Pets

In my last post, I mentioned I was moving out of the city (Melbourne, Australia) and heading to the country.

Well the transition has occurred and I'm more than happy with the move. Our neighbours two deep on each side have all come out and introduced themselves, and the general atmosphere around the place is warm and uplifting.

The sense of community runs strong outside of the capital cities by the look of it.

Bannockburn is by no means a small town, though it's no thriving metropolis. It's about 15 mins drive from Geelong, but you would think you're thousands of miles away or in a parallel universe. Hand-waves whilst driving, a chat with a stranger (soon to be become an acquaintance/friend) are all common place. At the time of the 2006 Census, the population was a mere 2,486, but has more than doubled in the following two years. By 2015, they are expecting a population of around 15,000. If you're down this way, be sure to drop in. It's a quaint part of town and quite charming.

All the majority of our daily needs are here (local Woolworths, petrol, green grocer, butcher, baker, vet, auto repair, post office, pub, restaurants, fast-food, legal and accounting services,etc can all be found in the town). Those not here (ie: the not-every-day purchases) is only a 15 minute car-drive into Geelong.

I'm loving the lack of police sirens/choppers and cars doing wheelies until 4am most nights. The only noise we hear at present is the 6-7am chatter of the native birds found in abundance. (Not a real problem -- we're up at 6-7am anyway -- working through to late at night getting the house set-up).

Bannockburn for me was a natural choice. It's closer to loved ones, as well as the type of environment, community I would like to raise a family one day. The hustle and bustle and dog-eat-dog attitude that the big cities portray is not the values I would like to instil into my own children.

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So how did the move go on Friday? As many know there was a deluge across a lot of Australia. In our neck of the woods we had the pitter-patter of a few rain drops from about 10:30am whilst filling the removalist's truck. By 3:15pm they had finished unloading the truck and literally seconds after the truck doors had been shut down it bucketed!

I'm glad we got our water tank hooked up prior to the move. Those 24 hours resulted in approx 70mm of rain. The tank is now full!
That much rain ensured we had a natural inground swimming pool over most of the backyard. The dogs found this too irresistable (they had never seen so much rain in their young years), and decided it was time for swimming. Shortly after we had dual-coloured dogs.... The original colour on their top half and a nice brown/muddy underbelly.

Saturday/Sunday saw us return to clean up our vacated premises. On Wednesday we return the keys to the landlord. It's a great feeling moving out of the rent cycle and into our own home.

Monday I had our networking guys in to terminate off our wired house. We now have 48 GigaE running throughout the house. The 19" racks I have in the garage look all very impressive now. I'll take some photos in the next few days and post them up for all to see. (Once I find the box with my camera data-cable! )

The new 48-port GigE Managed Switch also has PoE on all ports, and makes powering the Snom VoIP phones a breeze with no need for a power pack anymore (frees up on power point, and also one less cable to tangle unde rmy desk!). Cabling the house was a great idea -- being able to just plug an Ethernet cable into the wall in nearly every room of the house is just a god-send and something I would recommend to anyone who's building (do it during the framing stage, prior to the plastering).

The mountain of boxes strewn around the house are slowly disappearing. It will take us some time but we're hoping by Christmas to have everything fully unpacked/setup. That will leave me with the daunting task of establishing our gardens/plants/lawns outside during this crazy drought/summer. Something I am looking forward to getting up and running.

One of the benefits is since moving that my ADSL1 connection is indeed faster and cleaner here than our previous location (though we are about the same distance from the exchange (1-1.5kms). I'm pulling down pretty much the physical limits of ADSL1 and squeezing 100-150Kb/sec more then I previously have. Once ADSL2+ becomes available through my provider (Internode - due in the next few days), I may consider the move up if the price is 'reasonable'.

The garden shed and vegie garden will probably be first off the ranks, with the rest to follow after that.
I'm seriously considering putting in a large sandpit for the dogs so they can dig til their hearts content (and not in my lawn/vegies/plants! )

Though, all in good time. In the interim, I'm just enjoying country life, and not missing the glare of the city at all. A few more weeks of setting up house and I'll be as happy as my dogs running around in mud!

Wow, that opening line from the infamous Dragon song really hits the mark. (Pity it's not April nor Cuba).

I'm sick of city life and ready for a sea-change. To be honest, nothing really holds me to the city and my home is my castle. I'm happy to move out of the hustle and bustle for a much more slower life style; somewhere with clean air, friendly neighbours (who actually talk to you and ask you in for a cuppa!) and somewhere I feel safe to raise kids. I'm extremely lucky to have a job where I can Work From Home the majority of the time. I'll also be relocating to our Ballarat offices as they are actually closer to our Melbourne based offices. (It also means I won't be fighting traffic playing 'animal crossing' in an effort to cross West Gate Bridge)

So out of the big choking smoke of Melbourne and off to Bannockburn! Where on earth is Bannockburn you might ask?


View Larger Map
See - you learnt something new today.

Our house is getting built here in Bannockburn. It's a lovely sized block (931m²). This means it's not overly large to maintain (we considered acreage but want to actually have time to enjoy our weekends!

View Larger Map
Being in a Fairway, we don't get much local traffic (only really those wishing to enter a house in the street.) There is wonderful wild-life around the place and you can just stand in the backyard and listen to a dozen different native birds. My folks just moved in over the last few weeks into their own new house only about 2kms away in Bannockburn and my father (much to protests from my mother) has been feeding a baby magpie and his mother on a daily basis! Ahh the quiet life!

There are some wonderful wineries scattered throughout the region and I'm sure I'll be sampling many of the local produce that comes from these vineyards over the years! Even better -- Bannockburn is on the door steps to the Great Ocean Road, Lorne, Torquay The Brisbane Ranges and Otway National Parks. Plenty of natural beauty to go, see and explore!

Bannockburn is a growing area and the rate of population growth is quite astounding. It's little wonder when it's been ranked in the top 20 Australian municipalities for it's quality of life.

Having grown up in Geelong, I remember when Bannockburn was little more than a pub on the corner opposite the Bluestone railway station and a few dozen houses. Now it's quite a rural community. It's also not that far from Geelong, which means you're back in a large town in 20 minutes.

For us, driving down from Melbourne you instantly feel relaxed as we drive through the city town centre. The place is feeling more home now then our current residence in Altona Meadows.

I start leave today from work and we're scheduled to get the keys to the new place on the 10^th of December. (Just over a week from today).
The removalists will be in on the 12^th to relocate our furniture. (A few days up our sleeves if we run into last minute hiccups -- you know what builders can be like! ).

Our network won't be patched into the patch panels until I've moved our 19" racks into place on the 15^th so it may be a while until I get to Email/IM or even blog. Those that do have my mobile and need to contact me, may find this is the best method to get a hold of me over the next couple of weeks.

Our carpets are getting layed today and the final aspects of the house are happening over the next few days. (fitting off plugs, last minute touchups, etc). I put our water tank in last Friday and am happy to report we've had regular rain since I put it in. (is this an omen?)


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Some of the appliances also commenced going in last week and it's create to actually see that long process finally come to an end. The strange feeling is that we know it will be our new home but it feels like some strangers place when we go and visit! I imagine it's a feeling most people experience when building.

It's exciting and daunting at the same time. Whilst we've got a good deal packed already, there still is a lot to go. What was extremely strange today was looking around the dozens of packed boxes, we got a knock on the door. Our curtains for the new house got delivered. If you're in the market for any curtains/drapes.. I can highly recommend Winning Windows. They went out of their way to deliver them personally and even chase multiple suppliers to get us our curtains before Christmas. I overheard many of the phone calls Pauline and the staff had and nothing was too difficult for them. They really did make the job easy. Add to that they threw in a bunch of freebies and a nice little discount. Kudos to the staff and owners. If only every business delivered service like you!

Kudos also to our Electrician and Network Installers who I have also done a marvellous job getting our geeky requirements in place without a hitch! (Wired GB Network throughout the house anyone, with 15A and separate circuits per room?) Can't recommend these guys enough.

We elected to do concreting around the house prior to moving in as well as we required the gates/fences to go up. (Any other way you know how to keep two active dogs on your property and not leaving paw-prints through freshly laid concrete?!)


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
So if you don't hear much from me for the remainder of the year you can put it down to:

• I'm homeless and the builder didn't finish our house in time.
• I'm still cursing Telstra who screwed up the commissioning of the new phone line, meaning I'll probably need to wait another 3 months
• Everything is fine and we've moved in, but being online is down at #1293 on the list of things to do. (Looking at the yard I think I've got a lot of work outside establishing a lawn, garden and veggie patch spring to life)
• Pauline has still left me packed in one of the boxes she hasn't unpacked as yet.

Those of you who are bored and would like to see our house building stages from a block of dirt to the finished product, feel free to take a look through our Flickr collection. Hmm... now to pay this thing back! (may Interest rates keep bottoming out!)

This will probably be my last day on the computer (we really are flat chat leading up to the move now).
Hope to see/hear from many of you shortly... hopefully from a new address!

Recently my mother took a photo of her sister's new duckling.

My mother is handy with the camera and always taking shots.
She isn't a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but it's amazing just being in the right place and the right time can produce a fantastic photo. This is one such shot.

The duckling was just wandering around the dining room table when the shot was taken. What makes it such a great shot is the reflection in the mirror of the duck as well as the random items placed around the table, giving the photo depth and colour. If fact, if I didn't know any better you would swear it was 'set up' and not just a happy snap (which it was!)

The photo turned out so good it looks like a HallMark Greeting Card!



So to Mum, well done! It's a fantastic shot and one I had to share with others.
Hmm... I wonder if we can fatten him up in time for Christmas lunch!

Well it's time to introduce our newest member of the family.

We picked up Nina this week from a local Pet Rescue as we were looking for a companion for Duke (our other dog).

If you are wanting a pet, check out your local Pet Rescue. Saving a pet ensures it's one less pet that isn't put down unnecessarily. Most rescues do behaviour testing prior to putting them up for adoption and will also ensure they are vaccinated, spayed and micro-chipped and registered.

We met and instantly fell in love with Nina! The picture on the left is the one that they had on her advertisement.

She's an 18-month-old Blue Heeler/Cross and needed a new home. After talking with Pauline we both agreed that getting a dog from a Pet Rescue was a better option than going and buying a new puppy from a pet store. We also weren't so keen on a puppy as the extra work involved in keeping those naughty doggies out of trouble! We also knew that young puppies also find homes much easier than older dogs.

She's resting quietly at present (much to the annoyance of Duke who would love nothing better to do then jump and play all day with her!). The main reason is she's only recently come out of surgery for being spayed, micro-chipped and vaccinated. So a few more days restricting her jumping or running and she'll be right to go.

So far Nina has settled in extremely well. It's been a pleasant surprise to find she's already house-trained and let's us know when nature calls. We'll undertake some basic obedience training but generally she's pretty good already.



As you can see, she's settling in well to her new surroundings!

(06:34) Someone set the alarm far too early. Jumped out of bed in a panic & twisted ankle. #

(06:44) Jumped in the shower. I missed, landed on the soap. Other ankle now throbbing. #

(07:09) Walked out front door to grab morning newspaper. #

(07:10) Eyelid meet bee. Eye now swelling. #

(07:11) Bastard paperboy has got the paper in the damn bird bath again. #

(07:15) The same someone who fiddled with the alarm clock has now set the toaster to the 'burn like a crisp' setting. #

(07:16) Forgot to buy coffee, will have to settle for water. #

(07:20) Toothbrush is now black from the charcoaled toast. #

(07:25) Where the hell are my keys? #

(07:29) Tackled dog rugby style after chasing him around the coffee table. Have managed to recover them, albeit full of dog saliva. #

(07:30) Apparently keyless entry into your car doesn't work after being chewed into a black ball of plastic. #

(07:31) Hit head when entering car. Maybe this is why keyless entry was invented? #

(07:43) If you are going to have a road-rage episode, choose wisely. Now sporting a growing fat lip to match my bug bee-eye. Note to self: Don't abuse a boxer. #

(08:17) All car-parks now taken due to the time lost with the boxer. Have to park 4 blocks further away from the office. A great workout for sore and swollen ankles. #

(08:33) Remember the umbrella even if the weather report says there is little chance of rain. #

(08:53) Finally in at work. #

(08:56) The company provided International Roast is a poor substitute for coffee. #

(09:05) Coffeeeeee annnndddd keeeyboardddddds donnnnn't mix. #

I've placed a bunch of photos up in our gallery for you to all take a peek at!

You will find a bunch of photos of our Pets there, and in particular of Duke...  our newest addition! 

It's been a while since my last blog entry.

There has been a few reasons.

1. Haven't been on my computer much.
2. Had the flu for three weeks.
3. Purchased a 42" Plasma TV and setup a HTPC to keep all our movies/music/photos on!
4. Had a few weeks of on-call support for work.

Rest assurred -- I'm still alive! 

I'll be posting more this week, including:

• An update on Duke (our new dog!) -- with more photos (coming -- I promise!)
  
• Details of our HTPC
• Details of the new computer I've just bought -- with hardware virtualization -- allowing me to run Windows and Linux at the same time with no performance loss! 
• A post on the new version of SuSE Linux 10.1 -- that will be the main driving OS of the new workstation (and powering Xen).
• A posting on the new 2.0 Beta of Firefox....   that now includes a spell checker and anti-phising tools!
  

If there is anything else you would like me to write about ... let me know! 

We've got our new puppy! 

He arrived about 2-3 weeks ago so we've been having fun with him most of the time and haven't had much time to post up here (add to that .. .being on call two weeks straight!)

He's a real cutey!  Take a look: 



I've uploaded a few pictures of him to our photo gallery.   You can view them here.

Duke was given to us by my sister.   Her dog Susie (Labrador) mated with a Golden Retriever/German Shepard.  It probably explains the very unusual markings he has.

Currently he's about 13 weeks old... and still very puppy!

He starts puppy school tomorrow night... so that should be exciting!

Chistmas Day we headed down to Little River to celebrate it with Pauline's side of the family.

Unfortunately not everyone could attend (Christine, Michael and the kids, as well as Barry, Diane and the kids all couldn't make it).
Besides some people MIA, it was a great and fun day by all that attended.

It was a relaxed and enjoyable time for all. The usual 'Cini Feast' was layed out. After lunch the exchange of gifts occurred and several undertook a game of Bocce.

Feel free to click on the photos to see an larger version of each.

Pauline and I rose late in the morning on Friday...
Rather tired and emotionally drained.

We decided it was not the best idea to mope around the house so we headed out after brunch for the day.

We'd been greeted by a lovely cloudless morning that soon had clouds rolling in for the afternoon, though it was still warm and if not a little humid.

We packed some fruit, made up some drinks and filled the car up with a tank of fuel and pumped up the tires.
We had to get out of the house, out of the city and enjoy some time reflecting on the good times we had with Jessie.
So the idea was to head up to Woodend, and look at Hanging Rock.

We bundled up the highway, taking our time, looking at the scenery and stopped at Woodend for a look around. Found a nice country fruit and veg shop and purchased some strawberries for the afternoon.

We stopped and had a bite and a coffee at a nice diner and just relaxed. Once refreshed, we headed up to Hanging Rock.

We drove up there... realised it was like Fort Knox (with a fence and electric gate to match pentridge!) and entry was going to be $8.00 for the car. It was already around 3:30pm, and we didn't see it as good value so we turned around.
(It's a national park that our tax dollars fund and I still need to fork out to walk around the bush. It's a natural reserve... the animals are all native, so why the funds?), It's pretty poor when you need to PAY to see a few trees and a rock.

Not to put us off.. we'd already been enjoying the day, so we thought we would head over to Daylesford, the home of the alternative lifestyle, the kook, mineral water and spas.

We cut through Woodend to Daylesford and stopped off at the Trentham Falls on the way.


It was a great place for a toilet break and just to enjoy about bit of natures beauty in a very natural waterfall surrounded in Aussie bushland.

Daylesford is a nice little town, though it's charm has been lost in the last 10-15 years as many from the city have moved in.

One of the killers of the place has been the erection of modern cottages and condos in a rural Victoria city.. that is surrounded by gorgeous country cottages. I've never seen worse eye sores!

We stopped in at a collectibles store on the main road, who have loads of 40, 50, 60's and even some 70's memorabilia.

We saw tonnes of Elvis, Beatles, The Monkeys, Beety Boop, Ford/Holden, Kiss collectibles... as well as a a very large Coca-Cola collection.. featuring all types of Coke stuff, from original yoyos, bottles, money boxes, Santas and the like. I even saw a Coke bottle that looked more like a glass 600ml milk bottle!

We spent some time down at the Daylesford Lake and even took a walk around part of it. By then it started raining and was approaching dusk quickly, so we called it a day and headed back home.

A relaxing day after such a stressful week. It was great to spend some time alone with Pauline outside the hussle and bustle of normal life. Something we need to do more of...