2018 Highlights week #25: meeting room views

I spend quite a lot of time in meetings. It is nice when they have good views.

A year in the life 2016 #220: derby road trip

Another familiar event – the derby road trip! Off to Melbourne for the weekend for the URDP mixed gender championships where James is playing and reffing, Seb reffing and I am commentating for the first time. Do all the derby things! We spent the morning at work or school before getting on the road. Ended up staying in a cool Air BnB on Elizabeth St and the boys loved the range of interesting things to buy in the Japanese-Korean supermarket, so we were all stocked up on cans of coffee and green tea.

A year in the life 2016 #217: an day another Melbourne trip

Soent the day in Melbourne today and all I got was this iconic view.

A year in the life 2016 #87: Melbourne you so pretty

Melbourne is undeniably pretty. It might even be prettier than Sydney. I do love the view from Southbank at night.

A grown ups day out in Melbourne

A day in Melbourne should begin with breakfast. Breakfast in Fitzroy. And if you are with James, breakfast at Industry Beans.

It was delicious.

We then wandered down through the city via a variety of bookshops and some clothes stores, making some purchases along the way.

We then headed to the National Gallery of Victoria for the Warhol-Wei Wei exhibition.

Afternoon drinks and snacks, then back to the hotel for a brief chill out, then a change of clothes and out to dinner in Southbank.

We then had the excitement of anticipation as we waited for The Decemberists -the motivation for our trip to Melbourne.

And it was well worth it. Fantastic concert, wonderful evening.

A year in the life 2016 #47: Melbourne

First Melbourne day trip for the year. Despite flying at 6am I was half an hour late for my 9am meeting after 1 hour and twenty minutes in the cab. And then I didn’t get home til after 9pm. The joys of Melbourne day trips.

2015 weeks! #34: life, Cthulhu and death

Usual Monday morning walk to school with this guy. Jude is a very chatty walking companion. Often I get a fairly continuous stream of chat about things he has recently learned – Zac got a big book of facts about stuff for his birthday and Jude has been reading it in between voracious consumption of Skullduggery Pleasant books. But Jude always remembers to ask me about what my day has in store.

Another week of Youth Mental Health First Aid – mostly talking depression, suicide and non-suicidal self injury.

It was a good moon night to wait for James to pick me up.

James and I took some “self care” time out after my course to go and have a quiet beer and chat at Bentspoke after each session. It is lovely to have those quiet relaxed moments to yourselves. However, this time Cthulhu came too.

Off to Melbourne for the day. Ended up spending a lot more time than expected at Canberra Airport with fog. Fun though to bump into Dave Sag and provide refuge in the Virgin Lounge.

Eventually we were off. And then back in virtually no time later!

Spring is definitely in town in Canberra.

Getting the last days out of #yourtightsatwork – though there are always those mid spring cold snaps.

We did schnitzel night at Edgars for the first time in ages.

George is not impressed by your fancy wines.

Sebastian decided to wake up early and walk into Braddon for breakfast with me before my physio. I think he was mostly in it for the Autolyse croissants, but it was lovely anyway.

Cthlulhu plays Edritch Horror with us! At this point I must pause and explain that Cthulhu was crotcheted by Jackie, James’ mother after I had posted pictures of cuddly Cthulhus on Facebook. I am very fond of him. Of course, the whole family was keen so Jackie has been set to work.

Friday afternoon it was back to Melbourne for a trip I would rather not have made – my aunt, Maggie, had died, so it was off to the funeral.

An upside was catching up with the family – I stayed in Melbourne with Lucy et al on Friday night before driving out to the Gippsland on Saturday morning.

Funerals are terribly sad things. i didn’t actually know Maggie that well – she had gotten together with my uncle Andrew when I was pretty much a grown up and we’ve pretty much always lived in different cities, crossing over at family events along the way. The funeral made me sad that we had never gotten to know each other better -many of the things Maggie had done in her life were things that I think are important – fighting against a culture of domestic violence, improving opportunities for young women offenders, baking – and it was both lovely and sad to hear from those closest to her. But apart from the sadness for the inidvidual, there is all the contemplation if makes you do – of the deaths of those close to you, past and future, of your own death, of what you have achieved in your life. Of how the world continues.

At the end of the service we released balloons into the sky. Goodbye Maggie.

But as with most things, there is an upside, and it was nice to catch up with family.

I was flying home that evening, so a bit later in the afternoon it was back in the car and the two and a half hour drive back to the airport.

There was some spectacular cloud en route.

And the familiar view from the Qantas Business Lounge at Melbourne airport.

Sunday morning Sebastian was competing in Tournament of the Minds. his team did all right, but there was some line fluffing, and they didn’t manage to progress to the enxt round. After two years at the national competition, sometimes you need some setbacks to improve for next year.

I took training for Carnage and actually got back onto skates – and even better had an excuse to wear my awesome new leggings!

2015 weeks! #33: we’re number two!

One of the things I quite like about our work building is the living wall. Particularly nice when it is in bloom.

Sebastian’s high school was offering a “Youth Mental Health First Aid Course” over four Monday nights. With three boys about to hit adolescence and all of their friends and cohort, plus the young people I know through derby, I thought it might be useful knowledge to have. The presenter was very engaging but I was shocked to learn that most of my fellow course participants had never planed for the zombie apocalypse and, worse, some of them didn’t really even know what zombies are….

Walked to school with these two troublemakers Tuesday.

Some nights you need a g&t and some codeine to go with your at-home work.

George does love the new couch.

Early morning flight to Melbourne.

I love the sight of the Melbourne ferris wheel (whatever t is called) as you go over the Bolte Bridge.

Early morning in a busy week and a day full of conferencing, including giving a presentation = lots of fizzy caffeinated beverage.

I really enjoyed the presentation by Rachel Botsman on disruptive technologies and the new world of trust.She is a very engaging speaker, and her ideas about trust and the way the new economy is starting to work were really thought-provoking.

Then there was time for doing all the work in one’s hotel room before the conference dinner.

After another day of conference, broken up by having to go and do work, it was off to the airport and back to Canberra.

Time though for a quick #yourtightsatwork at the Business Lounge.

And flying home.

Saturday was a lovely spring morning for watching Jude play hockey. His team continued on form.

While we were at the hockey, Sebastian whipped up some chocolate cupcaes for the….

ROADTRIP!

We were off to Sydney for the 5×5 grandfinal – Dishonour Rollers versus S2D2’s The Force.

It was a great game by a great team but sadly we didn’t quite get there – WE’RE NUMBER TWO! WE’RE NUMBER TWO!

It was a quick drink, medals and some commiseration before we headed home again. On the road trip back, Copter and I greatly disturbed Jess and Sebastian with at least two renditions, in a row, of Charlene’s “I’ve never been to me”.

Sunday and reality and supermarkets.

…and complex lego wars!

2015 weeks! #31: views from the 40th floor and other glamourous places

I started the week with three days in Melbourne, staying on the 40th floor of the Sofitel. The views were spectacular.

On my second night in Melbourne I had no official functions so was lucky enough to catch up with Jess, who has recently relocated. We began at the Gin Palace…

 

…then moved on to the exceptional deliciousness (and large serves) of Ombre.

I was still feeling full the next morning when I caught up with Melanie aka Scary for breakfast, so hipster crumpets did me.

I was in Melbourne for the ABAC (APEC Business Advisory Council) forum to talk about our international work. I enjoyed the discussions in the Connectivity Working Group, particularly about the oysters who are connected to the internet.

I managed to finish the wonderful SevenEves shortly after I got home. It is a fabulous book, I loved it, even if occasionally Neal Stephenson got overly explainy about things in the way that he does. It is definitely worth it.

Time for some red fishnets.

I spent much of Thursday at Parliament House, most of it at the Roundtable on International Education. There were lots of people there with whom to catch up, and it was lovely to finally meet another one of my internet friends in real life for the first time.

There was a bit of back and forth across Commonwealth Bridge as I went up to Parliament House for a second time on the same day. Been a regular up there when it is sitting time.

Jude and Zac have been doing some practice together and are starting to get much better at playing duets. Well, sometimes they do playing horribly out of step with each other, but when they do hit it, it is great.

New Arkham Horror expansion, new fun times. And we won which was outstanding.

Sebastian has been playing indoor cricket with his usual cricket team on Friday nights. Usually James takes him, but I did my first time this week. I truly didn’t understand what was happening at all, but Sebastian’s team won.

Here’s Jude making breakfast for himself before hockey and waiting for the toast to cook. He was really enjoying this book.

Jude and I walked in to ANU for hockey and where they won, and then headed past this creek-side art on the way back home via Lonsdale Street.

We stopped at LSR. Jude had recently tried some coffee gelato and really liked it, so he wanted to try coffee (decaf version). I suggested that a mocha might perhaps be a better option. Jude discovered that coffee is really strong and really bitter. I think he might be reverting to hot chocolates for a while.

We hadn’t done a big supermarket shop for a while, so Jude and Zac and I did a mammoth one. I think we will be fine if the zombocalypse happens soon.

The days are definitely getting longer.

Jude went a did a bit of busking late Saturday afternoon. On our first attempt, we found that his spot had been taken by a younger girl with a violin. We came back an hour later and he spent 40 minutes. He picked a good time – I had thought he had done well last time with a haul of $4oish, but this time he made over $60 in 40 minutes.

On Sunday I decided that despite my various injuries, I should rouse myself from my sloth and go for a ride. So I did 24 km of lake.

George is funny sometimes. He doesn’t get to come into our room at night, but our bed and its afternoon sun is one of his favourite spots. I’m pretty sure this look means “I thought we had a deal, yours at night, mine in the afternoon.”

2015 weeks! #22: games and brothers and animals and derby

Public holiday Monday morning and Jude and Zac and I had a short break from the endless derby and hockey of the weekend. Here they are playing an Indonesian game they learned at school using the game board I was given as a gift when I visited Malaysia this year.

It was long before I was out at Lyneham watching Sebastian play hockey.

Then straight back down the parkway to a junior derby bootcamp. Here PureNRG from the SRDL Assassins is sharing her wisdom with the kids.

Clouds.

I was off to Melbourne Tuesday for the first meeting of a new committee I had helped establish, the Australian Industry and Skills Committee. Very impressive bunch of people on the Committee to spend a couple of days with. I was also pretty impressed with my dessert when we went out to dinner.Compulsory hotel room view – staying in the centre of Melbourne.

Back in Canberra, walking Zac to school early for choir.

Fun new maroon fishnets.

There was much excitement with the arrival of Sam and Tracey on Friday. Jude was especially happy to get his new Star Wars chess set.

On Saturday we left Sam and Tracey to play Weekend Sports Parents, while James and I (and an extra James) did a quick road trip to the Blue Mountains.

James got his elite athlete napping in en route.

We also got to see a giant teddy.

Aren’t my Jameses lovely?

I got in a quick sighting of the Three Sisters.

Then it was time for a bit of derby action.

Saw PureNRG again for the week – unlike when she was with the kids, with SMASH she looks like a tiny person.

Carnage played well, but SMASH are much stronger and we lost by around 100 points. but we scored over 100 points, so we were reasonably pleased with the result.

Back home Zac built some of the lego he’d received before we headed off on an Arboretum excursion.

We also enjoyed a visit to the bonsai collection.

After a lovely lunch, James and Sebastian headed off to indoor cricket and the rest of us followed up with a trip to the zoo.

And to end the evening, there was some Firefly playing.