Wednesday 19 April 2006

c to the anzay, b to the erray

It can only be a good sign that I haven't been finding time to blog. I've been running around and having a great time on my holiday, so I hope you'll* forgive me if this entry is a little late.

* In french or some other language I'd use the grammatic differentiation between singular and plural second person to insert some Adamsish reference to the fact that I almost certainly have only one reader. In English it kind of just doesn't appear.

So, Friday 10 days ago I pushed off to Canberra to see my sisters. Despite her blog indicating that she's in fact still in Rennes, she moved back to C'ba in January, into the house she was in before she went to Oslo. Em was also up from Hobart, for the easter weekend and also to do some training.

We had a good time on Saturday morning having breakfast overlooking the lake - hot air balloons were scheduled but didn't show - followed by a walk through the farmers markets. In the afternoon we went shopping and bought Em an iPod and me a footy, then went for a walk from Lee's place over to a Thai food festival, where we sampled some excellent pad thai and green curry, and some mediocre crapes [sic].

On Sunday we went for a drive out to Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, and did a walk of an hour or so up to some high rocks with a nice view out through valleys that are still looking very much the worse for wear from the bushfires a couple of years back. We also walked down through the wetlands, the highlight there being a couple of platypii that came out to frolick (more likely chasing food, I suppose) in a little prepared lake. We had a picnic lunch under some autumnal trees while a family nearby prepared to play some backyard cricket. In the evening we went out to dinner, then Lee & I went and watched Capote at the cinemars.

Monday was the pick of the weekend. We headed around to Liz & Mike's place mid-morning with fresh-baked muffins, and helped Daisy with her Easter egg hunt. That done, 7 of us (Lee, Em, Liz & Mike, Daisy, Toby & I) headed out on bikes for a roll around the lake. We stopped after maybe 10k at a picnic area where, joined by Tom, we broke out the snags & salads and BBQ'd. After eating I broke out the footy and Mike, Toby, Tom, Em & I played some kick to kick. We rode home the other way around the lake, completing a circuit that was probably 30k or so. To finish things off we cooked a lamb roast back at L&M's. I haven't gotten and don't get to spend much time with that mob, and really enjoy their company, so was really glad of the chance to hang out with them.

On Tuesday we went shopping in the morning before a lunch with cousin #3 (for the weekend, not implying any sort of hierarchy), Joe, at a cafe at ANU. Leonie (wife of previous) couldn't make it, since she had some big meeting at PM&C. It was interesting to hear about Joe's impressions of Europe from his postdoc in Ferrara, and how he was doing in getting back to things in Australia. They had just exchanged contracts on a house that very morning, which was very exciting.

Then, on Tuesday evening, it was back to 'Vegas.

No comments: