Back down the hill for a day..

After spending yesterday with Chris and Sue in the mountains (they Ness sitted while Mikl climbed some horrifficly hot and hard thing) I decided it was time to come back, check email, look for more houses and such. Chris and Sue move at a slower pace than me (and the driving, good lord!) andyhow, whilst the Norman Linsday gallery was OK, the gardens that followed were just too much for me, and I was starving hungry. Mikl, although rpomising to come back at 2.30pm, didn't show until 6.30pm.

We stay overnight at HartleyVale and then drive helter skelter down the hill in the morning. I check some blogs and find that PoofyGoo thinks pandas are cute. Well, I know they atre, but looky here:










Taronga Zoo’s (Sydney) new Snow Leopard cubs were born to male Leon and female Samarra on the 14 October 2005. The species is endangered. Father Leon is from Nindorf Zoo, Germany and mother Samarra came to Taronga from Mulhouse Zoo in France. The pair arrived in mid-2003 and the proud parents are now about five years old. A baby at 5, wow.

Christmas at Hartley Vale

We went up the hill for the festive season:

Xmas eve I belayed Mikl on a few things at Logan Brae (overhanging, but very cool and relatively fly free), before we headed to a BBQ at Moss and Coke's (and their dughter Jemma's) place in Katoomba. We ate (all organic of course) BBQ'd lamb sausages, lamb chops, chicken wings, roasted vege salad, noodle salad, and finished it off with a pavlova Moss and I had thirds of the pavlova.

Moss with "the Pav". Also note: what is he drinking?

There was also a variety of "Xmassy beverages" to be had. They all had bubbles, but some of them had strawberry flavours instead of chanpagne, and some were red, some were pink, and some were classic white. Very good. Mmmmm. That evening we drove down to Hartley Vale where af friend of ours own the old school house, and has refurbished some of it so it had a bathroom, sleeping and lounge room, and functional kitchen. We had a few beverages there with Jeanie McBeanie (the owner - Jean is her real name, the rest someone made up), Kevan (real name Kevin), and this other really nice sailor dude. Not sailor, as in the army, but sailor, as in lives in the Whitsundays (really cool islands) and sails yachts. Late bedtime.

Xmas morning! yay! I made gluten free all organic pancakes, with maple syrup and a mango salad made by Jean. We had chanpagne and orange juice, and ate outside on a broken but sufficient table with a cloth. Under huge blue skies with cliffs all around, and flocks of screeching cockatoos.

Afterwards, Mikl whip-a-snipped, while i cooked a roast chicken luinch (mikl had made HUGE spinnach and cheese pie also). We ate lunch, once again, outside, this time with our other friends Chris and Sue (from melbourne), and Penny Cooper, who I had met one although she was living in Squamish BC until recently. Kevs been spending a lot of time at her place recently, and we got a Xmas confession out of him that he is actually dating Penny's flatmate, Catherine (Katherine?). We were all really offended that he didn't tell us sooner, of his own free will. Ate too much too. More champange. Flies, flies, flies, flies, flies. Really annoying, biting flies. In our food, hair, ears, eyes, pissing me right off, actually. In the afternoon we went for a walk, driving at first up to the top of a nearby big hill (that is also a climbing area - Mt York), and then descending along a windy track that used to be the main thoroughfare through the area - great for mountainbikers and hikers now. We walked to the base which, incidently, finished at the schoolhouse. Chris is quite sick with many cancers, and is slow to walk, so the outing took nearly an hour and a half. After that we all went our separate ways. Jeanie and her sailing friend went off to town to prepare for the Sydney to Hobart yacht race the next day (quite a big event - jeanie is safety officer on one of the smaller yachts - but still a big one!). Mikl and I ate leftovers and read books, and i had fights with the mozzies.

Boxing day (the day after Xmas)
Woke late and prepared to go for a short hike with Chris, Sue, Moss, and Coke. Mikl said we'd be about 2 or 3 hours, so i allowed 4 and arranged to meet my friends Shaz at 3pm for a bike ride. Well, the "short hike" was really an event. Way to hard for chris, i don't know what mikl was thinking, and Moss had just had a shoulder operation and shouldn't have been walking that far either. 7 hours later we found ourselves at the bottom of the Grose valley, and thankfully, the creek was full to the brim with fresh water.

Chris, then Sue, then me, then Moss (Mikl taking photo) Bluegum forest, Grose valley, blue mountains.

We bathed there for a while, and the group looked like they would stay there for an hour, so I pannicked and sprinted up the nearest exit to gain height, and hopefully get recention and call Shaz, who was now waiting over an hour and a half. I killed myself on the run up the hill. Seriously was a BAD idea. It was stinking hot and I nearly collapsed. i didn't find reception, but I did remember that there was a creek nearby the top I could drink from, as i didn't have any water with me (I'd been done over an hour). It was about this time that I thought Chris might need water, too (the hill was CRAZY), so I headed from the top back down to intercept someone with an empty bottle, which turned out to be Moss and Coke. I left them there, and took the refilled bottle down further to Chris, who was really struggling, and had advanced 50m in the last hour. We were all really worried. At this time, I remember that I left my Oakleys (expensive) at the river. After much swaering, I bolted doen the hill again, thinking that if i didn't leave now I wouldn't go. It was a LONG way back down. Still no water, and you can't drink the river water, only the stream at the top. On the way back up, i think I may have gotten heat exhaustion, as I started collapsing ans was really sick a few times. After another hour Mikl came down the hill again top see if i was OK, and met me almost at the top, where I had expired, mostly, and needed to be pushed the final 20 mins. Sandbagged again. I felt terrible about Shaz, calling her eventually whjen we got reception back at the car, at about 7.30pm. She was at home, and has since forgiven me, although she is yet to read and hear the story. On the way back to Moss and Cokes we got Indian take-away and I ate so much so quickly I burnt the roof of my mouth.

The day after Boxing day:

Slept in, as best we could given that the cockatoos come a screeching at 6am. Ate breakfast, the headed out climbing. Did a scary 3-pitch grade 15 offwidth (5-8), in the sun that Mikl had an epic on when he was 12. To gain access to this area (narrowneck) you rap in until you raech some old ladders on the side of a cliff - the council put them in as it allows access to the main water supply pipes for the Blur Mountains. You follow thease ladders all the was to the base, the bash around on a good track to get to the climbing. By the time we did this, the sun was ablazing, and the bloody biting flies were out. I sworw my way up the first pitch, which was a poorly protected start with grit and sun and flies. very exposed, a bit loose, and crumble in spots. made a belay, swore a bit more. Mikl came up after me, and headed up the next pitch, which looked horrible - I didn't realize it was an offwidth when I started up, until it was starring me in the face. Any way, we both got up it, I was carrying on the whole way - "watch me", a few "help-help"s, and a bit of crying too, the flies were really bugging me, I was exhausted from yesterday, and we'd run out of water (again). Anyway, the last pitch is a chimney and i said no fucking way, so we climbing a bit of random rock nearby to get out. At the top we found some othetr climbers and I nicked their gatorade, which was awesome. Had dinner with chris and Sue, and saw the best painting in the world, was already sole, for $3400. I might have bought it.

Still searching..

I guess I will always be searching for something, but at the moment it is a place to rent. This is particularly frustrating, but also entertaining. I had trouble sleeping last night as I kept envisaging what the inside of one partcular place I'm interested in might look like - how big the rooms were, the advantages of built-ins, gas stove, open plan dining leading to a courtyard, etc. Kind of fun, but badly timed at 5am.

Went to the climbing gym yesterday and saw a whole bunch of people I hadn't seen in ages. All the young boys I used to climb with are grown up and handome, and some of the older ones are very nice to look at when they are bouldering. There are some new women climbers in the field too, one that everyone says is too skinny, but I think she's fine, she has enough muscle to get by... All my single friends from the US should immediately head down here before they are all snapped up. Perfect age to train, too!

I climbed a few easy things, 5 in fact, juggy things on overhanging walls with round holds, and even some 1 1/2- inch flat holds, my hands felt very resonable, and my back muscles were loving it! I tried not to do too many as I want to moderate carefully the volume of climbing that I do getting back into it this time round from re-injury(ies). I lead one of the routes, which was very satisfying, but there were too many clips!

Spent yesterday evening at Sallys and georges place, had a glass of wine and then champers as Sally just handed in her PhD after 8 and a 1/2 years. She gave me a Xmas present - its in a big silver box and apparently is breakable. I am very excited, this is the first time i have actually wanted to open a present early.

New job!

Today I feel important as I have accepted a job offer at the University of Sydney. It’s a research only position, and although I would have taught, I've only ever researched and it’s what motivates me, and I'm happy doing it. The other position I interviewed for was an odd situation - they have been trying to fill the position for a while (some say that it’s cursed - a lot has gone awry with the project), and begging all sorts of overqualified people to do it. They interviewed me for the position last Friday, but apparently the day before one of the overqualified people they have been begging to take the project on succumbed. So they didn't offer me the position, although they would have, and I'm not sad at all about it. I understand how people get themselves into a sticky situation in terms of pissing people off (these people do it regularly to everyone, although I am not pissed off at all, but everyone I've told is). I'm just glad that I get to accept the other good offer I had. So my new boss at the Uni has just had a baby girl - yesterday in fact, 9lbs (a bit overcooked - 8 days over, but this is typical for the first one I am told). I'm quite excited about starting and looking forward to a short holiday beforehand where I don't actually have to worry about which country I'll be living in, etc etc. Sure, I'll have to find a job again in a few years or if the money runs out (a genuine concern at Australian Universities), but the things that I am uncomfortable with often lead to my best growth and development, and spur me to do good things. And the things I'm happy with, well, they are super anyway. My boss is very nice (always a plus), the campus is just wonderful; there are great people at the uni, and lots of resources as far as I can tell.

So we had a place lined up to rent in leafy Earlwood (borderline Inner West suburb), which was as far out as we were happy to live and still reduce travel time out to the job I didn't get. So now we have to find another place to rent, somewhere closer in to Sydney (although its all pretty close, the traffic can be a bit nightmarish), and our investigations yesterday revealed that we will be spending a little bit more, or living in a apartment. I spent all day yesterday going from house to house, mostly cycling around bwteen suburbs on my new bike, which was a lot of fun actually, but quite hot. I saw some OK places, and have two more I'll look at today. There is one place we looked at the outside of leats night that looks great, and I'll call the agent today and hope to get a squiz inside.

I miss all my friends in the states. As I was riding around yesterday I kept seeing things that certain people would love and thought it was such a shame they were in the wrong country. Yes, I'm sad to say that the US is the wrong country.

Last night we went to Andrew's place for dinner, with his girlfriend Nicole (aka Spinky Nickers) and our friend Kev was there too. Drank too much wine. Well, it was the gin and tonic that did it. Anyway, it was bad as we got in the car and I said to Mikl how much had he drunk, and he said about 10 glasses of wine. So I said I'd drive, even though I was well pissed (drunk). We probably should come up with a better plan for the future. I did have the good sense to cram a whole bunch of vitamins in my gob before falling into a stupor though.

Job and house hunting. AKA: I am a liar.

Hunting for a place to live can be difficult when you don't know where you will be working. Friday morning I interviewed for the second of the two jobs I'm interested in. All went fairly well, despite the early start and the fact that I seem to have taken to lying my arse off. When asked how much money I have managed, I recalled a lie from a previous interview, and reaffirmed an amout that was really quite a bit larger that the amount given for the project I was actually working on. This is all well and good, except that the main interviewer often talks to my old boss who knows exactly how much money I had to play with. Well what is the truth is that I didn't know how much money was there, except that I was the only person spending it and that it wasn't running out. So I guessed, perhaps a little too high, but nothing in excess of 400 % higher, I think. Oops. I think I may be getting over it, perhaps. It was only after I had fallen asleep in a drunken stupor in the car on the way home from dinner with friends that I recalled all the bullshitty details and started making little regretful groaning noises, which are only now beginning to subside.

That afternoon Mikl and I headed out to see loads more places we may rent, and put in applications for one of them. The woman immediately asked us for bond, at which point we had to retract our offer and start telling the truth a little bit, which was that we liked the place but won't know until Monday at the earliest where we want to live. The woman was very nice, and said there were unlikely to be any other applicants for the place and that the owners would most likely love the opportunity to brag that she was renting to a couple of scientists, so we should take our time. Not particularly politically correct or useful to the owner, but very nice fo us.

After several more places we went to mums place OUT WEST to take her very relaxed cat to the vet. Mum freaked out in the car as the cat was mewling in its box, and she felt sorry for it, which was understandable, but the cat was really being quite good I thought. $150 and 2 hours later we arrived back at mum's place where the still sick Mikl had been sleeping his pox off.

Quick change in the car, where myself and a ragged looking Mikl drove out to a friends newly purchased mansion in Truman land, otherwise known as Harrington Park (those annotated names are always a worry), a very outer west Sydney suburb where the heir to the Fairfax fortune purchased a whole chunk of land and has installed a very odd community, with lots of rules about who can live there - no cars over 5 years old and such, to preserve the integrity of the little community sphere. Apparently my good friends qualify, and now have themselves a piece of "perfect paradise", completely with an hour and a half drive to work. Nice house though. After consuming my own body weight in oysters at the local pub, a steak the size of my head, and a bottle of wine, I crawled into the car and started reliving the interview, which apart from my bullshitting episode, went really well. They were actually nice to me, which I think was the thing that caused all the confusion and instigated my 'episode"

The early rain and hangover made me unreliable as a riding parter for Shaz too. And my new bike sat lonely once again in the house, listening to the call of the wild...

In other news, the new and expensive air consitioner has arrived at mum's place, and hopefully will be installed tomorrow. Then we have to bullshit to the housing comission as to why we didn't wait for their approval before installing the thing. But lying is something that apparently I'm getting good at...., well, comfortable with, if not actually good.

Mikls been very sick and crabby the last few day, and this is coinciding with the onset of what a good friends likes to refer to as "crazy larry". Given that I have just switched birth control pills and that this required crazy larry to prolong his visit for another month, I've been very shitty too. A small price to pay for a very big difference in hormone levels. I've just yelled at Mikl for reading my blog over mty shoulder, which previously I had assumed that he had no knowledge of, and am now angry for no real reason. Should I get another blog? I just got this one... should I stand up for my blog rights and soldier on - if you read someone's diary you can't really get angry for what you read can you? Hmmm. I think I'll go and eat some chocolate. Perhaps this is why the lying is bothering me too. Its just Fucking Crazy Larry on his way.

Purchasing power and exercising

Recent purchases:

1. Split system spanking new airconditioner for my mum.
You'd think for that price that it would deliver and install itself, however, this is not the case. I had to cancel a date to see Harry Potter so Mikl and I could drive to mum's place to discuss installation options with the electrician. Delivery, Installation (very expensive!!), and permission from the Housing Commision (my mum is renting from government subsidised housing in a disabled facility), all have to be organised. I'm onto the HC, and after speaking with the electrician have determined that the only system that can be installed is a more expensive one from Panasonic, that I've ordered into Harvey Normal (electrical retailer). HN will call when the new system arrives, and meanwhile I can get on with my life.

2. Road bike.
I took my old bike in to get an upgrade, and they wouldn't stop laughing and sold me a new one. I got a deal, as I know the guy and have friends who are cycle fiends and also climbers, and this small circle of friends enabled me to wim big on the purchase price. Its a Giant CRX 4, 18 gears of hapiness and I put clip bard onto the handlebars, which are straight so that I can ride around town easier. The road bike was purchase to enable me to exercise more*

* Exercising more
Saturday (today is Monday) I bought my new bike with Shaz, who immediate;y accessorized it, and took me out for the death ride 3000, also known as Introductory Ride for Ness, 1.01. The problem is that we rode around Shaz's local area, and she lives on the Lapstone monocline in Sydney's West. This is basically the hilliest place in Australia, and the only way out of her street is straight up. After the initial shock of the straight upness of it all, and losing the chain in all the confusion of 18 gears of freedom, my heart rate settled to a more useful 180bpm and we settled into a more sedate pace while I recovered. We would have chosen not to ride in the 36 degree day (this is very hot for all you US people), in the heat of the early afternoon, except that the bike was new, and as such the new toy had to be used immediately. 45 minutes later and I convinced Shaz that Introductory Ride for Ness 1.01 should come to an end before I did, and she reluctantly led me down the hill of death back to the sanctuary of towels in the shady back yard and ice blocks on sticks. I have secretly invited another friend along who isn't as fit as me for next weeks Ride for Ness, 1.02, so that it will really be Introductory Ride for Lesley, 1.01, and I won't feel like such a duff duff.

Mikl failed to leave the crag he was at on Saturday before 7.30, which meant that he didn't get to pick me up from Shaz'z Ness sitting services until almost 9pm. I scolded him on the error of his ways, and he said that he would endevour to be a better boy.

Sunday Mikl and I picked up Lesley and headed up the hill (to the blue mountains - the hill I refer to is the Lapstone monocline, where Shaz lives). When we got most of the way, we passed some friends who Mikl flagged down and leapt into their car leaving lesley and i to fend for ourselves. We wanted to climb something easy and long, and Mikl suggested Margarine Ridge, a 333m (1000ft) climb. We were a little reluctant, as although we really wanted to do the climb, we weren't prepared for a long route, and it was already 10 am, and also the walk in takes an hour, if you know where you are going. Mikl growled at us so we thought perhaps it would be a good idea. Turned out to be a great idea, except that
a. We had to stop to get food, which took time.
b. We nearly crashed the Volvo on the 20 mile very loose and steep dirt road on the way in - i corrected 4 times in a fishtail before I managed to figure out how to control the car, which took another 4 corrections, and lesley was pretty sure we'd die, as the road is next to some pretty big cliffs.
c. We took over two hour to walk in as there is another trail now that wasn't in the directions. Although we did come face to face with a pretty big snake, which I identified as harmless. Lesley was bhind me and didn't believe me as in the area we were the chances are you have come across a very poisonouss and angry snake, which represent 99% of our snake population, but when I pointed it out we both agreed that it was indeed a harmless python, which is very rare for the region, I think. t any rate, it was cold and didn't much mind us stumbling by. We were in a very steep gulley descent where to pass the snake meant practically giving it a tongue kiss as you went by, so we were pretty happy it was the 1% harmless type.

So, we arrived at the base, at 1.30pm, and a bit short on water. We decided to proceed anyway, given that the sun wouldn't set until 8.30, we both had headlamps, the climbing was easy and Mikl knew we were doing it. Great climbing, Lesley and I swung leads and topped out at about 7pm, back at the car at 7.30. Gave Mikl a ring, and he said he'd meet us by the side of a road somewhere nearby. Unfortunately it took us until 8.15 to get to him due to the crap road and Volvo prowress, where we found out he'd finished climbing at 4pm and had been well bored and alone since then. I felt bad, but then remembered it was his idea, and that he made me wait hours and hours yesterday for him.

In short, a great weekend.

Procrastination

Once again I am remined why working from home isn't necessarily a good idea. Since I've banned the dog from playing fetch when I am on the computer I seem to be running out of distractions, and getting creative with manufacturing them. At the moment I am trying to decipher Lara's sock pattern, having cracked and gone out to my nan's place yesterday (not easy - she lives out in the bad old Western Suburbs - I have extreme trouble crossing the Sydney Cappuccino Belt. Once you cross over to the good side its really hard to go back, even for visits.). I had hoped that nan would be able to enlighten me with some quick and easy turn the heel tips, but instead she gave me a very complex book on sock and glove knitting, and too many cups of tea.

The other reason for the SCB crossing to nans place was it was recently her 80'th birthday, for which there was a rather large celebration that I forgot to pick her up and take her to. I'm usually very reliable, but I've been a bit busy lately, and the four job interviews, two moves, and a week long conference with possibility of relocating back to the USA might have had something small to do with it. When I feel bad, I sometimes like to blame others - and this was actually Mikl's fault - he argued with me that the party was Sunday, not Saturday, and even though I had the invitation I caved in without checking. He must have been really insistent. $70 worth of gerberas later and I'm in nan's good books again.

Mikl picked me up from nans, after forcing down the remaining cake that she had bought in his honour - she likes him a lot better than me, even though he messes up her birthday, and after recrossing the SCB I immediately had a shower to wash off the metaphorical dirt and cool down. It is always at least 10 degrees C hotter out west for some reason, and our fantastic $500 Volvo doesn't have airconditioning.

Last night Mikl and I had a super meal at the flying fish in Sydney's Pyrmont - complete with a bottle of "Clover Hill" Tasmanian sparkling wine (one of my favourites) in honour of our 2nd wedding anniversary.

Attack of the bubbly

I'm supposed to do a lot of things today, but I guess i should have thought of that before I had that last glass of sparkling white at the Birkenstock christmas party. I still hold the individual sales record though, I'm so proud.

I taught our friends Jack Russell "George" to fetch yesterday. Its a vast improvement on the "run to the ball and chew it for an hour" game he usually plays. He suffers from separation anxiety, and when our friends Renee and Scott (and also Mikl) leave for the day he barks and yelps and cries and cries, until Aunty Nessie the Hungover Housewife gets up and can't open the back glass doors as she doen't have a key. A few phonecalls late and I'm the proud babysitter of a dog thats just learnt to fetch.

Must remember that I don't like to feel like this.