This will hurt me...

After the adventure climbing the mountain, yesterday the lads and I opted for a more sedate walk into Lidisfarne village to pick up some milk, fruit and veggies. Here you can see the view of the Tasman Bridge from atop the highway overpass. So yesterday we were all feeling pretty good. That is, we were until we heard the Australian team announced for the third test. It is difficult to follow your team when there are so many nobs in it. It is difficult to follow your team when the selection policy lacks clarity at times . It is difficult to follow your team when the selectors keep sticking with Matthew Hayden and bloody Brett Lee, despite both doing nothing of late to warrant selection. They keep picking Symonds despite a) not having scored a run all summer; b) not being able to bowl; and c) not being able to stop getting on the piss all the time. His Queensland teamates can't stand him, but hey, " he's a good team man ", even moreso when the team is full of nobs. But ...

...Now bear in mind that we began out ascent of the great behemoth at 10:43 . We reached the summit at 10:59 . The snow started to fall at 11.10 . Our decision to abort the mission and leave in the face of gale force winds and increasing snowfall (as evidenced in the top photograph), was taken at 11:23. It was at this point that Henry turned to me and said - in a French accent, oddly - "Daddy, Henry a bit cold". So we headed back. Here is the view from Henry's window as we endeavoured to manoeuvre our way out of the pickle we found ourselves in. Even the normally stoic Elmo was a little perturbed by the tempest that had arisen around us. I will not lie to you, there were tears. A quick slap in the face from Henry calmed me down however, and we made our way gingerly back down to civilisation (via the bakery). To emphasise the shifts in weather, the photograph below was taken at 11:41, just eighteen minutes after the one at the top of the post. Finalmente! Having learned o...

...The look of apprehension on young Henry's face tells much of the tale. Elmo put on a brave front, but even the ever present positive vibes that emanate from the furry red gem could not dispel the facts as they emerged. Our pleasant jaunt was beginning to turn into a nightmare . You must understand the sub-Antarctic tendencies of Mount Wellington. As if aware of our insolence, the mountain struck back . The fact that we set out on a fine and clear day mattered not a jot . Nor, it seems, did the fact that we sit smack bang at the height of our summer. No, these " facts " (and how I spit out that word here today), were of no consequence to the mountain, nor the gods of nature themselves. For, as ye shall see below, nature had one of her brutal ripostes up her sleeve. A snowstorm ! To be continued...

...Laughing like drains, Henry and I point out home base, Geilston Bay to Ezra (FYI, it's the second bay on the left of the Tasman Bridge in the photo above). Oh how hollow those boastful laughs feel as I type this now from the discomfort of my hair shirt and shame of my battered pride. As you can see from Ezra and Jennifer's faces, the scale of nature's response to our hubris was somewhat unexpected . To be continued...

...as expected, we knocked the bastard off in little time. Rising one thousand two hundred and seventy one metres over the city of Hobart, we thought ourselves gods for one moment. Laughing and frolicking gaily like spring lambs in a jolly meadow of clover, we took happy snaps and toasted each other with bikkie bears. The large radio and television transmitter [above] was a source of great amusement for the men in our party, affording us the opportunity to remind Jennifer of the phallologocentric omnipresence of modern, capitalistic societies. How we laughed! Skipping through the abundant native flora, little did we know how soon we would be laughing out of the other side of our faces ! Amused by the ease of the task, we made our mistake: mocking the gods with our arrogance. Well, Ezra and Jen were okay, but Henry and I can get quite obnoxious at times, and my weren't we arrogant today. For that, we were to pay a dear price... To be continued...

...So we headed up the mountain. Our provisions were scant - a camera to record our triumph, a small box of sultanas, six chocolate coated tiny teddy bikkie bears , five ritz crackers, one apple, one mini tomato and ham quiche, a small supply of water and an ample bosom - but the lads would not be deterred. That damnable mountain had sat there mocking them for too long, and now it would pay for its insolence! The day looked a fine one to tame the angry beast, and were confident of an easy trip to the summit... To be continued...

So one computer is feeling better again, and the other is on its way back to health. The LOL sharks have been as disappointing as the latest hot young things forecast as the future of music. If that's the future of music, set the dial back to 1969 please! But I don't want to talk about it right now. I want to talk about today. I want to talk about the adventurous start to 2009 for the motley crew that constitutes my family. After a rough New Year's Eve that involved no alcohol, fisticuffs, or young lovelies in tube tops with ill intent; but rather more teeth, lots of screaming and very little sleeping; this morning we decided to take advantage of the cool but clear day and that a quick jaunt would be just the tonic. Our intention was to perhaps stop of at a little French patisserie, pick up ourselves a few little tarts and croissants, some café au lait and chocolat chaud to go around and then off to a playground for a bit of kick to kick, a spot on the slide, maybe a back...

Another day, another year, ANOTHER pre-post. I have even had to resort to posting one of Jennifer's photographs ! Here you can see the lads sharing a bowl of grapes. Well, actually, they are playing poker with grapes as the pot. The problem with these two is that Henry favours a straight game of seven card stud, whereas Ezra prefers a variation of Oxford stud with a complex mix of a kill game and wild cards. Consequently, I have had to implement a rule in which their guns (Christmas presents) are not allowed on their person while a game is underway. It really is like Deadwood in these parts of late. Onto technical matters, I can assure you that if the computer is not yet fixed, and the computer robot dude is still posting this, my New Year's resolution will involve fixing it . I do hope to have found the Windows XP disks that Henry has stashed away somewhere by that time. If not, I fear that the rss feeds will now be at two thousand , and I expect to be at least twelve hours b...

This will appear on day two of my enforced sojourn from teh Internets. I expect that my rss feeds will have blown out to the thousand plus already. I would like to cry, but my needlessly masculinist upbringing prevents me. Perhaps that is something that I can work on instead of looking at LOL sharks.

Can you believe it? Three computers in the house and they are dropping like flies! That and the fact that I am off work until Monday has severely constrained my adventures on the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY over the next week. I am not sure what I can do. I am sure that it will involve a lot of crying, shaking and fetal positions. I have again had to dip into the grab bag of photos, and suspect that this blasting that took place just down from work a few weeks back, coupled with a shark attack and far too little sleep of late have all contributed to the technical difficulties that seem to have plagued me of late. For the moment then, I can only apologise for the brevity.

This one finished second in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race (and managed to avoid getting eaten by a shark). This one didn't even enter the race (it may have had its keel eaten by a shark). This one was ineligible for the race (anti-shark missiles fitted to the stern). This one was the real winner for the day. He finally managed to complete the poo/toilet combo! We are all very, very proud. The talk has been poo all evening, as I am sure you can all imagine.

Look at that neck strength! Look at that control! Amazing! He can roll as well! And the bigger one, he can pee in the toilet! Don't children render you quite stupid? I blame the lack of unbroken sleep.

Sharks have been in the news here in Australia today, another swimmer became breakfast for a Great White , another tried to eat the winning yacht in the Sydney to Hobart race , and some dudes in kayaks got a spectacular home movie to show when the get back to work. This is the closest I have been to a shark today, and at the moment Ezra's uppers are more of the gummy variety. Don't worry though, there are two little razor sharp beauties coming along nicely along the bottom. That's the thing about Australia you see, just can't move without bumping into a shark. Or a crocodile. The crocs are a whole other story ...