The Home of Tom & Morven

People have been knocking my reasoning lately for thinking that red meat is bad for the environement. Well, thanks to Morvie for this link because this is definitive proof that being a fussy meat eater morphing into vegeterianism is good for the environment:

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/inventory/enduse/index.html

Scroll down to figure S2 and check out the beef!!

Anyone that knows Jame knows he has always - I repeat - *always* had the messiest bedroom in the world. He’s also one of the best artist I know (amongst Jordan, Vi, Nai, Sven). What do you get when you combine Jame’s messy bedroom with Jame’s talented video art? A RAD video to watch on my blog!

James’ Room Cleaning Time Lapse

You may noticed I changed my theme to a new one, from the same author as the last theme I was using, theme Chameleon.

I think this is nicer, please tell me what you think Mike?

P.S. I was testing this theme and realised that this post wasn’t displaying. An while later when it magically popped up, I realised it was because of daylight savings and that the time was confusing itself, and it thought it was in the future when it wasn’t.

Not having been to Brisbane for years, it was great to go there for a PESTC (Postgraduate Electricity Supply Training Course). The course was Wed-Fri on High Voltage Equipment, and next week I’m going back for Introduction to Substation Design. Wednesday night I visited Uncle Wayne, Juliet and Philly’s new house. It’s a great house, and it was a pleasure to have dinner with them. Thursday night my colleague and I investigated the Bris-Vegas nightlife in Fortitude Valley (or somewhere?). The apartment I stayed in was upgraded complimentary to a double apartment for some reason and no joke, it was almost bigger than my house! The photos are of my Uncle, myself overlooking the Botanic Gardens from my balcony, and of the group that visited the Areva transformer factory.

Some cool links:

• Adelaide Webcams
• Adelaide’s Air Quality

Today I rigged up a way of saving lots of water. Our washing machine, which although is already highly efficient with its water usage, still uses at least a couple buckets of water per wash. By taking the hose that hangs over the sink so the water goes down the sink drain, and elevating it over the tap, we can simply leave a bucket under the hose to catch water. The bucket will fill up, and overflow. The cleanest water will be left in the bucket, and this can be put on the garden. You can also catch water that you use to wash hands, and stuff like that.

It should be known however, that it’s very important to make sure you use an environmentally friendly washing powder/detergent. This is because it will eventually seep down into the water table, so it’s imperative to ensure it has a very minimal chemical content. I haven’t chosen the washing powder/detergent that we’ll use yet because I need to take this information to the supermarket, but here is the info I will use to select the most environmentally friendly detergent:

Lanfax Laundry Products Research
On the site, you will find download links to view and print two pdf’s with all the info you need on washing detergents/powders for sale in Australia, and direct comparisons.

Alternatively, download them from me:

Graphs of sodium and phosphorus in laundry detergents

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Brochure on sodium and phosphorus

File Size: 91.5 KB

Today I also fertilised our lawn, and also applied sulphate of potash, which will make the lawn a lot more drought tolerant. I’m aiming to go for at least two weeks between watering our lawn regardless of heat waves this summer. I’ve invested time and effort into making the lawn require a lot less water in terms of quantity and frequency by increasing the depth of the root systems, through regular fertilising, weeding, and coring of the lawn.

I’ve decided that I’m going to blog about one person a week that I know, and if no one comes forward as willing to be ‘Person of the Week’, or the person I want to do person of the week about denies me, then I will make up a character. To kick off ‘Person of the Week’, say hello to squirmy!

The most beautiful thing I’ve seen this year (besides Morv!):

Ice in Switzerland

File Size: 2.6 MB

Thanks to Arie for this.

Can’t stand them. I’m going to try this next time.

Last weekend Morv and I went to Melbourne for the weekend, for the Melbourne Marathon. Morv did the MaraFun 7.5km event in an impressive time, and I slacked off by 36 seconds compared to my performance in the Adelaide Marathon this year.

Melbourne Marathon October 8th 2006 - 3:26:46
Adelaide Marathon August 27th 2006 - 3:26:10

Considering I had only done literally one run since the Adelaide Marathon, I was hardly trained up for the Melbourne Marathon. In this respect, I’m extremely happy to have just finished let alone got so close to my best time!

The problem I had with the Adelaide Marathon was dehydration, so for the Melbourne Marathon I supplemented myself with the usual electrolyte drink containing sodium and potassium for a few days beforehand, however this drink I tried now also contains magnesium, which particularly helps to hydrate the muscles. I’ve also been taking regular glycosamine supplements, which is pretty much nutrition for the joints. So hopefully I won’t have to have a knee reconstruction before the age of 30!

The problem I had with the Melbourne Marathon wasn’t dehydration, but going too hard at the start. The reason I went too hard at the start was because I met this guy Andrew at the start line who was the most motivating person I’ve ever met in terms of running. He convinced me I can do that 3:15:00 time I’d been hoping for. I sat on a 3:12:00 pace for about 28km until I realised I wasn’t going to be able to finish if I kept doing this pace. By about 30km Andrew passed me and spurred me on for another km or so, and then by 32km I was walking on and off! I possibly lost it mentally when my GPS lost reception and didn’t pick up again. It really motivates me seeing whenever I start to decrease in speed slightly, so not having my little virtual training partner abusing me when I started to slip really didn’t help. Also, I didn’t have my DNB music this run because I realised at the start line that I didn’t have the extension piece for my earbuds of my mp3 player to reach the actual mp3 player! That was a huge setback.

It’s been just over a week now since the run, and I’m feeling pretty well. I think this has been my best post-marathon recovery to date. I even did the corporate cup 7.2km run on Wednesday (3 days after the marathon) albeit in 50 minutes rather than the usual 30 minutes!

Apart from the run, I had a great weekend with Morv. We met up with her friend Susan during the day and did some shopping. That afternoon we went to the MADsens house for an early dinner. I love seeing my cousins - they’re coming here for Christmas, and it’s going to be the best Christmas ever! Sunday morning was the run, and after passing out in the hotel room for a few hours we went to Lygon St. for dinner, and came home. I was so hungry by the time we got to dinner and here’s the photo to show it! I even saw my dream motorbike. What a weekend!