Been working like a crazy person on a couple of big projects, but now it is all wrapped up (I hope!) and I’m off to New Zealand tomorrow.
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Had a great 2 weeks off. We hired a Jucy campervan (we don’t have a car) and headed to Gippsland and over the border to Eden before returning home via Christmas at Woodside Beach and a final state forest camp spot. Strange bylaws mean that you can’t have campfires on the beach, but you can in state forests (when there is no fire ban and we have had a lot of rain).
Happy New Year and back to the drawing board…
The boyf and I took off for 5 days last week to do the Murray to Mountains Rail Trail. It rained buckets, but we had fun (and were still talking at the end of it!).
After 35km we climbed another 20km up to Beechworth -knackering!
Pennyweight winery has an entrance for cyclists
Downtown Beechworth
Not that we were short of water on this trip
The Chinese cemetery at Beechworth is huge
The Bridge St Brewery has the best Ned Kelly iconography
I did part of a great walk from Beechworth to Kerford Reservoir
There are mine shafts all over the shop and grates to stop you falling down them
Though it is weird standing on the grid with a big mine shaft below you
Some of the shafts go a long way down
When we left Beechworth we rode downhill to Myrtleford. The Butter Factory does a great lunch and makes fab butter too.
The modified headgear is to protect against dive-bombing magpies
It was a relief to get to Bright after 60kms of riding
A welcome avenue of trees
One of our first stops the next day was the Rail Trail Cafe at Porepunkah
It was raining hard and the rivers were rising
It cleared for a short while as we came into Everton
Pasture was flooded and we were soaked through to our undies (not pictured...).
The next day - no rain, but lots of flooding and a headwind
This was the nicest weather we had all week - end of the Rail Trail at Wangaratta
We drove out through the King Valley towards Melbourne
Had a beautiful lunch at Dal Zotto to top off our trip
Home now – warm, dry and with lots of work to do!
Tags: australia, biking, cycling, rail trail, victoria
My sister, Steph is always trying to get me to move back to the UK. One of the things she has started to do is wild swims, because she knows I’d love to be a part of what has become quite a popular movement in the UK.
It's Steph and Jo's birthday today - Happy Birthday, sisters!
Tags: wild swimming
Taste of Melbourne - Inside the Exhibition Building
The boyf won tickets for Taste of Melbourne last week. I was expecting I would get bored after the initial (very overpriced) dishes from the restaurant stalls, but it wasn’t too bad.
For starters there were a lot of chocolate and ice cream companies giving out free samples. The marshmallows dipped in Green and Black's chocolate fountain were to die for and only bettered by Gundowring Golden Syrup icecream worth going to purgatory for.
I got to chat to the guy at Bultarra Saltbush Lamb - usually they are very busy when we buy their lamb from the farmers market
I also had a good chat with Enviromeat, who raise, market and distribute beef that has a low environmental impact
I ended up being there for 2 hours (the boyf was there for nearly four – I had to repair to the adjacent Melbourne Museum and revive myself by looking at Ordician fossils and the odd dinosaur skeleton)
Some of the trilobite fossils have been painstakingly cleaned and look quite animated
Tarbosaurus - Tyranosaurus' marginally less scary cousin
When he emerged, we went on to Brunswick Street and found a great new bar with food that was just as good as what we had had at Taste of Melbourne, but waaaaay cheaper ($2 per tapas, not $8 to $12) – it was almost like being in Donostia-San Sebastian.
Plus the pipework in Naked for Satan should make a great reference for a cartoon one day...
Tags: eco, enviromeat, environmentally friendly, green, meat, melbourne museum, taste of melbourne
It's hard to think about getting old
I was recently floored by a question that I have never had from a client in 11 years of full time cartooning:
Do you have a superannuation fund (Australian pension)…?
and even more surprisingly:
…because we would like to pay into it.
I replied that cartoonists don’t retire – we keep working until we die at the drawing board. The client persisted:
Would you like to consider setting up a [superannuation] account…? It might not add up to an awful lot, but it’s an amount you are entitled to. Hopefully you’ll be with us for a while and we can keep contributing to it.
(I really love this client). So that made me think… and search on the internet…and find that it might really work out to have a superannuation account as I could claim it back against my tax, or have the government pay into my pension (getting money from the government is always a persuasive prospect).
A search online showed only one superannuation company that was really worth considering: Australian Ethical. They invest in truly environmentally sustainable companies that care about people as well as profits. Coincidentally, one of their (recycled paper) leaflets showed up in the ACF’s Habitat magazine. And they were launching a new fund called the Climate Advocacy Fund, a joint venture between Australian Ethical and the Climate Institute. I went to a presentation by one of their directors, James Thier, last night. It’s a weird new thing. They aim to effect change by investing in the Australian Stock Exchange (including companies they wouldn’t previously have touched with a barge pole) and then tabling resolutions with some of those companies to try and get some of the most carbon-intensive ones to change their game. From the AE web site, the aim and objective of the Climate Advocacy Fund is to:
- Provide returns consistent with the broad Australian share market index and provide an avenue for active engagement with the companies included in the index.
- … track the return of the S&P/ASX 200 share market index
- … improve the corporate behaviour of companies through engagement on climate change issues.
I like the idea that this company, having invested in ethical, sustainable companies for 20+ years is now prepared to try another tack – to take on some of the companies who would make a bigger difference to our future, if they would only change the way they operate.
I’m going to get myself a pension plan.
Tags: australian, cartoonist, climate change, ethical, pension, retirement, self-employed, superannuation
At the Top Hut on Bealey Spur
I’m just back from a visit to NZ, catching up with friends, going to a fantastic wedding and doing an overnight tramp (hike!). On my last day, I went into Christchurch and browsed the Arts Centre Market to find a gifted artist, Ron Tekawa, who uses old fabrics to make wonderful skirts. They can’t quite save my legs and wonky toes, but they are as flattering a shape as I can wear!
Billie admires my skirt
Ron Tekawa with another of his creations
Tags: art, Arts Centre, Arts Market, Bealey, Christchurch, craft, creative, Hut, maori, Market, new zealand, NZ, skirt, Spur, stall, Tramp
I love going to galleries as I come out feeling inspired. I think that this makes the hour or so I’ve spent in them worthwhile, even though it could be viewed as another form of procrastination – I should have been working on Arctic Circle ideas when I went to the Ron Mueck exhibition at the NGV St Kilda Road. It was so much better to see the actual sculptures rather than the photos as only in real life can you see how his sense of scale messes with the subject.
Dead Dad - strangely poignant
Small babies are disturbing enough - this one was HUGE
This one looks strangely like my friend, Gary from this angle
Tags: art, exhibit, exhibition, gallery
The parents are visiting from the UK, so I’m a little light on posting this week!
Mum and Dad in Federation Square
I’m running a little behind on my work this week, as last week the boyf and I took time out to hike part of the Great Ocean Walk with our friend, Clare. We did a 3 day section from Johanna Beach to Princetown and stayed overnight in 3 campsites, so had to carry all our camping gear – about 15 kilos each until we started drinking the wine and eating the food. We were lucky with the weather, having only some light rain when we walked and some sun when it counted. My favourite part was Milanesia Beach and it was a shame that all the camp sites had to be so far from the beaches, as I would have enjoyed a few more swims.
The Start...ish... we had gone past the start which we had to walk back to.
Johanna Beach from the walk in campsite
The first campsite at sunrise
The meandering Johanna River looks like a geography lesson
Going Up...actually an easier part of the first day's walking
The first two to three hours of the walk are along fairly flat terrain shared with the occasional vehicle
The closest we got to seeing an echidna
We saw quite a few wallabies and a kangaroo, but I was surprised not to see more wildlife on the walk. We were warned by the kind lady who provides free water to walkers (we needed it – one of our water bottles had fallen out in the taxi and the first day of walking was in the high 20 degrees C – very warm) that the section up to Ryan’s Den (a hard slog, up and down narrow tracks through bush – not the 1.5 hour doddle suggested by the sign!) was a common snake hangout and she was right. The boyf and Clare were surprised by a 2-3 foot tiger snake that was crossing the path, but then lunged up towards them. I missed the action, but was told that they surprised themselves at how fast they could run uphill with their packs on…
The Fabulous Water Stop
This was a small snake seen just after the big scary one!
The water at Milanesia Beach was refreshing in the heat...
The mudstones at Milanesia Beach
The water was crystal clear
Milanesia had endless beach art
This rock looked like a dolphin from the other direction but doing a turtle here.
Leaving Milanesia
sploosh
Any later and we wouldn't have made it around this one
We were lucky enough to do the walk in the middle of blackberry season
Brambles
Campsite Two
Sunset at Ryan's Den
Day 2 of walking started with a lot of up and down but got easier
Australian Bush(es)
Moonlight Head taken with a self-timer - we were the only ones on the walk for the entire 3 days!
Beautiful Gum Tree on right
Our 2kg Habitat tent worked out great even in the rain at Devil's Kitchen
Wreck Beach - similar view to the one from the awesome loo
Loo with a view
Wreck Beach
Rambling towards Princetown on day three of walking
Princetown in sight
After beer and hot chips we drove on to see the 12 Apostles before heading home
Tags: australia, camp, camping, coast, coastal, Great Ocean Walk, hike, hiking, Johanna, Milanesia, Otway, Princetown, tramping, victoria, walk
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