I was up at 4am this morning to head down to Bayswater, left there at just after 2pm, and then headed back home for the MECC introduction meeting at the council chambers tonight. More on that tomorrow.
In the meantime, a few snapshots from the trip home.
My trusty Ford Falcon AUII Wagon clicked over 250,000km on the way to work today. It has a few issues that need fixing – the most urgent of which is that something isn’t right in the front end. It tracks and drives beautifully, but hit a slight incline (like the driveway in and out of one of the local supermarkets) and the wrong angle and the very edge of the tyre just kisses the guard slightly. I know the dampers are pretty much shot, and when I get a chance I’ll drop into the suspension shop that did them last time (~130,000km) and get them to take a look. Other than that it’s as nice to drive as when I first got it. I’ve got no plans to change it at the moment. As much as Lisa’s SS Sportwagon is a beautiful car I still really like my Falcon. Fits like a glove.
Big Girl on the playground at Geelong earlier today.
Taken first thing this morning. These boys are settling in really well.
Lisa and I have agreed that it’s actually pretty hard to get a decent close-up photo of an Alpaca’s face. There are so many different angles and textures, and any slight bit of softness of focus shouts at you from the rooftops. This is made worse by the fact that they’ve got a fairly long head, so unless you want to be very selective in focus (which doesn’t look good for these boys) you need to stop down a little more than you’d like to – and that of course slows the shutter speed, so you’re more likely to pick up any movement. It’s hard to balance these things and get it right.
Here’s an example. This is Maverick with mud and hay fragments stuck over his face. The main area of his face is ok, but his nose is very soft as his ears are slightly soft (consistent with the fact that focus falls away more gently behind the focal point an in front of it).
We had a day out at Geelong today. We went down there so we could pick up a few presents for some birthday parties Adelaide is going to over the next few weeks, but we also took the opportunity to drop down to Eastern Beach. We had a late lunch of fish and chips in a park near the beach, then wandered along the foreshore.
The kid’s pool is part of the bigger ocean pool at the beach and has a brilliant fountain as its centrepiece.
After spending some time on the playground we went back to the car via some of the artwork along the foreshore.
We’re lucky to have some decent green grass at home at the moment but the lush grass on the hill around the carvings was great fun for the kids to roll around in.
Big girl is back at school today. First day of term four – the last block of work before the Christmas break.
Today’s throw-away society is increasingly annoying. Nothing you buy these days last for any length of time at all.
Case in point: we went to start the Mazda for the first time in several months and the battery was completely flat. I jump started it off the Falcon and did 20km to put some charge back into it, but it’s stuffed. I turned the car off and straight back on and all that happens is that the starter solenoid clicks. Doesn’t even turn the motor over. The battery is well and truly stuffed.
It’s an absolute disgrace that this car battery is only 8 years old.
For some reason daylight saving started early again this year. It used to be the last weekend in October; not sure why these days it’s the first weekend. Whatever, it makes for more daylight later in the evening, so you can get out after dinner and still get decent light for photography.
Who said what?