Humdrum

I have to admit straight up that not a lot has happened recently. We've settled into the house enough that I can generally find whatever I'm looking for on the second or third go at most. I can give directions to my house (although they're generally along the lines of "follow the signs to the Holder shops, we're in number 14"). And I can remember most people's names without having to check their name badges (although this doesn't hold so well with people outside of work, which is unfortunate, as they tend not to wear name badges).

Work... well, work continues. I've successfully created two screens (computer programs) for internal use (ie only people in my team use them). I've also read a fair bit of Dr Karl's Great Moments in Science column in the copious amounts of free time that I have. I know the best place to get curry for lunch (butter chicken from Chalisa at the Hyperdome). And I've successfully caught the bus home from work twice (and subsequently found someone who is willing to drive me instead).

I paid off my credit card in full, but then Dale and I went and did some food shopping. We ended up spending $350 on grocery items alone. Fruit and veg and meat brought the total closer to $500. The result:


Yes, the bottom three shelves are filled entirely with fresh fruit and vegetables, and the freezer is completely lacking in party pies, sausage rolls or frozen pizza. I don't even think there's any ice cream in there.

Don't worry though - we are leading a balanced lifestyle:

Danger Will Robinson

Yesterday our TV reached critical mass. It was already kind of complicated, what with the TV, DVD player, VCR, x-box, PS2 and sound system all enjoying a kind of symbiotic relationship with each other. Due to a lack of inputs, there were some interesting connections - for example, the X-box connected to the TV and the sound system via the VCR/DVD player (which itself requires two connections to the TV due to the digital nature of DVDs and the analogue nature of VHS). Still following? Well, yesterday we decided to take our part in the digital revolution by way of the purchase of a digital set-top box.

Unfortunately, it was necessary to sacrifice the PS2 to the gods of RCA connections in order to make digital TV a reality in our house. Fear not though - I believe that through a combination prayer and the purchase of an optical cable it will be possible to reinstate the PS2. The real problem came when I attempted to watch the TV this morning over breakfast.

It is now necessary to not only find, but also operate four remote controls in order to watch TV in our house. Not to watch videos, or DVDs or operate the sound system (although these all require their fair share of remotes), but to simply watch TV (in all its digital glory, amen).

In other news, I narrowly averted vehicular catastophe today when my car ran out of oil. Ten years of being driven to the shops and back has left the poor Barina ill-prepared for the 80km a day it's being driven these days. Fortunately, I've killed a car through oil-attrition before, so I recognised the signs early on (the temperature gauge pointing to the red section is generally a dead give-away) - although there was some brief confusion when we opened the bonnet to discover that everything is labelled in German. The prognosis is good though - we put 4L of oil into it and all the water we had with us, but the engine didn't overheat again for the rest of 15km trip home. Praise be to German engineering.

Until next time...

Mmm, donuts...

And herein lies my biggest problem with living in Canberra:

Yep, that's right. There's a Krispy Kreme in Kanberra, 4.9 kilometres from my house, according to Whereis.com. Eight minutes travelling time. I just can't deal with this kind of pressure.

On a similar note, this is the view from my front/back gate (there is some ambiguity as to the orientation of the house - the door on this side has the doorbell, but, as you can see, there's no street):

The bright light with the van in front of it is our local supermarket cum bottle shop (they're one and the same thing here). There is no question of driving down to the shops, ever: the shop is, in fact, closer to the house than my car is.

So basically, I'm left with beer, chocolate and Krispy Kreme, all incredibly easily accessible, and no reason to do any exercise, ever. Sometimes it's hard being me.

One important thing I've learned in my short time in Canberra is that apparently nobody here can drive. I briefly entertained the idea that the government was partly to blame for this - the city abounds with "Form 1 lane" signs, but "Form 1 lane ahead" signs are sadly lacking, so the realisation that the lane you were driving no longer exists and that you are, in fact, now driving down the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic and are likely to die quite soon in a horrific car accident can come as a bit of a surprise. But then I saw this sign below a set of traffic lights:

Yes. That's right. Just in case you hadn't figured out how traffic lights work yet. I wonder how many people stuffed that one up before the council saw a need to install the sign?

While we're on the topic of pictures though (I've been saving them up until I could find the cable that attaches my phone to the computer):

This one's not all that clear, but for good reason. First off, it was 3 o'clock in the morning and I was in a moving car, so it was dark and hard to focus.

Secondly, and more importantly, it's a photo of the thermometer in my car (yes, my lovely, European-engineered car has a thermometer in the dash). In case you can't see, it says 0.0 degrees C. Until this point in time, I'd never seen a thermometer do that before! I was further horrified when, a minute or two into our (blessedly short) journey, it dropped to -0.5 degrees! Since then the temperatures have been more reasonable, if you can call 3.5 degrees during the day reasonable. I have never been so cold in my life. Everybody says you get used to the cold, but, so far, all that's happened is that I remember to wear a coat whenever I go outside. Always. No matter how reasonable the temperature might seem inside. And a scarf. And gloves. The people at work think it's hilarious.

And finally, one more photo - Canberra as seen from the top of Mt Ainslie (I was up the top of said mountain and felt I should do the touristy thing):


I can't quite see my house from here, but I think that the white smudge just to the right of centre up the back is a building in Woden, which is where Krispy Kreme is. For information regarding the location of my house relative to Krispy Kreme, see above.

Actually, I lied. I have one more photo which I feel the need to share with the world. It's a picture of one of the paintings in our rooms at the Bentley suite. There were several, all similar. The picture's actually sideways and I can't be bothered fixing it, so you'll need to turn your computer monitor on it's side to get the full effect, but I think you'll agree that it's the ugliest and most pointless picture you've ever seen:



As this post is now quite long and full of pictures, I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave any actual writing until next time. Until then...