Clarity via Google Earth

(Be sure to click the picture and look at the full sized version)

This ought to give everybody a nice idea of our more immediate surroundings. Qubec is just over the big river to the left. Downtown Ottawa is apx 10mins off the bottom of the picture and a bit to the right.

Fundamentally Awesome

This has nothing to do with life in Ottawa, but it is too awesome not to share...



Of course he did. Given the opportunity, who wouldn't?

1st Time for Young Eyes

I will revisit the other elements of the Iowa trip before too long, but 1st I wanted to share pictures of these two very important moments in a child’s life.

The 1st snowy morning…

















Dinosaurs!


Even better, the triceratops is Tom’s favorite dinosaur. It was very good timing with the dinosaurs because we have been talking to Tom about bones, and I have been explaining the words herbivore, carnivore and omnivore to him. These ideas are a lot more interesting when discussed in a room full of massive dino-skeletons.

Ultimately, the preacher nailed it.

He said...

“Saints walk among us, although they do not know it”.

Other people spoke in greater detail, lovely memories all of them, but it all distills down to the simple truth that my grandma was a saint. As mentioned elsewhere, the harshest words I ever heard cross her lips was when she called my uncle’s adulterous ex-wife a ‘snotty snot’. She is one of just a handful of people who give me faith in humanity. Thomas Hobbes never met my grandma.

In a mid-western town of 900 people, some 200 attended the service. In my entire life I have never seen that church so full. People came from as far away as the West coast and, of course, Canada. I did not speak during the service. The opportunity was there, but those memories are mine and nobody in the room needed convincing as to what a wonderful women she had been.

The service also saw the creation of a new piece of family mythology. The Wagoners, with one exception, are a musical family. My dad (the eldest of the children), Uncle Tim and Aunt Teri all took their guitars to the front and performed ‘Angel Band’ from the ‘Oh Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack’. The night before while rehearsing, Thomas had insisted on strumming along while they rehearsed, so Tim took the little guitar Teri had given to Thomas and tuned it to open C. The idea hatched that, if Thomas wanted, he could go to the front of the Church to strum along with them. And he did. It was a funeral, so there are no pictures or film of the event. That’s fine. If anything it will simply make the event grow larger over time.

Like many others, I loved grandma dearly, and will miss her terribly.

I am Remarkably Succesful...

...at avoiding writing about Iowa. Instead, I give you two recent pictures of Thomas. I can them 'Pride' and 'After the Fall'.

Keeping Faith with the Ancients

Normally I react to advertising and branding in a negative manner, punishing products that put forward ads I dislike rather than rewarding those that amuse me. Normally. In this case I am undeniably amused by the branding and have rewarded it by adopting this as my default bread…
http://www.dempsters.ca/WhatsNew.html

As early as 6,000 B.C. ancient civilizations recognized the nutritional value of whole grains and cultivated various grains that became staples in their diets. Today Dempster’s introduces a new bread variety made with a blend of a four ancient seeds and grains: Spelt, Kamut, Quinoa & Amaranth.

Ancient grains have unique & exotic flavours, distinct textures and are rich in minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, fibre and complex carbohydrates. These grains originated all over the world. Spelt is the oldest grain in Europe dating back to 6,000 B.C. Quinoa has been grown for over 5,000 years in the Andes Mountains and Amaranth has a long and interesting history in Mexico where the Mayans & Incans have been harvesting it for thousands of years. On the other hand, Ancient Egyptian farmers cultivated Kamut. All this knowledge and wisdom has been combined to bake a delicious loaf of bread bringing all the nutritious value of ancient grains to you and your family.

That’s right, I am fueled by the ancient power of Spelt, Quinoa, Amaranth and Kamut. And who knows, if Dempsters rings up and assures me that sacrificing a squirrel or two would ensure a mild winter and next years harvest I might just finish my sandwich and get to work doing the bidding of the Ancients. My only question is what grain was favoured by the denizens of R’lyeth?

A Couple of Book Reviews

I had hoped to write about Iowa by now. It will still happen, but 1st here are my thoughts on two books I recently managed to read.

Stephen Fry in America (the UK version)

I like Stephen Fry and have done so for years. If you have yet to see ‘Absolute Power’ I highly recommend finding it. That show is smart, fast and funny. Anyway, this was a good book. The premise is pretty simple, Stephen was nearly born in the USA and claims to have always had a degree of fascination with the place. To help scratch that itch, he sets off in an English black taxi to travel through every state gracing us with a page or five on what we finds. He finds great deal and likes a lot of what he sees, but not everything. There are places to which, given the choice, he is unlikely to ever return and places in which he reckons he could very happily see out his days.

As expected Stephen's insight is keen and his command of English strong. The two combine to make for an enjoyable read. And, if you happened to have already seen the TV series, go ahead and get the book anyway. While there is obviously common ground, each medium focuses on differing aspect of his experiences in a given state.

The Zombie Survival Guide.

I really enjoyed World War Z, which made this pretty disappointing. The Survival Guide lacks human dimension and rigor (but not mortis) that made WWZ such a tremendous piece of work. Instead it is fairly dull, repetitive and at times self contradictory. To be blunt, it should have been half as long.

Unexpected moment of parental amusement #2874

I had hoped to write about Iowa by now, but the house-plague has kind of stymied that idea. I will do it, most likely I'll break the subject into two pieces. ONce about Grandma and one about the rest of the visit.

Instead, for now, meet Lillian’s favorite new toy ‘Spyda’. It’s a giant cheap Halloween spider that I bought for myself, but which she claimed as her own before we had even reached the car. As you can see, she is rather attached. I wish I had a movie of the *one* time Thomas tried to play with Spyda. A mistake he is unlikely to repeat.





…I reckon I’ll have to buy another if I actually want one.

Sick as a Pig

Wednesday afternoon I took the kids to a free clinic for H1N1 vaccinations, receiving one myself.

Saturday: slept in until 10am (usually up at 6)and still felt rather ordinary. Back to bed at 4pm. Saturday night consisted of all the usual flu symptoms, fever/chills, nausea & vomiting, aches and pains.

Sunday: Better than Saturday night. All the symptoms are still there, but not as bad Spent entire day in bed. Sleep an hour, get up have a small drink of water, rinse and repeat. I even manage to eat some plain rice & pasta over the course of the day.

Monday: improving, but still arse. I ate some banana and now when I sleep I don't have discordant fever-dreams. I am also usually up for an hour and then asleep for an hour.

The moral of the story is that I have clearly been poisoned by inferior communist grade vaccine. Had I instead received proper freedom loving vaccine I am sure I would have been fine. What more, the vaccination probably would have made me more youthful looking and blasted my abs.

(BTW - thankfully neither of the kids has responded in kind)

I love Halloween

There are lots of reasons to love Halloween. Today, for me, its the dirt cheap costumes to be had after the event. Hello $20 worth of fun…

United Airlines is Dead to Me.

We went to Iowa, it was good, and we have returned. I’ll fill all that in later, but first a brief word about how the business and operations plan known as United Airlines (UA) is actually a house of cards made from turds that will never again enjoy my patronage.

The day before our departure I log onto the UA website to check in online. I enter our confirmation code, and their webpage spits me out. I enter our confirmation code, and it spits me out. I enter our confirmation code, and it spits me out. I ring their 1-800 number and wait…

“Sorry, you are traveling with an infant, so you are required to check in at the counter”

OK, that’s fine, but it would have been good to know an hour, and much frustration, ago. It’s a noon flight, and since we are flying internationally we need to arrive 3 hours in advance. That sees us driving across town in peak hour so I add some more time. The kids are kids, so there is some more time added again. So, I roll out of bed at 6am, with the family following soon after, in order to catch out noon flight. We make it to the airport just after 9am - as required - to check in at the counter with our infant (aka Lillian) – as required. All the check in counters are staffed, except United. Instead, United has a small sign that simply reads ‘Back at 10am, please use kiosks to check in’.

Of course we are traveling with an infant and cannot use the kiosks. We wait. OK, I actually fume, but it looks a lot like waiting.

At 10am a single suitable po-faced women arrives to open the counter. She takes our details and issues our boarding passes for the Ottawa/Chicago flight, but explains that she can only get three of us onto the Chicago/Des Moines flight. After I imagined some random violence and recalled a certain Southpark episode, I wondered how exactly she expected us to divide the 3 seats between myself, Jane (non-driver) , Thomas (3yrs old) and Lillian (non-seated infant). Luckily, when we arrived in Chicago the people at that gate were able to get us all onto the flight. So ultimately, we made it from Ottawa to Des Moines on time, as planned and together. And so did our luggage (2 bags), though they charged us $40 each way for the temerity of taking luggage.

I have been flying United on a semi-regular basis since I was in the 5th grade, and I remember it not sucking. So much for memories.

The Misery of Thomas

Young Thomas is sick with a fever a very sore throat, and even has a bit of a rash. And he is not just sick, but is sick on the day of an excursion to a kid-friendly farm with his preschool and the day before a now very unlikely Wiggles concert.

He is so sick and miserable that he pulled all the pillows off the couch to make a nest and then lay down on the floor and pulled a blanket over himself.

Gaze upon the face of 3yr old misery…

The Flight Across

…with kids. Right at the start let me say that it could have been so very much worse. DFAT had sprung for all 4 of us to fly business class and even Lillian had her own seat. Even better, the people of Air Canada are no fools. Most other people in business class were clustered at the back-end of the cabin leaving us fairly isolated up at the front. This meant we, and especially the kids, had a relatively large amount of space at our disposal. Finally, to be fair, the kids were really rather good about the whole thing.

The entertainment on Air Canada was OK. They provide a very wide, but rather shallow selection. Thankfully there was an all-kids TV and audio channel to keep Thomas relatively enthralled. He was also very impressed to have a chair that turned into a bed, so much so that he ‘went to bed’ three times so I would transform it for him. Lillian was harder, but it also at a stage where almost anything can be solved by sitting on mummy’s lap. Jane managed a little sleep, but I stayed awake the whole flight. During the relative quiet I watched the new Star Trek, Monsters Vs Aliens and DragonBall Evolution. The surprise was Monsters vs. Aliens. Maybe it was the free business class grog, but I reckon it was funny, very much enjoyed it and am happy to recommend it. Star Trek was also excellent, but I had already seen it. That I chose to watch a movie I had already seen ought to give you an idea as to the depth of the entertainment on offer. DragonBall was (as expected) pretty terrible. I picked it as something that I could ½ watch without caring if I needed to attend to a suddenly awake child. Basically, if you want a cheesy fight flick you cannot go past DOA. Better fights, prettier girls.

We flew Canberra to Sydney, and then direct from Sydney to Vancouver. This worked very well. Not least because it allowed us to completely miss the US Customs and Immigration system. It worked even better because Jane had booked us into a hotel that is attached to the airport. It was just 10mins from the gate to our (surprisingly quiet) room. No stuffing about with kids, bags and cabs. We paid just $10 to a redcap porter to manage the bags and followed him through the airport to the hotel, gold. An unexpected feature was the room's huge window facing out over the tarmac. The kids spent hours watching plans, cars, trucks and buses, more gold. And finally, fresh local doughnuts from Jane’s cousin & husband that live in Vancouver and came to visit us, gold again :)

The next day we had a relatively easy wander down to check in, followed by about 5 hours on a plane before arriving in Ottawa where we were met by people dispatched from the High Commission to bundle us into a couple of cars and take us to our serviced apartment.

Not Dead...

In laws are vising all the way from Australia. I'll be back here soon enough.

Our Neighborhood: The Bridges

Another local feature that I want to highlight, these bridges are just down the street from our house. Jane will cross them every weekday in the 10mins that it takes her to walk from the house to work.

Our Neighborhood: Take Away...

The neighborhood we are in is just bloody lovely. I fully intend to produce a blog entry about the general area, but there are a couple features I want to pull out for special treatment. So, while our area is amazingly picturesque, it is not exactly overflowing with take away or delivered food options. We have had a couple pizzas delivered, neither was special and only one was hot. There is also a yet to be tried Indian place. No matter, there is one option that stands out. This place is a stone’s throw from our front porch, literally. Its only just opened, but the early signs are good.

I cannot be assed cooking dinner tonight, but that OK because the take away Pheasant Sausage and Braised Rabbit Pot Pie with Le Coprin Mushrooms will be out of the oven in apx 10 mins. ETA to my tummy, 15mins…

I Have Never Felt More Un-Australian

It’s my accent, or more accurately my lack of an accent relative to the locals. Its surprisingly annoying. Part of the joy of moving to a new place is telling people about where you came from and an accent is also a great ice breaker. Around here I sound just like everybody else. To make matters worse, G’day is still my default greeting so a lot of people must reckon I am and am a complete tool, bunging it on.

Bugger.

Gatineau Park

On the last day before Jane started back to work we packed up a bag and headed a good 20mins over the border to Gatineau Park. Once the troops were ready we went for a lovely walk. We also found the world’s least helpful trail sign. After the walk, we drove a bit and found a nice picnic area that offered a rather spectacular view.

God Does Irony

Our neighbors – and I do mean right next door – are Kiwis. It’s the DHOM for the NZ High Commission, her husband and their 2 kids. It’s tempting to subtly mock their accent, but I reckon I’ll aim for good relations, especially as their daughter is the same age as Lilian. In fact, their birthday’s are only 1 day off.

Great Big Baloons

Gatineau is roughly a 5-10min drive from our house. Its also in Qubec and hosts a bloody big annual hot air balloon festival every Sept. It’s a bit like an Easter show with an attached RV park and lots of hot air balloons (60ish over the course of the event) all doing their thing starting at the appointed hour. In this case, 5:30pm. The kids loved it. Lillian called out and waved goodbye to many, many balloons while Tom and I were lucky enough to have front row seats for one of the very 1st launches.

Plans and Ashes

My grandmother passed away this afternoon.

This was not a great surprise as her health has been steadily declining for years, but it is very disappointing. I have known since we 1st started planning for Ottawa that time was important. Our first trip was to be to Iowa to visit the grandparents for Halloween. Six weeks from now. She saw Tom when I brought him over in 2007 for Wagstock II, but she never got to meet Lillian.

Grandma was absolutely wonderful and I, along with many others, will miss her very much. She baked apple pies, loved kids and laughed easily. The absolute harshest comment I ever heard pass her lips was to call my uncle's ex-wife a "snotty snot". I should aspire to sink so low more often.

Posts here will continue, but the blogging-fire I had in me this morning has gone. I expect I'll be making arrangements to fly to Iowa fairly soon as well.

Its the Little Things...

The picture pretty much covers it. All I’ll add is that this is a totally legit product that I bought from my local supermarket.

The Week Before

The week before coming over we stayed in a serviced apartment in the trendy centre of Canberra, aka Kingston. We didn’t really have much choice after the movers have been through the house. I have to admit, I could see the attraction of living within an easy crawl of the numerous restaurants and pubs of Green Square. Especially for the well paid youth of the APS. The apartment itself was nice enough and large enough. I have certainly occupied worse.

The rental car was a hoot. We sold both of our cars and needed something for the last week in Canberra. After a painful series of interactions with the Thrifty rental interface, we got a deal on a large car (needs to accommodate 2 child seats). So, we went from a 12 year old Festiva and a 10 year old Corolla, to a Camry with just 2,000km on the clock. It was a smooth and quiet ride, surprisingly powerful as well. Putting the foot down did not result in a surge and sinking back into one’s seat. Instead, the car simply increased to a speed, typically in excess of the legal limit, and unless I was actually looking at the speedo I probably wouldn’t even notice the change. Nice.

We also spent the last week attending dinners with friends and a High Tea at the Hyatt with other friends. All of which simply reinforced the lesson that it should not require moving to another country to arrange to see people I actually like. It’s well established that the quality of our relationships in life is a powerful factor in determining general levels of happiness.

Finally, Jane’s parents came down and were an enormous help. They spent some quality time with their grandkids while we spent quality time with movers, real estate agents, blah, blah, blah. We all went out to Lanyon Homestead for morning tea. The kids had a fine time and the place is generally rather lovely.

Back on the Grid

The nice people from Roger’s have finally been around and connected us to the wider world.

Establishing a new household in a developed country when one is without the benefits of telephone or internet is painful. It took us nearly a week just to get enough ID together to manage the checks required to get a prepaid cellphone (read mobile). At the same time we were able to sign up for a bundled home package covering TV, internet and a landline. Sure, the soonest they could make it over to install everything was a fortnight later, but at least we had an appointment to rejoin the world. In the meantime we made due with extremely limited net access and the Yellowpages. Yes, the actual paper ones.

As far as this blog is concerned, I am going to try to push out extra entries covering the last few weeks and bring everything up to speed. This may see entries made out of chronological sequence because I don’t want to leave current events behind while I try to catch up.

You have all seen Pulp Fiction. I am sure you’ll manage.

1st Contact

Have arrived safely in Ottawa with all mission members accounted for. Comms will continue to be intermittent and conducted via 3rd party sources for another week, or probably two.

Initial observations: flying in reminded me a patchwork quilt. The land around Ottawa appears to be fairly flat and parceled into farm plots. Its also green with *lots* of surface water (rivers and multiples of creeks, lakes, ponds). Very pretty.

Much more to follow once home PC is set up.

The Dark Side of the Moon

All the old lunar missions lost contact with mission control as they crossed behind the moon. Now it our turn. Communications will resume upon our - and the PC's - arrival in Ottawa. My best guess is mid-Sept. Until then, wish us luck.

Jason vs Brad Pitt: Round One...

SMS me please!

I have a new phone (same number) and as is the way of such things, my phone book didn't make the transition.

If you have my number, please send me an SMS with your name in it so that I can rebuild my once glorious phone book. Bonus points for including your other phone numbers (home/work)...

Disregard this message after 24 Aug. At that point my current number will expire. Hopefully by then I'll have all your numbers safely stored on my phone.

Jason Wagoner: Culture Warrior

Monday was my last day at work with Defence, assuming all goes to plan, until 2012. Because I have taken annual leave for part of this 1st fortnight I will get one more paycheck. After that Jane is *the* family breadwinner and I will take up the mantle of Minister for Home Affairs.

It’s not such a great leap and I am 100% comfortable with the change in my circumstances. After all, Jane already brings home the majority of our household income while I account for most of the cooking. More importantly, I measure my success in life more broadly than by my success at work. None the less, this shift will place me in a (growing) minority. As a long standing gamer and general purpose geek, I well used to being at odds with general society. It just doesn’t concern me very much. However, I am going to be the ‘trailing spouse’ of a DFAT officer and that makes it all very much more complicated. Jane will be working in an arena where the opinions of others about her personal affairs will have a direct correlation on her professional effectiveness. It would be naïve to think that those opinions will be based on her alone. I too will be on display and, informally at least, representing Australia.

I recall reading a theory which argues the future is already here, just not evenly distributed. To put it into practical terms, some people hunt and gather, others order a pizza over wireless internet. This theory holds up well in diplomatic society which has centuries of convention dictating the correct bearing and action of all the players, including the trailing spouse which until relatively recently were all called 'wives'. In some places, were I female, it would still be expected that I present myself at the earliest opportunity to the wife of the most senior local diplomat. Ottawa, thankfully, exists further into the future and is not such a place. Amusingly, I am even told that some ¾’s of the ‘trailing spouse’ at the Ottawa High Commission are also male. So, over the next two years I am not likely to perfect either the art of the cucumber sandwich or the famously pinprick sharp, yet feather soft, conversations of idle females. I’ll try to make sure that a mastery of gin and tonics remains on the agenda. Beyond that, I hope that my fellow man-bags will join me in casting off the white lace gloves of the historical diplo-wife and instead take up regular man-bag excursions to the pub for beers and ice hockey. And if I am in fact, expected to present myself before the most senior man-bag, he had bloody well be ready to wrestle with our shirts off in front of a roaring bonfire. 1st one to submit buys the beers.

Vroom!

And here is a picture of the Ottawa man-bag mobile. I know, the second I get behind the wheel of this North American family friendly land yacht (its a Pontiac you know) we will cross firmly into the realm of middle class suburban stereotype. We will become the kind of family that you see in advertisements for the sort of stuff white people like.

Trust me friends. As I climb up behind that wheel I shall have my tongue planted firmly to one cheek. Its irony I tell you. Irony.

Honest.

An Irrelevant Musing

The other day while perusing the news I asked myself, is Putin the Communist Capt Kirk?

No really, do a Google images search for 'shirtless Putin'. You wouldn't be the 1st and won't be the last.

The results go for miles.

T-Minus 21 Days...

Seriously, 3 weeks today and we are on the plane. Here is a quick and dirty of how its breaks down...

10 Aug - Last day at work.
19/20 Aug - Movers pack/uplift all possessions designated for Ottawa and storage (ie anything we aren't taking on the plane).
21 Aug - Last creche day for the shorties.
25 Aug - Wheels up.

In other news, I am currently listening to the audiobook version of Max Brook's World War Z. Because WWZ is meant to be an oral history and they got actors for each of the characters the audio book format works well. The only downside is that its an abridged version.

Its still really good.

Tonight's Excitment...

Ironing. I hate ironing. On balance its probably my 2nd least favorite domestic chose (the dinner dishes are #1). In the good old days, by which I mean the 1950s, my darling wife would have seen to all my linen-based needs - after seeing to my gin and tonic needs and while wearing seamed stockings. These days, not so much. To add insult to injury, I work in an area where anything short of five crisply ironed shirts p/week will be the source of comment and office gossip. This really does confuse me somewhat since where I work people really ought to have better things to whisper about.

Anyway, I have my five shirts, all clean and wrinkly, laid out and awaiting their appointment with the iron. Their last appointment, because after I finish up I am unlikely to need another crisply ironed, clean business shirt and tie until sometime in early 2012. Let the Ottawa-emancipation begin!

Damn right that is exciting.

Bubbling Along...

Nothing too major to report. I had a nice dinner with some Canberra mates last night. We went to Abell's Kopi Tiam in Manuka and it was very tasty. I had some lovely Vietnamese style duck pancakes for starters and a tasty tender beef rendang for mains. James got the 100 chillies curry, even though he doesn't really like spicy food. I thinks its safe to say he was seduced by the name. I am told the tofu was nice, but don't believe it even for a second. Afterward, I was slightly annoyed that it has taken something as colossal as moving overseas to get me off my duff to arrange a meal with people I like. Lesson learned, but I also really hope some of the guys from BNE and CBR (or you, yes you in SYD and down in TAS) manage to make it over for a visit.



Also, we received some pics of the inside of the house. The furnishing will go, but these still gives a nice idea as to the rest of the place. My main man-bag concern is that the kitchen is a bit pokey, which will make hosting diplo-dinner parties tricky. Still, here are the money-shots. Note the fireplace (I grew up with and love wood heat) and the door to the balcony off the master bedroom. Boo-Yah! Pictures of the man cave will be provided in due course. As will pictures of the house buried in snow comes the depths of winter.

Fare Thee Well Old friend…

And with a handshake it was done. The Festiva has been sold. You have to understand that while it wasn't my 1st car the Festiva was wholly mine. I chose it, I paid for it, and it has served me well for over a decade. It carried me to and from work, or to and from University. It saw me safely to Wondai for radio shenanigans. TARDIS-like, it once conveyed seven people and a guitar from the radio station back to Dirk’s place. A feat made even more remarkable considering two of those people where Dirk and Gurubob.

The new owner is named Chris, who seemed a nice bloke. He arrived to look at it just after dark, so his inspection was conducted by feel during a quick drive followed by a careful listen to the engine with the bonnet up. I suspect this was a more careful consideration that it has received at most services.

I wish them both well.

Its Really Getting Real.

Every day we get more done and every day we find out about more that needs to be done. We depart on 25 August. You can count the weeks on one hand. Which is good, because you will need 2 hands to count all the passports (nine, for those who are interested) let alone the insurance policies and assorted other ‘balls in the air’ involved in getting the family overseas. Cars are for sale. The house is listed for rent. The kids have a finish date at crèche. Kids have crèche spots in Ottawa. Kids have school/crèche enrollments submitted for CBR when we return. Temporary accommodation (CBR) is booked. Utilities have a cutoff date. Movers have surveyed our possessions, requiring a decision on our part as to what goes where. The list goes on, and on. Then it goes on a bit more.

Excitingly for me, I have a finish date at work. As of 10 August, I begin my new life as a manbag. Its good that I will have over a week off work before the kids have finished crèche.

BTW – a big shout out to Greg who will soon graduate from University, before his daughter. Congratulations mate. Wish I could be there to see it.

The Evening's Viewing

Jane had a big farewell dinner out with her friends, so I spent the night at home with some dvds and sleeping children. As always when Jane is away, I chose films that in no way appeal to her. In this case Cloverfield and Doomsday. I also took the opportunity to finish off the Lagavulin, which may have something to do with why I enjoyed both films.

Cloverfield was pretty good, but a word of warning, the film is shot hand-cam style like Blair Witch. If that bothers you or makes you motion sick, avoid this film.. It also requires a few major suspensions of disbelief – such as why they would have continued filming – but if you can make the needed leaps of faith the rest of the film is well done. I am also a fan of killing off central characters so nobody can be assumed safe.

I chose Doomsday for a few reasons, starting with the director. Neil Marshal is the same guy that did Dog Soldiers (a rather decent werewolf film) and The Descent, which I have not seen but I understand was well done & very harrowing. Beyond that, its always nice to see Bob Hoskins and Malcolm McDowell working, and I can forgive a great deal to any movie which sees Rhona Mitra (read the bio - its funny) spend all her time in a black singlet and skin tight pants. It would be very easy to dismiss it as Madmax in Scotland, but honestly its weirder than that and was an unexpected - tho admittedly Lagavulin enhanced - amusement.

Serious Excitment!

The Australian High Commission in Ottawa rang yesterday. We have a house! (pictured) This is terrific news for many reasons. It means we can move in straight away upon arrival instead of staying in a serviced apartment and madly house hunting. Also, we got really lucky. It was originally listed above the rental budget we have been provided, but the High Commission managed to negotiate the price down. It’s a terrific house with lots of rooms (see below) and the location is perfect. It is within walking distance of Jane’s work, a big riverside park and the Governor’s residence, and easy striking distance of the kid’s crèche and the downtown area.

Honestly, it is much better in almost every way to what we expected.

MAIN LEVEL
Living room, Dining room, Kitchen, Family room, Den, Powder bathroom.

SECOND LEVEL
Master bedroom, Master ensuite, Bedrooms x2, Bathroom, Laundry

BASEMENT – aka Jason’s Man-cave & ample guest accommodation
Finished rooms x2

Year built: 1910
Flooring: hardwood, wall-to-wall carpet
Heating/cooling: forced air natural gas, electric heat pump,
wood fireplace/heat pump air conditioning
Parking: one attached garage, one detached garage,

So Cool it Hurts

Cinematic (read 'if possible watch in full screen') preview for the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO game...

http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/deceived-cinematic-trailer

No really, it hurts. Watching that trailer reminds me of just how awesome the new Star Wars movies could have been, but weren’t. It also hurts because I know that no matter how cool it looks, MMOs just aren’t my thing.

So instead of the awesomeness seen above, we got this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYfibSaDHrM


Damn you Lucas. Damn you to Hell.

NASA WTF?

NASA is famously smart. Admittedly, when they do make a mistake it can be rather spectacular and attract a huge amount of attention ('Need Another Seven Astronauts' ring any bells?). Still, Bruce Willis reckons they have whole rooms full of guys 'just thinking shit up', and I am not about to try and argue with him. So what the HELL is with putting not just one, but two guys in red shirts for the clearly Trek-inspired ISS Expedition 21 mission promotion poster? You cannot tell me that NASA of all places is bereft of Trekkies. Look at the front red-shirt’s face, he certainly knows that he is likely to burst into flames or be sucked into vacuum at any moment (and without getting any hot alien-love first). That face knows fear.

So I have to wonder, did the guys in red lose a bet, or has NASA recently taken out a very large insurance policy on the ISS?

A glimpse of the future...

Seriously. I saw this and simply knew that this exact scene will be part of my future.

Its a bit like inverted like deja vu.

Whats it all about?

Having concluded writing up the big weekend in Brisbane I figure I should give people an idea as to where this project goes from here. I see this blog covering a few main areas:

• The big move to Ottawa and life in Canada over the next two years;
• Wider developments within the family;
• My personal interests in international politics and security issues;
• My personal interest in games, mostly miniatures and PC; and,
• Whatever else may strike my interest.


I admit it’s a bit eclectic. There are probably very few people will be interested in all my posts, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you. In fairness, I should also admit right up front that there are likely to be a number of lengthy dry-patches between updates. For example, once the PC is packed up for the move it will be roughly two months before I get it back. All I can say is that I will try, but don’t be too worried or surprised if it all goes quiet for awhile.

Sunset

Day three started late, thank God. A leisurely breakfast heavy on grease and coffee was enjoyed on George St before applying our combined mad tetrus skills to fit Paul, Nick Bart and myself plus associated luggage into the Getz before fleeing to the airport. It was a close thing. Between the need to refuel the rental and Paul’s desire to see the Kingsford Smith memorial we barely made it to the gate in time. Seriously, they were calling our names over the PA and we were the last people to board.

And that was it. I received a relatively soft return to reality. The house was empty and quiet, until it wasn’t. Big hugs ensued from Jane and the shorties.

A couple of reflections on the weekend…

Brisbane is my road not taken. I didn’t leave because I don’t like Brisbane. I left because it was that time of life where I got an offer for bigger and better things that could simply not be had by staying in Brisbane. As a result, for me Brisbane exists in a moment of splendid isolation, unsullied by the more mundane aspects of my life over the last many years. I have never changed a dirty nappy in Brisbane, argued with my wife in Brisbane or hated my (current and far more real) job in Brisbane. Obviously if I had stayed reality would have tarred Brisbane just as it has Canberra. But I left, so Brisbane remains impossibly shiny in my 20/20 hindsight and so long as I only make brief visits filled with good fun and mates it will stay that way.

I didn’t even come close to seeing everyone I would have liked or catching up with everyone I saw. I probably could have been there for twice as long and still not been satisfied. So trust me folks, if I didn’t get to see you, I am sorry. If I saw you and we didn’t really get a chance to talk, I am sorry. And if we had a chance to talk, I really wish it had been for longer.

There are a lot of people up there that I miss. That isn’t going to change anytime soon. Facebook, blogs online gaming, etc all of these things are nice, but its not even close to a lazy afternoon on Caxton St with beers and laughs flowing freely.

Take care all, I very much hope to see you again in 2012.

Day two...

Day two started as you would expect, with a hangover. Yesterday had been proof that the spirit is willing, this morning finished the saying. To his credit and our lasting gratitude, Humph provided coffee, berocca and a damn fine pile of toast, eggs and savoury mince.

On schedule, late morning saw the arrival of a few mates for a days worth of relaxed beers from the outrageously well stocked beer-fridge and gaming on Humph’s 12 foot long wargaming table. Aside from the obvious practical advantages of Humph’s place (family away, Ishmael sized gaming table and enough beer to float a boat) this place also has history for me. Beer-wise, the fridge of bottomless beer used to be mine. It was a share house spare that I sold to Humph years ago. More importantly for today though was the gaming history. I have never won at Humph’s place. Never. No matter the game, system or opponent. At Humph’s I am accursed in all matters concerning the pushing little painted blobs of lead and plastic, until today. I went two for two, and one was even against Humph. I look forward to holding that victory for at least two years.

The game of the day was 2nd edition Warmachine, but we also played a terrific little board game called ‘Betrayal at the House on Haunted Hill’. Check it out.

That evening, another gathering of mates to see Huge Jackman as Wolverine at the Southbank Imax. Ladies, even at the Imax you cannot see anything during the waterfall scene. Southbank was pretty amazing. I lived in Brisvegas when the project was new and the last I remembered the blocks directly behind Southbank were barren and deserted wastelands. Now they are crammed full of café and shops, but I do wonder what formerly bustling area of Brisbane is now a ghost town to compensate. People were everywhere and parking was insane. The movie has been out for sometime so I won’t go into any depth. I enjoyed it well enough for what it was.

After the film there were a few goodbye’s before a handful of us headed into the city for some food and late beers at the Treasury Casino. More history for me. Many yers ago I was in the very 1st group of trainee dealers for the Treasury. I spent 8 years kicking around the place, bouncing between shifts and games. The clock started upstairs in high rollers room dealing roulette when the place opened and stopped when I finished my honours degree and escaped into the public service. I made a few friends, but overall I really don’t miss being there. On the plus side, the café is open all night and provided a respectable laksa. Somewhat sadly, as we walked through I saw a few people still there behind the tables from day one.

One of the cleverer things I did with regard to the weekend was to book a hotel room for Sunday night. It was a couple blocks down from the casino, it was clean, private and utterly, endlessly quiet from the moment I closed my eyes until the moment I chose to reopen them the next day. Bliss.

Roots and Shoots

I recently had the good fortune to spend a long weekend in Brisbane. It was to be my ‘last hurrah’ through Brisbane to visit my friends and history before following my wife on a two year posting to the frozen wilds of Canada. Between the weekend and the coming C (as in Canda) change, I decided to restart my blog. Here goes…

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I knew I was back in Canberra because the air was 10 degrees colder and the people were 10 years older (and generally less attractive at that). What a great weekend it had been. The people, the beers, the people, the games, the people. Best write it up before the fog steals it away.

Day one started by meeting up with Nick and Paul at the airport before the three of us and all our luggage piled into a very small rental car so that Paul could draw upon his wildly out of date knowledge of Brisbane to drive us to the pub. Thankfully, despite all the other ways in which Brisbane has changed, Caxton St has not moved and was located with just one call to HQ asking them to consult Google for directions. We took up battle stations at Kitty O’Shae’s and proceeded to drink, laugh and catch up with the many old friends that wandered in and out as best suited their schedule. It was especially nice to see short Michelle. Given our history it’s a wonder that we even speak, let alone talk in any depth and amuse the hell out of each other.

Anyway, Kitty’s was chosen for a very simply reason (no, not that it is next door to the Velvet Cigar). Kitty’s is an easy walk around the corner to the Brisbane Arts Theatre which has been home to a production of He Died With a Felafel in His Hand. This was their last show and it was tremendous fun. Especially as my friend and former housemate Arian had been cast as JB and Castle Blokenstein (a share house I founded and presided over for a number of years) had been used as the name of one of the first of the sharehouses he transits. Despite association with several characters in the Brisbane tales, I had never seen the stage production. Many beers, 13 of my closest mates and a seemingly bottomless bag of warm flaccid snakes made for perfect company.

Much as I enjoyed the show and appreciated the ‘updates’, I suspect that future productions of Felafel would benefit from being reframed as a historical piece. There has been a pretty comprehensive paradigm shift beneath the surface of student share houses. Sure, students are still sharing accommodation, but it’s a new generation taking new drugs in a new economic, urban and university environment. Talking about a ‘plasma TV’ instead of just a TV feels a bit tacked on. Likewise, the elements of the show dealing with homosexuality are, I suspect, very dated. It probably wouldn’t be too hard to reframe. Maybe start with JB talking to his son, who is about to head off to uni, about life ‘back in the day’. Anyway, just my 2cents over an issue I suspect was well considered by Birmo, Simon and Girl Clumsy when they decided to update the stage show for the most recent production.

Following the show we hung out in the courtyard for awhile, chatting amiably with various theatre goers (including a brief discussion with Girl Clumsy about the difference between US & Oz gangbangs), until finally piling back into Paul’s little rental and heading for the deep, deep South of Brisbane to Humph’s house. Humph had cunningly convinced his wife and child to leave town for the weekend, so arriving late and having a few more wee glasses poured from the more interesting bottles of the highest shelf was no issue. Eventually, I folded myself into the couch’s warm and loving embrace and let my mind drift away into the warm night air.