Boxing Day - Happy Feet Two

Going thru a bit of a backlog of photos at the moment and I have found some I forgot from summer holidays in Qld. On Boxing Day, Happy Feet 2 opened so the Aurisch/Bell/McMillan clan went to see it at a local cinema (and cheered loudly when we saw Uncle Matt's name in the credits).

Smokey update - Jan-Mar 2012

We might love the new house, but there is one member of our family who does not. His-Royal-Highness, Sir Bugalugs, Mr Smokey. He has become uber-demanding and crying frequently especially at night. He didn't seem to mind being shifted interstate but down the road...

It has been so bad at times that we were worried our neighbours might complain and we get evicted (we do have permission to have him here). We have tried all sorts of things, lots of cuddles, making designated Smokey places, bowls of water all over the house, initially keeping him inside only... then rigging up chicken wire and his own climbing frame so he can at least explore the backyard and (from the vet) pheromone spray and diffuser.

He does seem to be settling down bit by bit, we are now having 'good nights' and 'bad nights'. Last night we had less crying and back to the smoochy Smokey we know, though, it was a bit tricky at times to sleep with him on our chest, back or feet.

 Smokey's stairs/climbing frame. That is our bedroom window.

Whatcha doin Matt? Can I play too?

 He is cute, when sleeping.

New Home (and no phone)

Sorry I have been a bit slack of late. Life has been busy and a bit disorganised. I have finally nabbed some computer time from Matt and Liam and will hopefully do a couple of posts tonight.

To further complicate things slightly, my (smart) phone has died (i.e. it was often my camera and browser). It was on its last legs for a while and a repair under warranty kept it going for a bit longer, but it has now completely gone (RIP Nexus One). I did toy with the idea of getting another, I think Matt was drooling at the thought of having a Nexus Prime in the house, but I have decided (with permission from work) to consolidate my work and personal mobiles. For the past 2.5 years I have been juggling with two mobiles... keeping both of them charged and available when needed. The downside is a change of personal mobile number. I will do a mass email and continue to forward my old phone to my new one for a couple more weeks.

On to the fun stuff... our new home. It's great! Exactly what we had been looking for. Has made waiting for the right thing to come by worth it. It is still in the Inner West (next suburb over but not quite as close to my work as we were hoping), terrace/duplex, single story, we think federation (not too hard to work out which part of the house is original and which came later), two bedrooms, small but adequate bathroom, massive retro-awesome kitchen, concrete back yard and separate garage. Let's have a walk-thru:

Front door, hallway with Liam's bedroom door on the left. This is one half of the hallway... it is huge.
This part (the original part) of the house also has beautiful, ornate and high ceilings.
The lighting is bad (phone camera), but the walls are grey, with white ceilings and a darker grey trim.
The carpet is a grey-cream, tawny according to Matt.

Our room, again, huge!  (please excuse the mess)
We have furniture from 1.5 rooms of our old place and it still feels nice and spacious.
Yes, that is an air-con on the wall too :)
Liam's room is roughly the same size, just no built-ins or air con.

Living space number one, our lounge room.
To the left (out of shot) is a non-functional fireplace.
 We have our TV etc there.

I am standing in the doorway you can see in the previous shot.
2nd living space, that we are using as a study, and thru the archway to the kitchen.
We have mentally divided the room in half with a desk and bookshelf each.
Matt is sitting at his desk, studying.
Mine is to the right (out of shot) where the red guitar is.

So much bench space. This is about 2/5ths - the rest is to the left, you can see some in the last picture.
Also, beautiful big windows and cooking with gas!

The necessities: toilet - left, bathroom - middle, laundry - right (you can just see it in the previous shot).
Not as nice as the rest of the place and our old unit, but functional.

Happy Feet Two Wrap Party

All dressed up ready for the Dr D - Happy Feet Two wrap party. 

Below, the lovely couple to the right of Matt and I are Cherie and Gareth. Gareth is an animator (lensing and pre-vis artist). He and Matt get along well. Cherie is an OT. They are both fellow (ex) QLDers. Cherie and I hit it off straight away and for the past two Dr D Xmas parties I have been trying to convince her to come work for Pathways. I finally succeeded, Cherie and I have been working together for about 6 months. It's all a little cosy, but they are such beautiful individuals and a great couple - fast becoming firm friends.

This is not a gardening blog, but...

 ...the garden is my current obsession and I am so excited about how it is starting to take form. I am also concious that once term starts again weekends seem to disappear too fast. The garden will probably go into state of 'growing & maintenance' rather than 'designing & building'.

Last weekend we tackled what is undoubtedly the biggest single job within the wider project. The 'Vegetables - Square Foot Garden - Raised Planter'.

If you are wondering what the hell is Square Foot Gardening, this was new to me only a couple of weeks ago. Google it and/or look here: http://www.squarefootgardening.org

After many hours of research on the internet (again) I worked out what I wanted, but, I couldn't find anyone in Australia who stocks this sort of thing and to get something from overseas will take 2-3 months (and goes against the spirit of the project). After discussing (whinging) with Matt we decided to attempt a DIY. Matt and I are both a little crafty, but I was a bit dubious about tackling such a big project ourselves. Below is the outcome, and I am pretty darn proud of it (so far). 

The base - plywood on rails

The ends of the box
and yes... Matt has a red fauxhawk for those who haven't seen it :)

The sides of the box

Supervisor - his new favourite spot, the worm farm ?!?!

Box onto the base... my turn with the drill

Almost finished, sort of.

We couldn't get trestles in the size we wanted and while we knew these ones would be big we thought they might do. Nope. I can barely reach the back and the whole thing looks and feels not secure. We have since drawn more plans and will be back to Bunnings over the weekend for the parts to make legs. I may be on holidays but Matt is not and I would prefer his help with this.

Meanwhile...

I mentioned before that I have decided to keep the worm farm, here's the long version why. The worm farm was very neglected for a range of reasons including spiders and dark evenings, instead, we have started using a Bokashi bin and I love it! With the Bokashi it stays indoors, for us, next to the main & recycling bins. It doesn't stink!!! and it can take a lot things the worm farm can't (onions, citrus and meat). Once full, the recommendation is to bury the contents into your garden (um...) or into a hot compost, not worms - they don't like it. So... I tried to find a composter small enough for our balcony with no luck. There were a few available, but only overseas and most people complained that they didn't really work. I did find a couple of blogs/people who had tried putting their Bokashi contents into a worm farm with success, so I thought lets give it a go. The bucket was full a couple of weeks ago so had already sat fermenting. I restocked the worm farm (when I looked there was one lonely worm left alive) last Monday and on Friday put in a couple of large scoops from the Bokashi bin. I added some 'worm conditioner', a handful of potting mix scattered over the top and a worm blanket to reduce the acidity and improve the conditions for the worms. This morning (Wednesday) I checked the worm farm and they seem to love it (too!). All the worms are alive and squirming around in the Bokashi contents, not their original bedding. My verdict (so far)... you CAN put Bokashi bin contents into a worm farm. Now, I just need to chat with work as I no longer have a spare worm farm to donate :)

Meanwhile...

Wedding (pro) photos

For anyone we haven't shown these to... here are some of our wedding photos! We are in the process of wading through all the beautiful images Stephen took for us and putting together albums. Hopefully school holidays soon means it will get done.


http://www.stephenhenryphotographics.com/Home/tabid/39/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/61/My-Way-pt-1.aspx


http://www.rocknrollbride.com/2010/11/sarah-matts-red-black-gothic-wedding/

Alex's holiday with Uncle Matt & Sarah

Alex was originally going to come and stay with us for a few days in January, a trip just by himself. Unfortunately, then the QLD floods happened. Alex's family were 'trapped' in their town for many days due to flood waters and damaged infrastructure, there was no way of getting Al to the airport! He made it to visit in early March and we had a great weekend :)

A geektastic weekend!

Many games of Magic the Gathering

Giant Lego statues at Sydney Aquarium