tunes

Music is  part of my life.   Llistening to it  and playing it.     
I have spent the last five years in a job that involved a commute of between 45-60  minutes each way,  about a 100k round trip.     Interestingly I found the time spent on the freeway was not wasted,   I used it to enjoy listening to music.   I'm not a big fan of commercial radio,  they tend to play tend to play the same old crap over and over.     I find this frustrating because there is so much classy music on Records that just doesn't  get any airplay.   I can understand this with pop artists,  the record companies have invested  to produce the music and they dictate airplay to ensure a $ return.   What I don't get is the Golden oldies radio stations that could play diverse classic rock,  but instead continue the model of playing old chart topping singles over and over.    Its a bit like listening to a bad wedding band.   

I have realised  that I live in a musical timewarp and suffer musical developmental delay.   I have identified  my musical time lag,  it's about 10 years generally,  although occasionally something new breaks through to me.   I tend to warm to new artists slowly.

There are a lot of advantages to being musically retarded.  You rarely have to pay full price for a new (10y old) CD,    municipal libraries have a great selection and your friends are surprised  that you have never heard of or listened to ( insert band name here) and that you don't have  the CD and then insist that you borrow it from them.    I have a number of cds that I do not recall buying and  I really should return.    

The other great thing about being musically retarded is that I am usually just discovering bands when they start releasing  Greatest Hits albums.    This is not a bad thing surely?    Using my iphone for my music library is  my greatest tech achievement to date.

So what have I been listening to lately?

  Absolute Garbage .   This is a great compilation,  worth listening to with good head phones in a quiet  room.                                               !

Foo Fighters.   how did I miss these guys?

Instead of sitting in traffic 2 hours a day,    I have been slow moving on the mower,    ear pieces in and ear muffs over the top.   The music makes an already pleasant task  even more enjoyable and encourages thought and contemplation.


gaz

Prickles

Nice afternoon spent strolling around Kettering.    Very quiet today,     Lots of bushfire fund raisers going on in Dunally (?spelling).     Walked  down Saddle rd.   Fence lines along edge of road are covered in Blackberries.   They seem to be doing very well,   Kids and I spent a bit of time picking and eating berries as we walked along.    

It's raining, Hooray

Seems an odd thing to be happy about.  



view from front door.   Water view today is mostly clouds.

 I have spent the last couple of days draining the dam in anticipation of doing some earth work around it.   Today it started filling again.   not really very helpful as I'm picking up the mini machine this afternoon.   The Hire place does a weekend deal pick up Friday and return on Monday morning.    Its costs only slightly more than  a day rate,  and because this weekend is the Australia day long week end,  i get it for an extra day at no cost.   I might use the machine to breach the dam today to enable it to drain a bit.

The reason I am happy it is raining is that rain is our water supply.  The rental house has one water tank.  It is a 5000 gallon (about 20000 lts).    It was full when we moved in.   It has not rained in the last 4 weeks and the landscape is very dry.  

We have been in the house 15 days now an have used 1/3 of the water in the tank.  This equates to about 7000 ltrs in 14 days or about 500 ltre of drinking water used a day or 100ltrs per person per day.   This is better than what we used to use in Mt Martha,   admittedly I am on holiday and this equates to a holiday from hygiene.

A quick bit of maths ( thanks to MetaCalc)   5000 gallons H20 should last us 5.7 weeks before we run out if there is no rain.   I'm pretty sure it will rain again sometime,  probably next time I have some outdoor work planned.

gaz

Ride On

Spent the day today tearing around on our new ride on mower.      Much easier than brush cutting.   

I had thought that I would need to get Alex and his Slasher back in a couple of weeks to re slash the block.  Today I tried the RideOn on the deep slashed grass,  slow through the thick stuff.  It did it pretty well.  took about 2 1/2 hours to do 1/3 of the block.    It will no doubt get faster when the grass is in better shape.   The Mower is a Husqvana 46"  22 horse V twin,   it is a delight to use.
The block is very dry.    Reg from next door says this time last year the block was green.


Mown over slashed area



Weed

Weeds and thistles cover our  block.   There are patches of blackberries,  covered in green berries.
After a nice letter  from our new council,   Kingborough,  cleaning up the weeds and long grass has been a priority.   Apparently waist high grass and chest high thistles are a fire hazard. 
Dealing with the grass and weeds has required a three prong attack.    First I used a brush cutter - too slow.  then I hired a self propelled slasher -   too slow and repeatedly stalled on long grass.    Then came Alex on his 4wd tractor with 5ft slasher.   It worked a treat,     cutting everything with ease,  finding a number of pieces of old orchard equipment,  killing one Wallaby and one Native Hen. 
 I do wonder about the wallabies,    there are dead ones along the edges of the roads,  far more than I recall seeing in country victoria.   They aren't as big as the Kangaroos in Vic,  but I suspect that they cause significant damage to the cars that hit them.    Our new neighbour Marcus suggested that it is because it has been so dry the wallabies have come down out of the hills  for a feed.




Alex gets it done



 In recent times the risk of fire has been on peoples minds.   The Bush fires in Tas have been  down on the Tasman Peninsular,  south east of Hobart.   We are on the south western side of Hobart.   We did have a couple of days of smoke haze drifting across on a gentle easterly wind in the evenings.    There has been bushfire appeals on the tv,  it is a strange situation that I identify more with fires in victoria than I do with the Tas fires.   I guess that will change in time.

gaz

Twelve days in Tassie.

It has been 12 days since we got here.   High lights include opening up the rental house and  wondering if our furniture was going to fit.   The shipping container containing our furniture had not yet arrived,  we had been advised that it would take 7 days to get to the house.   On the sixth day Corinna rang the removalist to chk when the container would arrive.   " 2 more days,  the container is still in melbourne,  the ship had had some breakdown " was the reply.

Camping in the house was ok, but I was really looking forward to a comfortable couch to sit on and a bed that was higher than a foam mattress on the floor.

The container did arrive and the unpacking went smoothly.   except for the L shaped lounge that could not be got into the lounge.   it is now residing in the shed.
The house feels much more homely now that our stuff is in it  ( and quite a few boxes are in the shed).

We arrive in Tasmania

Retro spective blog,   (10 days with no Internet/phone -  bloody Telstra!)

We arrived in Devonport  on the morning of the 10th of Jan.   After  some what rolly crossing and a fairly poor nights sleep,  it was a relief to be woken at 0530 by the paging system,  announcing that we were due in at 05:55 and could all drivers be ready to head to the garage decks at 0600.  
The main thing I noticed at this time was that it seemed insanely early and that the ship was no longer impersonating a top load washing machine.  
Every one up and  in the lounge by 0600 ready to disembark.
Curiously the onboard ship cafe stop serving coffee at 0600 and close up.

Getting off the ship is almost as tedious as getting on it,   they page you to the Garage Deck and then get you to sit there for nearly an hour,  wishing the whole time that you had a)  a coffee,  and b) had gone to the toilet.

Breakfast at Devonport Golden Arches drive through.  "Could I get an extra OJ?"  I ask at the second window.   "No,  we are very busy,  you will have to come inside and order again"
"Really,   an extra OJ,  I've got correct money"   I say.
"No,  It can't be done".  
At this point I realise that I am in fact being served by the store manager.  
I move on,   one juice short.

The  trip to Hobart is a delightful drive,  just under 300kms.   we stopped at Longford for fuel.   It is a lovely small country town.     The kids had a play in the local park,  I couldn't decide if the memorial for Servicemen was respectful or not.  

Gaz

smooth crossing

The trip from Melbourne to Tassie involves travelling on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry across Bass strait to Devonport Tasmania.    It leaves from Station Pier  Port Melbourne.   Check in and loading occurs 2.5 hrs prior to sailing.    This is the most tedious part of the trip.    To put the car on you enter through Security who look over your car and belongings to ensure the safety of the ship during the crossing.   You are then directed to sit in a line of cars all waiting to get on the ship.   I t then takes about one and a half hours to get on the ship,   moving at a pace that is not dissimilar to some of the traffic jams that occur  on Melbourne's freeways.

security check point

Passing through security is interesting,   last time I travelled  they looked in the engine bay,  the back of the car,  the esky,  I had to  hand over the Axe from the Camper trailer.   This time they didn't do any of that.   Transporting Firearms on the Spirit was straightforward.  The security guys were attentive and helpful.

The ship got away almost on time.   We were seen off by family.

pulling away

heading off down the bay

After the stress of packing,  saying goodbyes,   loading and getting ourselves onto the ship,  it was good to be moving.

gaz

Tuppaware it isn't

Every thing goes in a container,   sugar, rice, teabags,  pegs.   It's an easy  way to organise your life.     It gets more complicated when you pack your life up and try and fit it all in one container.

After investigating removalist options   we organised Watkins Removalists ( Tasmanian based)  to turn up with a container and pack it for us.
After several adjustments to estimated volume required,    we thought it would all fit.


The removalist Michael rang the day before to organise the time.   An early start  0730.

The guys turned up on time,   loaded the Container carefully,   put up with me helping them and wondering if it would all fit.    It all fitted  and after almost 6 hours they  drove away with most of our worldly possessions.  

Some items struck me as being difficult to pack.   The highlights were the tall standing lamp,   guitars,  9'6" surfboard and flatscreen TV.    Nothing was broken during loading  hopefully the trip over will be a smooth one.  

ETA on Container 1 week.  ( if it goes via King Island it could take 2 weeks)

Our ETA in Tasmania 2 days.

gaz

Packing ourselves

T minus 6

Stuff

lounge room

Getting ready to move is an interesting exercise.    Rationalising and packing boxes full of belongings is not an easy undertaking.     It is staggering just how much stuff a family of five can accumulate,   luckily there is only one hoarder amoungst us.    Corinna has done a great job sorting and boxing our lives,    I,  on the other hand have moved stuff from one spot to another.   I have gradually come to the realisation that things I packed into garage boxes 5 years ago and have not used since  are probably not worth keeping.     For example  how many RC glider Wings can you store in a garage roof.    The answer is 11.   off to the recycle shop with them. 

I should probably point out that we are moving into a rental house  about 500 mts further up the road from our block.    It's nothing flash but is does have merrit.


rental house Saddle rd





view from  decking

 It is in our neighbourhood,   its close to our block,   it's on 1 acre,   it also has a shed.   (  I have a thing about sheds).   The kids will be able to Share (!) a room.   House work will take less time.  The bath is green.  It will be warm happy and cosy.