In Search of a Title

NOTE TO SELF: No more writing until I get home.


Whether this is home from Melbourne or home from Hobart To Be Decided

The photos below are two out of:

Haematite, Iron Knob SA
Lizardite
Barbertonite West Tas
Magnetite, West Tas

(Edit, that might be barbertonite in lizardite, which would explain the lack of a location)

I messed up my fortnights and my trip is a *week* from Monday, not a fortnight.

This is Not Good from the financial side of it. But it's good from the "I can't wait any more" side of it. Today's mail brought a package of tourist information from Beechworth Information Centre, all very exciting.

Actually, on the Monday I'm just going out to Mother's place, so she can drop me at the airport the following morning. From there, I fly to Melbourne, and then do the train/coach thing up to north east Victoria. On Friday it's back Melbourne, via neither Albury or Canberra. And Monday I fly home.

I am wondering at what point my "Drop over to Melbourne for a couple of days" became a week-long rodtrip? Oh yeah, when I said "If I have 3 full days in Melbourne, what can I do on the third day?"

Anyway, now I have a week and a bit to finish shrinking my clothes so I can fit a week's worth in an overnight bag.

I am in need of a VCR head cleaning tape.

I went to the office superstore, to buy a USB stick.
"Do you have VCR head cleaning tapes?"
"I don't think so." Goes to next aisle. "Nope, only for CD & DVD players."

I went to the computers/electronics chainstore, to buy cards for camera.
"Do you have VCR head cleaning tapes?"
"I don't think so." Checks computer. "No, I don't think anyone much has them."

I went to the TV/Video shop that's been there since 1908*, because I had time before the bus came.
"Do you have VCR head cleaning tapes?"
"No. I don't think we have any right now." Goes check. "Yes, they all sold out. There's some on order. I can give you a call when they come in."

There's a moral in there, I'm sure.





*Not that they sold TVs then

These photos are from two trips: November 2006 with the little Canon that got 100 photos to the battery (I got 135 from it on that trip though) and March 2008 with the "new" camera. That's why there is two of everything. Long enough ago that I have forgotten all the interesting details.


This is Entally, built about 1819 by Thomas Reibey, son of horse thief & businesswoman Mary who is on our $20 note. It's an Indian name, Bengali it seems from the Wikipedia article, after a "neighbourhood" in Calcutta. Or more likely, after Thomas's father's business that was named after said suburb of Calcutta. His father had been in the East India Company and made use of his connections there to establish an import business in NSW. It is the next generation that had most influence on the property though, the son, also Thomas, and his wife Catherine.

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This weekend I get to make up some song lyrics. Fun. Not. Have no idea where to start either :|

"Riverman" seems to involve someone drowning or falling into a river.

"That's not 'Riverman', is it?" Matt asked.
Ash laughed. "A bit too prophetic?"
"I thought it might have been a suggestion on your part."
"That'd be more obvious."

"My Lady is a Laddy" is apparently for singing when you are drunk.

Ash did a repeat of the his chorus.
"Maybe we can offer you up as bait," Matt told him. "It's a ridiculous song anyway."

I'm making a list of mythical/supernatural creatures that have or can take human form, from Europe particularly British Isles.

This isn't as easy as I thought. There's the obvious ones of werewolves & vampires. Various little folk & big folk who wouldn't pass as human due to their size. Some individuals.

Angels & their ilk
Demons
Various water spirits (each uisge, selkies, nixes, undine etc - there are a lot of these)
Dryads
Elves
Banshee
Aos si/daoine sidhe
Leansidhe
Golems

Now my brain is full up, but I'm sure there's more.

Two collections on the Powerhouse Museum's website that might be of interest.

Electronic Swatchbook

Swatches or small samples of fabric have been collected and compiled in the form of swatchbooks for at least 300 years. The Powerhouse Museum has several volumes containing thousands of bright, unfaded samples of fashionable fabric designs, braids and laces ranging from the 1830s to the 1920s.

"The patterns on this site are in the public domain in Australia. All images and patterns on this site can be used for any commercial or non-commercial purpose without further permission. "

Also interesting from a "that's the sort of pattern they liked then" perspective.

And a totally different topic: The rags: paraphernalia of menstruation

Embassy targeted by pulp mill protest

Pulp maker Sodra is considering a joint-venture partnership with Gunns in the Tamar Valley mill but says it would have to meet stricter conditions.

About 40 people have rallied outside the Swedish embassy in Canberra, this morning.

The Wilderness Society's Tim Burch says Tamar Valley food and wine has been delivered to the Ambassador. More

It beats street riots ;) There was a bit in yesterday's news about the conditions:


Sodra may still invest in Gunns' pulp mill: analyst

Sodra says any mill it's involved with will have to use 100-percent plantation timber, be totally chlorine-free, and certified by the Forestry Stewardship Council.

Is it possible there might be a resolution that is satisfactory to both sides? Admittedly, plantations come with their own problems but still...

This should be easy but I've been playing computer games too much today :(

Names of classic, or could be classic, TV shows (series, mini-series, telemovies). The sort you can watch over and over. The "You haven't seen X? You should!" sort.


Context

Sam is character in my WIP who has a large collection of vintage TV shows (say 1950 to 2050). He temporarily relocated a few years back and only brought the best of his collection. Now he's showing thse to a friend and he wants to name names.

I found out about this interest when he kept referring to a colleague as Baldrick. Also, he's fondof good guys vs bad guy type shows, possible Westerns. (Bonus points for a TV show/movie that has a siege/shoot out at a hotel.)

I'm thinking anything that relies on current events is out, which eliminates most political shows, and no police drama/crime shows (that's the day job). Also no comedy/skit type shows. I don't think SF will go down too well either.

Agreed to look after the kids today. They're not bad kids most of the time, until they get Bored Apparently when you are Bored, you have two options, you can Watch TV or you can Hit Your Brother. The problem with school holidays is a lack of daytime TV for kids.

Today though, we took the bus into town and Did Things. We started at the city park, where they have this rather weird Tiger Dragon spiraling art-tile path near the playground, and the walked down to the other end to look at the Monkeys of Doom. They were rather dull as Monkeys of Doom go though, just sitting around picking fleas out of their fur, except for one who was doing something weird with a large boulder. I guess the boulder was lonely.

Then we went across the road to the shop on the corner to buy lunch, They have nice rolls and things in here, and pies too. Of course, they had nothing Kid2 would eat. He won't eat salad rolls, too much weird stuff. He won't eat ham so the simple ham & plastic cheese in white bread sandwiches was out. He won't eat eggs. He won't eat a chicken & mayo roll even after I offered to lick the mayonnaise off. He'd eat hot chips but they didn't have any. He ended up with a packet of 4 mixed sandwiches, of which I took the ham one and his sister took the egg. After we'd paid for this and taken it back to the park and I'd unwrapped it, we found the remaining two sandwiches had "yellow stuff" on them, from the eggs. I picked it off. "But there's yellow stuff on the chicken? What is that yellow stuff?" "It's a chicken, it came out of an egg, of course it has yellow stuff on it."

After this we walked down to the Phenomena Factory at the QVMAG. This is one of those hands-on sciences things for kids, which is very much fun and if you happen to be visiting Launceston, with or without kids, it's dropping by to check out (especially as it's free). Part of it is inside, just off the main foyer area and part of it is outside, and kids tend to run wild so during the school holidays and when school groups visits, the idea of a museum being a Quiet Place gets blown to pieces.

From there we walked back into the city for the highly anticipated final part of trips, the visit to EB Games to buy a computer game!! I got Zoo Tycoon Complete Edition for myself though.

Then we took the bus home, although we got off early to visit the big op shop to pick up another VCR. But they didn't have ANY :(

I want to go on a trip, but can't really, so it'll have to be a virtual trip. The good thing about them, is everyone else can come too!

When we were kids, before the new Bass Highway was built, the trip out to Deloraine would take fifty minutes, or longer if the traffic was held up be a slow car or farm vehicle. Then the traffic would build up into a long snake winding back further than we could see when we twisted around to look out the back window.

Along the fifty kilometre stretch between Launceston and Deloraine there are five towns, Hadspen, Carrick, Hagley, Westbury and Exton. Each town originated a coach stop on the road west, or so we were told. I don't know if that's true, but this is the old coaching inn at Hadspen.


The Red Feather inn, built in the 1840s. At the time I took this photo, November 2006, it looks like it has fallen out of use, but according to the website it was refurbished and reopened late in 2008.

( Hadspen )

Night At The Museum: silly movie, with lots of cool moments that make it worth watching

Night At The Museum II: even sillier movie, with lots of really cool moments that aren't enough to make up for the overall failure of everything else.


Although Amelia Earhart flying the Wright brother's plane (I think, it was a bit chaotic) around the Air & Space Museum at the Smithsonian is a lot a cool.

But Pi (as 3.14159) being the code to activate a 3000 year old Egytian artefact?

So I was watching Spooks the other night, and one of the regular characters is in bed having obviously spent the night with some guy she'd picked up. She is sitting up but is shown from the shoulders up. After some talking, she puts a top on while still in bed and the camera angle lowers a bit. So...

We can see people being shot, being stabbed, being killed, being dead, pox-ridden, tortured, having sex, drowning, being tortured but no naked boobies? :)

In today's news:

Forest workers counter anti-pulp mill ads

The forest workers union in Tasmania has launched an international campaign to help secure finance for Gunns' $1.5 billion pulp mill.



But at the bottom of that story, is a few paragraphs on last week's Legislative Council* election for Windermere (East Tamar & part of Launceston).

Mr Frame [spokesman for CFMEU I think, story is a bit ambiguous] also says the re-election of pulp mill supporter Ivan Dean shows there is broad community support for the mill.

Mr Dean won almost 40 per cent of the primary vote in the Upper House election for Windermere last weekend.

"I think the election results from Windermere in the Legislative Council on the weekend indicate that really they want this development to proceed, and they want to bring a sustainable value adding employment opportunity to Tasmania."

That the incumbent got less than half the first preference votes shows that there is broad community support for an issue that wasn't brought up (that I noticed) during the campaign? Yep, that would be my conclusion too.

It doesn't even get a mention on the Green candidates' leaflet. Actually, I brought said leaflet inside and read it, and tossed it aside because it was vague about what he actually stood for. It wasn't until I got to the polling booth and they gave me a bit of paper with the five candidates names on it, that I discovered his affiliation. On looking at it later, there is the party's logo in one corner. Very low key. (Mr Whish-Wilson possibly needs to rethink his advertising material if he ever stand for election again.) The whole damn election was low key. That the incumbent was returned isn't much of a surprise. That he got not much more than 1/3 of the vote on first preferences does suggest there is some dissatisfaction among voters though.


*State Upper House, elections are held every 6 years but only 2 or 3 districts each time

I know there are lots of sayings about living it up because you'll die soon enough, but when I want one, you think I can recall any? Help :)

Specifically, I'm thinking of something flippant that people say all the time that has both the (enjoy yourself) and the (life is short/you die soon enough) parts. Although similar sayings might work if I can't remember the one I want.

(Insert usual grumbles about too much time spent on a simple line.)

Don't listen to them. They're making things up, right?

A leading economic forecaster is telling people interstate to relocate to Tasmania if they want to avoid the worst of the global economic recession. From ABC Online

Unless you're coming down for a holiday. That's good. Should be more of it.

This is as close as I can find to April map.


Obviously it's taken from a fantasy novel. See the lines and curves of mountains put in with no concern for how mountain ranges should be, and the rivers running all over the place for no apparent reason, and little symbols for forests and towns. What is missing from this one, in that blank place near the top that's labelled "Lugoria", mine is filled with a picture (mostly a tent, some little people with spears, some cows & a couple of horses.) The other thing missing in the overly fancy font -- up there where it says "Europe Pars", the P & R extend out to really elaborate squiggles that fill all the empty space there. No empty spaces on the fantasy map!

Close-up

From

Pulp mill shipment a 'step forward'

A cargo ship, the Beluga Finesse, docked at the Bell Bay port this [Thursday] afternoon and is believed to be carrying large turbine parts from China for the mill's power generator.

[Forest Industries] association's Julian Amos says it shows the project is moving ahead.

He says most Tasmanians support the proposed Tamar Valley pulp mill.
...
Ruth Groom from the Wilderness Society says Gunns is taking a huge gamble purchasing equipment for the mill, without having a financial backer. "I think this equipment is going to sit on this wharf until it rusts."
...
The Greens leader Nick McKim says the Gunns mill does not have the public's support and should not be built. "Gunns can continue to negotiate and continue to ship equipment in all they like. The simple fact is the mill doesn't have a social licence, it doesn't have the support of the community and it just shouldn't be built," he said.

More

This one comes with a slideshow, courtesy of the Examiner.

Sun setting on Midlands.



From long shadows.

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