The Spyders Web

Yeah, I should have updated this ages ago. No real excuses. This was more a pet project than a true blog. But I will try to keep it up to date a little more often.

Axl is fine. His tail has healed well, no stitches required, just some salt-water baths (more of an annoyance to him because of the water, not the salt), and all is back to normal.

Work is same old, same old. Couple of busy busy weeks coming up with some training sessions planned which I am organising, so have a ton of equipment ready to ship in, people to organise and facilities to arrange. Had a training room blocked out for a week, until the MD came along and canceled my booking for a day right int he middle of the whole week. Great, because I won’t have 15 pallets of equipment I need to pack up on the Tuesday, move to a new room for Wednesday, then pack up again Wednesday afternoon and move back to the original room Thursday……

Thank goodness for the 4 day Easter long weekend, I’ve had a chance to recharge the batteries a bit. Not done a lot, did a day trip drive down to Barwon Heads for the hell of it. That town just ain’t the same as I remember it from when I was a kid. Too touristy, commercial, just not the same sleepy beachside getaway it was.

Oh well, that’ll do for now…

Axl, my cat, is hurt. He’s okay, but he’s definitely not well at the moment.

He didn’t come home last night for dinner, which in itself is not unusual. Often he’ll stay out late, and just come home when he is damn good and ready. So I thought nothing of it.

Until tonight, when he did come home for dinner at the normal time. I went to pat him down his back, when my hand came to his tail, he yelped bigtime. I took a quick check, and there was a very large pussey discharge. Then I noticed his tail wasn’t up. Trouble.

A quick, panic call to the RSPCA, they could take him in straight away. I built the cat tank (as I call his carry-box), and stuffed him in, followed by a fast sprint to the RSPCA clinic (which is only about 10 mins away thankfully).

He’s got a very bad tear in his skin on the base of his tail. The discharge was an abscess that had burst. We think it was in a fight with another cat (there has been a new ginger cat hanging around lately). The doc said that was a good thing in a way, it’s getting rid of the bad stuff. He’s given Axl a good dose of antibiotics, advised th leave the wound open (it’s not bleeding), and ocme back on Friday. Best scenario – he’ll be fine and the wound will close itself. Worst case – surgery.

Been a real shock to me. Axl is nearly 16 years old now, and this is the worst incident he’s had. Normally Axl can take damn good care of himself, and there hasn’t been a fight he;s been in that he hasn’t come out on top (and I mean verses cat OR dog!!). But this is a definite sign he is feeling his age, and can’t scrap like he used to. I don’t want to loose him now.

Been having some really tough days at work. Somehow stumbled across this, and it just made me smile. Just what I needed to end a rough week.

I went to a friends wedding on Saturday. Nothing out of the ordinary there, except it was 3 hours drive outside of Sydney.

Got up at 4:30am Saturday morning, headed to the airport at 5am, for there at 6am, flight at 7am. Time to hit the Qantas Club lounge for some breakfast and desperately needed coffee.

Landed in Sydney at 8:35am (on time for once), met up with a work collegue Linda, who was going to drive us up to the Hunter Valley for the wedding. Her GPS did a pretty good job of getting us there. We stopped off in Singleton for some lunch, both had a hamburger the size of a football!

We were staying in a little bed and breakfast run by a husband and wife outfit on this little country farm. The B&B was kind of a hobby for them in their retirement. Was quite nice and cosy.

Wedding was great, held in a winery that was a favorite of the bride and groom, went off without a hitch. Even the weather was clear and sunny,the forecast had called for some showers, so they did well.

Reception in the winery main hall was good, except the PA system they were using for the speeches was pretty lousy, it kept echoing though the hall making it difficult to understand a lot of what was being said. Food was excellent, and the wine was great (apparently, I didn’t drink that night).

Ended up leaving about 11am, as because of my early start, I was running on auto-pilot by that time. And guess what – cops sitting right outside the winery, pulling people over to check they weren’t DUI…

Had an awesome home cooked breakfast at 8am, paid, and headed home. Back to Sydney airport around 12:30pm, Flight at 2pm, Home by 4:30pm.  Rang Mum (who had just left a message a few mins before I got home), she invited me over for dinner, but I declined. Too stuffed. I parked my backside on the bed to watch the Melbourne Grand Prix, and fell asleep half way through.

And that was that!

Site news : I’ve added a few little bits and pieces, so there may be a few changes you’ll notice… You’ll find them!!

Bloody hell, what is going on with this place. Just had another tremor. This time I’m at work on the second floor of a 3 story building, and the floor and desks felt like they were bouncing.

Been felt by heaps of people around town according to this.

Not sure how strong it was, more to come.

Update : a 4.6 again, and remarkably located in pretty much the same place as the last one! If I was living in Koruburra, I’d be moving real soon!

We just had an earth tremor!

I was sitting at the computer just before 9pm, when suddenly things started to shake. The desk wobbled, as well as the bookcase. Felt really weird! Only lasted for a few seconds, but it was a real WTF moment.

My housemates suddenly appeared, and we all looked at each other with a “Did you feel that?” kind of look!

Sprinted outside to be confronted with a few neighbours having the same kind of look on their face.

The news has reported it was a 4.7 on the Richter scale, no reports of injury or damage. Located about 90kms east of Melbourne.

There’s been a few minor tremors in Melbourne in my lifetime, but this is the first one I have actually felt with any intensity.

Finally got some content up in the Photos section. Still have a lot more to add, and I also need to annotate the photos, but I’ll get around to that soon.

Oh, and to the comment spammers – fuck off. It’s pointless. I won’t let your comments be published. Give it up.

The fires are still burning around the state, even 2 weeks after “Black Saturday”. Even yesterday we spotted a fire from our office up in the hills. Started off a small smoke column, then we watched it get bigger and bigger. Elvis, the water bomber went screaming overhead to fight it (first time I’ve seen the Eriksen Skycrane water bomber up close). Some houses lost, 2 CFA fire trucks, 2 or 3 firemen injured, but thankfully no deaths in this one. Looks like it’s under control this morning.

Death toll from Black Saturday is around 210. They still have areas blocked off as they are still checking for bodies.

Doubt this will be the end of it though. Predictions for Friday are 38 degrees with strong northerly winds. That means things could get even more ugly very quickly.

One GOOD thing to come out of this series of tragedies : proof of the Aussie spirit. Everyone has come together so quickly, given help, clothing, food, money ($130million and still counting in donations), even opened up their own houses to strangers to give those who lost their homess somewhere to stay.

How hot was it on Saturday? Normally koalas will run if you come near them, of if you get too close they’ll scratch and bite the crap out of you.

After the fires on Saturday, this little bloke just couldn’t care less. So long as there was water on offer…

Yesterday. It was the definition of hell in Victoria.

Melbourne hit 46.4degrees C. Hottest day in recorded history. And it felt every bit like it. The wind just sucked out any moisture you might have. I did some washing, hung it out on the line. By the time I had finished hanging it, the first pieces were already dry.

The constant smell of smoke in the air.

Bushfires all over the state. Many still burning today. Many towns wiped off the map, and that is no exaggeration. A few towns have lost every single building house and structure.

86 people confirmed dead as of 10pm tonight, authorities expecting triple figure death toll.

Just confirmed that Brian Naylor and his wife, the deeply respected Melbourne newsreader and his wife have been found dead in their home.

I remember Ash Wednesday. This felt worse. I never want to live through that again.

Edit : Death toll is now 131 and climbing.