I Like Oberon

With its sweeping vistas
and the many many sheep

the lack of speed limits

the wide road down the main drag

the local council digging up the park

and a shop for when you need to buy an exotic bird and a bicycle, and don't want to go to separate stores


In fact, they also had other farming supplies, chainsaws and... well... exotic birds...

What's a Fizzy Vimto?

Well, I'm glad you asked. It's one of these:And it looks like this:

The taste? Well, this one is grape, blackcurrant and raspberry, made with actual fruit juice concentrate and somehow manages to taste just like creaming soda. Not a bad thing, but not what I was expecting. If you feel the urge to obtain some "incredibly fizzy Vimto", you can get it up at the lolly shop in Leura, along with other random sweets from random countries.

Edit: Apparently you can obtain Vimto in cordial form in the local supermarket. Who knew???? (Well, I didn't....)

Living on the caffeinated edge

or... the perils of liking a good coffee!

Okay so my usual coffee is a double macchiato, which I affectionately call a Mac Daddy. I drink these because I like a strong coffee. One shot usually isn't enough, hence the double. Secondly, if the coffee isn't quite awesome enough, the teaspoon full of milk is enough to take away some of the edge. I don't put sugar in there.

What can go wrong with this beverage? Well I'm glad you asked. One confusion is that when I order it as a double macchiato, they put in quite a lot of milk to go with it and it ends up resembling some kind of strong latte. In Melbourne I can call it a long macchiato but in Sydney that usually results in far too much explaining what they need to do.

The reason I started on this rant in the first place is that twice this year so far I've asked for a strong macchiato, and, much to my surprise, I've ended up with a strong mocha. The first time was up in Terrigal and quite frankly what they gave me was vile. The second time was this weekend in a French patisserie in Stanmore. Not vile but I really wasn't after a warm milkshake.

What I'm looking for now is suggestions on how to order my beloved Mac Daddy and actually get what I want without being condescending to the maker of the coffee. I know that when I'm out and about there's already a risk that I'll have a not so good coffee; hence the tiny bit of milk insurance policy, but I really don't want to end up with a mocha again.

p.s. in case you are wondering why I don't take them back, I've really not wanted to wait again for something else potentially equally bad to turn up. I drink what I can to get my vitamin C, and then find something a little tastier.

Cutting out the middle man

Coffee grinder laybacks.

That is all.

Happy Valentines Day!

Okay... so it is a bit of a commercial entity now, but it's still nice to stop and think of the ones you love. Not in an overcrowded go out to dinner like cattle kind of way, but in a little gesture kind of way. Thankyou Mz DestructoMeg! I don't think anyone has actually given me flower(s) before, and it was very sweet :-)


Not sure I entirely understand why, but it was a really cool thing to do. Maybe because it was so totally unexpected? Anyway.... I'll stop blubbering before this blog gets coated with mush.

Iron Maiden? Excellent!

Well I liked it. Nothing like 3 lead guitars. Yes they had Adrian Smith, Yanick Gers and Dave Murray. Nicko on drums, and the other two usual suspects. Freakin awesome. I still await the power of the internet to provide me with more images of the gig. Rest assured there was much fireworks, lots of giant flames, a rather large cyborg Eddie and plenty of buffoonery. They played for 2 hours. Missed the first support act (Steve Harris' daughter Lauren) since she must have been on stage for all of 5 minutes. We got in at 8:30, she was supposed to start at 8, and the 2nd support act (Behind Crimson Eyes) was abusing the crowd and winding up. Anyway... if Maiden are in the area again, I'm there.

Last weekend was Cat Empire, Beautiful Girls and Blue King Brown out at Kippax Lake. Bit of a change of gears from that gig to this one. That one was outdoorsy mini festival, and also a blast but very different. And also had trouble supplying enough beer to the masses. But there was plenty of food and stacks of good music. Coffee... hmm... less good.

From the plane...

We had to do a few loops on the way back from Melbourne (flights were delayed due to Sydney weather), and this was a view of the sunlight on the pools of water below. Well, I liked it.

Best. Request. Ever.

So this guy walks up to the IT service desk here and says:

"I need to see someone in 2008."

End quote.

MegDay 2007

The toaster is nice and slim from this angle.


I think it might be Jacaranda season in Sydney.....

The Corso is rather nice.


The local rescue team decided to play with their toys.


We made a new friend on the way to Shelley's beach.


And Sydney does lovely sunsets.

Beans lots of beans lots of beans lots of beans

Time to harvest the broadbeans!



Even after shelling them there was quite a bit of bean harvested. Weighed in at 1.1kg.


So how much plant was it for that much bean?



Everyone loves Magical Trevor!

Lavender! And a bee!

Here's a photo of the lovely lavender growing in our backyard. It's being visited by the local bees. No I'm not procrastinating. At all.

Lunar testing (of my aging camera)

Ok... so back yard. View of eclipse. 7 year old compact 4MP camera and full size tripod. What else is a boy supposed to do? Well... invest in a new camera at some point. Until then.....









These were taken in order, some time apart.... anyway.... the last one should have been a crescent but apparently my camera isn't up to it. Also, I think everyone is blogging at once because blogger is a little sluggish at the moment. Ok.... procrastination has been achieved!

Two more assignments down!

So some clever person chose his last two subjects for his degree to have coinciding assignment due dates for both of the assignments. Two were due today (and something has been submitted...) and another two are due in a few weeks. After that it's two exams then fun fun fun!

I'm trying to keep some semblance of social life. There's the Rowany 25 event I'll be going to, but in general I have cut down and have had to say no to a lot of things. Which was to be expected. After all, I'm doing two subjects to get this over with which was always going to be a little harsh. Anyway, enough rambling... I just wanted to say 'Hello, world!'

Man that time does fly....

So on Saturday I got to hand out with some friends, watching the Asian cup soccer match. Australia almost made it. We went to the Canterbury RSL... who else was going to show it????

On Sunday we got up early and went to the Coffee Festival at the Rocks. For an hour. Then back to fight in a tournament. Followed by shopping and so on... then exhausted by the end of the day. Monday is start of session again with two subjects this time around. Yes they will be the last too (hooray!) but it is still two. Yet to see if that is a good idea or not..... Also means that posting here is unlikely for the next 3 months, but you never know.

Well pickle my cumquats and call me happy!

The crop was bountiful! (It's a small tree and I think it has done rather well). More to the point, it was ripe for the picking.

So time to turn them into something more interesting. All the recipes I found involved equal parts of cumquats and sugar (measured ever so accurately)


And then top up with suitable brandy....


So now we play the waiting game.


Six months according to the recipes. SIX MONTHS!

Sunshine made me smile!

The sunshine this morning actually made me smile. Haven't had that experience for a while. Driving to work, the sunlight reflecting off the river, through the bridge railing and into my car somehow made me all happy and made the rest of the drive a mystical journey instead of just a drive to work on monday morning. I felt like I was on holiday. Apparently I like sunshine.

What's with the weather?

Wow. Washing hanging under the shelter in the back isn't drying. How long has it been since it's been too damp to have clothes dry, even under shelter?

Arbor Martyr at the Alma Mata

Bucking the trend

Don't despair! Get a repair! Or something like that...

I was just enjoying my newly repaired television playing audio through my newly repaired speakers. That's right. Repaired. Not replaced. Not chuck it out and buy a new one. Wasn't really that much for the TV, and the speakers did cost as much as replacing them but at least I get a better quality than I would have (and the right one for the box), and according to the guy at the speaker hospital it would last 15 years. So take that, advocates of disposable electronics! Anyway, I'm happy with them.

Yes I may need to eat my hat if the TV fails again within 6 months but I'm feeling all superior at the moment and I'm making the most of it.

It's cold.

Too cold. Far too freakin' cold. How do I know? Well, apart from the fact that I feel frozen, so does my home computer. I tried switching it on. A number of times. Wouldn't start up. Fan would whizz for a second or so (or 5 seconds sometimes!) and then it would give up. Too cold. How do I know it was the cold? I pointed a fan-forced heater at the inside of the box (i.e. at the motherboard) for about 15 minutes. Tried at about 5 mins, didn't make a difference, but by the time the case was hot to touch (on the other side of the motherboard) it started up just fine. By just fine I mean that it was complaining that the CPU and motherboard were too hot, but it booted perfectly. I'm a little worried about "fixing" my computer by heating it up, but hey it worked.