Happy New Year! Our wish for you is that 2006 will be the year that many of your dreams come true.

And the photos - hey, it's hot here, over 37C (yep, that's 100F) for the second day, with bushfire smoke overhead & a gale blowing. These guys were taking a nap in the somewhat limited flow of the air conditioner. For those who have asked recently, no we didn't move after the "discussions" with the agent about the non-functional status of the aircon. He wanted to charge us an extra $20 a week on a 2 year lease. Hmm, funny, that adds up to the $2000 quote for the system to be upgraded, so we just negotiated a rent reduction for the summer, and stayed.  We have since discovered that if we run the aircon with only one vent open, we produce enough flow for it to adequately cool one room (the lounge - sorry, that's the living room for you people who talk funny). Needless to say, we've spent most of the last 2 days inside, although we did get out in the early morning of New Years Eve to do a longer trip on the scooters - Coppins Crossing, Uriarra Crossing, Cotter Reserve & Scrivener Dam. If it's cool enough tomorrow, we plan to do the loop out to Tidbinbilla.

Funny how things tend to come around again. One of the very simple strategies my counsellor Nancy provided me with back in the latter half of 2003 related to taking medication. Back then it was my sleeping pills, as sometimes I couldn't remember whether I had taken one or not, until I'd tossed & turned for an hour or so. Not good when you have to up at 6 & driving on the wrong side of the road within half an hour. The strategy was to pull out the sleeping pill at the same time as I took my RLS (Restless Legs Syndrome) medication & put it on the bedside table - then I KNEW whether I had taken it. Now I'm taking my RLS tablets about an hour after the pain killers, so I'm using the same strategy - put them out on the table next to the computer, to remind me to take them on time. 

And Kelly got a haircut.

Damn! I thought I'd dealt with this shit. It's one thing to know that every now & then, the shit will come back & bite you on the bum. It's quite another thing to have it right there biting. We were clearing away the Christmas decorations & sorting through them, now that we have all of them in one place, & decided that all of Doris's candles & candle holders couldn't really be used effectively here during the peak of summer. So off they went to eBay. And there it all is, in my face again! So it's back to the tried & true process - feel the emotions, address & acknowledge them, deal with them & move on. It can take seconds to days. That's life!

And yes, we did make it out to Tidbinbilla, on the Monday, when the weather was cooler. I've had quite a relaxing break, out riding for a while each day, exploring Canberra's northern suburbs.

Wow, so much has happened since I looked in here. Back to work for both of us. Dinner at Don & Deb's out at the farm. They have acquired 2 llamas & their grass is about shoulder high, but they can't get anyone to cut it to make hay! And a trip down to Bega to visit our accountant, so that we can get out 2004/05 tax done.  And take the opportunity to stay down at the beach & get our feet wet. The other photo in the set is a possum that I found walking along the pathway at work in broad daylight, which is unusual because they are nocturnal animals. One of my colleagues says he's been around for several weeks now. Must be good pickin's.

We took part in the National Motorcycle Awareness Ride, from North Canberra to Parliament House. Just a great feeling to be cruising along with bikes large & small (very large & small), with our being probably the smallest & riding along next to a HUGE armchair style BMW from Orange. Someone mentioned that they had seen a 650 cc scooter, so we had to go & find that one - ours are just 50 cc jobbies. At one point going over the Commonwealth Avenue Bridge, Julie felt so secure, not having cars anywhere nearby, that she cut loose & left me behind. Hmm, time for an upgrade!

Just been chatting online to an eBay customer, whose mother died suddenly of a lung haemorrhage in 2004 - died in his arms. So I though it appropriate to put a small memorial to her here.