First the overseas trip

As I said before, much has happened.

Old Flame Junior (OFJ) got married to Old Flame Junior Hubby (OFJH), and OFJH is from Singapore. He has family over there who could not make it to the wedding in Canberra, 

OFJH-father, OFJH, OFJ, OFJH-mother, OF-Mother and Of-Father

so we all hopped on a plane 

Taph, and traveling mascot @ Sydney airport on Boxing day. Damm we missed the Cricket. 

and went to Singapore for the second wedding.

We had a lovely time, drank a Gin Sling at Raffels,

Visited the usual tourist places,

And enjoyed playing tourist.

Singapore mud crab

The things that struck me about it was just how sterile it was. In all the time we were there we saw less than half a dozen flies, and less than a dozen birds. And they were mostly Crows, Minor Birds and one very confused pigeon.

Wine Wool and Wugby tour - part 2

In July, Taph and I went on our Australian Wine Wool and Wugby tour of Australia. We managed to catch three internationals

The Australia v Scotland match in Newcastle

The Brumbies v Wales game in Canberra, and

And the Australia v Wales game in Melbourne.

After last years trip to New Zealand, I was reflecting on the number of times I had been at an international, and what team I had seen the most. In the 03 world cup, Italy had made Canberra its home base, and I had caught two of their games. I had also been to one of their games in the 90s.

That, with the two Italian games attended in New Zealand, meant it was a tie between Australia and Italy.

This would not do, so we caught to Australian internationals to keep Australia ahead.

Of course, now Wales are tied with Italy. 

The Many Stop Read.

Over the Canberra Day long weekend, Taph and i went down the coast. Taph had to work on the Saturday, but got the Tuesday off in leau, so Sunday morning we packed the car and headed down the coast. Sunday Avo was a relaxing affair on the Beach.

Monday we had some work for I-op to do. The list of Coastal op shops is very bare, so we were going to see if we were able to expand this list, and an account to this trip will be posted on I-op, later. (ok, when i get around to writing it).

However when we look through an op-shop, i am usually finished and waiting for Taph to finish. Usually i find a book of short stories or similar and read while waiting, but on this occasion, we were planning on visiting many shops in the area, so i started reading a book that would be in most of these shops.

Yes, i started reading a Dan Brown Book.

I started it at the Narooma Vinnies, Found another copy and kept reading it at the Narooma United Care shop, and so forth over the rest of the Monday and Tuesday. Tee following weekend i read some more at the Lifeline book fair.

I now have a quest, and will continue to find and read shop copies of this book while waiting.

It’s been a while

Hi all, it’s been a while since I have posted, so I figured I should start posting again.

You are all asking, what has been happening.

Well I have been away.

As I said in an earlier post, I went to New Zealand.

And saw some rugby games and met many interesting people.

The sole Georgian fan at Invercargill

Two Canadian Fans at Napier

The argentine prisioneros del rugby

I won’t bore you with too many photos. Just those above.

Taph and I are preparing to jump the ditch and head over to New Zealand for a holiday.

The Rugby World Cup may also be happening while we are there, so we are catching a few games.

These we will see in-between enabling Taphs fibre habit, sampling the regions whiskeys, wines and chocolates. And of course, doing some skiing.

However when I heard The William Webb Ellis Trophy was coming to Yass (a country town near Canberra) I figured it was worth the trip.

Shopping

I went into the video shop today, and the queues at the checkouts we rather slow. I had a little bit too much time on my hands, so i reorganised a table display for them.

I wonder what the next person to the table thought?

Melbourne

My work decided that i had to visit our Melbourne office for 3 days, so i figured this was a chance to explore in my off duty hours.

In my time there, i headed down to St Kilda, had dinner and watched the sun set over the bay.

A wander down Bourke St showed that Myer were in the process of putting up their Christmas Windows.

On the next night we went out for dinner in Chinatown. Don't ask me where we went. i cannot find it on google maps, but it was a delightful little dumpling place behind Her Majesty's Theatre on Little Bourke St.

On our way out of town we had an hour of so to kill waiting at the airport for our flights, however i did spot Adam Spencer in the Qantas lounge. It was a pity that i had not stunt knitting with me so i could do a proper Kineer* of him, but this was the best photo i could do.

And of course a visit to Melbourne, or Adelaide is not complete without a visit to a Haigh's chocolate shop.

* "kineered" or "kineering" is a Yarn Harlot term (and my loose use) for sneaking a photo of someone/thing, I think. I might be mis-using the term (and possibly mis-spelling it).