Leaving on a Jet Plane

We have ponied up our cash and are ready to go. We are leaving on the 17th of August for our exploration of the old new world. Our first stop will be Lima Peru before embarking on a 2 week tour that will include a visit to Lake Titicaca, a four day trek to Machu Pichu, and spending a day in the Amazonian jungle. I will remember not to do any number one's in the river, lest a spiny fish find a home where it shouldn't.

After South America we will be heading to Washington DC to visit with J&J Young. They will be tres pleased to see us too! We will be there for around 10 days exploring the local scenery, and exciting venues such as Baltimore, Delaware and New Jersey. Broadway might get a look in, but as you know Matt isn't too keen on musical theater :-P.

On the way home we will be making a quick stop in Vegas baby. There I hope to win back the cost of our trip at the black jack tables. Hopefully we can also see Megatron and the Allspark at Hoover dam.

Stay tuned for further updates of our adventure as it unfolds. It could be really interesting, unlike the standard descriptions of our mundane lives.

Sorry, what was that?

After around 2 months trying out the benefits of a 'hearing instrument' I made the difficult choice today to send it back.

After a false start initially (due to some fitting issues), my audiologist was able to make some adjustments and pump up the volume on the whole thing. It looked promising for a while, but over the last couple of weeks of the trial I began to get some hard core ringing in my ear.

More testing revealed that my hearing has further deteriorated and thus the benefits of wearing the hearing aid, even with the volume up high, are marginal at best. That considered, I decided the $4,000 could be better spent elsewhere.

I am quite sad about it all. I was really hopeful that wearing a hearing aid would be the answer to my audiological prayers but I guess the reality is that sometimes you just have to accept the way things are, and that even with impressive technology there are still things today that medicine just can't fix. It also makes me conscious of the need to be more judicious in looking after the aspects of my health that I can actually control (like not eating quite so much turkish delight ice-cream).

Overall though, I am grateful that my deaf ear is something I can live with. I wish the same could be said for our family friend Elaine who succumbed to cancer this week. She was a strong woman and a bloody good maths teacher. I respected her immensely and I can't believe she's gone...

Anyway, next time you see me, don't forget to ask me for the full story on my 'aid'—just don't be surprised if you have to ask me twice!

Still Alive

This is just a note to the world at large that we (and this blog) are still alive and we will start updating it again now.

It was Matt's birthday last week, his 29th infact, which means he is officially nearly old. Meredith has been sick for a couple of weeks, but being the trooper that she is has been soldiering through. She actually took a couple days of work, which is unusual. She had better watch out, she only has 110 left. Now what happened to that cashing in sick leave thing they were talking about? That would have been the only good thing to come out of the work without choices legislation.

Wedding bells, astrological events and more

Last weekend we attended my cousin Sally's wedding. It was an outdoor affair and even though we thought we were going to die in the 38 degree heat, it really didn't seem that hot in the end.

Sally looked beautiful, and my Aunty Polly had done a fantastic job on all the flowers and decorations at the reception. It was wonderful that she got a standing ovation lead by her new son-in-law Graham during the speeches. She certainly deserved it.

One of the great highlights of the night was the chance to see Comet McNaught shooting across the sky. (all credit for the pic goes to John who snapped a much better picture than we ever could, later in the week).


Happy Australia day to everyone for today. Especially all those celebrating away from home!

Mini break- alpine style!

This past weekend, the Canberra contingent of the Bryant clan took a trip up to Jindabyne for a breath of mountain air and some R&R. We stayed at the

Pender Lea is owned and run by Rudi and Chris Schatzle. German-born Rudi came to Australia in the early 1960s and was drawn to Thredbo partly because at the time German was one of the principal languages spoken in the fledgling village.

Anyway, with that famous German precision the couple have restored the chalet dubbed "the post office" to its former glory and as you'll see from the pictures it was an amazing place to stay. If you're ever looking to get away its only $220 per night during the summer and sleeps up to 9 people. Most of the beds are king size and there is even a spa as well as a traditional cast-iron bath.

The hot bath was an especially welcome inclusion after Matt, mum and Meredith took a 2-hour trail ride on Saturday afternoon.

The only let down of the weekend was the Eucumbene Trout Farm, which can only be described as a tourist trap. The only good bit was the free sighting of an echidna by the side of the gravel road approaching the "facility". Apparently the going rate for sitting around in a dirty dustbowl is $8.50 plus rod hire...

All up though a very enjoyable sourjourn.

Now we're just crossing our fingers that it will be still there next season because the whole alpine way has been closed on account of bushfires. Fingers crossed the wind will change for them!

Zai jian and so long

Today we saw two lots of our family off at the airport for exciting adventures overseas. First, Tim flew out to Shanghai to begin his stint as a locally engaged staff member with the Department of Immigration. Being a Bryant affair you could almost bet your house there would be a few tears shed, and yes there were, but all told I think it was still pretty dignified. The hankies were quickly put away, but as Isobel commented, its just no fun with half our siblings away, the family jokes just aren't as funny....

Next was Jenna and Jay who are leaving on a jet plane to Washington where Jenna has been posted with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and where Jay will hopefully land a job working at the Smithsonian with his stellar reference from our National Museum (lets just hope it's roof is more architecturally sound than ours!).

Good luck and much love to all three of you.
You will be missed greatly by us all.

Hello world!

Inspired by Cath and Isobel's new live journal and having eagerly anticipated all the Lyons and Connolly posts over the last year Matt and I have decided to create our own blogspot. Stay tuned for all those knitting tips and biddy tid-bits you've all been hanging out for!!!

Anyway we'll try to keep it lively, or at least readable and post all our news to keep our friends and family up to date.

Happy new year to all!!