Emerge

 This is a new restaurant for us and it is right in heart of Geelong with good car parking right next door.  If you had any doubts about what type of food is featured in this one then when you walk in the door to be greeted by a massive meat locker, with slabs of cow hanging there then the steak house vibe is confirmed.  I had the ribs which was a large cow bone cooked for 14 hours. They also had some exotics like barbecued croc and Moreton Bay bugs. We washed it down with some champers and an espresso martini.  No room for desert though.  We walked it off with a short session in the shops, with my new UGGs and a satchel. 

set at 5°

chicken roulade, ribs, beef wellington and a faux pas

coffee floaters

Lemon Spears

 Yes this lemon tree does not have prickles, not even spikes, it has spears. These pointers can pierce your gloves as well. I did an initial attack trying to get the vertical skyscrapers back under control. There are still more to do and will need another go. This time around we will go into the centre to cut out the chaff so to speak. There is a lot of spindly green growth and old growth in a crowded under carriage. I put 12 lemons out the front yesterday and one couple took eight of them. The older one goes "These are grapefruit."  I have another 30 lemons now but have only put half out. I need to recover from the puncture wounds. How do possums avoid getting stabbed? I notice they have only been gorging on fruit they can reach from the fence.

sharp

Floaters Retrieval

 The other day we were on a shell walk and found a couple of plastic bags half floating half submerged. The grandies were up in arms that bags could be tossed into the water.  I went looking for those bags again and managed to find both but this time stranded by a lower tide. I also got numerous butts and other bags and papers. There was also a tennis ball, plastic cup, lots of small rope pieces and plastics. Right on the shoreline there was  one ugly critter that had washed up with an elongated body and a circle of suckers at one end. The Port Phillip Bay taxonomy Toolkit suggests it might be a Shorthead Lamprey. 

reef rocks are being exposed more

Shorthead Lamprey ?

dodgy bridge

Toeing the Line

 I made it back out to Landy Field on a morning where I was expecting no distractions. Wrong. Little athletics training clinics were happening all over the track. Fortunately there are two throwing circles even though the little aths people were elsewhere, a professional putting coach was there and took over one ring for exclusive use.  I did try to eavesdrop and pick up some pointers however this new guy being trained was too new. It was all about technique, posture and speed, all the things I am expert at.   HaHa.  I did get a warmup exercise off them which I will try next time.  

The ring I got was covered in animal poo and silted over but it is my first session with a proper toe board in place. Hooray. I did not really jam up against it much but more sessions may tell. The pit was a gravelly rock base, not sand, so the shot got roughed up nastily.  As for distance I am still under the 10m mark and my fingers feel it. 

gravel pit

new stand

the coach ring

Flower Season

 I think Debbie's good work has culminated in a lot of budding indoor orchids. A few have popped open so I will display a sign of what's to come.  It doesn't help that I knocked the one on the table for a bit of a spill with dirt landing all over the grandies photo as well. This happened while two grandies were sitting at the table. Pa was in trouble again. Also outside, the middle courtyard is in full bloom. These always climax after Winter and last for weeks. 

outside

inside

Construction Track

 I made my way to the John Landy Track. Here are Geelong's best athletic facilities and I am expecting the toe boards to be in place as opposed to the rings where they have been removed in Barwon Heads. I checked the google satellite photos. There are lots of empty car parking bays all along the outside.  I arrived to a complete heavy duty construction zone. No carparking except what workers have grabbed at 7:00am. I parked a block away and carried the weight in a backpack.  There was obviously no access thru the main gate that I was looking at. I peered thru the fence and could see the rings. The track itself is cyclone fenced to the exact edge of the outside lane for the length of the main straight. A new grandstand is half finished. I watch as a pumping pipe is unfolded and passed over the shot put ring while it unloads it's slurry contents. There were people in there on the back straight so you can get in somewhere but I went home. Not to give up completely, I went across to the beach for yet another sandy session.

the ring is near the concrete pump

Retrievers

 One thing about running around after Grandies is that they can return the favour.  It was more of a demonstration than anything else but I got off a few beach throws the other day in between sand castles and shell walks. It all gets a bit under whelming when the first words are "that doesn't go very far."  However once they got the hang of going to retrieve it then the weight of the problem sunk in. I should probably be having a rest day however I am halfway thru the 10 week countdown and I still have not used a ring with a toe board so I had better go and find one. There are probably others out there practising full time on those. Ring envy.

Grandie Day No2

 So the ten week training countdown was going to be put on hold was it. Was there ever going to be a lull in physicality? No. Another non stop running around day made for sure that the sarcomeres were always ticking over and more.  The PortArlington playground is a fave and it is much larger than yesterdays location. One hour 0f being the desiginated chasey monster is enough runningfor the entire week. Not to forget that some quieter time was required for necklace threading. This was Nana's forté and we used some lovely holes left by the whelks and a length of tough fishing line. Three lengths for three necklaces.

sorting

threading

wearing

reading

posing

playing

Grandies Beach Day

 We had the beach to ourselves for the entire two hours that we were over there.  The water play was limited to paddling but there were many buckets of water delivered further up the shore where a castle and moat was constructed.  The beach walk and mandatory shell collection was the biggest and longest yet. Nana had trouble lifting the buckets as there were so many shells in them. The laser focus was on shells with perfect threading holes that will do nicely for another necklace activity later if it is needed. You can thank a particular whelk for that, as they are equipped wth a drill bit and ensymes, allowing it to punch through the pipi shell, dissolve the critter inside and suck it back out for lunch. Salty seafood!

Beach Clean No734

 The beach walk also doubles as the almost daily activity contribution to my ten week shot put countdown program.  The change in temperature from yeterday's 27° high to today's 12° high was a bit chilly when walking in that colder breeze. However I timed it for a bit of sunshine as well.  I also warmed up with a few shot put run thrus without an actual shot. Maybe I should hide a rounded rock some where nearby if there is a sudden urge to practice the deft of the heft, to glean the know of the throw or just believe in the retrieve of the heave.  The rubbish bag filled up steadily with one can, two bottles, a shoe, rope pieces, small plasctics and papers and my favourite NOT, being three poo bags of which only one was filled. PooBah.

Wasjig 37

 This one is labelled Hotel Fiasco and it seems the newly arrived guests have landed to see the construction crew living it up at the resort. They made sure the pool was finished first so they could use it but as for the rest it can wait.  We have had this situation on numerous occasions to arrive in the middle of renovations or other work. Even as recently as Darwin earlier this year we stayed inside the renovation wing while they were finishing it off.  I had to hustle to get this one done as there are small guests arriving tomorrow and it will be fun to try and find the small details. Eg  where can you find a worm and a snail? What are the mice doing to the cat?

Rest Day Ride

 We are having a bonus rest day although I still went for a ride just to keep the physical activity count ticking over. I did not start so well today when I dropped a glass jar of pickled onions at the back of the car spilling shards, goo and stickiness all over the garage floor.  When I got the bike out I carried it across that part of the garage. The ride was hotter than I thought with a warm Westerly coming thru. When I got back, a bug swarm had been driven across the western plains. We have seen this early after Winter before. Make sure the fly wire doors have no openings. 

You Yangs palm tree window

Garden Update

 My physicality today is lawn mowing. We have green bin at the weekend which is looking busy so that means tidy up is today. It's not all cuttings and mulch though as the neighbours delivered 2 dozen eggs and a big box of potatoes for doing their mowing.  The barter system at work, grass for food. I found someone has dug a hole in the lawn out the front. This would have happened when we were away somewhere maybe when we were in Willie a few days back.  The hole is where the pit cover is for the comms cables running beneath.  The turf has been put back but there is a neat dead rectangle there now.  Elsewhere the blossoms are out in force on the apricot tree so we are looking for a bigger yield this time around and the nearby dreaded ivy seems to be dying off after the new owners got a crew in to clear out half of next doors plants.  We need to get some lemons out the front.

Lexicon

 This is a book about words. In this case some sort of mind control, like hypnosis, where you can get someone to do your bidding but without the hypnosis. It gets a bit complicated, as when you are good at it you can turn the tables. eg if someone says stand on one foot then while you are doing that you are actually studying them so that ipso fatso you can tell them to go jump.  Simples!  The book has an Australian setting in Broken Hill where the descriptions used here aren't too flattering.  Certainly worth a read and a different author for me. It seems he has gotten into proper scifi so maybe I can use my AI mind control to hunt down a copy of his other books.  As they said at the end of this book "Kikkhf fkattkx hfkixu zttcku"  I wonder if Max Barry just closed his eyes and banged on the keyboard to come up with some of this stuff.

The difference an E makes

Good stamp day yesterday with showers driving thru then Sun then showers etc. I have mentioned previously about the large difference a stamp can have in value, depending on other factors like mint vs used or condition issues like fading, tearing etc.  I found two stamps yesterday, vastly different in value becuase of the original designs.  The early German currency was a mixed bag between North and South German areas up to 1875.  A united one currency fits all, came in 1875 (100 Pfennige = 1 Mark) but it seems the spelling of Pfennige was an issue. The E was dropped but could still be seen on stamps for the first few years.  These stamps are worth $1000 more than those without an E and I found one of each.

with E

with No E

Correspondence

 I have featured a number of letters here always from an archive that I have built up over the years. This time it is a letter that arrived yesterday. We often hang it on the postal service but this time they have worked it out given that there is absolutely nothing on the front of the envelope. All the action, including the stamp, is on the back.  The only parental influence seems to be that the postcode has been rewritten. I took out the street name but you can see the effort. The point of this letter was asking for a sleepover which has now been arranged for next week. Hooray. 

PS stamps prices are rising quicker than petrol. Everytime you turn around the price has gone up. On our return envelope I have placed three previous christmas stamps totalling $1.95 that should get it there.

More beach Junk

 Yesterday I retrieved a submerged bag from the water. I think it was briefly viewed in the video yesterday however I stashed it in a bush for another day.  Well that wasn't long was it,as I went back for it today. However you can't just pickup one item so the trusty bag was once again filled to brimming with washed up stuff. I can tell you one of the problems fishermen have is that they often loose their footwear. Twice in a row now I have picked up odd shoes and not for the last time.  The other main item was a corroded blanket. I can describe the scene.  Very early before dawn there is a guy huddled with his blanket out on the Bay. He has lost his shoes and with a coolish breeze is trying to get his feet under the blanket as well, but some how tips it overboard. He reviews the problem and decides to eat all his biscuits, potatoe chips and snickers bars and all those papers end up in the water too. Tell me I'm wrong.

heron ?

black blanket

Warm Easterly

 There has been a weather change around here with a warm North Easterly for two days.  The tide was low again so I grabbed the shot for another beach session.  I stayed at the back this time as the wet sand gives the shot a gritty coating. I found the relatively solid grassy patch where I could launch into the dry stuff. There are a lot of washed up sticks and debris as well and that stuff explodes when the shot hits it. The breeze was right behind my trajectory which I think has contributed to my longest throw. These balls are heavy but maybe the breeze can carry them a bit further.  The water was very low and very clear so I waded out passed the end of the groyne to check out some of the sponges. The water is still coolish but manageable. I did not go all under.

Balloons Again

 Puzzles and sunny days don't really mix but this one has been on the table for a while and I made sure to finish it in the morning which meant there might be time for an activity later. This balloon puzzle was a tricky one with a single standard classic balloon shape comprising 99% and just three others more easily distinguishable. See if you can find a rooster, a duck and an ice cream.  This should not surprise me as when we did the real thing all the balloons were standard which must reduce the cost of making one. Not sure if it is too late in the season to start another puzzle one which was given to me last week. Maybe the weather will tell me.

Low Tide Session

 It all came together for a putting session on the beach. Tide was low and no wind to type of.  The only issue was the sand not being very compacted. I have already decided not to try to hard in these sandy conditions but it is still worthwhile for rolling the arm over.  I found a low tide shelf which is part of the construction in putting the groyne together. There are a lot of mussels there. I don't think anyone would care if some of these were consumed. We did spy some guilty looking guys running off from the Dell once with huge bags of mussels.  I also tried the water just for fun and only knee deep. I guess waist deep is the next step.  

muscle beach

Hola Canola

 Got on the bike as part of the ongoing program to be out and about at least three days per week.  We spied a yellow field in the distance last time and there was debate about whether it was a planted canola crop or just a paddock of  weeds gone wild. We have seen canola in this field before and it was a few yar ago so the timing fits.  I continued on the usual circuit but cut out the bypass road, all the while keeping one eye ready for any bombers which seems to have settled done even though we are only just into Spring. There was a stiff cool southerly the whole time. I can also report another huge subdivison going up on the other side of the rail trail. We used to ride thru fields here when one side was built out. Now the other side is getting the treatment. There are never enough houses.

Beach Clean No 788

 I am trying to incorporate a more athletic activity into more days of the week than previously, at least for the next nine weeks. I am nursing a tooth today so that's my excuse. It has settled down so I expect I will not be noticing it soon. Dentists are a pain, although the hip pocket pain has been less lately, given that a solid hours work cost me $76.  I did a beach walk with the trusty bag and filled it to the brim. The water is looking clean but it was blowing cool  and with the tide up the wrack was wet. Nothing like a wet wrack. The big item was a huge single shoe. Plenty of lids, papers, rope pieces and one tennis ball.  Some people say good job, others just ignore you and then there is today's lady who was guilted into all sorts of feelings. "I'll bring a bag next time" she says, "I just walked passed all of those papers" she says.  On the way back she goes "I found a bottle and binned it".  Not hard.

Putting & Teething

 I don't recommend a combined putting session and dental session one after the other. At least I did 30 min of putting before the dentist hoed in. I have not had a nerve extracted for at least 20 yar and I have forgotten what it is like. This one was on the top row as well so it seems like your brain is being drilled into.  At least the putting was a good session as I think that with a proper ring and good footing you can relax and get into it, except for the mossies. Why are there so many mossies?  I am still hovering a bit over 9 meters and trying for 10m. 

Willie Coast

 Sunday was a rest day of sorts. Actually now that I think of it there was alot more catching up than originally planned.  We went for a ride first thing as the day was getting filled up. We went as far as the athletic track as I wanted to see what state the rings were in. There is a caged one and an open one and the toe board is in place for both. Hooray. This may be another venue for some practise. We called in to the chocolate shop on the way back. This is where I went the day before for the coated ginger but we stayed for coffee this time. It was time for a quick gardening spree when we got back, particularly the rose bush out back and the beds out front. We seem to fill the community green bin everytime. Debbie had time in the afternoon for visiting 98 yar olds in Port Melb and a stack more of the 90+ brigade in the four houses across from us. Phew!