodation at Am Heumarkt you should get in early because we are filling up fast. Latecomers will have to sleep in the spare room next to the kitty litter.
When we were trudging together through the sewers of Paris, Melissa regaled me with stories about how much she was terrified of and hated rats. To help her overcome this problem I have sent her ‘The Story of Rats’ from Amazon. I hope this helps – but of course it may just send her over the edge and so she will require therapy.
When she has finished that I will lend her my duck book in case she wants to start a breeding program (unlikely but you never know).
My son Alistair was kind enough to pass on a lingering cough that he's had for the last week or so. I thought I'd dodged the bullet, but started coming down with symptoms on Sunday. I've had a full-blown, throat-racking cough ever since, accompanied by nasal blockages and general phlegmy nastiness.
I love you buddy, but you got to stop passing on your germs!This week is a pretty key week in my training cycle - falling four weeks out from a target 50-mile race (Fruita) and 12 weeks out from Big Horn - and I had really wanted to accumulate some big miles on top of 80+ miles last week.
So far I have struggled through a seven miler on the treadmill and an eight-mile hill run, which was a monumental struggle. Despite a general lack of energy yesterday on the hills, I was able to get around and found that the run helped clear a lot of the crap that had been blocking me up. I mean I was blowing out some trophy-sized rockets.
After getting out there and suffering through the run yesterday, I concluded that the benefits of the run outweighed the negatives of draining my body of the energy it needs to fight the virus. I figured there were three big benefits from yesterday's run:
1. My system felt like it was processing less oxygen and therefore might be simulating an altitude run. My breathing felt similar to runs I do at 10,000-11,000 feet.
2. I cleared a bunch of crap from my system and felt notably better for the next couple of hours, plus I worked up an appetite that had been lacking all day.
3. Although it took about six hours to convince myself to get out the door, in doing so I was able to scratch another little notch in the mental-fortitude bed post that I'll be able to draw from when times get tough in June at Big Horn.
Probably all bogus, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I just hope she can keep it up because I really like my lifestyle.
I enquire regularly about her health and make sure I feed her nutritious meals with lots of roughage.
She moved rooms in her hotel. She had a ‘garden’ room but wanted a view of the Bosphorus. She cannot see the Blue Mosque but it is not far away.
She has confirmed my worst fears that Istanbul is heaving with ancient buildings – all of which she will want to explore from top to bottom. Me? I am happy to sit in a café and watch the people passing by.
(Of course – it matters not to me where I am as long as I am with my darling Cate).
I will take lots of photos – or perhaps I will ask Merisi for some of hers. I am sure she has been to Istanbul and her photos will be a lot better than mine.
What I like about Merisi’s Blog is that it is as pure as the driven snow. There is no clutter and no screen real estate. Just her photos and commentary. No reference to other Blogs (this would be beneath her) as she is an artist and I respect that.
It would be better if she didn’t eat my ducks – but what the hell – even artists have to eat.
‘The Duck Handbook’ has finally arrived from Amazon. This is chock full of amazing facts about ducks including that (I bet most of you didn’t know this) the incubation period for Mallards is 26 -29 days.
I have not yet mentioned to Cate that I am starting a Duck breeding program on the terrace and that there will be a need for some grass and a large wading pool. However I have worked out how this will fit around the new outdoor furniture which will in fact provide much needed shade in summer.
On really hot days they will have to come inside but they can go in the guest bedroom – or – if we have guests – in my study. Cate can close her door so that the quacking doesn’t stop her from doing whatever it is she does to keep me in luxury.
Did I mention the disastrous adventure on Saturday when we didn’t buy outdoor furniture?
We went to three different places where Cate sneered at the furniture on offer. It seemed perfectly acceptable to me but it was apparently either ‘pitiful, ‘awful’ or ‘disgusting’. Makes you wonder why they bothered making it really.
I mentioned this to the man on the way out of Dehner but he lacked my sense of humour and he gave me one of those looks that says ‘get out of my sight you ghastly snivelling worm like creature’ which is learned by all shop assistants in Wien for dealing with unruly customers.
So I guess we will do what we normally do and at the last possible moment we will buy something that Cate hates and every time she sees it (which will be about hourly) she will say ‘I hate that outdoor furniture’ and I will say ‘Do you dear – that’s so sad’.
This happens at the moment with almost every piece of furniture we have bought – not just here – but EVER.
I think I've just solved a curious Internet Explorer error that was causing text to appear and disappear strangely. I'm almost exclusively a Firefox user these days and haven't looked at the site in IE for ages. I'm not sure how long its been in that state. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
With the debate over global warming slowly shifting towards action, Al Gore's follow up to An Inconvenient Truth promises to open the way for on the ground change and real solutions. Our Choice, his latest book, is set for release on November 3rd, 2009.
Today Vice President Gore announced that his next book, Our Choice, will be published by Rodale in the US and by other publishers internationally on November 3, 2009. Picking up where An Inconvenient Truth left off, Our Choice utilizes Mr. Gore’s forty years of experience as a student, policymaker, author, filmmaker, entrepreneur and activist to comprehensively describe the real solutions to global warming. A co-recipient of the Nobel Peace prize in 2007 for his environmental work, Mr. Gore continues to make sense of the pressing issues we face and Our Choice will unquestionably inspire and rally those ready to fight for solutions that were deemed impossible only a short time ago.
Said the Vice President, "It is time for a comprehensive global plan that actually solves the climate crisis. Our Choice will answer that call.”
It can't come soon enough.
Kevin and Kristy Frew came into town on Sunday to hang out with us. We took in some good eats and then caught a spring training game. Its always fun going to a baseball game with friends. The game was great. The Marlins held the Tigers to a no hitter. We still saw some great plays and had a great time. What a weekend!
MSNBC.com covers the story of two Komodo Dragons who attacked fruit-picker Muhamad Anwar on Komodo Island after he fell out of an apple tree. He died at a Flores clinic a short time later.
He was bleeding badly from bites to his hands, body, legs and neck after two lizards, waiting below, attacked him, according to a neighbor, Theresia Tawa.[...]
There have been several other attacks in recent months, according to Metro TV.
The reptiles, which can grow up to 10 feet long and weigh as much as 150 pounds, have shark-like serrated teeth and a bite that can be deadly. Its saliva contains roughly 50 different known bacteria strains, so infection is a risk.
I waited to see the Doctor for 1 ½ hours, the wind is sending Muffin loopier than usual, someone in Germany has stolen our kittens – and Merisi is eating my ducks.
As we are on the top floor the wind howls around the outside of the apartment and – just like it did in Sydney – sends Muffin leaping around the house in a complete tizz.
When I went to see the Doctor it was warm and sunny and I took my jacket off as soon as I got there because it was so hot. When I came out 2 hours! later it was absolutely freezing and I had to run home. This is a very strange place weather-wise.
The German kittens which were due to come to Wien have instead been kidnapped by some insensitive Germans and didn’t get across the border. However, Rozalin is putting plan B into place and we have no doubt that soon we will have an appropriate number of kittens.
We have decided anyway that the kittens were the wrong colour – and because of their origins would have been too Teutonic for Muffin.
And I still haven’t been to the fitness centre because I am going to Istanbul on Thursday and next week Cate is going to Prague on Monday and I am following her on Wednesday. So there doesn’t seem to be much point in trying to get into a program until I can stick at it for a couple of weeks.
But I am walking every day and eating lots of salads. Oh YUM!
Cate is flying to Prague and I am driving Billy – and I am sure that he will enjoy the outing. I will pay close attention to speed limits and try not to get exasperated when BMWs howl past me at 200 KPH.
To enhance my salads I bought some of these strange looking things that they have in Spar here in bottles and appear to be different types of pickled things. Some of them I can identify but others may require forensic analysis.
Anyway – they taste – in general – quite interesting. Some more so than others – so I will keep experimenting. I haven’t had the courage to try the fishy things in jars yet but am working up to it.
Unconvinced by Cate’s experiment with Gruner Veltliner - Melissa did a test to see if her laptop could be killed by orange juice. It could.
I think these are both convincing demonstrations and no one out there need try it again.
12.Hawaii
In my mind, the answer to the question has never really mattered.
Because the fact is, they are both here. The chicken and the egg.
I see it as like so many things in life. It happens, and so we deal with it as best we can. I am constantly awed at how well people handle what life throws at them.
So it got me thinking, this week, as I rapidly approach another birthday (in this case, mine) I will focus on the positive things in my life.
I'll save my anxiety post for another time!
Now this list is moveable, but for this week they are:
1) My family ( in unison sigh and say "awwww") but seriously, they are all fab.I am constantly awed by their capacity to grow and challenge me to do and be better.
2) Jill and Michele are having a baby(ies)! I am thrilled for both of them because they have both been through so much and I am very much looking forward to maxing out my card on their baby showers in a few months time!
3) I am loving running again
4) Tied to this is my newfound love for I-tunes downloads. Sometimes running can be a bit, well, painful, but listening to a rousing version of Nickelback can really inspire a girl.
5) Thanks to Carly, I have done things I never dreamed possible (Whispered Support) AND I have discovered I love photography. This is NOT the same as being good at it. But I am going to start tapping my brother Mr R, who is a professional photographer for tips, and just watch me improve people!
5) Just today I feel really content. And for someone whose mind runs a mile a minute. That's just well, fabulous. Kind of like my makeover from the divine Miss Danielle!!!! Thank you so much for making me pretty! She has a free makeover competition running right now, so head over if you want to bag yourself a new look!
So for those of you who like to think about the question of which came first, I leave you with Miss B, who also spent some time today pondering the same question........
Hi, Mike Hart here from product development at Netflix. As you know, we’ve been introducing ways for people to experience Netflix beyond our website with such things as mobile apps, adding movies to your queue from NYT or Rotten Tomatoes and of course all of the Netflix ready devices. Today we are adding to that experience by integrating with Facebook Connect. You now have the option to post movies you’ve rated in your Facebook profile. To link your Netflix and Facebook accounts, you will use the “Connect” button on the Netflix member site at http://www.netflix.com/facebookconnect. You will of course have the ability to opt-in or out at any time. As always, we appreciate your feedback.
It is so windy that they have had to tether the ducks in Stadtpark to stop them from being blown to Bregenz. I will see if I can get a photo.
We visited Restaurant Walter Bauer on Friday night. It is a delightful restaurant in Sonnenfelsgasse and was one of our best culinary experiences to date. Excellent food and outstanding service.
We had the Degustation menu with the specially chosen wines. Each dish was a delight and the accompanying wine was – in the main – just perfect.
Cate was so enamoured of the wine that accompanied the opening item (which for some strange reason was a sweet dessert wine – but absolute nectar) that she tossed off three more glasses at the end of the meal while I had half a glass of Port.
Fortunately Herr Bauer and I were able to stop her from dancing the Can Can for the large table of Baker and McKenzie lawyers and I got her home in one piece where she fell asleep on Muffin’s rug.
It was of course (and needless to say in Wien) horrendously expensive so we won’t be going there very often.
On our Wiener Restaurants scale - 7/10. This awards points for ambiance, service, food and value for money. Most restaurants in Wien fall at this last hurdle.
(Ein Weiner Salon would be 9 on this scale).
However, it has been earmarked as the next project for when Gwenyth comes to Wien and have to have a really special knees up.
We can't really use Ein Wien Salon for a proper knees up as it is very small and the kitchen adjoins the dining room - and there is no door.
(We are assuming that the Indochine 21 people will still not have forgotten us by then and that our photos will still be in their window surrounded by a Skull and Crossbones).
Well we have to start planning our trip to Australia in July. The timing is going to be tight because Cate has (of course) meetings at both ends.
Cate has four days in Peoria before the trip starts and then goes to Hong Kong at the end of our two weeks in Australia.
Cate’s company (Ducky Pharmaceuticals) has outsourced its travel and employee management processes to another company (Goosy Gander).
What it usually means is that it then takes ten times as long to get anything done, it is usually done very badly indeed, it costs ten times as much and the employees get screwed in spades on an ongoing basis.
Rozalin has had quite an hysterical exchange of emails with them about our trip.
I was expected to pay my own fare to Peoria because it ‘was not the most direct way to Australia’. This would have been very expensive indeed and it would have been much cheaper for us (and much more expensive for Ducky) for Cate to fly back to Vienna and for us to leave from here.
Rozalin explained that as Cate had to go to Peoria on business it was hardly reasonable that we have to fly to Australia separately by different routes on home leave.
‘Oh Duh but woddabout dah rules?’
Rozalin was able to use cutting edge logic to demonstrate to Goosy Gander that it was much more cost effective for us both to go to Australia via the USA on around the world tickets.
i.e. she said to Goosy Gander ‘if we do it your way it will cost three times as much’
The side benefit is that we can go to Vienna, Virginia to see the cats Steve and Sophie (We may also see Will and Kris the cat minders).
We are very pleased that my ancient and venerable brother Burne and his wife Jan are coming to visit us in October.
They are re-turfing the greens at his bowling club in Sydney so he has a few weeks to kill and has decided that Vienna is the best place to be at the end of the football season.
I have promised him that Australian beer is readily available in Wien and that he will be able to watch endless replays of Australian Rules Football in the Billabong.
Actually he doesn’t need endless replays now as after one beer he falls asleep and as he is quite small I will throw him over my shoulder and carry him home through Stadtpark past the Duck pond.
It is a little know fact that my brother played Australian Rules Football at an international level and represented a country.
No the country was not Australia.
You can have a guess if you like and I will reveal the secret next week.
Some important news from Australia.
Anna Bligh has claimed victory in the Queensland state election, becoming the first woman elected as premier in Australia.
Sure we have had women Premiers before - but normally they are bequeathed the rotting corpse of a State when the male leader who drove a stake through its heart bails out just before the election.
Inevitably the girl then loses the un-winnable election and another bloke takes over.
Mon - 6 miles easy (750 feet). Milner. Legs felt surprisingly good after Salida Marathon on Saturday, despite a bit of soreness in the thighs and lower butt.
Tues - 8 miles easy/tempo (1,700 feet). 1:07. Started feeling pretty good once warmed up, so decided to push the pace a bit. Pushed hardest, but not too hard, on the downs. As much as I hate to push downhills in training, it is currently my biggest weakness, so have decided to start working the quads a bit more.
Weds - 10.5 miles (850 feet). 1:11:36. Out and back on Blue Sky trail to Coyote Ridge. Pushed relatively hard. 35:31 out, 36:00 back. With most of the climbing coming back, was happy to run relatively even splits. Over four minutes faster than the last time I ran this hard.
Thurs - 12 miles (2,500 feet). 1:54. Mill Creek route. Legs were heavy and tired from last two workouts, but was able to grind it out without too much misery. Saw a flock (gaggle?) of wild turkeys on the back side of Mill Creek. First turkey sightings for me in the park - beats rattlesnakes or cougars.
Fri - 27.5 miles (1,800 feet). 3:36. Original plan was to do 31 miles, but decided to nip things in the bud before I completely blew up. Out and back to JJs, then out and back on Redstone Canyon. Turned at the 5 mile marker on Redstone, rather than going all the way to 6.5. Was working on a bowl of cereal and four pieces of toast, so felt pretty run down over the last 7 or 8 miles. Only had one Cliff Shot (double espresso) and I'm still feeling sick (3 hours later) from it. Don't think gels are going to do it for me in long-distance races. Glad I'm finding that out now. 52:06 to JJs (7 miles); 50:21 to Horsetooth Mountain Park (6.5); 13:35 to Redstone (1.8); 40:24 to turn (5); 39:17 back (5); 20:19 home (2.3).
Sat - 9 miles (1,200 feet). 1:24. Spring Creek to Stout to Sawmill to Loggers to Carey Springs to Towers to Herrington to Spring Creek, Soderburg, Horsetooth and home. Legs heavy from Friday's run, but very little soreness. A lot of huffing and puffing in the early going.
Sun - 9.5 miles (3,000 feet). 2:00 ish, 1:10 up. Round Mountain with Chad. Took it pretty easy after a hard post-marathon week. Was feeling it on the way down.
Total: 82.5 miles (11,800 feet of vertical)
I wanted to build on a hard effort in Salida last weekend to get my body accustomed to running while fatigued. After feeling decent on a recovery run Monday, I decided to burn my legs with a couple of harder, faster workouts Tuesday and Wednesday and then tried to put in as many miles and vertical feet as my schedule allowed for the rest of the week. My diet was pretty poor, in that I didn't consume nearly enough calories, so I probably suffered a little more than I needed to, but I definitely got my legs working while fatigued, which was the main goal for the week.
The Fruita 50 is four weeks away now, so I want to get another big mileage week in this week, with a long run hopefully in the 30s. I'll probably cut back gradually from there to Fruita, but we'll see how it goes. I don't work from a structured training plan and pretty much take it day by day, so things often work out different than I envision at the beginning of the week.
I'd just like to wish Becki the very best of luck in her training for the London Marathon on the 26th of April. She's making her own rhino costume to raise funds for Save The Rhino. You can read about her progress and sponsor her at BeckiSavesTheRhinos.
We have found the best restaurant in Wien. It is called Ein Wiener Salon and it is just brilliant. The website is
http://www.einwienersalon.com/Home.html
The Chef is Felix and his partner is Sven and together they have developed a wonderful venue with brilliant ambience and sensational food.
And – it is not (by Viennese standards) expensive. 6 courses for €57 is positively frugal living by the standards in this city.
Audio
Bob Marley & the Wailers – Is this love? (Dubmatix reversion)
Mitsuhiro Toike - (Taste of) Honey dew – Grand Gallery
Various Productions – Tricycle – Various Productions
Kode9 – 2 far gone – Hyperdub
N/k – 3 Coins in a fountain –
Nico – These days – Verve Polydor
World’s End Girlfriend - Birthday resistance – Human Highway Records
Kashiwa Daisuke - About moonlight – Noble / Midi-Creative
Claro Intelecto - Trial and error – Modern Love
Tapes – Ticker tape – Jahtari
Delmak – n.o.w.h.e.r.e. – Fantome
Brendon Moeller & paul St. Hilaire – Where’s the sunshine (Intrusion sunset dub) mp3
King Cannibal ft Face-A-Face - Virgo - Ninja Tune
Tomoroh Hidari - Shranzall - Record Label Records
Maceo Parker - Rabbits in the Pea Patch - ESC Records
Hell Fire Preachers - Losers Paradise - Tombstone Records
Dean MacPhee - Water Burial - World in Winter
Paddy Steer - The Blob - Red Deer Club
The Real Tuesday Weld - Last Words - Antique Beat
Blick Bassy - Donalina - World Connection
Eddie Halliday - Amnesia - nt recordings
B12 - Freeflow - B12
Lizzy's Ranger Diary for March 18th tells us that there are now 111 Kakapos in the world, with 20 hatched this spring/autumn (depending on your hemispheric perspective). I'm sure you agree that this is the most positive Last Chance To See news we've had in the 5 years I've been running this site. Most excellent.
the eggs of inexperienced young mums being given to older birds for safe-keeping. Six are being looked after by the kakapo team and doing well so far.
[...]
Chick warming duties can require two to five stints at the nest while mums search for food to address increasing demands from growing offspring. Squirming, fluffy chicks are carefully covered in a tiny ‘electric blanket’ and the mother’s location is carefully monitored in anticipation of her return.
Cartoon for the Dutch Nu.nl news website, about a prediction of the British government that there will be a worldwide food and energy crisis by 2030.
More at Sevensheaven.nl
This magnificent snail was crossing our path. I have never been on that trail early enough in the day to see these snails when they're not asleep. Until today :)
There were a lot of these black beetles in one area. Many were paired up and "spooning" like these two.
The single ones were diggin' around in the soil. I think this was the tailings of a gopher mound.
This is Neil Hunt, Chief Product Officer at Netflix.
There’s been some blog swirl about Netflix streaming delivery, and I’d like to explain what we are doing to improve our streaming delivery. Our aspiration is to deliver to everyone the best bitrate that their broadband connection can support.
Congestion Could Affect Some Users, But Not Others, at Some Times, but Not Always
Content from Netflix originates on CDN servers that are distributed around the US (just as our DVD shipping centers are) so that the data doesn’t have to traverse the Internet backbones to get to our customers, but instead can usually reach its destination via regional and metro networks that have much higher aggregate bandwidth. This means that if there is any congestion and slowdown, it will be different in different regions (by Internet topology, which isn’t completely tied to geography). Hence some customers may be affected, while others are not. Also, routing to different ISPs in the same region may be quite different, thus performance may also be quite different, even for neighbors, if they are connected to different ISPs. Moreover, congesting points can rise and fall with ISP configuration changes and other conditions.
Different Content, Different Devices, Different Characteristics
Finally, different titles, and different encodes for different playback device types, may come from different CDNs or different servers at a particular CDN, so may have different paths and different bottlenecks. Accordingly, customers may see better performance on Xbox than their PC, or vice-versa. Equivalently, some titles may stream unaffected, while others suffer congestion. There is no purposeful discrimination between different clients – we want them all to perform very well.
Getting to More Consistent Delivery by Routing Around the Problems
Our engineering team is working to multi-source most content, so that there are many possible alternatives in case of regional congestion (as long as the congestion isn't in the customer's home or last-mile infrastructure, in which case there is little we can do). Our newest Silverlight player (for Mac and PC) incorporates an initial version of multi-sourcing, and as we improve it, we’ll roll it out to everyone including our device partners such as Roku and Xbox. We hope by the end of year to have this problem largely solved.
In Home Congestion
While not a server issue, let me touch on in-home congestion. It’s relatively obvious that if you have another PC in your home downloading large files, your home network or you last-mile network may be impacted. What’s less obvious is that even heavy upstream traffic can be a problem by impeding the flow of acknowledgement packets back to the servers, which respond by sending smaller and smaller packets in case the data gets damaged in transit. Since most home broadband has much lower upstream bandwidth than downstream, it’s quite easy to saturate the upstream direction with a PC-backup application, or a Skype-video call, for example.
Sonia Mitchell has written a review of the original Last Chance To See book, over at PopMatters.com, and I thought it was worth a link if you're still on the fence about reading this terrific book. She gives it an 8/10.
Adams treads a delicate line between making it clear how threatened some of these animals are and staying optimistic as to the future. It’s possibly too late for some of them, but others still hang on, and with increased public awareness perhaps comes an increased chance of survival. Adams’ character portraits of the conservationists in the field are witty and skillful, and leave the reader with some hope that with (often charmingly insane) people like these devoting their lives to these animals there might be a future for some of them.
It’s not too late to put up pics of your favourite Moggy (but of course you will have to join Flickr)
Sometimes I think the world has gone mad and I am the only sane one left. I can assure you that this would indeed be a very sad state of affairs because I am - as we say in Australia – definitely not the full quid.
There is a much better expression ‘he has a kangaroo loose in the top paddock’ which describes me perfectly.
Warning – I am now standing on my soapbox – political content follows. I don’t often get on my soapbox – but what is happening in Australia at the moment is ludicrous.
The Labor government in Australia is attempting to censor the Internet.
Que?
I know you Europeans and Americans will find this incomprehensible and difficult to believe – but in Australia they are actually proposing a nation-wide filter that will exclude all the sites that the government deems to be inappropriate for their subjects.
The ‘list so far’ has been leaked to that wonderful site ‘Wikileaks’ which has itself (of course) now been added to the government’s banned list.
The list of sites includes child pornography (which almost no one would complain about) but also includes gambling sites, travel sites, a Queensland dentist and many other fairly innocuous sites including common or garden variety sex.
I am sure it will eventually include all sites that are in any way critical of the government.
(Good news – all Murdoch newspaper sites in Australia will be banned!)
The government determines the sites which are banned – no one knows what they are - and there is no mechanism for appealing a decision.
For goodness sake – the whole world just gave China a pasting for censoring the Internet - and now Australia is doing the same thing.
I think this is simply the dumbest thing that any government in Australia has ever done. Can I have my vote back please – I made a terrible mistake.
I have spoken to Muffin about this but she really doesn’t give a toss provided no pet food suppliers are included. Self interest wins out every time.
I attacked the Wein and Co site with some gusto yesterday afternoon and ordered 24 bottles of assorted white wine. I have no idea what they will be like but I hope Cate will like some and that we can get some more.
She is very fussy about wine and won’t drink any cheap rubbish. So when she asks me what a particular bottle cost my default answer is ‘about 25 Euros’ and this keeps her happy.
A kitten problem has emerged. Apparently the owner wants to find homes for the kittens in Germany and does not want to send them to Austria. (I don’t think it’s another ICO situation or that we have been deemed to be unsuitable).
However, I am willing to bet that there may be the odd kitten or two available in Wien in July when we get back from Australia – so there is no need for panic at this stage.
And by the way – I expect to be punished by Muffin when I leave her but she has taken it to extremes this time. She now always sleeps in Cate’s study and runs – RUNS – to Cate when she is called. This is very hurtful – but on Monday Cate goes to Turkey!
I had to postpone the Fitness Centre until Sunday. Will report after that.
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund field news for March 2009 reports that Titus, subject of the documentary "Nature: The Gorilla King
On Jan. 27, another female left his group to join the younger silverback Inshuti, and other changes are occurring as well.
[...]
"As Titus continues to age, we are seeing a natural transition of power in the world of gorillas," says Veronica Vecellio, gorilla program manager at Karisoke.
Gosh this is a funny place. We woke up this morning and it is snowing heavily. I suppose the ducks know that this sort of stuff happens – but I am sure they will be disappointed. The buds on the trees will certainly be having another look at the calendar.
I had a look at Merisi’s Site Meter and saw with some interest that on 26 February she had 5,397 visitors! Excuse me? Yes that’s right, 5,397.
Well I thought she must have published some previously unseen pictures of Paris Hilton with a Chimp – but no it was just the usual terrific photos.
Of course, Paris with a Chimp may no longer do it as people have become very blasé about Paris. ‘Ah really’ they would say, ‘but what sort of Chimp?’
Merisi averages many hundreds of visitors each day – and who could blame them. Her site is a joy to behold.
However, having recovered from Facebook rejection I am not going to become wound up with Blog Visitor Envy.
If my Blog is worth viewing then people will view it and I am quite happy with my (admittedly rather pathetic compared to Merisi) daily quota.
I am pleased that the Cemetery Cat photos seem to have pulled in a few extras – and I would probably do rather well if I turned this into a Cat Blog. I would lose the dog owners (but who cares about them).
Cate is off to Turkey on Monday and I am following on Thursday. I am currently looking at my Lonely Planet guide to see where the Cemeteries are but I will need to visit these while Cate is working.
She will probably want to go and see things like old buildings, churches and mosques and I regret to say that Istanbul will probably be heaving with these.
This is my first visit to Istanbul and of course I am wildly excited. Having seen ‘Midnight Express’ I have decided against strapping any drugs to my body while I am there so I should be OK. I will make sure there is nothing in my underpants except me - and will get Cate to check.
I have received my first speeding fine so am now in the club with Cate – although my pace was much more relaxed than hers. I was photographed doing 67 KPH in a 50 zone at 7:04 AM one morning in January when I was taking Will and Kris to the airport.
I can’t think of any 50 zones between here and the airport so will have to be a bit more careful – although around Landstrasse there are a couple of 50 zones that pop up for no apparent reason. Knowing the Austrians as well as I do, I am sure these have been well thought out so will not quibble.
It is a problem with Billy of course. At the best of times it is like restraining a wild beast and when gets his head at pedal to the metal time he just brings in the Kompressor and goes like the wind.
Whilst it is news day I regret that there is nothing dramatic to report from Austria (apart from the Fritzl trial on which this Blog is silent).
There have, of course, been the usual number of deaths on the ski slopes but these are now so unremarkable that there is no point in commenting, unless they are particularly bizarre.
On this occasion someone skied into a snowcat. The report doesn’t say if the collision killed them or if the snowcat subsequently dismembered them and ate them.
I didn’t realise that the cats were so big in the Zauchensee area and have told Muffin about this strange phenomenon and that she should be careful when we go there with her and the kittens (well they have to learn to ski).
The attempts at guessing the mystery object were abject failures but I suspect no one really tried – Steph least of all. She treated a quite serious attempt to stimulate thought as a complete joke.
I haven’t seen it in action – but it was being used by workmen who were laying cobblestones. My best guess is that it is used to squeeze cobblestones together so that they fit properly.
Now as I finish the Blog the snow has gone and the sun is shining, the buds are budding and the ducks are quacking. Ah Wien!
PPS: An hour later - no snow and bright sunshine!
It's been a whirlwind week and I have alot of thoughts swirling around at the moment. But for tonight I am simply going to share some of the things I have done this week and share with you something funny (though it wasn't at the time) that happened this week.
Now the beautiful Monica always makes me envious with her delicious cooking and recently I have been looking for inspiration. So when my mum and dad invited me to a Cooking Evening I leapt at the chance! The way it works, is you pay a small fee and then a chef shows you how to prepare a delicious dinner at a reasonable price. He even gets to you to help out. Then everyone sits down to eat a delicious meal. There were 20 of us last night. His name is Dale Sniffen and he is just the nicest guy! He runs them once a month and I am going back for sure to learn more.
So without further ado:
Entree: Peppered Fish on Panzanella Salad
Main: Crispy spinach and ricotta ravioli with grilled seasoned fish
Dessert: Austrian apple and walnut strudel (and that's me helping add the dollops of cream, oh the points, the points!)
and yes, it tasted as delicious as it looks. DH is away the next couple of days so I am going to treat him to one of these when he gets home...deciding which one is a whole other issue!
Secondly, as you know I have been upping my fitness training. Last year was the year of "fatless" this year it's "fitness!"
So a friend of mine who is a personal trainer said to me she would give me a running training programme so I could start training for the City to Surf a 12 km run later this year.
I was so grateful.
I like a schedule.
So I didn't question the fact that my first day of training consisted of an 8km time trial run.
I am not joking when I tell you it was DREADFUL. One and a half hours of torture. (Yes I am slow) I blundered my way through it and if it was horrible at the time....
The next day????
Oh dear Lord.
I was in AGONY.
So I limped into school to drop off my son and my friend came rushing over to me saying: "S, S please tell me you didn't start my programme!!!"
I stared at her. "Why?" (maybe the bandaging round my shins indicated there was a problem)
"Because I gave you the wrong one, that is for a marathon, THIS is the right one."
And dear friends the right one? Well it started off with a 30 minute walk.
When I can walk without limping I'll give it a whirl.