Back !!!

- Sleepy, have much unpacking to do, have wire up new home thwarter system, have much bloging to be done, still have NYE to survive and other holiday assortments such as family BBQs to attend.

Fantastic relaxing trip.

All the pictures are up on flickr. I'll name and comment on them and write up some accounts of the trip over the next few days.

See ya

Test post via email

This is a short test to see how posting by email works.
Test photo here:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/askclark/321184424/" title="sometimes
I just sits"><img
src="http://static.flickr.com/133/321184424_6bf6a78b77_s.jpg" width="75"
height="75" alt="sometimes I just sits" /></a>

I Baked

Made me some ANZAC biscuits (that's cookies for you thar' yanks) for morning tea.

I'm guessing there are not many recipes that one can get on the website for a national war memorial . They were .... hard

Now your kids can practice Christian Jihad

story and vidio

LibraryThing (2)

Whilst uploading some popular fiction books that are on the shelf at home the other night I noted this about one particular title in my collection:

Members who have the book

1 members have the book in their library.There are 1,090,215 books more popular.
unique_stephen

Hmm - so is no one else interested in the history of the provinces under Roman rule around the end of the republic - Octavius through to 100 or so AD, or is it just me? - there are over one million and ninety thousand books more popular :-(

Blue Mountains Fires - the aftermath

With fierce fires still burning in the Victorian high country, Melbourne's hottest December day on record recorded and important Koala habitat being threatened or already lost the SMH has been looking into the management and aftermath of the recent Blue Mountains brushfire.
My feeling is that we should be back burning more in the lowest risk times (winter - before or even during rain) and investing more resources into putting out fires early in the risky times.
It will be particularly sad if any or the enormous Blue Gums die after this fire. They are some of the largest living things on the planet - fire adapted and stunningly beautiful they have seen it all before and should be OK, but if the drought or some other factor prevents their recovery the world will loose one more irreplaceable corner.

The ever readable Barista provides a Melbourne perspective and Flashman has dug up the latest NASA images from space such as this one.

Library Thing

So I was having a little play around with librarything after seeing it on Jen's blog and I decided that I like it. I've seen it there and a few other places I just never bothered to click through.
I normally wouldn't have time to be playing with blogging toys like that at home but I've been building a PC for mum and dad - setting up skyp etc which leaves plenty of time to either watch little blue bars to grow across the screen or pick the eyes out of our bookshelf. I just put the newer books up or the ones that will make me look more intelligent, leaving out all the IT and Uni books and the numerous little paperbacks and most of the Spanish books and all the pulp Sci Fi. Still, it's a good start. Presently I'm reading "the book that nobody read".

When Australia and New Zealand merge

I'm quite looking froward to the impending merger of Australia and new Zealand. There will of course have to be some concessions on both sides to make it a reality. Australia will have to stop caliming as it's own anything remotely internationally recognisable from the future state of New Zealand (Farlap, Crowed House, Russell Crow) and the Kiwis will have to give up talking in that silly accent.
I am looking forward to Aussie Rules becoming the national sport over there but I am concerned as to what the new currency will be called - "South Pacific Peso", or perhaps "Ditch Dollars"

God wants you to ...

... take the bus
Just as well because "Europe is experiencing the warmest autumn since Columbus first sailed to America."

Quiet

I just wanted to post another picture of Sean Flying because I think that what he does is awesome.

Little things changing

As the kids grow It's the little things you notice and celebrate.
Adrian:
- Started smiling
- Going from 120 mills to a bit less than 180 mills per feed
- Sleeping through the night
- Really really lovely smiles with little 'guah' sounds.
- Fascinated looking at himself in the mirror.
- Not holding things but just starting to reach (swing wildly) out for items hanging above him

Annalise:
- Started using the word "my" rather than Anna, i.e. 'My shoes', 'Want clean my teeth' instead of 'Anna shoes' or 'Anna teeth'.
- Playing better with other kids.
- Getting colours right
- Putting herself to bed when she is tired.
- Remembering things that she can't see better, like where she put some toy yesterday or which upturned card is which after seeing me turn them over.

Bad news guys

She may have an allergy, the good news is that she can overcome it by being exposed to diluted doses, champaign for example, and to maintain resistance after that exposure has to be frequent. or you could use one of these.

More smoke

Sydney, or at least my little part of it is again covered in smoke. Nothing in the news apart from this so I don't know if it is local or back burning or from the mountains or from the Hunter area or what.

-: Update :-
The smoke is probably the result of the combined effect of 67 bushfires in the state, one burning on a 30 km front!