Cartoon Fan's dream - Bugs Bunny on Broadway

A bit late I know, but a few weeks ago we went to the sydney opera house, which is always a treat. But on this occasson, especially for me, but I think an initial skeptcal Rochelle, was also swayed, was a fantastic treat as we went to watch cartoons there! not just any cartoons, but classic bug's bunny ones at that.

Bug Bunny on Broadway consists of a fairly hefty number of toon's staring all the favourites, along wth major orchestras, in this case the sydney symphony, As with most of the original cartoons, the soundtracks form a large component of the overall experience. To have a large screen, a highly amused audenience and too many classic scores played and conducted in full grandure, was a real treat.

For anyone familar, the renditions of the famous operas, "barbar of seville" were a particular highlight. Can definitely recommend to all!

bureaucracy sucks!

Right, its been 2 weeks now, and no visa.... nothing... well something, and email from my visa agent saying they've asked for more documents - 1 to prove that i look like I can speak english. This seems to be because I was born in France all those years ago. I wouldn't mind so much, but you know what, apparently its not consistent. No such luck. It depends on the case officer. All these forms and documents I've had to submit, and it turns out it really depends on luck of the draw and how anal / fanickety / problematic / stubbon the case officer is, depends on the length of time / overhead of paper work you need to go through.... arggggg

not much else to report, what can I say, you've seen my schedule... its getting rather manotanous now!

... sorry a little rant...

My days... unemployed

As many now no I quit my big management consultancy job and left the firm on 31st Janurary. Although I have a job to go to, about which I'm extremely excited, its weird giving up a job of almost 8 years and being in a state where you're officially unemployed!

As someone who has always advocated that retirement at an early age would lead to extreme bordem, I can now say, with great certaintity that I have changed my view dramatically.

This is a typical day
- get up early as the other half had to go to work
- help make breakfast, drive to ferry terminal if raining
- do quick bit of shopping whilst the rest of the world is either still in slumber or in process of commtting
- swim the length of manly beach... in training for ocean swimming, should be doing more
- get home, catch up on daily news, make own breakfast, with time to have lots of fruit or more elaborate multi-herbed eggs.
- off to driving range to try and master the art of sticks and balls, 100 of them, but sure they're giving me duds - they never go straight
- down to the surf if there is any, almost standing up consistantly
- back for a spot of lunch, read, basically get out of the sun in the midday heat
- after paper, bit of music, few emails, head to the beach for a spot of volleyball. luckily my partner on court is also unemployed right now, which makes for a good excuse to get some games on the fairly empty courts
- then its time to start the cooking, something i've missed and just never have time for... its been much to the appreciation of Rochelle!... infact she mentioned to a friend that she had no idea what to do with herself when she gets in the door!

its a hard life.... but have to give it up as of monday... the new job starts, getting anxious now....

Catchup, but come on, its been good weather

I have to admit to being slack. I have good excuses thou, i've been un-employed and the weather has been great - really don't want to spend "too" much time at the computer in doors. But you're lucky now as the weather has turned for the worse and its light rain predicted all day, so time to catch up....

Trek to the Blue Mountains

A close friend from back in blighty, well actually he's moved to Switzerland now, "popped over" (well his wife works for BA, you can do that sort of thing) for a couple of weeks in Janurary.

For part of this we decided to embark into the Blue mountains for 3 days of treking, camping, living off the land, fending for our lives with no water oh and avoiding dangerous snakes....
Blue Mountains Trip

The original plan, and it was well planned, was for 3 days in a large loop around the southeast corner of the Blues. Having gone to the camping store, got maps and advice and certain essential equipment like the self heating ceramic tea mug and ultra-lightweight camping mat that's also a floatation device, we planned our trip out based on advice from those more experienced and also let the rangers know of our plans. Additionally, and as nerves started to set in, we borrowed an EPURB from a sailing friend (These are basically a distress beckon normally used out to sea, but given our distance from civilisation and risks out in the bush, a good safety precaution).

I should say at this point that the entire world thought we were mad, what with summer heat, snake season, lack of water etc. etc. Well the rangers said we'd have a great time, and that was enough for us. Little did we know...

The biggest issue on these types of trips, especially in this heat is water. So we took purifying tables and planned the trip around rivers 'n' streams that could enable us to replenish. Imagine our rather worried annoyance when the first "stream" we came too was completely try. bone. we kept going to the main river, but only to find that the river, although flowing, was only barely. It wasn't stagnent, but we'd need to boil off everything we drank. Rats!

At this point we'd been walking through most of the heat of the day, and poor dave, only aclimatised for 2 days from the northern hemisphere winter (europe, via Narita), was starting to suffer. We made camp, Dave rested (mostly in the river to cool off!) and I set about food and new water. In all we boiled up 7 liters of water for food that night and to get us back to the car the next day. The decision had been made that it wasn't worth risking more excursions to find less water. Despite these woahs, oh and the fact that we ran out of camping gas (leak, carelessness, miscalculation - we're not sure), the scenery was pretty spectactular, especially as the sun set! The widelife also, despite the snakes had been fascinating, and as dusk settled, the number of lizards (almost dinosaurs I might add, one was over 1.5m long) grew.

I should add, that although we may look absolutely rediculous in our fly protector nets over our hats (
Me in stupid fly net), where we were was about the most fly invested place you've ever been, not since King's Canyon in the outback, have I been pestered by so many flies. So glad we brought them along, the only issue was getting used to taking a drink, but forgetting the fly net was there - doh!

The overnight stay, although incredibly welcome, was just a tad freaky - noises and such that you can't quite get your imagination around (i think we were invaded by a large group of Kangaroos at one point, but it could have been a hopping axe-murderer for all we knew).

The day started better, the morning coolness a definite advantage over the previous day much later start. Some great porridge, okay some dodgy burnt bits, but delicious all the same. So after a large aamount of cleaning off the burnt bits from the trangier we set off back teh way we came. A much more pleasant walk, with the thought of fresh water back in the car certainly enough to keep us going! We saw loads more snakes out, which was slightly disconcerting. We made it back after a mammouth up hill out of the valley which did almost kill us, but god the sight of the car was a sight to behold!

The day started to heat up after our midday arrival, but there was nothing more welcoming on the trip home, than the over airconditioned Macdonald's restaurant!

Next time - we're going in autumn.... not mid summer!