G-n-L Ganesh and Lauren

Welcome to the personal blog of Ganesh and Lauren! Feel free to visit the contact section and drop us a line. Thanks for visiting and enjoy your time here.

Your horrid image doth unfix my hair...

Tuesday, 30 December 2008

Progress towards resolutions:
Kilos lost to date: 0.5kg - thanks to being too lazy to leave the house yesterday to get food! Unfortunately my tummy really really hurts now...
Gorgeously Green: Curly hair - the eco way!
Carbon Footprint initiatives: Obtained a second hand bicycle from mum for riding to work!
Creative Recycling Sales: 0, though site design is complete and coding has begun!
Hours Volunteering: 1 for Sustainability Street, fixing up their website requests, so I guess that doesn't really count
Nepali Word: Ghumriyeko Kapaal (Curly Hair)
Book of the week: Green to Gold - half way through, it's a bit businessy but it's not bad
Friends: Haven't done anything about this yet! Suggestions greatly appreciated... Though I did see an interesting looking CAE course regarding the art of conversation which may help next year!
Lifetime Goal (43 Things) progress: None as yet, though I found a good article on the Yangtse River as a proposed destination and have researched transport options from Shanghai to Hangzhou for the eclipse day... AND I have been drinking a lot of tea!
Adventure of the Month: I think Sovereign Hill can count as the adventure of the month! Lachlan is STILL teasing me about having such childish interests and hanging out with the 5 year olds in old fashioned costume. I'm sure I'm not the only adult in the world who thinks dressing up in national dress of varying countries is fun!

(Quote courtesy of Shakespeare) I now have curls!! Another b'day present from Ganesh was a trip to the eco hair salon in South Yarra. I have always wanted curly hair and now there is a sustainable (though very expensive) way to get it! Well it's not super curly, it's half curly half wavey... but it's an exciting way to start the new year. I took a very very long time though... More than 4 hours! I can't imagine how some ladies find time to get this done every week... I had a long discussion with the lady in charge about sustainability and a water treatment plant on site and she said she'd bring it up at the next team meeting!

I'm actually relatively inexperienced in terms of going to hair dressers... When I was 13 years old and very excited about my first trip to a real hair dresser (no more hair cuts from mum!) the lady convinced me she had a great style for me and I'd look amazing... I suppose vanity beat down any concerns I had and I went with it. Unfortunately she cut my hair in a diagonal right across the front of my face and then gelled it up like a visor. I was devastated and almost started crying in the salon while my mum and the hairdresser tried to convince me that it looked great (it looked awful!)... I had to walk around with crooked bits of hair in front of my face for weeks before it grew long enough to pull back. I don't think I braved another salon for a good 3-4 years after that, at which stage my brother was at the height of the primary school head lice phase and I was ejected mid hair cut from the salon in shame, covered in oil and very smelly head lice lotion with disgusted looks from all the clients and hair dressers combined! (I might add that my mother wouldn't let me go home but insisted I walk around Chadstone and see a movie with half a hair cut, dripping oil like some sort of deep fried papadam). I don't think I braved another hair dresser until Thailand... I figured that perhaps the curse would be lifted in another country... and that was it up until this year! This year I required 3 formal hairdos (Dad's wedding, the Banksia Awards and the Melbourne Awards) and nothing went wrong, and when I found out about the eco hair salon I was sure the curse was completely lifted... and all seems to have worked out for the best!

I must admit that I was a little bit disappointed with the eco hair salon's green credentials. There were plasma tvs everywhere (huge energy hoggers), lots of decorative lighting and a worrying amount of water going down the sink... but they were willing to discuss it which was good, and they were quite friendly...

Hmmm... well after spending most of the day getting my hair done I suppose I should do something useful! Oh yes, and I should probably have included 'be less sensitive' as my number 1 priority resolution - life is difficult always being excessively sensitive :-)

Labels: curls, hair, style

New Year's Resolutions

Monday, 29 December 2008

Ahh... Calvin and Hobbes, from my comic book days - which also included Archie and Mad Magazine (Many to spare if anyone would like to borrow!)... Sadly I'm not anywhere near close to being perfect so I have listed my new years resolutions accordingly!

Get Healthy It's time to lose those 10kg from last year... stop eating chocolate for dinner... and become a fighting fit blood donor again. This will be achieved with the aid of the CSIRO total well being diet and bike riding 30km per day to get to work and back! Progress to be tracked via Fit Day...

Carbon Footprint I will reduce my carbon footprint this year... both at home and at the office. According to the calculator on Greenroots Movement my carbon footprint during 2008 was 5699kg of CO₂-e for the year with the bulk of the emissions from food and transport. If everyone lived like me we would need 2.16 earths to be sustainable! I'm not sure what I'm going to do about the solar eclipse trip though... I don't really believe in offsets but I guess there is no other option apart from not going... At least I can grow lots of vegies to reduce the food portion!

Style The engineering geek thing has been fun but it's time to embrace femininity. Hopefully it will not necessarily involve lots of money - but I will try to be 'gorgeously green' :-) No promises of course as I really don't have an eye for it but I will try my best.

Creative Recycling I will give the creative recycling idea lots of attention and encouragement and aim for 1000 sales by mid year and 5000 by the end of the year... I think it holds a lot of promise and I'm really excited to see what people come up with!

Voluntary work This year I will do some face to face voluntary work instead of doing it all via the web... I'm really concerned about the impact of climate change on developing nations and indigenous communities in Australia so would perhaps like to volunteer for the SES... Alternatively more work with EWB, Word Vision or the ACF would be great. My dream job will be in this field one day!

Learning Since uni drained the desire for learning out of me it needs to be rekindled! Chosen fields of learning for 2009 are:
- books
- nepali
- dancing
- the art of conversation

Achieve at least 1 of the items on my 43 things list. 2008 was the house purchase, so 2009 is most likely going to be the solar eclipse but I could learn to Salsa as well, you never know... 2 left feet doesn't preclude dancing, it just takes a lot longer!

More focused blog posts I will try to stop rambling all over the place... As the blog is a personal one it will probably still meander through various fields but at least I can make each post more focused on the topic at hand.

Make 2 new friends As an HSP I don't get out as much as I should... I want to try and make 2 new friends (at least!) this year. No idea how to go about this yet, but will keep you posted... I guess this also involves being less sensitive!

Adventure Go on at least 1 adventure per month...

Now each blog post during 2009 will include progress towards these goals!

Oh, and I found out that I'm a creative travelling money manager:

I took the 43 Things Personality Quiz
and found out I'm a

Creative Traveling Money Manager

0% of the 10917 people who have
taken this quiz are like me.

Labels: new years resolutions

Cooking up a storm

Sunday, 28 December 2008

Wow! What a Christmas... I guess I just have to be thankful for having such a great family :-) It almost didn't feel like christmas this year because work was so hectic right up to the 24th mid afternoon, but everyone else put in such an enormous effort this year (even though I didn't! - usually it's me preparing for months beforehand)... Special mention must be made of the boys (in particular Lach) who took on full responsibility for buying presents, making cakes etc (I'm sure with a little help from mum!) but without any input from me - a huge step! Grandma - who took it upon herself to go environmentally friendly and bought a Christmas tree made out of recycled coke cans made by a South African man... Mum, who exquisitely wrapped many many presents and made 100% sure that everything was divided between us - I don't think I would own any clothes if it wasn't for mum, and of course Ganesh, who also spoilt me this year!

In regards to the homeless people, we reached a compromise for a mini celebration on the 24th... I wish I could do more for them though, but I suppose at some point they need to take that step themselves to decide they want something more than life in a garage. When they do I'll definitely be there...

Apart from that we've been packing boxes, ferrying relatives to the airport and cooking up a storm - today was gajar ko halwa (carrot pudding). Ganesh's cousin's dad used to make it in Nepal. It's surprisingly tasty - similar to rice pudding. We also attempted a plain burfi but I'm not sure whether or not that's going to set - it's basically solid milk with sugar...

Labels: carrot pudding, gajar ko halwa

Disgruntled elves leave a christmas message for Rudd...

Friday, 26 December 2008

Disgruntled elves took time from their Christmas duties to leave a special message for Kevin Rudd at his Morningside office. The elves are angry about K Rudd's 5% care factor and 95% coal factor in dealing with Australia's climate change challenges... Turn up the sound for new lyrics to jingle bells....

A spokesperson for the elves said "the north pole is melting and we want K Rudd to know we're not happy. We want K Rudd to care more about Australia and the north pole than coal."

"The last thing K Rudd needs in these economic times is a bunch of homeless, unemployed and wet elves seeking refugee status due to climate change," the spokesperson said.

Labels: 5%, christmas, climate change, elves, Kevin Rudd

Have a very sustainable christmas...

Thursday, 25 December 2008

Have a very merry christmas and a happy new year!

Labels: merry christmas

2 sleeps until christmas

Tuesday, 23 December 2008

Christmas is almost upon us! I wrapped my last christmas present today (see the photo!)... all in old newspapers, magazines or reusable scarves... I've gone as eco as possible with fair trade, organic environmentally friendly gifts all round - some second hand (though I probably shouldn't mention that)... We're doing a kris kringle to reduce consumption, the wollemi pine is acting as a carbon sink while reviving a species that consists of less than 100 adult tress in the wild... and yet I'm feeling very guilty!

As I may have previously mentioned a complicated relationship exists between the homeless people who sleep in the car park under the office, the boss and one of the staff members, and myself and the more altruistic staff members. Each morning I bring them tea and occasionally biscuits - sometimes some of the other girls help me, bring in coats or just come down for a chat. The boys complain and cause trouble. One of the ladies is an extremely talented artist and I'm trying to help her sell her artwork over the internet so she no longer has to sleep in a car park (let me know if you have need of some incredible line art!). Anyway, I wanted to bring them over to our place for christmas... But everyone is strongly against it. Really heated discussions have taken place on numerous occasions. It's like no one understands that there isn't enough public housing or enough charities to help out at times like this. If we don't reach out at christmas time, when do we reach out? Advice greatly appreciated on how to convince people that this is a good idea (or perhaps reasons why it isn't, though I'm probably less open to those)...

Labels: christmas, homelessness

$5000 bonus...

Friday, 19 December 2008

My sincere thanks to all those who voted... The picture to the left was chosen as the winner of the environmental prize!!!! We have our start up funds for the new venture :-) This is so so exciting!! It's really hard to believe one person could win a $10000 environmental prize AND a $5000 environmental prize all in 1 year but as I always say, anything is possible... This is the boost the project needed to get off the ground over christmas/new year...

I also made a fantastic discovery today... Health by Chocolate - fantastically organic chocolate, supposedly good for the environment AND good for your health. No more low iron or low anything else... I can chocolate way my good health! Unfortunately it's only available in the US... But Xin and I tried to create healthy, study enhancing chocolate during exams once so perhaps there is another business opportunity for us there! I have always wanted to make chocolate, from crushing the cacao beans to decorating the wrappers... and now that there is a plantation in Queensland it can be sustainable as well as healthy!

This blog is a bit all over the place today... I'll put more consistent and better blogging on my list of new years resolutions too, but I just felt I needed to mention a few startling facts.... Grace, an old friend from school recently recommended I read The Honey Spinner a worldwide honey adventure (yum!). The narrator (also named Grace) drizzles her way through various pots of 'liquid gold' discovering some serious issues behind the tasty industry. Albert Einstein once said that: 'If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man'. While the current focus is on the US financial crisis another crisis is unfolding, the ramifications of which might prove to be just as serious. Colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon that has been called the Marie Celeste of the bee world, has been occurring since 2006. Colonies of adult bees just disappear. Few bodies are ever found and tests show that they are full of pathogens. Nearly a third of honeybee colonies have been destroyed by the syndrome and scientists do not yet know why it is occurring. I really don't know what we can do about this, but more people should know!

To really top off a very varied post, I couldn't resist including the story of another crazy Tesla devotee (my dad is another)... Tesla, while a great physicist, was slightly troubled in that he used to vibrate buildings at the exact frequency that it took to make them collapse... He was also famous for the Tesla coil... A doctor in Western Australia has chosen to follow in his footsteps make electrical art, Tesla style. Warren has launched Tesla Downunder to showcase his artistc experiments which use up to 500000 volts from the mains, and a long exposure camera...

Thanks again for your votes!!

Labels: bees, chocolate, competition, environmentalism, honey, winner

Why should we choose you?

Thursday, 18 December 2008

Interview day... Today I had a chance to implement my 'sustainable culture' HR policy... The job ad I posted for a new programmer included the requirement of 'interest in sustainability' amongst other things, and one of my key questions was regarding the 5% reduction! Unfortunately only 2 out of 50 applicants deemed my requirement worthy of a mention... and only 1 of those interviewed actually knew what the 5% target was about!! I am definitely starting to see why behavioural change is considered so difficult... (well I suppose I already knew from my chocolate addiction)... The candidates were an extremely mixed bunch... Those who were obviously social isolates, spoke too fast or didn't stop! Those who turned up in a dirty tshirt and those with full suits and cufflinks... Some fresh out of uni and some with years of professional experience. After all the interviews it turned out that the best 2 were the 2 who actually addressed the sustainability criteria in their responses... Now it's up to me to come up with a test/activity to determine which one!

Reading through the cvs really put my career into perspective though... I think I'm having a career crisis like Xin! I trained in software engineering and physics, I have been doing environmental engineering and sustainability and now I'm moving into education?! It's no way to build a skill set and have a focus like the people who I interviewed today... I need to decide what I enjoy most! It's just so difficult - elements of each are fascinating. Perhaps I should have been a journalist - the classic jack of all trades!

I also realised that my hobbies have really been light on this year. All my interest in sport, volunteering and the arts has dried up in favour of work, work and more work... If I'm not at work, I'm doing webpages for the University or for ecoIT or the not for profits I'm involved with... I really need to get out there and embrace life more! I read an interesting quote the other day. I'm not sure of the exact wording but it went along the lines of "boys learn to live too early, women learn to live too late, that is the problem with life". I'm certainly seeing that with Ganesh and myself. I suppose the HSP has to do with my slight uptightness but I've had enough - it's time to be a complete and happy person... No more hiding behind the computer! And yes, I see the irony of declaring that via a blog... I've been thinking a little bit about my new years resolutions of late and that is definitely going at the top of the list.

Labels: career, interview, sustainability

Where have all the protesters gone?

Wednesday, 17 December 2008

The protest today was very disappointing... Only a few members of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition showed up with banners to confront the first session leaving and the second session entering... I was shocked! Of all the insults to the climate movement this has got to be one of the biggest... I suppose many of the conservation groups were inside asking questions and obtaining details but they knew it was going to be a farce from the '5%' alone... Even the protesters themselves were a stark contrast to people in the session... Young girls outside - some as young as 16! And old men inside... Where has the passion gone?

All was not lost though... I met a few interesting people who told me about what they were doing in terms of climate change action... and on the way back to work I passed a beautiful shop on Lonsdale st (near the corner of exhibition st) called 'Art Life' that gave me lots of ideas about decorating the new house... Especially the old steel gazebo with exquisite pink curtains! I suppose I'll have to find a real second hand gazebo for environmental reasons though :-) I made 2 other detours on the way home... The bike shop - where I was informed that my desire for a cruiser was going to give me legs the size of tree trunks... and Famous Amos - to bring back cookies for everyone at work to lighten the mood... Things have been a little tense of late!

In health news - it's confirmed - I have really seriously low iron... Way below normal! I've never been unhealthy in my life... so something has got to change... My new diet includes daily sustainably fished sardine and hummus sandwiches... (i'm yet to try sardines but they are much much better for the environment than beef and a very good source of iron, as is hummus).

And Ganesh is starting the Microsoft Certified System Engineer course... I'm actually really interested to see what it will be like...

Hmmm... All of a sudden there is sepia tone through our back window... Amazing... Turning into a deep purple hue... Nature really surprises you sometimes!!

Labels: climate change, iron, nature, protest

5% target, 100% pathetic...

Tuesday, 16 December 2008

I feel betrayed... My vote went to the Greens, which in turn went straight to labor and helped Kevin Rudd become prime minister.... all because I believed strongly in climate change election promises. And now, crunch time, the Rudd Government's commitment to compensating and providing free permits to polluting industries is gambling with the lives and ecosystems of Australia and the world... "Peter Garrett, we cannot sleep while our planet is burning." There is no difference at all between the Rudd government and Howard's commitment to fossil fuel interests. At least Howard was honest!

While my application for the white paper public information session was rejected (apparently it was full) I read Anna Roses's overview from the session in Canberra... The so called 'gateway' of between 5 and 15% reduction actually means a 5% reduction because the carbon price ($25 per tonne) is based on this 5%. This is in the face of the CSIROs recommendations of a 60%-80% reduction. To make matters worse the emissions intensive trade exposed industries (the worst polluters of the lot) will basically having all their christmases at once. They will receive huge amounts of compensation (free permits) and the permits are tax deductible! If they buy their permits upfront they won't have to pay tax... The worst emitters get 90% of their permits for free... The second most polluting get 60% of their permits for free... so it makes more sense to increase pollution above thresholds to get more free permits... The carbon pollution REDUCTION scheme is an incentive to increase emissions!!!!!

Well I'm glad they didn't accept my application to attend the session... I'm going to the protest instead! I've also signed up for the climate action summit Jan 31st -> Feb 3rd in Canberra in 2009... This is pathetic.

Apart from that, not much other news... Lachie did well, and got into science at melbourne as planned... Echuca was very quaint and they had the most delicious lemon meringue fudge at Sharps old theatre and penny arcade.... The Murray looked particularly healthy and full after all that rain and there was an abundance of wildlife all along the rivers... The golden cow at Tongala was a definite let down though. For that many brown tourist signs, a mega car park, flags, banners, billboards and a giant building the greying-gold cow and the plastic sheet about tractors was rather confusing. Tongala itself was very cute though... And the Nestle factory held the promise of lots of chocolate and ice cream!

Labels: climate change, Kevin Rudd, pathetic

A great day...

Friday, 12 December 2008

I love my job... I know sometimes I have bad days... sometimes there are bad projects... and very often I'm super stressed and never get to do anything else... but on the whole it's a great job... There's lots of variety... I have a fantastic opportunity to do good... To learn how to do new things... And to change the world! Today I even got to write articles about greening business for the Australian Business Solutions Magazine... Okay, so they aren't great quality because it was such short notice but if it does turn into a regular feature (which they're hinting about) that's a lot of influence I'll have over sustainability in businesses Australia wide... On Monday I'm off to do a green building assessment in Tongala (and maybe will stop over in Echuca while I'm travelling - Mum and Ganesh seem pretty keen too!) and the Green Card is really making a move... Businesses are getting very excited about it... I have the full support of the business for Creative Recycling (if I want it) - I guess I really am very very lucky. Oh.. and I was offered a raise today as well! My second big one this year... I haven't accepted it yet because I really can't work any harder... but it was flattering to be offered :-)

In other very exciting news Ganesh told me about my birthday present today - A night in the museum! We're going to spend New Year in Sovereign Hill living an 1850s lifestyle in full period costume and everything! I have been wanting to do that since grade 5 when I got the chickenpox on the first day of camp and missed out on all the fun of attending an old mining town school and learning my 17 times table (ok, I was pretty geeky back then too - I doubt the prospect of the 17 times table excites many 10 year olds)...

Anyway, there's lots to do and learn about green buildings and all these lux, temperature and power meters... and I have a new Mac Book Pro to set up and play with for someone at work! (Not that they really need setting up but who could resist?)...

Btw - does anyone want a copy of the Shield season 5? Andrew asked me to get it for him for Christmas... but then bought it for himself anyway! I'm not sure what it's about but knowing Andrew it involves law enforcement, the army, guns or Danny Crane...

Oh and Lachie's year 12 results are out at 7am on Monday!!! We're about to find out whether we have another engineer, scientist or lawyer in the family!

Labels: birthday, creative recycling, job, results, sovereign hill, the shield

Mixed bag...

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Today was a bit of a mixed bag... some ups... some downs... some lefts... some rights... ok.... that was a little bit dodgy but just not sure where to start! At the risk of this becoming the 'L' only blog I'll proceed with my day. I attended the Green Business conference today which was a bonus - time off work - free food - learning about climate change, what more could you ask for? Unfortunately the conference turned out to be almost exactly the same as every other green business conference I've ever been to - but I may have potentially generated some Green Card clients so all was not lost. It finished a little earlier than anticipated so I had time to drop in on Mag Nation on the way back... as well as passing the doughboy donut store for some 'homer style' donuts for Ganesh (not that he eats anything sweet but if it's Homer related I may have a chance of corrupting his palette)... As I was in the area I stopped at the blood bank to make a donation but to my horror discovered that my heamoglobin had dropped from previously 144 to a sobering 112... I am no longer eligible to donate blood! Clearly this has everything to do with my starting full time working with daily overtime, stopping all exercise and gaining 10kg, but it was quite a shock! The nurse sent some blood off for an iron test and apparently I'm supposed to start eating red meat which conflicts significantly with my environmental vegetarianism... All hope is now pinned on bike riding to work from the new house!

Arriving at home, G and I had a bit of a disagreement that lasted longer than it should have.. and there was some more work updating websites etc... but all is well now and we're listening to Creedance Clearwater Revival extracts on the iTunes store!

Btw please vote on my entries into the ING my dream is competition:

Creative Recycling business funding

Solar eclipse trip

Solar panels for the new house

To win $10000

Ok I know they are pretty lame, but you've got to be in it to win it, right?

Note - it's a cookies based voting system... and cookies aren't registered if you vote with google chrome incognito... Just an observation... Not suggesting anything dodgy ;-)

Labels: competition

Fairytale comes to life...

Tuesday, 9 December 2008

In what appears to be a straight out of a fairytale or fable, Ganesh's cousin's brother's son today appeared after 6 years missing! In an incredible turn of events, the boy everyone thought was dead is very much alive... And while it's not quite amnesia, it's pretty close. The boy went missing from his family home at the tender age of 15. Somehow he ended up in India working for a corrupt man who paid him nothing and wouldn't let him leave. The working conditions were appalling and he ended up being severely injured by metal from a passing truck... This left him in hospital recovering for almost 3 years... and now somehow he's made his triumphant return to his family in Nepal. The details are a bit sketchy, but this is even better than 'the boy under the tree' - the famous Nepalese boy who had been sitting under a tree in a prayer like meditative state for 6 months without food or water... (Ok, that one turned out to be a hoax - but this is very much a reality!)...

Labels: boy, fairytale, missing, nepal

Adventure on the Whiskey Creek Trail...

Saturday, 6 December 2008

What began as a simple bushwalk with the conservation volunteers ended up as a slightly more adventurous walk on the wildside... All was well as we piled into the van and headed off to Lerderderg State Park (supposedly named after the 18th century explorer Twitley Lerderderg though google is surprisingly silent on the matter)... I must admit I was a little less prepared than I usually am for a bushwalk. I was assured that our leader was a highly experienced conservationist and walker and that he would bring maps, first aid and navigation equipment... I did have a look for a map but Lerderderg is surprisingly unpopular given that it's so close to Melbourne (about 75km), and I couldn't find a free one...

It was beautiful weather... and the group was a diverse and interesting bunch - Ganesh and myself, Llana from Toyota, Claire who was looking for a career change, Andrew - the power plant operator, Ros the hip bikie, Lewis a resident 'class clown', a Scottish ecologist and our leader Rod. There were a few sites along the Whiskey Creek trail leading up to the Razorback including some beautiful sulfur crested cockatoos, some unique metallic blue and yellow backed ants, a diversity of trees and native grasses, and what looked like a holden that had been used for target practice... We even passed an old stone wall - built as a type of water catchment for miners in the area as we nearing the spring onion trail! It wasn't until we were about 5.5km in, and had stopped for a leisurely lunch in a dry creek bed that things took a turn for the worse...

Our leader, Rod, went for a short walk around the lunch spot, looking for the best part of the track for an ascent up another steepish hill... he reappeared with a 'track' through a rather dense section next to the creek bed and then we began the long climb up a spur... It became quickly apparent that no path existed and that we were definitely not on the vodka creek path as planned... (yes, we all know what was on the miner's minds when they named the trails and creeks)... Rod pulled out his GPS and located us on a map - supposedly we were 'off the beaten path' but if we climbed to the top of the spur we'd bump into it... So off we went... At this point it started to pour with rain... at the same time I cut my leg on a branch and began to bleed all over my new (sustainable!) shoes that I had spent months looking for... I had come dressed for a walk along a path rather than through the bush - whoops! At the top of the very steep hill we consulted the GPS again and it told us to go down the other side! I queried the accuracy of the GPS and the number of satellites it had a fix on... but we descended through much thicker, spikier bush anyway (resulting in many more cuts), to a small gully which did not appear on the map... People were looking very worried at this stage and trying to work out whether they could phone the SES, park rangers, or loved ones for a final farewell... The GPS said we were supposedly standing right on top of the trail when we were in actual fact in the midst of the densest bush we'd seen all day...

In the midst of the group starting to panic and Lewis insisting we call the SES, Ganesh started looking really excited.. Though I wasn't yet worried, I was curious as to this sudden display of enthusiasm... It turns out he was looking forward to spending the night in the forest, catching wild kangaroos and roasting their meat over a fire... Hmm... I think perhaps the details of his plan had alluded him, but I wasn't one to dampen much needed enthusiasm, so left him to his dreams of roasted meat without disturbing the more environmentally conscious in the group.

Fortunately Ganesh and I had brought a compass along... so with a rough idea of where we were based on the map contours and our last known contact with the path, we bush bashed directly west... Sighs and concerns were heard throughout the group, but we bravely battled on... I became the 'compass girl', and though there were moments of tension, we hit the path as expected to cheers and cries of joy!! Confidence shattered in technology, we kept walking on guided by the compass... There was still a longish walk ahead, and everyone was particularly thirsty, having finished their 2-3 hour supply of water as we passed into the 6th hour... but by the 7th hour in the great outdoors, we passed pieces of the old holden... and moments later - the first glimpses of the van! We all ran and hugged the beautiful van with its bountiful supply of clean, fresh drinking water... I've never been happier to petrol guzzler in all my life! (And Ganesh ordered an extra meaty pizza on the way home to quench his bloodthirstiness - never phased for a second about being lost)....

Labels: bushwalk, lerderderg, lost, whiskey creek

A terrible, terrible day...

Friday, 5 December 2008

It's good that this blog is now back 'on air'... or maybe 'on microchips'... If it wasn't, where would I be able to vent my feelings about my terrible terrible day? Okay... it's not so terrible now that I'm drinking tea, dipping freddos into the tea then allowing the chocolate to melt in my mouth and of course getting this blog up and running! Mmmmm... chocolatey... And I know it's not very healthy but if you were harassed by all the maths teachers in australia you would need chocolate too!

It has been a rather emotional week this week... With the purchase of the house... the stress of negotiations... Finally getting grandma and mum in the same car... and of course staying up very late every night this week to try and create miracle results for a mega work project... I was looking forward to a nice quiet and relaxing friday and a free office lunch to end the week... Instead I discovered that I was scheduled to give a talk about 'sustainability concepts and tools for mathematical education' at the MAV conference at La Trobe university at 12pm... Heeeeeeelllllllppppppp!!!! For those who know me, to say I'm not the world's greatest public speaker would be putting it kindly... I need lots and lots and lots of preparation and really cool graphically animated slides to take the focus off me...

I frantically pulled together a webpage with some reference links, threw the final paragraphs into work I was supposed to have all day to complete and ran out the door (probably slamming it out my way out due to my very dark mood). On the train I managed to convince myself that it would be fine... but things took a turn for the worse when I actually arrived at La Trobe. The campus is not at all like Melbourne Uni - which is small and compact - while it's nice to have a sprawling green campus it makes it difficult to get where you need to quickly... I headed all the way across campus to the sign up area which had by then, been abandoned. Lost, I stumbled around from college to college, finally ending up in union house to discover 3 people behind a small table without any sign running the conference... They looked like maths conference organisers so I gave it a shot... 'Umm.. I think my presentation was supposed to start 5 mins ago, do you know which room I should be in?'... 'Session?'... 'G39'... 'Humanities 120'... 'Thanks'... Typical maths teachers, they didn't notice my frantic, panicked look, my red face, my gasping for breath or my clear lack of knowledge of the whereabouts of Humanities 120 (which turned out to be right next to Humanities 106 oddly enough)... I suppose most maths students look like that all the time!

Anyway, I finally made it to my session and a lady was standing out the front... I asked if this was the right place and she said, yes, everyone's waiting... I admitted that I only found out about this this morning which is why I was on the late side, at which point she gave me a wide eyed look, ran into the computer lab and started whispering to her friends and pointing at me... My gosh!!

My presence in the room was otherwise not at all registered. A few side glances and back to checking email... I coughed and announced myself and gave a brief introduction at which point the barrage began... Aren't you a math teacher? Which part of the curriculum is this related to? We paid good money for this conference and you're late and unprepared? Hmm.. Ok so maybe they had a point... I tried to explain but 50% of them walked out in a huff, making sure to raise their noses slightly as they walked past me... the ignoramus non mathematician...

As I (what I now consider bravely) launched into a spiel with the remainder of the group, questions hurled from left and right about my credentials, my organisation and what I was doing there... I struck out big time when the first interactive calculator didn't work and we had no IT support and no admin authority to enable javascript.... at which point a small group in the back started surfing the web and pointing out at the top of their lungs that they had found much much better websites with much better calculators that were easier to use and nowhere near as crap as the ones on greenrootsmovement.com (formerly known as stoptheblackballoons.com). I tried to stay positive - yes, there are lots of organisations out there doing fantastic things - this is just about bringing some new concepts into the curriculum to teach... Almost everyone walked out in a huff at that point.... One lady and one man remained... The man said it was all too complicated... The lady said it was all to simplistic, that society had moved beyond what we were offering and that why couldn't she do a lifecycle assessment on my website... I tried to explain about the complexity of lifecycle assessments and the advantage of having a national database so that one day she might be able to... but all in vain... I couldn't not appease the remaining 2 math teachers... At the end of my session, head hung in shame I left La Trobe... I was at a loss... There are no country songs or self help books to help you deal with the angry eyes of a conference full of mathematics teachers...

I headed back to work... by the time I was back I'd missed my free lunch.. smiling happy staff were just walking out of the pub as I rounded the corner... only to confront me with lots more work and queries about why the header was non standard on the last appendix of the report I'd submitted in a rush that morning... I wonder... In addition certain people who cannot be named had not submitted a tender I had been asking them to for the past week, the deadline had passed and I was now going to have to personally apologise to all stakeholders... Right at that critical moment when things were looking extra peachy, the only other programmer in the company broke the news that he was quitting... That means all his work was going to be mine too.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! Either the particular project he had been working on is poisoned or I smell really really bad because everyone in my little desk group of 4 has worked on that project, then left the company... Apparently the work is beneath him as a PhD programmer and he'd rather be skiing in the Swiss Alps... Ok, so that may be true, but what happened to protecting people's feelings? I would have been fine with 'I just want to take a different career path'...

Anyway... Now I'm back home... relieving my stress with blogging, tea and chocolate... Ganesh is out at his office karaoke christmas party so I'm manning the fort until he gets back in the wee hours of the morning... it's probably a good thing... I wouldn't have wanted him to be miserable too because of my crappy day and required recovery period! And now I can prepare for the bushwalk tomorrow to Lederderg Gorge! And maybe the homeless world cup on sunday? Now that would take my mind off work!

Labels: evil, math, teachers

Proud House Owners :-)

Wednesday, 3 December 2008

We own a house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so unbelievably exciting :-) Ganesh and I are very proud house owners of the house below... It's just incredible... After months of looking and starting to despair that house prices were going up again, we found one! The first open was on saturday, we put in an offer on saturday... The owners asked for an offer in writing, which we put in on monday when we got mum, lach and grandma to come and visit... On tuesday the agent came to our place to 'negotiate' a higher price... We only went up half as much as they wanted... she said it was unlikely and left... there were a few moments of despondency... then she knocked on the door and let us know it was accepted!!! On wednesday we went and signed officially and paid the deposit and it was all done!!!! So so so exciting!!!!

It's a great house... energy efficient... so light... lovely garden... clean polished boards and a new kitchen... Lach has decided to commit his summer to renovating the shed to be a livable games room... Ganesh and I will both start riding to work once we move (Ganesh already has been for the past month)... Perhaps finally I'll lose the 10kg I gained since starting work this year and sitting in front of a computer all day and all night...

I have also downloaded Google SketchUp and have started trying to create an image of our house to load into google earth... It is a little harder than it looks though!

Labels: buyers, first, home