Crazy couple of weeks

Hey all, I've had a slightly insane couple of weeks.

I took the few days after the queens birthday off, and headed down to see my niece (and by extension my sister!) down in Jan Jac. She is a very cute baby, seems to be growing teeth and being very very interested in solid food.

Deb and I took off from Jan Jac, and headed down to the Otways - which is further than it looks on the map. Almost two hours of driving on the Great Ocean Road. We stopped off in Lorne and did a couple of short walks, and I reminisced about the Falls Festival I went to there in 1997.

Eventually we ended up in a cabin out in the Otways. It was a nice bungalow thing, all alone in the woods - we didn't see another sole while were were there. Which sounds a lot like the plot of a bad film full of axe murderers! :-)

It was a bit damn cold while we were there, blowing a veritable gale the first night we were there. We consoled ourselves with a dip in the two person spa... Hmmmm.... middle class...

We went home the very long way, via the Cape Otway light house (very pretty, very freaking wind swept) and the twelve apostles. Or eight apostles, or however many are left by now. There were a few hundred cold, cold looking tourists there. Here's a tip for international visitors: It's winter now, and that is the part of Victoria that gets the most rain!

We decided to drive back to Jan Jac via the inland route, which worked well enough but damn was also a lot of driving. Stupidly big country this. I think it eventually took us two and a half hours to get back to my sisters place.

Anyway, whilst I was driving a long windy road through the Otways, my boss called. Which I'd kind of expected, except not that late in the week. He was trying to finish some work I hadn't quite finished when I went on leave. Which normally wouldn't be a problem, except other parts of the business demanded that it absolutely utterly had to be done before Monday. I said I'd see if I could pop in on Saturday afternoon and have a crack at it. Then... my boss's boss called me up and asked if I really could possibly go into the office on the weekend. Stupidly, I said yes. Then I turned off my phone!

So at 7AM I got out of bed in Jan Jac, and drove into the city - actually Deb the girlfriend drove. She deposited me outside my office at 10AM, and I worked like a slave for a about six hours. My boss and one of my co workers were there, as well the project manager and my bosses boss! It wasn't that important folks... Also meant there was me doing the actual work, while being managed by three people!

Then... that Saturday was the first day of the Animation festival (more on this later). So I went straight from my office to ACMI for two sessions of animation. In the end I didn't get home from my trip till after 9PM.

Amusing side note: We'd sent Marvin the bitey cat over to stay with some friends around the corner. So we were planning to go get him that night. But as we approached our place, there he was! He'd brought himself home! Looking at Google maps, all he really had to do was walk down a laneway (probably well within his territory already, he gets around) and jump over one fence to get to places he would recognise. So he saved us some time!

And on the Sunday, I got up again at 7AM and went into my office. I drove in, which took almost no time at all. Worked until about 4PM, then went into the city for three sessions of the animation festival. Needless to say, by Monday morning, I was a bit fucked.

Anyway, I got a couple of days off in lieu last week, which was nice. Fiddled with my bike, did some sleepy. Nice.

Took stacks of pictures while I was away, will post them soon.

RIP Senator Robert Byrd

An old photo of Byrd

In other news, my favourite US federal senator (yes, it is possible to have a favourite senator) Robert Byrd died in the last day or so. He was ninety two. He'd been in the senate since 1959! And was a congressman before that. Politicians live long and stay in office a long time in the US.

Byrd mostly interested me because of his strong opposition to the Bush and the Iraq war, notably this speech: On The Brink Of War. Which included this notable passage:

And yet this Chamber is for the most part ominously, dreadfully silent. You can hear a pin drop. Listen. You can hear a pin drop. There is no debate. There is no discussion. There is no attempt to lay out for the Nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing.

and further:

What would these signers of the Constitution have to say about this Senate which they created when they note the silence, that is deafening, that emanates from that Chamber on the great subject, the great issue of war and peace? Nothing. Nothing is being said except by a few souls.

Yet this Chamber is hauntingly silent–hauntingly silent on what is possibly the eve of horrific infliction of death and destruction on the population of the nation of Iraq.

Which is not to say his entire history is commendable. He did some questionable things early in his senate career - voting against civil rights bills, for example. But his later work and his robust way of speaking I really liked.