Dances with Words

Time :: 8:30am
Temperature :: -4 deg C
Conditions :: Hmm, no more fresh snow but it’s still looking good.

Finished another John Grisham book yesterday, King of Torts. It was good, but not as good as The Testament in which Grisham develops a much more complex storyline and there’s a well-developed plot to the whole thing. I was never sure where King of Torts was going, and in the end it wasn’t anywhere much. Oh well.

I also got sucked in to watching tv again last night instead of being more productive. As today is the first of the month I thought I might make some 1st-September-resolutions, to be stuck to for a whole month. Here goes:

1/ No tv. No exceptions.
2/ Eat smaller, healthier meals. (I’m developing a pot belly up here!)
3/ Read every day.
4/ Write regularly.
5/ Pray more.
6/ Exercise more (see point 2).
7/ Think of funnier, more interesting material for wiblog.
8/ Work harder.
9/ Snowboard more before the snow all disappears.
10/ Pay bills on time.

Okay, that’s enough, I really only had the first three but then I thought I’d better bump it up to ten, the traditional list amount. So if I don’t fulfil numbers four to ten I won’t feel as guilty as numbers one to three.

Time :: 9:00am
Temperature :: -3 deg C
Conditions :: It’s been snowing lightly all night, great to finally get some more fresh stuff!

I spent a bit of time writing on the weekend. Being up here has been great for that – if I can stop myself getting sucked into watching tv I have plenty of spare time in the evenings. I’ve read half a dozen great books, listened to half a dozen more on booktape, and on the weekend I started writing my own novel. I always wanted to write a novel when I was at uni, I used to write down ideas and clever scenes quite often, but I never hit on a big enough idea to carry a whole book. Then I got distracted by other things in life, until this weekend when I got really inspired. So look out world, the new Great Australian Post-Modern Christian Historico-Political Crime Thriller is on its way!

I also made a small, rambling update to the Answers site. I think I’ll try to update it every weekend, so people have something new to read every week. Finding it a bit hard to think up quality material already though…

Time :: 9:15am
Temperature :: 2 deg C
Conditions :: Raining as I write, but they say it will turn to snow later today, which will be good.

Rain is comforting. It’s funny, the sound and smell and look of it makes me feel like it’s Really Winter, more so even than the snow. Comes down to what I’m used to I guess.

We unexpectedly had a couple staying with us this weekend. They are the sister and her boyfriend of one of the other therapists Elicia works with, they had organised to spend the weekend in said therapists room but there was a “bit of a mixup” and they couldn’t stay there, thus being rendered suddenly accommodationless. Us to the rescue! Serendipitously, we didn’t have anyone else staying up this weekend so the futon was free, and we had the pleasure of getting to know a very nice couple who we got along with extremely well. Also, they have holiday house at Phillip Island they said we could stay at to return the favour!

Time :: 2:30pm
Temperature :: 13 deg C
Conditions :: There really is a heatwave up here today, it’s almost shorts weather! (I did say almost.) The sun is out and everything is wonderful.

Yesterday was absolutely fantastic, a great getaway, I felt like I was on holidays! We went to Albury, only took us 1/2 hour to dig the car out and get it going, didn’t need chains at all for the drive, we left our apartment at 7:45am and finally got to Albury about 11:15. Not bad at all!

Everything in Albury was perfect: the weather was totally Spring, plums and wattle blossoming everywhere and daffodils and jonquils showing bright faces in the sunshine. The place seemed to be done in a matte finish, I think our eyes were missing the shiny snow, and it was so warm we could have worn shorts. We walked barefoot in the park, lay around on the grass, had a very fresh salad roll for lunch, shopped till we dropped (Elicia shopped, I dropped) and got some good bargains on wintery clothes going out of season, did some grocery shopping, then stopped in Bright for a roast dinner on the way home. Perfect!

Albury itself was impressive. We’ve driven through it before on the way to Sydney, but this is the first time I remember going to the main shopping centre. It’s fairly large and has lots of nice shops, including good cafes and at least two exclusive chocolate shops. It also has wide streets with lots of green grass and parks and a large botanical gardens. The place we had lunch (Citi Cafe) and the Just Jeans where Elicia bought some jeans (strangely enough) both had very friendly staff and get a big Two Thumbs Up. Come to think of it, everywhere the people were pretty friendly. I like that. Often when we rate restaurants or cafes we eat at, Elicia and I both place a higher emphasis on the staff and service than the food itself.

We got back home about 9:30pm, feeling very pleased with ourselves. It makes a huge difference to how you feel about life and living up here to get away for a few hours! There’s a few photos in our gallery and some from last weekend when mum and dad were up, including one of mum in a Very Nice Hat she bought from the Summit shop. Stylin!

Handy Tips for Living at Mt Hotham #48
Use extreme caution when opening containers of yoghurt at a high altitude.

Time :: 5:15pm
Temperature :: balmy 6 deg C
Conditions :: not bad at all!

We just got back from a great afternoon’s snowboarding. The snow is a little bit slushy, but it’s not at all bad – it’s really quite soft, though in a mushy kind of way instead of powdery. And when it’s in this form it seems to have less friction, quite a lot of fun when we were trying blue and black runs that we’ve never done before and getting up LOTS of speed! The best was a black run we tried called “twilight zone” – I didn’t see any aliens but I did get some beautiful turns going up the walls, it goes down a bit of a gully that acts a bit like a halfpipe.

We both had an awesome time! We’re going to miss snowboarding a lot over the summer, especially as it’s the only proper sporty thing we’ve ever been into more than casually. Elicia reckons we’ll have to take up surfing, but I’m not sure if the geeky part of my brain could handle that much culture shock. At least with snowboarding there’s a bit of a web-designer image that can go with it…

Time :: 9:15am
Temperature :: 3 deg C
Conditions :: Still sunny and nice, we’re hoping to get out on the slopes for the first time in over a week this afternoon, so I’ll be able to report what the snow is like then.

Elicia’s got her day off tomorrow and we’ve been feeling a bit cabin-feverish, especaially when my dad sent us some photos of their place and it looks like spring, the daffodils are out and the plum trees are in blossom. No sign of that here. So anyway, we’re going to go for a trip to Albury. Albury is a fairly large country town on the Murray River, large enough to have a proper supermarket and a cinema! It’s about 2.5 hours drive, so we’re going to have to get up and dig the car out nice and early – hope it starts this time. We’re planning to go and have a picnic on the riverbank, do some shopping and then wander around the town centre feeling all touristy. Might even try to see the art gallery or something equally cosmopolitan… or maybe a movie will be enough culture…

Time :: 8:30am
Temperature :: 2 deg C
Conditions :: Expecting a heatwave of 6 deg C today, makes the snow a bit soft but the sunshine makes up for it!

I got a haircut yesterday, not as spectacular as Leasha’s recent styling but at least I’ll feel comfortable not wearing a beanie at darts tonight. The hairdresser is in our building on the same level as us, about 20 metres down the corridor and around the corner. Last night I realised that it was the furthest I’d gone all day, I hadn’t been outside or even to the supermarket at all. Not good, although I did communicate with the world through the wonders of the web and modern telephony…

Time :: 8:45am
Temperature :: -1 deg C
Conditions :: The snow level is actually going down slowly, due to the fine weather we’ve had and the lack of fresh stuff. It’s not too bad to get out on though, so long as you go in the afternoon when it’s softened up a bit.

Dad brought up some work while he was here on the weekend so I’ve got some proper stuff to go on with today. (My Dad draws maps, I help him out when he’s busy.) And of course I’ve still got all the other projects I made for myself going on, so all of a sudden I’m feeling quite busy, and happy about it!

Anyway, it means a bit less time wiblogging this morning…

Time :: 5:15pm
Temperature :: 1 deg C
Conditions :: It’s been a beautiful, sunny day.

Mum and Dad have been up for the weekend and most of today, it’s been great to see them and spend some lazy time talking and laughing.

Elicia and I took them out for tea last night to the Last Run Bar which we’d never been to before, we went early to catch the advertised “hilarious hour” – fully expecting a comedian or two – and it turns out that’s just their name for happy hour and all you get is slightly cheaper drinks. We laughed a lot anyway, but it was mostly at ourselves…

Then today I went with them up the Big D chairlift as sightseers. It only costs $10 and you catch the lift up, have a walk around and then catch the lift back down again. I found out two interesting facts: 1/ the peak Big D is on is called Mount Higganbotham, and 2/ you get a Very Good View from up there. We walked a few hundred metres up to the peak, where you don’t normally go if you’re there merely to ski, and the view is quite as good as the Summit. Highly recommended for people who want to visit but not ski.

Time :: 9:30am
Temperature :: -1 deg C
Conditions :: Windy and the snow is hard. Not much fun.

Yesterday was Elicia’s day off, and I wanted to take her out for tea. No-one up here does a mixed grill. We wouldn’t normally care, but yesterday we thougth we’d do the mixed grill over the whole day, so we had bacon and eggs for brekky, bangers and mash for lunch and then went down to Swindlers for steak, chips and salad for tea. Yum!

In other news, my parents are coming up today! Should be fun. They’re not too keen to try skiing, they just want to have a look around and spend some time with us two, which is fine with me! They could have picked a better weekend though, walking in the wind that’s blowing at the moment won’t be much fun… we’ll have to spend more time in cafes drinking coffee and hot chockie, bummer!