Good day sir I said good day

Wow, I am not going very well at the whole 'one post per day' thing. Although I cannot feel too down given Heart won today! 3-2 at home, even though we were down to 10 men for about 30 minutes. Go team! \o/

( November )

Apparently yesterday I just forgot. Not the best! However I did play a large amount of Dishonoured, which was great. I am trying to get through Kaldwin's Bridge without being spotted but I think someone might have seen me as I was choking him unconscious... oh well too late now.

( September )

Weirdly, directly after posting yesterday's entry I lost all signal on my iPad, so here is what should have been yesterday's post.

In unrelated news, I went swimming yesterday and it was lovely, if a bit chilly. I went to the hot springs afterwards and spent the longest time I have ever managed in the hottest pool they have, which is 40+ degrees, thawing out.

( July )

Running a bit late but still day two for me!

( May )

So on the first anniversary of my tumblr, in April 2011, I posted a retrospective of my top three posts from each month. Even at the time I suspected the audience for this was... small, at best. Last April I decided not to do it, but the idea kept sticking with me and wouldn't go away. A month or so later (I can't remember any more) I went through and picked my top two¹ photos. They have been open in tabs since then. (I have a terrible tab hoarding problem.)

So over the next 12 days I'll be posting a retrospective of my top posts on my tumblr from April 2011 to March 2012, posted here mostly for me after the desire to do it hung on for many months despite many good reasons to have abandoned this project.

If you click on the photos, they will take you through to the original post on tumblr, with attribution/source if avaliable. In some cases I have included some or all of the quotes that accompanied the photo, if I feel it's of interest/relevance.

¹For reasons I have since forgotten, I apparently decided on two photos this year, not three; apart from in April where I apparently couldn't decide which one to cull, so there are three.

Today I went ice skating for about half an hour, to see if it would be possible. I was motivated by three things:
1. Melbourne Ice is having a skate with the players thing next weekend and I wanted to see if it would even be possible for me to go (this was the catalyst)
2. I have been watching lots of people skating as part of watching the hockey and it reminded me how I used to enjoy it, and
3. Last time I went ice skating (which was the first time I went post back injury) it was amazingly painful and I had to give up after about 5 minutes of excruciating wobbling, and I was feeling a mixture of despondent and defiant at the thought that this was something that I would have permanently lost the ability to do, and decided to give it another go.

I went to the Oakleigh rink, because it is close to my house and less expensive, and I thought there would be fewer people, which turned out to be correct. (It was also even cheaper than I expected because when I first turned up no-one was at the counter, and I had to hunt them down to pay, and then they gave me a discount as a result which was nice.) So I put my skates on, pushed through the nervous moment as I stood up and thought 'ok, here I go', ignored the voice that was telling me I was an idiot to risk further injury and stepped onto the ice.

I took one slightly wobbly glide and then BAM I WAS SKATING IN A COMPLETELY NON WOBBLY AND PAIN FREE MANNER, HELLS YEAH! I felt completely stable and although I was by no means fast I was never at serious risk of falling over. Ahhh, I cannot even tell you how happy the lack of pain makes me feel. FREEEDOOOOM!!!! I was fully expecting to get on the ice, stagger around like bambi and be forced off the ice again for the sake of a pain free existence, but I was hoping for the best. My actual hope was that the pain wouldn't be too bad and I could push through it and that I wouldn't wobble that much. My expectations were waaaay exceeded! I am still super super happy about it, 7 hours later. :D :D :D :D :D

(Lest I give you the wrong impression, I am still obviously a beginner, complete with steadying arm waving action, wary glances at people that come too close, and the ability only to go forwards, with extra concentration for turning. But I didn't have to hold onto the wall so as not to fall over once! Maybe I will go do one of the free 'intro to skate' sessions at the Icehouse next.)

Melbourne is having its 5th Open House next weekend, which is the 28th and 29th of July. During the Open House interesting buildings around the city are opened up for the public to come and view - this year there are 100. If you are interested in coming with me, read on for more information.

The one sad thing about the Open House is that although 100 buildings are open, there is no way you can visit them all in the time available (they are mostly open between 10 and 4 on both days, with some exceptions). You can probably visit 3 - 6 buildings a day, and visiting the buildings you are most excited about first is a good idea.

My initial shortlist was 28 buildings, and I have whittled it down to 17. I will need to get it to 4 - 10 (although I probably won't be able to do all 10.)
If I have linked you to this post, please provide your input on the buildings suggested. (B, I have added all the underground buildings I could find, and also the Peter Mac buildings you were telling me about, but let me know if I've missed something.)
Here is a map of all the buildings on my shortlist. Unfortunately it is somewhat spread out.
EDIT: I have updated both the map and the list below. Stuck out buildings have been culled, starred buildings have made the cut, the rest are still under consideration.

I am planning to go both days, although I will miss the end of Sunday because I have a Melbourne Ice game at 3.30. Feel free to join me for either day (or to watch the ice hockey match).

EDIT AGAIN: UPDATED FOR DAY 2

Here is the list of buildings:
Russell Place Substation
*JA Substation (or the Russell Place one)
Royal Melbourne Hospital tunnels and towers
Peter Mac Radiation Therapy Bunkers
Peter Mac Cancer Research Laboratories
*Little black number (private house)
*Royal Children's Hospital
Hive graffiti apartments
DesignInc (architects' offices)
State Library of Victoria
Bastow institute of educational leadership
University of Melbourne - Harry Brookes Allen Museum of Anatomy and Pathology
University of Melbourne - Melbourne Brain Centre
Tasma Terrace
Hamer Hall
Malthouse Theatre
Convesso concavo

( Building summary )

My baking took forever and the icing did not go how I wanted it to go, and then there was way too much washing up.

I feel this is relevant right now:


[Image description: A stressed out looking cat is standing on a body board which is floating in the middle of a pool. It has its head down, shoulders braced and tail amazingly fluffed out. (It may be the fluffiest tail I have ever seen.) The caption at the top of the picture says 'I have made a' and at the bottom it continues 'poor decision'.]

Sprinkles Cupcakes, a californian cupcake company, have released a cupcake vending machine to dispense cupcakes 24 hours a day! Also you get to see inside the machine as the robo-arm picks up your selected cupcake. Very fun!

LJ is for some reason only loading as a blank screen on my computer. Argh. Dreamwidth is still working fine (thus the post!) so you may want to chat to me over here for a bit. Here is the link to my DW. You can comment with open ID (and I think I can also friend open ID accounts so they can see my locked posts? I can't remember but comment if you're interested in me looking into it) or comment anonymously. In the meantime thanks for the comments on lj guys, which I read and appreciated but cannot respond to.

To make this post more interesting, here is a photo of Heath Ledger as the Joker skate boarding over Christian Bale as Batman while they take a break on the set of The Dark Knight:
( Cut for space )