from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Archive for 2013
Fat Fish is closed, so were trying the OTHER place. And it is sustainable! Cool!
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Prepping for a strong 2014
I’ve been eating (and drinking!) anything and everything I can find this past month or two, with the intention — likely shared by many people around this time of year — to get back to training when the new year rolls by. And training needs a purpose, right?
So tonight I’ve been searching the adventure and running calendars for inspiration, and have come up with the following shortlist of events:
Wow! Chilli hits like a slap in the face. Rose and watermelon on a sturdy Blonde base.
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
I won something!
I won something!
A week or so ago I saw a competition on The Livingroom (I think it was — we weren’t actually watching, just surfing for something to watch). Typical “25 words or less” with a website under tenplay — or maybe I just went to the site looking for a way to win an Xbox One? Whatever the case, I entered (with a barely witty appeal to the competition sponsors, Temple & Webster) … and a few days later I got a call telling me I’d won!
Not bad for a mornings work.
<div class='gallery-icon portrait'> <a href='/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1471756_10151733413650741_1936588551_n.jpg'><img width="150" height="150" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1471756_10151733413650741_1936588551_n-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a> </div></figure><figure class='gallery-item'> <div class='gallery-icon landscape'> <a href='/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1462915_10151733413565741_63610189_n.jpg'><img width="150" height="150" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1462915_10151733413565741_63610189_n-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a> </div></figure><figure class='gallery-item'> <div class='gallery-icon portrait'> <a href='/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1467368_10151733413285741_320345717_n.jpg'><img width="150" height="150" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1467368_10151733413285741_320345717_n-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a> </div></figure><figure class='gallery-item'> <div class='gallery-icon landscape'> <a href='/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1450711_10151733413405741_1628445535_n.jpg'><img width="150" height="150" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/1450711_10151733413405741_1628445535_n-150x150.jpg" class="attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail" alt="" /></a> </div></figure> This morning, before the rain, we got out into our courtyard and went King Kong on the straggly and overgrown vines and hedge — if you look at the greenery at the background of the photos, that’s just the offcuts: they take up the entire bottom tier of the yard.
Late start for me, and Im going paleo/4HB for the rest of the year!
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
I dont remember this outlook at your place in Glasgow, Andy Melrose. :-P
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Plaguehouse
Hi all,
I’d somehow missed the visit to Kryal Castle, but it looks like you had heaps of fun!! Been a while since we went, and we will definitely have to take Jules along next time we’re down that way.
This weekend hasn’t been much fun for us — we’re all sick (Jules least of all, but I suspect it’s something he brought home from daycare) so it’s been long nights of coughing, some throwing up and general misery.
I think Ive found my new favourite coffee place! (Blackboards are cool.)
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
A bite to eat and some birthday shopping. This place even looks like Knox!
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
The last two years
There haven’t been a whole lot of posts from me of late (where “late” translates to basically the last three years or so), and this afternoon I’ve been wondering about why that is. Sure, I’ve been busy with work, and Jules, and moving (twice!), and life — but is that a sufficiently high-truth answer? I’ve been labouring under the impression that it was, but today — working from home with a sick boy off from day-care — I’ve changed my mind.
Our adventure starts at the gift shop …. wait, shouldnt this be the last place we go?
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Im at delisse! Having lunch with my chickadee. — with Danielle http://4sq.com/1ab9fBU http://bit.ly/17TKN9V #ifttt
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Flying Virgin down to Melbourne for a work jolly. Miss mon famille already!
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Im at Sede! Taking advantage of free baby sitting… — with Danielle http://4sq.com/14H1P3A http://bit.ly/1bNFzP5 #ifttt
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
A short stop for an afternoon snack and to break up the driving. Almost home.
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Early lunch and caffeine hit before I get back to the office. Tee-jif!
from Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
My training plan
I took some time this weekend to start researching and thinking about training for Tough Mudder. Turns out that reading and thinking is probably the easiest part of the whole endeavour!
Mudder Training
With the most important problem — a roof over our heads — now settled, it’s time to start thinking about the future: particularly the Tough Mudder challenge. I need to get training!
It was pretty much fate: I’d been looking for something to get me motivated, and then saw that the next Sydney Mudder was on the 12th and 13th of October. The day before my 35th birthday, then! I immediately signed up, before I had a chance to reconsider. I then proceeded to forget all about it, since it was suitably distant in the future and we had so much other stuff to deal with.
Lease signed, were moving to Sydney
Did I mention we got the house in Annandale?
Yesterday I met Kate, one of the owners, and signed a 12-month lease on 301 Nelson Street, Annandale. It’s expensive, but not that much more than we’re currently paying in Belconnen, and we get all the benefits of living close to the city — it’s a 20-minute bike ride! — and a lovely little community. Wide, tree-lined streets; a park just behind us; a child-care and supermarket opening up just down the road; bike paths, off-leash parks, Rozelle Bay. Everyone I’ve spoken to has said how nice an area Annandale is — I can’t wait to move in. Kate said that it wasn’t uncommon to see neighbourhood kids playing together, running in and out of each others’ houses. And that never happens in Sydney!
Qantas Club
Flight delayed due to weather, which gives me time for a long breakfast. Counting the days until we move.
At Qantas Club
Sleepless in Belconnen
Glad I won’t have to do this much longer – we got the cottage in Annandale!
(Jules decided to wake up an hour after we went to bed, then when he finally settled it was only until 4. I got up at 4:30 – couldn’t sleep with a squirmy baby next to me – and by the time I had my shower he was asleep again. But now I’m waiting for my cab to the airport.
Out stretching our legs and trying not to think about the house in Sydney.
by Glenn J. Mason via Facebook
Renting sucks; Renting in Sydney sucks more
I realised I haven’t actually blogged about a move to Sydney in any detail. Here goes:
I’m currently spending all my time in Sydney for work, while Dee and Jules stay at home in Canberra. They’ve driven over and stayed with me a couple of times, but it’s not really sustainable — we need to put Lucy somewhere, for example, and the last three times she’s stayed in the kennel she’s come back malnourished and often with an injury requiring a vet consult. It’s also easier for me to just be in a hotel, but it makes it hard for Jules to sleep when we’re all crammed in together. So not fun: our sleep suffers, my work suffers, our relationship suffers. So for the last few weeks I’ve just been coming on my own, and while I get a lot done it’s no fun leaving my family: video calls, while good, just are no substitute.
Life is a dirt highway
Lots of work for Dee and I this month. I’m in Sydney every week until the end of the month, by which time we hope we’ve got our own place over here and we can just do the move. My deployment here is going pretty well, in that I don’t feel like I’m drowning quite so much (except for the weather — lots of rain this morning, and looking that way for the rest of the week), but there is at least some chance that I’ll be working back in Canberra sooner or later — so the travel may not end just yet.
Welcome to America – Go F&€# Yourself!
Sitting in our (enormous!) chalet, nestled in Squaw Valley between snow-covered peaks, drinking moonshine in front of a roaring fire and watching strange American television – what a way to spend a Friday evening!
It was a massive effort to get here, with nothing seemingly going our way. First, getting to the airport – I arranged us a car, and they subbed in a taxi at the last second (no child seat available, apparently).