Dad and I were on a series of mini photowalks (separated by short car trips) where we spotted this abandoned Ford Fairlane just off Beach Road near Sandringham.

Blackie
07/2005 - 27/07/2007

Earlier today, Blackie passed away.  Although he wasn’t sick in the same way that Whitie had been, he was not in the best of health for the past few months either.  Even so, he was extremely long-lived, for a mouse.

In contrast to Whitie, Blackie was an extrovert right from day one.  He ran on the wheel as soon as we placed it in the tank, and seemed to enjoy it’s exclusivity, but after Whitie started on the wheel, Blackie seemed to lost interest.

However, Blackie loved running around the house in his transparent ball; he was forever bumping into this or that and really seemed to enjoy his time exploring in the ball.  The recommended time to spend in one of those balls is around 20 minutes, but Blackie could easily run around for an hour without getting bored at all.

Blackie had a great trait, where he would stand on his hind legs and paw at the glass of his tank as we approached.  It was as though he was excited to see us.

Blackie is buried just beside Whitie in our backyard.  RIP Blackie.

Over the past month and a half, Richard has been kind enough to show me the ropes when it comes to playing guitar. I’ve also been lucky to have my uncle’s old guitar (which is older than I) to learn on.

Tony’s (my uncle, sadly long deceased) old guitar is an acoustic Yamaha FG-75 and hardly top-of-the-range, but it seems that “everyone” has learned on this guitar so it’s an honour for it to be sitting in our lounge room just waiting to be called into action.

I have learned the C, A, G, E, and D chords, as well as some variations thereof (Am, A7, etc) and can even play a couple of songs; not well, and hardly keeping good time (there a lot of “hang on” moments while my fingers struggle to position themselves) which is encouraging.

I was amazed at not only the amount of pressure involved to get the guitar to play a sound correctly, but the amount of pain that is involved. Luckily, after playing for a few weeks, callouses began to build up on the tips of my fingers and it hurts a lot less than before — still a little pain but I can play for a while without even noticing now.

That is, until Richard showed me Barre Chords. The pain has started all over again — all be it in a different place — and makes me feel like I’m back at the beginning. I can see the value of using Barre Chords (if you’re not familiar with playing a guitar, a Barre Chords basically allows you to retune on the fly — at least in the most basic terms — by placing one finger over all the strings).

There’s a hell of a lot more to learn, but I thought I’d thank Richard publicly for his help so far not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because I am grateful!

The blurriness of this shot is intentional; it is almost exactly as I’d envisaged it, though I would have liked a nicer sky and overall brighter colours.

To me, it feels like looking into my mind and seeing an image of what may have once been a holiday somewhere.

In just 14 days, Justine and I will be jetting overseas. How exciting! Our plane tickets, train tickets and insurance are settled, as are the first week or so of accommodation.

Excitement, nerves are building, as is the sense that we haven’t done enough planning. Of course it will all be OK but anyone who has ever planned something big like this (a trip, wedding, etc) understands exactly what I mean.

This is the juice we were told explicitly not to stir — or else.

Taken when Trav and I walked the city for a solid six hours taking photos. Except for this moment, when we had a break. And the other one, when we had another break.

But other than those, we walked solidly.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, yes, and it’s simply because I wanted the “Congratulations Justine” notice to stay front and centre so everyone could appreciate it.

For the past week or so, there have been a small but constant stream of ants crawling all over my desk at work. I’m constantly seeing an ant or two moving across my desk — even now as I type — and I’ll usually give them a flick or blow in their direction to fling them into something that’s on my desk.

My desk isn’t the only one with ants, and it’s not the only thing with ants in the office. The office pool cars also get ants occasionally which is not only annoying, but I’m sure incredibly dangerous. It might not sound dangerous, no, but when you are driving in traffic, and you see an ant crawling along the steering wheel, which takes your eyes off the road. Well, let’s just say it could be bad.

That’s my mini-vent for now, and I will try to get back into the habit of blogging as I will soon need to write a hell of a lot for our upcoming odyssey.