Since we don’t live by politics alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
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Okay, in Melbourne we have had four days of winter weather. The next week looks as though it will be gorgeous. Is it safe for my tomato plants to venture outside yet?
In frost prone areas, the rule is to plant tomatoes after the Melbourne Cup. I think it’s time to plant tomatoes in inner Melbourne
Thank you, that sounds sensible to me, billie – a pleasant task for one afternoon this week.
Got an e-mail from tt. Posted reply and comment on SS as an explanation of my long silence. Its the weather and my etes mostly.
Anyway, drama day in Armidale today. Here I am happily following the fortunes of HMs Otter in the upper reaches of Chesapeake Bay in early Feb 1`776. when next door neighbour knocks on door in a panic. Her little dog appears to be dying of parvo. Phonecalls to RSPCA, vet etc. Lent her $20 for cab to vets. (She was going to walk all the way to the Creek;ands on the other side of town with the sick dog in her arms. That was a while ago. Have not heard the result.
Went yabbying (red claw crayfish) overnight ,collected the pots this morning with about two dozen good size creatures; for tea tonight with home baked bread and freshly made mayonnaise. Can’t say more without drooling on keyboard.
I got back from Iceland a week ago, so this is my first Sunday back in Tokyo for 3 weeks.
I spent today tidying the house, and watching Ireland vs. Italy. Could Ireland win the world cup? I think there’s a remote chance…
I had to drive a train with my boss today. Hoped he would decide watching the footy was more important, but he was on overtime and the 175%-of-normal-pay was too enticing for him…
Perplexed someone yesterday when asked him who was the Prince of Wales in 1943? (it’s a trick question…)
And I finished spray-painting the White Pages (now twice as fun, as there are two separate books to spray-paint!)
Today started super lazy, didn’t finish breakfasting the tackers and self till after 11:30. Then it was into the garden.
Fiona, my first cohort of cherry toms have been in for nearly a month and I am late for my area, SE Melbourne. Lots of the gardens around us have toms under clear plastic over my hip height already. Mine are in a strip of dirt between a concrete drive and the fence, well warm enough, and we have fruit already. The next lot will go in in about two weeks, and the bottlers soon after, I doubt I’ll wait till Melbourne cup.
Kind of back on deck again, after two months of wearing gloves and eczema cream on both hands and being stranded, with Ms Ootz gallivanting in Europe on her long service leave. You only realise how profoundly important hands are in every day live when you can’t use them properly. More so, I too recognised how lucky I am with my very understanding and caring partner which has supported me throughout my epic health issues over the years. Three cheers to all such good partners in the world!
On Saturday I watched the AFL Grand Final and was very pleased that (a) Meatloaf’s shambolic performance didn’t set the standard for the rest of the afternoon’s proceedings and (b) Collingwood lost. On Sunday I marked assignments whilst battling a cold.
We went up to Mt Baw Baw for some lovely spring snow. Last chance for the season. Lots of fun tobogganing.
Yup, I’ve had half a dozen in for 3 weeks. We can pretty much chuck the old Melbourne Cup date out the window these days, and stagger-plant from late August. It’s like being back in Perth, only with rain and fertile soil!
Yes! I seem to remember we had a thing called “frost” back in the day… not so much now.
I have no interest in football. None at all. Indeed, as to elite football, I have even less, as people will know.
That said, I was glad to be able to enjoy a moment of Schadenfreude at the expense of Eddie Macguire, of pokie tax fame. I was less happy with the result of the NRL GF since I suspect that TA would have been chuffed. That said, when someone asked my “how many points start would you need to back the NZ Warriors in the GF?” I said “7.5″ with no reasoning at all and so as not to be rude. With 9 minutes to go, my football fan friends were impressed. It didn’t last however.
Hubby and I went out today to check out the iMIEV plug-in electric vehicle. It seems a neat little car. Sadly, at $54,000 or so on road, it’s more than double what either of us would be comfortable paying, and with a range of about 120km, not very practical. No visits to the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast or Robertson in that. We’d have to keep at least one of our petrol cars. I suppose we could rent out a car for such things but that doesn’t seem all that viable.
On the positive side, with 16.5kwh of storage we could probably get out of energy costs at about $6 per week at current prices (just under 12cents per kwh off peak inc. G&ST) — which is a lot less than the $50 or so it costs to fuel the Astra each week. There would probably be some savings in maintenance costs over time (although battery replacement at $20,000 is not a trifle). So many imponderables …
The “sports” version of the car (which presumably is a lot more expensive) has a PV panel on the roof, meaning that in practice, one might never have to plug in the car. That sounds very appealing, although in purely cost-benefit terms, it would be even harder to justify. The idea of being unplugged from the grid and still driving about does have a strong emotional-aesthetic appeal of course.
Worked on my next paper for most of the day. Walked the dog at lunchtime – he’s just recovering from having a tumour removed so kept it short and easy. Read an interesting paper on the (graph-theoretical) characteristics of the network of global corporate control. Turns out things in the global ‘core’ are more incestuous than your average 18thC European royal dynasty. Who’d have guessed?
Now it’s back to that paper…
P.S. If you’re interested in a bit of graph theory, the global corporate control paper is here on Arxiv, and a lighter discussion is here at Azimuth, although I think the paper is pretty understandable for the layman. Note that it’s a bit dated since Bear Stearns & Lehman are included, but there’s some interesting discussion of the topology of the network and its links to systemic risk and competition.
Part of my Sunday was undoing a nasty mistake I’d made with one of those beer barrel tubs – they’re not cheap, this one was $60. I grow a lot of basil in summer, so this is to be the basil farm. I neglected to drill any holes in the bottom because hey, it NEVAH rains much in Melbourne, does it?!
Does it…?!!
Had to bucket out stinking stagnant water and then remove layers of semi-liquid potting mix and scoria pebbles without getting them mixed up. And wash the gravel.
Oh, the stink. Moral: Don’t skimp on doing the basics, it’ll mean ten times as much work later.
For the first time in 38 years I didn’t watch The Rugby League Grand Final. A couple of glasses of red, dark chocolate, good company and ABC Classic FM.
Thank you for everyone’s collective wisdom on the growing of tomatoes in Melbourne. I rose at the crack of dawn, and Black Russian, Beefsteak, and Sweetbite are looking happy in their large pots outside the back door. Unfortunately I have to use pots because the only non-concreted part of the garden that has reliable sun is so full of broken glass, broken crockery, old bed springs, nameless scraps of metal etc etc etc that digging is a health hazard.
“the only non-concreted part of the garden that has reliable sun is so full of broken glass, broken crockery, old bed springs, nameless scraps of metal etc”
Hmm… Brunswick?
Kew.
Unfortunately I have to use pots because the only non-concreted part of the garden that has reliable sun is so full of broken glass, broken crockery, old bed springs, nameless scraps of metal etc etc etc that digging is a health hazard
Everybody does raised beds these days anyway. Keeps feet dry and soil warmer.
Fran, it’s Eddie McGuire. I know you’re a pedant so you’ll appreciate the correction. He’s otherwise known as Eddie Everywhere.
Thanks Fine. I’ve either never seen his name written or not paid attention when I have.
Fran, you also be pleased to know that while Collingwood/Eddie are part of the campaign against the Wilkie reforms, Geelong came out and said that it was true that they profited from pokies, but they were uncomfortable with this fact, and happy to look at pre-commitment machines etc.
So the footy result was a win for the good guys.
Yes … I did catch that on Twitter, Wilful … along with Angry Anderson joining the Nats … One can but laugh …
Unfortunately, wilful, the other half won’t agree to raised beds. So pots make a reasonable compromise. At least they have the advantage that he has to walk past them on his way to the workshop, so when I am away he remembers to water them … sometimes …
Fluffy, the litle dog next door has survived his bout with parvo, He’s coming home this afternoon. Indeed, the vet isn’t evensure it was parvo. Seems some bastard might be laying baits around, I reckon. Its happened up this part of town before a few years ago. Don’t know, though.