Dave and I joined the ladies for dinner at The Rocks.

This is Jessie and Karen having a laugh.

The Information Online conference is underway. I attended a great dinner last night at Cockle Bay, "Coast", sponsored by EBSCO. This morning I have caught up with many old friends and colleagues from Darwin and Adelaide as well as some of the company representatives that I know. I have organised some trials of new databases for the TAFE that I hope will be useful for all.




This is Richard Sayers from Caval with Gillian Hallam from QUT.

Jayshree with a Fijian colleague.

Sarah managed to capture the Blogger at work

Today a walk to the Australian Museum, where Dave and I saw a great BBC Wildlife Photo Exhibition
Click the link to view some of the images.
and then a walk through Hyde Park to Darlinghurst.


I am always interested to see trees on the top of high rise buildings.

Today we spent time in Erskinville and Newtown digging in the crates.

Trip to Sydney. I flew from Albury to Sydney with my flight over an hour late in leaving due to 'technical difficulties with the aircraft". Not the most re-assuring of announcements during the flight! Dave and I saw lots of evidence of the Australia Day celebrations, but in the end were too tired to watch the fireworks.
On Saturday morning we went to the Glebe Flea Market.

and then to the Museum of Contemporary Art.
On the way we saw a Korean television commercial being made:



Then we walked around Circular Quay and The Rocks,





and saw lots of brides and their grooms walking around the area.

We spent a couple of days moving the Reference Collection this week and it was all hands on deck.
The team worked well, we had fun and did it all in less time than we thought was needed.

A trip to Ettamogah on Saturday.
I decided to visit this famous Pub. My undertanding is this is the original, well a modern version of it. It was a pleasant rural drive , 10 minutes from Thurgoona.

About Thurgoona! Just minutes from Albury CBD, an easy three-hour drive to Melbourne or a brief 60-minute flight from Sydney. Quoting from the club I have joined, the Thurgoona Country Club Resort:
"With a ten-minute drive, you can visit the famous Ettamogah Pub or take a leisurely scenic cruise down the Murray on the Paddlesteamer Cumberoona. Picturesque Lake Hume with views of the magnificent Victorian Alps is just up the road. Here you can go water skiing, sailing, swimming or just sit and relax. A little further a field, about 45 minutes by road, are North Eastern Victoria’s famous Rutherglen Wineries, where you can taste the excellent wines from well known vineyards such as All Saints, Morris and Campbells or investigate the rich history and character of townships such as Beechworth, Bright and Yackandandah."

Then after the lunch a trip into Albury and a drive to Beechworth. I have discovered that the famous Beechworth Bakery make my favourite cake, the Eccles cake, so I enjoyed a pleasant afternoon tea eating one .


Beechworth is a great little town, I certainly will be taking visitors there. There are mamny bookshops, antique stores, cafes etc.

A busy Saturday. First of all a drive to the Hume Dam, which was blanketed with smoke from the Victorian bush fires across the border. It was well worth trip. the area was teeming with bird life.

The birds were in their hundreds!






Then a trip back to Thurgoona for another nice lunch at the Thurgoona Country Club which I joined last week.

Big day today! My household 'stuff' finally arrived from Darwin, via Melbourne. Just goes to show I did not really need most of it having lived out of suitcases for nearly two months.
Its one more removal of connections with Darwin. It looks like my unit at Karama has sold.

However having said that I am looking fowarding to meeting many of my CDU friends, Kaye, Karen, Jessie, Jayshree and my previous Associate Director, Anne at Information Online.
I am keen to hear Diana G. Oblinger speak. She was an editor of Educating the Net Generation
Its an e-Book Its available online at this link .
Her abstract for the conference reads well:
Listening to What We're Seeing -
'One student walks across campus listening to an iPod; another is engrossed in text messaging on her cell phone. During class, they're Googling, IMing and playing games - often at the same time. More likely to use the library as a gathering place than a resource, this is the Net Generation. They co-exist beside older students who are juggling work, childcare and eldercare. Although we see them daily, do we understand our learners? What do their experiences, attitudes and expectations mean for educational institutions? '

During the night we smelt smoke and we woke to see and smell this. It's from bushfires a fair way from us. Wodonga sits in a basin so the smoke is well across the city.


Compare this last shot with this one from December 3rd.

The view from my office window last week.
Lots of Grass parrots and ducks.

Had a nice run to Rutherglen, the heart of the Victorian wine country. I visted only two of the wineries, Brown Brothers. and then Bullers where I chatted to Andrew the wine maker. His soon to be released 2006 Shiraz Vignonier was fantastic.

Rutherglen has lots of cafes, bakeries and a great bookshop. It was a pleasant walk through the town.

Melbourne Skyline

Busker in Bourke Street Mall

Dave ready to click.

Hugh worked in this store in Mlebourne before going to work in Europe


Chinese ladies at Southbank promoting Chinese New Year activities.

Gondola on the Yarra

I took a trip back to Melbourne, in a rental vehicle, via Mount Gambier, where we caught up with an old TAFE friend brian Johnson and his wife Lucinda.




Then to Ballarat where Dave and I stayed with Pauline, Clive and Katie.