5 down, and counting...

So I decided to do a complete fishtank makeover. The "easy fishkeeping" DVD that came with the tank suggested all I needed to do was lay some gravel, plant some plants, fill it up with water, bung in some fish and voila! - fishtank done. I've since done a little more reading (interpret that as many hours scouring the internet for advice) and have adjusted my technique slightly...

Unfortunately the fish I chose aren't exactly known for their ability to survive in the fluctuating conditions of a brand new tank, so I'm afraid that I've had a 50% mortality rate :(

At least I seem to be able to grow plants.

There are fish in the tank - they are just hiding. Please no jokes about fearing for their lives...

Craig and Sharelle came up last week for a visit, along with the intention to do some work in our backyard, which was awesome. They cleared a heap of leaves/weeds/trees and we are discovering that there might actually be some useful ground under all that rubbish. Now we're envisioning terraces, drainage systems, grass, plants, maybe a goat.

All these garden beds are emerging from under a decade's worth of leaf litter...

Now we have one GIANT pile of rubbish (not that you can really tell from the photo). You might get a better idea of how much is there by the fact that we took a couple of loads away to the tip today, which totaled half a ton. And that was slightly less than half the pile. Sigh.

At least now we have put a significant dent into the cleanup effort (well - Craig and Sharelle have put a significant dent into the cleanup effort)(enourmous thankyou). Now it's a race to see if we can get the rest done before it all accumulates again. I still think the goat is not that bad an idea :)

Another random update

Although it feels like not much has been happening lately, now that I trawl through our photos, I realize that we actually have been out and about quite a bit...

Ryan has had a bit of a cold (or the horrendously debilitating man-flu if you ask him...) but we were feeling the itch for another adventure (of the not too strenuous kind), so yesterday we picked a random trip out of one of our 4WD books - "Trek 13: Watagan Wanderings". The Watagans are a National Park inland of Lake Macquarie, and just over an hour's drive away. Although our book suggested that this was an easy trip, suitable for cars and AWDs, we reckon it might be a bit our of date, 'cos there were a few spots that required low-range 4WD, and one very steep, slippery ascent out of a creek that actually beat us (and claimed a mudflap). Admittedly, these were on an "alternative route" option, but who could resist taking the "more demanding" route???

Anyway, we also drove out to a couple of pretty spectacular lookouts, one of which overlooked a big swathe of coast.

We spent Christmas weekend with Ryan's parents up at Bogangar. This was my first Clement Christmas and it was nice to catch up with everyone at home. The best thing about Christmas at Bogangar (according to Ryan) is, of course, the beach. It wasn't exactly the nicest beach weather, though, and I'm convinced the ocean is trying to kill me on the best of days, so there was no way I was braving the churning white water. Even Craig and Ryan only managed to tolerate about 10min of it on the first day, before being blinded by the glare on the white water. See - if it's not out to drown you, it's trying to send you blind. I knew the ocean was evil...

I did, however, go snorkeling in Cudgen creek and had an awesome time looking at all the fish :)

Christmas also brought a few new toys. I am a big step closer in my quest to attain those ever-elusive 34 tetras (just need to actually get some fish)(and a background and probably some more plants, but you get the idea):

Ryan scored a shiny new BBQ care of his parents. We tried it out on Phil and Shannon who dropped by for dinner on New Year's Eve. As far as we know, everyone survived :)

A few weeks ago we also finally got our much-awaited new lounge. Twice. After waiting a very long 10 weeks for it to come, it was delivered at last. Ryan took the day off to be at home when it came. The delivery guys brought up one half and set it down in the loungeroom. Unfortunately it was the part with the chaise and they set it down where the other piece was meant to go which was enough to make them all very confused. Despite the three of them (Ryan + delivery guys) poring over the diagram on the order form, they decided it was wrong and sent it back to the warehouse. Turns out all they had to do was rotate the thing 90 degrees and it would have been fine. I thought it was way too amusing to be angry, even though I had to wait another 10 days before they could deliver it again...

You might notice as well that in the above photo, you can just make out one of Ryan's surround-sound speakers, which for the first time in their seven-year history, have finally been set up properly (as of today).

In other random news, I finally figured out a route to ride to work which should minimize my chances of being collected by a car. And even better, actually rode it. All I can say is that there is a reason that this is called the Hills District and that I am definitely not as fit as I used to be...

And that's about it for now. Hope you all (all three of you who actually bother reading this) have a Happy New Year :)