On our way back home we dropped in at our house for a picnic in the alfesco area - very surreal, but a very nice way to end our trip away.
The view from Cobbler Hill
Panorama of Cobbler Hill on CleVR.com
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Christmas Camping
We had a lovely few days away over Christmas at Deep Creek Conservation Park. We spent 3 nights at the Cobbler Hill camp ground and loved just relaxing. We fell in love with the view towards Kangaroo Island from the Cobbler Hill picnic area so spent the majority of our time either at the campground or the view point! We also did the Blowhole Beach hike which was great fun going down, but hard work coming up!
On our way back home we dropped in at our house for a picnic in the alfesco area - very surreal, but a very nice way to end our trip away.
The view from Cobbler Hill
On our way back home we dropped in at our house for a picnic in the alfesco area - very surreal, but a very nice way to end our trip away.
The view from Cobbler Hill
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Our street!
Someone asked me yesterday what creative activity I would be doing this weekend... well, I've just discovered a site called CleVR that very kindly helps me to display panoramic photos...
This is my first attempt so please excuse its 'roughness'! It gives you the general idea though!
This is my first attempt so please excuse its 'roughness'! It gives you the general idea though!
It's Wall-some!
"The bricklayers have started on site and might even be working some of the days throughout the Christmas break..." were the words we received in our weekly update on Wednesday (of course we thought, yes we know.. we saw him there last Sunday).
Apparently we are one of the lucky few who are going to have brickies on site over the Christmas break so I am really hoping to reach 'lock up' stage soon in the new year. That will of course mean another BIG bill but at least it means they'll start on the internal stuff.
It was great to see today that the brickies had been working hard. We were a little frustrated that our brick work seems to be taking forever compared to everyone else but we've modestly put it down to our house being such a beast.
Apparently we are one of the lucky few who are going to have brickies on site over the Christmas break so I am really hoping to reach 'lock up' stage soon in the new year. That will of course mean another BIG bill but at least it means they'll start on the internal stuff.
It was great to see today that the brickies had been working hard. We were a little frustrated that our brick work seems to be taking forever compared to everyone else but we've modestly put it down to our house being such a beast.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Kissing men in our living room?... Yeah!
We have decided not to buy each other Christmas presents this year but to instead treat ourselves to a canvas print for the new house. When we visited Berlin a few years ago we were really impressed with the remnants of the Berlin Wall, and were particularly taken with a photograph we took...
Today the canvas was delivered and we opened it with great excitement. It was meant to wait for the new house but we love it so much it has gone straight up on the wall of our rental!
I can hear you saying 'what a bizarre image, what's with the two men kissing?', well here is a little social history taken from http://litestraboen.blogspot.com/2007/12/history-of-kiss.html...
History of a kiss
One of the greatest kisses in History is the one that took place between communist leaders Erich Honecker, from East Germany, and Leonid Brezhnev, from Soviet Union, during the 30th Anniversary of the German Democratic Republic in June 1979. Despite the controversy and ridicule arisen in the West, this was actually a common sign of socialist solidarity, very used since Khrushchev era. It seems, moreover, that both leaders were very keen on kissing. However, this kiss has a greater story.
The good kiss
Honecker had become the leader of German Socialist Party in 1971, after the fall of Walter Ulbricht in disgrace, thanks to Brezhnev support, and in 1976 had become president of the Counsel of State of the GDR, also aided by the latter.
In the new 70's spirit of the "détente", the Soviet Union achieved, in exchange of a relaxation of weapon tensions, that the United states recognised its influence area in Eastern Europe. In this political atmosphere appeared the "Brezhnev Doctrine", that imposed the right for Soviet military intervention in European socialist states. This happened, for instance, in the invasion of Prague by the Warsaw Pact in 1968, with the passivity of Western allies.
Honecker carried out a series of economic reforms in the GDR that lead the country to a so-called "consumption socialism", that resulted in an improvement of the population's standards of living. Apart from that, relationship with its Soviet colleague were a true love story. GDR and the USSR needed each other, the first became the greatest ideological defender of Communism in a time when this system was more than questioned. In turn, the Soviet Union guaranteed the Red Army intervention in case of a popular revolt similar to that in Prague, which was pretty probable considering the number of opponents to Honecker's regime. Finally, the GDR was interested in furthering all possibilities of German reunification, so the "détente" politics was very useful to follow.
Nowadays, a painted version of the "Fraternal Kiss" can be seen on the eastern side of Berlin Wall's ruins, performed by Dmitri Vrubel after the collapse. If one looks to it attentively, one can realise that this kiss is typical of a Greek tragedy, a suffocating kiss, in which lovers get too compromised on each other, despite of knowing that there is no future in that poisoned relationship. Actually, the painting is named "The Kiss of Death", and one can read under it "God, help me to survive this deadly love".
Never mind all that history and deathly kisses between men, my favourite bit of the image is where someone has written 'Happiness is possible if you have the right pen' - someone else obviously loves paperchase as much as me!
Today the canvas was delivered and we opened it with great excitement. It was meant to wait for the new house but we love it so much it has gone straight up on the wall of our rental!
I can hear you saying 'what a bizarre image, what's with the two men kissing?', well here is a little social history taken from http://litestraboen.blogspot.com/2007/12/history-of-kiss.html...
History of a kiss
One of the greatest kisses in History is the one that took place between communist leaders Erich Honecker, from East Germany, and Leonid Brezhnev, from Soviet Union, during the 30th Anniversary of the German Democratic Republic in June 1979. Despite the controversy and ridicule arisen in the West, this was actually a common sign of socialist solidarity, very used since Khrushchev era. It seems, moreover, that both leaders were very keen on kissing. However, this kiss has a greater story.
The good kiss
Honecker had become the leader of German Socialist Party in 1971, after the fall of Walter Ulbricht in disgrace, thanks to Brezhnev support, and in 1976 had become president of the Counsel of State of the GDR, also aided by the latter.
In the new 70's spirit of the "détente", the Soviet Union achieved, in exchange of a relaxation of weapon tensions, that the United states recognised its influence area in Eastern Europe. In this political atmosphere appeared the "Brezhnev Doctrine", that imposed the right for Soviet military intervention in European socialist states. This happened, for instance, in the invasion of Prague by the Warsaw Pact in 1968, with the passivity of Western allies.
Honecker carried out a series of economic reforms in the GDR that lead the country to a so-called "consumption socialism", that resulted in an improvement of the population's standards of living. Apart from that, relationship with its Soviet colleague were a true love story. GDR and the USSR needed each other, the first became the greatest ideological defender of Communism in a time when this system was more than questioned. In turn, the Soviet Union guaranteed the Red Army intervention in case of a popular revolt similar to that in Prague, which was pretty probable considering the number of opponents to Honecker's regime. Finally, the GDR was interested in furthering all possibilities of German reunification, so the "détente" politics was very useful to follow.
Nowadays, a painted version of the "Fraternal Kiss" can be seen on the eastern side of Berlin Wall's ruins, performed by Dmitri Vrubel after the collapse. If one looks to it attentively, one can realise that this kiss is typical of a Greek tragedy, a suffocating kiss, in which lovers get too compromised on each other, despite of knowing that there is no future in that poisoned relationship. Actually, the painting is named "The Kiss of Death", and one can read under it "God, help me to survive this deadly love".
Never mind all that history and deathly kisses between men, my favourite bit of the image is where someone has written 'Happiness is possible if you have the right pen' - someone else obviously loves paperchase as much as me!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Boardies & Beauties
We had a fun party yesterday called 'Boardies & Beauties'. Proudly introducing 'The Boardies'...
Bricktastic!
After our disappointing visit last week I was adamant that I didn't want to go to the house today but Dan wanted to, so off we went.
It's been a very wet week here so we didn't expect to see much difference but it was great to see a brick layer hard at work on our first wall when we arrived!
Fingers crossed next week there will be some more walls to take photos of!
It's been a very wet week here so we didn't expect to see much difference but it was great to see a brick layer hard at work on our first wall when we arrived!
Fingers crossed next week there will be some more walls to take photos of!
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Nothing.
Words cannot explain how disappointed I was to arrive at our building site this morning only to discover nothing had changed! They'd maybe finished off a few bits and bobs but nothing even worth taking a a photograph of...
So instead of an amazing brickwork photograph, or a photo of me with the front door, instead the best I can come up with is a photograph of the delicious D'Arenberg 2007 The Hermit Crab (Viognier) that we consumed at the fab new Three Corks wine bar in Semaphore earlier this evening...
So instead of an amazing brickwork photograph, or a photo of me with the front door, instead the best I can come up with is a photograph of the delicious D'Arenberg 2007 The Hermit Crab (Viognier) that we consumed at the fab new Three Corks wine bar in Semaphore earlier this evening...
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
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