Category: Canberra

Places and experience while in the Australian Capital

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Beetle Time!

Every year about this time Canberra is infested with beetles that mate then die.  This morning I heard on the radio what these little beetles are called.

Now fair warning this is the real common name and not a joke at all.

The “Cockchafer“, yep you read right, beetle is a member of the Scarab or dung beetle family.  Their larvae live underground and come up to feed on crops at night.   The beetles  live a short eventful life, they mate the male dies and the female finds some dung to lay her eggs.

Unfortunatly in and around the city they are attracted to lights and end up lin large piles against buildings, a lot like a large squirming black snow drift.  The majority then die and start to smell a little.

One of the joys of summer in Canberra.

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Moving, the good and the bad.

Firstly, as you know, we are moving to a bigger house with the same rent.  So this week we are doing all the organising… you know phone, power, internet etc.

First the good.

  • we get to keep the same phone number
  • we get to keep the same postcode
  • we are closer to my daughters school

Now the bad

  • Our energy retailer does not transfer accounts and wants to charge a contract termination fee
  • Our ISP thinks we are on a six month contract when I have been with them for nearly 2 years
  • and I hate packing!

Due to the ISP stuff I may be offline for a few days.

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You Know You’re From Canberra When…

Got this in the mail today.

You are running late for work yet you still arrive before 9am.

You can see your breath in front of you at 7:30pm INSIDE THE HOUSE.

You can’t walk through a mall without greeting 10 aquaintances.

You RARELY go to the coast (and come back as red as a beetroot when youdo).

You whine about having to travel 30 minutes to see someone.

Your friends won’t travel 30 minutes to see you because they think its too
far.

You travel from Tuggers to Belco or Gungahlin to have people say “Gosh,
you’re a long way from home.”

You think people who live in Belco and work in Tuggers are crazy (who’d want
to live over there!!!).

You think people who live in Tuggers and work in Belco are more crazy (who’d
want to work over there!!!).

Glow in the dark bowling becomes an appealing past time.

The Govt invites you to implosions as a “Family fun day”.

The highlight of your Wednesday evening is seeing Garema Place come up on
the The Panel on Channel 10

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from
Canberra.

I must admit it seems I am becoming a local.

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Cowra Japanese Garden

Yesterday our family and some good friends of mine, Jase & Bec, went to Cowra for the Cherry Blossom Festival. We had a great day and took lots of photos.

Cowra was the location for a POW camp in WW2, holding Japanese captured by Australian Soldiers. After Peace in the Pacific Cowra became the centre for a sharing of cultures and the persuit of peace.

We did have one small problem with the place
.. Sign
Seems we had to be responsible if we were to bring the kids.

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A day in the Capital

Ok today was an interesting day, started as usual driving to work. Like most people, I have to be careful of other traffic and pedestrians, however this morning I had to give way to a kangaroo as it crossed the road in front of me.

Lunch time saw me drive to the city to have Pizza with a good friend, Jim, just arrived from Brisbane. After parking I was walking down the street to be caught in a 1 minute hail storm. Each piece of hail was no bigger than a drip of water. Now in Brisbane when it hails you run for cover as the golf ball sized ice really does crack open skulls.

This afternoon and evening is has been quietly snowing, my kids have loved it! This is the first time any of us have seen falling snow.

All in all an interesting day.

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Canberra Update

Well as you can imagine things have been a little hectic. I have started work, the kids have started school and Dani has already put her name down to help tuckshop and the P&C. Only got my broadband back yesterday, man talk about withdrawal. 😀

Work is crazy as usual, but at least I am busy. Seems like my old area is still trying to find enough work for all their people.

The kids are really liking their new schools and both seem to be making friends easily. My daughter is continuing with her Japanese and my boy just loves the new schools playground.

I have some shots of the new house etc more will be coming.

Canberra House

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Made it!

Ok we have just arrived in Canberra. Very good trip, long tiring but now complete.

We are collecting the keys to the house tomorrow and our furniture arrives on Friday.

I will post up some more information after a sleep. 🙂

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Big News!

Ok well things that have been on simmer for a while have come to the boil.

I have been offered and accepted a new role and promotion down in Canberra. This means that in the next 2 – 4 weeks I am going to have to pack up the whole family and move them.

So if I am a little slack on the web site, photos, email, phone calls and the like please understand.

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Frustrated

Ok now this is not about my relationship with my wife (that’s actually going very well, thank you very much), I am getting frustrated with the lack of response from parts of the company I work for.

I can’t go into details (don’t want to have to write one of those “I’ve been fired” posts), but it is enough to say I have been waiting for a decision from one management group for over 3 weeks now. This isn’t a little decision this is one that will shape the future of my career and the future plans for my whole family.

I will let you know more when I can say more.

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Australia Day

Well another year has passed and here in Australia we are just about to celebrate our great country.

Now before you get the wrong idea, I am not a raving patriot, I don’t believe we have the greatest country in the world, I don’t think we can’t improve and I don’t think we have nothing to learn from the world.

Australia day is a great holiday and as Australians we are encouraged to celebrate by doing whatever we want. That’s right anything we want, of course there are some parades, concerts and fireworks arranged by various levels of government, but most Australians will head to the Beach, Bush or BBQ.

So tomorrow I am planning to have a short bush walk and then have a BBQ in the evening. If I really want to torture myself I might go the the free concert by the lake, depends on what my friends have planned.

Enjoy your day whatever you decide to do!

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Away from home again

Ok so I am back in Canberra for a week. Getting to grips with some more work I have to do down here and as usual it looks like there is enough work to last months. After this week I should have an ongoing plan for the next 3 months at least and from that be able to schedule my time and additional trips if nessessary.

Now this morning was a little bit of a shock, it has been 35-36 degrees in Brisbane with humidity in the high 80’s and low 90’s, here it will be 23 degrees top and drizzling cold rain.

I have brought my camera with me, so expect some photos.

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Away and Sick

As you can see from Dani’s post, I am away again. 😥

This is my second last week away, before a few weeks holiday and then work in my home city. It has been so long since I have worked for a project within my normal field, in my home city I can hardly imagine it.

The projects I have been working on have got some press recently and it is nice to see that what I am doing is being noticed.

Today I am working from the appartment as I have a head cold I got off my son.

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Travelling Again

Well in a day or so I am off to Canberra for another months worth of work.

This will be my last trip, before starting on a new project in Brisbane.

As usual I will keep you all posted.

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Stuck at the airport

Ok so some idiot decided to refuse a security check at the airport and evade the security guards. So myself and about 400 people have to wait at least an hour while the security guys and a dog confirm he did not take a bomb through. …. shithead.