Hervey Bay

Last month we spent a weekend up at Hervey Bay. Here are some of the photos I took of that weekend.

Stimulate me

My cheque from the government's stimulus package finally arrived and Smithy and I immediately rushed out and bought tins of paint to give the house a bit of a makeover. The front hallway, bathroom and toilet are all finished and Smithy's now got stuck into the kitchen. She's tackling it half the room at a time, so the big hutch has been emptied and moved onto the back deck. All its contents are stacked on the coffee table on the deck. I'm gob-smacked by how much stuff came out of that one cupboard! The hutch will get a new coat of varnish before being moved back into the kitchen. Then we'll have to move the fridge, take down all the shelving and dismantle the other cupboard so we - or I should say, Smithy - can paint that half of the room.

Then it'll be onto the dining room and finally the lounge room. A massive job, but one that has to be done. The place hasn't been painted for 15 years. I'm looking forward to seeing it all finished. The bits that are done look a treat. Bright, fresh, clean colours that have really sparked the place up.

Once the painting is all finished, we'll have a fun time deciding which photographs to put up and where. We've got so many from our recent trips we don't have room for them all. I often joke that we should have a rotating collection and change them every six months or so!

Charlie who?

How often do you turn on the telly, see someone famous and say "Ooh, I've met him"? My interest in the series 'Long Way Down' has been piqued ever since I met Charlie Boorman last May. The 29th May, to be exact. Which, for those of you unfamiliar with Everest history was the date on which, 55 years earlier, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed the famous mountain. I was at Tengboche Monastery, in the Everest foothills of Nepal, along with 80-odd trekkers and several hundred Sherpas and porters to celebrate that anniversary at a special dinner with Peter Hillary.

We'd all been up since 5am, having been woken up by conch shells and drums calling the monks to prayer, and were all getting a little over-excited. You see, the Everest Marathon was due to run straight through the monastery's grounds that very morning. And we were all lined up along the route, ready to cheer on the fool-hardy contestants. A helicopter whumped its way up the valley, causing a stir as it hovered then landed behind one of the lodges. Curious as to its passengers, I was one of many who surged over to see who had arrived. Was it Lady June Hillary perhaps? A diminutive man scrambled out of the cabin and was immediately surrounded by well-wishers bestowing the ubiquitous kata scarves on him. Who was he? Surely not Tenzing Norgay's son? But no, he was a Japanese man. I drifted away and ignored the other helicopters that landed over the next hour.

So it took a few minutes for the fact to register that the shaggy-haired bloke being followed by a camera and chatting to people was familiar. I knew it wasn't Ewan McGregor, but that was the only name that came to mind. He came over to where I was standing with a trekking mate, Richard and said Hello. "No, I'm the good-looking one," he said in response to Richard's query. "Charlie."

Of course. He asked us what was going on. Stunned to find so many people here. He'd flown up to do a little documentary because "it's the 55th anniversary." And was astonished to find out that we had all trekked in to commemorate that very anniversary and that there was a marathon due to run through at any moment. He stayed to receive a blessing from the abbot of Tengboche Monastery and then had to leave. Having flown up, he was not acclimatised to the altitude and had to go back to Kathmandu.

That's Charlie on the right, chatting to Amelia, Edmund Hillary's grand-daughter.

That trek was quite the trip for meeting famous people. We also met Peter Hillary, as well as the delightful Tony Freake, who was there to receive the 2008 Sir Edmund Hillary Mountain Legacy Medal for his humanitarian efforts in the nearby village of Phortse.

Tempt me

So, one of my favourite shows, Temptation, is back on telly and I'm on the wrong side of the screen! I'm waiting for my call-up after auditioning way back in March last year. Several hundred people turned up to take their chances, filling a lecture theatre at QUT. We had to sit a 50-question exam, in which each question was read out twice and we had to write the answer down on the sheet provided. At the end, we all swapped papers with our neighbours to mark them. The cut-off was 28. I got 39 right - although I was this [ ] close to getting 40 (wrote 9 instead of 8 1/2 for the name of Fellini's film - so I was through. About three-quarters of the room left at that stage. The remaining survivors then had to fill in a short biography, get our photo taken and then give a short talk to the group telling something interesting about ourselves, so I spoke about my then upcoming trip to Nepal to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest.

This was not the first time I've auditioned for Temptation. I originally tried out back in 1988, although the show was called Sale of the Century back then. I got through that time too.

I am so ready for that call-up. Over to you, Ed.

What about me?

I was reading an article in the newspaper the other day about a woman responding to the Rudd government's stimulus package. She was saying that "working families" had been forgotten in the package ie she hadn't got anything from it. The article said that she and her husband's annual income was between $140,000 and $160,000 a year. They were paying off $2000 a month on their mortgage and a further $1200 a month on an investment property. She added that her husband had paid $38,000 in tax that year. So let's do the sums: the mortgage payments are just under $40,000 a year. Add that to the tax - roughly $80,000. Say their income is at the lower end of the abovementioned scale - take away $80,000 and that leaves this woman and her family $60,000 to live on, or $5,000 a month for food, petrol, clothing, school costs, entertainment etc. $60,000 after tax and mortgage payments and she's complaining that she's missing out on government handouts?!

She's not alone, though. Right across this country you can hear the refrain "What about me?" Since when did we become a nation of whiners, all lining up with our hands out for some government largesse?

First Australians

I've just finished watching the first two episodes of a brilliant new series, First Australians, airing on SBS. I missed seeing the first episode on TV because it clashed with *cough* Australian Idol. Happily for me, SBS has made the series available on its website, so I spent yesterday afternoon watching it.

The series traces the history of contemporary Australia from the perspective of its first inhabitants and begins with the coming of white man to the shores of Sydney. It weaves modern commentary from historians and Indigenous people with original sources such as diaries, letters and paintings to bring to life the events of over 200 years ago.

Many of the comments on the website ask 'why weren't we told this before?' as the series reveals the true history of the early days of white 'settlement'. In the year that the Rudd government said 'Sorry' to Australia's Indigenous people, this series is a valuable tool in continuing the process of reconciliation between black and white Australia. For how else can we have meaningful reconciliation if the truth about our shared history remains hidden.

Faking it Beijing style

Faked firework displays, a kid miming to another little girl's voice and now it seems the Chinese have pulled off the biggest fake of all - taking the Olympic torch to the summit of Mount Everest, or Chomolungma as it is known to Tibetans.

A Nepalese blogger, blogdai broke the story after some careful research and has concluded that the summit bid was faked. The conclusions are based on:

• no verification photographs - ie no visible peaks or other recognisable land features that would confirm being at the summit of Everest
• presence of exhalation vapours and lack of rime ice
• speed at which the climbers move
• lack of old, faded prayer flags at the summit

I've watched the official video footage - see it here - and whilst I have not climbed Everest, I have read many many accounts of other people's climbs and have watched a lot of films and documentaries on the subject. And from everything I know, I just cannot believe this is not faked.

• Hardly any of the climbers are using oxygen. They're sitting around on the summit waiting for torchbearers to arrive and not one of them needs artificial oxygen?
• Only the torchbearers are ever clipped into the safety line. Other people are just swanning around not roped up together or into other safety lines
• Everyone is moving far too fast for the altitude. I've climbed to 5640m and there's no way I could scamper up the mountainside like those Chinese did!
• Isn't the actual summit area really small - no bigger than a billiard table is how Sir Edmund Hillary described it - yet there are 10+ people standing there

Watch the video, read all the comments across the internet and make up your own mind. But if it's true that the Chinese have faked the Olympic torch summit, what else could they have faked? Perhaps their 'historical proof' that Tibet has always been a part of China...

Where the wild things are II

Our garden is filled with birds. Rainbow lorikeets feast on flowering gum blossoms, noisy mynahs squabble in the pink cassia, chasing off blue-faced honeyeaters. Crested pigeons whirr into the blood swampwood, currawongs warble in the leopardwood while grey and pied butcherbirds sit on the latticework of our front verandah, serenading us with their song. Crows, ibis and magpies all visit and most recently, a tawny frogmouthed owl took up residence in the tree above our front stairs. It's easy to forget, lying in bed just after dawn and listening to all the birdsong, that we live just 3 kilometres from Brisbane's CBD.

k d lang

Smithy and I went to see k d lang in concert at QPAC last night. She's here promoting her new album, Watershed (which is No 1 in Australia). The concert was fantastic. k d just gets better and better. Her voice is awesome and her vocal control stunning. And she's funny and interacts with the audience really well - giving and taking presents, shaking people's hands, cracking jokes.

It's a privilege to hear one of the best singers of this century performing in a beautiful arena like QPAC's Concert Hall. The acoustics are brilliant and showcased k d's voice fantastically. The show was a really good mix of new and older material - Paydirt, Constant Craving, Western Stars, Miss Chatelaine - the only song she didn't sing that I think the audience expected her to do was Crying. But then I read in an article recently that k d believes recording that song was a mistake, although she didn't explain why. She sang Hallelujah instead - which could easily turn into her next signature piece. My favourite song of the night was Jealous Dog.

I've been a fan of k d's since 1985 and this is the third time I've seen her live. I've really enjoyed her musical journey and love the latest album. I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

It was also fantastic to see k d's involvement with the Tibetan movement at the Canberra Torch Relay. I just wish I could have been there too.

Click on this link to see k d perform Hallelujah at the Juno Awards in Winnepeg

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

Free Tibet

The recent events in Tibet have focussed the world's attention on China's continuing brutal occupation of Tibet and its people. China is in the spotlight like never before because of the upcoming Olympic Games. Whilst I've always held that the Games should never have been awarded to Beijing, it's been a fantastic opportunity to highlight the Tibet issue.

It's time the international community, which for so long has turned its back on Tibet and condoned its invasion by Communist Chinese troops, started to pressure China on its record in Tibet. It's time, I feel, for nations to start withdrawing their acknowledgement of China's sovereignty (historically dubious) over Tibet. Recent events have shown that the Chinese cannot be trusted with the welfare of Tibetans. Just as the 1989 protests were brutally repressed - just a few months prior to Tianamen Square - so the Chinese have similarly reacted in 2008.

A boycott of the Olympics may not happen but the least we can all do is boycott the opening ceremony. No athletes 'careers' will be harmed, but by the same token, China's "coming-out" party will be spoiled if no-one turns up and no one watches it on television.

I for one will not be watching one minute of the Olympic broadcasts. What will you do? Or does seeing your favourite athlete win a medal outweigh the lives of Tibetans?

Vale Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary died on Friday 11 January 2008, aged 88. WIth him goes another piece of Everest history. Yet his name will live on for generations - not so much for being one of the first to climb Mount Everest - but for the legacy he has built in the villages that sit in Everest's shadow. Sir Ed's achievement is remarkable because he used his fame to enrich others, not himself. He dedicated 50 years of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal. Setting up the Himalayan Trust, he has worked tirelessly to raise funds to build 26 schools, 2 hospitals, 30 clinics, an airport and many bridges. Scholarships support children and funds assist monks' educations as well as monastery repairs/improvements. The Trust was instrumental in helping rebuild Tengboche Monastery after it was destroyed by fire in 1989.

Trek in the Everest region and it's easy to understand Sir Ed's love affair with the people and the mountains. Most of us leave Nepal with a similar love and admiration for these tough but generous people. Not many of us devote our lives to making theirs better. Sir Edmund Hillary was one of the few that did. In my book, that makes him a real hero.

Standing in front of the statue of Sir Ed at the Sir Edmund Hillary High School in Khumjung, Nepal

Welcome to 2008

So another year begins. The old one finished in quite a spectacular fashion as a tropical depression took up residence just off the coast, causing near-cyclonic winds and whipping the sea into a frenzy. Torrential rain bucketed down forcing the cancellation of fireworks shows on both the Sunshine and Gold Coasts. Smithy and I were up at the Sunshine Coast to see the new year in with friends. We set up our tent in B's backyard and crossed our fingers that it wouldn't blow down on us.

There were a few moments during the night when we were buffeted by enormous gusts of wind and I thought for sure we'd end up in the Maroochy Canal! But the sand pegs held and we ended up having a very snug and dry night!

We all spent the morning of New Year's Day leisurely sitting around the table on B's back porch enjoying a wonderful cooked breakfast of eggs, sausages (veggie and meat), mushrooms and haloumi and marvelling as squalls of wind and rain kept sweeping over us.

I've never seen weather like this at this time of year, but the born and bred Queenslanders assure me it's typical storm season weather and that every christmas it would be the same - and I thought it was only Melbourne where the weather was miserable at christmas time!

Our next big adventure is only four months away so we're starting to crank up our fitness regime with increased visits to the gym and bushwalking every weekend. We're booked to go on a 30 day trek into the Everest region to commemmorate the 55th anniversary of the first ascent of Everest. Very exciting! I'll be writing more about the trek and our preparations in my other blog http://allmoraineisterminal.blogspot.com.

Lily Rush and The Librarians

Telly on a Wednesday night just does not get better than this! First off, Cold Case with the delectable Lily. Tonight we find out if she survives the shooting from last episode. She must do! They wouldn't kill her off. Would they.....?

Then at 9.30pm the premiere of The Librarians on the ABC. I can't wait! Finally, a show about me! Well, not just me - all us wonderful librarians out there.

Once you've seen the episode, head over to Second Life on Thursday night, 1 November (7.30pm AEDST, 1.30am SLT (PDT) and chat about the show with other librarians at the ABC Auditorium, ABC Island Second Life.

Don't even think about ringing me up tonight. I will not be available. My seat in front of the telly is booked!

The big 5-0 creeps another year closer

Today is my birthday and I get to spend it at work - in my little windowless library. Not nearly as much fun as last year's birthday. For those of you who read my other blog http://allmorainisterminal.blogspot.com/, you'll know that this time last year I was trekking in Nepal. I woke up in Besi Sahar, spent half the day on a bus travelling to Pokhara, and then had pizza and birthday cake for dinner. Lovely!

Smithy is taking me out to dinner tonight. We're going to one of our favourite restaurants, the Tibetan Kitchen in West End, which I'm really looking forward to. I love their food. Mind you, with the Tibetan Moon Cookbook that Smithy gave me today, I'll be able to make all our favourite meals whenever we crave them. Mmm momos.....

Climate Change Ad by GetUp

Help GetUp screen their Climate Clever-er ad during the AFL Grand Final by making a donation to www.getup.org.au

See the ad here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W90bfVeNhY

Sans Smithy

Smithy's been away for about a month now, and has been keeping me up to date with her adventures with lots of emails. Having read what she's been up to so far, I'm not so sure she should be allowed out by herself anymore.

1. On the trip out to the Galapagos Islands, she had to sit up all night to make sure her semi-conscious, seasick cabin-mate didn't suffocate on her own vomit.
2. In Santiago, just escaped from being hustled by three guys
3. Nearly got swept away by the current when she developed stomach cramps whilst swimming across a tributary of the Amazon

I only hope she hasn't fallen off the roof of the Devil's Nose train!

Meanwhile, I've been coping with her absence by doing housework. Very disturbing development! So far I've done all the ironing, scrubbed kitchen shelves and canisters, polished all the louvre windows in the project room, as well as the kitchen and study windows, dusted and vacuumed the house, weeded what used to be the lawn and dusted and de-cobwebbed all the gym equipment on the back deck. With another five weeks before Smithy's return, the house is going to be gleaming by the time she gets back!

Race for Tibet

Today marks one year to go until the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Organisations around the world are using the occasion to highlight Tibet's plight. Let's keep the pressure on China regarding its continuing occupation of Tibet and its appalling human rights record.

Protesters unfurled a banner on the Great Wall http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/free-tibet-banner-on-great-wall-fuels-official-fears-of-more-rightsprotests/2007/08/07/1186252708795.html

Help send a Tibetan team to the Olympics http://www.supportteamtibet.org/

and check out http://www.racefortibet.org/ to find out what you can do to help make the Beijing Olympics a catalyst for change in Tibet.

Home alone

Smithy flew out this morning to begin her 9-week South American adventure, leaving me home alone for all that time. Just as well I have two jobs to keep me occupied - I won't have too much time to miss her. It will be very strange without her. Apart from a 3-day trip to New Zealand that she did back in 2004, we have not been apart in the 5 1/2 years we've been together.

At least I will be able to get stuck into some of the things I don't do when Smithy is around. Like write this blog, do some work on my website, write my novel. And I'm going to start going to a local Buddhist centre to do some meditation and take some courses in Buddhism. And start to teach myself Tibetan.

Only 60 sleeps to go before Smithy comes home....

Finishers!

Yesterday Smithy and I entered in our fourth Gold Coast Half Marathon. We usually use the 21 and a bit kilometre race as training for our Himalayan treks. We only ever walk the half marathon - never run it - and our goal this year was to break the 3 hour barrier. In 2003 we did it in 3 hours 3 mins, in 2004 we did it in 3:05 and last year in 3:03, so we've been close. And we went at what we considered our top pace and didn't really think we could go under 3 hours without breaking into a run. Still, we thought we'd give it our best shot this year.

So, the alarm went off at 4am and we reluctantly rolled out of our lovely warm bed into the chill, pre-dawn morning. A big bowl of porridge for breakfast, two cups of coffee and three glasses of water later, we were on the road to Labrador - an hour's drive down the coast.

Parked the car a little way from the start line and joined a number of other crazy people all making their way to the race course. The crowd got bigger and bigger as time went on. By 6.15am, we had stripped down to shorts and T-shirts, handed our bag into Left Luggage, and made our way up onto the road to wait for the starting gun, just as the sun was making its first appearance over the horizon.

At 6.30am, there were thousands of people on the road. The wheelchair athletes set off on their half marathon, sent on their way with a huge cheer from the crowd. A few minutes later, it was our turn. The starting gun went off...and we stayed put! The crowd was so big it took ages for us to shuffle off and get to the start line! Five minutes after the gun went off, Smithy and I crossed the line with more than 4,000 runners in front of us!

We always start the race by jogging the first 500 metres or so and then settle into a fast walk and this is what we did again yesterday. As the kilometres crept past neither of us felt optimal. My right leg was a bit stiff from carrying pavers and squatting to lay them the day before and Smithy complained that she couldn't get into a rhythm. Despite this, we covered the first 7 kilometres in 58 minutes - right on track! Another kilometre went past, and the first of the runners started coming the other way. After that, they just kept on coming. The sound of several thousand runners - slap of feet on tarmac, gasping breath - is quite something. By the time we reached the 10 kilometre mark, the runners were well gone and the slow joggers and faster walkers were starting to pass us going the other way. Another 500 metres and we hit the halfway mark ourselves. It's all downhill from here! At least the sun was no longer in our eyes, but we did have to battle a small headwind all the way to the finish line.

My knees and groin were feeling stiff and Smithy had a really sore toe by this stage, but we kept on going - breaking into little jogs every now and again to relieve muscles. As we passed the fourteen kilometre mark we were ecstatic to find we were still right on target timewise - we'd thought we'd slowed down somewhat during the second third of the race.

Getting to the 16 kilometre mark is a big pyschological boost - only 5 kilometres to go. But by then, I was really beginning to struggle. My right knee and groin were really really sore and walking was starting to hurt. Eventually I told Smithy I had to stop. She went on ahead while I slowed right down. That helped a bit. Then I shuffle-jogged a bit and that helped too. I sped up a little bit but couldn't catch Smithy. As the last drinks station came into view, I remembered the headache tablets I'd put in my pocket earlier. Grabbing a cup of water, I popped the two tablets into my mouth and kept going. Shuffle-jog, walk, shuffle-jog, walk. I shuffle jogged up a little hill and managed to catch up to a very surprised Smithy. We had just over 3 kilometres to go. We had to cover that distance in 25 minutes if we wanted to finish under 3 hours. Could we do it? Back at the 17 kilometre mark, we thought we'd blown it. We were taking nearly 10 minutes to complete a kilometre. Simple arithmetic told me we wouldn't finish in under 3 hours. Oh well, at least we'd finish.

On we went, as fast as we were able. Finally, the marker declaring 1 kilometre to go came up. 'We can't do it, can we?" Smithy asked. I glanced at my watch. "Yes we can! It'll be tight but we can do it!" I don't know how we did it, but we had managed to cover the last two kilometres in just 17 minutes. We had a real chance at cracking the 3 hours.

People lined the last 500 metres, cheering and clapping every marathoner that ran past (yes, we were being beaten by marathon runners who had run 21 kilometres in the opposite direction to us before turning around, running our course, catching up and passing us. And they were the slow ones - the winners had passed us with 8 kilometres still to go!) and encouraging us halfers. With just 300 metres to go, we broke into a shuffle-jog, passing walkers who had been in front of us for most of the race. One hundred metres to go and we could see the finish line. I picked up my pace a little but Smithy dropped back. 20 metres to go and I broke into a sprint (gawd only knows where the energy came from) and crossed the finish line with head held high. I looked at my watch - 9.37am. I'd done it. I finished in under 3 hours. Excited and anxious I waited for Smithy to cross. It seemed an age before she joined me, but a glance at my watch showed she had also made it in under 3 hours!

Exultant, we staggered off to the recovery area for drinks and fruit before handing in the race chip (timing device) and claiming our T-shirts and medals. To our huge disappointment, they had run out of medals and we had to put our names down to have one posted to us - but at least we came away with our official 'Finisher' shirts.

We spent the afternoon relaxing at home, stretched out on the settees, enjoying a glass of wine and watching DVDs and rugby league. Pizza for tea, then an early night for our weary bodies. Smithy woke up fine today, but my legs are really stiff. We treated ourselves to a massage, which was really nice, but if I don't keep moving I just stiffen up again.

We got onto the race website this morning to get our official times. Me: 2:59:28 Smithy: 2:59:48.

Where the wild things are

In our house mainly. Of course, we have the usual geckos living behind the picture frames. They chase each other across the walls and squabble on the ceiling but for the most part are no bother at all. Except for the odd occasion when one falls off the ceiling and onto one of us or, with a loud splat, onto the floor. They sprawl there for a moment or two with a stunned look on their faces, then scuttle off under the settees.

Lately though, it's like our place is a wildlife hotel. It began back in 2004, when Smithy and I came home after a two month trip to Nepal and found a ringtailed possum had taken up residence in the dining room window. We have wooden lattices on the outside of the windows and there's a six inch gap between the glass and the lattice. Apparently, just the right amount of room for one little male ringtail! He spent most of the summer there - going out foraging at nighttime and sleeping through the day. Course, days were really hot, so he would lick his balls and paws in an attempt to keep cool and lay sprawled on his back to catch the passing breeze! Eventually, he left and we were able to open the window again.

Then the brushtailed possums moved into the roof. Climbed up under the eaves and broke their way in. Noisy buggers, those brushtails. They'd scamper across the roof and you'd swear they had hobnailed boots on! Their favourite game was to jump from the cassia in the back garden onto the roof, race each other up and over and leap into the gum tree out the front.

Last year, we went away for three months to Tibet and Nepal (read my other blog for an account of our adventures). When we got back we found that another ringtailed possum had moved into our window - this time with twin babies! They lived there for about two months, making themselves ever so comfortable with bedding from twigs and leaves. Then Mum left the kids to their own devices. About a month later they stopped coming by, but not before Mum came back with a tiny baby in her pouch!

They've all gone now, but every now and again a couple of them will visit during the night. Perched on top of the lattice frame, they'll sit there and snack on the leaves of some shrubs before disappearing into the night.

Then, just last week, Smithy and I were tucked up in bed watching telly when we heard footsteps in the house and a brushtail came to the bedroom door! It had walked the length of the house to get there from the back deck. Cheeky little blighter!

Ringtailed possum and her twin babies