On the ANZAC Day public holiday (Monday 26 April), about a dozen people from the Russian side of our family gathered at ‘Aunt’ Nina’s house in Figtree (near Wollongong). As usual, we had a great time all catching up over a long late lunch.
And naturally, Tegan having just come back from Hong Kong with new toys, had another chance to try out her new camera, so here are some photos: Link
(Note: this page doesn’t look all that nice yet, but I’ll fit it into the site better soon.)
Gee 1994 was a good year in music – so many of my favourite albums in this bunch as the SMH looks back:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/30/1083224573924.html
I really find it a shame that there was so little from Jeff Buckley or Portishead, particualrly in the calibre of Dummy by Portishead or Grace by Jeff Buckley. So many good times and experiences in my life have had those albums as the soundtrack.
Tegan may be having fun in Hong Kong while I’m stuck at work and at home, but I got to pick up our new car. Actually, it was a whole lot less fun to get it without her, particularly since neither of us had ever had a new car. It really was quite something to go to a dealer and pick up a new car with only 10km on the clock.
The car is a Ford Futura 2004, 4.0L, V6, automatic with sequential shift (as someone pointed out to me, it’s a semi-automatic), rear seat cup-holders and lots of room. Extras include a rear spolier (so Tegan can see where the back of the car is), tow bar and an auxiliary audio plug in so I can use my iPod in it. It’s very nice. People keep asking what colour it is, and the answer is ‘luscious’, which is a kind of metallic maroon colour.
It’s lots of fun. We intend to do a lot of driving in it, so there may be many opportunities for you to have a ride in it with us.
Today has confirmed my opinion that Google is not only one of the most useful sites on the internet, but that Google are also the funniest company on the web. I present the evidence and let it speak for itself:
Google hiring for lunar labs to be set up in 2007 – and note the link from that story to their info on Britney Spears
Clever plays on the names of their own technology, such as Page Rank
And nobody seems to be able to tell if this one is serious or not http://gmail.google.com/ – particularly when the press release says “Search is Number Two Online Activity ? Email is Number One; “Heck, Yeah,” Say Google Founders”
And then you can always search for the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything
I could say so much more about how impresses I am with all the new services and additional features that Googe is offering these days, but there’s just so much that I’m overwhelmed – so here’s just a quick list:
Personalised Search
Froogle
Google Deskbar
Google Zeitgeist
We had a great weekend in Sydney over the weekend just passed. We hadn’t been up since Christmas, so it was good to catch up with the family and hang out together. We also managed to get into the city to catch up with old friends (well, old friends of Tim’s – new friends for Tegan) and to do some shopping, where Tim got to order a new Apple 15″ Powerbook, which, due to a special promotion Apple have on at the moment, meant that we got a new 20gb iPod as well for only $99 – bargain! So now, we’ve got one each, which is good for going to the gym, or when we’re travelling separately (like on Tegan’s upcoming trip to Hong Kong).
Mum and Dad also took us to the “Twilight at Taronga” concert at Taronga Park Zoo, which we immensely enjoyed.
This was a fantastic little outdoor concert, kind of like last night of the proms, but overlooking Sydney harbour and with a picnic. Basically, we took our own antipasto-style food, some wine, picnic rug and low chairs, sat in the open air and listened to some relaly good music from the Sydney chapter of the Australian Army Band with a couple of decent vocalists to boot (the soprano, Margaret Orr, was particularly good). And like the last night of the proms, the audience sang along with the prom-style classics, like ‘Land of Hope and Glory’, ‘Jerusalem’, and ‘Rule Brittania’. As you coul expect, Tegan carried the singing for our section of the audience, which didn’t go unnoticed or unappreciated by the people around us.
Unfortunately, back to reality and back to work today. But only a week and a half until we’re back in Sydney, ready for Tegan to fly to Hong Kong!