Things I've learnt in 2010

Actually, I learned several vital bits of information right in the dying hours of the year....

Watched the movie version of Tomorrow, When The War Began.
This has taught me that

1. Australia's future is in secure, heavily-armed hands....
2. That if a chick can drive a tractor she can drive a petrol tanker and garbo truck.
3. No matter how young at heart you think you might be, the show ground wears a little thin as a PoW camp.
4. That when serious god-botherers are miffed they get seriously medieval on the enemies arse and 
5. The one weekend teenagers decide to go camping will always be the weekend the enemy will invade the country....cos they're as a'scared of teens as much as we are.

 Another was Alice in Wonderland.
This taught me that....

1. Uber-wan main actors in a movie need urgent blood transfusions.
2. Making the Mad Hatter a Gingernut was just playing to stereotypes. Not all Gingernuts are insane warriors.
3. Wait...forget # 2...refer to Under the Mountain.
4. Helena looks scarily natural with the bobble head happening.
5. Crispin Glover...hmmmmmm *drool*
6. Parents should just hand themselves in to The Jabberwocky and let the teens get on with it.

Did You Hear About The Morgans? was another....

1. Ummmmm
2. ...errrr.....
3. thinking, thinking...
4. Nope, I got nothing.
5. Except when their children hit their teens they should just post themselves off to witness protection again.

We also watched Under The Mountain.
Things I learned from this flick which will enhance my life in 2011 are

1. There's a shedload of volcanoes in NZ....that aren't necessarily volcanoes.
2. Do not piss off a Gingernut....especially when they're twins with telepathy.
3. Sam Neill looks the same at eleventy hundred years old as he did at 40.
4. NZ is full of aliens...ugly aliens...and they're not Aussies!
5. NZ parents should voluntarily hand themselves in to the show ground (see above) and let the heavily-armed teens get on with it.

And so, that was 2010.
Totally uninspiring except for all the marvellous blog posts and comments we all shared amongst us.
 My bog roll blog roll is found over here, with a link on my page just in the right hand sidebar there
..........................................>>>>>
If I've overlooked adding you, feel free to email me and vent your spleen at me.
Then let me know if you want your blog on my salad roll.

For Little Jo's Uncle Andrew

This is for Andrew - and Little Jo who was rightly indignant she could not explore the miniature Tudor Village the nice people of Lambeth, England posted to us.

If you photoshop this, Andrew, you could almost convince her she was once in there....

Roll the (mixed) tape of 2010

Weeeeeell, seeing as it's the 30th of the last month of the year 2010 I thought it appropriate to slap up this mash up of 25 dance hits from this year.
Pump up the volume (wait ten minutes, that song will be covered by another artist), throw your hands in the air and enjoy!



So, what are your exciting plans for New Years Eve?
Moshing with mates?
Partying like wild thangs in the city streets?
Quietly enjoying a movie at home?
Parking your arse in front of the computer and playing Bookworm til midnight?
Melting in the sudden spurt of Summer heading our way with 40+ degrees? *whimper*
Reserving the old bath tub in the backyard full of ice, beer and a pillow for your head?
All or none of the above?

In other news, they're trying to nail the ID of the wandering skull from Old Melbourne Gaol - is it serial killer Deeming or Ned Kelly?

2011 Contract for all of my readers....

After serious & cautious consideration . . . your contract of friendship has been
renewed for the New Year 2011.

It was a very hard decision to make . . . So try not to screw it up!!!
 
My Wish for You in 2011

May peace break into your home and may thieves come to steal your debts . 

 

May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills . 

 

May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips!

 

May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy.

 

May the problems you had, forget your home address! 

 In simple words . . . . . . . . . . . . . .


May 2011 be the best year of your life!!

Yes, the post-Xmas waistline scrutiny has begun....sort of

I'm in a poetic mood having pecked out Ode to Architecture, trying to track down the reason for Miss Beverley to suddenly have a bald tummy (the Silkie chicken not a hirsute hooman) and feeding the 18 year old dog bacon scraps while she gums my fingers in mistake.
In all, an average morning at the Madhouse.

With apologies to Willie Nelson and friends!

On the bike again,
I can wait to get on the bike again,
The life I love is whacking kilos on my frame,
And I can't wait to torment myself again.

On the bike again,
Using muscles that I didn't know I had,
Whimpering words I may never say again,
I can't wait to inflict the pain again.

On the bike again,
Clocking miles and getting nowhere,
Wasting time busting my pulmonary vein
On thebastardthing, yet again.

Off the bike again,
Hobbling in pain to the corner store,
Downing rum, panadol and looking for more,
I 'm glad to be off the bloody bike again.
©

Distractions and rediscovered pressies and floods, oh, my!

Right, I'm here to begin the 12 steps.
To admit something that everyone else knew except me.
I'm ever-so-slightly distracted.
*snort*
I reckon it became pretty obvious when Chrissy floated towards me in a haze of 'Meh, whatever", trotting out to make random purchases, stashing the random purchases away in plain sight and then escaping into history books, history programes on tv, dodging the odd flying object and zoning out, just to avoid the whole 'gimme gimme gimme' crap from rabid maniacal shoppers.
What brought it home was looking at my shelves in my bedroom this morning and finding the random Chrissy presents still sitting there in plain sight.

Oops!

So, some of the family are getting a second round of pressies lol.
I think I heard someone wonder if I can be stressed distracted again next year to get double random pressies LOL.
Yep, certainly, simply rinse and repeat pmsl.

Now, if you want something that's REALLY distraction-worthy, go read about Bush Babe and her family fording the many flooded roads to get home just for it to continue raining and see the river creep ever up their paddocks!
Also, if you happen to have a spare Ark sitting about, just swing by and drop it off to her,'k?

Post-Xmas rant meant for Pre-Xmas drinkies rant. Chin chin!

Here we go, here we go, here we go.....
Babbling again.
When, oh, when is the Powers That Be going to put a train service back to Dunolly?
The reason I ask is picture this....
Remember those British cartoons/comedies with the little man pushing the overly LARGE woman up the tight stairs on a double decker bus/narrow stairway?
Shoving her ample backside ever upwards?
Yeah, that was me trying to get my father onto a V/Line coach from Dunolly to Bendigo the other week.
Now, factor in the fact he is 87, unsteady on his feet, I'm legally blind with Meniere's Syndrome and some of those coach stairs are akin to vertical cliff faces...you get the picture.
Now, apparently they're whinging their little backsides off by claiming the Maryborough rail line is costing gazillions each year.
Maryborough is booming with many living in the smaller 'satellite' country towns (like Dunolly) and travelling in to work at Maryborough, or working in Melbourne and commuting from home in Maryborough.
If someone used their God-given grey matter and actually determined the preferred times people travelled from Maryborough to Melb and back again AND connected the bus services with each train service then....
OMG the patronage would sky-rocket, the dosh would come rolling in and maybe, just maybe, they could see their way clear to opening up a few more stations on the Maryborough line.
Like Dunolly.....

Toasted Cheese Jaffles - why they are a traditional Chrissy meal

Seriously, chickadees, who in their right pickin' mind buys a gazillion kilos of frozen prawns, salads, the makings of antipasto and a chook to roast to feed 4 peeps on Chrissy Day?
*crickets chirping*
Yeah, I thought it was only us.
We are not revisiting the ghosts of Christmas Past, nay, we are, in fact, revisiting 2010 Christmas lunch, tea and Boxing Day lunch all over again at tea time.
Right now.
Got sleepy on the couch watching Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince so I delegated the joy of meal prep to the spouse person I promised to share my life with oh so many years ago.
I swear I emptied a bag of salad at lunchtime but *sigh* fear not, the spouse managed to find another of the squillion bags of shredded lettuce I stashed in the innards of the chilly bin.
Those dinky lil red and green pickled onions?
Yeah, they're a great festive idea before they've been trotted out on everyone's plates for 3 days in a row.
There's only so many prawns one wants to tickle their tonsils with, too.
Granted, the spouse's first effort at spud salad is pretty tasty and who could knock back artichoke hearts at any meal?
But.
Is it too much to ask for Nigella to wiggle on over to my kitchen to whip up something dripping in calories and cheese and fat?
How about Maggie Beer sashaying by to drop off some of her uber-delish roast meat dishes?
Heck, I'll even let Matt Preston stumble up the stairs to my lonely and virtuous stove top to make a golden syrup pudd.
How about a good old-fashioned plain toasted cheese jaffle?
Not to mention the tonnes and tonnes of food now currently marked down to REEEEEEEEE-dick-u-lous prices in the supermarkets just to make way for.....
Easter Eggs and Hot Cross Buns.

Christmas Wishes

Thank you for all your wonderful support and I hope we can continue this waltz right through 2011.

Santa, baby, recharge Rudolph before you venture out tomorrow night...

Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms/Master Energy Provider;

I wish to lodge a formal complaint.

You have screwed Christmas.

I rugged my Dad up in rugs and cardigans and coats and beanies (with a hot water bottle tucked in the many folds for good measure) and out we trundled to see the lights.
Well.
Haven't you managed to piss on the passing parade this year?!

Not only are most houses in darkness - families are probably crowded together around a single candle flame to watch tv on their father's laptop which he recharges at the office during the day while the mother is trying to heat a meal with a cigarette lighter out in the yard - but the houses actually with decorations are either bright enough to be seen from Mercury or the owners are out hunting and gathering at the shops, bartering their first-born in exchange for the swing set and trampoline for the rest of the tribe for Chrissy morn.
And cannot leave their lights on, willy-nilly, for the strolling crowd to enjoy.

The bloke in Richardson St?
Darls, seriously, stringing lights is great but doing it at the last minute and IN THE FREAKING DARK while up a ladder is just plain dangerous.
Get down, grab a beer and leave it til the first crack of dawn.
Tell the missus a bulb is blown.

The house in Earlstown Rd?
The one with TWO wooden cut-out flying Baby Santa Grilled Cheezus and sleighs?
Be home tomorrow night, we're swinging by to rubber neck and critique your work.

Carlisle Cres?
Get your act together, people, it's too freaking dark for Baby Santa to find his way down the nearest sewer pipe, let alone a chimney!

Canterbury St?
Yes, YOU!
We know you have decorations up, flick the switch or we'll camp on your doorstep til you do.

Normanby St?
Some of you are letting others carry you - go out, follow the BRIGHT flashing galaxy of stars to your neighbours houses....
And take notes.
Then, unlike the govt, do not nominate a steering committee to 'look into it', just DO IT.

Camden Rd?
I've seen morgues with more life than your street!

Kangaroo Rd?
Pfft, relying on street lights for illumination is cheating.

You could all copy the mad biatch from XXXX Rd who has her house lit up in solar lights.
Yes.
That is a very firm middle finger being flipped to the energy provider.

Yours,

The Mad Biatch from XXXX Rd.

Ok, own up! Who's been handing out the generous servings of Christmas cheer?

Seriously, anyone would think it's Christmas what with the sudden flashes of commonsense I've read online in the last few hours.

Stonnington refused a demolition order and slapped an interim heritage order on that wonderful 120 year old Toorak Grammar building.

Heritage Victoria said Nay to the proposal to demolish the Bacchus Marsh Avenue of Honour .
 Woot!!!

....and now the Federal Govt has stepped in to hold an inquiry into the Brighton Bypass in Tassie which will destroy a multitude of Aboriginal artefacts if allowed to go ahead.

Another tid bit of gossip I gleaned from the regional newspapers last week was that Time Team's Tony Robinson is (or at least, was) amongst us.
He apparently attended the 159th Monster Meeting anniversary at Chewton (near Castlemaine) on December 15.

And New Zealand authorities are flashing about their UFO files.
Spooky, Mulder!

Dunolly photos

The Dunolly Butcher's nativity scene....


...and with some (English) lions mauling some (Aussie) kangaroos in the foreground...

Something to do with cricket...?


A prime example of shop architecture.




Look a little closer....



The old boy, out at the old Dunolly Cemetery, enjoying the view but the mozzies not so much.

The obligatory chimney


Also obligatory tree



Former London Chartered Bank where The Welcome Stranger nugget was weighed and sold.


Royal Hotel - under new ownership.


Gooseberry Hill Gifts - brand new shop in Dunolly, next to the museum.


Former pub.


Gate keeping few in (or out) of the cemetery.


Dunolly railway station.
Still no passenger trains running.


View from cabin window at 7am.
Such hardship.


Sunday Sunset.

Hellllllllllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooo!

We is home.
From Dunolly.
There will be photos.
But first....
*cue the dancing kangaroos*
Whaddyamean the 'roos are on strike?
Get the echidnas to do their synchronised swimming routine....?
They're on hols on the Gold Coast?
The wallabies.....are, of course, on a 3 week bender and are just getting into their stride while the goannas are touring with Joe Hasham on aTexas poker world tour.
The ring-leader of the animals is too busy texting his next conquest somewhere.
So.
Maybe a game of tiddlywinks until I get the piccys loaded up...?

We dug an' dug an' dug and all we got was this lousy pile of pottery

No, seriously, Feral geek kid did a bit of digging for approx. an hour (give or take a stray swarm of mozzies) in the overly warm sun.
When I say 'digging' I mean he battled with the classic Central Victoria dirt which is rock hard in dry weather and sloppy goop in wet weather (which the miners oh so adored!)....we're in between torrential downpours at the moment so it dried to a nice solid cement consistancy.
Leaving him with a hole on the small side but a shedload of finds everytime he scrapped back another teaspoon-worth of dirt.
*Click on the pics for larger image.

Here's a shot of the back half of our land.


These are 4 rose bushes, shooting up in the middle of a supposedly empty paddock.


Showing the proximity of the roses to Feral geek kid's (mini) dig with some of his finds.








And....

A great lump of dressed bluestone. Along with the finds there were hand-made mudbricks and evidence of burning with charcoal in the hole.


This is what he thought might have been a burial but it looks wrong (the stick and brick he had put there the other day).


Both ends of the street were washed away on the weekend and only just graveled and graded yesterday.
*Note to hopeful diggers - pack a donkey for the rough bits.


Just for Barbara (and anyone else who lusts after vernacular architecture)


Signalbox at Bendigo railway station.


Gorgeous old rail work sheds with steam train permanently parked in front.
Bizarrely I did edit this pic but it's only showing the cropped image in mega-huge format so you'll have to imagine it's been edited prettily.


The very rare Fallingapartus Greenus Corderoyium Chairus, of the Junkus Rubbishia branch of the human family.


This is what falling over drunk looks like; it's been on the drink for a few months since Burnt Creek is now actually a creek again after more than 15 years of being dry.


Matilda's of Tarnagulla.
Yes, that's our bus reflected in the window whipping by.


Old Gilles pie factory with that gorgeous saw-tooth roofline.








Some architecture around Bendigo and Oh! Chimneys.
How ever did they get in there...?


St Monica's in Bendigo.


Some random shot from the bus window.


Dead centre of Tarnagulla.


Don't know if it's very clear but there's old advertising on this building.


Kangaroo Flat railway station, the model for all future stations Mr Baillieu will be rushing into construction.
*cough*
Sorry, tongue stuck in cheek...


Hanging Rock...hanging.


These delectable places would peek out at me from one angle then the bus would zoom around a corner and they'd suddenly be behind me from another angle.










I was gettin' all bucolic, I was.