Feb 5, 2011 - Hockey, hockey, hockey

Just a couple of random pictures today, as it was a day of hockey for Mike and I . The rest of the family went swimming. We watched 3 games on nhl.com. And each game the team I was rooting for lost, including my Chicago Blackhawks. Go figure! However the pitcher of drinks Mike mixed for us, soothed my frazzled nerves This will probably be my last entry for a couple of days, as we are off to Sydney until Tuesday evening. No laptop to take with me, as it packed it in. Fortunately I have everything backed up. I believe it is a heat thing (no...

Feb 4, 2011 - National War Museum - Canberra

4 Feb '11 Todays entry in the blog will be short, and probably only of interest to ex-military types and military buffs. I forgot to mention before that the trees here are full of these bugs called cicadas. When it is going to be a hot day, they really are noisy. Nature's thermometers, neat eh! We went to Canberra with Mike, as he went there on business. He dropped us off at the Museum. Normally I am not exactly keen on museums, but this one was fascinating. Lots of stuff I recognize too. Mess Tins, how well I remember them from my army...

Jan 11, 2011 - Australia - Corrimal and Canberra

Dear all, Hope you're well and getting through January ok... When we last wrote, we'd just left Sydney after a fun and festive couple of weeks of sun, catching up with friends and cricket fever (well, one of us was struck down with that, at least...) Following our not very successful trip to the Blue Mountains (obscured by categorically black clouds) we headed back to the coast South of Sydney, camping in an area called Corrimal. We had a couple of nice days there, in particular a perfect beach day in a lovely little place called Austinmer,...

Nov 14, 2010 - Pre departure...

Hi all, this will be our online travel journal. If you agree to be added to our friends list you will be sent an email to tell you when we have updated this so you can follow us on our trip and leave us messages. We will do our best to update it regularly (by we, I mean me). Apparently there will also be a map showing where we are writing from and I can add photos and videos so that will be pretty nifty and save me filling your inboxes with random things :)

Oct 8, 2010 - Canberra

We are coming to the end of a very relaxing and enjoyable week in Canberra. We have enjoyed some lovely time with James and Kristy, just hanging out together at their house, exploring some of the wineries in the area and sharing some yummy meals. Whist here James spent a day installing a new stereo and speakers in our car. Our speakers have not been good for a long time and our CD player stopped working a few months ago so we asked James if he would be able to replace it for us while we were here. He has spent a fair bit of time researching...

Aug 3, 2010 - Epilogue

Epilogue…. We arrived home on Monday after a short delay due to having to have the rain through the air/con looked at to find it was 6 degrees and there had been 189mm of rain recorded on my electronic rain gauge since our departure. It was a wonderful adventure covered some 10000 km and cost us around $9000 so expressed as $ per Km traveled it was not bad, quite economical actually, as that included all the touristy activities we partook of. What was the highlight? Gee I don’t know, maybe the Georgetown sausages do dah do dah, no I jest –...

Jul 26, 2010 - Ready to go

It's almost time to go. We've packed and repacked our luggage. Double checked all the necessities like passports and visas. Confirmed all of our bookings. And the only thing left to do is batten the hatches on the house, before catching a very early taxi to the airport tomorrow. We'll spend a few days catching up with Ailbhe's grandparents before heading off to warm Thailand. Can't wait!

Jun 6, 2010 - Leaving Canberra

June 6 Marianne: On the eve of our departure from Canberra, I can say that I really enjoyed my time here. Last weekend we took a final excursion, to see yet another cave at Jenolan. The tour was at night, at the end of a very steep road, at the bottom of a deep valley. So we spent the night at a spooky old hotel on the premises. The next day we took a hike down a valley in mist. It was full of singing Lyrebirds, brown chicken-like creatures that are amazing mimics. It sounded like an aviary full of varied birds! On our way home, we nearly...

Jun 6, 2010 - Calm Canberra

My first stop after leaving Sydney was to return to my relatives in Lapstone and collect my car that I had left parked outside their house. I was also able to greet a new family member as baby Joseph Enda had been born the previous Thursday, much to the delight of mother Rhona, father Daniel and their daughters. Fortunately, Joesph proved to be a healthy baby, a good sleeper and a hungry eater so everyone was in a cheery mood. After Daniel cooked up an excellent goodbye Aussie lunch, I headed off in the rain to my next destination...

May 29, 2010 - Canberra in late May

Stephen: It's been a long while since we've posted a blog entry! Marianne has been very busy getting to know Canberra (its people, its bike paths, its kangaroos, its cockatoos….), and I've been very busy doing my research here (esoteric-sounding title: " Constructing the Self, Imagining the Other: Negotiating Visual Culture in Medieval Iberia"). The research culminated in a 90-minute talk and Q & A session on May 21st. Not exactly a hugely attended event (maybe 20 people in the audience?), but the head of the program was there, and the Q &...

Apr 19, 2010 - Culture, Eats, Tough Aussies

April 19, 2010 Marianne: I have managed to keep pretty occupied so far in Canberra. I joined the University's chorus. All academic choruses here have an acronym. Usually a jokey one. In Melbourne it was MUCS(Melbourne University Choral Society). Pronounced Mucks. Then there is Flinders University Choral Society (you figure it out!). Sydney seems to have chickened out – they replace "Choral" with "Musical, " for SUMS. Canberra's group is SCUNA, which is Australian National University Choral Society spelled backwards. A "Schooner" (pronounced...

Apr 12, 2010 - Life in Canberra

April 12 Marianne: Interesting facts about Canberra: Canberra lies in ACT (Australia Capital Territory?), a small island of territory in the middle of New South Wales. I am told that almost all of the land in ACT is owned by the government. People have 99-year leases on their properties. Perhaps as a result, many of the people here also have bought property in nearby New South Wales, ostensibly for weekending on, in a caravan. The street patterns in Canberra are, to my mind, awful. The center of town seems to be a giant parking lot,...