Tightly packed

Turns out you can fit 5 complete bikes in a Land Rover -

They were so tightly packed that there wasn't a single rattle for the entire journey. Either that or the bikes were quietly wondering about their new home.....

Moving in spurts

We finally moved over the weekend, and although we transferred a few carloads ourselves we hired removalists to help with the big & heavy items - I am far too old to be carrying fridges or sofas down two flights of stairs.

Unfortunately the weather was against us and it was a pretty wet & miserable day with continuous heavy drizzle

The removalists turned up two hours late as well, although once they pulled in we could tell that we'd hired a reputable company.

The two guys manning the van turned out to be completely professional, hard working and very careful of both our stuff and the walls but I'm not sure what our new neighbours thought. Liz also had a chat with one of our old neighbours and her mid 80's mother with the side of the van in plain view behind her, which was apparently a little uncomfortable.  

Anyway, we made it in the end and now we're settling in. More shots of the house to come in the coming week or so, but this is the view looking out from the front of the house.

I'm writing this in the 'study' which looks the same way whilst listening to the crickets and a frog that seems to have made a home in the grass at the front of the house. It'll take some getting used to and it will definitely have its quirks, but this is now home....  

Politics in the pop charts

Turns out that I'm not alone in picking out 'Ding Dong the Witch is dead' as a fitting memorial to Thatcher. After some vigorous social media-ing it made number two in the UK pop charts this weekend. The pro-Thatcher movement kicked off a retaliatory campaign to try to get 'I'm in love with Margaret Thatcher' by punk band The Notsensibles to chart, but that only made no 35 and was apparently written as satire anyway. So that's a double fail for the Tories. Love your work old chaps.

Sadly the BBC seemed to be in the grip of paralysis about what to do during the 'Top 40 countdown' so only played 7 seconds of 'Ding Dong'. Not banned, but not played in full. So in some ways it joins other banned classics -

 Relax (Frankie Goes To Hollywood)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyl5DlrsU90

 

Urban Guerilla (the mighty Hawks)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2UUdMaB2wo

 

Ebeneezer Goode (the Shaman)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFJdUJg4wOk

 

and of course God Save The Queen (Sex Pistols)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z2M_hpoPwk

 

Ironically, John Lydon (aka Jonny Rotten) considers the recent celebrations to be 'loathsome' . I think he's just offended that there are people out there protesting and he's not making anything out of it. Mrs T would be proud of what he's become.....

Protest songs

There's been a suggestion to post up some Thatcher-era protest songs to honour this auspicious week. It'd be hard to compile a comprehensive list. but here's some classics that I can think of off the bat...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjUA3RU4B8E

 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASXg-9O0s9w

 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUefzNi_pX4

 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao19eROwu_c

 

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9hYAQQFsoc

 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwnkFlVRCZc

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7WICRMnX6k

 

and probably the most emotional for me, as at the time I was a  gung-ho 12 yr old cheering for every Argentinian death

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25iIePOTORc

Ding dong

Terrible news from the UK today....

Edit - seems to have problems with mobile devices, so here's the link instead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rHJoj9IqeKg

Literally exhausted

Our new rental application was approved during the week so we've been preparing for the move over this weekend. Liz has done a great job during the week tidying up the incidental bits & pieces around the house and has also hit the garage in a major way. Today it was my turn to get stuck in and I tackled our bookshelves. We both love books so between us we have a reasonable collection, but after boxing then all up and carrying them downstairs I was starting to rethink our bibliographic options.

Maybe an eBook reader is a better option, I have one when I travel for work - a Sony PRS-T2 which is light, non-proprietal (unlike the Amazon / Kindle alternatives) and it currently has just over 700 books on it. Which is about the same as the number of books in these boxes. You can see the reader on the bottom left of the picture - which would you prefer to move?

The device is only around 1/3 full so will hold over 2000 books in all, and that's without adding additional memory cards.I could basically hold a room full of books on a single device the size of a small paperback, but sadly it's just not the same. There's something about paper books that is special, and once we've finished the move then we're looking forward to setting up a 'reading room' lined with bookshelves and set up with some comfy chairs.

Although ask me again after the move.....

Unicycle

Another wee, another Sydney trip. Back in Paramatta for a couple of days - up at 5am yesterday, flew down, worked 'til 5, found my hotel, ate, worked 'til 9.30pm. Slept badly as I was next to a main road, up at 6.30am, spend the day with the client, now I'm at the airport waiting to fly back and (theoretically) arrive back in Brisbane at 7.30pm, but it's almost always delayed. V tired!

I did get to try another Paramatta Indian takeaway, this time I had Pani Puri, which is a puffy deep-fried hollow dough ball that you fill with spicy potato and a tart tamarind sauce

Followed by a chicken Vindaloo that I was warned was 'very hot', but which was more sharp than spiced. And not at all greasy.

To wash it down I had a 'Haywards 5000' lager, with a strength that 'was guaranteed not to exceed 8%'

I should have gone for a run instead, but such is life!

Anyway, just a quickie this week...can't embed this for some reason, so just follow the link and enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXCnAhr9baM