Nugget came over for a play date with Kip. She was pretty excited - raced through her walk in case Nugget was early. When he arrived, they spent the first hour or so running around the house - dining room, living room, hall, kitchen - an endless circle. Nugget did most of the running - Kip stayed mostly in one spot trying to cut him off. When Nuggs got wise to that, he tried hiding in spots Kip was just a little too big to get to - under the dining table, under the stool, under my bent legs.

The next hour was spent fighting. They would pounce on each other, and then when Nugget realised Kip had the upper hand with her size, he jumped on my lap for a better fighting height.

And then - it was over. Instead of fighting for dominance, they were fighting for a place in front of the heater and for more room on Kip’s bed.

Duncan decided to “art-up” our coffees this morning.

For me

For him

Alison and Brent had us (and Sue and J) over for our first dinner in their new house. She channelled Kylie Kwong and in so doing, sparked an idea for our holiday Monday (the Queen’s Birthday - thanks Your Highness!).

It got us thinking - well Duncan really - that he hadn’t made won tons in a while. So in the true spirit of division of tasks, Duncan made the filling - pork mince, lemon grass, kaffir lime, basil - and I folded the won tons. All forty of them. Don’t they look yummy?

Lately I am hearing one word again and again - ideation. And I am certain, prior to about 3 months ago, I had never heard it before. And yet now, it rolls off people’s tongues like they’ve been saying it since childhood. We even have a room at work called “The Ideation Room”.

A quick look on dictionary.com and I discover that it’s origin dates back to the early-ish 1800s… So maybe it’s just me.

I remember being a teenager, sitting in front of the television, on the phone to a friend - who I had probably just said good bye to at school less than an hour earlier - discussing what was happening on the television.

Fast forward a good fifteen years and what am I doing? Sitting in front of the television, on MSN to a friend, discussing what is happening on the television.

A little while ago, I received an email from schmap.com through my Flickr account. The author of the letter, lets call her E.W., started off by saying:

I am writing to let you know that one of your photos has
been short-listed for inclusion in the second edition of
our Schmap Australia Guide, to be published mid-May 2008.

Wtf? What photo? I take all right photos but I’m not delusional about their quality. Is this a scam? One of those emails you get that make you feel important, but in order to really be important, you have to give the author of the email your first million?

Well I did a bit of a search. And it is not a scam. Schmap.com is legitimate as is E.W., its representative. Also turns out that I should certainly not feel special - though I’m still secretly chuffed - as with the onslaught of digital photos from amateurs hitting the Internet, many of my friends have also received such emails. And with that is where Schmap.com and others like it are being slammed. Those who oppose them claim that by choosing to give your work away for free cheapens all photography. The increasing prevalence of casual photographers reduces the market value of professional photographer’s work.

But Schmap.com’s publications are available free online and their viewer is also free - and so I allowed them to shortlist my photo - and it did end up getting included! So if ever you are looking for information on Dreamworld in Queensland, and you look up information on Schmap’s Australia Guide, the photo of Dreamworld is mine.

A few weekends ago it was ANZAC day - on a Friday - which presented us a 3-day weekend. Perfect for doing small DIY jobs. Our family room always presented a bit of a problem for us. The couch was kind of lonely way back on its own in a little alcove, facing the television which is mounted on the wall some 10-12 metres away. Duncan did a lot of research and we decided to go to IKEA and buy four bookcase pieces that fit together to put along the back wall, bringing our couch halfway closer to the TV - though on an angle - and creating two points of interest in the room.

We found out that IKEA opened at 1pm on the holiday. So we headed over for opening time - thinking first in, best dressed. Apparently everyone else thought the same thing. (Yes that is a queue going down the escalator, out the store, around the mall and down to the left of the picture.)

1. Why, when I’m doing two loads of laundry, does half of every pair of socks I’m washing end up in one load, and the other half in the second load?

2. Why, when it is cold enough to see my breath, do bus drivers insist on running the air conditioning on cold?

I’m just too far behind to catch up with the diary-like posts. So I’m moving on to the here and now. Before leaving then though - I’d just like to say I had a fantastic visit with my parents. We went to all the restaurants, save one, that we had on our list to take them; we took them to more pubs then they’d probably been to in the ten years previous; they got to go sailing with my godparents - twice; they enjoyed a Campbell Christmas and a Campbell/Tin-Crane New Year; and they watched as I nursed skinned legs back to health and Duncan knit his broken ribs.

We just finished having Duncan’s parents for a visit. They probably had enough Thai food and fish and chips to keep them going another year or two in the predominantly Spanish-food of their … well … Spanish home. We did all the touristy things - Hunter, Blue Mountains, northern beaches. And Duncan joined them up in Brisbane and drove back with them through Byron Bay and Coff’s Harbour.

So I’ll leave off with this fantastic ‘bumper’ sticker that Duncan’s dad and I read at A.C. Butcher’s in Leichhardt:
If we weren’t meant to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

Once again a bit of a delay between posts - but Duncan’s parents arrived and I thought it rude to spend too much time in front of my computer…

When I left off, Dad was about to join us. The highlight (for me anyway!) of his first few days was the Harbour Bridge Climb. It was my 60th birthday present to him - my way of guaranteeing he’d come visit. Dad and I were early to registration and so got on an earlier climb - with a family celebrating a bar mitzvah. The boy and his family were Australian. His aunt, uncle and some family friends were American. Loud Jewish American. (Maybe that could be a new acronym? LJA?)

We entered a room where they made us sign our life away and complete a breath test to ensure we were sober enough to complete the climb. Then it was in to the change rooms where we replaced our pants and covered our tops with a one-piece grey climbing suit. All jewelry was removed and anything not removed was secured with clasps to the suit. Next we went through a metal detector and into the room to be kitted out with our climbing harnesses and other paraphernalia. Then, we practiced on a mini bridge - learning how to remain attached to the tresses. Finally we were given radios and headed out.

It was very evident from the start that two of the women in our family group were deathly afraid of heights. One had to be guided around the whole bridge, hand in hand with the guide. Made for rather a slow trip. But it also meant that Dad and I had plenty of time at each stop to really appreciate the view! The whole experience took over 3 hours and was well worth it. Upon descending we met Mom and Duncan in the Australian for pizza and beer - Dad enjoyed his sitting on the kerb. Because you can’t do that in Canada. (No really. You can’t!)