Near and far

This is the new desk (detail, as they say) - recycled bluegum, sanded to within an inch of its life, oiled and sanded some more, and then oiled and sanded again. If I wasn't constitutionally lazy, I might have tried the 800-grain sandpaper, and the pumice powder. But I am, so I didn't - still, it's smooth enough to create an impression of unusual smoothness; it's more polished than our commercially finished pieces. I'm very pleased with it, although I have to admit that it doesn't quite match up to Liz' bathroom work.

We actually found a new recycled timber place in Rockdale (which is where this comes from) so we may end up with a house entirely full of timber, because they have just an endless supply of truly amazing pieces. Particularly taken with a fireplace surround that is bigger than our living room.

I haven't quite finished the desk yet; I want to put some shelving under it as well. Modern life, eh. Three laptops. The giant screen is my attempt to fight off eye strain while studying this year; I can read two documents on it in slightly magnified A4 size, and type on a third on the laptop screen. The little one is still going because it runs some software I haven't managed to get going on Microsoft's latest OS yet - the third one is Liz's, although I'm slowly colonising it.

There is a plan to reduce the clutter, but not yet a plan how to reduce the clutter. The original design brief for the table was somewhere to put the computers and paint!

This is the "far" of the title - about as far as I go really - Penrith whitewater rafting facility, leftover from the Olympics. I'm about to leap in a raft and see how wet one man can get without falling in the water. This is where Liz broke her wrist last year, so it's amazingly brave of her to be back. It's all part of training for the Yukon, which has whitewater, unlike the recent Murray trip. The Murray does have whitewater, but not on the marathon course.

The course is an eye-opener as to how strong the Olympic standard competitors need to be - they have to paddle upstream through half the gates, and let me tell you paddling downstream is extremely hard work. My arms ache today. And they don't really turn on the taps fully for us - it really is hard to believe that going upstream is even possible, let alone that you can steer through a "gate".