in a month of stress....

I happened upon another person's blog called "Three Beautiful Things" and it is somebody in England who writes three things each day that bring something happy into her life. I liked the concept and in a month that has been extremely stressful, I have been trying to do this as well.... even if I don't physically write them down

1. The smell of a gingerbread house that Kim and I put together and decorated, in our new apartment

2. The sound of the Ashes on the television reminds me that some things in summer never change - sunny days and dulcet tones of cricket commentary

3. Having rafters in our apartment upon which to hang things - I've forever had lanterns and mobiles and now I'm spoilt for choice as to their new locations!

christmas is coming

Wishing everyone who glances at this a merry Christmas....
have successfully moved into new apartment and even have a christmas tree up now!! looks quite the festive sight. Still ploughing on at uni.... thoroughly tired of it - will be going to Grampians in a coupla weeks for Christmas with Kim's folks so that should be a hoot - as long as the bushfires don't start up there. Melbourne is currently covered in thick smoke, which is fairly gross and making it hard to breathe - lord knows what those fighting the fires are dealing with!!! anywho - merry christmas to all and to all a good night!
xx

SPIEGELTENT GIGS CONTINUE....

Here are the latest pictures from a recent Spiegeltent gig - to see all the marvellous footage of our performances, please go to the links page and click on the link for Keith's swing footage and you can look at them all from the last three gigs!!! The latest gig (18th) is probably the most slick!!
St Kilda's class will be performing on December 2nd which I will be involved with also.

FOUND A HOME!!!

Newsflash - have successfully found our next home - warehouse apartment.
It is in Fitzroy and we beat many other peoples to get it!!! Yay!!! Moving in second weekend of December... now to pack the house

the lyrebird footage courtesy of BBC and my hero, Sir David Attenborough (and a little extra)

Video of Lyrebird mimicry = the thing that triggered off this honours thesis in the first place!!
I've since recorded this particular bird myself - the main one in the footage is Nova, of Healesville Sanctuary. There are other birds recorded in actual forests but the star is the captive bird.... hence his interesting mimicry!


the billabong odyssey intro



and for those of you who are looking forward to summer.... check out this amazing footage from the Billabong Odyssey DVD of Mike Parsons at a break known as Jaws.... incredibly terrifying but you won't be able to take your eyes off him

Spiegeltent gigs a plenty!

Have been ultra busy the last week with honours, house-hunting and swing gigs... plus a goal to start getting fit has left me completely stiff and exhausted most days. Went rock-climbing last Saturday in the Grampians with Kim and family, did a multi-pitch climb (one big cliff in multiple stages) - was awesome but tiring and tricky (as always). The walk down the back of the climb was intensely hard going, especially once you've climbed all that way.
House-hunting is completely stressful. Been ringing, visiting inspections, feel like I'm competing with sooooo many others and the places are always disappointing for the money you pay. But still ploughing on and running around - petrol adds up!! Will hopefully have place sorted by end of November ready to move in during early December (need to get the xmas tree in!!!).
Captaining a swing gig at the Spiegeltent this week - folks are coming to see us with Japanese exchange teacher who is staying at our family home at the moment. Have included a photo of the last gig we did. Am a little stressed, because I have to be a bit more organised about this one... but if Melbourne folk are around - please come!!! You get social dancing, a lesson and some energetic performances!! That's all.... and I tells ya, it's certainly enough!!!

Lyrebird chicks and swinging shindigs

LYREBIRD CHICK
This is me from aaaaages ago, helping to band a lyrebird chick at one of our study sites with the local lyrebird survey group. The chicks are quite big and completely fluffy - kinda like bantam chickens, but with huge feet and claws. Completely adorable, that's for sure. This day was one of the highlights of my recent honours endeavours. For anyone who is interested, please check out the website of really good wildlife pics taken by a yr 11 student, Alex Maisey, who is crucial in maintaining the facts, figures and info on all the lyrebirds near Belgrave. He really knows all the facts about every bird there - I'm in awe. And his photos are pretty cool.

SPIEGELTENT GIGS
The Spiegeltent is well underway and our group, Brat Pack, is performing on the following dates - Oct 28th, Nov 11th and I think Nov 18th (will confirm shortly). Gigs are from 3-5pm, really cheap (about $10 I think) and will include social dancing, lesson and performance. They are on each Saturday but different groups will be performing on different Saturdays. I'll also be there on Dec 2nd for a St Kilda performance. check out the swing patrol link to the left, or the spiegeltent's official website for program details.


BRAT PACK SHENANIGANS
These pics are of a party we had at Brat Pack rehearsal last week - was good to mess around for an hour, playing kids party games, skipping, wheelbarrow races, etc... we did do some dancing practice but mainly messed about for awhile and ate chips, lollies and fairy bread.

back into the swing of things

Have been back for over a month now :(
sad, I know.
been right back into the honours work - lots of journals to read, essays to write, lyrebird recordings to catalogue.
seems the work is narrowing in on comparisons between whipbirds and lyrebirds but plans are changing by the minute (i.e. when my supervisor comes in and gives me the latest good/bad news regarding chosen species of study!!)... never fear.
Saw 'An Inconvenient Truth' last week.... needs to be seen by the world. Made me completely frustrated at current government in our country and deeply ashamed that we couldn't even ratify the Kyoto protocol. For those interested, please see the film and perhaps read the book "The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery. I'm planning to read it in next coupla months too. Apparently explains everything. There is hope though. I'm not completely full of despair.
xx

skiing in nz

Have just spent most marvellous week in NZ - staying at Wanaka, Sth Island.
Skiied for five days at Cardrona, Treble Cone and Snow Park. Started off a bit icy, but a couple of lessons and 15cm of fresh powder left the rest of the week "sweet as". Wanaka was a beautiful town situated on one of the many gorgeous lakes in the south, about an hour north of Queenstown. Much quieter and very picturesque.
To see all the photos --> just go to the link on the left of the page!!



Day One --> travelled from Christchurch to Wanaka, got in and hired the skis. Crashed at Purple Cow Backpackers (which I can highly recommend).

Day Two --> Skiing at Treble Cone. hairiest looking road ascending up to it, but gorgeous views. Resorts are much smaller than Australia's but views are far superior. The hire car even survived the local keas (parrots which eat rubber from your items such as windscreen wipers).

Day Three --> Skiing at Cardrona. Icy as anything. Another lesson helped me cope. More family oriented resort with wider runs (better for my nerves).

Day Four --> Tried to get to Remarkables. No luck as resort was shut due to high winds. Drove all the way back to Cardrona for another day. Turned out to be one of the best days there. Snow had softened up. I even had a go at Boardercross (like a bmx track for skiers and snowboarders) - crazy fun and ended up with a good face plant!!

Day Five --> Snow Park --> skateboarding park for snowboarders really. I am hopeless so avoided anything remotely tricksy and just watched Kim strut his stuff (until of course he took a huge jump and came down with a serious crash landing and a bit of concussion and swollen jaw.....). Left early to go see Confetti the movie at Cinema Paradiso (highlights include sofas, hot cookies and homemade icecream at interval).

Day Six --> "Day off" --> visited Queenstown. Did CANYON SWING, whereby you freefall 60m over Shotover River and then swing out in 200m arc over the river at about 150kph. Crap ya daks stuff. Survived. Much happier having done this but backpocket substantially lighter. Recovered in afternoon by doing shopping, going up the gondola and having fantastic buffet smorgasboard at restaurant with mountain views at sunset.... awwwww.

Day Seven --> Back to Cardrona for last day skiing. More fresh snow saw Kim heading off to make fresh tracks. I cruised on the beginner runs but spent the arvo on blue areas where there was lots of powder. Resulted in me falling over a lot and getting snow everywhere. Tons of fun. Over way too quickly.

Day Eight --> Drove back to Christchurch. Took in some local sights, market, shops, etc. before crashing back at the hostel before our 4am start the next morning to fly home.

CANNOT WAIT TO GET BACK THERE!!!

final year's focus... the lyrebird!!!

Well, here it is... the focus of my final honours year at La Trobe. Am studying the Superb Lyrebird (Menura novaehollandiae for those scientifically/nerdy inclined).

Pretty spectacular tail (which is what everyone remembers really) but it is a real good mimic. My honours thesis is comparing the accuracy of the lyrebird with the birds that it likes to mimic (in two sites in Victoria). Reality: dawn field work outside of Belgrave in cold, damp, leech-filled conditions...
but it is kinda cool and the birds have been awesome to watch (attenborough stuff all round really). Hopefully, the study will find something conclusive which may be publishable but.... why? (I hear you ask) --> nobody really knows why any birds mimic and there's no real substantial evidence to show that it is to impress the 'ladies'... so this would be a preliminary study for someone with more money who can then compare the success of the best singers with those of the least accurate (i.e. do better singers have more kids?)... then we could start to say mimicry is to work some magic on the females. Who needs nice aftershave when you can do a good kookaburra impression?? I've said too much already and my nerdisms are showing... good day.

rockclimbing

Here's some rockclimbing photos - something I've endeavoured to learn about in the last couple of years.... and something which I will admit I do enjoy. If you ignore the nervous sweating, aching legs, invisible footholds (which everyone else appears to see okay) and the immense stress I always seem to bring upon myself - it is actually great to be outside in a beautiful environment with fabulous views doing something active...

some pics

Here's some pics to keep people interested: Cairns Birdwing Male Butterfly (for the science-inclined); me and ma boy on Ocean Road; beautiful vine at Healesville Sanctuary; me at da zoo

First one's up

Testing, one, two.... hoping all is well in blog land.... guess i joined the millions