sallysetsforth

The magpies are gathering in our street, and swooping season approaches. Help!

I used to look forward to spring. Who wouldn't? It's a beautiful time of year. But for the last 10 years or so, I have somehow ended up on the magpie hit list. Now every year I dread the coming of spring and the accompanying magpie nesting season.

Just in case I have some international readers, I should note that I am talking about the Australian Magpie. This is a particularly fearsome bird, quite large and with a pointy, pointy beak.

Last year, I was swooped in early July. I had never been swooped so early in the year before. And considering that swooping season lasts until about November, I have 5 months of daily fear to look forward to.

You see, I live in an area which is well populated by magpies. There is a family of three living on our street, usually stalking menacingly on the lawns of houses only 20 metres away. Considering that magpies will generally swoop pedestrians within 50 metres of their nest, I am in deep trouble! Even once I get out of my own street safely, there is another magpie population living in and around the large park that lies between my house and the train station (and gym). There is no escape!

 

Last year, in desperation, I took to carrying an open umbrella with me each morning. I feel like an absolute twit, but at least a fairly safe one. This year I'll do the same, but with a more effective umbrella. I've just ordered this gorgeous birdcage umbrella. It is clear, so that I can see where I'm going, but with a pattern, in order to confuse the birds (fingers crossed!).

Wish me luck.

P.S. Some good news - although magpies are distributed across most of Australia, they are not commonly found in Darwin. And if anyone can prove differently, I don't want to know about it!!

P.P.S. I am also swooped on a fairly regular basis by Indian Mynahs. These birds are slightly smaller than magpies, and therefore slightly less scary. But they are fast and quiet, and usually the first I know about an attack is when I feel their claws brush through my hair. Happily, they have never taken a chunk out of me yet.

Photo credits to mustang00069 and chateauglenunga.

Tim and I are now planning to move to Darwin early next year (probably February) rather than late this year. The reason is a mixture of finances, renovations required to rent out our house, and an aversion to moving to the tropics in the middle of the build up.

At the end of July I'll finish work at the beautiful library where I'm currently employed. Rather than do temp work until the move, I decided that this seems like a pretty great opportunity to re-enrol in my Masters in Library and Information Management. So it will be back to the books for me :).

My formal offer is in the mail (yay!). I'm hoping to get approval for a full-time load, so that if I work hard and manage my time well, I should have my Masters by the end of the year.

I had always planned to complete the Masters at some point, but it's not always (or ever?) easy to fit study in to a busy week, especially when working. Getting back on to the computer for more work at the end of a 9-5 day is easier said than done.

I hope that the Masters qualification will help to prepare me for higher level positions in future. But it will be especially useful to have under my belt in the event of applying for librarian work overseas, as a Masters degree is more readily recognised than a Graduate Diploma.

Happily my computer is up and running again (after further mishaps, this time due to power issues). Now I just have to arrange for a more ergonomic desk setup, especially in light of my recent shoulder problems, to see me through the coming months of study.

P.S. How long do you think it will take for the glow of nostalgia regarding study to wear off and the harsh reality of readings and assignments kicks in? My bet is 2 weeks in  ;)

Sunday was museum day, and we started out at the Maritime Museum. I have a thing for swashbuckling tales of adventure, so was interested to find out more about Hobart's rich maritime history. More models of ships than I personally needed to see, but great stories made it a worthwhile visit.

Mum and I then went on to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, which provided an interesting combination of fact and fantasy. I loved the Antarctic exhibition, which included a 3D theatrette for viewing some amazing stereoscopic photographs taken by Frank Hurley during Mawson's expedition. In the gallery, the feature exhibition was by artist Patricia Piccinini. Strange stuff indeed.

Our last stop before dinner was the Lark Distillery. I love this little whisky distillery in the heart of Hobart, but I fear my tastes are not refined enough to make it worth the pricetag. And I still have some Cherry Max from my last visit :)

The next day we ventured a little further afield, to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. We saved our feet this time, by taking a water taxi to the gardens. A very nice way to travel! The gardens were beautiful, which wasn't surprising - I think we do Botanical Gardens pretty well in Australia. Highlights included Pete's Vegie Patch (made famous by Pete Cundall on Gardening Australia), the Conservatory, the Subantarctic Plant House and the Japanese Garden.

 

 

We caught the water taxi back into town, checking out some of the expensive houses in Sandy Bay on our way. The driver told us that 90% of houses in Hobart have views of the water, and it was easy to believe when viewed from the river and harbour. A trip to Hobart is not complete without fish & chips (or in my case, just the chips) from one of the floating takeaway boats at Sullivan's Cove - so that was our lunch! A wander around Hunter St (the Old Wharf) finished off the afternoon. Hunter St is named after Hunter Island, which was swept up in one of Hobart's many reclamations in the port area and no longer exists in island form.

Our last day was now upon us. We spent the morning visiting a few nooks and crannies that we'd somehow missed in previous travels, such as Franklin Square and some souvenir shops. Then it was off to Hobart airport and homeward bound.

Thanks Mum, for sharing this trip with me :) :)

A couple of weeks ago, my mum and I took a trip together to Hobart, Tasmania. I figured I'd better write a blog entry about it now, while I have access to a working computer :). I've also uploaded some pics to my Flickr account.

We had a slow start, with fog in Melbourne delaying take-off for almost 3 hours. But happily that did not foreshadow any further problems! We stayed at Hadleys Hotel in Hobart's CBD. This historic hotel was built in 1834 by convict labor, and we found it to be well located for sightseeing in the city and the nearby waterfront.

Our first full day in Hobart began with a trip to the Cadbury chocolate factory. Unfortunately the famous ‘Cadbury cruise and factory tour’ no longer involves a physical tour of the factory (the cruise part is tenuous too, what with catching a bus to and from the factory and then doing a river cruise afterwards). Instead, we were held captive in the Cadbury merchandise shop for half an hour – long enough that a chocolate block-shaped luggage tag started looking attractive, yes I bought one! Then we watched a video about how chocolate is made, before being ushered into the chocolate shop to go nuts on cocoa-related products. The 5kg boxes had several takers. I restricted myself to a couple of blocks each for Tim and me.

The Cadbury visit was followed by a pleasant cruise along the Derwent River. We saw remnants of Hobart's original vegetation along the riverside. We also saw remnants of the river's industrial past, such as the zinc refinery and catamaran building facilities. The captain told us about the dreadful accident in 1975 when the Lake Illawarra crashed into the bridge, taking down two pylons, killing 12 people (including passengers in cars that were crossing the bridge at the time) and splitting the city in half for 2 years.

Mum and I then spent the afternoon exploring Hobart's CBD. We visited the State Library of Tasmania and its lovely Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts. And we fit in a bit of shopping, including the first of many secondhand bookshops :). Dinner was by the waterfront at Mures. Mum enjoyed her first taste of Tassie seafood. I was underwhelmed by the vege burger. The cider was great though!

The next day was a Saturday, and of course it was the occasion for a visit to the famous Salamanca Markets. I spent all my cash. I purchased a new bag, a silver cutlery windchime, some nice ceramic pieces, more chocolate, some yummy cheese and some fridge magnets (I can't help it!). We then hiked up some steep hills to admire the quaint houses of Battery Point and Arthur Circus. And clambered back down again to do some more shopping in the Salamanca Place area. I was getting a bit silly with the book buying by this stage ;)

After all that walking, we didn't want to wander too far for dinner on Saturday night, but it turns out that Hobart's CBD is devoid of restaurants - much like Melbourne was 10 years ago. So it was back to the waterfront, where we discovered that Hobart's pubs and waterfront seafood restaurants aren't too fussed about providing vegetarian options. In the end, we found ourselves back at Salamanca Place for a late dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant.

Oops, it's past my bed time - I'll pick this up tomorrow for Part 2!

Well, the computer is almost back to its old self. The programs are reinstalled, passwords and preferences have been entered, virus checks are in order.

There's only one thing missing.

The Sims is not installed yet. No, not the brand new Sims 3 that will be released here on Thursday. No, not its precursor Sims 2. I'm talking about The Sims, originally released in 2000. Old school.

It's a bit clunky and prone to crashing, but it's my fave computer game. I can play with the characters that I create, or I can spend hours building and decorating their houses (oh yes, hours!). And the absolute best part of The Sims is the online community that has built up around the game. I'm certainly not the only fan of the original game :)

The Sims allows custom content to be created and added to the game (furniture, clothing, landscaping, hacks, etc.). Creators of custom content share their work online so that others can use it, and thus begins a community of shared interest.

I'm a member of several online forums that share files, host challenges and provide helpful advice to players and creators, and I spend quite a bit of my online time involved with the Sims community (oh, and downloading new content for my game of course!). I've met some lovely, generous people through The Sims, which increases my enjoyment of the game even further.

But back to the game itself. I recently bought a copy of The Sims Complete Collection on eBay. It was intended as a back-up to my original disks, but I guess I'll install this complete version on the new PC rather than one expansion pack at a time. I'm a bit nervous about installing it and uploading all my custom content back in - like I said, it's prone to crashes.

So fingers crossed, wish me luck, and if all goes to plan I will be re-absorbed into the world of The Sims once more...

No, I haven't forgotten my blog, although it's been quite a while since I updated. My tale of woe follows...

First there was my shoulder injury. Although it's feeling heaps better now, it still tends to feel sore at the end of a long day on the computer. So my optimism about it being a short-term injury was slightly misplaced. I would now say that it appears to be a result of over-use, possibly/probably mouse-related. So I will have to be careful in future to ease off when I need a rest, and maybe learn to use the mouse left-handed :)

Then my computer blew up (please note that this is a metaphor representing computer troubles, not a literal description!). We took it to the shop for diagnosis, and it turned out that the hard drive was failing. I will not launch into the rant that is on the tip of my tongue regarding the service levels of my local computer repair mob, except to say that the process of getting the hard drive contents retrieved and transferred on to a new hard drive was not angst-free.

I also went on a holiday for six days, during which I decided not to tweet, blog or otherwise interrupt the vacation vibe. My mum and I went to Hobart and did lots of lovely touristy things which I will blog about shortly.

Anyhoo, we got the computer back on Friday. Actually, we got it back on Thursday, but due to aforementioned ineptitude of computer repair shop we had to send it back again on Friday, but I said I wouldn't go into that ;). So in between bouts of feeling miserable due to a recent cold (not swine flu, so said the doctor), I have been reinstalling software and getting the computer back into its familiar shape.

Barring any unforeseen dramas, this station will now return to its usual schedule :)

My right arm started hurting on Thursday, getting progressively worse during the day. The pain was brought on by any twisting motion of the arm, which included using the computer mouse and keyboard, as well as using cutlery, lifting my handbag, getting dressed, etc.

I thought it might be a pinched nerve, but when I saw a doctor on Friday she diagnosed it as shoulder bursitis - a kind of inflammation. I was ordered to rest it for several days, but also to make sure it didn't become stiff (which is why I'm spending a small amount of time on the PC today). Although there was a possibility that this could be a long-term concern, it was most likely to be short-term.

Confession: I had a bit of a cry in the doctor's office. At the time I didn't know why I was so upset, but the reason occurred to me this morning.

For the first time, my shoulder and arm started feeling better rather than worse. Phew! Confirmation that this is a short-term problem that will pass within a few days. And that was when I realised how worried I'd been that this might be a long-term problem.

In the doctor's office, I had seen a tiny glimpse into a possible future without full use of my right arm. All the things that I enjoy doing - for work, leisure and life's necessities - flashed in front of my eyes with a big question mark over them.

So today I am going to continue to rest my arm (plus heat packs and anti-inflammatory medication). And I am going to think about those less fortunate than myself, people with disabilities that prevent them from fully participating in the activities which I take for granted. And I'm going to think about what can be done to make some of those activities more accessible to everyone...


P.S. To those who have subscribed to my blog via RSS, I apologise for the double posts that may be showing up in your reader. I think it might be because I added tags later, and FeedBurner thought they were new posts??

P.P.S. If you don't use an RSS reader but would like to know about updates to this site, you can subscribe to my blog by email. Just click on the "" symbol on the right hand side of the page.

Wow, this last few weeks has been a real learning curve!

I purchased my domain name, selected Yola as my website builder and host, put together a bit of content, and published my site!

Well, I thought it was going to be that easy. It turned out that my domain name purchase did not include domain management, and I couldn't direct my site to my domain (hello hidden costs!). Enter: ZoneEdit to the rescue!

Yola uses templates to make it really easy to start up a blog and website. But, of course, I started fiddling around with more complex stuff before long. Well, it sure seemed complex to me!

So now I have several lovely widgets, thanks to Twitter and LibraryThing. I have mucked around with HTML (eek, a foreign language!). I got myself a Creative Commons licence, which is now displayed on each page. I also embedded a couple of YouTube videos.

There is now a comments facility on the blog entries using Disqus. Hint, hint :) Unfortunately it's only visible when you open an individual blog entry, not from the home page.

I've also now directed my RSS feed through FeedBurner. If you had already subscribed to my blog, please re-subscribe using the new feed (pretty please!).

I know there's lots and lots of stuff I have yet to learn about, and it's kind of exciting figuring it all out. If you have any feedback or comments, I would love to hear from you!

(which reminds me - next task is to figure out how to add a shielded email address...)

If you look over to your left, you will see a new menu item called Animal Kingdom.The focus of this page is on animals, with particular emphasis on our cat, Roxy, and animal welfare issues.

At least, I think that's what it's going to be about. I hope that the 'static web pages' on this site will never actually be 'static', as I'll be updating them and adding new content regularly (I'll probably mention any major updates in my blog entries). So the focus of some of the pages may change over time.

Oh, and in case you hadn't already noticed, I already have a Book Nook page up and running. There's also a 'where is' page, where you can find out about my other online locations.

P.S. Speaking of animals, did you watch Christian the Lion on telly tonight? It's an amazing story! You can read all about it (and watch a video) on the Born Free Foundation website.

Edited to add (3/5/14): Animal Kingdom now has a new name and URL -> Cat Lady :) And it's at the top of the page now, not on the left.

- It started out with a terrific client training session in the morning, out at the clients' office. It was an excellent 2-way conversation and learning experience. We covered the library's services and resources, and much more besides. The session lasted just over 4 hours!

- After the training session, I took advantage of the inner city locale to visit a couple of interesting-looking bookshops. Yes, I found some lovely new treasures.

- I then enjoyed a very nice lunch at an atmospheric vegetarian cafe/bar. I even had a small beer (don't tell the boss!).

- And when I got back to work, there was a piece of cake and a chocolate frog waiting for me on my desk! Pretty great place to work, eh?

- I had a very enjoyable conversation in the afternoon with a friend and colleague :)

- Then I checked my Twitter, and discovered that I had been retweeted for the very first time! I felt like a bit of a legend. (let's not talk about how sad that sounds!)

- After work, I attended a talk at the Baillieu Library (University of Melbourne). Stuart Macintyre spoke about the history of Australian University libraries, which I found really interesting. Lots of informational tidbits that I hadn't been aware of, and which provide useful context for thinking about the current standing of university libraries. I purchased Stuart Macintyre's history of the University (my old stomping ground), and had it signed by the author.

- Then I rushed off to the Forum to see Steve Coogan's live show. The Forum is a bizarre venue, with oodles of character. Steve Coogan also had oodles of character(s) ... terrific show. We haven't had a lot of exposure to him here in Oz, so it was a learning curve. He played four different characters, and each one took a little getting used to before you could fully appreciate them. Pauline Calf was a blast, and I loved the final song! :)

- Tim picked me up from the train station at the end of this very chilly evening. My darling man had turned on the electric blanket in advance, swoon!

- Before going to bed, I did some mucking around on the internet and took the final steps towards preparing my website for going online. I published the website for the very first time, and ... yay! All the planets are in alignment, my domain name points to my website, and I am finally online!

Do you see what I mean? What a great day!!