12 Months in Canberra

Hall o' sleeping

2006-12-07T14:03:00.000+11:00

Last night Felix didn't really want to go to bed. This happens sometimes, no big deal. Eventually I just shut the hall door and told him to go to sleep. Well he did:

I didn't really expect him to sleep in the hall in the dogs bed though!

Dad comes to visit

2006-11-29T10:30:00.000+11:00

Dad and I went to Cotter for a BBQ lunch, being a weekday it was nice and quiet, we were joined by only 9 billion flies.

I missed this opportunity, instead of taking a photo I could have pushed him in the river!

On our way back we visited the NASA station thingy. It's quite cool to find these things almost literally around the corner (it's about 20 minute drive from our house):

Dad kinda got into this racing sim on my PC:

On the last night we went up to Mt Ainslie to check the sunset out and get a nice view of canberra and environs, Emily practiced her posing:

Nick comes to visit

2006-10-26T09:13:00.000+10:00

Well this actually happened long ago. In August if memory serves. I haven't forgotten he was here, or to write it up!

Here's proof:

See?

One story worth telling of his visit is the infamous August Australia vs Italy match of Pro Evolution Soccer 5.

We'd had a couple of games, and found it to be quite easy.

So we decided to "make it interesting" (how many people have suffered horrific injury or death after hearing those words I wonder?)

We setup the next game, instead of playing China we decided to play Italy.

We also put the game difficulty level up a notch.

And we decided that every goal scored against us, we had to have a shot of vodka.

The vodka was duly pulled out of the freezer, and the game began.

Soon we realised we'd made a terrible, awful mistake. After having 3 goals against us the opening minutes (and consequently three shots each) we knew we had to change tactics.

That failed.

We also had to make a fast executive decision that if you score an own goal you don't actually have to take a shot.

Final score, 12-0, and one very very ill Justin.

Thanks Nick! :-)

Bachelor Food

2006-10-25T20:09:00.000+10:00

Some people might think that Felix and I are eating nothing but chips and pizza while on our own. Not so!

It was good AND there are leftovers!

Bachelor Pad

2006-10-23T16:45:00.000+10:00

Felix and I are all by ourselves while Anna and Emily are gallivanting around in Adelaide.

We played Pro Evolution Soccer last night, cooperative. It went right down to the wire - penalties.

We ended up winning, somehow.

It wouldn't even have gone to penalties if we hadn't scored TWO own goals.

But there was much rejoicing and high-fiving when we won.

Floriade

2006-10-05T09:52:00.000+10:00

We went to Floriade on the weekend, while Mum was down from Adelaide.

Without doubt it was one of the most exciting times of my life.

There were little models of things:

Flowers:

Park benches for photo opportunities:

Flowers you can get close to:

Strange characters:

More flowers, in neat regimented rows:

And a teacup ride:

Don't go to Floriade if you have a heart condition!!

Checking the Mail

2006-10-04T14:27:00.000+10:00

The real mailbox I mean, the physical one, out the front of the house. Remember them?

I have become somewhat dedicated to mine, checking it at least every hour until the mail arrives. On days with no mail I am perpetually in a state of doubt over whether he hasn't been yet or if he has nothing for me.

The tension is enormous!

Today I saw something different though!

The shots are a little crappy, since I took them from behind the safety of my lounge room windows.

Because standing in the street taking photos of the guy on the roof of his ute taking photos would be just weird.

Also, I must apologise for not having posted lately, including details on the tumultuous visit of Nick Morrison. Partly this is because my camera has been misplaced, including the photos of his visit, but mostly it's because I'm lazy!

Natalie, Dean and Jazmin come to visit

2006-08-29T13:12:00.000+10:00

Natalie, Dean and Jazmin came to stay for a while.

Among other activities, we climbed the local mountain, and this time made it to the top:

We also visited the Cotter Damn area, and had a BBQ (late) breakfast.

Some parts of the area are quite steep, bording on 90 degree cliffs! Anna took it in her stride however.

Snow!

2006-07-17T14:24:00.000+10:00

It's a hard life

2006-06-08T13:34:00.000+10:00

Being a dog. You have to lie down in front of a heater all day.

In other exciting news, I got a good deal on a massive CF card for my camera (thanks Bugman). I can now take about 1200 high quality photos before I have to download them to my computer. I also found that if I lower the resolution, my camera picture counter maxes out at 9999 :-/

Climb every mountain

2006-05-30T17:24:00.000+10:00

Thought we'd climb the local mountain (Mt. Taylor) on the weekend.

Anna all rugged up, despite my assurances she would not need the coat and beanie. She was de-coated very quickly :-)

Someone should have gone before we left home......

Not really at the top yet, but a spot of sitting down and binocularing is in order....

Here's Telstra tower from this point - always in our view.

and a slightly less attractive view:

I attempted to take a photo through the binoculars. This was always doomed to fail, but the result is kinda pretty so I thought I'd put it here :-)

We didn't quite get to the very very top, but it's pretty good from this point. In the middle distance you can see the city of Woden, and in the far distance (you'll have to click the picture to see the detail), to the right of Telstra tower, the city proper:

I can see our house from here! Well actually I can see the brown patch of open scrub (middle distance) that our house is just to the right of.... we'd walked a surprisingly long way!

Mum has come to visit

2006-05-18T19:08:00.000+10:00

My Mum is down (well, 'right') from Adelaide for a few days.

Here she is:

Look what the cat didn't drag in

2006-05-10T15:46:00.000+10:00

Our cat is a pretty good ratter. However we don't appreciate it when she brings them inside. So when that happened last night we duly threw both rat and cat outside.

I expected something quite gory on the front doorstep this morning (she doesn't just catch them, she eats them too) but I wasn't prepared for this:

Yes, that's exactly how I found it. Upright, with no other 'pieces' in sight.

Is there anything more reproachful than a dead rats eye?

Meanwhile....

2006-04-27T13:41:00.000+10:00

Meanwhile, while we were swanning around Sydney, Felix was having different types of adventures, with Ben and Patchie (thanks to Ben for these great photos!)

Here he is, slightly dishevelled at a very early start:

Soon they were at the "tunnels" having a lovely time:

Fetch!

Ben finds some evidence of .... something obviously very interesting, and Felix expresses his opinion at being searched in this manner. On a bike.

If you want a cute girl to hand-feed you, just tell her your hands are too sandy to hold the food!

Back home, dried off, time for a spot of harmonica playing:

Anna and Justin alone in Sydney

2006-04-24T10:25:00.000+10:00

On Sunday, Anna and I had Sydney to ourselves! No Felix, no Emily, no one else!!

We decided to make the most of this golden opportunity.

Although Anna was a bit of a slow starter:

After lazily walking into town, we wandered in a generally northward direction. Anna and I took some time to gaze at the impressive infrastructure:

Next we stopped at harbourside for some brunch. Here's Anna eating some nice brie from her baguette:

And me taking photos of the impressive skyline past the other patrons:

Next step - MONORAIL:

After monorailing around sydney a couple of times, we got off at the Queen Victoria Galleries. I was amused at this obviously crashed LED display:

After Anna spent far too much time and money in the evil Kinokuniya bookshop, we did a few other bits of shopping (Hello Haighs!), then we set off for the bridge. After a while Anna got a bit pooped - this part of Sydney is kind of hilly:

But soon we made it. Here we are about to start the crossing:

This is some white funny building I can't remember the name of:

And this cool old lego style building - apparently housing trust homes:

And a tanker:

Look! It's that funny building again!

We found a single bench on the entire span. It was unmarked, but we think it was about halfway across. Here is us sitting on it. It was kinda blowy out here:

Here's that funny building again!

And here's Anna, sauntering the last hundred metres or so to the end:

Here's the view back to the bridge:

After that exhausting walk we stopped in a nice cafe in Kirribilli for cuppas:

Then Ben picked us up and we drove back to his place. A big day!

Caption Competition

2006-04-23T09:33:00.000+10:00

Someone please give me an appropriate caption for this photo:

If it helps, that's half a cheese, lettuce, cucumber and carrot sandwich.

Trip to Sydney #2

2006-04-22T15:20:00.000+10:00

This weekend we are in Sydney again, this time visiting Ben, and leaving Felix for a little stay over with Ben and some other friends.

Last night was very very cold. About -4 degrees. This morning the washing was a bit ... frozen. Here's Emily's nightie - stiff as a board:

On our way out of the city we were treated with an impressive display of mist around Black Mountain where the Telstra tower is:

And the balloon festival thingy was afoot today - luckily for them finally a day with no wind, so they could actually launch:

A few hours drive later, we were in Sydney. Here's Ben and Felix:

And Justien came to brunch as well, she and Felix exchanged fashion tips:

More to come!

Trip to Sydney

2006-04-18T19:15:00.000+10:00

Drove to Sydney for Easter at Anna's Dad's house. We got completely overfed by George and Maria :-) But it was great food. And what else are you supposed to do at Easter?

I never thought I'd enjoy soup with sausage in it for breakfast as much as I did :-)

Here's the route:

It's a fairly quick drive. Which is lucky cos I have to do it each weekend for the next few weeks :-(

Absolutely Fabulous

2006-04-11T18:29:00.000+10:00

(From a recent trip to Lake Tuggeranong)

How's the weather?

2006-04-07T10:41:00.000+10:00

Well since everyone always asks (like always) about how cold it is, I decided to just make it easy and draw some graphs.

Here they are

Just for your convenience, I also put a thumbnail of the last weeks worth of weather on the blog, cast your eye to the right and scroll down a bit, you will see it.

Enjoy!

Evil tic-tacs

2006-04-02T11:44:00.000+10:00

Remember those tic-tacs?

Well Felix managed to lodge one of them up his nose the other day. Oh yes, the fun never ends. Thought I was going to have to cart him off the a doctor, but then he managed to snort it out.

I asked him if he would put things up his nose again, but instead of that he's just sworn off tic-tacs.

Batteries

2006-03-27T23:29:00.000+11:00

Buy cheap AA NiMh batteries from ebay and you don't get anything fancy. Like actual 'cover art'. But they were cheap, and they appear to work :-)

An open letter to the R&D department of Ferrero Australia

2006-03-27T12:45:00.000+11:00

Passionfruit Mint Tic Tac's - what were you guys thinking? These things taste about as good as it sounds like they taste like - awful.

Skun rat anyone?

2006-03-27T12:20:00.000+11:00

The dog got clipped on the weekend. Here are the obligatory before and after pictures:

Before:

After:

Anzac Biscuits

2006-03-22T11:43:00.000+11:00

Did I mention the neighbours are nice?

I just got brought a tray of Anzac biscuits from the lovely lady next door.

They're still warm!

Dog wash

2006-03-15T11:04:00.000+11:00

We got a dog. For the uninitiated, we have inherited Anna's sister's doggie.

Anna gave him a bath yesterday, and then perhaps unwisely let him go outside. Of course he immediately started scratching in the dirt.

Here is Anna repairing the damage:

Public holiday for Meeee

2006-03-13T08:16:00.000+11:00

SA public holiday, I don't have to work but Anna has to, and the kids have to go to school. Bwahahahahah!

Neighbours

2006-03-10T10:21:00.000+11:00

Our neighbours are so cool! They invited us, and several other neighbours for a BBQ on the weekend. So we got to meet the locals, swap stories and chat. The dogs all got to meet as well, though they weren't quite as friendly as the humans. A bit of growling and snapping.

So our neighbours bought the block when it was first parcelled out, and have lived there ever since. Heard some great stories about the neighbourhood, and got a good feed as well :-)

Coffee

2006-03-08T09:57:00.000+11:00

In the interests of productivity, rather than continually going up to the house to make a cup of coffee, I've been making a whole pot and bringing it back to my work area.

This has increased my coffee consumption markedly.

It remains to be seen if this is a bad thing.

Team meeting day today. First one with a video conferencing component. Here's my prediction - one of the first things I get asked will be "Are you wearing pants".

The Daily Grind

2006-03-07T18:38:00.000+11:00

Life quickly settles back to 'normality'.

Sleep, eat, work, eat sleep.

Sound familiar?

Working from home has it's challenges, but it's surprisingly dissimilar to working from .. work. Most of my work communications were via phone, email and IM. Nothing new there. Not being able to turn to ones neighbour to talk crap for a minute or so is somewhat isolating, but on the upside I have the dog to talk to if I need to vocalise.

And he hardly ever talks back!

School play

2006-02-23T21:44:00.000+11:00

I haven't got any pictures from today's school concert, but I'd like to tell about it. The children put on a little concert for the parents this evening. And WHOW it was an impressive Do. They all wore costumes made for the parade on Saturday, and King Neptune...aka...the school principal presided over the underwater performances. Everything was staged like a Carnivale, telling the story of Venezia. It was all in Italian, with Italian music accompaning it. (It ranged from classical, through to modern.) There were dances, singing, clapping...and at the end of it all, the King decreed that the parents had to join in. So we all got to up to do hokey pokey in Italian with the kids on stage. It was the best kiddies concert, I been to :-) And if that wasn't good enough, to top it off, an annoncement was made that the school won the best primary school dress up on Saturday's parade! Not bad for a little school of 80 children?

A little bit more about the school. Twice a week, the children come to school early for breakfast, (which is organised by the school) and additionally, on Wednesdays is pasta day. On pasta Wednesdays the canteen serves only one meal (Italian of course, different every week). Every morning before lessons start, the children do a health hussle, which is quite serious fitness. Classess are conducted in Italian, with the exception of English (of course.)

Emily and Felix have also started piano lessons at school.

They are both very well adjusted and happy kids, who are also making friends with the children over the fence. :-)

The cat is happy now in her new surrounds, which means we will be bringing in the dog this weekend home. Oh, the fun!

Harmony Day Parade

2006-02-23T14:54:00.000+11:00

Helenic club Harmony Day parade last Saturday. The day was very hot and sunny, and the starting area had no shade or shelter. The kids got ready in their costumes and faux ocean waves, and eventually, off they went.

Emily in her fish mask:

Anna and Felix, Anna in her Jellyfish hat:

Cool big people:

Hello Possums

2006-02-22T21:10:00.000+11:00

We haven't seen the possums yet, but I've heard them (horrid loud grunting noises, right outside your window), and after each nightly party they leave these delightful gifts for us (the shit, not the money):

How enchanting!

Pictures of the new house

2006-02-10T22:13:00.000+11:00

Felix thinks his new room is neat (though he was frightened of the knocking of the blind in the breeze during the first night:

Here's the front entrace:

My car in the driveway. On the right is the furnace heater thing. Underfloor ducted heating. A Canberra essential.

I am reliably informed we have a kiwi fruit tree:

Emily in her empty bedroom:

The windows letting light into the studio. Quite nice. A big bookshelf along the wall as well:

Another view of the studio, showing the small ensuite:

With a very small hand basin:

The garage, nice and roomy:

Hills hoist:

Emily in the lounge, there is some weird built in unit thing in the corner:

The tool shed, complete with supplied tools (!):

Emily and Felix in the lounge area:

The kitchen:

Entrance to the studio:

What is Red?

2006-02-08T20:11:00.000+11:00

It's the title of Felix's first school reader! He read it with great glee:

Where are we?

2006-02-07T16:02:00.000+11:00

Well I aint telling you exactly (you could be anyone!) but here is a link showing the local school:

Google map of school.

First day at school

2006-02-07T12:11:00.000+11:00

Felix had some second thoughts about school when waking up this morning:

But soon both of them were in the hotel lift, school colours on, ready to face the day.

Here is Emily at morning assembly:

And Felix in his classroom, getting to know his teacher and classmates:

Felix took a while to settle in, but once he realised it was just like a grown up form of his childcare, he was fine. Waved goodbye to us and off we went.

Emily had a slightly more difficult time. Emily was tossed in the deep end, with her Italian speaking teacher, and a bunch of other kids who understood what teacher was saying. This was a little bit overwhelming (as I'm sure you can appreciate) but hopefully she will understand that no one expects her to understand on her first day, and her classmates will help her out. I look forward to hearing more about it tonight from her.

As I said the school is very small, only about 80 students total, so it has a lovely small, community feel about it. We met a few of the other parents, and the principal over coffee before leaving and taking Anna to work.

Now I am all alone in Canberra at a loss for something to do!

It's the thought that counts

2006-02-03T12:25:00.000+11:00

"AdamS and the gang" decided it would be good to send me my name plate from my desk to make me 'feel at home'. The Australia Post sorting machine probably had a different opinion:

Public Service No.1

2006-02-02T20:17:00.000+11:00

Statement number one: I am beginning to like Canbera. The city has much to offer if you are the "look and learn" kind. And now that we are about to have a home, we are all beginning to feel more relaxed about the whole thing.

Public service is.....nice. Very nice. Probably the worst thing about it is that one begins to talk and write like a public servant. (If you doubt this, please refer to the introductory statement at the beginning of this entry.)

The work at the Building Code itself is great. There is a LOT of it, but all of it very interesting. Being a student, there is almost an expectation that I will take time to delve into things deeply and work at my pace. Meaning, that not only are the Code people very helpful and patient with my enquiries, I am also given a choice of training I will be undertaking.

So what is it that I actually do there?
- I answer 1300 type of call enquiries from the public about the Code. Great way to learn VERY quickly about the BCA and its legal implications. I have been promised that by the end of the 12 months I will know the BCA inside out. Which is awesome, because at uni, learning about the Code seemed like a bore and a chore, where as here it's all so...alive!
- Currently I am involved in writing protocols, and other tid bits. When all the prelimilary work gets done, I will begin to project manage Guidelines into safety in public spaces.

There are lots of things going on all the time, things that I had small inklings about whilst in the real world, but which here are discussed in detail and freely by awesomely clever people. Who are very nice.

As far as workplaces go this one is realllly friendly and relaxed. I likes it a lot.

That will be all for today.

Residence found

2006-02-02T18:46:00.000+11:00

Against all odds (well it seemed like it) we have found a place to live. Conveniently it lies very near to the local school, bus stops and other facilities. It's near Woden for those that know Canberra.

No pictures yet, haven't taken any and we don't get the keys until next friday.

We visited the school today, it's lovely. Very small, only about 80 students, and it's bi-lingual. So Emily and Felix will be learning Italian as part of their normal school day.

The teachers there that teach their lessons in Italian (normal things like Maths and Art, but taught in Italian) do not talk to you in English - you can ask them questions in English but they only respond in Italian. No better way to learn I guess!

Question Time

2006-01-31T22:32:00.000+11:00

"So Felix, what do you think of Canberra?"

Mmmmm milk

2006-01-31T22:01:00.000+11:00

Got milk?

Nope.

Happy Birthday Felix!

2006-01-29T20:04:00.000+11:00

We got a birthday cake and candles for Felix's apartment-bound birthday. Unfortunately I did not think of the candle lighting requirements of this exercise until the last moment. One trip back to the superbarn (stupid name) and I had a box of matches.

We did the cermony under the rangehood, the concierge said the smoke detectors were kind of touchy :-)

The bananas are to preserve his modesty. Someone didn't want to get dressed again after visiting the pool :-)

First week in Canberra

2006-01-28T18:29:00.000+11:00

Well the first week is over.

First couple of days here were fairly tourist-activity dominated. Adam was here until Tuesday morning, so we visited some local 'attractions'.

One of them was Telstra Tower. I am no stranger to Telstra Tower. I have visited it twice before this time, and in the same way as that guy in "A fish called Wanda" I declare, "DISAPPOINTED".

First up, on the ground floor there used to be in interesting display of past telephony technology. Including one of the old analog talking clock machines. Now, it's all gone. There is no sign saying "exhibit temporarily unavailable" or anything. Now you walk through a large empty room to get to the entry!

Secondly, on the enclosed viewing platform level, above each pane of glass there used to be a picture taken from the same viewpoint with points of interest labelled, so you knew what you were looking at. All gone. The only concession to reference points now is the 4 points of the compass are labelled. Yay.

Thirdly, the coffee shop is closed. But they have coffee facilities on the viewing level. But twenty fucking dollars for 2 coffees and 2 iced chocolates? I don't think so Tim.

Still, Telstra haven't found a way to screw up the view:

Speaking of views, here is the fabulous view from our second floor apartment:

We also visited Questacon while Adam was here. I bought a year membership, as we will be back many times this year (indeed we have been there twice in one week. So far.)

Here are some pictures from Questacon:

Well here we are

2006-01-23T22:08:00.000+11:00

Well we made it, to the Waldorf in the bustling (not) city of Canberra.

'They' say that getting there is half the fun. 'They' should be killed, but slowly.

A few comments:

Canberra is small
It's easy to get around, roads and public transport are good
There is not much here
Rent is very expensive
Moving is very expensive
Replacement airconditioner compressors for my car are very expensive

Notice how the entire tone of this blog is already at rock bottom? It can only get better from here right? :-)

I'm being unfair, I will admit it. Uprooted, moved out of my comfort zone and all that. I'm entitled to a few whinge posts right?

The drive over - day 2

2006-01-21T23:14:00.000+11:00

Well after a decent sleep in (about 10am) we stirred and started moving out.

The nice lady who owned the motel had tried a few mechanics, but no luck. It was saturday after all. In country Victoria.

We decided to press our luck and power on.

Heading out of Swan Hill, we found that the storm had been fairly serious. Numerous downed power poles were on the side of the road. Like this one:

Since we'd made approximately a 100k detour southward to reach Swan Hill, we (Adam) decided to take the 'back roads' through to our destination. Unfortunately, while our map said our chosen route was all sealed, reality differed.

In the end I decided just to head north back to the Hume. About 1km before we hit the highway, the aircon conked out completely. "Uh oh" I thought. I pulled over to check - smoke coming out from the bonnet!

Luckily again, this time we were outside a phone box and shop. Adam had some lunch, I had a Callippo. This time we were waiting for the NRMA. While on the phone to the slightly hostile sounding NRMA lady, she informed me that my membership number was invalid. No shit, I just signed up last night! She conferenced in the RAA lady, who told me that the database only gets updated every 2 days, so I won't have appeared on their records. At this stage I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to put down roots in Collins Gullie, the RAA lady on the phone recognises me from the previous night, and tells the NRMA that it's OK to service me. Thanks Sharon!!!!

NRMA took ages to come out. Finally a truck cruises past on the other side of the highway, and stops about 300 metres away at some other poor bastard with a broken car. He fixes that (I think he just had to confirm it was a tow truck job) and comes back our way. Surely it's our turn, but noooo he was gonna drive right by. Luckily Adam flagged him down, and although we were pegged for some other driver, he decides to help us out (Country folk are nice).

He takes a quick look, pulls out a blade, cuts the fan belt to the compressor and tells me to watch the steering. And away he goes.

In retrospect, I should have realised that the burning was just the belt rubbing on the siezed fan belt. Probably best to be cut though, instead of just rubbing away and loading the engine.

So the last 300 km of the journey were done without air conditioner and without power steering. It was about 38 degrees that day. It was uncomfortable at first, but the worst was to come, hitting the city streets without power steering on a car that has power steering is very very nasty. You fight the normal tire friction, and the dead power steering, on every corner.

Eventually though, we made it.

The drive over - day 1

2006-01-20T22:44:00.000+11:00

As promised, here is some detail on Adam and I's fun-filled journey from Adelaide.

We left the fabled Adelaide Hills behind us at roughly 11am. Since my breakfast that day had consisted of a Mint Slice (hey - they house was empty) I decided to get some nutritious calories into me and had the McDonalds Big Breakfast. Disgusting. After this experience I would not eat McDonalds again for 500km.

We chose to stop at Swan Hill, as being a relatively close target (given our late start to the day) and somewhere I had at least been before. I knew it wasn't terrible. Vodafone 123 gave us some motel names, and I chose the one I had visited 12 months earlier.

At the Blanchtown Bridge we found this neat statue:

And some tasteless advertising from our authorities:

Uploading pictures on dialup is awful!

On the last 50 kilometres of our journey into Swan Hill we encountered a fairly impressive storm - a massive dust cloud swung over our heads and we were treated to an impressive lightning display. Not too much wind from where we were. I was thinking it was a fairly small storm by country standards - we would find out it was perhaps not the day after.

As we pulled into Swan Hill though, slowing down to 60kph for the first time in a while, I heard something bad. It was a nasty nasty grinding noise - coming from the bonnet of my car! Eek!

Stopping outside the local pizza bar, I was worried to notice that the pitch of the nasty noise was directly related to engine speed - not road speed. Not good at all! Switching the engine off I pulled out my trusty RAA card and called the RCVA.

Speedbump #2 - my RAA membership had expired. Somehow I had neglected to renew it. Shit! $158 later, I was a member in good standing again, and the RCVA agreed to come out and look at my car.

One Hamburger later, we greeted the friendly RCVA man. Adam assures me he was not good looking. His diagnosis was a mixed blessing - it was just the aircon compressor, but since it's connected to the engine always, it couldn't easily by disconnected. Leaving it connected meant we would risk it seizing up. Cutting the belt completely would mean no power steering.

We found our accomodation and drove my extremely ill sounding car in.

Deciding to drown our sorrows we headed down to the local.

Crazy vics, they have these glasses called 'Pots'. So you get a pot of Pale. At least it was on top. A pot is small but cheap. 6 pots each later we found the quiet front bar had been transformed into a karaoke bar.

There was a woman who was part of the Karaoke setup, who did a few songs, I guess to get people warmed up. Then the locals started - and goddam, it sure looked like the highlight of their week. On the plus side, they weren't awful singers.

Stumbling back to our room we decided to forgoe the early start to see if we could find a local mechanic.