The drive into Blue Mountains was interesting. We drove through Lithgow as the kids were asleep but it had a strange mix of nice old buildings and cottages juxtaposed with a big coal power station and coal terminal. Rachael was driving and freaked out a little when suddenly we went from a not so busy highway onto the Pass of Victoria which is a super narrow highway with huge cliffs either side.

For our first day of our NSW road trip we wanted to get to Coonabarabran, which is a bit over 6 hours drive from Toowoomba. So we left early (we saw heaps of animals on the road - kangaroos, wild pigs, even a fox) and timed it so we’d get there a bit before 7:00 for the Goondiwindi ParkRun. The walk along the Macintyre River was really nice, and was a great spot to stop for breakfast and the first playground for the kids (of many).

We have now had our Cargo Ebike for a year, and so thought I’d write a review in the vein of the posts a colleageue Simon did [1] [2] [3]. With the kids getting bigger and Lyra no longer fitting in the bike trailer properly (not to mention it was hard work pulling 2 kids up hills) we wanted to look into getting an electic cargo bike to avoid needing to buy a 2nd car.

We had a family holiday to Hervey Bay, with a house booked at Toogoom and took the oppurtunity on the shorter drive up to visit some of the places on the drive north we hadn’t got to yet. The Muntapa Tunnel was a nice quick detour - although besides the tunnel itself there isn’t much to see. Not far from there is the The Palms National Park. This one has been on our list to visit for a while but we’ve always had the dog with us and so couldn’t go.

We had a very busy September this year, I was in Cairns for work the first week and so we didn’t try to go to the food and wine festival. Rachael was then in Melbourne visiting Lauren the following weekend when the parade was on, but I still rode in with the kids for it and they loved it. Was so much nicer riding in and not having to worry about parking with all the streets closed.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Busby Marou Hotel California - The Cat Empire Diane Young - Ball Park Music Hey - Eskimo Joe Baby Come Back - Ocean Alley Ausmusic Month Medley - Illy I Was Only 19 - The Herd Real Love - Regina Spektor Prototype - Tame Impala Welcome to the Black Parade - Alex Lahey

I did a post a few years back looking at our energy usage at our old house. We’ve been in the new place for 2 years now and with solar and electric hot water and cooking the charts are more interesting now. If you know a little bit of python I’ve published the script used to make these charts if you want to run with your own data. We got the hot water system put on a timer when we moved in and I originally set it to run from 08:00 - 15:00 with a top up at midnight, but after getting the first bill back quickly realised most of the hot water heating was happening at night time and not using the solar.

One part of our block that we were not sure what to do with was the back bit as there is quite a drop to the house behind. It started to look a bit more manageable after the earthworks and a retaining wall was put in. The weeds soon got a bit intense and we were sick of jumping up and down so over Christmas I got Dad to help me put in some stairs.

I almost didn’t bother voting this year, but here’s my low-effort top 10. Ball Park Music — Manny Ball Park Music — Stars In My Eyes King Stingray — Let’s Go grentperez — Teacher’s Pet [triple j Like A Version 2022] Spacey Jane — Sitting Up Vance Joy — Clarity Gang of Youths — in the wake of your leave Camp Cope — Running with the Hurricane Flume — Say Nothing [Ft.

We didn’t go the food and wine festival this year, and I had a sprained ankle so we didn’t go to any prize gardens either. We did get to Laurel Bank and Queen’s Parks though.