Poker with Dick Cheney

The Poor Man: Poker With Dick Cheney

Hah!

Tim

Tim, Judi, Gavin, Katie, Ben

Taken on Christmas Day up by Gosford, returning from a great day at Pearl Beach:

Holidays in the Land of Oz

Happy belated holidays. Sorry I have been incommunicado for the last month or so, but I have been dealing with some depression, etc. Those of you who know me will not be surprised at that news. I wish I could say that I'm past it now, but it looks like it needs to kick me in the butt for a while longer. It's ok - builds character.

Despite the miserable mood, I have still been pretty active - made easier by the presence of three early 20-somethings, two active canines, new kayaks, and a hubby who can't seem to get enough of the water. In fact, after taking Gavin to the airport this morning (we were sad to see him go!), Tim and I went boating on the Lane Cove River.

On Monday, Gavin and I went to the nearby Koala Park. It's a small animal sanctuary where you can see and pet many local animals - koalas (of course), kangaroos (of course), echidnas, wallaroos, emus, etc. As you can see, koalas are almost impossibly cute and sweet creatures.



And then there is the cute roo entertaining me....













... and here's Gavin looking pretty cute as he entertains this roo...



Cheers, Judi

Christmas Eve

We celebrated our first Christmas in Australia last night with Gavin, and Ben and Katie. Katie and I cooked some Indian food, Katie, Judi and Ben made jolly hats and a creditable Christmas tree, we opened presents, and watched one of our (T and J) favorite movies - Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

Here we are with hats and tree.




Happy Holidays!

Tim

The most amazing thing about George Bush - Part 2

Yes, he can still amaze me. Even though my expectations are really, really low, he can sink below even those. Choosing to spy illegally on USA citizens when he could just as easily spy legally on the same USA citizens is mind boggling - there's no sense in it. It just goes to show a absolute contempt for the electorate and all the things that he claims the USA can export - democracy, the rule of law, open debate. And yet still people stand up for him, some simply because he claims to be a Christian. While I'm not a Christian now, I was raised as one and it's hard to reconcile what I know and respect about Christianity - love, forgiveness, turning the other cheek, "the meek shall inherit the earth" - with how the Bush government has operated. A pre-emptive, baseless, illegal war that has killed perhaps 100,000 Iraqi people? The complete indifference to suffering seen in the aftermath of Katrina? The unending tax breaks for the rich? The fear-mongering and constant lies? Surely none of this can be counted as Christian?

I guess my only hope is that people will wake up one day and be embarrassed to have supported him. I'm not holding my breath.

Tim

See George Best in action

Following up on my post from a few weeks ago, I'd like to point out that there's a music video about George Best out, written by Colin Hay from Men At Work (remember them from the eighties). It's about 6 minutes long is mostly George Best in action. The proceeds go towards supporting Donor Family Network, an organization that supports donor families and promotes organ and tissue donation.

Tim

Dudes at the Beach

Kayaking

Gavin and I have been kayaking four days in a row. It's now Christmas Eve and we're going to take the day off to rest. We've been to various places around Hornsby. There's a regional Park, Berowra Waters, within about 15 minutes drive that is superb - a quiet calm estuary running through high sandstone cliffs. Here are some pictures - not great but you get the idea.





Tim

Gavin and Capoeira

Gavin, who's visiting us at the moment, does Capoeira - a Brazilian mixture of dance and martial arts. Here are some pictures of him at his club in Dallas:







Tim

Zen master Bush

W as a Zen master.

Wonderful.

Tim

Some Photos, as requested....

Manly Beach Bums: Tim's nephew, Ben Cornwell, from the UK on the left and Gavin Cornwell, attending UTDallas, on the right. Ben is in Australia on a six month working holiday, but just arrived a week ago to spend some weeks with Tim and I. His girlfriend, Katy, will arrive on December 19. Gavin touched down Saturday, December 10, and will be staying with us over Christmas until December 28.



This is Tim and I on the deck of the Manly Ferry. What a beautiful day - sunny with perfect temps!

PADDLING

Wow. Kayaking is fun. As you paddle along, it's hard to think of anything wrong in the world. You become one with the water and the rhythm of your stroke. The beautiful, peaceful Australian countryside surrounds you and the narrow saltwater bay you move through - just gliding. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Until your solitude and peace is ruined by those bloody, crazy Ozzie birds squalking and screaming!!!
(Just kidding.)

Saturday we bought two kayaks (Wilderness Systems Tarpon 120 sit on tops), life vests (aka pfd's), paddles, and gloves. Yeah, gloves - my left thumb almost fell off from being rubbed against the paddle surface. We picked up the kayaks in the morning and spent the rest of the day trying to find some water that didn't have white caps on it. It was a windy day. Our search took us up the coast from Sydney (the Spit Bridge) to Narrabeen Lake which we thought would be adequately sheltered for a calm paddle. Bad idea for us, good idea for all of the windsurfers there.

We continued up the coast past Bayview (our beloved Doggie Heaven) and saw several lovely venues for future paddling - definitely not for our maiden voyage though - too windy! So we ventured farther north to the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and the Akuna Bay marina. Wind, wind and more wind. Although we were frustrated that we hadn't found the perfect calm paddling spot yet, we thoroughly enjoyed the drive through the park.

At this point we debated giving up our search and trying again the next morning, but we gave it one last try and went to Bobbin Head which is also part of the Ku-ring-gai National Park system. Ahhhhhh. A breeze but certainly no deal breaker. We unloaded the boats from the top of Tim's wagon and had to wade through some really sticky mud to launch them. If you stopped long enough, you could pretty much kiss your sandal goodbye.

The rest of the afternoon was perfect weather which made for a perfect maiden voyage. Tim had obviously found his equilibrium since I found him leaning back - feet in water - a contented look on his face - lazily floating along.

Our kayaks met all of our expectations. They were stable, maneuverable, tracked well and speedy enough for us. Love at first float.

Catching up.... Ben Cornwell, Tim's 23 year old nephew from the UK called first thing Saturday morning and after a long miserable flight and a night spent in the airport arrival lounge asked if he could stay with us. Tim picked him up from the train station an hour later and after exchanging a few pleasantries, crashed and wasn't heard from again until early evening. Sunday, I spent shopping for Tim's spiffy outfit (see below), so the "boys" went kayaking at the Berowra Waters. I'll leave that story for him to tell.

Ya'll be good now, ya heah?
Judi

Check out Flickr for a few new photos.

Moving on from George Best and George Worst...

What's the Number 1 thing you thought you would never ever see?

Give up?

Answer: Tim in a suit.



Tim adds: The tie is more of a problem. When I was at Grammar School I had to wear a tie every day and I hated it! Still feels unnatural. I have to say that I like the suit. I'm giving a presentation at a CSIRO Industry day so I have to look reasonably smart, which I guess that I do :) Judi did all the shopping without me there. She did really well.

The most amazing thing about George Bush

is that when it came down to it he (and much of the right in the US), didn't believe in democracy, fairness, decency, honesty, openness, the truth, or any of the other things that I (as a transplant from the UK to the US) recognized as being key ideals in US mythology. When 9/11 happened all of that simply crumbled away. Suddenly it's ok to lie, distort, hide, incarcerate, torture. Of course, many people will say that it's always been that way for the US. I don't think I agree. Kennedy, Clinton and Carter were fundamentally decent men, quite different from W.

The last few months have been as strong an experience as seeing the Iron Curtain come down. The hold that Bushco has had over the US seems to have simply disappeared. What happened? How could the lies that once worked not now work? Very strange. But encouraging.

I hope that the US recovers after Bush is gone.

Tim