Send My Conscience Home in a Taxi

I was down at Wilsons Prom today - we're staying nearby. There was a gap in the rain so we popped over to Tidal River. Almost as soon as we'd parked a flock of nosy Rosellas flew over and landed on the car. Someone's been feeding this lot, as well as the Magpie who had attached himself to the group.

I attempted to have a banana as a snack, whereupon the boldest of the birds leaped onto my arm! First he pecked at the banana peel I had in my hand, then hopped onto my other hand hand started helping himself to my banana! Cheeky bird.

I had Pip on my back in his sling, while then trying to eat come rice crackers. One of the Rosella landed on my head and then tried to eat a cracker right from my hand. Bad birdie! You freaked out my son!



We poked around the prom a bit, and without really trying saw two wombats, two kangaroos, a wallaby and two emus (or possibly the same emu twice). And two rabbits and a fox as well, unfortunately. I yelled at them to begone, vermin, but they didn't listen.

Australian wildlife is weird. I've never seen an emu in the wild before, they're an awkward looking bird.

We also bumped into three lovely French tourists. Henry being the charmer that he is, instantly befriended them. They said to him "Bonjour Henri!", although I really can't rendered how lovely the French pronunciation of Henry is :-D

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.

Hey all, sorry, haven't been a good blogger of late AT ALL. Events keep happening to me, of greater or lesser interest. I should really blog more of 'em...

Lets see... Biggest deal at the moment is I'm going to have to re-arrange my trip OS. I was planning to fly out on June 12th on a seven week trip literally around the world. However... I have four days of annual leave, and $4.80 in my "savings" account. And I need to change jobs rather soon... Damn it.

Anyway, the new plan goes something like this:

1. Get New Job
2. Move house, to share them pesky bills
2.1 Get a bike
3. Save my pennies, buy walking shoes, luggage etc.
4. Go round the world in March/April 2009. Yay!

BTW, I'm looking at three bedroom places in Northcote/Brunswick and surrounds. So far I only have one confirmed housemate, so... If anyone is looking for a room... We plan to get Cable internet :-)