Day 281: Cool Kid Slide Skills

Henry loves his slide and recently he's discovered that there's more than one way to climb to the top. Today he was showing off his newfound climbing skills quite a lot, I don't think he actually used the ladder more than twice.

This is obviously how the cool kids climb up their slides and Henry is no exception, especially with his hoodie up and his sunnies on.

Day 280: Pod People

The kids disappeared shortly after rising this morning and this is where we found them. They were snuggled up together in Jenna's bed playing with their iPods, or at least in Henry's case with Belinda's iPhone that he'd stealthily 'borrowed'.

They've both got a bit of an iPod/Pad/Phone addiction which is handy when you want a little quiet time because they'll happily amuse themselves for hours with their chosen 'I' device. Of course there are always two sides to the metaphorical coin, so other times these Apple products can be ultimately frustrating. This morning it wasn't handy but it wasn't frustrating either, it was just really cute seeing them both totally engrossed in their own little worlds and at the same time loving each others company.

Day 279: The End Result

During the week while Belinda has been on school holidays, she and her parents began painting the house. I was a little busy on the public holiday Monday and had to work the remaining four days so unfortunately I wasn't able to help... which is probably a good thing because I hate painting and I'm also not very good at it. I lack the patience to make a decent job of it.

The trade off for getting out of this particular chore was to clean the roof gutters (a job that hasn't been done since Henry was born) and also to remove, paint and re-install the bifold doors between Jenna & Henry's rooms. painting but at least it won't require so much finesse as is required when trying to avoid roller marks on the cornice or paint on the window frames.

I have to say that Belinda and her folks did a great job, I will also take the opportunity to thank them both for coming down to lend a very much appreciated hand.

Day 278: Dinner With Friends

Robbie and Damon popped over for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, due to the roughly 4 hour trip between our place and theirs, it's not that often that they can just drop in. I think that because we don't get to catch up all that often it means that when we do, we tend to make the most of it. We always enjoy their company, the conversation and more times than not quite a few drinks, tonight was certainly no exception. It's a shame I have to work tomorrow as everyone else has the day off... I think I'd really prefer and probably appreciate a sleep rather than getting up to go to work.

My photo today was taken post dinner, I'd forgotten to take a photo all day and then with our visitors over it kind of slipped my mind until it was pretty late.

Day 277: The New Coffee

The 'Gang' as Belinda calls them have moved the coffee venue and changed the day. It used to be that the Canberra Riders group gathered on Monday nights at a cafe in Fyshwick which made it easy for me to get to on the way home from work, now it's held at a little pub on the University of Canberra campus which is over the other side of town and it's on a Wednesday night instead. This has made it much harder for me to get along to catch up with the folk on the forum.

I was actually able to ride my bike to work today and the conference I was attending finished up a little early so I made the decision to get along to the new coffee. It had been a while since I've made it to one of these catchups and it showed, I only recognised a handful of people there and nobody recognised my bike. It was good to catch up with the guys (in a non gender specific sense) I knew and have a 'coffee' with them, if you look closely you can see what's left of my coffee sitting on the tank of my bike. It was even better to be out on the bike for the first time in ages.

My opinion of the new (to me) bike is changing, at first I was happy with how it rode but didn't think it was a very pretty bike. Tonight in the sea of grey and black bikes that were at coffee I thought at the very least it stands out in the crowd, even if it's not the most gorgeous bike I've ever seen. I'm still thoroughly enjoying the ride, and while I'm on it I don't have to look at it. I think I should ride it more often so I can spend less time looking at it in the shed.

Day 276: Local Landmark 7

I pulled in here between meetings so I could grab a quick photo for the day. It is of course the National Library of Australia.

I found out that the library was founded in 1901, in Melbourne, it was moved from Melbourne to Canberra in 1927 but the collections outgrew their new home in Canberra and some of the collections were stored in boxes in a grain store at the railway station, in the nurses quarters at the old Canberra hospital, in a morgue and in an old laundry. The current building was opened in 1968.

Day 275: Labour Day Ride

Today was Labour day so I spent the day riding around Tallaganda on the dirty Husky with Andy, Pete and Matt. Andy had recently upgraded his bike from the old XR400 that he'd owned from new to a fancy Husqvarna that makes mine look a little dated.

He says it's been taking a little getting used to and I guess that's easy to understand with the new bike having brakes the work, roughly 3 times the power and modern suspension that allows him to choose which part of the trail he wants to ride on regardless of ruts, roots or rocks. There is however one part of the new bike that hasn't taken much getting used to for Andy and that's the magic little button that starts the bike, you see the old XR was a kick start only bike and this was the main reason for the upgrade.

I only took a few photos today because the new camera is much less portable for taking out on the trails than the old Canon and the photos I did take were of Andy's XR so he could advertise it. So today my photo is likely to be the last one I'll ever take with Andy's old bike in it.

As usual it was a great day out with the guys, only this time I came back a little jealous of Andy's new toy...