Went down to Canberra to see an old and best friend.  Was a little interesting as it was my first big trip in the car and also taking Tonto along.  I'm going home for Christmas and the plan is to leave Tonto with my friend K in Canberra.  He has his own dog so we needed to do a little test run to see how they go on.

My big surprise was just how agressive Tonto can be.  We walked the dogs as an intro which was a good thing and when they got back it seemed okay, then Tonto was very definnative about his space and was quite vocal about it.  As he doesn't back at all with me it was a little education.  He is quite vocal when he wants to be!  It all worked out well and it was really older dog, younger dog working out who was boss.  Not entirely sure who is alpha dog as in the evening we went to an Ethopian restaurant which was AMAzING and lived up to the fantastic food I had there 4 years ago.  

Great weekend and can't wait to go back again, which will be um, when I drop Tonto off for Chrimbo, so if he and Charlie haven't worked out who is top dog, they can do it then.  And they will and end of the day there is nothing we humans can do about it so lets leave it to them.  

Finally got around to getting the BBQ!  Took some time as I only have a small space to put it into.  After some checking things out I went with the Billabong 2 Burner from BBQ's galore.  All worked out really easy.  Did I mention I love my new car as well!  Mazda 3 Hatch – PERFECT for carrying BBQ's.  

Put it all together Saturday night and then only wasn't hungry at all so didn't get to test drive it with the rib eye steak i got from the meat specialist over the rail tracks!  (Did i mention I love my new homes location!).

Not to worry as had friends coming for lamb and lunch!  John brought some prawns so the first thing that sizzled on my BBQ was prawns.  Its terribly cliche and I couldn't give a damn!  It was fittingly perfect.  And the prawns after a marinade of garlic and chilli were BBQ grill perfect! 

The lamb also worked well, took a little longer to cook than I expected but came out tender, juicy and ultra flavour!  Gave a spin to a new salad as well.  Mango, Feta and red onion with squeeze of lime on top.  So so simple, and very tasty.

A great way to spend an afternoon.  Tonto has decided that he also love BBQ and all the little bits people feed him cos its out doors.

It so hard to believe a month has gone by all ready. Tonto is home and all my stuff is arriving next week. I have even managed to get a quick trip home to New Zealand. Well to be accurate I’m on the plane to nz now.

Thought I would give the iPad a spin and see how well it went as a word processor. Not bad, but also not as easy as a keyboard. The main problem seems to be that on a regular keyboard I would rest my fingers on the keyboard in the rest position. On the iPad it is just way to sensitive to this and it’s a case of having to keep ones fingers above the keyboard at all times. After 20 odd years of touch typing this is no easy trick.

I suspect that the hunt and peck typers would actually find the easier. One of the big problems I have is I don’t actually know where the keys on the keyboard!!!

How can that be. Well when you touch type you don’t actually look at the keyboard. Your hand automatically find the guide keys (another thing missing from a virtual keyboard) and then you start typing. If you ask me where an actual key is I have to look. My hands and muscles know but i don’t consciously think I must now type the letter t, then h etc. The brain and fingers just know the combination that will result in the word think.

And the more I think about it the more I realise I don’t type in letters rather I type in words at a time. Some rare ones get mentally spelt out, and even then the fingers just follow the letters.

So far it okay, but I think if I wanted to type a whole lot of stuff I would use the blue tooth keyboard. Or since I don’t have that with me some mor practice.

Back to sydney things are all falling into place still. Finally got delivery of my outdoor furniture after about the third delivery attempt at 7 Pm. Still it was definitely worth the wait and I am very happy with it. Story here is that I wasn’t even thinking about outdoor stuff and popped into the big w store to pickup some cables for the tv and walked past the outdoor furniture display. They had a very simple and elegant table and bench set from Jamie Durie. That got me looking around and I just could not find anything that I like and the price was excellent.

Went to buy it but the local store only stocked the table and not the benches. Some research showed that the store in Norht Ryde did have the benches but not the table. Since I had the rental car Tonto and I went for a road trip (he loves road trips). The benches only just fitted into the car so I decided to order the table online and have it delivered, whoa me how stupid was that. Australia has then most crap delivery service.

Finally in the pouring rain the table arrived last night. But it’s been worth it. I sat on the bench of a similar model and it was wobbly. This set is solid! Now for the BBQ and we see all set for some outdoor eating. I wonder what Tonto would do with a whole steak?

Probably eat it and then tell me he has not been feed yet! Then when his tum kicks in sleep for three days.

Well almost at NZ so laters.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Brighton St,Botany,Australia

Picked up Tonto last friday from Quarantine and also moved  into our new home.  The world is all back in order!

Over many years now I’ve heard just about all the moral majority come out in some form or another against just about everything.  If they did like someone who said the sun came up in the east they would say no, it comes up in the west cos we the sinner just got the direction wrong.

Where it gets to me is that I hear all these people going on and on about the ‘gays’. For some very odd reason the moral majority seem to think its there right to tell us what to do and how we should behave.

See the thing is I spend about zero-1 minutes per week thinking I should be telling the heterosexual world how to live there lives.  Conversely thou I do spend a lot of my media consumption time reading about how unfaithful they are to there wife's  etc.  I only say alot because it seems to be in the media all the time, oddly because it happens a lot.  The political headliners seem to spend an inordinate amount of time condemning my life  upon which I had no choice in, also seem to be the ones who go off and get caught up on all sorts of scandals' which they did have a choice in.

So the next time you hear someone going on and constantly on about the homosexual agenda, just take a look at how well they are doing with the heterosexual agenda.

As I said, I spend no time telling other people how they should live there lives, so why should theyyou be interested in how I live mine.  Are they really that bored?

Welcome back to the southern hemisphere. What a great way to finish my first week back.

New Zealand won 23 / 22. Very close game and excellent finish.

Beginning my NZ refresher course with a game of rugby. Had to be schooled by kev last night on the different rugby leagues and abbreviations.

Wait till the end, it won’t disappoint.  No idea when this came out, but it tis good.

Have engaged the fantastic services of the team at

www.dogwalks.com.au.

who are using all the allocated visiting time to spend with Tonto, give him a little treat and take some piccy’s for me.

The first batch are here:

http://www.dogwalks.com.au/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=471

Its certainly not the Ritz!  He is now on day 3 of his incarceration, so only 27 more to go.

Well its here.  My final sleep before leaving Japan!  I’m spent the 36 hours in Kyoto on a mission to decompress brain and get a bit of zen back into my life.

Its going well!  News from Oz at about 2pm Japan time that Tonto has arrived safely and was now at Eastern Creek in row 4!  (yes it does sound abit like a cell block).

Headed of to Nanzenji then to start the disengaging mental gears.  Today a call with Tonto carer and confirmation that all is very well, so off for more relax!

Been up the top of Mt Hiei (Hieizn) wandering in gardens, Sugi forests and temples.  Finished the day with a soak in the pool to restore body temperature to normal and dinner with a friend in town.

I have one more morning left which will be at Daitokuji which has many famous Zen temples and is basically ‘hardcore’ Zen!  I’m ready for it now, mental gears are free spinning, the internal mental voice is just a whisper if at all (and I’m not hearing voices – Yet).  The bell at the nearby temple is just ringing in 9pm and its a perfect synergy to the calming energy that pervades through Kyoto.

The time of year is perfect as well as the main summer holiday rush is over so the crowds are gone, everything has been at peaceful pace, just what a tired soul needs.

I was asked today if I leave with any regrets, and I’ve been asked by many will I miss Japan.

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