May

The winter term stretches ahead, bleak and grey. I'm hoping the sun will someday return. Job.... from dull to tedious. And the school morning routines are bleak: arise at 6:15, make 6 lunches, coffee, wake people up, feed the little kids, pack their bags and get them dressed and shod and brush their hair; herd them to the van.
We had a glorious holiday over Easter and right through to Anzac day. April 22nd I had J, B and O down at the beach. It was glorious.

The water was cold, but we all still went swimming. Oscar particularly loved climbing on Awakeri- and jumping off, as well!

A glorious holiday, during which I got in a few hasty sails, a couple of morning motors with the little kids, went swimming and built a long-drop.

Now it's horrendous petrol prices, and the prospect GWBush might just start a war with Iran in a desperate bid to save his "legacy" as president (douple or quits?). I can't imagine congress or the senate voting to give him the sort of powers they did in '02... but with Rove on the case (between supoenas) who knows how it'll spin.

I've been trying to get back into recording some music- a couple of new tracks, and some older songs I'm re-inspired to work on thanks to Sampletank. It's a "sampleworkstation"- but it does the work for you- and it has very good sounds. There's a free version you can download here:, (look for the "downloads" tab) with a limited number of sounds. It's very good. (While the sounds are limited, if you can get hold of the whole range, it's quite complete in its own way, including: a few drumkits, three different guitars, a nice Hammond b3, a good electric piano, and terrific "accoustic" piano, alto sax, and solo violin. I've bought an "le" version that comes with a basic GM soundset, and it feels like I could do anything.... if I only had the skill!