Its a long way from here...

Today I traveled. A long way. Relatively anyway; we're pretty good travelers, us Aussies. But still, here I sit, 947km from home (according to google).


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And now I'm here I find myself at a bit of a loose end (here is lovely by the way).



There are no children to feed or bathe. Nothing to clean or maintain. Just me and free broadband internet. So I've downloaded some photos and I'm ready to bombard you with them. A potted history of our June, if you will.

Lily lost her first tooth! She's been walking around bearing her teeth at anyone who will look... Its pretty disturbing.

We got two new family members - Meggs on the left and Sophie on the right. Meggs is named for the Australian cartoon Ginger Meggs; and Sophie for the main character in Mamma Mia. Lily named Sophie. We tried to dissuade her from that name, but its stuck. Paddy calls them 'Meh' and 'Sousie'. They're still pretty timid - especially Meggs - but they're warming up slowly.

I made this hat for Nath. I love it. Its Marram by Eskimimmi (rav link). Its a really clever pattern that looks far more complex than it is. Only problem is that its too short. Based on comments on rav I added another repeat, but its still too short. Oh well. I'm still really proud of it.


I also knitted this cowl for a colleague at work. He loved it, however my cast off may have been a little tight... like, he got it on then couldn't get it off for quite some time... A little unpicking and looser cast off fixed it though and he's pretty chuffed. The middle pattern is a row of double yarn overs which means that when its on the yarn folds towards the neck, making it extra warm.

Lily and I found the most enormous strawberry in a punnet the other day... it must have been a couple that just grew together... but it was pretty stunning! Guess who had the best lunchbox that day...


And a picture of Paddy as you'll most likely find him nowadays. If you ask him to do something he closes his eyes. If you ask him to stop doing something he closes his eyes. Its his way of pretending to not hear you. He does it alot at dinner time...

So there you go. Amazing what kind of posts you can do with a bit of time... I've still got tomorrow night away - but its the final of Project Runway so I see myself holed up in my 'spa bure' with some chocolate and the remote... See ya!

First Female Australian Prime Minister

OMG – Australia has its first female Prime Minister – so very exciting! Congratulation Julia Gillard!

Trippin'

During my work life I've been pretty lucky with work and work trips; working with a mining industry body saw me in an underground mine; I saw heaps of regional Victoria and east-coast Australia working with a Senator; got to live on the Brisbane/Sunshine Coast for six months with CHOGM and meet the Queen.

But the most diverse and wonderful ones have been with my current employer (10 years this year!). They've sent me to Johannesburg for a month, on a tour of far north Queensland's recycled oil reclamation facilities (mostly rubbish dumps and a sewerage facility!), lots of Zoos and recently lots of parts of Australia I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

Now that I have a family I don't like to travel too much - it puts too much pressure on Nath and its draining. Work travel isn't really very glamorous and usually cuts into personal time more than you expect. So next week I'll be heading to northern NSW and losing most of my Sunday in order to get to a pretty regional location for a meeting. As a result I'm going to stay somewhere nice. Nicer than I'd normally stay at but still within my travel allowance.

I think it will help ease the pain a little... and I'm kinda looking forward to it.

Gifties

I don't have the energy to really blog about these bits - I'm proud of them and they were both gifts for colleagues. The details are on rav.


Kimono for Monica it was pretty but really dense resulting fabric.



And this foxy cowl for a lovely lady who helped me at work.


I've still got a few more gifts for lovely folks. I'm really enjoying knitting at the moment.

Lost and running

I was looking over at One Crafty Mother and she's just posted about a song her son made up and was singing in the car

"Sometimes, you open your eyes but you can't see da world." Finn sings from the backseat. "You open your eyeeeess but you can't seeeeeee da world."

I ask him what he is singing, but he doesn't answer, just keeps on singing: "and dat's just da way it is, sometimes, wif da world."

It made me think that sometimes kids make you stop and think about where you're going and how you're getting there. It also made me think about the time I was singing "Lost and Running" by Powderfinger in the car when Lil asked me about the lyrics

Oh I'm still lost and running
I can't get enough
No I'm still lost and running
I can't get enough
No I'm still lost and running
Somewhere I lay down my arms
Oh I'm still lost and running
I can't get enough

She asked me what 'lost and running' meant and I said sometimes we don't know where we're going and it might not be the right way but we're going there fast. She asked me if i felt like that sometimes. I said "yeah, sometimes" while thinking "yeah, all the fricken' time". She said "don't worry, you're going the right way." Could've been that we were nearly home, or that she thought I was doing ok. I choose the later. And felt a little bit better.