tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-116799262011-11-27T10:09:52.644+10:00Life and times of a keen Himalayan trekker.elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.comBlogger891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-63428521079796485072011-09-01T19:40:00.003+10:002011-09-15T11:14:26.411+10:00

I've always been bit of a birdwatcher. Not in the ranks of Bill Oddie (of The Goodies fame) or Sean Dooley, but with definite twitching tendencies. I don't go out of my way to spot birds and I don't maintain lists like more serious twitchers do, but I do enjoy identifying and ticking off species I've seen in my Field guide to the birds of Australia. Our back garden is constantly visited by noisy

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-57181954395122295902011-08-15T18:36:00.000+10:002011-08-15T18:36:38.424+10:00

Smithy and I headed off to Binna Burra this weekend for two days of camping and bush walking. We arrived mid morning on Saturday after a glorious drive in bright winter sunshine. I took my iPad along and plugged it into the little gizmo that allows us to play an iPod through the car stereo. The fact that I could surf the web, Tweet and update Facebook as we cruised down the highway to the soulful

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-6127483901650222232011-08-06T13:22:00.003+10:002011-08-06T13:30:40.596+10:00

I bought an iPad 2 recently. I hadn't intended buying an iPad at all. In fact, I had originally gone out to get three photographs enlarged. Because I was planning on getting them done on canvas, I went to Harvey Norman, where I soon learned that canvas prints take two weeks. That was no good, as I needed the photos in three days time, so I settled for getting some standard enlargements instead.

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-44799620139206030682011-07-25T15:57:00.000+10:002011-07-25T15:57:14.694+10:00

After a short hiatus - what with going to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's teachings and then succumbing to a virus that stubbornly hung around for a month - I am back into my training regime. With only sixty-eight days to go until our Manaslu trek, every day now counts. So from now on, I'll be spending at least 30 minutes a day doing squats, lunges, burpees and sit-ups, along with some strength

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-8593542917717323662011-06-12T17:13:00.002+10:002011-06-16T18:15:17.055+10:00

I'm in Melbourne to attend His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama's three-day teachings on Shantideva's Guide to a Bodhisattva's Way of Life. A bodhisattva is one who renounces their own enlightment until all sentient beings are free of suffering. The Guide is basically a text on cultivating the mind of enlightenment, compassion, patience and generosity. Day One: Saturday 11 June 2011 The morning

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-50698636603420475582011-05-22T16:25:00.000+10:002011-05-22T16:25:58.354+10:00

Smithy and I bought a campertrailer last year and took delivery of it in September. Very excited to try it out, we booked ourselves a weekend away, but it poured with rain that weekend and we didn't go. Once we came back from our India trip, we booked another camping weekend, but it rained then too. Then of course, we had all that dreadful weather over the summer and so had no opportunity to go

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-29320129819702748902011-05-02T11:50:00.000+10:002011-05-02T11:50:46.482+10:00

Smithy and I had our final weigh ins at Jenny Craig today. Smithy has done really well over the past three months and reached her goal weight. Me - not so good. My weight yo-yoed a bit, but I did lose just over 5kg. Three kilograms short of my goal weight and less than half a kilo a week. But a good weight loss all the same. We're both going to continue with a reduced calorie diet to see how much

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-74979873628909071622011-04-15T20:33:00.000+10:002011-04-15T20:33:57.343+10:00

The mornings are getting a little darker these days, so I've stopped getting up to go for a run/walk. I get to enjoy an extra twenty minutes sleep in each work day. The trade off? I get home about forty minutes later each night as I now walk home from Newstead. That's about 6.5km and it's taking me about 75 minutes at the moment. I'll be working on getting that down to around 65 minutes over the

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-82999493719062229542011-04-02T20:20:00.000+10:002011-04-02T20:20:54.455+10:00

So, this year I've been reading books I own rather than going to the library. But, this month I got withdrawal symptoms and paid a visit to my local library. I spent a wonderful hour browsing the shelves and came away with a terrific haul of books. Among them was this month's Book of the Month: Riding the black cockatoo by John Danalis. It's the story of the author's journey into Indigenous

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-5778747314869101232011-03-06T14:02:00.000+10:002011-03-06T14:02:43.613+10:00

In my socks mainly. And spilling my blood. Yup, leeches and lots of them. I was in Lamington National Park yesterday with Smithy and four other women from our walking group. The original idea was to camp Friday night, tackle the 20km Ships Stern Circuit on Saturday then return to Brisbane on Sunday. Well, the unending rain on Friday nixed the camping idea for Smithy and I and we decided to head

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-29570554441823113212011-02-27T11:26:00.000+10:002011-02-27T11:26:10.974+10:00

I'm not sure where I've lost it, but I've managed to shed 3kg since the beginning of the year - 2kg just in February itself. Gotta be happy about that! Certain pairs of trousers are noticeably looser now, so I'm starting to feel better about myself already. We've been on Jenny Craig for a month now and it's very apparent that our main problem was portion size and eating too much fruit. Once we

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-68035772384572788312011-02-27T10:54:00.000+10:002011-02-27T10:54:31.077+10:00

I'm on my tenth book for the month but am unlikely to finish it before tomorrow night, so my official tally for February will probably stand at nine books. The list includes Ian McEwan's Solar, and The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World by His Holiness XIV Dalai Lama, which I got for Christmas. A significant proportion of my private library is made up of books about trekking in the Himalayas,

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-10238827452750742332011-02-06T11:18:00.000+10:002011-02-06T11:18:27.951+10:00

I've been doing a bit of reading and thinking about the flood levy and people's reactions to it over the past week and I have to admit to feeling somewhat disgusted by the mean spiritedness demonstrated by many people commenting on the issue. I'd be happy to pay the levy. That's easy for me to say since I don't actually earn enough money to be liable for the levy. I went and made another $100

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-37152893890132367982011-02-05T11:15:00.002+10:002011-02-06T10:12:21.993+10:00

  The 3rd Annual Festival of Tibet is now on at Brisbane's Powerhouse. I'm down here volunteering on the Australia Tibet Council stall and thought I would blog about what's happening. Last night, the audience of the Mystical Tibet concert was treated to a sublime fusion of strings, Japanese bamboo flute and the soaring vocals of Tenzin Choegyal as he joined forces with the Camarata of St John

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-46012775983332094912011-01-31T20:46:00.000+10:002011-01-31T20:46:48.774+10:00

It's been a month since I started my weightloss and get fit kick. The good news: I've lost one kilogram, I've bought a skipping rope and I can now run around the local park without stopping. The not so good news: I haven't used my new skipping rope. Nor have I done any situps, weights, pushups or star jumps. I've cut out the biscuits at work, but replaced them with a hardboiled egg. And I'm not

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-63772200978058256742011-01-29T11:02:00.000+10:002011-01-29T11:02:57.135+10:00

This is the first in a monthly series of blogs highlighting one of the many books I manage to read each month. I've read nine books so far this January and the standout book for me this month is Salmon fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. I first came across Torday through the book club I belong to, when we all read his The girl on the landing. I didn't enjoy that very much and wasn't

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-17539994573493377592011-01-26T21:38:00.001+10:002011-01-26T21:39:14.372+10:00

There's a lot of talk in the media these days about baby boomers, Gen X, Y and Z. We all get lumped into these broad categories and have gross generalisations made about us based on the years we were born as if we all share the same characteristics regardless of what end of the generation we were born at. My partner, Smithy, and I are both baby boomers, but she was born in 1947 and I was born in

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-46613458306963330712011-01-13T09:54:00.000+10:002011-01-13T09:54:03.780+10:00

Terrible images on the television of the devastation wrought by the floods in Brisbane. Thankfully, my home and street are safe, although surrounding streets are under a metre or so of water. Friends in Flower Street, around the corner, are overseas and we moved a stack of their belongings onto our back deck yesterday for safe keeping as most residents in the street evacuated their homes. The

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-27557509386305814362011-01-03T12:03:00.002+10:002011-01-07T12:04:46.113+10:00

Smithy and I are planning on doing a trek in the Nepalese Himalaya (surprise surprise) later this year, so I have decided 2011 is going to be Bootcamp Year. Yep, I am going to get serious about losing weight and getting as fit as I can possibly be. The goal is to lose at least 8kgs and my belly. We've got a treadmill and an exercise bike, cardio workout DVDs and some weights - every thing we need

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-22035214430737957362011-01-02T11:37:00.003+10:002011-01-09T10:53:45.602+10:00

As regular readers of this blog know, I keep a record of all the books I read and, at the end of each year, write a short article about the year's reading adventures. In 2010, I managed to read one hundred and twenty books - an average of ten a month. The most books I read in one month was sixteen - in March - and I only managed to read one book in November - William Dalyrymple's City of Djinns:

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-45018992368946567722010-12-15T20:07:00.001+10:002010-12-15T20:08:28.676+10:00

A friend challenged Smithy and I to come up with an Himalayan version of the 12 Days of Christmas just a few days after our return from India. Not the types to back down from a creative task like that, we quickly came up with twelve alternatives to the traditional verses. After a bit of polishing the next day, this is what we came up with: On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-46499699408150832522010-12-08T18:40:00.001+10:002010-12-13T17:43:08.595+10:00

Smithy and I signed up for Intrepid's Kathmandu to Delhi trip last month, which was a whole lot of fun and I hope to share more anecdotes here. One of the early highlights of the trip, was the 3-day stay at Nepal's Chitwan National Park, where we hoped to spot a rhino or two. The adventure began with a 2-hour trip down the Rapti River in a dugout canoe, that had no wriggle room at all. Almost as

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-34539548506538799712010-11-17T19:00:00.001+10:002010-12-13T17:39:07.875+10:00

Smithy and I have just spent two weeks travelling overland from Kathmandu to Delhi and have utilised a mind-boggling array of conveyances to get there. We've travelled down the Rapti River in Nepa's Chitwan National Park in a dugout canoe. Ridden elephants through Chitwan's jungle. Cycled alongside elephants in Sunauli. Bounced along a road in the back of an open-air jeep. Crossed the Nepal/India

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-60792790707884557932010-10-19T12:29:00.000+10:002010-10-19T12:29:57.012+10:00

A few months ago, Smithy and I decided to convert from mains gas to bottled gas after receiving a gas bill in which we'd used about $3.00 worth of gas, but had to pay $60.00 plus for the privilege of having it supplied to the house. So we went about buying the bottled gas and getting it all connected and everything and then Smithy rang the gas company (AGL) to organise the disconnection. It took

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-33553652726021854612010-09-20T16:03:00.000+10:002010-09-20T16:03:22.448+10:00

A video of non-professional singers from all around the world singing "Stand by me". Enjoy! http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-70498204887793387452010-09-19T15:28:00.000+10:002010-09-19T15:28:23.946+10:00

Today I gave up my website. It was a big decision to let go of something that's been with me for the past 15 years, but it was the right decision. I just don't have the time to spend maintaining and updating it anymore. The site was a vehicle for my photographs taken during my Himalayan treks and it was a lot of work creating each page, uploading the photographs and writing the HTML code. It's

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-30026179088009508482010-09-06T17:12:00.001+10:002010-09-07T18:15:28.165+10:00

Do you, like me, wonder how writers come up the ideas for their stories that they do? As a writer myself, I am often intrigued with what it was that sparked a particular idea for a story. Sometimes I think the process of coming up with a story idea, the backstory to the story if you like, is as interesting as the story itself. So, in case you find the background to a story as fascinating as I do,

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-58605407345795028902010-09-04T12:14:00.001+10:002010-09-05T13:20:42.078+10:00

Following on from my earlier post about emigrating from England to Australia, I thought I'd put up these two photographs of where I came from in England and where I ended up in Australia. The first one is a shot of the bustling shops of High Street in Wealdstone. The second is of South Warrandyte's equivilent. Culture shock, much? View Larger Map View Larger Map

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-40508916644322818512010-08-27T18:14:00.000+10:002010-08-27T18:14:56.659+10:00

Back in early October 2006, Smithy and I had just returned to Kathmandu after travelling in Tibet for a month and were staying at the Kathmandu Guesthouse, when a poster on the noticeboard at the Guesthouse caught my eye. It was announcing the deaths of Tibetan refugees, shot by the Chinese as they escaped over the Nangpa La on the Nepal-Tibet border on 30 September. This is the documentary of

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-77683738653637913952010-08-08T11:39:00.000+10:002010-08-08T11:39:47.117+10:00

My family marked its 40th anniversary of emigrating to Australia on 1 August. I was just a kid when we set sail from England - 10-pound Poms, we were - and it felt as if we were leaving everything and everyone we knew and heading into the great unknown. At the time, it felt like a terrible mistake. I'd never see my grandparents, friends or schoolmates again. It poured with rain for the first

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-48342574232575901782010-06-17T19:25:00.000+10:002010-06-17T19:25:49.872+10:00

I've been following with interest the stories in the media about recent racist remarks made by Andrew Johns and Mal Brown. For the most part there has been almost universal condemnation of the comments and the attitudes behind them, particularly for Mal Brown's dismissal of his comments as 'just a joke' - as if that somehow excuses referring to Indigenous footballers as 'cannibals.' It's good to

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-68756823180457485382010-03-19T12:50:00.002+10:002010-03-20T14:58:22.355+10:00

I read a lot of books. The list of titles I've read over the past 30 years of my adult reading career would be mind-boggling if I could only remember them all ( I started keeping a list 18 months ago). With the death of JD Salinger in January this year, I realised I had never read Catcher in the rye. And that got me thinking about what other 'great' books or authors I have never read. I've never

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-70324300572869524592010-02-22T16:17:00.002+10:002010-02-22T18:06:06.473+10:00

Catholic Man came knocking on my door yesterday, from a local Catholic church conducting a census of members in the area. "None here" was my response which prompted Catholic Man to enquire as to my religion. I told him Buddhist and he said they had encountered a lot of Buddhists in the area. He didn't know much about Buddhism, but wasn't it all a bit "vague"? I'm not sure what he meant by that

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-64407514746707572602009-12-23T12:36:00.002+10:002009-12-23T12:36:27.900+10:00

I don't get the whole miracle thing. You know, the concept that by praying really hard to a dead person somehow they will effect a change in your circumstances. And why you? And not the hundreds of other people also praying for a miracle. How come, say, Mary MacKillop cures one person of cancer and not every other person also praying to her to be cured? That's almost implying that one person's

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-68046440773470521552009-11-14T12:53:00.002+10:002009-11-14T13:05:58.533+10:00

When Smithy and I 'remodelled' our garden several years ago, we decided we wanted one that would thrive on neglect, one that would survive us going overseas for three months at a time, one that didn't mind if it didn't get watered too often. And it's done well over the years. Sure, we lost a couple of plants through the drought, but all in all, it was looking good. Then, last weekend we thought

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-39069631448660046392009-10-17T13:16:00.002+10:002009-10-17T13:36:58.397+10:00

I've been reading with interest the debate about an Australian Bill of Rights and the one argument against such a bill that I just cannot fathom is the one that suggests our rights are best protected by politicians. Really? Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't it politicians that made homosexuality illegal? Politicians who barred lesbians and single women from access to IVF? Politicians who wrote

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-35150741822125556752009-10-17T12:54:00.003+10:002009-10-17T13:11:05.922+10:00

Dear Mr Rudd, Could you stop already with the "hardline" rhetoric about "illegal immigrants." They're asylum seekers and it ain't against the law to seek asylum. The only illegal immigrants are the ones already in the country. You know, all those people overstaying their work and tourist visas. Your government has enormous political capital at the moment, so I don't understand why you are

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-36376521654356371792009-10-02T14:06:00.002+10:002009-10-02T14:43:47.303+10:00

I love reading and I've always got my head stuck in a book. I read at breakfast, on the train going to work, last thing at night. I read whilst watching the telly, which Smithy always marvels at - "How can you concentrate on the show if you're reading?" - but shuts up when I rattle off what's happened in the last ten minutes. I'd rather read than do just about anything else. Last October, I

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-48507942620971103042009-10-02T13:51:00.005+10:002009-10-02T14:06:35.459+10:00

Last Saturday, my writing group - Fairfield Writers Group - launched its first anthology of short stories, Beginnings: Queensland stories. Eight of us each contributed a short story on the theme of 'beginnings' and the only other criteria was the stories had to be set in Queensland. This anthology was our way of celebrating Queensland's 150th birthday.This is me with my very first 'signing' -

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-67011476354145719282009-08-15T15:02:00.003+10:002009-08-15T15:25:59.952+10:00

Returned home on Thursday after a sensational three weeks in Central Australia. The first two weeks were spent trekking the 230 kilometre Larapinta Trail along the West McDonnell Ranges. The trek starts at the Old Telegraph Station just outside Alice Springs and ends on the South Summit of Mt Sonder. In between is some of the most spectacular scenery I've ever seen in this country - and some of

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-44478695671646624672009-07-15T12:17:00.002+10:002009-07-15T12:26:38.929+10:00

I am an advocate of public transport, so you would think I would be all for the new Eastern Busway but I'm not. Sure, it will reduce the travelling time for people commuting to the city from Redlands Shire by quite a considerable amount of time, but at what cost? It's not the people of Redlands who are paying the biggest price, but those of us living in the inner-city. The busway is going to

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-26980437234556798092009-07-11T15:16:00.002+10:002009-07-11T15:32:13.461+10:00

I've just signed up to Twitter and am finding it fun. I originally did it so I could find out how it worked so that I could write an article about it for my work blog. I wanted to write about Twitter as a useful tool for staff to use to keep in touch with what various politicians and government departments were doing. So now I have my own account - www.twitter.com/elldeelosang - and I have eleven

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-28645738695986378952009-06-15T13:22:00.007+10:002009-06-15T13:37:21.814+10:00

Last month we spent a weekend up at Hervey Bay. Here are some of the photos I took of that weekend.

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-54759361972473244252009-06-06T15:07:00.004+10:002009-06-06T15:27:12.184+10:00

My cheque from the government's stimulus package finally arrived and Smithy and I immediately rushed out and bought tins of paint to give the house a bit of a makeover. The front hallway, bathroom and toilet are all finished and Smithy's now got stuck into the kitchen. She's tackling it half the room at a time, so the big hutch has been emptied and moved onto the back deck. All its contents are

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-91780619280324278152009-01-15T19:18:00.003+10:002009-01-15T19:54:45.905+10:00

How often do you turn on the telly, see someone famous and say "Ooh, I've met him"? My interest in the series 'Long Way Down' has been piqued ever since I met Charlie Boorman last May. The 29th May, to be exact. Which, for those of you unfamiliar with Everest history was the date on which, 55 years earlier, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed the famous mountain. I was at Tengboche

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-68094243518945621342009-01-13T17:21:00.002+10:002009-01-13T17:32:58.393+10:00

So, one of my favourite shows, Temptation, is back on telly and I'm on the wrong side of the screen! I'm waiting for my call-up after auditioning way back in March last year. Several hundred people turned up to take their chances, filling a lecture theatre at QUT. We had to sit a 50-question exam, in which each question was read out twice and we had to write the answer down on the sheet provided.

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-57663129877503480442008-10-23T13:41:00.003+10:002008-10-28T12:43:59.682+10:00

I was reading an article in the newspaper the other day about a woman responding to the Rudd government's stimulus package. She was saying that "working families" had been forgotten in the package ie she hadn't got anything from it. The article said that she and her husband's annual income was between $140,000 and $160,000 a year. They were paying off $2000 a month on their mortgage and a further

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-15926228510024330232008-10-19T09:50:00.002+10:002008-10-19T10:05:31.221+10:00

I've just finished watching the first two episodes of a brilliant new series, First Australians, airing on SBS. I missed seeing the first episode on TV because it clashed with *cough* Australian Idol. Happily for me, SBS has made the series available on its website, so I spent yesterday afternoon watching it.The series traces the history of contemporary Australia from the perspective of its first

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-129533247845019102008-08-24T10:20:00.002+10:002008-08-24T11:34:03.335+10:00

Faked firework displays, a kid miming to another little girl's voice and now it seems the Chinese have pulled off the biggest fake of all - taking the Olympic torch to the summit of Mount Everest, or Chomolungma as it is known to Tibetans.A Nepalese blogger, blogdai broke the story after some careful research and has concluded that the summit bid was faked. The conclusions are based on:no

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-50399995921115188132008-07-15T13:59:00.003+10:002008-07-18T16:09:33.522+10:00

Our garden is filled with birds. Rainbow lorikeets feast on flowering gum blossoms, noisy mynahs squabble in the pink cassia, chasing off blue-faced honeyeaters. Crested pigeons whirr into the blood swampwood, currawongs warble in the leopardwood while grey and pied butcherbirds sit on the latticework of our front verandah, serenading us with their song. Crows, ibis and magpies all visit and most

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-90217290438208539372008-04-29T13:43:00.002+10:002008-04-29T14:02:19.937+10:00

Smithy and I went to see k d lang in concert at QPAC last night. She's here promoting her new album, Watershed (which is No 1 in Australia). The concert was fantastic. k d just gets better and better. Her voice is awesome and her vocal control stunning. And she's funny and interacts with the audience really well - giving and taking presents, shaking people's hands, cracking jokes. It's a

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-32626852114146524492008-03-22T12:20:00.003+10:002008-03-22T12:35:04.810+10:00

The recent events in Tibet have focussed the world's attention on China's continuing brutal occupation of Tibet and its people. China is in the spotlight like never before because of the upcoming Olympic Games. Whilst I've always held that the Games should never have been awarded to Beijing, it's been a fantastic opportunity to highlight the Tibet issue. It's time the international community,

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-48784452458126155452008-01-14T09:41:00.000+10:002008-01-14T10:13:13.515+10:00

Sir Edmund Hillary died on Friday 11 January 2008, aged 88. WIth him goes another piece of Everest history. Yet his name will live on for generations - not so much for being one of the first to climb Mount Everest - but for the legacy he has built in the villages that sit in Everest's shadow. Sir Ed's achievement is remarkable because he used his fame to enrich others, not himself. He dedicated

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-71557977272547806462008-01-02T19:41:00.000+10:002008-01-02T20:02:17.130+10:00

So another year begins. The old one finished in quite a spectacular fashion as a tropical depression took up residence just off the coast, causing near-cyclonic winds and whipping the sea into a frenzy. Torrential rain bucketed down forcing the cancellation of fireworks shows on both the Sunshine and Gold Coasts. Smithy and I were up at the Sunshine Coast to see the new year in with friends. We

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-62175627314781155332007-10-31T13:15:00.000+10:002007-10-31T13:25:53.741+10:00

Telly on a Wednesday night just does not get better than this! First off, Cold Case with the delectable Lily. Tonight we find out if she survives the shooting from last episode. She must do! They wouldn't kill her off. Would they.....? Then at 9.30pm the premiere of The Librarians on the ABC. I can't wait! Finally, a show about me! Well, not just me - all us wonderful librarians out there. Once

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-79879650905283921162007-10-30T12:58:00.000+10:002007-10-30T14:20:52.051+10:00

Today is my birthday and I get to spend it at work - in my little windowless library. Not nearly as much fun as last year's birthday. For those of you who read my other blog http://allmorainisterminal.blogspot.com/, you'll know that this time last year I was trekking in Nepal. I woke up in Besi Sahar, spent half the day on a bus travelling to Pokhara, and then had pizza and birthday cake for

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-13208547315568284412007-09-28T13:30:00.001+10:002007-09-28T13:36:22.871+10:00

Help GetUp screen their Climate Clever-er ad during the AFL Grand Final by making a donation to www.getup.org.auSee the ad here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W90bfVeNhY

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-73262715942956474872007-09-03T15:28:00.000+10:002007-09-03T15:39:10.539+10:00

Smithy's been away for about a month now, and has been keeping me up to date with her adventures with lots of emails. Having read what she's been up to so far, I'm not so sure she should be allowed out by herself anymore.On the trip out to the Galapagos Islands, she had to sit up all night to make sure her semi-conscious, seasick cabin-mate didn't suffocate on her own vomit.In Santiago, just

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-22638826622519317442007-08-08T18:06:00.000+10:002007-08-08T18:42:59.844+10:00

Today marks one year to go until the Beijing 2008 Olympics. Organisations around the world are using the occasion to highlight Tibet's plight. Let's keep the pressure on China regarding its continuing occupation of Tibet and its appalling human rights record.Protesters unfurled a banner on the Great Wall http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-30946117023727505632007-08-05T14:30:00.000+10:002007-08-05T14:41:48.833+10:00

Smithy flew out this morning to begin her 9-week South American adventure, leaving me home alone for all that time. Just as well I have two jobs to keep me occupied - I won't have too much time to miss her. It will be very strange without her. Apart from a 3-day trip to New Zealand that she did back in 2004, we have not been apart in the 5 1/2 years we've been together. At least I will be able to

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-76670528135467442092007-07-02T14:52:00.000+10:002007-07-02T16:02:47.963+10:00

Yesterday Smithy and I entered in our fourth Gold Coast Half Marathon. We usually use the 21 and a bit kilometre race as training for our Himalayan treks. We only ever walk the half marathon - never run it - and our goal this year was to break the 3 hour barrier. In 2003 we did it in 3 hours 3 mins, in 2004 we did it in 3:05 and last year in 3:03, so we've been close. And we went at what we

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-34161351772126576642007-06-18T12:56:00.000+10:002007-06-18T13:25:02.046+10:00

In our house mainly. Of course, we have the usual geckos living behind the picture frames. They chase each other across the walls and squabble on the ceiling but for the most part are no bother at all. Except for the odd occasion when one falls off the ceiling and onto one of us or, with a loud splat, onto the floor. They sprawl there for a moment or two with a stunned look on their faces, then

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1156560468430143262006-08-26T12:44:00.000+10:002006-08-26T12:47:48.440+10:00

Yep! That's right, the Very Big Adventure is finally upon us and we will be flying out on Wednesday 30th August. Yihaaa! From now on, I'll be using my other blog http://allmoraineisterminal.blogspot.com, so please check in at that one to read about the VBA. See ya!

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1154925990688320382006-08-07T14:19:00.000+10:002006-08-07T14:46:30.763+10:00

Please meet Ani Dharma and Ruby Rinpoche - the newest members of our family. Ani Dharma is a brand new 2006 Hyundai 3-door Hatch Accent and Ruby Rinpoche is a brand new Subaru Forester. We wanted to get 'Yak' and 'Yeti' number plates but 'Yeti' was taken so went instead for 'Yak 60' and 'Yak 47' for our birth years. Aren't they gorgeous?

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1154743537649473892006-08-05T11:55:00.000+10:002006-08-05T12:05:37.663+10:00

25! Yes, just 25 more sleeps to go before Smithy and I fly off for our Very Big Adventure (VBA)! After months and months and months of talking, dreaming and planning, it's hard to believe it's almost upon us. And boy are we ready! Got the visas, had the vaccinations, bought the travellers cheques, packed and weighed the suitcases - and yes! we're within our 30km limit - organised our journals,

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1152071205134902312006-07-05T13:33:00.000+10:002006-07-05T13:46:45.150+10:00

Smithy and I did the Gold Coast Half Marathon on Sunday, with some friends from our walking/running group Brisbane Frontrunners. We never run it, Smithy and I, but our three friends - first-timers all - did. Our goal is to try and complete it in 3 hours. That's 7kmph - damned fast! In 2003 and 2004, we did it in 3 hours and 5 mins (give or take several seconds or so). This year we managed it in

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1149040247598998802006-05-31T11:46:00.000+10:002006-05-31T11:53:09.613+10:00

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1148272750018076842006-05-22T14:08:00.000+10:002006-05-22T14:39:10.030+10:00

It's now just 101 days until Smithy and I embark on the Very Big Adventure (VBA) and we're going to have to crank up the fitness thing. We've been a bit slack recently - doing a 20 kilometre bushwalk once a month and a weekly 5km walk and not much else...got a bit undermotivated and complacent for awhile there. BUT...come 1st June and it's all systems go! Apart from anything else, we're entering

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1144547049585744362006-04-09T11:38:00.000+10:002006-04-09T11:44:09.596+10:00

This was taken in 2004 whilst on the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal. It is part of a photo-essay I was creating on 'Doors and Windows'.

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1143338165677184392006-03-26T11:48:00.000+10:002006-03-26T11:56:05.690+10:00

We're not going to Mera Peak anymore. The company we chose to go with no longer operates out of Australia and their Kathmandu office never replied to our queries....so now, we've signed up with Peregrine Adventures to attempt Island Peak, or Imja Tse. It's 6,189m high, so a little shorter than Mera, but technically harder (so we've been told!). We're really excited about it cos it means

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1142129315567800932006-03-12T11:58:00.000+10:002006-03-12T12:08:35.590+10:00

Friday 10 March marked the 47th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising against the Chinese invasion, which ultimately led to the fleeing of the Dalai Lama into exile. The Tibetan flag is outlawed in Tibet. The Australian Tibet Council approached local councils around Australia asking if they would fly the Tibetan Flag on March 10. The council I work for, Caboolture Shire Council, was one of the

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1139549934213769872006-02-10T15:38:00.000+10:002006-02-10T15:51:18.103+10:00

Check out this website www.noluv4google.com to pledge your commitment to breaking up with Google on valentine's day.As a librarian I am committed to the concept of freedom of information. For Google to snuggle up in bed with an evil empire like China and design search parameters that deny people access to information, purely for the sake of money, makes Google morally bankrupt. I will be breaking

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1139272384764303042006-02-07T10:25:00.000+10:002006-02-07T10:34:10.236+10:00

Go to www.whalesrevenge.com to sign the petition to stop all whaling. The aim to get 1,000,000 signatures.

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1136855969033024052006-01-10T10:09:00.000+10:002006-01-11T12:37:43.876+10:00

Yesterday I found myself in a small windowless interview room, with two people flashing gold badges at me and wanting to "ask me a few questions". A very long way from where I had planned my day to go, I must say! Smithy and I were going to the city to 1) renew my re-entry visa 2) wire our trip deposit to Nepal 3) fax confirmation of said deposit to Nepal 4) buy a new Lotto ticket and 5) visit

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1133933134335781372005-12-07T15:10:00.000+10:002005-12-07T15:25:34.346+10:00

Another one of my favourite photos taken in Nepal. This one is of rice fields. What I liked about this image was the tenacity of the rice to grow, and hang, on to the slightest bit of earth - in this case, the bank of a stream

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1130732912493130532005-10-31T14:17:00.000+10:002005-10-31T14:28:32.506+10:00

It was my birthday yesterday. Smithy gave me Sue Fear's biography, a sleeping bag liner and a beautiful carved marble frieze with 5 Buddhas in various poses. Lovely lovely lovely. We lolligagged around for a couple of hours, then surfed a bit on the net looking for maps of Tibet, before getting ready to go out.The wine club we belong to was coincidentally having one of its tastings yesterday and

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1129346330731355002005-10-15T13:08:00.000+10:002005-10-15T13:18:50.736+10:00

Hooray! Hooray! I have finally been able to make workable DVDs of the films we took whilst trekking in Nepal last year. So now we have a little collection of homemade movies on DVD! Annapurna Circuit, Kathmandu and Everest Region. Up til now, we've only been able to view the films on the computer.We're particularly pleased about the Everest one because it originally seemed that the footage had

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1128736287703926532005-10-08T11:25:00.000+10:002005-10-08T11:51:27.713+10:00

Seems that summer is already here after just a week or two of lovely spring weather. In comes October and increased water restrictions and the temperature soars into high 30s - Celcius, that is...90+ Fahrenheit. And we've had the first bushfires of the season. But the good news is.....there's cricket on the telly!!!! Australia against the world and beating them in 2 one-day matches, with one more

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1126486741294138472005-09-12T10:49:00.000+10:002005-09-12T10:59:01.300+10:00

Went with a group of friends to a free concert in the Brisbane botanical gardens last night to celebrate the end of another RiverFestival. The concert was made up of a mass choir of about 450 voices from 19 different choirs from around southeastern Queensland, including the Brisbane Lesbian and Gay Choir...who all looked fantastic donning bandanas during their individual performance to create a

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1126055016427803182005-09-07T10:57:00.000+10:002005-09-07T11:03:36.426+10:00

I took this picture in Bhaktapur, Nepal as part of a photographic essay I'm working on based on doors and windows in Nepal. Check out my website at www.geocities.com/ldimmock for more photos of my travels in Nepal

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1125886653303040322005-09-05T12:06:00.000+10:002005-09-05T12:44:41.850+10:00

Smithy got the all-clear last week from the chiropracter to start walking more frequently, so to celebrate we headed off to do what we call the Kangaroo Point Circuit, a slightly more arduous walk than what we have been doing, and incorporates a 106-step staircase cut into the cliffs. We had gone no more than 100 metres when I fell into a grass-hidden hole and sprained my ankle!Ouch! Hobbled home

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1123476540951863812005-08-08T14:21:00.000+10:002005-08-08T14:49:00.963+10:00

13 months to go until the big adventure! Smithy and I are still struggling with mobility problems, so the training regime hasn't yet been taken to the next level. In fact, I suffered a wee setback on Friday when some ignorant b*#*&#$ smashed into the back of my car and drove off! Leaving me gobsmacked, whiplashed and with a hole torn out of the back panel of poor little Hilda Hyundai! Having

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1120879274017408892005-07-09T13:00:00.000+10:002005-09-05T12:37:58.686+10:00

I learned this week that I have an ectopic heartbeat - extra heartbeats or heart skipping beats. It's benign, but had me worried for a bit...no good having a weak heart if I want to go climbing mountains and trekking through the Himalayas! I've had to switch to caffeine-free coffee and cut down on alcohol - if I hadn't already given them up, I would have had to stop smoking too!Hopefully, this

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1119848403812568302005-06-27T14:39:00.000+10:002005-09-05T12:38:53.166+10:00

There are only 15 months to go before my girlfriend, Smithy, and I head off for our 3-month trip to the Himalayas! This time, we'll be going to Tibet...travelling into Everest Base Camp then across the country to do a 3-day pilgrimage around Mt Kailash. Then back to Kathmandu to meet up with 2 friends from Melbourne who are joining us on the Annapurna Circuit, with a side trek to Tilicho Lake.

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1119159180063813122005-06-19T15:21:00.000+10:002005-06-19T15:34:53.256+10:00

Well, winter seems to have finally arrived here in Brisbane. Up till now, you would hardly know it was winter. Blue skies, sunshine, temperatures in the low to mid 20s (in the 70s on the Fahrenheit scale), everyone still getting around in T-shirts. In fact, the only real clue as to the season so far has been the wonderful aroma of wattle blossoms wafting into the car as I drive to work. But today

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1117687712454607572005-06-02T14:34:00.000+10:002005-06-02T14:48:32.460+10:00

National days of protest? Prime Ministers expressing sorrow? People demanding refunds on their tsunami donations? All because a young woman was convicted of drug smuggling and sentenced to 20 years! Where are the national days of protest about other injustices around the world? China's conduct in Tibet for the past 50 years, for example. 12- and 14-year old Australian Vietnamese jailed in Vietnam

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1114927048441242822005-05-01T15:47:00.000+10:002005-05-01T15:57:28.443+10:00

Brisbane is putting on a birthday party for Buddha this weekend but I've been too busy catching up with the ironing to go to the celebrations....had to settle for burning some incense and ringing a bell before a picture of Buddha instead.I've recently learned how to make movies using my computer and am about to "capture" our video footage of last year's trek to Gokyo Lakes and Kalar Pattar to

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1113022944053566452005-04-10T07:43:00.000+10:002005-04-09T15:02:24.056+10:00

So much for my big plans of posting at least once a week....After a 5okm drive to work, full day's work, 50km drive home again, go for a walk, cook tea and cuddle with my partner I'm too buggered to even turn on the computer, let alone think about blogging.April 22 is a redletter day in my calendar, cos it's the end of my stint of full-time work that began January 4. No more 6am alarms 5 days a

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11679926.post-1111716369941387632005-03-26T06:07:00.000+10:002005-04-09T14:42:48.600+10:00

There's more to life than trekking....apparently. I'm not so sure....if I'm not actually trekking, I'm thinking about, dreaming, planning and getting ready for my next trek.Of course, there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the little spaces left over from my trekking daze...This is my life when I'm not trekking.

elldeelosanghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785050870029110219noreply@blogger.com0