Python and PHP

In complete contrast to this time last year, the dry weather has now continued for over 8 weeks. In the last two weeks it has also gone from cold to hot during the day, with one day being hotter than any day was during last summer, by a good three degrees, which cannot be normal. The unseasonal weather has also brought the snakes out early, and they are very active as well - I've seen both adult and baby pythons around our house, and the one pictured here was asleep on our verandah table yesterday lunchtime. She left after I disturbed her, but in no great hurry.
We've taken advantage of the soil and undergrowth drying out at the bottom end of our block to get in and kill the invasive species - camphor laurel and pollonia trees mostly. The next step is to draw up a list of native shrubs and perennials to replace what we've killed, and do a big mission to Fireweheel nursery.
The dry sunny days have also made it easy to finish painting the new railings, and rip the defective ceiling panels off downstairs in readiness for the final touches to that space before the council inspector comes to give our efforts the yay or nay. To remove the panels, I used the orthodox new-dad technique of cranking up the manu chao on the stereo, then balancing on top of a stepladder with a toddler swinging off my jeans, squinting up into the falling masonry dust and prodding vaguely with a Stanley knife until each panel fell on me and toddler, and then picking myself and the toddler up and starting on the next panel. K has never giggled so much in one afternoon before in her life.
I've been drawn into the planning for Nimbin's Software Freedom Day too - I even did the notice in the Nimbin Goodtimes after swearing blind that there'd be "no more IT articles from me this year"! I'm looking forward to the event - it should be a fun social afternoon, and a good basic grounding to kickstart my almost nonexistent knowledge of Ubuntu (and apache, and PHP, and Perl, and all those other things I've scratched the surface of but nothing more).

Our friends Louis and Mbweda have moved to near the Tuntable community this week as well, so we should be seeing a lot more of them - and when we went to the monthly Tuntable hall dinner, there were at least 30 people there we knew, so we're starting to feel more part of the Nimbin community, at long last.
I'm still pursuing my plan to get a complementary currency established in Nimbin, but am also still coming to appreciate the amount of inertia that will have to be overcome. The Nimbin sustainability forum were keen when I described my plan, and one of the organisers of the Maleny complementary currency scheme (Baroon Dollars) is going to come to Nimbin to give us a presentation and hopefully provide some pointers for our next steps. Rome wasn't built in a day, and the sestertii probably weren't minted that quick either. No quantitative easing or fiat notes either. Progress.

Monotreme!

Make room! Make room! This is the way to make more space - dig and dig and dig! The Bobcat only just fit under the ceiling, but had enough space to maneuver between the walls and get the soil out to the foot of the garden. Once Mr. Bobcat was done, there was less than an hour's spadework to get the ground ready for the new cement slab. There will be so much space - I think I'll just keep digging until I've built my own empire down there!
Apart from the "dig out downstairs" project and all the usual early Spring gardening fun, we've been appreciating the wildlife as it comes out of hibernation. Monty the Python is back in action - slithering up the garden of a Tuesday morning, and as I was going up the outside stairs on Monday I spotted a new visitor to the garden - an echidna. I got a photo, but he's just a spiky ball, and you can't see him quivering in a photo so I haven't bothered putting it up here. Unlike me, C had the patience to stand stock-still next to him with K until he calmed down and poked his very handsome snout out to have a look around.
I still haven't shaken off (what I'm hoping is only) the winter blues - I'm still coughing and spluttering my way round the house, and am heading to the doctor tomorrow; I've never been to the doctor before just 'coz I've got a cough, but it's getting ridiculous - I've been only half-well for over 2 months now. Even little K is getting more sleep than me, and she's the one waking me up at night!

This has been a high "screen time" week too - as well as a long week at work I've been succumbing to long online Mario Kart Wii sessions, and I finally got dragged into Facebook (yeah, I know, I swore it would never happen, whatever...I'm still holding out against Twitter and MySpace...) my monthly crossword for the local paper seemed to take forever to finish somehow (actually, I know why - it's because I boxed myself into a corner and refused to just rip it up and start again, which would have been far quicker)... and what am I doing now? Why, I'm sat here typing my blog when I should really be playing with my daughter before she goes to sleep.

Up the Road One Last Time

On Saturday we turned up for Stefan and Iris's party. Which was great, except that the party was scheduled for Sunday. They took advantage of our fuckwittedness to take a break from their chores, and we had a good chinwag and catch-up over tea and biscuits. Who says I'm getting old?
There was an eight-foot-long snake above our breakfast spot on the balcony outside our lounge on Sunday morning. It looked like a carpet snake to me. I hope it was a carpet snake anyway. It was friendly and relaxed, and seemed to be looking for somewhere to bask. It slithered off and lay on the roof for a bit, and when I went back to check a couple of hours later, it was gone. We packed the car for the last ever Brissie commute, and then hit Stefan and Iris's party on the way. Their dutch-themed Easter-egg hunt, beer, and superlative spicy apple cake parties are definitely a fixture in my calendar. I had a couple of beers and caught up with people I hadn't seen since the last one, so poor C was designated driver as far as Murwillumbah. The post-easter traffic was fairly light to my relief, and we were back in West End by seven thirty, which is a good start to the week.
Knowing this is our last week in Brissie for a while, we've been frantically doing things that are easier and/or cheaper in the city than in the bush: We took the car to the garage to get a towbar (and discovered a rather excellent cafe on Logan Road while we waited); we've put the food safe which we bought two weeks ago into one of those "dip'n'strip" places in the Gabba, but the guy's still battling the (probably lead-based) 1940s Tasmanian paint a week later; we've got Kaara's photo for her australian passport; we've showed our faces at the annual ITG contractors' shindig at The Fox in West End (and fluked a friend's babysitter for the night so we could actually go together!); and, we've rung round most of Northern Rivers' insect exterminators - and the termites' days are now numbered - I've booked a pest guy to come at the end of next week and use the powdered arsenic and maybe more long-term chemical solutions as well. No more Mister nice householder.
Mostly, though, I've been finishing off at one job while ramping up at the other, and helping C stay on top of the nappies and the entertainment of an increasingly easily-bored little girl.
A final piece of frantic background activity: This cookie-cutter template was chosen back in 2006 in a desperate attempt to avoid choice of (and tweaking of) a template from becoming a displacement activity as I tried to shirk the weekly blogging. A new (and less playschool) template is on the way. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of this blog.