We were in the pet store over the weekend, and they had a couple of Cavoodles.  At least, they call it a Cavoodle, I call it a “Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Poodle Cross”, the former being a fad/designer dog/yuppie/Paris Hilton description, and the latter being a reflection of reality, which, in times past, would have been referred to politely as a cross, but more accurately as a mongrel or a bitsa.  Great excuse to charge exorbitant amounts for a mongrel dog with a fancy name.

Had a think about it over the rest of the weekend, and on Monday morning I went out to pick him up.  He’s a lovely little lad, and after discussing it with the better half, we’ve given him the name “Tobermory”.

Tobermory is a little town on the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland.  Katie and I did a trip to Mull – it was our first trip together as a couple and so has some significance.  Plus it makes a decent single malt…

So we now have a new addition to the McGuire family, Tobermory (Toby) McGuire.  And he’s just lovely.  Except for not knowing where the toilet is.  It’s a bit of a free for all.  So house training is the flavour of the day!

Ok, so perhaps a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea. At the end of November, Clayton and I headed up to Sydney for the night so that we could arrive at the airport in plenty of time to pick up my parents.   We were lucky enough to be playing tour guide for Mum and Dad for a month – I was very excited about all the things we would do…

Here are some of my highlights:

Having had a sunny morning at the Rocks markets in Sydney we headed back to Canberra and hit our first patch of rain.  The rain continued for almost the whole of the first week, which allowed Mum and Dad to acclimatise to the hot summer I had promised.  The wet week allowed plenty of time to plan the great south eastern road trip.  Our plans got as far as “lets drive down the coast, spend a few days in Melbourne, and travel the Great Ocean Road before hitting a few wineries in Rutherglen on the way back to Canberra”.  As for accommodation, and length of trip – we pretty much took an Aussie approach, and agreed a destination and accommodation the night before that way if we liked the look of a place we could stay a little longer.

After picking up Telula from Claytons parents (our friendly Sat Nav – we couldn’t have done it without her!) we headed of on the Sunday, and made it to Bateman’s Bay for fish and chips before the rain caught up with us.

Merimbula saw the start of what could have made this a crazy golf based road trip – we each put in the required stake to ensure that there was sufficient prize money, and medals ($1.50 for the winner and $0.50 for the runner up). I would love to say that it was a close fought match, but basically Mum was the run away winner, followed by Clayton (who may have been in contention for the gold had he not had a 9 shot hole!)

The crazy golf podium

The sun appears in Lakes Entrance as we leave...

Arriving in Melbourne allowed us the opportunity to unpack and get to know the city a little better.  That said, the highlight for me was a trip to the Little Penguins at Phillip Island.  We travelled down one night to see the penguins parade – which is basically an opportunity to watch the penguins as they return from the surf and waddle to their burrows. So, so cute.

Koala in the wild on Great Ocean Road

A few days later we headed off towards the Great Ocean Road hoping that the rain would hold off long enough to let Mum and Dad see the 12 Apostles in all their glory. But before experiencing the glory of the rocks, we decided to take a small detour to Werribee Open Range Zoo to see some of the traditional zoo inhabitants close up, and in surroundings more closely resembling their native habitat. Given the expanse of the zoo, the best way to see everything was to jump on the safari bus, sit back, listen to the drivers commentary and enjoy.  My main take away… rhinos poo in designated areas, so that the rest of the savannah can be kept relatively poop free.  Female rhinos just poo and go, whereas the males make sure the poo is piled nice and neatly, and like to smell the female poo.  Nice!

Apostles from the air

Back on solid ground

We spent a day tasting wine at a number of Rutherglen wineries. One of notable mention would have to be Colfields where we managed to source a rather good sparkling shiraz for Christmas day – and the winery has what looks like a nice restaurant which might be worth a visit.  Unfortunately we didn’t have a chance to sample as we had booked into the Rutherglen Estates winery tour.  This consisted of us jumping into the back of the owners car and being  driven round his estate (huge and v. pretty) before stopping to speak with the wine maker and taste some of the wines directly from the metal vats, and in various maturity levels before being bottled.  I have to say, I still prefer the bottled stuff!

Our final leg also took in  Beechworth (definitely worth a return visit and an overnight stay), Glen Rowan and the Dog on the Tucker Box (5 miles from Gundagai) where the rain stayed off long enough for us to get a great view of the rain clouds as we returned to Canberra.

Back in Canberra, Mum had finally spent the last of her crazy golf winnings, and challenged us to a Pitch and Putt competition.  18 holes, with a 18 stroke handicap for everyone (other than Dad) and a small rain shower was going to sort the golfers out from the non golfers.  Predictably I lost – but this time the winnings were split between Dad and Clayton, well done to both.  The only obvious was to celebrate was with a beer at the local club.

All in all a great trip: 3,000 km of Australian countryside, shared with some of my favourite people.  I’m just a little sorry that Mum and Dad didn’t quite get the sunny holiday they were expecting!  Although, I am sure that for the right price, Mum and Dad will come back and stand in your garden for a while!

3,000km of rain

I did a fair bit of woodwork in high school, and actually took out the woodworking prize in year 10, for a bedside table project I put together.  Still have the table, although it’s now looking a bit tired and battered in our hallway, but still intact.

After highschool, I started focusing on studies for a career.  Still did a bit of woodwork – during Uni I made a Backgammon board which I still have and very fond of. But then I started “life”.  Moved to Sydney and got a full time job. As part of the life change, I went from living in a house with a dedicated workshop, to a one bedroom flat, with, well, one bedroom.  And I spent pretty much the next ten years in similar digs. Opportunities for working with wood were very limited.  We had an office reshuffle while I was living in Manly and I built a shelf on the balcony for my new desk, but other than that, I didn’t have many opportunities or facilities to do anything creative with wood for the best part of 10 years.

It’s something I’ve really missed.  I spend my days at work staring at a screen most of the day.  The bulk of my work is spent with minor wrist and finger movements, as I try to develop solutions in the software we use, without using the mouse.  Most of my output from a work perspective is by its nature electronic.  You can’t pick it up and inspect it.  No-one is ever going to say “the corner between cell C6 and C7 is a bit rough”, as Excel has perfect corners.

Which is why I love the fact that we’re now living in a house, and I have a workshop.  It wasn’t a workshop when we moved in, it was a teenager’s bedroom.  The garage had a stud wall installed at the 3/4 mark, with the larger area being carpeted and having a bed and football posters (during the inspection). Thankfully, the love of my life was kind enough to not (a) not convert the garage back into a garage, and (b) allow me to convert the teen bedroom into a workshop.

And today, I can finally say that I have a workshop. Up until now, I’ve had workshop space, but it was always a bit of a “work in progress”. But today, I have all the bits and bobs that I can see me needing in the foreseeable future, they’ve all got a good home in the workshop, I’ve got vacuum systems in place to protect me from dust hazards, and have started my first “proper project” (first “project” was to build a workbench so I could then build something “useful”.  Apparently the bench doesn’t fall into that category…)!

Main workbench

My main workbench, built the bulk of it outside, moved inside for final assembly with the worktop.  Still need to fit the quick release vice, and the “bench dog”, but otherwise my first completed woodworking job in the last 10 years.

Main workbench is on the left, with my secondary workbench ahead.  It’s a cheap and nasty thing from the local hardware store, but it was so cheap it was a good deal, despite the low quality.  Still populating the peg-board.

Flooring

A member of the ACT Woodworkers Guild was downsizing, and needed to get rid of a few things from his workshop as he didn’t have room at the new digs.  One of the things on the “get rid of” list were these lumps of flooring.  Weren’t always flooring, and in fact aren’t sold as flooring.  They’re actually conveyor belts from mining sites which are past their prime – they get carved up into manageable bits and sold off.  Rubber outsides, with a compressed cotton inside, makes for a pretty robust and also tool-friendly floor surface.

Purchased this table saw off Dad when he upgraded to some VERY fancy gear.  For what I’m doing though, this is a great bit of kit.  Used it for the first time today, and very pleased with the results.

This is the router table, based on a Triton Mk3 table with a router top that Dad put together – the Triton top was Ok, but wasn’t great.  I managed to get my hands on a Triton router on Ebay (very limited availability due to multiple takeovers), and after only a couple of hours use, I’m a big fan.

And then there’s the drill press.  Another hand-me-down, I’ve mounted this onto the old frame of our first BBQ when we move to Aus.

The ACT Working With Wood show was on at Exhibition Park In Canberra (EPIC) about a month ago, I purchased a Givkin dovetail jig, despite not owning a router which is kind of a requirement for using the jig.  Picked up a router via  eBay a couple of weeks later, which is now fitted to the router table shown above.  This is my first crack at it.  There is room from improvement (on my part – I was a bit stingy on the depth setting, resulting in joints a bit shy instead of a touch proud – I also managed to create dovetails about 1/2 mm thick, which are a touch flimsy…  .These are the sort of things you gain through experience…), but other than the measurement errors, the joints are fantastic.

A fantastic weekend, only marred slightly by the rain on Sunday.  On the whole, I think our ability has improved since last year.  We even managed to conquour a blue run on Saturday morning.  Although it has to be said, I only made it once without stacking it – so props to Clayton for being braver than me!

A few unplanned trophies must be awarded for the weekend:

1. Most co-ordinated ski-wear

Nominations: Cil and Clayton

Winner: Cil (based on the fact that she owns, and therefore has control over her outfits!)

2. Most improved

Nominations: Clayton

Winner: Clayton (based on his outfit!)

3.Worst helmet

Nominations: Katie, Clayton

Winner: Katie (difficult to go past a light blue helmet with white flowers)

All in all, the weekend was another winnner, and thanks must go to Tim and Cil for organising, and making sure that we returned with no more than just a few bruises!

We started the weekend with a lunch at the Bavarian Beer Cafe in Manly – it seemed appropriate to take advantage of the opportunity to try beers that we can’t get in Canberra and catch up with good friends. 

Our next stop was King Street Wharf via the Manly Ferry.  I know that people wax lyrical about the beers at James Squire – and although I have always partaken in the beer, I have never been completed satisfied with all facets of the beer (taste, colour, smell and after taste) that is, until now… This weekend I discovered ‘The Highwayman’ – it must be new.  It was everything I was looking for – fresh, fruity, nice golden colour, and most importantly – tastes great.  If you are ever in James Squires, give it a try.

To top it off – we had dinner at Wagamamas (ok so that wasn’t really the highlight, but I thought it important to let you know we did eat!), and breakfast at Balmoral beach.  Balmoral is definately a view worth writing home about and worth returning back to Sydney for…

Sun, beer and good friends – got to put that in the top 10 things to focus your weekend.  Can’t wait ’til our next weekend adventure.

The monsters are cool, but in my book Roddy and Alex’s wedding cake is the most impressive.

So I made a new (financial) years resolution:  To update the blog on a more frequent basis and sacrifice quality.  More volume, less perfection.  So far, I’ve failed on an epic scale.  Kind of.

While I’m comfortable with my “geek” label, people often don’t realise that there are many sub-classes of geek.  I’m in the Excel / Programming / Datamonkey sub-classes, and do alright out of it.  But when it comes to the web-hosting/web-administrator sub-classes, I’m still finding my feet.

So if you go to www.katieandclayton.com (haven’t linked it as you’ll just end up back here), it’s not showing the blog, it’s showing the above rant.  Hopefully the good folk at our web provider will be able to work their magic and sort thing out (they’ve been very good in the past).

- the places we have stayed in have had pretty ordinary kitchens;

- I wasn’t sure where to buy the ingredients; and

- when we packed, I didn’t think to pack all my tins and things.

So, I haven’t resolved any of my issues (other than the kitchen), but decided none the less to get back into it after getting the opportunity to make an engagement cake.  While I haven’t done a cake for a while, it did remind me how much I enjoy it.  Spurred on, I have decided to create (or ask Clayton to create for me) a section within the site so you can all have a look at my creations to date.  They may not be perfect, but they all tell a story.  So once it is up and running, I hope you enjoy…

Easter Monday had us driving down to pick up Caz and her sister from the Jolimont Centre in Canberra, where all the interstate buses end up.  Except Caz’s sister was crook, so wasn’t able to make the Canberra leg.

The bus arrived late afternoon, so we went up to Telstra (Black Mountain) Tower to view Canberra.  Scoring this one off my “Places to take people” list.  It’s a good view of Canberra, but poorly placed – with Canberra being a planned city, the view from Black Mountain doesn’t do it justice.

What does do it justice is Mount Ainslie.  The view looks over the War Memorial, down ANZAC paraid, to Old Parliament House and New Parliament House.  If you stick that view into a photo with a born and bred Canberra boy and a LA based Lass you get this:

We spent the day going through the War Memorial, Blundell’s Cottage, the Carilion, Old Parly House, New Parly House, National Museum and KoKo Black (hot chocolate fix was apparently a neccessity.  Not for me – sweet enough as it stands…).  All good.

What can I say?  To catch up with close friends that you haven’t seen for a long time?  Fantastic.

‘Nuff said.

Actually, I might extend that to top ten.  But you’re still tops, don’t get me wrong…

An “American” (who will remain nameless) remided me that I hadn’t updated the site for a while, which I can’t really argue with that.  So this is a very short, and public, post, to quiet your criticisms and hopefully give you more incentive to come and visit now that you have a “warm fuzzy” from having a post dedicated entirely to you.

Yay…

Safe travels, can’t wait to see ya…