• The Great Moose Migration

    For the record, I’ve been watching and sharing about the Swedish moose migration for four years now (courtesy of a recommendation from my Swedish colleague Gunnar)! This year it appears to be going viral, with stories on the BBC, New York Times, The Sizzle, and more. Can I take credit for popularising it? 😂🫎

    I was shocked to see there have already been 16 moose crossings in the first three days this year. In the past I had to wait weeks to see a moose! Today I was really surprised to see a BEAR, which motivated me to learn about Swedish Brown Bears. (As Rodd pointed out, Björn means “bear” so I really should have expected it.)

    A night vision scene of a bear in a clearing in Sweden


  • B & S

    Having a brandy and soda while reading Jeeves/Wooster fanfic. I’m not sure Jeeves would approve of these pajamas… #toodlepip #jooster

    B & S


  • Double rejection? In 2002?

    On this day twenty-three years ago, Rodd and I both got rejected for jobs with the same company in Sydney. Who would it have been? We have no clue, but we’re having fun trying to remember. It would have been a tech company. I would have been applying for frontend or PHP developer at that time, and Rodd was mostly applying for Unix sysadmin jobs. Anybody want to guess?


  • Easter Show Volunteering – Shift #3 🎪

    Today was my first shift in the Farmyard Nursery, aka the petting zoo. Fortunately it didn’t start until 9:30 so I got in some quality lamb time before then. 🐑❤️

    Me and a lamb

    Lamb

    By 9:30 we had a massive queue waiting to get in. Our team leader gave us a great orientation and kept us rotating through stations through the day. I started outside, making sure people knew where to go and to finish their food before they got inside. (I got to yell a lot!) Then I helped out in the pram parking, making sure people knew where to park their baby strollers. We had an hour lunch break, and then I had a turn at the entrance gate for the animal enclosure. Mostly that was just controlling the traffic flow to make sure we didn’t have too many people in there, and reminding people to wash their hands when they left. I only had one occasion to shut the gate as a cheeky goat tried to escape. No loose animals on my watch!

    Goats

    After my shift finished I walked through the Sheep & Goats Pavilion, and I managed to catch a judging for some class of sheep.

    A line of sheep getting judged

    For today’s food-on-a-stick, the initial plan was to go for the 2 foot Super Dagwood Dog. But when I got to the stand, my attention was arrested by something unexpected on the sign – PICKLE DOG. It said something about being “infused” with pickles? Available for the first time in Australia? SIGN. ME. UP.

    Me and a large lumpy Dagwood (Pickle) Dog

    I was munching along happily when I had a surprise. There were also chunks of pickle in there, like a shish kebab! I’m not actually sure the pickles added much though. The overall flavour wasn’t especially sour or pickley. The batter was nice though; better than the mass-produced corn dog I was expecting. It was $14 though, which is pretty expensive. I reckon Twisty Potato is still #1, followed by #2 Pickle Dog and #3 Cheese on a Stick.

    A chunk of pickle lurking in a Dagwood Dog


  • Easter Show Volunteering

    I’m in the Farmyard Nursery today. It’s barely controlled chaos!! 🚜 🐐 🐥 🐑

    Easter Show Volunteering


  • Easter Show Volunteering – Shift #2 🎪

    A woman in an acid green hat with a sunflower painted on her face

    I was back again at the Show today, directing folks to the Quiet Room and helping visitors find their way around. And how cute is this? These amazing folks at the Face Painting booth offered to put a sunflower on my cheek!

    Me: Oh, glitter too?!
    The artist: You HAVE to have glitter. ✨

    Face painting booth at the Sydney Royal Easter Show

    It was a lot cooler today—which was nice!—but in the afternoon the wind kicked up and it started spitting rain. Fortunately I had a poncho, and it didn’t last long

    A person in an acid green shirt and hat, frowning and wearing a poncho in the rain

    And for today’s food-on-a-stick, I went with another classic: Cheese on a Stick! I liked the crunchiness of the batter, but this didn’t quite feel like enough value for $8. Twisty Potato is still winning…

    A woman holding a deep-fried, buttered piece of cheese on a stick


  • Another day at the Easter Show!

    I’ll be standing near the Quiet Room with a big sunflower 🌻 sign if you are visiting today. #eastershow

    Another day at the Easter Show!


  • Flowers 💐

    Happiness is… having a florist neighbour who sells you their leftover bouquets at a discount!

    Flowers 💐


  • The dark side of the Moomins

    Tove Jansson’s beloved stories, which turn 80 this year, are not cute: they are angry tales of apocalypse and breakdown.

    Yep. Whenever I recommend or introduce the Moomins to someone new, I always point out that these are not Disney characters. There are stories that are gloomy and scary and sad. There are characters that clearly have mental health issues. Even the cute cartoons will sometimes traumatise* you. Shit gets dark. My Swedish friends have jokingly told me that this is simply the nature of Finnish culture. It’s clear reading this excellent New Statesman piece though that a lot of it was informed by Tove Jansson’s experiences growing up during WW2, and later dealing with the unwanted fame and attention her characters had brought her. While I’m sorry that she came to resent her success so much, the melancholy (and anger and greed and naughtiness…) she infuses makes the characters so much more interesting and resonant for the readers.

    * Once I was visiting my sister and looking after my young nieces and nephew, I decided to introduce them to the Moomin animated series, which you can find on YouTube. In the second episode, they find a magical hat that makes little clouds they fly around in. Fun, right? I forgot entirely that Moomintroll later climbs inside the hat, and it transforms him into an ugly monster that no one recognises. He ends up sobbing “Don’t you recognise me, Mamma?!!” and it’s really awful and scary, and the kids FREAKED OUT. My sister came home to crying children and me trying to explain “No really, his Mom eventually recognised him and he changes back and everything is okay!” I think it put them off Moomins for years. 😂

    Transformed sobbing Moomintroll hugging his mother


  • Hop Harvest Fest

    Four people driving beer at a craft brewery

    This week is the Inner West Hop Harvest Festival, and today we managed to cross off 5/11 craft breweries. Only 6 more and Mr. Snook gets a t-shirt!

    Stamped “passport” showing 5 breweries visited

    Four drunk people at a craft brewery



ABOUT

My name is Kris. I’ve been blogging since the 90’s. I live in Sydney, Australia, and I spent most of my career in the tech industry.

No AI used in writing this blog, ever. 100% human-generated.


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