Random Gleanings

Books in the reading pile

2010-09-17T16:04:00.002+10:00

Currently trying to get into Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

Also started (hopefully finish some at the snow)
The Brain That Changes Itself - Norman Doige
Inhaling the Mahatma - Christopher Kremmer
On Beauty - Zadie Smith
The Greatest Show On Earth - Richard Dawkins
Dear Fatty - Dawn French

Plus multiple other mystery/crime that Pat bought while he was travelling. I did manage to finish the Steig Larsson trilogy.

Not TV

2010-08-12T01:05:00.002+10:00

I watch too much TV but lately I've been trying to do a bit more: things like reading. I still like the old paper format but I have a few things on Stanza on my ipod. I should really be reading scientific papers as well as preparation for returning to work. That is if I return to that sector which I would like to and I haven't come up with a viable alternative yet.
I joined the local gym which operates a creche in the mornings and Leah is now used to going there for an hour or so each week. I usually do a yoga class then work out a bit. The yoga class on a Tuesday nights is run by a guy who is more into challenging stretches than the woman on mornings who has to cater to an older crowd. I started using the leg weight machines because we are going down to the snow soon and I'm hoping we'll get some skiing in.

Catching up

2010-02-04T21:37:00.003+11:00

Wow. I didn't realise how long it has been. Guess I haven't been wanting to write.

We finally managed a long holiday to New Zealand in January. I wish we were still away after having launched Ryan into big school full time this week. He probably will too when he realises there's no escape from the boring learning bits.

Leah is stringing words together and making more and more noise. We had to leave libraries twice in the last week. It's like she's filling a vacuum of sound! She is progressing in fits and starts on the independent toileting front. Not coping with pants on at all. She still eats way more fruit than Ryan.

Other than that there are a few things going on on the home front but I need to get out more.

Baby update

2009-04-15T22:27:00.002+10:00

Leah has moved on from breast feeding in an almost identical way to Ryan. She got a cold at 13 months and couldn't suck properly so lost interest overnight. If I offered it she would bite me gently and turn away - aww! Now she sleeps through the night. The only difference with Ryan was that I chose to stop when he got a cold at 13 months but maybe he would have not continued anyway.

She mainly drinks water now - not the copious amounts of milk some people give their toddlers so she's weeing a bit less. The ECing is a bit off and on. If we're out I generally don't bother. Occasionally she'll wee in a strange toilet but I'm not as attentive when we're not at home. I still forget to follow her signs (usually moving away from where she was and standing up) at home. Still most days I only use 2 or 3 disposable nappies.

Up too late

2009-02-24T00:45:00.002+11:00

It is late - almost one am (luckily it's not my turn to do kids tomorrow morning). I've been idly scanning facebook and found not one but three groups for one of my primary schools but I don't think anyone is organising a 20 year reunion for my high school. Went to the 10 year one.

Camping again at last

2008-12-11T22:22:00.002+11:00

We managed to go camping over 4 nights to Green Patch on Jervis Bay. It was good despite a couple of thunderstorms and half a day of rain. It was cool but I managed a longish swim on the last morning - long enough for my arms to ache the next day. Or maybe that was due to picking the baby up so much as well. She seemed to like sleeping in the tent - slept without waking two nights but woke up at 5am two mornings!

Snowman love

2008-10-15T15:55:00.001+11:00

Snowman love
Originally uploaded by Robubble

We stayed at the lodge for three nights and had some fun snow play between the mud puddles. Snow was disappearing before our eyes.

My first baby legwarmers

2008-06-05T22:00:00.004+10:00

Originally uploaded by Robubble

This was pretty easy - just create an ankle cuff from the foot part of the sock and attach to the leg part at the bottom.

I sewed these baby legwarmers from adult cotton socks as per
www.flickr.com/photos/babyhopes/sets/72157594274454468/

It feels good to keep my hand in with the sewing machine even though it is my grandmother's first machine and makes a god-awful racket because it has a flat spot on its wheel.

Ryan is still not fully recovered - just enough to refuse a nap but not enough to avoid meltdown way before dinner time. He went to bed at 4pm this afternoon. We'll probably have a wet bed tomorrow.

Hell in a handbasket

2008-05-27T22:19:00.002+10:00

After congratulating myself that I was handling things by myself and everyone was returning to health it all went downhill on the weekend. Ryan came in with earache at breakfast time so Mum rushed over and we took him to the after-hours doctor's clinic at the hospital and bought some antibiotics. Trying to dose him with that and painkillers is a bit of a nightmare.
The next morning Leah's right ear started oozing and she was fractious so Mum came over again and I waited for the after-hours doctor for 2 hours. Luckily she slept in the sling the whole time. Went to the chemist for more antibiotics. She takes it much more easily than Ryan.
Now, Tuesday afternoon I've got a sore spot in my throat near my left ear! It hurts to swallow. Maybe I need the antibugs too!

First smile for Grand Nanna, May 08

2008-05-22T21:57:00.001+10:00

First smile for Grand Nanna, May 08
Originally uploaded by teacup16

Hubby away

2008-05-22T21:49:00.002+10:00

He's gone for three weeks to France. Luckily we are back into a fairly easy routine. Leah is sleeping longer at night and Ryan wakes up at a semi-reasonable time and amuses himself for a while before demanding breakfast. He has dropped his daytime nap at home so I have to wait until 7pm to relax.

Success with catching Leah's elimination needs outside of a disposable nappy is limited to some wees and most poos. It's very good for avoiding nappy rash and wipes. Now I have all these products that I don't need to use! Don't think I can go the whole nappy free business. It gets harder when they get mobile.

Smiling

2008-05-08T22:55:00.002+10:00

My mother managed to catch Leah smiling at my grandmother on camera. Wish she'd smile at me!

I'm trying to catch her poos and wees!. That is, doing part-time elimination communication (EC) with her, hopefully reducing the amount of nappies and toilet training time. If you are interested there are plenty of online resources and forums. Be interesting to try and catch that on camera as some of the online contributors have done with their babies.
Some links:
Homebirth site with forums including EC and baby-wearing etc
Tribal Baby about being nappy-free!
The Potty Shop for equipment for EC

Eyes open

2008-05-04T22:13:00.001+10:00

Leah alert
Originally uploaded by Robubble

Everyone is sick - it's very noisy what with all the crying and coughing. Here she is before she got the cold at 7 weeks.

Pregnancy nuts

2008-03-18T14:44:00.003+11:00

I put a fully-clothed picture of me on Flickr at 37 weeks pregnant and made it public (accidently) and it has had 110 views (ten times the normal).

The end product:

View of Sydney heads from Middle Head

2008-02-22T13:56:00.002+11:00

At Middle Head
Originally uploaded by Robubble

We explored Chowder Bay and Middle Head last weekend. There are some walking trails, views, cafes, interesting old gun emplacements and access to nude beaches.

Stuff happens

2008-02-17T20:56:00.002+11:00

My parents arrived home from a European skiing trip on Wednesday night. I had to break the news that my grandmother had fallen over in a bathroom of a hotel in Lakes Entrance while on a coach trip and had been taken to Melbourne by air ambulance. Turns out to fly her back to Sydney by that method would have cost her more than $4000 so my Mum had to turn around and fly down and fetch her. Only 12 months ago she hit her head in her own bathroom and gave herself two black eyes and concussion. This time she hit her left side and ruptured her eyeball and is very worried about her remaining eyesight. Who wants to get old?

I've been at the hospital too after my liver function test came back abnormal. They have to check the baby by CTG and ultrasound being cautious and I have to take some horrendously expensive drugs. So far so good.

Trying to update my blog description

2008-02-01T14:49:00.000+11:00

Keep getting errors and I can't search the help group - blergh.

"Trying to keep my brain a little active, suspect blogging won't do it." Was going to stick this so I'll stick it here instead.

In other news... we spent an enjoyable Aus Day weekend in Canberra. Ryan got to stay up and see the fireworks over the lake. We managed to find a park not too far away with only half an hour to wait. In our posie on the lawn we managed to avoid the panic of getting wet from the waterspout which someone misguidedly turned on five minutes from the end, after a wind had started blowing back off the lake.

On Monday the in-laws loaded us up with produce from their fruit trees and vege garden. We all had lunch in Bungendore and viewed my brother in-law's house-building progress. He and his girlfriend are planning to open a photographic studio shop and live above it. It took them most of last year to get it through the council approval process.

Building action

2008-01-23T14:13:00.000+11:00

The building contractors have started on our deck and roof repairs and the skirting board contractor is coming tomorrow. Yay! We may have our house back in a more useful form, although probably needing some paint, by the time the baby comes. Gotta love those early wake ups right next to the bedroom window!

In news of Ryan we seem to have got part-way to potty training him. Although we still have accidents when in pants outside. No sign of being dry in bed yet.

Yaraandoo Lodge, Nth Perisher

2008-01-17T16:42:00.001+11:00

Yaraandoo Lodge, Nth Perisher
Originally uploaded by Robubble

Can't resist a me too!

My Dad helped build this ski lodge with architect and engineering uni mates from the 50's. Great place to come stay even if I can't shell out the $10000 to become a member now. We stayed for two nights including New Years Eve - very quiet.

Animeme response

2007-12-11T21:10:00.000+11:00

Sorry it's taken so long Steve - pregnancy brain.

An interesting animal I had
We "had" silkworms for a while when I was at primary school. The worst thing was getting the mulberry leaves for them because we didn't have a tree. Sometimes we'd take cicadas to school show-and-tell especially if they were something other than the usual greengrocer variety.

An interesting animal I ate
I had crocodile at a pub in Willoughby once. I avoided the fried insects at the night markets in Bangkok but roast bogong moths are supposed to be tasty - just avoid the ones in cities which tend to hide out in sewers.

An interesting animal in the museum
I'd like to see the thylacine again - a must for all Australians.

An interesting thing I did with or to an animal
I'd rather not remember all the rodents I've killed in the name of science

An interesting animal in its natural habitat
I liked meeting the local wildlife in Europe especially the geckoes http://rowena_h.blogspot.com/2004/07/wildlife.html on our apartment walls.
Back at home, the echidna that we met on the slopes of Cradle Mountain was memorable. It was smaller than it's mainland cousins, to cope with the cold I guess, and was unconcerned snuffling up ants as we walked past.

I'm tagging ?

Bennelong did it

2007-11-27T16:46:00.000+11:00

John Howard has finally been ousted from his federal seat. Yeh!

What I can't understand is why we didn't get Kerry Nettle back into the Senate for the Greens. They won three more seats in WA, SA and Tas. Maybe someone will explain.

I think I went to primary school with the number two Greens senate candidate, David Shoebridge.

House headaches

2007-11-22T16:42:00.000+11:00

We have three ongoing insurance claims all relating to the big tree that fell down in June. What a saga - they still haven't started repairing the initial damage to the corner of the house and deck. The other claims arose when the storm water pipe broken by the tree roots ripping out of the ground (we think) backed up in heavy rain and came in right along the back of the lower concrete slab and on one occasion right in through the front door on the upper slab. We can't have the carpet relaid until they come and fix the skirting boards which have exploded because they're not solid wood. So much for having it done by Christmas. Aargh.

Clothes

2007-11-18T14:42:00.000+11:00

I finally need an expanding wardrobe to go with my new waistline. Bought a bunch of stuff on eBay but it's all target stuff so I bought a PP dress with my birthday money. It'll probably be too hot to wear anything much now!

I'm supposed to be doing this meme but I'm having trouble remembering anything. Who do I tag anyway?

Go to go and play tennis now, maybe beach afterwards - it's hot already.

Ryan ski-suited up

2007-10-17T23:05:00.001+10:00

Ryan ski-suited up
Originally uploaded by Robubble

We've just been for a short trip to Perisher for snow play. Front valley had enough snow and the weather produced 10cm more the day after (it was gone again in a day).

Chloe's 5th birthday cake

2007-09-18T14:00:00.001+10:00

HPIM1644 Chloe's 5th birthday cake
Originally uploaded by Robubble

Three littlies enjoying mermaid cake

Not a good week

2007-08-08T18:32:00.000+10:00

I got a cold from my mother-in-law via my son, which has now turned into a secondary infection as per usual, and conjunctivitis also from my son and husband plus other ailments I can't mention. Oh joy!

My laptop was pronounced dead by the local PC repair place. They offered me a newish IBM Lenovo for $1300 but I may as well hang out for one bought pre-tax from Dell. Probably be better than the old for half the price.

On the bright side, Ryan continues to entertain although he's been a bit picky about food lately (maybe contagious too). Keeps hanging out for jelly.

Ryan hard at work at Zoe's house

2007-08-07T14:48:00.001+10:00

HPIM1628
Originally uploaded by Robubble

We all went to the Powerhouse Museum on Saturday. Ryan was entertained for some hours and fell asleep on the tram back to the car. He was very excited by the space display.

Computer trouble

2007-07-20T14:32:00.000+10:00

My laptop has died of heat stroke. I bought it prior to the French sojourn (1e its 4 years old). Luckily I was able to extract the data off the HDD to our PC with a handy adapter from Jaycar. Don't know if I can be bothered paying heaps to fix it.

In other non-news, no action from our strata insurance company or the builder on fixing our roof or deck. It's been five weeks. Dad and I disassembled the deck timber so we can actually walk across but now Ryan can just run out into the reserve or the road ;(
Thinking of having the other trees removed at extrordinary expense. It's a shame as they were one of the reasons we bought the house. Ironic that our duplex neighbours hate trees.

Ryan had a little bit of conjunctivitis so at the doctor's we got something for the scratched spots too. Hoepfully this will work or he'll end up with big scars on his face 10 years before puberty.

Fallen tree

2007-06-11T16:36:00.001+10:00

HPIM1596 Fallen tree
Originally uploaded by Robubble

This Southern blue-gum came down at 1.30am on Saturday morning.

HPIM1596

Stump cross-section

HPIM1603 Stump
Originally uploaded by Robubble

HPIM1603

Tree death

2007-06-10T11:47:00.000+10:00

I'm sitting here typing to the oh-so-restful sounds of chainsaws. It has been going on for the past three hours. At 1 am yesterday morning I was in bed trying to sleep despite the noise of the storm and the full force of a cold. The groaning and cracking noises coming from the large eucalyptus tree at the side of the house were alarming enough for me to go outside and shine a torch at it. It was then leaning hard against the very corner of the roof and cracking the eaves. I rang my parents (Mum had arrived from the UK in the evening so she was still awake with jetlag). A couple of minutes after I started talking, rather ineloquently as I was a bit scared, the tree came down. Mum could hear the bang over the phone and me saying "f***". It wasn't so scary once it had fallen. It took out half of our deck roof (the part that Dad had worked so hard to repair and cover!). The bulk of it landed in the council reserve. The insurance company sent a tree lopper to have a look and later yesterday he rang the neighbours to say he would come today (Sunday).

Bhutan national dress

2007-05-28T23:07:00.001+10:00

HPIM0114
Originally uploaded by Robubble

Here I am modelling a half kira, wonju (blouse) and toego (open jacket-like garment) for only the second time. I bought them in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu near the end of our trekking trip to the country in April 2003. The other photo of me in it at our hotel in Paro has been viewed a number of times on Geocities so I thought I would revive it. The fabric is very comfortable being silk and cotton but I haven't tried to move extensively in it. A majority of Bhutanese women wear it daily since it was introduced as the national dress in the 17th century to give the Bhutanese a distinctive identity. It and the male equivalent, the gho, is required wear for Bhutanese at all formal occasions and visits to government and religious buildings. Smaller versions form the school uniforms.

HPIM0114

Booderee National Park

2007-05-10T22:48:00.000+10:00

Check out the Flickr photos of us at Booderee NP in the ACT bit of the south coast. It was lovely warm weather so we even managed a short swim (good for May). Ryan had a ball at our campsite at Bristol Point (5 mins walk from Greenpatch). We felt relatively childless with the group of 6 dads from Sydney with their tribe of 15? kids nextdoor plus two other groups with children nearby. Their plan was to run them ragged, put them to bed early and then party. Unfortunately for me their partying on the second night and Ryan's very early wakeup added up to no sleep for me. The first morning we had an infant wake us up at 5.30am. On the second morning the kookaburras let rip at 6am whereupon Ryan stood up from his bed and said "Funny bird". Also rather unfortunate was the birds and animals habituated to feeding from kids. We lost a sausage that I was saving for Ryan and a kookaburra took a cheese sandwich right out of Bob's hand as he was eating it.

Toppy

2007-04-22T22:14:00.000+10:00

I've been enjoying my Topfield TF5000PVRt (SD digital set top with twin tuners and 250GB hard drive) for 6 months now. It's great except for some glitches where it misses a recording (we lost several episodes of the West Wing). It means that Ryan can have his fix of Bananas in Pyjamas and Thomas the Tank Engine at any time. Usually he sleeps through the afternoon when they're on.
The best thing is watching while its still recording and cutting out the interference on analogue reception from the neighbours' plasma TV, which seems to be on 24/7.
I just updated the software applications you can add functionality to Toppy with:
ProgressBarKeys (a must according to topfield.com.au forum users)
mcgCYRResumeV1.0 (for resuming play after the machine dumps you out when the recording finishes)
Archive1.0
Automove1.8
We're still working through what they've changed.

Almost 2 years

2007-03-29T20:09:00.000+10:00

Ryan turns 2 on Easter Sunday. He has a remarkable number of clear words now - it must be close to 200. He now tells us what to do! "Mummy sit", "Daddy drive", "open fridge", "over the bridge"

It seems from some web trawling that my old boss has severed his ties with ANU. I wonder how the newer personnel are working out. Seems most of the women have left! I don't really miss that place apart from them.

I've been uploading some photos from France. It's been good to look at some of the trips and walks we did again. Pat may go to Sophia and Brest in June but I don't think I fancy flying 24 hours with Ryan.

End of NZ holiday

2007-03-01T00:01:00.000+11:00

Yes, we're back after 5 weeks (not 4, due to a flight booking stuff up).
All went well. Did lots of camping, some tramping and some tram riding, all in the South Island between Christchurch and Nelson. Ryan enjoyed most things except going in the carrypack after the freedom of walking on his own. He is now in a bit of sleep debt and has happily gone back to long daytime naps (time for me to catch up on some Toppy recorded TV).

I think Sydney had more rain while we were away than NZ did - we had only about 6 days with some rain and only 2 days rain while tramping. My plants survived the hot days. We have to replace the jacaranda and eucalypt that the neighbours removed while we were gone. They think the jacaranda had got into the drains. Now we have a lot more hot sun in in the morning.

Tonight we're getting our monthly DSL dwonload before the end of the month ten minutes ago!

My feed looks crazy

2007-01-22T22:55:00.000+11:00

When I look at my feed only some of the posts appear. This might be the problem with feedmap. The xml parser may be refusing some of my posts. I don't know how to test it.

In Google Reader the posts are in jumbled order (some from 2 years ago mixed in with the last few months) but they all have the current date and time so there is something screwy going on with the date/time stamps.

Further to this other people have had this problem see newsgroup
but Blogger hasn't fixed it. So my original problem is not with the code. Don't think feedmap is worth all this effort.

Off to NZ in two weeks

2007-01-11T23:03:00.000+11:00

We are going to take our toddler overseas! At least it's only a three hour plane ride but we have elected to fly to Nelson on the same day to get to Pat's aunt and uncle's place. His Canberra-based parents have a New Zealand car garaged there which we can borrow. Jessica and Basil have grandchildren so they have camping and baby gear we can borrow.
We are going to try camping in our new 3 person Eureka tent. We tried it out in the garden and Ryan lay down between us - very cute. Now we just have to work out how to manage his naps whilst sightseeing. Probably the whale watching that I missed out on last time due to bad weather will not be toddler-friendly.

Any kid-friendly New Zealand attraction suggestions welcome.

I fixed the meta tag in xml problem tonight - forgot the end tag. Feedmap still doesn't work that well.

Canberra Christmas

2007-01-07T15:54:00.001+11:00

HPIM1302
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Weather in Canberra over Christmas was variable. It did get warm enough for Ryan to run around unclothed for a bit. We also used the bike seat in the background to explore Weston park - the children's water park had water running in it - and feeding the ducks at the bridge near the GG's. We did quite a lot of eating good food and playing Carcassonne, mostly while Ryan was asleep.

Another activity was a walk around the suburb. You can see the dry. For a short time it didn't feel like a capital city.

Pat and I took a tour round this building.

Feedmap query

2006-12-07T00:20:00.000+11:00

I was using feedmap (see bottom right for link) for geoURLing. ICBM meta tags don't work in the new xml templates.
The following used to be in the "head" section
meta name="ICBM" content="-33.80202, 151.09688"
meta name="DC.title" content="Random Gleanings"
so that Feedmap knows blog coordinates.

How do I get around this or should I use something else? Googlemaps etc

Computer buggings 3

2006-11-27T20:04:00.000+11:00

Further to my quest to find a solution to my odd dialog box displays I eventually found a site (I've lost the original but here's another http://www.albionresearch.com/misc/obscurities.php) that pointed me in the direction of the file windows/system32/mfc42loc.dll for MS Foundation Classes language specific resources. Once I changed its name the problem was fixed. Don't know what else uses this file!

Party

2006-11-15T23:47:00.000+11:00

My Mum is turning 60 on the weekend and we have invited over 60 guests to their smallish suburban house to celebrate. Hopefully the weather will improve from the predicted frigid conditions tomorrow. My father has insisted on doing most of the catering and other arrangements so it will be interesting. My allotted task is the dessert and decorating a photo board. Photos later if I get a chance.

Ryan at 18 months

2006-10-29T12:01:00.000+11:00

HPIM1232
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Here he is exploring the full potential of our furniture.

Update

2006-10-29T11:54:00.000+11:00

We are well apart from the usual rounds of coughs and colds that come with babies. I had two in a fortnight including while we were away in Falls Creek. Our longest break away for ages! Yes, it was a long drive from Sydney but we stopped frequently, except when Ryan was asleep, and stayed overnight in Canberra.

The parents-in-law have both retired and are gallivanting all over the place. Before skiing with us they went to Queensland and have now gone to visit their other grandson in Indiana. The grandson, Murray is only 10 days older than Ryan. His parents are going to use up their US annual leave to travel with them. I'm envious of the travel. We'd like to go to NZ next year but we have to book it or it'll never happen.

My Mum retires at Christmas so my parents may spend more time with Ryan soon.
He's just stayed overnight with them for the first time so we could go out to dinner for my birthday.

He's very engaging at 18 months. New words and actions appear on a daily basis. It's very easy to get him to laugh and it's infectious.

Falls Creek

2006-09-15T22:49:00.000+10:00

HPIM1212
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Ryan with JennyG's riding parka for waterproofing.

Skiing

2006-09-15T21:54:00.000+10:00

We went away for a week with the in-laws to Falls Creek via Canberra, ostensibly to ski. The season was as bad as we've ever seen it so the four of us only skiied two half days each, taking it in turns to look after Ryan. We did a few walks with him in normal shoes - no snow boots necessary.

Walking and weaning

2006-08-08T21:38:00.000+10:00

Ryan stopped breast feeding and started walking in the same week at the end of May. He is almost up to running. He loves swings (laughs delightedly) and went down the slippery slide backwards by himself several times today, very happy with himself. This despite me waking him up prematurely and having a cold.
We were all counted on the Australian census tonight. The online form worked very well.

Conversation all gone dry

2006-04-28T10:41:00.000+10:00

My skills in this area were never the best but now they seem to have deserted me. Probably something to do with spending all my time in the company of a person who's verbal output consists of a parroting of animal noises. I say 'baa' he says 'baa'. My Dad claims he said 'out' the other day but he hasn't repeated it. Any suggestions for conversational enhancement accepted.
Ryan, said boy, is now one and is content to get about on all fours, especially with knees up bum in air. He's in no hurry to walk unaided, which is fine by me. He's fast enough already. And he's usually a very happy smiling companion.

Goanna

2006-01-18T23:22:00.000+11:00

HPIM1058
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

In the New Year of 2006 we managed a two night camp out with the baby boy in a deserted wilderness site in the Budawangs. Lizards and kangaroos roamed around.

Back 1 year

2005-12-24T23:22:00.000+11:00

We've been back in Aus 1 year this month. It's flown by with the baby boy arriving in April.

I made contact with a colleague from Sydney Uni. He's gone to Arizona to work with another ex-colleague. Makes me *start* to think about working again or at least start getting my brain back in some shape. How do you start to catch up with academic reading? It's necessary to pick a pretty narrow topic, of real interest of course, then go to it. However, it's not that easy to get hold of some articles if you aren't in an institution with subscriptions to journals.

Better go. It's late on Christmas Eve. Handel's Messiah is playing on the TV and the boy is peacefully asleep (until he wakes between 2 and 4 am for a quick liquid snack). Long day tomorrow driving to the rels for Christmas lunch.

Computer buggings 2

2005-12-18T22:54:00.000+11:00

I've found another string of question marks. It happens when you do a paste special in Eudora and the dialog box comes up with the options "????" or HTML. The "????" should be "Text" I assume because that's what happens when I select it. I can't work out how to Google this mystery either. Variations of "message question marks dialog box windows XP" haven't revealed much.

Computer buggings

2005-12-05T15:59:00.000+11:00

This problem has been bugging me in the background for some time (maybe since I installed XP service pack 2). In some save dialog boxes (for example Eudora address book) instead of the proper message i get "???????????" i.e. strings of question marks.

Any ideas...?

Why dolmen?

2005-10-31T23:41:00.000+11:00

Can anyone enlighten me as to why so many people have viewed this blog's archives to look at my photos of French dolmen? According to my Sitemeter info people all over Europe and elsewhere have been viewing them ever since I put them up more than a year ago. I'm intrigued so let me know...

Time consumer

2005-09-23T16:54:00.000+10:00

HPIM0913
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Here is the reason for less blogging. Ryan at 5 months just loves standing up.

View from French domaine

2005-07-21T18:01:00.000+10:00

HPIM0214
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

I'm missing the best bits of winter from France. For one, this fabulous view when we drove out of our domaine. Mind you, it took a pretty good wind to drive the smog and clouds away so we could see it.

[That was a Flickr test post - the latest digital photo toy]

Another geographic blog collection

2005-07-21T17:51:00.000+10:00

See Feedmap button bottom right panel.

GeoURL

2005-07-05T19:04:00.000+10:00

Check out the GeoURL link (button below right). Add your site today!

My coordinates have changed from +7.12357 +43.639 (eastern and northern hemispheres) to -33.80202, 151.09688 (eastern and southern hemispheres). That is a distance of about 16000 km.

2005-07-05T19:03:00.000+10:00

Ryan is almost 3 months old

Wildlife in the suburbs

2005-03-31T11:42:00.000+10:00

Peron's tree frog, found perched on our upstairs bathroom shower rose.
Other backyard interest stories:
The swamp frogs have been going crazy laying eggs in the pond when it rains. The tadpoles seem to get to 3-4 cms long before they disappear. The brushtailed possums have been eating the buds and leaves of the waterlilies on a regular basis. A couple of water dragons have been seen on the lawn.

Children and snakes

2005-02-21T11:40:00.000+11:00

Special hazards just for children in our National Botanic Gardens, Canberra.

Last days in France

2004-12-10T12:22:00.000+11:00

Last Cote d'Azur hike with autumn colours and snow.

Back in Sydney we are experiencing temperatures over 25 degrees Celcius, humidity, green gardens (despite the ongoing drought) and flowers of all colours.

The last weekend hike

2004-12-01T23:33:00.000+11:00

We hiked to a arsenic sulfate mine in the Vesubie Valley, only abandoned in the 30's. We used the handy table and chairs to eat our quiches and pain aux raisins. Despite the sun it was quite chilly. We only saw two other hikers and heard the shots of hunters, luckily in the distance.

Last weeks

2004-11-17T03:28:00.000+11:00

We're winding down here in France. I'm looking forward to seeing my family, the Aussie bush, BBQs and Vegemite.

Firenze

2004-11-15T02:00:00.000+11:00

View over Florence from Fiesole

Pat's company gave its workers the day between Armistice Day and the weekend off so we took ourselves to Italy. We left at about 11 (the usual slow start) and had made it to the Rapallo exit of the motorway at lunchtime. We had camped here in 2000 and visited Portofino. After a small picnic, eaten overlooking the rocky coast and snowy mountains behind we did a drive to Portofino then hopped back on the motorway. Unfortunately we ended up in Florence's peak hour traffic in the rain and after the long drive all Pat wanted to do was get out of there. So we ended up in Finesole in the hills behind Florence and found a room. The room and the restaurant we ate at were rather overpriced. This was a product of high tourist traffic no doubt because the town had a great view over Florence, Roman ruins and an interesting history.
We toyed with the idea of getting the bus in to Florence but eventually caved in to taking the car. This turned out to be a quite expensive option as we parked in the main railway station carpark but easier for getting somewhere to stay.
The walk around in the streets was enjoyable although there seemed to be building or restoration works going on all over including the Baptistry. First stop was the Palazzo Vecchio, containing some ingenious Medici architecture and beautifully decorated state rooms. We walked past the Uffizi queue down past the Ponte Vecchio and had lunch near the Palazzo Pitti. Then we were resigned to a long wait in the Uffizi gallery queue - the main attraction we hadn't seen last time we were here. An hour and a half later of sitting and standing in the cold stone walkway we were in! I was disappointed by the paintings. I guess they were amazingly priceless but the repetition of Annuciation, Crucifixion and Madonna e Bambino left me cold. Botticelli's Birth of Venus was a consolation and the few Rubens and Rembrandts. I enjoyed the Amsterdam and Vienna galleries more.
Back at the station we were trying to find accommodation and were approached by a man just outside the hotel booking service who offered a nice Bed and Breakfast Pensione for only 5€ more than we paid for the poor place the previous night. We took it and the nearby free parking as well.
We had a lovely meal in a Trattoria recommended by the Pensione owner near the main market in town. We had antipasti and veal and steak with porcini mushrooms.
We drove back home the next day through Livorno and past Pisa, stopping in Genoa to walk along the seafront and have a hotdog.

Long weekend in Provence

2004-11-03T07:28:00.000+11:00

We spent the weekend amongst ripening olives and autumn coloured vinyards of the Alpilles region of Provence. It was only a few hours drive by motorway and we were able to visit Le Baux de Provence on the first afternoon even though we only left home at 11am. We found a pleasant hotel in Maussane nearby. Since it was raining the following morning we went to Arles which was fairly close and did Nimes on the public holiday Monday (All Saints Day).

Roman arena, Arles

Travelbug

2004-10-24T22:27:00.000+10:00

Hermes Travelbug with the red rocks of his new home.

Weekends

2004-10-18T07:05:00.000+10:00

Last weekend we drove down to the Esterel to deposit a geocaching travelbug into its goal cache. It was Ben's first geocaching trip. We climbed up to the top of a hill with a military lighthouse then clambered down through prikly brush and over red rocks to get back on the track of the cache. It reminded us all of Australian bushwalking. What made it French was the number of people about, the several rockclimbers in sight of the cache and the castelated tower on a little island just off the coast. We had a very pleasant dinner in the Coin de la Rue in Valbonne afterwards.

This weekend we explored Monte Carlo for the first time, taking shops including a huge fnac music and electronics shop and numerous luxury goods shops, the casino and associated cars, the harbour and boats. Back in Villeneuve Loubet we finally checked out one of our local non-Asian restaurants and ended up with a delicious orgy of seafood (mussels, calamari, prawns and whitebait) and the frites that I was craving - yum.

Hiking

2004-10-06T23:09:00.000+10:00

We were on a goat track up high on one of our latest walks in the Southern Alps. This one left from the Sanctuaire de Santa Anna just across the border into Italy. The little alpine lakes were pretty but the area was littered with WW2 bunkers and rusty barbed wire. I ate several delicious handfuls of raspberries from the bushes lining the track. We did another walk on Sunday after camping in a delightful all-season campground at Isola. The walk from St Etienne la Tinée wasn't as nice as the previous day as it was hotter down lower and three quarters of the route was on a steep gravel road. The free fruit compensation wasn't there either as animals, probably pigs, had stripped the bushes of raspberries and most of the leaves.

Beach

2004-10-06T23:07:00.000+10:00

I was wetting my toes on our local Villeneuve Loubet Plage, just so I could say I'd done it. It has almost been warm enough again in the last few days for full immersion but it probably won't happen. Those pebbles make for a pretty uncomfortable swimming experience.

Necklace

2004-10-06T23:05:00.000+10:00

As promised, a photo that features my new necklace, bought in the Perigord town of Sarlat for my last birthday - the next one is in three weeks!

Fin de été d'Inde

2004-09-28T02:03:00.000+10:00

The air seems a lot cooler now that it's getting dark at 7pm. Gone are our evenings playing tennis.

One of the women at tennis is going to Australia (mainly) next week for 3 1/2 months so I've given her my parents' number and she might call near New Year when they are in Sydney.

Bits and Pieces

2004-09-16T02:29:00.000+10:00

Animal life: There was a large toad clambering around in the rockery by our car space a couple of nights ago. Also a couple of days ago a large group of sanglier (wild pigs) were hanging around in the car park behind Pat's work when I arrived to pick him up. The pack (what is the collective noun for pigs?) seemed to consist of a big mama, a couple of smaller daughters and a whole swag of piglets. As they trailed off into the pine trees we could see the last two were lame in their back legs. They were all quite dark and bristly. People here reckon their numbers have increased because there are less hunters. Certainly residents with gardens near forests regularly have them dug up. And I saw Australian "sanglier" being sold in a frozen foods shop here!

I also just remembered that on one of our walks in the Dordogne we encountered a hillside so covered with wild garlic we could smell it.

Today I cooked baked beans. It took more than 4 and a half hours. They will have to be better than the canned variety, which are hard to get here.

Rain

2004-09-14T18:47:00.000+10:00

It is looking like we might have a whole day of rain. It feels like a refreshing change. The temperature has reduced to 24 C.

We had a very unsatisfying expedition into Italy on Sunday. After Rick regaled us with stories from their visit to Apricale restaurants we decided to try and find it and a cache at San Michele to deposit the Mini Travel Bug. Without a map we had no hope of finding Apricale in the hills above Vintimiglia. So we went to San Michele and couldn't fins the cache box. I looked for about 20 minutes under rocks and bushes but the GPS wouldn't fix. By the time we got to the next town with food (Sospel) it was too late for lunch so we drove home. The only saving grace was that I picked a handful of tasty purple figs from a tree by the road.

A couple of English soundtrack movies have been on tele recently. Am Australian effort Innocence (2000) by Paul Cox, very touching film about rekindled love with Bud Tingwell and Julia Blake. The other was Rear Window (1954), the retouched version with James Stewart and Grace Kelly. We didn't realise it was her until I mentioned it at tennis. She seemed familiar!

Not much to write home about

2004-09-06T03:30:00.000+10:00

The news of the past week has been very depressing so I haven't felt like blogging. We talked about terrorism and the French religious symbols ban in state schools in French class. The topic generated quite a lively discussion, if in broken French.

Australia goes to the polls on October 9. Surely the Australian people can give my Dad a birthday present and get rid of Howard but it seems nothing is certain. It is nice not to have to endure weeks of posturing by him and the rest of the pollies although I do try to read current opinion on various news sources. I tend to read the ones pointing out Howard's propensity to lie and ignore the will of the Australian public. We'll do our postal votes for Howard's electorate via the embassy in Paris.

I'm currently watching the US open with German commentary (can't understand anything except "oh ja" and "breakchance"). We spent the day reading secondhand books bought from Heidi's English bookshop in Antibes yesterday. Very relaxing. The weather is a bit opressive, like a Sydney February.

Last week with Bruce we did a cache behind Grasse, at a ruined village called Castellaras. Pat broke the repair off his front incisor with a pain de camapagne sandwich on the way there so he looked like a snaggle-tooth. Bruce went for train trip to Menton and cycled all the way back on Monday while Pat organised a dental appointment for Wednesday. This meant a change to our vague plan of going away for an overnight trip to the Mercantour. Instead we took Bruce around to Barcelonette with the bike doing a hike to some alpine lakes from the Col de Cayolle on the way. He bivvied in a wood for the night while we drove back home over the Col de Bonnet. At 2802m the highest col in Europe. The road seemed to go on for ever through an increasingly barren landscape, a fitting setting for all the WW2 bunkers and buildings still littering the mountain tops. It took us two hours to drive home from the top. Early the following morning Bruce rode Pat's mountain bike over the col, arriving back at the house about 4 in the afternoon, some 170 kms later. Too exhausting by half! We went off to play tennis for a couple of hours and he was asleep, unsurprisingly, when we came back to go out to dinner. I saw him off at the airport for a flight to Munich the folowing morning.

Dark side of the blog

2004-08-27T01:10:00.000+10:00

Obviously I am a novice at this blogging world but plagiarism of one blog to another seems creepy and insidious. I found out about this issue reading Blast Radius (from Aussie Blogs). One American woman seems to have been targeted twice. I think I should stick to publishing bad photos and inconsequential mutterings to avoid these weirdos. What do they think it will do for them? Do people use their blogs as some kind of life/career enhancement tool?

What's in my info file?

2004-08-22T23:28:00.000+10:00

It might be revealing to review what's in my misc info file on this laptop. I thought that Explorer would have some option for listing the files as text but it seems not, so first you must set up a context menu item using a .bat file as per this helpful page.

So the list, with explanations:

jewellery: someone who shall remain nameless owed me a birthday present from last October so I was collecting pictures of the styles I like. We bought a piece in the Perigord (pic later).

A Guide to Wearing a Saree: I think I collected this because I was reminded that my mother and grandmother have some spectacular silk saris, never made up, from my grandfather's business trips to Kerala state in India. In Bhutan I bought a traditional woman's outfit which is slightly easier to put on

Entertaining At Home: self-improvement 1950's-style

Growing Figs: We acquired a fruiting fig which had self-planted under my PIL's wahing line in Canberra. We moved it to Sydney in a big pot where it tried to fruit for two years. Having not seen it for a year I don't know its current state.

How to inspect a property: I still want to "own" my own home

Move Checklist and Calender: We moved from Sydney to France in 2003. Luckily we didn't take much because we have to pack again to come home in three months. We have acquired sme fairly big items, including bikes, electrical goods

Worm_farm.pdf: I had a worm farm in two polystyrene boxes to eat my compost items. It wasn't ideal as the walls were too high. The cockroaches and slugs loved it.

BackpackGearTest, Bushwalking food, dehydrated curry, QldWalks, Kiandra to Kozi walking in Dec: various items regarding aspects of bushwalking

david: stuff about an old boyfriend

mexican train: rules for a domino game introduced to us recently but with a rather confusing rule sheet

Australian camera shops online: I was contemplating a film SLR but next time I buy it will probably be digital. Our little digital compact has taken over from my film compact almost completely.

2004NSWSquashCalender: not sure why I kept this except it took a while to download

plant_stand199905_81.pdf: I was contemplating some carpentry to make this but haven't got around to it.

corsica: information on where to visit on Corsica

quotes.txt: For example
People who are only good with hammers see everything as a nail.
-Abraham Maslow, Psychologist

vi commands.txt: from when I was computing on Unix

If you don't have cable and your library card has expired

2004-08-19T22:00:00.000+10:00

I've been blog rolled! If you don't have cable and your library card has expired Not sure why.

I also noticed that there isn't much gleaning going on here. It's mainly a travelogue but I'm definitely not feeling too intellectual at the moment. We also seem to be remote from discussions of current events. Watching CNN doesn't seem to stimulate debate. I'm escaping into the Olympics for the time being. Still, I am keeping an eye on whether we'll have to vote in the Australian Federal election before we come home. It seems Howard has shied away from this test now that Latham is stronger (but only politically because he just went into hospital). The prediction is now October before the US election.

Lists

2004-08-18T02:30:00.001+10:00

Lists seem to abound in weblog circles, including this free association game

Server:: computer
Charlotte:: dessert
Jackson:: Michael
Resentment:: housework
Controlling:: freak
Intense:: blue
November:: home
Donkey:: ass
Weave:: web
Satisfies:: food

Beetle

2004-08-17T18:40:00.000+10:00

A prickly looking customer we met on a walk through woods. We were across the Dordogne River from Chateau Beynac looking for a cache.

Castlenaud

2004-08-17T18:35:00.000+10:00

The very popular Castlenaud: a restored Dordogne Chateau containing the Museum of War of the Middle Ages, hence the reconstructed war machine sticking up over the ramparts on the left of picture.

2004-08-17T18:27:00.000+10:00

Canoeing the Ardeche with the crowds

Dolmen

2004-08-17T18:14:00.000+10:00

Two more dolmen near Limogne-en-Quercy

French prehistory

2004-08-16T02:39:00.000+10:00

Here is a large dolmen near Limogne-en-Quercy south of the Lot River, which runs roughly parallel to the Dordogne. This is one of three we visited near the town.

August summer holiday

2004-08-16T02:35:00.000+10:00

We have just returned from two weeks exploring more of France. We opted to drive a short distance rather than fly anywhere or attempt anything further afield with Pat's two weeks off work. This time we went north via Barcelonette through the Southern Alps then across through the Rhone valley to the Massif Central and beyond to the Perigord and the Dordogne Valley.

Here is a typical Dordogne valley scene with farms and chateau in the distance.
We camped which was exciting with the number of thunderstorms that kept appearing. Luckily they cooled things down to below 30 degrees. Camping freed our money for good eating. The Perigord is renown for good hearty food including foie gras and the rest of the goose or duck, truffles, potatoes and garlic soup. More highlights soon...

Happenings

2004-07-29T22:20:00.000+10:00

The free phone I was given has already died. Apparently it has had this problem of not being able to access the network before. I'll have to buy another if I don't want to lose my call credits. Was going to buy one online but we'll be away from home so better to wait until we return so I'll be here (mostly) for the mail.

Not much else has been going on - tennis, trialling the osteopath for my hip ...Getting a bit fed up with French lessons. We changed to group lessons but it's hard to get the level right. One is too hard and the other not challenging, which is probably why I'm losing interest. On the plus side, we have met some different people to talk to.

We're off to other parts of southern France for two weeks: exploring, walking, camping, eating (always an important par tof the French experience).

Wildlife

2004-07-29T21:01:00.000+10:00

We only see these cute little guys in the warmer months and they are pretty shy. In winter I spied one hiding out in our stair cupboard with the hot water heater! Apart from them there are cheeky magpies with a loud "chukka-chukka" call. They will tease any cat they can get close to. There are some other small greeny-spotted lizards, pigeons, seagulls overhead (a mysterious fishfin-like slimy object appeared on the outside table one day), cicadas, bumblebees and a few other birds if you look hard - woodpeckers, hoopoes, tits of some kind. I really miss the Australian birds.

Auvergne Trip

2004-07-20T20:58:00.000+10:00

Pat's company closed down for French National Day (Bastille Day) and the two days between it and the weekend. We have just come back from the Auvergne area (le Massif Central)- about 500kms from home.

14/7 We parted from the A7 motorway towards Le Puy-en-Velay. The first campsite was in Gaudet, a very small village on a river, just near the start of the Loire. We walked to the only hotel restaurant and had a decent menu. We were persuaded to have marinated strawberries and cream even though we were both full, probably the best bit!

15/7 Explored the Loire valley and the Livradois-Forez area. Went into Le Puy-en-Velay.

HPIM0530
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Above Le Puy-en-Velay
The cathedral has Oriental and Byzantine influences and was built in the 12th century. We walked around the old religious centre and up to the huge red painted Notre Dame statue.

HPIM0529
Originally uploaded by Robubble.

Drove through La Chaise-Dieu with another pilgrimage church. Even small villages on the St Jacques de Campostelle (Portugal) routes have large cathedrals! Campsite on small Plan d'eau (reservoir) amongst pine trees near Champagnac-le-Vieux. No dinner as Pat was still recovering from a virus that gave him a fever and aching muscles.
16/7 Tried to find a geocache in the forest off a mountain bike trail from St-Germain-l'Herm, near a cascade but had no luck after searching for 20 minutes. Also managed a short walk to a dolmen in a field near Issoire. Campsite above Chambon-sur-Lac. We found the nearby St Nectaire area, an old spa holiday town, to be a bit dead so ended up in a pizzeria by the lake. We tried Forme d'Auvergne and cantal on our pizzas. However, the tourist office in St Nectaire had earlier been helpful with brochures in English.

17/7 Interesting visit to a chateau at Cordes. Bussed up the top of the Puy de Dome after visiting the Parc de Volcans exposition on, you guessed it, volcanoes (and man, since men have been here thousands of years). Campsite above Mont Dore after taking the cable car up to near the summit of Puy de Sancy (1885m). Lovely dinner in town at a traditional Auvergnate restaurant. Lots of local cheese featured. For entree, I had a feuillette with Bleu d'Avergne then a steak with wine sauce, Pat had a porc and cabbage dish "pottée". We finished off with fromage blanc and tarte and creme brulée. The restaurant was entertained by a traditionally dressed woman with a medieval instrument, singing and playing.
I was bitten all over by tiny midges as I got undressed outside the tent in the dark. And I really mean all over - between my legs, bottom, small of my back, arms, feet, next to my eyes - ugh! I only discovered they were there when I shone the torch inside the tent and started to squash the ones I could see.

18/7 Rain began during the morning. Pouring as we left so we set off south, past Lac Pavin, a volcanic lake. From Condat we encoutered a "fun run" going up the hill in the pouring rain! Stopped in Egliseneuve d'Entraigues for the Maison de Fomage and found a market fête going on despite the rain. Stopped in St Flour for lunch and a walk around. The Tour de France had been there a couple of days before. This perched town looks better from a distance as close up it's a bit colourless. After a short stint on a free motorway we drove down the N106 through some lovely countryside and ended up in Nimes held up for twenty minutes by the end of the Tour de France road closures. Made it back home at 8pm.

Spending some time now annointing my midge spots with antihistamine cream. Also Pat has passed the feverish virus onto me so not feeling too chipper today (Tuesday 20/7).

SchoolFriends

2004-07-14T04:02:00.000+10:00

I find this reunion site rather fascinating: Welcome to SchoolFriends Australia & New Zealand!, but there are hardly any new people from my school years or uni. It's free to sign up but emailing through the site costs but you can disguise your address in the profile text. It seems I missed one of my primary school's physical reunions but maybe contemplation from afar is safer!

Geocaching

2004-07-13T00:12:00.000+10:00

Our front patio coordinates are: N 43° 38.340 E 007° 07.414

With Pat's GPS unit, a Garmin eTrex, we have found some of the physical caches on Geocaching, two here on the Côte d'Azur and two on Corsica. The main motivation is it makes you discover places you wouldn't otherwise hear of if a cache wasn't put there.

New additions

2004-07-12T04:33:00.000+10:00

Been adding things like crazy! I now have a blogroll link list and a referring pages script - talk about getting ahead of myself.

Camping at Gorges du Verdon

2004-07-10T06:41:00.000+10:00

Le Tour is on with lots of Aussies riding so good to watch.

I have been trying to organise our mailing addresses as the Post forwarding service runs out in August. It's not 100% anyway - we had problems with ING suspending our accounts.

I have just been back to the Gorges du Verdon for the third time for a camping trip with Judy, Ann, Kathy, Alison and Stephan and 9 assorted-aged children. Unfortunately we got a long series of thunderstorms come through which prevented much activity. Missed out on rafting and hiking but we managed a walk along the gorge road and up to the chapel on the roc in Castellane. We all swam in Lac Saint Croix before the drive home.

We climbed up there - with young children so not as hard as it might look. We also ate a simple meal at the Hotel in the bottom of the picture.

2004-07-06T08:13:00.000+10:00

Watching Jazz à Juan 2003 on TMC. The next festival starts this month.

Going camping with Judy and Ann and various boys near Castellane.

2004-07-03T07:30:00.000+10:00

New glasses and longer hair

Photos & Mic, Jodie & Chloe's visit

2004-07-03T01:41:00.001+10:00

Yay, j'ai photo blog, grace de Hello et accueil gratuit à Blogger!

We had 6 good days with Mic, Jodie and Chloe. They arrived, a bit unexpectedly while I was still cleaning the house, on Friday and left Thursday morning to drive back to Lausanne.
We managed to go to Eze, Cassis (a long drive), Ile St Marguerite and the beach at Antibes. We also tried out the swimming pool (see pic) and shopped the Geant Hypermarche.
House feels a bit empty after a nearly-two-year-old's been around demanding toys, books, songs etc

2004-07-03T01:41:00.000+10:00

avec Mic, Jodie et Chloe, Juin 2004

2004-07-03T01:32:00.000+10:00

dans le piscine de Les Ambassades

2004-06-24T23:17:00.000+10:00

France had a Fete de la Musique on Monday night. We saw Harmonie Toot Sweet (they also sang at Adapt in France's 3rd birthday the Friday before) with Margaret and Francois Dutoit, one of Pat's previous managers.
We had a very good night of dinner and wine at Laurie Stevens house in Mougins on Tuesday. She also invited Joh, a dutch guy and Kim, who didn't show up because her younger child was sick. The plan was to stay the night because we had to get up early to walk with the hiking group at 9am.
The drive up with Gillian and Elizabeth was quite smooth apart from the fact that I had too much wine but it was all too good too pass up. It was bad for the drive up to Boreon - I was almost sick on the final bends. We had to wait for half and hour while the others finalised their hotel bills and finished breakfast.
The walk was from the parking where we went to Lac Negre and the five lakes in October but in the opposite direction, to Lac Adus. The group split up at one point so some could avoid crossing a large patch of snow. The six of us remaining saw a grassy col, marmottes, a chamois and the top view of the little lakes. We met there for a late lunch.

Corsican diary

2004-06-09T03:10:00.000+10:00

The following is my travel diary for two weeks in Corsica:

15/5/2004 Calvi. Got off the Mega ferry in the late afternoon. Found campground then walked around town. Walked back to a restaurant (uphill) in the vieille ville (U Campellu)

16/5 4h30 walk to near the Cirque du Bonifato, stopped at stone-walled hut with young Brit man missing person notice attached. Many small pink cyclamen flowers.
Drive down west coast to Galeria. Camped then dinner on terrace overlooking the bay and Tour Genoise (first of many) opposite.

17/5 Icecream before 5h walk to Girolato near the Sala (?) nature reserve. Beer overlooking the beach, watching the unloading of a grader from barge. Notables: heat, red and yellow growths and small green snake. Drive narrow winding road to Porto, including interesting encounter with bus. Camp then dinner at La Tour Genoise over the port.

18/5/2004 Porto pastry on the beach. 0h30 walk to Calanches de Piana (natural donjon). Drive to Cargese to look for caches. Found the first 10km south on the coast road – somewhere in a nicely carved granite boat commemorating the landing of the first Greeks at that point. Couldn’t find the microcache as I kept getting blackberry prickles stuck in me. Back in the town attempted the other multicache, this time with success. Several steps took us to the two churches, down to the port for a diversionary beer then up to the Tour Genoise above, via the long winding route as I had omitted to write down a photo clue as to which path to take at a junction. A local asked us if we had been to the point for the belle vue but we had to say next time because it was getting late and we were tired.
Drove to Vico, inland from Sagone where we had to have dinner. There was a campground in Vico but not much else. It was deserted apart from one Swiss girl and her dog, the man mowing the grass and the Doberman on the roof of the reception building. In Sagone we found a hotel on the beach open and had salads and ailles de raie avec capers, which were a bit soggy, perhaps they were frozen.

19/5 Drove through forest and mountains with the first couchon sauvage we saw to the Col de Verghio. Bought bread and had lunch by the dam lake at Calacuccia. Couldn’t find a campground there and we had no time for a walk so drove to Corte. Got money, map, walked around town and anthropological museum and had beer to recover! Drove back to the Col du Verghio and took demi-pension at hotel there. Short evening walk up to the col on the GR and MM routes amongst the cows. OK evening meal of soup, ravioli (bocchio and mint), small piece of cheese or pastry. Bed quite uncomfortable.

20/5 Off relatively early for what was to be a long circuit walk. 6h30 walk to Lac du Nino. Walked around the lake and down another path with quite a few other people but we overshot our unmarked path back to the col, not reading the map or using the GPS to full advantage. We asked a couple where they were headed and they turned out to be English and offered us a lift back to our car. Jean and Dave were from Leeds and were staying in a villa near Lama (north of Corte) for a week.
Drove north of Corte to a campground near Mont d’Oro at Tatone on the railway. Nice showers followed by pizza in the campground deserted restaurant. One was crème fraiche, ham, mushroom, cheese – like carbonara on a pizza.

21/5 1h30 walk to the Cascade d’Anglais. Beautiful clear water over many gray rocks. Drove to Ajaccio. Had lunch in restaurant on the port, petites fritures and moules frittes. Short walk around town past the Maison Bonaparte. Went to Carrefour supermarket for supplies and dinner.
Drove towards Filitosa and found campground at Calzola. Lovely quiet rustic camp under cork oaks, inspected be several curious cats. Dinner of roast chicken and potato salad.

22/5 Visit to the Site Prehistorique de Filitosa – statue menhirs, settlement and quarry (no dolmen). Small museum and gallery didn’t add much..
Had lunch after passing through Propriano and buying bread and tarts. On the beach at Campomoro there was a wedding going on and a fish farm in the bay. Some spear fishermen were unloading when we arrived. Pat had a short swim but it was pretty cold so he wasn’t in long.
Drove through Sartene to Bonifacio. 2h walk around clifftop Haut Ville. Camp in poor crowded site. First few drops of rain. Walked back to Haut Ville past the port to dinner in deserted restaurant – bad value and no ambience except we were outside. Kept awake at night by fighting and police turning up nearby and Gipsy Kings playing at full volume afterwards.

23/5 Drove around the coast past a tortoise on the road (Santa Guila beach had been recommended but it was crowded and had a boring resort feel. Some bits done up, right on the beach but car park a rocky mud puddle in waiting.) Drove through Porto Vecchio (lots of shops and no parking) back into the mountains. We had lunch in the mist near Col d’Ospedale, missing the beautiful lake which we could have sat next to. Found camp near Zonza. Crowded but we found a spot by ourselves right at the top. Threatening rain but I did washing and still only a few drops. Dinner in nice restaurant in town (Auberge de Sanglier). Croustillant (Pat) charcuterie (Ro) and Civet (daube) de sanglier + excellent tarte aux pommes and chestnut gateau.

24/5 6h walk return from the Col de Bavella to the Refuge de Paliri and the U Colomleddu (Trou de Bombe), natural rock arch. Notable: thousands of pine processional caterpillars, mostly squashed, pretty blue daisy like flowers, two black beetles rolling dung ball, views of rock spires and the sea.
Returned to same campground and dinner in another restaurant in Zonza. Fieulleté (Pat), salade gibieres de canard (Ro), Daube de sanglier avec pruneaux (Pat), Legumes de Mediterranee (Ro), fidone (Gateau Corse), chataigne mousse with green leaf preserve (Ro)

25/5 5h30 walk around the Aiguilles de Bavella from the col again. Very rocky, chains in parts of the GR alpine route. Interesting changes in scenery and vegetation. Fighter jets overhead again. Tiring walk uphill at the end.
Drove to next town Quenza and found an Auberge. Managed by a chef so set menu very good. Cannelloni de brocchui (mint), stuffed quail + braised vegetables, cheese or dessert assortment. Did not sleep (heat, period, sore hip, coffee) but the shower was good and managed to see some tennis on TV. Older English couples aplenty here!

26/5 Drove through the middle of the island over uncomfortably winding roads: more pigs, some lovely woodlands but also burnt, deforested hillsides. Finally had lunch by the road then found natural river campsite north of Corte. Train line went around it and the river through.
Drove to a pizza place for dinner. TV on with champions league final but we didn’t stay.

27/5 After quick supermarket shop drove back to the southwest of Corte to the Gorge de la Restonica. At the end of the road got a remarkably good spot right next to the track which took us up to two lakes, Melo and Castanella (still almost all ice), via ladders and through snow (skied on boots down although Pat had chosen to wear sneakers because the walk was supposed to be short!). Sustained our only injuries, a big bruise on calf and a gashed hand. Lots of German families with children.
Back to campground for showers then returned to Corte. Checked email at a cyber pub then had beer and meal in the old town. Food at recommended U Museu cheap and unremarkable.

28/5 Left campground at 10am after paying blind man owner. Drove through La Castagniccia area, including Morosaglia (where patriot leader of briefly independent Corsica Palio was born), chestnut woods with many domestic animals (pigs, goats, cows, horses and birds. Found cache at Col (Bocca di San Antonio). Lunch of toasted panini and beer at La Porta near a baroque church with contrasting bell tower. Ended up on the coast again. Towards Bastia the single lane boring road held more and more traffic so we turned inland again, over some hills to the north coast.
Camp by a river at San Fiorenzu. Walk around town and bastion. Dinner in busy place with new waiter anxious to practise his English resulting in some mistunderstandings. Spoke to Norwegian with French Canadien wife after laughing at the waiter’s efforts. Good steak (Ro) and moules frites (Pat), followed by icecream profiteroles.

29/5 Drove around Cap Corse with stops at Nonza (odd little schist tower) and Centuri (lunch on the hot rocky beach then walked in the small village fishing port). Through Bastia without stopping and San Fiorenzu without joy at the ATM. Along the coast past Ile Rousse to Calvi we loked for a nice campground but failing to find one we returned to the same campground in Calvi. Shopped at the supermarket for more Muscat and terrine that we had liked (but none of the Emperor with figues which was so good, sweet and tasty).
Dinner on the marina, which was full of yachts from Antibes for a 40th anniversary club race and Aussie Rules, a superyacht. We guessed who it could belong to among famous Australians: Greg Norman, perhaps. I later confirmed this online – a $70 million dollar largest aluminium hulled go anywhere pleasure cruiser with fantastic number of toys for fishing, diving and boating. Food was a bit disappointing for a 20€ menu, overcooked and strongsmelling seafood with overly salty sauces.

30/5 Rest day in campground. Looked at the beach on the way to get bread. Plenty of people on it but only one in the water. Yachts had all gone to be replaced by an influx of Germans including one family who had to put their mansion tent up less than a metre from ours while we were in it – grr!
Dinner in behind port, steak (Pat) stodgy seafood spaghetti (Ro). Bought red coral earrings but no T-shirt.

31/5 Packed up and drove to Calenzana (start/end of GR20). 1h30 walk up to first col and back with quite a few daywalkers and fresh GR walkers. Drove back through a couple of other La Balagne perched towns. Not much activity for a fete day so we headed back to Calvi for lunch at an Italian style place: lasagne au brocciu (local fresh cheese and mint) (Ro) and Pizza Reine (Pat).
Had to while away the time until the ferry so drove up to the Notre Dame and stayed there in a rather wild wind for a few hours. Back in town found a 24h petrol pump that took a while to negotiate.
Had a drink on the marina, pastis and tea, then panini in the car before queuing for the ferry.

2004-05-15T07:34:00.000+10:00

My bag was stolen today - no phone, sunglasses, pocketknife, makeup etc. Bummer. They wouldn't have gotten much satisfaction with a phone with a permanently dead battery and no cash and cancelled cards (including an expired credit card).

Corsica for two weeks to forget about it now.

2004-05-11T07:53:00.000+10:00

New photos in France posted at France 2004

Played tennis today in nice warm sun but still quite cold. Also went for hike on Friday with four Swedish women, Fleur, and an English couple who used to live here. It was up near Seranon off the Route Napoleon.

We have a lovely Peugeot 206 again, light metallic grey this time. Already it has acquired a dent in the bonnet (if it wasn't there to start with). We parked in the Decathlon carpark in between the rows and went in for tennis balls and a blow-up mattress and that's when we think it may have happened.

2004-04-29T02:50:00.000+10:00

My Amazon books arrived:
The Curious Incident of the Dog - Mark Haddon. I read it in one day and thought it was clever writing and quite thought provoking. I wonder if Allan has read it.
The Dead Heart - Douglas Kennedy. An American writing a thriller about Australia - should be funny.
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood. Another futuristic exploration of humanity.
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere - Stories by a young African American woman are a bit disappointing after the reviews. Maybe they'll improve as I read more.

Spring has definitely sprung. The trees in the domaine are becoming bright green and the flowers are emerging. Some of the flowers, possibly the pine trees, are giving me hayfever.

I went for an extra hike last Thursday with Annsofi and Ingrid, both Swedish, up Montagne de Thiey in an effort to look for AnnSophie's gold bracelet, to no avail. The wildflowers, however, were lovely. On the Tuesday we had a very leisurely hike on the old Route Napoleon from the road on the River Saigne, including a drinks stop at the bar and a cup of rose from Angela. Yesterday we had a very short walk after a longish drive above La Turbie, led by Gillian (with a hard 'G' as Annsofi corrected me), as Angela's mother-in-law had just died.

I played tennis in shorts for the first time. Pat and I have been playing quite a bit. I've put on weight. Linda at tennis was telling me about Atkins diet of minimum carbohydrates. It would be very hard when the bread is so nice. The pain de campagne from Pain aux Dieux tastes like sourdough and comes in a large long loaf - yum.

Pat got the Panic Room out of the CE library. It was quite good but a bit laboured and far too long for such a simple story. Now we have Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I'm a bit reluctant to see it after I enjoyed the book. I'm remembering that the other book I tried to read of his, at Gary Davies' place in Italy put me off him completely: horrible stories about drug deaths in Columbia and I don't know what else.